New tradition for candy???

The kids had the "brilliant" idea today that they could "trick or treat" here in the house. In the States, we always went to a fall festival at church when they were little. We played games, had lots of food and came home with bags of candy. Since we've been on the field they haven't been able to do much.

Last year we went to a party at the home of another language student family. Everyone brought candy and snacks and they had some games and a Bible story. The kids enjoyed that. Two years ago we were on stateside assignment and the kids went "Trunk or Treating" at the church.

They decided today that they wanted to do something to make the day fun, so Sam came up with a creative idea. We just did it and they had a good time...........

John went to the store and bought a bunch of candy. Then each of us was in a room in our house with candy to pass out. One at a time, they took turns going to each room to get candy from us and their brothers and sisters. It was fun. But they didn't make it easy on each other. When they knocked on the door and said "trick or treat", the one behind the door opened it and asked them some trivia question or they had to sing a song or say a memory verse or whatever they came up with. Then Ike acted all silly and they giggled and giggled at his door.

Apparently it was fun for them. They want to do that every year now.

You know we'd come up with something different and creative....................... we're the ones who have had a paper tree taped to the wall for Christmas 2 of the last 6 years. Here's the link for that story..... http://weaverfamblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/our-paper-christmas-tree.html

It's fun to come up with unusual and creative stuff while we're on the field.
Some of their best memories so far are family times such as this.

Ike--- motivation or policeman?

I have made a deal with Ike and he loves it! I am determined to lose weight and get back into great shape. So, I needed a little accountability and motivation. I love to work out but was never strict enough with myself about the food so a little grazing here, a little grazing there---- before you know it, it was lots of extra calories I really didn't need and didn't work off.

Finally, 2 weeks ago, I decided this was crazy. There's no reason to be frustrated about needing to lose a few inches here and there (or a lot of inches.......),so I "signed Ike up" to be my accountability partner for a 12-week challenge.

Here's the deal:
1. I eat only 1200 calories a day
2. I cut out ALL sugar
3. I exercise every day

If I fail to do ANY of the 3, I have to buy him a soda. He could potentially earn 3 a day.

He's being very strict with me and watching me like a hawk!!! It's great! I love it. I am soooooooo motivated and only lost one coke so far----last Friday was crazy and I couldn't get a workout in. Other than that, I've been following the rules perfectly. I think he's a little sad that he's not getting more cokes out of me! He doesn't need the soda and I don't want to give it to him, so it's the perfect motivator. John laughs and says that if I lose one of the challenges then I have to go buy the soda myself and give it to Ike myself.

So, the calorie part is easy. I am writing down EVERYTHING and I only eat it if it can be weighed on a food scale or measured with a measuring cup and I know exactly how much it is and what food exchanges it counts for. I'm using food exchanges and not counting calories per-se. For a 1200 calorie day, I get 5 proteins a day, 5 carbs, 3 fruits, 2 veggies, 2 milks and 3 fats. It's really a lot of food when you eat healthy foods. I'm using the forms and chart from First Place as my guide. Love it!
I do need to get more water in though.

For the exercise, I do something every day. Either a nice workout with weights and aerobics or a nice 2-3 mile run on the treadmill or something like that. One or 2 days a week I make it an easier day like a 3-mile walk to give my muscles a break.

NO sugar---- that part's not so bad. Day 5 was crazy. I had the munchies all day and would have licked the kids' fingers if they had chocolate on them!! LOL But, I did great and didn't give in. Since then, it's been easy. I even made gingerbread houses over the weekend and didn't eat ANY!!! John brought home 4 pizzas from Pizza Hut yesterday (from the city) and I didn't eat any. I grilled fish and ate that instead.

So, it's going well. I'm not worried about a certain number for my weight or for weight loss. It's more of just being able to get into clothes and having them fit nicely. (Plus, I have some great size 6 Levi's that I want to wear. LOL)
I lost 3-1/2 pounds last week. I'm doing great this week too.

It really helps to have motivation. I mean, who wants to let their teenage son win??????
NO WAY! Not gonna happen!

The "bad news"---- this doesn't end until January 11th. So, it's going to be an interesting Christmas cookie season. BTW---- homemade fudge party at my house on January 11th..........

I'll get back into those clothes and feel great in the process!

I have a couple of friends who are in on this with me. They set their own goals and their own "rules". Feel free to join in. Check in weekly and we'll keep you motivated--- and "honest" about it! LOL

Oh, I told John what my reward is ----- he has to fly me home so I can go shopping at Kohl's and get some new clothes! He agreed! Woohoo! Look out, Continental...................here I come!

Anna has a family!

We signed up to be prayer warriors for a child from the Reece's Rainbow site. We were matched with Anna. We got exciting news yesterday---- someone committed to adopting her. We were so happy. The kids have been faithfully praying for her every day, as well as some of the other children on the site.

In the 3 weeks we've followed this site, there have been around 20 commitments made to adopt some of these children. It's really neat to see and then read the stories behind the adoption when they post who is adopting each child on the "new commitments" page. They put a few paragraphs about each family and tell their story.

We'll continue praying as now is the hard part--- all of the paperwork!

BTW--Angel Tree starts tomorrow............

Good news and bad news for John

John went to the city for a checkup with the doctor as I mentioned in the last post. When he got there to see her, she "surprised him" with the news that she wanted to do another colonoscopy to get a look at how he is healing since it's been 3 months.

Yeah! Surprise! "Bet you didn't see that coming!"

He planned to go up on Tuesday and head back early Wednesday morning, but had to stay longer because of the exam. It turned out to be a huge blessing that she did the scope..............

As you know, John was very very sick in July and lost about 20 pounds in 3 weeks. He had all kinds of crazy symptoms and was very weak. He had a scope done and it showed he had Ulcerative Colitis. His entire (!!) colon was ulcerated and terrible. She put him on a bunch of meds and he started getting better. We came back to our town a few weeks later and he did ok, then started having a flare-up. We went back to the city to stay for 3 more weeks and he began healing very well. We also began 40 days of prayer for our decisions and his health during this time. He got strong, the side effects of the meds didn't bother him since he wasn't in the heat here, his symptoms disappeared, etc.

We came back to our town after the 3 weeks and John looked good. His personality was back, the doctor continued weaning him off of his one really strong medicine, life looked like it was getting better for him.............. Then about 2 weeks ago, he started getting symptoms again and getting sick. Now, this time, he didn't feel horrible like before, but he just didn't feel good.

It was kind of frustrating because he was soooo restricted in his diet and we're doing everything possible to avoid him being exposed to amoebas and junk. He's been able to gradually add some of the foods back in. But we're being super careful--- he's not going to the villages, he's not eating here, he's trying to stay away from anything that can make him sick. He did eat a taco that Meggie didn't want at the fair one day. Might not have been such a good idea---- you know, made by someone outside all day, did she wash her hands, where did the water come from, how sanitary was it????, etc.

Back to the part of the story where I said the scope was a blessing...........
When John went in to the doctor this week, he told her about the symptoms. She said he looked great and seemed to be responding to the meds very well. She was really pleased with his results, but wanted to go ahead and do the scope and see what it actually looked like on the inside.

She could have just increased his dosage of the meds again to "treat the symptoms".
I am so glad she didn't! When she got in there, she found that his colon looks wonderful. It is healing so well. I can't believe the difference in the pictures he just showed me compared to how it was 3 months ago. BUT, she did find parasite eggs all throughout his colon and stomach!!!! (gross, huh?) We're not sure which parasites they are yet. She took some samples and sent them off for a biopsy. We'll get the results later.

So, it's not the colitis this time that is making him have symptoms for 2 weeks----it's parasites!!! She gave him several meds for it and they should help soon. She also said we probably all have them. I must admit, the kids were all sick with stomach cramps this week. Even I felt pretty gross for a few days with cramps.

It was such a blessing!!!! If she would have just increased the meds, it would not have treated the parasites and they would have gotten worse. Then they WOULD have caused a true flare-up and he would be on a viscious cycle of flare-up and meds. By doing the scope, she found the real cause and can treat it properly! Thank you, God!
He's still having symptoms from them, but it will get better soon.

It does reinforce our thoughts on living in this setting though--- no matter how careful he is, it's not good for him here. Most people can fight off that stuff, but it can be dangerous for him.

He really is healing well and the doctor is very pleased. She has dropped his strong medicine all the way down to a tiny dosage and he may get to stop taking it after this month!!!! That would be wonderful! He is doing very well and is strong again and is "himself". But, if he keeps getting exposed to things like this, it will make it bad for him and he'll get true colon problems again as the parasites and stuff fester and cause problems. He'll do great as long as we can keep him away from that!

Thank you to all those who have been praying for him! We really appreciate it.

My week without John..............

I've wanted to blog all week but it's been a little busy. John was gone for 3 days. He had to go back to the city to see the doctor for a checkup. I'll give an update on that in the next post.

So, if you've been following our story for the past 5-1/2 years we've spent on the field, you KNOW that anytime he's gone it gets crazy and we usually lose communication and all sorts of things.

If that's what you're expecting, then this trip won't let you down.............

John left very early Tuesday morning and it seemed to spiral downhill quickly after that. LOL It wasn't a bad 3 days, but it did have its challenges. On Tuesday, our electricity went out about 10 times. Every time it would come back on, it would go out again. That meant no phone and no internet to call through Skype. Then, my cellphone would not work all day either. It was charged and loaded with minutes, but kept saying it was empty. I was praying we would have no emergencies, because I had no car and no way to call anyone----- and the other American family we know here is out of the country right now.

We made it through Tuesday and woke up bright and early Wednesday. Ok, so maybe it wsan't bright yet, but it was early--- about 4:30 a.m. Once the sun did finally come out, I opened the curtains and windows. What did I see when I looked down????? You guessed it--- a mouse. Apparently "Miss Kitty" had been busy the night before. It was still outside, thankfully, but the skin was half off and the head was barely hanging on. That grossed me out, so I sent Ike out there to take care of it. He put it in a bag and set it next to the house to be taken out with the trash later.

Then........... Alfie and Nessy enter stage right................
They decided they wanted to have a little fun. They invented a game called, "steal the mouse in a bag from me"----it's basically their version of "keep away". They grabbed the bag and were running around in circles outside chasing each other and trying to get the bag. Before you know it, the bag is torn and the mouse is flying through the air. All of this is during our math class time, of course.

So, the kids run out to get in on the excitement. It was like trying to catch two greased pigs. Dogs running one way, kids the other. Who has the mouse????? Finally, I feel faint when I look out and Faith is holding it up by the tail.
So, the mouse is taken care of and we can settle back down. (yah, right!)

Did I mention that I was also baking bread during all of this? Well, my yeast and beginning ingredients had sponged for 30 minutes, I had added the flour and now it was time to get it formed and into the pans. (this particular recipe makes a lot. We made 2 regular loaves, 6-mini loaves and 12 dinner rolls) So, I reach down into the cabinet to pull out my pans, and what did I find? ----- mouse droppings all over the cabinet. I was sick! My day was not going so well!

John called right about then and asked, "How's it going?" I wasn't so cheery at that point. It was a bit overwhelming and I think he could tell because in between talking to him, I was yelling semi-irrational things to the kids outside like: "grab the dog!" and "who has the mouse?" and "aghhhhhh". LOL I think he figured out "how it was going"!

It did calm down eventually, we had electricity and a phone all day, and the bread smelled and tasted wonderful! It was Honey Oat Wheat bread. YUMMY!!!

John came home finally yesterday and life is good again. (until the next trip! LOL)

So, if you're ever bored, come on down. I'm sure we'll entertain you---- or at least make you feel that "boring" isn't so bad after all.

Church Anniversary

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Our church had it's 17th anniversary celebration yesterday. The kids sang in a little program. Well, maybe I shouldn't say "little"----- it took 4 hours!
Their part didn't but it was all the stuff they put in between and then after 2 hours, the preacher started preaching. He preached for an hour and then they had another hour of stuff. It seemed long. LOL

On Thursday the kids were excited--- we went downtown to see how they were decorating the streets and we stopped by the church to pick up Megan's Tinkerbell purse that she forgot there on Sunday. Well, they had 2 big goats and a baby goat out back. The pastor lives there, so the kids thought he got goats. We took a picture and they wanted to go pet them. We found out later they were for Saturday's LUNCH!!!

We felt so sorry for them and did NOT want to eat at church after we heard that!

Well, Saturday after church we ended up leaving after the 4 hours and not staying for lunch. I didn't want John to eat something prepared here. I didn't know if it would have spicy chile or what water they used to cook it, etc. Plus, it wasn't made by people at church. Then sent the goats somewhere else to be killed and cooked on Friday. He ate something in town this week and got sick. (plus, it was a GREAT excuse for us to not have to eat goat!!!) They don't quite understand-- even when you say he can't eat it, they say, "Oh, just a little. We eat it all the time and it's fine. You'll get used to it." They don't understand that it's not a matter of "getting used to it".

So, we came home and I must admit I was smiling. No goat for me!!! As you can see in the pics, Meggie was upset. She wanted to stay for the goat lunch. ( What?!?! She must NOT be my daughter.......... John actually likes it.)

Around 4:00 guess who showed up at our gate? A man from the church--- with GOAT for us to eat! He didn't want us to miss out on it and he knew Megan cried. aghhhhhhhh! John thought that was pretty funny. Thanks, Megan!
It's still in my refrigerator. I just can't do it...................

slideshow--- religious celebration in our town

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Yesterday was a really important day here in our town. It was the holiday to celebrate the "patron saint" of the city. They've been celebrating all month with processions of cars all decorated with purple and yellow streamers and such. All of the houses and business are decorated outside too. (They put the same type of decorations up on the doorway when someone dies, but they're black then.) It's a requirement to make your procession and give offerings to the church. Each group had an assigned day to do the procession. For instance, one day it was the water trucks, another day it was taxis, etc.

Yesterday was a holiday here and the schools were out. People got up early and decorated the streets with elaborate designs made out of sawdust they dyed bright colors. They decorated the streets that would be used for a procession( of course--- lots of processions here!). The statue of Christ that they use for this particular holiday was carried through town on the streets with the designs. The group in front of the statue walked single file on the very edges so the designs weren't walked on. Then the group of men carrying the statue walked him over the designs. It's supposed to be like a carpet for him to pass on. Then the HUGE group after the statue just looked like a huge mob and the designs were destroyed. It was amazing how many people were walking in this procession. 1,000s.

It was very sad. The streets were amazingly beautiful and creative, but so many people walking with no hope. Just a sea of lostness. Wow, what a sight!

I don't know if you saw the last picture in the slide show, but it was several beer cans on the sidewalk next to their designs. While they were working on their "offering"/design, they drank and did their normal things. Very interesting.........

The wrestling was pretty funny. Have you seen Nacho Libre? Well, we lived it yesterday! Yep, it drew a huge crowd. I thought it was pretty dumb. Ike was laughing because it was so corny. The crowd was really enjoying it though. It was right outside of the church. And then the other group in the pictures with the creepy masks and yellow hats did a dance type thing. They were snapping whips and "hunting" someone dressed like a jaguar. It's an Aztec thing they do. We saw it being done by 2 different groups on 2 different streets.

I also had a picture or 2 in the slideshow of the streets after the procession passed through and before it was cleaned up. Just a big blur of color on the street.
All that work for nothing.

Tour buses came in from Mexico City and other cities. It's a really big deal the way they celebrate this here. There were festivities all day long. The night before, too. The procession took 3 hours to walk!!! And it was HOT! The heat has returned. You wouldn't believe how intense the sun is here.........

oh, and I snuck the picture of Ike in there. He was goofing around with his sunglasses frames. Practicing "one look". ..........teenagers!

Short video of procession in front of our house

I'm a stalker

Sunday when we were pulling up to church, I noticed a lady and little boy walking next to us on the sidewalk. I looked at John and said, "He has Down Syndrome!!!"

Now, that may not sound like a big deal to you, but I'm kind of magnetized by kids with special needs. Plus, I have NEVER seen anyone here who has special needs. I know there a lot of children with cleft palate/cleft lip and other birth defects in the villages, but you don't see them in town.

So what did I do? Well, what would you do? I got out of the car and debated whether or not I should chase her down. You know I decided to go for it.........
I ran up the street to catch up with them before they made it to their church for mass. I think she was a little startled at first. I mean, some foreigner asking if her child has Down Syndrome and then talking about it?!?!

She was very kind to me and I explained that we had a daughter with DS but she died and that I studied special education in the States. I told her that I had never seen any children here with special needs, but I saw a sign once talking about special education. She told me there is a school really close to my house and I could come visit sometime if I wanted to. John's going to take me over there one day. (poor John, huh?) She also said most people don't take the kids out of the house.

I'm interested to see exactly what their school is like. I was told there are no physical therapists or speech therapists for them near here.

The little boy was 9. He was kind of shy but greeted me and shook my hand. He was really cute. I definitely would like to visit the school. Hmmmmm.......... how do I get in? What kind of opening line am I going to need there????? Maybe I could offer to volunteer one day a week or something. I would LOVE that!
I'll keep you updated if I actually go there.

Patron Saint Celebration today

I will put a lot of pics and some video on here later. I'm not sure if John downloaded them to the computer yet.

Today is the BIGGEST celebration of the year for our city. It's their patron saint's day and they have been leading up to this all month. From what we here, it's a major "holiday" here and is huge. We're going to go check it all out and go light on school today.

For the past month, there have been daily parades. The vehicles are decorated in yellow and purple crepe paper streamers and decorations. They often put a big saint on the back of a truck and ride through town. It is REQUIRED to do this. Every business has to have their parade day. For example, one day it was the blue taxis, another day it was the white taxis. Last weekend the water truck came around, then a couple of days ago it was construction type vehicles, etc.

Yesterday, they actually came down our street and had costumed people in front, then a band and in the back a mariachi band. John got video of that.

The purpose is to thank the saint for the past year and to ask for blessings for another year. They're required to leave offerings at the church. They're selling individual roses and people walk around with them to go offer to the saint. I was told they give food and $$$ too. Today, the saint will be allowed to leave the church and parade through town. I think the streets will be coved and decorated for the saint to come out.

I will tell more later and will definitely get those pics and videos.

I'd rather not write which saint it is on my blog because it will give away my town. Supposedly it's a huge deal here and people from other parts of Mexico will come to town for this.

FUNNY STORY: The girls were playing and got excited when they heard the bands the other day and wanted to go watch. I had to stop them really quickly before they ran out there. Why???? Well, guess what they were wearing?

their Upward Basketball cheerleading outfits--complete with their pom pons. Well, that wouldn't be so bad EXCEPT---- they're PURPLE and YELLOW. I definitely didn't want it to look like we made them little outfits for this! LOL

Gingerbread houses

Has anyone ever made homemade gingerbread houses?

The kids have always wanted to make them and we never did. On STAS, Levi wanted to buy a kit and we never got around to it (that year flew by fast!!!). Then last year we were between Costa Rica and Mexico and didn't see any. At Sam's Club in the city a few weeks ago we found a kit. I bought one for Levi. I didn't really want to spend $50 - $60 to buy each of my children a kit, so I said we'd make the rest homemade.

So, now they want me to make them! TODAY!

I have a really good gingerbread recipe that uses maple syrup instead of molasses and is very light tasting instead of that strong molasses taste. The kids love it! I put it on here last year under the label of recipes. Here's the link: http://weaverfamblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/gingerbread-men.html

If you've made gingerbread houses before, I would love to hear the do's and don'ts.
Do we just roll out and cut the size of pieces we want for the walls, etc. and bake them?
I guess I can go by the kit for a general guideline.

Whew! This sounds like a lot of work.............

I know it's only October, but why not start now? LOL

Ginger

http://www.reecesrainbow.com/childofthemonth.htm

Isn't she just the cutest little thing????

Meggie prays for her to be her sister every day. They're only a little over a month apart age-wise. It's cute. It makes me sad because she will be sent away soon to the mental institution since she's "so old". Normally they go at 4, so she has really been blessed with extra time.

We've been matched with another little girl, Anna, for the prayer warrior ministry. She's 4 and will also face the institution soon. She is healthy and high functioning. The kids are really enjoying praying for these children.

I've been very impressed with this ministry. I joined the yahoo group and have "met" many of the families who are adopting these children or who already have. Talk about some neat blogs to read!!! Even this week 4 more children had families commit to adopting them. What a blessing. We're praying about adopting one of these children in the near future.

I know there are many children needing families in the US too. I would advocate for all of them. (John and I hope to adopt domestically one day too.) It's just a shame for any child to not have a family--- no matter what country he lives in. This particular ministry caught my attention because of our own daughter with Down Syndrome who died.

John and I are really the worst people you can possibly tell about orphans.......... we have such a huge soft spot in our hearts and would bring them all home!!! (Of course, with me, that carries over to puppies or any animal or person with a need of some kind. LOL ) And we're both drawn to the "underdogs"--- anyone who no one else wants or who doesn't have a chance---- that's who we'll always migrate to. I guess it's neat that we're both like that. We've always been the type to stick up for the helpless.

These kids, and all kids around the world, could really use your prayer to help them find families. If you get on the US sites it will break your heart to read the "stories" behind some of the children featured there. What a cruel world some of these kids face. I am so thankful for my Christian family and parents who love me very much. I was raised in church and knew Jesus personally at a young age. And now I am passing that on to my own children. What a difference we (Christians) could make for orphan children if we loved them and introduced them to Jesus!

We found the Algebra book!!!

What a difference a day makes!

Today was a great day. I would like to say it was because I got a good night's sleep and was well rested and in a better frame of mind. I can't because I did not sleep well--- but I was in a much better frame of mind. I was determined to "make it a good day".

We got much more done for school today. Still not 100% of what I wanted to do, but almost. It will take another day or 2 to get everything normal again. Breaks always do that to us for some reason....

We found Ike's alebra book. It was in the living room on the floor by the sofa under a blanket and pillow they put there a couple of days ago. We had kids over this weekend watching a movie and they used it to help prop up the projector and no one remembered!!! (apparently they didn't remember to put away the book or pillow and blanket either.......) We tore this house apart looking and to think it was right there in a corner almost behind the sofa. strange. Hmmmmmmmm, I wonder if Ike hid it? (just joking----- I'm sure he would love to hide it now)

I really thought I kept it out and didn't have it in that box that was busted open, but since I hadn't seen it since our trip I didn't know what else to think. I'm not sure where it was before they used it this weekend. Hard telling!!!

Meggie felt 100% better today. No fever. yeah!

I guess I was just kind of stressed with "one more thing" to go wrong last night.
It was one of those days................

I'm thankful for...........

I guess after a really negative blog entry I need to write a positive one.
So, I'm making myself think of some things that went well today and I'm thankful for.

1. We had a nice discussion of Phillip from Acts chapter 8 today in our school.
2. We learned some new things about the presidential election process.
3. I didn't have to make lunch. (really stretching here to get out of my grumpies. LOL)
4. Meggie felt better this evening.
5. John feels better for the most part. I think it's just the heat here that makes the meds give him some of the side effects. Thankfully all of his symptoms are gone though. The meds are working! yeah!
6. We had a "shorter day" with all of the craziness. (I'm thinking positive instead of saying we "only" got 3 subjects in)
7. The new room arrangement gave us more room.
8. You can buy Motrin here so Meggie had meds for the fever.
9. We were able to read the Bible in freedom and discuss it.
10. My family is wonderful and we all love each other very much!
11. Meggie and I got to cuddle and read a chapter of Ramona the Brave when she woke up.
12. We had books to lose. Some people can't read and don't have books! :)

Frustrated--- Lost Algebra Book

Well, we tried to jump back into school today after a week off. It didn't go so well.........

Meggie has a fever. It's her 3rd day. She was in bed all day and kept calling me to come to her. Then the boys were all poking each other and goofing off while they were "supposed" to be doing their math and grammar. It just went downhill from there. I felt more like I was managing a 5-ring circus today than a family and homeschool. :-) I guess we all have those days now and then.

What really topped the day off was the discovery that Ike's Algebra I book is missing! Permanently!!! aghhhhhhhhhhh
It's a long story.............

I did NOT want to take the trip to the city in the first place. It was so much work and really was overwhelming. planning out 4 weeks of work ahead of time, making copies, having every tiny little thing we would need with us................... Then we didn't have room in the car so we had to send it ahead of us by bus. It made it there and we managed for 3 weeks, but it wasn't the best it could have been. So, on the reverse trip we had to pack it all up and send it back.

Both ways I kept out a few things that I did NOT want to lose. I especially did not want to lose the Teaching Textbook math program we use for Ike's high school Algebra. On the way there, I had the CDs with me in the car and his book. John sent a little extra back than we took because the car was way too crowded. I think Ike's book got put in one of the boxes.

When we got our boxes one was busted and retaped. All of the books inside were full of grass, dirt, dried flowers and grass stains. How in the world????? They were put on the bus at the bus station and taken off at the bus station. ---- supposedly. I wasn't so happy about that, but at least they arrived. It turns out that Ike's book didn't make it. Can you believe it???? His big Teaching Textbook worktext. aghhhhhhhhhhhh! Of all the subjects---- he HAS to have that!!!

We took the week off last week to reorganize, unpack, take a break, etc. I didn't see it on the shelf when we moved the bookshelves and rearranged everything, but I figured Ike had it. (yeah right! He hates algebra!) So, today when we "got serious about school" it was gone!

We probably won't ever see that again!
I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I may have to make a trip home for books. We need unit 2 of TOG anyway and I can't get it sent down. I guess Ike will have to watch the videos this week and then do the problems one by one as the teacher puts them on the board. He's going to love that. haha I must admit--- that is the beauty of TT though. EVERY problem in the book is worked out and explained by the teacher. At least he can stay up-to-date on the material until we figure out what we're going to do. I am so thankful the videos were with me!!!

I don't ever want to do a trip like that again. It wasn't worth it!
Ike's been laughing about it though. He thinks it's kind of ironic that the book he would most eagerly "lose" or give away actually got lost. (I wish that would have happened to MY math books in high school....)

I'm praying tomorrow will go smoothly. It's going to take a week to get back into the groove, I think. I really dislike when we get disrupted like that. It really does turn everything upside down and make it all crazy.

ok, thinking positive---- tomorrow will be the BEST day EVER!!!!!!!!!!

Chocolate mice

I LOVE chocolate, but I must admit---- even I draw the line at some things and just have to refuse it even if it is chocolate!

I saw this at our grocery store the other day in the bakery section.

Apparently some people like their chocolate in this form. They were all gone by the next day, so someone bought them!

It grossed me out and I could NOT eat it. There's no way I could get past the thought of the shape and idea behind it. They were cake or something covered in chocolate--- not real mice. (I think!!!)

nasty!!!! look at those tails.......... ewwwwww !

I'm getting chills just thinking about it!

Reece's Rainbow

I found this wonderful ministry yesterday. They help children with Down Syndrome in other countries find adoptive homes. It is a really neat ministry. They also advocate for a few children with other special needs as well. We have always talked of adoption since we were married. We may actually look into adopting one of these children one day.

I'd love for you to check out their site. It is really nice. Here's a link for their prayer warrior ministry. You can sign up for FREE to pray for a child. They will send you info on one specific child to pray for daily. You can follow that child's progress through the website and e-mails they send out. We signed up today. We are going to pray for a child as part of our homeschool each day. http://www.reecesrainbow.com/prayerwarriors.htm

Here are some of the children with Down Syndrome up for adoption. http://www.reecesrainbow.com/atrisk.htm

http://www.reecesrainbow.com/ (main site)

Here are some of their "Other Angels"--- children with needs other than Down Syndrome. http://www.reecesrainbow.com/otherangels.htm

This is such an interesting ministry for families to participate in. One of the features of this ministry is their grant program. You can sponsor a specific child and donate ( you can even use PayPal) to his or her adoption fund. It can be a very small amount on up to $10,000. You can even sponsor a specific family already in the process and help with their adoption costs. This would be a nice family "Christmas" project. Take the money you would spend on a gift or 2 and donate towards another child having a family. I'm going to talk to the kids about that and see if they would like to help sponsor a child.

Some of these children will have $100s or $1000s given towards their adoption costs by the time they are adopted.

Ike and I looked through the site last night and I think we wanted to bring them all home! Looks like we had better start saving our money! Many of these countries send the children to mental institutions once they are 4 years old and then they are considered unadoptable. Many do not survive once they are transferred.

Pics from rearranging the school area

Here are some pics of a few of the changes I worked on yesterday with John. These are our current materials and then the 3rd bookcase also has some of TOG year 1 on it. The last bookshelf has pencils, construction paper, markers, staplers, etc. The rest of our "library" is still upstairs on 3 more bookcases. They're packed with books. BTW---- I took EVERYTHING on the first book case, half of the 2nd and all of the markers, etc. on the last one to the city with us. We had to. We use them every day! I don't EVER want to do a short term "move" like that again. You should see what I had to take from the kitchen to be able to cook for John. Not fun! When we got back, I figured it was the best time to rearrange since it was all boxed up anyway!
The bookcases are solid and heavy. A carpenter here made them for us. He also made our dining room table and chairs and living room tables as well as some nightstands for me. I have a few other projects I would like him to make, but I think we need to see what we're doing first! He does very good work, it's solid wood and it doesn't cost much.
The hallway has a much "cleaner look". Simple and not a lot of clutter--- -although bookshelves tend to always be a little messy looking. BTW, we did NOT pick the green paint. It was here-- in every room! It kind of grows on you though. And the curtains are just something long enough to cover the door and window. Our storage area (AKA mouse house/laundry room/ping pong area) is out there and it looks messy with it showing, so I hung them to try to "help" a little. Nice and bright, isn't it???
We needed the new printer (right) to be by the phone line because it has a fax on it, so we put it on the long table we used to use for school. It's laser, but only black and white, so we still have the old one there too for color.
The kids love puzzles. They set up a smaller table to work on one yesterday after we moved a few things around. The shelf to the left has a bunch of games lined up on it and a big box of Legos. The boxes on the right will be gone soon, I hope.

I am not finished with it, but I wanted to post a few pics at least. I added a couple of pics of the kids playing in the area where we used to have the school table. I have to figure out what to do in there, but they seem to be enjoying the space. Maybe we'll just leave it as it is even though it's not how I would ideally want it.

Interesting day at the park

We have taken the whole week off of school so far. I think we're going to do a little tomorrow. Monday and Tuesday we unpacked and today we just rested. It was nice. We did actually watch a movie about Thomas Jefferson. I bought it when John and I visited his home, Monticello, about 6 years ago. It's kind of a documentary of his home and life. I was really impressed with his land and home when we went. If you are ever out near Richmond, Virginia, I would highly recommend the trip. The kids didn't think it was the most exciting video, but they know I'm kind of the queen of documentaries. I think that's one thing they like about living outside of the US---- I can't find them here!!! :) It was nice to see though after studying about him for several weeks. Being able to see some of the things we read about really helped.

After the video, we headed out to the park and then planned to run a few errands.
We ended up at the park for about 3 hours. The lady who used to clean for the owners of this house was nearby and she saw us and she came to the park and insisted that we visit. (haha) It was a nice visit. All 3 hours of it! I hope my kids aren't upset that I didn't get to play with them as planned. It was kind of unavoidable. LOL (I did enjoy talking to her, but I did plan to hang out with the kids some.)

While we were there, I saw something I have never seen in my life at a public park or out in the streets walking around. Even when we were in and out of favelas in Brasil. A group of about 6 kids came to play at the park. They were very young. A couple were probably only about 3 years old at the most. One of the boys caught my attention because he had on a shirt and nothing else. It made me sad. None of the children had shoes, they were dirty and one girl had a pair of sweat pants and nothing else. ..................THEN I saw him................

Another little boy of about 3, maybe 4 years old had NOTHING on. Not a stitch of clothing. Ike said there were 2 of them, but one left. I felt so badly for them. The lady with me said there are several kids around there like that. Their mothers don't take care of them or dress them or feed them. How sad. I do have a "tasteful" picture but I don't want to get kicked off of my blog for putting pictures of kids with no clothes on here. That wouldn't go over so well............. Why did you lose your blog???? Oh, just putting kids on it........ :)

The little girl with the sweat pants but no shirt has a distended belly like she wasn't fed well.
There's really nothing I can do in situations like that. I would bring them all home if I could. :)

It was quite shocking, but also very sad. The little boys were just jumping right up on the playground equipment like it was normal and the kids with them didn't seem to notice anything was different. What kind of homelife do you think they have? I just did not really expect to ever see anything like that here in this town. There are some areas I've been to that it wouldn't surprise me as much, but not here. Wow, we just don't know how good we have it, do we?

oh, on a lighter note, I thought to myself----- "I hope they don't have worms they way they're crawling onto everything with bare bottoms!"

Rearranging the house

I must admit, I LOVE to rearrange furniture and change my house around. We haven't done that much here because there aren't many ways to get our things to fit.
But, where there's a will...........there's a way!

When we were in the city, I was thinking about what I could do to make it more efficient here and make it just look better.
One thing I was so happy about with this house was the fact that we had a school room area.
Well, in reality of working in there day after day, I saw that it wasn't the best set-up. It was very small and made for grumpy feelings over who had or needed what space.
We had a 6-ft long white table in there and bookshelves and our desk with their desktop and a whiteboard, but it was so crowded. We couldn't get around very well and we were all fighting over space at the table.

So, I did what I thought I would never do------ moved us downstairs so we could use the dining room table! (I must be insane!---- how many families pray to get off of their dining room table for school?!?!?!)
We have a hall type area that you see as soon as you come in the front door. It had some shelving with games and a mismatched assortment of kitchen "leftovers"--- crockpots, grills, etc. big stuff. It always looked soooooo messy.
I moved 3 of our new bookshelves we had made down there. They're 7 ft. tall each and wide. They fit perfectly. It looks so much nicer. I have our current school materials on them as well as the other TOG material from year 1. I have 3 more bookshelves upstairs still, but I'm not sure if I'll bring them down or just leave them. It looks nice this way. It's a lot of work to move all of the books, so maybe not.

I also have 2 more white 4-ft. tables we can put under the stairs and set up if we want to. Our dining room table is really big and then with another small table, I could sit there to do individual lessons with the kids when they needed them. The living room is right next to our area (small house!) so we can use that comfortably for read alouds and such.

It already looks way more visually appealing. :)
I hope it makes it not feel so cluttered and cramped.

I'll put pics on here later.
Upstairs, I moved the metal shelves that were in the hall and then put the kids games on them as well as some toys (legos, etc.) that were big and had no room in the boys' room. 3 boys, one small room and no closet---- you can imagine! It helped their room and made the old area sort of a game room/ hangout room. John set their desktop up on a different wall and hooked the new printer to it. Kind of had to keep it all there bc of the phone line being there.

Ok, so why am I giving all these details????????
Anyway, we are taking the whole week off of school probably. I know at least one more day.
It feels so good to go through some things and make it better and more organized before we jump back in. Plus, a little downtime after the trip is sort of refreshing.

It feels good to conquer an area that has been bothering me! LOL

Hopeful Farm Foundation

If you have a few spare minutes today, I would love for you to check out this website about the Hopeful Farm Foundation

http://hopefulfarmfoundation.org/

This is a wonderful center opened by a friend of mine, Jill Novak, and her family. It is a place for families with children who have special needs. Kind of like a reatreat center and camp and a restful vacation all rolled into one. I'll let the article tell you more.

I have a special "connection" to this center in my heart and can not wait until I can go back to the States to visit and see Hopeful Farm for myself-------- Jill and her family got the idea for this special place after the birth and death of their son. John and I lost a son to the same thing their son had--- Trisomy 13. It's not very common, but it's always fatal. You don't really hear about if very often. I was actually in my last semester at college working on a Special Education degree when I had to quit and be hospitalized for 10 weeks before their birth. David died that night. Isaac spent 1 month in the NICU, but is fine today!

I've met a lot of families with special needs children and I can't begin to say how much of a blessing this place will be to so many families who just don't really get a break but surely deserve it. A place designed with their children in mind! The location is beautiful and how can you not feel God's presence all around you there?!?!?!
I think Hopeful Farm is a wonderful idea and will be a very important ministry to many families!!! I'm excited about it and know that God is going to use it in mighty ways!

There is a benefit going on for Hopeful Farm.
It will last through the month of October.
There are many incredible homeschool resources offered. What a great way to help an excellent cause and receive wonderful homeschool material at the same time! Here's the link:

http://hopefulfarmfoundation.org/benefit.htm

You can listen to the story of how Hopeful Farm started here:
http://hopefulfarmfoundation.org/interview.html

packing--- yuck!

Well, the day finally came. I have to pack to head back to our town tomorrow. I dread packing for these trips like this. We'll probably end up not doing much with school on Monday. By the time we pack the car and then drive 5 hours back tomorrow and then unpack, we'll probably need Monday to get all of our school books put back into our school room and everything set back up. We have a ton of stuff here with us. It just takes a while to get it all back to normal again once we get back.

I have a headache from the new glasses. I guess it will take a few days for my eyes to adjust to my new prescription. It's not that much different than the last one I had, but it's enough to notice.

We have to go get a few things to take back with us from Costco or Sam's. Maybe we'll take the kids to do something fun one more time before we leave. We skipped the chance to go back to Awana today. We've been too busy trying to get ready to leave.

John got a new printer for us. I'm glad! We make so many copies and it's costing a small fortune to print everything out. The new one is laser and does a lot of pages--even double sided-- so it should help a lot.

Government study with kids

We had a really weird week as far as homeschool goes, but it did have a few really good moments.

I decided that this coming week we're going to back off of the TOG for the week and really hit the presidential election pretty hard. I started the election lapbook with the kids but we haven't worked in it very much since we've been following our curriculum fairly closely.

We've studied 3 presidents so far and this week we got into the 3 branches of government and the Supreme Court. Yesterday we had about an hour-long discussion of the branches, the checks and balances created with in our government, how the parties of the President and the Congress can really affect legislation that gets passed and to with what degree of difficulty, etc. (as in opposite parties --Rep. or Dem.-- and then trying to get the other party to agree with you, what the House Leader is, and all kind of good stuff like that)

We have been following the debates and the whole process of the election, so we decided to scrap our original plan for next week and pull out our Election Lapbook and spend the week discussing and researching the Presidential election process.

I think we may go back and do a quick research on the current Supreme Court Justices and see who appointed them and when. That would be a good project for my 9th grader and then he can give us an oral report on it. It would really go along with what we did this week as we learned about the Supreme Court, Marbury vs. Madison, John Marshall...... The kids are going to make a poster about the 3 branches of government too.

We could probably spend several weeks on this. Who knows, we might! ahhhh, the beauty of home school- you can make it timely to go along with current events!

more babies to pray for

Since I'm putting prayer requests on here tonight, I thought I would add one more.
We got an e-mail update from some friends who went through our missionary training time with us and served in Mexico for several years.

Their son and daughter-in-law are having twin girls on October 9th. One of the babies has Spinabifida and will have surgery the next day. Please pray for them as they face this difficult time and for the doctors as they treat this precious baby and make medical decisions concerning her.


Update on Elisea: Elisea is continuing to get better and may actually get to come home soon! Praise God!

Urgent Prayer Request

We received this tonight from my parents. It is from another minister near where my parents live. I took the full names off for a little internet protection. :)


Dear Friends,

Please continue to uplift my wife, Debbie, in your prayers. Many of you have been praying for her for a long time and I do appreciate it so very much. As many of you know, my wife suffers from
Lupus, Fibromyalgia, Osteoporosis, Hypertension, Diabetes, 7 bulging herniated disks as well as arthritis wrapped around her back bone. She has survived two strokes and next month would have been five years since she had cancer surgery to remove tumors in sinus cavity. We found out last Friday the cancer has returned. She has three tumors in her sinus cavity with one of the smaller ones touching or is connected to her optic nerve behind her left eye. Surgery is being scheduled as quickly as possible with the Professor and Chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Cancer surgerical specialist doing the surgery.

He will be assisted by two other surgeons; a neuro-surgeon and eye surgeon. The surgery will be 8-12 hours and the doctor said it will be a very dangerous and tedious surgery. Please pray for a complete extraction of the tumors and a total recovery for my wife. The date of the surgery is yet to be determined but I do know it will be within the next couple of weeks. I will update you if I can. Please pass this on to all the prayer warriors you know and God Bless.

Larry

Date night!!!!

John took me on a date last night.
It was really nice.
I'm sure it sounds like no big deal, but we do NOT get to do that where we live.
We wanted to be home to see the VP debate, so we made dinner at the house really early for the kids and ended up eating here ourselves. (grilled steak, baked potatoes and green beans. yum!) Then after we cleaned that up, we went out for dessert and time alone. woohoo! I thought my kids would never be old enough to do that. Ike stayed with them while we went out for an hour and a half or so.

He surprised me and took me to a Pretzel "restaurant". --- I know what you're thinking: "What?!?!?!?" Let me just say it was a really cool, trendy place. It is a college student hangout too (as well as ladies) They advertise it as "cozy"-- in english. The atmosphere is really nice. They have really nice colors, great lighting, low dark wood tables and the chairs remind you of something you would see in a living room. It's designed to be very inviting and great for conversation.

They only sell pretzels and drinks. The pretzels are big like in the mall in the States. They have sweet- such as cinnamon, glazed, chocolate chip, etc. or salty--- like oregano, cheese, etc. John ordered the glazed and it was on a plate covered in homemade glaze and chocolate sauce. Yum! I got chocolate chip and it came with chocolate dipping sauce. Really tasty!

For the drinks, they serve coffee and coffee type drinks in huge mugs, fruit and milk smoothies, hot chocolate, chai, infusions and water. They come in big glasses and then they bring things to put in the smoothies----- white chocolate sprinkles, cinnamon, chocolate powder and shredded coconut. I had strawberry and John had strawberry/banana. They offered lactose-free milk as an option, so he was able to have one. They were really frosty. (I know you wanted all the details of what we ordered, right? LOL)

It was a really nice night to get out alone with my hubby (who looked very handsome by the way in his new shirt. The blue in it really made his eyes look bright blue. -- I had to put this on here because he'll read this. LOL) We were able to talk a little about all of the decisions we need to make and enjoy some much needed time alone. Thanks Ike!!!

I told John this morning that another pretzel was sounding pretty good today.......... I'm glad we don't live here normally. They could get addictive!

Update on baby Elisea

I have a praise to share about baby Elisea!!!
They were able to take her off of the ventilator and she is doing well.
They have also determined that it was NOT a stroke and her bleeding has stopped as well! God has begun healing her and we can't wait to see what else He will do in the next few weeks.

Please continue to pray for her and her new family. It became official today---- she's officially their daughter! Yeah!