swan chasing.

Today was a day of wild animals. We saw tons of deer this morning at the park and then all sorts of great birds at the Botanical gardens. Daysa and I tried to to touch one (the swan) but couldn't ever get close enough. The gardens were really beautiful and the weather is still absolutely heavenly. We also made it to the malls during the day as well and to Pasta Fina for dinner. I LOVE that restaurant. It is Toledo's hidden gem.

Kent is continuing to have great experiences in Nicaragua. Today he saw the elders walking down the street. He was riding in the back of a pick-up truck to another clinic location and just had time to shout as they drove by.
He said that they did a lot of dental work today and worked mostly on little children. He couldn't believe their teeth and gums were in such poor condition. He would just touch some of their gums and they'd bleed. It sounds like they are pretty busy with patients all day. I would love to be there with him!!

they're here!

welcome to Toledo, Oswalds.

It's been a long hard kentless day! He did e-mail to tell me he'd made it safely to Nicaragua. They spent much of the day at a hospital in dismal conditions. He said that the ladies in the OB unit were sharing BEDS!! He's already eaten lots of good food and says the humidity would kill me but that I'd love everything else.

Today my family called and said they were showing up early! tonight in about twenty minutes I shouldn't be so lonely!! hooray.

In other news- I think Zeb's rash is getting worse. It was all over his face today. I'm sure people thought we should have stayed home from church- but he is NOT contagious and it doesn't seem to bother him.

remember how Zeb had roseola?

apparently it didn't go away yet. I think it's just the curse associated with Kent leaving. Today, as soon as Kent was on the plane to Nicaragua, Zeb developed his second wave of rashes.
I thought it may have been chickenpox for a minute- but thank heavens it isn't.

adios, esposo!

In five hours I will again be husbandless. This time it kinda feels like a joke considering his last excursion away was so long. I'm mostly nervous about church without Kent. I am teaching two lessons this Sunday and it may be a bit tricky!

Luckily the whole fam-dam arrives on Monday! Drive safely please- I can't wait to see you all.

Oh, and everyone please keep kent in your prayers- I hope he doesn't get caught in any earthquakes, landslides, or hurricanes (wikipedia lists those as the most common natural disasters in Nicaragua) while he's away. I don't think that his life insurance policy is nearly as valuable until he's active duty as a resident!

bad bad news

NORTHWOOD, Ohio (WTOL) -

"Sadly, the one-of-a-kind cat from Wood County, died Wednesday evening.

The kitten was born last week to a shop cat at Woodville Auto Finance in Northwood.

It had four eyes and two noses, but only one mouth.

The mother cat didn't seem to mind the abnormality, nursing and caring for it like any other kitten.

No word on what may have caused its death".

The two-faced cat did, unfortunately, kick the bucket yesterday. In better news, Zeb got to play with a normal faced cat at playgroup today and was obsessed. Here he is with "Naughty kitty". He LOVES furry little animals- too bad he'll never have one.

day o' fun!

We woke up this morning and decided to do some more exploring of Toledo's surroundings. I can't believe that we hadn't ventured up to Ann Arbor to check out the city before today! It did help that our good friends, the Webers, moved up not too long ago and gave us yet another reason to make the roadtrip.
Our first stop was the children's "Hands On Science Museum". Thank heavens for our amazing pass. It continues to work ubiquitously! We got in at no cost.
The best part of the museum was surely the pre-schooler's area. Zeb was in complete euphoria. He would have played for hours if we'd let him. There was a great water area, fake houses, zillions of puzzles and cool gadgets, and a giant firetruck. You'll have to zoom in on the pic to see the cute little hat on his round little head.

The rest of the museum was neato as well- although more geared to bigger kids (as is obvious by Kent's antics on this pole). All of the little kids kept asking Kent how he got to the top.

For lunch we meandered around downtown watching all the eclectic people while trying to locate a decent yet inexpensive restaurant. The choices were endless! There are so many delicious looking places in Ann Arbor (we were insanely hungry). We finally decided on BD's Mongolian BBQ. I am not the craziest meat fan, but the veggies looked scrumptious and Zeb was free! They let him get his own bowl of food at no cost! Little did they know that this kid is one heck of a steak eater. He ended up chowing down so much steak and sausage I thought he'd burst! This place is one of those "jam-as-much-food-as-you-possibly- can-in-one-bowl-for-one-great-price" restaurants and I wish we'd taken pictures of our meat and veggies pre-cooking. I was MORTIFIED by how much food I got. Really though. I was so embarrassed that I forced Kent to claim my plate at the end of the meal when we asked for doggie bags. I did it for him anyway- I know how much he loves leftovers.
After lunch we made a stop by Trader Joe's. I'd never been and heard lots about it. We got some scrumptious cookies and Zeb enjoyed his mini-cart. It was a cool store but VERY overpriced and a little too organic for my tastes.

We also made a final stop at the Webers! Of course, it's the one place I forgot to take pictures. It was great to see them and I'm still irritated they left Toledo after only a year!

We'll definitely be making more trips up in the future. It was a blast and there's so much more to see and do.