I know, I suck at blogging… Lol
Well, clearly I am terrible at this! 😦 Almost 7 months have passed since my last post, and much has happened, but I’ll try to summarize. 😉
Jose graduated from Kindergarten (such a cute day they had for us proud relatives!) and lost a couple of teeth. He also worked hard at the Accelerated Reader program he was accepted into early, and made great strides. His capabilities in that area blow us away!
We went on a month-long road trip all over the country (Iowa, Michigan, Texas, back home) and SURVIVED! Squishy couldn’t wait to get home by the end, and even asked if he could just go home by himself, ha ha. 
Jose, on the other hand, asked if we could go around the country a second time.
We had a great time on our trip. Stayed in tons of hotels, but saw no bedbugs (thank God!) Jose got to shoot a rifle. Squishy and Jose both went to the Iowa Children’s Museum, and there were no broken limbs this time. The whole family participated in a Murder Mystery dinner – totally awesome. We thought Squishy had gotten into the Blue Hawaiians, but it turned out to be a Dum Dum. **whew** Celebrated Grandma Rosie’s 90th birthday, took in a Kernels game and fireworks on the 4th of July, and spent tons of time with everyone.
In Michigan we celebrated a bunch of birthdays – Jose turned 6 in June, Squishy turned 3 in July, and at least three other MI relatives had birthdays, too, so there was a ton of partying going on! We rode 4-wheelers, went fishing from the canoe in the lake, make water features, went to a water park, and just generally made a bunch of good memories.
In Texas, we got the privilege of meeting a wonderful soul from Ethiopia who is soon to be part of our larger family. He adored Squishy’s hair and was a complete blessing to be around. Can’t wait to see him again! We also were thrilled to have a family member get baptized in the ocean while we were there. Really cool! 😀
We got the boys hamsters for their big birthday present once we were back in town – they named them Chocolate Cherry (Choco), and Solomon. We also had their pictures done when we came home, because Uncle Dude bought them AWESOME Naval outfits.
Both boys started school shortly after returning home, and Mike went back to teaching for his 30th(?) year. Mainly computers this year, which he’s not thrilled about, but knows the Lord has a reason for everything. Squishy is in the 3’s class at the same preschool Jose went to, and Jose is in first grade with his best friend. Squishy has LOVED school since day 1 – no tears from him! Jose has had a little trouble with figuring out how to be a friend to someone who is raised with different values than you, so we’ve had many talks about that. He seems to be doing well, though, and is showing more signs of not being afraid to be who he is w/o fear of what others will think/say.
At the beginning of October, I took on a long-term sub position in Squishy’s school (the Pre-K class) so that is exciting, scary, awesome, and daunting all at the same time. It’s so nice though, because I don’t have to figure out where to put Squishy for daycare while I work, because he’s right there with me. This job really fell right in my lap after a big shake-up at the Y involving my dad being laid off, and it is clearly a blessing straight from God. I am still at the Y right now, too, but it seems as though the people I know there are dropping like flies! But until God tells me, “Move!” I’ll stay right where I am. And the boys love that we are still there because it means they can stay involved in activities/sports like soccer, swimming, etc. Jose got to participate in a swim meet before the “winter” season set in (meets become very limited at that point), and he got 1, 2, 3, and 5 place ribbons as well as a 3rd place all-around medal in his age/gender division. So proud! 😎 Squishy played soccer with Aunt Eggy and had a blast!
The boys also started AWANA this year. We looked into it after the men’s BSF group failed to find leaders for the children’s program (a gross irresponsibility to our youth, in my opinion, but no one’s asking.) It has been a big hit with both of them. They’ve been memorizing Bible verses left and right, asking theological questions, and asking to tell me stories they’ve learned. Super glad to have this additional influence besides school and church. And speaking of church, we’re in a period of transition right now, but we’re listening to God for the next move and trusting that He will lead as He’s always done.
Squishy had school pictures done that turned out SO adorable we just had to get them, too, despite having ones done this summer. See??
This past weekend, Jose and I did the “Color Me Rad” 5K with his best friend and another friend from class – total blast, even if I didn’t manage to set the color into the shirts properly before washing them. 😐
And I think that just about brings me up to date on all/most of the important stuff. There’s lots of other little things that have happened that I should have been writing about all along, but I don’t *think* I missed anything vital, ha ha! Here’s hoping my next post won’t wait till next June… 😳
momma2joseandsquishy 