A decade ago I was a junior at Cedarville College. One evening I ended up eating dinner alone (can't remember why) and found myself reading the student news briefs on the cafeteria tables. I noticed a call for more students to join the summer missions team that would be teaching English in Hungary. Why had I not heard of this before?! This would be perfect for me! (Obviously I was oblivious to any previous announcements, as this happened in March and our trip was to begin in late June!)
Soon I found myself sending support letters and attending team training meetings with Dr. A, one of my education professors. My parents fully supported my decision to spend 8 weeks overseas...after all, it was because of their own examples that I've always had a heart for missions.
We spent a few days in Budapest with some ABWE missionaries, then split to go to 3 different locations for our own adventures. My team consisted of 5 women, and Dr. A came along for awhile as well, since we were to be involved in starting a new program in the city of Kecskemet. Budapest and Debrecen had hosted American teachers before, and now Kecskemet (pronounced "Catch-keh-mate") was added to the list of places where we would partner with the local church in order to try to reach people with the gospel of Christ, using the English course as a tool to meet people and form relationships with them.
There were 2 sessions, a 4-week course, followed by a 3-week course. Some students came all 7 weeks. We taught a 3-hour session in the mornings and 2 hours in the evenings, with a half-hour chapel break in the middle of both morning and evening sessions. I had mostly teens in the mornings and professional adults in the evenings. I made wonderful friends, both with my teammates as well as my students. As an English education major, I was fortunate to be able to teach advanced students, so communication was not a major issue (though always interesting, to say the least!).
We lived with the F family, who treated us like royalty and made us feel like family as they heaped mounds of wonderful Hungarian food on our plates and prayed with and for us. Their English was limited that first summer, but the language of Christ's love transcended the difficulties we had in communication.
That summer changed my life, changed the way I look at everything. It made such an impact that 3 years later, as a married woman whose Air Force husband needed to spend the summer in Phoenix for training, I decided to contact Dr. A and see if I could return to Hungary. I was eager to see my Hungarian friends again, to see how the Baptist church in Kecskemet had grown, and to meet more people.
This time around my teammates included another returning teacher, plus 2 other Cedarville students. I think we only taught 6 weeks (2 three-week sessions), though for some reason I can't seem to remember that detail.
It was in the summer of 1999 that I met Jozsef. Fifteen years old, he had accepted Christ as his Savior the previous summer during the English program. He was attending Catholic school and had many questions about God, the Bible, and the Church. We spent a lot of time talking together, and I grew to love him as a little brother. He and I corresponded somewhat regularly after I returned to the States, and I always enjoyed getting his updates. I could tell God was working in his life, drawing Jozsef ever closer to him. What a blessing to, in a sense, "watch" him grow in the faith.
Fast forward seven years...Jozsef sent an email to some of his American friends back in February of this year announcing his engagement to Zsuzsi (like our name "Suzy"), the daughter of the neighbors of the F family. In the email, Jozsef informally invited us to attend the August 19 wedding, though of course he knew it would not be easy for us to make it over there. Regardless, I forwarded the email to Ted at work and asked what he thought about the two of us making a trip to Hungary. His response was positive, though he pointed out the fact that we would need someone to watch the kids, as neither of us felt inclined to travel with 3 little ones overseas. I began putting out feelers to my mom, and we ended up deciding that we would pay for her and my cousin Sarah to fly to Las Vegas to watch the children. A plan was in place--so we bought our tickets.
I had another reason for wanting to go to Hungary. The baby I miscarried would have been born about the time of the wedding. I thought having a happy event to look forward to would help lessen the pain that I felt would inevitably fill my heart during August. Little did I know then that God would see fit to bless us with another pregnancy--another happy event to look forward to!
So, that is the story of why we decided to take a trip to Hungary. In following posts I will be detailing our journey as well as posting pictures.
August 26, 2006
August 12, 2006
And a Few More Pictures
OK, this kind of catches you up on some of our summer highlights! As usual, you can click on an image to see a larger version of these pictures. Enjoy!
We stopped a Shoshone Falls, just outside of Twin Falls, on our way to Mountain Home, Idaho, on our trip in June. We didn't spend a lot of time here, as it was right at lunchtime and we didn't have enough food for a picnic. But the kids did enjoy the waterfall, and we quickly found a KFC afterwards! It was a nice little side trip.
Charis and Arden get a ride on The Mighty Moose, aka Grandpa Ed, during set-up for Commission 2006. Though shy at first, the kids soon warmed up to "Grandma Rose and Grandpa Ed," who really are like family to us!
On the Saturday after Commission it's tradition for the staff to drive to the Bruneau Sand Dunes (where the youth and counselors camp) to say farewell to the kids, take pictures, etc. We had a bit of a head start and chose to take some time to climb one of the smaller dunes with the kids. You can't tell from these pictures how far of a climb it really was! But it's a pretty view at the top, and the kids LOVED the sand!
Here's Tobin on his way up the dune!
On our way home from Idaho we spent a night in Salt Lake City. We decided to take the kids bowling on base (Hill AFB) to pass some time in the evening. They LOVED it...we hadn't taken them bowling for probably almost a year. This time Arden was even big enough to participate, though he was most anxious for his turn and had a hard time waiting!
Rhonda, Ted's mom, visited us the last week in July. Unfortunately, we didn't take many pictures, but this one of her with the kids outside of Chile's, where we ate the evening we took her back to the airport, turned out so cute!
We stopped a Shoshone Falls, just outside of Twin Falls, on our way to Mountain Home, Idaho, on our trip in June. We didn't spend a lot of time here, as it was right at lunchtime and we didn't have enough food for a picnic. But the kids did enjoy the waterfall, and we quickly found a KFC afterwards! It was a nice little side trip.
Charis and Arden get a ride on The Mighty Moose, aka Grandpa Ed, during set-up for Commission 2006. Though shy at first, the kids soon warmed up to "Grandma Rose and Grandpa Ed," who really are like family to us!
On the Saturday after Commission it's tradition for the staff to drive to the Bruneau Sand Dunes (where the youth and counselors camp) to say farewell to the kids, take pictures, etc. We had a bit of a head start and chose to take some time to climb one of the smaller dunes with the kids. You can't tell from these pictures how far of a climb it really was! But it's a pretty view at the top, and the kids LOVED the sand!
Here's Tobin on his way up the dune!
On our way home from Idaho we spent a night in Salt Lake City. We decided to take the kids bowling on base (Hill AFB) to pass some time in the evening. They LOVED it...we hadn't taken them bowling for probably almost a year. This time Arden was even big enough to participate, though he was most anxious for his turn and had a hard time waiting!
Rhonda, Ted's mom, visited us the last week in July. Unfortunately, we didn't take many pictures, but this one of her with the kids outside of Chile's, where we ate the evening we took her back to the airport, turned out so cute!
Family Pictures
Drum roll, please...yes, believe it or not, I am actually posting some FAMILY PICTURES!! You can click on any image to view a larger version of it. I tried to put captions that explain each picture right below each image, but apparently I should choose the "center" option instead of "left" for alignment. I'm not going to go back and edit it now, though! Enjoy!
This shot was taken over the Memorial Day weekend. Ted's brother Joel and his wife Sarah came to visit--that was during the frantic moving frenzy! This is in our old house.
Here's Charis, proudly displaying her certificate of completion for her first year of home schooling! Our home school group had a wonderful promotion/graduation ceremony. It was a great end to our first year of school, although we had hoped at the time to continue school throughout the summer...! Ha! Oh, well!
It's the Daddy Horse! This was taken shortly after we moved into our new house, so sometime at the beginning of June.
Arden, sacked out during nap time. Don't you just love the baby belly?!
OK, it's time for me to go shower. I'll try to post more pictures later!
This shot was taken over the Memorial Day weekend. Ted's brother Joel and his wife Sarah came to visit--that was during the frantic moving frenzy! This is in our old house.
Here's Charis, proudly displaying her certificate of completion for her first year of home schooling! Our home school group had a wonderful promotion/graduation ceremony. It was a great end to our first year of school, although we had hoped at the time to continue school throughout the summer...! Ha! Oh, well!
It's the Daddy Horse! This was taken shortly after we moved into our new house, so sometime at the beginning of June.
Arden, sacked out during nap time. Don't you just love the baby belly?!
OK, it's time for me to go shower. I'll try to post more pictures later!
House Pictures
Finally, here are some pictures of our house! You can click on any image to see a larger version of it.
View of our kitchen.
Another view of our kitchen...takes 2 pictures to give you a full idea of all the cabinet and counter space!
Here's the living room...
...and a view of the school room, taken from the other side of the living room. (I hope to get some fun posters to put up and make it look more "schoolish!")
And the family room. Kind of a mess in this picture, but that's typical, I guess! :-)
View of our kitchen.
Another view of our kitchen...takes 2 pictures to give you a full idea of all the cabinet and counter space!
Here's the living room...
...and a view of the school room, taken from the other side of the living room. (I hope to get some fun posters to put up and make it look more "schoolish!")
And the family room. Kind of a mess in this picture, but that's typical, I guess! :-)
August 04, 2006
Ahhhh...
The sounds of happy children bouncing on our trampoline are coming through the walls as I sit here. It's been a good day. The weather has been surprisingly pleasant lately; today it was fairly cloudy in the morning with a nice strong breeze that made the temperature feel much cooler than usual for August in Las Vegas. The kids played on the trampoline while I read outside a bit this morning...they seem to stay on the trampoline longer (and play together more nicely) when they have an audience.
We did a reading lesson for Tobin, and then I began book #10 in the Magic Tree House series. The kids have really enjoyed reading these this summer. My friend Sarah had mentioned them to me awhile back, and I checked some out from the library before our trip to Idaho. The kids were spellbound...absolutely spellbound. (A MTH inside joke, for those who are familiar with them!) Arden knows only that Jack and Annie play with a magic tree house, and he's in and out throughout the stories, so I don't know how much he's picking up. But Tobin and Charis are being introduced to all kinds of little nuggets of history, social studies, and science, and I've enjoyed reading them aloud myself. The only problem is now that we've begun, well, we just can't quit. :-) I'm telling myself that this can be "school" activity since home schooling has gotten pushed to the back burner over the summer.
After lunch Sarah came over with her 3 kiddos, and our 6 children played together pretty well, going from the trampoline to the house and back a number of times. We enjoyed watching them through the dining room window as they played Duck, Duck, Goose on the trampoline and generally act silly. It was the first time in awhile that we had gotten together, and it was great to catch up a bit. I've missed my times of running with Sarah but hope to get back into it sooner rather than later.
By the time Sarah and her kids left, it was after 3 p.m., but I went ahead and put Arden down for a nap anyway. I figured even if he didn't fall asleep, I'd be good for an hour or so of rest time. I thought about putting him in a diaper, but since he was extremely resistent, I relented, figuring that even if he did nap, it would be fairly short, and he HAD stayed dry with only one accident in the morning...much better than a typical day. Plus, the mattress pad was in place!
I should have known better. I did get my hour of peace and quiet, as he fell asleep HARD. I even made homemade pizza and popped it into the oven before going to get him up, thinking that surely he would wake himself up if he started to wet himself. Not only had he not woken himself up...he was dead asleep on his tummy. And yes, the sheets were wet, as was his whole bottom half. NOT ONLY THAT...he had also pooped! What a day to NOT put him in a diaper for his nap! Lesson learned, I guess!
I had an interesting time of cleaning up a mess that I'd rather not remember, and then we read a couple more chapters in our Magic Tree House book while we waited for the pizza to finish. Dinner was yummy--Charis helped me with the pizza and was quite proud of her work. We ate without Ted, since he is late coming home from work tonight because of a naming ceremony, which happens every couple of months or so when there are new people. I expect him in the next hour or so, and in the meantime, I am going to give the trampoline a try, since the kids are begging me to come bounce them. Now that my food has settled, perhaps I should go out there with them!
We did a reading lesson for Tobin, and then I began book #10 in the Magic Tree House series. The kids have really enjoyed reading these this summer. My friend Sarah had mentioned them to me awhile back, and I checked some out from the library before our trip to Idaho. The kids were spellbound...absolutely spellbound. (A MTH inside joke, for those who are familiar with them!) Arden knows only that Jack and Annie play with a magic tree house, and he's in and out throughout the stories, so I don't know how much he's picking up. But Tobin and Charis are being introduced to all kinds of little nuggets of history, social studies, and science, and I've enjoyed reading them aloud myself. The only problem is now that we've begun, well, we just can't quit. :-) I'm telling myself that this can be "school" activity since home schooling has gotten pushed to the back burner over the summer.
After lunch Sarah came over with her 3 kiddos, and our 6 children played together pretty well, going from the trampoline to the house and back a number of times. We enjoyed watching them through the dining room window as they played Duck, Duck, Goose on the trampoline and generally act silly. It was the first time in awhile that we had gotten together, and it was great to catch up a bit. I've missed my times of running with Sarah but hope to get back into it sooner rather than later.
By the time Sarah and her kids left, it was after 3 p.m., but I went ahead and put Arden down for a nap anyway. I figured even if he didn't fall asleep, I'd be good for an hour or so of rest time. I thought about putting him in a diaper, but since he was extremely resistent, I relented, figuring that even if he did nap, it would be fairly short, and he HAD stayed dry with only one accident in the morning...much better than a typical day. Plus, the mattress pad was in place!
I should have known better. I did get my hour of peace and quiet, as he fell asleep HARD. I even made homemade pizza and popped it into the oven before going to get him up, thinking that surely he would wake himself up if he started to wet himself. Not only had he not woken himself up...he was dead asleep on his tummy. And yes, the sheets were wet, as was his whole bottom half. NOT ONLY THAT...he had also pooped! What a day to NOT put him in a diaper for his nap! Lesson learned, I guess!
I had an interesting time of cleaning up a mess that I'd rather not remember, and then we read a couple more chapters in our Magic Tree House book while we waited for the pizza to finish. Dinner was yummy--Charis helped me with the pizza and was quite proud of her work. We ate without Ted, since he is late coming home from work tonight because of a naming ceremony, which happens every couple of months or so when there are new people. I expect him in the next hour or so, and in the meantime, I am going to give the trampoline a try, since the kids are begging me to come bounce them. Now that my food has settled, perhaps I should go out there with them!
August 03, 2006
Post #100!
WOW! This is my 100th blog entry! I was going to write about something else entirely, but I decided that this momentous occasion should be marked and celebrated. ;-) So, in honor of the 100 Mark, I give you a list of 100s...
* Temperatures in Las Vegas during the summer--WELL over 100 degrees, consistently!
* Number of ants that made their way into my dining room this morning--at least 100.
* Number of ants that didn't make it back outside--89, give or take a few.
* Pairs of wet underwear + pairs of wet shorts + a few random shirts that have gotten hosed during potty training boot camp--seemingly 100s and 100s, but in reality probably not quite that many.
* Number of stamping crazy women like myself who are currently in my group--97, soon to be 100, I'm sure!
* Number of library books we have checked out in the last few months--well over 100.
* Number of bounces before Mommy gets sick on the new trampoline--not even close to 100.
* Number of bounces before the kids get tired of being on the trampoline--at least 100 a piece.
* Money spent on gas for our vehicles in the last month--$100 times 2, for a low estimate.
* Amount of grocery money we allot for our family each week--$100. (Thanks to the commissary, we really do keep pretty much to our budget!)
* Number of ink pads plus ink refills that I own--over 100. (Yikes!)
* Number of times I have said "I really NEED to get working on our scrapbooks!" over the summer--close to 100.
* Number of emails I had waiting for me when I returned from Convention--100 exactly.
* Length of a perfect nap, in my opinion--100 minutes. (OK, 90 will do.)
* Number of seconds it has been quiet in my house--100...OK, probably more, but silence doesn't last long around here, even when it IS supposed to be nap time!
* Number of pieces in the biggest puzzle Arden has done by himself--100.
* Number of books Charis has read on her own this summer--at least 100.
* Number of reading lessons Tobin has completed with me--50 out of 100--halfway there!
OK! I'll stop there for now. Anyone else have any "100s" to share? Leave a comment! :-)
* Temperatures in Las Vegas during the summer--WELL over 100 degrees, consistently!
* Number of ants that made their way into my dining room this morning--at least 100.
* Number of ants that didn't make it back outside--89, give or take a few.
* Pairs of wet underwear + pairs of wet shorts + a few random shirts that have gotten hosed during potty training boot camp--seemingly 100s and 100s, but in reality probably not quite that many.
* Number of stamping crazy women like myself who are currently in my group--97, soon to be 100, I'm sure!
* Number of library books we have checked out in the last few months--well over 100.
* Number of bounces before Mommy gets sick on the new trampoline--not even close to 100.
* Number of bounces before the kids get tired of being on the trampoline--at least 100 a piece.
* Money spent on gas for our vehicles in the last month--$100 times 2, for a low estimate.
* Amount of grocery money we allot for our family each week--$100. (Thanks to the commissary, we really do keep pretty much to our budget!)
* Number of ink pads plus ink refills that I own--over 100. (Yikes!)
* Number of times I have said "I really NEED to get working on our scrapbooks!" over the summer--close to 100.
* Number of emails I had waiting for me when I returned from Convention--100 exactly.
* Length of a perfect nap, in my opinion--100 minutes. (OK, 90 will do.)
* Number of seconds it has been quiet in my house--100...OK, probably more, but silence doesn't last long around here, even when it IS supposed to be nap time!
* Number of pieces in the biggest puzzle Arden has done by himself--100.
* Number of books Charis has read on her own this summer--at least 100.
* Number of reading lessons Tobin has completed with me--50 out of 100--halfway there!
OK! I'll stop there for now. Anyone else have any "100s" to share? Leave a comment! :-)
July 31, 2006
Trying to Update This...
OK, OK, I know, it's been way too long since I've posted anything regularly. I guess I had all these ambitions of letting everyone know how our Idaho trip went, writing about my Stampin' Up! Convention experience, and generally keeping everyone updated as to how the kids are, etc. But here it is, almost August, and I haven't yet sat down to write about all those things!
So, I decided I would opt for a brief overview of our summer and just try to go on from there. (Note: I just tried getting some pictures posted, but the server seems to be having difficulties with those, so I'm giving up on the pics for now and will come back later and put a few in as I have time.)
Our trip to Idaho was fabulous. The kids were great little travelers. We made the journey over 2 days, staying the first night in Salt Lake City and then doing the easy drive to Mountain Home from there. We stopped by Shoshone Falls, just outside of Twin Falls, to show the kids the waterfalls there, and they were duly amazed. Not so amazed that they wanted to delay lunch any longer, but we had a nice, if short, scenic stop.
The week of camp went well. We had our share of spiritual warfare to be sure, which included severe sickness, conflict, and other things, but we made it through the week, kids grew, decisions were made, and lives were touched. The kids and I had a good week, too. They attended Backyard Bible Club each morning and a sports clinic in the afternoon (which mostly consisted of the teens fawning over my kids, who were some of the only ones there at the little tots sports clinic!). So our days were full. We enjoyed dinner with Ted and the other staffers and campers, and then the kids went with a staffer who was there to do child care so that I could attend the evening services with Ted--very nice. The superhero theme went over quite well, and I heard good things about the Bible study, so praise the Lord for that. It was a joy to be there in person to see God work during Commission, and we look forward to returning next year, Lord willing.
The return trip went well. We continued working our way through Magic Tree House books 1-4 and Charlotte's Web, all of which were quite popular with the older kids. (Arden only wanted to see the pictures.) We again took our time going home, staying the night at Hill AFB near SLC. We took the kids bowling, which was a big hit, and they all slept fairly well in the TLF afterwards. After we returned home, Ted had Monday, July 3, off work as a family day right before the 4th, so we enjoyed 2 days to return to normalcy.
Then we had a few days at home, and I left for my annual Stampin' Up! convention in Salt Lake City. I went a day early to spend some time with my dear friend Mimi, and we were joined by other friends for a few days of stamping crazy mania! It was fun, as usual, and I did enjoy my time away, but I was MORE than ready to come home to my family again. Nothing like a little healthy separation to make you realize you really do love your kids! ;-)
After my return, we had a semi-normal week, and then Grandma J (Rhonda, Ted's mom) came to visit! We got to have her here for a whole week. It was great. The kids regaled her with stories of their accomplishments...Charis read to her, Tobin colored with and for her, Arden did puzzles with her...in general, they pretty much monopolized her time, which I think was just fine with Rhonda. :-) One morning we took the kids to a free movie (local theaters show older family movies for free during the summer...good excuse to get out of the house yet be in the air conditioning!), and one morning we went to the library. Not terribly exciting, but it was fun. This past Saturday Ted and Rhonda took the kids to Sam's Club and bought a trampoline, which is being paid for with my $100K milestone bonus check--thank you, Stampin' Up! (No, my check isn't for $100K, that's how much I've reached in career sales!) So Saturday was spent putting up the trampoline, and the kids are extremely happy to get out there and bounce. And, I must say, I am also extremely happy that they can get out there and bounce. Yippee!
Now we're looking forward to a visit from Grandma K in the next couple of weeks or so. All in all, it has been a very full summer, one that has not allowed for a whole lot of routine or schooling, but I'm now OK with that. Before we found out that we had to move, I was all set to order our next core from Sonlight for home schooling, but with the time and expenses of a short-notice move, I didn't place the order. Now I feel that I'm still to wait and am praying about the timing. Should I go ahead and start Charis on that core after Labor Day, or should I have her simply continue with math, handwriting, and phonics, working our way through the core we did last year but with a theme schedule instead? Then perhaps I could start her and Tobin on the next core together when spring comes? So many options! All I know is, the kids have definitely gotten a break this summer!
I will say that Tobin is doing very well with reading lessons, the one thing I have been able to be consistent with. He just did lesson #49 in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, and he's reading with more and more confidence. He's younger than Charis was when I went through it with her, so it's kind of fun to see him "get it" in a way that I didn't get to see with Charis, since she had such a good reading base to begin with.
Charis has also done at least one handwriting page per week...plus lots and lots of reading on her own. :-) We continue to read aloud a lot as well and are continuing with the Magic Tree House series, which has become enormously popular with Charis and Tobin both. In fact, Grandma J noted that the only time Tobin is completely still is when he's sitting and listening to a story!
Arden's schooling these days consists of continuous potty training. :-) He's doing pretty well, but having accidents more often than he did at first...probably because I keep forgetting to remind him to go. He begins going in his pants, then decides he needs to go potty. He still gets up and does the poop celebration, so that has been a cause for stress as well...NOT fun to clean up, but at LEAST we're getting the poop in the potty, unlike the pee. Sigh. I know, I know, this too shall pass. At least I haven't bought any diapers in the past month...
More news to come in future posts! I'll quit here because I now have a backache, but I hope I've provided some reading pleasure for you all. :-) It took me a week just to catch up on my friends' blogs, and there are a couple that I still haven't hit yet! Hopefully I can be better about writing quick updates now that I have that huge obligation off my shoulders to tell you every excruciating detail of our summer, all of which would be amazingly fascinating, I'm sure, if I had stayed on top of things from the beginning, but which would undoubtedly bore everyone to tears if I tried to recount it all now.
Love to all! Thanks to my blogging friends for the pictures and updates! I will be sure to reciprocate. :-)
So, I decided I would opt for a brief overview of our summer and just try to go on from there. (Note: I just tried getting some pictures posted, but the server seems to be having difficulties with those, so I'm giving up on the pics for now and will come back later and put a few in as I have time.)
Our trip to Idaho was fabulous. The kids were great little travelers. We made the journey over 2 days, staying the first night in Salt Lake City and then doing the easy drive to Mountain Home from there. We stopped by Shoshone Falls, just outside of Twin Falls, to show the kids the waterfalls there, and they were duly amazed. Not so amazed that they wanted to delay lunch any longer, but we had a nice, if short, scenic stop.
The week of camp went well. We had our share of spiritual warfare to be sure, which included severe sickness, conflict, and other things, but we made it through the week, kids grew, decisions were made, and lives were touched. The kids and I had a good week, too. They attended Backyard Bible Club each morning and a sports clinic in the afternoon (which mostly consisted of the teens fawning over my kids, who were some of the only ones there at the little tots sports clinic!). So our days were full. We enjoyed dinner with Ted and the other staffers and campers, and then the kids went with a staffer who was there to do child care so that I could attend the evening services with Ted--very nice. The superhero theme went over quite well, and I heard good things about the Bible study, so praise the Lord for that. It was a joy to be there in person to see God work during Commission, and we look forward to returning next year, Lord willing.
The return trip went well. We continued working our way through Magic Tree House books 1-4 and Charlotte's Web, all of which were quite popular with the older kids. (Arden only wanted to see the pictures.) We again took our time going home, staying the night at Hill AFB near SLC. We took the kids bowling, which was a big hit, and they all slept fairly well in the TLF afterwards. After we returned home, Ted had Monday, July 3, off work as a family day right before the 4th, so we enjoyed 2 days to return to normalcy.
Then we had a few days at home, and I left for my annual Stampin' Up! convention in Salt Lake City. I went a day early to spend some time with my dear friend Mimi, and we were joined by other friends for a few days of stamping crazy mania! It was fun, as usual, and I did enjoy my time away, but I was MORE than ready to come home to my family again. Nothing like a little healthy separation to make you realize you really do love your kids! ;-)
After my return, we had a semi-normal week, and then Grandma J (Rhonda, Ted's mom) came to visit! We got to have her here for a whole week. It was great. The kids regaled her with stories of their accomplishments...Charis read to her, Tobin colored with and for her, Arden did puzzles with her...in general, they pretty much monopolized her time, which I think was just fine with Rhonda. :-) One morning we took the kids to a free movie (local theaters show older family movies for free during the summer...good excuse to get out of the house yet be in the air conditioning!), and one morning we went to the library. Not terribly exciting, but it was fun. This past Saturday Ted and Rhonda took the kids to Sam's Club and bought a trampoline, which is being paid for with my $100K milestone bonus check--thank you, Stampin' Up! (No, my check isn't for $100K, that's how much I've reached in career sales!) So Saturday was spent putting up the trampoline, and the kids are extremely happy to get out there and bounce. And, I must say, I am also extremely happy that they can get out there and bounce. Yippee!
Now we're looking forward to a visit from Grandma K in the next couple of weeks or so. All in all, it has been a very full summer, one that has not allowed for a whole lot of routine or schooling, but I'm now OK with that. Before we found out that we had to move, I was all set to order our next core from Sonlight for home schooling, but with the time and expenses of a short-notice move, I didn't place the order. Now I feel that I'm still to wait and am praying about the timing. Should I go ahead and start Charis on that core after Labor Day, or should I have her simply continue with math, handwriting, and phonics, working our way through the core we did last year but with a theme schedule instead? Then perhaps I could start her and Tobin on the next core together when spring comes? So many options! All I know is, the kids have definitely gotten a break this summer!
I will say that Tobin is doing very well with reading lessons, the one thing I have been able to be consistent with. He just did lesson #49 in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, and he's reading with more and more confidence. He's younger than Charis was when I went through it with her, so it's kind of fun to see him "get it" in a way that I didn't get to see with Charis, since she had such a good reading base to begin with.
Charis has also done at least one handwriting page per week...plus lots and lots of reading on her own. :-) We continue to read aloud a lot as well and are continuing with the Magic Tree House series, which has become enormously popular with Charis and Tobin both. In fact, Grandma J noted that the only time Tobin is completely still is when he's sitting and listening to a story!
Arden's schooling these days consists of continuous potty training. :-) He's doing pretty well, but having accidents more often than he did at first...probably because I keep forgetting to remind him to go. He begins going in his pants, then decides he needs to go potty. He still gets up and does the poop celebration, so that has been a cause for stress as well...NOT fun to clean up, but at LEAST we're getting the poop in the potty, unlike the pee. Sigh. I know, I know, this too shall pass. At least I haven't bought any diapers in the past month...
More news to come in future posts! I'll quit here because I now have a backache, but I hope I've provided some reading pleasure for you all. :-) It took me a week just to catch up on my friends' blogs, and there are a couple that I still haven't hit yet! Hopefully I can be better about writing quick updates now that I have that huge obligation off my shoulders to tell you every excruciating detail of our summer, all of which would be amazingly fascinating, I'm sure, if I had stayed on top of things from the beginning, but which would undoubtedly bore everyone to tears if I tried to recount it all now.
Love to all! Thanks to my blogging friends for the pictures and updates! I will be sure to reciprocate. :-)
July 18, 2006
Hooray for Arden!
Today, July 18, 2006, Arden has successfully peed in the potty a grand total of 5 times PLUS pooped in the potty twice! M&Ms are flowing freely around here, although I must say that my excitement at his first poop in the potty was tempered by the fact that he did it without my knowing it, and in his haste to tell me about his accomplishment, he stood up, unaware that poop was falling from his little butt and dropping onto his leg and foot, and proceeded to track it onto the carpet in the family room. Yikes!
Ah, well. Such are the joys of potty training! I'm just so proud of him and excited that he seems to be getting it all at once, just like Tobin did. It was a long, drawn-out process with Charis, but once Tobin decided he wanted to use the potty, he just up and did it, with very few accidents. It looks like Arden will be the same way.
Uh, oh...he just ran in to tell me he pooped again. I think he is to the point where he will pop some vessels trying to produce poop for the potty because he gets FIVE M&Ms for doing so! Better go make sure he hasn't made more tracks!!
Ah, well. Such are the joys of potty training! I'm just so proud of him and excited that he seems to be getting it all at once, just like Tobin did. It was a long, drawn-out process with Charis, but once Tobin decided he wanted to use the potty, he just up and did it, with very few accidents. It looks like Arden will be the same way.
Uh, oh...he just ran in to tell me he pooped again. I think he is to the point where he will pop some vessels trying to produce poop for the potty because he gets FIVE M&Ms for doing so! Better go make sure he hasn't made more tracks!!
July 17, 2006
Catching Up
Whew! The summer is half over, and I'm still catching up! I guess being gone for about 2 1/2 weeks over the last month might have something to do with it. :-)
I took some pictures of the inside of our new house and was going to post them, but I can't seem to find them on the computer. Hmmm. So, I guess this post will not be about our new house. Suffice it to say that we are pretty much moved in and settled, thanks in part to Ted's hard work last week to put blinds up in the living areas and our room. He discovered after putting up the bamboo shades in our room that alas--they are only semi-private, so we have to make sure that at night there is NO light on in our room! Tee hee! We're not sure how we missed the big words SEMI-PRIVATE on the boxes when we loaded our Home Depot shopping cart, but there you have it. We hope to talk one of our moms into helping us make some drapes or something to nicely add some more cover! At least you can't see inside during the daytime.
One other house fact: Just before leaving for our Idaho trip, I cleaned the entire house. (I'm anal about wanting to come home to a CLEAN house after a vacation, never mind the fact that we trash it out within about 5.2 seconds when we dump all of our travel stuff inside!) The vacuuming-sweeping-mopping process, which up to that point I had not done completely all at once, took one hour. Sixty minutes to clean the floor in the entire house. I think that has to be able to count for a workout!
On Thursday, June 22, we left for Idaho. Maybe I should write about that trip in a separate post...I tend to write a lot! So we'll do the details about the Commission youth camp and Idaho trip at a different time.
We came home on July 2, and the nice thing was that Ted had both July 3 and 4 off for free, which was great to give us some down time, time to unpack and do laundry, etc., before jumping back into the fray. "The fray" didn't last long, however, as I left on Monday, July 10, to fly to Salt Lake City for the annual Stampin' Up! convention. I just returned home yesterday, so once again I'm finding myself sorting through mail and email and trying to figure out what in the world I should do next.
For those who are wondering, I did earn the 2007 Stampin' Up! cruise to Panama! The trip is in mid-April of next year. I had a lot of help from long-distance customers, local customers, and even a couple of downline members who generously gave me a couple of workshop orders to help boost me over the top. OK, so I did put in a rather large supply order myself, but praise the Lord, I had a thriving month of business that allowed me to make that purchase without "stealing" from the family budget!
I have much catching up to do...not just on the computer, either. I could sit all day and blog about what we've been doing over the past month, but I'll just have to break it up into little chunks and hopefully post more regularly until I get things caught up. Let me just say to Sarah, who chided me for not being more up-to-date, that at least my blog is a lot more up-to-date than my scrapbooks!! :-) (That's another summer project I hope to work on!)
I took some pictures of the inside of our new house and was going to post them, but I can't seem to find them on the computer. Hmmm. So, I guess this post will not be about our new house. Suffice it to say that we are pretty much moved in and settled, thanks in part to Ted's hard work last week to put blinds up in the living areas and our room. He discovered after putting up the bamboo shades in our room that alas--they are only semi-private, so we have to make sure that at night there is NO light on in our room! Tee hee! We're not sure how we missed the big words SEMI-PRIVATE on the boxes when we loaded our Home Depot shopping cart, but there you have it. We hope to talk one of our moms into helping us make some drapes or something to nicely add some more cover! At least you can't see inside during the daytime.
One other house fact: Just before leaving for our Idaho trip, I cleaned the entire house. (I'm anal about wanting to come home to a CLEAN house after a vacation, never mind the fact that we trash it out within about 5.2 seconds when we dump all of our travel stuff inside!) The vacuuming-sweeping-mopping process, which up to that point I had not done completely all at once, took one hour. Sixty minutes to clean the floor in the entire house. I think that has to be able to count for a workout!
On Thursday, June 22, we left for Idaho. Maybe I should write about that trip in a separate post...I tend to write a lot! So we'll do the details about the Commission youth camp and Idaho trip at a different time.
We came home on July 2, and the nice thing was that Ted had both July 3 and 4 off for free, which was great to give us some down time, time to unpack and do laundry, etc., before jumping back into the fray. "The fray" didn't last long, however, as I left on Monday, July 10, to fly to Salt Lake City for the annual Stampin' Up! convention. I just returned home yesterday, so once again I'm finding myself sorting through mail and email and trying to figure out what in the world I should do next.
For those who are wondering, I did earn the 2007 Stampin' Up! cruise to Panama! The trip is in mid-April of next year. I had a lot of help from long-distance customers, local customers, and even a couple of downline members who generously gave me a couple of workshop orders to help boost me over the top. OK, so I did put in a rather large supply order myself, but praise the Lord, I had a thriving month of business that allowed me to make that purchase without "stealing" from the family budget!
I have much catching up to do...not just on the computer, either. I could sit all day and blog about what we've been doing over the past month, but I'll just have to break it up into little chunks and hopefully post more regularly until I get things caught up. Let me just say to Sarah, who chided me for not being more up-to-date, that at least my blog is a lot more up-to-date than my scrapbooks!! :-) (That's another summer project I hope to work on!)
June 17, 2006
Getting Into Our New House
Whew, it's been too long since I blogged! Now I feel obligated to give you every excruciating detail of what we've been up to lately! Just kidding. :-) I'll try to summarize the highlights of the move to our new house...but those who know me know it will be difficult to keep this short!
The last time I blogged I wrote about the 10K I ran on May 27. After I showered and rested, I was at the new house cleaning what I could while Ted and the kids went to pick up Joel and Sarah from the airport. How convenient to have family visit us during a week of transition! They had made their travel plans long before we knew we were moving, but they were such great sports and helped us tremendously during the time they were here.
We were so grateful that the owner let us get the keys on May 26 so we could begin moving stuff over without having to pay rent until June 1. You wouldn't believe how much stuff can actually fit in a mini-van with all the seats taken out! It was amazing how much we were able to do on our own. Our friends the B family came over the night we got the keys and helped us bring a big load over. It was fun to show them the new house, since they had been praying with us about the whole situation from the beginning.
Over the next week, we continued to make trips back and forth, boxing and unboxing so we could then reuse the boxes! It was actually kind of nice to do it on our own, so that we could put stuff in its proper place before another load came. Obviously it didn't all get put away right at once, but let me tell you, it's so nice to see bookshelves with all the books neatly lined up on them as you're bringing in another load instead of having EVERY LAST EARTHLY POSSESSION dumped in the middle of a new home all in one day!! That is what moving is normally like for us!
We made Sunday (May 28) a day of rest, with all 7 of us in the house taking naps. Monday morning Joel and Sarah helped entertain the kids while Ted and I made some trips back and forth. Then Joel and Sarah left for the Strip to spend the night for their 2nd anniversary. I had an all-day home school leadership meeting on Wednesday, during which there was child care, so the kids and I were out of the way while Ted, Joel, and Sarah pretty much moved our entire family room to the new house.
Wednesday evening Ted and the kids took Joel and Sarah to the airport while I went to the new house to work. Ted called to tell me that on the way back one of the tires blew out, so he had had to put the spare on while parked precariously on a narrow shoulder on a busy stretch of the highway. The kids were frantic, and a very stressed out Ted came home that night still shaking from the adrenaline rush. He was so frustrated to have to take time the next morning to get new tires--we ended up having to get all 4 new ones, as another tire was on the verge of blowing out and the other 2 had 6-8 months tops left on them. Since we're traveling to Idaho soon, we decided it would be best to replace them sooner rather than later.
Friday, June 2, was our first night in the new house. Saturday morning several men came to help Ted with moving the big stuff. We spent the rest of the weekend cleaning the house, taking the random leftover stuff to the new house and scrubbing everything down to pass inspection on the 5th. Sarah (my running partner Sarah, not sis-in-law) spent a couple of hours scrubbing with me on Saturday, and a friend from church brought us a meal Sunday night. Another friend and neighbor watched the kids for us for several hours on Sunday so we could finish cleaning. God sent just the right people at just the right time to help, and we are SOOO grateful for all the helping hands (and the prayers) that lifted us up and encouraged us during this transition.
We are now mostly settled into our new home. The kids still occasionally ask when we're leaving a place to come back home if we're going to the "new house or the old house." Soon enough I guess they'll realize that this is home! They love it here, and so do I. I've joked that Ted will have to drag me from this house kicking and screaming--it truly is a dream come true. We don't have any pictures yet, but I'll see if I can get some shots to show how spacious everything is. We pray that God will bring us opportunities to bless others through this house somehow, whether it be housing guests or serving meals.
Guess I'll close this post for now. Thanks to all for your prayers! God truly answered, from allowing us early access to the house to providing gift cards to Home Depot (from the owner) to purchase window treatments and a garage door opening system (we're told he's going to send us another gift card for that!). God is so good!
The last time I blogged I wrote about the 10K I ran on May 27. After I showered and rested, I was at the new house cleaning what I could while Ted and the kids went to pick up Joel and Sarah from the airport. How convenient to have family visit us during a week of transition! They had made their travel plans long before we knew we were moving, but they were such great sports and helped us tremendously during the time they were here.
We were so grateful that the owner let us get the keys on May 26 so we could begin moving stuff over without having to pay rent until June 1. You wouldn't believe how much stuff can actually fit in a mini-van with all the seats taken out! It was amazing how much we were able to do on our own. Our friends the B family came over the night we got the keys and helped us bring a big load over. It was fun to show them the new house, since they had been praying with us about the whole situation from the beginning.
Over the next week, we continued to make trips back and forth, boxing and unboxing so we could then reuse the boxes! It was actually kind of nice to do it on our own, so that we could put stuff in its proper place before another load came. Obviously it didn't all get put away right at once, but let me tell you, it's so nice to see bookshelves with all the books neatly lined up on them as you're bringing in another load instead of having EVERY LAST EARTHLY POSSESSION dumped in the middle of a new home all in one day!! That is what moving is normally like for us!
We made Sunday (May 28) a day of rest, with all 7 of us in the house taking naps. Monday morning Joel and Sarah helped entertain the kids while Ted and I made some trips back and forth. Then Joel and Sarah left for the Strip to spend the night for their 2nd anniversary. I had an all-day home school leadership meeting on Wednesday, during which there was child care, so the kids and I were out of the way while Ted, Joel, and Sarah pretty much moved our entire family room to the new house.
Wednesday evening Ted and the kids took Joel and Sarah to the airport while I went to the new house to work. Ted called to tell me that on the way back one of the tires blew out, so he had had to put the spare on while parked precariously on a narrow shoulder on a busy stretch of the highway. The kids were frantic, and a very stressed out Ted came home that night still shaking from the adrenaline rush. He was so frustrated to have to take time the next morning to get new tires--we ended up having to get all 4 new ones, as another tire was on the verge of blowing out and the other 2 had 6-8 months tops left on them. Since we're traveling to Idaho soon, we decided it would be best to replace them sooner rather than later.
Friday, June 2, was our first night in the new house. Saturday morning several men came to help Ted with moving the big stuff. We spent the rest of the weekend cleaning the house, taking the random leftover stuff to the new house and scrubbing everything down to pass inspection on the 5th. Sarah (my running partner Sarah, not sis-in-law) spent a couple of hours scrubbing with me on Saturday, and a friend from church brought us a meal Sunday night. Another friend and neighbor watched the kids for us for several hours on Sunday so we could finish cleaning. God sent just the right people at just the right time to help, and we are SOOO grateful for all the helping hands (and the prayers) that lifted us up and encouraged us during this transition.
We are now mostly settled into our new home. The kids still occasionally ask when we're leaving a place to come back home if we're going to the "new house or the old house." Soon enough I guess they'll realize that this is home! They love it here, and so do I. I've joked that Ted will have to drag me from this house kicking and screaming--it truly is a dream come true. We don't have any pictures yet, but I'll see if I can get some shots to show how spacious everything is. We pray that God will bring us opportunities to bless others through this house somehow, whether it be housing guests or serving meals.
Guess I'll close this post for now. Thanks to all for your prayers! God truly answered, from allowing us early access to the house to providing gift cards to Home Depot (from the owner) to purchase window treatments and a garage door opening system (we're told he's going to send us another gift card for that!). God is so good!
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