Field Day and Rumplestilskin

Once again a long pause in blogging, due to what I call "technical difficulties" which disabled our internet for a week and a half. That always makes me get behind. So now we are in the busy stage that comes with the last week of school and packing to leave for 5 weeks and also packing up our household for a move to a new house! But I had to share a few pictures with you from our fun field day a week and a half ago.

The theme was Fairy Tales and Dave played the role of Rumpelstilskin. When the kids had their turn at his station, they had to make as many words as they could from the letters in his name! One team got over 150 words!

Another game featured Frogs and Lilypads and involved the kids having to pass live frogs around as fast as they could! Between groups, Jonathan was very fascinated with the frogs! It was a hot day and he got his first sunburn -- around the neck. I had put sunscreen on, but I guess I must have missed that spot!

It's TOMORROW!!!

I just wanted to ask you to pray for Dave's US History students.  It's not an Advanced Placement class, but tomorrow 5 of the students are taking the Advanced Placement exam for U.S. History.  It hasn't been done at this school in a long time, perhaps not ever -- so a precedent will be set!  For this privilege they are paying $87 each.  If they pass, they will save hundreds of dollars and a lot of time when they get to college.  Dave is at least as nervous as he was prior to the birth of our children, but unlike then he won't get to see the fruit of his labor immediately.  The results don't come out until mid-summer!  Thanks for your prayers!

First experiences! Poison alert!

Well, I had to call Poison Control Center today.  It works just fine over Skype!  The man who answered said "Now where are you calling from?  I've worked here 17 years and haven't ever seen a caller ID like yours!"

It was in the afternoon.  I was typing on the computer and listening to sounds on Jonathan behind me happily playing with his toys.  I heard rattling and clicking sounds along with his babbling comments to himself.  A few minutes lapsed and then I heard choking, spitting, fussy sounds and then protesting and crying.  I found Jonathan with a mouth full of reddish-brown pasty stuff and fished a partial capsule out of his mouth.  He had climbed on the windowsill to reach the table and managed to grab Dave's pill organizer off the table.  Now a days, he wants to copy his Daddy in every way so he was quite pleased with himself to get a hold of Daddy's pills!  Fortunately, Dave doesn't have any truly dangerous medications.  Jonathan had eaten one of the red rice yeast capsules which Dave is taking for his cholesterol.  I wasn't overly concerned.  Once I got his mouth washed out, he seemed fine.  I thought to call Poison Control about 20 minutes later, and they confirmed that he would be fine.  We're so thankful for God's care in this.

The main thing for us to learn is that Jonathan is gaining new skills each day and that he can reach and do things now that we might not expect! 

If any of you have any spare Mr. Yuk stickers, would you hold on to them for me?  I think I could use them as a teaching aide. 

Royal Wedding -- We watched it live!

I am a sucker for weddings, and especially wedding gowns. Pictures of pretty dresses make me happy, and wedding gowns are the most beautiful of all. So I've been anticipating the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton perhaps more than the average overseas worker. I looked forward to seeing the pictures the day ofter the event.

But my dear husband, knowing how much I would love to see the event live, heard from another teacher at school that she was having a little royal wedding party at her place. For most of you there in the Pacific Northwest, the wedding was sometime in the middle of the night. Here it happened at 5 pm! So he packed up Jonathan in the stroller and we walked a few neighborhoods over and he dropped me off at BJ's house for a fun hour. My new friend Chris from England and her husband David from New Zealand were there -- dressed in their patriotic boxer shorts and hats and waving their UK flags. We ate scones and cream. There was even a pork pie ...although I didn't partake of it.

My impressions of the wedding were -- so BEAUTIFUL!

Kate was definitely one of the most beautiful brides the world has seen! Kate chose her dress, veil, and hairstyle perfectly, but it all would have come to naught if not for her beautiful smile that started from her ride to the church and didn't end until ....well, actually I never saw her stop smiling, except perhaps during the sermon.


This wedding was a good start for the young bride and groom, who have known each other long enough to be good friends first. I do hope and pray that they will do well and have a long, devoted marriage to each other and serve their country well. I think they will!

Thank you to my dear husband David for making it possible for me to watch!

Happy Easter 2011!

Happy Easter 2011!  He is Risen Indeed!

Easter 2011 family photo.  Our Walla Walla church is making a new church photo directory so we want to send them a new photo.  I'm not sure if I want to use this one, though.  We all look kind of tired, don't you think?

Our international fellowship had an Easter Egg hunt for the kids!  Jonathan got to find EIGHT eggs! 

 

Grief is a strange thing.  I found myself missing Bethany today -- really hurting because she wasn't riding on my hip, an almost 3 year old girl in pigtails and a frilly Easter dress.  I hugged Jonathan with so much gratitude in my heart, but wished I was holding my girl, too.   I felt ashamed to be feeling this way, on Easter, when Jesus rose from the grave and made it possible for us to know that Bethany also is alive and we will be with her again.  I cried almost all through the church service, resolved in the knowledge of the Truth that gives me hope, but still hurting and missing Bethany Joy.

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the world's greatest miracle for so many reasons -- for me it means that I will be with Bethany again, and our tiny one we lost in January.  The sermon yesterday was from I Corinthians 15:1-11 -- the witness of the Resurrection.  I glanced ahead and God met me in the next passage, I Corinthians 15:12-28 (excerpts below).

"For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.  And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.  Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.  If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.  BUT CHRIST HAS INDEED BEEN RAISED FROM THE DEAD, 

the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.  For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.....

THE LAST ENEMY TO BE DESTROYED IS DEATH."

Blessings to you as you celebrate the Resurrection today!

 

Learning to eat my banana oatmeal!

I finally managed to get some decent pictures so am posting them without further delay! 

"You should try this Mom!"  "No, that's your food.  You eat it."

After successful loading of food on spoon, now see the successful maneuver of spoon into mouth!

Bullseye!  And I did it all by myself!

Yeah!  Let's do that again!

This one is for free!  Jonathan often sees his daddy reading on the couch, and he is becoming quite the little copy cat lately!

Jonathan is making friends

I have confession to make.  I haven't been blogging much lately ...and the main reason is frustration with my camera!  Jonathan does so many cute things....but he does them so quickly and our little camera just can't catch the action shot!  90% of my pictures are blurry, and the ones that aren't have no little person in them because Jonathan has already run out of camera range.

What I most want to blog about ...Jonathan and his little friends...is also difficult to document.  In the process of making friends, I don't want to alienate the parents by taking too many pictures.  The other problem...I need BOTH hands to catch my little squirt, who knows no fear, before he jumps into ditches or critter-infested rock piles or in front of a speeding motorbike!  So often, the camera is left behind. 

Yet it is happening, and gives me so much pleasure!  Jonathan is making friends with other children in the neighborhood, and so we also are slowing getting to know other families who live close to us.  Every morning, when Dave leaves for work, we walk him down the road a little ways and then continue our way around the block.

Our neighbor girls, Safira and Alisia are usually out at that hour.  Safira is always in her school uniform, waiting for her mom to finish getting ready and take her to kindergarten on the family transport vehicle, a motorcycle.  Alisia, at age 2, goes along for the ride.  They like to chase our 2 good-natured cats, and Jonathan likes to chase them!

Often we go around the corner, where Rasha and Aria, brother and sister, live.   They toddle around in their driveway while their mom or grandma follows them around with a bowl of porridge, feeding them a spoonful whenever they stop long enough to breathe.  It's just not the culture here to restrain a child in a high-chair during meals. 

Naufel, 3, is often out, although we haven't seen him for a week or so.  Riski, another 3 year old, is also frequently helping his daddy sweep in front of the house.  We usually only see him for a few minutes before he has to go inside for his morning bath.

Four year old Didi, is very fond of Jonathan.  We usually see him in the mornings before he goes to school.  He attends a Muslim pre-school, and his family seem very faithful.   He has a little green bike, and an old push-car that Jonathan likes to ride.  If we've passed his house before he comes outside, he will walk along the street until he finds us and invite us to play in the yard.  His doting Grandma is always there too.

Here are a few (admittedly poor quality) pictures of Jonathan with our neighbor girls.