Thankful Hearts

Well, Thanksgiving is coming! And, even though we are living half way around the world, we’ll be celebrating all day tomorrow! Two other American families are coming to our home around 10am. Our plan is to eat lunch around noon, put kids down for naps (there are 7 kids in these three families), play games in the afternoon after a devo, and eat round two for dinner! And, even though we are far, far away from America, we will still be enjoying turkey and stuffing. Actually, we will be enjoying quite a feast….for starters we’ll enjoy apples with caramel dip, deviled eggs, and a veggie tray with ranch dip. Our main course will consist of turkey, stuffing, gravy, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, mac’n cheese, and rolls. Then, we will complete the meal with a pecan pie, pumpkin pie, chocolate mousse pie, hot blueberry strudel, and a cheese cake ball. So, all that to say, I think we’ll pretty full by tomorrow evening!

Sue and I have been talking to the kids about what we’re thankful for the past few days, so I thought I’d share their list with you.

Peter:
Apples
Choo-choo trains
Our home
Cars
Ayi (Auntie, what they call Leigh, our househelper)
Tickling
Bananas
Kisses
Chocolate
Pedo (yes, he's thankful for himself!)
Papa & Nana
Trucks
Cake
Hugs
Sour chicken
Alex

Alex:
Movies
Airplanes
Lighten McQueen
“Little Man” (a game Daddy plays)
Aunt Rachel(s) ~ both of them
Grandma
Daddy
Superman
Our home
Ayi
Mommy
Jesus

Savannah:
School
Jesus dying on a cross
Daddy
Christmas
School
Mommy
Friends
Bible
Pie
Ice cream
Amanda (her doll)
Sunshine
Oranges
Crafts (we’ve done a few turkey crafts this week)

We enjoyed making those lists with the kiddos so I thought I’d share them with you! I’ll post Thanksgiving Day pics in a few days! Happy Thanksgiving!

A Really Boring Post.....

by Amy

Here's a quick update of what's been happening in our world for the past week:

My world has been a little more crazy than normal these past few weeks.... Last weekend Sue (Brad's mom) and her two friends came to town. One slept in our house and two slept in a hotel across the street. They arrived Saturday afternoon in time to find Savannah having breathing issues, similar to what Alex had. So, thankfully, I had medicine on hand and knew how to treat her! It still made for a long evening, though. Yet, she was almost 100% on Sunday! What a blessing! That morning I took Sue and one friend to a local market to do a little more shopping. After eating lunch at Pizza Hut, we came back to our house and enjoyed a wonderful game of Mexican Train (a dominoes game) that I won! Monday morning, Brad took Sue's friends to the train station at 6am! Sue slept a good part of the day, trying to catch up after her fun, but exhausting tour. Tuesday, we took her to the "pretty park" down the street. The kids loved showing her their favorite places there. Then, on Wednesday, Alex woke up struggling to breath and Sue woke up with a stomach flu. So we all stayed in. By Thursday, Alex was doing better, but Sue was not. So Brad and I took the kids out for a few hours so Sue could have some peace and quiet. And, by today, Friday, she was feeling much better. It was a beautiful, sunny day, so we packed a picnic lunch and spent a few hours at our favorite lake park. Here are a few pics for your viewing enjoyment:

We all enjoyed eatting some Cheetos Xs & Os that Sue brought from the States for us! What a treat!

Sue was a little chilly today ~ that's because she's a Texas girl!

A Fun Day

By Amy

Yesterday was Family Day in our world. So, after we got up we went to the "Lake Park", as my kids call it. It was a beautiful, cool, sunny day, so it was a great day to be outside! Usually when we go to this lake park, we don't ride any of the carnival rides, but this time, we decided to play on a few. So, the first thing we did was the bumper cars. Brad and I each had a boy and Savannah got to drive her own. It was tons of fun. Peter and Alex hung on for their dear lives while Brad and I crashed into tons of other cars. Savannah pretty much stayed in the middle and spun round'n round!






Then, after the bumper cars, Savannah and I rode the roller coaster. It was a real, go fast,turn up-side-down twice kind of roller coaster. It was great...well at least I thought so! Savannah was a little pale as we got out and didn't want to do it again. I loved it!

When we left the park we ate lunch at Pizza Hut and headed home for naps. Then, after eating a dinner of fruit and popcorn, we had plans to head to a nearby college campus for a Halloween party sponsored by an English club. So, even though our kids don't have much of a concept of Halloween, we told them we were going to a special party where they got to wear some special clothes. So, Savannah wore her princess dress, and looked lovely and attracted quite a crowd!

While we were in the big city last week, we found some Superman outfits for Peter and Alex. They love Superman! We recently have shown parts of the movie Superman Returns and now they often run through the house with their arms up high claiming to be Superman. So, when we saw these outfits, we couldn't pass them up! We planned on saving them for Christmas, but when we got invited to this party, we decided to pull them out. Our boys were thrilled, to say the least! So here are a few pics:

Clearly these are not authentic Superman outfits, but Pedo and Alex loved them just the same! They also were a big hit at the party. I often looked up to see them running through the room with their arms in the air being followed by a group of college students pointing and taking pictures. It was a fun night, but we were all super tired when we returned home!

The Rest of the Story....

by Amy

After we got all of our medical details worked out, we had a blast in the big city! The most memorable thing we did was eat! Our city (several hours south of this big city) has a Pizza Hut, McDs, KFC and Baskin' Robins. So if we want to eat western food, it's homemade or one of these fine eating establishments! The big city, on the other hand, has a TON of options! These are the ones we hit: Outback, Subway, Starbucks (several times), Peter's Tex-Mex Grill (not true Tex-Mex, but not bad), TGI Fridays, Grandma's Kitchen (where we ate a fantastic breakfast -- even better than Steak 'n Shake!) and Hard Rock. Oh, it was delightful!! And, Brad and I even got to go out for a quick dinner while Sue and her friends watched our kids! I'm sure I returned home a few pounds heavier than when I left, but it was worth it!

It was so great to see Sue, Brad's mom. Our kids had a great time with her and her two friends. Each night Peter thanked God for "the three Grandmas." And, they came bearing many gifts! Sue made each of her friends pack in one suitcase so she could use the second suitcase they were allotted to bring us stuff! So, now our pantry and medicine cabinets are stocked with all kids of goodies! I'm also using a new cell phone she brought and my kids are enjoying lots of special gifts and clothes they brought to us!

On Tuesday evening (10-30), Sue and her friends started a 10 day tour of our country, that originated in the big city. Therefore, before the tour, we didn't do any of the "touristy" stuff ~ I'm sure my kids were not disappointed! So, besides eating, we shopped! There's a huge 9+story building that is full of JUNK! All the vendors are divided based on what they're selling. There are two or three floors full of people selling clothes ~ for men, women, and children. There's an entire floor devoted to selling knock' off purses; another floor where you can buy and/or design your own jewelry with pearls being the most common jewel. So, since Sue and her friends all had an empty suitcase to take back to America with them after delivering us so much stuff, they decided they needed to shop! It was so much fun! I was told that we should bargain with the people and end up paying about 20% of their original asking price. So, even though most of the vendors could speak a little English, I did most of the bargaining for them in the local language. It was so funny! First of all, they were all surprised when I didn't speak to them in English, so right there, that qualified us for a "special local's price." Then, since I had Savannah with me for part of the time-- and since she's so cute-- we got even a better price! It was so funny to hear the reasons they came up with to give us a "special price!" One chica even told Sue she could have a special price since her daughter (me!) was so cute! Ha Ha!! We had so much fun shopping there two afternoons in a row that Sue and her friends headed back for one more round the afternoon before the tour began. (We were on the train heading home!) Then, they had soooo much stuff, they had to leave some of it with the hotel concierge. Since they'll be flying out of this big city back to America in a week, they'll swing by that hotel and get their loot!

So, that about sums up the rest of our time out of town. It's been good to get back home and back on a routine again. We all are looking forward to this weekend when Sue and her friends will come to our city and visit our home.