OK, last snow...really

When is winter supposed to end again? We had snow May 23rd and I have had to wear long johns to work (the turned off the heat May 1). But enough grumbling. This is Zeke at his English school. In the mornings he goes to a Mongolian pre-school one block from CAMA. Then, after lunch, instead of nap-time he goes to English school with Miss Lisa (our CAMA school-teacher). Right now there are four other kids in the school...all Korean, actually, but next year there will be a Brazilian girl and Dr. Pham's daughter (Vietnamese-Am.). Zeke knows almost all of his letters and he is starting to read short words! Pretty soon he will be ready to learn the alphabet for his second language!

Time to garden!

Winter is finally over (it finished on May 8th, in case you didn't know, with 5 inches of snow in UB). But, thank God, we moved right into summer! This last weekend was HOT and we fellas were hard at work preparing the garden for Krista. We planted lots of potatoes and we are starting to get the first leaves on our tree saplings. Very exciting (when you are desperate for some green)! Now we will have to start watering everything by hand. Oh well, it's good exercise, and as you can see we need to build up those muscles!

Spring free!

It sure is nice to be outside and enjoy it! The chickens are out, the boys are out (right until bedtime), and there is a patch of grass that is even beginning to turn greenish!! We even had rain the other day (though no self-respecting Oregonian would call it that). Yes, it is time for boys to be boys (God give us strength and patience!). From left to right are Boombulay ("round one"), Zaya ("destiny"), Zeke (no Mongol name yet), Jaknaa ("little one") and Erdenee ("treasure")...and Bayaraa ("joy") is missing from the gang. Also absent from the picture are two new puppies ("Jonah" and "Dinosaur Strong") which help to make up for the loss of our last puppy! Looks like fun to me...and lots of trouble too.