Hello to all of you who have, in one way or another, found your way into our address book.  It's Aaron for the Zenzes with a brief mid-year family update.

Life is going well, and I'm enjoying work at my 'new' job as graphic designer at Summit Training Source.  I recently passed the 3-month marker, so it looks like I'm official now.  It's a wonderful, enjoyable environment here -- so much so, that there are no longer any interesting stories to tell Amity when I come home.  What a shame...

I'm holding up under the hour-and-a-half driving each day, although I'm pained by each additional moment spent away from that wonderful clan of mine.

The other day, upon returning home, I opened the door and was greeted by a thundering blast.  The voice boomed from a caped figure, adorned with various articles wrapped around his waist and head.  "Do you know who I am!  I'm the Cape-Master!  I just saved Mommmy's life!  Come-on... there's two gooey giants in the living room.  I'll show you!"  We proceeded to the other room where the goo-monsters then had their legs chopped off, but unfortunately they attached themselves to eachother so they could still move around.

'Guests' like Cape-Master appear in our home quite frequently.  The regulars include soldiers, firemen, Robin Hood, explorers, hobbits, and other general 'adventure guys.'  Some of them have pretty elaborate identities worked out.  Like the superhero Cacwus (who has a black cape) and his side-kick Peewur (purple cape) who fight the villainous panther-headed CouPon.  There's also a cowboy named Feather who has an indian friend named Kackiokie who makes this really sick yell (which I'm sure would be offensive to any native-american... or anyone with ears for that matter).

Oh, In the midst of that list of names, I forgot to mention the other person who sometimes shows up: a kid named Isaac.  He's 3 1/2 now and growing so fast.  Just the other day I mentioned to him how big he's getting.  He responded by saying, "When I'm a man, I'm not going to bite my tongue anymore and I'm going to know all about Jesus."  Two mighty fine Goals in my opinion.

His little sister Peewur - I mean, Gracie ("Ceecie") is almost 2 now.  She'll turn 2 next week in fact.  She's such a little darling.  A darling with a giant honkin' stubborn streak.  Man, oh, man.  It's not just a mind of her own... the universe is her own.  We oft hear her declare her governing authority: "Obey Ceecie!"  But, boy she's wonderful.  There's great character-material if we're successful in shepherding her toward the 'light-side of the force.'

She's a fantastic singer.  And a great performer.  With no inhibition she'll climb onto the table of any host, belting out renditions of "I'm in the Lord's Army," wumping her head with each "Yes, Sir!" salute.

Then there's her 'Sucky'.  There's no separating her from it.  And woe to the person who tries.  There are three great mysteries in this world: The union between the Lord and the Church, between man and wife, and between Gracie and her Sucky.  I think they are soulmates.

In other news, we bought a van.  I'm officially 'fatherly' now, driving around in our used minivan.  It's blue.  Really really blue.  A kind of blue that took a little bit of time getting used to.  We like it a lot and are very thankful for it.  We're trying to think of a nickname for it; it's between 'Madame Blueberry' and 'Smurvette'.

God bless you all,