so much to tell about...

The first and most important thing to say is that I am an aunt again!  This time to a nephew.  Evan Dwight Hewitt was born to Tim and Beth Wednesday morning at 5:54.  I will share what my brother and sister-in-law posted to give you the abbreviated version of his entry into the outside world, "So, as many are wondering, Evan Dwight was born Wed morning at 5:54 am. We have been unable to post as Evan was rushed to the ER by ambulance a couple hours after he was born. His vitals were good at birth but after a few hours, his heart rate was low, was a little lathargic, and was working a little hard to breath. He has been transported to the intensive care nursery at Dartmouth for monitoring and antibiotics. The doctors have ruled out some possibilities so they and are thinking it is pneumonia. He has improved tons and we expect to take him home after a week! We are praising God for a safe deliver, excellent care/decisions made by the midwife, prayers by many people, great improvements for Evan, medical people, lodging at David's House, and a God who is sovereign and takes care of us!" This was posted on Thursday evening.  Since then he is out of ICU and doing much much better. They still plan to keep him until Wednesday at least though just to make sure everything is improving as they would like to see.  I hope and plan to meet this cute little man in about a week and a half.  Bragging rights of an aunt are to show off pictures of him....

Next, and of much less importance is the spa girl's night we had last week.  A lady in our church was expecting her third baby and didn't feel the need for a traditional shower since she had most things she needed.  We still wanted to throw a special party for her and so a friend of mine decided to do a spa night.  I had a hectic and stressful day and was mentioning to Daniel that I had been looking forward to it, but was afraid I was so tense and worked up from the day that I would have a tough time relaxing and enjoying the evening.  I was thankful to be proved wrong.  I so enjoyed my time relaxing with the ladies!  We did steam "baths" for our face, facials, fingernails, special drinks (virgin, of course), giggled, ate, and chatted.  Jackie has some peaceful music playing.  Here are a few pictures I stole off facebook from the evening with the ladies from my church...

I am so thankful for my church down here at school.  The ladies of this church sure know how to throw a party!

This coming week is my last week with Energy Express.  It definitely brings mixed emotions.  This past week went a bit better then the week before, for which I am so very thankful.  I feel like my classroom is finally all coming together, only for it to be torn down this week :(  Here are a few pictures of what my class looks like and what all of my kiddos have been doing (keep in mind, I can't show pictures of them due to privacy so there will not be any pictures of my children).

 The family's car and the strange house from The Relatives Came.

 The students each made a room to compile together to make a mouse house from Beverly Cleary's book The Mouse and the Motorcycle.

 This is a bedroom, do you see the bunk beds (made out of egg carton) and TV (made out of a valentine)

 This is the bathroom, including a sink, toilet, and hot tub!

 The kitchen.  I love how she used wallpaper to make the water in the sink, and used an egg carton for the refrigerator.

 The kids do a community service project, as well as the mentors.  We as mentors and staff are putting care packages together for the veterans at our local VA hospital.  The kids community service project is to write the veterans notes and draw them pictures.

 The kid's paintings for what they 'saw' on their street.  Done as an art project for And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street.

 Here is their mural for last week.  Our week's theme was 'community'

Each student made something to sell at our 'class market'.  They each pretended to be a vendor after reading It Takes a Village.  Items at our class market include: dolly house, jewelry, mangoes, robots, and rain sticks.

This past weekend I went to Virginia to spend some time with Daniel, his parents, and grandparents.  I had a very relaxing and fun weekend.  We tried some new recipes (all successes), played Aggravation, visited, and laughed lots.  I am so glad I was able to go.  I am sorry, I did not take any pictures though.

As mentioned above, this is my last week with Energy Express.  I will leave this beautiful state on Saturday morning to drive to New Jersey to spend a few days with my grandparents.  I am so looking forward to that time.  I will then finish the drive to Vermont to be back with my family and meet that handsome little nephew of mine, and play with that sweet niece of mine.  And as that creates a circle back to the beginning, I encourage you to go back to the beginning of this post and look at those pictures again of Evan.  You just can't look at them too many times.  Please continue to keep him and his family in your prayers.

Until next time...