Gemma-isms

"It almost sounds like "your bum".  (While listening to the song "Little Drummer Boy")


"Nate, don't coffee (copy) me!"


Gemma confuses the words disgusting, ridiculous and hilarious and mixes them up during speech.  She dropped something on the floor twice and yelled out, "s'gusting!!" in frustration, both times.  Saw vomit on the sidewalk, "hilarious!".


"There's another sweet smell.  Smells like...onions?  Donuts?  I'm running out of memories.  Bananas?"


Me - "Gemma, there are too many toys around here.  I don't like tripping over toys!"
Gemma -"Just walk around them."  

Lost tooth

Nate was very worried today when I arrived at school to bring Gemma to ballet.  "Mom, I lost my tooth.  I mean, I really lost it.  It fell out and I lost it.  Will I still get 100 NT??"  I told him not to worry about it and we'd talk about it later.

After many "gentle" reminders from Nate throughout the evening, I actually remembered to do my part as tooth fairy on the same day that he lost his tooth.  I'm ashamed to admit that this is only the second time I can say that.  And this is the 6th tooth he's lost.  I blame baby brain.  Anyway, back to the story!  As I'm carefully sliding the 100 NT bill under his pillow, I feel another piece of paper.  I pull it out.  It's a note written by Nate...

Dear Mom.  Sorry I lost my tooth but then I lost it again.  Love, Nater.

What a kid.  Should I tip him for the note?

It begins...

Gemma started preschool this week. It's a really great place and she's totally ready. She's thrilled to be a school girl now. Yesterday, when we got home she started telling me about a new friend she met. The conversation was so cute that I had to try and capture it on video. So, as you can tell, I'm prompting her a little. But this conversation is pretty close to what she originally said. Watch out for the boy in the rainbow jacket Daddy...

6 weeks later

Nate's been working hard on his ripstik skills and wanted to show you all back in Canada how he's improved. He could definitely spank Kristin now in a competition.


 

learning to ripstik

Nate got a ripstik for Christmas.  It seems every kid in our building did actually.  We now often have a ripstik gang hanging out downstairs.  Here's a little video of Nate and some "others" getting the hang of it.

For my mom.

And Vanessa.  They don't do facebook.  And possibly for my dad too, who will probably check this before facebook.  

It's just a little look at Aili getting her happy squeal on today.

Aili Jane

Aili (EYE lee) ~ a multi-language, multi-meaning name. Finnish - 'of noble estate' or 'light'. Mandarin - 'love' and 'beauty'.

She has arrived! She entered the world Sept 7 at 12:56 PM.  And what a grand entrance it was! Some have asked me, "how can a c-section be rough?". And on one website I saw details on how the dr "gently" removes the baby during the surgery. Well, without going into too many details, I will say, that was not the case with this one. She came away with a little nick on her forehead. We're not sure if that was the work of a scalpel or a nail from one of the fingers of the 5 drs/nurses that were working to bring Aili into this world. It could have been from the guy who was practically sitting on top of me, applying extreme pressure. But who needs to breathe during surgery anyway?

But after all of that, she is here. And she is perfect. We are both feeling the "post baby high". (More so for me after I survived those initial 24 hours...ok, let's be honest...48). It is such a thrill to meet your newest family member for the first time. We are all in love with her already. Although I'm sure Gemma may regret her arrival a time or two in the near future. She'll get over it. :)

Aili is so sweet. She is a little mix of her brother and sister and so far seems to have more of her brother's newborn personality. This is a good thing. Not that Gemma was a particularly difficult baby, but Nate was a dream. She has very similar looks to both of them, but seems to be smaller and more delicate. On facebook I announced that she was 8 lbs 3 ounces (same as Gemma), but that was after a math mistake made in my post c section, painkiller induced stupor. She's closer to 8 lbs. (and she's 20 inches) Who knew 3 ounces could make such a difference?? I've never seen legs and a bum as tiny as hers.

We are so happy and blessed to announce the birth of a healthy baby girl! Please join us in giving thanks for her. And thank you to all those who sent congratulations!

Summer's over

Monday marked the start of our third school year here in Taipei. Nate bravely and excitedly jumped right into life in the 2nd grade and Kristin began his third year of teaching 5th.

I realize that I have been slacking severely on the updates. Once again, I will try to do better. I started this blog years ago when we lived in Kaohsiung to keep family and friends from afar updated. While that is still a primary purpose for it, I also now plan to get it printed into a book (or books) for our own personal keepsake someday. So hopefully the combo can better motivate me.

I'm hoping to update soon about our summer and then in no time at all I will have big news about a new addition to our family to blog about!

For now, I'll just be here sweating it up in Taipei (daily humidex in the high 40's!) and trying to prepare for the baby and get some things done around the house, a little at a time.


Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Taiwan Mobile

here's what's happenin' (in a nutshell)

1st grade is finished - Nate

2nd year of teaching 5th grade is finished - Kristin

3 muskateers are separated for the summer - Gemma (Anna and Rebekah)

4get this heat - preggo ready for Canada - Katrina

5 + 15 hours until we're outta here - the whole fam.



See you in Canada soon!  And to our Taipei friends, have a great summer, wherever you may be! :)

Gemma is 3!

On Gemma's birthday (April 7) we celebrated by having a small party in the park with some of her closest friends.  In true Taiwanese fashion she walked around the park after and shared some of her mini sandwiches and cake with other kids playing at the park.  In the evening we went out with friends to TGIF's for party #2.

Gemma received mostly "princess" themed gifts, and was of course thrilled.  She is 100% girly girl.

Can't believe how quickly 3 years has flown by!  We are blessed every day by our sweet little Gemma.

Encouragement

We are so thankful for the all the love and encouraging feedback we've received after people heard our story about Bridget. It makes me wish I posted that a long time ago.

God has used your words to lift my spirits and humble me at the same time. Thank you Sarah for suggesting this song and helping to put things in perspective. :)

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. - Isaiah 40:31

Bridget

Some of you know about the sweet little one, Bridget, that we've been fostering on week-ends. I blogged about her almost a year ago, here. Many people have asked what's happening with her. Are we still hoping to adopt her? Has the process begun yet? Well, I've been putting this blog off for a long while, for a few different reasons. Part of it was because we didn't have a lot of answers. (And we still don't) And the other, bigger part was that I just didn't really want to think about the situation or deal with my feelings about it.

Fresh off a Monday morning, difficult drop off, I've decided it's time to finally get on here and fill you in. Like I said, we still don't have many answers. But I'll share with you what I do know and of course ask you to pray.

Back in May of 2010 when we started this journey, we (or at least I) naively assumed we'd probably have her legally adopted a year later. Now, almost a year later, we are no closer than when we began. But her case is a complicated one. Bridget was abandoned and found in Taipei County. When she was found, blood tests revealed that she had HIV antibodies in her blood. That means her mother definitely had HIV. Bridget does not. But at that point, she was taken to an orphanage in Taipei City that takes babies that potentially have HIV (though her social worker is in Taipei County). The orphanage is called Garden of Mercy. A friend of mine has adopted a little girl from there already. And we heard that she had a brand new baby that she was fostering just over Chinese New Year. When we heard about this baby girl we inquired about fostering her. My friend immediately brought me into Mercy and I met the workers there and filled out the paperwork. We completed a home study and when Bridget was 4 months old in May, we started fostering her on week-ends. Even though we had only fostered her for 5 or 6 week-ends before we went to Canada for 2 months in the summer, we picked up right where we left off when we returned. She definitely remembered us and a bond was formed quickly.

We thought when we returned in August everything was on track and we'd probably start adoption proceedings soon. Up until that point, we thought that we just had to wait until the 6 month search for her mother was completed until Bridget would be legally available for adoption. We even began to look for a lawyer. We prayed that we would find a lawyer that would be perfect to help us. Well, God provided a perfect lawyer for us, willing to do the adoption pro bono! We were amazed and at that point felt like everything was "meant to be". It was a couple of months after that that we learned about the complication of Bridget's social worker being with a different foundation in Taipei County. (We didn't understand this and originally thought that Garden of Mercy social workers would be overseeing her case.) And things started looking not as good. We requested to start fostering Bridget full time a few times and were denied. It was against the foundation's rules of Bridget's social worker. And then we were told, "you can apply with the foundation to try and adopt Bridget but we can't guarantee that you'll be allowed to adopt her or any other baby".

Understandably we grew discouraged. That's when I started contemplating sharing the story on the blog, but kept putting it off. Then we found out I was pregnant, and of course all kinds of thoughts went through my head in hormonal spurts. I wondered if it would be too much to keep trying to adopt her, with me being pregnant. I felt hopeless and helpless in the situation because even if we did fight to adopt her, it might all be for nothing. And I didn't know if I had the energy for that. Actually, at that point, I definitely didn't have the energy for that. I cried a lot. And I prayed a lot. And Kristin and I both came to the same conclusion. We wouldn't give up on her. Until God closed the door, we wouldn't walk away. So we continued fostering her each week-end and waiting. My gut was telling me it wasn't going to happen.

A day or two after we booked our tickets home for this summer, we got an email telling us that Bridget's social worker now said that since we had been so persistent in wanting to adopt her, we could apply to adopt her once she is available. And that's where we are now. Now, I don't really understand what that means. I mean, we were told we could "try" before. And I don't know how much pull her social worker actually has over her case. I don't know if this means "we're in" or our chances are just a little better.

She was supposed to have a final HIV test in February before she would be legally available to adopt. Then she needed one in March. And now today, I was told she needs another one in April. And then maybe we also need to wait until she is 18 months old. I don't know what this all means. (Got an email from the social worker at Mercy clarifying that a little bit this afternoon. HIV antibodies are still present in Bridget's blood. Some babies are clear of them by 1 year and for some it may take up to 18 months.) And to be honest, I'm finding it to be a really tough and sometimes frustrating situation. We had a plan that would ensure one of us would be in Taipei at all times this summer IF we were going ahead with adoption. Now, our tickets are booked and we will be away from her for 2 months again. (because we got the good news a few days too late)

She is going on 15 months and she does understand what is happening. It's very stressful on her to be dropped off at Mercy every Monday. I feel like I let her down every week. I'm the person she trusts most in the world and she can't count on me. (Don't get the wrong idea, the people at the orphanage are great...but of course it can't compete with the personal attention she gets from her "family" each week-end) I'm terrified that she will grow up to have issues with trust and who knows what else. And if we adopt her, I will see that and be saddened and feel guilty constantly because we were "so close" to preventing it. And in 10 years I'll think, we should have fought a little harder for full-time custody...it would have made such a difference.

I know these are silly thoughts, because it's out of my control. And God IS in control. And I have to just keep trusting Him. But, what can I say? I'm hormonal. I really don't know at this point what is going to happen. So, we will just keep fostering her on the week-ends. And we will keep praying for her. And we will miss her terribly this summer. And hopefully we'll be reunited in August and also be joined by some very positive news!

That's the story with Bridget. We love her. She is our Mei Mei (little sister) and she is part of our family. I never anticipated it being this difficult in so many ways. But like I said, I was naive. Have you ever heard of a "simple" adoption story? I haven't. Why should we be the exception?

I wish I could post a picture to show you how beautiful she is. But for privacy I'm not allowed to post pictures online. I'm looking forward to and hoping for the day that I can put a family picture on here with her included.

Got a can of pumpkin in your pantry?

Is it cold and wet outside? Make this. Don't question it. Just do it.

CURRY PUMPKIN SOUP

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons curry powder

4 cups chicken broth

1 (29 ounce) can pumpkin

1 1/2 cups coconut milk

2 tablespoons fish sauce (or soy sauce)

1 tablespoon white sugar

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Stir in flour and curry powder until smooth. Cook, stirring, until mixture begins to bubble. Gradually whisk in broth, and cook until thickened. Stir in pumpkin and coconut milk. Season with fish sauce, sugar, salt, and pepper. Bring just to a boil, then remove from heat.

Taken from allrecipes.com and modified (after reading reviews) by me.

Baby!!

I feel like I have a lot to catch up on! So to avoid overwhelming myself so that I actually write some blogs, I'm going to keep it simple. One topic at a time. And why not start with the most exciting topic at the moment? We've got another baby on the way!

This baby is not to be confused with Bridget, who we are still hoping to adopt and who I will devote another blog to soon. This is another one, made in Taiwan, by us. I am due September 16th. :) Thankfully my pregnancy won't keep us from flying home this summer, but I'm not looking forward to traveling such a distance at 6 and 8 months pregnant! (On the way back to Taiwan we are doing a Vancouver layover to visit with our favourite Williams' family! That'll break up the trip a little for us)

I am almost at the end of my first trimester and feeling pretty good. But now, I hope you can understand my lack of blogs as of late. The couch and me have grown really close in these past 6 weeks. And I gotta say, I am so thankful to have such a helping, understanding husband! I think I pretty much slept right through the Chinese New Year break and he encouraged me to rest as much as possible while he took care of the kids.

I'm happy to be having another baby in Taiwan. My experience here with Nate was amazing. I already have an excellent doctor. And I'm excited to have a close friend to go through the experience with again! With Nate, I had Kim and this time I have Beth! (Congratulations again Beth and Leo!!)

As I mentioned earlier, I will post soon about Bridget. I was kind of putting that blog off for a while, because it wasn't looking good for us to adopt her. But, for the first time this week we got a more encouraging email about the situation! So, there is a chance that we could return to Taiwan this summer and go from two kids to four!! All prayers appreciated! :)

(Disclaimer - Please forgive all spelling mistakes, missed words, typos, etc, etc from now until at least September of 2012. My brain has officially left the building. Again. Thank you baby.)

mmmmm sunshine!

My winter hibernation is over! Spring is in the air (mixed with stinky tofu) and things are going to start moving on this blog again. I can just feel it.

Bottle rockets

so. MUCH. fun.

So, many different boys of all different ages brought their bottles with them on Friday, and after school we walked over as a group to the river. It is close by and there is lots of space there. (as well as lots of unsuspecting elderly people out for strolls...thankfully none were harmed in the firing of these bottle rockets!) Actually, it's a wonder that nobody was hit and hurt. Some misfired and came close to taking off a head or two. One flew right at my friend's toddler and landed gently under her arm resting on the stroller. That got our attention, but thankfully she was fine. The picture below gives you an idea of how crazy it got and you can see my friends double stroller in the bottom right of this picture with her two toddlers in there.

If you can't tell from the pics, this was a cub scout project. The rocket is made from 5 2L bottles, some staples, a lot of tape, some frustration and a longer amount of time than you'd imagine. So worth it in the end though. Especially for Nate considering that it turned out to be more of a "daddy/mommy, after the kids are in bed, type project".

I can't even imagine being a six-year-old boy getting to fire one of these off. I was giddy just getting to watch.

I put together a little video of Nate's rocket launches. He got two turns. The first isn't bad, but the second really flew! At first glance it appears to land on the freeway, but it turned out that it landed safely on the embankment.

(for some reason the video is not working in IE...if you have Google Chrome or Firefox, it works in both of those. Hopefully I can get to the bottom of the issue for next time)

Deep thoughts by Nate & Gemma M. (at the park)

Nate got sick again last night. I think this time it might have been brought on by a migraine. He's feeling good today, but I didn't feel comfortable sending him to school. (Also I think school policy is 24 hrs after vomiting)

So, off to the triangle park we went to get some (fresh??) air on a beautiful day. While Gemma played, Nate and I had a serious, almost adult like chat about a few different topics.

I learned that he would like to live in Taiwan forever and become fluent in Chinese. I learned that he is NEVER getting married. He is not even going to marry that older girl that he used to say he was going to marry. ("That secret is broken Mom. It's over"). And he now is old enough to fully understand why he can't marry me or his second choice, his sister.

He discussed with me what he should be when he grows up and asked my opinion of what I think he should be. I told him that math comes easily to him and perhaps he should do something with that. He asked when I was a little girl what I wanted to grow up to be. I answered without skipping a beat, "marine biologist". (Boy, what happened to that dream?)

All in all it was a really enjoyable chat with my boy. And then Annabelle arrived with Gemma Mei and Guinness and Nate proceeded to put his jacket on like a cape and chase the girls around the park.

A little bit later, Gemma Mei told me after she thought I was asking her to get down from climbing on the "exercise machine" (was really asking my Gemma to get down), that she was "just climbing up so she could see God through the clouds".

Out of the mouths of babes...

Nate lately...

I feel like Nate gets neglected in my blogs/tweets/pics because he's in school and I don't see him as much as Gemma.

So here, today, a blog dedicated all to Nate and what he's been up to lately.

Now that Nate is in 1st grade, he is eligible to join Cub Scouts. They meet weekly on Thursdays. Once a month there is some kind of outing (police station, museums) and there are occasionally bigger events, like a camping trip. I've shared a couple of pics below from their camping week-end a few weeks back. Nate was so thrilled after returning from this overnight tenting adventure! The most talked about experience was that he "heard a snake hiss at him" while hiking and was very frightened because he remembered reading that "they warn with a hiss before they bite". He never actually saw any snakes. You'll read a little of his own words about this below.

Below is the crowd of boys and families as they gather to watch the bottle rocket launch.

Here he is with his good buddy Aidan. They are in first grade together at Bethany.

Hot off the press, here is Nate's first grade picture. I'm not sure what he's thinking in this one, but it makes me wonder... :)

And finally, a few shots of some school work that Nate has completed lately. As I mentioned...the snake story... (click picture to enlarge)

Nate seems to be a pretty typical boy when it comes to school and his behaviour. We are working on getting greens each day instead of yellows or reds. (Or worse yet, blues or purples!!) I love that his teacher had to make such a broad range of stop light warnings to give so many chances.

Here from his report card are his teacher's (Mrs. Ulrich) general comments on his first quarter performance this year:

"It has been great having Nate in our first grade class this year. He is a bright and energetic child who is a good friend and gets along nicely with his peers. Even though Nate has had some difficulty in the area of self-control, he has always been very good about accepting the consequences of his behaviour without complaint. Nate needs to make wise decisions regarding who he will imitate. Nate has already made great strides in improving his handwriting and working on his pencil grip. I look forward to seeing the many ways Nate will grow and mature this year."

Love the wording of the sentence about self-control and accepting his consequences! Love it! Nate actually got a reward one day for having a good attitude about accepting discipline! That makes me laugh a little.

Anyway, he is slowly but surely making improvements and I have no doubt he will continue to do so as he grows and matures.

The other day, for the first time ever since we arrived in Taiwan with Nate (round 2), he initiated a conversation about how much he loves it here. It really meant so much to me to hear him say that. I see him every day with his friends and in the Bethany community and it is obvious to me that he is flourishing. But to hear those words from his mouth relieves some of the guilt that I still feel every once in a while when I think of how far we've moved him from everything that was familiar and the family he loves.

He is such a sweet and sensitive boy and for every time I am frustrated with his carelessness or messiness (you've never met a messier one!!) I am blessed 100 times over by the thoughtful things he says. He still tells me he loves me several times a day and he makes me laugh with how his brain works and the things he comes up with! We also enjoy laughing together at the hilarious words that come out of Gemma's mouth. But we'll save that for another blog.

Nathaniel Tai Jakola, I love you and I thank God every day for you!

making memories

I was just going through some of my old blog posts. It's entertaining because I don't even remember writing most of them. And to be honest, I just make myself laugh a lot. I totally get my sense of humour. Anyway, I came across this in March of 2003:

"Today I played volleyball again for the first time in a long time! Actually, since the last time I sprained my knee...so Oct 01. It was pretty good. I forgot how much I loved it. Kristin and I both went out to Morrison today with Kim and Jon and Chris. Morrison is the private Christian school for foreigners. It's really quite a beautiful school, in a nice area. Right across the street there is a pineapple field and to the right there are papaya trees. The facilities are really great too. The boys played bball for about 2 hours, while Kim and I hung out and kind of talked about her wedding plans. (Kim and Jon were married in Taiwan, but are having their "real" wedding this summer.) Then we all played some volleyball.

After that we all headed to my favourite place, Teppenyaki for a late lunch. Meat and cabbage and lots of garlic and spices all fried up right in front of you. Yummy yummy. And now I'm sitting here typing this as Kristin and Jon play risk. Kim will be here soon and we're heading out for a hairwash. Then a group of people are coming over for Dominoes and a games night. All in all...a pretty great day. For the most part, a typical week-end day here."

I have a few questions to myself after reading that. First...is it true? Did we really actually know these Kim and Jon characters and spend all that wonderful time with them so long ago? Will that EVER happen again? (I sure hope so!) Next...really? Life was really like that? That was "typical"??

Wow. We had it really good. And yet, I remember always wanting more. Dreaming of moving home to Canada. And dreaming of having children. Well, those things happened. And they were (and are) huge blessings. But here I am again, always thinking of what's in the future. Again, I must remind myself...live today (and in light of eternity). Be thankful for every day. 7 years from now, I may very well read a blog from November of 2010 and smile with gratitude at memories I'm currently making.

(I also find the whole "full circle" aspect of the story kind of interesting...Morrison is where Kristin now works. Just a different campus than the one we visited that day)

the blog that got away

That's not all that got away. But I'll get to that. I've been meaning to share this story forever. In December of last year I shared a video of Gemma and I enjoying our morning bike ride here. We still enjoy hitting up the river bike paths whenever weather permits. But now, whenever I hit a certain point on our regular route, I have flashbacks of an unfortunate day last spring.

It started out like any other normal day. And as we biked along we saw a man flying his remote control airplane. Cool, but nothing we hadn't seen before. Didn't think too much of it and continued on our way. We hit our turn around point and started back. Once again, passed by the man flying his plane. Shortly after, we saw a little pack of stray puppies. I stopped to let Gemma get a closer look. I was vaguely aware of the plane and realized it was getting closer to us. It was about the moment when I figured out that the man was flying the plane toward us thinking we stopped to watch, that the plane obviously went out of range of his remote control and started a long, out-of-control drop downwards. "oh no. oh no. oh no. Come on. " I whispered to myself. But no, he never regained control of that plane and it plummeted down and landed smack in the middle of the Danshui River.

What would you do? He was so far away. I couldn't decide if I should bike over and attempt to communicate with him about the terrible tragedy of it all or if I should play dumb and bike away. I chose the latter. I felt kind of responsible. Even though I know I really wasn't responsible. I just felt terrible because I'm sure after I left, he probably walked over to where it went down in the river and saw the puppies. And then he would have realized and felt more embarrassed than I'm sure he already was! And then there's the money factor. Those airplanes can be pretty pricey. After a quick search online though I see that they start out pretty cheap. Let's just hope it was a cheap one. I mean, obviously, I'm sure it was because had he spent a lot on it, it would have had some sort of fancy alarm system to warn the operator when the airplane was getting dangerously close to being out of range. Right? Right?!?

Ok, I'm playing up the drama of it all a little bit. But this seriously is something that comes back to me EVERY single time I bike past that spot now. For some reason I'm the kind of person that just loves to hold on to the guilt, when I think I've hurt someone. While biking together there today, my friend Crystal reassured me that I made the right decision by choosing to bike away. She said it probably would have embarrassed him more had I gone over to try and talk to him. Thanks Crystal.

I hope one day I can put this behind me. And I hope that man was able to recover from the loss of the plane that got away.

The Gospel

After reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan and Radical by David Platt I've been doing a lot of thinking about whether I have manipulated the God-centered gospel to fit my human-centered preferences. I've come to the conclusion that I have, indeed, reduced the gospel to a buffet-style good news. I've been taking what I can digest and leaving the things I can't stomach on the table lest they give me indigestion. After all, I wouldn't want to be uncomfortable, would I? Jesus didn't really say that we might have to leave behind security, money, convenience and even family to follow Him, did he?

It's not that the idea that I have tainted the Gospel by looking at it through the glasses of my experience, up-bringing and culture comes as a revelation, but rather that I've been pushing this understanding into the recesses of my mind.

I've been reminded that I've simply been putting a Christian spin on the American dream, or in my case, the Canadian dream. I've been awakened to the undeniable reality that Jesus calls us all to take up our cross daily, and that this taking up of the cross may even mean that we might have to abandon everything for his cause.

The questions are: What am I going to do with this conclusion? Do I believe that Jesus is worth abandoning everything for? Or will I just push everything back into the background again?

Storybook parade

Today was the storybook parade at Bethany. We were to dress the little (and some big) ones up as a favourite character from a book.

Nate was Batman. Gemma was Princess Belle. Kristin was "mini Edward" from Narnia. And I was Katrina (not shown), from my yet to be released autobiography.

Here are a few pics. Nate won best costume in 1st grade! (That's grade one for Canadian readers.)

Mini Edward and Lucy.

Nate's class (partial) up on stage.

Beauty, the beast and Fancy Nancy. :o)

Na na na na na na na na, na na na na na na na na, BATMAN!

Princess Belle looking for her beast.

Ok, ok...I still haven't written about Melissa's visit. It's coming. I just like to build the suspense. Like a preview to "survivor". I promise she was not voted off the island.

In recent news...

I haven't blogged in a while. Right, that's not big or shocking news.

Ok, well how about some recent headlines anyway?

MELISSA CAME TO TAIPEI TO VISIT FOR THREE WHOLE WONDERFUL WEEKS!

(Full write up with pictures coming soon. Tomorrow perhaps? C'est possible!)

Also...

Wait. That's all I've got.



Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Taiwan Mobile

Dora vs. Ben 10

Nate and Gemma both got a lot of great birthday gifts in Canada. They both came back with some peel and stick decorations for their walls. Nate got Ben 10 and Gemma, of course, Dora. The other day Nate asked me which ones I liked better. In an attempt at a diplomatic answer, I replied, "well, Dora's a bit cuter and she's more educational...but Ben 10 is cool too".

I guess my answer didn't sit well with him and he has been thinking on this very subject.

This morning he had this one-sided conversation with me...

Nate - "Dora might be cuter but who do you think would win in a fight?"

I laugh.

Nate - Ben 10 would definitely beat Dora. (pause) Although...she does have that backpack...

He proceeded to sing the backpack song and say in his best Dora voice, "We can tie Ben 10 up with this rope from Backpack!". And then he laughed and walked away.

What a kid!

What I did on my summer vacation. By: Katrina Pow Jakola

I've become that sort of person that kind of can't wait for summer to be over. You know, the "parent of a school age child" kind of person. That being said, I also am sad that summer is over. And I miss my husband. And my son. And summer.

In order to celebrate a wonderful summer and the start of another great school year, I will share with you, what I did on summer vacation. Complete with pictures.

I spent 33 hours on a plane. (total)

I met sweet, baby Sarah!

I spied as some of my favourite people got reacquainted. (with their hand puppets.)

I celebrated Canada Day! (In Canada!) And lots of other holidays that don't actually fall in July. (not shown)

I watched a girl eat fire, right before my eyes!

I played a lot of "Qwerkle". Have I told you about how Kristin once missed a double qwerkle?

I soaked up a lot of sun on the water.

And warmed my toes on chilly Canadian nights at many a campfire.

I visited the fam at the farm, on beautiful St. Joe's Island.

I scolded Gemma over and over and prevented her from seriously injuring a kitten or two. She appears to be acting quite gently here. Appearances can be deceiving. (and I'm aware that this is not actually a kitten.)

I took sneaky pictures of my beautiful niece.

And some goofy/fun ones of some more awesome people.

I passed off the "push Gemma on the swing" task to as many people as possible. They were happy to help. :o)

I ran away from this kid.

I met this beautiful princess/hardworking mom of 3.

I went deer watching and found Bambi and Faline.

I checked out the Canada Store. In Michigan.

I went to beautiful Mackinac Island and saw many horses. (and more horse dung than I care to remember)

I biked around the island with my family and naively sped off to try and get a glimpse of Al Pacino, who, I was told, was just a minute or two ahead of me. I somehow missed seeing him.

I didn't go up to Fort Mackinac and watch the cannon and gun firing reenactment, but she did!

I shopped for fudge and funny t-shirts with these awesome people.

I rode this beast 8 times in one day. Could have gone for more, but we actually had to wait 5 or 6 minutes in line come evening. After walking on any ride all day long, we were above that.

I saw Mary J and other awesome artists in concert at Lilith Fair in Toronto. Amazing show!

I held babies, laughed with friends and began my good-byes.

I got one final awesome picture of Uncle Kristin and Sarah in the "classic Sarah pose" or what is now known as the "classic Sarah pose".

(large sigh) It was a great summer! I'll admit, it's not easy...the travel, the jet lag, the suitcases, the stress of wanting to do so much and see so many. But it's TOTALLY worth it. Thank you everyone for a great summer!