Superbowl Sunday

Not what you’re thinking.  I’ve been painting Zaza’s tea table and chairs since I got up this morning.  Holy Guacamole, this takes a long time!!!  I started a week ago!  I’ve done at least two coats of paint on every color…. five coats on yellow the infamous see-though color.  And I’ve gone back and touched up everywhere paint appeared in the incorrect places.  Whew.  I have to re-do the teeny white lines in between the pink and green squares under the table top… and THEN I’M READY!!!

Ready for what, you ask?… swirlies and roses and polka-dots and checkers and butterflies and more polka-dots.  I just can’t decide what to do! I’ve printed about 16 pages of pictures of painted table and chair sets, but I can’t decide.  I’m usually not this bad… but alas, the game is starting and we are off to a friend’s house to eat and sit in the jacuzzi and yes, I think there’s a football game on.  I’m not real big on the Superbowl.  I did watch last year when the Cardinals played… being the home team and all.  But the previous Superbowl game I watched was Superbowl XVII.  You figure it out!!!

Yoga

Tonight my daughter laid on the floor, tummy down, and proceeded to raise her shoulders up as far as her arms would push.  Her hips stayed down and she was peering at the ceiling behind her back.  A graceful J curve.  (Position #7 on the chart above.) #2 son notices the “salutation to the sun” position and asks, “Are you doing yoga?”  She replies, “No, I’m just stretching my stomach.”  #1 son adds, “Isn’t yoga a religion?”  “No,” answers my daughter, “that’s Yoda!”

That’s all I have for you tonight…. I’m busy painting Zaza’s tea table and blast it all, I need lighter pink!!!!  This pepto bismal color is no good!

Happy B-day, Rickey!

Today is my husband’s 43rd birthday so I thought I’d share some photos of him at what he does best.  This first example is “Being Cool.”  See how he’s instructing his fine young men to be cool too.  It’s an important trait to master.  Being cool.  It’s also all about crossing your arms and pushing your muscles to look bigger than they actually are.  Being cool.  And sunglasses.  Not just any sunglasses… cool sunglasses, like the ones Rick is sporting here.  He purchased them in a women’s boutique in Sedona when the supremely awesome sales lady told him that men from Scottsdale buy her glasses all the time…. and, get this…. that he looks like Elvis.  She could have sold him bedazzled capri jeans for himself!!!  Being cool!

Here, we have Rick protecting his most valuable asset, his beautiful 16 year old daughter. Being scary, that’s what this is called.  It’s important when you have a 16 year old daughter.  Being scary.  Rick looks kind of teddy-bear-ish in this picture, but that’s because you can’t see his concealed weapon that he only shows to teenage boys. Being scary.  He has given his daughter a stack of his business cards to hand out in case any teenage boys want to talk to her.  It’s an easy out for her, “Here’s my dad’s number.  You can talk to him first…”  It hasn’t actually happened, probably because the truth about the concealed weapon has been leaked. Being scary. He’s good at it, if need be.

This is what he does best, here in this last picture of the photo tribute for his 43rd birthday… Being fun. The untranied eye may not be able to decipher it, but let me help you. See how his mouth is? He has either just said something funny, or is in the middle of saying something funny.  Being fun.  This may not seem like an all-encomposing-highly-important trait, but it is.  Being fun.  It was actually a requirement to marry into our family.  Being fun.

Happy Birthday, Rickey!  We all love you!

For Such a Time as This

This has been one of my favorite Bible quotes for some time.  It’s so amazing to me how God uses the most unlikely people to fulfill his desires. Queen Esther’s story is especially close to my heart as she was an orphan who obeyed and SAVED her people…. from death.  Not just from suffering, or torture, or plague, or some other Old Testament trial…. DEATH! 

A few times in my life I have felt the presence of God breathe on to me when I was in the midst of a “such a time as this” moment.  I’m in the midst of one of those miraculous moments right now.  I feel unworthy to tackle the task ahead.  I don’t want to be overwhelmed or all consumed.  But I want to do what I’m suppose to do.  No, I’m not saving my people from death….(who are my people, anyway?  Not sure.)  But a gargantuan opportunity has surfaced and I’m willingly stepping through open doors.

As I lay in bed last night with wide eyes staring at the ceiling in shock/wonder/fear/trepidation/shock/shock/shock, my husband infused me with strength and support, as he is sooooo gifted at giving, with the simple words, “If not you, then who???”  I had no answer.  Probably because I don’t know anyone else crazy enough to accept the challenge and then actually rise to it!

Funny thing is, I remembered something today that was remarkable.  I had a dream about this seven or eight years ago, but dismissed it as one of “those” dreams…. the ones that follow spicy pepperoni pizza, or corndogs from the county fair.   I haven’t even thought of that dream for years and years.  Mainly because it is so OUT there…. in the It-Would-Take-God-to-Pull-this-Off realm.  It’s amazing to me how the Lord gives us glimpses of a few of the puzzle pieces of our life fitting together every now and again.

I can’t wait to share it with ya’ll!  It might be several weeks before the creases are ironed out and it goes public, but until then, please pray for our direction to be God’s desire!

Neighborhood Group

We have recently joined a neighborhood group that meets every Sunday night… and it is so refreshing!  We have never been involved in a discussion/fellowship/party group before with people who live so close to us… in our neighborhood!  Imagine! (hence, the name!)  There are seven families who attend regularly ranging in age from 3 months to 80s.  I LOVE the cross generational mixing for our kids.  With our homeschool groups we tend to stick with people who have kids the same ages as ours, obviously so they can be taught together.  All the more reason I’m loving this group… a brand new little baby girl was there tonight.  So sweet.  Takes me back.

The stories that have come from the neighborhood groups at our church are truly remarkable.  We’ve met so many people at church who are there because a neighborhood group reached out to them when they had a need.  One couple was out of work and had a newborn.  The neighborhood group in their area didn’t know them, but heard about their plight.  They supplied the couple with diapers for six months straight.  It doesn’t seem like a huge deal… but diapers are expensive, even when you have a job.  They folks had never gone to church before… now they do… because of the neighborhood group.

Before we joined this group there was a family in our neighborhood whose child fell into a campfire and was being treated at a burn center in town.  They also had two other small children at home.  So the neighborhood group sent out an email and for twenty-one days straight, dinners were delivered to their house.  What a blessing!  To the giver and the receiver!

We’ve never really made it a point to meet the neighbors that live more than two doors away.  We are in a cocooning society, where everyone drives up to the their house, into the garage, the door goes down and you don’t even know what anyone really looks like!   Sad!  I’m not pointing fingers…. I have never seen the woman who lives next door.  They moved in over a year ago.  What a great neighbor I am!  My goal this week is to go over and knock on the door and introduce myself.  I’m usually home, so if she ever needed help for some reason, I’m here…. but she doesn’t know what I look like either.  ENOUGH!

It’s time to be neighborly.  Join me, if you will.

I’m Not Pushing Up Daisies

In case you thought I ran off and died, or something, I didn’t.  I’m not dead.  It is simply NEVER a dull moment around here… not that it needs to be dull to blog… but seriously, I blinked and eight days flew by. 

Nothing out of the ordinary, other than my brave, strong and sore husband hiked the Grand Canyon last weekend…. in rain and sleet and even snow.  C-R-A-Z-Y… totally.  A clue to the weather conditions may have been the closed highway leading to the canyon… but NOOOOOOOOOO!  The 17 C-R-A-Z-Y men found an alternative route and kept right on going.  Instead of a leisurely three and a half hour drive it was EIGHT hours. Yes, the following photos were all taken in Arizona. 

(photo courtesy of Barnabas Moses… who also didn’t put in his deposit for next year.)

After the delayed drive, the need arose to take the FAST five mile trail to the bottom, to beat sundown.  As if hiking the Grand Canyon in rain and sleet and even snow wasn’t bad enough….. imagine it in the dark!  It continued to snow the entire next day while the men rested at Phantom Ranch… and the next day as well…. providing fun five foot tall snowdrifts across the trail on the way out… that could only be passed on their hands and knees.  But I digress.

(photo courtesy of Andy Leebrick… not sure if he put in his deposit.)  Notice the bottom left corner for more hikers on the switchback trail.  I think Rick is the mostly blue person in the number four spot… but I’m not sure.

Rick is back home.  He’s mostly fine, but he did walk funny for a few painfully slow days.  He did not put his deposit in to hold his spot next year.  Hmmmmmmmmmm.  He said it was the hardest thing he’s ever done in his life.  Hence, the tight-fisted deposit money still in his tightfist.

Cactus in snow is just wrong.  Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

P.S.  I’ll have pictures SOON of Zaza’s tea table and chairs!!!!  I’ve been a busy bee painting them!

The Rain Gutter Saga

We’ve lived in this house for over four years… with no rain gutters.  This is not usually a problem here in the Sonoran Desert.  However, this week we are surviving the worst storm in 17 years and a rain gutter hit the top of my NEED list.  There are four slanted roof surfaces that all guide the water to the overhang BANG in front of our entryway.  Because we have a flat tiled roof, the water created a curtain of mini-waterfalls that you had to pass through to get in or out of the house.  Usually, like I said, we don’t get much rain, but I was aware of the torrential downpour that was coming this week, so I splurged and bought a rain gutter, an end cap and brackets.  I arrived home in the darkness of night, albeit clear skies, and decided the gutter would meet the front of the house in the morning.  Unfortunately, the following morning the rain was also meeting the roof and making said curtain of mini-waterfalls during the installation period. 

The entire process was indeed photo-worthy.  We were only out there for about 20 minutes, but the pelting water was relentless.  Austin and I were soaked right through to the skivies, and not forgetting, through to the soles of our shoes. (Well, mine anyways.  He had on flip-flops.)

Yes, that’s me braving the elements.  It was a bad hair day, hence the hat. 

The following picture of Austin installing the supports for the brackets almost shows the wall of water that we used to experience just to his right.  It had however, reduced to a slight sprinkle by this point.  A reprieve for the rain gutter installers.

Keeve’s job was to pile large rocks where the water was now directed to and would indeed be causing a gorge without deterrents.  Of course, this could not be accomplished by an 11-year-old boy without sticking his head IN the spout of newly, redirected water.

When the dry season returns, we plan to paint the gutter to match the house trim…. and if we’re feeling generous, we might even buy more gutter to reach the end of the house, like most normal gutters do.  But no promises.  I’m just happy that we can leave the house without taking a shower.

Downspout, sweet downspout.  Brings a tear to my eye.

You’ve Got a Ticket to Ri-ide!

For Christmas, my brother received this new to us game called Ticket to Ride… Europe.  We have since played it 27 times and are loving it.  We loved it so much that we ordered Ticket to Ride North America for my husband for his birthday… which is Feb. 3rd, but we gave it to him within 20 minutes of it arriving at our door.  We wanted to make sure he got it before he leaves tomorrow for three days.  (We’re so thoughtful!)

Anyway, the game is a good mix of Settlers of Catan (building roads vs. building train routes), Risk (conquering the world) and Pit (collecting matching cards without the swapping of cards).  The North American version, I believe, came out first.  It is the dumbed-down version without all the bells and whistles of Europe.  In N.A. if you don’t get to a train route first, you’re outta luck and have to find another round-about way to get there.  In Europe, you simply put down a train station and use the other person’s route…. for a price, of course.

There are a few other versions of Ticket to Ride, as well as some expansion packs.  The game industry has truly figured out how to milk the most money out of us as possible…. expansion packs… GAH!  And at $20-25 each!  AFTER you paid $50 for the game.  They are unfairly using families like ours, who are totally game addicts, by limiting the number of players in the original game….. and then selling expansion packs.  And we fall into the trap EVERY time!

We invited friends over to play Europe and we played two games right in a row!  They called us the next day and asked if we wanted to come over and play again.  They went out and bought it the next day!  See!?!  Good game!  It’s set up on our dining room table if you want to pop by and give it a whirl.  Yes, we’re studying the Middle Ages, so if we play the Europe version, it counts as school!

14 Seconds of Important Information

Today was supposed to be the day I call our adoption case worker in Texas to find out what is happening with our adoption of our little Zaza.  At 9:00 am I instructed all three children to remind me at 11:00 to call Texas!  Bah!  I need to set the kitchen timer next time.  I called ten minutes late…. after frantically stopping my reading of Charlemagne and William the Conqueror, dropping the book and yelling, “What time is it?!” 

I got the Texan answering machine.  Shoot. 

Since the children were preoccupied making papier mache Medieval helmets and crowns in the backyard, I called the ortho for a consultation for Keeve.  The ortho receptionist is quite thorough in her appointment making procedures…. and while I was reciting every number, name and code word associated with our dental plan, my cell phone was ringing… and ringing… and yes, it was our case worker.  Shoot!  But the ortho consult is a go.

So again, while the children were coating their clothing, each other, the picnic table and one son’s black SLIPPERS (what in the world?) with floury/watery paste, I dialed the Texas number once more.  Nada.  I left message #2.

Working my way through my To-Do list, I put in another call for a class at our church.  While the kind lady was giving me ALL the information, my cell buzzed that there was a voice message.  I was beside myself with inquisitiveness, bailed on the kind church lady and told her we’d sign up online.  Click. 

Finally, NEWS.  Well, 14 seconds of adoption news that will affect our family for our entire lives….. (drum roll, please)… we have moved from #19 to #15 on the wait list.  Whooo HOoooo!  Progress!  What that means is: since Oct. 25th, ONLY FOUR kids from the 5-6 age group have gone home to their forever families!  ONLY FOUR!  Now before I totally hyperventilate and slam the keyboard keys right through the computer desk, we need to remember that the courts in Colombia close from Dec. 15 to Jan 15…. so it’s really four kids in two months time.  If ICBF stays at that rate (which is so unpredictable because of multiple variables…. but I digress) our name should hit the top of the list in seven months… AUGUST!  Oh, not that my timing or planning have anything AT ALL to do with this, but leaving Phoenix to pick up our Zaza for the month of August would be a dream come true! 

It’s time for me to break out the little tea party table and chair set that I have all primed to paint cutesy for Zaza’s room.  It has waited for months in the garage for news that we are #15.  Well, actually for any news….    Fifteen sounds so far away, but it means that 2010 is HER year!!!!  So excited.

Hockey Night in Arizona

 

Yes, the greatest goalie of all time, Martin Brodeur,  was at the Coyote’s Den on Thursday and we were there to see him in his glory.  Unfortunately for Brodeur, the Coyotes showed him that the ice isn’t melting in the desert.  Poor Martin let in four pucks and we were happy Coyote’s fans. New Jersey only scored three. (Bah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha….. woo whoo whOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooo!)  That was a Coyote howl, in case you didn’t recognise it.

This all started when Circle K (like 7-11) had this screaming deal where you bought cases of Pepsi and you received free hockey tickets.  Well, after $30 of pop was stacked in our garage, we were the proud owners of six tickets on the sixth row right behind the Coyote’s bench.  Sweet tickets!!!!  We did family night, but since our little girl is still in Colombia, we took our nephew Drew with us.  I’m not sure if he was the lucky fuzzy rabbit foot, or what, but he and Keeve were invited to RIDE THE ZAMBONI!  Any Canadian’s dream come true.  They rode for the second intermission and I took them down to the tunnel while Rick stayed topside to take pictures with his phone.  His phone usually takes really good pictures….. unless you’re in the Jobing.com Arena and they turn out the lights while your son and nephew are on the zambonis cleaning the ice!!!!  Here’s the best picture we have of our son riding the zamboni. {sigh}

They even had a spot light on the boys, put their names up on the big screen and pictured them waving for 2 or 3 minutes each.  It was so cool.  Keeve pointed at Larisa and did the “call me” sign with his hand.  Drew started doing the wave with his hands hooked together because his arms were tired from waving.  They were elated!!!!

And then to make a fun family night at the arena even better, some camera guy spotted Larisa and her and I were up on the big screen TOO!  It was like being famous for .27 of a second.  We always talk about how they zoom in on unsuspecting people and then when they figure it out they point at the big screen.  So of course we did that, in large over-exaggerated movements and shocked looks on our faces.  (Still makes me giggle.) A little old man saw Larisa after the game and told her, “You look good on tv!”

THEN, if the cheap tickets, good seats, two Zamboni rides and the big screen debut weren’t exciting enough…. the HANSON BROTHERS showed up!  And Larisa got to pose with them.  It was THE hockey night of hockey nights in Arizona.

To sweeten the deal to the max, because the Coyotes scored at least three goals, we all got FREE Burrito Supremes at Taco Bell!  Oh my word! This was better than Vegas!