Just a bit about what's been going on around here....

On September 19th, Micaiah's 3rd birthday he started preschool. I love the way the preschool here on the center works. Instead of every child starting in the new class at the beginning of the year, each child goes into the next class when they have their birthday. So, Orin moved from Mrs. Sherri's class (the 3 year old class) to Mrs. Lark's class (the 4 year old class) last April 3rd. And Micaiah was able to start Mrs. Sherri's class when he turned three last month. I think this works great because adding only one kid at a time keeps the class running smoothly instead of having all new kids at a time. Ever since Orin started school a year ago, Micaiah could not wait to go to Mrs. Sherri's class. He talked about it often and loved to talk to Mrs. Sherri whenever we would pick Orin up. So I knew that when he turned 3 we just had to let him go. And let me tell you, the kid LOVES it. He's only going two morning's per week but he looks forward to it all week. It's amazing how different he is from Orin when he first started at 3 1/2. Orin still lived in his own little world. I don't think he was really engaged with much that was going on in class. Because of that, school has been great for him. But Micaiah is pretty much completely opposite. He takes it VERY seriously. He is totally into every aspect of the day...from circle time, to the singing, to craft time, to the listening station, etc. There are only about 5 other kids in his class usually, so he really gets great teacher time. I'm so glad he is getting this opportunity.
So, now that this is Orin's last year of preschool before Kindergarten, we thought it would be fun for him to go to school three mornings per week. Unfortunately, with Micaiah going too, it's more expensive than we can afford right now. So I'm now working at the school on Friday's. I'm so thankful that they had an opening for a "helper" in one of the classes. Even better, I get to help in Orin's class. It's been really great. The best part is that he is SO thrilled that I'm there. The only problem I have is that he wants me to play with him the entire time. I'm still trying to get him to understand that I have to be the teacher for all of the kids...not just him.

Mainly Music started up again. It's such a great program. Micaiah and I go on Mondays while Orin is at school. It's about 45 minutes of singing and dancing together and then time for the mom to talk while the kids have a snack and play. Even better it's a ministry of a nearby church so it only cost $1 each time we go. I pick up a friend and her son on the way and we all have a blast together. I'm looking forward to including Sora when she comes home...but I'm not sure how Micaiah is going to feel about it since he definitely enjoys his time alone with mommy.

We enrolled the kids in Awana this year. It's sort of fun because they are both in Cubbies and get to be together. It's at the same church I go to for Mainly Music. It's a huge Awana program (probably about 100 kids) with amazing volunteers. But the BEST part (and pretty much the main motivation for us putting them in Awana in the first place at this young age - but don't tell anyone) is that Damien and I get 2 whole hours of time alone each week. This is a serious treat. We don't live around family so in order to go out we either have to hire a baby sitter (which just makes date night that much more expensive) or trade off with friends. This works ok sometimes, but it's hard to do it on a regular basis. So every Sunday night we get a free date night while the kids learn Bible verses and just have a plain 'ole good time. You can't beat that! I do find it sort of strange though because the verses for the cubbies are so easy! For example, Romans 3:23 is "All have sinned." I guess they want to make the kids feel like they can succeed. It's just funny because we've been memorizing scripture for a while. We're not incredibly consistent, and we have only done about 7 verses, but I think Orin and Micaiah are sort of confused by the way these AWANA verses are.

So we found out a few weeks ago that we are getting kicked out of our apartment. Our lease is up January 1st, and we can't renew it. When we tried to renew the lease were told another family had already signed one to move into this apartment in February. It was very frustrating. We know that our lease states that they don't have to ask us if we want to renew before signing someone else, but we really felt that it's just something nice they could do. Plus, we were renewing like 6 months in advance. Well, I think she felt sorry for us (we mentioned that it's was going to be really difficult to move because Sora will be coming right around that time) and she actually emailed the family to ask if they would be willing to move to a different apartment close by. Well, they wrote back and said no. But come to find out, they signed the lease back in November of 2007! Can you believe that? They signed the lease in Nov. 2007 to move into this apartment in February 2010. We didn't even sign our first lease to move in until June 2008. I guess they knew they would be coming in on furlough and wanted this apartment. So, it actually made us feel better. This was already decided before we even moved in. But then we had to decide what to do. I LOVE where we live. Damien walks to work. We're right across the street from the preschool. It's perfect for me. But there are no other 3 bedroom apartments available. So, that left us with either a 2 bedroom, right next door, a 3 bedroom mobile home. The 3 bedroom mobile home is actually smaller (less sq ft.) than the 2 bedroom so we're going with the 2 bed. I think it's funny that we're adding an extra child but moving into a smaller apartment. Harder than going one less bedroom will be going form 1200 to 850 sq ft. It's ok though. We don't mind being "close"to each other and it's a good excuse to get rid of toys and other junk. Moving date is another confusion. We can move any time in the month of January. So, if Sora comes in December, we'll move the last week in January, but if she doesn't come until the second week of January or later, we'll move the first week of January before she gets here. I'm just thankful that the housing department is being flexible with us!

I've been having so much fun getting clothes for Sora at thrift stores. After getting a few things there as well as picking up quite a bit from the boutique, getting hand-me-downs from friends, and also getting some sweet gifts, I already have plenty of clothes for her when she first comes home. I have definitely been enjoying picking out all of the girl clothes. Even more than I thought I would. Now I just can't wait until she gets here to wear them!

For the first time in four years, I have one morning during the week to myself - with no kids. After a lot of debate (mostly with just myself), and prayer, I decided that I wanted to volunteer somewhere. It was such a difficult decision. There are so many great places that need help. But seeing that I only have a few hours, one morning a week, my options were somewhat limited. Our church partners with a great ministry in West Dallas called Brother Bill's Helping Hand. West Dallas is the 11 poorest neighborhood in the US (behind 9 neighborhoods in Chicago and 1 in LA). There are quite a few ministries in West Dallas that are doing amazing things. Brother Bill's is not only a food bank, they build relationships, have Bible studies for women in the neighborhood, teach English classes, give job training courses, etc... Each Wednesday & Thursday is the "grocery store" time where families come and can "shop" from the food in the warehouse. Over 150 families are served each week. I work during the grocery store time and either help in the warehouse while the shop or work as a greeter (which means that I meet with the person/family and talk about what is going on in their life and pray with them.) I'm really enjoying getting out and having a ministry of my own apart from my "first" ministry which right now being a mom. I probably won't be able to continue doing it once Sora comes, so I'm trying to make the most of my time now.

One of my mom's friends told me about this great curriculum called Five In A Row. Basically it's a list of about 25 books and with each book there are different lesson plans covering Social Studies, Language, Art, Applied Math, and Science. You read the book five times (once each day) and discuss different aspects of the book each time using the lesson plan. It's been really fun. I've been renting each book from the library and it only takes about 5 minutes to prepare. What kid doesn't like to read a book over and over... I actually got Before Five In A Row which is for 2-4 year olds because I thought it would be better for Micaiah. The poor kid is always having to read books over his head and past his age because of Orin.

I had my wisdom tooth removed on Friday. I have all of my wisdom teeth but figured I'd wait to have them taken out if they started causing me problems. Although it's unlikely for them to erupt after age 25, one of mine decided to do so in January. I was 30 at the time so I thought I was totally in the clear. It wasn't causing me too much trouble, and was only partially out, but things were a bit crowded back there and the dentist was concerned that I would be able to brush it and get it clean enough which would make it at risk for cavities as well as put all of my other teeth at risk. We're so blessed to have a dentist office here on the center. Multiple dentists volunteer during the week and we are able to have our teeth cleaned for a very small cost. One of the dentists that comes once a week can do teeth extractions. He also volunteers with an organization in Dallas that ministers to the homeless by extracting rotten teeth that are giving them pain. So, he has TONS of experience. Anyway, he gave me a couple of shots to numb me up and had the tooth out in less than a minute. It cost $37 for everything! What a blessing. I'm pretty surprised how easy that was and how little it's hurt or been sore. Now I'm just ready for it to heal so I can eat on both sides of my mouth again!

We've been sick forever. Orin started with a cough about two weeks ago. Then Micaiah got it, and then me. Sore throat, coughing, muscle aches, etc. But no fever. I don't feel horrible, but I don't really feel good. It's been two weeks we're ready to be done with it. We've kept the boys out of school once or twice, skipped an activity here are there, but it's hard to just stop everything. Plus, I'm sick of the looks I get from people when they hear my kids hacking up a storm at the grocery store. But, I'd feel the same way. :-)

Tomorrow is the last day of a week-long conference Damien has been going to. It's being held about 10 minutes away from our house at a retreat center. Almost everyone actually stayed at the center for the entire week. Damien asked if he could stay at home so that he would not have to be away from us for a week. I mean, how annoying would that be? Damien being 10 minutes away but not being able to see him for a week. :-) It's been a good conference for him. He gave two presentations which were both really well received. Now he's just glad it's over with. And I'm glad that I won't have to drop him off at 7:45am if I want to have a car for the day!