The Heat has arrived!

I got to talk with Dan for an HOUR yesterday and he's doing just fine. However, the heat has definitely arrived and it has been running 110-112 degrees there on most days now! Yikes! He's drinking lots of fluid and eating lots of fruit! :)

Since he spends so much more time doing paperwork than he ever has, he's been itchy for an outlet for creativity and has found that in cooking. He's been enjoying "browsing" in the cookbook section of bookstores (way too expensive to actually buy the books!) and has also been checking out websites with recipes! How funny! Actually, he's a great cook, so I'm looking forward to him continuing this "creativity" when he gets home! I have spinach salad every single night, and he's cooking up a storm!

On the homefront, my big concern now is our run-a-way bamboo in the back yard. When Dan originally planted the bamboo, he used 24" of sheet metal to keep it all in one place. But, now, 7 years later we have lots and lots of escapees. For those of you familiar with bamboo, there's no stopping the stuff! It grows about 12" a DAY when it rains. I'm on the lookout for a young strong kid to come and dig it out before it takes over the neighbor's yard... I bet Dan isn't sorry he's missing this episode!

Thanks for your prayers and emails!

Joanne

Email from 5-year-old Josiah

Hi Papa. (as dictated by Josiah to Mommy)

I love you. I'm going to show you my karate. I love you beary much.
Cuz I want to share stuff with you. I pray that you protect good
ships. I will pray for you forever. I love you.

We had an Easter egg hunt at school. We got candy and Easter popcorn egg and it was so fun. I liked it so much. I like it because it's good, but Jesus died. But it was for our sins, and Jesus died for our sins cuz we really wanted to see Him in the sky. How are we going to see Him in the sky? I know how, we are going to see Him for a Jesus party in the sky. I love Jesus. He's a good person and He's beary fun and cool. I love the Lord.

I will pray for you forever and I love you. and pray that we nourish
our bodies, (he might have gone into his before mealtime prayer
here...lol) and ride the 4 wheeler and share. This 4 wheeler is fun.
It's fast and can go through mud. I be really interested in it and
tough.

We got a dog. It can jump and bite and it's beary cool and big and
black and I hope you love it and want to come and see it.

I always pray for our sins. You're a good man. He (Papa) is the person I love very much. Amen. I hope you understand that I got you a gift.
(he is not telling his mommy what it is. Apparently it is a secret)

Papa's a great servant, and there's good notes on you. (I wonder if his teacher ever talks about leaving bad or good notes for parents??)

I got two surprises. It's on Christmas. Christmas is very fun, and about God and Jesus.

I love mommy and papa. I like to read books. I like to do
games. I like to play a hunting game when I can shoop birds. I like to
hunt with my dad. I hope you can come if you want to.

I love you.

Josiah

Ain't technology grand?

Hi Folks,

Things are going well with Dan, although he is basically in the "eat, work, sleep" mode! He's healthy and working hard.

We've been having "Instant Messaging" dates for the past couple days! At my lunch time, it is about 10:00pm for him, so we log on and catch up on the day. What a GREAT blessing this has been! It makes me realize how tough it must have been for those families of old, who would say goodbye to their sailor/soldier and wait for months to hear from them.

Today, I was adding some water and antifreeze to his truck, while Lisa-Marie was texting him and asking him if I was putting the water in the right spot! How crazy, but we sure had a good laugh about it. Poor guy was pretty worried that I was going to ruin his engine! Both of the girls can instant message with him on their phones...hmmm...maybe I see a Blackberry in my future??

Thanks for your prayers - we are well, though missing each other.

Joanne

Email from Aiyana to Papa

happy april fuls day, Mom and Dad took us to a pg13 movie. Just kidding! Fuledyou!