Beijing, China

Myshel was offered an amazing opportunity this fall. Her principal chose her and one other student out of 50-60 kids taking Chinese to go to Beijing, China in September!

The principal was invited to come to Beijing by Mt. Ararat's (High School here) Chinese teacher's former headmaster. What a mouthful! They'll be gone for 8 days. Myshel will stay with a host family from that school and attend school with her for several days. She'll also get to see historical and cultural sites while she's there, too. The principal and the chairwoman of the foreign lauguage dept. and one other boy will be going with her.

We're very, very excited for her, sometimes a little scared and nervous, but mostly very excited. I think it's such a great opportunity to see how they live and the schools and the cultures first hand and wow what an experience! We're so proud of her for being chosen among her class mates for this.

So now we're busy getting a passport and visa, immunizations, and saving our extra pennies on top of planning a trip to Wyoming this summer.

Happy Birthday, McKaylie!

Yesterday was McKaylie's 9th birthday. She told me she had a great day before she went to bed last night. I love hearing that!We brought cupcakes to school and had cake and ice cream at home. McKaylie has always loved dogs, but right now she loves wolves and huskies. I think it's because of the books she's been reading. So, there's an obvious theme to the cakes.

We love McKaylie so much. She's always been such a sweet blessing to our family. I don't know what we'd do without her here. She's so much fun to have around, so silly and so full of love! She's been asking for the NintendoDogs game for her DS, for months. She finally got it. Do you think she likes it? I'm not sure. Happy Birthday, McKaylie!

Time.....It's All Relative.......

I was just reminded of a conversation I had at church a week or so ago and Chad said I should post it on my blog. One of the men I was talking to has two girls about 10 years old and relating something to our conversation, I told him that in 10 years his girls would be old enough to be on their own. His response: "Yeah, that's true, and in 10 years you'll probably be a grandma."

That was a somewhat depressing, sobering thought. He was right and that's seriously scary. I came home and told Chad about the conversation and how it kind of freaked me out. In 10 years, Myshel will be 26. I had 2 kids by that age. 10 years used to seem like a long time, now, it feels very very short! Yikes....

Ahhhh, The Humiliation......

Ok, This is right up there with my most embarrassing moments ever.....

I went to Target.....I love Target by the way. I was by myself, no kids, no distractions, nothing. So, I get out of my car and start to walk through the parking lot to the store. I don't know how it happened, I don't why, it just did. I tripped, my ankle twisted a little and I tripped. It was weird, too, because it was kind of in slow motion for me a little bit. I remember thinking, "what did I trip on, there's nothing there?" and then I remember thinking "is there anyway that I could just trip and some how not fall down and completely humiliate myself....nope, you're going down." I really thought all that coherently, before I hit the ground. I fell with enough force that it knocked me on my backside.....just so that you get the whole picture....I tripped on nothing apparently, fell on my knees and the rolled to my behind, contents of my purse flying everywhere..... Nice, huh.......

Well, while I'm feeling completely stupid, picking myself up off the ground, dusting myself off, and trying to inventory my clothes for embarrassing tears, I realize that the car I parked next to had 2 guys sitting in it. They had a great view of "the incident" and were rolling around laughing about it. Great, of course there's an audience! So, once I checked myself to make sure I'm ok, I start to pick up my phone, my wallet, the lotion and pens and chapstick and everything else that flew out of my purse when I hit the ground.

After I gathered myself and all my belongings, trying to muster even the smallest amount of dignity, I start to walk toward the store again. A lady jumps out of her car and rushes over to me and asks if I'm ok. I little late than never, I think, but at least she didn't sit in her car and laugh at me. She looked terrified, like I'd fallen off a cliff or something and all I could think was, I must have looked sooo ridiculous when I fell..... I assured her I was fine and that it was only my pride that was hurt, feeling ever more humiliated now because my audience was even bigger than I'd thought.

I walked through the parking lot and got to the store, turned around to look back and realized that there was 4-5 cars with people sitting in them, that were lucky enough to watch me fall on my butt! (And only one of them checked to make sure I was ok)

Chad and Myshel enjoyed my humiliation, too, when I told them about it later. It bothered me for the rest of the day!

Yikes!

I just found out that my kids are going to be in school until June 22nd!!! They have to make up snow days. June 22??? That bites!

So Much For My Nice Walk.......

I went for my walk this morning and decided to take Vanilla with me. I usually only take one dog (if any) and it's usually Vanilla. She's very well behaved on the leash. We were having a nice little walk and ended up by the high school. It's not far from where we live at all. I started to hear something over my Ipod and realized that it was the high school's marching band. Cool, right? Well, Vanilla didn't think so. Before I could even realize what she was doing, she had her head out of her collar and took off running, across the street, across the football field, into the trees, which was definitely not the way we came. She didn't even look back once....Not cool.

All I could think was "oh crap". I didn't know how I was going to find her or even if she'd come to me when I did. I headed for home, looking for her, calling for her and nothing. I decided to go home and call Chad and see if he could come help look for her. I even thought about how upset the kids were going to be if I didn't find her before they got home. I went the way she had gone, hoping that she'd slowed down somewhere and I'd find her. When I got through the trees I heard her bark, but I couldn't tell where it was coming from. At least she was close, right?! I kept heading for home. I turned the corner on my street and there she was pacing on my doorstep. She ran home! As I got closer to the house, she ran around to the back yard and was trying to find a way through the fence into the yard. She came right to me when I called her. I think when I heard her barking earlier, she was barking at the door for someone to let her in.

I was impressed that she found her way back to the house even though we never walk by the way she ran home. Apparently, she ran straight home and waited for me. The band probably scared her and she was relieved when I came and got her. I'm relieved that I'm not still out there looking around for a little corgi-dog and that that little corgi-dog is in one piece sleeping at my feet right now!

Do You Ever.......?

Do you ever have those mornings when you just feel so relieved when your kids finally get on the school bus.

You've packed all their lunches and snacks and made sure that they have all their homework and papers. You've managed to get them completely dressed, fed, hair combed, teeth brushed, prayers said and jackets on. You watch and wait for the bus that just seems to be taking forever and they finally get on it and leave for school and you just let out a sigh of relief.

I do.

Makes Me Proud.....

Sometimes my kids make me nuts and I wonder if they'll ever learn to get along and be kind to each other. But, Sometimes they just fill me with pride. They really do. Sunday was one of those days....

Vance is in 8th grade this year, his last year of middle school, which means he starts high school next year. He's terrified of it. He has himself completely convince that high school will be some horribly experience and all the kids will be mean. I've tried reasoning with him, but I haven't had much luck. I've even talked with Myshel and about being extra nice to him about it.

The middle school has a program every spring where they send the 8th graders over to the high school and each student "shadows" a high school freshman for the morning. Vance's shadow day was Monday and again, he was terrified. He knew that the guy he was shadowing would just leave him somewhere and then he'd be lost.

Sunday during church I noticed that he was passing notes back and forth with Myshel. So, I started reading the notes while he was writing back to her. Myshel was asking him about his shadow day and whether he was excited. Vance told her "no" of course. The notebook went back and forth between them. Myshel was constantly reassuring him about everything he was worried about. She even told him she'd eat lunch for him if they ended up having the same lunch hour and that she'd be looking for him in the halls. I had to laugh when she told him that if the guy he was shadowing was mean that her and her best friend and boyfriend would beat him up for Vance. She was just so sweet to him. I had to fight back tears. I was so proud of her that she wanted to help him and stick up for him. I could tell she was being sincere, too.

Monday Vance stayed after school with a friend, so I asked Myshel how it had gone. She told me that when they got to school that she gave him a tour, introduced him to several teachers and his counselor and then stayed with him until he was assigned his shadow. And then, she just looked so sad. She said that she didn't see him again for the rest of the morning. She said she watched and looked for him, but didn't see him anywhere and they didn't end up having the same lunch. She told me, "mom, I've just been so worried about him all day. I just didn't want him to be scared anymore." I was so impressed with her love for her brother. I gave her a big hug and tried to reassured her that he was fine. I also told her how proud I was of her and how I knew that Vance appreciated her love and support, even though he might not ever say so.

Myshel impresses me so much at times. I watch her and see a very beautiful person emerging. She worried me at times, but when I see this side of her, I know that she'll be fine in the end.

Vance's morning did go fine and I think it helped ease his fears about high school. The boy he shadowed did leave him to each lunch alone, but Vance seemed to be fine with that and found other friends to eat with. I'm proud of both of them.

Sewing Again....

I haven't sewn anything for a long time, but when I saw this material I had to get it. Blue is McKaylie's favorite color and she loves Tinkerbell and all the other Disney fairies. There's also butterflies in the background, something else she loves.

It's actually a tank dress that has a tie in the back and then there's a little jacket over the top. You can't really see the difference in the dress and the jacket in this picture. I thought it turned out pretty cute, though.

Now Myshel wants me to make her a dress. She's much more picky than McKaylie is, though.