Friday, April 03, 2009

Let's hear it for the BOYS!



April 6th: an all day event
<

December 4th: an all day event, he gets less presents due to Christmas mind you.



June 26th: all day event, but not an all month celebration, he shares the same birthday month as me!

< Did you all know that it was Joel's birthday on MOnday?

We are terrible, and I shame all of you, I am exempt because I am blogging the shame.
Every year comes and goes and the men who were daring enough to marry us, and into our family have gone unsung during their birthdays. Well I say no MORE!
We need to be better at remembering them, and celebrating their courage, their patience, their resolve, more importantly their longsuffering!

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Look at what Naarah did to my HOUSE!

 

 

 

 

People, be warned. Talking to Nara is not only hazardous to your ears, but it is also quite dangerous for your house. She is capable of distracting you to the point where grease will combust into flames 3 feet high. No lie. She's a mess.
So here's how she destroyed my kitchen...
I was minding my business, creating a few scrap book pages with Gabe for his teacher's birthday, when I get a call. NAARAH! I pick up, she begins to talk about herself. I tried to focus on family meal time by starting the last part of our meal, french fries. I normally bake these, healthier ya know, but Naarah distracted me with her fast talking ways and next thing I know I'm pouring oil in my new Ikea wok, which is totally a bargain, $7. I turn on the stove and go back to scrap booking only 20 feet away from the stove.
Naaarah continues to yap and yap. The attentive listener that I am, I'm listening and then I hear the oil snap and I say to myself, oils ready! I turn to the kitchen and it's already filling the kitchen with thick black smoke.
I yell to naarah that I have to go, I hang up. I turn off the stove and move the wok, from the heat, but it's smoking even worse now. I try to open the windows, but it's stuck just enough that I begin to panic, and I see a small flame out of the corner of my eye. I panic even more now. I cant remember what you're suppose to do. I remember what not to do, but that's it. I know I'm not suppose to move it, but the more I think, I can't think.
Within 2 seconds the small flame is now a huge flame and climbing my microwave. I grab the wok handle with a paper towel; the flames are so hot the towels burst into flames. I stomp out the fire on the floor while I see that the flames are now higher, up my cabinets. I know I am not suppose to touch the pan, but the more I hesitate the higher the fire is getting.
I'm now yelling for Jesus asking him, what do I do. Gabe is yelling for me, just yelling my name, not really saying much. (mom disclaimer: The most I can figure of Ava is, Ava is now changing outfits and switching her princess shoes upstairs) I can't think of anything to do, but I do see my kicthen on fire and as much as I don't like the kitchen it's still mine, and I don't like it (afte-thoughts, not actual-time-thoughts). I don't know how I got from the stove to the door, but I got there. I don't remember how the door got opened but it is opened. I walk backwards, because I want my back to the wind, while the flames are shooting up. The grease is spilling all over the floor and it starts little fires where it is spilling. Luckily, the tile is cold enough to cool the flaming grease, the door on the other hand and my garage rug are not so lucky. I drop the grease in the middle of the garage floor and go back inside to see if the flames are still climbing the cupboards. They aren't, but I have to stomp out the flame on the stairs. Apparently the wok was the heat source and the fire didn't totally take hold on the cabinets.

I than crossed the lake of grease in my kitchen that spilled on the floor and got Gabe and pushed him out the front door. I yelled for Ava who was coming down the stairs, new outfit on, and I turned to see if Gabe was out of the house, he was. Now Ava disappears. I yell for her,... silence. I run back into the house into the kitchen. The flames are out, but I see her crying in the grease on the floor. The girl decided to go out the garage door and slips in the grease. I panic and am yelling at her, are you burned, she's covered in the grease from the floor. She's yelling yes. I ask her if the grease has burned her as I'm dragging her out of the house. She finally understands that I'm worried not mad. I tear off her pants and ask her if her legs hurt. They do, but only because she fell so hard on the floor, not because she's got burned. She sits in her underwear on the front step next to her crying brother. They are really scared.
I tell the kids to stay on the front stoop. I don't know why I told them to stay. I don't know a lot at this point.
It has only been 1-2 minutes since I hung up on Naarah, the fire starter.
My poor neighbors are freaked out because a 7 month pregnant lady holding her belly, from running over to their house, is crying at their door asking them to watch her kids because there is a fire at the house. Don comes running back to the house with me and sees the damage. All fires are out, he hugs me and settles me down. We check the flames in the wok and it has burned out. Reality sets in and I'm freaked out. I did everything I shouldn't have done within this situation.
But Praise Jesus all is fine. All is more than fine, All is safe and sound. "He will send HIS angels charge over me" and HE did.
Moral of this story: Don't talk to Naarah at any point of cooking, scrap booking, driving in traffic, giving birth, washing floors, roller blading, and mowing the lawn.
The kitchen will be back to normal in 1-2 months!
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Thursday, March 05, 2009

You asked for it!




I feel like I've been run over by a train on most days, but in all honsety this is the healthiest pregnancy to date. I've got nothing to prove it's me, atleast nothing from the neck up... But I find it awkward that my child would be loving on a stranger's belly.
2 more long months to go...

Pics of tender moments





Gabe now hates hair cuts, he said he wants to grow the hair out to look like a Pokemon character. He is so funny. We're trying real hard to let him be as funky as he wants to be, but that dang hair now has to be tucked or slicked to his head. We are compromising and just cutting the sides.
Ava on the other hand is now interested in high school and make up. Not a day too soon I think.
She goes in and out of her crazy streaks. She got this Raccoon mask from a restaurant and decided to try and scare daddy with it. Boy was he scared. She is snarling in this photo.

Last photo is Ava eating dinner with Spinach plastered to her face. She could have cared less. She also threw her spinach up in her cup. Apparently drinking water real fast to make it go down faster also makes it come up faster.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Queen of my House




If I could bottle an ounce of Ava and sell her for $4.95 I'd be a millionaire in under 1 month. Her sweet sassiness is my daily challenge and laughter, although most of the time I feel burned by a familiar tone and echo, my own. Somehow when my own spit and venom is duplicated and aimed back at me, it's seems less bitter from a 3.5 year old, but just as jaw-droppingly sincere and stunning.
I'm often times left speechless and calling for back up. Joe is not quick to come to my aid because he finds it so dog gone funny!
I can't sum her up in little quips because her charm is not just in her words, but her tone, her body language, and her really really short pants.
I would buy her new pants but she has a drawfull, she just refuses to wear them without a fight. 7 months prego helps me prioritize my fights. HER Pants are not a good one to pick. I lose usually, unless dad picks them out, then they are always extra beautiful or "GORGEOUS".

King's new home






Reasons why King loves me more:
-1-I boiled 4 soup bones and reserved all the extra beefy goodness for King's food marinate! He now whines when the bowl is taken away (ha).
-2-All beef bones now cause good dog fights between the dominant Chab, Percy, and the Passive aggressive German, King.
-3-We've changed his name from King to Carmen.
-4-We vasaline his nose and paws at night to prevent chapping
-5- We vacuum once a week and save all his hair colected for his pillow in our bedroom
-6- We spoon at night
-7- I gave him his own library card and is an avid reader
-8- I let him watch CNN news and Chick flix with me in the kitchen while cooking with Rachel Ray
-9- The mail man and Fed Ex guys walk him during the day
-10- Little dogs are now his allies against local terrorism and anarchist
-11- We chase leaves rather than squirrles now

Monday, January 12, 2009

Baby Broccoli


Please help me welcome baby broccoli into this world. We won't talk about when she first arrived, but I can tell you when we get to see her in person for the first time, May 24 or sooner let's pray.
They say she's a girl, Ava won the bet, Gabe was disappointed for a short moment but then recovered with big brother happiness.
I was sick for 12 weeks straight all day, every day. The memory of it all wears me out. That slowed my blogging and socializing. Now that my energy is back, so is my larger butt (ah yeah) and a protruding belly. Most white folks won't quite ask if I'm pregnant yet, and I'm thinking why wouldn't ya? I wasn't looking like this 2 months ago! Although, I will say I have seen some heavy drinking ladies looking more pot bellied than me right now.
I'll officially declare it, Yes folks, I'm pregnant and 5 months and some odd weeks along. I'm feeling pretty good right now and we are wrestling over some names. In the mean time Ava has named her Baby Broccoli Kook Poop. We call her Broccoli for short and also had a nice long talk about how it's not nice calling her sister Poop.

Missouri Winter wonderland

 

 

 

 

Missouri Snow comes but a few times a year and did we participate in the coldness. Like all quality siblings they went out happy and giddy and AVa came in crying and cold from the snow Gabe tossed in her face, down her jacket and in her gloves. I giggles along with the memories of it all, and warmed Ava up, scolded Gabe out of necessity and sent em back out to play. They later made Percy the victim of their snow bal throwing and she came in full of snow dandruff.
A QUALITY MISSOURI SNOW if I've ever seen one!
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Gabe's 8th year of bliss






The food should explain the atmosphere of the house. Joe was working a late night again, so I had to do another birthday party full of farting, burping, yelling, gun-slinging 8-year-olds. Last year for a party! I can VOW to this. All in all it was a good night, fun was had by all, all went home sugared up and ready to drive the rents nuts.
Gabe is now 8 and has turned over a new leaf. He is now Mr. Independent and no longer needs the coddling of his parents. To our delight we are letting him experience a bit of independence which is now costing him money. We fine him or charge him $ when things don't go as he planned. His 8 year old logic is money in my pockets. He takes pride in his new decision making however. Although he doesn't need our coddling he does prefer it on days. He still needs to be cuddled and hugged for a good long hour every now and then. It's good to be wanted rather than needed!

Christmas dancer


Ava is my little Princess dancer. She's got good ol ATL rhythem in her booty. Would you expect anything else though, now really?
She was getting everyone into the Christmas spirit when GRandpa Norm came to visit us around Gabe's birthday. Ava loves showing off her new moves, but more importantly urging the fam to get into the Christmas festivities.
It worked, we were excited for Christmas.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

FALL FUN!




 



Upon the request of my dad, I have now updated my blog with something more seasonal. He's eally big on keeping with the seasons. And now that winter is right around the bend I figured I better get my fall spectacular photos up.

Here's a brief summary of fall:
It went quick
leaves turned colors
they died and fell o our lawn
Joe cleaned half of them up
kids played
I was sick
Fall 08 Rocked
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Saturday, September 13, 2008

 

 

 
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Labor Day Bonanza

 

 

 

 

We went to the zoo in hopes to find Ava & Gabe's real parents. We were in luck, we found them!But poor us, they had been bronzed! So the kids decided to pick their real father's nose. It was truly precious. Now that Joe got back from his LA vacation, we are off & running our school year race. Joe pops in once and awhile then leaves again, but nothing beats the morning with dad. I get to work early, the kids get 2 hours of down time in the morning, and everyone gets to their schools and work on time. MONRING BLISS. Joe's off again to Wichita.
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Friday, July 25, 2008

Card Game in the children's home


I only took this video because the boys playing were so giddy over winning. They are playing "War" with Gabriella who travelled with us.
They were laughing and giggling so hard that they started to forget to take the cards. I guess winning will do that to a person. Sometimes knowing you won is better then the actual winnings.
While we were there, we never saw one disagreement, fight, bad remark, degrading, jealous reaction, or dirty look. They functioned as a happy and well established family. They held eachother in the highest regard and took each person's role in the house seriously. Any serious matters are handled with wisdom and serious counsel and is not aired with people who are not involved.
The children are separated within 3 houses: Girl house, boy house, brick house. Each house has house parents who live in an ajoining house. They raise the 14 kids in their house like they were their own. There was no distiction between biological children and adoptive children. The center is kept in immaculate care. Each child has daily duties of cleaning and care taking. They keep their home clean and presentable, unlike most of what we saw coming from the homes of the villages.
There was such a stark contrast between the Christian Children's home and the non-believing villages, Sue called it an oasis in a dark land, and it truly was and is for the children and for us.
Sue is the director of the center. She is almost 70 and stil runs around the cambodian country side like she was 19. She plans on retiring in a small cottage right on the centers back land. She will be in my prayers, God is doing a great work through her.

Khmer singing "This is the Day"

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This is a video of the village people (american joke) singing this is the day in Khmer (what they call themselves, not Cambodian)
This village is a non believing village. But I will continue to pray that the words that theses kids sing will bare witness in their lives.

At the end of our time teaching English they sang a song that they wrote. The words were "thank you Jesus" and it sounded more like Sank you Sesus. It was precious and brought me to tears.
I prayed over the village that Jesus would protect them and that their hearts and ears would be open to learning more English and about Jesus. They take prayers very seriously and pray expecting some results. So I will continue this prayer. They are not use to dealing with a god who is alive and an active listener, let alone a god who answers. The statue of Buddah is dead or sleeping in most of their homes, and they have never questioned this. They also pray to their ancestoral spirits who are mostly deaf, because they don't answer thier prayers.
We were joyously received by this village and the children are forever etched in my heart. Especially the boy on the left in the video who was burned from head to toe. I don't know the story behind his severe burn, but his smile radiated in my heart. He picked up English quickly and was eager to gain my appoval. He loved his coloring book and crayons.
All the children and several parents (who looked 10 years younger than us, but were the same age) colored for 15 minutes and were so happy to receive this gift.
More pics to come.

Cambodian Jewlery Party





2 Wednesday's ago we brought all the women who worked at the Children's home together, 3 house moms, 3 kitchen staff, and 1 teacher, and let them choose some jewlery. The jewlery was donated by Athena's aunt. The women also received a bag of shampoos and soaps. They absolutely loved all the gifts. They were trying on jewlery, laughing, watching for the set that looked best on each woman. Some of the ladies wore their jewlery throughout the week. They were very generous with eachother and did not covet the others choice or seem jealous or grabby during the whole process. Thier actions of "here, you choose first" were the opposite of what we saw in the village and throughout Cambodia, which was more me first, mine, give me.
I pray my heart can be like these women when I receive. It's gonna take a lot of work on Jesus behalf.