Mitchells in Real Life

My goodness...I just cannot seem to get this whole blogging thing together. I am making some progress in my goals, however. I've read 1 whole book, took about 10 pictures in the entire month of May (although somehow forgot the camera on Mother's Day, Ethan's last day of preschool, Mark and I's anniversary celebration, and a million other events...I guess progress has been slower than I thought), and have been making dinner more regularly. We won't discuss the reality show addiction.

So May is over and June is in full swing. I feel such a mixture of emotions. On one hand, I am feeling incredibly blessed. In early May, we found out that we are having...



and so far, he is healthy. I can honestly say that I didn't care about gender this time, but I am thankful that Ethan will have a little brother to be close in age with. I am also secretly glad that Brooklyn gets the special place of "only girl" in our family. I'm sure her brothers will protect her and she certainly will have no problem holding her own.

We also had to hold our breath until the very last day of school, when Mark was finally assured a contract for next year. It was a close call. He lost both of his teammates due to budget cuts and several others were let go at his school. It was bittersweet...on one hand feeling elated for Mark to have a job and being just one little day away from tenure, but then having to watch friends struggle as they try to secure jobs in a really scarce market.

Our Annual Last Day of School Celebration with Foster


In case you're worried, Ethan and I just had ice cream.

Ethan also had his final D2A hip hop performance of the season. They danced to Justin Bieber's "Eenie Meenie"...not sure what it is about his dance instructor's JB obsession, but Ethan had a great time. I just wish it wasn't so dark in the sanctuary because I can never get a decent picture!

We also lost some really good friends, the Einwalters, at the end of May.


Darn Iowa. God decided to open the door for Ethan's best buddy, Owen, and his fantastic parents and siblings to move away. We tried to make an effort to do a lot of fun activities in May to make some lasting memories.

Our little field trip to the Hammonds Candy Factory
(Is that homeschooly of us, or what?)

Sibling love

Free candy doesn't hurt either

Sugar!

Love this munchkin

The gang at Owen's birthday

As fun as the month was, it still didn't prepare us for the end.


At first I didn't think that Ethan really understood what it meant to have his friend in "Iowa", which in his way of thinking, could be ten minutes down the road. However, as we drove away after having our last dinner with Owen's family on the night before their move, Ethan just got very quiet. I could tell that his lip was quivering and his eyes were teary. He really didn't say much, but needed lots of hugs that night. I could relate, I felt the same way. Sigh.

Other news...my work for the Federal Heights Community Center is starting to pick up a bit.

We have lots of fundraisers this summer, hoping to raise tons of money by fall. I also somehow found myself volunteering to write the entire handbook for the Volunteer Program. Not sure...ahem...when that is going to get done? I suppose if I could write my entire Master's Thesis in about 4 days, I should be able to accomplish this as well. Gulp.

And lastly, Mark and I have decided to join a group from our church to start a church plant in our town. Apparently, only 7% of our city regularly attends church...which makes it the perfect mission's field. We are starting to have "Core Team" meetings every two weeks, then going to weekly in the next month or so, making it a busy summer. Somehow Mark was chosen to be the Children's "Pastor" (the actual word "pastor" scares us...so let's just say "organizer" or "director" or something less official). And the plant is planning to launch 2 days before my due date. So, I'm thinking October is going to be another crazy month.

So that is our life, nutshelled. Maybe I'll actually get more pictures up before August. We can only hope.

With love,
Julie