This One's for Elly (and her mom!)

Mia and I went shopping last week. That is, in our garage. You see, when I get "the urge" to spend $ on cute little girl clothes for this Chinese princess, all I have to do is take a walk out to my garage. I pick one of about 12 huge bins, labeled with her size, and go to town. Thanks to Elly (who sends me all of her girls' hand-me-downs), I need to spend on average $0. for her clothing budget. Oh man, does Kenton love it. I think he's even willing to trade all that garage space for such a small clothing bill! :) We found this DARLING handmade robe, made by Elly's mom. I'm sure her kids (white hair, blue eyes) looked a little different in it. We love you, Elly! Thanks for all the goods!

Bye Bye Brown Tooth!

PTL! Samuel's "brown tooth" has gone to the tooth fairy's castle!!! We have been waiting since he was about 3 years old, when he bumped that tooth on something. Eventually, it turned brown and looked nasty. The dentist told us to wait it out. I could barely stand it. Well, it FINALLY started to wiggle just a little. Samuel unfortunately let his brother "feel" how loose it was. Last week, in the back of the car, we heard the blood curdling scream. Isaac succeeded in the extraction just like every big brother dreams of. Samuel (who is unbelievably the BEST at screaming loud at the sight of blood) was a little bumbed, though. After all, that was the last hold out for him to be a "real" pirate. Now he just has to "fake it".

Just when I was going to give up...

Just when I was about to sign off from blogging forever...
Maybe if I promise myself to post every month. Ha. I just don't see how you all do it! I find NO TIME to sit down at the computer. Anyway, now I have a few great things to post, so here goes:

Here is a picture of our fun last weekend. We hosted two teenage boys (Timothy & Jamil) from the country of Uganda. They are from the Matsiko Children's Choir which is touring the United States this year. SUCH FUN! Although they ate chicken like it was going out of style (I think where they're from it isn't out of style, just out of reach...), and graham crackers by the box, these kids were such a wonderful inspiration for our family. Most of the choir are "true orphans" with no living parents at all. Unbelievable stories. I asked Jamir, the 17 yr. old, where the choir lives since many have no parents. He said they all moved into the pastor's house. (Imagine 30 children!) I then asked how many children could fit into our 2000 SF home. (Kenton and I discuss this VERY regularily...) He looked around and repied, "Oh. Probably about a hundred and fifty..." He was totally serious. I said, "Do you mean a hundred and fifteen (like that makes any difference)?" He said, "no. a hundred and fifty." OKAY, LORD...I'm getting the picture! I'm just imagining all that chicken!

chicks weekend.

I can't believe how fast these 2 weeks have flown by! Last weekend I spent 4 days at a "girlfriends retreat" in Spokane. I have 3 of the dearest friends from college, Kristina, Margie, and Elly. Go NPU Vikings! We all used to be on the North Park dance team together. (Okay, just kidding) We get together about once every couple of years and pick up right where we left off. We spent 4 days of sitting and talking, sitting and talking, sitting and talking. These girls are such a blessing in my life! We discuss things WAY TOO IN DEPTH, get stomach workouts from all the laughing & Kristina even treated us to massages (I mean she paid :)). Oh I feel refreshed! :) Two accomplishments for the weekend: talked a lot and got out of the house to go to TJ Maxx. We accomplished both! Here's to being forty-something.... (well, not quite, but awfully close!)