Hey Y'all!

We have had a few lovely days of sunshine recently. We did not even need jackets! The weather can change so fast though and On Monday it began to rain - freezing rain and then later in the day it began to snow heavily. We enjoyed Debbie coming to visit last Wednesday. It was nice to go exploring Amish country again. I hadn't been there since the beginning of January due to the snow. On Friday I hosted a Lia Sophia Jewelry party. We had a great time and lots of the other MMS ladies came. We enjoyed some more tablet, (made to perfection by Debbie - under my guidance of course! ;0) And some home made empire biscuits and chocolate fondue. Calorifically wonderful! I have since been dieting! The children were really good and went to their bed promptly at 7pm and stayed there!

We visited the city of Columbus with Debbie on Saturday and just enjoyed exploring the shops. We explored a good shop called "Trader Joes" and managed to find some Weetabix really cheap. Made in Canada though but Matthew and Andy are both really enjoying a little taste from Scotland. We took Debbie to visit the MMS hanger for the first time and see where Andy was working. Andy was busy investigating some problems with the electrics on the plane. Abi and Matthew are always thrilled visit Daddy at work and get to climb inside the planes. Not many little boys aged two have been in a plane as many times as Matthew! Debbie was due to leave on Tuesday but the weather looked a little dubious and so she left on Monday instead. It was just as well as she would probably not have been able to leave on Tuesday. The schools were all cancelled again and the roads were very slippy. Just as I am feeling better, Andy is now full of the cold! Pray he recovers quickly. He is trying to study his electrical theory topic and this with the cold is not a good combination. I am wondering if it is because the air is so dry here that our sinuses have been affected. I know you are problem thinking it is just winter colds etc but I am not convinced. Most American houses I have been in all have a humidifier and they say it helps to reduce nasal congestion. The electric heaters we have make everything even more dry and I really notice that you do not need the air vent on in the bathroom much during showering. I guess all the kettle boiling from tea drinking and cooking steam is actually helping the air and I notice the windows do not steam up much when cooking like in Scotland. I go about hanging wet towels around the house to get some more moisture in the air. Very interesting discovering the climatic differences between Scotland and Ohio.

While Andy is investigating electrics I am busy exploring the connections between humidity and nasal congestion!

Abi is doing fine. She has just finished her fourth oxford tree stage 2 reading book. She now knows how to write "To mummy" and "To daddy" on her pictures which is a real delight She is really enjoying a little preschool learning CD on the computer and can sit there and navigate her way through the activities herself with the mouse. I keep having to take all the paper out of the printer as she likes to print her pictures and we were running out of ink far too quickly! Matthew loves to play with the toy kitchen and make banana soup and pancakes. He sets out the table for his teddy and prepares quite a feast! He helped me set the dinner table tonight for the first time and checked with Abi if this size of fork would be okay for her to eat her dinner with. He likes very much to do his "school work" at the same time and he has now discovered the pencil and eraser. Usually the kitchen table is covered in eraser shavings by the time we have finished. He was very upset when the eraser would not make his pen marks disappear however. I hope you are all having a good week where ever you are. We are keeping in touch with the world news both in Libya and New Zealand as well as the UK news. Looking forward to all our supporters news. Please feel free to write and send pictures of yourself to us so we can always remind the kids (and ourselves) what you look like! : 0)