Mmm, Mmm, Good

Our Staff Appreciation Committee at school provides a lunch for the teachers once a month. This month, instead of the usual themed lunch, it was a breakfast, and today was the day. I wanted to sign up for muffins, but that was taken...so I was asked to bring 2 dozen "homemade" breakfast pastries. Not thinking, I said yes, then realized that I don't make pastries a lot...muffins yes, but not pastries. I ended up trying a new recipe I found online, and was pleased with the outcome. I made a few extra so my guinea pigs (family) could try them. The results of the "test" was a thumbs up and a "pinkie promise to make these again" from the girls!! I guess they were a success. :-)

Saved!

Our sweet, sweet daughter Allyson was saved on Sunday (Feb. 24th)!!! She was such a brave girl, and made the decision to take that walk to the front of the church. Randy and I both walked with her (she told us to stop by the first pew, but we didn't/couldn't). We all knelt down together while Brother Ben prayed with Allyson, and she accepted Jesus Christ as her saviour!! Brother Ben (being the wonderfully sweet man that he always is) introduced Allyson to the evening congregation as a "Baby Christian". How wonderful to know that our "baby" can look forward to a life filled with Christ's love.
Oh yes, and I cried...of course! It just isn't my style to remain calm...during anything!! :-) Must..stop..crying..now.....

Prayers Answered !!

He can DRIVE!!!! Randy was FINALLY able to see well enough to drive himself to work last week! This was the first time he has been able to drive in over 7 months, and we're both very thankful. His eyesight isn't completely back to normal, but we'll take every baby step we're given.

Valentine's Day

OK, I did it....I caved and bought some of those silly heart shaped candy boxes for the girls this year. :-) Every time we saw the candy boxes in the stores, the girls asked what was in them. I told them it was always yucky chocolate covered candies, but they were SO curious....so I grabbed 3 boxes at the last minute. I almost felt like the cashier looked at me disapprovingly as I checked out...what shame! LOL :-) The girls were thrilled to come home to their treats and a homemade card. The thrill of the candy boxes soon faded though as they took their first bite from the sweet looking box! LOL Emily said, "Ewww" as she bit into a fruit flavored bite, and tossed it into the trash. As the girls began trying to figure out the flavor of each little piece, I quickly grabbed a knife and cut them into halves so they could see the "insides" of the candies. I think they each had a total of 4 pieces that were "acceptable" with some sort of oohey-gooey chocolately goodness inside. Not such a good ratio. :-( Oh well, at least they won't be asking about the candy boxes next year!! LOL

Emily's school didn't have a valentine's day party (guess they're too "old" to have fun). :-( Allyson's class asked the kids to decorate a shoe box for their v-day party. Allyson remembered that Emily had decorated a house-shaped box one year, and she decided to do a similar project. We bought a papier-mache' house and glued it to a shoe box. Allyson went to town decorating it - and it turned out SO cute! The only help she got from me was spraying on the adhesive for the glitter...I just wanted to make sure she didn't glitter the cars in the garage. ;-) Claire's class made a valentine village and each child decorated a paper bag house.

Lunar New Year

So I'm late in posting photos, but since the Chinese New Year celebration lasts 15 days, I'm still ok...I think. :-) The local international families group had a CNY party, but we weren't able to make it this year. :-( We did, however, go to dinner with some friends on the first day of CNY. Our friend, Pam, gave each of the girls a red envelope with $10 in it. Allyson and Claire wore their Chinese dresses, but Emily didn't want to (she HATES wearing dreses). I didn't get any good pics of the girls inside the restaurant (forgot to turn on my flash - duh), and it was so cold when we left, that everyone ran to the car...so even the rushed shot of A & C is a bad one. Maybe I'll set up a backdrop and take some pics of the girls later this week. The elementary school was so great in doing an informational event for Chinese New Year. We were to bring the lion parade costume for the event, and another parent put together a powerpoint presentation. Unfortunately, we were out of school due to snow/ice on the date of the presentation...and it was moved to another date that I couldn't attend (had to take dh to the eye doctor in Springfield again). The assistant principal did tell me that both Allyson and Claire proudly got up on stage and marched around under the lion costume though.

The Stash!

It's that time of year again....when dad brings home bunches of samples for the kids to plow through. Thankfully, dh didn't bring home as much this year. The girls LOVE checking out the candy stash and dividing it up. Of course, mom gets all of the trail mix and pens. :-)

We have a winner!

Emily's middle school had a fundraiser last week...a cutest pet contest. Students and faculty were asked to bring in favorite photos of their pets. Each entry into the contest cost $1; there were over 200 photo entries, so there was lots of competition.
Emily is pretty competitive, so of course she wanted to enter. :-) She went around the house snapping pictures of Jazzy and Freckles, hoping to get the perfect shot. She entered an individual picture of each dog (which were pretty cute imho), and then THIS shot. Emily came home from school today very excited...her photo won "Favorite Overall Pet"!!! The prize included a squeaky toy for both dogs, and a gift certificate to Petco.
Way to go Em, Jazzy and Frecks!! :-)

To Anonymous

I tried sending a reply to you, but my message was returned. If you'd like to email me privately regarding dachshunds, please feel free. :-)

Candy Hearts

The kids LOVE the little candy hearts that are sold for Valentine's Day. This is a fun site where you can design your own - Acme Heart Maker.

A Good Read

Nothing like a lazy day at home, stretched out on the couch, with a good book in hand. Emily LOVES to read, and this is how she spent the majority of one of her snow days. It looks like both Freckles and Jazzy enjoy a good book too! :-)

Snow Day

We woke up to a beautiful snowfall on Thursday morning. The roads were slick, so school was cancelled (yay!). It snowed off and on during the day, and we ended up with about 2" total (it was a very wet snow). The roads that were wet during the day on Thursday froze again overnight, so we had very icy roads this morning (& another day off of school). The girls have enjoyed their days off inside playing Wii and Nintendogz. Allyson couldn't play outside because she's been sick, so Emily and Claire decided to stay inside with her. I've spent most of my time on the computer reorganizing some of our China pictures....am planning on putting the birth land visit into a book at blurb.com (since it will take me forever to get them scrapbooked).

Sick

Poor Allyson started feeling a bit yucky late Sunday night. She woke up Monday morning with a fever and sore throat, so she missed school. She seemed to be feeling a little better on Tuesday morning, but still had a low fever, so she missed another day of school. I tried getting her into the doctor on Tuesday, but couldn't get in until Wednesday. I knew Allyson wasn't feeling well, so had her sleep with me...there was lots of coughing, so neither of us slept well. I woke up at 3:30 and could tell Ally was really hot, so checked her temp...it was 104. By the time we made it to the doctor's office at 8:00, her temp had only gone down to 102.7. Diagnosis was the flu...yuck!
While she was home sick, Allyson did lots of resting on the couch. I think Freckles and Jazzy approved of her being home - they got in lots of snuggle time.

Sad Day

We're all sad here because we had to put one of our fur babies to sleep over the weekend. :-(
Our sweet little dachshund, Molly, wasn't able to move her back legs when I let her out on Friday morning. I knew immediately that this wasn't good. We had dachshunds while I was growing up, and I've always known about their back/disc problems. The vet did try giving her some meds, but there wasn't any hope of recovery. We told the girls on Saturday morning, and we all had a good, long cry.
Molly's litter mate and constant companion, Freckles, is missing her so much. They have never been apart, so the first night alone was hard on Freckles. Last night I put a smaller bed (it's our Yorkie's bed) in her cage in hopes she would feel a little more cozy...thankfully it worked and she didn't whine like the night before. She was a pretty snug fit in the little bed, but she liked it.
Emily made a little memorial sign and hung it on our fridge so we'll always remember Molly...but I just don't feel like photographing it. :-(
Rest in peace little pup, and give a big, wet kiss to our other fur baby Puddles.
Molly 2002-2008

Winter Photos

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

We've had several cold days here with some ice yesterday morning (sadly, school wasn't cancelled though). As I took Randy to work this morning, I noticed ice hanging from the stoplights. Since my scrapping group's photo challenge this month is "winter", I hurried back home and grabbed the camera. I wasn't really dressed for the cold, so didn't stay out long, but managed to get a few shots. I thought I'd try a different slideshow this time too.

Eye Exams

Time for Emily's annual eye exam. Of course, new glasses are in order...she picked out "new" frames that look just like her old ones (just a different color)! LOL Emily also got contacts for the first time. She was a little nervous about how she would look - she's worn glasses since she was 4 years old. We think she's beautiful...with or without glasses.

We've noticed that one of Claire's eyes pulls strongly to the right, so we had her sight checked too. Claire had an absolute blast during the exam, and did her best to entertain the tech. :-) She was a bit disappointed though to hear that she didn't need glasses. Instead, we'll be patching one of her eyes in hopes of helping the weaker eye. If the patching doesn't work, we'll look into surgery to release the muscle.

I had mommy brain again, and forgot the camera....so these pics were taken with the cell phone too.

Decisions, Decisions...

Each visit to the orthodontist allows the patient to earn up to 4 wooden nickels. These precious little tokens can be saved up to "buy" something from the glass reward case. Allyson has been saving her nickels for over a year, and had never really been tempted by the offerings of a little toy or gift certificate to McDonald's. She was saving her nickels for "something big".
Since Allyson had her expander removed several months ago, and she won't be seeing the orthodontist again for regular visits (for now anyway)....this means she won't be receiving any more nickels. Due to this, Allyson felt it was time to go shopping. When we took big sister Emily to the orthodontist earlier this month, Allyson took along her container of nickels. She took her time and carefully looked at everything available. She narrowed her choice down to two items: an electric toothbrush or a small stereo system (at the bottom of the photo). It was back and forth for awhile, but she finally chose the stereo system (I think once she realized that big sister was thinking of buying it, that sealed the deal)LOL! :-) Allyson proudly counted out the 45 nickels needed to purchase the item and insisted that she carry the box to the car (the box was nearly as big as she is). She has a few nickels left, but she may hold on to them. I'm sure she'll earn more some day since we see braces in her future.
(note: forgot my camera, so the picture is from my cell)

V-Day

After more than six months of vision problems, Randy's "V-Day" had come. It was time for him to have vitrectomy surgery. I drove him to Springfield early in the morning. He was checked into the surgery area by 11:30 and they began prepping him by noon. The nurses finally took him to surgery around 2:00 p.m. and by 4:30, the doctor was finished and talking to me. When they released him from surgery, a nurse wheeled Randy through the skywalk to our "hotel" room. The hotel is located in the same building as the doctor's office...very convenient since we had to be back in the doctor's office at 8:00 the next morning. (this picture was taken just after returning to the hotel room, and he was still pretty drugged)

Our prayers were answered because Randy's retina didn't appear to be damaged much from the blood that had been clouding his eye for so long. We won't know for sure how much sight he'll regain for about 3 more months, but we're optimistic. Randy still has to cover his eye for the next couple of weeks - wears the lovely patch at night, and protective glasses during the day.

After this eye gets healed, they'll go to work on the left eye! :-O

Got Cookies?

It's that time again....when hundreds of young girls run all over town, knock on doors and try their best to sell them....the famous Girl Scout Cookies!!
This year, the girls are sending their order forms to work with dad, and will go to a few neighbors, but their sales won't likely come close to last year's. Last year, we had 2 girls in the family selling, and this year we have all 3. It's just really hard when there is more than one child in the family taking orders.
Our GS troop is also asking people to donate cookies to the US armed forces...so if people don't want to eat the cookies themselves, they can just donate the $ and a box will be added to a supply that will be sent overseas.

Claire was SO excited to become a brownie this year...she proudly wore her vest to the cookie kickoff last Friday. Allyson was excited about moving up to junior level, so she wore her vest as well. Emily, on the other hand, was a different story. This is her second year as a junior. She definitely did NOT want to wear her vest because...in her words: "I look hideous! The color is hideous!"
This totally cracked me up because the hideous color appears to be just a few shades darker than the shirt she's wearing!!! LOL Oh, the fun emotions of a pre-teen!!!

Shades

"Hey mom, think dad could see better if he wears these?"

Christmas

We had a really good Christmas this year. Usually on Christmas morning, the kids tear into their presents and I try my best to get photos of them opening their gifts (all at the same time). Opening presents usually doesn't last more than 15-20 minutes max. This year, we decided to slow things down a bit....we all took turns opening one gift at a time and sharing it with the family. The girls loved this as they were able to enjoy their sisters' joy as they opened gifts. It took us almost one and a half hours to open gifts this way!

This was the first year that the 5 of us drew names and made a gift for one another. (The girls read about doing this on a McD's happy meal box, and asked if we could try it.) The girls absoluately LOVED making gifts and have asked that we make this a family tradition. Definitely a fun tradition! Since dh can't see well, Emily and I helped with the gift he made for Claire which was two photo ornaments. Claire made a similar ornament for Allyson; and Allyson decorated a wooden box for dad (to empty his pockets each night). Emily painted a cute wooden photo holder for me, and stamped Asian fans all around it. I made a pillow for Emily using a t-shirt that someone gave us when we returned home with her 10 years ago (she said it was one of her favorite presents!).

The week before Christmas, the girls invited a few friends over to decorate Christmas cookies. Everyone took a nice tray of their festive creations home. We also had friends Chun and Ravi over to decorate cookies later that evening. They made some very creative cookie/candy sculptures (including the marshmallow guitar player and the razorback pictured here).

The week after Christmas, we went visited dh's brother's home. They live on a small farm and have several horses. Of course the visit wouldn't be complete w/o the kids riding the horses. One of the horses was feeling a bit spunky, so Uncle Tommy led her around so she wouldn't run away with the kids. :-)