Hud's extensive biblical and historical knowledge collide...

Tonight Russ was reading the story of when the angel appeared to Zechariah and told him his wife Elizabeth was going to have a son. Russ read the part where the angel told Zech to name the boy, "John." To which Hud quickly interjected, "John Smith!?"

More from Han....

Sunday on the way to church Han tells us, "If an animal ever talks to me, I'm not going to believe it. Cuz' it might be the devil!" (obviously referring to the serpent in the garden of Eden who tricked Eve into eating the apple which "got us into this whole mess," and daily affects Han's life.)

On the way home the other night I told the kids I was too tired to give them baths. Han says, "Mom, I really need a bath. I stink!"
Me: "You don't stink, Han."
Han: "Yes I do. I can smell my own skin."
Me: "What does it smell like."
Han: pause.. then, "Dead animals!"

I have no box for this girl...

Meet Katie. I just met her last week and I still can't wrap my mind around her or find a box to put her in. Two years ago she went to Uganda for a short trip to help in an orphanage. She's now 20 and has only been home to the US for short visits. In the past two years she has become the mother of thirteen girls, started a non-profit organization that has so far provided education, medical care, three hot meals a day and school supplies to nearly 400 of the poorest kids in Uganda. She also has a few hundred of them over once a week to feed them, bathe some of them, de-lice them, love on them and tell them about Jesus.

TWENTY YEARS OLD!!!

Nobody told her that you're not supposed to be able to change the world at her age! As soon as I can steal away for a few hours I can't wait to read her blog from the beginning!!! You can find her at www.kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com or click on the button on my blog to find her ministry "Amazima."

If she can do this? What can I do? What can you do?

Honored to Be Josh's Dad

Worth it! Worth it! Worth it!

When we brought Joshua home, we robbed them! No doubt, we are the winners in this deal.

Dad

Scattered Thoughts

Today has been such a precious day to cherish. I'm feeling scattered in my thoughts and not very profound or capable of describing to you the inexpressible joy that comes when the Father of the Fatherless chooses you and your family to place one of his beloved orphans in. If you have had the pleasure of getting to know Josh this past year I'm sure you'll agree with me that he is amazing!!! He's so full of life, energy, compassion, affection, smiles, sheer joy, curiosity, intelligence, and FOOD!!! Yes, he still eats a lot!!!
Our family has been forever changed because of Joshua Shen. Our twins' futures will be different because they have the privilege of being his brother and sister. That sounds pretty obvious.... but their hearts for the poor and orphaned goes deep. I can't wait to see where it takes them! They regularly ask about the adoption of #4... not sure if that will be in God's plan or not, but they would be thrilled!!
Adopting an orphan is a bit paradoxical. On the one hand it seems kind of out there, exotic, unusual. Sometimes I look and Josh and see this handsome Chinese little boy who has been through more in his almost 3 years than I have in thirty-something. It's still a bit surreal that he is mine!
On the other hand, it feels so normal being his mommy. The depth of my love for him goes beyond genetics. I have never had to work at loving him.

I feel so blessed by the Lord to have been given the very precious children I have. Hud and Han were truly miracles after three years of waiting and praying. Then the Lord did miracles again to bring Joshua into our lives after more three years of waiting and praying.

I am filled to overflowing by the goodness of the Lord and a Father who gives good gifts to his children!

Happy Gotcha Day!

One year ago today Joshua Shen Cryer was placed in our arms to be ours forever!!!

I can't tell you what an amazing gift and treasure we received from the Lord that day.

We've got about 30 big paper lanterns hanging around the house and we're making plans to celebrate Josh today.

I'll do a big post when it's all over but I wanted to take the chance to announce our one year celebration!!

Conversations with Han

Today in the car Han says, "Mom, if you ever have a teenaguh you need to keep a VEHWY close eye on them!!"
Me: "Why Han?:
Han: "Because they get together and have teenaguh parties where they start a big FIRE! I guess they were playing with matches. Mary told me about it (Mary is our elderly neighbor that Han visits everyday). Almost everything I know, Mary told me. So if you ever have a teenaguh keep a close eye!"
Me: "Well Han, one day you'll be a teenager. Will I need to keep a close eye on you?"
Han: "Well........I won't be going to any teenage parties without you!!!"

I just had to write that down! Someday I may have to use this against her!!!


Han and I have a regular conversation in the bathroom similar to this one we had the other day...

Han: "OUCH! Mom that huwts!!!"
Me: "Sorry Han, I'm trying to be as careful as I can but you have a lot of tangles."
Han: " I sure wish Adam and Eve hadn't eaten that apple! Then it wouldn't hurt every time you combed my hair. Why DID they eat that apple?"
I re-told the story about how God told them not to, but Satan told them a lie and they believed him....
Han: "Well if they hadn't eaten it then we wouldn't do bad things."
Me: "That's true, they did the first bad thing, but when you do bad things it's because you made a choice to do it. You decide to disobey."
Han: "WELL.... they're the ones who got us into this whole mess!!!!"

Happy Birthday America!

Tiger T-ball

For some reason blogger is not allowing me to move the pics in the order I want them. Anyone else having this problem?
Anyway, here are a ton of pics and some video of Hud and Han playing T-ball.

Josh loves to run the bases when it's over

High fives when it's over.

Hud's turn as catcher.

Han playing first base.

Hud's safe! There aren't any outs in T-ball anyway.

Han's ready to run!

Russ is the assistant coach. He's decided it takes a village to coach a t-ball team. There are usually at least 4 dads out on the field helping and 2-3 of us moms on the bench keeping the peace.

Darling!

When it's all said and done in t-ball, it's not whether you win or lose, it's what the snacks are. And that's the truth!!!

A well protected garage sale

Hud and his friend A.J. keeping the girls safe!

This is a combo post... a few pics of Hud in his usual knightly state and a few tips on having a garage sale. I've had a few garage sales before and usually came away wondering if it was worth all the work. This year it definitely was... I made almost $800!! I didn't really have any big items either. One thing I did in the past was price things at about what I would pay for something at a garage sale. But, when I had tons of comments from customers about how great my prices were, I knew that I had under priced. So, this year I priced things quite a bit higher than what I would pay expecting the usual bargaining from most people. The surprising thing this year was that people were just paying the higher prices and not asking for less. Another thing that is really important in our town is having plenty of signs. Most people who see a sale sign expect to be able to follow signs right to your door, so make sure they can from every spot you put one. I don't know how helpful this was, but we advertised for free on CraiG's list. Here where we live, the sales are Thurs-Sat. Thurs is usually your best day. On Saturday we said put on our signs that everything was 1/2 off (except for one table that we said we'd come down on, but not all the way).

When I'm the one out garage saling, I don't hesitate to bargain with people they'll usually let you have it for what you ask. I usually ask about 20%-30% off... if it says $8, I'll ask if they'll take $5. If I am buying a lot of items, I'll wait for the total then ask some off the total. If you come upon one that is priced really low, just pay the full prices!!!

Have fun!! We've gotten some great things this year.

Jumpin' with a friend

One day Josh's speech teacher, Ms. Cheryl got out on the trampoline with him. He thought that was the greatest! She had so much fun she went home and tried to convince her husband that they needed a trampoline. Josh has a blast out there. He usually gets tossed around when the twins are on but he has the biggest grin the whole time.

A Toad

This week the kids found a toad in the backyard and were soooo excited to have a "pet" to take care of. They got a 5 gallon bucket from the garage, filled it with some large rocks, water, sticks and grass. Once they had a home for the toad they decided on the responsibilities (which would rotate they said... of course!). Hud would be the first to feed it and Han was going to love it and pet it. After getting all of that settled they needed to come up with a name. Han used her best argument to convince Hud that she should get to name it, and he consented. Now before I go any further, I should say that if you haven't ever seen a toad, they are UGLY!! This one was yellowish with brown and lots of warty bumps on the back. I touched it once and got the willies!! So Han decides to name the toad, Thumbelina!! You're probably thinking what I immediately thought, "Not what I would have named an ugly amphibian, but o.k." Later that afternoon, Han tells me, "I've changed my mind. I'm not going to call the frog Thumbelina. She doesn't really look like a Thumbelina." To which I responded, "Well, what are you going to name it?"
"I'm going to call her, Diamond!!!"

Han keeps us laughing!!

The other night I told Han that I'd like for her to empty the dishwasher before bed. (This is a chore she started a few months ago. The first time she did it she told me she "loved this job and could it be her job forever!?" yea right, that didn't last) Any way, she wasn't too excited about having to yet again unload this night. So she walks down the hallway to where Russ and I were and hollers, "Word on the street is, I don't do dishes at night!!!!" I have no idea where she heard that phrase... on the street I guess!!! Russ promptly replied, "Word at our house is, YOU DO!!!"

We walked out of Hob Lob the other afternoon to a rush of heat and humidity. Han says, "Whew, I'm sweating unduh my gills!!" Guess she heard that one in the ocean.

She told me yesterday that she was the "cutest girl in the world." I'm a little scared about that one... any advice on helping your children have a healthy self-confidence that doesn't get out of hand? Seriously, I'd be open to suggestions. I didn't know what to say right away. Later I thought a good response might have been, "There are lots of cute girls in the world and you're definitely one of them."

If you're wondering...

how my sale went, it got rained out. Well, I should say "rained on," poured on would be more like it, torrential downpour to be exact. I had only been set up with my stuff maybe fifteen minutes when the pouring started. I should have known better... it had rained all morning. The weather site said 15-30% chance for afternoon rain, so I took the chance. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, huh. Well all I gained was a whole van load of drenched stuff. I could have wrung out my panties when I got home I was so soaked. Getting home was a challenge as the amount of rain coming so quickly caused flash flooding. I spent the rest of the day drying my stuff and my van out.
Better luck next time!!! I hope!!!

My First Sale!!!

Many of you have been asking about the sale I've mentioned a few times. It is this Saturday at Clifton Square. (This is not where I told some of you so make sure you look it up and know where you're going). They are going to be having live music, a beer garden and lots of vendors. It should be a lot of fun and if you're like me and have never seen beer growing out of a garden it might be worth the trip just to see that!
I will be at a booth next to my sweet friend, Kendra who sells custom bows at http://www.sugarplumorphans.com/. Her 4-yr-old boy is an amazing artist and has been making cards to sell to help feed children in Africa. These cards are a hot commodity and he's already bought over 400 meals for kids in Uganda (see their BLOG).
As with everything I sell, I will be giving a portion of my proceeds to our friends adopting from Ethiopia.
Click HERE for more info about Saturday's sale.

Are five-year-olds supposed to be able to do this....?

I have been so busy with the kids and getting ready for my first craft show that I haven't been doing a good job at keeping up with this blog. I've got lots of pics and stuff to post, so maybe once the show is over I'll be able to catch up.
Anyway, earlier this week I was outside using my favorite color of spray paint, "ballet slipper," on something I'm hoping to sell. (I'll tell you all about what I was making on my new BLOG as soon as I'm finished with it.) Han was inside working on a computer reading game and came outside to get me to come help her. I explained that I was almost done painting and that she would need to wait a minute. She didn't like that, but sat there quietly for about a minute waiting for me.
Then she began to ask me in a here's-another-philosophical-question-for-you-Mom tone of voice.... "Mom?.... Is it better to be rich or to have a family?"
Me: "It's definitely better to have a family! Even the richest person in the world would be sad and lonely if they didn't have a family."
Han: "Then why are you outside doing this instead of inside helping me?"
I was stunned. She just trapped me in an argument. Scary!!!

Clarification

If you click on my new site, you can find my crafty blog by clicking on the blog button in the navigation bar just below the fun header my cousin, Ashley helped me create!

Protected!

Hud's rarely without some sort of weapon these days. Apparently this day he felt the need for plenty of backup. Click on the pic of a closer look! He's a lot of fun to have around!

A New Blog for You!!

I'm excited to announce my new blog (www.thecottagepetaler.blogspot.com) for all of you who have enjoyed keeping up with my crazy, crafty creations. The website is still under construction but I have started to blog so I've decided to give out the address even though the rest isn't complete. I'll let you know on the blog as I add more products and such. I have about a month to get ready for my first local craft show/bazaar (June 20) so I probably won't be putting too many things on the site until I've got enough stuff made to stock my sale. I'll definitely let you all know where to come find me on the 20th!
Enjoy the site, and please leave feedback!

A little Hiatus

Sorry to all of you faithful blog readers who have been wondering about us. I've been so busy crafting, creating and sewing that I haven't kept up very well on my blog.... or my house... or my exercising for that matter!
The exciting news is I've been working on a new blog/website for all my crafty ideas. You'll be able to read about my latest creations and buy some of them if you fall in love...
As soon as I get a little more put on the site I'll let you know the address!