Eric and Lisa

Well, as of my last blog, we had not seen one snowflake this winter, but eleven days later, we're quite familiar with the sparkly white stuff. We had a good two inches a week or so ago, most of which has melted off, but almost every night we get a little dusting to make everything pretty again. Even though I'm not a huge fan of winter, I'm glad for the cold snap -- it should make the summer easier to bear by killing off a bunch of flies, mosquitos, ants and whatnot. Winter is finally here.

With January comes the fun of NFL playoffs and the anticipation of the Super Bowl. Thank goodness, our COLTS finally made it this year! Woo-hoo! There was quite a bit of whooping and hollering going on in our TV room last Sunday when they defeated our arch-nemesis, the New England Patriots. I'll have to miss the live viewing of the Super Bowl because I'll be in Honduras, but Eric is going to record the game for me. I guess my wonderful Peyton Manning will have to win it without my "help"! I'll be proudly wearing my #18 jersey on the plane down to Honduras, though!

Other than that, there's not much to report. Eric is still plugging away at his work, and is starting to schedule subjects for one of his experiments. Ian is "cruising" along the furniture now, and trying to experiment with standing by himself, although he hasn't figured it out yet. I almost kind of hope he doesn't figure it out for a couple weeks...until after I get back from Honduras! I would hate to miss his first steps! I have a new student, making my total grow to six at this time, which is keeping me fairly busy. It's always a lot of extra work at the beginning of a new student relationship -- making lesson plans, finding readings that interest that person, setting up the class structure, etc. Once I get going, though, it's usually smooth sailing with only a little preparation work every week. We're so thankful for how God has provided for us, over and over again. His faithfulness has only increased our faith in Him.

Yep, it's already two weeks into 2007, and our little town has yet to see a snowflake! We've become familiar with lots of rain and balmy temperatures, though. You'd think we lived in a tropical climate! However, we just had a frigid cold front come through today, so maybe we'll experience some freezing temperatures from now on. It sure has been weird to be seeing ants and flies in the middle of January!

Backing up a little bit, we had a very nice Christmas. Ian's first, to be exact, and it was a very pleasant one. We enjoyed time with our families, and even traveled a bit to see some college friends between Christmas and the New Year.

This 2007 calendar year is already proving to be one of promise...and a lot of hard work! Eric has received two pieces of good "news" in terms of his education: one, that he is now at candidacy for his PhD, meaning that all he has left is the work on his dissertation/thesis, and two, that one of the papers he presented at the conference in Hawaii received a 2nd place award out of more than 60 other presentations! (I'm so proud of him!) He's excited to be working on experiments for his thesis, and the end seems to be in sight.

As for me, I'm still plugging away at my little self-made business. I love my students, and I have daily confirmation that this is what I'm supposed to be doing right now. God is so good.

Looking ahead, this spring promises to be a busy one. In three weeks, I'll be accompanying my father-in-law on a trip to Honduras, where we'll meet up with some other American Christians and help out with physical needs of the Honduran people. I'm really looking forward to this trip -- it's been a long time since I've done anything overtly missions-oriented, and I've been feeling the "itch" to get out there in the world! I'm sure I'll post a blog or two about the experience when it's over.

I hope this finds you all well, and that God is as richly blessing you as He is us. That is our prayer, anyway.

Love, Lisa (for Eric and Ian)