For the Record Books

As this expat season of ours comes to an end we got a little curious and wondered where we had the good fortune to travel. I was amazed my the number of places we had been in this beautiful world. We will sure miss the chance to travel!

Here is where we have been as of 2015 with most of the travel occurring between 2011 and 2013. 

Lived in USA, Singapore and Saudi Arabia

Ben age 11

Madison age 8

Jacob age 6

Lived in Singapore and Saudi Arabia

Ashlyn age 3 

Visited by all six of us:

Nepal

India

Vietnam

Indonesia

Cambodia

Thailand

Singapore

Malaysia

United Arab Emitates

Switzerland

France

Angie, Brian, Ben and Madison visited:

Hong Kong

China

Angie, Brian, Ben, Madison and Jacob visited:

Australia

Canada

Ashlyn visited:

USA (haha)

Angie and Brian visited:

England

Mexico

Brian visited:

Italy

Netherlands

Japan

Belgium

Layovers:

Japan

Turkey

Qatar

It's been a wild ride and we honestly hope to do it all again real soon. 

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

Six year old Jacob had been making up unbelievable story after unbelievable story explaining how the ear piece on his glasses frame got snapped in half during the night. None made sense. This went on for three days. Then we were reading scripture as a family and it happened to be about a story where God condemned liars in one way or another in Mosiah. We didn't say a thing to him at all but after family prayer he says, "Reading that scripture made me VERY uncomfortable tonight." Brian and I burst out laughing. Yep. It oughta make him squirm!

All About Quickly

Around here my kids think they are fast. They proclaim they move at the speed of lightening. They don't understand why the most common phrases out of my mouth all have approximately the same meaning from dawn to dusk. They come in many forms. "Come on. Hurry up. You have to the count of three. Focus. Didn't I already ask you to do that? How many times did I ask you to do that? How long do you think it should take you to do this job? Let's go. Move it. Where are you? Now you are late. Because you ____ we don't have time to ____ now."

They all mean the same thing though: "Move faster."

Yesterday I had a bit of a revelation about where their heads might be coming from. Jacob was super proud to show me this cool lego creation and explain all about it in impressive detail. One particular feature however sticks out in my mommy brain far more than the others.

See the two spears stuck tightly into the back way behind the soldiers? Jacob felt that to give the soldiers best access to their weapons to use to defend their lives that they should be stored in this handy location.

"So when they are driving along and they get surprise attached then the two guys just quickly pull over their car, climb down to the ground and run around the back and grab the spears."

Did you see if? Did you catch the quickly? He believes they will be able to be fast and effective in battle still. I'm pretty sure they will be dead by the time they get to the spears. It's all in perspective and now I have just a little better picture of what my six year old thinks counts as "quickly". Now we go about the work of finding a middle ground defining "quickly" at our house. 

Good Day

From Jacob at dinner:

"Mom I had a mostly good day. Only one not good part."

"That's great news. What was the bad part?"

"It was when Owen got really, really close and breathed in my face."

"Was he upset with you?"

"No. It's just that it was stinky. And you know...nobody actually likes stinky."

Skin Tone Queries of the Night

From Jacob tonight:

"Do you think that there are any people that drive construction trucks that have white skin like us?"

Madison explaining how people ended up with darker skin than our family in response to Jacob's question above:

"One person worked outside and got tan. Then she had a baby. That baby got big and got more tan in the sun then they had a baby and it was even darker. Then that baby got tan and grew up and got a baby. That's how people got so dark."

Belgium Waffles

I'm making some waffles to sell at a Bazzar to raise money for the workers in the compound. I planned a dry run test night yesterday for dinner. 

Then there were some hiccups and we had to have leftovers. I finished cooking them about 9:30 last night and we are having them for breakfast this morning but in all my mess yesterday I was told that this recipe is a dessert waffle not so much a breakfast or dinner waffle. 

We told the kids they were special waffles and didn't need syrup or sweets on top because it was baked into them. Jacob pondered only a few seconds before declaring, "That's okay. I want it to be a super, super, super, super, super, super, super, super, super, super, super, super sweet waffle so I'll still put syrup and nuttella on it."

Heeley Tennis Fun

While Ben had his actual lesson tonight the kids and Brian used the next court over to tossed balls to Jacob and Madison. 

They both wore Heeley shoes with wheels on the bottom like roller skates and Madison seems a bit distracted with kicking her racket. It was funny to watch but they had a blast.

 Ben is making progress in his lessons and seems fairly good with his swing. 

And Ashlyn happily shagged balls.

Pre-Electrons

Ben read from a Spanish book tonight and slaughtered the pronunciation. Jacob realizing it wasn't what he was used to asked, "Is that a Kindle?"

Brian said, "No. This is from before electrons were invented."

Huh?

Earlier when Jacob was in my room relaxing I asked if he was tired. "Yeah. I am sooo tired from today. I watched the guys unload ALL the boxes from the Wooters shipment and it was tiring."Just imagine how tired the guys who actually lifted all those boxes and a 500 pound piano must feel if Jacob was that tired from just watching.

School Has Begun

First day solo with Ashlyn. Big kids are at school all day. Daddy at work. No Gina. Let's PLAY!

Time Savers for a Five Year Old

Homeschool is cracking me up today. Jacob was doing handwriting and adjusted the task to save time. Because Jack is sooooo much faster to write than Jacob. In his defense he did think it made the word say Jake.

Jacob Packing

I found this gem in Jacobs school stuff as we cleaned out this morning so we could pack suitcases. He is planning to pack a suitcase to go to Saudi Arabia and will bring along: sunglasses, iPad, phone and a jacket.

Jacob's Favorite Scripture

Tonight during our family scripture time Jacob shared with us his favorite scripture:  Alma 30:8-9.  We then asked him why he liked this scripture.  Here is his response:

"I like the beginning, the end, and the part in the middle, and it tells me something.  I don’t know what it tells me, but it does tell me something."

Jacob Interprets His World

April 17, 2014

Jacob was VERY excited to show me that he found a dot to dot game in the Book of Mormon today.

I had to stifle a laugh and then go show Gina what he found. It was the table of contents with the dot dot dot lines across to line up the page number to the book name.

Smell My Breath

April 17, 2014

Skyping dad. Jacob blows in the mic "can you smell my breath?"

Toilet Duty

Long story short. Jacob has been horrible the last two days. At every turn of every minute toward every person. This morning I couldn't handle it anymore so he had to call dad at 2:00 am and wake him up to report in and get a punishment. He chose scrubbing the toilets. Knowing that when he pooped on the floor two weeks ago he had been a disaster to deal with when I made him clean it up himself I had to have a plan to counter the difiance I knew was coming after school when toilet time would finally materialize. My chosen bonus punishment for any whiny comment or cry of injustice was that for every comment I got to eat TWO pieces of his Easter candy.

Finally it was five o'clock and time to start the scrubbing. Good news. Bad news. Jacob LOVES cleaning toilets. Not a single complaint came outta the kid doing all four bathrooms (Gina wisely opted out of the punishment of washing her toilet so as to avoid the five year old mess he would create when he was "cleaning"). When he finished he asked me to ALWAYS ask him to scrub toilets whenever I need it done. I replied to him saying that he could scrub Ms Jennifer's too because she had 5 dirty ones today. He clasp his hands together in front of his chest and his eyes lit up like Fourth of July fireworks. You would have thought I gave him the worlds best Christmas present.

Prayers for Mom

Jacob prayed for me this morning.

"Please bless mom if she does yoga today. Because she does it in a parking lot and she has to do it on the hard floor and she puts a mat down on the hard floor but she can feel right through it."

Fun Kids

Ben declared the other day that all sings end in cymbal crash. 

Jacob was playing air piano as we drove home today and was incredibly proud that he was getting all the bores right. Then he closed his eyes and STILL got all the notes but that wasn't enough. He ended his concert playing eyes closed, two pianos, one hand on each, and every note correct. Amazing talent. 

Dad's Gone

Jacob said he wishes dad could make us sleep, eat breakfast, eat lunch, eat dinner and sleep again really quick so we could just be ready to go together again.

When I returned from a parenting fireside tonight by the Eyres I got Ashlyn from the babysitter and she said "Daddy home?"
"No."
"Daddy home SOON?"
"No. Daddy home JUNE."
Poor girl didn't get my rhyming game. I don't have a good answer for her and it makes me so sad. For all she knows her daddy just disappeared forever.

Fun Kids

Ben declared the other day that all sings end in cymbal crash. 

Jacob was playing air piano as we drove home today and was incredibly proud that he was getting all the bores right. Then he closed his eyes and STILL got all the notes but that wasn't enough. He ended his concert playing eyes closed, two pianos, one hand on each, and every note correct. Amazing talent. 

New Family Picture

Since Ashlyn just turned 2 years old I figured it was time to update our blog header with a picture of her outside my belly. The picture that has been up forever had me only 5 or so months pregnant. Isn't this a cute family picture? Thanks to Nicole Ekberg Photography for getting some great shots of us in September of 2013...6 months ago. That's how we roll people. Always slowly...

Now I need to order prints for the grandparents sent to their respective Wal-Marts for pick up.