The Celebration Continues...

新春快乐
Chinese New Year continues...Today, we took the kids to a Chinese New Year interactive dance program through our area arts council. We met up with a few families from our local adoption playgroup and all the kids seemed to enjoy the colorful costumes, fans, and attempting to follow the leader's moves. I can't say they are ready to go on tour, but it was a great experience and they had a great time!

24 + 24 + 2 = ???

50! The number of hours we were without electricity during the "historic" Kentucky ice storm of '09! I believe that I asked in my last post "How do you keep your kids busy on a snow day?".... God has quite the sense of humor...Here I thought I was doing good two days in a row with electricity and He just felt the need to test me. After 4 days of "togetherness", we resorted to this...
To say it was interesting would be an understatement! So, how did we spend all of our free time? Books, backgammon, checkers, attempting to contain the little ones to the basement (where our propane fire place is), Scrabble, Blokus, Legos, blocks, sitting around listening to the only local radio station in anticipation of hearing that help was on it's way, keeping little ones from fighting, more books, attempting to contain the little ones to the basement, backgammon...Oh, you get the picture! Yesterday was more exciting as we had company (Darcy's parents are also without power and still are today). All in all, we did great and roughed it out here at home - Didn't make sense to contain the little ones in a hotel room and many of the hotels were without power or full. We had heat, food, water, and each other! Our meals were cooked outside on the barbecue and I must give Mike kuddos as he was a great chef. He made omelets and bacon (okay, the bacon was black, but hey he tried) on the barbecue! He also made barbecue chicken and Noodle Roni on it for breakfast yesterday. Yes, you read that right...for breakfast. Hey, we thought it might be our only warm meal for the day and we figured if we didn't cook the chicken then it we would have to toss it. It was an experience we will never forget and the devastation around town will leave you speechless. As we were watching the spotlight of the electric company in the distance last night, Morgan commented on the fact that it was actually fun and that it "was like living like our ancestors" - Now, all this was said with his Nintendo DS (which was on it's last few minutes of power) in his hands...Off to get a well needed shower!

Here are a few pictures...

Another Snow Day!

I guess I should clarify...it is an "Ice Day". We have ice everywhere - our poor birch trees are slumped over from the weight of the ice. So, how do you keep your kiddos busy on a snow day? Today, the kids and I set up a post office. This is something I use to do in my kindergarten classroom in the month of February and the kids used to love it. Since Rylee and Ryan are approaching that age, I figured we would try it out. Oh my goodness...It is 3:00 and the tv hasn't been turned on yet and there has been no mention of it. You know this is a good thing when that happens...I put out a box of envelopes, stickers (for stamps), several different kinds of papers (index cards, cut up sentence strips, different sized regular paper), envelopes that come with your bills (we bank online), magazine subscription cards, colored pencils, mailing boxes (already taped), and a delivery bag. I also set a couple of mailboxes (Target dollar spot) around the house for them to deliver to and made a paper (in a page protector) of Rylee's friends names next to their pictures so, she could "write" specific people. We turned their little store into the post office and Morgan labeled it and made them an "Open" and "Closed" sign. They are loving this!! I am expecting another snow day tomorrow, but have no idea how I will keep them busy - Hopefully, the post office fascination won't wear off by then!

Guo Nian Hao!

Happy Chinese New Year! Slowly, but surely we are getting the hang of celebrating this holiday...We took it to a whole new level this year - I actually cooked the food - Yep, you read that right - I braved the unknown! Falling into old habits, I lost my "focus" last night... At dinner last night, Mike and I had decided what we would be ordering from our local chinese food place and had figured out the logistics of getting it home. Well, at 8:30 last night, you know who (me) finds a site with all sorts of cool stuff...Before I knew it, I had made my grocery list and was determined to cook the food myself, I was printing lucky money red envelopes (the plain red ones were no longer fine), I was on a chair hanging red and yellow lanterns in the kitchen, and I was digging through the books for the Chinese New Year books. See.... Here is the proof - I need to focus!
Today, I dove right in - after a trip to the grocery store with all 3 kids because this was so unplanned - and made homemade spring rolls/egg rolls, cashew chicken, sweet and sour chicken, and rice! We even had fortune cookies and tangerines (symbolize good health and long life). Luckily, the kids do not know the difference between tangerines and oranges - I couldn't bring myself to buy the tangerines at the grocery store as the looked gross! How do they expect us to have good health and long life with nasty looking tangerines? ;o)
Since we had yet another snow day we got to do several things to celebrate: Watched Big Bird Goes to China, colored some Chinese New Year coloring pages, read several China and Chinese New Year books, and created fireworks with watercolors and a straw. Morgan also gave a spontaneous little geography lesson showing Rylee where everyone in the family was born.
Whew! I am exhausted! Next year, my goal is to learn how to make homemade fortune cookies. A few photos from the day...

The "Thundering Herd"

Not really sure how the league comes up with the team names or if the Upward organization does, but that is the name of Morgan's Upward team this year! Basketball season is in full swing and as always Morgan is enjoying the league. Even though he is the littlest guy on his team of 3rd and 4th graders, he is doing well and refining his skills. Look at that concentration - See that tongue...A sign of a little Michael Jordan in the making! Come on Nike endorsements!
A little side note: Morgan wanted his label on the blog to be "Little Man" since Ryan Howard is the "Big Man!"

Never a dull moment...
I am just now getting around to posting this entry. Being a mom can be so hard some times and I just pray that I am answering all of the questions and handling the circumstances in the right way. Rylee's latest happened a week or so ago. I must preface this by noting that she is beginning to notice the differences in people. Rylee was home alone with me getting ready for school in her room while I was across the hall getting ready in our room. Out of the blue, she says "Mom, when I get older, will my skin be light like yours?" Caught off guard, as usual, I stumble to find the right response. I proceed to tell her that no her skin will not become lighter and tell her that our skin is the same color...Well, I should have known better as she proceeds to come into my room for a debate. I then tell her, she is right that her skin is a little "tanner" because she is from China but that her skin is beautiful and she has such a beautiful tan in the summer. How I wish she could see right now that we are much more the same than we are different. Right now, she is just expressing the differences she sees. All we can do is continue to demonstrate how alike we truly are and how much she is loved.

The Costanzas

Move over...Jon & Kate Plus 8....The "Circus" is coming to a network near you! I am telling you...We only have 2 little ones, but boy can they come up with some doozies...Here are a few pictures of their latest game...



















What are they doing you ask? Ummm... Playing doggie - Ryan is Scooter. Oh, and look at the leash..Wait! That's not a leash - That is Ryan's BAHA (hearing device)! Yes, his brand new $4,000+ BAHA that we spent months negotiating with our insurance company over. It fell off and the clip is still attached to his shirt so that it won't break if it falls off. Hmmm...Hey, why not play dog with it! OH MY GOODNESS!! Let's just say, we had a nice little "discussion" this evening!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Here is another "Out of the Mouths of Babes" entry...

On Wednesdays I drive the kids to school because Mike goes into work early for a men's bible study. So, we are on our way to school this morning and the kids see the moon and the star/planet that is next to it. Rylee, who has always been fascinated by the moon, keeps announcing that she can see it. Ryan is literally screaming that he can't see it and kicking the back of the seat because he can't see it. In the midst of telling Ryan that he will see it in a minute because we are approaching a curve, I vaguely hear Morgan talking to Rylee. They were talking about a fishing pole. Come to find out, Rylee could not see the boy with the fishing pole. I have heard about looking for the man in the moon, but the fishing pole?!? Well, Morgan put two and two together and this is what Rylee was looking for..










Another Rylee moment...
The other night, Mike was getting onto Rylee for doing something (don't recall what it was) that she knows she is not suppose to do. So, Mike says to her "How many times do I have to tell you not to do that?!?" - Yes, one of those "I've become my parents moments!"...Rylee looked up at him with what I call her Precious Moments face (big eyes looking out from under the bangs) and her shoulders dropped. Then, she says in all seriousness and with a little shrug and her hand held up..."Ummm...Maybe 5?" I guess the quota was not met. Oh my goodness...This girl is quite the character!

It's A Small World

How fitting it is that I have been working on a Small World picture/canvas for the kids play area and I have found several old friends in the past 24 hours. A friend emailed me and told me that I needed to sign up for F*c*b**k (That looks like a dirty word, doesn't it?!? Yikes! - Oh well, hopefully you can add in the vowels - Really don't want people stumbling upon my blog because they searched that site). I did and am amazed!
Having grown up as a "military brat", we moved every 3 1/2 to 4 years. It was a wonderful experience and one that I would never go back and change. I got to see parts of the world and have experiences that I may never have had otherwise . The experience had a hand in shaping me into the person I am today. The most difficult thing for me about being a "military brat" was leaving behind friends or saying goodbye to friends who's father/mother were being restationed. Having moved so much, typically I would lose touch with friends after a year or so. I graduated from high school in Okinawa, Japan so once we all graduated we dispersed throughout the United States - some to college, some to the military, and some to the civilian workforce...What fond memories I have of this time - It was a close knit group of teenagers all stuck on a tropical island in a foreign (for most) country at a high school on a military base. It is this group that is slowly reconnecting through the site and catching up on 20+ years. It has been great to see where life has taken them and amazing to see where they all now call "home". I can't wait to pull out the yearbooks and try to put together some more of the pieces and to further witness what a "small world" we really do live in!

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

Yes, we have been affected by the cold temps here - I think we have been in the single digits ...Believe it or not, the schools in our county were closed both Thursday and Friday for the cold temperatures. I am not 100% sure why, but that was the decision they made. So, it is going to be a 5-day weekend here rather than a 3-day weekend. That is a lot of "togetherness" especially being so soon after their Christmas break. One day off was enough for me. On Friday, I could not take it any longer so, we packed up and went to my parent's house for the afternoon.... Oh, how we all needed that - Not sure that my parents needed it, but we sure did!

My Etsy shop is finally up and running. It is called LiveLoud (link is on the sidebar). I wanted to name it LiveOutLoud (LOL), but someone already had the name. So, I simplified it. Since it is mostly words, monograms, and banner type stuff, I figured that it was a fitting name...By using this name it also has the undertone of doing our part to make a difference which is the Shaohannah's Hope piece. So, if you wondered why I chose this name for the shop, that is the answer in a nutshell.

Must run and work on some projects while little ones are still sleeping. Until later...Keep Warm!

Red Letter Days

There is a class being held over at one of my favorite scrapbooking sites called "Red Letter Days". What is a Red Letter Day? In earlier times, calendars were marked in red for religious feasts, holy days, etc. to distinguish them from ordinary days. Today, the term refers to any particular day of significance. I believe starting next month I am going to integrate Red Letter Days into our calendar. Two summers ago, we did this with our "Out of the Box" theme and Morgan absolutely loved it! We will celebrate those little holidays that are not recognized on a general calendar, but are significant enough to have their own day. You know, things such as January 31st - Backwards Day and January 19th - National Popcorn Day! I, too, am excited about this as it will give me an opportunity to use these things as a springboard for my scrapbooking and to document some things that I might not otherwise document. As a challenge and an example, the owner of the site asked people on her blog to recall their memories of popcorn. Hmmm...popcorn. The first thing that came to my mind was President Newberry from Howard Payne University (the university Mike worked at before moving here). Dr. Newberry use to have a blue light outside his back door of his university home. When the light was on, students knew that he was popping popcorn and they were invited over. How cool is that! Every perspective student that visited the university under his presidency left with a cool bag of popcorn. I also recalled my little kindergartners popping all over the classroom when we played the Popcorn song and studied corn during the month of November. Finally, I recalled the Jiffy popcorn in the aluminum pan that we would have when we went camping as kids. Who knew that so many things would come to mind with the Red Letter Day challenge "popcorn". That is my goal and I know the kids will love, love, love it...They love to celebrate and celebrating the little things in life is something I would like to instill in them! Red Letter Days coming to this blog beginning in February.
Side note: Here is a great site that lists some of these Red Letter Days

The 3-Letter Word

Yes, I still blog...You wouldn't know it from the last week or two. I have spent any free time that I have working on converting our 2007 and 2008 blog posts into the blog book. Whew - I have never been so happy to finish a project especially since I had just done the first book a few months ago! Our 2005 and 2006 book was about 100 pages. This one ended up being 178 pages. The program I have been using is fine, but extremely tedious and time consuming. Not only that, but the program wouldn't download the pictures so, I had to go back and either get them off the blog or go into my files and pull them out of there. It is done and when it arrives I am sure that I will feel as if it was well worth.

What else have I been up to, you ask? Well... some people have convinced me to try my hand at opening a store on Etsy (Ebay style site for crafters). So, I have been working on that these past few days. I am a bit apprehensive as well as a little excited. I love, love, love doing my little projects, but just am not sure anyone wants to buy them...We shall see. I know God has given me certain gifts and I feel like I need to step out in faith. I plan to donate 10% of the profits to Shaohannah's Hope and hope to generate another fund (if this works out) for giving to families that we come in contact with that are adopting. That is the plan and I am slowly, but surely working on this. Stay tuned...

Okay...So, I read an article this weekend that really hit home for me. It talked about building a "yes" home. I say "no" way too much and have been attempting this week to say "yes" a little more often. Let me clarify... I am saying "yes" if it is a reasonable request that works for us at the time. I wish I had a photo of "Miss R" when she asked if she could do something and I responded with much enthusiasm "YES! YES! YES..YOU MAY!" You would have thought I had said...Tonight, we are having ice cream for dinner. Hmmm...there is an idea that would freak them out. In my mind, I knew the value of saying "yes" more often, but just needed a little reminder... So, there you have it... the 3-letter word.

New Year - New Word

I have decided that the whole New Years resolution thing just does not work for me. Some in the "scrapbooking community" have created the concept of a new word for the year. Now, that is a concept that is totally me! So, I have been thinking for weeks now on what word I would choose for the new year. There were so many words, but I kept coming back to the same one...Can you guess what that word would be? FOCUS This year, I want to purposeful and focused on those things in my life that are important to me. It is so easy to have my eyes looking in one direction, but not see the things that are directly in front of me because I am too distracted by those things lingering in the periphery. Sometimes, I can be focused but I need to adjust it slightly for clarity. I am going to print out my word, put it in a frame as a daily reminder of my goal for 2009. I am sure that throughout the year the word will take on new meaning and I look forward to journaling the journey!

Happy New Year!