The Bare Essentials!

We really tried to limit ourselves to the bare essentials for our trip.  I guess bare essentials times six and a half is a lot of stuff no matter what.  In addition to the items in the picture, we'll be taking a small ice chest plus the double BOB.  Amazingly, it all fits and we don't have to strap any of the kids to the roof!

The Girls' First White Elephant Gift Exchange

Although there are not many other Christian faculty at the UCI campus, we have been able to connect with a small group of Christian families here.  We meet monthly to share prayer requests and discuss a topic relevant to the application of our faith in the academic community.  While the parents meet, some overqualified babysitters care for the children.  I think there are 16 kids among the seven families involved ranging in age from toddlers to high schoolers!  It's a blessing for the parents and the kids! 

On Sunday evening, we met altogether for a Christmas party.  In addition to a fabulous Mexican fiesta, there were some amazingly beautiful Christmas cookies.  I know I should have taken a picture, but I didn't have my camera and I still own a dumb phone.  The kids took turns whacking a pinata and came home with plenty of candy.  The highlight of the festivities was a White Elephant Gift Exchange.  I actually missed out on this part because I left to put Matthew and Jonathan, who are apparently in nap-rebellion, to bed.  We only brought two gifts for the exchange, since we weren't sure whether Mary and Maggie would enjoy it or not.  Mary, the strategist, worked very hard to obtain this set of Christmas dishes, which were in high demand!  The set consists of four dinner plates, four dessert plates, four bowls, and four mugs.   Maggie did not work nearly as hard as Mary but is equally delighted with her gift, this Christmasy, twirly-whirly, glittery skirt.  Maggie's gift also came with nearly 30 packages of German pudding!  Thanks to Google Translate, we had the first package for dessert tonight!

My Tough Guy

It's official: Matthew is a toughy!  Today, the little guy fell and chipped his tooth, twice.  There was lots of blood, but only a few tears.  Fortunately, David was able to come home from work to decide what to do.  Because of our wacky insurance, he had to take Matthew to a dentist who wouldn't even see him but instead referred him to a pediatric dentist.  Fortunately, we were able to get an appointment very quickly.  The nerve was exposed, so the pediatric dentist recommended extracting the tooth.  (It's a good thing he didn't try to cap it because the tooth was shattered!)  The toughy only cried when they actually began to pull the tooth out.  Clearly, he is over it now and is back to usual cheerful self.  The positive side of the experience is that now it will be a lot easier for others to distinguish between Matthew and Jonathan!

Our Annual Race

On Saturday, Mary, Maggie and David ran in the Renegade Santa Run.  In the past, we have run a Turkey Day Race, but the Thanksgiving race was too far away and didn't fit with our schedule, so we opted for the Santa Run, which was held in Irvine. 

David ran the 5K, but the girls ran the 1/2 mile kids run.  David told me on the way there that he thought he would be slow, since he hasn't been working on speed lately.  Well, he finished seventh in his age group with a time of 21:50!  With zero training, Mary finished fifth out of the girls in her race!  Last year, Maggie couldn't even run a full half-mile.  This year, she ran the entire race!  I am so proud of each of them!  Hopefully, I'll be able to join in on the 5K next year!  (The funny part was that I was the one who needed a nap when we got home!)

Mary and Maggie before the race.
Mary crossing the finish line.	David and Maggie approaching the finish line.
My three runners after the race with their medals.	Two exhausted and content girls!

Thanksgiving with the Morejohns

Well, my husband came through and helped me come up with a solution for posting more pictures to the blog without using more storage space. It seems a bit convoluted and requires me to learn a little bit of html, so please bear with me if it seems like the pictures are slow in coming.

Friends of ours from Davis (Josh and Britta Morejohn) came to visit us for Thanksgiving. Josh and Britta also have four children, so altogether we had children aged seven, six, five, four, three and three toddlers at our house. The children had a lot of fun playing together. They played dress-up and chess, went swimming and tried to beat Josh at soccer (not an easy task). The Morejohns are the type of friends that no matter how much time passes between visits, when we get together, it seems like we just pick up where we left off. David and I were built up in our faith during our time together and are looking forward to meeting up again when we pass through Davis on our way home from visiting family in Redding for Christmas.

Carys pretending to be a butterfly.	Joy playing with dress ups.
Britta and Lena	Josh and Peter during an intense game of Clue.
Most of the kids went to the beach.	Britta and her girls.
Mary and Peter playing in the waves.	Our cautious Maggie jumping off a sand cliff.
Mary, Peter and Joy pretending to be sea turtles.

What We've Been Reading

I have once again fallen behind on what's supposed to be my monthly post on what chapter books we have been reading.  Since my last post, we read the sequel to Caddie Woodlawn, Magical Melons.  I have really enjoyed these stories about Caddie, a high-spirited, tomboyish pioneer girl.  I don't remember learning much about pioneer life in my schooling, but I really enjoy reading about it now with my children.  I like reading about the dynamics of attending school in a one-room schoolhouse.  I like reading about the visits from relatives only known through letters.  I like reading about a time when shopping trips were a rare and special event.


We also read The Secret Garden.  I never read this book as a child, but I so loved reading it to Mary and Maggie.  In case you don't know the plot, this is the story of a little girl, whose parents die in India, and is sent to live with her uncle in England.  The little girl, who was previously spoiled rotten, has to learn to do things for herself and occupies her time in the gardens of her uncle's estate.  She seems to come alive when she finds her way into a locked garden which has been unkempt for years.  In twists and turns that you really must read in the book, she and two friends bring the garden back to life and grow and mature themselves along the way.  Although I heartily recommend this book, there was one chapter with some really weird mystical kind of spirituality.  Even my four-year old and six-year old recognized it as such!  I don't necessarily shy away from such things.  I figure they spark some great conversations!


We also read The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright.  Honestly, I had never before heard of this book or the remaining three volumes that comprise the Melendy Quartet.  We came across it in our writing program, The Complete Writer, and were intrigued.  Simultaneously, we were unable to obtain copies of two books on our reading plan, so we substituted The Saturdays. The Melendy family consists of four children, Mona, Miranda, Rush, and Oliver, who live with their father and nanny in New York.  One Saturday, the children are bored and decide to create a club, the Independent Saturday Afternoon Adventure Club or ISAAC.  They combine their weekly allowance and give it to one member of the club to use towards an adventure of his or her choosing.  Even little Oliver goes off on an adventure all alone.  Each adventure highlights the unique personality of each child and results in a life lesson.  We really enjoyed reading this book and will likely read the remaining books of the quartet in the future. 

True Confessions

Uggghhh!  I ran out of storage space on Blogger, so I can't post any pictures for the time being, in case you are wondering where I have been.  My techy guru husband is working on a work around, so hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures of our Thanksgiving really soon.

Until then, I thought I would share with you some interesting or not so interesting tidbits about myself.  

1. I love to color.  Sometimes, I even color after the kids have gone to bed.
2. The first car I ever owned (actually, I shared it with my sister) was a gas-guzzling 1974 Dodge Dart, affectionately known as The Rocket!  I think these are probably banned from the roadways nowadays.
3. My new favorite show is Call the Midwife, but I don't think I should watch too many episodes before we actually call the midwife (hopefully sometime in March).
4. Since living in New Orleans, Tony's is a main staple of my pantry, just as important as whole wheat flour.  I put it on everything: soups, meat, steamed veges, eggs.
5. Some people read when they can't sleep.  I organize.
6. When I was a little girl, I always took whoopie pies to school to celebrate my birthday.  Recently, I thought I would make them with the girls but was horrified that the filling was made with raw eggs.  It's amazing I'm alive after eating so many of those things!
7. I rarely wear make-up.  In fact, I recently decided it was time to discard the make-up I bought for my wedding day.  We got married in...ahem...2001.
8. Forget pickles and ice cream.  The one craving that I have had with every single pregnancy is fried chicken.  Weird, huh?
9. My favorite food is ice cream, but I try not to buy it because it disappears too quickly.  I seriously lack discipline around ice cream.
10. Public speaking of any sort is not my forte.  Not only do I get the nervous flutteries, but I shake uncontrollably.  It is very embarrassing and something that I really hope I do not pass onto my kids!

 So, now you know just what sort of an odd-ball I am (and if you know my kids, why they are so nutty, too)!