Centipede

Rainy season again...which means flooding kitchens (now the neighbors have raised their kitchen roof just enough to dump all their rainwater onto ours!), flying termites swarming around every light source--outside or inside, giant roaches, and a new twist, as of Saturday evening. After returning from a wedding, I spotted what I first thought was a small snake curled up in the corner outside the bathroom. Upon a closer inspection, I discovered a centipede easily three times as large as any I'd previously seen near the house (each tile is 1 ft. square). The bite of a small centipede (3-4 inches) is about the same as a small scorpion. A big one like this equals several days of agony...or worse. Frankly, I'm terrified of the things, and attempting to instill the same terror in Gabe (so far, so good). Three direct sprays of crawling insect poison, three hammer blows, and twelve hours later, I think it's finally dead. - Eric

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, ERIC AND ANG

Although your anniversary is just beginning here, I realize that it's nearly over for you. Congratulations on 9 years of marriage. WOW--nearly a decade. We hope and pray that God will continue to richly bless your relationship, your family, and your work. Although it's a "school day," we hope you had some time to celebrate. Congratulations!

I am also remembering my mother and find it hard to believe that she has been gone for 9 years today. How she would have loved seeing and knowing Gabe, Sam, Lydia, and Elinore.

The Gift of Reading

I just want to share about an exciting meeting I was a part of last night at our church. With the additional space we will soon have at church, some of us have been thinking about how we can use it to benefit those who live near the church. Census data for our "tract" shows that 30% do not have a high school diploma, and 42% speak a language other than English in the home. A long-time passion of mine has been helping adults who are illiterate learn how to read. A few of us have been wondering whether our church could begin such a program, helping those who are native speakers of English who can't even read well enough to take the GED or manage many other life tasks. I've been noticing that even in our church services, someone who can't read could not sing the words on the screen in the front or recite anything done in unison.

Last night twelve of us brainstormed about the possibilities. It was so exciting to become aware of the past experiences and training of these people and see how willing they are to offer their services as volunteers. Many are retired reading teachers, and one has been a probation officer for 31 years and has seen the direct correlation between lack of education and incarceration. We hope to expand this group and perhaps have a program in place by fall.

Bed Head

This is especially for Eric and Ang. Just to give you a taste of the goofiness that you should prepare yourself for. Almost every day I have to contend with this beautiful red mop. She was being so silly I couldn't get a good angle, but it was craziness all around. Can't wait to see you! 

70 and Sunny in April

The first taste of summer...fudge pops!

Happy to be Outdoors

I noticed that there are very few pictures of Amy that make an appearance on the blog, so I thought I'd post this one. I snapped a few pictures when we were out with the kids the other day. It was the first time I felt like I was focusing on taking pictures in a while. It felt so good, and I remembered again why I love it. I can't write why because it is more just a feeling than something I can describe. It was good. That's the important thing. Of course, this was with the digital camera, so it is a little new. I'm still learning all of the buttons and modes - reading the owner's manual in my spare time. Hopefully now that the weather is turning I'll be able to do this a bit more. Amy and Sam were rolling down the hill at Window on the Waterfront. 

For Sam

When Gabe showed me his latest creation this morning I knew I had to post it for Sam. This is called a "street-sweeper-carnival-oven" vehicle. I asked him what carnivals had to do with this street-sweeper and he told me that the driver takes it to carnivals and cooks things on the back. In this Lego guy's case, he makes grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and grilled somtam(papaya salad). Though he's used to seeing ovens or grills attached to vehicles, he chose two foods that I doubt he's ever seen grilled.

The Life of a Tree

Last week I read Sam a book he had gotten from the library. I don't remember what it was called but it was cute. Amy would know. It was about the life cycle of a tree. One page was about how the tree would drop millions of leaves during its life. Today, we went on a walk. All of the trees and bushes are just about to pop with new spring leaves. I couldn't help thinking about that story. In the life cycle of one tree, imagine how many hundreds of thousands of leaves it must open, use all summer, and drop in the fall. That's so amazing!! I've never really thought about it like that before.

Craft overload

We are back from our annual conference. For Eric & I, it's a very busy time. I had reports & presentations to prepare, in addition to trying to connect with people who we don't see all that often. Eric was the skit night coordinator, which isn't a huge job, but traditionally, the skit night coordinator prepares a few short sketches to put between acts. Eric & I decided to film the sketches. The theme was "Unseen Conference" a take-off on the "Unseen Thailand" theme. The films showed the ways in which the childcare team (a team from a church in the US) were exploiting the children for their own benefit. It sounds terrible, but it was actually hilarious. In Gabe's age group, they were running a craft sweatshop to finance their trip. In case you worry, none of them were offended. They played along very convincingly and asked for copies before they go back. Actually, Gabe was very productive in the area of crafts. Now that he is in preschool, I am realizing we are in the craft overload years. In previous years, he was in the nursery where all they did was play all day, every day. This year, he was in with the preschoolers and they did several crafts every day, which meant a large number by the end of the week. In addition, he usually comes home with 2-3 crafts from playgroup every day. I've had to just start throwing them away. Above is a pic of 2 of Gabe's favorite crafts from conference. Quite a number of 4-year-olds were spotted in this smashing ensemble. The 5-year-olds, who also made these, seemed to realize that they weren't very cool and hid them in their bags.

By the way, thanks to Kev so much for the firewire card. It made my life so much easier in doing these films. We will try to send you all a copy.

Set this as your wallpaper

Ok, I just had to post this because it made me laugh so hard...which is why the picture is fuzzy, everytime I tried to take it, I started lauging and the camera started moving all over.

Daddy's Girl

Everyone says that babies stick more to their mommies, and it is true that I am more likely to get her to calm down if she's upset,... However, everytime Kevin walks in the door returning home from work he greets Elinore. Whether she sees him first or he greets her first doesn't matter, she gets this huge happy smile on her face. It certainly makes him enjoy coming home! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRANDPA !

Sam is enjoying using chopsticks at the Thai Palace where we celebrated Dad's birthday yesterday. Wonder where Dad got his love of Thai food :) He received an MP3 Player for his birthday and is eager to begin loading it with songs.