three angels?

anne and carsen, the days get long, hot, confusing, and at times frustrating. but we always come out with some good one-liners and some stories, right? thanks for coming and sharing in this work. thanks for loving on these kids and being involved in their lives. thanks for the laughter, for sharing in the humor of checks and sweaty pants, of magenta and tree trunk neck, of ice cream and dark swimmig pools. i hope it's a great summer!

yo ap domi

as i've said, the children are afraid of my kittens. (oh, by the way, i now have two kittens: zimbolita and minah.) but last night it seems noah and the cats made up. although when i showed him this picture this morning it didn't help him love them anymore. look, kid, if you can sleep peacefully alongside lita and minah, probably they're not out to get you!

me hermann wi

the big kids were outside graduating and my camera ran out of memory so i ran in to upload and clear the card. on my way back outside i found the kids stripped down and eating mango on the kitchen floor! i love this picture of hermann! he's a doll!

for jordyn

look at what God can do! it's a perfect flower!

what i hate about miami international airport

what other airport makes you haul your luggage up and down 38 terminals on carpet? and then they go and put up these signs to "help." like i really want to know that i've been walking for 29 minutes already and i only have 17 more to go! that's encouraging!
the rough part about it today was that we de-boarded the plane and immediately got on a bus that took us to the terminal. a bus on the tarmac. i'd never done that before. anyhow, it seems the plane had landed where i wanted to be and then the bus took me exactly the opposite direction from there. so then i got to walk myself on back through those walkways up and down escalators and to my terminal! boy was i glad to hit the tile floors!
but I'M HOME!!! i was so happy to get here! anne brought noah to the airport to meet me. apparently she asked the kids who was going to go with her to the airport and he was the lucky one! i was so thrilled to see my kids again! to kiss their little faces and tell them i missed them. i couldn't get in the door; they mobbed me! all the girls have beads in their hair and shaki looks so pretty! well, they all do, really!
jimmy's graduation is in the morning so i should be on my way, but i thought i'd share a bit of my day with y'all first!!
I'M HOME!

onward and florida-ward

i am now in florida visiting gretchen and family! i had a long day flying (or not flying) but now i am going to go to sleep. my flight this morning was supposed to fly out of dallas love field at 9 am. we boarded and were told we would have to wait due to the weather. after waiting out the rain on the runway for an hour (i was sleeping onboard), we were told that the flight was cancelled - our captain had never arrived. so we de-boarded and i was told i had to retrieve my luggage and find my way to dallas fort worth international. my luggage arrived soaking wet and i got on a shuttle ($25) to dfw with some canadian hockey players. they liked my curly hair and wanted me to go to canada with them. i told them i thought my kids would miss me. they replied to bring the kids with me but i stated that i have 39. so i like shock value; is that so bad?!
anyhow, a very nice lady at dfw put me on standby on a flight that was already supposed to have left, but since everything was delayed she thought i might have a chance. i took the skybus thing to the other terminal only to be told that the flight had been moved to the one i started at, of course. so i returned and caught the flight! amazing! PLUS it was a non-stop! my original flight was scheduled to fly from dallas to austin to raleigh to jacksonville. the only downside to being the only person with a cancelled flight who arrived at their destination EARLY today was the lack of a cell phone which means gretchen was not alerted to my change of plans. so i hung out at the jacksonville airport for awhile and had the opportunity to chat with my family and tell my dad "happy fathers' day!"
it was a great vacation and now i'm just going to relax and get ready to go home! how i miss my kids!!

(by the by, this picture was taken by jared at the gulf of mexico and not in florida.)

gators and lions and tigers, oh my!

gator talk in louisiana.
i'm mr. blue!
okay, we went on the creole nature trail in lake charles, la and found gators!! look at this guy! i got scared when he looked at me and ducked back through the sunroof!
today we went to an exotic cat refuge in someone's backyard in louisiana. it was incredible! we saw live lions and tigers and cougars and bobcats just a few feet away from us!

okay, so at this bbq place on the side of the road today, this guy was on the wall. we didn't notice it at first, but then bren said, "i've never seen a deer licking it's own neck on a wall before!" I HAD TO TAKE THIS PICTURE!!!
we're back in texas and tomorrow we're all flying out. it's been a fantastic vacation but we're getting a bit tired!

deep south

oh my my.
that's right! who's the happiest girl in texas? me!! i went sailing in galveston bay last night! oh so happy!
lizzie, this one's for you! they don't just have those phone booths in london, they're on galveston island too! (yes, jeremy i went to the strand!)
this guy didn't smell as bad as jonah's.
the very first thing that happened to me in louisiana was to take this picture while standing on a fire ant hill! dangit that hurt!!!!! not my favorite first impression!
well hello mr gator!
bren taking in the view of lake charles.
while we wouldn't qualify as tree-huggers, we sure did like this one!
why don't we all live in houses like this one!? how beautiful is this house?

so, yeah, we decided why not head over to louisiana. i mean, we're here, and we've got the time, right? this is the vacation of a lifetime! you should be here. wait a minute . . . :)

this great land

texas, as we all know, is another world. it's big. it's flat. it's not open on sunday. and it's never been this much fun before!! getting our rental car!
our own texas rangers!
the stock yards in fort worth!
we danced with donna, our typical sweet talking texas waitress in her 24 hour diner!
and that's me with the duke for my dad!!

have you ever?!!

i mean, it's so surreal. who does this? hey, you need to get those ulcers checked out, man. unfortunately we don't do that here. but there's a place about 10 blocks from here. you could go there. you have a car, right?



just go there, get the endoscopie and come on back. we'll keep your room open for you. we won't mop it, or change the bedding or put toilet paper in the bathroom, but you have a bathroom, right!


plus you have those pushy american girls with you, one of them will hold the bag for you. you'll be fine.


thank you thank you thank you all for your continued prayers for junior. it's really hard to do the hospital thing and see the care they receive and know what they could receive. what everyone deserves to receive, you know?

it's a wonderful thing to be in the hands of such a mighty God! please continue to go to Him on behalf of junior and also jimmy, who is short on sleep!

i love you all.

texas, here we come!

that's right. these fun kids and i are headed for texas for a week of wonder and excitement!

we have some activities planned already, but we're open to suggesstions. any thoughts? not like with this bunch we will be short on fun! i mean, just look at jared and that balloon!