Getting Elizabeth... and Rachel

keeping it positive

Today has been a day when it would be tempting to just throw my arms up, fix the scowl on my brow and stay that way until i go to bed. But i won't. I'm going to keep thinking of the positive, and think about what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. (to borrow from philippians 4:8)

so ...

1. Instead of looking out at the endless snow, freezing my tail off as i slip down the driveway, and dwelling on how the weatherman just said we can expect snow into April, and possibly even May, I'm going to  remember how weathermen are often wrong, think about our upcoming trip to florida and look at the sun and be  grateful it is not cloudy.

2. Today, for the third day in a row, the girls have done nothing but whine, cry, fight and complain. (Urgh!!!) I know much of this is from rachel's nap schedule being disrupted (kid doesn't do well when you mess with her schedule!) and Hua Hua's trouble adjusting to change (daddy's break is over and he's at work, her best friend at school is in a wheel chair and things are different).  So, i will think about how this will soon end, how i my girls usually play awesome and are best friends, and I am getting out of the hosuse tonight for bible study! :-)

A lost phone....

I've lost my new cell phone, a special christmas gift from my husband, and i'm so depressed. The worst part is i don't even know when I lost it. I know I had it Sunday night, when we got home from a spontaneous trip to chicago. (more on that later). I'm pretty sure i put it in the diaper bag monday before we headed out to dance, but after that it is a blur.

When i try to calll it, it goes straight to my voice mail, which means either the battery is dead or i turned it off, soemthing i only do when i am home. So, did it somehow get misplaced at home? If so, where? I've looked in all the logical places and i cant find it.

Did i lose it when i was out? I've called the dance studio, meijer, the library - i just don't don't. And I'm so depressed.

Dan just told me that if someone found it and is using it, we could be getting a huge bill next month. I just feel sick about this, but try as i might, i can't find it. I'm obsessed by this, and don't knwo what to do.

chinese new year party at school

  We just got back from our very last chinese new year celebration and are very glad we now have a week off from preschool and two weeks off from chinese school to recover! (hee hee)

Tonight's party was Hua Hua's chinese school's chinese new year dinner and show. Hua Hua has been so excited about this event for weeks - it was cute to see. Grandma and Grandpa joined us for the festivities. The food was excellent but unfortunately we were about 10 minutes late so the only tables still available were in the basement. All the kids in the school participated in the show. Hua Hua's class sang two songs about God and his creation. They did a good job and as the youngest students in the school, were incredibly cute. Rachel can't wait until she gets to go to school, too.

Xin Nain Kuai Le !

That's happy New Year (in mandarin - pronounced, roughly, Shin Knee-An Kw-eye La)!!

That's right, tonight is new year's eve, and we are one excited family over here! Tomorrow is chinese new Year day, a holiday that last 15 days and in china is basically the equivalent of thanksgiving, christmas and new year's day all combined into one.

In china millions of people travel home for the holiday, their only time home during the entire year. It is heartbreaking to hear of all the record-making snow and ice in china, closing airports, train stations and roads over the last few weeks, making it very difficult for millions to do their annual trip - sometimes the only time mothers, fathers and children are together for the entire year.

In our family, determining how to celebrate chinese new year has been an on-going process. As Christians, we have kept skipped some traditional parts of the holiday but other parts we have embraced.

I've been "tagged"

I'm up way too late for a mom who only had 4 hours of sleep -most of it interrupted last night. (yesterday was the worst night we have had in a long, long, time...) But instead of being sensible and going to bed when the kids do, I'm  up catching up on various blogging mom friends, when I read on my friend Laura http://www.adoptlove.com/blog/ blog about how she was "tagged" by a blogging friend, and is participating in this game she doesn't normally particiate in, writing 7 previously mostly unknown things about herself. Laura used to be my editor at the freep, years ago, and is a fellow adoptive mom and friend. so, when I get to the bottom of her page, imagine my surprise when I find she's tagging me! (thanks a lot Laura!) :-)

And so now i'm doing something i don't normally do - participating in a blogging game.

Seven mostly previously  unknown things about me:

1) Up until I was around 26 years old, I didn't want kids. I babysat my two youngest brothers a lot when I was younger, decided kids were way too much work, and for most of my teens and early 20s I didn't want any.

2) During my late teens/early 20s I shaved half my head, wore only black, and when I went  out, went for the goth look.

3) The first time I saw my husband he was a DJ and he was working. A friend pointed him out, said something like, "isn't he cute?" and I said something like, "Yeah, but he looks too normal." (hee hee, little did i know, huh, love?)

4) I've wanted to re-do the look of this web page for more than a year but haven't.

5) I love family and wish all of mine and my husband's lived 15 minutes or less away. Even in the same sub would be fine with me.

6) I have a tendancy to forget things that are bad which can be good, in terms of moving on and not dwelling in the past, but which can be bad if it is something I really should remember.

7) I love my kids and husband more thanI could ever express in words -- and despite the challenges of this stage of life, would want it no other way.

Ok, that's enough on me. Kelli http://kelligambee.blogspot.com/ and Michelle http://hannaclan.blogspot.com/  -- you've been tagged!!! :-)