I want you to see what our friend did...

Sam is our friend here, and she is a photographer. She's kind of new to the professional scene, but wow, she is really good! I want you all to see her work and possibly use her for your next memory-making event. This is the home page for Samantha Dalton's photography.

Here are the results of a session she did with our kids at the creek behind our house. Love through the Lens (put in "Susan" for the password) This is what the surprise is for June 2, which is John's birthday...I alluded to a secret mission a couple of weeks ago. The secret was the photo session, and some portraits for John. We've never had professional photos taken of the kids--unless you count the volunteer fire department photo we got last year for donating to our local V.F.D. The photos are so gorgeous (thank you SAM!!) that I spilled the beans to John and he's already seen them from Af ghan istan.

It's going to be hard to choose!

From Luci's Province...

Here is an article from National Geographic that Amy Tan wrote...all about the Dong people of Guizhou Province, China. Luci is a Buyi, according to her orphanage director, but information from her province is hard to find, so this is a good look into Guizhou.
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Here is a photo essay from that article.
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And a video from Guizhou. True to National Geographic, there are some shots of swimmers...so you might want to cover the screen a couple of times if you have little ones watching.
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Carla--I thought of you and your words from recent post of yours...so much was lost to our precious daughters. Much was gained coming here, to our homes, but much was lost.
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from the article:

A Guizhou saying:

“Not three feet of flat land, not three days
without rain, not a family with three silver coins.”

Do you question whether the first Lunar Landing was real?

This might clear things up for you:

One Small Step for Man....

"Life is all about ME," says Luci.

Blue's Clues just came on. Joe said, "It's my birthday!" Luci said, "Hey, I have a birthday! He has one like me!"

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At soccer practice Thursday night, the identical twins Mason and Nate had on different colored shirts. Coach, clarifying which boy was which, said, "Mason, you're wearing red, and Nate, you're wearing green." Then Luci (the only Asian on the team, the only one with black hair, and at that moment the only girl) piped up, "And I'm wearing white!"

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Today was all about J.T.--Luci and I took him to Huntsville for a Tang Soo Do clinic at the YMCA. Leave the house at 7 a.m. and home at 6 p.m. Once we got to the YMCA, Luci says, "Come on! I want to go to the mall!" We passed a mall on the way to the Y. She's a shopper through and through. We've only been to that particular mall once before, and Luci remembered the Build a Bear Workshop (we have a lamb in a wedding dress now), and the Chinese food in the food court (their fried rice was our lunch).

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Friday we studied the human body...the skeleton was the topic. A few hours after lessons were over, Luci kept telling me her "skillet" was sore. Finally, in frustration, she said, "You know! My skillet! Where my bones are!"

Luci-Speak and Dreams

In-Port-Nent: important

Bidnight: the time Cinderella has to leave the Ball

Orthodontist: Okay, so she gets this one right every time! I don't know how....

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Over the last week Luci has had several bad dreams. Stuck in a cage with a dragon. Mommy leaving her. Someone taking her away from Mommy. It has just been awful! Makes night-terrors seem like a piece of cake, because these are true fears. (Well, maybe not the dragon--but she is scared of most dogs; maybe that's where that dream originates.)

Then, once she is awake and in my arms, the sobbing goes from scared Mommy has left to "I miss Daddy...." and it goes on.

Thank goodness we will get to see John the third weekend in May! We all miss John, but Luci misses him the most. We still haven't heard what the next 6 months holds (going back? staying here and done with the trips?) so Luci has only been told that Daddy's coming for a vacation and then going back to work. We just don't know if he'll be at work here or in Af ghan istan. So either way, it's the truth.

You have got to see these....

"Patriotic Human Pictures." During World War I and the years following, Arthur S. Mole and John D. Thomas made grand pictures of patriotic themes using thousands of soldiers, sailors and marines. These are fantastic, and in our age of doctoring photos, probably would not be done today. If you know of any recent portrayals like these, please let me know. I find these fascinating.

Please click here and here to see some fantastic images.

Guess what Bryan got today?

Braces! Here he is before.... and after.

Martian! ?

Life, Lately

Today was soccer again--Luci's coach and her daughter could not make it due to a family emergency, so she asked the boys to coach the team today. They said the biggest part of their job was re-tying shoes and telling the kids to "kick the ball the other way!" Four-and-five-year-olds are pretty funny.
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I was in charge of making sure everyone got to play every position and take breaks. It looks easy when the coaches do it, but it was like solving a Sudoku puzzle, in pen, while riding a bike. Crystal, you have all my admiration! We missed you and Tressa this morning.
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Before the game.
JT has had so much fun riding his tractor all over the place. This is our very old riding lawnmower. The blades are removed, so it is truly a little tractor now. He spent Wednesday afternoon riding all over the yard. When JT goes next door to play with Clay, he takes it down the hill and across the creek all the way to the neighbors' front door.

Looking back on our house. The kids and I went to the creek today on a top-secret mission (details on June 2!).

Easter, the Feingold Way

The Easter Bunny left the kids some all natural treats, perfect for a Feingold family--a Palmer chocolate bunny (from Wal-Mart), some Jelly Belly beans (from amazon.com), and all-natural lollipops in a cute barn container (from Simon Candy Shop). The Simon Candy Shop is going out of business, which is bad news--but everything on their site is on sale, so it's good news for you if you would like to try some all natural hard candies. I ordered some of the Halloween lollipops to give out at our Harvest Festival in October, to go along with our family's Oriental Trading give-aways.Luci spent the day watching Toy Story and surprised me with this--"Mama! I'm Buzz Lightyear!"

Boys and Camp

After hearing how miserable he'd be if he had to go to camp, Bryan ended up having a pretty good time and even learned some good things about our world. JT absolutely loved the 3 days and wished it were longer (mom didn't need to worry). JT threw himself into everything and even had a young lady in the group who had a big crush on him!

JT has talked for hours about all he learned and all they did there.

This little video is of the last minutes of the camp--after Luci and I arrived to bring the boys home. Don't tell them it's on the blog! They begged me to not post it. Bryan and JT have on orange shirts in this video.

On the way home, we had some wicked weather to go through. At one point, a tree was down across the roadway and quite a few vehicles were stuck...until one young man drove up and pulled a chainsaw from the bed of his pick up truck. He had that pine tree cut up and several men from other vehicles pulled the tree off the road. Gotta love country boys and their chainsaws.

Heard Today:

Heard on the way to soccer practice. Feel free to sing along.
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Mama, I don't want a hippopotamus for Christmas,

because it won't fit into our house.

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I want a rhino.

Lost and Found

Luci brought this to me today. Apparently her bunny is missing, and she wanted to post this somewhere. Just in case I find her bunny, so I can return it to her.

Going to Camp

The boys went to camp today. McDowell Environmental Center has 3 and 5 day camps available for all age groups. Robin W. got a group of homeschoolers together for a 3 day camp. It was just too good to pass up. The lessons, on the environment, fit right in with our Weaver studies this spring. Usually things like this are out of our budget so that's another blessing to come from John's trip.

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Bryan was not convinced this was a good idea.

Until he found out it was 5 boys to 10 girls....if you look hard, you can see a little grin.When getting directions to the boys' cabin, the counselor said, "Go left at the fork in the road."JT was pretty excited about this camp. It's the first time he's gone on a trip without a parent...so Mom's nervous, but he is not.The cabin. Much nicer than what we had at Ivydale in the '70s!JT and Luci loving on each other.

The camp is in Winston County, Alabama. Winston County seceded from Alabama when Alabama seceded from the Union! The citizens here did not want to fight their Southern brothers or their Northern brothers, and seceded to make the "Free State of Winston."

Later today, Luci "fixed" her bicycle.

What does Daddy eat?

What does Daddy eat in Af ghan istan?
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That was the question Luci asked tonight. So John has an assignment to send Luci an email all about what he eats "over there."
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You shoulda heard the laughter when I told her that Daddy eats in a Mess Hall.
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Is the food messy?

Such Good Friends

Today Luci went for a play date (willingly!) with Hannah and "Hannah-Mom" as Luci calls, well, Hannah's Mom. (duh) This is the first time she's stayed with anyone without a brother being there, too. Wow! I had to drag Luci away from their house. Thank you, Amanda (Hannah-Mom's real name) and Hannah, for that gift.

Hannah last May...These pictures have been posted before, but golly they are so SWEET.

Bryan and JT had a class just for homeschoolers all day, all about World Views--how do people see the world? What is their standard? What is your standard? Apparently JT paid more attention than Bryan. JT was able to tell me quite a bit and he used some new vocabulary (correctly!). I'm so glad that we have opportunities like this, and that this year we are able to take advantage of them.

Thank you again, Hannah-Mom! You are a good friend.

Saturday!

Today was fun! We had soccer, and a field trip--



We went to FAME Recording Studios after the soccer game. FAME has recorded some of the best-known musicians in the USA. Aretha Franklin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Paul Anka, Shenandoah, Alabama, here's a list. Terry Pace gave us the tour (Skynryd's not on there, but Terry said he'd played there, too). It was wonderful getting to go into this building that has so much mystique around it. Aretha Franklin played this piano! Terry Pace speaking to us.

As the lecture went on, another couple came into the room and stood next to us. It was such a nice surprise! They turned out to be a couple that I met years ago at McDonald's. Bryan and I used to go several days during the work-week, at breakfast time. We ate breakfast there a lot, up to the time when I had to start ordering Bryan's breakfast (he ate off my plate)--we ate there until it got too pricey. :) Anyway, this couple was always so nice to us. Their children and grandchildren lived far away, and so did my parents. So it was a good friendship.

The entrance to the recording part of the building:

Remember the song, Mustang Sally? Wilson Pickett recorded here in this studio. Here's Wilson Pickett --

Our soccer day: At Upwards, the game is always ended with a prayer. We love Crystal, Luci's coach.

This year's soccer t-shirt:

Luci keeping her eye on the ball (for once)

Bryan doing chores on Friday

JT was such a good helper today.

Rain, Another Guizhou Girl and a New Toy

Took this photo for John today (he misses the rain), from our porch looking out into the backyard. Just after this, the weather authorities issued a tornado warning for this very storm (yikes!). And, ten minutes later. The yard needs mowing! It looks wild and wooly to me.

I just had to include this photo--all of these are unretouched. This was taken several hours later, near sunset. The sun came out for a few minutes. We had one more band of rain come through after this shot for a total of about 2 inches of rain today. Amazing color!

Ashley, a young girl from Luci's province of China (Guizhou), has begun modeling and acting. She is 4, like Luci, and lives far away from here. I know Ashley and her mom through our blogging...and this is a product of Ashley's modeling career! A doll from Toys R Us has Ashley's photo on the package.

We are really tickled for Ashley!

Now for the "toy" part of the post: A VitaMix blender! I figured that if I make Luci's rice milk for her, I will have saved enough to cover the cost of this machine in less than a year. (It's already paid for, but that alone will recoup the cost.) Here is the first thing made: Banana Ice Cream! You can let it harden in the freezer, or have it right away--these were really terrific milk shakes! (Yes, it was made with dairy and not Luci's rice milk...so I'll start that next.)

Congratulations to J4!

This singing group, Jessi, Jedidiah, Josiah and Josephine Smith, won CBS's singing contest. They are a homeschooling family from Bluff City, Tennessee.

photo from CBS's story, here.

Military Homeschool Family of the Year!

We just found out that we are this year's Military Homeschool Family of the Year! Someone nominated us because of us dealing with our third school year with John overseas. Neat! I am so excited.

Here's a link to the group, and our award: Military Homeschooling Families
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APRIL FOOL'S!
Apparently, this was a very good monkeyshine! This prank fooled more people this year than any other one I've ever done. Did you click on the link?

GOTCHA!