We were also excited to be in Michigan at this time because my Freshman roommate Mark just had a baby. Well, his wife did. He wasn’t the Oprah sex-change dude who was pregnant. Mark and I were placed together by the Res Life staff at Trinity and didn’t know each other going in. We lived with each other 3 out of our 4 years together at Trinity and were in each other’s weddings. It’s been a great and providential friendship, and it is really cool to be on the other side of it now–the ones making decisions on who should live with who and where. Here’s Gabe and I with Mark and Eddie. (They are also The Brinks over on the right if you’d like to see many more pictures of the little dude.)

We also spent a day with Renee’s extended family out at Muskegon State Park and partook of some excellent boating adventures. Jonathan went tubing for the first time and loved it. I celebrated my Third Annual “Get Drug Out of a Lake on a Wakeboard 30 Times Until You Make It Up” Ibuprofen commercial. And Renee didn’t get in the water at all. We always have a great time hanging out with the Van Den Berg crew and mooching their boat. We had a blast up at Renee’s brother Jon’s land one evening as well. A picnic outside and 4 wheeling around the property was a fun and relaxing end to the trip. We made the treck back down to the South and survived the 14 hour car ride…barely. Of course the kids both finally fell asleep when we were driving up the mountain to the college…

More pictures here.

Yes, we had a new baby a month and half before the last update.

Yes, our friends and family are mad at us because they haven’t seen any new pictures of Gabe.

So, here they are.

Our trip to the Midwest (first Chicago, then Wisconsin, then Michigan) began well because we were breaking in the 2004 Odyssey we had purchased two days earlier. I’m a big believer in minivans. Though selling our Saturn Vue was hard, we definitely enjoy the room, leather seats and wireless headphones (!!!) the new car has. We could put music or movies on for Jonathan and he could sit back there and listen away while we didn’t hear a thing. Beautiful!

In Chicago we invaded Doug and Kim’s house again, where Jonathan proceeded to have the kind of temper tantrum you can only have after 1 nap in 8 days. First time he went to bed without dinner. We went to Lincoln Park Zoo, a wedding, and breakfast with some other great friends of ours from college. Chicago was great, but rushed.

After that we drove up to Wisconsin and stayed at Papa Phil’s house. We had a great time just hanging out with family while we there, and I was able to spend a bit of time out on Papa Phil’s boat fishing. We didn’t do great, but I did catch the biggest Sheephead (freshwater drum) I have ever seen. What fun to bring that in on a 6 foot perch pole!

Jonathan and Gabe (mini-Phil) loved playing with the cousins and being around Aunt Katie and Uncle Josh, as well as the rest of the extended family on the 4th of July. Jonathan had his first experience with sparklers (or “sticks with fire” as he called them), and we watched a bit of the fireworks from Nanny Linda’s dock. It was a fun, relaxing trip and we look forward to being back over Christmas/New Years. More pictures from the trip here. More pictures and part 2 of the trip coming soon!

Do you ever feel incredibly busy, yet also feel like you are not getting anything done? That describes my life the past couple of weeks. The boys are doing great, but there is just so much more work with two. A friend described it this way: with one child, the parents are able to employ a “double coverage” defense; with two you go to “man to man”; and once you have three or more you go straight to a “zone/prevent” defense. Really, we’ve been doing great, but it just takes us twice as long to get anything done.

Dad was able to make it out for a long weekend a few weeks back (you may recall me saying something about the Eagles!!!)

We had a great time relaxing and explored Lookout Mountain a bit. We took a ride on the Incline Railway, the steepest passenger railway in the world. Jonathan loved it (surprised?) and everytime we drive by it at the bottom of the mountain he has to look for “that new fun train.” He’s really been quite a trip lately. Though he is going through a bit of a whiny/needy phase, he just says and does some of the funniest things.

We’d really like to video some of the things he does, because they are much more hilarious when they are caught in the act, rather than described in words. Just yesterday I gave him a little bag of Cheezits and he offered one to me. Then he kind of held his hands out, palms up, and said in an apologetic voice, “They’re all squares, Daddy. There aren’t any rectangles.” I tried not to be too disappointed, as rectangular cheesy crackers do taste much better than the boring square ones, but I managed.

Jonathan is also starting to give up his afternoon naps. Which he is not allowed to do, because afternoon nap time is also known as “halftime” in the aforementioned game of parenting. We’ve told him that if he doesn’t want to sleep that he can bring some books into bed to read, but he needs to be in there by himself for a while every afternoon. Normally we’ll hear him playing with some cars or trains on the bed and telling one of them not to be mean to the other one or they will have to go sit in the naughty spot. I took the following picture when I went in to wake him up from an actual nap.

He had gone down from his bed, went over to his bookshelf and then brought his piggy bank, bulldog paperweight, and a stone polar bear back to his bed, presumably played with them for a bit, and then lined them up looking at him while he took a nap. Seriously, our child is the strangest kid I’ve ever been around. It’d be great to have an invisible camerman just follow him around to capture everything, because he turns into such a ham when we turn the camera on him. He gets loud and starts speaking gibberish and wants to see the video played back on the screen. (Aside: isn’t it unbelievable that kids under 10 don’t even understand the concept of taking a picture, and actually having to wait several days/weeks until finding out what it looked like?) Anyway, he’s a really good big brother and helper.

Gabe is doing great, he just went for his month/six week checkup and was a whopping 9lbs, 12oz. Jonathan was 9lbs, 3oz at 2 months. We’ve got a porker on our hands. The picture to the left is of Gabe snoozing in Mommy’s arms shortly after giving himself a hickey on his arm. He’s definitely going to be a thumb sucker when he has the brain power to actually remember where his thumb is and take it out of his fist and get it to his mouth. He’s been such a good baby though…sleeping pretty good, rarely fussy, eats well. We think he’s starting to smile, which is encouraging. When you have a 3 year old who won’t stop talking (seriously, he talks in his sleep), it sometimes feels like nobody’s home upstairs with Gabe. But he’s starting to interact and it’s fun.

Ahhh. And Rover. So, I was on my way to WalMart with Jonathan the day Dad was leaving to go get him the new Eagles CD (since, you know, we saw them two days earlier), and as I get down the mountain and am driving on the 45 mph highway, a dog darts across right in front of me, ran into the drivers side door and got clipped under the back tire. I didn’t know what to do-Jonathan asks me what happened, I said there was a bump in the road, I see the dog rolling around on the road before getting up and limping off. I couldn’t bear the thought of stopping to scrape the stupid mutt off the highway with Jonathan there, unforgiving because I killed a dog, so I kept going. I ended up going back–there was actually a Sheriff Deputy right near there (not the nicest part of Chattanooga) who heard from someone who saw it that the dog went home and the owner took him to the vet with what looked like a broken foot/leg. Sheesh. No fun. What would you do-traumatize your son or leave the dog with a death wish to suffer the consequences of his foolish decision?

Anyway, Renee’s mom came down here for a week because I leave tomorrow to go to a Student Development conference in Cedarville, OH. It will be a great time of hanging out with our staff, being challenged with new ideas, networking, and being around other folks who truly do understand what your job is-even if you can’t succinctly sum it up in a two sentence description. I’m looking forward to it.

New pictures were added here.

As far as the pregnancy goes, Renee is moving along just fine. We had another ultrasound a few weeks back-I’ve added the pictures to the Ultrasound gallery. She’s 37 3/7 weeks along and the doctor says she can go really anytime now. Everything that needs to be soft is soft and everything that needs to tip is tipped. She’s been at 1cm for the past couple weeks and she’s ready to get going. The baby has dropped some, so she’s pretty uncomfortable and gets up to pee at least 3 times a night. But she’s a trooper and is into a hyper-nesting phase. Everything in the house is clean, it seems like the laundry gets done every other day and she when she sits down to rest she’s antsy to start doing something else. They say once the baby drops and the extreme nesting phase kicks in it could be only a few more days, so we may meet Baby Brother soon! Renee also got her hair cut yesterday. Let’s just say I wasn’t expecting it to be as short as it was and didn’t have a reaction appropriate for a pregnant woman you’ve been married 6 years to. There were tears. The lesson, as always, I am an idiot.

Things at work have been pretty busy for me and will only get busier these next few weeks. Now that RA’s have been hired for next year we have a leadership conference this weekend, we’ve just kicked off the housing scramble (also known as “Get Your Feelings Hurt 2008″), we’re interviewing candidates for open RD and ARD positions and at some point we’ll be having a baby. I sat down and figured out that April 12th would be the best day for that. It’s on the schedule.

We also had a great time a few weeks back when Priscilla and Eric Peters came down to visit. Renee met Priscilla the summer she spent at Focus on the Family Institute and the two of them and Kelli Owens (who moved to Chattanooga last fall) have remained close friends. Priscilla and Eric were married in Cincinnati this summer and it was great spending time with them.

And the little rugrat is doing good too. He’s been in a better mood lately-he seems to go in phases these days. He had fun on Easter doing an Egg hunt here at home. Then he got to go to the Aquarium the next day because he had 10 gold sticks. Too hard to explain right now, but he gets a gold stick each day for being a good boy and helping do chores. Once he gets 10 he gets a special treat-it may be a new matchbox car, or a trip to the mall play place, or to the Aquarium to see the fishies.

He’s also been making us laugh with some of the things he says. A few of the best are below:

When giving me a kiss on the cheek when I haven’t shaved in a few days: Ouch! Your face is crunchy.

We were taking his shirt off and putting his PJ’s on and Jonathan wondered what the two spots on his chest where. After being told they were nipples, it was time for bed and we were tucking him in. He said he wanted to feel my face to see if it was crunchy, and then followed with: I want to feel your nibbles.

And: You have big nibbles, Daddy.

Yeah, Renee and I lost it (I didn’t actually let him feel them). More belly pictures here and some recent pictures from March here.

Okay, I’ve done it. They are finally up. Sorry I’ve been such a slacker getting Renee’s belly shots up here. I’ve been badgered enough, and here they are. Also included are a bunch of the pictures from Baby Brother’s ultrasounds. We’re going in for another one next week, so keep checking back. While Renee feels like she’s huge, you still can’t even tell she’s pregnant from behind. Or from the front apparently…we’ve had a bunch of maintenance guys in our apartment this week fixing a few things and after talking with Renee for a few minutes, she turned around to look at something and one of the guys eye’s went wide. He didn’t even know she was pregnant until he saw her profile.

In other news, apparently Jonathan has saved his terribleness for three instead of two. He hasn’t been horrible, but he’s definitely more ornery and strong willed now than he was even a month or so ago. We’re embarking on a new discipline and structure program a friend of ours developed, so we’ll see how it goes. He has been supremely goofy lately though. He now thinks that he and I also have babies in our bellies. At first I thought he was poking fun at the “freshman fifteen” I have put on since coming back to college, but now he believes he has a baby sister in his belly. In fact, he told us the other day that he needed to eat all of his noodles because baby sister was hungry. He also likes to ask random women if they have a baby in their belly. Awkward. Some other quotes from recent days:

Telling the painter in our apartment what he just got done doing: “I just went poopy. It was stinky. Yecchhh!”

Renee and I were introducing ourselves to a Covenant professor at the local pizza joint, and he pipes up and says, “I’m Jonathan and I’m three. I’m not two anymore.”

There were a few others that I’ve now forgotten, but I believe Renee wrote down. Leave ‘em wanting more, right?

We left the day after Jonathan’s birthday and flew right out of Chattanooga to St. Pete/Clearwater airport. It was only a hour and ten minute flight… somewhat of a luxury compared to the 2.5 hour flights we were used to out of Denver. Jonathan was a great traveler and he LOVED every minute of being on the plane. He sat right by the window and never stopped talking the whole time.

Papa and Nanny picked us up and then we drove the hour or so to their park in Frostproof. We had absolutely beautiful weather the whole time we were there… pretty much 80′s and sunny. It was a little toasty for the pregnant mommy at times, but I wasn’t going to complain too much because last year when we went it was 50′s and cold. Jonathan had a great time swimming in the pool at the park and also going in the “hot bath” as he called it. Jack was excited to see us, but I think he may have been a little worn out near the end of our stay from all the lovin’ from Jonathan. Papa and Nanny take such good care of Jack (thank you!!!), and he has gotten used to the slower-paced lifestyle free from a 3 year old.

We were able to do a lot of fun things while we were there (seeing the goats, making OJ with Papa, making brownies with Nanny, swimming, shopping, going to the park and the library, out to eat, etc…) but one of the highlights of the trip for Jonathan was going to Sea World for the first time. He had no clue who Shamu was prior to our trip, but once he arrived at the park he was VERY excited! We watched the sea lion and dolphin shows first and then went to see “Shampoo” after that. Jonathan sat completely still on Papa’s lap (as he did for all the other shows) and laughed with complete glee once Shamu came out and did a big jump. It was so cute! The only part he was very concerned about was when Shamu splashed all the people in the front rows… Nanny and I explained to him that those people wanted to get wet, and then Papa told him that when he gets bigger and comes back with Daddy that Daddy will sit in the Splash Zone with him. He made sure to tell Daddy all about it on the phone that night.

Those of you who know our son well, know that he sometimes gets fixated on some interesting things… Like he has a stinky blankie, he loves goats, he has to run and jump into his bed every night, etc… well, he was very interested in the Park Map. He had to have his own copy and would sit in the stroller and talk about where we had gone and where we should go next. We took home extra maps and the entire rest of the week he would take it out and tell us everything we had seen, including which bridges we had walked over and where we had eaten lunch. He was also very happy about getting his Kid’s Meal for lunch in a Shamu lunchbox. He carried it around the rest of the day at Sea World and is still carrying it around at home. It did get searched in airport security when we were coming home, and he was very concerned that the men weren’t going to give Shamu back. The TSA people did chuckle a little bit to find it full of tractors and matchbox cars.

On our tickets we had gotten a second day free so we went back for a second day just to see the Shamu show again and to see some other things we had missed the first time around.

We had a great time visiting Papa and Nanny… and thank you to them for hosting us for ten days!! Daddy was definitely ready for us to come home and we were excited to see him too. One of my favorite and most precious moments as a mother happened at the airport when we were getting off the plane. I had Jonathan in the stroller and told him to be looking for Daddy… well, he spotted Ken from probably 50 feet away and started calling “Daddy – Daddy- Daddy!” Then as soon as I pushed the stroller to where Ken was, Jonathan was crying big tears down his cheeks and yet laughing all at the same time, still calling his Daddy’s name. It was so special to see his absolute joy and excitement to see his Daddy – who he hadn’t seen for 10 days.

Ken has also been bugging me about writing about the pregnancy… It has gone very well, and I am feeling great. I am still working about once a week and it is nice to stay busy and active. We will be 31 weeks along tomorrow and so things are closing in fast for baby brudder’s arrival. I went about a week early with Jonathan and so my doctor is thinking it will probably be either the same again or a little earlier this time. We are actually a bit more prepared this time than with Jonathan. I think Ken finished Jonathan’s crib and we got it all set up about the week before he was born. The crib is actually ready and waiting this time… and it has been for about a month or so. Jonathan is sleeping in the queen size bed in his room and is very excited to have his big boy bed right next to brother’s bed. Ken has been itching to put up some pictures of my belly so I am sure those will be coming soon.

Well, Ken is giving me grief that this post is longer than anything he has ever posted before so I better wrap it up…. but like I said at the top, it may be awhile before you hear from me again… Ken is very busy the next few weeks with interviewing RA staff for next year… he and the other RD’s have 55 one-hour interviews to do between tomorrow and next week Tuesday. But he is still loving his job and as a family, it has been a great place for all of us. Love to you all!

Here is a link to the rest of the Florida pictures if you are interested.

Had a great weekend. I just barely made it into Chicago before a big snow storm hit…we tried to land three times before the pilot could see enough to put the plane on the ground. Thursday was spent on campus at Trinity Christian College (TCC) for an alumni event, Friday was day long meetings for the Alumni Association Board of Directors and then a banquet that night for the Alumni of the Year awards. Saturday was breakfast with a great friend, Jeremy Junkin and then hanging out all day with Doug and Kim (with whom I was staying) , Keith who flew up from Ft. Lauderdale (and waited a good 45 minutes to complain about the weather), Brian and Matt. Good times (and deep dish pizza) were had by all.

I made it back in time to watch the Super Bowl (I was hoping to see the Packers…grr). ‘Twas a great game and I was excited to see the Patriots choke in the end. After the game I went to ESPN.com to start reading all of the analysis, when I was greeted by a familiar face…in fact, one that I had seen all weekend in Chicago. The Trinity Christian College Troll. There, on the front page of ESPN.com, was the mascot of the school I had just returned from. Great free advertising for a small Christian school in the suburbs of Chicago. The article focused on great, weird, unknown team names for college basketball teams. Was pretty cool to see.

In other news, Renee and Jonathan are having a great time in Florida with her folks. Jonathan is being a good boy and yesterday they all went to Sea World in Orlando. He was so excited to tell me how “Shampoo” splashed the people at the show and Renee said that he was very upset Shampoo did that until he was told that they wanted to get wet. He carried around a Shampoo bag all day and told everyone he met about it. They are down there until next Sunday enjoying the lovely weather while I play bachelor again up here. So far so good, but I’m starting to wish they were around again. It’s okay. I’ll be tough.

Jonathan turned three on Tuesday and had a great birthday party. We invited a bunch of friends from the college and our new neighbors, the Owens’, and partook of a fantastic cake Renee made with Kelli’s mom. Seriously, it was gorgeous. Check out the pictures here. Anyway, Jonathan had a ton of fun, though he made sure to point out to everyone that even though his party was on Monday, he “was still 2, he’s not 3 yet.” He finally turned 3 on Tuesday and spent the night sleeping in the big queen-sized bed in his room. And didn’t fall out…which is a miracle the way he sleeps. Then he got to go on a plane on Wednesday, is hanging out with Papa and Nanny and Jack now and is going to Sea World in a few days. I don’t know if he’s had a better week before.

Renee and I also had a little bit of a start when we realized that Baby Brother will be coming in about 10 weeks. Sheesh, that seems awful soon. I don’t know if it was the stress of the first trimester, but it really seems like this pregnancy is flying by. Jonathan still wants Baby Brother to come out now, and I think Renee is starting to be about ready as well. In fact, she could probably write about how everything is going herself, but might need a little encouragement. So, if you’re getting sick of hearing from me about everything, why don’t you go ahead and start badgering Renee to start posting on here.

In other news, we had our first significant snowfall of the season up on Lookout Mountain last night. And the school opened late for classes today. Okay, I understand that the roads up and down the mountain get very icy and it’s best to encourage people not to drive up or down. But “snowstorms” in the south are kind of funny. You would have thought that 6 feet was dumped on Chattanooga (it was about an inch of snow, followed by a “wintry mix”). Several elementary schools down the mountain were closed for the day and everyone is dressed like they are heading straight for the Iditarod. Ah well, I guess if I complain like a little girl through the hot, humid summers, they can get there panties in a bundle over a couple inches of snow.

A few pictures of our trip to Wisconsin are here. And below is the fantastic 8 ft. snowman built by one of our residents. Yup, he’s from Wisconsin (Pardeeville).

Except for the Packers losing to the Bears (and indirectly causing me to lose my Fantasy Football Championship to Renee’s brother, Jon), we had quite the enjoyable visit home. It was the first time we had been home over the holidays since we have been married and it was refreshing to be with family and friends, and, yes, even enjoy the cold and snow.

We made the 12 hour drive up to Grand Rapids on the 18th and Jonathan was a rock star thanks to the 8 DVD’s we brought with. Renee’s cousin Tracy and her husband Dan came over one night, and it was great to spend some time with them–unfortunately we couldn’t see Kelly as her flight was delayed from Chicago. We were able spend quite a bit of time with Aunt Tawni and Uncle Jon and Jonathan had fun outside with Papa Jerry in the snow.

We left Michigan on the 23rd looking like Jed Clampett with all of the stuff tied on top of our car-we had to pick up baby clothes that were in storage. We traveled through 70 mph gusting winds and freezing temperatures through Chicago and were able to grab lunch with our great friends Lief and Emily north of Kenosha as they were only a few miles behind us on the highway after their flight getting canceled in Denver. We then made it through the blizzard up to Nanny Linda’s house for a Christmas party with all of Jonathan’s cousins. Great idea by Nanny to get out the instruments too…my ears are still ringing. Christmas Eve we stopped over to see our dear friends Kyle and Megan and Chris and Lara. Chris moved to Boulder a month after we left Denver and Megan lives 4 hours a way in Johnson City, TN. Naturally we decided to meet in Fond du Lac, WI. Then Papa Phil, Aunt Titi, Uncle Josh and the three of us headed up to West Bend to hang out with the Litscher family, and Jonathan had Auntie Char wrapped around his little finger. After we returned, Renee spent most of the night on or in front of the toilet (I think we scared Santa away with the awful sounds coming from the bathroom). Christmas was back at Nanny Linda’s with Papa Steve and Papa Phil and a big turkey and the 26th we just relaxed and had Phil’s famous Ribs and Fish for dinner. We left the morning of the 27th to head back and made it back up the mountain around 10:45 that night.

It was a great visit home and a much needed break. Pictures from our Michigan leg of the trip are here. I’ll try to get some more up soon, as well as a comparison picture of how Renee is growing now and with Jonathan. Hope all of your Christmas’ were joyful and restful!

Also, as you may or may not have been aware, Halloween has come and gone. While Jonathan didn’t go trick or treating, he did get all dressed up in his costume with his pal Katelyn and made every girl on campus go, “Awwww!” He loved having his costume on even though he was dripping with sweat.

Finally, we made a trip to the ER on Saturday after Renee spilled hot queso from Qdoba on her wrist. She only heated it up in the microwave for a minute. Fun times. For the record, she said it was more painful than childbirth. Either she’s not remembering things correctly or I had WAY too much sympathy for her after Jonathan was born. Anyway, here are the pictures (not of the nasty burn, but of other Fall activities). As always, you can check out the pictures we have up here by clicking on “Photos” on the top of the page.

So, a little over a month ago, Renee and and I threw a potty party. (I apologize that you weren’t invited, but we are assuming most of our readership is toilet trained). What is a potty party you say? Well, let me tell you:

A potty party is a day long extravaganza in which you pump as many liquids into an unsuspecting two year old as physically possible. When their bladder about bursts from pressure, you hope that said two year old is sitting on a potty. Or you mop up the floor. It begins by introducing a doll (Alfred, in our case) to the child and having the child teach the doll the importance of going potty in the potty chair and not in his pants. After having the child take Alfred to the potty chair to go potty, Alfred gets a treat if he goes. So then the child eats it and thinks: “Wow, I wonder if I went potty in the potty chair if I could get a treat too?!?!” You then move on to having the child sit on the potty chair and ask them every five minutes, “Do you have dry pants?” The child is supposed to check and tell you. This whole time you are stressing the importance of having dry pants. An overheard conversation from the Litscher household:

Ken: Jonathan, do you have dry pants?

Jonathan: Yep.

Ken: Daddy likes dry pants. Daddy has dry pants. Dry pants are for big boys. Wet pants are for babies. Are you a baby?

Jonathan: Nooooooooo, I’m a big boy!

Ken: Yes you are, that’s why you have dry pants. Mommy likes dry pants. Mommy, do you like dry pants?

Renee: Yes, I like dry pants. So does Papa and Nanny. They like dry pants too.

Jonathan: They do?

Renee: They do! So does Elmo and Goatee and Aunt Titi and Uncle Jon. They all have dry pants. Do you have dry pants?

Jonathan: Yep.

…..and on and on it went for 6 hours until nap time. The problem was…we started at about 8:00 and we couldn’t squeeze a drop from him until well after 10:30. We actually had him on the toilet when he first dribbled a little and were so excited…until 2 minutes later when we put his Thomas the Tank Engine underwear on him and saw him sitting in a puddle in the kitchen without a care in the world. And once you break the seal…look out.

We batted less than .500 that first day, but managed to stay somewhat sane. Over the next few days we began to get really frustrated because even though Jonathan knew he was supposed to pee pee in the potty…he never seemed to know when the pee pee was going to start coming out. Resolving to not go back to diapers, and doing a load of toddler underwear in the laundry each day, after about a week he finally started getting it. He would do this little pee pee dance when he had to go and squeal a little bit and we rushed to the potty. Finally, more success than not.

A month into it we are still having the ups and downs that are fairly normal (I think). It has been both harder and easier than we thought, if that’s possible, and we have comforted ourselves by knowing that he will be potty trained before he goes off to college.

We had a great time in the Smokies/Gatlinburg this weekend with some friends from Denver, and I hope to get some pictures of that trip up soon. I’d also like to apologize for the burst of notification emails you may have received a few weeks back…hopefully that’s fixed now. Hope you are all doing well

Now, as some of you may know, Covenant was building a brand new residence hall that we were going to be moving into. For the summer though, we were living in a house on campus that normally holds 9 guys during the school year. It was an incredible blessing to be in a good sized house with a kitchen over the summer, though it was tough to figure out what stuff to unpack and what stuff to keep boxed up. It worked out well, though, and one of the highlights was the bathroom remodel to better accommodate 9 college guys…

So, come 6:00pm August 16, it was time to move into our apartment, and not too soon either, as the new students were coming in 12 hours. Thankfully, Renee’s parents made the trip down to give us a hand with Jonathan as we moved and got settled in our new, fantastic apartment (pics coming as soon as we are all unpacked and cleaned up). We got settled over the weekend with the new students here, and though it has been stressful dealing with the random issues of being in a brand new building (fire alarms, leaks, elevator breaking), the building is fantastic and the students love it.

While here in Lookout Mountain/Chattanooga, we did get to give Jonathan a fantastic day…a ride on the Tennessee Valley Railroad. For those of you not in the loop…Jonathan is obsessed with trains. We took a 6 mile round trip ride on an old steam engine (like Thomas) that went over several “up-down bridges” and through one tunnel, upon which we got off, watched the engine turn around on a turntable and returned back. It was the highlight of his summer and he didn’t stop talking about it for a week.

We’re starting to get into the swing of things now, and life is starting to settle into a routine, which is good. Renee is at a job interview today for a very part-time position in a 6 bed level II nursery at a Chattanooga hospital…a much needed step down in intensity. Jonathan is attending Mother’s Day Out on Tuesdays…a pre-school type class at a local church from 9:00-2:00 and loves “going to school to play with kids.” He is a non-stop chatterbox and absolutely loves reading his books…and is to the point now that he knows the words to his favorite stories and knows when we skip parts.

Well, that’s probably it for now. I used to make promises as to when this site would be updated. I no longer engage in such foolish activities.

Coming Soon-ish

• Ken’s New Guitar
• A Potty Party!

May 12 – Ken graduates from Denver Seminary. It only took a half-decade.

May 18 - Ken and Renee drive a moving truck, tow a car, and drive the other one to Lookout Mountain, GA, our new home.

May 21 - Ken and Renee hang out on campus at Covenant College and in Chattanooga with the staff we’ll be working with. Fun times were had by all.

May 22 – Ken and Renee make the 10 1/2 hour drive north to join our son at Grandma and Grandpa Brouwer’s in Grand Rapids, MI.

June 1 – After spending time in GR with friends and family for a week and a half (we had a great time relaxing, working on the Sushi restaurant and hanging out at a lake), we went off to Pella, Iowa for Renee’s grandpa’s 80th birthday party. It was fun hanging out with the extended fam, and Jonathan had a great time playing with all his (third?) cousins. Saturday night I went to my first stock car race at the Iowa Speedway. I enjoyed myself much more than I thought I would.

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June 4-7 – Sunday, the third, I left Iowa to head up to St. Paul, MN for the national ACSD (Association of Christians in Student Development) conference, while Renee and Jonathan traveled back to GR. The conference was great, primarily because I was able to spend a ton of time hanging out with the people I’ll be working with this year. I also was able to hear Donald Miller (author of Blue Like Jazz) speak and go to several great workshops. While driving around downtown Minneapolis we saw Joakim Noah walking around…must have been working out for the Timberwolves that week. All in all, it was a very enjoyable conference, though I was anxious to get back with the family.

June 8 – I had driven down to Madison to spend the night with our good friends Kevin and Kelly. Kevin is a certified arborist in nursing school, and we climbed up a big white oak in his backyard with full climbing gear and rappelled down. It was pretty sweet being 45-50 feet up in the air and swaying back and forth with the breeze. I then made the drive through Chicago traffic to meet up with Renee, Jonathan and Renee’s parents at her grandparents place in Munster, Indiana, where we had dinner and then went over to our friends Doug and Kim’s house.

June 9-11 - We spent the rest of the weekend in Chicago hanging out with old friends and having a grand old time playing Bags and Ladder Ball (or Cornhole and Grandpa’s Balls to us…don’t ask) It is always so refreshing to reconnect with old friends and have it feel like nothing has changed.

June 12-24 – Up in America’s Dairyland. We had a fantastic time hanging out with my family and relaxing. We were able to go see our favorite musician (Andrew Peterson) while we were there and the concert was great. AP writes amazing songs that are brimming with truth and it is always a joy to see him play in concert. On Father’s Day Renee, Jonathan, Aunt Katie, Uncle Josh, Papa Phil and I went up to Appleton to watch the Brett Favre Celebrity Softball Classic…It was hot, but a lot of fun…some other celebrities were spotted there too (right around the 1 minute spot). Jonathan went to Lakeside Park with Nani and Papa Steve and went to the petting zoo and rode the train twice…that boy is obsessed with trains! We spent some time fishing, relaxing at Mom’s house on the lake, and had some Litscher family photos taken at Hobbs Woods.

June 25 - We’re back in Michigan for a few days now, getting some last minute family time in and then we head home–sounds strange to say that–on the 30th. The Midwest tour has been great, but we’re anxious to start this new phase of our life! Lookout Mountain, here we come!