This is the catch of the day! 18 fish!!!!! The kids had so much fun pulling all these fish in:) They are all bass, I think.




This is the catch of the night!! Blake caught this great walleye. Mihiretu got in for the picture. He won for biggest fish pulled in but Katie actually caught a HUGE walleye, got it up to the boat and it flipped and spit out the hook. Blaine was sick because it was close to 10# and would have been big enough to mount. So sad to miss that one:(




Misganaw caught this fish. Both the little boys LOVE to fish!




Mihiretu and Dad.




Aliya and her new found love...swimming. She's getting better all the time.


We spent the last week back up at the cabin with our friends and had a wonderful time! So restful and relaxing. God blessed us with good weather and good conversations. Blake, Katie and Zach showed everyone their pictures and video that they took in Korah. I know it was a blessing to everyone who saw them. In fact, there are several of us parents who are feeling the Lord saying, "Come to Korah." So who knows?? Maybe in a year there will be another trip with the kids AND the parents! Oh, how I would LOVE this!!!!!!!

Next June, Blaine and I will celebrate our 25th anniversary. I know....awwwwww. I asked him if he would consider spending it in Korah instead of the cruise that had been discussed (we've never been on a cruise and thought it sounded relaxing). He thought a minute and then said, "No." It is a long trip for a guy who's been through as much as he has. He has lots of pain in his back and a 23 hour travel time and flight is a killer for him. So I get it. But a year is a long way off and we will pray and see what the Lord might have for us.

Summer has been wonderful so far but so incredibly busy! I have been spending 3 hours every morning doing summer school at home with Aliya and Mihiretu. Aliya needs help with her reading and English. She can read English at about a 2nd grade level but I felt that mostly she had memorized words and didn't know how to sound them out. This would be a problem as she progresses to more complex words so we have gone back to the basics. It has benefitted her so much. Our goal is to get through the 2nd and 3rd grade books this summer. Not sure if we will quite make it but we're going to try.

One problem that I have found is that with her accent, she pronounces her vowels differently we do in America. So her "apple" is more like "opple". It's been a bit of a challenge for us to reconcile this so that she can phonetically pronounce words. But we're figuring it out. She needs lots of help sounding out vowels. I think she has always looked at a word and pronounce all the consonants and just guessed at how the vowel sounds, like she had trouble with sit, set, sat. She'd say them all the same. That took work but I think we've conquered that.

Mihiretu is also making huge progress with his reading. I'm so proud of both of them to be willing to spend so much time doing school in the summertime.

I went for a walk with my sweet sister, Pam last week. When I'd gotten home, Blaine told me the story of their evening.

Blaine and Misganaw were going to take the new puppy for a walk, but Aliya and Mihiretu wanted to come along, too. First the kids fought over who would hold the leash. Mihiretu won that one. They had walked a ways down our street when noticed Mihiretu (the competitive one) who was in the lead, with his pants down, peeing right in the middle of the road! Now let me stop here and say, "WHAT???" Yes, he was peeing in the middle of the road WITH a car coming toward him. Blaine yells for him to get over to the side. After spraying everywhere and almost hitting the puppy, he finally made it over to the side of the road where he finished his business.

Right after that, Misganaw fell down, scraping up his leg and crying (more like screaming) especially after the puppy jumped on top of his already wounded self and began biting him!

Blaine decided to cut the walk short (for obvious reasons) and turned towards home. He challenged Aliya to a race and they took off. Blaine turned around to see how the little boys were doing. Did I mention that Mihiretu was competitive?? He is not one to turn down a race so he was in a close 3rd, with the puppy in tow, flailing behind him on the leash!!

All this took place in a 20 minute time span!

My sister and I had a lovely walk.

Blaine told us the story when we got home and can I say, I was a little more than upset at the thought of my almost 8 year old peeing in the middle of our road?

I said to Mihiretu, "DO YOU NOT KNOW THAT IT IS NOT OK FOR A PERSON TO PEE THE ROAD??? IN FACT, IT IS ILLEGAL. (Then I did what any Mom would do who wants to make her point. I brought the police into it.) YOU COULD HAVE BEEN ARRESTED BY THE PO-PO!!!!!"

I know they are not going to arrest an 8 year old but I'm trying to make a point.

Immediately after I bring in the police, Misganaw (who was way, way over-tired) breaks down crying and says, "Why does Mihiretu always get to get arrested by the po-po???????!?!!!!!!!!"

Oh, my goodness did we laugh!!

If anyone has any advice on how to get little boys to use the toilet in the house instead of watering the street, bushes or in boxes in the garage (don't ask!), please, please let me know!

Many blessings,
Laura