Pictures and a Phase 3 update

Joe and Joan FINALLY got some pictures e-mailed to me that I've been wanting (Sorry guys, couldn't resist!) So - I'll share a few:)

Ethan loves crawling in things!

It sure was nice of the Fehr's to get him something to crawl in for his birthday:) He was crawling in it before it was fully assembled!
Here's Ethan staring in amazement at something - what is it?
"Oh NO! Those strange men are tearing up U. Joe's house and U. Joe is just standing here behind me doing nothing to stop them! There were strange men at my house yesterday getting rid of all our furniture and my toys and Mommy and Daddy did nothing to stop them either! HELP!!"
A little bit of winter wonderland fun during our last week in Kansas! We're sure glad it snowed one last time at home before we left!




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I got some shopping done today so Phase 3 is going well. The twins needed new tennis shoes and we've been told to buy good shoes over here even though you can get the same pair there. I guess that it's cheaper here and holds up better for some reason... I also found another good airplane toy for the twins' backpacks - a magnetic airplane scene for Kenton and a My Little Pony magnetic scene for Kaitlyn. Ethan still has the least amount of things to do...I'm still open to any and all suggestions for him!

We have Weiss Christmas tomorrow evening and than we can begin doing our final packing for Singapore. We may be heading out to buy more suitcases but we need to find out what the weight limit is on international flights per bag first - and how many bags we are allowed. We may be leaving the less important items here and getting them this summer! It's been a process going through everything and re-packing at every turn:)

There is snow on the ground here in Elgin - I'm not good at estimating how much but it's enough to send the twins out to play in tomorrow! It's a good note to leave on - everything is pretty!

Overheard...

"I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas, I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas, I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas on the bottom of my hear-rt!" (Words sung very, very loud by a 5 year old girl this morning while getting dressed!)

Memories to Cherish

Here is a picture of all 11 Rink Grandchildren! (Plus Rachel) Quite a crew when you get them all together for two days in a row!

I

Pictures

Just a reminder: You can click on any of the pictures to see them in a larger screen

Last day of Kindergarten at Blue River
Kaitlyn looking at the scrapbook that their classmates put together secretly as a going away gift
Mrs. Wiley showing the class the book
Craig and the kiddos before our last day of church in Kansas City.
Ethan and his friend Maelyn - we sure are going to miss all the friends we've made over the past 7 years!

Phase 2 - Completed

We are safely in Illinois. We had a LONG, uneventful trip out here with lots of traffic. Pretty much from KC all the way to Chenoa exit there was constant, steady traffic that we aren't used to seeing. It took 9 hours instead of 7 due to 4 stops and being at a stand still in traffic twice around St. Louis - in the middle of the afternoon. BUT we are here safe and sound and I've done NOTHING all morning in an attempt to relax a little before the holiday rush begins tomorrow:) My next job this afternoon is to go through all of our bags and clean out and reorganize since we just threw things in them while packing at 3am last Monday!

The twins had a fun Holiday party on Thursday - the class had made a really cute scrapbook that they gave to them to remember all their Kindergarten friends. We tried getting out of town Thursday after the party but ended up leaving yesterday morning instead. It worked out better that way as it gave us time to visit Don and Eileen and Gene and Mary before we left. Plus, most of our trip was in the daylight which was a plus since we kept running into fog.

Anyway, once my camera battery is charged again I will post pictures of the twins last day at Blue River...

OOPS!

WELL, I looked in Ethan's mouth late this afternoon when he was crying and found out that he doesn't just have 5 teeth, he has 7!! Three of those have come in since Sunday...no wonder he's been crabby:) Real observant mom here!

Ethan Update

Since I'm so bad at keeping up with Ethan's baby book I thought I'd write some things down here so I don't forget when I finally do get around to updating his book:) (It's on my list of things to do while in Singapore!) He has started saying "na-na" for night-night and points to things that he's looking at. The other day he sat down in front of an outlet and shook his head no:) He popped a 5th tooth sometime over the weekend and had his first ear infection this week. He has started becoming a daddy's boy and cries whenever Ryan leaves the room. He usually tries to walk after him but he's too excited and falls down. Speaking of walking - his equilibrium must have been a little off on Monday due to his ear infection because he was trying to walk to me and kept going in circles. You could tell that he was frustrated that he wasn't going anywhere! The twins have learned how to make him laugh and it's so fun to see him being entertained by them.



Well, Phase 2 of our move will be complete by 6pm this evening and than it's on to Phase 3 - Illinois. We have a few people to see on our way out of town and than it's on to spend time with family. We've enjoyed our week with the Fehr's although it will make it harder to leave. I called into Robeks this morning and told Kirk that I wanted one last Rejuvenator with soy:( I'd better savor my last Robeks smoothie for awhile! Anyway, I'd better go and get the van cleaned out and start packing up our "things"! Boy do we have a lot of that!

Phase 1 - Completed

Phase 1 of our move is officially over. The movers showed up at 9am this morning and by 5pm they had everything loaded on a truck and ready to be put into a shipping container. We are staying at Joe and Joan's until the twins are done with school on Thursday and than on to Phase 3 of our move. (We are currently in Phase 2 which consists of finishing up loose ends here in KC before we head to Illinois.)

I'm pretty sure that if you could put Ryan's car on auto pilot it would go from our house straight to Fehr's:) I made many trips back and forth today including a last minute trip to the dentist for a root canal - YEA! Merry Christmas to me early, I guess!

Holiday Cheer

I won't give away the source of this picture (it wasn't me) but I wanted to spread a little Holiday cheer! Enjoy "Pipe Man" relaxing in a vat of almond bark:)

And So It Begins!

I went to a neighborhood cookie exchange tonight and took Ethan. While I was helping dole out cookies he crawled under the table into a corner where I couldn't reach him and started playing with things that weren't his to play with. I crouched down and motioned for him to come to me. "Come Here Ethan" He smiled at me AND SHOOK HIS HEAD NO!!! He's never done that before! The twins just taught him to shake his head this afternoon but I had NO idea that he actually understand that it meant no! Apparently he does:) The end of that story is that I had to get on my hands and knees and crawl into his little hidey hole to dig him out. How graceful that was!

Home Sweet Home

Well, for another 5 days anyway! It's hard to believe that we'll be living somewhere else soon. I just figured out the other day that I've lived in this house longer than anywhere else since I left home for college. Makes it a little hard to say goodbye:(

First WORD!!!

Ethan said his first word last night - "Hi!"

:)

Karen K just e-mailed me these pictures from Cailer's b-day party last summer. I thought that they were cute and wanted to share them:) Enjoy!

Kenton, Kalahan, Cailer, and Trystin are ready for a water gun fight!
Klaire, Anna, Kenton, Kaitlyn, Cailer, Trystin, Kalahan, Raegan, and Karen
Klaire, Anna, Brock, and Kailtyn
Anna, Kenton, Kaitlyn, Raegan, and Timon

ready to play football!

My thoughts are ever turning
To my celestial home,
For it my love is burning
Though still afar I roam.
‘Tis there my soul is dwelling,
My wealth is with the Lord,
And from my heart is welling
A longing heavenward.

What leads to heaven I treasure
And not what draws to earth,
The world, its sinful pleasure,
And all it holds of worth
I shun, what far outclasses
All these, I seek on high,
To know that life surpasses
Earth’s wisdom and earth’s joy.

Then rise, my soul, with gladness
Although the way be hard.
Through danger, scorn, and sadness,
Up! Ever Heavenward!
To others leave earth’s pleasures
And all this world’s allure,
Thou claim the noble treasures
Eternal and secure!

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When I have time I will give credit where credit is due for the above song. I can't remember off the top of my head and I'm not somewhere I can look. I came across it tonight in my files so thought I would share it...

A New Skill

I was in the knitting store today getting some help with a project when I noticed that Ethan had my keys up next to his ear. I took them away afraid that he would try to poke them inside. Later in an effort to keep him quiet I handed him my cell phone which he promptly held up to his ear and than he smiled really big...I wonder where he learned what to do with a phone? ;)

Ethan's Birthday

Don't forget to check out the poll to the right and vote:)

Here He Is! The Birthday Boy! It's so hard to believe that it's already been a year...he is a joy to have around and we don't know what we'd do without him...well, maybe get more done and we wouldn't have to keep our games out of his reach and we wouldn't have to lock all the cabinets and...:)

Here's the bathtub cake that I made for Ethan. The water is made of blue jello and the handles are made of marshmallows:) It was fun and easy....www.familyfun.com has a lot of cute projects, cakes, and treats to make.
This is the cake that Jamie made from Keegan and Ethan's joint birthday party. We also celebrated Ryan, Amanda, and Amy's birthdays as well. On Friday and Saturday of Thanksgiving week all the Weiss girls went shopping and spent the night at a hotel. It was fun to spend time together and considering how many trips were made back to the van with packages it was pretty successful too! We won't mention the room keys that were locked in the room or the missing van keys:)

Below is a slideshow of pictures from Ethan's two parties. This time I used more upbeat music although it doesn't really fit the pictures... The Happy Birthday song that I downloaded from iTunes wasn't able to be downloaded into Windows Movie Maker...oh Well! Enjoy:)

New Poll!

Be sure to check out the new poll to the right and vote!

Pictures are still forth coming of E's Birthday parties (yes, he had two!) as soon as I can get the camera unpacked from the car. It's buried deep, deep inside the trunk so it's any body's guess as to when that might be!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and were reminded of how blessed we are! It was nice to be with family and it's nice to be home again:)

We met with the moving company today and set dates for the movers to come. They will start packing us up on Monday, December 17th and end on Wednesday, December 19th. The twins have school up until the 20th of December so we'll head to Illinois sometime on that Friday or Saturday. It depends on how long it takes to do a final cleaning of the house. Our official move date is January 2nd. Our flight leaves at noon on that day.

The rest of this week will be busy with getting the house decorated for Christmas and getting cookies made for an exchange this weekend. I have to have my final spreadsheet of all that we own done by this Wed and start packing our belongings that will head into storage. Plus, the Christmas letter needs to be written and our list updated:)

Fun Cake Wins!

I made Ethan a tub cake with Jello for water and a rubber ducky floating on top - he LOVES rubber duckies:) Pictures to follow...

Guess who's walking?!?!?!?

Life will never again be the same around the Weiss household! I'll try to get video tomorrow to post. We were at Fehr's for supper tonight and E several times took 4-5 steps in a row to get somewhere. You can tell that he really wants to do it and his little body is geared up for it....and than his mind catches up and says, "WAIT! I MIGHT GET HURT!" so he falls to his hands and knees and crawls since that is the safer way to get around at the moment:) It's fun but what on earth am I going to do with a walking one year old on a 20 hour flight?!?

Where's Ethan?

We've been playing a new game lately..."Hey! Where'd Ethan go?" I have learned that most of the time I don't really want to know the answer to that. He may be destroying Kaitlyn's room, or eating crayons, or breaking night lights, or - UGH! - swishing his hands in the toilet!! It's an adventure most days for him:) His favorite thing to do today is to climb on top of the Little Tykes picnic table and than chew us all out because he can't get back down! You would think that he'd learn...must be his daddy coming out in him...I'm smarter than that;)

Better Late Than Never!

Here it is, finally! This is a slideshow from the Annual Kellenberger Weiner Roast back in Sept. It took me forever to figure out how to make it and post it...So, here it is! To view the slideshow just click on the play button under the picture below. PS: I take no responsibility for pictures of people eating:)

Tis the season for....Stomach flu:(

Our home is becoming more and more cleaned out as the time to move gets closer and closer. We took a load of things home the last trip back and now Mom and Dad are taking the twins' bunk beds, the John Deere Gator, and odds and ends from our garage back to Illinois. We are going to get a new bed for the twins but we haven't decided what would be the best yet. We are considering a bunk bed with a trundle in case all three kiddos need to sleep in the same room for awhile...they do anyway...or a twin over a double. We went shopping on Friday evening for storage shelves and baskets as storage will be an issue over there. We also bought an area rug for Kaitlyn's room since none of the condos there have carpeting. Most people use area rugs but they are SO expensive there compared to here. This next week I am going to try to finish cleaning out every closet, under every bed, and the storage room so when the movers come we can tell them exactly what's going. After Thanksgiving we'll rent a storage unit and start putting things into storage that we aren't taking with us. It's such an ordeal to move 2 adults plus 3 children. I have a spreadsheet that says what toys, clothes, etc are going with us on the plane, which ones will be air shipment, which ones will be sea pack, which ones are going into storage, and which ones we are donating:)

We enjoyed a nice weekend with Dad, Mom, and Rachel. They leave tomorrow morning. Hopefully we didn't give them a present of the stomach flu. Ethan had it first early last week, than Kaitlyn on Thurs, and finally Kenton this morning. I've been washing my hands so much that they are raw!

The weather has been gorgeous - although a little more sunshine would have been nice. We were in the 70's today and tonight it still feels nice...maybe I'll stick K & K in bed and head on a walk. They are getting to stay up late since A. Rachel is here...

Prayers of the Innocent

Sometimes I wonder if anything I teach or tell the twins sinks in. Tonight I was given a special little glimpse into an innocent soul when Kaitlyn asked to say the bedtime prayer. After saying the "Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep" prayer I usually add a blessing on family and pray for any needs that we know of. Kaitlyn said the first part and hesitated before adding "God bless grandmas, grandpas, all our aunts and our uncles and our cousins, and bless daddy and make him come home safe to our house and tell (name withheld) that he needs to repent so he can go to heaven, In Jesus Name We Pray, Amen!"

Life, Slow Down!

Cleaning and Scrubbing can wait til Tomorrow...

For Babies grow up we've learned to our Sorrow.

So quiet down Cobwebs, Dust go to sleep.

I'm rocking my Baby and Babies don't keep!

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Last Friday Ethan didn't get an afternoon nap until late. He fell asleep in the car (which is unusual for him) and he actually stayed asleep when I carried him in the house. The twins were at the Fehr's for a few hours so I sat in the rocking chair and rocked him for about 25 minutes. It was WONDERFUL!! First of all, he is not a snuggly baby and second of all the above poem is posted over his crib and it seems most days I tend to be too "busy" to really spend that precious time with Ethan or Kaitlyn and Kenton. I have to say that my heart was quite full by the end of our "rock" session and my housework still got done:)

Like Father, Like Son!

Last week while we are at my Mom and Dad's Ethan found the change jar. He figured out how to get the lid off and reach in and grab coins...he MUST take after his daddy:) He would stand there and swish his little hand around in the coins until he finally had a handful. Than, straight to his mouth they would go! I tried and tried to post the video of him doing this as it's pretty funny but I couldn't get it to work.

Fall Party and Trick or Treating

I ran upstairs for ONE second and when I came back down look who found the Halloween candy! He was having a grand time playing with it and was quite mad when I picked it all back up:)

He likes the taste of it too! Ryan took the twins around while I stayed home with E and passed out the candy. Our neighborhood kids all went together riding on this neat float that someone was pulling behind a lawn mower. It was covered in lights that blinked off and on - it was pretty creative and someone did a lot of work on it!

Kenton is waiting to play a game at their Fall party at school.

Kaitlyn is playing pumpkin Bingo
Kenton giving me one of his "Kenton Looks"!

Kaitlyn is making the spider craft. They were creative and cute. Yes, I just called a spider "cute"!!!
And here they are before heading off to school. A firefighter and an angel (Just in case you couldn't tell!)

Happy Birthday Braedon!

I had to post this picture because my sister-in-law Jamie makes such AWESOME cakes for her boys! Happy 4th Birthday, Braedon:) We can't wait to see you this weekend!

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip and Other Things

Well, I survived my first field trip with a group of Kindergartners!! It was an ear splitting good time - listening to a whole bus load of 5 year olds sing nursery rhymes over and over and OVER isn't exactly my idea of a way to spend my morning! BUT, it was fun to spend the time with the twins and see how they are with their friends at school:)

Kaitlyn hit the slides with two of her friends - over and over again. Are you starting to see a theme here?!?

We rode a hay rack out to the pumpkin patch where we had our pick of tiny pumpkins to take home with us. Here is Kaitlyn with the one that she picked out.

Here is Kenton with HIS tiny, little pumpkin!

Kaitlyn decided to jump in with the boys and make a scarecrow.

Here is Mrs. Wiley's Kindergarten class - Fall 2007

Onto the "other" things. I thought that I'd write a quick update on Singapore. We've been keeping really busy doing all the little things that come along with such a move. I scheduled Hepatitis A vaccines for us next week along with our usual flu shots. That is really the only recommendation for shots that we haven't already gotten. I'm going to see if they will speed up Ethan's schedule as Indonesia has reported cases of Polio. We have interviewed two rental management companies for our home and now are making the final decision of which one to go with. Both want to start showing the house beginning of November to potential renters so we've been cleaning out and cleaning up. We've been filling out paperwork to get work passes and dependent passes for Singapore. We are waiting official word from the Singapore American School on whether the twins are in for the Spring semester or not. If they aren't we have a choice of a private Christian school or homeschooling until next Fall when they could for sure get in. We have the moving company coming in the middle of November to tell us what will fit in a 40 foot container and what the transit times are for our things. We also get a 650 lb air shipment of things that we will need immediately. I have gone through the house and made a very detailed spread sheet of what's staying, going, being stored, or donated. This way we know exactly what to tell the movers and we have a detailed shipping list in case something gets lost or damaged. We have started stocking up on things like our favorite soaps, diapers, summer clothes, printer paper, etc. to send over in our shipment. I have quite an extensive list of things to get in case they don't have it there, thanks to Lynn:) I am ordering a really good stroller since we'll be doing a lot of walking...We've also picked out area rugs to send since they are considerably cheaper here. All the condos have marble floors and I want to have cozy rugs:) We're also starting to collect medical records to take with us as well. There is SO much planning that goes into a move like this that it can be overwhelming at times! Than, we take a step back, a deep breath, and say a prayer that God will work out the small details along with the big ones...and so far He has!!

We have our first Parent/Teacher conference tomorrow and than we are heading back to Illinois for the weekend. Ryan's going to spend time in Peoria helping Grandma Joos get a few things done and I'm going to help the twins make a REAL pumpkin pie:) Should be fun! We're heading to Elgin for the weekend and than we are home until Thanksgiving while our families come and visit US:)

Peace and Quiet

Finally I have some peace and quiet around here:) The kiddos have been in bed since 8 although they aren't sleeping yet - well, Ethan is but the two that really need to be aren't! It was a rather quiet Monday around here. It was cloudy and cool most of the day so I stayed home and unmotivated. I achieved three things today - I got the twins off to school, I made supper, and I cleaned out the junk drawer. I think that last task more than makes up for the fact that I achieved little else today:)

Ryan and I nailed down the dates today for our move and he contacted the moving company to get everything confirmed. The twins should be accepted into SAS and our official acceptance letter will be here by early November. It's amazing how all the pieces continue to fall into place! When I start to worry about something I make myself take a step back and think about how God is completely in control of our lives and this move. It makes things easier for sure!

We hosted our last potluck:( yesterday. It was a very nice evening and it was fun to decorate my tables with nice dishes and tablecloths and centerpieces! With three little ones running around I don't get to do that often. This week will be a busy one. I have a meeting tomorrow at school for the Fall Party and than it's my day to volunteer in the classroom. Wednesday I head to Topeka for a little get together with my Sabetha friends - I'm really looking forward to meeting up with them and getting to spend some time without children...uninterrupted talking - how nice! Friday I head off on a field trip with the twins to the pumpkin patch - should be fun as long as it doesn't rain:) This weekend we head to Illinois for a wedding - October is going to be over before we know it!

Update on the cheesecake (and Thurs evening)

Kaitlyn in a finer moment...read on!

Well, my evening the other night did NOT turn out as planned...more about that in a minute....what DID turn out was the cheesecake and I ended up calling a (skinny) friend on Friday and told her to come and get the rest of it lest I finish off a half a cheesecake by myself - oh it CAN be done!

About the rest of that evening...Let's just say that Kaitlyn melted in a temper tantrum more than once and during the last one as we were cleaning up supper and getting ready to go to the Bible Study I told her that she didn't get to go to the bonfire and had to go to bed. She didn't receive that well but was in bed at 7:05...and was SOUND asleep by 7:10. I would say someone was over tired. I asked her the next morning if she'd learned her lesson and she said, "No." ARGHHHH!!! I was disappointed to miss the Bible study but she needed a consequence that would hurt - even if it was only for the 5 minutes it took her to fall asleep:)

PS to the 7:05 bedtime....she was wi-ide awake by 6:30am and in our room talking...we won't try putting her to bed that early again as I don't really like to see that side of 8am:) I know, I know...so I like to sleep in!!

Family Art Project

We have officially completed our first "Family Art Project"...it came home from school two weeks ago and we JUST did it this morning;) It consisted of Mom doing all the cutting, Dad doing all the designing, and Kaitlyn and Kenton messing up what we just did! Oh - and Ethan eating all the teeny, tiny pieces of scrap paper that he could find on the floor and than throwing up on the carpet. The scarecrows were still "drying" when the twins left for school so I took them in to the classroom for them...we wouldn't want them to get messed up on the bus, now would we? After all, Mom and Dad did a LOT of work on this FAMILY art project! To be fair, the twins really did do a lot...they colored and pasted and glitter glued. The entire time I was cutting the scarecrow pieces Kaitlyn kept saying, "Look at Mom's GOOD cutting skills...Boy she sure has GOOD cutting skills." I'm sure glad that all my years of cutting experience could be put to good use:)

Tonight we have our weekly Crown Financial Bible Study. I decided to try making my Mom's secret Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake...sure is hard when it's a secret recipe...:) I've heard that it gets RAVE reviews so we'll see how well I did tonight. The twins are going to a bonfire...it's homecoming tonight so there was NO chance of getting a sitter so they are going to the alternative activity that's been planned for the church kids. Ethan's going with us since he can't be trusted around a fire. I'd better go and get supper going so that we aren't late. The twins don't have school tomorrow so we may be taking a family trip to the pumpkin farm to get pumpkins for them to carve in a few weeks.

AHHH!! Cooler weather:)

Finally it's a little cooler outside! It was starting to feel like we'd already moved to Singapore and weren't going to get to enjoy fall this year. We have wonderful temps in the 70's this week which feels nice...time to head to the pumpkin farm with the kids this weekend:) They have been begging to go and pick out a pumpkin to carve with Ryan. Guess this is going to be a short post - Ethan has a little friend here and they are both begging for attention!

In Loving Memory of Grandpa Joos

Pork Sticks??

We were eating supper last night - pork chops made in the "slow cooker" (thanks Mom for the wonderful cookbook!) - when Kenton decided he wanted to use his chopsticks. It was so funny, he kept calling them pork chops or pork sticks instead of chop sticks:) I think he was a little confused! Anyway, I'm posting a video of him using chop sticks...I'm sure that it's a very appropriate way to use them. Ahem - I won't mention that there is Christmas music playing in the background!! Who listens to Christmas music in September, anyway??

The Culprit and The Damage

Okay, so it really wasn't too bad. He just has shorter bangs (do little boys have bangs?) than before and has a little tail hanging down that is all that's left of the hair he had.

I don't know if any of you take the quizes that are posted to the left of the blog but I have and I'm embarrassed at how much I DON'T know about the Bible! When you take the quiz it gives you the correct answers and shows which ones you got wrong. You can also click on the reference to read the passage (KJV). Than it gives you your percentage and what the average percentage is and how many people have taken it - it's pretty interesting!

Well, it's Monday morning again with another busy week ahead of us! We made a quick trip to Illinois this past weekend to see my Grandpa R and Ryan's Grandpa J. We were home in time for church on Sunday so it was a REAL quick trip:) But the time spent with our Grandparents is precious and we wouldn't trade it for the world! Today is picking the house up and running errands and than tonight we are going to watch the 4 highschool marching bands that are in our school district. They do a little exhibition once a year that we like to go and see. It's so different than when I was in High School! A lot more involved with costume changes for the whole band, more high tech, and the flag line has to know how to dance along with twirling a flag. Good thing I didn't have to know how to dance way back when! The flag is challenging enough without doing ballet at the same time:)

The twins are upstairs supposedly cleaning their rooms but I'm hearing a lot of door slamming and fighting so I'd better go check it out!

First Field Trip

The twins are going on their first field trip tomorrow to an apple orchard. They are SO excited and have been talking about nothing else all week!! "Mom, do I get to get up early tomorrow?" "No, dear....not for another four days." Than I sigh and think about what a long week it's going to be:) They get to go with the morning Kindergarten class which they think is the best thing ever...AND they get to be car riders for the day instead of bus riders!

Our Crown Financial bible study has been leading us through reviewing how we view our posessions. This is timely for me since I've been cleaning out closets and de-cluttering in anticipation of our move. It's amazing how I tend to hang on to things that I really should have gotten rid of years ago:) I don't tend to be a saver but I still have things I need to part with. When you look at everything from the perspective that God owns it and he's entrusting it to us to take care of you begin to realize that you can't possibly take care of everything you have so maybe it's time to clean out! "The more you have, the more you have to have to take care of the things you have!!" That's a quote from Jungle Jam - a CD the kids like to listen to! It's so true, though!

Uh Oh! I hear E - As the Lord has entrusted him to us I'd better go take care of His possesion :) Sure puts things in perspective, now doesn't it;)

Rotten Baby Brothers!

Ethan climbed into the middle of Kaitlyn's train track this morning and that was driving her crazy! It's sure hard to drive a train with a huge obstacle in the way:)

NEVER say Never!

You know how the saying goes, "Never say never?" Yeah, well it caught up to me this time! A few weeks ago I was having a conversation with someone (don't remember who) about how the twins have never cut anything they weren't supposed to with scissors. Well, that's easy when they haven't had access to scissors. BUT, because of Kindergarten they have a school box of supplies that they keep at home to do "homework" with and in that box are - guess what - a pair of scissors. AND this afternoon I'm sweeping away when I enter the bathroom and find a bunch of hair around the toilet. "How odd" I think to myself. Katie and Matthew are here and are using that bathroom and I'm thinking that Matthew must have given himself a haircut (while on the toilet, apparently) and didn't clean it up. WELL, about an hour later I'm in the basement yelling at - excuse me...asking Kenton politely to get his rear in gear and pick up as we have supper company coming in an hour when I notice - HE'S MISSING HAIR!!! The story went, "Huh, what scissors? What hair?" NOW, this is hard to believe as there is evidence to the contrary - he HAS to know what's going on! FINALLY, "Kaitlyn did it. She was practicing to be a hair cutter." HMMM, Kaitlyn is not fessing up so now we know one of them is lying..."Kenton did it himself!" "Well were you in the bathroom with him at the time?" "NO!" Ryan sat down with them and gave them the "One of you is lying to me and you would have been in less trouble if you would have just confessed" speech. Kaitlyn eventually confessed. LET me tell you that it's so hard to know which child is lying!!!! You just have to keep throwing out consequences until one of them decides that they had better hurry up and confess before they get EVERY thing they own taken away:) There will be a picture forthcoming and I have to confess - Katie and I were laughing through most of the ordeal as it WAS quite funny! She had also noticed the hair and had ALSO blamed Matthew - Poor Matthew - He wasn't around when this all took place so I don't think he even knows that he was a culprit for a short time. Oh well, the twins are now banned from using scissors EVER again (Or until the next "homework" assignment that requires their use) and I have hidden MY pair so well that even I don't know where to find them!!!

Back Home

We made it safely home early Wed morning - about 2:00am! Ryan and I were up until about 4 because our timing is off. Katie and Lauren came back from Illinois with us for a few days and they were sleeping soon after we arrived - as was Ethan. The twins' came home from Joe and Joan's this morning around 9am - way too early for me to be awake:( Now it's all about digging out after being gone for a week and a half and than Katie and I are going to tackle some closets and begin getting ready for a garage sale. After next weekend things will finally slow down a little and I can concentrate on volunteering at the twins' school and taking care of Ethan. It will be supreme to have all of us back under one roof again tonight! I sure missed them while we were gone.

K and K had picture day today - and PE!! We'll see which one they did first;0 Kenton didn't want to go today and I suspect it's because he wanted to spend time with us. It's hard to know when they really need that time and when they need to learn that they still have responsibilities and can't skip school whenever they want.

Well, the babies are both sleeping so time to get something done before the twins' arrive home from school!

10 September, 2007

Well, our final day in Singapore is now officially over! I'm trying to stay awake as long as possible so that I will sleep on the flight from Singapore to Tokyo and try to readjust to US time. I am ready to get home to see the kids!

Today Ryan went into work to do some relocation paperwork and I decided to get a neck and shoulder massage:) I've only had one other one in my life and boy do I wish I could afford to get them twice a week! We've been so busy here that I needed to relax a little bit before we head home. I had breakfast outside this morning and read a book and listened to the rain. It rained a good portion of the day. It seems like most nights here we've seen spectacular thunderstorms off in the distance but we haven't really seen much rain until today. No thunderstorm though:( After breakfast I did some shopping for souvenir's for the twins and Rachel. I decided that Ethan is too little to appreciate anything Singapore so he's going to miss out! After shopping was the massage and than Ryan was back from work.

We decided to re-visit the botanical gardens to take some pictures. The Orchid Garden is SO WORTH going to see. If you click on the pictures below and enlarge them you can see them closer up and the rain drops on them. The perfect time to go is on an overcast, rainy day as the colors really pop! There was a really neat gift shop there that I will have to keep in mind for future gifts!! On our way back to the hotel we walked past the US Embassy - it's actually fairly close to our hotel. I would have liked to take a picture of the outside but there was some activity going on there so we didn't want to stick around. It's a little disconcerting to see police walking the streets with MK 47's (I think that's right?) Not a sight you see in the US very often!

For supper we went back to Clark Quay to take pictures there (we forgot our camera last evening) and we saw that they were set up for the Chinese mooncake festival. I think that they celebrate the moon during this. I didn't post any of those pictures as this will be a long enough post...maybe when we're back home. We also walked down to the famous MerLion statue and took pictures there. Singapore means "Lion City" and legend has it that one of the first people here supposedly saw a creature that was half lion and half mermaid. Believe what you want:)

Anyway, enjoy the pictures below! We are looking forward to being home and seeing everyone again! Please pray that we have safe flights:)

This is a picture of Clark Quay on the Singapore River. The whole area used to be warehouses and they have all been restored and are used as shops and restaurants. It's a very nice area to walk around.

This is one of the boats that we took a boat ride on yesterday.

Fountain in the Orchid Gardens

Some species of orchids in the gardens were bred and named for famous people who have visited the gardens. There is one for Laura Bush but I couldn't find the actual orchid.

I believe this one is named after Nilson Mandela.

There are thousands of different species of orchids in this garden!

This is Swan Lake at the Botanical Gardens. We were pleasantly surprised to actually see swans:) I thought that it was just all about the statue!

For any of you who read Trumpet of the Swan this lake reminded me of that book.

I don't know what these are called but I thought that they were pretty with a palm tree in the background.

This is at the entrance to the Orchid Gardens - it cost S$5.00 to get in per adult which was extremely reasonable.

This is the restaurant that we ate at on Saturday night with Ryan's co-worker Gan and his wife Judy. Gan is from Malaysia and Judy is from Hong Kong.