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It was only a matter of time. . .

When you have an almost 14 year old son and an almost 12 year old daughter, well, you know it is only a matter of time before your son develops a crush on your daughter's friend.

Yup. It happened.

Our son is quite smitten with with our daughter's friend. She is a very sweet girl and very pretty too. He has good taste. Any red blooded young teenage boy would definitely take notice. It's official. We have entered the teenage world of crushes, noticing siblings' friends and the threat of the potential fall out between siblings and friends. I was an only child, so this is all very new to me, but I do remember having a crush on a few brothers of my friends. So anyway, all of the sudden, Alex and Mandi are actually hanging out together, sharing confidences and generally just being nice to each other. Right now, all is good. That should have been my first clue that something was amiss.

I was completely oblivious to this budding romance until the other night, when the friend spent the night at our house. The three of them were inseparable and Alex was going out of his way to cater their every whim. DUH!!! So I firmly said it was time for bed and made sure the girls were safely locked in their room with strict orders not to come out. It's all very innocent, but it kind of freaked me out a bit to think the girl of his dreams was only a few feet down the hall AND she seems to enjoy his attention. The next morning, Alex set his alarm to wake up before the girls, don his chef outfit (seriously, LOL) and cook them a nice hot scrambled egg breakfast. There weren't enough eggs for all three, so he graciously gave the eggs to the girls and had a bowl of cereal. He served the friend's OJ in a wine glass and Mandi's OJ in a kiddie plastic tumbler. :D Too funny. Today, the little friend came to the door asking for Mandi and the very first thing she says to Mandi is "Is Alex home?". Alex came running down the stairs and the three of them were off.

Oh Lordy, Lordy, Lordy... I am SO NOT ready for this!!!

Kisses for my Big Brother

Thankful Thursday

Many other fellow bloggers have started the Thankful Thursday post. I just LOVE this idea because never have I felt more thankful than I have the last few years. Every single day I just marvel at my good fortune in life, I don't deserve it.

Today I am thankful for:

1.) Of course I am always thankful for my children, but today I am especially thankful for my daughter, Mandi. She is my rock, the one I can count on to help out, the one to appease Linzi when no one else can, and on some days, she's the only sane, level-headed person in our house. AND she's only 11 years old! I can count on her better than a lot of adults I know. ;)

2.) I am thankful that I passed my course exam for my real estate license this morning. Tuesday, I will take the state exam. I can't wait to get it behind me. I don't know yet if I am going to actively pursue a career in real estate now, or put it on inactive status until Linzi goes to kindergarten, which leads to the next thing I am thankful for:

3.) I am thankful for the luxury of staying home with my children all these years and the fact that I have a choice in the matter. My husband works hard to provide for our family and there is no pressure for me to work. He is very supportive of whatever I choose to do. If/When I start a career in real estate, it will be on my terms. Fortunately, Eric can work from home, so we can tag team to care for the kids.

4.) I am thankful for the opportunity to watch my girls paint together this morning. Nothing gives me more joy than to see my children "loving" each other.

5.) I am thankful for my marriage. My husband and our marriage is the foundation of all the blessings in my life. I tend to get caught up in the kids and everyday life, and often overlook just how very lucky I am to be married to this amazing man. And yes, I still think he is a hottie! ;)

6.) I am thankful for my dog, Teddy. He just makes me smile. I mean look at this face!!! Have you EVER seen a cuter dog? No matter how bad my day might be, he always makes me laugh.


My list could go on forever, but I will stop here for now. What are you thankful for?

Linzi & Lindsay

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This weekend, we got a wonderful surprise. We got to see our Wuwei sister, Lindsay! We have a wonderful Red Thread connection to this family and are so grateful to have them in our lives. There is no doubt that God has brought our two families together to share our two little girls. Everytime we get together, it is just so natural. Frances is so easy to talk to and our friendship was instant. Her husband, Ed, is about the nicest guy you could ever meet and Alex just thinks he is the coolest. Their older daughter is a wonderful example of what we all hope our children will grow up to be. And little Lindsay, what can I say about her?! I just love her. She seems so familiar to me. Our girls are so much alike, it is uncanny. And they always instantly connect. This is huge because my Linzi is a little bit stand offish to anyone outside of our family. They are immediately holding hands, giggling, sharing coloring pages and chasing each other, as if they have always been together. On some level, they truly "get" each other. After our very nice, but way too short visit, Linzi was very quiet and pouty. She said she misses Lindsay. What a blessing that God has brought these two little girls all the way from the Gansu province to live only two hours away from each other and our families have formed this special friendship. I hope that as they grow, so will our friendships and that they will always have this special connection.

My Sunshine

I can't believe in just a few weeks, my little boy will turn 14! How does this happen? How does time fly by so quickly?!!! He is and always will be the sunshine in my life. One of the many blessings of the challenges that we have faced is that we know how different things could have been. He is my miracle child in so many different ways. Not only is he a miracle for surviving the odds, facing the daily challenges he faces and being the incredible kid that he is. He MY miracle ~ he is the reason I grew up, matured into motherhood and finally saw what my purpose is in this world. These lyrics perfectly sum up my feelings for him and experiencing motherhood for the first time. I am working on his baby video and I will be using this song, along with a few others.

"Come What May"

Moulin Rouge soundtrack

Never knew I could feel like this
like I've never seen the sky before
Want to vanish inside your kiss
Every day I love you more and more
Listen to my heart can you hear it sings
Telling me to give you everything
Seasons may change, Winter to Spring
But I love you until the end of time

Suddenly the world seems such a perfect place
suddenly it moves with such a perfect grace
Suddenly my life doesn't seem such a waste
It all revolves around you
And there's no mountain too high
No river too wide
Sing out this song and I'll be there by your side
storm clouds may gather and stars may collide
But I love you until the end of time

Come what may . . .

He has made my world a perfect place and given my life a purpose it never had before him. We have climbed many mountains and crossed many rivers to get to where we are and where we are going. We have faced many storms but in the end, the sunshine has always peaked through. Throughout all this, his smile, his sweet spirit and over enthusiastic zest for life has made our victories that much sweeter. I know God has an amazing plan for this child of mine and I can't wait to see it unfold.


Life with my son is filled with laughter. He just might have a career in comedy. One of my favorite examples of his special brand of sunshine was his April Fool's joke. Another example was at my MIL's house. It was late at night and everyone was asleep, except for the grownups and Alex. He disappeared into the back room for a little while and pops out like this:


and asks if anybody is hungry. We were on the floor laughing. Grammy is not a chef and has no connections in the restaurant biz, so it was just one of those completely unexpected moments. After that, Alex took the Chef's outfit to the beach condo. We had a barbecue at the pool and were driving stuff back and forth and I about drove off the road laughing to see MY SON WALKING DOWN THE STREET in this silly outfit. He helped out at the pool grill that night and all the other people at the pool were cracking up. Like I have said a million times before. . . Never a dull moment with my family. :D

Dolphins Everywhere!!!

The absolute highlight of our vacation was definitely the dolphins. Every night, right before sunset, the dolphins would come into the intercoastal for their evening dinner. We literally saw hundreds of them throughout our time there. It was all I could do to keep Alex and Mandi from jumping overboard to swim with them. If you listen to the audio on the first one, you will hear Alex telling me (for the umpteenth time) that he's going in and I am firmly saying "NO!"



Mandi is filming the second video and I love that she is narrating and you can hear the excitement in her voice. She wants to be a marine biologist (and an author in her spare time!) so she was especially thrilled.

Nickname MeMe

Ok, this is for you Debbie! I was on vacation when you tagged me and I wanted to include pictures with it, so here goes.

Alex - When I was pregnant with Alex, I used to go in the nursery and rock in the rocking chair and sing "You are my Sunshine". Don't know how I started it, or why that song, but I just did. When he was born I continued to sing that song to him everytime I rocked him to sleep. As he began to grow and his personality came out, we realized he was absolutely the sunniest child we had ever known. His smile was the sunshine that lit up our world and he was ALWAYS happy! Seriously, during those first two years, I was thinking this whole mothering gig was a piece of cake because my child was just so easy and happy. Boy, was I ever naive. :) Anyway, it just came naturally to call him "Sunshine" and it fit perfectly. Now that he is 13, that is totally not cool, so I try real hard not to call him "Sunshine". We call him "Pal", "Buddy" or just plain Alex. He is still so funny and goofy and brings smiles and sunshine to our life everyday. Just this past week, we ran into one of his teachers on vacation in Florida and she told me she would always remember him walking down the hall with a smile on his face.



Mandi - "Princess" Need I say more?!!! When Mandi was born, we thought our family was complete. I was so excited to have a daughter to do all the girly things with. Mandi was/is the sweetest, most enchanting child. She loves all things girly, but isn't too prissy. We also called her "Boodles" for a while when she was younger. Don't have any idea why or where, it just rolled off the tongue one day and stuck with her for a few years. Now that she is entering middle school, she is still okay with "Princess" but "Boodles" had to go!


Linzi - On the day we received our referral, I was so excited I got her name wrong. I thought they said Wu Pint Bin. As we were making calls, Eric started calling her Half Pint and Pinto Bean. We laughed and I told him you CANNOT call her that. The next day when we received her package, we realized her name was really Wu Ping Bin. It is common in China to double the third name and call the child that. In Linzi's case, it would have been BinBin. I think that is the cutest thing, but Linzi's name "Bin" meant guest. Her whole Chinese name means "Peaceful Guest", which is why we kept her surname of Wu and not her given name in Chinese. I was really disappointed because I had planned on keeping her name, but not with that meaning. So for Linzi, it just rolled off my tongue to call her "LuLu" or "Linzi Lu" or "My-Lu". We call her LuLu most of the time. For a while, I was afraid she would think her name was LuLu. I actually had a lady in a store tell me what a cute name LuLu is. I had to tell her it wasn't really her name.

Even though I have kept Linzi covered in spf 45 or higher, she is a little brown biscuit after a couple of weeks at the beach. I on the other hand, am fair complected with a lot of sun damage from my younger years. So I have made a concentrated effort to stay in the shade and wear a visor. Oh how I miss the days of sun worshiping and golden tans... So tonight, I am getting Linzi ready for bed and she leans over and looks at my pale legs very closely and says "OOOH, mommy!!! You're all white. You need to get some sunshines on you." Then my little Coppertone girl runs off streaking with glee, quite proud of her tan lines. :D

Another day in paradise. We saw so many dolphins today. They came right up to our boat, spouted all around us and I swear, I even made eye contact!!! AMAZING! They seemed to be playing, even showing off for us.

On another note, I am on the edge of my seat, checking on Lucy, who is in China RIGHT NOW! She will be meeting her sweet little Ally on Sunday and I just can't wait to see them together. I met Lucy when Linzi very first came home. Our girls were in brownies together and the first time I brought Linzi to the brownie meeting, all the moms were making a fuss over Linzi, just like moms do over a new baby. But I will never forget Lucy sitting down and talking to me. It was the first conversation we ever had and there was just something about it that struck me. I told Eric that night that I thought adoption just might be something she was thinking about. Sure enough, that following August, Lucy called me with more questions and told me they were starting the paperchase. They are an amazing family and Ally will also have two very sweet big sisters to spoil her rotten. It seems like it has been forever, but their day is FINALLY almost here! So pop over and take a look-see at little Ally. She is breathtakingly gorgeous and you can just tell she is the sweetest little thing ever.

On Vacay

We are having a fabulous time at the beach. I would post photos, but I don't have the camera cord and the laptop doesn't have a camera card slot. We are so fortunate to have the beach condo at our disposal whenever we want it. The boat was delivered yesterday and we were able to go up and down the intercoastal and see dolphins, manatees and stingrays. Mandi wants to be a marine biologist, so she was totally in her element! At one point, we had a whole pod of dolphins following us and they totally surrounded the back of the boat.

After almost two weeks, I have mastered the art of relaxation. :) My brain has turned to mush and I am a complete slug. Totally content to sit on the porch and watch the water while chaos reigns supreme all around me. I am in a complete state of Zen.

Today, we are meeting up with our neighbors from GA who just happen to be vacationing at the same beach as us. We are going to take the kids to "Disappearing Island", which is a sand bar in the middle of the intercoastal that comes up during low tide. It is the perfect place for the kids to play because there are all kinds of tidal pools to splash in, it's safe and the dolphins and manatees are all around the island to watch. Pictures coming soon!

A Very Scary Night

During the summer, it is pretty much a Friday tradition for Eric to cut out early and head to the lake. Late in the day boating trips are so relaxing and the perfect way to end a busy week. We usually pull up on an island, the kids run and explore and Eric and I will relax, most like with an adult beverage(or 2). ;) So on this particular Friday, I just happened to invite my neighbor/friend. Her husband was not able to come, so it was just Valla and her three kids (ages 2, 6 & 12). The thing that I love about Valla is that she is a free-spirit and nothing (I mean NOTHING!) phases her. So, between us, there were three adults and six (6!) children. As we put the boat in the water, it was a beautiful, sunny day. Since it hasn't rained in ages, we never even checked the weather. Bad call. You see where this is going. We no sooner picked our island, anchored, and got situated, when we see clouds in the distance. It didn't look bad and we were not concerned. Then the thunder starts, but it was still so clear in some places that we thought it would pass over. After much debate, we decide to move a little closer to where we put in, just in case we had to make a run for it. So we move closer and stop in a cove to let the kids eat the wonderful picnic dinner that Valla brought for our whole family. As we are eating and food is laid out everywhere, Eric checks the weather on his blackberry and says we better head back. He is taking off as Valla and I are frantically trying to clean up anything that will fly. My drink spills on me, so now I smell like an alcoholic. Nice. Just as we are rounding the corner to where we put in, the sky in front is dark, ominous and lightening is striking. We look over where we came from and the sky is clear and sunny. We decided that we would be stuck in the storm trying to load the boat on the trailer and if we went back to where we were, we could wait out the storm. This was our fatal error. Eric punches it, Valla and I hang on to the little ones and we flew across the lake as fast as we could (This is a HUGE lake). Suddenly, the storm is all around us, there is no way out. The water on the lake was white capping and the lightening was unbelievable and non-stop. If you watch Deadliest Catch, just imagine the Bering Sea and that is what it was like. Straight in front of us was a beach so Eric pulls up on it and we fly off the boat. By the Grace of God, we just happened to land on a camping ground and there were bath houses up ahead where we could take cover. This is where the comedy of errors started. By now it is raining very heavy and we are being pelted by hail. To get to the bath houses, we had to run up a hill, through a campsite and past a PIT BULL(no kidding) who was freaking out from the storm. When we finally made it to the building, the pit bull had broke loose and was being chased by his owner. The dog was very obviously freaked out by the lightening, thunder, rain and hail and seemed to be running frantically and aimlessly. I don't know if they ever caught him. We really thought the rain would pass quickly and we would be on our way in no time. Wrong. This storm was here to stay. Since the men's room was the first door we came to, that is where we were, when a man comes in. We all step out so he can do his "business". Then we look down at the ground and there is a trail of blood. We quickly check all the kids and when we were sure no one was hurt, we realized it was the man in the bathroom. So Eric goes in to see if he needs help and the guy is so delirious from his loss of blood (or just anti-social) he just grunts and makes it clear that he doesn't want help. Weird. So Eric comes out and says he has a gash in his leg but doesn't want help. Eventually, the guys comes out and walks back to his camp site, dripping blood the whole way. He probably met up with the pit bull on the loose. Don't know what happened there, we were too busy making sure the kids stayed away from the trail of blood, but all the water was washing it all over the place. So we go in the girls' bathroom. By now, the kids are totally loopy and just want to go home. So do we, but lightening is everywhere and by land, we were a good 30-40 miles from where our cars were. I felt horrible to have gotten Valla and her kids in this predicament. But being the carefree person that she is, she was quite pleased with the "adventure" we are having. She actually said this was the most fun she has had in a long time! Gotta love her. Finally, a park ranger pulls up and says that even though it is lightening, it is 19 miles the opposite way we need to go, so we should be okay to head back. So we head down to the beach, to find our boat BEACHED sideways on the shore. After about 45 minutes of pushing, digging and accepting the help of some campers (I think they were the dog owners, but there was no dog in sight), we finally got the boat back in the water. By now it is dark and we had to get across the lake in the dark. No problem, the lightening was lighting up the lake for us. I actually pulled the boat on the trailer, in the dark!, which is huge because I have night blindness. By the time we were all safe in the car, it was 10:00, we got home at 11:00. I am sure my kids (and Valla's) will need some therapy after that!