Spring City Winter Wonderland

Yesterday while riding home from my scrapbooking night with Alisa, I asked the driver if he thought it might snow. Earlier in the day, it had hailed, and was very cold. He emphatically answered, "NO WAY, it's about Springtime...it cannot snow in March!" When we awoke this morning, this is what we saw:

As you can see, the Spring City got a nice covering of snow last night! It was so exciting to wake up and see white everywhere. We got our winter duds on and headed out to the soccer field, where just this past weekend, we were tossing the football in 65 degree weather. But today, it was snowball fights and some snowman action. We went to the market and bought a carrot for the nose! Emma Grace seemed to like the snow-it was her first time to see snow. We just finished our hot chocolate and EG is snuggled in for her morning nap. It's potato soup for lunch. I just love the snow. (though it's warming up and will probably be gone sometime today)

Happy Scrappin'

Alisa and I had a great time scrapbooking. We didn't get as much accomplished as we had hoped, but it was really fun and I was reminded how much I need to have some sort of hobby, especially living here in Asia. One of the challenges to our life here is that we have a hard time winding down and finding fun ways to relax. There are movie theaters, but 95% of the movies aren't in English. Our city is not very artsy, so there aren't many conccerts, ballets, musicals, plays, etc. We do live outside the city, but still very close to a city of 5 millionish people, so parks and places like that are very crowded. Plus they are more into buildings, statues, etc for scenic beauty rather than letting nature speak for itself. So it's tough for us find places in nature to just be alone or enjoy the surroundings, etc. So, having a hobby is one fun way I can relax. The nice thing about scrapbooking is that I can do it and still hold a conversation! So, Alisa and I got to talk about everything from feeding schedules for kids, to "if we could fly to america for one day and shop in one store only, which one would it be and why." We both deicded Walmart. I mean, where else can you get fun scrapbooking stuff, Kraft Cucumber Ranch and your hubby's special deodorant all in one place?!

As you can tell, 2 years later I am still working on the wedding scrapbook! HEHE, good things just take time, I guess!

Grace and a break...I need those

It's been a rough few weeks for my confidence in parenting...I am feeling more and more like I have no idea what I am doing. Not sure why I thought I did, but that illusion has been shattered by Emma Grace's recent sicknesses, her new seperation anxieties, her random times of deciding not to eat, etc. There are many new challanges for which I am unprepared and I often find myself flipping fusriously through books to find some sort of guidance during her naps. The learning curve is really steep and a lot this stuff doesn't just come naturally-you really do have to learn it!

But I am encouraged that I feel weak, because it makes me rely on Christ and his strength more. When I am confident, I rely on myself. My lack of skills coupled with my sin makes for one mommy in need of some serious grace from her God. And when I feel weak, I can turn to him and his grace is there-grace to guide me as I feel weak and insecure. Grace to cover my mistakes-not just in matters of health or table manners but also in the eternal matters of my little Emma Grace's heart. There is grace. It's good for me to be reminded of my weakness, so that in faith I turn and rely on the one who is more than able to strengthen me for this job!

I am also encouraged that I have a little break today from this job of parenting. For Christmas, Andy and our friend John gave me and Alisa (John's wife) a night away at a local hotel for the sole purpose of scrapbooking...a hobby we both pretend to have but never really actually find the time to do. The running joke between us and the Greenes is how we've made our husbands lugg these 25 pound bags of scrapbooking stuff around the country and now over here to Asia, all for nothing! Well, today is the today! We are finally gonna use all that stuff we brought over and scrapbook til we drop. The plan is for Alisa and I to meet at a local import shop and buy some pricy but worth it snacks that we don't often get, since they are so expensive. (Dr Peppers, Cheetos, etc) Then we are off to this local hotel that has heat (good-since it went from 70 to about 45 in 2 days) and then scrapbook all afternoon, evening and tomorrow morning. My goal is to finish the wedding scrapbook I have been working on for 2 years now. It's a lofty goal, but we'll see how far I can get. Any progress I make will be better than what I've done in the past year and a half. And Alisa will be working on a scrapbook of her daughter, Kayleigh. We both are behind-she is pregnant with her second child so she needs to get a move on the kayleigh book or number two will be without a scrapbook. And I need to finish this wedding one so I can move on to Emma Grace. No matter what we accomplish, I am excited to spend time with her and have a break from the "non-stop refine my heart course" that I am currently enrolled in, called parenting.

Picture of "Big Jim" and "Vicki Ravioli" from our Murder Mystery party back in November. (John and Alisa Greene)

our Jawa is 8 months

It can get cold here so we often put Emma Grace in tights under her clothes. I think she looks so cute! Check out the chubby legs and belly!

Getting ready for a bath
8 months!

Doesn't she look like a jawa from Star Wars in this pic?

Updates

photos from the day:

Emma Grace in her diva suit. notice black and pink leopard print on hood and pants.

a new toy. She was bored with her toys so I gave her a bowl. She has been playing peekaboo with it. She loves it when I put it on her head.
New towel. working the animal prints twice in one day. you go girl.

The dent in Emma Grace's forehead is now gone. All that remains is a small yellowish bruise.

We all three have recovered from a stomach bug. (Andy on Wednesday, EG on Thursday, my bday, and me last night and most of today) Seems the tofu wasn't the problem after all.

Fireworks are dwindling. Leftovers still being set of now and then but for the most part the show is over.

Emma Grace has stopped pulling her bib off ever 10 seconds while she eats. Maybe I should get the mother of the year award after all. Actually, I didn't do anything. Like the stomach bug, she's just over it.

We finallly took Emma Grace's 8 month pics today. Better late than never.

We had a relaxing day today. I wasn't feeling well this morning so we played it low key. Then this afternoon we went out to the soccer field in our town and put our american mark on it. Andy and I threw football while Emma Grace sat and watched. She saw two puppies, two trains, some soccer and us throwing football so she was excited. Afterwards we sat on the grass and played with her, enjoying the near 70 degree weather.

just so you can really understand

Remember how i told you about those awesome (and annoying) fireworks that went off for what felt like forever on my brithday? Well, I just read my freind's Josh and Danielle's blog and they had a picture of some of them. So I decided to gank it from their blog and post it here, just so you can get the feel for how massive these things were, right outside our window. The buildings in the picture are apartments-so you can imagine there was not much sleeping going on in these parts.

PS. Emma Grace just woke up. There are evidently some leftover fireworks and plenty of 10 year old boys to shoot them off!

Brithday Celebration

From Andy From Xiao Li

From Laura:

From my parents:

Everyone in this country celebrated my birthday. ok, well, not really but it kinda felt like it. My Bday happened to fall on the last day of the New Year here-and it's a BIG DEAL! We started the day with a birthday wakeup call of fireworks outside our window at about 6:30 am. We ended the day with everyone (literally) in our entire town setting off fireworks for about 2 hours in the evening. We finally gave in and went out there and joined in the madness of lighting fireworks that you would have to have a liscense to buy in America. It looked like Burlington city park on the 4th of July out there.


I was really hoping Emma Grace would like Tofu (we live in the land of Tofu and it's great for protein) so Xiao Li and I gave her some for lunch on my Bday. not a good idea. It didn't settle well with her and it came back up 4 times -all over our couch and Andy's clothes. I was out at the time. Marianne had taken me to a hot springs resort for the afternoon. (this place is really cool-there are tons of underground hot springs in our area of the country and this resort has lots of hot tubs with the hot springs water and different kinds of fragrances, aroma therapy types of things added in) So the plan was for me to go out for the afternoon with Marianne and then meet Andy for dinner, while some friends watched EG and then over to some friends for cake. After the tofu incident, we decided we better call it a day, so instead of a night on the town, I picked up Mc Donald's and headed home to firework central where we ate under the candlelight/light from the green fireworks outside our window. I tried to give EG as much white noise as possible to block out the sound. This strategy included the wonderful sound of running water (thanks to the tim huffman sound machine special) and the space heater that sounds like a small helicopter. It worked for the most part but I did have to rock her to sleep at first and then rock her back to sleep after one especially large explosion.

So, all in all not the day we had planned, but as I was rocking EG to sleep, I was thinking how happy I was to be right there holding my sick little baby girl with my wonderful husband waiting downstairs for me to eat cupcakes that were supposed to be for my after dinner party with friends.

Can't always get what we plan or want, but often what we do get is pretty awesome. I felt so loved as so many of you sent awesome cards and emails! thanks thanks!

I decided to write a little song describing my birthday (to the tune of 12 days of christmas-this would be the 12 hours of my birthday)

On my 27th birthday, the sweet Lord, my family and friends, and good ole china gave to me:

12 green rocket launcher fireworks (outside my window at 6 am)
11 awesome E cards
10 birthday text messages
9 cupcakes all for me and Andy
8 hours of happiness
7 friends to light fireworks with
6 calls home to check on my puking baby
5 changes of clothes (emma Grace)
4 vases of flowers
3 hours at a spa
2 cheeseburger meals
and a baby girl who doesn't like To Fu!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!!!!

Mother of the Year award goes to....

Ummm, not me! Here's my day with EG so far:

8:30 am: Sat her too close to the TV cabinet (not on purpose) and left her to get something upstairs. Next thing I hear is a big Thump and a screaming Emma Grace. I came down to find her lying face down with a huge dent in her forehead from hitting the TV cabinet on the way down. Not a good start to the day

11:30 am: (dent in forehead still visible, now with blue bruise also) tried without success to teach her to not rip her bib off while eating. Tried to tell her nicely not to do it, tried to tell her sternly not to do it, tried to show her where to keep her hands, tried the light squeeze on the hand method, and then ended it all with a "what does that book say about this?" question thrown to andy.

12:00pm : tried unsucessfully to teach Emma Grace to sit alone in her playpen for 20 minutes and play by herself. She screamed for about 10 minutes and I finally gave in and sat with her. (I am hoping we can gradually work up to me not being there with her) The time ended with me sitting beside the playpen reading a parenting book in hopes of finding a solution to my 11:30 problem. Unfortunately, their suggestions were for kids 10 months and older.

1:00 Emma Grace is fussy fussy and I then realize that in the insanity that was "take off my bib every 10 seconds and ignore mom's efforts to teach me otherwise" I forgot to give her half of her lunch. (the bottle-which provides the bulk of her sustinence these days) oopps.

Presently: She is napping. Dent smaller but still there. I am typing this blog entry while preparing to read a book on good nutrition and food preperation for my child. (all while myself having a snack of pepsi and cheetos, which andy proclaimed yesterday to be one of the top worst foods in the world for the human body) So Emma Grace, eat as I say, not as I eat!

The day is still young so who knows what awaits this "mother of the year" rejectee!

sorry there haven't been any pictures as of late. will work on that!

Settled In

We are pretty much settled into life here. Andy and I just got back from an over night planning "retreat." Basically, it was just a time for us to get away and make some plans for the upcoming months and get ready for when things crank up in the next few weeks. It's always good to get away and reflect on what God has done in our family over the past few months and what we hope and pray he will do in the future. We stayed at a nearby hotel which has a not so western "western dinner." It was ok at best, but the rooms are comfy and have heat, a rarity here! Xiao Li and her hubby Ah Xin stayed here with Emma Grace. This is the second time we have left her overnight and she did really well. I think we're the ones who have the hardest time!

It's beef enchiladas for dinner tonight and chicken parmesan tomorrow night. Then Thursday is my birthday so Andy is planning a little something! I got a call from a freind today, who will remain anonymous, who informed me that my brithday is tomorrow, the 20th. For some reason, most of my college friends think my birthday is on the 20th and one year so many of them sent me e cards on the 20th that I got really confused and concerned and for a little bit thought I had lost my mind and forgotten my own birthday. Good thing I had the trusty birth certificate handy! So once again, my dear friends are trying unintentionally to convince me I am losing my mind again this year! So happy birthday to me, today and tomorrow and the next day!

trying to stay warm

It's quite cold here. I think it's was in the 30's for most of the day today. We had white chicken chili for our valentine's dinner and dessert from the Silver Spoon, a local gourmet type cafe/resturant. We have rigged up a heating system that includes drop cords running across our foyer. (it's complicated-but the gist of it is this: all our major appliances are on the same circuit, which as you know are limited in the amount of power they allow in, so we can't have the living room heaters and dryer going at the same time) So we are using the drop cords so that our living room heater, which sounds like some kind of small helicopter, is on another seperate circuit from the one with the dryer.

Emma Grace continues to get better-yipee! Xiao Li is back so things are looking good around here! We've had Emma Grace sleep with us two nights in a row because we lost power both nights and didn't want her to get cold. These are really monotonous details that I am embarrassed that anyone but our parents will read-but I do this mainly for them anyway. So for everyone else, thanks for reading this far. Ok, well that's all for now-EG's 8 month pictures coming soon!

two teeth and a mullet

Besides getting a yucky viral infection in her lungs while in Thailand, Emma Grace also got two teeth and the beginning strands of a really nice mullet. Her teeth and her hair both seemed to grow rapidly while on vacation.

Good news...we took EG to see the American doctor here for a follow-up appt. She is getting better and he said she is sounding good. Praise the Lord. There is nothing like having a sick child and the relief of knowing she is getting better is one of the best feelings in the world for a parent.

On a final note, we are in the middle of the New Year here. Which carries lots of meaning for the locals but for us mainly means fast internet (no one is working) and loud firecracker shows outside our window at 11pm and 6am. I could live without the pyrotechnics but the speedier internet is nice. On that note, I'll post a few pictures I have been meaning to put up but haven't gotten around to...

EMMA GRACE'S ROOM

Emma Grace in her crib. We bought this from some friends, Sloan and Ginny, who moved back to the US. Their daughter Aria was in the "5 monkeys" picture a few months back. We miss you Sloan and Ginny if you are reading this! That's Peanut, her elephant in the crib with her. She sleeps with him everynight. Except now because he is in great need of a bath after being dropped on the road in Thailand.

Fun art on the wall...I love Homegoods. (but not as much as my mother in law)

So this is EG's changing table...it was made by this neat group that employs deaf men and teaches them carpentry. We take a lot of pottery barn ideas and have them make them. I am standing in the window sill taking this pic. You can see the door and her crib. To my right in the wall with the fun art (above picture)

Though Tim and Kathi's luggage didn't make it on time when they came, these name plaques made it just fine~ They were Kathi's carry-on item. They hang above her bed.

Finally, this is Xiao Li holding EG in rocking chair. The little table is one I got at a used furniture market for 5 dollars and the chair is one I bought and then had thicker cushions made and covered. We read here every night before bed.

Her room is the perfect size. Not too big, which makes it easy to keep it warm. However, we had to put two heaters in their last night to get it warm. It's not that cold here, it's just that our walls are concrete and without people living here for 3 weeks and no heat running, they got chilled and it takes a while to warm the walls back up. It's suny now so I am thinking it will get warmer in here soon. Laura my neighbor told me their thermometer was reading 53 last night (in their house). I think we've gotten the living room back up to the 60's now. EG's room is over 70 now. working on the rest of the house, but you know those power isssues we have don't allow us to run all the heaters at the same time. HEHE. I know it sounds like I'm down on this place but it's home and I really like it. It feels like home to us and we are happy to be here. Cold walls, fireworks and all.

Home again, Home again

We're home! And we couldn't be happier. It's been a few days since we blogged and that's because our vacation came to a screeching halt a few days ago. Though we had a great vacation overall, the last few days were not so fun. EG came down with a cold which progressed into bronchiolitis that landed us all in the hospital for 3 days. Basically, she had a viral infrection that caused her lungs to have mucus in them and made it hard for her to breathe. Now, this is not a huge deal for an adult, but a baby needs help to clear the lungs. Emma Grace had 3 days of nebulizers, sleeping in an oxygen box, and having her lungs suctioned out. (this was the worst part) But thankfully, she is doing much better-so much so that the doctor felt we could come home. We had a wonderful doctor who spent a lot of time with us and made us feel very comfortable and informed about the situation. Tomorrow we will take Emma Grace to an American doctor for a follow up just to make sure she is still on the road to recovery. Unfortunately, Andy also got really sick last night from something he ate. So, all in all we stumbled to the finish line. But, we're home and so glad to be here! We'll keep you posted on EG's recovery. Please please pray for her to recover fully and for us as parents to be cautious and wise as we care for her. thanks!

Ho

me

Ho

me

The Bean, the Beach and Breakfast

The Bean...The Beach...



Lots of Luggage for the Beach...

Breakfast...

We are close to 8 months now, the age to start yoghurt and that works great considering we live in Asia, the land of yoghurt. You can buy yoghurt at most mini marts, have it delivered to your home daily, drink it, eat it, and use it as suncreen. ok, not really. But it's cheap and easy and everywhere! EG had it for the first time at breakfast yesterday. As you can see in this picture, she wasn't quite sure what to make of it. But after a few bites, she took right to it and is loving it.

We are enjoying vacation. Andy's reading the Brother's Karamazov while I am working on a "not quite as intellectually stimulating yet very pleasant" novel by Maeve Binchy, Tara Road. Emma Grace loves the pool and the Beach. We've been eating sandwiches by the pool and listening to Beach Boys. Although Thailand is great, Andy and I both agreed we would trade it all in for a trip to 6108 Nixon Street, Myrlte Beach, South Carolina, good ole US of A!

Went to a two in one resturant last night with some friends, Brad and Abby. It was the best of both worlds. A steak house for Andy and a mexican resturant for me. I had fajitas, a fave and Andy went with the Sirlion. I think they had the Huffmans in mind when the created this place.

Well, a sandwich, Beach Boys and the other two Huffmans are waiting for me at the pool. Catch you soon.

Vacation and being normal

My days of sitting in a dark room are over. Now during Eg's naps I can sit by the pool, from which I can see our room, or read a book on the porch of our one room cottage! Yipee! The Huffmans arrived in lazy koh Samui (an island off of thailand) around lunch today. After an afternoon nap, we had a mid afternoon meal at "billabong sport's bar" (I had chicken fingers and andy had a burger) Then we headed for the pool, which is the perfect temperature for a dip and then a walk on the beach. EG's third nap just ended and we are out walking around the little town of Bophut, which is home to our little family friendly hotel. We just ate a banana pancake, which isn't what you imagine. It's a lightly fried dough with banana and butter in the middle-drizzled with warm sweetened condensed milk. it's gonna be a good week.

I finished the book Marley and Me. This dog was truly the world's worst and believe it or not, reading it, though he caused tons of grief for his owners, made me want a dog. I told Andy once that normal people love dogs and watch TV. (About 7 yeas ago, I profoessionally self diagnosed myself as not normal on the basis of this criteria) When I was in college I never watched TV-I was always too busy to bother. I do think that a lot of TV is trash and a total waste of time, but I also think that not being able to sit down and watch TV is a sign of some serious dysfunction. I mean, if you can't let go of all the thousands of tasks that never seem to get done and just relax and enjoy a little mindless entertainment, you might want to ask yourself what's wrong. And about dogs-dog lovers are sentimental and caring and are able to enjoy the simple pleasures of life with man's best friend. To hate dogs (which I did for a long time) is a sign of a cold heart. (ok, that's extreme) Anyway, I was totally in the No TV watching (not out of principle just out of dysfunction) no dog loving camp until I married my UBER-normal best friend, Andy! One of the many wonderful ways he has changed me is to lead me to a love of "King of Queens" and slowly but surely, to not only accept those four-legged fur balls, but to love them and even want one of my own. Now, who knows for sure if it will work out for us to have a dog in our current situation, the jury's still out. But, I am thankful for the relief I feel knowing that my heart is opened to TV and dogs-I am NORMAL now!

Here's to 2008-my first year as a normal person. I think I'll go on vacation and celebrate.