red thread

Raising Children

2011-05-30T06:07:00.001-05:00

Parenting is...terrifying! I am always worried. Am I being too strict...too lenient? I was talking to Andrew the other day and apologized about something I did. I told him that there is no parenting test or license and we parents are doing the best job we can. I also told him what a shock it was when I realized my parents didn't know everything, and they made mistakes. He replied, "Don't worry about me being shocked mom, because I already know that you and dad don't know everything, and you make mistakes all the time." Well I guess that's one less thing for me to worry about!

Punishments were much easier then too. Time out worked really well for my little ones. I remember one time when Andrew was about 4. He was in time out and he yelled in his most serious voice that if I wasn't nice he was calling 911 or Oprah! Now you have to ground them...From what? For how long? I have a friend who threatened to ground her children from Trick-or-Treating one year. I thought there was no way she would carry that out, but she did! Her children now know that she'll carry out what she says. However... I could have never gone through with that, especially since it only comes once a year! It reminds me of the episode on Modern Family when Phil says, "That's it! I'm cancelling Christmas!" while shoving the family's Christmas tree out the back door.

There were days when Andrew and Anslee were little that I thought it could never be harder to parent than right then. Little did I know how much harder it gets... Before they go to school, you have complete control on what they see or hear. When they get to school you loose that control. In first grade they come home and say, "My friend kept saying F word at lunch today." Feeling sick you ask, "What is the "F" word?" If you're lucky, they reply "fart". I was lucky then, but by third, they tell you, and it is the real dreaded "F" word!

Keith had "the" talk with Andrew a couple of weeks ago. At the end of 5th grade the school does a Health lesson on this and we wanted to preempt this. Keith did a great job, and I don't think Andrew was scarred at all! Anslee has always been much more mature than Andrew at each stage. I'm assuming it's because she's the second child. It seems that it's this way with all my friends' children too. The other day she casually said, "Mom, I know how mommies get babies in their tummies." I managed to squeak out, "How?' She said, "You need the Dad too. He has to feed the mom a lot of food so her tummy can get really fat and then a baby is in there." Whew. "That sounds about right," I
said. Yesterday we were eating, or maybe gorging is a better word, on dark chocolate covered pomegranate seeds (which might be the best thing I've ever put into my mouth), and I said that I needed to stop eating them. Anslee said, "So you don't get a baby in your tummy?" Of course, "Yep," was my reply. :-)

I know that as time goes on the ramifications of their choices becomes greater and greater. That really scares me. How did our parents do this?? Hopefully one day, I be sitting here and my children will be happy, successful adults. That will be the greatest feeling ever! To know that everything I did wrong while parenting didn't have a disastrous effect!!

My Dad Presents!

2011-05-30T05:27:00.001-05:00

My parents love to travel! Growing up, they drove us to all but one state in the continental United States (we didn't go to Michigan). Now that they're mostly retired ~ The Christmas Store seems like more fun than work!! ~ they are going all over the place. They went to Antartica in February aboard the National Geographic Expedition ship. My class excitedly followed them on the trip through the internet. At the end of the school year (when we finally have some extra time) Dad came to do a presentation for my class. The children LOVED it!! My teacher friends had to stop by to hear my Dad's southern accent.

Thanks, Dad! You did a fantastic job!

New York

2011-05-30T05:15:00.002-05:00

My mom, Keith's mom (aka Nana) and I took Dandan to NYC for the weekend on May 6th. She said that was the one place she'd love to see before she goes back home. We packed as much into the weekend as we could. My mom goes to New York quite often, so it was nice to have her experise on what to do and where to go. By the end of the trip Nana was adept at hailing our cabs and figuring out the streets and avenues! We stayed at the Mariott Times Square - which for touritsts, has to be the perfect location. We walked a ton, although we did end up taking the double decker red bus and taxis to see the rest of the city. We had a great time!!

Delicious food!

Yummy drinks!!

We saw Wicked. This show now moves to #2 on my favorites list! Chicago is still #1, but it bumped Les Miserables to #3. When I rank the shows, I'm including everything ~ BUT as far as just the music goes, Les Miserables is #1.

We rode the ferris wheel in FAO. I think it's called Toys R Us now, which is a little sad!

It seemed like the ride lasted forever. You get your $5.00 worth!

The Empire State building

Dandan and I couldn't resist staying out late!

With all the stores open so late, it's hard to stop shopping!

A year with our foreign exchange student

2011-04-03T11:48:00.000-05:00

I received an email in August informing me that more host families were needed for some foreign exchange students. They were from many different countries, including China. Keith and I discussed it and decided this would be great for our family. We sent in our application and started the process. In the middle of it, I felt like we were starting the adoption process again. We were filling out paperwork, and sending in pictures of our house, of the room she would occupy and of our family. My friends were getting phone calls to give us reccomendations and we had several home visits.

Dandan's bedroom

We were able to choose who we wanted to stay with us for a year. We looked through the pictures of the avaliable girls. There were two girls from Anslee's same municipality, but one was allergic to dogs and the other was ruled out for other reasons. We decided on a girl from Kunming named Dandan. After that, things happened quickly (unlike the adoption process), and before we knew it, we were at the airport picking her up. We had her call her mom and dad to let them know she was safe and we headed home.

Keith registered Dandan for her highschool classes. The counselor helped us, but we had to make some adjustments here and there. She loves the two electives we picked for her - photography and chorus. She is doing extremely well in Chemisty and Algebra with over 100 averages. U.S. History and American Lit have obviously been a little harder for her. When I tried to help her at the beginning of the school year, it was overwhelming. There was so much background she would have learned here in elementary and middle school that she had never heard. She found a student tutor who comes to our house once a week, and that really made a difference.

With some friends at lake Blackshear

We've had so much fun introducing Dandan to life in the United States. She is amazed at all the holidays we have here. She says Chinese New Year is like Christmas, New Year, Valentines Day and birthdays all wrapped into one holiday. Halloween was a huge hit with her. She loves american candy and thought it was so cool that they could knock on doors and people would hand her candy!

Ready to go trick-or-treating

Breakfast with Santa at Buckhead Diner

Dandan was so excited for Christmas morning. She doesn't get presents like this in China. For gifts, she gets red envelopes with money inside. We did make a blunder with one of the gifts we gave her. In China, it is in extremely poor taste to ever give anyone an umbrella as a gift. In chinese it sounds similar to the word seperate. Andrew gave it to her for Christmas because she doesn't want to carry one of our big umbrellas at the bus stop when it's raining, so he found her a really cute small one. She looked at us funny when she opened it, but didn't say anything. It wasn't until I read about Chinese faux pas that I found out.

I asked her about it, and she said she was suprised to open her first gift and find an umbrella! Luckily, all her other gifts were a huge hit!

Dandan loved helping decorate for Christmas. After we decorated the tree in the foyer, she would sit on the floor in front of it to skype with her parents or friends so they could see it. She was so suprised at the effort we put into decorating. She said she was going to do it at Christmas at home.

We had our first white Christmas in Georgia since 1882. We were so excited!! Little did we know how much snow we were going to get in January!

Dandan has never seen such exteme weather in one place. Her hometown of Kunming feels like spring year round. She was so hot in August and then so cold this winter!

I hope Dandan has enjoyed her experience in the U.S. as much as she expected she would. She's made many new friends and has spent the night with them and had friends spend the night here. She has really enjoyed school and has done really well academically. I asked her if there was anything she really wanted to do before she went home. She said she wanted to go to New York City, so my mom, Nana and I are going to take her in May. We are going to stay right in Times Square, and we have tickets to see Wicked. She is thrilled! It's been a fun year. It was hard getting used to having a teenager in the house, although I think we adjusted really quickly. We are really going to miss her when she leaves in June!

Moonmeadow Farm

2010-07-21T10:33:00.002-05:00

Andrew is staying at my sister's farm this week. He was able to be present at the birth of the newest addition. You can read about it on my sister's blog. I think this is the sweetest picture!!

Rosemary Beach 2010

2010-07-21T09:45:00.006-05:00

This is our favorite vacation every year!

Every year my parents, several siblings and their families come for a week. Prentice came for a night and Shannon stayed most of the week. We all agree that Shannon is an awesome addition to our family! She's laid back, incredibly smart and just generally fun to hang out with. Our newest addition (Naomi) is such a great baby. We all enjoyed the opportunity to snuggle with her.
Anslee loved the ocean this year. Thankfully there wasn't any oil, tar balls or oily sheen in the ocean. She loved jumping the waves and became increasingly braver as the week went on. We had to start calling her back to more shallow water. The Sugar Shak is the greatest store she's ever seen. Our house was close enough to the town area that she could walk with Andrew to buy candy.

Andrew spends his time trying to catch ocean creatures. He found a really odd sea slug looking thing this year that opened up wings in the water. Riding bikes is another one of his favorite things to do. This year he was able to ride everywhere without us.

WWE

2010-07-21T09:39:00.002-05:00

Keith and my brother Ben took Andrew and Wood to see the WWE when they were in Atlanta.

John Cena is their favorite wrestler. They both thought this was the coolest thing EVER.

Andrew at Moonmeadow Farm

2010-07-08T08:11:00.003-05:00

Andrew LOVES the farm. He has no fear of the animals (except a charging 400lb pig!) He's not a great milker, but when he goes back up for a week at the end of the summer I'm sure he'll get the hang of that! His very favorite farm activity is riding the horses. My nieces move the horses daily to a pasture and to the barn. Andrew loves riding the horses back and forth and he was even galloping by the time we left. I was glad he was with his cousins, so I didn't see it! He is such a brave boy!!

Andrew is always in the kitchen with his Aunt Rosie. He loves watching her cook and helps when he gets to. A staple at the farm is homemade bread with homemade butter. The kids could (and do) eat this at every meal.

In the morning, Andrew and Aunt Rosie are usually the first awake. He'll go where she's sitting and talk about everything. He adores her and cherishes the time he has with her. I love the special relationship they have.

Anslee at Moonmeadow Farm

2010-07-06T07:26:00.006-05:00

Anslee loves going to visit Moonmeadow Farm! My sister has had constant company all summer ~mostly relatives. She said it reminds her of the children's book, The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant. (How do you underline on here?!) As soon as some cousins (who'd been there for a week)left, we showed up.
My nieces are so awesome and patient with all their cousins, and we just adore them! Thanks to my fabulous sister for being such a gracious, incredible hostess!!
She liked to follow her cousins as they were doing their chores. I'm sure it's not easy milking a cow with a small child attached to your back!!

This cousin wins the most patience award! She answered question after question from both Andrew and Anslee.

Anslee didn't really want to ride the horses, but she really enjoyed grooming them.

Anslee lost her first tooth! She was so nervous about it coming out, and wouldn't let anyone help at all. It had been barely hanging and then just fell out. She almost started crying, but the cousins all hooped and hollered and made such a big deal about it that she held it in, and then was really proud.

Celebrating the lost tooth.

Anslee LOVES the Lion King. If she has her own money to spend, she buys anything about lions. Her favorite animals on the farm were the cats, because "lions are in the cat family." The first day she kept grabbing them and holding them. Gradually as they got sick of this, all the cats ended up scratching her. When pumpkin (her favorite) scratched her, she came in and cried, "I don't like the cat family anymore!! Not even lions. They are mean! I am only going to like...ELEPHANTS!" and she started sobbing. We talked with her (again) about how cats like to be treated. By the end of our visit, the cats loved her and would crawl up on her lap. Now she likes lions again. :-)

July Birthdays (Mom and USA)

2010-07-06T06:59:00.007-05:00

Andrew, Anslee and I went to Asheville last week ~ we spent a couple of days with my sister and celebrated my Mom's 69th birthday. We met at the Christmas Store and then went to Chelsea's for a yummy lunch. Happy Birthday Mom!!

We had a very busy and fun 4th! We started the day at our friend's house. We went swimming and had a delicious early dinner.

Then we went to Nana's house to visit, and let Andrew and Anslee play with their cousins.

After that, we went home and watched fireworks with our neighbors.

Happy 234th birthday, USA!!!

Pirate Land ARRRRRRRRRGG!

2010-07-04T08:36:00.004-05:00

We went to Pirate Land in Myrtle Beach with our good friends, the Stows. When we started talking about the trip, I was a little apprehensive as I'd never stayed at an RV park before. I was so pleasantly surprised!! Everything was so laid back and the ammenities were perfect for the kids (and us!) It was so much fun!

Tea Party with the WWE

2010-07-03T22:40:00.002-05:00

Anslee wanted to have a tea party with me. This is how our conversation went:

Anslee: Mom, I'm going to pretend to be the Taker.
Mom: What do you mean?
Anslee: At the tea party I'm going to be the Taker and I'm going to see if Andrew will be John Cena.
Mom: (Now realizing she means the Undertaker from WWE) Why are you going to be the Undertaker?
Anslee: Because he's AWESOME!! He does his eyes like this (rolls eyes upwards) and he has a great song (meaning the song that plays when he comes out.)
Mom: Who can I be?
Anslee: You can be Triple H because you'd really like him, or Chris Jerico. I wish we really could have a tea party with all the wrestlers, because it would be really fun!!

Hmmm... I think she's really influenced by her big brother.

2010-04-18T05:04:00.004-05:00

2010-02-21T09:58:00.002-05:00

I have been so slack about posting!! So here's a quick catch up!
We went to Asheville for Thanksgiving. Keith's mom and his sister and her family came up with us. We went to my sister's farm for a day.

RM explained what was going on with her pregnant cow. Andrew absorbs everything she says.

I think for 90% of the time Andrew was on the horse. His cousin helped him feel confident riding (or laying!) on it.

Anslee loved riding the horse too. Last time we went, she wouldn't get on it. She wasn't scared at all this time.

Moonmeadow farm is one of our favorite places in the whole world!!

Halloween

2009-11-04T16:03:00.002-05:00

Hooray for Nana!! She went to Anslee's school costume parade and Halloween party. After the party Nana took Anslee home to play with her. Anslee said that was one of the greatest days EVER.
Anslee is helping clean out her pumpkin. This is one of the many expressions she made for the camera. Keith always does a great job carving the pumpkins!! Andrew didn't want to dress as something scary but he didn't want to be anything babyish. He decided to be a biker.

How cute is our little ladybug?! This is probably the last year she dresses like this. I have a feeling next year it will be something like pop star diva!

Growing up too quickly!

2009-10-21T18:30:00.002-05:00

Anslee enjoys a very busy social life!
At a birthday party this last weekend, one of the mom's walks up to me and tells me that her son says Anslee is his girlfriend. Anslee changes who her "boyfriend" is all the time so it is fun to meet the current one! He is a cutie!

His mom said she can tell Anslee really keeps him in line... Hmmmm. I'm not really sure that's a compliment!

Anslee is such an independent, assertive child. I think it will help her go far in life, but I'm not so sure she will get along great with her mother in law!

It's raining, it's pouring.....

2009-09-20T14:26:00.002-05:00

It has been raining for days now. I don't want to complain because this is a lot better than the drought we were dealing with. BUT... Andrew, Anslee and all the children in my class are going stir crazy!!Luckily Herschel doesn't really seem to mind the rain at all!

A new family member...

2009-09-15T18:44:00.005-05:00

We were so sad when Buster passed away on August 26th. He was 14 years old. If you loose a dog, the greatest book is Dog Heaven by Cynthia Rylant. We cry every time we read it. (I know you are supposed to underline books, but I can't figure out how to on blogspot!!)

We rescued a dachshund named Molly right before the end of the school year. We kept her for a

little over a month and tried to potty train her, but we couldn't. We couldn't even crate train her. We felt horrible when we took her back, but after talking to the rescue people, they reassured us that they would find a home for her. She was rescued from a puppy mill and had more issues than we were able to help her with.

We really thought we might not get another dog, but we missed Buster so much that we all knew we needed a family pet. We looked at a lot of rescues and asked many questions. Finally we found the cutest little 4 month old scottie puppy. The lady who rescued his mother owns a puppy training business. She said he was born in her house and she trained him for the 4 months she had him. He is pretty much potty and crate trained. She already named him Herschel Walker and it stuck. Glad we're Georgia fans!!

Andrew is so excited because he's always wanted a "fetching dog". Herschel loves to play fetch. Keith has already taught him to heel and sit when being walked. He has the funniest little personality and he fits perfectly in our family!!

If anyone is looking for a dog or puppy, she rescues and breeds dogs. I can give you her name. We found her on the site kijiji under the pets section. She also has a web site. With Herschel as an example, she does an incredible job with puppy training!!

Bamboo for the pandas

2009-08-08T06:29:00.004-05:00

In June I saw a Zoo Atlanta truck outside with bamboo. So being nosey I asked what they were doing. The employee told me that they go all around Atlanta collecting bamboo from private landowners for the giant pandas.
I found this on the Zoo Atlanta website:

Donate Bamboo!

Our giant pandas, Lun Lun and Yang Yang, have vigorous appetites, dining on bamboo 10-16 hours a day. They require a variety of bamboo species and with a 220-pound-a-day consumption, a significant supply. We are always seeking donations of bamboo from private land owners.
We can only accept bamboo that has been harvested by Zoo Atlanta in order to make sure it meets our harvesting standards. To enquire about donating bamboo located on your property, please call the bamboo hotline at 404.624.5884

We went to Zoo Atlanta yesterday. Today and tomorrow (Aug. 8 & 9) are Family Free Days for City of Atlanta and Fulton County residents and employees. They are expecting about 16,000 visitors! I'm glad we went yesterday, as I think everyone was waiting for these two free days. It wasn't crowded at all for us.
If Zoo Atlanta does keep the pandas long term, I hope they are built a better habitat. The zoo in Chongqing, China has big outdoor areas for their pandas.

Watching the orangutans is one of our favorite things to do. Did you know they have the longest childhood of any other animal?

One other interesting thing we saw yesterday is that the naked mole rat had babies that morning. They live like ants in a colony, so just the queen has babies (every 82-90 days!!) and all the others are just workers. The last time she had babies, none survived because they were constantly stepped on by the adults and the queen stopped feeding them. I'm crossing my fingers for these little ones. They were so interesting to observe!!

Another Family Member

2009-08-04T04:29:00.002-05:00

I'm so excited! Keith's sister and her husband are expecting baby #3!

Rosemary Beach

2009-08-02T07:28:00.005-05:00

We had so much fun at the beach. I love ending summer this way!

Just some highlights...

Swim lessons were successful! Anslee was a fish in the pool. She has no fear at all!

Andrew and his cousin flying kites.

Going crabbing at night.

These "Blue Button Jellyfish" were all over the place this year. We were nervous about getting stung until we looked them up and found that they really aren't jellyfish at all.

The cousins all cooperate to build a sandcastle.

Anslee just doing a little happy dance on the beach.

Taking a walk with Granddaddy.

Andrew was able to catch 3 small fish with a net. He was so excited!

Eye update

2009-08-02T07:18:00.003-05:00

This is after the surgeries. Even though it was not fun having my eye sewn closed for a week, I was so excited that it wasn't closed for the eight weeks the doctor predicted. Rosemary was so much more enjoyable with the use of both eyes. My skin looks horrible because it had tape all over it for a week which I was allergic to! Now all the stitches are out and no more hospital visits for me!!

Scroll down the blog to see what happened before this.

Swim Team

2009-06-27T08:18:00.002-05:00

Anslee is taking swimming lessons. She calls it swim team because she says only babies take swim lessons. When my friend Sandy took her one day this week, she told Anslee she couldn't wait to see her at swim team. Anslee whispered to her that it was really swim lessons, but not to tell anyone. She is such a quick learner and is doing great!!

Be Prepared! If you have a weak stomach don't look!!!

2009-06-26T11:17:00.007-05:00

These eye pictures are worse than before! They even make me feel a little ill!!! But I've had some requests for pictures, so here goes....

If anyone knows a way to hide the pictures until you click on them, please let me know!

To fill up a little space so you can choose not to see the pictures I just want to say thanks to everyone for bringing meals and helping out with Andrew and Anslee. Taking Andrew to camp and Anslee to swimming and for the playdates, etc. My family feels so loved!!

This first picture is when I was at the Mohs surgeon. The shots into my eyelid were the most painful thing throughout this entire process!! My eyelid is puffy because of the local anesthesia injected into it. This was done on Monday.

This next picture is after the Mohs surgery was complete. If you look closely (not that you'd want to!) The white part is a special cotton gauze to fill up the hole that the plastic surgeon

fixed on Thursday. My eye is extra wrinkly because it was packed with gauze that has just been removed prior to taking this photo. I went to see her on Tuesday (the day after Moh's was done) so she could decide how to reconstruct my lower eyelid. Keith took this picture today (On Friday).

Prior to the surgery, the plastic surgeon said that she was 99.9% sure that in order to repair my eye it would need to be sewn shut for 6 to 8 weeks. Luckily we ended up on the .1% side. As it turns out she was able to take a little bit from both of my upper eye lids to repair the outside of the lid. They take from both eye lids so that after I have healed my eyes will be symetrical. Thus the stiches on my open eye. She also made an incision on my laugh line next to the eye, seperating the inner layer and streching it over to repair the inside of the eye lid. The doctor said basically it looks like a little quilt work under the patch ~But I am prepared for anything when they remove the gauze on Thursday!!. She also put temporary stiches in to hold my eye closed until next week so that the eye lid will remain still and repair itself more quickly. Next week about half of the stiches will be removed and I will have full use of that eye!!!

DON'T FORGET TO WEAR YOUR SUNGLASSES!!

While we are talking about medical stuff...

2009-06-03T18:47:00.002-05:00

Keith and I noticed that Anslee had some places on her palms that were itchy, peeling, round places. We just found out my neice had impatigo and were worried that Anslee had it too so Keith took her to a children's medical health place when he got home from work.

They just returned and she has Papular Urticaria which means she is ultra sensitive to bug bites. This is a condition that when Anslee gets a new insect bite, the sites of old insect bites react almost as if they had been bitten again. When I looked it up, the medical journal stated that this is most common in asian people, usually children.

She got a mosquito bite the other night and by the time we got home, it looked like she had 15 or more. So now this all makes sense!

Just thought I'd add more medical stuff you've probably never heard of :-)

WARNING ~ Gross eye pictures!!

2009-06-01T17:35:00.007-05:00

OUCH!!! Today I had surgery to remove skin cancer from my eyelid. I am going to type this whole thing out so that hopefully you won't see the pictures unless you choose to see them and scroll down. I don't want to gross anyone out!

I noticed a red scratch on the ledge of my inner left eyelid about 5 months ago. It didn't hurt, and I didn't remember scratching it. I would check it periodically to see if it was still there. I wasn't really worried, because who has ever heard of anything going wrong with your eyelid?!

In late April I woke up in the middle of the night and started thinking about my eyelid. I thought that I should figure out what was going on. So I googled eyelid cancer and couldn't find anything. I checked a few other keywords and again found nothing. I went back to bed feeling okay.

The next morning I got worried again and after searching for about 2 hours I found a picture that looked similar to my eyelid. The picture was of a basal cell carcinoma. I know basal cells almost never metastasize but they spread and can majorly destroy the skin. I waited until the dermatologist office opened and called. They had an appointment in two weeks but I started crying and they saw me 2 hours later :-)

My dermatologist looked and had me make an appointment with an eyelid specialist. Who even knew there were eyelid specialists?

I saw the specialist and she made an appointment for surgery two weeks later after school was out. She had me try an antibiotic steroid cream for a week, but that did nothing, so on to the surgery.

Last night, Nana took Andrew and Anslee to spend the night and to go see Up today.
Keith and my mom took me to the hospital today at 6:30 am. My surgery was 9:00 and lasted almost an hour. The doctor cut a pie shaped wedge out of my lower eyelid. It stings and I can feel the stitches rubbing my lower eyeball (YUCK!). My throat hurts from the breathing tube, but other than those things, I am fine!

I go back to the doctor in a week to have the stitches removed and to find out if they got it all.
If they didn't get it all, we are talking major reconstruction with my eye sewn shut for 6 WEEKS! Don't worry I'd post pictures of that too :-) If you have an extra prayer, please pray that all of it has been removed.

The reason I wrote all this and am putting these pictures online is because I had such a hard time finding any information at all about this. I hope this helps someone else...

The moral of this story: PLEASE wear sunglasses! The lower left eyelid is the most common place for eyelid skin cancer due to the glare while driving a car. The specialist said she used to only see this cancer in 70 or 80 year olds, but now she is getting a case a week in 30 and 40 year olds. Scary, huh?

I didn't get a before picture of my eyelid, but it looked similar to the second picture here . Mine didn't really come all the way to the outer eyelid yet. Everyone who looked at my eye had such a hard time seeing it, they were suprised I found it. Luckily I found it early.

If you have any concerns about your eyelid check out this site or this one.

Happy Memorial Day

2009-05-25T13:51:00.002-05:00

Today we are thinking about Paw Paw and Pop Pop who fought in WWII. We miss both of them so much!

We had a great weekend with our friends who came down from Asheville for the weekend.

The dads and big boys went to the Braves game while the moms and little ones shivered at the pool!

Only two weeks left until school's out for summer!!

2009-05-07T21:28:00.002-05:00

We are all three ready to be out. Andrew has been counting the days but after we decided to have his birthday party the last day of school, waiting until the 22nd to arrive is almost more than he can take!! Luckily he has some fun days coming up.
I love teaching school, but by this time of the year the children are finished learning and it is really hard to keep them focused. I'm not sure what grade I'm teaching next year. Right now it looks like third.
When we tuck Anslee in bed at night she asks if tomorrow is a school day. Most of the time she loves school, but now she's done too. Her teacher has started writing the children's names on the board if they misbehave. Today when I picked her up, there were 5 boys names and hers written down. I talked to her about it and she said "Oh mom. Let's talk about this when school's over." I found out that during rest time is when she usually has a hard time. She stopped napping years ago!

My sister's farm

2009-05-02T08:14:00.009-05:00

Some friendly faces welcome us to the farm!

Moonie and Bean going on a ride.

Anslee wearing the beautiful crown Bean made.

Bean and her favorite pet.

Uncle Mecho and Andrew picking dandilions to make wine.

Keith gives a thumbs up to pork.

Andrew enjoys holding the baby goat.

Moonie had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb... This is the lamb Moonie saved.
Anslee loves Moonie's lamb.

Gathering eggs...and chickens.

Heading back for lunch.

April 12th Easter and Birthdays!

2009-04-12T19:27:00.003-05:00

We celebrated Easter in Asheville at my parents house. The last two years we had the children hunt for a certain color egg. We can hide the eggs harder for the older children and easier for the younger ones. It makes the egg hunt so much more fun!!

Happy Birthday Brandi, Dad, Andrew and Wood!! I can't believe my baby is 10 years old.

Weekend Fun!

2009-04-06T08:06:00.004-05:00

Keith and Andrew went camping to celebrate my nephew's birthday. They had a blast and came home exhausted.

Keith brought Andrew's four wheeler. Andrew was so excited to have so much room to ride it.

Uncle Ben helping Andrew shoot.

Andrew loves fishing and almost always catches a fish.

Riding four wheelers, shooting guns, fishing and building a fire. Is it possible for a boy to have more fun than that??

I took Anslee to the Chattahoochee Nature Center on Saturday.

We hiked through the woods and on the boardwalk through the marshes.

Anslee loved learning about all the birds. The guide was so informative and had many hands on opportunities for the children.

Anslee loved the turtles and wanted me to take tons of pictures to show her brother.

Newest family member

2009-03-31T16:50:00.002-05:00

Meet our newest family member, Molly. She is 2 1/2 years old.
Keith decided she should be in our family after seeing her and hearing her story. The rescue people said she was taken out of a puppy mill. She's adjusting really well, we all adore her, and Buster actually seems to like her. The one downside is that I think she is going to live up to the reputation that dachshunds have as being the hardest breed of dog to potty train. Andrew and Anslee still love the old man.

Baseball!!!

2009-03-15T15:56:00.004-05:00

Andrew decided last fall that he wanted to play catcher. We signed him up for several clinics from December until the start of spring ball.

Learning the catching position with a runner on 1st base. Notice his hand behind the glove to more quickly get the ball out in case he has to throw to 2nd on the steal.

This is a drill to get up and into the throwing position.

Learning to block.

Watch it to the glove!
Here is Andrew in his first game. Looks good! The black catchers gear above was borrowed. Below he looks good in the gear Santa brought him for Christmas.

China Trip - Tueday Afternoon 11/25

2009-03-15T15:09:00.003-05:00

After our trip to the zoo, we went to the adoption registration office. While we waited for our appointment time, we walked around a large open area that had shopping and restaurants.

We were all posing for a group picture. As you might imagine we draw quite a crowd. Here is our view of the crowd gathering to watch us get our group photo taken.

As I mentioned, the Chinese LOVE Caucasian boys. Here a crowd gathers to look at Andrew. You can see me letting him know not to be worried by the growing mass. They just stare at him smiling and giving him a thumbs up. Occasionally they will touch his hair. Terri and Anslee are in the store behind us.

Another view. Eventually a policewoman came and made everyone move away.

Here we are on a side street. Lots of vendors selling merchandise to the locals. The cart to the right is assorted candies.
Time for some Starbucks!
Watching a video at the Adoption Registration office.
They gave us 10 minutes to look at Anslee's adoption paperwork and we were not allowed to make any copies or write anything down. They had everyone's paperwork spread out on this counter. It was all in Chinese, so we grabbed one of the guides to help us translate.

We were told that that Anslee was found at about 8:00 in the morning by a lady on her way to sell produce. She saw a small bundle wriggling and thought that is was a animal of some kind but as she got closer, she realized that it was a baby. The baby was wrapped in a very tattered red blanket. This is significant, as red is a color for good luck. Also, when babies are abandoned, they are usually left in the nicest clothing/blankets that the family owns. The fact that the clothing Anslee was found in was in such bad shape would leave you to believe that her family was extremely poor. As you can see below. This was a very emotional moment.

Here is where we had dinner. A pirate ship in China!

China Trip - Tuesday Morning 11/25

2009-03-15T14:15:00.006-05:00

Well, I'm recovered from my rotator cuff surgery and back to posting pics from our China Trip. I'll try to be more timely! I think Terri has given up the blog for Facebook.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Chongqing. Here is a view from our hotel room looking down towards the river. It is almost always overcast in China.

Here is our group gathering for the days activities. On the agenda for the day is a visit to the local zoo in the morning to see the Panda's and then off to the adoption center for a chance to see Anslee's paperwork.

At the entrance to the zoo, there are locals selling their goods, much like at the Great Wall they are very aggressive. As you can see the kids talked me into getting them something.
Here is a close up of one of the Panda's. They just sit there and eat bamboo. It is amazing how close we could get to them.

Here is a hippo. What you can not see is the hippo on bottom! I like to call it:

The humpy, humpy hippo's!

Andrew did not care for this.

There was a guy doing Tai Chi with a sword.
He taught Andrew how to "bust a move"!
I had to put in this pic of one of the little girls from our group. She was the cutest thing!
I don't quite know why, but the Chinese LOVE Caucasian boys. These girls saw Andrew and his friends and had to have their pic taken with them. They were so excited.

Andrew and Anslee get a souvenir.

This guy was selling pets?

China Trip - Monday 11/24

2009-01-06T16:23:00.011-05:00

This is probably the last post for a few days as I'm having surgery to repair my rotator cuff in the am. I will pick up with Tuesday 11/25 activities as soon as I'm feeling OK.

Terri and Andrew got up early to go visit a Buddhist temple and practice Tia Chi with the early morning crowd. I knew Anslee wasn't going to have any getting up early so we stayed behind.

Andrew and Terri at the temple. The Forbidden City is in the background.

A better picture of the Forbidden City.
Andrew practices his "moves".

The tree where Chongzhen, the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty hung himself.
Later that morning we all visited the China Center of Adoption Affairs. This is where we were able to get a first hand look at how the adoption process works on China's side.
When you adopt from China, there is always talk about the "matching room". This is the office that matches the child to the family.

Adoptive families are usually amazed at how well the children seem to match the adoptive family. Here the workers are busy doing their thing.

We also got a look at the room that houses all of the dossiers of families in waiting.

Look at all of those files. The files are color coded to specific adoption agencies.

The children were taken into conference rooms for different activities based on their ages. At first they asked the parents to wait outside... One of the guides helps Anslee with her origami.
After visiting the Center for Adoption, we ate lunch and then headed to the Beijing airport on our way to Chongqing. Can you believe all the luggage?! I plan on doing a blog later that focuses on all of our meals. Stay tuned!

China Trip - The Great Wall

2009-01-03T10:56:00.008-05:00

Sorry about the lag in posting, but the Holiday's have kept us busy. This blog will highlight our favorite pictures from the 11/23 afternoon visit to the Great Wall. It is a must see destination and way more impressive in person, plus you can pick up a bunch of cheap SWAG outside.

The vendors hassle you all the way to and from the Great Wall.

They had a camel that the kids could get their picture taken on. We were lucky to get this photo as normally they will cover the camels head so you can not take a picture without paying!

After the walk up the hill through the vendors we took a cable car to the top of the wall. Some people hiked it, but I'm not sure Anslee was up for that.

Anslee enjoys the view.

Andrew thought he was Godzilla, we told him that was Japanese!

The whole family on the wall.

As I'm sure some of you are aware, the Great Wall is one of just a few visible structures from space. The size is truly amazing!

There is a lot of walking to be done exploring the wall.

Some areas are very steep and you really have to watch your step.

Andrew grabs a souvenir!

Anslee needs a rest.

Here we are inside one of the old guard towers.

Next Day two, 11/24.

~Breakfast with Santa ~

2008-12-24T08:48:00.004-05:00

This is our 3rd annual trip to Buckhead Diner for Breakfast with Santa. When you arrive they have bubbles blowing off the roof for snow. Anslee got her balloon and then decided she needed to wait outside for Santa to arrive.

He's here!! It is so exciting to see the children jumping up and down as he shows up in the firetruck.

We are shown to our seats and have hot chocolate ~ with all you can eat marshmallows :-) and pastries.

Before breakfast is served, Santa makes his way to each table for a quick visit.

Since the children hardly eat anything they have plenty of time to go outside and play in the "snow" until it is their turn to sit with Santa.Finally it is Andrew and Anslee's turn to sit and read their Christmas lists to Santa and talk with him. In the car ride home, Andrew said that he is always worried that he wasn't good enough to get presents from Santa on Christmas morning and how he feels so much better after talking with Santa and hearing Santa say that he's been good this year. After Andrew was finished talking, Anslee said "I misbehave a lot but I don't think Santa saw it because he said I've been good too!"

Violin Concert

2008-12-24T08:38:00.002-05:00

We met Keith's sister and family at Phipps to watch our neice's violin concert.
Andrew and Anslee were so excited!
It was so impressive to see how well she is playing now! There were all ages playing ~ the youngest was three.

China Trip - Part 1 - The First Morning

2008-12-22T20:09:00.008-05:00

Today's blog will focus on the morning of 11/23. We were taken to a government building where a homecoming ceremony was held honoring all of the children who were adopted from the Fuling orphanage. After the ceremony they took us to see the Olympic venues.

Building where the ceremony was held.

As I mentioned, 40 families traveled to China. People traveled from the US, UK, Holland, and Australia. This photo gives a visual of all the families.

A picture of Anslee with one of the guides.

The Director from The Bridge of Love Adoption Service (A Chinese run agency) gives the opening remarks. Alice interprets, she was one of our primary guides for the trip.

The were many officials on hand.

After several speeches, I think they love to give formal speeches, we were treated to a performance.

After the performance, all of the adopted girls were asked to come on stage and were given a commemorative engraved piece of crystal. Anslee is in pink on the right.

Family photo after the ceremony. All of the families were given red scarves to wear as red is a very symbolic color in China.

After the ceremony we visited the site of the 2008 summer games in Beijing.

Andrew and Anslee at the Birds Nest.

This is a great picture of the Water Cube as it also show the traditional grey China sky.

Stay tuned for a blog on the afternoon trip to the Great Wall!!

China Trip - Travel to China

2008-12-21T14:31:00.007-05:00

Hi all! I know that people have been anxious for us to upload pics from our homecoming trip to China. For those of you that were not aware, we made a return trip over Thanksgiving week with about 40 other families who have adopted from the same orphanage in Fuling China. I'm going to post a series of blogs over the next few days/weeks that focus on specific parts/days of our trip. I hope you enjoy.

This is how the trip started, at about 4:30am with the kids sound asleep!

Breakfast was courtesy of the airport BK lounge. We needed our energy for the 30 hours it will take to get from our house to the hotel in Beijing.

We upgraded the seats to economy plus, which gave 5 more inches of leg room. On a 14 hour flight, it's a must!

Terri built a sleeping canopy. Below Terri and Anslee are sound asleep.

We are getting close! After flying at an altitude of 57,000 feet over the North Pole, the kids can finally see the ground.

Finally on the ground in the Beijing airport! Look how tired the kids faces are.

Andrew was hungry and decided to try the Chinese version of KFC. I warned him that it was not the same as back home. No all white meat chicken breast here.

After deciding that the KFC was less than edible, we found a McDonald's. Basic cheese burger and fries are pretty similar to the US version. At this point Anslee can barely function. Our internal clocks are out of sync with the local time, which was about 7-8pm.

Happy Halloween!!

2008-11-02T11:15:00.002-05:00

Can you guess which pumpkin is Andrew's and which is Anslee's? Keith did the one that has fu carved on it. Fu means blessed and happiness in Chinese.

Happy Fall

2008-10-13T16:42:00.003-05:00

We went to a great pumpkin farm this weekend. Everyone around here usually goes to Burt's, but it has become so crowded there that I find it more stressful than fun.
This farm had a hayride to the lake to feed the fish, an apple cannon and of course lots of pumpkins. We were talking to the owner and he said not to tell many people about his farm because he didn't want to get as busy at Burt's. I figure only a few people read my blog so they shouldn't get much traffic from here :-)
They also have a cut your own Christmas tree farm in the winter.

Turtles

2008-09-28T05:34:00.002-05:00

A couple of years ago we went to Ponce Inlet, FL to see the Marine Science Center. Since then, Andrew has LOVED turtles. He was so excited when a neighbor found turtles hatching in their yard and brought them over to for us to see.

After the kids played (very gently) and watched them for a little bit we took them back and let them go. Hopefully they survived!!
Anslee and the neighbor who brought them over are hilarious to watch. They either love each other or are mortal enemies. Today was a good day :-)

Three year olds say the greatest things!

2008-08-03T06:03:00.008-05:00

Yesterday Anslee saw an outdoor ashtray and asked me what it was for. I told her and she said "I am going to smoke cigarettes when I grow up". I explained how bad it would be for her and thought we were done. She waited a second and watched a guy smoking and said "But I really want that smoke to come out of my nose."

At breakfast time, Anslee will come up to me and hold out something like marshmallows and a cookie and say "which one should I have for breakfast?".

Anslee loves this Laurie Berkner song called "I'm not perfect". One day in Sunday school the teacher told the class that only God is perfect. So now when Anslee is talking about God she calls him "perfect". When I picked her up from Vacation Bible School on the first day she ran to me yelling "Mom, Perfect was here!!" I asked her if that was so exciting and she said "Well, I didn't get to see him".

She loves to watch the DVD of our trip to China and wants me to tell her the story. One night after we talked about it, she asked about being on the steps of the Elementary school waiting for someone to take her to the orphanage. I asked her if she thought she was scared. She said "No I wasn't, cause Perfect had his arms around me!"

The tree house...or as our neighbors say...the tree deck

2008-08-03T05:49:00.002-05:00

Keith has mostly finished the tree house. Andrew decided to spend some of his birthday money on furnishing and decorating it. He asked me to drive around to different stores so he could find the most comfortable chairs. It took us a couple of hours to find the perfect ones!

Do you want to see something really scary?!

2008-07-27T08:03:00.003-05:00

Anslee and her cousin Ashlyn!! They are two peas in a pod. You never know what is going to happen when they are together. Our nieces, Ashlyn and Alex, spent the night last night. At any point when we couldn't see Ashlyn and Anslee yesterday, Keith or I would run around the house to check on them. Usually they were in some random room or closet with the door locked!! Luckily we didn't find any huge catastrophes when we found them. Hopefully there isn't a surprise waiting for us.

Graduation

2008-07-25T06:57:00.004-05:00

I can't believe how fast time flies. My niece graduated from highschool this year.

It seems like just yesterday that she was a tiny little two year old.

CONGRATULATIONS KIRSTIE!

Hair

2008-07-24T07:19:00.002-05:00

Anslee wants long hair more than anything, but her hair is growing SO slowly!! She uses her clothes (or anything else that would work) to put on her head to make long hair. We were in the store yesterday and a little girl with long braids passed by us. Anslee asked if I would "braid her hair long" when we got home. I explained that her hair wasn't long enough to do that yet. She said "how about if you do it next weekend then?"
In the bathtub she figures bubbles will have to do for hair.

Beach Trip

2008-07-23T10:24:00.009-05:00

Our family trip to Rosemary Beach is something we look forward to all year long. I can't believe it's over!! This year there were 19 of us. Ten adults and nine children. We had so much fun.

Thanks so much to Mom and Dad for arranging this every year! This is a picture of Grandmommy and Granddaddy and all but three of their grandchildren. The cousins had a blast together and it is such a great time of bonding for all of them. My brother's family moved away from us this summer and now none of us live nearby :-(

This is the first year we've experienced the "June grass". It was a thick green algae that was so thick in the water (think spinach or pea soup) and then there were times it was hardly there. I looked it up and it usually occurs in the Florida panhandle from early May to mid June. For some reason it decided to stick around and wait for us in mid July. Usually morning was nice so we would get to the beach around 8 am until about 12:30.

You can see how clean the water is in this morning picture. Under Uncle Mike's supervision (he is an architect afterall), the children used the seaweed to make their sandcastles extra sturdy.We spent the afternoons going to the pool...

and riding bikes. The favorite destination was the Sugar Shack and Starbucks.

On Thursday all the guys (except Colin because he is only 1) went deep sea fishing. They caught Red Snapper. This is a picture of Keith and Andrew (with Anslee) when they arrived at the dock. The pink tulle on Anslee's head is her "long hair".

The deck hand cut all the fish for us and then bagged it for us to take to the restaurant located nearby.

We walked to the restaurant and they blackened and fried the snapper for us. It was incredible! It had to be the freshest fish I've ever had!A favorite time for everybody was cooking dinner every night. Each family had a night to cook dinner. The first night my sister RM made the most delicious shrimp and sausage gumbo. The next night Brandi and Mike made steak and shrimp kabobs, oven roasted potatoes and vegetables. The next night Keith made his low country boil with shrimp and crab legs. Then Ben and Amy made sashimi nachos and fish tacos with red beans and rice. Probably the best dinners ever. Luckily, I only gained 1 pound :-).

Andrew and Anslee are always so sad to leave the beach. The first night home Anslee cried because she missed her cousins so much. I miss everyone too. Now we have a whole year to wait...

Some Easter Pictures

2008-04-27T07:46:00.004-05:00

We usually go to Asheville for Easter to spend it with family. This year all but one of my siblings were there. The cousins had a great time.

This year we color coded the eggs so the children had to hunt a little more for their colors.

The boys attacking their uncle when he was resting.

I love that even though months may pass between getting the cousins together, they act like they just saw each other yesterday.

Friends

2008-03-26T15:49:00.003-05:00

Our annual families trip was a blast again this year. For the first time in the last few years, there are no new additions. We went out to eat with the children, played at two of our homes and the most fun was our adults only night!

It was so hard to get all the children to sit and smile at the same time. I didn't get a great shot... I think I'll need to get a copy of someone elses picture.

Do you like the spaceship shirt the little boy in the above picture is wearing? You can order one of those or some other cool stuff from my friend's etsy store here.

Anslee is now obsessed with...

2008-03-04T15:38:00.002-05:00

ELEPHANTS! She has always loved animals but they have even surpassed princesses in her pretend play. She also thought the tigers were really cool.

We had so much fun at the circus. I love it every bit as much as Andrew and Anslee do!
If you get there an hour ahead of time, you get to go down on the floor and meet the clowns and touch the elephant and watch him paint.

Chinese New Year

2008-02-25T18:37:00.002-05:00

This year is the year of the golden rat. We had so much fun celebrating Chinese New Year. We went to the festival in China town. If you ever have the chance to go, you should. Remember to bring money to feed the dragon!

Aunt Rosie's Jellyfish

2008-02-17T09:06:00.002-05:00

I was fixing a snack for Anslee. She wanted a peanut butter sandwhich with jelly. I asked her if she wanted some apple butter that her Aunt Rosie made. She said "let me taste it". I gave her a taste and she said "Aunt Rosie made the best jellyfish!" Now she only wants Aunt Rosie's special jellyfish. I think she's going to need to make us more :-)

Happy Valenday Times!

2008-02-17T08:54:00.003-05:00

That's how Anslee says Happy Valentines Day. It's even cuter in her own little voice!
This picture is at the end of the day after consuming lots of sugar :-)

2008-01-31T16:04:00.001-05:00

It's always interesting to wait for about a month after Christmas and see what toys the children are continuing to play with.
Andrew's big gifts were the wii guitar hero and an electric guitar. We keep saying how lucky Keith is because Andrew got everything Keith wanted for Christmas :-). They are still playing with both.
Anslee loved some princesses she got in her stocking and plays with them constantly. She plays with her doll house. The dolls that came with the house can't be in there though because Anslee only lets penguins live there. She also LOVES watching the movie Happy Feet she got in her stocking. Gommy and Granddaddy gave her almost life sized stuffed penguins which she plays with all the time.

The biggest loser of all the presents was Anslee's American Girl bitty baby. I was so excited about it but she has held it maybe two times.

We'll have to see in a couple of months what is still being played with...

What an artist!

2008-01-30T16:18:00.000-05:00

Andrew entered the PTA Reflections competition. The theme this year was "I can make a difference by..." The students could choose to do artwork, a song, photography or literature. As you can see, Andrew chose to paint. He thought about what he wanted to draw and told me he wanted his boy to look like famous painting of the man and his wife holding the pitchfork.

We were so excited for him when his painting was one of the winners for his school and went on to the next level of competition. It didn't win the next level, but we are so proud of his hard work!

Anslee is THREE!!

2008-01-28T16:30:00.000-05:00

And we celebrated for three days :-) Keith brought Anslee to school on Friday and Anslee met the other two adults in our class and met the children. Then we all three ate lunch with Andrew. During lunch Anslee didn't have enough time to eat because she was too busy making the rounds talking to all of Andrew's friends.

Saturday night we had lots of relatives over for dinner. Anslee L O V E S playing with her cousins and was so happy that her "big" cousin Amanda played with her a ton.

Anslee was so excited about her long beautiful princess hair. Her very favorite thing to do right now is to dress up in her princess clothes.

On Sunday we had Anslee's princess tea party.

We used the fine china and had pink everywhere. Andrew served finger sandwiches on a cut glass platter and we had lots of other tea party foods. We played the Disney princess CD and all the little girls wore their princess dresses.

SNOW!!!!!!!!

2008-01-21T09:08:00.000-05:00

On Wednesday night we had a lot of snow and we played in it late thinking school would be cancelled the next day. It wasn't! All the children were so dissapointed and of course the snow had melted by the time school was out. When the weather forcasters said we would get snow again on Friday night, we were excited again. On Saturday morning there was no snow. Then about 9am it started snowing and snowed all day!!!

We played in the snow for several hours. Keith and Andrew built this big snowman.Then we walked to a friend's house to play and have dinner where Kayla and Anslee built this cute little snowman.
The big kids loved wrestling, throwing rock hard snowballs, and basically just tried to hurt each other :-)
A big kid using Andrew as a snowplow. It is amazing that if all this is done in the snow, no one cries or gets mad....

Thrashers Game

2008-01-21T09:03:00.000-05:00

We love going to the Thrashers games! There is so much action and excitment that it keeps Anslee's attention the entire time. Andrew pays attention because he doesn't want to miss the fights :-)

What we were doing during the time I was so slack about posting :-)

2008-01-07T17:29:00.000-05:00

The leaves were so beautiful this fall! I thought since we've had such a horrible drought, the leaves would just turn brown and fall off the trees. It was just the opposite. The leaves were incredible colors and they stayed on the trees much longer than usual. The temperature stayed really warm all fall so the children were playing outside constantly.
We spent Thanksgiving with my family in North Carolina. As usual, we ate entirely too much food. My brother brought up fresh oysters from Apalachicola, Florida. The guys smoked them on the Big Green Egg. They were delicious! If you don't know what a Big Green Egg is, go to the link.The day after Thanksgiving Andrew loves to go to work at the Christmas store with my Dad. This year he was promoted to fudge sample cutter. The employees of the Christmas store are so patient and sweet to him that it really is one of his most favorite things to do.

Keith got front row tickets for my mom, Anslee and myself to see Disney Princesses on Ice. It was even more exciting than I had imagined. When the guy was going to try the glass slipper on Cinderella, he came off the ice and tried it on Anslee! She was stunned but then talked about it for days afterwards. After the show she was able to shake Minnie Mouse's and Ariel's hands. Ariel has been her very favorite princess and that cemented it!

Breakfast with Santa at the Buckhead Diner starts the Christmas season for me. The real Santa comes on a firetruck and talks with each of us at our tables and then the children all get a chance to sit on his lap and read Santa their Christmas wish list. He is amazing!
The weekend before Christmas, my parents, two of my sisters and their families, Keith's mom, his sister and her family all came to our house for a great get together. Andrew and Anslee adore their cousins and love getting to spend time with them.

Happy 2008

2008-01-01T14:07:00.001-05:00

Our New Year tradition continues... We started spending it with our friends the year Keith and I were married. Now five children later I think we have only missed two years! The children had their jammies on and were outside watching fireworks.

The day before, we went to the Georgia Aquarium. We had a really fun time!

Washington D.C.

2007-11-11T09:49:00.000-05:00

We went to Washington over Labor Day weekend. We decided last minute to do it and I had no idea about the new guidelines for getting into the White House. I called our senator and they were so awesome! They did the quick background check and got us tickets to go inside. We also were able to get tickets ahead of time for the Washington Monument. They sell out early if you wait to get them there.
We were able to do so much during the couple of days we were there. We went to the Lincoln Monument, Arlington Cemetary and saw the changing of the guard, Washington Monument, White House, most of the Smithsonian Museums, the Spy Museum, the Vietnam War Memorial and the WWII War Memorial (which was amazing).
Our favorite dinner was in Georgetown. We loved walking around there and going in all the cool shops.
Andrew was so excited but I was worried that Anslee wouldn't enjoy it. She did though! She loves being on the go and seeing new things.

Our trip was wonderful!!

HALLOWEEN!

2007-11-01T18:49:00.000-05:00

Andrew dressed up as a Clone Trooper and Anslee dressed up as "I marry Daddy". She wanted a wedding dress. Everywhere we walked people stopped us to tell us how beautiful she looked. She loved it too and would spin around or hold her dress out to be admired.
Andrew and his friends. They were almost able to make it to the end of the neighborhood. Their bags were so heavy with candy that they needed to come back.

Anslee and her friends :-) She l o v e s hanging out with the big girls! Luckily for her, they enjoy having her around too.
THE LOOT!

When I came home from school today, Anslee said she wanted to get her wedding dress on so she could go trick-or-treating some more. When she realizes she has to wait another whole year, she's going to be very dissapointed.

Happy Halloween!!

2007-10-31T13:40:00.000-05:00

We went to Stone Mountain to see the laser show a couple of weeks ago. Andrew and Anslee both loved it. We got there early to spread out our blankets and then to look around and eat dinner. I had only been to the laser show in the summer but it was so fun going when it was chilly outside. We all cuddled together under blankets and ate our funnel cakes :-).

OUCH!

2007-10-26T16:07:00.000-05:00

Andrew and Keith were practicing catching pop-ups in the yard. Obviously, Andrew missed the last ball. He was really brave though and only cried for a minute or two. We felt so horrible for him. It looks much less painful now!! They have their playoff games starting tomorrow.

As you all can tell I kinda slacked off writing after school started. Like everyone else, it is amazing how busy we are. Now we are back in the routine and hopefully I will find time to get back on the computer.

T

End of summer

2007-08-15T15:01:00.001-05:00

We had a great time at Rosemary beach again this summer.
Andrew and Anslee loved riding bikes. We rode everywhere. Andrew's favorite place to ride to was the Sugar Shack. I'm sure you can guess why...

The first couple of days Anslee did not like getting in the ocean at all. By the fourth day, she didn't want to get out of the ocean. She loved it when her daddy held her and they jumped the big waves.
Andrew and his cousin loved trying to dig the deepest hole ever. Anslee loved making tracks in the sand with her shovel when she wasn't trying to get someone to go back into the ocean with her.
This summer just flew by. We got back home on Saturday and then Monday I had preplanning for school. My mom came and stayed with the kids while I was gone. Then school started for all of us this Monday!

Farm Visit

2007-07-26T12:56:00.000-05:00

I can't even begin to explain how much Andrew and Anslee love going to my sister's farm. They count down the days before we go. Andrew loved the baby chicks.
Anslee enjoys a ride from her older cousin.
I don't know if you remember the cute little baby pigs I pictured months ago, but look at them now!! Sadly, I think Flora is going to be an end of the summer barbeque... at least they aren't quite as cute now.
Anslee has no fear of any of the animals. I think they may fear her a little (rightly so!) but they feel safer when the fence is between them. When Anslee was inside the fence with them, they tried to keep their distance.
I'm not sure if we'll be back to the farm at Thanksgiving like we usually do... It is fun to be there during different seasons ~ and having my sister cook is always a plus!

the zoo

2007-07-25T12:47:00.000-05:00

We went with some friends to the zoo. Anslee was the only girl ~ which she loves!
Andrew loved the reptile house. There were so many snakes and frogs and lizards that he had a hard time deciding his favorite. I think we were in there for about an hour.
Anslee LOVED the gorillas! She kept waving at them and when the baby gorillas would clap she did too. When we were leaving that area to see other animals she yelled "bye gorillas, I love you!"

Painting fun

2007-07-24T10:33:00.000-05:00

I'm glad we did this activity outside!!

Our eventful morning

2007-07-23T18:44:00.000-05:00

We had to call 911 on the morning of Friday the 13th.
Anslee had just finished eating breakfast when she decided to do something she hadn't done before. She stuck her hand in the sub wuffer (I'm not sure if that is how it's spelled) all the way up to her shoulder. She started screaming and I ran over and tried to get it out but it wouldn't budge. I was worried her circulation was being cut off or something inside could cut her hand ( I really don't know what is inside these things) so I told Andrew to call 911. He said "seriously?" I said yeah, because I don't know how to get her hand out. The paramedics came and after they opened it and took out alot of the parts, they found her hand was fine and intact (thank goodness!) so I felt safe to jump up and get my camera to record the event :-). After they got her hand out, they stayed for a few minutes and watched Anslee in action and the guy laughed and said "I have a feeling we are going to see you again." I really hope they are wrong!
Andrew said as sad as he was to see Anslee upset, it was fun getting to see the 911 people!

2007-07-10T07:52:00.000-05:00

'Wife Shortage' to Hit Nation in 2020s
(China Daily July 7, 2007)

Today's boys may face a major problem when they become tomorrow's men - they will find it very difficult to get hitched, simply because there won't be enough women.

Sociologists are calling for swift measures to be taken to address the nation's growing gender ratio imbalance.

China now has 37 million more males than females, the People's Daily reported on Friday, without giving the source.

And the number of males below the age of 15 is 18 million more than females in the same age group, the report said.

A census in 2000 showed that the gender ratio between female and male infants was 100 to 116.9, with this widening to 100 to 118.88 in 2005.

Regional disparity also exists, with some areas reporting a ratio of 100 to 138, such as southern China's Guangdong and Hainan provinces.

"Currently, the problem does not seem to be very serious," said Tian Xueyuan, deputy director of the China Population Society. "But if it remains unchecked, when they reach the marriage age, problems will occur."

Zheng Zhenzhen, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that 10 percent of males may have difficulties finding a wife in two decades time.

"An imbalanced gender ratio will naturally lead to problems in terms of seeking spouses," Zheng said. "And less competitive males could be forced out."

Crimes targeting women are on the rise in some places where the imbalance is at its greatest, the report said, quoting sources with the National Population and Family Planning Commission.

Tian said that a deeply rooted traditional concept that "boys are better than girls" is the reason behind the imbalanced ratio.

"Agriculture has dominated China for thousands of years," he said. "In an economic sense, there is a far greater need for boys than girls in the fields."

cooking class

2007-07-10T07:41:00.000-05:00

We have a friend who married an Italian guy and they lived in Italy for years. She teaches a cooking class for about 6 children at a time. This class was making homemade pizzas. The children loved it! Anslee and I stopped by to take pictures and Andrew picked her up so she could see.

Our newest family member

2007-07-08T06:42:00.000-05:00

My sister and her daughter traveled to my house with my dad and then we all rode down together to see baby Colin. He is the most adorable, smallest little baby. We spent one night and then drove back home.
After we left I felt badly for my sister and her husband. It was so soon to go down and Brandi was just exhausted. My mom was still there helping but with six people descending on them it was a lot of extra work ~ Although all of us were more than happy to feed, hold or change Colin :-) Uncle Mike is a favorite of all the nieces and nephews because he always goes out of his way to make sure the children have fun.
Colin is doing great and his big brother Cuyler is so proud!!

shoes

2007-06-29T14:17:00.000-05:00

My sister and her daughter spent the night with us Wednesday night.
We had a full evening of fun including shopping at Target for my niece, going to Whole Foods for shopping and dinner and then going swimming.
When we were at Target my niece was looking for shoes. Anslee was right there with her watching and trying them on too. Anslee found a pair of "beautiful sparkly" flip flops in her size. After she tried those on I tried to get her to try on some more practical shoes but she wouldn't take the flip flops off. Before this, I had let Andrew and Anslee both pick out a toy to take out of town with us the next day. Anslee picked out a Little Mermaid Ariel toy. So I told her that she could only get one thing either the toy or the flip flops. Without a second thought she set the toy down and said flip flops. She was very happy with her purchase and has worn them constantly. I think Anslee will take after my niece who ended up buying 5 pairs of shoes!!

Buster

2007-06-25T14:47:00.000-05:00

My little old dog:

A heart-beat at my feet.

- - - Edith Wharton

Keith and I got Buster from the Pet Smart dog adoption a year after we were married. He was 1 and now he is over 12 years old. We always made sure we kept his weight low (unlike our weight!!) to make sure he didn't have any unnecessary back issues. His back has "gone out" two times before and muscle relaxers have totally fixed it both times.

About a week ago, he started to have back pain. We took him to the vet and had x-rays done. He has degenerative disc disease. The area between his lowers discs are starting to calcify and cause swelling and pain. This time, we haven't found a medication that is working. He is just pitiful and continues to be in pain. The vet thinks the only way to possibly fix it is to have surgery but even that won't definitely work ~ AND his age is a HUGE issue in surviving surgery. The vet is going to try some morphine type of drug... hopefully this will alleviate the pain he has.

Keith and I are worried sick about him. Poor puppy.

Welcome to the world Colin!

2007-06-21T23:33:00.000-05:00

My nephew was born today ~ 5 weeks before his due date!
He weighed 5.11 lbs. (big baby for being so early)
He is doing well but having a little trouble breathing.
Please keep him in your prayers.
Terri

Visiting friends

2007-06-21T23:14:00.000-05:00

We went to visit our friends Katie and Dave (and children) who moved out of town. We had a great time and Anslee especially loved Julia who epitomized everything girlie. I took my camera with the greatest intentions and then of course barely took any pictures.

Andrew has always loved Lane and was counting the days until our visit. From the time we walked in the door until we left, I think I only saw Andrew at meals. Oh yeah we also saw them when us grownups kicked them off the PS2 to play some guitar game. It was a blast to play but Katie, Dave and Keith all just tolerated me playing. Andrew wanted to play me so he could beat someone!

We miss you guys!!

2007-06-14T14:58:00.000-05:00

Anslee and her friend Olivia have a blast together. Olivia is three months older than Anslee. Like all two year olds they play then argue, play then argue. They both like to be in charge and be the leader. Their personalities are so similar and we think they look alike too even though they are from different provences.

2007-06-13T14:26:00.001-05:00

China city turns to air raid shelters to beat heat
Tue Jun 12, 8:20 AM ET

BEIJING (Reuters) - A southwestern Chinese city renowned as a "furnace" during the summer has opened up its warren of old air raid shelters to help people beat the heat, state media said on Tuesday.

Chongqing, China's World War Two capital, would be able to accommodate 10,000 people in the shelters, which are aimed at low-income residents, Xinhua news agency said.
"We spent about 500,000 yuan ($65,400) refurbishing the shelters -- putting in tables and benches, tap water and book stands, so that the needy who cannot afford air conditioning at home can spend the summer more comfortably," it quoted Tang Zhiming, director of the Chongqing Municipal Air Defense Shelters Office, as saying.
"Money-making activities will be banned at the refurbished shelters -- we want ordinary people to be able to go there and cool off free of charge," Tang added.
Last summer, densely populated and heavily industrial Chongqing sweltered in temperatures in excess of 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), compounding a drought and forcing schools to postpone the start of the new term.
Many Chinese cities have air raid shelters, a legacy of the country's Communist heyday when Beijing feared air raids or even nuclear strikes from the United States or the Soviet Union.

Clean water project

2007-06-13T06:52:00.000-05:00

It is amazing how poor the water quality is in China. When we were there we were told we should use bottled water to brush our teeth, make baby bottles and drink. There were hot pots in each room to boil water. We also couldn't eat raw fruit or vegetables that couldn't be peeled.

After we arrived back into the United States, and took our babies to the doctor, many of them had giardia (a parasite) and some of the parents had it too!

There is an organization called a Child's Right who goes into countries and installs a water filtration system that provides the children clean water. They were in China this year and they installed this system in the Fuling Social Welfare Institute. I am so happy Anslee's orphanage will have clean water.

You can see pictures documenting their trip there and to other orphanages in the Chongqing Municipality.

On A Child's Right website, click on News on the bottom left and then on China 2007 and pictures 75 - 97 are from Fuling.

Fun night out

2007-06-08T13:14:00.000-05:00

Watching the Georgia Force is so much fun. It is faster paced than regular football and really kept Andrew and Anslee's interest.

Rain, Rain Go away...

2007-06-07T14:28:00.000-05:00

Really we don't want it to go away, but that's what Anslee kept singing when we got our little bit of rain this week. The entire time she was splashing and jumping in the puddle she was singing.
I think Anslee thought it was more fun than the snow we had at Easter because it wasn't cold and we get it almost as infrequently.

I'm hoping we'll get more rain soon. I think we are negative 14 inches right now.

Treehouse Update!

2007-06-06T07:09:00.000-05:00

Well, here is my current project update. Andrew wanted a treehouse for his bday. TC told me all I had to do was buy one of those kits, but would I listen, of course not. So here I sit weeks later with a project that is going to cost me double that of a kit and is the size of an Imperial Star Destroyer (Star Wars). (It's actually shaped that way, not on purpose). It will Probably be at least another two+ weeks before I finish and cost at least a couple hundred more dollars. Andrew wants to know if it will be done before the end of summer..........I'm hoping so!!!

Our previous house

2007-05-29T13:23:00.000-05:00

We were running errands today and as we started to pass our old neighborhood, Andrew asked to drive by our old house. We drove up to our house and there was a for sale sign in the front yard. The house was obviously empty and the yard was unkempt. Andrew was so sad that no one loved this house anymore. It is always hard to go by a previous house we've owned especially if it isn't taken care of.

Another first...

2007-05-24T07:19:00.000-05:00

Anslee doesn't wake up and cry or get out of bed during the night. Until last night. At 2:00am she is walking down the hall saying "mama, I can't find my shoes". I picked her up, cuddled her little warm body for a few minutes, told her we would find her shoes in the morning and then put her back in bed. She snuggled into her pillow and said " I love you mama".

Is there anything better in the world than that?

Andrew's birthday party

2007-05-23T22:45:00.000-05:00

For the second year in a row Andrew wanted his birthday party to be a spend the night party. The theme was Spongebob. It was fun, we had many Spongebob games with awards. Then we ate crabby patties that Keith cooked (but they all assembled their own) had cookie cake and ice cream and then watched the lost episodes of Spongebob. They fell asleep around 11:00. Not too bad except most of them had baseball games the next day. They were exhausted. I don't think anyone got the game ball that day!

I'm hoping next year I can talk him into laser Quest or anything else that would not be at home!

Anslee loves...

2007-05-18T06:09:00.001-05:00

Someone asked me the other day what Anslee loves right now.
Here is the list:

*playing in water (toilet water, Buster's water bowl, bathtub, the pool, it doesn't matter where the water comes from)

*playing with her brother ~ she wants to do EVERYTHING he does

*Buster!! She also loves playing puppy ~ either she's the puppy or she makes someone else be the puppy. She thinks getting in Buster's crate is so fun.

*princesses! She still loves Ariel from the Little Mermaid. She dresses up in princess dresses and a Tinkerbell costume. For Christmas Aunt DeeDee gave her some "glass" Cinderella shoes and she wears them all the time even though they keep giving her a blister.

*shoes in general. She is the shoe keeper in the house and makes sure they get put in the basket when we take them off. She loves to wear Keith's, Andrew's, Andrew's friend's and my shoes around the house. When we are in the mall she wants to look at all the shoes.

*answering and talking on the phone. When it rings she makes a mad dash to get to it before anyone else can.

*Kayla ~ we have a family we are friends with and she adores their daughter. If she has to go to time out at home she yells "Kayla help me!". Kayla fixes her hair, puts different outfits on her and she doesn't complain once.

*helping do any chores around the house. She LOVES unloading the dishwasher with me, helping cook, fold clothes, making beds and vaccuming is a favorite.

*desserts. ice cream, chocolate, fruit gummy things, icing, skittles etc.

*anything someone else is eating. She won't eat it if it's on her own plate but if someone else is eating it she'll say "can I have some" to whoever is eating. At dinner she keeps asking for the food on my plate even though it is exactly what she has. If I switch plates with her she then wants what I am eating off her plate.

*playing outside. She doesn't care so much what she is doing as long as she is outside.

There are a ton more things. She is just so smart, hilarious and fun. We are having a blast!

Happy Birthday Nana!!

2007-05-16T06:38:00.000-05:00

Vists from my parents

2007-05-09T06:37:00.000-05:00

Andrew and Anslee are always so excited when Gommy (short for Grandmommy) and Granddaddy come to town. They love the extra activity in the house and Andrew loves to go out to good restaurants just like my Dad.

When my parents leave to go home Andrew and Anslee are both dissapointed.

The Treehouse

2007-05-04T04:49:00.000-05:00

Keith is building Andrew a treehouse in the backyard. It is triangular in shape because he is using three trees. After reviewing his work, he has put a brace in the middle of the treehouse because it is so big. The front part will be a deck and the back will be the house part with a roof.

Andrew and Anslee can't wait until it's finished!

sleepy baby

2007-04-30T06:30:00.000-05:00

This photo is a rare sight. When we were in China Anslee fell asleep when we were holding her a couple of times. When we were flying to Arizona she fell asleep when Keith was holding her. This is the first time she has fallen asleep with someone holding her at home.

Now that Anslee has given up her naps(!!!) we may see a little more of this. Neither Keith or I mind getting this extra snuggle time :-)

The Game Ball

2007-04-29T04:05:00.000-05:00

Andrew loves playing baseball. He isn't the best on his team, but he isn't the worst :-)
Every game the coach gives out the game ball. Andrew got it this game for knocking in the winning run. He was so excited.
Anslee just adores Andrew right now. When she wakes up in the morning she asks if Andrew is on the bus. She can't wait for him to get off the bus in the afternoon.

zoo trip

2007-04-18T06:42:00.000-05:00

I went with Andrew's class to the zoo. When I taught school field trips were so stressful. It was nerve wracking to keep track of 21 children in a public place!
Andrew's teacher divided the class up and each parent had 5 children. We only had about 2 1/2 hours to go through the entire zoo and to eat lunch. Amazingly we were able to see all the animals including the baby panda. The children were exhausted when we were done since we had to run to each animal!

T

Author's Party

2007-04-13T06:33:00.000-05:00

Andrew's class had an Author's Party. Each child in the class writes and illustrates a story and then all the parents come in and read and sign the children's books. Andrew did a great job writing and illustrating his book and he was so proud of himself.

I have been so happy with Andrew's school. If you look up your school on greatschools.net you can find great information about it and the surrounding schools. Before Andrew started kindergarten, I was impressed with our schools standardized test scores but a little concerned that the teachers were just "teaching to the test". I was so happy to find that this is not the case. His kindergarten and first grade teachers have been incredible and he has learned so much. I also love the ethnic diversity at our school. We have a large Asian and Indian population so Anslee will never feel like she is in the minority.

Doesn't she already look comfortable :-)

Happy Birthday!!!!!

2007-04-12T06:26:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday to my Dad, my sister and to Andrew!

I think it is so cool that they share the same birthday.

It seems like yesterday that Andrew was born. He was born at 1:30 in the morning at just 30 weeks. Keith and I were so excited and scared at the same time. Our Ob told us that he probably would not be crying so we were prepared for him to be intubated immediately and whisked away. But he started crying right away and had an apgar of 8. We were so happy. His 2nd apgar fell to a 4 and they had to intubate him, but we knew by his first cries that he was a fighter and would make it. After 6 long weeks in the hospital he came home. He has no problems from his early birth and is such an amazing little boy.

Easter Weekend

2007-04-09T19:44:00.000-05:00

We went to North Carolina for Easter. On Good Friday we went to my sister's house and had a delicious dinner. We also got to hold and pet all the new babies on the farm. This tiny little lamb was a favorite.
Anslee loved watching the ducks get their feet dirty.
On Saturday morning we woke up to several inches of snow. We weren't expecting it at all so it was even more exciting!!

Uncle Mike made the cutest snow bunny with the kid's help. We used Easter eggs for eyes, a carrot nose, and black jelly beans for the mouth. On top is Mr. Potato Head bunny ears. Anslee couldn't bare to impale another peep on the snowbunny's other arm, so she is eating it instead.
It was great getting to spend time with my parents, two of my sisters and their families and my brother who brought his girlfriend I hadn't met yet. We had a wonderful time.
Terri

2007-04-03T20:11:00.000-05:00

Andrew and I had this conversation Driving home from Sports Authority tonight :

Andrew said "Mom, there is something that I've really been wondering about for years."

I asked him what that was and he said "How did God decide to put my soul in this body?"

I said I didn't know and asked him if he felt like his soul fit pretty well in the body he has.

Andrew said " Yeah, I think it does. But you know how some people are born that can never walk? I think their soul is too great for their body and too big and that it has to kind of crumple in the legs to fit in and then they can't walk."

I might have written before about a conversation we had before he turned four.

We were in the kitchen and Andrew said "Mom, I know why babies cry when they are born."

I asked him how he knew and he said "Because I remember when I was born. I was up in heaven with God and Jesus and God told me I was going to have to leave him to go be born. He told me I would come back to be with him again but I still didn't want to leave. So when I was born I was crying so hard because I was already missing God and Jesus. But then I grew to love you and Dad. :-)

He thinks so much deeper than I ever did (or do!). His teachers have always said that he's an old soul and I agree.

On a lighter note, do you know what the appropriate attire is for grocery store shopping? You can wear anything as long as you wear a hat.

Anslee wore this pitcher to the grocery store and thought she looked so beautiful. She wouldn't take it off. She drew a lot of attention! :-)

Terri

North Carolina trip

2007-03-28T05:54:00.000-05:00

We always have so much fun with our friends. We had our annual trip together at the beginning of March. Last year Anslee was the youngest, but this year there are THREE more babies. Everyone had another baby except me (thank goodness!!). The count now is three girls and seven boys. I think we need at least two more girls. Maybe next year there will be more babies!

Anslee and mom at the Nature Center

We were so excited to get snow!! Every year we've been together it has snowed. Andrew and Samuel wanted to go down the hill in the sandbox lid. The lid didn't move but we took a picture anyway. Andrew stayed outside for about 30 minutes after everyone else went in. He said he didn't want to waste the snow :-)