Wednesday, October 21, 2009

NOV 11

My appointment went quite well today. Gained less than a 1lb! One nurse remembered me from before (couldn't believe this!). The Dr was awesome and while warning me about the concerns of a VBAC she was all for it and didn't see any problems with me trying for one. Her only concern was Isaiah's weight and keeping an eye on this baby. She set an appointment for a 20wk ultrasound on Nov 11th!!!

The only problem is that I won't get the scan at the clinic but at the x-ray department. Which means that I'll have the scan and then will have to come back to the clinic a week later to get the results. So not sure if that means we will be able to find out the sex or not.

Got some shopping done for Friday night and our Tuesday costume party but ended up getting sick on the bus ride home. Did not make for a fun evening for myself and the kids as I was cranky and not fun to play with. I hate it when I feel this way and even more so when I lose my patience because I don't feel well. Something I really need to work on.

So because today was my appt (and I won't be weighed for another 6wks), I treated myself to a nice Oreo Cheesecake dessert and now I'm heading to bed.

Thanks for your prayers! I didn't have to push very hard to get my scan!

Please continue to pray for Mike as he finalizes details for this weekend and as they go. Please continue to pray for Izzy's health (she is improving and will go back to school tomorrow) and for my Dad. Also, this Friday night we're doing a special prayer labyrinth type event. Please pray all the details come together and it goes well.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Magical Day

Our Magical Day
Isaiah was okay with Mickey as long as Daddy was holding him



On her favorite ride... the spaceships
Isaiah enjoyed pushing the buttons
Since we moved here I've been wanting to get pictures of the random cows that we find... this was mid afternoon as Izzy and I were waiting for the bus
there were quite a few of them but by the time I got my camera out several had already climbed down the hill
Izzy in her new dress from Papa and Grandma... she loves it and loves the pockets

Just got one of those dreaded phone calls from my mom... my Uncle passed away Friday night. Had a heart attack while he was driving home. This was quite a surprising one and I never know what to say to my family when this happens and I'm so far away. Please pray for my Dad (it was his brother and one that he spent a lot of time with) and for his family. The brothers are to play a polka at the funeral which I think is a really fun idea.

Also, tomorrow is my appointment at the hospital. Please pray that they will set up an appointment for a 20wk ish ultrasound and that if they don't, I will push to get one.

This weekend Mike heads to China with a group from the International School. Please pray for him and their time there.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Resting Up Before the Weekend

What's he up to now?
Isaiah's latest ideas of fun are climbing onto this bench (actually anything that will allow) and dangling his feet. He looks like a little old man sitting there just watching the world go by. He also likes to grab the phone and walk around saying 'Hi.'


He also colored his first picture... he did this all by himself.
Izzy really wanted to play 'chalks' (cracks me up the names she gives things) and she was teaching Isaiah how to color as well.
He's a pretty quick learner. :)
She then thought it would be fun to see how dirty she could get her hands.
She always has really good intentions... though he doesn't always appreciate her love.


Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Cooking With Vivian

We had a great time and great turn-out this afternoon at Mom Time! Approx 10 moms and who knows how many kids! It was crazy and chaotic but lots of fun. Vivian taught us all how to cook Indian Chicken Curry and we all walked home with dinner! It was great! We had several new moms join us as well. It was really fun to chat (as much as we could between cooking) and see everyone. It seems like it has been forever. I'm still praying about how to best approach this group as I really want Christ to be glorified in what we do so I would greatly appreciate your prayers as well. We'll be hosting a costume party on the 27th, where we'll play games, share snacks, and I hope to read 'The Pumpkin Parable.' I know things often get lost in translation among the non-native English speakers so I just pray that the idea of God's love would be clear and that Vivian and I can be an example of that.


I totally forgot about my camera until the end but managed to get a few pics... this is our main table...
the curry pots cooking away
Junko cooking
we also did a brief eggplant marina pasta sauce
the delicious curry... doesn't necessarily look pretty but it's yummy
chatting as we finish up
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Monday, October 12, 2009

Signing and a Package


I've been signing with Isaiah for several months now... I started earlier with him hoping he'd pick it up sooner than Izzy but no luck. Until yesterday. We were having dinner and he was doing his usual grunting and groaning when we were to slow in feeding him. (Many think this is cute but it has outgrown it's cuteness in our family.) And I looked at him and said/signed 'more' and he looked right back and signed! I couldn't believe it. I'm not sure he really understands the meaning but we were practicing tonight at dinner and he did well. Now just to get it on video.

We got a package from my mom today... it's always fun to get mail and treats from the states, though this package centered around the kids.. who am I kidding they always do but it still makes me very happy to see them excited. Isabella insisted on wearing her new tights and I had to try the 'Pappy's Little Buddy' sweatshirt on Isaiah.

We picked up Izzy's new bed today and to say she was excited is an understatement. She had 1001 questions and trying to explain to her that she would not be sleeping in it for months was quite the challenge.

Tomorrow is Mom Time and I'm really looking forward to it. We've got a big group signed up and it should be fun to do some cooking together. Please pray that it goes well and that new relationships are built!



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Saturday, October 10, 2009

Sai Kung Small Group

We had a wonderful inaugural, as Mike called it, Sai Kung small group meeting. There were 6 of us (a few unable to make it this evening) and 5 kids! I tried a new Rachel Ray recipe Sicilian Eggplant Marinara over Penne and made a strawberry salad with Dori's Raspberry Vinaigrette dressing with brownies for dessert. I thought it was delicious but I guess that's not saying much because I love food. It was fun to hear parts of their stories and am excited to see how this group will grow and develop.

*****

Overall the day was quite peaceful... in the morning I took the kids outside to play with the neighbor boy Ling Ling. Izzy rode her bike and Isaiah showed off his walking skills. It was really fun to watch he and Ling Ling interact. Ling Ling didn't want Isaiah to have anything but Isaiah wasn't going to be walked over. He stood his ground which was funny to watch. He just kinda arches his back and grunts.

I stayed home in the afternoon to prepare dinner while Isabella and Mike had Awana and Joan took Isaiah with them. I actually wasn't feeling so good so I took a short rest and felt much better, then I went for a run which surprisingly made me feel great! I really enjoyed planning the meal and cooking it. I love to try new recipes but for some reason I really enjoy trying them on new people. So far, I've not had any complaints from doing this and hopefully it'll stay that way. :)

The children played well together which is exciting for me because hopefully by Dec, our neighbors flat will be renovated and they'll move back in, which means Izzy will have some good friends close by as will I.

******

I just checked the evite I sent for Mom Time this Tuesday and we have about 10 moms attending! I'm SO excited about this but I ask that you would pray for Vivian and I as we prepare and for the time together ... that we would be able to develop solid friendships in which we can speak truth into their lives.

Friday, October 09, 2009

Disappointing Appt

Well today Mike's appointment was disappointing. The specialist said he didn't really know anything about the test in August and therefore couldn't say anything about it. Mike could explain this a bit better but basically just told him he had irritable bowels and would have to learn how to live with it. I guess it's great to know that nothing major is wrong but we had hoped for some better answers and advice on how to handle it.

I had a good morning at our school family picnic, got to meet some new moms and had some great food! Isabella had a good day but walking home from the bus stop on a hot day makes her quite tired and cranky for lunch. So now she's resting before heading to dance class.

We've got Reload tonight! Will be fun as due to other events, we haven't been together for three weeks.

That's our uneventful day for today... just wanted to update on Mike's appointment. Thanks for your prayers!

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Videos!

I finally got a video of Buddy walking! Up until today, the only thing we could get him to walk to was a basketball. Today however... the pool worked too.


And yesterday while in the playroom, Isabella wanted to make some videos of her singing some songs. They were all made up (Chinese) songs but I did manage to get her to sing the 'Once I caught a fish alive' song.


I did forget to mention about my appt on Tues. It went well... no major comments about my weight but I know I need to keep exercising. The only comment about the baby was that it had a fast heartbeat. Then the Dr told me I needed to tell the hospital (when in labor) that I need to be on antibiotics... like I'm really going to remember that. Well I guess I need to write that down because I KNOW I'll forget. That was the extent of my appt... same ole, same ole.... not personable but when you have 90 some women coming for an appt between the hours of 2-5, how can they be?

Tomorrow is Mike's big appt with the specialist, please continue to pray for answers
Saturday begins the Sai Kung small group, please pray it goes well!

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Just an ordinary day....

What a gorgeous day we had today... perfect in the shade but man once you sat in the sun, it warmed up quickly. I went for a run today (still running on the treadmill because I can take my glasses off... still haven't gotten a string to keep my glasses on my sweaty face) and it was awesome! It felt so great and it made me reconsider running in the Disney 10K. I've run one of the races for the past two years it's existed and I hate to miss it so I'm going to try and complete it. I know I'll be pretty slow but the course is beautiful and the money goes for a great cause... it goes towards children in need, specifically (at least I think that's the same for this year) the children who suffered in the Sichuan Earthquake. If anyone is interested in supporting me in this race (all money goes directly to unicef) please drop me a comment and I'll let you know how it works.

We all headed in to pick up Izzy from school and then had lunch at McD's. It's becoming a Wednesday tradition but it was the perfect day to do it. We headed to the park afterwards but the slides and even swings were too hot to enjoy ourselves for too long. It was however GREAT for Isaiah and his walking. Because he couldn't crawl without hurting his hands, he walked quite a bit by himself and then quite a bit more while I held one of his hands. It was so cute!

We headed home, rested, rode bikes and let Isaiah walk a bit outside and then went over to the playroom until dinner time. Isabella has become so creative in her play. We played Dr's and boats/fish and sang lots of interesting made up songs.


I forgot to write in my update that Mike has his Specialist appt this Friday and our new Sai Kung small group begins this Saturday. So please be in prayer for both of these things. We're praying for some solid answers for Mike on Friday.



I'd mentioned that I dyed my hair and had it straightened for the night... here is what it looked like. I'm considering trying a straightening treatment for 3 months just for something different but who knows... I"m a bit worried that it will somehow affect my curls. But we'll see... thought I might do it when Princess Lily Bob is about to arrive so it's one less thing I have to worry about in the mornings. :)

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Pui O Camping

Camping was definitely a hit!!!! Isabella and I were extremely excited about the overnight trip and the excitement just grew to the point that none of us wanted to leave. We arrived around 4:30pm and instantly Izzy asked to change into her swimsuit. Thankfully Jacinda was swimming and took her into the ocean because the sun was almost down and I
thought it was a bit chilly. She swam until dark... no surprise there. She LOVED it! We just put Isaiah in the sand to see what he'd do. It took him a few minutes to warm up to this strange feeling but it wasn't long before he was crawling around and eating the sand. I'm sure we'll continue to find sand in body parts for the next few days. :) We BBQ'd for dinner and enjoyed some high quality cupcakes (a lady in the church professionally makes them and brought us some..yummm!) as well as our mooncakes. Isabella brought along her glow stick lanterns and her, Jacinda and Trent went to work creating all sorts of art.

I was nervous about how Isaiah would do sleeping/falling asleep in the tent but he was awesome. We laid him down, zipped up the tent and within about 5 minutes, he was out. The only negative was when I crawled into bed... he woke up and partied for a good 30/45 minutes. But that aside, he and Izzy (who also did really well sleeping in the tent) slept their normal hours despite no rain cover and a very mesh-filled tent! Mike and I on the other hand struggled. Mike says it takes him a few days to adjust to sleeping outdoors and with my slight fear of the ocean... had dreams all night about big waves and tsunamis. Thankfully, I was expecting that so I wasn't a nervous wreck the whole night.

We had a nice breakfast and Izzy just couldn't wait to get in the water. We spent all morning swimming and building sand creations. Isaiah actually took a nap and then joined us on the beach. He loved riding in his car over the waves. He is getting to be such a boy which is really fun. He loves balls, especially basketballs. And it's the one thing that we can get him to actually walk to get.

After lunch, we packed up and headed home. We hated to leave so early (about 1:30ish) but once we started packing we knew we just needed to head out. It actually was a good time though because everyone got a bit of rest once we got home before starting the week.

Mike and I are SO happy that it was such a success. Though we now know that 1 tent is not enough for us. It worked just fine this time but Isaiah's not going to stay this small for long and #3 will take away any space for our belongings. So we'll have to try and hit another sale for one more tent. But I'm hoping that maybe come Easter, we might be able to do another short trip (there's no major holidays between now and then that have good temps for camping) but that will depend on Princess Lily Bob's arrival.


He enjoyed the sand until it was all over him and he couldn't get it off...
the thumb didn't taste as yummy covered in sand.

Isabella on the other hand LOVED rolling in the sand

the 'boys' (and I mean Mike and Howard) enjoyed creating this crab
Howard has quite the sand creation talent and Mike learned a few tricks
the others in the picture helped too.. a minute here and there :)


the gorgeous sunset... isn't God's creation beautiful?
(ignore the big black dot... my lens has a dust bunny)

Isabella building her own castle. Sadly it got taken down by the waves.
She had fun in the sand but swimming took the cake this trip. I couldn't get her out of the ocean!

My handsome boy covered in sand... we're still finding it in places. :)
He was such a good sport though.. only a few minor complaints of the sand on his hands.

Our campsite. It was in the best location... in the shade, surrounded by trees that brought a nice breeze, just up the hill from the beach. The only problem was that it was 1 kilometer away from the bathrooms. Thankfully, Izzy learned how to go potty outdoors and then we couldn't get her to use the bathroom. haha

Another sunset picture

looking down the beach

Isabella finally decided she wanted to try writing her name. She did it all by herself without looking at anything or anyone telling her the letters. I couldn't believe it!

My picture of the 'new moon' that the Mid-Autumn Festival was all about.
And below are Isabella's lanterns (we used glow sticks this year... much cleaner and quieter) Ave made wings out of them and put them around her waist. Then they made flowers and balls and Izzy hung one in the tent as her night light. We did have our mooncake too but I didn't get a picture of that.


Saturday, October 03, 2009

Happy Mid-Autumn!!

Today was not at all the day I had planned. It's Mid-Autumn Festival... one of my favorite Chinese holidays and I had every intention on packing up the kids and our dinner, heading to Ma On Shan park and enjoying the evening together. (Mike is at the youth retreat) But Isaiah woke up at 7... starting the day off for him and me, tired. Isabella woke up about 8, happy but still tired. The sun wasn't shining and I couldn't get Isabella out the door. She just kept saying how tired she was and how she just wanted to color and watch Blues Clues. When Isaiah woke up from his morning nap, we did go over to the playroom for awhile which was nice to get out of the house. We came back, had lunch played a bit and then we all rested for about an hour. Isaiah refused to sleep any longer which made him cranky by 4:30.

I was really looking forward to having the day with just the kids and no one else at home... but by 4:30, I decided that to pack them up and head to MOS would probably be a disaster and when I told Izzy we were going to go into Sai Kung town... she begged not to. So instead of dinner under the moon, we ate at 5, bathed at 6 and everyone was in bed by 7. Now I'm just trying to gather what we'll need for camping and potentially Disney on Monday.
Since we'll be camping out tomorrow night and the whole family will be together, I just said in my mind that we'll celebrate tomorrow night. Our laterns are packed I'll try and get my mooncake after church.

It's been an emotional day for me.... I think some things that have been going on just all hit me, in my moments of frustration and tiredness today. I went through anger, tears, and pure joy when Isaiah took his first steps! I'm just so thankful that God is a just God while also a forgiving and loving God.

Please continue to pray for the people in the Philippines. Joan posted a video on Facebook with pictures of the devastation. Broke my heart to see the amount of water and damage and all the children being carried on their parents backs.

I have a Dr appt this week and I ask that you would pray it would go well without any embarrassing moments. :) They always like to comment on my weight but while it's normal to talk about here, it still makes me uncomfortable and self-conscious.



Thursday, October 01, 2009

Today was National Day and we decided to have a low-key relaxing day. I was expecting it to rain but it turned out to be a beautiful, beautiful day. I should have known better, that's usually the case in HK this time each year. All the China factories shut down and we get clean air and beautiful blue skies. So we put up our new tent (yeah!!! more vacation opportunities that won't cost a fortune!) in the morning and played, had lunch, then swam and took naps in the afternoon followed by an evening in town. Mike and I both even got a run in so it was a really enjoyable day. Here's Isaiah enjoying his Elmo towel.

my little fish
Buddy chillin
Princess Lily Bob at 14.5 weeks

As I mentioned before this weekend is the Lantern festival and this is one shop in town selling all types of lanterns.
As we were eating some ice cream by the water, Mike noticed a nighttime boat fish market. It was fun to watch people buying all sorts of things. There's actually a bigger market like this, I think on Sat, but I've never gone to it. Would be fun to check out some time.
This however was the highlight of Isabella's day. She got sweaty playing in the tent so we went out to ride bikes. She then got sweaty riding bikes and asked if she could sit on the car. And then that's all she wanted to do all day... play on the car.
This is our new tent! We are so excited about having this and the opportunities it will provide. We still need to invest in a few camping supplies (ours all are still in the states) but we've got the basics to test out the tent this Sunday at the beach. Will be an interesting night with Isaiah but I imagine we'll all have a good time. At least some stories to share after. :)
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Please continue to pray for Joan's family and those affected by the typhoon. We've learned of 3 more ladies in our church directly hit by this and I'm sure there will be more to come on Sunday.

Please also pray for Rosalie and Grace who will be attending our youth retreat this weekend that's discussing the truth's of our faith.