The Chicken Pox have struck! No sooner do we get home from holidays, get adjusted to living on one floor while our basement is totally ripped up, and get Jocelyn interested in going back to school and she comes down with the Pox! I thought I had them bad when I was 17... she has almost as many spots as I had! Yikes! Thankfully her itchy and miserable feeling only lasted a couple of days, whereas I was out of it for a LONG time! Over a week I was out, with a fever reaching 104F for a few days in a row. Jocelyn never had that kind of fever, but the pox really irritated her as they were coming out. Last night though she finally slept the night, so she is feeling way better. Thank goodness children bounce back quicker than adults! Now all we have to do is wait two weeks for the other three to come out in pox too!!!

Ok, so I am lazy. I am also a bit busy, as people so kindly like to remind us when we have all four children in tow at the mall. Oh well, I guess only other parents with twins would understand the feeling of listening to the witty comments over and over again, "Oh my, you must be busy!" Well, yeah, Duh! Easter is done, the Holy Week services now in the past, and life is starting to get back to normal. Just before Easter we found out that our basement was flooded with ground water, so all our flooring is lost, but thankfully we are covered by insurance. We will be inconvenienced for a while, but this too shall pass. Sorry for the delay, folks, but we are back online again. Enjoy the photos!!!

ARRGHHHH!!! I hate sicknesses!!! It started with Jocelyn. She had a cold for a number of days and then she came down with a fever... not a good sign. The doctor prescribed an antibiotic to counter strep-throat. A few days later after Sean was sniffling and sneezing he too came down with a high fever... pneumonia! More antibiotics. Then Emily started with the coughing loose and long. Sure enough, she came down with a fever... pneumonia also! Even more antibiotics! We are starting our own pharmaceutical company soon, or at least including one of them in our life- savings portfolio! So, the only one left was Sophia. Sure enough, she started coughing and hacking, but never developed a fever... finally, one of our kin with a stronger immunity system. However, we cannot escape having to go to the doctor's for the fourth time. Jocelyn, having been the first sick, decided it was time to be sick once more. She started up with a fever for no apparent reason. No symptoms, no other aches or pains, just a fever of 103... so back to the doctors. He looked at her, checked her out, but said that it would just play itself out. Thankfully it has, but it was one heck of a busy two plus weeks... God willing its over now... is that someone coughing? Oh boy!

I wish I could be better organised, but I just am not. Hopefully my email will reach all the family with our Christmas prayers and wishes to all, but I know some are not connected to the web right now. Its not that I don't like snail mail, I just can't get the energy at the end of a day to sit and do more writing by hand to send out cards. I know that I am horrible, but that's just the way it is. Sorry, folks... that is my fault. I know I could use lots of excuses, the best being right now the fact that we have twins that keep us hopping, but the sad fact is that I haven't gotten cards out for a number of years now! Oh well, why start now? So, to all who are reading this, God's richest blessings be to you. Jesus Christ was born in a humble manger to forgive all our sins, including my sin of sloth! God bless you all! ~Joel

Christmas is certainly coming, and today we started in earnest to get all those gifts we have been buying one at a time wrapped and organised. As a pastor, Advent leaves me with little time to do anything besides trying to relax. Add to this equation newborn twins, a toddler and a junior kindergarten, and there is insanity. Plus, getting gifts before December means that we don't have to put up with the crowds... even up here with a smaller population base the mall is insanity!!! Walmart today had 20 lanes open, and still each cashier had at least 10 people waiting to check out! That is crazy! Oh well, that's the name of the game this time of year... or is it? ~Joel