A Good Day for Annie

So the Author's Tea went very well. Annie read first and did a great job. And not only was she a featured author, but also was recognized for perfect attendance and.....Student of the Week!!! We are so very proud of her.

Annie the Author - Take 2

Last year we were so excited when Annie was chosen to read one of her stories at an "Author's Tea" at her school. Well, she has done it again! This Friday, Charlie and I will be at her school in the afternoon to watch her read her story. Here is her newest masterpiece!

"I Love Family Day"
Every week my family has Family Day. That is the day we all do something. Sometimes we go to places where we can have fun. My favorite place is the park! I like it because the park has lots of things to play on. I like the monkey bars because I can swing from bar to bar. I also like the swing because you can go high to the sky and it feels that you are flying.

My sister Bethany is scared of swings. She lays on her tummy on the swing. She does not like to go high. She likes to climb all the time. My brother Jack is more like me. He loves to go high in the sky.

Family days are my favorite days of the week because I get to be with my family and have fun. We also have a great time together. I love to spend time with my family because I love my family.

Love, Annie

We Love Our Bikes

Language Acquisition

So Jack has been home 4 months now. Having two older sisters at home has really helped him with English. Early on he learned several phrases, such as "It's Mine!" "Not Fair!" and the very useful, "Not Me!!"

He actually is communicating fairly well at this point. He understands pretty much everything we say (even when he is pretending he doesn't) and we understand pretty much everything he says--though somehow "BATman" (it's important to always shout the first syllable) finds its way into the majority of his sentences.

Recently he has expanded his vocabulary even more. Currently, the most popular phrase for all three kids is "Poopy underwear!!" This must always be accompanied by hysterical laughter. There are many variations on this theme: " "Poopy underwear head," "Stinky poopy" and so on. Driving around in the mini-van is so much more fun with three kids screaming "You're a poopy underwear!" We've tried banning these phrases and tried ignoring them, hoping they would go away. It hasn't worked yet so guess they will just have to grow out of it. Not sure if that will actually happen with Jack, since his dad has been known to join the poopy discussions - maybe boys (and men) never grow out of this!

Growing pains

Even though it seems like we are always very busy, not too much is new. This is a good thing, I think, as we are still settling into our new version of family life. Jack willl have been home 4 months in a couple of days. He is still happy to go to kindergarten (most days). Since he's been home he's had a problem with both hitting and pulling on people to get their attention (and hitting just to be hitting). So we've been working on it and are seeing some progress. Bethany had that problem also and it took her quite a while to get past it (and it still happens).

The two younger kids must be having a growth spurt because they have been eating up a storm. Normally after school they have a snack, then possibly another snack, a dinner and sometimes a 2nd dinner when Charlie comes home. They get breakfast and lunch at school and a snack if they go to after school care. Bethany will often eat a breakfast before she goes to school but not always. Annie and Jack are not that big on eating first thing in the morning. So we get a note from Bethany's teacher this week that she has been complaining mid-morning that she is so hungry that she can't do her work! So we are making sure that she is getting breakfast #1 at home and then has breakfast #2 at school. When I picked her up today at school, the first thing she said was that she was hungry. So she came home, had a bowl of ice cream, a bowl of oatmeal and milk, shared almost an entire box of crackers with Jack, had an orange, then had pasta and meat sauce for dinner. And I think she still wants something as a bedtime snack.

Then today I ran into the principal at the school while we were leaving. She told how everyone at the school knows our kids and are proud of how much progress they have all made, most recently Jack and his language. And it turns out that he is well-known for another thing - the amount of food he eats at lunch. The other day, on top of whatever main dish they had, he ate 4 large cheese sticks and 4 yogurts! He was very, very skinny we met him and has gained about 4 pounds in the time he's been home. He's still skinny but not quite so much in a scary way. He's extremely active too. The principal said the teachers have been talking about how much food we must have to buy to keep these three going!

This is a long post for not having much new. Happy Spring everyone!

More beach pictures

I've never posted much about our little house at the beach. Charlie and I bought it about 5 years ago and it had been pretty much abandoned. It needed a lot of work and what was supposed to be a 3 month project turned into a year long ordeal. Some day I will write a long post about the effects of beach time (a whole different way of looking at a "work" day) on lazy contractors who have issues involving illegal drugs. Anyway, it still needs a lot of work (this last weekend we found the roof is now leaking in about 5 places and gophers have invaded the side yard) It's kind of an strange little place. It's actually parts of two houses put together with rooms in between and includes some odd features like a picture window into the garage and carpet that stains all by itself when we are not there (and not under where the roof is leaking either). But we love it and the little town it's in.

So now I am going to take up a whole bunch of blog space with pictures of last weekend. We had some sun, spent an afternoon with our friends from Los Angeles who have a house there too, and a good time was had by all.

Saturday Night Excitement

Okay, so this is how my life is now. My bi-weekly Saturday night shopping trip using coupons is fast becoming one of the highlights of the week. Two weeks ago, it was Albertsons and tonight it was Safeway--I spent $79 and saved.... $76! Safeway helpfully calculates this all out on your receipt and it was 49% savings. Of course, this is a combination of the coupons I had and their "club" savings. It's fun though. Of course, the fact that I actually get to go somewhere by myself that's not work and can walk through a store without no one begging for candy has nothing to do with why this is enjoyable.

Happy Chinese New Year

We are lucky enough to have a beautiful Chinese Garden just a few miles from us downtown in Chinatown. They are having a series of events to celebrate Chinese New Year. On our visit today we got to see a wonderful Lion Dance, wander around the garden itself and the kids made paper lanterns and dragon cards.

Annie is a Snake -Snakes love good food, music and books
Bethany is a Horse - Horses are cheerful and quick to compliment
Jack is a Ram - Rams are good artists, ask many questions and are wise
Charlie and I are Dogs - Dogs are loyal and can keep a secret

Hope you all have a wonderful Year of the Ox!

A little milestone

So Jack will sometimes repeat "I love you" when you say it to him, but he's never before said it all on his own.

This morning when he woke up, he came in and jumped on our bed, gave me a hug and said "I love you, Mama!"

Oh my.

Bargain Hunting

Recently I came across a couple blogs of those amazing shoppers who manage to feed a family of 4 on $100 a month or something amazing just by using coupons and shopping wisely. Never in our lives have Charlie and I taken the time to try to do this, but after seeing some of the examples posted on these blogs, I thought we should give it a shot.

So I've been industriously clipping coupons for a couple of weeks and sorting them into little envelopes and tonight was able to escape the house for a little while (without kids and husband) and hit our local Albertsons. Though I certainly didn't manage to set any records, it ended up being a little over $80 for $130 worth of groceries-- almost $50 savings. Not too bad for a first try, I think. It was actually kind of fun - so I think we are going to keep doing it.

Jack is settling well into kindergarten and is very happy to be going to the same place his sisters go each morning. He had to have a TB test this week (part of his work up for Shriners). Charlie took him in on Tuesday and then I had to take him back on Thursday to have it checked. Unfortunately he remembered Tuesday's visit all too well. He refused to get out of the car and once I got him out, refused to walk and collapsed in a ball on the ground. So I had to carry him out of the parking garage and across the sky bridge and up to the doctor's office. I wrestled him into the exam room and it took three of us to hold him down and get his coat off, just so they could look and touch the test area (he is fine). Poor kid. He understands almost everything we tell him, but he just didn't go for the whole "No owies" thing this time.

It's snowing a little here--not enough to stick (thank goodness) but it sure is pretty!

Weekend at the Beach house

Just back from a couple of days at the beach and we lucked out on weather again - it was 62 yesterday. Quite a change from the 20 degrees and 18 inches of snow of just a couple of weeks ago.

We got to play out on the beach for a while. Our favorite place is actually right around the little river that goes out to ocean, which is just a few blocks from our house. Here are some pictures of the kids (human and canine) having fun!

So far in 2009

It's only the 10th (and Happy 15th Birthday to Mary today!) and the year seems really busy. Jack started kindergarten last Monday. He is in the same building as Bethany but they are in different classrooms. He seems to be happy that he is going to the same school with the girls, but we've been called twice by the school so far when he has had breakdowns, crying for long periods of time. Both times he was able to calm down and stay at school. One of the time he lost it because the zipper on his beloved Superman backpack broke and could not be fixed. He is such a brave little boy, we know he will be fine, but he has been through so much in the last 2 months.

And he had to spend the morning of his 2nd day of kindergarten at the cardiologist. This was his first evaluation with the doctor who had reviewed Jack's medical information from China. They did an EKG. This did not go over well with Jack, who was already a little upset because he didn't get to go to school with the girls that morning. They would have done an echocardiogram but Jack was just too upset and the doctor said he recommended just waiting six month until he gets more settled in and then do it. Anyway, things look fine right now, no murmer heard, no treatment expected, just periodic monitoring. Very good news.

We received a treasure from China recently. Thanks to the ongoing efforts of our agency, we received a Lifebook for Bethany, made by her orphanage. There are pictures and little stories about her activities from 2005 up to right before we met her in May 2007. It is just amazing. We are trying to figure out the best way to preserve this as it's on thin paper and the photos are glued to the paper. We are just very grateful to finally have this huge piece of her history.

We met Jack for the first time two months ago today. Overall things have gone pretty well, though we are still having issues with the three of them getting too wild when they play. Someone is always getting hurt or getting left out or something that requires a lot of crying and comforting. It's good to get back into a schedule after the extended Christmas break and weather problems. Work has been very busy, there is homework and housework and always something going on, but we are very glad to be finally settling into being a family of five.

Some Christmas Pics

Finally a few pictures from Christmas! These are from our belated (due to snow) Christmas celebration with my parents. The kids just adore their Grandma and Grandpa. Jack was completely bowled over by the bike they gave him. He insisted on sitting on it even when Charlie was still putting it together. More pictures later of Christmas Eve and day - they are in the other camera and I can't find the cable!

Christmas Update

I promise to get some pics up soon, but we had a really nice Christmas this year. Because of the weather (our 17 1/2 inches of snow) and Charlie's work schedule, we had our Christmas with the kids on Christmas eve. Charlie had to work Christmas Day and missed the kids seeing what Santa had brought them. We would normally go to my parents' but had to postpone that also, so we went there on Sunday and had a very nice afternoon.

Jack was a little confused about the present thing at first, but it didn't take him long to figure out that yes, the presents were actually for him and he was just thrilled. The highlight of his whole Christmas was the bike my parents got him. Charlie put it together at their house and even though the tires were flat, Jack sat on the bike a good share of our visit and kind of pushed it around.

The girls had a wonderful time also...it's amazing how many Barbie/Fairy/Princess things are at our house now.

And it hasn't stopped yet

so it snowed on and off all day and we are supposed to get 1-2 inches more tonight. We have about a foot here. Charlie is home, but his truck is 20 miles away at work. My sister and her husband don't live too far from Charlie's job and they have 4 wheel drive and chains and were able to pick him up and bring him home. He couldn't get his truck out.

So tomorrow is supposed to be a day without new snow, but probably not warm enough to melt and then another storm is coming in on Wednesday to bring some more snow. This is setting all sorts of records. We didn't even get mail delivery today.

My office is open tomorrow, and it should be a big adventure to get to work. Charlie will be home with the kids and then we will just have to see what happens the rest of the week. The pictures really don't do it justice -- there is just a amazing amount of snow out there. We have not been able to do any of our usual holiday outings, which is really disappointing for Jack's first Christmas.

Did I mention how much fun it is to be stuck in the house for days at a time with three small children mere days before Christmas? I am actually looking forward to battling the elements to go to work in the morning.

Freezing Rain, Freezing everything

So now it's Sunday morning and we have maybe 8 inches of snow on the ground, covered by ice. The dreaded freezing rain came last night. The front of the house is now covered with a thick layer of ice so we can't see out or open the door. The tree branches are also coated. It's very pretty but also pretty scary as this is the kind of thing that makes big branches and whole trees come crashing down. We have been lucky enough to keep our power but there are thousands of people in the area who are without. It's 21 degrees right now and it's supposed to get to maybe 32 today but then back down--they are predicting snow and rain throughout the week.

Charlie ended up staying at a hotel near work last night and though he wasn't scheduled to work until tomorrow, he was called in this morning to cover for someone else. So at least he didn't have to make the awful drive across the hills last night. They are telling people to stay home unless it's an emergency kind of situation.

The kids are going stir crazy so we walked to the Safeway yesterday, which is about 4 blocks away. It was not fun. We had some lunch, got a few things and struggled home. Today we will stay put and I will try to find enough things to keep them occupied. We are just praying that the power stays on!

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Early evening update - a high of 32 degrees - ha ha!! It never got above 23 here at the house and we just had another big snow dump. I think it's still going. We are lucky enough to still have power. My office is closed tomorrow, which is a very rare event. This is amazing.