those summer nights...

It seems the last few weeks, the after-dinner activity 80% of the time has been to swing on the little swingset behind our apartment complex. It isn't much to look at, but the back of the building gets little direct sun and it catches the breeze just perfectly, so even if it was 97degrees (like yesterday) it still feels great after dinner.

Pictures I usually miss: Part 1

I'm starting a new segment on my show...um, I mean my blog...and it's about pictures I never take because I never have my camera with me. Because I always have my children with me.

BUT, there are a few times when I am childless and so I therefore have resolved to try to take more pictures because sometimes, there are just funny things that I want you to see. Sometimes it's not funny, but I still want you to see it.

Today I'd like to introduce you to my favorite street. It's really only my favorite street in the spring and summer, when the trees are at their peak of leaves. This is the street I walk down almost every day; it takes me to McDonalds, the grocery store, the bank, my kindergarten class, our friday afternoon picnic spot...you name it, I probably use this street to get there. I love this street because it always makes me feel like I'm walking through a big, fat leafy tunnel. I like that. (there are no nice leafy canopies over the actual road, only on the sidewalks, so you don't get the same effect if you drive.) They're still doing all sorts of nasty construction on my most fave street, to make better sidewalks and bike lanes and such, but I still like it.

What do you think?

happy birthday, holly!

nothing says "happy birthday" like saying it in public, right?

just want you to know we love you and are so thankful for your life!

looking forward to many happy times!
josh, rach, emma and mantha

excited...

...that's how emma and samantha felt when the doorbell rang last week. A package had arrived, and the girls always know that packages are good things, very good things. They didn't know that I had requested loads of antibacterial soap from my parents. I didn't know my parents had packed so many goodies in there for them. Everyone was happy.

You may have heard about a little virus that's spreading around the country (the country we live in, probably not the country you live in!). Just to be on the safe side, we've taken emma out of preschool for a while and I have transformed my usual laid-back self into a very freakish handwasher. I appealed to my parents to support the cause, and for my efforts I received large quantities of fab smelling anti-bac stuff. (some of it was that heavenly bath and body works stuff....aaahhhh!)

anyway, package-opening is usually an after dinner affair. In typical fashion, after dinner the girls got to see what was in the package. In addition to my soaps, the girls got new swimsuits, and some other fun matching stuff. Most of you know that my two sisters are also close in age, and they spent much of their childhood parading around in matching outfits. I am so a fan of matching outfits now that I have kids old enough to wear them. Tell me this is not cute -

Anyway, the swimsuits were a big hit. Rumor has it john and rachel's new apartment complex has a nice pool - hopefully we'll get some pool time this summer!

funnies...

- Now that samantha is older, she finds herself with many opportunities to get in trouble. I recently decided to give her the choice of receiving her punishment on her hand or on her bottom. Her answer: "I don't want a punishment on my hand! And also, I don't want a punishment on my bottom!"

- I think we did a good job of picking out samantha's name. We love how easily it rolls off the tongue and has such happy sound. We often call her by her full name - samantha kate - and not just when she is in trouble. But recently, she has been correcting us: "I'm not samantha kate!" she'll exclaim. "I'm Samantha Ca*****!"

- Several weeks ago, we were at a friends house for dinner. Locals are notorious for offering children food, without a thought in the world if the child's parents would agree. Because of samantha's allergy to egg, we are trying to instill in her a habit of asking us before she eats anything people give her. At my friend's house, she was given a wide array of things to eat, but I specifically told her "don't eat the mangoes". (Note: not because of allergy reasons, simply because of cleanliness issues. I wasn't sitting near the mangoes, and I didn't want her sticking her fingers in them and getting mango juice everywhere.) A few moments later, another lady at the house asked her, "Do you want some mangoes?" Of course, mantha happily agreed.

I casually took her to the bathroom to have a talk with her, and remind her of what I had told her. During our heat to heart, I said to her:
"Samantha, if someone says to you - here, mantha, eat this mango! here, mantha, eat these grapes! here, mantha, eat this chocolate! you need to come ask mommy first. You may not eat things without asking mommy first."

So samantha, the bright girl that she is, asks me, "Mommy, can I eat the mangoes?"

No, I tell her, you may not.

"May I eat the grapes?"

"No, samantha, you may not."

" I can just eat the chocolate then, ok?"

- On the evening of mother's day, we were preparing for bedtime prayers and we were talking about how blessed we were by mothers. I talked about my mother, josh talked about his mothers, then we talked about all the mothers of our parents. The girls are getting more and more familiar with my parents and josh's parents, and are trying hard to work on our grandparents.

Anyway, as we started to pray, we listed out the mothers by name who we would thank God for. At one point, emma realized we were leaving someone out of the mix. "Who's so-and-so's mom?" she asked us. We told her, and we all commented on how this persons' name sounds exactly like the word "cat" in asianese. Her name, directly translated in asianese, would be "cat-cat". It sounded funny to us. We all laughed. We clarified whose name it was to the girls, and then we prayed.

Samantha's first words out of her mouth: "God, thank you for cat-cat, mimi, gigi..." I guess some things will just always stick! :)

- Looking out the window at the pouring rain several evenings ago, emma asked me why it rained. I told her that God sends the rain to help things grow. "God sends the rain," she summarized to samantha, "to help the rice grow, to help the chickens grow, and to help the ketchup grow."

"And," samantha added, "to help the barbecue sauce grow."

we live to play

Ok, it seems like all we do is play. It's really not that way, but play-pictures make better blogs than random, day-to-day stuff pictures. Every year around International Labor Day (which my local friends were surprised to learn that America does not celebrate International Labor Day in May, but rather in the fall), the sports stadium in our city hosts a big, inflatable-type carnival. It's actually very un-carnivalish, but I can't think of a better way to describe it.

We went last year, and then for the big National Day celebration last fall they had another one that we went to. Usually, these types of activities are prohibitively expensive for locals. The $5 admission per child is actually fairly expensive for them. (For us, it's great because it means we have the place mostly to ourselves!)

This May, however, admission was only $2.50 (or four yellow poker chips!) and we were all over that. It's funny comparing pictures from last year and seeing how much they've grown and changed. Emma was WAY more interested the more physical part of it this year and really enjoyed it. Mantha kind of bounced around and went in and out of tunnels, but got tired and disinterested pretty fast.

Looking for emma...

...we found mantha!At this time last year, emma did not yet have the coordination to actually jump...so she loved the feeling this time around!Playing hide-and-seek with the camera - also known as running from getting your picture taken. But, alas, we are sneaky parents...It was H-O-T that day; you can see the redness in their faces! To our extreme delight, the weather has suddenly gotten cooler (as in, we had to wear layers one day last week!) but this day was way hot. Mantha tried her best to make friends and be nice to the other kids......but really she just wanted that ball!Emma tried a few more difficult toys - this one with the rope was so hard, I couldn't even do it! But, a few days later we went back with all the little friends (clara, chloe, peter, alex, savannah) and emma was encouraged by the bigger kids' abilities and was able to do it!This one was a little easier - and she had help from behind......whoa, easy there......princess emma, making it up the ladder, over the bridge, and finally into her little "castle" overlooking everything...ok, all I know is that if I were a kid, this would scare me. Big googly eyes with a red snout? I think not. and then you slide out the back? ok, wierd. But I love thic picture of mantha's flying hair....take 2...We had a great time, and a few days later (as I said earlier) we went back with all the other kids we know.

It's always easier to be adventurous when you're not alone! (and since baby christin was unable to play with these toys, emma was delighted to spend all her time with clara anne!) And I'll leave you with hilarously funny picture of samantha actually being willing to pose in the red snout of the freaky dragon...

put those flowers to work...

Instead of throwing away those petals on the fab flowers your husband helped your kids buy you for mothers day...








The girls loved gluing on the petals! After the glue-fest, we pressed the flowers under a stack of books, and voila! mothers day flowers to remember forever! (the petals shrunk a bit after drying, so if you try it, be generous with your petals)

for hannah

June 27, 2006

...but I don't think samantha's the only one who has grown up! :)

a moment of...silence?

Emotions are subdued here, that's for sure. Everyone is reflecting on the earthquake and its implications in their own way. Today, and for the next two days, the entire country is showing its support, solidarity, and grief by stopping everything for three minutes.

I have to say, it's pretty odd. In the four years we've lived here, I've never seen the country really "rally" around anything. Even nationalism, which is frenetically high, seems only loosely channeled in various protests and riots. The show of support is actually pretty sobering because of its rarity. It underscores what a devastating tragedy has happened.

But the oddest thing about it - which actually isn't so odd once you think about it - is the way they decided to reflect on the situation. In America, when a tragedy of this sort happens, we take "moments of silence", for prayer, reflection, mediation, whatever. Here, the "moment of silence" was anything but. At 2:28, drivers were encouraged to honk their horns in a show of support and memory. Deafening weather sirens joined in, creating a very loud memorial to those who have died and are missing.

In America, it would be odd. But here, it's a fitting tribute. In a country that loves loud, where "the more the merrier" must have been coined, a quiet three minutes would seem uncomfortable.

I just happened to be walking to my kindergarten class at 2:28 when everything stopped and started at once. Traffic, in the middle of the road, came to a grinding halt. Bicyclists, buses, the water delivery carts, pedestrians, all stopped. For three minutes, life on the eight-lane road under my house stopped. Completely. I stopped too, reflected, mostly prayed. For more miracles of survival, for tender hearts ready to embrace life, for greiving parents, for families that will never be the same.

That has never happened. Ever. I guess, then again, neither has such a monumental tragedy in recent years.

dinnertable questions

The recent earthquake in our area of the world has provided some interesting table topics at our house. At Emma's school (which she is temporarily un-attending, due to a virus running around the country) they did a little fundraiser where all the kids talked about what they could do without and contribute some money to send to the earthquake victims. Josh and I talked about the earthquake victims and what happened a few days ago with the girls and have been praying for the people, especially the children, who are still trapped or missing.

Tonight as we were finishing off the last of my very disappointing homemade queso, Emma asked us: Is our house going to fall?

After several beats of silence thinking over how to respond to her, I gave her what I thought was a pretty accurate and honest answer. I told her I was pretty sure our house wouldn't fall. It might, but probably not. If it did fall, though, no matter how bad it seemed, God would always be with us. Even when really bad things happen, God never leaves us. He is always with us and He always looks after His children.

Emma was quiet for a long moment. Finally, she looked up at me with her big, honest eyes.

"Mama," she started, "what I meant was the song about the wise man and the foolish man. The ones who built their houses."

Oh.

And the winner is...

ME!!

I finally - FINALLY - beat josh at Settlers of Catan. Settlers of Catan is our newest addition to our game collection, and is the first to break away from games that have to do with spelling - Scrabble, Boggle, etc. I would think, being the highly intelligent person that I am, I would routinely beat josh at the word-games. But alas, I don't.

When I discovered how involved Settlers of Catan is (ie, it takes close to an hour to understand the directions if you are a new player; the instruction book is 12 pages long) I knew I stood no chance. It's a strategy game. There's a reason josh does what he does and I raise the children. I'm not so big on strategery. :)

But I won. I totally won. Granted, I had to deviate from my normal mode of play, which involves being very nice and not making moves that intentionally sabotage other players' (=husband's) efforts. But, I won.

Josh: 6,743,907
Rachel: 1

welcome, christin!

After many long months of waiting, our friends john and rachel finally had their baby, Christin Arielle! It was assumed that I would be excited for them, the birth-story lover that I am. BUT Emma has surprised me again with her overflow of love and excitement for babies! When john and rachel most recently came to our house, I'm sorry to say she wasn't so interested in playing with her BFF clara anne - she only had eyes for christin!

Emma has decided that she wants another baby of her own to hold, so she's started asking God to give us one. We'll see how all that turns out! Anyway, here's emma with her face full of baby delight...

mothers day, 2008

Woke up to rain.

Waking up to rain is actually nice, I think. I like the pitter patter (we also get the swoosh of the eight lanes of traffic below our house speeding through the traffic) and the way it slowly rouses you to the day ahead. When I woke up, josh told us we were heading to McD's for breakfast. Score. I'm all about the sausage.

The girls had matching curly-q bows in their hair, and if cute girls aren't enough of a mothers day present, I don't know what is.

I put this picture in because I'm always amazed at how well samantha eats with a fork. I mean, she eats like she's a real-life toddler. Oh yeah...she is! Somehow, I always think of her as this still-tiny baby - and it seems incredible to me that this still-tiny baby can eat, talk, and do the things that she does. Except that she's not a still-tiny baby anymore. She's a big almost-two-year-old who certainly has her opinions about stuff.After McD's, the plan was to go run a few errands and hang out at this pretty lake, but the rain kind of altered the plan. We did, however, put to good use the Dora umbrella that my parents brought the girls... We still ran the errands, and it ended up giving me a most unexpected surprise...

One of the things josh had to do was in an area of town that I seldom go to and have never explored. But I was amazed as we wandered down little alleys I had never seen before. It was almost as if I stepped back in time, to the asia I have read about and studied, not the asia I live in that is all about breakneck development and heaven-reaching skyscrapers. It was an enclave of quiet simplicity and its quiet simplicity was overwhelming to me. I felt a little like a wide-eyed kid walking around seeing things for the first time.

It wasn't that I'd never seen this kind of thing before - certainly some of the villages and country places we'd been in the South had traces of this kind of thing...and the capital is (trying to) making efforts at keeping these sorts of places safe from the wrecking ball - but for whatever reason, I loved wandering through these alleys.

I only had my tiny old camera with me - because it was raining, and I only expected us to go to McDonalds - so I hope to go back sometime and get better pictures, but I'm going to post these anyway so you can walk down the street with me...

I can't help but look at these old-style doors, with all their tradition and strength, and hear His words: I stand at the door and knock; if anyone will hear my voice and open the door, I will come in... Sometimes it feels like hearts here are like some of these doors - closed, locked, bolted.

...but then some doors were open just a bit, to where you could see a tiny bit down the alley, but nothing else. They felt so mysterious to me - willing to be open, but not to where you could see anything without prying.Maybe the overcast sky made the place seem more surreal than it normally would have been, but I so enjoyed myself. I loved the narrowness of the streets, even the narrowness of entrances past the doors - reminders of how the way is so narrow and easy to miss. I loved the quiet, reflective mood it created in my heart as I walked through the area.
By the time we reached the end of the alley, I had taken enough time snapping pictures that the rain started up again, but that worked out ok too, because then I had my camera out for this moment -

We walked around a bit more, let the girls splash in the puddles and then headed to an arcade to play before eating lunch at pizza hut. Two meals out in one day is pretty much a record for us! anyway, it was a great mothers day for me, and I hope it was for all of you too!