The Simple Life at Home

Since my last real substantial update, lots has gone on. We had a fabulous trip to Rome in November!! It was so nice to be in a place where you found something beautiful around every corner - a park, a fountain, a piazza, a church, something. We had a great time. Could have been a little bit better if the apartment's heat had been working since it was in the 40's but, hey, let's focus on the positive, shall we??

We had a nice Christmas break, during which we traveled to Abu Dhabi, just an hour south of Dubai. Hubby's sister lives there, so it was really nice to visit her and her family. Daniel really enjoyed visiting with his cousin of the same age and Emily got to participate in a youth retreat put on by Youth for Christ for kids from all over the Gulf region. We had a great time visiting Dubai, but the highlight for me was bookstores!!! We spent well over $200 at the Christian boostore (yippee!!!), and then stocked up at this amazingly huge bookstore we found in Dubai as well. That's one thing I really miss living here. Another great treat for us was some of our favorite restaraunts - PF Chang's, Wendy's, Taco Bell and more. Yummy!

Daniel got to participate in January in our middle school's Week Without Walls. 8th graders get to go to either Malaysia or Sri Lanka. Daniel chose Sri Lanka because it had more of a service element to it and involved more contact with animals. He had an amazing trip during which he worked to help refurbish a local primary school, visit an elephant orphanage and tour cultural sites all over the country. The highlight, though, was that leeches apparently got into his shoes and sucked his blood. Very cool stuff for a 13 year old boy!!!!!

Emily went to her winter formal also in January and looked so beautiful and grown up I thought I would cry. I can't believe that we only have another 2 years or so to have her in our nest before she'll be out on her own. It's been such a change to start relating to her as more of an adult than a child. Sadly, she had to learn some grown-up lessons last week when the mother of a friend passed away. The situation brought up so many conflicting emotions for her - how to deal with mortality, how to talk to the friend about it, and more. I'm so thankful that she's really built a good relationship with one of the school counselors, who's both a friend and neighbor. He spent a good deal of time talking to her since it happened, helping her process and deal with her emotions.

Overall, life is pretty darn good though. Emily is preparing for her spring break mission trip to Jordan again. The kids are doing well in school. We're looking forward to summer. I learned today that I'll have almost three months off, so we'll have a nice long visit home. We are considering spending some time looking at colleges while we are there. My mom and dad will be sick of us by the time we leave, we'll be at their house for so long!!

Thanks to those of you who have kept me on your "follow" list. I promise to try to get back to form soon!!