October and November

We're back in the world of blogging, so here are a few pictures from the past couple of months. We've been busy this fall, although it's no excuse for not updating our blog. I'll go ahead and blame it on Troy...he doesn't like to upload pictures. Of course I could go ahead and do it, but then what would my excuse be?

One notable thing I should mention: Just after our last post about Ginger (our dog who escapes), Gladys (our uptight, tormented, stress-ball of a dog) started seeing an imaginary object. She barks at it, bites at it, and chases it until the point of exhaustion. We don't see it, and neither does her veterinarian, who has seen her in action. So we let her do it. We've named her friend "Sparkles," which we decided sounds nicer than "Demon" or "Hallucination" or something. We could have diagnostic testing done, or go to a doggy specialist (our vet told us she was a candidate for that!), but we've decided to let Sparkles occupy Gladys as long as the vet thinks she's otherwise well. As far as he could tell, it's not a tumor or cataracts or anything obvious. So, she's till spending several hours a day snapping and spinning circles in the yard, barking continually, and running a brown spot in our grass. I suppose the up side is that we don't have to play fetch with her!

Here are some pictures from the past couple of months:Hay ride at a nearby pumpkin patch.



Jude was a mechanic for Halloween. This is actually A.J.'s old costume from the 80's!

In mid-November, Troy attended a conference in Dallas, and we stayed with my cousin and his wife. We love living near enough to them that we can keep in touch!

These are some leaves Jude found on their street.

The three of us..also on their street. We accidentally positioned ourselves in front of someone's truck. At least it's a Chevy.


Jude rolling his new suitcase. He rolled it through all the airports on the way to Spokane for Thanksgiving.
My cousin Beth and her son, Noah. We don't get to see them very often, so it was fun to spend a day with them.
Beth's son Zack, and Jude playing on the dog beds. Why did we ever buy a crib?


Josiah and Jude playing in our toy boxes. I'm not sure who thought of it first.

The following are pictures from Thanksgiving week. We had 32 family members in Spokane on my mom's side, so not everyone is pictured, but here are a few of the fun ones!




Leah, A.J. and me..this is our best attempt at looking "pouty." I think A.J. wins.

Leah and Jude.
My mom and her two sisters! They are RARELY in the same room! (Not because they don't like each other, just because they live on opposite sides of the country!)

Leah and me..right before the Lion King!!! It was amazing!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

Ginger..aka "Houdini"

Well, we have two dogs, but Ginger (left) is the one who gives us the most trouble. She's almost always sweet and cuddly, but she has an adventurous streak in her, and doesn't like to stay in the yard. No...she doesn't dig out. She's much more creative than that. When we lived in Kentucky, she used to just plain JUMP our four-foot fence. We were often surprised to find her on the front porch, on the neighbor's front porch, under the carport as we pulled up, or in the neighbor's yard.

Naturally we were excited to move into a place with an eight-foot fence, thinking we might not be worried about her all the time. But, soon after we moved in, we began having neighbors knock on our door, with Ginger happily wiggling under their arm or at their feet, who would inform us that she had been locked in their garage, or had been "roaming" the street in front of our house. We were bewildered, and usually would find some small hole between the gate and the fence, but sometimes, there would be no explanation at all.

The good thing about Ginger is that she always goes straight to people. She's been to garage sales, on walks, to cook-outs, etc. She never just takes off down the highway. We've always had reasonable confidence that sooner or later she'd be returned by that new, exciting person she'd been dying to meet.

So once again this week, she disappeared. It was her most impressive feat yet. But, you think, how could it be more impressive than jumping a four-foot fence? Well....one evening this week, we noticed that her face was roughed up in a few places. She was missing some fur, and had some red spots around her snout. We thought maybe she'd been attempting an escape, but we were happy to see she'd failed, since she was still in the yard. The next day, Troy was mowing the lawn and found that there was a broken slat in our gate...not the bottom, or the top, just a hole right out of the middle. We're pretty sure the face injury had come from trying to jump through this hole, about two feet off the ground (and only about 4 inches wide). So, Troy nailed a board onto the back of the gate to keep her in for the time being. But, the next day when he called them inside at 11:30 for the night, she was nowhere to be found. He went out and saw that the HALF of the new board was missing. I don't know what she did, since the hole was two feet off the ground and she's only about 8 inches tall. But, she did away with half of the board, and managed to wedge her round little self through the slit that was, in the end, only about three inches wide...I would've loved to see that process.

So she was gone, and we went to bed after driving once around the neighborhood. The next day, in usual form, she was returned by our neighbor who said he had found her in his garage as he was leaving for work (I don't know why she insists on getting out just to spend the night in someone's garage). So she's back, but we assume, not for long!

First Haircut

Hi everyone. I know it's been a while. This past month has been great fun, and busy as always. A.J. moved to Austin (as I mentioned before) and he now resides in a duplex with one of his new co-workers. I think the guitar incident may have had something to do with the fact he didn't want to stay with us long... We're happy to have him here. He's getting to know his new students and enjoying it, though becoming a teacher has him VERY busy, and he's a bit overwhelmed at times (any teachers out there want to holla back?).

This month has been eventful. Jude and I took a trip to Spokane to visit family and go to my ten-year reunion...yes it's true. The reunion was more fun than I expected, and seeing old friends proved to be a generally good experience. Jude and I had lots of fun with my family, though Jude was fed entirely too many m&ms and cheetos (thank you Grandpa). We enjoyed nice weather, and saw some dear friends. The airplane rides were less than wonderful, but we survived. Troy has been working like a crazy person to get the school-year started. We're officially off and running, and things have been good. I am back to teaching dance this year, teaching a Bible class to 8th grade girls, and also getting to have a Bible study in our home with some of the 9th grade girls who were in my Bible class last year. I am glad because I think I would miss them too much if I didn't get to see them.

Veritas, our school, has an official 6-man football team, and has already launched the season with a scrimmage. In true Texas style, the scrimmage was attended by most everyone in the Veritas community, complete with a burger cook-out, t-shirt sales, and 107 degree weather. It was a sweaty-good time.

Last weekend we helped Troy's older sister and her family move out of their house, which is now sold, and we are gearing up for a major garage sale this weekend. Time to clean out the attic...which, by-the-way, isn't as fun as it sounds because it feels like appoximatley 120 degrees in our attic all the time in the summer. So much for energy efficiency.

And, probably most importantly, Jude got his first haircut. By me. While he ate his breakfast. It used to look like this:
well, after Troy styled it. But as you can see, he had a bit of a rat-tail thing going. I don't know why it grew that way, but it did. So I pretty much chopped that off, but I don't have an after picture yet. For now, here are a few other pictures I do have:
Jude playing in the mud a the lake...which is mostly mud due to our current drought.

Jude, Joey and Kate in the hammock in our yard.
A.J. mid-haircut. It was a sad, strange day.

A.J. post-haircut. Mixed feelings to say the least.


The only "funny" face Jude knows how to make.

Jude and Guitars

Well, A.J. (Stevi's brother) has officially moved to Austin, and is currently staying with us. He arrived on Wednesday after three days of driving, and "locking his keys in his car" (translated: putting them in his back pocket until he found them an hour and a half later) only once. He's happy to be here and we're happy to have him. Last night he was playing some nice calm guitar melodies for Jude and me as we were getting Jude ready for bed. Jude ran out to see him, diaperless. I think the music must've been overly relaxing, because Jude stood there and looked at A.J. sitting on the floor, and just let it flow. He peed all over A.J.'s guitar. Sadly, A.J. was starled, shouted "Whoa!", which in turn startled Jude and he started crying. It was pretty traumatic for everyone. I mean, A.J. had never had his guitar peed on before, and Jude was afraid to go near the guitar for a while after that. I think he'll come around though. Thanks for the serenade, A.J.!

Jude loves fireworks

Kentucky....

Hey! We are back in smoldering-hot Austin as of Monday, June 15th. Our time in Kentucky was absolutely precious. Troy took a class on cults and new religious movements. He found it extremely interesting, but thankfully nothing sounded good enough to draw him away from his faith in Christ =). Jude and I spent the week with my friends Susanna, Josie and their two little boys, Wheeler and Jack, respectively. (Jack is 2 mo. younger than Jude.) We got to see many other old friends and were thrilled to attend our old Bible study and our old church. Jude LOVED the Louisville Zoo, we picked Strawberries with our friends, ate lots of good food, and enjoyed reasonable daytime temperatures! Here are some highlights:


Troy, David, Jude and Wheeler before the Bats game.



Jude "helping" Wheeler play.



Getting ready to pick strawberries at Huber's Farm, with some of the coolest people in the whole world!





Jude getting to sit on an old tractor (his true passion in life is tractors)!

Jack and Jude at the strawberry patch...Jude is drinking Jack's water.

picking berries....

Jude got re-acquainted with his old friend, Annabelle. Annabelle is the daughter of some old friends who now live in Kentucky. They liked each other lots!

This is Annabelle's new baby brother, Elijah. He is seven days old in this picture.

Some catching up...

Hey everyone! We have been so busy the past six weeks. Sorry for the lapse in posting! A.J. was here until May 2nd, then Stevi's parents visited for 10 days and just left last week. It's been lots of fun spending time with family. Jude enjoyed getting re-acquainted with his Washington grandparents, and he learned very quickly that Grandpa would give him "emelemels" (M&Ms) WAY to often!

Troy just finished up his school year, so we have three weeks off together before he leaves for a classical learning conference in late June. This weekend we will fly to Kentucky for Troy to take a class, and to see all our dear friends in Louisville!

Here are some pictures from the end of April:
Cuteness.


This is most likely water out of the dog dish...



Hamilton Pool

Hamilton Pool

Hamilton Pool

Eating dirt

A.J.'s getting ready for his first day working at Veritas.

Stevi attempting to climb.

Happy Easter!

We visited the Wildflower Center on Good Friday....

Here are some pics of our Easter celebration! A.J. is currently here in Austin, so we've had a very special weekend....

Jude spots his Easter basket!

Jude's first time in a 3-piece suit!

All the cousins with their new sunglasses! This shot was a challenge.

Troy's Grandma (Mummu) who lives in Oregon was here this weekend. We enjoyed getting to see her. She taught all the girls how to make traditional Finnish Cardamom bread!

Lindsay comes to Austin!!!

Once in a while, worlds collide and God kindly reunites you with an old friend....this was one of those weekends! Lindsay was in Texas for work and came to Austin for a quick visit. Though it was short, we tried to show her as much Texas fun (and sunshine) as we could in less than two days! These photos are yesterday at the beautiful gardens downtown which are now in full bloom. Last night, we had coffee on the dock at my favorite Austin coffee shop, Mozarts, while listening to live music--of course.

Afterward, we were caught in traffic downtown near the infamous 6th street for much longer than I think either one of us would have wanted...though we certainly saw some interesting sights. After being thrilled by cars with hydraulics, motorcycle gangs and some....amazing...outfits, we decided we preferred eating gummy bears at home to the Austin night life!

It's such a blessing to get to spend time with a true friend who loves Jesus with all her heart. It was truly a gift to have some fellowship with my sister in Christ. Thanks for coming, Lindsay!