TJ in Paradise

TJ is alive and in paradise. he assured us he does have running water and lives in an apartment like the hu-tongs in China.....He won't get to wear a skirt, he is on a bike and P day is Sunday fro us - Monday for him. He is currently in Robinson, Noumea, New Caledonia. Looks pretty heavenly on google earth...

New Caledonia

It is true TJ has finally left the US!!! WE got an email from him Thursday that he was leaving Friday! Yup, just like that. 6 months waiting for a visa and right in the middle of the Swine flu. I guess the travel office for the church decided to get him out sooner than later. He called Saturday from New Zealand, and we are anxiously awaiting word that he has arrived safely in New Caledonia. He, and we, are hoping he still remembers some French after 2 months in Chicago. Needless to say h is jet lagged and giddy. New Caledonia is 14 hours ahead of us ( see clock on right) , so hopefully he will adjust quickly.

Tian, Tian , Tian

I will upload pics later, but had to share the latest Tian-isms....

I'll start with the fact that she completely adores her Primary teachers the Cooks. She loves going to class, she loves seeing them in the hall, she loves all things Cook :o) The poor couple come to our home for a YM/YW activity and she will not leave them alone. They graciously put up with her endles chatter and her constant touching and Rachael ased her," Tian, do you like coming to Primary?" Tian answers and unequivocal, "Yes", followed by, " but the lessons are kind of boring." I wonder if there is any hope of teaching her tact...

Then, poor Rachael is pregnant with their first child and is just starting to show . I have talked to Tian about being careful ( ie, not jumping on her) with Sis Cook, repeatedly. She has assured me that Sis Cook likes it...but the best did not come until today. Tian was more gentle and I guess kept rubbing Rachael swollen tummy during class and then leaning over and kissing her squarely on the belly.... I am insisting when Tian is pregnant that she also have to teach the 3 year olds...

She also described to Rachael that her tummy will get bigger, ( imagine this with a 3 year old stretching her arms out) , and bigger and bigger until she pops....but has informed me that, "Sis Cook will have to ride on an airplane to get her baby out." I guess we will work on the biology lessons a little more.

In response to Tom's singing, she holds up her dimpled little hand," That's just not working for me Dad." Honest, she has never seen American Idol

To Trace, " Trace you just have to be nice and quiet like me." Hopefully, that won't happen.

Now Trace is talking more and more I am scared... Fortunately, he is not quite and precocious as Tian, but has definitely made sure we understand her very misdeed and recommends regular time outs for her. Tonight at dinner," Tian not her chair. Mom - time out her NOW." Didn't know time out was a verb.

My favorite is when he re-enacts the crimes. I guess Tian spit on him so of course, he spits in hand and rubs it on his shirt to drive the point home to me. He regularly hits himself to show me how horrid she is.

Of course, they do a great job of playing off of each other and when one is naughty the other is sickeningly good and points out how angelic they are to me and to each other!


Oh TJ - you missed the fun on he way to church today. On the gravel, a turkey ran out of the grass, and dad tried to slow to avoid hitting it. The poor thing started to take off and dad manage just to tap it on the rear end. We all laughed because you would have been hanging out the window trying to catch it!

Fart Spray

Trace sporting one of the many, many pics of super heroes he has convinced Tom to draw

Trace re enacting the crime and Tian, of course, had to get in on it

It is a long, silly and gross story, but for reasons I will leave to your imagination, since the first time he had it, Ty has called that sour, spray candy "fart spray." I don't even know what the "candy" is really called because I have never purchased it. Hmmm...maybe it's something about the special name Ty has for it...

Anyway, Trev is at Driver's ed, Ty and Tom are at baseball practice and I am cleaning up after dinner when I turn around Trace is lying on the floor clutching his throat, gag coughing. I step over to see the bottle of ...spray and as I am looking down his throat, Tian is busy telling Trace how much trouble he is in. I see that the lid is unscrewed, and as I have no idea how full this bottle was or if it is dangerous to drink, I am in a panic. Tian, seeing my crazed look, looks at poor Trace who is still gagging and clutching his neck, and says," Oooo Trace, now Mom is going to be the wicked witch. (Her favorite love name for me when she gets a time out.) Ty will be soooo mad you didn't ask first. That is BAAAAAD news." Trace who at this point has decided the coughing and gasping is his only hope for survival, continues to lie on the floor while I try to find the label to the candy. Of course, today was garbage day, so the garbage is LONG gone. I am thinking I can't call poison control - what would I say, my child just drank fart spray?!?! All the while, Tian is relishing telling Trace just how much trouble he is in and why. "You are going to have a BIG time out. Ty will be sooo mad."

So I call Tom to find Ty on the field. Keep in mind baseball is a SERIOUS sport to Tom and when I tell him I need to talk to Ty NOW, he replies,

"Well, he is playing baseball." I explain it is an emergency and Tom is still hesitant. One would think I was interrupting the World Series, keep in mind this is Little League , pre-season practice. I finally convince Tom I have to talk to Ty now. Trace is still gagging, now I am sure it is simply to avoid any punishment. Ty, who handles the situation calmly, assuring me had used most of his special spray and the goes on to let me know that unfortunately, it was not as effective as it used to be (darn.) I now set Trace in the bathroom with a glass of water to finish before he can leave, to which he looks at me with his cute, big black eyes,

" I tan't. Tummy weally hurts." I guess we will be happy with 2 sentences in a row. Maybe we can change the name of the candy..I think "sentence candy" or "talk spray"...

Easter

The lineup

How cruel did they think the Easter bunny was...or maybe they just wanted to do some dumpster diving

Trace perusing his empty plastic eggs - he ate as he went

Ty couldn't wait to be the one to swing the pinata. He loved his precarious perch..

Tian and Abbie carefully passing the egg. Tian and Abbie hit it off right away. They have agreed to email and even played tic tac toe ( well tic tac toe for 3 year olds) As we were leaving Abbie said, "Thanks for your friendship." They were meant to be friends

Tian on the hunt

A new and improved hat...well at least it is different

Trace is ready to fill his basket

Tom lowering the count to 6

We are set to close on Lot 5 this week - Hurray!! We hope to sell a few more before the year is out. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

We had a fun Easter. Our good friends, the Germaines, invited us to join them for an egg hunt and dinner. It was wild and wonderful! They even provided an Easter pinata. Trace thought that was great - well anything involving baseball equipment is great in his book. As soon as Corwin got the blindfold on Tian, she started swinging. She couldn't wait for the fun. Luckily he still has both eyes and his teeth.

The older boys got in on the fun and managed to search wildly for some hidden eggs just for them. Tian and Trace joined the Ritzman kids and filled their baskets to the brim. Trace was a pro and emptied each egg as he found it. I am a little worried about his expertise at taking "jelly bean shots"...

Dyeing the eggs was such a hair-raising experience I think we missed taking any pics... Somehow our carpet is still off white ( what was I thinking?!?!?) , the counters are a little stained and Trace's lips will be blue forever. Actually, he just has two blue dots reminiscent of Star Wars' Queen Amadala. He thought that the little dye pellet might be yummy and tried a taste. He doesn't recommend it. In fact the experience was worthy of a full sentence, " That's very yucky." Trace is very thrifty with his words

6 More Lots to Go

Yeah - Hurray!!! We will be closing on a lot next week. We are still hoping to sell a few more before the end of the year, but we are thrilled to have one unde rour bet and with a faily who will start construction immediatey. SO keep you fingers crossed that some activity out there will get the ball rolling :o)

COuldn't have a post without something from Tian and Trace. Here is their "shape study."

Crazy Week

Trev's experiment with egg yolk paint
Ty's creations

The bosy artists

Tian and Trace's masterpieces from egg yolk paint

Ty has also had ball practice. Tian was determined to climb the fence to the top. Trace wanted NO part of it. They have aldo been busy gluing and cutting and markering.
It was fun rolling down the hill until they crashed into each other.....

Sorry TJ - hopefully you haven't already checked the blog...I forgot it was Wednesday.

WE have been busy doing nothing terribly exciting just the usual stuff...
Trev did run in a meet Monday and although he didn't place where he wanted to he ran 2 miles in just over 12 minutes. ( I was impressed) It was his first HS meet. Of course, Evan ran it in 9:30. It is tough to have the State Champ on your team.It was freezing and I managed to leave the camera in the car...

Tuesday he had another meet in Adel and had to miss due to drivers ed

Monday Ty tested for Green Belt in TKD. We will find out next week if he passed.

The boys have been learning about Giotto an artsit fromt he middle ages who made paint wit egg yolks...so of course we made egg yolk paint. It was fun and the paints were very shiny. As you can see. I am not sure what kind of creature Tian painted, but she had fun.

We enjoyed staying home and watching General Conference on the internet while eating cinnamon rolls. We really missed listening to you snore :o)

Helping to cook

Dinner is always so much fun with 4 extra hands. .. And as you can see, Trace takes the job VERY seriously. As all good chefs know, presentation is everything, especially the presentation of the chef himself

The boys have been assigned to make dishes from their choice of a European country. Trev chose Turkey and we had some WONDERFUL kabobs and we are awaiting Turkish Delight.

We are anxious to enjoy some delicacies from Norway from Ty....

Ty's Ear....

Who's hair is wilder?

The babies traces outlines of their bodies and we have been adding to them each day

Since I was so busy with the babies I ignored Ty and his cries of pain..... I kept telling him to tough it out and to quit being such a complainer. Finally he insisted I take a look....

Ear infection gone wild...

April Fools

00

Too Much Fun

Hi TJ!!! We are so happy you can read our Blog now...so maybe I will be more diligent keeping it up! For everyone else, TJ is still in Chicago and frankly, I am glad in light of the recent volcanic activity and earthquake in the Tongan area.

Family Home evening treat - we tried a fruit pizza. Tom was not too excited, but made a quick conversion to fan :o) This week we had no "Daniel" story, just made the pizza.

We traced people today - Tian and Trace are practicing their pirate look here. I wonder if there are Chinese pirates ...

Trace is too excited to start the art project of the day :o)

We have actually had a "slow" week. Trev has been sick so we laid low most of the week. This weekend the older scouts planned a paint balling camp out . Tom "sacrificed" and joined Trev for the fun and venison steaks on an open fire. ( TJ -they said Bernard was tasty) Trev came home covered in welts, Tom was smart and avoided the deluge.

Ty is excited to start baseball and will be playing for the Rangers this year.

Tian and Trace have been busy using lots and lots of paper. Tian is fascinated by spelling and has manged to learn to spell: look, mom, dad, Tian, Ty and no. Trace is an expert at tracing his hand and has mastered every kids puzzle in the house. My favorite achievement has been Tian's anatomically correct people...I thought only little boys went through this. They also both love to recite nursery rhymes and Trace an interesting medley of the ABC's,and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. The winner of the skill of the week goes to Trace who can now hiccup-burp in perfect rhythm. Ty is green with envy. I didn't even know a 2 year old could make themselves burp!

Trace wowed the plastic surgeon this week. He had an appointment to decide if he should have a lip/nose revision now or wait. The surgeon agreed waiting is our best option -so hurray no surgeries for Trace for a while! Trace wowed Dr Franks by asking, "Where's my uvula?" Dr Franks was a "little" taken aback and before he could respond Trace shrugged is shoulders and told him, "In the garbage!" and proceeded to make him look in the trash can with him. ( When Trace had his palate repair Dr Franks removed his uvula. A while ago Tian and Trace were looking in everyone's mouth and Tian told Trace that his "worm in his throat" was missing.

We also had fun with Amelia this week. She joined us for some home school fun while she was on Spring Beak. She helped make leprechaun traps to catch those pesky leprechauns who turned everything from the milk to the toilet water green for St Patrick's day. They also left some yummy golden candy.

So here is the Tianism:- Amelia arrives and Tian looks her square in the eye and says,"Melia, we're going to make leper - craps today!!" Poor Amelia's eyes about popped out of her head!

A final note from Trace. He asked at dinner ," Is TJ in Fiji?" I said he wasn't and asked Trace if he missed TJ. he replied, " Yeah, home. Play Play-doh." So we will keep a couple canisters around for you and your fan TJ. You are missed and we are counting the days until you are home, but are all so excited for your adventure to really begin.

TJ's pics from the MTC

TJ sent home his memory card from his camera for us to enjoy his pictures.

We are guessing this is a book that each of the missionaries signs and leaves for the next group headed to New Caledonia complete with their advice ...

A couple of the guys TJ met are from Tonga and Somoa - they were happy to find out TJ was headed to their neck of the woods. These poor guys are headed to Canada!! I don't think they had ver seen snow before they arrived at the MTC..
Do you think ou can even buy winter clothes in Samoa?

the missionaries in front of the reflecting pool at the temple

Tape, Cats and Goliath

Yup, we are still alive and no major injuries to report :o) Trev has started track practice so life is wild(er) again.

We have hired a new realtor - so keep your fingers crossed that we sell some lots soon. We have some people interested, but no $$ yet..

Here are a couple of fun pics, but first the Tianisms:

To Trace in the back seat, "Trace, shh, shh . Stop talking I want to talk about ME."

Isn't that a country song?

To Trace the next day," Shh, I want to hear my voice."

It is too bad she doesn't like herself isn't it ?

Her latest bit of "fun" is to come up to you especially when you are saying or doing something she doesn't like is to touch you and say, "Pause." I think we have let her watch too many videos.

Trace chose the story for Family Home Evening and insisted on a repeat of David and Goliath. The boys acted it out last week, so this week they decided to wow him with a life size drawing. He was so impressed he took a toy sword and slashed Goliaths legs to shreds....

TY was not happy

Trace's new skill - catching Jack when he makes a run for the inside cats' food.

He is now the official "Jack Catcher"

Trace starting to get annoyed with his new job

I was proud to see TJ's skillful use of duct tape....This was the pkg he sent home with his hat and gloves before he got the news about Chicago
Much to TJ's dismay he was informed last Tuesday ( March 2) that his visa for the island of New Caledonia has not come through. He was assigned to serve in the Chicago North mission until his visa comes through. Not to bad until you realize he has NO winter clothes - right down to sandals. I madly mailed off a package with gloves, hat and coat to help him survive the windy city. We have no idea how long he will be there, but received a nice email from the travel office to let us know that they are aware of the situation and are taking care of it. I guess New Caledonia says his visa is approved and the French Consulate here has no info. I am assuming this means his paperwork is in the system and just needing some final approvals. It is funny, he told us the missionary he replaced in Chicago was in the same situation and was also awaiting his visa for New Caledonia. We will keep you posted - in the meantime pray for warm weather in Chicago :o)

The Beauty Shop...

I wonder what they are thinking

My Favorite - you can see Tian's dimples

Trace making sure his brothers can see his reward

It is amazing what a gummy bear bribe can do - this picture took about 50 tries

Poof they are my children - both of their eyes are closed

Ever the princess

It may look loving, but.....

Yes, our house is a jungle gym , at least it is according to Tian when I asked her if it looked one....I guess I need to rethink the decorating scheme.

and yes this was one of the pics while I was trying to get one nice picture

Trace and his new short 'do

The new method for bottles ( I wish)

Last week I finally made it to get a haircut, Tian managed to invite herself along by pointing out that beauty shops are for girls. She came with and was absolutely fascinated. She talked non-stop ( I know , that's a shocker ) and even directed the hairdresser on how to wash my hair and questioned her very step ( Sorry Sheila)....She watched as I got a trim and then had my hair dried. I got up from the chair and Tian started to get in. I explained that since her hair was in pig tails it was not a good day for cut. Sheila backed me up and explained she need an appointment. Undeterred, Tian put one hand on her hip and the other lilting in the air and said very matter-a-factly, "Then let's make a 'pointment." At that point all was lost, so she set up an appointment for herself the following week. Oh , did I mention her inspection of the ladies getting their nails done? She explained to everyone who would listen that she can't have nail polish until she quits sucking her thumb :o) But she oohed and ahhed over every painted nail in the shop.

I managed to forget the camera on Tian's big day at the beauty parlor and horror of horrors I let Trace join us. I figured his poor mis-shapen head could use a professional touch. His new hair cut makes him older and mean..but he is convinced he looks like Spiderman. He was a good sport and dutifully climbed in the chair when Tian commanded him to go first. He was not sure about the whole thing and maintained a look of skepticism during the entire procedure while never taking his eyes off of the gumball machine. ( I promised them each a gumball if they would simply sit still)

Tian loved every minute of her beauty parlor experience. I mean it was a perfect morning for her. She sat in a chair looking at herself in the mirror while we all talked about her beautiful hair - does life get any better. We teased her dad that she got a short pixie 'do, but just a trim and we decided to grow out the bangs. He was VERY relieved that evening.

And yes, they both got a gumball - Trace a nice hairy one since he dropped his and popped it in his mouth before I could say a word. Tian managed to produce alligator tears when a white one came instead of a pink and Sheila produce a quarter for a second try

Last week was a busy one, but we had our last visit with a social worker to file Trace's final report with China. Fortunately, his black eye was almost completely faded.... Feb 24, we celebrated our 1 year anniversary of Trace's adoption. I can' t believe that it had already been a year, but on the other hand I can't belive we have only had him in our lives for only a year. I truely can't remeber life without him.