Last post I mentioned the music program that Amy put on with her K-5 through 4th-grade students. Each grade level had their own song, and then at the end, everyone came on stage to sing “There is a state that we all know and Texas is it’s name-o . . . ”

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The kids and their parents seemed to enjoy the evening, as I did. I’m proud of my wife: she’s a great teacher. And I’m also proud of her commitment to give up something she loves to stay home full-time for our child(ren). (The “ren” part is our ultimate plan, but not an announcement.)

Today Becca celebrates her 6-month birthday, and tomorrow marks 26 weeks “on the outside.” It’s hard to believe Becca is already half a year old. We’re enjoying our little girl so much and are thankful for the ways the Lord protected her during her first months in the NICU. (This week we stopped by the NICU during the day shift — we made a visit a month ago during the night shift — and Becca brought smiles to everyone’s faces!)

Becca celebrated this morning by going with me to a meeting with my dissertation advisor and getting captured. An admin from an office across the hall — a grandmother, I think — came into my advisor’s office and held her hands out for Becca. So I handed her over. Without a word, she took Becca away! I went to check on Becca and found her hanging out with the ladies at the English Language Institute.

Last weekend we celebrated the end of my semester with a fabulous strawberry cake made by Amy and a meal at Kincaid’s Hamburgers, where we went last year for my birthday.

Also this weekend, Amy made 240 chocolate chip cookies for end-of-the-year parties for her 6 Monday classes (she won’t see them next week because of Memorial Day). This weekend she’ll be making cookies for the other 25 classes! Thankfully, a local grocer had a great Betty Crocker cookie mix on sale a couple weeks ago, so mixing the dough wasn’t quite as time consuming as last year. Like last year, Amy is again making popcorn at her parties, too.

Last night, Becca attended Amy’s music program at Cochran Elementary School. Amy’s kids were happy to finally meet  baby Becca. If you didn’t see them, earlier this week we posted some videos of Becca talking and playing.

Becca pets and talks to her sock monkey (both videos):

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Amy talks with Becca about her afternoon with Debbie, who was babysitting for a couple hours. (From April.)

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Today is Becca’s (adjusted) 3-month birthday! (That is, if she’d been born on her due date, she’d be 3 months old today.)

Today is Becca-bear’s 25-week birthday! Becca is enjoying being with her daddy while I’m at school – they’re having lots of fun together. Josh even got Becca to help him with some grading! I don’t have much time to post right now…so, I’ll simply leave you with some pictures from the past week.

Today we are celebrating Becca’s 24 week birthday! This weekend we plan to celebrate the end of Josh’s semester and school year. Josh has one more paper to turn in today and then must finish entering grades for the class he’s been teaching; then the semester will be officially over. We were delighted with Josh’s successful proposal defense on Tuesday, and are thankful for the many ways we have seen the Lord work on our behalf this school year.

I had a wonderful first Mother’s Day. It is truly a joy to be a mommy – I love it! There is nothing like seeing my little girl smile and hearing her squeal with delight. I was surprised by how many cards I received from family and friends – thank you! Josh bought me some gerbera daisies and made omelets for lunch. Becca’s present to me was sleeping from 10:20 Sunday night to 6 o’clock Monday morning.

I’ve been enjoying my music teaching at Cochran Elementary. There are only 13 (working) days left in the school year – time is flying by so fast, and I’m having fun with my kids. Several people have asked me if it’s hard to leave Becca each school morning. As much as I don’t like leaving Josh or Becca, I always feel bad telling people that it’s not that hard to leave home each day. I was pondering why I feel this way and then realized that leaving Becca for 8 hours each day is nothing compared to the day I went home from the hospital and had to leave her behind or to the many nights I had to leave her in the NICU. Now that Becca is home, I get to come back from school each afternoon and be with my little girl all night long.

Becca is doing great. I’m teaching her how to jump on the bed and she loves it! We also had our first tea-party Monday night. Becca had a little trouble holding her tea cup, but we’ll have lots of practice sessions so she gets the hang of it. We’re starting to see Becca reach out for things – she’s so cute to watch and fills our home with buckets full of joy.

Today, Josh successfully defended his dissertation proposal! We’ve been praying about his defense since August and are delighted that Josh was able to defend before the end of the school year.  I’m extremely proud of my husband. Josh has had many “interruptions” during this school year (my hospitalization, Becca’s time in the NICU, etc.) and has continued to be a good husband, father, teacher, and student throughout them all. Darling, I’m so proud of you – I adore you!

(Below is the abstract for Josh’s proposal.)

The public is invited to a dissertation proposal defense by Joshua Jensen.

Date: Next week, Tuesday May 11, 2010

Time: 2.30 PM

Location: Trimble Hall, Room 200

Title of Proposal: “Jarai Clause Structure & Serial Verb Constructions”

This dissertation will investigate the structure of clauses in Jarai (Austronesian; Vietnam and Cambodia), with a special focus on grammatical functions and multi-verb clauses. The research will establish language-internal criteria for (1) determining the syntax of clauses, (2) identifying grammatical functions such as subject and object, and (3) identifying and categorizing serial verb constructions, clauses which have two verbs without any indication of subordination or coordination. The investigation of serial verb constructions will address both their typological characteristics (Durie 1997, Aikhenvald and Dixon 2006) and their syntactic structure (Baker 1989, Collins 1997, Baker and Stewart 1999).

Becca has had an exciting week with lots of walks outside, photo shoots, video shoots, and fashion shows with Grammy Sutter. Grammy flew back to PA Wednesday morning. We are very grateful for the time she was able to spend with Becca as Josh was working on his end-of-semester projects. We celebrated my mom’s birthday the evening before she left.

On Friday, I took Mom with me to school so she could get an idea of a typical teaching day for me. My kids loved performing for her and were on good behavior for their special guest. It was nice to be able to show Mom my school and work. After this week, I have 4 more weeks of teaching before the school year is over. I’m enjoying being with my kids.

Over the weekend, Josh’s sister and family were in town for a visit. They are on a 7-week visit to the U.S. from China. It was nice to spend time with them and have them in our home. Monday morning, Josh took the boys to the fire station. They also visited DTS and were able to spend some time in the afternoon swimming in the hotel pool. When I asked Luke how he liked the fire station his response was, “I loved it!”

This is Josh’s last week of classes. He has a final paper due next week and will defend his proposal this coming Tuesday. The next week will be a busy time for him and we’re looking forward to the end of next week. Josh will also go back to being a full-time dad. Hope you enjoy all the pictures my mom took while she was here.