And the stories begin

I'm not sure what to say to start, mostly because I feel like I'm writing to thin air, but, oh well.  After talking with Jeremy about our steller performance in communicating with our families and far away friends and then feeling profoundly guilty about it, I heard about a friend that started a community blog for her family and thought that sounded worth a try for us.  I would like for this to be a chance for us to tell our stories and hear yours as well.  Our lives have been so richly blessed by so many people and many are far away, but still close to our hearts.  We struggle to have meaningful communication with all these people, but we haven't forgotten, we still love and miss all of you and at this time in our lives (as for the past 8 years) we aren't going to be any good with the traditional forms of communication.  So please, join us in the online adventure of a blog and we will do our best to share ourselves with you and look forward to knowing you more as well. 
 
Today finds us returning to work and "normal" life after a wonderful week + of vacation.  We stayed in Houston most of the time and did things in our area that locals never get around to doing.  We had a blast.  Ophelia is 5 years old and starting kindergarten this fall.  She wears glasses and had eye surgery this past June.  Her recovery was a record and she is doing very well.  Her most favorite thing of all is ballet and she wants to be a dancer when she grows up.  Last week Ophelia had her first piano lesson (with mommy, her choice, I wanted daddy to teach her, but she picked me... we'll see how this goes) and she loved it.  We just bought our own child piano books for the first time.  After so many years of teaching other people's children, this feels kind of strange.  Lavinia is 3 years old and just crazy!  Full of energy and a love to laugh, she looks up to her big sister and (for the moment) enjoys being her side-kick.  Every thing is her favorite thing, just ask her.  She wants to be her sister when she grows up (for the moment) and she wants a little brother (not happening).  Helena is trying to find her voice in a rather noisey house... and it's coming along.  We are startled by her intense blue eyes that speak volumes even when she is silent.  From the get go, Helena has loved to be cuddled and held and, most of the time, we love to cuddle and hold her.  She enjoys eating and can out eat most of us and is getting the girth to prove it!  We got two dogs last month, Satine and Rosie.  They are sweet and very loving.  The girls love them like crazy and are learning a lot from having to help take care of them.  Jeremy and I still minister at St. Mark Lutheran Church though we've been through a lot of changes there.  I'm getting ready to take a short trip to Chicago this week, my first time back in almost two years.  Jeremy doesn't get to go so it will be very strange to be there without him.  We are very busy and into all kinds of things all the time.  There is so much more I could say, but I'm going to stop for now.  I hope you are doing well, we miss so many of you that we don't get to see.  Please feel free to comment and update us on how you and yours are doing.  If you don't want to make a public comment (making a comment on this site would be public), please email us: ochantelle@yahoo.com or petitrach@yahoo.com.  I look forward to connecting with you.