the winner is...

Good morning everyone...I've got a contest winner here for you. 

So everyone who guessed correctly (Abby, Mantha, Emma) got written down on my paper.  Yep, no fancy computer models for me...just a pen and paper.  

then I crumpled them up, so everyone could have a fair chance.  Because you know, when they are strips, they can get clumped together.  We wouldn't want any of that.  So, there you have it  - almost every friend I have in the world, symbolized by a little white ball of paper.  
into the bowl they go...
it's early, people.  It wasn't such a long time ago that I woke up...
the suspense...the suspense...

and...it's CASSIE!!  Congrats, newlywed cassie!  I'll shoot you an email with more details.  
So, I'm totally digging the contest. I thought it was great fun and I'll probably do another one.  thanks for entering and participating!

Happy Friday, everyone!

tough love

Emma has taken all the new adjustments to "baby-life" in stride.  She generally knows how much pressure is too much when she gives hugs, and usually doesn't get offended when abby's spastic, stray movements connect with her cheek.

Samantha, on the other hand, has some adjusting left to do.  She thinks abby is sometimes out to get her.  She feels sad and offended when Abby kicks her.  She gives love to Abby with the same intensity that she gives love to mom and daddy.

Abby's not always sure how to take it:

She tries valiantly to hang in there:
...but sometimes, it's a bit much.
She's really not trying to do any harm!
Alone at last, abby gives big smiles:

how well do you know my kids? A free giveaway--

Free! Free!  Yes, who can resist free, I ask you?  Hopefully not you!

I'm having my first ever - and possibly last ever - contest on my blog.  For you, my dearest and most faithful blog readers.  For you, who actually read all these mundane posts about my life.  It's time to be rewarded for all your hours in front of that computer.  

Here's how it works:

I'm going to post three pictures of my kids. wimming in the freaky little baby pool that all the locals here use for their kids.  **Note: If you've never seen this, do not be alarmed.  But you may want to sit down while you are examining pictures. It can cause disorientation and a strange urge to itch your neck.**

You must correctly label the pictures - Emma, Samantha, Abby.  (sinister laugh - hahahahahahaaaaaaaa!!)

Go with your instinct, don't overanalyze.  The surroundings are amazingly the same even though these pictures span nearly four years.  

One winner will be drawn from all the CORRECT entries.  If you guessed but were wrong, sorry, your name won't make it in the hat.  (And yes, we've got a highly professional gig going on here.  Your name will probably be thrown in a hat or a pot and I'll close my eyes and draw.  Very highly sophisticated, I know.)

Here are the pictures:

So what's in it for you?  I'll tell you:

The winner will receive one picture from my picture guy.  My picture guy rocks.  I take him all my pictures, he tweaks them here and there, and then after I tell him the size and color, he'll somehow mount them on a thick peice of something (not wood, not plywood, not plastic...the words fail me. I'm a bad describer.) and they can be hung on walls or displayed on shelves.  

Here are some things I've done before:

Little pictures (about 4x6) that sit nicely on shelves:

The big kahuna - I've got three of them on my walls.  These measure about 2feet by 2.5feet.  Nice and big.  

Then, he also can do amazing collages.  I do these frequently for gifts and nice displays at my house.  This is the most recent one I did; it's about 2feet by half a foot.  

Ok - so a quick recap:

-correctly guess which kid is which in the comments section of my blog.

-correct entries get entered in the contest.

-one winner will get to choose ANY size of ANY picture they want.  Collages are also up for grabs.  

-I'll take it to my picture dude and when it's done, I'll mail it to you anywhere in the entire world.  Turkey.  Thailand.  Valencia, CA.  Wherever.  

 

Contest ends Friday morning 9am my time, Thursday evening at 8pm CST.  That's six whole days, folks.

Good luck!

Nine years and two days

This post was originally intended to air on June 17, but seeing as how there's always a lot going on around here on that date, it just didn't happen.

After a full day of celebrating Samantha's 3rd birthday, we somehow summoned a little extra energy and laid on the bed Wednesday night and tried to relive each of our anniversaries. We tried to remember the things we had done and places we had been - from dessert at Olive Garden our very first anniversary to a bad western-imitation chinese restaurant on the third one, Paris on the fifth one, a hospital delivery room on the sixth...yeah, there are some crazy places in there.

When I woke up Wednesday morning, I fought all my motherly impulses and made sure that the first person who got a kiss from me was my husband (who was already up and getting emails out of the way). I noticed it was raining, a soft but steady rain...and I remembered how it was raining on my wedding day. Not a lot...but there was rain.

Even though I don't have a video of our ceremony, I still have lots of special memories -

I remember spending the night at my friend kim's house the night before we got married. (Now that I'm a mom, I can't beleive my parents let me do that! I'd want my baby girl's last night to be at my house! But anyway, thanks mom and dad... i don't even remember you being upset about it!)

I remember my best friend becky making a special trip to be the maid of honor. I'm ashamed to admit that now I can't remember if she was flying in from overseas or from college, but I knew she made a special effort to be there. (Now that I live overseas, I can't believe she was so willing to do that for me! anyway, thanks becky...just a few years late!)

I remember someone bringing me my "high-school" favorite lunch of a Grandy's chicken nugget meal after I was already dressed up in my finery. Does anyone remember who was responsible for that? I'd like to give a big shout out to whoever made that possible. Long live the Grandy's kids meal!

I remember meeting josh in the auditorium a few minutes before we took the official pictures before the ceremony. I remember the two of us giggling about how wild it was that we were about to be married. I remember the auditorium was empty - we had posted the groomsmen at the door so we could have a few special moments together - but somehow hudson had gotten left behind in his infant carrier... =)

I remember seeing my dad's misty eyes and him trying to pretend that he had nothing of the sort! =)

There were so many special people and things that happened that day. When I look back at all of that, I think - wow! we were so young! we were so idealistic! we were so crazy!

and some of that is true, but it's also true that we have had nine very special years together. We have grown together and laughed and cried and traveled and hiked and studied and had babies and painted and moved and I could go on and on.

I'm so thankful that God has matured our love and deepened our commitment to each other and to him. I'm thankful for a husband who loves me, but who loves God more and hears His voice. I'm thankful for a husband who pushes me on to be better and who encourages me when I don't feel like I want to be better. I'm thankful that he takes his responsibility to our family so seriously.

Josh, I love you. I love watching you laugh. I've learned to love watching you think. I love laughing with you and sharing our lives together. I love how you throw yourself wholeheartedly into all your endeavors. I've learned to warn you before you step with your socks in a puddle of water. I love the little things you do for me that show your love. God's plan for our lives to be joined together is so truly, wonderfully, divinely good.

Happy 9th, babe. Can you even believe how much we've done together? And there's so much more ahead...

papa piccolo

A recent book in our Five in a Row series is Papa Piccolo.  It's the story of a tomcat (in Italy, no less!) that "adopts" two kittens and teach them all baby kittens need to know.   They learn how to eat spaghetti and then lick themselves clean (ew.  yuck.  gross.), how to jump from high places and land on their feet.  They also "learn" how to drink milk from a saucer, as if they need any help lapping up the milk.

We thought it would be fun to pretend that we were baby cats.  (Ok, I didn't pretend.  They did.)  I set them each a bowl of water out and the whole day if they were thirsty, they had to drink from their water bowl.

They thought it was grand fun.  

We watched videos of cats jumping from high places, of cats licking themselves clean (again, ew.  yuck.  gross.) and drinking milk.  How did people learn anything before youtube and wikipedia?

Anyway, I'm glad to say that now there are only little girls in my home now, but they sure had fun pretending to be kitties.  

a little change

hey everyone, 

just wanted to let you all know that we don't know ed.  "Ed", who commented on my "today" post, is my first spam comment on my blog.  I'm not sure how I've survived so long with no spam comments, but I'm glad this is only my first.  Anyway, I changed the setting on my blog to ask you to type the word-verification thing before a comment will post. 

I feel a strong obligation to apologize, because I really hate word-verification things. I never can seem to type them right, no matter how many times I try...

But, it was either that or ask all you anonymous commenters (who always end up leaving your name!) to register with blogger and that seemed a little bit of a hassle.

So please forgive me and keep commenting, even though I really stink at responding to questions you may ask inside your comments. (My husband has reproved me and I promise to try harder to be a more considerate blogger who answers questions.)

Just a quick recap - when you click to leave a comment, you will be asked to type a series of letters or numbers to prove that you are a real, live person and not a spam-computer-something-or-other.  

sorry for the hassle.

rachel

puppy love...again

Emma probably asks us every day when we will buy her a dog. She dreams up solutions to the problem of where he could live. She encourages us to move so he will have more room to play. She tells us names she would choose. She wants a puppy so badly.

We really want to get one, too. Just not right now.

Don't laugh at me now when you hear this. I told josh that if we ever got a dog, little pup would have to wear booties every time we went outside. There's just too much outside-nastiness that I don't want his cute little puppy paws to bring inside. So, it would be booties in a big way around here.

but anyway, that's a long way off. But the girl can dream, right?

So do you remember that trip we took to the animal market a couple of months ago? here's the cute little guy emma wanted to bring home - and seriously, if we had a place for him, he would have been bought on the spot.

Samantha wasn't so excited, but she held him anyway:

But emma! Oh, you can feel the love. She was in the middle of a squeeze in this picture:
The animan market itself was a little on the chaotic side. There were lots of dogs sitting around, not tied up or anything. This guy barked some serious bark at us. I was nearly convinced to never think any more dog-thoughts for the rest of my life.
The puppy love didn't start when we were in thailand, but it definitely blossomed there. My friend alicia had two chihuahuas named Mocha and Latte. It was love and bliss and happiness.
They were really cute.


Are you feeling this love? Hallelujah, the tiny pup survived the love.
...and survived this love too. That's a lotta love.
Cute dog carrier? Check.
I guess he loves her too.
But that's all the puppy news for now, at least til we move and abby is not scrounging around on the floor for things. And those things won't happen for a while. Sigh.

outdoor school

I can tell that when it comes to homeschooling, I'm going to be a dreamer. I like thinking of fun things to do, creative and unusual ways to talk about things, and often my ideas get bigger and bigger until they become an all-day project. It will be amazing if we ever get anything done! But since I'm not actually starting homeschool for a while, I settle for big fun activities.

And since my friend amy IS homeschooling, I have to think of ways to get her to cancel class with her kids so she can come and play with me. (If you're a reader of amy's blog, I beg your pardon for seeing these pictures twice).

So my latest plot to convince amy to cancel school was to plan an outdoor school day. The challenge was thinking of enough activities that a 3 year old and a 7 year old could both participate in, but also challenge all kids involved.

Here's how it all ended up:
Meet at the city square at 9:15. Of course, I was late. But not by much. :)

The cast of characters - emma, savannah, alex, samantha and peter. I'm digging the clipboards and totally wished I had one of my own. Note to self: get a clipboard to carry around the house.

The kids liked them too and it made it feel more schoolish. At least I thought so. Too bad I didn't have any eraser caps. Didn't you totally love eraser caps when you were a kid?

First subject: Art.

The idea was to find a shady spot to sit and draw the big statue thing in the middle of the city square. Upon arriving to the square, I realized this would be a problem.

I guess it was closed for maintenance? Well, anyway, we regrouped and found a spot (though not shady) and decided to make the flagpole our focal point. Yes, the lightpole was in the way.
Yes, yes, my diligent students, draw away! Colored pencils, pencil sharpeners, clipboards! Yes, yes, yes!
You could say we, um, drew a crowd. No pun intended. Ha-dee-ha-ha. (Do you see bug visor lady? It's the shiny reflective thing in the middle. I love those things. Seriously, they wear them on their motorbikes so that bugs won't fly in their face. I wouldn't lie about something like that.)
Next: Social studies.

We walked around the square looking for people "at work". Who is working? What jobs are they doing?

We found lawn mower guy...

drink seller lady...
What would you call this? Grout-cleaner woman? Maybe "groundskeeper" sounds more official.
Fish-in-a-bag seller:
Ok, kids - it's 10:30! That means the fountain show comes on! But don't forget the workers you saw! We'll talk about it later!
Math:

Count how many steps to the top of the viewing platform. It's a good thing there were several of us counting, because there were a few discrepancies with the total count. We did not do a recount - it was hot, and I was tired and who wants to reclimb all the steps anyway? - but we think 67 was pretty close.

It was a pretty clear day. Here's the view of the fountain show, the square and the city from the viewing platform. It's actually a very lovely place. Crowded, but very lovely.
On top of the viewing platform, we revisited the social studies subject. We talked about Community Helpers and then discussed what would be different if those people weren't doing their jobs. What could we do to make their jobs easier? What are hard and easy parts of their jobs? I must be a captivating teacher... No, not really. They're just really good kids!
Abby thought it was so interesting she'd suck on her fingers.
After the discussion, we each chose a Community Helper to draw. Emma was hard at work:Language was next, but this one kind of got botched. I had prepared envelopes of money for each kid to buy a little water toy. I was going to have them each ask the vendor how much it was, and then tell them they wanted to buy one...but it didn't exactly work out that way. In any case, they all paid and got their cool water gun thingy.

The science component really just involved goofing around with the water gun, but I sold it to amy as something involving differing water pressure and experimenting and something else. But really it was just playing. Because water is fun. And water guns are even funner.

These water guns function like a giant syringe. Suck up all the water you can...

...and let 'er rip!
By the time science class was over, we were hot and tired. Lunch at McDonalds, with chocolate ice cream cones at the end, finished off the day.

School's out!

because...

...some days you just gotta do something different.