Soccer

Nicholas had his first soccer game today. It was HOT! But he was a trooper and did such a good job. His team didn't win, but since they haven't even had a practice yet we didn't feel too bad about that, especially since the team they were playing against was bigger and had practiced several times. They had plays--the coach was calling out "Get in your rainbow" and things like that. Well, they had fun and we enjoyed watching. Julia got stung by a bee, though. Ouch! At least now we know she's not allergic!

Miraculous!

A little more than a week ago, Nicholas came to me with a small eczema scab on his arm that he had scratched until it was open. I put medicine on it, and then slapped a bandaid on top to keep him from scratching. Fast forward about 3 days and I noticed his arm was red around the bandaid. So I pulled it off--it was still stuck hard, and he had a first class allergic reaction under there. The original sore had become infected, and every place the bandaid had touched was red, bubbly and full of welts. So we put more medicine on it (an all natural herbal ointment that is anti-biotic and usually works great), and put it on several times a day for a couple of days. The swelling kept going up, so I decided to switch to Hydrocortisone, and we put that on it several times a day for a couple of days. Finally, the swelling was going down with that, but the scabs were getting green oozy stuff around the edges, so I bought Neosporin, and put that on it several times a day for one day. Then we realized that it was spreading, not just further up and down his arm, but into his armpit, onto his belly and groin area, and even down the leg on that side of his body. This was the Saturday night before Labor Day, so we were several days off from seeing a doctor unless we went to the emergency room. We, of course, had been praying for it in a quick general sort of way, but this night when I was putting the medicine on it, Nicholas said, "Hey, mom, why don't we put that oil on it? You know the one dad has for praying for sick people." (Greg got a little vial of anointing oil given to him when he got ordained) So I said sure and got it down and we prayed--really talking to Jesus about it kind of prayed. And that night when he went to bed it was already looking better, and it has steadily improved ever since until tonight it is almost gone! Thanks Jesus!

Bedtime Story

Tonight Angelica asked me to rock her and tell her a bedtime story that I made up. After I was done, my story following all the approved models where there's a princess named Angelica who has funny adventures, she started her story. It was about Princess Mom. The basic plot line: After Princess Mom realizes that she is sad because she has no family, no house, no food, and no brothers and sisters, she goes to find a witch (witches are slowly phasing their way out of stories that she tells, but we're not there yet) to help her. But the witch is bad and tries to eat her, while talking in an amazingly deep voice for a 4 year old. Then after some confusion and a major pity party, Princess Mom meets up with a rabbit who decides to be her pet. But then the rabbit decides not to be her pet, and Princess Mom is bummed. She sits in the woods crying because she's so boring.

Me: She's boring?

Angelica: Yes. She's you.

Me: I'm boring?

Angelica: Yes. (long pause) Not for real. Just in the story.

Me: Oh, ok.

So then Princess Mom's "Mother God-fairy" shows up and gives her a family and a castle and some food. And the "Mother God-fairy" tells her she is ok. And so it ends happily, if suddenly.

Good-night!

Cleaning Out!

I took advantage of my kids being gone for a few days to clean out the toy room. Nicholas caught wind of it coming and put lots of his stuff into his closet to avoid the possibility of its getting thrown away. Unfortunately (from his perspective), I looked into his closet. After much searching, I found the floor! I now have a huge pile of garage sale stuff--all marked, for the garage sale (which is still 2 weeks away)! That feels nice! They get back today--I wonder how long it will look like this?

Play Day!

I've been working for 3 straight days on unpacking, garage sale stuff, sorting, helping at the XA house a little, and all kinds of other things. Tomorrow the kids are leaving for a weekend at Maw-maw and Paw-paw's house. So I decided that today should be a play day--hey, I can work when they're gone, right? So this morning we walked/scootered down the street to one of our friend's house and all walked to the playground. Then after lunch we went to a local hotel and asked how much it would cost to swim, and he let us swim for free-woohoo! Then we stopped for snowballs. It just doesn't get much better than that!

Everyone is doing so good in the water. Nicholas used to be so scared to put his face in, but after his ocean experiences, I guess a pool seems pretty safe. Angelica used to just sit on the steps and play where she could touch even with her floaties on, but now she was jumping in and swimming around without any fussing! And Julia didn't even come close to drowning herself by forgetting and breathing while underwater. :) Life is good!

Just for Fun

This is a hilarious video of Angelica playing the piano in our house in Africa.

Date Night

This weekend our awesome friends Daniel and Brittany offered to watch our kids for us while we went out on a date. We went to Chili's and sat and ate chips and salsa for way too long (at least our waitress thought so!) and then to a late movie. Had so much fun! I have the greatest hubby!

In other news, a superhero named Terrible Slicer (who only slices bad guys) and Cinderella made an appearance at our house this week.

Home Sweet Home

We made it home! It took 30 hours, but we did it! Two airplanes and a 5 hour layover later, followed by a 4 hour drive from Dallas with kids who REALLY needed sleep, (and a mom who did too, to be honest). Now I have to get our house set back up, which should only take a week! Just now, though, I need some lunch!

Packing Extravaganza

So I'm packing suitcases and I've got clothes in stacks all over my bedroom floor--the give away stack, the pack clean stack, the pack dirty stack, the just got back from the laundry I hope it still fits stack. Julia came in and said, "Wow, Mom, your room is messy!" Also, since we had people over last night until 5am to watch the first NFL preseason game of the year, Nicholas's bed is pulled into the middle of our floor so he could sleep better (our room is further back in the house.) What a mess!

12 suitcases! 1 done, 3 started. That leaves 8 untouched...Boo!

Sad Surfing Day

So we were going to do one last surf today, but it didn't work out. We're so bummed. Angelica and I are both sick, though, so that is probably a good thing. But that just means it will be our next trip to Africa before we surf again. Unless we move to Hawaii and become beach bums. It's an idea.

It's Been Two Years

So I decided that I should post on my blog, since I've been enjoying reading other people's blogs so much! Two years into our journey, so much has happened! The girls are doing well, and we have spent this summer in Cape Town, South Africa. So I'm thinking I'm going to start blogging more, since it's a great way for people we love here to keep up with what's going on in our lives. Just a short starter post and a few pics is all today!