Well, I wanted to have pictures and a great report about how fun our game night was last Sunday, but to tell the truth it was not really all that fun as far as game nights go. (So, I posted a picture from Zak's birthday celebration which was a good time!) We played the Wheel of Fortune and Family Feud board games and they were really quite bad. Bible Jeopardy was fun, but a little difficult to execute with teams and no buzzers. One of our friends just made that one up. It was still a good time to be with friends and the food was good, but I don't recommend those games--not for a group, anyway.
I got to try out Grandma's apple pie recipe for the first time. Unfortunately the recipe was written with measurements, and I don't think Grandma ever used measurements, so they weren't very accurate. The crust came out great, but the apples ended up a little too sweet. I guess if you're going to err on something with apple pie sweetness isn't the worst thing. On Wednesday we had a couple of folks to whom I wanted to take some meals, so I decided to try again. I think the second one turned out better. Of course, it's still not as good as Grandma's, but I'd say it turned out pretty good. I've also been making her chicken noodle soup (with homemade noodles) for a while now (I attempted it for the first time last time we had food-from-your-childhood night) and I think I've just about got it down. Of course, by now the only thing that is the same is the noodles because I cook just like Grandma did--no measurements and I morph the recipe a little every time I make it. It's so fun to have food that we ate growing up so I keep trying to add new recipes into my repertoire.
Koa has now started to hide when we play hide-and-seek. However, after he hides he doesn't have the patience to let us find him. He will hide and almost immediately reveal his position (by giggling and running out of the place of hiding)--especially if we say, "Where's Koa?" He usually hides in the same places we have hid previously. I don't know where he gets his love for games...
He's getting pretty close to actually jumping now. I think he must watch us very closely when we are doing jumping exercises at Stroller Strides because he has perfect form and uses his arms and everything. He will put all this preparation and effort into the jump and only end up on his tip-toes or with one foot off the ground. It's pretty hilarious. He also loves playing on my BOSU ball and has very good balance on it. You can see him playing on it in Update Sixty-One. There are also two other videos, Updates Sixty-Two and Sixty-Three.
I forgot to mention in the last post that Koa also says "Hazah!" and "ahh-ha!" I'm not sure if those count as words, but they are pretty fun to hear!
One more funny thing. Today we were at Borders shopping for a friend. Since I knew Koa would want to touch ALL of the books, I brought along a couple of his so he would have one to touch at all times and would be less tempted. I was right, the minute we walked in the door he started in with the oooohs and aaaah's and he had to touch, touch, touch. So, I gave him one of his books and that seemed to satisfy him--until he saw a lady seated on a very low stool. He walked over, handed her the book and sat down in front of her and proceeded to let her read the whole thing to him and when he knew it was coming to an end he turned the pages back to the middle of the book. She was so nice to sit there and read to him (one and a half times). You'd think he never gets any attention at home!
Now for the non-Koa news. Zak is in between semesters until Monday, so hopefully we will get to hang out and relax as a family tomorrow. Maybe we will go to the beach! Zak completed his three classes last week and finished with two A's and a B. However, he may have gotten the break of a lifetime! He had an A in his Preaching class until the last week of his semester when he didn't turn in an assignment because he was working on assignments for his other two classes. But the professor made a mistake and gave him credit for turning it in, thus gave Zak an A for his final grade in the class. When this mistake was discovered, the professor took the lost points back which dropped Zak's final down to a B. However, the new B grade hasn't been updated in Zak's official transcript yet (it still says he got an A), and on Friday Zak applied to have his transcript sent to Thomas Edison State College since that's where he's getting his degree from. So, it's possible that even though Zak technically finished with two A's and a B, the official transcript sent to TESC might still say he got straight A's! We'll know for sure when his transcript arrives at TESC and they post his grades in his degree plan.
As far as Zak's scholastic future goes, it's pretty crazy. His goal is to finish his BS by the New Year because Navy Chaplain applications are accepted annually in the spring, so he needs to be done with his degree by then. So, to fit his remaining 5 classes into the next 4 months, he's going to take classes through multiple schools. Zak's taking Biblical Interpretation with WBU starting on Monday. Then he starts an interim semester (only 10 days long) Intro to Philosophy class in mid-September with Chaminade University. Then on October 1st he starts English Composition and Reading (a prerequisite for a class he needs later on) with WBU, Introduction to Islam with TESC, and Foundations of Christian Theology with Chaminade. Yes, that's 4 classes from 3 different schools at the same time! Then in mid-December after 3 of those classes are over, Zak will start an interim semester Sociology and Philosophy of Religion class with Chaminade (that's the class he needed the English prerequisite for). So technically all this will get him his remaining 5 classes by the end of the year - as long as it doesn't kill him!
Currently (while in between semesters) Zak is working on finding Malama Group (small group) leaders and getting the training started for them. He's recruiting until the beginning of September. Then throughout the month of September he'll conduct leadership training. Then, God willing, our church family will begin our Malama Groups the first Sunday in October. I'm getting pretty excited for them to get started! Please pray not only for Zak, but for our church body as a whole as we enter this exciting yet nerve-wrecking time!
