I even got some cool black and white shots. This was right after it rained. If you look at this bigger, you can see the drops of rain on the petals.

I like this shot. The sun broke through and turned everything to silver and gold. This is at North Shore - we went to watch the surfers.

Waterfalls at the Polynesian Cultural Center. 

This is at the Polynesian Cultural Center.
 

This is the view from our room. That's Waikiki Beach.

Hawaii

I'm back after a fun, whirlwind trip to Hawaii this weekend. Yep, that's right - the weekend. My wonderful, fun, generous mother in law quickly planned a trip for her and my sister in law, and then invited me to join them on their girls weekend. While I couldn't get away for the full five days that they are staying, I could manage to talk my dear dear husband into a weekend of full-time kid watching (which, as you know, is no small job, since my darling son is so prone to adventure). So away I went, leaving Friday night and coming back on the red eye. I got to my house at 6:30 this morning. So, after I've unpacked, rested, and kissed my kids about a hundred times each, I'll recount my adventures and show you some beautiful pics. It was such great fun, but home is good, too.

Quote for the Day

"The mere habit of learning to love is the thing."
~ Jane Austen

The End is Near

Samuel has learned the word "no".

After a long day, it's nice to curl up in a chair with a book. 

Samuel learned to play ball this weekend. He's almost as tall as the tee. Almost. 

Juice break. 

Samuel learned the joys of Gogurt. See, he can smile! 

Sally is now riding her bike - without training wheels! We are so proud of her! She took a few falls while learning - most pretty minor, one big one - but hopped right back on each time. It's nice to live on a cul-de-sac. 

Samuel and Mia playing in our backyard. 

Baboo & MiMi

I watch a darling little girl named Mia on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She is Samuel's age, and her parents go to our church. For a few weeks now, she's been calling Samuel "Baboo" - I still can't tell if that is her word for baby, or if she is trying to say Samuel, but he is her "Baboo". Yesterday, I told Samuel, "Mia is here! Come and say hi." To which he replied, "MiMi! MiMi!" and ran to give her a hug and kiss. This was the first time he called her that, but it has stuck - all day long, he called her MiMi. When he woke up from his nap first, he looked around the house and then to me and asked, "MiMi - whereisshe?" (he always says whereisshe and whereishe as one word) So, since it was time for lunch, we went in to wake her up, and she looked at me and frowned, as if to say, "come ON, why'd ya wake me up?" but as soon as she heard Samuel yelling, "MiMi! MiMi!" she broke into a big smile and stood up to see him. As for Samuel, he was trying to climb into the playpen. Mia looked at him and then told me, "Baboo". They are too cute, our Baboo & MiMi.

New Words

Sally made up a word this morning. While we were doing our everyone-in-mom-and-dad's-bed-while-we-wake-up thing, she says to Samuel, "I want to chub your cheeks! I love those cheeks! Chub your cheeks!" I asked her what that word means, and she says it means "to squeeze them beacuse they are chubby". Makes sense.

New Shoes

Yesterday, while watching the kids play in the backyard, I noticed that Sally had a big hole in her tennis shoes. After a long and pound-your-head-against-the-wall type of converstaion, I learned that she knew about the hole, but didn't realize she should tell me or Daddy so we could get her some new shoes. So off we went to Payless, where we found her not one, but two darling pairs. (love payless - you can afford to get two!) (BTW, my lovely, somewhat short five year old is now wearing size 12 shoes!!!) So she wears home the pink and white ones that light up, and we get home, have dinner, take a bath, go to bed. This morning, she gets dressed, and lo and behold, no shoes. I spend a frustrated hour and a half tearing the house apart looking for these things. We can't find them anywhere. We call Daddy - twice - and the only things we can tell are this: they must be in the house, because we didn't go outside or in the garage last night. Samuel was seen playing with them in the living room. We look behind the couches, under the couches, in the fireplace. Nothing. This prompted me to try and ask him where he left the shoes: "Samuel, where are Sally's shoes?"
"Shoe."
"Where are they?"
"Dunno."
"Grrrr."
"Shoe. Sally. Wherearethey?"
So I give up. I tell myself, it is impossible for them to be gone. No psycho would break into our house just to steal a pair of girls tennis shoes. They will turn up. Hold tight to your sanity. We walk Sally to school. On the way back, I plead with God for wisdom. I pray for a miracle. I think and think. I've checked everyplace twice except the kitchen trash. I checked that once. Maybe they went to the bottom and I didn't see them. Ok, I'll dump the whole trash out and look. Please please God, let them be there. Restore order and sanity to my day. I get home and dump out the trash. There they are! Samuel points and tells me, "Shoes." This kid is going to be the end of my sanity.

Update on our house project: the walls are, well, walls now :) So exciting!

Update on Samuel - his head is healing well. Nice green bruise, huh?

People

Samuel is just fine now. His lump is now just a greenish bruise, fairly light, and never became a black eye. Praise God that little boys bounce right back! I never told the whole story - Sally and Samuel were playing in the backyard, and Samuel decided he was old enough to climb the monkey bars, a.k.a. the death trap. He got up two rungs before he slipped and fell, hitting his head on one of the bars on the way down. It's on soft ground, so that part wasn't so bad, and he wasn't very far up, so that's another plus, but those darn things are made of iron or something equally heavy and hard. We haven't been in the backyard since! We're playing in the front now - somehow, the light traffic in our cul-de-sac seems much less of a threat than the death trap.

Sally came out of school today and announced that a boy kissed her three times! Her friend added, "It's true, and it was totally gross. I'm never getting married!" After her mom and I exchanged amused looks, I found out that it was on the cheek, her teacher knows, and the little boy is in trouble (but he didn't have to move his clip, the big deal consequence in kindergarten). Also, Sally assured me that this is not the boy she has a crush on, that's another boy, and the boy she plans on marrying is another (that's a third!) young man. I pointed out that she can't get married until she is at least 18, and then suggested we go home and ride bikes. Boys forgotten! And, she rode for awhile with no training wheels - a big accomplishment for her. She's been practising for awhile now with very little success.

Stuart and I enjoyed watching the first night of American Idol. I so love the first few episodes of the season where we see the sad, unrealistic souls who think they can sing and clearly can't. Don't these people have any real friends? (And Scott, if you or Kim are reading this, Stuart and I remembered you many times during the episode, and hope that you were watching and laughing as much as we were! :) We miss you guys!) I really loved the guy who told the panel, "I just found out I can sing a coupla weeks ago!" Yikes. And I'm sure everyone liked Simon's line about liking the girl's outfit better than her singing, and both were awful. Then, today I watched Wife Swap. I haven't watched it in awhile, but this one looked good so I TiVoed it. I laughed so hard! The one mom was quite the bargain shopper, but really, how much toilet paper is it necessary to stockpile? She had a shower full! I'm not kidding - they didn't use one of their bathrooms because it was a storage area. The shower was completely filled with bags of toilet paper. These people give me renewed hope that I am a spectacular mother and wife, since I can cook a meal without a microwave, keep some of the kid chaos at bay (that means there are toy free zones in the house and this makes my husband and me very happy), and both showers are usable. Oh yeah, and we haven't run out of toilet paper for many many years.

So that's what's going on with us lately. God is good to us. Blessings!

House Rules

House Rules, January, 1999 (I was pregnant with Sally)
1) Leave the toilet lid up (so I can puke in it)
2) Leave the dirty dishes on the counter and keep the kitchen sink clean (so I can puke in it)
3) Line the garbage cans with plastic bags and empty them frequently (so it's easier to clean up the puke)

House Rules, January, 2005
1) Close the bathroom doors (so Samuel can't play in the toilet)
2) Push the locking button on the ice/water dispenser (so Samuel can't help himself to ice and water)
3) Put the salt and pepper shakers away in the high cupboard (so Samuel can't reach them)
4) Check the sliding door lock before leaving and going to bed (Samuel likes to unlock it)

Children indeed change everything in your life.

Life of Pi

I finished this book last night, and it was so great. Interesting. Haunting, at the end. And confusing. I liked it very much, especially the scene where the 'three wise men' meet Pi and his parents and try to force him to choose a religion (if you haven't read it, I can tell you he was practising Christianity, Hinduism, and Muslim at the same time!) However, I need to talk to someone who had read it and ask them a question - actually, THE question - but I won't ask it here so if you haven't read the book it won't spoil it for you. So read these comments with caution - they may contain spoilers and ruin the reading for you.

black and white

I decided to do a little black and white photography for a project - we think our family room would look cool with only black and white photos. These are my first attempt, and I'm pretty pleased with myself. Now I only have to find some time to paint the frames black . . .

girl with flower

little hands 

music and candlelight 

Scattered Books

Yep, I did it again. I'm in the middle of Well of Lost Plots (very good, very good) and realized that I have book club this Saturday and haven't read the book! So I've started Life of Pi, and need to finish it by Friday night! And yes, I know you are thinking I will never finish Divine Conspiracy, but I will. I secretly made a new years resolution to finish it in January (not so secret anymore, huh?) so we'll see. I'm never too dedicated to the resolutions. Anyway, I like having it over there on my reading list, looking all intelligent and spiritual. Don't even analyze that last sentence! I don't want to know! Take care, out there. Turn your TV off and read a good book.

Update

Well, Samuel made it through the night with no problems, and his head is greatly improved. He has a small bruise - no black eye - and is in great spirits. Thank God!

Goose Eggs

How do you get this medicine open? I have a big headache!

Samuel fell today and got a gooseegg on his forehead. They don't call them gooseeggs for nothin! This thing swelled up so big and so fast, I grabbed an icepack and threw everyone in the car and headed to the doctor. Luckily, he doesn't have a concussion. He might have a nice black eye tomorrow, though. Our great nurse, Kim, said to me that kids get these kind of injuries frequently, and they scare the beejebers out of the moms. I tearfully told her that mommy had no beejebers left! 

Click on this picture to see a larger image. OUCH!!! 

What are you?

(I had to follow the previous post with this funny racial story!) From time to time, I ask Sally the questions that I think she should know the answers to, like: "What is your name?" "What is your phone number?" "Where do you live?" "What are your parents names?" "Who else is in your family?" Sometimes, I like to throw in a random question, just to see what she'll say. So a few weeks ago, I ask her this one:
"What are you?"
She was completely not surprised by this, and quickly says,
"Half Chinese, from Daddy."
"So what's Samuel?"
"Half Chinese, from me."
"No, that's from Daddy too. What's Daddy?"
"All Chinese."
"What am I?"
"No Chinese."
Yep, that about sums it up.

From the Teaching Files

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is on Monday, so Sally's class is learning about this great man. It reminds me of a very funny (and a little pathetic) story about the first year I was a teacher. My school gave me a section of sophmore World History. Ok, I'm a first year teacher, I'm a MATH teacher, and they give me a class of History. You can imagine the kids that were in there. The kind of kids that it didn't matter if they had a year of history taught by someone who really had no business teaching history. Anyway, I'll never forget the test I gave on the reformation. One of the optional essay questions was to write what you learned about Martin Luther. One answer, in its entirety, was this: "Martin Luther freed the slaves." So sad. Several students confused Martin Luther, key figure of the reformation, with Martin Luther King Jr, key figure of the civil rights movement. I went to school on Monday, and stared at the class for a moment, and said very quietly, "If you learn nothing else from me this year, please please learn this: Martin Luther and Martin Luther King Jr are two different people! Martin Luther was white; Martin Luther King Jr was black! Martin Luther lived in Europe during the reformation; Martin Luther King Jr. lived in the United States during the civil rights movement! Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of a church; Martin Luther King Jr made his famous "I have a dream" speech in Washington DC! AND (by this point I was yelling a bit for effect) NEITHER ONE OF THESE MEN FREED THE SLAVES!!!" The poor, dear faces - you could actually see the little dim lightbulbs growing brighter. All except for one very bright, very scarcastic kid named Jeff, who was snickering at the stupidity of his classmates and throwing me looks of pity. (Jeff, if you are out there reading this, you were always one of my favorite students. I loved your sense of humor.) Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King, Jr.

Quote for the Day

"I had never come across a talking cat before, but good manners, as my father used to say, cost nothing."
~Thursday Next, protagonist of Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde

The Weekend In Pictures

Sally bowling (love her technique)

Stu bowling (pic by Sally) 

Sheila bowling (pic by Sally) 

Ready for a night out on the town! 

My parents and the kids. They had a great time. 

The pool that was right outside our room. The resort we stayed at has lots and lots of pools. This is actually the infamous "puke pool."