A New Beginning???

So - it's May 10th, 2013.  I haven't blogged in... 2 years maybe?  Well, I won't announce it on Facebook in case this falls through, but I think I'm going to blog again.  What?!!?  Yes.  The life of our family is changing every other minute and it's about time I try to document this.  We'll be having adventures, challenges and see craziness over the next few years so why not share a little of the crazy?

Update:

Jen: I work for the government in Foreign Affairs as a Management Consular Officer.  This means that I help to manage the operations of Embassies/Consulates abroad.  The job is rotational so I'll change my position/locale every few years.  I've been searching for a way to exercise since returning to work almost 2 years ago and I think I've finally found it!  I bike the 15km into work sometimes, I joined a running club at work and there's a gym in the building I've joined to do classes and stuff.  Other than this, my time is spent with the kids - driving them to baseball, soccer, baseball, piano and making sure they practice those musical instruments.

Jen at the Great Wall in China

Eric: He's always up to something.  He continues to work - doing that thing, he continues to work on the cabin we've built in Val-des-Bois and is great at playing with the boys or making dinner on the days he worked from home.  Over the past year, he bought an accordion and most recently - an electric drum kit (for Konrad's birthday ... yeah right.)  He's fun.

Eric in a Hutong in Beijing

Konrad: This kid has signed up for every known activity.  I don't want to stunt this willingness to be involved but it's going to kill me.  At school, he does track and field two mornings a week, choir one morning a week and he just performed at the talent show.  Since he doesn't tell me much about school, I don't really know what else he's got himself into.  Basketball league just ended (sigh of relief), but then Eric signed him up for baseball - just in case this is his calling in life.  So now, we have baseball 3 times a week, soccer once a week (cuz it's too late to cancel), golf lessons this month, piano lessons until the end of June when he does his exam and cubs.  Nutso.  How did this happen to us!!!  Otherwise, he's just as incorrigible as ever, an alpha male in the house, hates to eat the dinners I prepare.  He's also growing up super-fast now and is generally a good boy.  He loves sports, fishing, video games and playing with his friends.

Konrad showing the pearly whites at soccer 2012

Anders: He will be the biggest of the three boys, I think.  He eats non-stop.  Constantly.  He loves sports too and is doing golf lessons Saturday mornings, just finished basketball (where he progressed a lot) and will soon play soccer again.  He's started the violin this year and it's a tough instrument in the first year but we'll stick with it.  Anders LOVES animals and bugs.  He has a quick mind and can recall all sorts of weird stats and facts about random animals/birds.  We have 3 geckos in the house.  This deserves a blog post of its own.  We need to keep the dominant one from interacting with another gecko because he tries to kill it and eat it.

Anders in Florida.

Ezra: Lovely.  He's just turned 4 and is still the baby of the family.  He loved swim classes but refuses to enter the water since they've changed the teacher.  ?????  Hazel, our live-in nanny, cares for him throughout the days and they have many adventures together.  They love each other.  They have their regular play-groups they attend and friends they visit with.  He's a bit precocious but still loves stories at bedtime, TOO interested in video games (he spends the entire week figuring out when Friday comes so he can play again) and is always following his brothers around the neighbourhood with his bike.

Ezra hangin' in Florida.

So - that's enough of an update for now.  I won't overwhelm you with Jakob-ness.