Christmas and a 'New' House

Last weekend, we decorated for Christmas! YEA!!! I know it's a little early, but Devin made me wait until November. I wanted to do it in August! :P It looks so nice and homey! :) I didn't get to decorate last year, and if I waited until the day after Thanksgiving...well, I wouldn't be here! So, it's all up! It looks nice! I might put up some pics....



We also made our house 'new'...we switched around most of the rooms. It was FUN!!! We made Josh and Claire move downstairs to the second floor--to a room that has a closet and an air conditioner that doesn't turn off every time the power turns off! YEA!!!! Now I don't have to get up 4 or 5 times a night just to turn their stupid air conditioner back on after a power flux. We moved them into the playroom. We moved the playroom next door to where we had the craft/ironing room. We moved the craft/ironing room to where I had set up the baby's room. We moved the baby's room upstairs to the third floor to be next to our room. The kids were ecstatic, and quite frankly, I really love the new set up, too! :) It's all cozy and perfect now. I love switching rooms and furniture around (especially if I'm not the one moving, but just supervising! Ha! Just kidding...) as it gives such a nice feeling of clean. It's a very peaceful feeling. Maybe that's why I like moving.

Then, it was such a hot day, that we went swimming and the pool was actually WARM! Wow! It must have been a hot day, because that water NEVER warms up. It's usually quite shocking. But it was a fantastic end to a hard working day! :) I think we'll have to do it again this week! :) It's so fun to go swimming, outside, in November!! :)

Scientific Method

I have a new theory about food and vitamins. Ok, so it’s not a new theory. But, as far as I am concerned, it has now been personally tested and remains firm in my mind that this is now a true fact for me.

Throughout my pregnancies with Josh, Claire and Andrew, I religiously took Prenatal vitamins. Every day. I didn’t miss even one. Why? They made me feel BETTER! When I took my vitamins along with my exercise, I felt less sick, less tired–I had more energy and more focus.

Well, this time around, every time I took a prenatal vitamin, I got SICK! I could hardly move. It made my stomach more sick than ever and I would feel dizzy! I thought that was very strange. Especially since this time around I have more energy than ever. I rarely get too tired to do anything. I still don’t waddle (ha!) and my head is clear (aside from the occasional normal pregnancy brain lapse...) But if I took the vitamins, it would all go away! So, I haven’t taken them. At all. I take vitamin C. I take calcium and vitamin B supplements once in awhile because they give an extra energy boost (most of the time), but for the most part, I haven’t needed it. Why? I’ve eaten healthier food here than I have most of my life (I know it wasn’t for your lack of trying, Mom, don’t worry). I’ve felt super healthy and strong.

And then, something interesting happened. We got our frozen food shipment. Boxes of American food Delight! Pot pies, hot dogs, hamburger patties, tater tots, sausage, bacon, cheese...what more could you ask for??? So, the past two weeks, we’ve feasted on good ol’ ‘American’ fare. (Of course, the past two days haven’t been my fault. We haven’t had water, so I couldn’t cook anything else!!!) And what do you think has happened? I am completely exhausted ALL THE TIME. I’m having a hard time focusing and walking. I feel heavy and sick (not just because I’m monstrously huge...) and sluggish. I don’t have the energy to exercise. I’m gaining more weight more quickly. Hmmmm.... Coincidence? I think NOT! (Mr. Incredible...) Yesterday was an all-time low for me. I woke up at a fairly normal time–a little later than usual (6:30) and could barely roll myself out of bed. My head hurt. I couldn’t hardly keep my eyes open. I haven’t been able to sleep well for about 4 days. My head keeps spinning and I keep tossing. After I dropped the kids off at playgroup in the morning, I came home and slept hard for an hour and a half until I had to pick them up. I was still tired and dizzy and my head still hurt. After I got them home, I made tuna sandwiches on my homemade whole wheat bread thinking that that might help. It did a little, but not enough. So, I thought maybe I’d try a vitamin. Within an hour of taking a vitamin, I felt like I had before we got our frozen food shipment. I had energy back again. I wasn’t dragging myself through a thick fog. My headache went away. I felt great again. Hmmmm... I thought that was a very interesting thing. Maybe I don’t want to eat out at every fast food joint I see once I get to the states. I need my veggies and beans and quinoa... :)

I just thought all of this was very interesting. I think I never realized that the reason the prenatal vitamins made me feel better was because I was lacking in all of those vitamins...and the reason they made me sick here is because I’m lacking NO vitamins in my diet. We eat very little, if any, preservatives. We never eat out. Everything is fresh and hormone free. I think living overseas is a pretty healthy alternative! I know I went through a pretty bad withdrawal when we got here...and when I was first pregnant I craved everything that I couldn’t have. But I wonder if I’ll be able to eat any of that now... now that I know what I know... :) (But, it still just tastes so good, and it’s SO NICE not to have to cook once in awhile...)

ASOY UN Day

Today was United Nations or International Day at Josh’s school. It was so cool! I was very impressed by not only the amount of work that went into everything, but how well everything was done. It all started out with a program. They brought in a flag from every country that is represented at the school right now. Super cool how many countries all these kids come from! :)

Here's a picture of Andrew and Claire sitting with Meekness and Pascaline. I'm SO glad they came with me--I wanted Andrew and Claire to be there, because I knew Josh would be happy to see them, and I thought Pascaline and Meekness would really enjoy it as well. It turned out to be really nice, and I got a lot of great pictures and videos! :)


Josh was happy to see us:




Then they had a dance group come and do some Cameroonian dances–so fun!!! I enjoyed it! One of the dances was about a guy with his two wives and how they fought with each other! :) (Thus the reason why polygamy is illegal in most countries...) Andrew enjoyed the drums so much that he fell asleep!




Then started the grades!

Pre-K 3 and 4 did the USA:



Aren't they cute? I just had to add their picture. They did the 'chicken' dance...you know the one: "peep, peep, peep, peep; flap, flap, flap, flap; waddle, waddle, waddle, waddle (clap, clap, clap, clap)" Anyway, they had everyone doing it right along with them! Except for Joshua:


(Looks kind of like me at everyone else's birthdays, huh, mom?)

Then came my personal favorite, the Kindergarteners! :) They represented Bangladesh. They said a poem. It was super cute!




1st Grade did an aboriginal dance from Australia. 2nd and 3rd grades did Nepal (nice, quiet Nepal). They did a really neat stick dance. 4th grade did the Netherlands. They did a skit about Hans Bringer (however you spell that...sorry if anyone is from the Netherlands.) And they did a Jump dance. 5th grade did Greece–it was a very cool dance! 6th grade did Ireland. Loved the green outfits and the dance was very fun! Very ‘Lord of the Dance’-ish. 7th grade did Tanzania. 8th and 9th grade, I’m afraid, were interrupted by some little friends who came to visit me. So, I didn’t catch what they did or what countries they were doing... 10th grade did Cameroon. They played a soccer game, and ran up to tell facts about Cameroon while playing. 11th grade did China. Loved the dragon!! 12th grade did India. They did a really fun dance! I did get pictures of them all, but, well, if you're really interested, I can email them to you. (My internet time is, after all, pretty limited...) :)

Then we got to go around to the classrooms and see what they had done to decorate for their countries. It was so cute! Every student got a ‘passport’, and when they went into the room, they were asked a question about the country they were ‘visiting’. When they got the answer right, they got a stamp in their ‘passport’. It was such a cute idea! Josh loved getting the stamps in his passport! :)

Here he is in his classroom by some pictures they drew for the day:



and another one with another girl from his class:



I thought it was such a fun day! Tiring, yes, but fun! :) It was very inspiring to see the flags, and all the different nationalities represented. I felt so happy to be a part of something like this! It really is a small world, and there’s so much to learn from one another. And the interesting thing is, we’re all really not that different. We have different cultures and backgrounds. Different languages, and maybe different skin colors. But fundamentally, we’re the same. We all strive for the same things. To be accepted, to be loved, and above all, we all want to have peace with our brothers from every country.

“He gave me my life, my mind, my heart,
I thank Him reverently
For all His creations of which I’m a part!
Yes, I know Heavenly Father Loves Me!!”

Grasshoppers

This morning, Claire and I found a grasshopper in my room. So, I sent her off to get a jar to catch the thing in. We caught it, and she ran around showing everyone the grasshopper. Well, of course, Andrew got jealous and wanted to have a jar with a grasshopper, too! So, my housekeeper found a jar, went out to the door and found this:



So she scooped them all up and put them ALL into another jar:



Andrew wasn’t quite so keen on it at first, but after I showed him that they couldn’t get out, he thought it was the coolest thing:



And just stood there holding it and staring at it and talking to them!!!

It was certainly very interesting! My housekeeper says she loves to eat them–that they’re very good! They boil them and then fry them up! Yummy...

Kid Quotes

Claire has become a master quoter. I used to think it was the most fun to quote movies and stump everyone. Well, Claire managed to stump me quite a few times yesterday.

We were sitting out on our front porch watching the rain pour down, and chatting and she started quoting movies:

1: “It looks like a stopsign!”

2: “We need to work on your people skills!”

3: “Help! Help me! I wish Megan were here!”

4: “Don’t get too excited! Everyone stay calm!”

5: “Choo choo! Chugu-chugu-chugu-chugu...” (This one really cracked me up!!!!)

Those are a few that I can remember right off the top of my head. So funny! Can anyone guess what movies they are from? I’ll post the answers tomorrow... :)



Andrew sings a new song...we’ve been learning the ABC song. I heard him start singing and these are his exact words: “W, X, Y and Z! Now I know my Embassies! Next time won’t you go with me?!” I thought that was rather ingenious! :)

Contentment

I just wanted to share some sweet pictures and movies of the kids just being content and playing. These times are nice on the soul! :)

We made 'scary spiders' (thanks, Shannon, for the idea!):



A Beautiful Afternoon for a swing:



An Afternoon Snack:

Sad, But Funny...

This is Andrew in his new Cameroonian soccer outfit! Our housekeeper brought birthday presents for everyone yesterday. She got Cameroonian soccer outfits for both Josh and Andrew. So, we tried it on Andrew, and he threw a 'tizzy fit' because it was too big! He just kept yelling, "It's too big! It's too big!" You can see how upset he was!! Ha!! Poor guy!!



Here is Josh's Cameroonian Soccer Outfit...he even wore it to school on Halloween! He said he had to wear it so that he could play soccer with the first graders during recess! We figured it was fine since it was Halloween and no one would say anything about it being weird to his face... :)



Here's what it looks like from the back...Andrew wanted to be in the picture, too:



Here are Josh's 'new' shoes after one month of wear! Yikes!!!




And he only wears these two times a week! Hmmm... Luckily, we had another pair of shoes that we thought were too big, but turned out to be the right size. So, he has shoes to wear. I've never in my life seen anyone wear out a pair of shoes so fast! We bought those shoes at the beginning of September--and they were new!!! (Yes, the beginning of September until now is 2 months, but he hasn't worn them now for almost 3 weeks, and since he only wears tennis shoes twice a week, I figured I could get away with saying only one month.)

What funny kids! Gotta love 'em! :)