Before I get to the news of Emma's Nutcracker roles, I'll let you know that Doug will be in Albany this weekend. His grandpa Armstrong passed away Monday evening and there is a memorial service for him on Friday. Doug is leaving this afternoon and will be returning to TX on Sunday. He's staying with some friends in Delmar so if you want to send anything back to TX with him (Dunkin Donuts coffee, ILOVENYPIZZA tee hee), call or email me and I'll get you his contact info for the weekend. We're all sad about grandpa passing, but at 94, he's lived a full life of loving the Lord, and he is worshipping God now. The sad part for the kids and I is staying behind. It never occurred to us that our next trip to NY would be a family vacation, not a funeral. Keep Doug and the kids and I in your prayers this weekend. I haven't been feeling well this past week (I was diagnosed with Pleurisy last Friday night in the ER), and Erik especially is upset about Doug's going. NUTCRACKER NEWS... Emma has earned 2 parts in this year's production. She is going to be a soldier in the battle scene, and she's also in the second act as a "cake baker". Don't ask me what that is, but she'll be in one of the special dances performed for Clara and the Prince in the Land of Sweets. She was disappointed to learn that she won't be in the opening Party Scene, but then realized that the Battle Scene is lengthy and that all of the parts are being played by her Ballet 2A and 2B peers. So we're in for another interesting fall full of 2 weekly ballet classes, and 1 to 2 Nutcracker rehearsals each week until the performance. BTW, the performance is the weekend of 12/8...feel free to come on down ;-)

Ellie turned 6 last monday. I'm still getting over it! She's enjoying her new status as a 6 year old AND in the 1st grade (at church at least). I can't find the camera right now, but I'll post a picture of her as soon as it turns up ;-) Doug and Erik ran in another race on Saturday. This was a different course, all grass. It was hard for Erik...the different course made it seem like a much much longer race to him. They ran a week ago as well, Doug took a whole minute off of his time and Erik was down 30 seconds. In a few weeks (when it's not still 100 at 5pm-hopefully), we'll start Erik with 'official' running practice with the Road Lizards running club. He'll run tuesdays and thursdays from 4:30-5:30...don't worry he won't run that WHOLE hour. Once basketball starts up in November, we'll pull him out of the running and let him just play basketball, then baseball. The girls started ballet this past week. Emma is now in 2A..which means 2 1-hour classes each week. And Ellie is in a 1 hour pre ballet class. Nutcracker Auditions were yesterday and Emma is eager to see what part(s) she earned. The list will be posted on Wednesday...I promise I'll blog the results! Send me an email if I forget. I've been asked to head up the props for The Nutcracker production...Doug and I are deciding if our family can take that kind of a time committment from mama... And AWANA and coop start up after Labor Day too...my calendar is already full of kids scheduled activities.

We've been here for ONE YEAR! It seems hard to believe that. In some ways it's been a very long year, but Doug feels like the weeks went quickly. What do we miss? Family and Friends. Fall. What don't we miss? Just about everything else LOL. We just had some guests this week, David and Becky Pence. They flew down for the week and are already planning their next trip for April. So, we've had both family and friends come down to see us in our new home. We're off to San Antonio for 4 days in September and will meet up with my Dad and stepmother, Maureen. (Doug only has 5 days of vacation until August 2007...with so many dear people to visit in NY, it's not likely that we'll come up before then.) So you'll just have to come down here ;-)