Our Growing Family

Our family is growing. Today Jeri and I got two dogs. The pups are 10 weeks old. The boy, Boss, is an aggressive little fellow and the owners figure he will be a good guard dog when he grows up. His sister, Mae, in Jeri’s words is a ‘beautiful little lady’. We wanted names that went together. Jeri wanted a ‘feminine’ name for the girl who was temporarily named Princess by the owners. I couldn’t stand for a name like that. I wanted to name the boy Boss. We remembered that there is a restaurant in town named Boss Mei so we figured that was our names.

While we are on the topic of our growing family we should go ahead and mention that Jeri is expecting. The baby is due on July 21^st, 2007. Jeri and I were planning on coming home next summer for my brothers wedding. We figured why not kill two birds with one stone. The only problem was that our timing was too good and we are now expecting a child on the exact same day as my brother is getting married (July 21^st, 2007). That wouldn’t be a problem for most people, but my organized wife managed to have Hannah at 12 noon on Hannah’s due date. People warn us that it is going to be a lot of work to have a new baby and a two year old. I’m not too worried because Hannah will actually be 2 years and three weeks old. We plan to have the baby in Grimsby in Canada which is the closest hospital to where my parents live.

Random Happenings

As the date for the completion of our house nears (at least we like to say that – we don’t really know for sure when it will be done) I have becoming more Christ-like. I have been trying my hand at carpentry. My inventory of completed items includes: coffee table, 2 chairs, and a small cabinet. Since I had never done any building before it has been quite a rewarding and at times frustrating experience. However, each project is getting easier and I still have all my fingers. I was having a Bible study the other day and the lady asked what was wrong with me. She said each week I am showing up with more and more cuts and scrapes on my hand. I had to explain I was trying to learn how to build things. So I am not cut free, but I could still give you five if you asked. Jeri has also been making curtains. We feel like an ‘olden day’ family making all our own things. Hannah has been quite into measuring things. She sees mommy and daddy doing it so occasionally she will grab the measuring tape and pretend to measure (see the picture).

Our favorite question for the house construction company is, “when do you think the house will be done.” We have grown quite used to his smirk and comment, “I have no idea.” We are thankful that he is honest. PNG business culture allows one to say whatever is necessary to make them happy even if there is absolutely no possibility what they say will happen. In fact, I think I have talked to a few North American telephone support people who have the same business philosophy. Nevertheless, we are anticipating a completion date around the first of February.

Hannah is getting ready for Christmas. A local store has a Christmas tree out front. Hannah loves to point at the ‘sis-sis’ tree. She is also quite ready to be able to tell time. Anytime one or the other of us asks the time, Hannah looks at her wrist and acts like she is telling us the time. We have a little Charlie brown Christmas tree. This year we took a different decorating approach than ever. It was quite simple - breakable things go near the top. The other ornaments go on the bottom of the tree. Hannah loves pointing out the tree, stocking, snowman, or any other Christmas paraphernalia while saying ‘ho, ho, ho.’