Our Genius Son and Other Interesting Tidbits

Joshua is officially reading on his own. No novels or anything like that, but reading "popcorn" by sounding it out counts, I think. He is just barely 4 1/2 now. Actually, officially 4 1/2 today! Yesterday he points to the microwave and sounds out "p-o-p-corn." I couldn't really believe it. He's been working on small things like stop and go but I counted that as him just haven memorized the letter order, but this is now genuinely reading. We moved on to figure out potato farther down on the buttons as well. I have no idea where he gets this intellectual curiosity but I love it! I was so impressed with him I took a picture.We also got news the other day on the two showings we had last week for the house. In both cases the feedback was positive. One doesn't seem like a good fit for our house financially (it's at the top of their price range and they're wanting a lot of help from the seller for financing). The other liked it but decided to go with something else. We're feeling good about the house and the pricing of it and our ability to prepare it for a showing... which is a good thing since we had a 3rd showing today!
Here is the birthday cake on site. Everyone loved it. The kids even ate the leaves off the trees (which I thought was cool).Lastly, we have found out that our assumed time frame for things this fall concerning Phil was off. He has more schooling to complete after he arrives in Virginia in November so he'll be stateside longer then we originally thought. We'll still be separated, but just not as far apart. We'll have to find out more about this as we get closer. In the mean time, please be praying that the bonus money we are expecting any day now will come in a timely manner so we can take care of the things that need to be taken care of (and so we can visit Disneyland while we are in California as well).