The great blog update

This morning I used the "empty my camera onto my blog" method of blogging. Forgive the lack of cohesive thought or even chronological order. Or even text. Mea culpa.

I'll give you a little re-cap of life here in the fullhouse.

Don is still working for Telus. In November they made him permanent and in December they let him start working from his home office, saving oodles of time and money by not having to commute to Burnaby 5 days/week. The only downside is that he is now working nights, so it's difficult for his sleeping patterns to go back and forth. He's filling his days off with overtime from Telus and projects around here.

Nathan is approaching his 1-year mark in California, and still loves it! He's been taking university classes on base, and is hoping to get a BA in English while he's stationed in Long Beach. He's still enjoying the Ducks' games, but has decided to not be a season ticket holder next year. He attends a great church with a large college/career group and has enjoyed being part of their service projects and bible studies. He got baptized in September and is basically doing great in every area of his life. He's in the process right now of getting "coxswain qualified" which is a large exam that he needs to pass in order to get his next promotion. For reasons he doesn't know, his boss gave him what seems like an unrealistic deadline of when he had to pass this exam...12 days. So he's really out of his comfort zone in trying to study so much information in such a short timeframe. We're praying for him!

Dylan is working 4 days/week at his Freybe job, and taking 4 courses at UFV in the accounting program. So far he really likes accounting and is doing a great job in his courses (no surprise there). He's decided to apply for a supervisory position at Freybe, which will bring more hours and more money, should he get the job. Haley has finished her paralegal assistant program at UFV (with flying colors) and is still working at Shopper's Drug Mart, waiting for fall to begin the Forensics program at UFV.

Sean is rocking grade 11. He took Math, Chemistry, French, English, and Socials in the first semester and managed to pull straight A's. He's still trying to decide if he wants to join the program where the military pays for your college education in exchange for 4 years of service afterward. He thinks he wants to go to UBC for an engineering degree. He's been dating Bailey for almost 6 months now! He got his driver's license in February, which of course has opened up a whole new world for him/them. And he is getting his braces off TOMORROW!

Mark Qi is our new international student from China. He's a great fit in our family, and has settled into "large family" living easily. He's very tall and likes to play basketball. He is also in grade 11 at Poppy and his English is very good. We're not sure how long he will be here....he says it depends on how his studies go : ).

Tony is still here and doing well in grade 9. His trip to Europe, which he was going to take during spring break, got canceled so now he'll be hanging out here with Mark and Don.

Patience is loving grade 2. She has an excellent teacher, Mrs. Hawley. Jordyn is in Ms. Chang's kindergarten class and has lots of fun there. The all-day kindergarten seems to be fine...Jordyn gets many experiences/activities each day like library time, music class, gym, etc. because she's there for 6 hours/day. The nice thing is that there is only 15 kids in her class.

Nick. He's now 3 and a half and is talking so much, even in his sleep! He enjoys going to Strong Start, the parent-participation preschool at the girls' school. He enjoys trucks, tractors, cars, and trains. It's amazing how "all boy" he is.

The BC teachers are on strike for the next three days, so we have an unexpected break coming up here. Then after the strike, the kids will go back to school on Thursday, and then we'll leave Friday morning for our California trek! I'm so excited about seeing my parents, Nathan, and Heather and her family.

And now I will try to be more dilligent in blogging. : )