Life On Cloud Eight

Four Words

2009-07-26T00:01:00.001-04:00

When I was pregnant with Grayden and the doctors told me his due date was February 5, I was kind of bummed for him because I thought it would be crummy to have your birthday so close to Christmas. Recently we celebrated his 15 1/2 birthday, BECAUSE HE WAS BORN ON CHRISTMAS DAY. (Rolling my eyes.)

Some of you know our friends, the Fitz-Geralds. They moved to Kentucky a few years ago, but they were in Bryan the night we had our little party. Which was quite fitting, because this young lady was one of the two guests Grayden invited to his 5 1/2 birthday at Chuck E. Cheese. Miss Aubrey was his very first friend and her mama and I never miss an opportunity to tease them about how they used to run around in diapers together.

Today he and I are leaving on a missions trip with our church's student ministries to Chicago. From what I understand, we will be working at Boys & Girls Clubs, nursing homes, homeless shelters and soup kitchens. He has planned to go since last year. I decided to go four days ago. You can read a blog our pastors will be writing each day if you'd like to follow along to see what God is doing. Just go to http://www.newhopecc.org/ and click the Chicago link.

I have two words to say about my first-born.

So. Proud.

I have two words about the trip.

Please. Pray.

Catching Up

2009-06-17T22:12:00.006-04:00

Look!

It's a blog post!

By ME!

I'm getting plenty of flack, so I guess I better get back to it. I thought I'd tell you all about what's been going on here the past couple of months, so here goes:

We've been busy.

The End.

Oh, I knew that wouldn't be enough....Here are a few pictures to fill in the details:

Our home school co-op wrapped up in March with a delightful production by our Creative Arts Class called "American Adventures." Emma sang a solo. She rocked.

Easter was lovely.

Caleb turned 4!

Micah turned 5!

We celebrated Micah's Three Year Gotcha Day. This is a tee shirt I got him while in China. If you buy your son a special tee shirt in China that you want him to wear as long as possible as a special momento of the day he joined your family, you might want to read the tag before you put it in the dryer.
Just sayin'.

In the near future there may or may not be some photos filling in the gaps of the last three months even further. But don't expect any clever quips or sweet stories. It's summer after all. I am on vacation.

And don't that just make y'all want to come back?

Toodles.

Gotcha Calebration!

2009-03-25T18:20:00.004-04:00

Chloe thought of the cute title. How creative!

It definitely was all about Caleb as we celebrated the first anniversary of his adoption last week, also known in adoption circles as "Gotcha Day."

We made the obvious choice of going out to the Vietnamese restaurant here in town for our little party.What's that you say? Doesn't look like a Vietnamese restaurant to you? Well, then let me show you a couple of photos of us in Vietnam last year on Easter Sunday.

This is us at Pizza Hut in Ho Chi Minh City. So, neener, neener, neener.

At that time, Caleb wouldn't eat anything but noodles and french fries for us. Now, he stuffs in his pizza with joy. Progress!

And remember how he was terrified of balloons? He has been healed of his fears. More progress!

And remember how I used to be so heartless and without compassion? No progress. Check back with me in another year. You can always hope.

Anyway, if you have been hanging around here 12 months or more, you may remember that when in Vietnam, we purchased a gift for Caleb each year until he is 18. There may not be much Vietnamese culture in Smalltown, Midwest, but who said we can't bring in our own?

I'd post lots more pictures, but frankly there aren't any others worth posting.

The end.

One Year Ago....

2009-03-19T09:12:00.006-04:00

On March 18, 2008 this almost three-year-old little boy was an orphan living in southern Vietnam.

March 19th, he met these two (kind, but slightly crazy) people who had already loved and prayed for him for 17 months.

They took him out of the orphanage for the first time in his entire life.

Pretty overwhelming.

For all of them.

And their first stop was to sign a few papers, officially making him "son" and them "Mama and Daddy."

An absolutely, glorious moment.

Tonight we'll be celebrating that anniversary and what God has done throughout Caleb's first year with us. I'll be sharing a few pictures and a "Progress Report" in coming days.

I heart fondue!

2009-03-12T08:33:00.003-04:00

Many years ago a dear friend of mine assured me that one way to make our kids love us was to fondue with them. Since making them clean their rooms and do math and wash dishes wasn't working, I figured it wouldn't hurt to try her method.

After cramming it in with Christmas and New Year's celebrations for about five years in a row, I finally got smart and forced the family to move this tradition to Valentine's Day. After all, I WAS trying to get the kids to LOVE me, right?

So, here we are in all of our Heart Day Blissfulness with our three fondue pots and 826 lighted candles.

There were two little boys in particular that I had to keep wrestling away from the fudgey chocolate pot.

So I could get my own marshmallows in, that is.

And here's the proof that the fondue scheme works:

Teenage boy with his arm voluntarily around mom and a big smile on his face.

When I get to heaven and see my friend Gail, I'm going to put both my arms around her and give her a big hug and tell her thanks for the great idea!

Happy Chinese/Vietnamese New Year!

2009-02-07T08:55:00.004-05:00

Lunar New Year celebrations began in Asia Jan. 25 and are still going on! Here in Small Town Midwest it's hard to find anyone celebrating this occasion. Hence, the blank stare I received when I bounded into PF Changs and sang, "Happy New Year!" to the hostess.

Well, that's okay. We just made our own party with all kinds of hootin' and hollerin'. Didn't bother me a bit that they sat us smack dab in the middle of the faincy restaurant with our boisterous brood.

If anyone got past the noise level, they might have noticed we were all wearing red. It's the "lucky" color of the new year. We may not believe in luck, but I'm sure not going to miss out on an excuse to make the family wear matching outfits.

Except for my rebellious teens.

Emma's expression is due to her absolute shock and joy of the amount of money in her "lucky" red envelope. A whopping $2.00. And those envelopes, mind you, came directly from China. Not as in, I found them at Wal-mart and read the label. More like, I dragged my sorry behind over the ocean on a 14-hour plane ride and back to get them.

And now, everyone please hand your envelopes back to Mama so she can keep them for the next 20 Lunar New Years.

These two little guys loved the entertainment at the table.

Or, they WERE the entertainment at the table. Chop sticks, Wiki Stix...whatever keeps them happy while I'm waiting for my lettuce wraps.

In case you're wondering it is the Year of the Ox. So, trying to keep close with the theme, we ate like cows. For some of us, this is no problem. For others, maybe we should have eaten like walking sticks. Or Wiki Stix. Or chop sticks. That probably should have been my Lunar New Year's resolution.

So, as you can see, there wasn't much authenticity to our party, but it's fun to celebrate the rich and important heritage of our youngest sons. Next year, maybe we'll pick it up a notch and make Daddy dress up as a Lion Dancer. Oh, yeah!!

Think Spring: Part Two of However Many It Takes

2009-02-05T14:19:00.004-05:00

I need to write a letter.

Hello Sun!

Don't think you're fooling me just because you've been shining brightly all week. I know it is still completely freezing cold outside. Thanks for showing up anyway.

Love,

Kelly

OK. Now that I crossed that off my list of things to do, let's all close our eyes and go to a happy place.

My Back Yard In July. I'll do anything to keep the kids busy on those long summer days. Even let my oldest off the hook on Lawn Mowing Duty.

(Doncha wanna to live next door?)

I'd take credit for this cool idea, but my sister would totally rat me out. My step-dad used to do this for us in our back yard growing up. It was way cooler though, because we actually had a meadow for a back yard.

And that was a happy place too.

Which is better - One or Two?

2009-01-22T16:25:00.004-05:00

Sunday afternoon fun when your brother is an eye doctor:

No, Kyle, these are way too boring. How about something with a little more pizazz?

Crazy kids! This is what they picked out, but the doctor thought the color was wrong for Steve and those made Debbie's face look too narrow.

Thank goodness we have a professional in the family.

Hail, hail, the gang was all here!

2009-01-21T17:55:00.003-05:00

This weekend we were unexpectedly blessed by a visit from Kyle's sister and her family who live in Colorado. Unfortunately, it was due to the death of my brother-in-law's father. While our hearts were heavy for Mike and his family, it was a wonderful treat to see them. We talked about how in the midst of this kind of suffering, there is much comfort and even joy in being able to visit with family and friends. A nice respite from your grief.

This was the first opportunity the Parchas had to meet Caleb. We gave him plenty of warning about Aunt Debbie. "There will be this lady here in a few minutes. She'll come in and see you and start screaming and squealing and she'll grab you and kiss your face off. Over and over and over. Consider yourself warned, Son."

And may I just say that she did not disappoint.

My niece and nephew share the same birthday two years apart - February 3.

I thought it was close enough to celebrate!

Andrew and Caleb appear to be kindred spirits.

Uncle Steve joined us too and here are all of Nana and Papa's children and grandchildren together. Too bad THEY are in Florida. Or actually, too bad WE weren't ALL in Florida.

Christmas: The Rest of the Story

2009-01-03T18:07:00.003-05:00

OK, so I've played too many games of Pathwords on Facebook today and my wrist hurts too bad to type much about these photos. But here's the rest of my favorite shots of Christmas Day.

Chloe wrapped her gift to Emma with extra special care! Love to see them hug!

Delighted with an ABC game. (School stuff - shhhh.)

We have instated Game Night once a week this year and this is Keegan's favorite! He and Micah both beat me on the first Game Night. Grrrr. I should challenge them to a round of Pathwords. HA!

Caleb's first Christmas. It was absolutely wonderful to have all my babes home this year!

Yes, those are tears. Emma got her siblings and several friends to go in with her on a donation to Shaohannah's Hope in honor of Kyle and I. This is the Chapman's foundation that gives grants to families who want to adopt, but need help with the initial outlay of funds. By far, the best gift they could have given us. We are delighted to know that this will help another orphan come home for Christmas next year.

Stocking Stuffers

2009-01-02T16:13:00.005-05:00

Several weeks before Christmas a friend told me that their family did not hang stockings.

HUH?!

NO STOCKINGS?!?

I told her that we couldn't be friends anymore unless she put it into practice right now, this year! It is the BEST part of Christmas, after all!

(She did it, too!)

(Because she didn't want to lose me as a friend.)

(Or maybe she just loves her kids a lot and wanted to surprise them.)

Anyway, here's a few things that were in our kids' socks:

A used cell phone for Chloe that is no longer activated. Wow.

Reindeer poop for Grayden. Great gift, huh?

Gangster hat for Micah. We want to encourage good morals here.

Um, this boy? Let's just say he was lucky to get anything at all. (Wink.)

Keegan didn't really care what was INSIDE. He was just happy about the outside. This stocking was made for me by my Aunt Marilyn when I was a baby. Keegan has always wanted to use it because it has a horse on it. I try to talk him into a stocking of his own every year. No way. But, this year he said, "Can't you just put my name on ths one?" A smart friend told me to just put it on a piece of felt and then tack it over mine. No problem! Unless of course, you wait till 11:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve to start. Oh well. Sleep is overrated anyway.

Emma? Poor Emma. Apparently I was so wrapped up in the Best Part of Christmas that I didn't realize I had forgotten to take her picture. You can just guess how nice her stuff was though, based on what the other kids got.

And now you're wondering, "If stockings were the BEST part of Christmas, I wonder what happened the rest of the day?!" Well, you just stay tuned!

You knew they were coming sooner or later...

2009-01-01T15:49:00.003-05:00

OK, here we go...Family Christmas Photos.

Did you think you would be spared?

We got the kids all gussied up on Christmas Eve for church. And look! Their outfits were all coordinated. (And they matched the couch too!) Since that was so unusual, I thought it would make a nice picture.

After church we always come home and roast junk food over the fire. Mmmm.

And then the children are banned to the dungeon until Daddy greets them in the morning with a tray of cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate. This is supposed to pacify them while I make the final festivity preparations. SOMEONE was not happy about waiting.

When you come up from our basement, you enter the family room. This is where we "do stockings." The tree and other gifts hide out in the living room until Dad says, "Go!"

But Daddy never says "go" until we have taken time to rejoice over the Reason for our celebration. So, here we have the birthday boy reading us the story of THE Birthday Boy. What wonderful gifts they BOTH were!

On tomorrow's docket: Stockings, in depth.

Happy Birthday, Hapy Birthday and Happy Birthday Again!

2008-12-23T12:39:00.005-05:00

Apparently, my mother, my sister and I didn’t think that there was enough fun and merriment in the month of December. So, to pick things up a bit, we all had Christmas babies. I’m not just talking about December Birthdays. I mean CHRISTMAS BABIES! And try as we might to convince them otherwise, it really does kind of stink to have a Christmas birthday.

So anyway, after church Sunday, Kyle and I packed up our small brood of six and headed to Royal Oak, Michigan to celebrate with the Birthday Baby and here he is, Mr. December 23rd.

And because he is just so cute and kissable, here’s another shot of my darling nephew as he was discovering the ding-ding sound his new tricycle makes.

And now equal in height for the first time we have the Birthday Man, Mr. December 26th and my own Birthday Teenager, Mr. Right Smack Dab On The Day - December 25th. It was an extra special celebration because it was the first time all of these handsome men were together. Ever.

You might think I would have a photo of the three of them together, all cute and smiling in their happy birthday cake buzz.

Alas, I do not.

I’d just like to mention that if you are ever going to travel 2 ½ hours to your nephew’s birthday party and your brother is going to be there and you haven’t seen him in over three years and your son, nephew and brother have almost the same birthday, you might want to check and see if your camera battery is up for the challenge.

Just sayin'.

Even though my sister and I were not born in December, here’s a shot of us with our little brother. Because, did I mention that it’s the first time we have seen him in over three years? And I do love my little brother, even if his birth did start an annoying little trend in my family’s holiday traditions.

A Toy From Christmas Past

2008-12-20T22:09:00.003-05:00

Ok, back to my story….

In 1995, shortly before Christmas, my Aunt CAROLYN offered us a wonderful treat for Grayden:

She fondly recalled how this horse had been enjoyed by her two sons. She had been keeping it for when she had grandchildren, but she decided not to store it for that long after all. We were delighted and put Wonder Horse under the Christmas tree that year from Santa. (Dumb. Should have taken credit ourselves.)

And since then, that horse has been ridden by Grayden, Emma, Chloe, Keegan and Micah. In fact, Micah loved it so much he would actually rock himself to sleep on it!

But alas, after seven kids have bounced on your plastic back that long, you will develop a hole in your saddle. A big, big hole. We patched it up several times, but as we were planning to bring Caleb home I realized that he was kind of little and with a hole that big…well, how would I explain to friends and family that we lost him inside a horse?

So, Wonder Horse went to the garage waiting for a warm summer day when our daddy had time to dismantle him and, um, put him in a trash bag.

(Well, that was kind of a creepy sentence to write.)

Look though, before he went into the bag, the kids were still having fun with him.

Aunt Carolyn, we just want to thank you one more time for Wonder Horse. We sure did love him. And we got YOUR money’s worth right up to the very END. Pun intended.

This was not supposed to be a post about names

2008-12-19T13:38:00.001-05:00

Way back in 1995, my Aunt Carolyn, not to be confused with Aunt Karol, who was missing my blog…

Hey - did you know I have an Aunt Karol and an Aunt Carolyn? In fact, my grandparents had three sons (and a daughter) and two of them married a Carolyn, and one a Karol.

And did you know that my grandpa’s name was Herb and two of his daughters married men named Herb?

And I have an Aunt Patty Long and an Aunt Meredith Short?

And my sister married a man named Robert. And our dad is named Robert. And her father-in-law is named Robert. And her son’s name is Robert.

And you people wondered why I had such a hard time naming my children?

Well, that’s just great. I’m completely distracted now. I never put all of that together at once. Now this is a post about family names, so I’ll have to tell you the story about my Aunt Carolyn another time.

Little Drummer Boy

2008-12-19T13:18:00.004-05:00

When we brought Micah James home from China over 2 1/2 years ago, (2 1/2 years!!) we noticed two things about him right away. He was very coordinated for his age and he seemed musically inclined. He could keep a beat and he could learn songs after hearing them just a couple of times. Maybe not pronounce the words - but he always had the tune right on. One of the first English words Micah learned was "Boom!" As in: the drums go boom-boom.

Therefore, when I happened upon this scene, it was no surprise.

He played for his dad and I for a very long time. Very long. Very, very long. He even got the sweaty drummer hair going after a while.

I told a friend last night that I wished I had purchased him a drum set for Christmas.

Of course, her reaction was, "Are you insane?!"

And I thought, "Wasn't that already evident?"

Let's take a vote

2008-12-12T17:31:00.002-05:00

I can't decide which is cuter:

Hat.

Or Hat Head.

Think Spring: Part One of However Many It Takes

2008-12-10T11:19:00.003-05:00

Can I start whining about the weather now? I was going to wait till January, but then I thought to myself, "Don't be a procrastinator! It sets a bad example for the children."

So, I thought I would post random photos of warm weather shots now and then - until spring - starting today. But, I'm not going to get all crazy and dig into the July photos just yet. After all, the snow melted and it's only cold rain today. Let's just go back a few weeks to our warm fall.

One evening we were in the kitchen getting ready for dinner when I noticed some wild activity out my back door: Two boys dancing crazily on the picnic table and laughing hysterically at something...

What was so entertaining? Their shadows. Especially amusing was making one shadow hit the other on the head.

Hey! Is that another shadow that has entered our scene? With a recording device maybe? Too bad I don't know how to post video.

Well, anyway, when brothers get along so splendidly it makes a mama feel all warm inside. And that's just what I needed today.

I'm thankful for clean carpet.

2008-12-06T22:48:00.002-05:00

Some people have big Christmas wishes. I like to plan ahead, so I had big Thanksgiving wishes.

1. Clean carpet.

2. That my inlaws would not leave for Florida until the day AFTER Thanksgiving this year, insead of the day BEFORE.

The Thanksgiving Genie did not disappoint. Yes, indeed, I did call the Carpet Cleaner Man and he agreed to show up Wednesday morning with his big Carpet Cleaning Machine. So, when Kyle got up at 7:00 a.m. Thursday to put the turkey in the oven, I got up and put all the furniture back into place. Some girls wish for diamonds, some for gold, me...clean carpet. What can I say? I'm easy to please.

And while I did not photograph my carpet, here is a lovely shot of the whole family getting ready to eat, including Nana, Papa and a little bonus: Uncle Steve! Please note that even though Kyle took this very moment to try out the tripod and timer on the camera for the first time, our meal was still hot and I'm so glad we have a photo of all of us together.

Our mashed potatoes were particularly scrumptious. Probably because our Potato Peelers were scrumptious. (Remember, I was putting furniture back, so I couldn't be expected to deal with vegetables.)

This was Caleb's first Thanksgiving and he had a blast! One of his favorite words now is "too-kee." Mama sure was glad to have all of her little "too-kees" finally in the nest. Even if they do make for a house with dirty carpet most days of the year.

Blog writing: A Cure for Insomnia.

2008-12-06T05:17:00.005-05:00

I was sitting in my living room last night with a house FULL of people. The adults were discussing what kind of food we were each going to bring to our next get-together, which is a special little Christmas gathering. I thought that it might be best to haul out the laptop and email the VERY SAME PEOPLE WHO WERE SITTING THERE IN MY LIVING ROOM a little menu list so that they didn't forget what kind of good food they were promising. (Prime rib! Cheesy potatoes! Chocolate dessert.... Haaaayyyyy - who's bringing the chocolate dessert!?)

Anyhoo.......So, I open up Ye Olde Email and there is the sweetest message from my aunt. She is wondering if I kicked her off the blog mailing list or if I am just busy.

Like I would kick my only reader off the list?!

Silly girl.

Or - she thought maybe I was just really busy. Clearly, I am not that busy, because here it is, 5:24 on a Saturday morning, and I had NOTHING to do. NOTHING!

Or, maybe I just couldn't sleep because I felt so bad that my Aunt Karol missed me.

Sigh.

Once, I was reading a list of recommendations about how to increase readership of your blog. The No. 1 thing to do was to be consistent in your writing. As in: Don't take a month or so off.

I'm not a professional blogger. I just play one on the internet.

And I don't really care about increasing my readership, but I would like to keep my Aunt Karol.

And actually I haven't taken a month or so off. I totally blog in my head all day long. I blogged about Micah telling Daddy, "When I grow up I'm going to be an eye DOCKER too and take CRUMBS out of people's eyes and then put in drops. LOTS OF DROPS!"

Or how about that fun field trip we took to see the freighter-ship-turned-museum? That was a great day y'all! And fun blog with lots of photos.

Oh! And my Thanksgiving Blog with my list of things I am thankful for this year. Like the burst of heat that you get for two seconds when you walk into Wal-mart. That was a great blog! In my head.

I'm tellin' ya, we have the funniest, cutest, most intrestin' dern thangs happenin' here all the time and I love to tell about them in blog format. But, making it to the computer 3,829 times a day just don't happen'. Rats.

But, because I want to keep my aunt entertained, and because I actually do love to blog about me, and my kids, and me, I vow to git back at 'er.

We've been reading a lot of books about The South lately.

And did I mention it is 5:44 a.m.?

And this blog is not just to entertain my aunt, but myself as well.

I'm going back to bed and I bet I can sleep much better now.

GOP Rally!

2008-10-30T12:04:00.003-04:00

A friend of ours had three extra tickets to see John McCain this morning in Defiance. We arrived at 7:00 a.m. I have two words for you: FREEZING COLD.

We could have gotten a little closer, but we opted for the bleachers so we could sit down. The girls' feet were numb! And the McCains were not scheduled to speak until 10:00 a.m., so standing that long did not appeal to the children either. We assured them that they would be glad they came. (Some day.)

So, this was the best picture I got of him - just to the right of the tree.

BEHIND the signage!

Please vote next Tuesday. It truly is a privilege.

Picture Pandemonium: Part 2

2008-10-24T08:18:00.006-04:00

Continuing on with our junior high antics...

We had to have a photo of a team member wearing an article of clothing that belonged to a stranger. We went up a down the road a couple of times until we saw a nice mommy in the yard with her kids to help us out. And I was just informed by Grayden that "Tap Out" is a term from Ultimate Fighting. He learned that from listening to Mark Driscoll sermons. (Mars Hill - Seattle)

Find a sign and do exactly what it says. So, here they are wiping gunky build up off the sign.

Kneeling beside road kill. P. U.

A team member kissing a cow. Way to take one for the team, Emma!

What?!

Nate, aka Youth Pastor, said we could be as creative as we wanted to be.

But, no matter how ingenious we were it still wasn't quite good enough, because we came in second. Rats. And we lost to a mom who said, "I didn't really care about winning. (HUH?!) I just want to hurry up and get home to watch the Ohio State game." (DOUBLE HUH?!)

I tried to tell my girls it doesn't matter how you play the game - it's whether you win or lose. But, since that didn't work, I guess it's really all about making memories and having fun with the kids.

Rrrrooooiiiiight.

Picture Pandemonium: Part 1

2008-10-23T21:05:00.005-04:00

The dictionary defines "pandemonium" as a place or scene of riotous uproar or utter chaos. No wonder our youth pastor used this word to title a recent activity enjoyed by the jr. high students at our church.

And some crazy parents.

It was a picture scavenger hunt and I volunteered to drive Emma's team. Thought you might like to see some of the scenes we had to capture during our little race.

One of our team members torturing another with a common object.

The whole team in someone's bathtub.

A team member with an entire bag of Skittles in her mouth.

My gracious daughter volunteered for that one. Way to go, Babe!

All team members wearing dresses.

Thank you, Goodwill.

Whole team on an ambulance.

And they way I was driving, thank goodness we were not patients on the ambulance.

Because, I play to win.

Except we didn't.

I don't think I'm ready to talk about that yet.

Maybe tomorrow.

Caramel, You Are My Friend

2008-10-22T15:50:00.004-04:00

Here's something to make your mouth water....

These were mmmm

mmmmmmmmmm

MMMMMMMMMMMM

GOOD!

And with that, we "wrap up" our fall party photos. But, not our fall parties.

Games and Crafts That are Really Games

2008-10-22T11:44:00.003-04:00

Remember our good friends, The Gourds? They are multi-useful little pals. After we tossed them outside, we entered the living room and tossed them inside as well. Nothing like a lively game of Hot Pumpkin to get everyone giggling. It came down to these two cuties in the end. I think you will get a different story from each as to who won.

Once we were done throwing gourds at each other we decided to play in glue. Otherwise known as "Craft Time." I think Micah just thought this was another game. And if it was, he won "Who Can Soak Your Plate Most Thoroughly?" hands down.

They were all pleased with the finished product and so was Mrs. Party Coordinator.