avery is three

When Avery woke up yesterday morning, the day of her birthday, I asked her how old she was. Her answer was, "Two." We realized that she didn't think she would turn three until the actual party. Even on the way to the party she still maintained she was only two years old. At some point during the party someone asked her age and then I heard her answer, "Three!"

And what a party is was! A pretty dress, a face full of #3 stickers, a "prettyful" pony pinata. She loved that pinata to pieces but was just as enthusiastic as the others about whacking at it and dove in to gather candy with all the rest. Then there were the special presents which were so much fun to open, a birthday cake with heart sprinkles, Zoo Pals plates and lots of time to play at Emily's house... Really, when you're 3 years old, could life get any better?





















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pack it up

I am consumed by packing right now. I eat, sleep and breathe packing and still the progress is painfully slow. Yesterday I worked hard all day long and only got one measly box done. Why is this taking so long?

I will be so glad to close the front door of this house for the last time. The roof should have been fixed last summer already and now that rainy season is upon us once more each room has its own puddle to navigate. I've already packed up our best towels and we're using the threadbare ones which means I don't have any extra towels to sop up the leaks. Pails I have, but the water kind of seeps in through great sieves in the roof so pails don't help much. It's the wettest rainy season we've seen here yet so while we have the nuisance of water in the house, we also have beautiful green everywhere we look.

Like Scott said in his blog, it'll all be over soon. Kind of like facing hours of labour... as hard as it may be, at the very least it'll be over soon and then you can enjoy the new baby! Except I still have a couple of weeks of work to push through before I can rest. Right now I'm just sick of all of these material possessions and wonder why we can't just live with the bare essentials.

peeping sebastian

I have a Peeping Tom. His name is Sebastian. Now that school is out for the summer and Sebastian seems to be old enough in his parents estimation (he must be 5 or 6) to spend large blocks of time alone on the street, I find him very often standing on our front sidewalk looking in. Maybe that wouldn't be so bad if there was a yard between the sidewalk and the front wall of our house. But since it's Mexico, and since our house is built directly touching the sidewalk, and since my kitchen counters line the front wall under the street-facing windows, this means I am often working in my kitchen with my face only two feet from Sebastians! And I'm a little uncomfortable with being watched.

Last week this behaviour reached its most annoying level. We were hosting our small group and while the kids ate and played in the patio, the adults were enjoying supper in our kitchen. Sebastian apparently had nothing better to do than to stand at the window and talk to himself very loudly as he likes to do. I tried to send him away, "Lauren & Ezra have company right now. Why don't you come back tomorrow?" Scott tried to send him away, "Sebastian, go away. Sebastian, leave us alone." And finally I actually had to close the windows and blinds in his face in order for us to be able to resume our conversation!

I'm not sure what our house will look like in August, but I'm expecting that this sort of thing won't happen. Speaking of houses in August... we finally have a place to live. We only just found out today that there is still room at Briercrest for our family and even our dog. Since Scott told me the news this morning I have been breathing a whole lot easier. We had been praying for a place on campus and God has provided it for us.