The Hats that CrazyMom Wears

We discovered recently that we needed to know the blood type of everybody in the family for some of the paperwork related to moving to Kenya.  With no time to schedule a bunch of doctor visits, we contacted our local nurse - CrazyMom.  She ordered multiple home blood type kits and we had a family party last night by having CrazyMom prick our fingers.  Miss Bookworm used her knowledge from biology class to guess my blood type based on CrazyMom's and the kid's blood types, but Nurse CrazyMom still made me do the test.  I think she just wanted to stick me with a needle and watch me squirm.

Garage Sale

When I sat down to read my email tonight, I found that Miss Bookworm had shared a Google Doc with me.  It is a busy time in our lives and so she decided to help out by writing an ad for the garage sale we are having Saturday.  It is always great when the kids find ways to chip in to help move us along towards Kenya.  Here is her ad:

Due to our impending departure from the country, we are (still) trying to get rid of the junk in our house. Junk being defined as anything we are not taking to Kenya, storing long-term, or filling our trashcans with. The method of junk-removal for this weekend is: garage sale. This means that you officially have a job in our departure. Get your friends, family and anyone you happen to meet along the way and come relieve us of our junk. And then come back for round two. (Don’t forget to borrow a truck!) Because we have a lot of stuff to sell, and if you don’t believe me, well.... you’ll just to have come and see for yourself. Our garage sale will be this Saturday (May 12) and it will last all day long. We will be selling everything from toys to dishes to furniture. So come one, come all to the Big Crazy Family garage sale!

Spoiling the Grandkids

A few days ago I received this email from my boys:

“Dear Dad, We are coming home from Chicago. We had a great time. We are looking forward to coming home. We hope you will spoil us as much as grandma and grandpa have been spoiling us.”

The three boys were making good use of Grandpa’s smart phone by pecking out this email to me. Grandma and Grandpa hosted them for a couple of days in Chicago and they got to do all sorts of fun activities. Going to museums by day and eating out at night provides a good basis for spoiling, and then there was the ice cream, cake, and smoothies.

Since we were not there, we don’t know all that went on, but all reports indicate they had a great time. However, a “great time” is in the eye of the beholder. Evidently Grandpa and the boys had a “great time” at Ed Debevic's while Grandma made a mental note to never return there with them. :-)

Of course, the trip was not really about spoiling the grandkids, but about loving them. We are thankful that Grandma and Grandpa took this time to invest in our boys.

Digitizing Photos

Yay!  We wrapped up a big project tonight.   We finished scanning all of our photo albums.  It will be exciting to be able to take all of our photos with us as we head off to Kenya now that they fit neatly on my laptop.

It is also fun to have them accessible rather than off in some album somewhere.  For example, take a look at a few gems that were in the last album we scanned.  They are B&W photos I took in 1999 when Buddy was born.

Presenting Buddy to the girls when they came to visit at the hospital.

Buddy's first day.

Ed sleeping.

Miss Bookworm was holding books even back then.

Celebrating Five Years in America

F.G. and K.D. just celebrated their five-year anniversary of landing on American soil. The above photo shows how much they have changed physically, but they have grown in many other ways as well.

I sat down and chatted with both of them today about some of their early memories of the transition to America. K.D. remembers grabbing Little Foot’s hand when he got off the plane and not letting go for the rest of the day. Little Foot was a big comfort to K.D. when he first came and none of the warnings we heard about “virtual twinning” came true for us.

K.D. also remembers looking out the airplane window and thinking he saw moving bugs on the ground. He could not figure out why they were so “civilized,” moving along lines so neatly. It was not until the plane got close enough to the ground that he saw they were really cars.

F.G. remembers being brown in a largely white world. There were times when she just wanted to blend in and not be seen, but everybody noticed her.

When I asked them about the best things about living in America, here is what they said:

K.D.
-Pizza!
-Living in a house with a TV that shows American football.
-Being able to turn on a switch and have a light come on whenever you want.
-That the houses are not small.
-Not getting hit with a stick in school.

F.G.
-Having more food than she could normally get.
-Being able to go to school.
-Having parents that love you.
-Being able to sleep in a bed in a big room.
-Having more opportunities to play with friends.

There are things to be missed, however. They both miss friends and loved ones. F.G. also misses being able to walk to the market rather than having to take a car. K.D. misses roaming the streets with his friends. Sometimes he would find a coin, walk into a store, buy a piece of bread, and then take it home to share with his sister.

It was fun to reminisce about the “old” days with the two of them. I am looking forward to seeing what the next five years bring.

Reading in Bed

After a long week of work, I came home a little bit bedraggled tonight. After changing out of my work clothes, I plopped down on my bed and started reading a copy of Advanced Photography where I found a sweet article about painting with light. It was so good, in fact, that it motivated me to get off my duff and paint my own picture.

A special thanks to Miss Bookworm and Buddy who helped me with some of the logistics of the shot.

Life Together

Here is a photo from the last newsletter we sent out.  It has K.D. trying on bee keeper clothing, Miss Bookworm celebrating her 16th bday, Anna singing in a church event, CrazyMom on her laptop, Little Foot ice skating on a lake, F.G. doing homework, Ed playing indoor soccer, and Buddy ice fishing.  Lots of fun memories just from life happening.

Bagels in Africa

CrazyMom and I have a lot to do to prepare for the family move to Africa. When I got home from work today, I saw that CrazyMom had another checkmark done on her to-do list:

✓ Figure out how to have bagels for the family.

There cooling on the counter was a rack full of homemade bagels. The complicated process involved broiling, then boiling, and then some more baking. The results were great, however.

Now I just wonder if it will work in Africa when we are living at 7,500 feet . . .

Beep, Beep, Beep

To get the full effect of this post, please play this video every few seconds.

Microwave beeping


You may recall a post from September about CrazyMom’s difficulty with waiting 30 seconds for her coffee to heat in the microwave – or for the sink to fill with water. :-( She simply has too much to do.

Since that time we have purchased a new microwave (are you still playing the video?) in our efforts to prepare the house to sell. One of the features of this new microwave is that it beep, beep, beeps at you until you go and retrieve whatever is in it – like CrazyMom’s coffee.

30 seconds is still too long for CrazyMom to wait for her coffee to heat, but now people will bring her the warmed cup of coffee just so that they can stop the microwave from beep, beep, beeping.

All busy moms deserve to have others serve them every once in awhile and a beep, beep, beeping microwave is just the thing to help others remember to do it.

If you will excuse me now, I have to go deliver a warm cup of coffee . . .

Predicted Failure by My Kids

Lots of times I get home from work 15 min or so before a meal and I help myself to whatever is laying around.  It does not matter if it is cookies, chips, or carrots.

“Can I have one, too,” I then hear from a child when I am snitching.

“Nope.  It might spoil your appetite,” is my reply in accordance with CrazyMom’s rule of no snacks before a meal.

“But you are having one,” the child will protest even though they already know what I will say.

“Yeah, but I am dad.”

Even though I have lots of years of proof that snitching before a meal will clearly not spoil my appetite, this is one of those awkward do-as-I-say-and-not-as-I-do type of moments, so I made a New Year’s resolution to stop snitching - sort of.

Clearly my children do not think I will be able to do this because they have seen me standing in the pantry eating potato chips too many times.  As evidence of their prediction of my failure, I submit this photo.  When the chips got laid out today for lunch, I saw this written on one of the bags.

They are right, of course.  In fact, they know that my New Year’s resolution is not to stop snitching, but only to stop snitching in front of them.