Life, Luke Lingo, & Looking Ahead

Whew! The last week of February? Really? January and February were a blur, here's what's been happening. January was the busiest month for me work wise. We had two major events that I had to organize, one on January 8 and the other an all day conference on the 26th. All of this on top of regular twice a month board meetings. My new job is somewhat political (if you really want the nitty gritty sometime, ask me, it is too much to put into a blog), I work for a lobbyist, so these events were attended by Minnesota legislators. Kind of interesting to meet the candidates running for governor, and the state senators. Unfortunately I did not get to meet Al Franken. Shoot. January was also year end for the church, and I put my bookeeping experience to work and helped with that. And then dug in to our own taxes.

January was also birthday month! My baby girl Ava turned 5 and my little Luke turned 3. I can't believe it! We had fun celebrating numerous times with family and friends. Ava got to have a friend party this year, and we had a couple of her friends and their families over for spaghetti and cupcakes one night. It was a great time!

Other events the past few weeks included Andy speaking at a retreat for a weekend up near Sauk Centre (he was great!), having Jake and Maggie (cousins!) spend 4 days with us, Andy and I attending a 3 day retreat for church planters up at a resort near Brainerd, a quick trip to Willmar, membership classes at church, swimming lessons, dentist appointments, kindergarten shots... I think that might be it. Oh, and Luke decided he wanted to be potty trained. Which is great!

Speaking of Luke, he is a funny little guy. He is really talking pretty well, considering he just turned 3, but stuggles with a few sounds. For instance the letter S is pronounced as an F. Not that big of deal, right? Um, wrong. Especially when you go into the bank and they have suckers. Or when you get stuck somewhere. Or when you ask daddy to "start a fire." That is Aunt Lauri's favorite "farting a fire." Sounds painful. He is also going through this phase where he tells you what to say. He'll ask you a question like "Can I have a fnack (snack)?" and before you can answer he'll tell you, "Fay (say), not right now, little buddy." So you tell him "Not right now, little buddy (very important to include the little buddy part)." And then he'll go "Awwww, pu-wease (please, can't do L's either)!" Like he just couldn't wait to give his response. It is really pretty funny. He is also really interested in male anatomy right now as a result of the potty training. I could tell you some GREAT stories about that, but they are rather blog inappropriate. So I will let you imagine.

So what in next on the O'Rourke calendar? This week is actually pretty tame. And wow, March looks fairly calm as well. But I am sure things will come up. Want to get together?