Hi Family,

Speedos, eh? Where do they come UP with these rules? :)

Well, today we hit 30 degrees! The flowers are starting to bloom and it sure feels like summer. I survived another round of report card writing - let's see now, that's 11 years of it! Yehah! Al is off golfing right now, with Todd, a friend from church. This past weekend we went to Niverville for the Fair. We met dad and Marianne and then headed out for supper together "on the street." Mom joined us after serving cheesecake at the Heritage vendor. I saw high school friends - Laura, Sheila, and Bonnie! It was nice talking to them! Laura was nervous because it was her first time letting her 11 year old go off on his own.

On Saturday we celebrated Al's 44th birthday! Markus, you realize you HAVE lost your "oldest in the family" status. We had Al's family over for a BBQ - Mom Wiebe, Tante Teen, Tante Sus, Tante Annie, and Rob and Brad and the nieces Brittany and Alyssa. It was a great spitziering evening. Alyssa has caused a lot of grief lately, drug use, assaulting a cop, getting a criminal record for that, being "locked up" for that for a few days, and believe it or not, that seems to have helped. She told me she really wants to get out of her bad friends now, because she sees the road they're going down - destruction of their lives. So, I was thrilled to hear that. She really wants to move back to Winkler, so this is being negotiated. It has been hard for Mom W. and Brad. We went to Brittany's dance recital Sunday night at the Concert Hall. She does hip hop. She's really grown into a young lady! We are always praying she makes it alright, in spite of her messed up mom and all she sees there. Right now, Pam is dating a man that is married.

Yesterday we had a bake sale at church to raise money for our Uganda mission trip. There are ten of us going. Later we had a planning meeting the third of about 10. We practiced three skits that we will do this summer. I think we have a nice team of people. We're just beginning to know each other. Because we only have three men going, the nature of the trip is changing from being only construction, to being one week construction and one week children's ministry with orphans. We will get to go the Bethany children's village which is the orphange that Al's "car" money is going to, and any other money raised through our letter.

Marriage ministry class is over now. We hope we made a difference in these 4 couples lives. The one couple was especially close to getting divorced and we may have helped salvage that marriage. Pray for this one couple. I also have one more week of the Daniel - Beth Moore study that mom has also been a part of. It has been incredibly challenging mentally! But it has been great. I hope to have my small group over for a potluck this summer one day.

Graduation is on June 28 at LCS. This is my first batch of kids graduating at Linden so Al and I will attend. It is a milestone for me as a teacher. Kind of sentimental I must say!

We are getting a dog! A "Comfort Retriever." It's a cross between a golden retriever and a cocker spaniel. Looks like a golden retriever, just smaller. He's not born yet, but we will get him in August after we get back from Uganda. He'll be about 8-10 weeks old. We found this dog on the internet, from South Dakota.

Yeah, so those are some of the events happening around here. We are looking forward to going fishing July 13-16 with Al's brother Rob,...who used to be a fishing guide. I'm looking forward to just being out in nature.

Hey Niklaas! My class has been making movies about extreme weather. I thought of you because I know you would like this. I have a suggestion...why don't you film your summer holidays and send us a movie of it? Interview Emily and Matthew and you mom and dad...just a thought. :)

Love you all!

Brenda
Hope you are all well.