Home again, home again. . .

. . . to everyone's great relief! We were all pretty tired, to say the least. Our last two days of classes went very well, and I felt like I learned a lot--and that there's a whole lot more out there I wish I would know! :-) The boys did well despite going a little stir crazy, and Leanna actually spent quite a bit of class time in with me so that was nice they allowed her in. Above is a picture of the sweet little girlie, and below is a peek at our hotel room.

Sunday we went to church as usual. The roads were rather bad, but we made it safely only a few minutes late. Then there was a fellowship so we stayed for that, then fairly quickly headed home to get some rest. Of course none of the little ones were interested in sleeping, so it wasn't quite as restful as we'd hoped. But we did get to bed early, and had a nice, mostly uninterrupted night. I felt almost rested this morning, but quickly headed downhill into weariness this afternoon. I still feel like a bug is trying to catch me, so it's early to bed tonight again. This week is chock full, so I need to keep my strength up!

The conference

Well, it's been an interesting couple of days, to say the least! Yesterday we got up around 2:30 to get ready to go, and were still running later than we liked. Then we hit rush hour traffic in Milwaukee. . . ugh. But we still made it in time, and after a cunfusing chase through the hotel and the conference center Anita and I managed to arrive safe and sound for our class in time. We both passed all of our tests on the first try!!!! Praise the Lord! I was pretty worried about some of my practical exams, but it went just fine. Now today Jere is taking an all day class while I watch the little ones in our hotel room. By the way, I'm discovering Hilton, despite its fancy look and high price tag, is a rather disgusting place to stay. No free anything (WiFi, drinking water, breakfast), and a very tiny room with full size beds. Not a treat with three adults and three children! There's hardly room enough on the floor for the pack and play, Leanna's little sleeping mat, and Jaron's sleeping bag with a tiny pathway left over to get to the bathroom. The ambulance service is paying for our rooms, thankfully, but I still feel bad staying here as the price per night is, in my humble opinion, ridiculous. The big plus to it is that it connects to the conference center via a skyway, so yesterday when Jere had the children he only had to walk across the skyway and go down the escalator so I could feed the baby. Tonight Anita is going home and one of Jere's cousins is coming to watch the children so Jere and I can double up on some classe time.

The children make quite a splash with everyone! Especially the dear black people who are the waiters and clean-up folks. They love it when we stop and talk to them about our little tribe. We get teased by the other EMTs that we brought the whole squad. :-) They are the only children here, that we've seen yet, despite being told that other families do come. Maybe their kids are older and spend all their time at the waterpark? Whatever the case, we gets a lot of comments and friendly smiles, and even more stares. I'd thought of taking them to a children's museum of some sort, but to take 3 folks this size out by my lonesome self seemed rather, um, overwhelming. We did bring a bunch of special toys for them, and the boys really enjoy just standing in the skywalk watching big city life go swirling around down below. If it's not too cold after naps this afternoon I hope to take them on a little walk outside, though downtown big cities like this intimidate me a little bit. :-)

The rest of the week

Tomorrow--EARLY, like 3:15 am--we'll be heading out to the Wiscinsin EMS conference in Milwaukee. I get the dubious joy of taking my refresher training/tests. Hope I survive, as I'mpretty rusty! Thursday Jere has an all day class, then we both have classes off and on Friday and Saturday. It's going to be a long week for the boys, sitting in a hotel room for four days. . . I'm hoping we can get some more posted over that time as we should have WiFi at the hotel. :-)

Sunday adventure

Last evening we decided to all trek across the field to the shop. Jere finished painting our tractor on Saturday, and we all wanted to see it. It was in the upper 20's, and on our way home was drizzling some light freezing rain, and there was a bunch of snow on the ground, but it was worth it! That tractor looks SO nice now! We've always called it the "Homely Tractor", but now we're going to have to find another name for it. :-)

Anita's back!!

We drove down to Chicago yesterday afternoon to pick Anita up from the airport. (She works in a clinic in Haiti.) We have a good trip, all arriving safely. Anita will be here for just more than two weeks, doing some studying to keep up her EMT license and enjoying her nephews and niece! Here she is holding Leanna for the first time.

Bathtime!

Leanna is learning to enjoy her baths. What a plump little sweetie she is!

Leanna is two months old!!!

Well, our Leanna is 2 months old as of Sunday. She's really getting to be quite the big girl! She loves attention, loves her big brothers, and sleeps through the night quite well. What a baby!!

Eliott's Birthday!

Eliott turned 2 January 14. We had a fairly small party, considering he's a shy one and is happier with less people, and no strangers. The lucky ones who came were Micah and Jon and Lisa. So here are a few pictures from our evening!

Welcome!

Well, here's an attempt to make it easier for those who want to keep up with us to do so! So, there will be pictures and updates every so often (I won't promise how often!) on our life happenings, especially of the little ones growing up and any other news deemed interesting. :-)