My boy...

When the Prince was young he said he was going to "grow up and baptize people and they'll call me 'Prince' the Baptist." I always thought that was the sweetest thing, but that's not how he's known at school. It's an entirely sweet name.

'Prince' the Hugger.

Say it with me..."AAAwwwww." It fits. The King's mother teases him about his wingspan. When he opens his arms and comes at you...you can't help but want to be hugged. She misses that...so do I, now.

I met many new parents when I took him to school and several, like us, that this was their child's second year. Everywhere we went on campus, people saw him and yelled, "Prince! Glad you're back!" It was a sweet thing to watch.

But at dinner one night I was talking to another mother (the Prince was not sitting with me) and she asked me, "Who is your son?" When I told her his name...she lit up and said, "I know him! He's the Hugger!"

When I was leaving, I was conscious of the fact that his dormmates were all around and that he's a Junior on campus and you never know what might embarrass your kid. So, I whispered in his ear, "Can I have a hug?" and he stepped back and laughed, then to his dorm mom said, "My mom just asked me the stupidest question! She asked if she could have a hug!"

He looked at me and said , "Mom, I'll never outgrow hugging you and I'll never be embarrassed to do it." Melts my heart thinking about it now.

Sleepless surprise...

How many times have you been thankful for not sleeping? A few, maybe.

Cramming for a test....sitting in the choir loft on sunday morning...long, late drive home, etc.

Well, I got to talk to her (not the little one, the red-haired one!)

and her

because of not sleeping. I was too hot and had too much on my mind and was frustrated that I couldn't sleep... and was rewarded. However, it is now 2:00AM and I'm completely awake...and happy.

When I'm missing my son...

I just pull up a few favorite, funny pics of him...then it's not so bad. :)

I am behind...

I know I am behind. I have SO MANY more pictures from our vacation to blog. But I happened upon these this morning and it made my heart smile. The King and his Grandmother. Sweet.

They were taken with my iTouch, so they are not as good as a real camera, but better than nothing!

What big eyes you have...

Having my eyes checked for reading glasses. Aren't these hilarious?

The outcome.

I'm starting to get a complex being around all these small/squinty eyed asians.

They tell me how big my eyes areand that I am so animated that sometimes I scare them.

Huh?

My tutor tells me when I'm wearing my reading glasses (of course) and look up at her it takes her breath away at how big my eyes are. She literally jumps sometimes...like I yelled at her or something.

Crazy.

I love kids and am always trying to talk to the little ones here, but often they cry. That's hard on my ego and my heart. My friend said my eyes are too big and it scares them. She recommended I try squinting when I smiled at them. I cannot actually believe that it worked...for a while.

I never thought my eyes that big...but I'm starting to wonder.

If I only had one...you could call me Mike Wyzowski (Monsters, Inc.)

Anyway. Laugh while you can, because when I see you I'm turning my big eyes on you!...hmmm..maybe that's why my kids look at me that way when I'm being serious...they're a little bit freaked out...now I'm really wondering.

From our heart to yours...

If you've already seen this video, remember that we live on the other side of the world and this is new to us.

It speaks to the heart of why we moved to a foreign country to learn a foreign language to live amongst foreigners (oh wait...that make US the foreigners! LOL.) I encourage you to watch it... more than once...and then share it.

http://youtu.be/Wgg2KYdMpqc

Gives a new meaning to the concept of "Launch."

20 years ago today...

...I married my best friend...and I thought I loved him then.

Recently someone asked me what I liked/loved about him then...what first attracted me to him and what I love about him now.

The first thing that attracted me to him was his voice...he was singing...then I stopped and looked at him and man was he CUTE! But time would tell that there was so much more to him than outward appearances. All the things I loved about him then are still the same now (except for the hair. He had gorgeous hair, but he has a beautiful bald head now...and I love it no less), but there is so much more.

I can hardly believe that we've been married 20 years. We've worked at our marriage, prioritized it and each other, but more than that, we have put the Lord first and He has shown us what real love is. We are a work in progress. I thought when I walked down the aisle to his grinning face that I couldn't love him more, and I couldn't have...on my own. But God has worked in both of us, molding and making us, and teaching us to love one another because God is love.

I can honestly say that I love my husband more now than I ever did and I anticipate that love growing to a depth I can't even fathom at this moment, but only because of the One who is love.

I hope we have many more years together, Love.
Happy Anniversary.

Eye Candy! LOL.

Big plans...

For a hint to what the big thing Father is doing in our life is watch this video.

http://youtu.be/V6jO7xhU_Pw

Don't be tempted to cut it short thinking you know the end...watch the whole 5 and half minutes. It'll be worth it. I promise.

A moment in time...

Just another reason I hate for the Prince to go off to school...less music in my house. :) We have had some great times of family worship together since he came back. The music aspect has been wonderful. We can pull four parts when the Princess can hold her own on the melody, which she usually can! Everyday my kids are practicing piano and guitar with little prompting, but when the Father/Son duo sit down to play...pretty much everything else stops. We all love it.

Something that makes my heart smile is to hear my kids going about their business singing a hymn that they really didn't know until we came over here. This one the Princess was singing at the top of her lungs while helping me clean house, I'm sure you can picture it: "Come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace. Streams of mercy, never ceasing call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above! Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it. Mount of thy redeeming love."

Thank you, Lord, for the gift of music.

A lesson learned...again.

When we met my parents in January for a vacation, my Dad gave me a special gift. He said that he wanted me to know every time I wore it how much he loved me and how proud of me he is and that I'll always be his little girl. He picked it out just for me.A beautiful necklace with my birthstone and a rose gold chain. I love it. I've hardly taken in off since he gave it to me.

So, recently a friend of mine and I bought matching charms to wear on a chain in order to remember to pray for each other. I took off the necklace my dad gave me and put it in a safe place. I didn't put it with the rest of my jewelry-not wanting it to get tangled up. I thought about where to put it and then carefully placed it there.

I wore my friends' charm the whole time I was with her and then for another week afterward. While getting dressed one day, I reached for the necklace my Dad gave me and panicked! Where was it? What did I do with it? Did I leave it somewhere? No, I wouldn't. I'm careful with my jewelry since having it all stolen a few years back. I stopped and backtracked, but could not remember where I put it.

For another week, I thought and looked. I turned everything inside out looking in every nook and cranny. On Monday, it finally hit me. I have lost this treasure...compounded with the fact that my boy is leaving soon...I had a yucky day. As a last resort, (WHEN will I learn?!) I took it to the Lord in prayer.

I had so much on mind that I had a difficult time falling asleep. It was after 3AM when I was finally falling asleep and I had been talking to God, just as I'm relaxing and about to go...I smile. I had asked God to give me a mental picture of what I did with it...and He did. I carry a pill box in my purse with compartments...and I keep one empty for things like this.

I went right to sleep in peace knowing that my heavenly father had answered my prayer. When I awoke, I went right to my purse, took out the necklace and put it on. All day long as I fingered the necklace, I offered praise to God. I know that His word says he cares about the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, and yet, I still need to be reminded that He cares about the details of my life and what is important to me.

I don't have that many earthly treasures. I try not to put too much stock in them, and I'll have to deal with my feelings about this particular necklace at some point, but my smile today is from knowing that I have TWO FATHERS who love me and want the best for me.

What a relief...

Since returning from the states with all my homeschool stuff in tow, it's been on my list to get to planning. I sorted and made sure it was all there as well as made some mental notes regarding schedule and promoting last years's substitute teacher (the King!) to co-teacher this year. :)

My daughter is going to be a 4th grader which is where I spent the majority of my teaching experience. I'm excited about it! But, I haven't been able to get to the plans (because Dad threw a big change to our plans, which I'll write about soon) yet and it's been bothering me that school starts soon and I'm not yet prepared.

Also, the Prince returns to boarding school on the 14th and I haven't wanted to take time away from being with him. So, I've felt somewhat like a pressure cooker with regard to the self-imposed stress relating to a not-yet-fully-planned-and-organized school year that should begin just as he leaves. Did you get that?

So, my co-teacher reminded me that even though it's in my blood to teach in a certain way for a certain number of days, with a certain number of breaks along the way...we ARE homeschooling and living a far different life than when I was teaching at a school. It's okay to change some things up. I have to remind myself of that fairly often. As a public school teacher I had to always have a plan and a backup plan to be flexible with regard to any and all changes that might and WOULD come my way on any given day. Are you following me? Organization has always been the key for me to even pretend to be spontaneous. LOL.

When we were kids, school didn't start until after Labor Day and through the years it slowly moved forward. I always loved knowing exactly when the first day of school was AND that it was a short week because we started on Tuesday. So, I'm giving my daughter (and myself) a gift this year. We are starting AFTER Labor Day...AFTER the Prince returns to school...AFTER I've cried about it and have to move on...AFTER I've had a small chance to regroup...AFTER I've had time to plan and organize...AFTER I've had time to do a big chunk of "this big change to our plans" workload.

AFTER.

Whew! Someone turned off my pressure cooker.