My, Look How They've Grown!

John was at the Ka bul, Af ghan istan's office of the Corps of Engineers when it was made an official branch of the Corps. Here is the official photo from March, 2004. John is right in the middle.

This is from the 5 year anniversary, taken early this week. I had a hard time finding John in this photo, but Luci found him right away!
Nice coincidence that John was there at the beginning of this office, and there again. There is one other person in both photographs, too--and I'm sorry I cannot remember his name.

A Bouyei Village in Guizhou

Recently a friend (hi, Don!) asked about Bouyei. Here is a village in China that is Bouyei--that's Luci's minority. Sometimes when you travel, you get where you're going and things look not too differently than what you left at home. When we got off the plane in Guizhou, we were surrounded by karst mountains such as these. It was quite satisfying, somehow, to know that we were "in a foreign place."
.
More information on Bouyei and other people groups
.
photo info:

Shitoucun,Longtanzhen,Guizhou,China.jpg‎ (800 × 600 pixels, file size: 114 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

.

Bouyei minority Shi tou village, west Guizhou (near Longgong caves), China. Taken by Ariel Steiner.

Thank Goodness!

Scientist Solves Mystery of Belly-Button Lint

At least he spent his own money on the study.

More Luci-Speak

Heard today:

When I play soccer, I am going to be a good spork.this photo was from a year ago, but too cute to pass up!

A Baseline

Just when I think we are moving right along average with these kids, one of them will do something that makes me wonder what is percolating inside their cute little heads.
.
Luci has drawn two pictures this week that have a baseline in them. A grounding. Something for the object drawn to sit upon. I remembered Dr. Faye Doran's class at Harding and wow, got excited for Luci. Luci is four years and just barely four months. Baselines come along for 5 and 6 year olds, in normal, untaught development. I saw her first drawing and tried to not get excited...but two in the space of two days, well! Way to go, Luci!
.
Introduction of the Baseline

Snow!

We got some of that snow you've seen on the news. It was lovely, and gone by noon. It's still pretty cold outside, but you can't keep snow around when the sun is shining. I woke the kids up early this morning to play in the snow, before getting ready for church. But it was too cold to stay out! You can see Luci below, complaining to me that Bryan won't help her build a snowman. The boys did build something for me, though. Yesterday I found these little shelving "cubicle" things at Target--on clearance, you can't beat that! They all worked hard and now the cube things are holding some essential toys in the living room.

Library Fun

We finished up a reading program at the library this week. The preschoolers had a Snowman reading program and added parts to their snowmen with each 4 books they had read to them. Here are some shots from this week.
.
Kalyn and Luci at the party (Thursday). Luci next to her snowman (Wednesday).

Singing "A Tooty-Ta-Ta". The girls refused to give up their chair!

Luci really gets into this song!

So funny!

Tree Removal

We had 4 trees removed this week. Three were leaning, and a fourth was a little tree too close to the house. So now we get to choose the type and placement of some new trees. Right in time for a unit study on plants! Good timing. Weaver Curriculum, Volume IV, chapter 3.

.

Luci was fascinated by all the work. She has on her headphones.

The tree stump here with the big dead spot was the tree that was the most dangerous. It was at least 50 feet tall (I'm sure it was bigger but I do not judge heights well), and very close to the power lines. It would have certainly hit the house if it managed to miss the power lines had it fallen on its own.

This is that dead tree. Taken from the front porch. It was much taller than what this photo shows. If you look closely, you can see the man leaning out of the bucket with his chainsaw. This is the same guy who took out trees at our old house when John was on his last trip to Af ghan istan. Fascinating for Luci!

Hundreds Join in Global Warming Protest

Soccer Evaluation

Excited, but nervous.

Doing her thing. Very slowly, by the way. This is actually a video--not really, but Luci was very slow and careful during every drill.

The film crew. The boys took TWO handycams, and made a nice video for John. They worked really well together, and I am proud of that! We had to explain to every skill station what we were doing. "We brough Luci's film crew so we could send the action to Daddy in Afghanistan." It's a big church, and not everyone remembered where John is. We go to the late service and a couple of people at the evaluations go to another service and so were new to me. :) So glad we have so many who are willing to help our little ones learn a new game!

Bryan thought I was nuts for suggesting he lay down for this shot, but it made a very effective background for the credits in their film. Mama sometimes has good ideas!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

I didn't know...

...that soccer cleats came in such a small size, or that there was such a thing as a pink soccer ball! (and thanks, Mary K and Joan, but there were NO pink soccer cleats in town in HER itty-bitty size! Believe me, we looked everywhere. We may color the stripes with a pink marker--she's already mentioned that!) Upwards Soccer starts soon, and Luci is ready! Links to sign up here.

Yeah, But How Did It Taste?

Bird Suspected to Be Extinct Photographed for First Time ... Then Eaten

Poor Baby....times 2

Poor Baby!

JT looked a little unsettled tonight, so I asked him, "How are you doing, JT?"

He sat in my lap and said, "Why is it when my Dad goes on a trip, they show lots of commercials of kids with their dads?" He sobbed, and I hugged. Poor Baby!

I know how he feels! I was 10 when my Dad had his big trip to the SE Asia area. Too many memories.

Poor Baby!, second round:

Bryan caught what the rest of us had just in time to miss a big teen trip with our church. A 4 day trip to Gatlinburg, for a huge Christian teen conference. Poor Baby.

I am trying to look at the money lost from this and last week's dinner (also at church, the annual teen dinner for the parents) as not a big deal. It would cost about the same to take all three kids to the doctor. (Last week I almost took both JT and Luci to the doc but they got better.) We still all have coughs. I'm so sorry Bryan is missing this super weekend. Last year he came home from that trip closer to God and with lots of great ideas and thoughts swirling around in his handsome head.

A Day in the Life...

Luci had to have her hair up like Mommy after I washed my hair. Yes, she's riding the trike inside. :) She's feeling better--so funny today. Luci took the shot of JT--poor thing has a red nose because of his cold.
.
For those of you who aren't able to translate 4-year-old-ese, this says, "Happy Valentine's Day Mommy, I love you." Can you tell she wrote it inside a heart? I loved this!

Ha! I KNEW it!!

Aliens 'may be living among us'

Valentine's Day Love

We had a special little lunch for Valentine's. Usually we just give the kids a card and maybe a little candy. This year was different somehow--I'm sure some of it has to do with our little love-bug, Luci, who is so much into love, flowers, love, special things and love.
.
The boys put their allowance together and got Luci a stuffed animal. I didn't notice the heart-shaped plate in the background until I looked at the picture. Perfect!

Luci arranging the doggy's bow for the photo. You can see her gluten-free pizza, cut into heart shapes with a cookie cutter (thanks for doing that, JT!).

The rest of the table. The presents for the boys? Each boy got his own heart-shaped Papa John's pizza. The way to a boy's heart is through his stomach!

My favorite Valentine...a few weeks ago he sent a letter to his Daddy that said, "Mom is being so mean! Don't believe what she says!" So I really liked this one! It says, "...And the best mom of the year award goes to...Susan Willingham (my mom) Love: J.T."

Here are the pictures

Flowers from John

Poor Luci. Flowers are lovely, but she really didn't feel well.

Ooh, they smell good!

She's happy now!
She ought to be--she got a better bouquet!
Luci, do you have a boyfriend?
"Yup! He's in Af ghan istan!"

I made gluten free cookies for Luci, and added
all natural sprinkles. A totally Feingold treat! They are so good!

Gluten free pizza to take tonight to a pizza party.
Luci said it was good, and she's the only one
I need to impress with gluten-free stuff.
But the rest of us liked it, too.

Valentine's Day

Don't know if this will work, since the page is messed up and I can't upload pictures (rats!), but here it goes:

John sent Luci some flowers for Valentine's Day! Poor baby has been sick since Tuesday with a respiratory virus of some sort and these flowers cheered her up. JT asked Luci if she had a boyfriend. "Yup! He's in Af ghan istan."

John sent me flowers, too, sweet, smart boy that he is.

The Other Day...

I went out onto the deck and heard a commotion...there were three "army guys" in John's pick-up, defending Freedom!

Pretty tough, huh? Two nerf guns and an empty bb gun. The bad guys never knew what hit 'em. Our neighbor Clay, Bryan, and JT.

Gorgeous moon!

Tuesday at Our House

Today I took Bryan to a "consult" appointment at the orthodontist. They took impressions (hope Bryan made a good one, ha ha!), and Luci and I waited. Luci hid behind this magazine every time someone with a uniform came in the room.

Bryan was much more relaxed. We find out in a couple of weeks how many arms and legs it will cost. OK, this was not a toileting accident. A few weeks ago Luci and I went to a wedding where there was a lovely white carpet for the bride to walk down the aisle. Ever since, Luci's taken paper towels or toilet paper to make her own carpet. Personally, I like the TP version the best because it is cheaper than paper towels. I guess John and I will have to save up for a real white carpet when Luci really gets married. Alabama red-neck or not, TP is too tacky.

For the Ladies...

Take the Quiz here!

The description given was pretty accurate...

You are Elinor Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are practical, circumspect, and discreet. Though you are tremendously sensible and allow your head to rule, you have a deep, emotional side that few people often see.

Guizhou made the news....

Guizhou is Luci's province. The end of the celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year is going on. Here's the story:

.

Police: China dragon dancers riot

.

"...dragon dancers in Dejiang traditionally wear fireworks on their costumes and consume alcohol, creating a risk to themselves and the public." The police thought they were a hazard. So, no dragon. Result: 10,000 rioters, by some accounts.

.

Don't mess with the dragon!

This Weekend

I took Luci (and a nameless 12 year-old boy who doesn't want to admit he had to go with us, but his initials are J.T.) to an Imagination Movers concert in Birmingham. It was fun! The I.M.s are the United States' answer to The Wiggles. The Imagination Movers have a show on Disney Channel, and we must watch it every day. Here are some shots:

This is Rich. He came right up to Luci and waved to her with a great big smile. Luci was kind of in a daze. She wore her "ear muggs." This pair of ear muggs came from the hunting section of Walmart. Scott came up close, too.

Of course we made a stop at Cracker Barrel on the way home.

Sunday brought church, and getting Valentines ready for the party on Wednesday. Luci wrote her name on all 32 Valentines...I could not believe it! When the boys were that little, I couldn't get them to write their names on more than one or two. 32! That's my girl!

Luci-Speak

Heard Today:

.
.
Campity: what you get when you don't brush your teeth.
.
.
Fimble: that thing ladies use on their fingers when they sew.

Another favorite from Af ghan istan!

John sent us this digital magic photo of the family. I love it.

For the Grandparents

OK, so the living room isn't tidy. We had kids playing all day and that's what happens.
.
JT is teaching Luci some Tang Soo Do (karate) moves. Their personalities show through pretty well.

Proven Wrong...

I've been asked several times in the past two weeks if Luci still takes a nap. I've answered, "NO and I wish she still did!"
.
Sunday night I took the kids to the teen Super Bowl party at church. It was very noisy, but here's what Luci did during the first half:Can you see her ear muffs? She wears them when things get too noisy. She calls them "ear muggs."
.
And here she is this afternoon as I was working with the boys on their schoolwork. yes, I know the photos are fuzzy. Pooh!

What time is it?

We keep track of what time it is when John's away. That can be kind of tricky sometimes, because in Ka bul, it is 10 1/2 hours ahead of here! Yes, that's ten and a half! Just figuring out what time it is there can be confusing. Kind of like doing long division in your head.

It could be worse...some places like Chatham Islands (east of New Zealand) and Kathmandu are some hours and 45 minutes different! At least Af ghan istan keeps up with our Daylight Savings Time (which I think is nuts and worthy of a different post) so I don't have to memorize two different equations.

What is funny is that Luci can keep track of the time difference better than John does on most days--when John calls in the morning, Luci tells him, "Good night, Daddy! It's morning for us, and you are going to bed." That is hilarious to her, and she giggles every time. John often forgets what time of day it is for us, and what day it is. Luci always remembers. I figure John has more on his mind than Luci does.

Interesting sites: World Clock

Set Time and Date on your Homepage from iGoogle

What time is it? Free games for kids

What time is it.com--find the time in any city

Ya think so?!

Early yesterday morning I got on the internet and checked the overseas news. Some genius decided that yesterday would be a good day to try to attack a convoy of "foreign troops" in Ka bul. Knowing that John was traveling, and seeing no "I'm safe" email, I waited on pins and needles until he made his usual morning call. What a relief to hear his voice! John said he saw the same news article I did, and wondered why the coalition didn't put out some news of their own...(my guess is the attacker had lousy aim and injured no one but himself)...and thought he ought to email.

Ya think so?!

I told him to just go ahead and email next time. Every time.

Little things mean a lot.