TWO FREAKING YEARS? I can't believe it's been more than two years since I started this blog, with nobile aspirations but nonetheless abandoning it immediately. Somehow, though, that seems typical of Me. I often start projects I never finish. Chalk it up to ADD.

OK, I have now deleted all my old entries, and will start again anew with an update on my family.

Hope is now 8 and started third grade last week. Cliches are cliches because they are true and there are no other, more creative ways to say them -- so here is one: Time flies. Really. Hope was a baby just minutes ago. Now she's a loving girl who obeys her parents, helps with her younger siblings and around the house, and often has her head in the clouds, dreaming flights of fancy... takes after her mom. Currently, she is planning to be "a mom and a writer," just like me.

Hannah is an independent sort -- 6 and looking so much forward to 7 in October. "Artistic entomologist/zoologist" would best describe her. If she's not drawing horses, she's collecting bugs or stray cats or tadpoles. Ya gotta watch her, or she'll sneak in a loose frog, a couple of crickets and even a slug in a jar. Mostly, we just call her Hagrid. Though she just started the first grade and hates reading, she does enjoy her classroom with all its many bug collections. She will be adding to it tomorrow with a grasshopper and two garden slugs. And some slug poop. Hannah intends to be a veterinarian.

Noah has one obsession, and it is all he thinks about: trains. He sleeps with them, carries them in his pockets, plays with them, reads books about them, draws them, dreams about them. Did I mention "obsession?" He plans to be a "train driver" when he grows up, and at this point, I have no doubt that's where he's headed. Noah will begin his Kinderprep career the Tuesday after Labor Day. He is 5.

Elizabeth, or "BeBop," is a wickedly intelligent 2-year-old... fiercely independent and the only blondie in the family. "Stop it, Noah!" is her favorite saying. She is the first child of ours who has insisted upon surrounding herself with a menagerie of stuffed animals before she will go to sleep -- and they must be arranged "just so." Tonight her crib includes Barney, two cats, a puppy, a baby doll, a panda bear, another teddy bear, a zebra, a tiger pillow, and a talking Winnie the Pooh.

Baby H5, who we're currently calling "PJ," is set to arrive sometime in early December. My due date is Dec. 10, but with a planned c-section (unfortunately), it will probably be a week earlier or so. We will have an ultrasound next week and hope to find out which of the many boxes of stored baby clothes I need to dig out of the attic.

On to me. I lost my job this summer. I was notified in May that my contract was not being renewed, and I have taken up a new career as a science teacher. :) No, really. I'm serious. I'm teaching 7th/8th grade Life Science and facilitating the high school Biology and Chemistry classes at the local Christian school. Unfortunately, I am not getting paid; but my children are getting their tuition covered, so it's a real blessing. I have become a FertilityCare Practitioner Intern with the Creighton Model System, and someday I hope to finish my internship. I just need clients. I am a moderator at "the" NFP board, which is basically my home on the internet.

Mark is still a seed-selling guru, and I can't seem to keep him off his bicycle. He put in 65 miles on it yesterday. I am proud of him, but between work and cycling, I don't see him a whole lot lately. This is how summers are, though -- he'll be around a lot this winter. ;)

That's an update from our corner of Kansas.