Insert Witty Title Here

We have a number of new things going on in our lives at the moment. For starters, Elliana is discovering and learning new things just about every day. She constantly amazes me with her intent study of the world around her. She is at the very beginning stages of one of my favorite ages, the "baby discovery" phase (around 6-12 months). I remember this being my favorite time of Ethan's babyhood and it's no different with Ellie. She's almost sitting up by herself, really paying attention to toys, trying new foods, and smiling at everyone she sees. I just love it!

Ethan is going through a new thing, too--potty training. We had a false start where he did great for a couple of weeks, then went to Grandma & Beepa's house and started pooping in his pants again, so we went back to diapers for a week or so and now we're back to training again. This is a much longer, more frustrating process than I thought it would be--but I'm hoping he'll be trained by the time he starts preschool (another new thing!) in the middle of September.

Finally, I'm entering a new (technically, old) phase at work. For so long, we (the staff who is left) have been preaching, planning, and helping with the business of running the church. I have truly been grateful and even joyful at the opportunity to do these things--but I am also looking forward to really focusing on the youth ministry again. I have so many ideas and plans, including a new website, a mission trip for next summer, a district retreat, and some new small groups--but I can only focus on these things if someone else can take the ball for a while. We are hoping to get an interim pastor until we hire a new pastor--which is a really welcome and exciting step in my opinion.

This is relatively small, but I have also re-started a workout routine. I was doing great with My Fitness Coach before summer and all its craziness truly hit--so I haven't worked out regularly for about 2 months! I just got Wii Active, which is a way more interactive workout game that tracks your movements and creates new workouts each day. I'm only 2 days in but plan to make it a regular part of my routine again. I'm still hanging onto about 8 more pounds after my pregnancy with Ellie--and they're not going away easily!

Those are our family updates for now. I'm terrible at posting pictures (I keep promising and don't deliver) so I'll try, someday, to get some updated pix, especially of Ellie who grows every day, and put them up soon. :)