A lot of people have been asking what we are all up to these days, so I thought I'd give a little update. Katie is busy with school, playing Nerts (a card game she has recently learned), watching hockey, going to youth group, and playing with the twins. Amy is taking classes as Northwest Tech School for young childhood education and has recently started doing her lab hours in a kindergarten class, which she loves. She is also busy with practice and lessons for Freedom's Call, playing with the twins, youth group, and has just finished reading her favorite book series, the Brio Girls, for the third time, so now she should be able to concentrate on her homework again. :-). I (Julie) am a little bit harder to wrap into a nutshell. I am still working at Kal's, but not very much, because it's pretty slow there, and they don't need to be paying me to sit around and browse recipes on the Internet. So I go in a couple hours a week to clean. As you could probably guess, I am also busy playing with the twins--a true delight. I have also been doing some independent studying in German and Russian. It's much more challenging to do it on my own, but I am getting a lot out of it. One thing I love is that through studying a language, it's like you can get a glimpse into the culture and the people, and it's like God is giving me a little peak at the love He has for them. I also am a leader for the 4th grade girls at Awana at our church, which can be both challenging and rewarding. I spend a lot of time cooking and baking and thinking of every way I can to change a recipe. My family always laughs at me when they ask me what something is. My answer is usually, "Well, the recipe said to use this, but I used..." Sometimes it's because we don't have a certain ingredient, so I make a little substitution, but mostly it's because I just love coming up with ways to change things up.
Other than trying to stay warm (which for me is often only accomplished by 3 or 4 layers of clothes--inside), that's about what we've been up to. Sometimes, I think life would get very boring and mundane, I mean, let's face it, I'm not living a overly thrilling lifestyle, but then just when I am tempted to become discontent, God fills me with the assurance of His promise that He is what makes my life worthwhile. I could never hope for a better purpose!
Aren't these goreous? Our dad bought us three red roses, one for each of us. None of us had ever gotten flowers for Valentine's Day before, and red roses are my (Julie's) absolute favorite. What a wonderful guy!
Our Dad doesn't really like the whole idea of buying flowers and candy and stuff for Valentine's Day; he thinks it's just a way for Hallmark to make a lot of money (which is the way most guys feel, I think). But he never fails to get our Mom a big bouquet of her favorite, carnations.
We had our Mom's side of the family over to celebrate Mom's and Amy's birthdays. We had heart-shaped sugar cookies with pink icing and melted chocolate drizzled on them, fishy crackers, dark chocolate kisses, and cupcakes that Amy and I decorated.
Amy used the melted chocolate to decorate the cupcakes, too. Aren't they precious?
