Last Monday through Thursday we had a visit from Josh’s sister’s family the Erkens – Steve, Charity, Caleb, Luke, and Jacob. They live in China but are in the States for a few months due to housing issues in China. Steve, Charity, and the boys graciously drove all the way from SC to TX to spend some time with us (and then on to Houston, where some of Steve’s siblings live). Our activities for the week included swimming in their hotel pool (Josh and Becca), visiting the Fort Worth Stock Yards, a show at UTA’s Planetarium, a morning at a small science center and then large park for the men and kids while Charity did a curtain project for me, kite flying, eating, and lots of chatting for the adults and playing in Becca’s room for the kids.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit with the Erkens and wished we lived in China so we could spend more time with them. The last time we saw them was summer 2010. They drove out to visit us and then we saw them in SC. However, I hardly remember their visit at all, since I was back teaching, trying to manage having Becca home from the hospital, and keep up with my teaching load. I’m finding that the months from Becca’s birth until about September 2010 are a blur for me – I was in survival/recovery mode. This visit I really enjoyed getting to know Charity and chatting with her.

Becca enjoyed her “cousins” – as she refers to them now. (She also calls them “the boys.”) I have two funny Becca stories from the visit.

While the boys were playing in Becca’s room, Becca came into the room where Charity and I were talking with her arms crossed and a big scowl on her face (the picture on the left is a good reenactment). When I asked Becca if she was making a happy face or a grumpy face she continued scowling and said “grumpy face.” I asked her what was wrong and she said, “My room is a mess!” I realized that she was copying Mama Berenstain Bear’s face from The Messy Room story. It was hilarious!

This next story shows how “attached” Becca becomes to people. The Erkens were able to take back two items to SC for us – Josh’s guitar and Becca’s small wooden chair. The chair has been in the closet for some time, but when Becca saw it again she decided she needed it! After the Erkens left for their next destination, I explained to Becca that they were going home and we would not see them for a long time. Our little girl burst into big tears and sobbed – “I want my chair!!” It took awhile to comfort her and explain that her chair would be at G&G Jensens’ and that she could see it again.

Our garden is doing well. We continue to enjoy fresh lettuce each week. Our tomatoes are starting to ripen and the peppers and cucumbers are doing well. Josh does a great job managing the garden, and Becca enjoys playing in the dirt. They usually spend extra time in the garden when I’m away teaching music lessons or at my doctor’s appointment. One fun activity they do afterwards is walking across the street and “jumping on the man’s head” – i.e. jumping on man-hole covers.

These last two pictures are also from the week. The picture on the left is during our supper time Bible reading. We’re currently reading through Judges and Josh had Becca lap up water like the men in Gideon’s army. [As I kept reading the story, I realized that what I had Becca doing wasn’t quite right — Gideon’s army actually used their hands to bring the water to their mouths — but it was close. -JJ] The picture on the right is an experimental hairstyle for Becca – a twist. I never thought I would be able to do little girls’ hair, but so far it’s been fun.

This week we got our 4th fridge since moving into this apartment 1 year ago. The joys of cheap housing. We’ve been having freezer trouble with this last one for some time now. One funny story . . . at one point the fridge part stopped working as well (we had already moved our frozen food to a neighbor’s chest freezer). Josh decided to put the milk and eggs in the freezer, which was at least cooler than the fridge. Sunday morning the freezer decided to work and I had an interesting time pealing frozen eggs for our scrambled eggs that morning!