Brothers and Sisters

We have had two weeks of spring break. During that time for 4 days we visited the country next door. If you are standing facing a map, this country is the one to the right of us. I'm not going to put the name because some folks search with country names and I don't want lots of strangers reading my blog. We took lots of pictures. The next few days I will upload different portions of it. The pic above this writing is from a picture in our house. I think one of my kids must have taken this picture. It is from the country V which is two countries over.

Now everyone is back at school except for Sage--who has shingles! At least we know that he has had chicken pox in the past since it is a form of the chicken pox virus. Many folks are telling us that people only get shingles if they are under high stress. Well, ok, maybe that means that Sage is under high stress? He had a cold type virus just before and we were traveling when he came down with it. This is just "normal" stress. I'll try to take a picture of it later today so you can see what it looks like.

Kel is home for ONE day. Then he leaves again this afternoon. We have two other children staying with us while their parents are traveling.

It was a wet night last night. Yay! We continue to hope that means the rains are here to stay. We're not counting on it, though.

Our countdown is on before we return to the States. 23 days to go! I have unexpected time this week that I wasn't counting on since Sage is unable to go to school. I have had some major cleaning projects underway.

I need a massage! This is one of our favorite massage ladies. This happened to be her last day at work. She was able to move back to the countryside to be with her child. Don't you know what a relief that must be to be able to live with and take care of your child? We hope to visit her sometime.

Sage's track meet: discus throwing

Well, I've really been negligent in writing and I haven't been taking many pictures. Sorry about that. Last week Kel and I had a nice week away of meetings and then celebrating our anniversary. I have begun the cleaning out process related to going back to the states in a few months. I hope to go through everything in the next couple of months. I finally have enough storage space and places to put things! Yes!

Malia has changed so much these last few months. The first picture that I am going to show is one of the newest ones of her with her braces!

Not gone away! Hiding!

Kittens!

I've been telling Kelly we needed to get rid of the stray cats that seem to be living outside our house--there are several that sleep there on a regular basis. This morning when the children went outside to go to school, they found two kittens. A black one with white socks and and this one above. Of course, Savannah had them up immediately and was begging to keep them. Malia and I are both very allergic to them so there will be no keeping them. After they left for school, I went back outside to take the pictures. The mama was gone and so was the black one, she must have taken her somewhere else. The other one was still here. She will probably be gone soon. I hope she takes them somewhere else and takes good care of them, so we can have more stray cats! :> LOL!

I am fine and need to find my camera so I can post some pics! :> All my tests came back normal so I don't have to worry about this shortness of breath that I have been feeling. The kids had a two day holiday last week for Chinese New Year. They went back to school today.

Kel called me and told me he has been invited to a function where he will meet one of the princesses and needs a black suit. (Thursday) He does not have a black suit, so we went ran into town to a tailor to have one made. We found some beautiful black cashmere from Italy that we will have a classic black suit made. It should be ready for the fitting for it tomorrow. I will try to take pictures of it. The royal family is in mourning from the death of the King's sister and so everyone must wear black.

This week my school schedule will be a little different since this is the IOWA testing week at school. I will not see my elementary students, only my high school student. Then, on Wed. and Friday, I will go and help with testing for a couple of hours.

I found the camera so I took a picture of some jewelry that a friend of a friend makes. I gave each of the women in our house group one pair for Christmas and was thrilled when she made some more because I didn't have a pair. Now I have several pairs!

Sage’s story

This is a story written by Sage. He is our sweet son that we adopted from Ukraine almost three years ago. I am so proud of him. Even though he is 9 years old, developmentally and educationally, he is a little bit behind. He is in 3rd grade but has special resource classes. He wrote this story in his resource class. I believe that he will catch up, eventually.

It rained!

Yesterday, we received a sweet gift from God. It rained! The picture is from my front porch. Can you see the wet street? In Chiangmai, there is a dry season and a wet season. In the dry season it is usually dry (that means no rain) in the wet season it is usually wet (rains daily). This is the dry season. It hasn’t rained since November. What a sweet gift of rain today. You remember how I said it was smoky? It was not smoke. OR if it was the rain made it all go away. Maybe I can see the mountain. (Chiangmai is surrounded by mountains) What a sweet gift from God! RAIN!!!

Monday....today it is very smoky out side....it kind of looks like a cool winter day. Many folks burn fires during this time of year. However, it's not winter. We have not turned the a/c on downstairs but we have to have the fan on and we can tell that hot weather is just around the corner.

Today has been one of those nice grounding days. One of the days when the house is picked up, and I am able to have a long time with the Lord. It was mainly spent in prayer and listening. Now, I have a friend headed over to spend time praying. Our friend, Linda, had to be put on a ventalator this morning. She and Cyd are still very heavy on our hearts.

I want to lose weight so I have also been talking to the Lord about that. I have never ever really tried to lose weight. Not even the baby weight....and it stayed on. About 4-5 years ago, I got braces on my teeth (a quick painful 6 months process) and couldn't eat anything for about 3 weeks and it kind of jump started me on a weight loss program. I lost about 20 pounds. Somehow, in the last yr and a half, those twenty pounds have come back and I need to get them off again. Mainly because my body does not feel good with them on. I seem to have all kinds of gastritis type issues that I don't have when I don't have that extra weight on. I'm also more easily fatigued. So, I must try to do something intentional about this weight.

Those who know me, know that I tend to be the type person that doesn't want to try something like a diet because I don't want to fail. (where did I get these perfectionistic tendancies?) Or I would rather just NOT eat at all--rather than limit my intake. I know that is not healthy and is not the way to do it. So, this morning, after having a long chat about it with the Lord, I ate a salad for lunch. It had dressing on it, and ham....BUT, it was not bread and that is one of the main things I am going to be cutting out. My husband promises I can lose quickly if I drastically cut the carbs and gradually add some back in making healthier choices.

Some men are here now putting together Malia's new closet and my friend has arrived so I will close. The picture is a flower in our garden.

Feeling heavy today as we learned of the kidnapping of a friend. Go to this website if you want to read more www. arldf.net. We have known C for many years and our thoughts are with her.

Our friend, L, is still not doing well. They have not had to intubate her but are still considering it. She has some major problems with her lungs and so far has not been stable enough to explore or do more testing. Her daughter did arrive from the U.S. to be with her. We would ask God to spare her life and heal her!

K left for a trip today. He will stop in BKK tonight to visit L and her husband and then head in country tomorrow. He will return later in the week. We already have two lights that need fixing and internet still isn't working correctly. Not starting off with a bang so far. I will have to call a handyman tomorrow to see if he can come and fix the lights!

Haircut

I did it! I finally got my hair cut. I went yesterday. I ended up going twice. After I got home from the first haircut, I just really didn't like it so I called her back and went back again. She was very patient with me. The end result is better than what it was. Of course, my few extra pounds that I am carrying doesn't help! Where did these extra pounds come from???

NILD therapy

This is a picture of some of one of my students doing one of the learning needs therapy that I do at school. This is called Rhythmic Writing and it helps with left/right brain processing. I am working two days a week and I have 4 students that I see both days for around an hour and twenty minutes. I am enjoying my students very much, although I feel like I need to get Level 2 training if I am going to contiune with this next yr.

Closet lights!

The lighting is the bedroom is terrible. Imagine my pleasure and surprise when a few weeks ago, my husband had the lights in the closets fixed. I had spent many months not being able to see in the closet. Yes, it has been so nice to be able to see what is in there. And then, today, the closet lights decided they didn't want to go off. Yes, that's right! When the closet closes they are supposed to go off. But today (when hubby is away), they decide to not go off when closed. What am I to do? N comes to the rescue! He works and works and works and still cannot get them to turn off. We are trying to figure out how to disconnect them, etc. when all of the sudden, I spy the electrical outlet with a plug plugged into it. I go over, pull out the plug and Whallaa! No more closet lights! :>

Sunday's are lazy days

Since we have house church on Sat. afternoon, Sunday's are lazy days here. We slept late (8am), ate a leisurely breakfast, picked up the house, and ate lunch. I went over to visit a dear friend who had just returned from the States. She brought back 5 tops for me from Kohl's for a whopping $24! Amazing! It is so much fun to have some new shirts from the U.S. My wardrobe is feeling kind of shabby. The rest of the day I have spent reading Tolstoy's "Anna Karenin." It is soooo good. K left for a short trip to the big city here. He'll be back on Tuesday evening. These are pics of the children enjoying one of their favorite pasttimes. You can guess what it is! Don't you love the Peanut butter on Noah's shirt? That's pretty tpyical!

Dance Class

Well, today there was the opportunity for several FUN pics but I didn't take my camera since it was out of batteries. Too bad, you could have seen Thai ladies, biking down the street with painted umbrella's, an elephant walking down the highway (at night--always a reminder to us that we are in Thailand) as well as others. Instead, you will get pics from dance class! We are learning the Rhomba! (I'm not sure how to spell it) It was FUN!

A Picture from His Trip

This is a picture from His trip last week. Isn't it beautiful? Enjoy!

Granola

I made Granola today for the 2nd time in the last week. I have been wanting to make it--a friend's recipe because cereal is so expensive here and I wanted to give my family a healthy alternative. Kelly and I really like it. The others aren't so sure yet. :>

Here is the recipe:

Sandra's Granola
1 c sugar
2/3 c boiling water
2 c non fat dry milk
1/4 honey or corn syrup
5 cups rolled oats
2 c bran or wheat flakes
2 c cornflakes
1/2 c chopped nuts
1/2 cup flaked coconut
1/2 c wheat germ
1 1/2 tsp, salt
1/4 c veggie oil
Dried fruit

In Med bowl mix sugar, boiling water, stir in dry milk and honey or corn syrup and beat with mixer for 2 min. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 300. In lg bowl, combine the oats, flakes, nuts, coconut, salt and wheat germ. Add milk mixture and oil and mix thoroughly. Spread on 2 baking sheets and bake for 20 min. Remove and stir. Bake for 20 more min. Remove and add dried fruit. Bake 5 for min and remove from oven. Cool and store in airtight container.

P.S. I tried to post a picture but blogger wouldn't let me. I'll upload it when it lets me.

These are the last few I'm going to post of hairstyles. These were all taken over the last few years.....can you imagine the many hairstyles that I have had over the last 40 something years? I still have to figure out what I am going to now.