On the Up and Up

I really wish blogs came with sound effects. Real life has cool ones but they're hard to explain. As I was rinsing shampoo out of my hair this morning my hands blocked the water from running over my ears for a second. When I moved my hands away, water gushed back with a burbling sound that was exactly like when Nintendo's Mario chances upon a lucky mushroom and grows a few inches bigger. It was awesome!

Summer's finally come to Korea--not a rain cloud in site (might last all of 6 minutes). Our neighbors invited us to spend the weekend with them at a water park about an hour from Seoul. The kids had a blast. Saturday was a perfect sunny day and we came home happy and sun-kissed. Asher's sure he looks "tanner." I'm not going to burst his bubble.

The big kids are at Vacation Bible School this week, eating Tootsie pops and collecting mosquito nets for children in Africa. Jensie was pretty adamant about not going, I think the name had her worried. Reading the Bible? For hours? For a whole week? Pass! But I figured, you know, Jesus + free stuff = no duh, they are going. This morning Jensie said our family prayer and thanked God for "the fun Bible camp." Mother knows best.

I turned in my final research project for peer review and plagiarism check this morning. Clicked 'submit' and nearly threw up. Plagiarism really freaks me out. Can you imagine anything worse than losing a semester's (or career's) worth of work because you misquoted or forgot to cite a reference? So much pressure! Thank goodness there's only one more week left to the semester. This one's been brutal. Sometimes I'm embarrassed that I'm still working on a bachelor's degree. I try not to let it get to me. I can't wait to graduate this winter. I'll bet the kids are as excited as I am. Every semester when finals roll around they pretty much fend for themselves. I (momentarily) ignored Frankie's request for a snack this morning so she improvised with a spoonful of ketchup and a glass of lemon juice. Sick.

Nate does such a great job supporting us. He makes dinner every night, helps the kids with homework, and tidies up the kitchen while I hole away upstairs pouring over research stats. This morning he had the kids fed and off to camp and the dishwasher running before I even got out of bed. Just in case he's reading this from work (which he sometimes does, that sweetheart)...

THANKS SO MUCH FOR EVERYTHING YOU DO, NATE. I LOVE YOU

and your hot body.