spring

Even though the weather is pretty cold still, we’ve reached Spring Break (horray!) which is hard to believe. What happened to January, February, and March?

We made it through Upwards Basketball season. Noah’s team did not have a coach so, he graciously volunteered Papa (former college basketball coach) and Aunt Kori (current PE teacher and coach). And they very kindly said they would. Wow. As if we didn’t owe them enough already. Going from college women to 1st and 2nd grade boys was quite a switch for Papa, but he was awesome. Kori was invaluable in translating what he was saying to the boys. We had some squirmy ones, too, and by the end they were all hanging on his every word. Thanks, Papa and Kori!

The look on Kori’s face says, “Wow, Noah, you’re going to be picking up walnuts out of my yard for the rest of your life.”

strategizing during a break

Next…we got our annual graffiti to the back fence that faces one of the semi-busy streets in town. Last time it was all sorts of gang paraphernalia, this time we got hit by the “thugs for Jesus” or something, because it was messages of encouragement. Can’t tell what that poem says? Let me translate…”We can’t change the world until we change ourselfs.” You can’t really call that being tagged, it’s more like “Hey, yeah, we got haikued .” And to add insult to injury, to misspell the words on an English teacher’s fence. Poor, poor Toby. While I’m glad they didn’t write something like *f-off, the feeling it created was the same. What made it even better was getting a “courtesy notice” from the city three days later telling us that we were out of compliance with city codes and were in danger of being fined. Really? Go Nampa. Now I know why we don’t have money to do things like fix streets and sidewalks. We’re too busy fining people who are the victims of vandalism.

Anyway, Toby spent several hours wiping it off with some rather expensive paint remover solution and the boys and I joined him one evening this week to find that three families from the church we live next door to had come to help. I was humbled.

I hope you’ll all come back and visit these photos often when you’re feeling a little discouraged and need a little pick-me-up. I sure will.

And, finally, the boys. A moment of peace. Actually, they get along pretty well most of the time. Evan was watching an Elmo dvd yesterday and Noah made the comment to me (out of Evan’s earshot), “Wow. Elmo really doesn’t sing on key, does he?” My heart broke just a little. But, the music teacher is definitely doing her job.

And, this is what we call “old men” in our house:

Enjoy!