Well, well, well

Okay, The cake, Me figuring out how to use the new hex wrenches (any ideas?), Emma posing (still my birthday), then Joseph the fireman and Laura with the little one.

As you can see by the title of this post I am in a rather uninspired mood. I am, though, behind in the things that I should share. First, I had a birthday! Yeah! I think. I am not sure if I should be excited anymore. The big three-o. It was fun. I enjoyed making the cake, and the kids enjoyed eating it. Abigail's eyes are begining to clear up more. She has pretty dark blue eyes, just like all our other kids did at that age, but eventually the Thornock genes will dominate, I am sure.

Ethan got a little fire fighters outfit at a yard sale (Joseph is in the hat above) with a little toy ax. All day yesterday he ran around in this yellow rubber suit waving his ax and trying to chop down the trees in the front yard. He bit the "blade" of the ax to narrow the taper. Now, supposedly, it is sharper so it will cut better.

Emma starts school next week. I think that she will do fine. She has great phonemic awareness, wonderful story telling and expressive and receptive language. She knows a few alphabet letters. She will be fine. She will. Surely.

Laura has been dropping pounds so fast that she has to jump out of the way or they hit her toes. She is worried about Emma starting school. They have full day kindergarten here, so Emma is in for some long, grueling days.

Joseph is into everything. He is saying prayers well now-for a two year old, that is. Emma is "Memma Bear" Ethan is "Buhee (buddy) guy" and Joseph is "Bobef" His prayers are often punctuated by "Buhee, Shhh! Prayer!" He has learned when he has already messed his diaper, but he tends to use the right hand check, so changing a diaper now often involves a run to the sink and antibacterial soap first thing.

I am excited about school. I found out that my paperwork will be reduced to about 1/12 of what it was prevoiusly. I am so relieved. I will have between 6 and 8 full time students this year and 3 or 4 part time students. That is a pretty good size load. We are looking to expand the program if we can, and it is looking like a better and better possibility and we are getting to be known as a pretty good program in the area.

Well that is about all I have time for tonight.

Ty

For the first time!

This is Emma earlier this summer at the water park in Rexburg.
Joseph same place...
Ethan also.

Hi there everyone! This is my first post and we will see how they go. Today was my first day back in workships for school. We were learning all about teaching writing, not that the workshop will reflect at all on my blog.

As you may know, our little Abbigail Rebecca Thornock was born on the 14th of this month at 10:47 in the morning after an agonizing morning (more so for Laura than for me) begining at 2:00 am. She was born weighing in at 7 pounds, 9 ounces and 20 and 1 half inches long. She had a bit of trouble breathing at first and they had her on a little respirator for a few minutes before she figured it out on her own. Afterward she and Laura were both fine, although I found the hospital food a little traumatizing. Above is a picture. Laura's Mom and youngest sister Becky came to help out and the have been wonderful. They took the other three children down to Portland for 2 and a half days so that Laura and I could focus on the Olymp- I mean the baby. They have also done a lot around the house.

The house is moving along. Using the boards that were unfit for use on Chad's back fence, I created a fence spanning the alley sid eof our backyard. I still have a 10 foot section open that I have left to put up. Other improvments include: a front step makeover, a painting of the front door, and some beginings for making basement steps. I had recently had lawnmower troubles and, expectedly, after I fixed it it still didn't work. I talked to Grandpa and he asked if I had checked the sparkplug. I tell you, my sparkplugs need to be checked, because as soon as he said that I remembered that I had disconnected the sparkplug before working on it so that I could keep my lifetime electrocution count below 50. Well, after our enlightening talk, I reconnected the sparkplug and the mower started like a dream.

Emma is getting excited to start school this year. Ethan found a ratty old pair of army pants his size and wore them about 4 days straight until he threw up on them and they had to be washed. Joseph is growing like a weed and uttering some 4 word sentences now.