Family Update

Its been a while since I've done a general family update so I think today is a great time to do so for our readers.

Sarah is doing well in her Junior year. Major change that she has had is she is taking her 1st AP class. She chose U.S. History as that what interested her the most. This is a year long class, where most classes are just for a semester due to the school's block schedule. This class is challenging Sarah to work hard and think critically, but its her favorite class! Classes like this will best help her to know what college life will be like more so than any honors or "regular" HS class ever will. Another big thing going on in Sarah's life is she is on the school's bowling team! Yes bowling! How cool is that? The first meet isn't until October, but she practices 2 times a week. Right now her score is in the range of 107-140, which isn't bad for a beginner! We are looking forward to watching Beech High School win some games in a few weeks.

Lindsay has adjusted to life at middle school better than I thought. I was expecting more challenges with having 7 different classes and more work. That hasn't been the case at all. Once the first week or two passed, its been smooth sailing! Lindsay has all A's in her classes of which she is in 2 accelerated core classes due to testing into those last year. She continues to grow and mature into a sweet young woman. She now stands at 5'4" and I think she has a good bit to grow still. I think Sarah is going to be passed maybe by the end of the year by her-she's 5'5 1/2".

Courtney is in her last year of elementary school, which I find so hard to believe! Where have all of my little girls gone? I think Courtney has greater school challenges than Lindsay right now. She has a very sweet teacher who is know for preparing her class well for middle school. This means lots of work and usually more homework than Lindsay most nights! This challenge is good for Courtney though there are times where she complains a bit at the homework part :) She is starting to loose the last few of her baby teeth-it had been almost 6-8 months- and she's hoping that means she is going to start growing soon. Lindsay shot up so much in the past year Courtney feels a bit short at times compared to her sisters. When ever she has pain in her shins/legs she gets excited that its her "growing pains"! I hope so for her sake!

Our little man JT continues to change on a daily basis is seems. He's now a happy, chubby 3 month old. He loves "talking" to us, smiling like nothing else, and watching his mobile. The past two weeks he has started sleeping through the night regularly- Praise God! It's been an adjustment at first- me waking up several times to make sure he's okay- but I am now getting a good 7-8 hours of nightly rest. Ahhh it feels so good :) One thing that we are now dealing with is that JT has reflux and eczema. So he has Zantac for the reflux, creams and lotion for the eczema and no dairy products for either one of us since I'm breastfeeding still. Dr. thinks both might be a reaction to cows milk. So any formula he gets- about 2-4 bottles a week- will now be soy formula and like I said I need to have no dairy or switch to things like soy/rice milk. We just found this out yesterday, so still looking for good products for me.

John and I are now teaching separate boys/girls groups of middle school students at our church on Sunday mornings. It's basically Sunday school,but they are called "Small Groups" at our church because it's more than teaching, its about building relationships with one another, listening about life and loving one another. We each co-teach the groups with another couple that we are friends with. My group is 6th grade girls and John's group is 7th grade boys. It's been great being with these kids and talking about Christ in their lives.

Also take time today to remember how blessed we are to live in this great country of ours, the friends and family we each share, and the sacrifice the soldiers, police, firefighters have made on this 8th anniversary on 9/11. God Bless you all!