Morning after.

Last night was Jan's classical concert. This is to benefit the Junior Class and is held annually each spring. I was turning pages for my friend Janna, but we would've gone anyway. Turn-out is never anticipated to be very high, but last night seemed unusually low. Oh well. The music was very nice.

Zachary has accepted a challenging role in Sabbath School as of yesterday. Jan has found herself way too busy with preparations and has asked Zachary to take on the task of telling the story to go along with the lesson for the day. This is done in Indonesian. Zachary received his first story Friday night and had only until the next morning to be prepared. He did an excellent job, so I'm told. He's preparing now for next week, and with an entire week to practice he'll surely do great! We're so proud of his language skills. Several weeks ago he gave a brief testimony in Sabbath School about talking about religious things with my dad. I sure wish I could've heard, but it was something they just did in class and had volunteers come forward. There was no way to know it was going to happen, and I'm shocked and yet proud of Zachary standing up and speaking.

Jason is getting to be such a handful, but in a good way. We've been able to regularly attend Sabbath School for the past several weeks, and he's getting more and more excited each week. He runs around the house all morning trying to get everyone dressed and out the door, even at 7am! When we finally get to church he runs up to greet all his friends, and then he heads for the supply cupboards to pull out all the felts and toys for the program. Quite an enthusiastic fellow. When the program gets a bit slow in parts (Cradle Roll is combined with Tiny Tots here, so there are moments when things drag for the younger kids) Jason provides the entertainment. Yesterday he was jumping, climbing on chairs, singing, and flying like an airplane. Everyone was laughing and taking his picture, so my efforts to calm him down and restore discipline were a bit thwarted. For all the craziness his business causes me sometimes, I wouldn't have it any other way!

Another thing: When one of the little ones got fussy in Sabbath School, Jason would say, "Baby crying. Baby sad." Then he'd run over and give them a "Big hud (hug)", and say, "Baby happy!". Precious!

Eric is making a flight this morning. Somebody died. The last three Sundays that Eric has had to fly it has been to haul a corpse. It's amazing the money people shell out for the dead! I know in the States it's no better what with expensive coffins, flower arrangements, funerals, etc. It's just so unnecessary. I wonder where that all originated?

Anyway, Zachary's taken Jason out to the hangar so I can get breakfast on the table. Obviously I'm not doing that, so I better run.

Stay tuned...

Say what?

Eric's up in Wamena this week. Here's a note he found in his room:
"Breakfast time in the restaurant service with take the breakfastcard / not room service. Jewelery or money should report to the hotel staff (reception) to keep in safety box. It is the responsibility of the guest to lose the room key."
Hah! Eric was tempted to report to the desk and correct their English, but then he didn't because it provides such good entertainment!

So I'm in a walking cast now. I got it Monday afternoon. So far the pain is worse WITH the cast than without it, but I'm hopeful things will change. I visited a lady here who is an occupational therapist, and she agreed that it probably is best to have the cast on, but she's puzzled as to why I'm in such pain. She suggested a shoe insert with arch support, so I'm trying that. So far it does feel a little different, but not much.

Jason has had a great week since Bob has had four planes in the shop this week. Another small airline here does not have a hangar of their own, so Bob offered his facilities for them to do some maintenance. It's been great to have so much activity. Jason has learned all the mechanics by name, and he loves going out and watching them all work. He climbs right up on the bench next to them, picks up a wrench (or whatever looks like a tool lying nearby) and "fixes" the planes too. Very cute.

Zachary got a brand-new soccer ball last week, and a new pair of tennis shoes to use for his Sunday night soccer games. Tomorrow is Track-and-Field day at the international school. Zachary is not taking part this year, but we'll probably go up and cheer on some of his friends.

We're hoping to make a trip to Manokwari soon. Eric needs to cover the base. Initially he'd planned to go this next week (the 28th), but now he has a board meeting that day. He decided to send Henny next week and then we'd all go up together on the 5th for about two weeks. Now we've found out that Zachary's piano recital has been moved from the 4th to the 11th, so that buggers up our plans. We'll see what happens.

Today in America (April 23) is my dad's birthday! We phoned him this morning; I think he was surprised. It was good to hear his voice.

Several have asked about my infrequency in posting blogs. Well, the internet has become slower than molasses these past couple of weeks. Our new modem for wireless internet should arrive here on Tuesday. Providing we can get everything up and working, we should have much faster internet which will enable me to keep in touch via this site with a bit more regularity.

Stay tuned...

Too Good to Be True!?!?

Well, we thought we had him! Jason was successfully potty-trained this past January, at only 19 months of age! We have all been so proud of him. He picked up on the idea very quickly and was completely dry, night and day, with only very occasional accidents. That was until this past week...! Now he just can't seem to remember what he's supposed to be doing, and most importantly, where he's supposed to be doing it!

I'm still very glad that he can stay dry all day, and he's very good about telling us when he needs to go. He usually waits until the very last moment, however, to let us know, so unless we jump right up and help him we sometimes have a little mess to clean up. The most frustrating part is that Jason was staying dry during both naps and all all night. Now I've had to put him back in diapers. Why the regression? It is, like I just said, very frustrating. Oh well.

Eric's had a busy couple of weeks. A lot of meetings, and some flying. He was gone the first part of last week to Timika, and this week he's planning to be in Wamena for a few nights. Someone needs to cover Manokwari for a few weeks the first part of May, so we'll probably take the whole family up there and enjoy a little mini-vacation.

I've been extremely busy this past week finalizing the book order for the library at the international school. I've been working on this particular order since late November of last year. There's been one problem after another with getting the school credit card to work, and we thought we had it fixed, but I just got a phone call from the head librarian a few moments ago to say that Amazon sent several emails saying our credit card was denied. Ugh! This is extremely frustrating for all of us. Our book order is already several months late, and now to be having all these problems...

I still don't have much energy. You'd think that doubling my thyroid meds would help, but it didn't. So I'm going to contact both doctors and get their opinions about stopping that medication. It just doesn't seem to be doing anything, so why keep taking it? Seems like I'm dealing with chronic fatigue, however. The best way to deal with it is by making changes to my diet, and while it's great to not have to take medicine, it's hard to take an already very limited diet and cut it down even further! I just wish I could wake up tomorrow morning and feel healthy and full of energy...it's been months if not longer since I really felt 100% well.

Stay tuned...