Shout Outs!

Happy Birthday, Mom! Remember the necklace I bought you 20 years ago? Wear it and know how much I love and miss you!

Happy Birthday, Sweet Pea! You look more like your beautiful mother every day!


Happy Anniversary to TWO MORE of our favorite people! Is this the longest job you ever had?

Mom and Dad

Happy Anniversary to two of our favorite people from four of yours!

All my pictures of you are in the recovered document file and will not upload...but you know who you are.

We love you.

Tit for Tat!

Her.
Now Him.
He did this to himself! AND took the picture! :)

Hmmm.

What can I say? Playing in makeup is fun when you're seven. Not that it is MY makeup...I don't wear GREEN...but she's cute as a bug...even like this!

Blame it on Compound Words...

We were watching this movie as a family. Now let me set this up...since the Princess is reading so well and we're in a country where English is not the common language...she reads everything she sees that is English.

When the title popped up she said, "Beeth Oven, what a strange name!"

Yes...we cracked up...but that wasn't the end. This movie has a guy who used to be a Backstreet Boy or part of N'Sync or one of those Boy Bands named Joey Fatone. (Do you see where I'm going with this?)

Princess...as she's reading the cast, "Joey Fat One. (then rolling on the floor laughing out loud...ALL OF US!!)

Hope you enjoyed it, too.

Promoted!

The Princess is now a yellow belt and the Prince is a Green/Blue belt! The test is given in the national language, which the Prince is doing pretty well with. However, the Princess was "WAY nervous" (her own words) and struggled through, but finished well and moved up a level. We're very proud of them. (If you look carefully, you'll see the Princess has a bruised left eye...not from TKD...from playing too hard with another child...makes her look tough! LOL.

Goofin' off!

A funny...

This relates to a picture in the Special Day post....

My hubby stole the picture to set as his desktop background....and this is what the Prince did to it while no one was watching...

Look closely....I have a gold tooth! That kid makes me laugh!!! :)

A Special Day...

18 years ago today, I married my best friend. I've been pondering what I would say in today's post. Here are a few of the thoughts I've had and memories that I've been reminded of...

** There were those who questioned whether or not we were making the right choice because we were young and had not dated long, but one brother asked me the most important question. He asked, "Have you prayed about this?" and when I responded with a yes his comment was, "OK. I trust your prayer life." I've never forgotten that.

** This same brother, played a song for me by a guy named Wayne Watson called "Somewhere in the World" when I was 16. It's a precious song that still brings tears when I hear it. But what he told me was that he was praying for my future mate.

** My mother discouraged me from being serious about one boy in high school. She said, "date them all"...she didn't mean it the way some might take it. She encouraged me to have a solid friendship and then see if there was a possibility for more...which turned out to be good advice for me. Many times before the solid friendship was in place...they moved on. Many times I was sad, but not devastated because I was guarded in the first place.

** One time, not long out of high school, a boy I dated in high school came back around. This one I was more serious about. He had broken my heart. Unsure if I should give him a "second chance" I asked my dad what he thought. His response was an almost immediate "no". "If he didn't know what a treasure he had the first time, he doesn't deserve you." Hmmm. Turns out, that I tried...but could not muster up the feelings I previously had for him.

** This summer marked 20 years since I graduated from High School. Living here, prevented me from attending the reunion, but I have been in touch with several people that I haven't heard from in...well, 20 years. It has sparked a FLOOD of memories. Memories of all kinds...

** There were a few guys that, at one point, I thought I might/could marry. They met MOST of the criteria. Now, the truth of the matter is...I used my brother (the one mentioned previously) as a standard. After a few years, I began to despair of ever finding ANYONE remotely like him, because to me he was nearly perfect. So...I finally gave it completely over to the Lord and said, "You'll bring him to me when it's time...IF it's ever time. Until then, I'm through dating." And true to my word. I stopped dating. It was a relatively short wait...When the King finally called to "tell me out" on a date (I probably would have said no...because, technically, I wasn't dating)...it only took one date to know he wasn't like any of the others I'd dated before. After the second date...I knew he was the one. I had been praying about it too long to not know the answer when it was given.

** The King told me that he had asked his mom how he would know when he met "the one" and one of the things she said was, "she'll complement you." Notice the spelling...E not I. Here are some synonyms for the word complement: "balance, harmonize, match, go together, counterpart, supplement, round out, make up for, complete" My, now, MIL said, "bring out the best in you."

** Now...when I think about the choices of guys put before me and think about the ones I ALMOST chose...I'm grateful for these things: 1) that God has a plan for me that He knows, 2) that I was trusting in Him, 3) that there were people in my life willing to guide me along, 4) that The King was (is) a Godly man, 5)that he said yes, when I proposed. :)

** In our marriage, we have had many friends whose marriages have ended along the way. It's been painful for us to watch, but also makes us more determined to make it work.

** I truly cannot believe that 18 years is here. Can it be? Are we really that old? Well, not old...but older. I still feel like that young thing that wore a white dress to meet my best friend at the altar. After all these years, he still makes my heart skip a beat and for many more reasons than he did back then. I truly cannot imagine what my life would be like and where I would be if it had not been him by my side all this time. So, in honor of our anniversary, I pulled a few pictures to celebrate some of the joys of our life. Were we still in the states, I'd have many more pictures to choose from...but these'll do for now.












Babe, you're still the one...you always will be.

Slippery Little Suckers...

The Princess loves when I make Coca-Cola Chicken Wings...it's one of her favorite dishes. And, her eyes looked so blue today that I wanted to capture a candid shot in her old school shirt, so...I sort of set up at the table while we were eating to be sneaky. I love that this camera has a swivel lense because the person you're photographing doesn't always know it.


Munch...

Munch...

Oops...slippery little suckers...

Don't take my picture!

Oh, well. I don't care, these are too good.

Recording...

We really find it humorous that we, being of southern heritage, keep being asked to record English portions of tests. At first, it was just the King and I, but now the sweet voices of my children are being recorded. It's more difficult than it appears. The microphones pick up all kinds of sounds and they usually want us to record when my kids are tired and we don't get a rehearsal...so...it ends up taking up several hours and several takes. But it's fun and it helps our national friends. It makes me have a better appreciation for recording artists.

I remembered my camera this time. :)

Look at my beautiful girl...

Yes, I can say that. I'm her mother and she LOOKS like her Daddy.

Those adult teeth completely change the way she looks. She'll grow into them soon enough and when she has a dazzling smile (likely after braces!) we'll be wishing for the days of snaggle-toothed beauty (and make no mistake...I love those snaggled-teeth!).

She's growing her hair out...don't know how long it'll get before she's tired of it, but for now...it's like gold. As we walk down the street, women reach out to touch her head. Imagine that.


















OK, Mom. Enough already(with a yawn). :)

Thanks for indulging your mother, precious one.