midweek.

Midweek. Nate is fortunately working mostly days this week, so we can carpool. I've been helping him with his Hebrew homework, and he has aced his first two quizzes. The first week was the aleph bet, and this week was about a dozen vocabulary words. Next week … 60 vocab words. I can't read Hebrew, but I remember some of the vocab because of word association. Like the Hebrew word that sounds like "men" means "from" (like men are from Mars) and the word that sounds like "baa" means "he came" (baa -> shepherds -> shepherds came to see Jesus). From learning Spanish, I know that's not a good method for learning a new language because you're just translating words in your head but it helps me quiz Nate.

We had some nice weather last week. Low- to mid-80s. Three afternoons, I went to the zoo to get some walking in. I took this photo from behind handprint-covered glass so it's a little foggy but this meerkat was smiling at me. Then he, like his little friend, tucked his head between his feet and took a nap.

The flamingos are one of my favorites at the zoo because they are so interesting and weird. They are getting really used to their exhibit so they come real close to where the people are. They squawk really loud and stand on one leg and fight with each other. Reminds me of Alice in Wonderland croquet.

We got a makeover on our floor at work. This wall is outside my office. You have to understand, people around here do not like change. But I love the new paint. Not all the walls got painted, but some are green, some are teal, some are orange, and in the lobby there is one wall covered in black chalkboard paint. I love it. You can definitely tell you are in the Kids Ministry area when you get off the elevators.

Nate took this photo of Otis and Miles. Not sure why Miles looks like such an old man in this photo. He's three years old. Otis is 1.5 years. In the next month or two, they're going to the vet to get their annual shots. Otis has been really into chasing these little plastic balls with bells inside. He picks them up in his mouth and plays fetch. You throw it, he chases it down and brings it back. I think that is why he is so much skinnier than Miles. Miles doesn't get much exercise.

I've been spending almost all of my free time in the last week or so working on my family tree. Researching and using whatever free tools I can access on ancestry.com.  I have 1,044 people in my tree right now, which includes Nate's side too. It's hard to put in data, especially when people have 13 kids, and their kids each have 8 or so kids, and people get married more than once and have more kids. I'm mapping out anyone I can find who is related. Sometimes I skip the siblings and stick to the main lines but I will get there eventually.