Some Pictures

 Marigold's new favorite thing is to remove her diaper. Trying to put off potty training for another week but it really is time.

 Lots and lots of cool TV that we don't have at home.

 One trip to the Fabulous Fountain.

 Matt' dad went on a trip for a couple of days and his dog, Bob, missed him very very very much.

 Some of the many presents I received for my birthday.

 A beautiful looking blackberry pie, which, unfortunately, was a failure. I put a whole cup of sugar over the berries but they were still sort of bitter tasting. Boo hoo. But the apple pie was delicious.

 Another trip to the fountain.

 The older girls getting their nails painted after the fountain.

 Matt honoring his father and mother by digging out their pond (see previous post about roaches) that his days may be long in whatever land the Lord his God gives him.

 Everybody likes the sand box.

 And we FINALLY got her ears pierced. Been weighing on my mind a great deal so I'm very pleased. She only cried for one second and then returned to happiness.

 And here is the roller skating.

And here is Marigold looking her disreputable dissatisfied usual self.

We're still very busy

but now we're not just sitting we're running around doing stuff because we only have a week left.

Today we're going to the Toy Barn. I mean, that's not what it's called but it should be.
"Why are you going to the Toy Barn?" Matt asked me last night. "Why do the children need toys?"
"I don't know," I said, "their grandmother promised to take them."
"What will they do with more toys?" he asked.
"I don't know," I said, "carry them around and break them."

Originally, unbeknownst to himself, Matt was supposed to accompany us to the Toy Barn, but he has escaped by taking on the gargantuan task of digging out his mother's long broken pond. Its a really pretty pond but the pump broke a few years ago and there was just never time to fix it.

So Matt and Elphine and Alouicious went outside yesterday, cheerfully, prepared to move rocks and have a good time. Matt moved the first rock and out crawled a little itsy bitsy cockroach.
"Ooo," shouted Elphine with delight.
She and Alouicious have been hunting roaches all week, thinking that they are awfully cool 1. because they have never seen them before and 2. because some helpful person told them they were around at the same time as The Dinosaurs. I caught Elphine asking her grandmother for a glass jar and a lid.
"Sure, hang on sweetie," said her grandmother, but then paused for just a moment, looked Elphine up and down and wisely asked, "what are you going to put in it?"
"Those dinosaur bugs," she shouted (she's taken to shouting Everything. Its driving me crazy).


So they moved a second rock and out crawled another roach. Matt blithely sprayed the two bugs to kill them and suddenly, as they say in the Bible, a multitude of roaches swarmed over the face of the whole pond. Alouicios and Elphine were hustled back inside while Matt killed and killed and killed and killed roaches for quite a long time. Eventually, however, when it seemed there more no more to kill and poison was dripping off everything, he clad the two in gloves and stuff and let them get in the mud and help him move rocks, which they continued to do for almost the whole rest of the day.

So maybe a visit to the Toy Barn is in order. "Its the first time," said Matt at the end of the day, "that they've been an actual help to me in the yard."

35 Things I'm grateful for as I turn 35 (tomorrow)

(Not In Order Of Importance)
1. That' I'm not turning 36 yet, only 35.
2. That I've convinced my children not to pretend to be in a band and perform rock music as a present.
3. My mom and dad
4. That for ten years I had a beautiful cat.
5. My big beautiful red living room rug.
6. Elphine
7. Alouicious
8. Romulus
9. Gladys
10. Marigold
11. The Baby (who still needs a blog name)
12. That we got a proper holiday this year.
13. Matt's parents.
14. The remarkably good sermon we heard this morning at The City Church.
15. That the little bit of garden we planted actually grew.
16. That Matt's foot healed all the way.
17. That child birth didn't kill me (yet).
18. That I got to grow up abroad and had so many interesting pets.
19. Jesus
20. That I know how to read.
21. That I got to go to Cornell and study fascinating and useless things.
22. That I'm exactly as tall as I am and that my feet haven't spread to much (yet).
23. That we can work in and live next to the church.
24. That the church is increasingly full of fascinating and gospel driven people.
25. My pediatrician.
26. My OB doctor.
27. This amazing fountain here in Corpus that the children can actually go in.
28. That my girls have such beautiful clothes and hair and they let me put stuff in it.
29. That my boys are next to each other in birth so as to fend off their sisters.
30. My beautiful new Kindle
31. Matt
32. Matt
33. Matt
34. Matt
35. Matt

We're busy doing nothing

Three Men in a Boat, plus six children and a lady

 We went fishing today in the ocean. Well, it was a lagoon attached the ocean. Alouicious wanted to know if it was possible to drain the ocean and where the water could go. I told him to hang on and try to work it out in his own mind. Death by a thousand questions. That's going to be the way I go.

 We did have hats but they couldn't wear them while the boat was hurtling forward through the water because they blew off. But every time we stopped to fish, we put on the hats. And more sunscreen.

 They were having a good time. We only have one style of taking pictures--glaring into the camera.

 I was sea sick. But I kept myself together and concentrated on the horizon and tried to work out whether we were in a roughly comparable sized space as the Sea of Galilee. In this way I was able never to throw up.

 Marigold desired very much to walk off the side of the boat into the sea. She was angry all the time with short breaks when she had peanut butter cracker in her mouth.

 Elphine caught the first fish. We had to throw all the fish back because they were too small (May the Almighty be Praised).

 Alouicious caught a cat fish and some other kind of fish. He was very pleased with himself.

Romulus left with the mistaken impression that he had caught a lot of shrimp. As he was perfectly satisfied with this idea, no one disabused him of it and he was able to take a restful and refreshing nap in the bottom of the boat for part of the morning. How like Jesus he is.

Now we are regathering our strength by watching Word Girl and eating ice. Who knows what the morrow may bring?

Online At Last

Trying not to binge on the internet after being offline since we arrived in Corpus on Tuesday. Not that I was up to anything like reading or swallowing or anything, being that I came down with strep again. The very nice barking doctor in San Antonio told me to have my tonsils out. Sounds reasonable, frankly, after being sick this much.

But I'm much better, so we will go out in celebration of being married 10 years today. How time does fly, as someone or other said. Six babies in ten years isn't too shabby. Nor having a pretty good job. Not to mention having a thoroughly uncomplicated and happy marriage. Been contemplating all week how easy married life has been. All the foul predictions of stress and bad communication and unhappiness culminating in divorce and general ghastliness have never materialized. I'm really grateful to have things so beautiful and easy. And also, "for there always being an eye to catch" (badly quoted from Mrs. Miniver whom I do not have on hand).

the Amazing Fun Continues

We've made it from Houston through Temple to San Antonio and are recovering for a day with the cousins in their beautiful house and awesome pool. Along the way I and the babies have contracted a richly bubbly cold. Also, the weather continues hot.

Anyway, you can see that we've gone from strength to strength--horse back riding to water feature jumping to swimming to family party after family part. I leave you to deduce which is which. Hopefully tomorrow and Wednesday I'll be able to unclog my head and think clearly and write something fascinating about our adventures.

 (Matt and two of his cousins--sorry about the focus.)

Le Zoo

Let it not be said that we never do anything fun, because today we went to the ZOO!!!

I'm pretty sure they had a good time but they were so hot and whiny it was hard to tell.
Anyway, by the grace of God they had Cheetas, so we've all been able to see the fastest animal in the world. But now we need to find out what the most dangerous animal in the world is. And also  we saw an awake bear. So Romulus and Alouicious are basically satisfied with all reality has to offer. Elphine, on the other hand, spent the entire day working out how to plan the day she will finally have ten children. She figured out, as we looked at all the animals, that getting a tall fence would allow her to gate off the children who would be inclined to wreck what she had already cleaned. "Did you enjoy looking at the animals?" I asked at the end of the day.
"Sure" she said, "but I'm not sure my house will be big enough."
We don't all have to live in the present, I guess, whatever Brother Lawrence has to say about it.

Traveling Mercies

Air Travel is just rotten in these modern times. Even when everybody is friendly and gracious and helpful and understanding and you're well prepared and as cheerful as possible, air travel is just rotten. It didn't used to be so. I remember in the bad old days being only worried about the fact that I had too much stuff to fit in my suitcase and that my ears were going to hurt. It used to be possible to walk reasonably through airport security up to your gate, or even for people to meet you at your gate, to be talked to by airline attendants as a human being and a customer...I don't really need to finish that sentence.

What impressed me this time was the fear in everybody's eyes--not because we were coming, but just in general. The TSA agent looked afraid when my five year old set off the alarm. The people around us looked afraid when we hit turbulence. Etc. Etc.

Anyway, we're really grateful to be here and starting to recover. I think its in the cards to go to the zoo today. The children are excited, but also totally limp in this awesome humid heat. They look out the window and whine when we tell them to go out, even into the shade.

We're very very busy and we've got a lot to do

Wow, its pouring rain. And so dark I've had to turn on a lamp.
Anyway, I won't really be blogging today, or tomorrow, and possibly not Wednesday, unless the traveling is so exciting I have to rush to the internet to tell everybody about it. We're mostly packed and the house is mostly clean so we will be spending the day finishing up those myriad tasks that pop up before you do anything momentous like leave your house for a month.

I would be most grateful, though, if you would pray for some of my cousins who were in rather a bad car accident over the weekend--they are all ok, basically, but the other driver was killed. If you could pray for the family of the person who died, and general healing for all my family, and thanksgiving for their lives--and then you can pray for our safety.

See you on the other side!