eat, drink and see mary

poppins that is.

my christmas gift from billy was two tickets to mary poppins for emmie and me...

poor lulu is still smiling because doesn't know she is about to get left behind as we head here...

it was an AMAZING show! i loved how they could adapt an already brilliant movie to the stage by changing up the story enough to make it interesting and adding additional songs that were as brilliant as the originals (with one notable exception).

***spoiler alert*** i was disappointed because i would have liked for the show to end with bert proposing to mary and they could fly off to wherever she disappears to together. i'm sure that umbrella could hold them both. then they could have a sequel where the super nanny is called in to help with mary poppin's out of control children. hello disney? i think i've got a script for you.

now is the part where missy tries to play that she is super-cultured as she reviews, for the common good, the stage productions she has seen (or at least that she remembers seeing):

mary poppins (★★★★★) it had it all!

les miserables (★★★★★) wow!

mamma mia! (★★★★1/2) how they could turn all those weird abba songs into a fabulous musical is still beyond me

oliver (★★★1/2) a great small town production and not just because my niece was in it

phantom of the opera (★★★) yes the music was beautiful, but a creepy stalker can't score the big points with me. sorry!

movin' out (★1/2) it turns out i only like billy joel singing billy joel songs. i didn't get it at all

little shop of horrors (★) what was that?!

sweeney todd (no stars) freaky and disturbing

i'm not a stage production junkie, though i do enjoy a good show. but i love experiences. mary poppins was not only a fabulous production, it was a fun experience to share with my own little spoonful of sugar, Miss Em...

after the show, we went for the oh-so-cultured option of the taco bell drive-thru for a late night dinner and the new pomegranate fruitista freeze...

the night can be summed up in one word. one very big word. in fact, the biggest word you ever heard. bet you can guess what it is. bet you are going to be singing the song all day now. sorry 'bout that.

if the shoe fits

(before i get on with this post, if you are visiting here from kelly's korner- welcome! if you are looking for our adoption story see here, here, here, here and the posts starting here. or just read the whole dang blog. what an amazing journey to lulu and an amazing life with her!)

lately we've been considering future direction for our lives. we are in college ministry and we are at an "advanced age" for such a task. we still love college students. but the age gap just continues to grow. we have wondered if there is a "shelf life" for being in direct student ministry which is one of the things that led us to a program through dallas theological seminary for leadership evaluation and development recently.

the time was significant in our lives on many different levels which i am sure i will be blogging about as i continue to process it. but one of the things that we walked away from the time with is a continued sense that, for the time being, we are right where we are supposed to be.

yes, we are old. yes, we are the age of some of the students' parents. and no, we cannot relate to college students (or more accurately, they cannot relate to us) in the same way that we used to. BUT we are still passionate about college students. and we still believe he can use us in their lives even though i'm am more acquainted with spider veins than tanning beds.

we still love what we do. and why wouldn't we? at our winter conference this year, i got to spend time with these lovelies...

lindsey and allison loved on my kids and challenged me with their passion to care for orphans (if you have adopted, they are probably stalking your blog). not only are they college students, but i knew these young women as little girls since they grew up in my home church as dear friends of my family. this is an especially sweet part of doing ministry close to my home.

we got to be a part of packing boxes of food to be sent to haiti through feeding children everywhere...

yes, i know i rock the hairnet. don't hate me because i'm beautiful. emmie also decorated each box we packed...

while at the conference, we lived in a hotel with another family whom we love. i know it sounds kind of weird, but i dig communal living. the kids creatively made it their home with playhouses in the bathtub and closet...

they may have run up and down the hall a few times too...

and had some good cuddle time...

the kids get to be a part of their own "kids conference" with other staff kids who have become a very important part of their lives, despite the distance between us...

there are hard moments for sure. and there still may be a change in our future. but, once again, the bottom line is still we love what we do. so, at least for now and despite of all of our middle aged glory, the college ministry shoe fits. so we are wearing it. with joy.

even if the shoe is orthopedic.

LUCI, you got some 'splaining to do!

dearest lulu,

what is up with your precociousness as of late? for example, i enjoyed finding you in your crib trying to squeeze your baby's shirt onto your body...

but i didn't enjoy NOT finding you for 15 minutes the other day. calling through the whole house for you with no response. i knew you were still in the house, but i didn't know what might be being destroyed. when i found you purposely hiding in the front hall closest...

i didn't find it as hilarious as you did. i am realizing that there are some benefits to having loud children. you, o quiet one, about gave me a heart attack. the other three never could have stayed quiet for that long. the first rule of hide and seek: the seeker has to know you are playing hide and seek.

of course, there is always the random swiping of food and shoving it into the mouth as quick as possible...

and if you have a problem with how daddy and i are doing your hair, why don't you just tell us? you don't have to take matters into your own hands...

(i like how you made it look like you were wearing a yarmulke)

when i tried to use it as a teaching opportunity and asked you, "who is supposed to do your hair lulu?" your answer was "ME!"...

(wrong answer, baby.)

my answer to the above incidents could be to put you in time out...

(please note: this is a joke. this is not time out. she crawled in there of her own accord)

but your answer is simply, "I sorry mama. i forgive me." (supposed to be "will you forgive me").

excuse me while i melt.

besides, you are almost two. you are just doing your job. and whether you are making trouble or making me melt, one thing is for sure...i love luci.

proudly and always,

your momma

i really wish i was oprah

i don't think i'm going to be doing giveaways very often. it has taken me this long to announce a winner because a) it took me awhile to figure out a way to randomly choose a winner that was fair, and b) it hurts my heart to not have everyone win.

but i am not oprah. this isn't my announcement that everyone won. this is, however, my announcement that there were two winners. two is better than one, right? it even says so in the Bible (see Ecc. 4:9)

so, without further ado, here are the two winners...

1) allison from youngfamilyadoption.blogspot.com

2)missy from whats-going-on-here.com

i promise i didn't choose allison because her family is PRECIOUS and her heart is amazing. i wish i had had that kind of heart at her age. at any age for that matter!

and i promise i didn't choose missy because her photos, children and even dogs are beautiful. nor did i choose her because her name ROCKS. the choosing was random. she lives in canada for goodness sake's, i could have saved myself some moo-la in shipping had i not been random.

but randomness happens to be one of my specialties in life. meet my random generator...

thanks for playing along. even if you have to purchase the book radical for yourself, it's a provocative and worthwhile read.

p.s. dear allison and missy, so i don't exactly have the books in my possession yet. i got excited to give it away as soon as i finished it and got the cart before the horse a bit. but i will purchase them and send them to you in this decade for sure. seriously, i will figure out how to get your addresses and get the books into your hot little hands asap.

my first REAL giveaway

i'm not just faking you out this time.

i'm not a bigtime blogger. this blog is for me and my family and anyone out there is invited along for the ride. but i have to be honest and admit that i'm the kind of girl that likes an audience. and the bigger the better. (i'm also the kind of girl who still refers to myself as a "girl" at age 40, btw.) that being said, i am not doing this giveaway to improve my readership.

i just finished reading this...

and it shook me up a wee little bit. which is a really, really good thing. so i would love to get a copy into one of my lovely bloggy friends hands in the hopes that it might shake you up a bit as well. just leave a comment telling me one of the most radical things you have ever done (does not have to be spiritual). the winner will be chosen my a random generator. just so you know, random generator=jack flipping through comments until, with my eyes closed, yell "STOP!". like i said, i am not a bigtime blogger.

so leave a comment (you don't even have to write the most radical thing you've done, it is just for my pleasure) and then i'll contact you and get your address so i can ship the book off to you. bear in mind, i am terrible with details and do everything late so this will be a good opportunity for me to develop in these areas. either that, or you will receive your book sometime in mid-november.

decorating by lulu

we may need to keep a better eye on our almost two year old. otherwise, she can be found

painting her own nails (and sweater)...

and the furniture too...

And in case it was a mystery who ate bites off of all the donuts...

It was the "decorator".

I guess mischief makes you hungry.

we're still celebrating

celebrating ethiopian christmas. january 7th is christmas in ethiopia...

though i felt kinda lousy all day, it was important for us to celebrate ethiopia's christmas as a family. the ethiopian tradition includes slaughtering one's own animal for the meal (usually a goat). we passed on that one and opted instead for ethiopian take-out. i had just enough energy to put an ethiopian scarf on the table and change my centerpiece for the occasion...

i actually really like the ethiopian coffee beans as the centerpiece. they look cool and smell great...

it wasn't much, but it was a "melkam genna."

we're also celebrating snow days. the kids were home today enjoying the snow. i was surprised long lulu made it. my little ethiopian isn't as wimpy as her momma. i love my snow bunnies...

"i can't put my arms down!"

and i love my snow buddies...

just got word that they will be home tomorrow too. so i guess my front hall will look like this yet again...

which is okay because i'd rather celebrate togetherness than cleanliness any day of the week. {though it would be nice to have both}

The most oft asked question

about my Christmas was "How was it without Gunga?". It was precious to me how nearly everyone who even remotely knows me was thoughtful enough to ask, realizing this was a really hard Christmas for us.

It is a hard question to answer. Do you miss someone any more on a certain day when every day you feel the ache of their absence? Not exactly, but some days are just harder than others. Or just emptier, maybe.

Still, it was special to spend Christmas with two of my three sisters...

It was just so different.

There were some sweet new memories made like Christmas Eve brunch with dear friends...

Is it bragging to say I think I have the best egg casserole in the western world? I don't think so because all I do is follow a recipe found in this beautiful cookbook (but I make it with bacon instead of ham because bacon makes me happy).

After a Christmas Eve service at our church, I got to host my first family Christmas gathering in my home...

We played a game of charades where you come up with something to act out that has to do with Christmas. Here Jack is trying to get people to guess his choice, "Chuck Norris"...

Not sure how his choice fits with Christmas, but it definitely fits with Jack.

Then it was over the river and through the woods, not to Gunga's but to Aunt Ayay's house we went. Until 10pm on Christmas Eve night we had been traveling the hour back and forth between us quite and bit and that was a reminder of how different it is with Gunga gone. Even though we only live an hour away, we would go to Gunga's house and camp out for an entire week around Christmas. When we were all finally together in under one roof for a couple of days, it finally felt like Christmas.

When we first arrived at my sister's, one of my favorite moments ever happened when I snapped this photo...

Lulu just saw her self in the full length mirror, gasped a bit and said excitedly "Hi Lulu!" Seeing you takes my breath away too, baby.

Christmas Eve brought the traditional gift of jammies as well as the tradition of pretending that this was the year we forgot to buy them jammies. The girls got owls...

Tate got Dwight...

And though Jack got super cute sock monkey jammies, he was still found shirtless most of the time...

Shirtless and packin' heat.

One tradition that needs to change is that of my sister's and I staying up until the wee hours of the morn getting ready for Christmas, but alas we will have to wait for another year for that to change. We were up until 4am doing this...

Honestly, I was the one who had the most to do and they were just supporting me. We missed having our "#3" sister with us in our escapades and at about 1:30am I got really sad. Every year, Gunga would stay up with us as long as she possible could. Not because she needed to do anything. She had usually been ready for weeks. But because she wanted to be with her girls and she didn't want to miss out on the fun. I can still see her in her robe saying "Oh girls..."

as she laughed at something we would say or do in our late night stupor. Maybe I sound like a broken record in how often I say that I miss her. But if you knew my Mommy, you would know that she was so lovable which makes her now so "missable".

Morning came quickly as cousins gathered to "storm the stockings"...

So glad to have Grandma with us too...

One of the biggest hits were Singamajigs...

(they weren't the toy of the year for nothin'!)

Though no gift could compare to the giant lollipop from cousin Sarah...

This is how Lulu felt about it...

And how Sarah felt about the shirt we gave her...

Lulu is definitely the best medicine for grieving hearts and we were well-medicated, believe me...

It's just not possible to overdose on this...

The big hits for Jackie were anything having to do with football...

which was just about everything he received.

If Jack was all football, Tate was all "The Office"...

And I was all "I don't want to be really into what gifts I will get, but I can't help it". My sisters gave me thoughtful and/or sentimental gifts and this guy "love languaged" me good...

I opened a homemade card that said "Mary Christmas". It had a picture of Mary Poppins and said it was good for two tickets to the Broadway show coming to town. I SO wish I could find it to post a picture of it because I am so proud of my gifting Boy Wonder. I didn't love him any less when he gave me Plus size socks as a gift many years ago, but I definitely liked this gift better. (In his defense, I had asked for socks. He gave them to me among other gifts. And he didn't see the "plus size" on it. Bless his sweet little heart for trying.)

This year, he not only tried, he succeeded. He also gave me a charm he picked out for my Pandora bracelet in honor of my Mommy. An elephant for my Proud to be a Republican mother. It made me cry. A good cry. Gifts or no gifts, I am so glad that I can walk through the ups and downs of this life with you at my side, babe.

Both of us cried when Bill opened a mysterious gift under the tree from my sisters. It was my mother's pedestal cake stand. Amy bought it for Gunga, but said she didn't need it so she gave it to Carrie. But when Carrie heard that Bill had asked about it because of how Gunga used to have a cake waiting for her sons-in-law when they would visit, she wrapped it up and they gave it to him for Christmas. He was fighting back tears the rest of the night. I guess their gift was a little more meaningful than the shop vac I got him.

Speaking of cake, we had new traditions like making cake balls (since that is such an unfortunate name, we like to call them "little bites of heaven")...

And very old traditions, like Jesus' birthday cake...

Though it was hard not to hear Gunga's beautiful voice sing Happy Birthday to Jesus this year, I imagine she was having more fun singing it than ever before.

So, the answer to the question "How was Christmas without Gunga?". It was different. It was hard. But we were with people we love...

And it was still Jesus' birthday. So it was still merry...

"And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts

by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."

Romans 5:5