Doesn't Get Much Better...

Since I now have more free time on my hands (well, not really a lot of "free" time, but much more time to spend with my kids since I left my job last week) I really wanted to do more fun activities with them.  So we spent the afternoon swimming at Grandma and Grandpa's house!  There wasn't much of this last summer, so I'm hoping to get quite a bit in this year.  Looks pretty tough, huh??

  

Here's to more fun in the sun!   Hope you are enjoying your summer as well!

Breathing Life Back Into My Blog!

Wow, the last time I posted on this blog was over two years ago!  SO much has happened in those two years!  I will attempt, over the next couple of weeks, to bring this old blog back up to date and fill it in with the major happenings that our family has gone through since then. Lot's of updating to be done on here too (it's a little outdated and boring)!

To start it all off...today was my last day of working for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.  I have worked for them for over a year and a half as a Senior Ad Sales Rep.  I've learned so much and met the most wonderful people. It was a bittersweet day, since I love everyone that I work with, but I'm excited for the new adventure I am about to begin too!  I am starting my own business that I hope to launch sometime next month. 

I am also excited about spending more time with my kiddos!  I still have three out of five that are school aged.  It goes so fast, I need to enjoy this time with them.  They deserve it!

The youngest two...who wouldn't want to spend more time with them?

I am also very excited to be able to devote more time to our homeschooling!  I'm already planning some fun things and projects that I've wanted to do, but have not had time for. 

Most of all, I'm just excited to see what the Lord has in store for our family!  It's a little scary stepping out in faith and trusting that He will provide, but I know that He will!

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jer 29:11

Wanted To Share This For Quite Sometime....

While we were in Taiwan in September, I had some issues with the internet and blogging, so I stopped half way through our trip.  I felt bad, and had so much to share with everyone, but finally gave up fighting with the slow internet and just had fun enjoying our newest little addition!  But this is something that I had so wanted to share with everyone!

While we were in Taipei, I had a mission.  To find a place that I had seen in a picture.  I didn't even know if it was, infact, in Taipei!  I just assumed.  The reason I wanted to find a particular place from a specific picture is because it was a picture of my grandparents when they visited Taiwan, probably back in the 60's.  My mom has always had this picture displayed (it's on decorative round piece of granite...or something!) and I never payed much attention to it, until I knew that I had a child in that country!!  I took a copy of the picture with us so we could do some searching while we were there.  Here it is...

We asked our translator in Taitung if she knew where this picture took place (she was from Taipei) and she told us it was on the grounds of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.  So one of the days we were in Taipei, we ventured out with a "tour-guide".  Actually, she was a friend's daughter (from our church) who is a missionary in Taichung, Taiwan!  I was so excited to meet her and she was so sweet to come to Taipei and go on our "adventure" with us! 

Well, we got to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, only to find (after much searching!) that it wasn't the right place!!  We really didn't know where it would be in a city that size.  I have to admit, I was pretty sad to have not found it that day.  So that night after we put Abi down, I did some further investigating!  We noticed in the back ground (on the left side) there was a very tall roof.  We found pictures of The Grand Hotel  and the roof line looked pretty similar, so we thought we'd try it (what did we have to loose?!).  We looked at the map of where The Grand Hotel was located and found that right next to it was the National Revolutionary Martyr's Shrine, and it had two pagoda type buildings on the grounds! 

The next morning, we hopped into a taxi and made our way to it!  And guess what?  It was the right place!  Here's a couple of pictures of us in front of the same place that my dear grandparents stood years prior!  The surroundings looked a bit different after so many years, but it was definitely the same place!

While I was standing there, I had a hard time not becoming emotional.  I know my grandparents would have both been so excited to know that we stood in the same place they did, probably 40 some years later, not to mention the fact that we adopted our youngest from there!  They adopted my mother, so adoption runs in the family, so to speak!  Yesterday was the anniversary of my grandmother's passing, 28 years ago.  I know she's smiling down on us! 


Here's to a wonderful weekend!

My Little Excavator Operator!!

Yesterday, Ana got to be an excavator operator!  My brother is an operator and has his own equipment.  My parents need a rock wall built.  Since we are temporarily living at my parent's house, Ana got to help her uncle move rock (after he dumped it from his dump truck) with the excavator!  She was SO excited!!

HUGE rock!

 

Getting ready to dump the rock

Ana using the controls!

 

This is fun!

All in a day's work!

When I asked Ana if she was going to grow up and be an excavator operator (haha!!), she said in a very adamant tone, "No, silly!  I'm going to be a mom and have 18 babies!"   :-)  Good luck, my sweet girl! 

The next two pictures I just had to include to brag about how nice of a day we had yesterday!  In the 60's and so sunny!  It was heaven! 

Did I mention what a beautiful, spring day we had here???!!!

Gorgeous view!

Happy Spring!

Challenge...(for myself!!!)

As most of you know, we are living in limbo.  We sold our house immediately after returning with our youngest treasure from Taiwan (hence, making the last 6 months almost a complete blur to me!).  We are now crammed living in an "apartment" above my parents 3-car garage.  My parents have a beautiful house, and their garage is no exception!  We do feel very blessed to be able to live here while we wait for Lance's retirement date (April 30th!) from the Air Force.  We thought this would be the best option for all of us since we had just brought Abi home, we wanted my family to be able to spend some time with her.

On to my "challenge"... we are moving across country in about 7 weeks.  Evidently, I have a food hoarding issue!  (Actually, I think I was just born in the wrong time period.  I love the knowledge that I have food stocked up to feed my family no matter what may happen.) I have enough food stored up to probably feed the entire Air Force!  (well... maybe not!)  I have been working at clearing out my freezer(s), but it dawned on me that I have a lot of food that isn't in my freezers! 

Just one of my very full cupboards that I need to empty!

So, my challenge is going to be this:  I am going to try my hardest to NOT buy any food for the next month with the exception of fresh fruits/veggies and milk.  I know I can do this, I am just going to have to be more creative (I haven't been extremely creative the last 6 months or so in the food department!).  One of my favorite things to do is read cookbooks (yep!  You read that right!!).  So I guess it's time to pull out some cookbooks I haven't read for a while and try some new (and old!) recipes! 

No, this is NOT all of my cookbooks!  I have a couple of boxes of cookbooks in storage!

I also love the website allrecipes.com , and recently realized that at the top of the page is a search button.  But the cool thing is, you can search ingredients!  It will give you a list of recipes that include the ingredients you have on-hand!  Pretty neat! 

Do you have any websites that you recommend for using things up?  Please share!  I would love to look them over!

Here's to creative cooking!!

Definitely A Hit!!!

My new Hugg-A-Planet Globe!!

Ana, can you show me where Kazakhstan is?

How about Taiwan?  ~  No sweat, huh?!

 

Abi, what continent does Daddy fly to that has penguins?  Antarctica?  RIGHT!  (yep, we teach them early!  Haha!)

OK, I just had to share this with my home school friends (and friends that don't home school, but have kids!!!).  When Ana and Abi did the photo shoot for Timberdoodle's catalog (if you don't shop from them, you should!  They are the best!!), they each received gift certificates to spend there.  Ana has been pouring over the catalog for weeks to make sure she picks just the right thing out!  After much looking, we decided on a few things for the both of them.  I kept going back to the Hugg-A-Planet Globe.  It was going to put us over our gift certificate amount, but I thought it would be good for both of them, so I spent the extra money on it.

Boy, am I glad I did!!  It has been the best thing we've bought for the kids in quite a while!  Ana loves geography, and she's been playing with this non-stop since we picked it up yesterday. It's different because it's cloth and stuffed like a pillow.  Abi likes throwing herself on it and giggling!

Ana has been showing us all various places on her new globe, such as Kazakhstan (where she was born), Taiwan (where her sister was born), WA state (where we live), WI (where we are moving), Antarctica (where her Daddy flies to part of the year), and the place that takes the cake is Libya (where, in her own words is, "Where all the fighting  is going on right now.  There's a bad guy there."  Hmmmm....better watch how much news I watch!  She's evidently paying attention to more than I thought!)

Anyway, just thought you'd like to know about a very fun, educational "toy" we have discovered!! 

Great Idea...For A Great Cause

Don't you just LOVE this bag?!! 

I get email posts from some amazing blogs, and one of my favorites is I Am Momma - Hear Me Roar.  (Cheri, the writer of the blog, is incredibly creative!  I glean so much from her!)  Today's email of her blog post is awesome! 

This week, I think we all have the disaster in Japan on our mind.  I know I have been trying to figure out how I can help.  Well, Cheri, from I Am Momma - Hear Me Roar, had an amazing idea!  She recently developed the pattern for this adorable bag and is releasing it next week.  Here's the deal she has for everyone from her blog...

1) You can pre-purchase the pattern by donating $8 or more to a humanitarian aid program. 

2) E-mail me to tell me you've donated and that you want the pattern.  It's iammommahearmeroar[at]gmail[dot]com.  If you want the pattern you must e-mail me, because leaving a comment here won't always give me your e-mail address.

3) I will e-mail you the pattern and tutorial when it's completed next week.  The pattern will contain a full tutorial with pictures, making it easy for even the beginner.  It will also have a second look - a different bow option.  It will come as a PDF file.

4)  I just added this, due to questions I've been getting.  If you want to spread the word bout this on your own blog you are more than welcome to.  I am happy to give the pattern to as many people as possible. 

That way you'll know that 100% of your funds will be going to help.  I will really only be using the honor system - trusting that you've made a donation when you send me your e-mail.

So, essentially this week's challenge is to give to a humanitarian program to help those in Japan.  If you're not interested in a pattern that's fine.  You can still give.  It's just my way of making it easier for you to give.  

 

That's right... she's not making anything on this pattern!  She just wants to help get people to donate to help those in Japan.  One place she suggests to donate is through the Red Cross.  One of my favorite humanitarian groups is Samaritan's Purse, and they do have a disaster relief team that is in Japan helping out with relief efforts. If you have a favorite humanitarian program that you like to donate through that will help the people in Japan, donate and let her know!!  

If you donate and get the purse pattern and make the purse, please send me pictures of the finished purse!  I can't wait to make mine!