Dinner!

Tonight, Jon and I had an interesting dinner. We went to Dominick's to get food after 3 weeks of neglecting any sort of grocery shopping. We got home and even after buying all this great food (of course for a great price), Jon had a funny idea for dinner. We pulled out the soy bean pods and boiled them, Jon cooked up "Japanese tacos" and we drank Naked Juice; YUM! You might be wondering what a Japanese taco is, well, it's something that we ate with the Conrads at Uminonakamichi Park in Fukuoka. It was funny, there was a guy in a van selling "tacos" from the back of his van. People from the US would find this very sketchy, but in Asia, it's very normal. What wasn't normal, was the taco. It was a cut up hot dog with hot sauce and a few veggies on it. So, after getting tortillas and Johnsonville Cheddarwursts, we cooked them up and made a Japanese taco. But, the most important thing is that he gave me his "Last Bite Love" of his plain cheddarwurst, he must really love me.

Cheese Head

I just got home from a long day of work and a meeting afterwards. I was walking out of the center with two women and they were talking about the cold and how horrible it was (it's around 20, feels like 10 or something). Here I was with my coat unzipped, no mittens, no hat, "Ooohhhhh, it's not so bad, this is pretty warm!" One girl replied, "Are you crazy?!" The other woman, Nicole, replied, "Oh, Anika's a country girl from Wisconsin, that's why she's like that." Again, I replied, "Really, it's really not that bad, I'm used to much worse." As we parted ways, Nicole joked about cheese being a fun thing and I was confused why it was a joke....So, I replied, "Actually, cheese is a big deal and I love going to Cheese Houses!" And again, Nicole joked about going to a cheese house to try all the cheeses and I said, "Absolutely, it's the best, I think it's great fun!" I even shared with her that some people do nickname me "The Cheese Girl." It's a fair guess that she might think of me as a crazy Wisconsin Cheese Head, but I'm okay with that.

According to a 5 year old...

This afternoon, one of my assistants, Sam was talking with the class after nap. One of my students Annie, brought up that she goes to Sunday School and so Sam asked her what she learns there and she said, "Jesus." I was on the other side of the room taping polar bear feet to the floor, so it was interesting to listen to their thoughts. Some other friends added in their thoughts and I thought I would write some of the ones that I remember. Sam asked, "Who's God, then?" Most friends replied, "Jesus' Father." Sam, "Then who is Mary and Joseph?" They replied, "Jesus' parents." After that, was a short and confused conversation about Jesus having three parents, but one student moved on and said, "Jesus doesn't have a telephone." (This telephone idea came from a conversation we had around Christmas time and talking to God). Then Sam asked, "Well, then how do you talk to him?" In a loud chorus, "We pray!" I felt like I was in a Sunday School when I heard this, it was fun. A child that has difficulty following directions then said, "God is watching. He's always watching. He knows when you've been good or bad." This sounds an awful lot like the creepy Santa they were just singing about...suspicious. Several friends started talking about this at the same time, so I'm not really sure what was said, but I think something about God being with us. The conversation soon ended and they started talking about animals or something. Anyways, I thought that this was kinda cool, that we can have conversations like this and it's okay! Now, I wonder what my views of God were as a 5 year old...

Chuck-E-Cheese

After driving back from the "North" today, we drove past a Chuck-E-Cheese by our house and Jon said, "How about we go to Chuck-E-Cheese this weekend for something fun and different." My mom's comment below also reminded me that he said something to the effect of a Cheese date for my Cheese Girl. I truly am the Queen of Cheese. He knew I needed a pick-me-up and some childish fun, what a great guy, awwwwwww.
About this last week, I didn't know I could hurt this badly, it's torturous. But Jon's been so good, holding me when I need it and giving me space when I need to be alone and encouraging me to cry on his shoulder when I want to be stubborn about it all. It will take me a long time to get over this great loss, but I'm glad that I have such a wonderful husband at my side.

That's all for now.

Churches Helping Churches

Normally, I wouldn't "advertise" something on my blog, but Jon and I felt lead to share this website with you. At church last night, our pastor shared with us his burden for the Church in Haiti and the people who are in desperate need for God. Because, isn't knowing God the most important thing? I am very thankful for the medical aid and so on that has been given, but we can't forget the Church! It seems that God has put a burden on Pastor James' heart to visit Haiti, help, and document about the Church there so the Christians outside of it can be aware of the great need. Jon sent out an email to some family and I thought I would post what he wrote here as well as the website you can take a look at for prayer as well as donations to helping the Church of Haiti. Please, don't forget to play the video, "Who Will Rise Up", it's a great one by one of the church worship leaders.

Hello friends and family,

I felt that I should share this with all of you. As you all know, Anika and I moved to the Chicago area last month. Since moving here, we've been worshiping at Harvest Bible Chapel. The service last night was very moving. Pastor James MacDonald talked about the earthquake in Haiti at the end of his sermon, and posed this question to the congregation: "Who will help the church?" Tomorrow, Pastor MacDonald will be flying to Haiti along with Pastor Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill Church in Seattle, and they will be accompanied by a film crew and team of workers. Their goal is to assess the needs of the church in Haiti and report back to churches in the United States so that aid may be directed specifically to the church. Pastor MacDonald expressed that governments around the world have rallied to provide aid to the devastated people in Haiti, but who is providing and and encouragement to the church? Pastor MacDonald quoted Galatians 6:10, "So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith." The people of Haiti are receiving huge amounts of aid from the nations that have rallied to them, and their needs will be met. However, as Christians, it is our priority to meet the needs of the church and of our brothers and sisters in Christ in Haiti.

Pastor MacDonald has launched a website, http://www.churcheshelpingchurches.com, in order to mobilize Christians in the United States to help our brothers and sisters that are hurting in Haiti. The goal is not to single out Christians and provide aid to them alone while ignoring everyone else who needs help, but it should be our priority to meet the specific needs of the church in Haiti while the governments are helping the nation as a whole. As Christians, we need to care for the body of Christ as our Lord has commanded. If you would like to give specifically to churches in Haiti that need our help, please consider giving to Churches Helping Churches. Also, please continue to pray for the people of Haiti and also for Pastors MacDonald and Driscoll and all that are traveling with them. If you want to follow along with their trip, check the website for updates. Don't forget to watch the video on the website!

I felt led to forward this to you, so please feel free to share this with others as you feel led.

May God have all the glory,

Jonathon

Happy Birthday Pocket!

Today is Molly Pocket's adoption birthday! Can you believe a year ago, I was pulling her out of the pit of death! We celebrated by singing happy birthday to her after which she was able to eat her doggy "cake". Her cake was made out of softened doggy treats, little pieces of dog food, and a little topping of shredded cheese. She is such a cheese-head! Then, she received two gifts: a tennis KONG toy and some Freshies Dental Bones. Before you showing you her birthday videos, I thought I'd first remind you of her adoption day as well as how she looked on her adoption day on year ago! I'll never forget going to that mountain-side kennel. If you remember correctly, I was not intending to adopt a dog, but rather foster some needy dogs until someone adopted them. I posted an adoption page for Molly and I had hundreds of hits on the site. Three people had inquired about her, one chose a different dog, another did not reply back to my message, and another wanted to bring her to Africa and later found a different dog. Jon and I really got attached to her, but knew we had to pray and give her over to God before deciding for ourselves whether or not to keep her. As all of you know, I am an animal person and so I was so happy when we felt comfortable to keep her and eventually bring her back to the States. I can't imagine her living in that shelter and being so scared as she was when I found her; she wouldn't even come out of her cubby for a treat. But when I took her on her walk and she was bounding and leaping for joy, I knew I couldn't put her back. So, here she is with us! I am so thankful for her and the joy she's brought to our life in Korea as well as here in Chicago!

Me at the shelter and Molly's first walk outside of
the cage in probably a long time.

After her bath, doesn't she look sad and pitiful! Look at her bare skin,
it had been worn off I believe by being in her wooden cubby
and being too scared to come out. It took months for her
fur to return to normal, poor baby.

At first, Jon was very skeptical about having a dog,
especially one that looked so odd. But he soon warmed
up to her and even tucked her in her suitcase
bed with his own shirt to cover her.

"Happy Birthday to you.."

Pocket's birthday cake!

Molly learning how to play with her new toy,
she's always a little slow at that...


She did a little better this time!

Not-So-Minnesota-Nice

Since moving to the Chicago area, I've realized a change that I miss when compared to the Upper Midwest: Niceness and Friendliness. Jon explained "Minnesota Nice" to me, and I didn't really realize it until living outside of Wisconsin/Minnesota. Without thinking about it, I guess I do things that are considered "nice" such as saying hello and smiling at people I'm walking by or opening doors and so on. When doing these things, I've realized people tend to look at me very oddly, like, "Who is that weird girl and why is she talking to me? Do I know her?" Then, I walk away feeling very odd. Or even the waitress' we've had, don't seem to be quite as well, nice. Jon reminded me, "You know honey, we're not in Minnesota anymore." I was glad that that night, we were able to show love towards that waitress. Well, Jon and I will just keep spreading the "Minnesota Nice" and God's love to others.

Flopsy The Second

Most of my family knows my childhood story of "Flopsy and the Great Adventure", but for those of you who don't know it, I'll tell it quickly. The story relates to what happened today, so stick with me! When Anders and I were little, our first pets (besides fish) were two little girl guinea pigs: Flopsy and Mopsy. They were the best pigs any little kid could ask for. Flopsy was the sweet submissive one and Mopsy was the domineering one who would control Flopsy with her machine gun sounding grunts. I remember Anders and I would watch Mopsy as she'd sway her bottom half and grunt at Flopsy, it was so weird. Anyways, I was always really good about making my own fun and what not, so one day, I decided I wanted to go on a great, ship adventure and needed a pal to go with. So, I took my friend Flopsy. When you go on adventures, you need lots of supplies, so I grabbed my supplies, along with a fluorescent colored backpack so Flopsy would have a comfortable ride. We hopped in the boat that was in the trailer in the backyard, and started our adventure. You should've seen our pretty wooden boat, it was cleaned and shone so much, it was sparkling in the salty air! We sailed over the biggest waves ever! We even found an island! I don't know if my mother called me inside or I got distracted by something else, but needless to say, I did not grab all my supplies...Later that night, Mom came into the laundry room where the cage was kept and asked, "Where's Flopsy? Does someone have her out?" Neither Anders or I knew where she was. Where could she be? We looked and looked and I'm sure we prayed our little hearts out. A few days later (and after a thunderstormy night) I wanted to have another great, ship adventure. I climbed into the ship and, "Hey! I found my backpack!" How exciting! "Hey! Flopsy's in it!" Poor Flopsy, she had been in that backpack for I think it was two days, maybe three, without food or water (except for the thunderstorm). Her little ribs were sticking out, I remember that I thought she looked so skinny, it was kind of scary.

To this day, I can't believe that I forgot poor Flopsy out in the backpack in the boat for so long. How did I do that? So shocking. Well, I guess I'm not totally over that daydreaming part in life because today I forgot a guinea pig in the backseat of the car. But don't worry, it was only for a few minutes. Give me credit, at least it wasn't days this time. Anyways, in my classroom, we have several animals, one being Max the long-haired guinea pig. Max has had lice for several weeks. The vet says that it is animal specific and won't transfer to me or Molly or the kids. But, we've been taking him to the vet to get sprayed and everything but nothing worked. So Vikki (my co-teacher) brought him to the vet today and left him for me to pick up later. The vet said they would shave his head to help with the lice problem as well as putting some more spray on him. Before leaving, the vet kissed the shaved licey head of Max and told him to get better (cute/kinda gross). She handed me the crate and towel that he was wrapped in and we headed for the car. I put him in the backseat and away we went! We got to school a few minutes later and I got out thinking about my Antarctic lesson plans and what I needed to do as I walked into school. As I was walking, I realized, "Aren't I supposed to have something else in my hands..." Stop. Think about it. "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Run back to the car. Unlock it. Grab Max. Apologize. Seriously? Did it just momentarily happen again? I don't understand, I guess I'm just not used to having animals that are quiet in my backseat. But anyways, I did get him safe and sound in his clean cage. Here is Max safe and sound inside with his new haircut!


Now, not to say that this experience was like the first one, but it reminded me a lot of it especially since I recently told my sister in law, Emily, about Flopsy. I'm glad that Max wasn't left in the car for longer than a few minutes. Maybe I just do better with dogs rather than little animals...I don't know.

Korean Yumminess!

Jon and I were really excited that when we moved here, we discovered that we have a lot of Korean markets and restaurants all over! One of the markets, Seoul Market, is right down the road from our home! Also, it is conveniently located next to ALDI's, which is wonderful. I have wanted to go there since we moved here, but I never wandered next door after a quick ALDI run. Jon, though, went to pick me up a few surprises a week or two ago and I was so happy. He picked me up some Aloe Water (technically Aloe Juice with chunks of Aloe in it) and Gimbap (kind of like sushi, but wrapped in seaweed and not raw). I was so excited to have these treats because I have really been missing them. I savored my 18 oz. of aloe water over three days taking little sips. But, the Gimbap lasted only five minutes between the two of us. Since I had to make a run to ALDI's today, I decided I better run into Seoul Market for some lunch. I stepped in and, wow, I felt like I stepped back in time to Korea because everything was the same. Everyone was speaking Korean (of course), there were at least 15 kinds of kimchi to choose from, there was everything. Everything except my dokboki chips, sad. I will have to keep searching for this in other Korean markets in the area. I could have spent so much money there, but limited myself to four things: Aloe Water, Gimbap, California Rolls, and Green Tea Mochi. Yes, mom and Andersons, I found Mochi, every kind of Mochi under the sun! There was strawberry, red bean, mango, green tea, coffee, remember them? Although Mochi is really Japanese, they still have them there, for which I am very grateful.

Unforutnately, I was just in the market for less than ten minutes, but I also spotted my favorite Apple Demi Soda and some funny treats the kids always used to give me. I look forward to going there more often and cooking up some tasty Korean BBQ, kimchi jigae, and other wonderful things we miss. So, if you want some Korean treats and cooking, come visit us!

Some Randomness For You.

I don't have anything specific to write about but I really feel like writing tonight. Too bad I don't have any cool topic or something I can narrow down to an interesting point. So, I guess I will just talk about some random things! Yay!

• We had a lot (a lot being about 7-8 inches) of snow on Wednesday and Thursday. I loved watching the snow fall and getting the kids excited to watch it out the window. Unfortunately, it has been too cold for them to go out and enjoy it, so we've brought it in to them to play with in the sensory tub! Molly on the other hand is not liking the snow so much. I'm sure it must be difficult when the snow is piled up above your head, don't you think so! I meant to get a video, but Jon's been the one taking her out. She usually likes to hop in the snow to do her duty and since the snow is so tall, she has been stubborn. At least she's learned how to pee on the sidewalk. :) Hopefully she'll learn.
  
• Last Saturday was a very exciting day for me, I opened my Wheeling library account! I love libraries and library days and the smell of libraries and just that I can walk around and look at all these cool books and take them home with me and not have to pay (unless I'm late...). I think a big reason why I love going to the library is because my parents were always great about surrounding me with language and taught me a love for books and therefore took me to the library often (thanks Papa and Hoodie!). I can still remember the smell of the old Manitowoc library. It's too bad that they have a new one now. Anyways, I had a wonderful time exploring my new library, they have a great collection of children books, DVD's, and many other sections including foreign language novels; I thought this was great! I found some newer movies I was wanting to see with The Boy, so that was great. I also saw that they had Laurel and Hardy, Animaniacs, and some other wonderful oldies! Today, I went to the library again, yay! This time Jon came with me, but didn't make it past the entrance chair to read the book he already brought with him. Maybe next time he will skip along with me through the library, maybe. I was excited because I was picking out books for my classroom winter unit. What more fun could you have on a Saturday morning than looking through children's winter animal books! No, I'm serious. I checked them out along with a few new movies and as I was walking out of the doors, the beeper went off. I thought I checked everything out correctly (the computer self-checkout is not as easy as they want it to be). I had a pile of about 20 books for the lady to go through where I proudly told her, "These are for my classroom!" I don't know that she was overly impressed, but just glad that I didn't steal any children's books.
• After going the library today, Jon and I went to the mall hoping to find him a new pair of jeans. No luck. But, I found a pair! We both seem to like to pick out clothes for each other to try on, but not usually buy them. I still don't exactly know what styles Jon likes on me. It was nice to wander around while sharing some Caribou and not spending more than $30.
• Jon was able to hang out and go to a movie with an old Bethel roommate that lives in the area. So, I had some fun of my own by organizing the kitchen a bit and emptying a few boxes left over. What a feeling of success! We are looking forward to getting our new pantry cupboard to help organize even a bit more.
  
• Oh, picked up my new reading glasses today; I must be getting old. sigh. Jon said, "You're 23, you have pretty old eyeballs," he was trying to encourage me. Thanks honey.
• I am hoping for more good news about Nona. I'm thankful for all the family that has been able to be there and help out.
  
• I'm looking forward to going to church tomorrow! I suggest listening to these sermons, they're great! We've been going through Revelation and I am learning a lot that I never knew or could even realize on my own. So, that's why I'm excited to go to church with the Boy tomorrow. If you have time, take a look at the sermons, they're very God-inspired and therefore very inspiring and insightful.
• Now, time to cuddle with the Pocket, read, and wait for the Boy to come back from the movie!
  

Thanks for reading my random overview of the day!

Made Especially For My Nonie!

This post is going to be for my Nona, so readers other than her and my family might not find it interesting. My Nona's been in the hospital and I thought she'd like to look at something especially for her to cheer her up a bit!

My Nona, I have some pictures and maybe a video or two to show your peepers something different. Don't worry, you don't have to look at it all at once!

This is when Anders married Emily in Arizona. Did you like
the warm weather there? It's so cold in Duluth, right?

Here is when I married Jonathon (remember that "handsome boy",
as you prefer to call him). Look at Jornie being so silly with Evan!

This picture is a favorite memory of mine because
when we were trying to take the picture, you kept
pinching both of our butts like you always do!

Nona, you just looked so awful pretty that you became
even more of a ham for the camera!

Here are some friendly faces you've been seeing a lot
lately, right? What great visitors!

This was from a fun weekend of marathon earring making! I think
we have some pretty special women in our family, don't you?

This is just a dopey picture from Korea that I thought
you might like. I am next to a guard outside of an old palace.

Surprise!! I bet you didn't expect this picture! I know how much
you love Johann The Cat! Look at him hiding in a
plant basket watching for birds outside.

This is our dog Molly playing with
her Dolly and I think it is funny how fluffy she is
and how she bounces around, just watch!

I thought you'd like this video because it is when Molly
was not feeling well in Korea (look at her saaaaaad face!).
To make her feel better, Jon sang to her. I know you love to sing,
so below you can listen to someone sing Amazing Grace to you!

I know how much you love Amazing Grace, and I bet
that Debbie or Carla will sing it to you to make you feel better like Molly!

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
'Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
and Grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me.
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

When we've been here ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun.

Love you lots, Nonie!
Anika

Good Ol' Lentils!

A little after Jon and I came back from Korea, my mom was nice enough to start gathering some pantry items for us when we moved to our new home. As another wonderful surprise, she brought us to a Mennonite food store that is kind of like a co-op. We were both very excited to choose some things for our cooking and baking needs. It was so fun to pick out great spices, pretty sprinkles, and among many other things, lentil beans. Growing up, I never really liked lentil soup and just the brown color of it kinda grossed me out. But, I thought I'd get a bag since Jon likes beans in general and try out some different recipes. So, I pulled out a recipe book that my Sasta (Aunt Carla) gave me for Slow Cookers. By the way, you have no idea how badly I missed my Crock Pot while in Korea; I'm pretty sure I complained about it weekly or at least thought about it every time I started cooking dinner at 9 PM. sigh. So, you can imagine my joy when I pulled out my Crock Pot from being cooped up in a box for the last year. I decided to christen it with an experimental lentil recipe, Mediterranean Lentil Soup to be exact.

Here's a rough recipe:

1. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add 1 onion, celery and garlic, cook and stir for a bit. Stir in several chopped tomatoes, 1-2 cups of soaked lentils, tomato paste, thyme, and any other seasonings you like. Combine the lentil mixture with ~6 cups of beef broth and 2 bay leaves in the slow cooker. Cover; cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.
   
2. I also made a vinaigrette to add before I served it. This included some basil, olive oil, parsley, and red wine vinegar.
   

So, see, easy, right! Now you can have your very own lentil soup. I usually am not one to follow recipes or even have a recipe when I'm cooking, as you might be able to tell by the recipe, but maybe you can still follow it. Normally, I would just look in the cupboard and throw together whatever I have to make a meal. I became very skilled in this technique while living in Korea and having two small shelves of food to use!

Jon tasting some of the soup....

...and then realizing it was too hot!
I'm really glad Jon loved the soup, I was a little surprised
because I didn't know whether he liked lentils or not. But thankfully, success!

Furniture!

As some of you know, Jon and I have been looking for living room furniture to complete our home. Right now, we have Nona's old glider recliner, our family's old Swedish chest, and a bunch of boxes. So, we obviously would like somewhere else to sit than the floor, the glider, and our bed. We've been looking at sofas and prices since we moved here and as I mentioned earlier on the blog, we had some success with my parents. Jon and I found the one we thought we wanted, we just needed to find a better price. I was thankful for Jon calling around to ask about prices and sales while I was at work. He found a great deal for the set we wanted at Carson Pirie Scott, a Herberger's sister company that I had never heard of. When the salesman, Marty, heard me say I had never heard of anything other than a Herberger's or Younkers, he was shocked, I guess he doesn't know what country life is all about. Anyways, he was a great guy and we ended up getting quite a discount as well as free delivery, yippee! But, we still have to wait for the sofa and loveseat to be made and delivered, which should take 8-10 weeks. So, we will still have to sit Korean style on the floor or cuddle up on the glider together, but that's fine with me. I look forward to curling up on our oh-so-comfortable sofa when it arrives! I thought you might want to see some pictures, sorry they aren't the best quality, but you can't get a feel of it. We are getting a sage color with a 'velvet' polyester material that's so soft and comfy. We also got to choose the throw pillows, I realized I am not that great at knowing or deciding what looks good. Marty said, "You will care someday." I thought, "I don't think so." I like certain things to match and go together, but I don't think I'm overly crazy about it or have a strong opinion about those sorts of things. Anyways, here you go! If you visit us, you might have a place to sit in a few months and can tell us what you think about our new set!

Picture off of the Rowe site, not the right color,
but you can see the shape at least.

I took this at the first shop we went too, we didn't
buy it there, but here's the love seat.

Love seat and Sofa

These pictures don't really do it justice, but at least you have an idea, now.

A Belated Thanksgiving

As I said before, I hadn't uploaded any photos on my computer since we left Korea, until now. Even though I already posted about Christmas and we are already more than a month past Thanksgiving, I love the pictures and the people in them and wanted you to see a few of them as well. My dad took these ones and I know we have some on our other camera, but this will do just fine! Also, this Thanksgiving was amazing, because it was the first time our entire family had been together since I believe 1999 (calculated by Blythe). So, our family has obviously grown since then, but there's always room for more! Thanksgiving is definitely my favorite holiday and this was a great memory, especially after being gone for the last year.

All the cousins/grandkids and Nona!-I love Nona's face,
always the laugh of the party!

All the beautiful women with Nona!

Sasta, Nona, and Hoodie. How cute!

Nona actually loves Molly, but the two times they met she kept saying,
"How can she see out of her eyes? Why does she have so much fur
over her eyes? Aren't you going to cut it?"

Magnus enjoying the Reddi-Whip. It was hilarious, Joseph was tipping him backwards in his high chair so he could get a better angle and fill his mouth.

E.O.T.S.J.B.!

I seem to have a sudden spur of energy to write blogs, it's probably because I finally decided to upload photos to my computer and I realized what I had hiding on it. Oops. Anyways, we might go back in time for a bit and visit some things I had neglected to share earlier. This post will be about some forgotten things as we arrived home from Korea. My computer had died when we got home, so I was without my comfortable blogging spot. So, kind of a random assortment of Molly and family things, hope you enjoy going back in time. :)

One of our last walks in Korea.


Molly loves the guinea pigs. Sorry the quality was not great on my phone.

My family is a pretty special family. Both my parents always came up with great ideas for Anders and I for fun and everything else. But, my mom came up with one of the most unique ideas I think I've ever heard of: End Of The Summer Junk Box (EOTSJB). Growing up, we were never allowed to have junk food or "gunk" food as Anders hatingly called it. Now that I am older, I am really thankful for my mom's persistence in making sure we ate healthy. Since we weren't allowed to have much junk food, mom designated Labor Day weekend to be the End Of The Summer Junk Box celebration day. I remember this being just about as good as Christmas, I mean seriously, what kid wouldn't want a box full of wrapped goodies to rip open and gorge themselves on? Well, not gorge, more like ration out for the next year until EOTSJB came around again. Well, this year, we had a late celebration and we were able to enjoy some fun and new goodies together.

What will it be????

Life Cereal!!!
Yes, Life was considered junk food in our home and healthy in Jon's home.

I'm obviously excited about the goldfish crackers and Anders
about his annual Swiss Cake Rolls.

We are all trying to decide whether or not to eat the sugar inside.

Among the things seen, there were apple rings, peach rings, Frosted Flakes, Lucky Charms, Peanut Butter Bars, and even more candy! Now, don't you wish you had an End Of The Summer Junk Box?

Pocket's First Christmas

This Christmas was really special for Jon and I, not only did we finally get to spend all of the Christmas celebration together, but we also had Molly Pocket with us. It was Molly's first Christmas since we got her as well as her first Christmas in America. I feel a little like one of those crazy old people that talks about their dog all the time, but I don't care! She truly is my baby and I can't even imagine how much more of a mother I will feel when we actually do have a baby (human that is). Anyways, Molly was given her very own stocking at the Enger home and had two new fun toys in it. Jon and I threw them to see if she was interested and she loved them. We remarked how wonderful it is that she now knows how to play. I don't know if you remember us mentioning her lack of understanding of 'play', but she had no idea. I brought her home from the shelter and had toys ready for her and she sat there, didn't bite, didn't move, she did nothing. I'm not exactly sure how we got her to play, but it probably took two months for her to start to realize what playing was (poor thing). When we went up to my parents house, Molly was also able to play with all our animals.

Molly the Adjuma.

I don't know why, but I tortured Molly by making a fountain on the top of her head with a bow, you can only see part of it from here. Poor tortured Pocket.

This is Molly after the rubber band and bow were removed. Again, poor tortured Pocket.

Jon decided to add a cape to the madness.

Little Hands

I said I would get some pictures up from my classroom and I am keeping my promise. We had such low numbers this last week, I actually had time to remember to snap a few pictures.

This is taken near the entrance to my room. We have the loft in the back for dramatic play, a math table in front of it, art table, and snack/cooking table next to the easel. We also have two computers behind the art cabinet for students to use for educational games. To the right of this picture (which you can see in the next picture) is a sink and prep table and two bathrooms for the students.

Here's from the back of my classroom, up front, we have our group time carpet and to the right we have a science and writing area, a puzzle carpet and separate block carpet area. If you could keep going at the top left, you would see the entrance to the room and the kids cubbies. You can see at the snack table, that we were cooking. I love that my co-teacher likes to do cooking with the kids 1-2 times every week. My classroom is also known for being very organized, disciplined, and science-based!

Some of my girls, too bad Bella is unhappy. I spend a lot of my time at the art table, things really haven't changed since I was 4, ha. I did plan some great art projects and activities for my 2nd week at Little Hands because my co-teacher was gone and I got to run things.

A few more things about my room is that we have 23 students together. Not all are there every day, but it's usually a pretty full and busy class. My room is also connected the the Kindergarten, we have a door in the back we share and so we have some extra help and get to see the older kids every once in awhile. I really love the people I work with and the place I am at. I am really thankful for such a wonderful place to work and look forward to being there for the duration of our time in this area.