It's more than taming her hair

Ever see a movie about Wild horses? I know kinda weird..but you know that scene I'm talking about. A group of wild horses running across the plateau, muscular, dangerous, free, uncultivated, running, running, running completely wild.
I would never say I was that wild...but you know that saying, "what goes around comes around." Well, my "...comes around" is in the form of my crazy 3 year old. She is just plain wild! If we ever need a good laugh we always joke around and say, "just wait look at her face..she is already planning her next adventure." We got the girls a bunk bed, actually when they were 1 and 3! Yes, I know...but we were desperate to give them some space for playing. Now we've had this bunk bed for a couple years now and I had a weak moment last week..oops. I shared MY bunk bed adventures with my girls "bad mommy" mistake. I shared how we piled up pillows and blankets and would jump off, how I pushed my "friend" off (I'll call her Sally), Sally was not MY friend, my mommy and her mommy were friends and I was forced to play with her (yeah, I was not a loving 10 year old) anyways, I shared how we hid Andrew's toys up there (my little brother) how we used to put stuffed animals on the fan and then turn it on high speed and watch them fly off (that's how one of my glass dolls chipped her hand, the stuffed animal hit her, she fell off the shelf and somehow the carpet did not break her fall), so I was mistakenly sharing these with my 3 and 5 year old..I had a moment of pure weakness.
So my 3 year old is wild, even has blond wild curls to add to her look but I LOVE this about her. Her pure excitement over life is exhilarating. If she sees a bed she is the first to climb up and jump! she climbs every tree she can reach the first branch on, she scaled the top of the cellar door and proceeded to "slide" down the roof, she climbs our backyard fence,she climbs up on the counter to get her snacks...on top of all the craziness is her determination to be completely self-sufficient and do everything by herself, hence the outfits that never match but I LOVE it. I still remember that feeling of being independent, the sheer exhilaration when I figured something out on my own, feeling brave, letting loose, pretty much just having the best time ever every single moment possible. I'm remembering this feeling now as I watch my 3 year old jump from the top bunk into a pile of beanchairs and blankets on the floor ..I just don't remember feeling the heart attack my mom was having as I did it, but boy do I feel that now. Here's to those wild kids we are re-living our pasts through, I just hope there aren't too many white-knuckling, hair-rising, small heart attacks attached to these moments, the one I had today was enough.

Tulip Shoots

It's about 50 degrees out today and we were all outside running around, going for walks and playing in just sweatshirts. I grew up living in FL and I never understood growing up the excited that comes with spring. As we cleared some leaves out of our flower beds we saw the Tulip shoots are as anxious as we are for spring to arrive! They are about 4inches high. After playing outside and while the girls took a "rest" I was able to watch the birds eat their new seed we got for them and do my quiet time. Today was Acts 10.
After finishing up Quiet Time I got started on the girls new spring wardrobe! I have been waiting for warm weather to come and motivate me to start fulfilling my New Year's Resolution. I want to make most of my girls clothing. I have yet to attempt jeans, coats and shoes. Which WILL happen this year!

Here are a few things I made today for Novalie, I actually made 2 other dresses as well BUT I did not measure her and they are huge! She is NOT close to size 5/6 when it comes to dress patterns by Simplicity!

I was so excited to get them on her I didn't wait for her to completely wake up after her nap, here is my Sleepy Novie-Beauty

Christmas

Oops, this whole time I thought I posted about Christmas and for some reason I saved it as a draft! Anyways here are the Christmas photos :)



We had all the family pitch in this year and help us get the girls a dollhouse. Each family member bought a room in the house. The girls squealed with excited when the sheet was lifted and the Doll house revealed.

We were able to host our Annual White Elephant gift exchange with the interns, our 3rd year! Always lots of laughs to be had when strange gifts are opened :)

So, Pinteresting!

Not sure how many of you are on Pinterest these days. If you have any ounce of creativity in your body, need for organization or like to decorate for Christmas (everyone I think) this is the site for you! Everything from DIY, recipes, clothing, tutorials, tips on organizing, cleaning, decorating, holidays ideas, crafts etc (you get the idea) it's the ultimate of "idea" networking in a nutshell, and men, it's for you too. Props to the guy friends who have started to follow my pins.

I used to spend hours and I mean hours! on the Internet trying to find tutorials and adorable ideas for my girls, home and holidays now I'm just a measly click away to my Pinterest account where I have have categories such as; Fall/Thanksgiving ideas, Fashion Inspiration, Repurpose, Living Wiser, Motivation, and Pretty Food (plus about 5 more). Feel free to check out my page:

http://pinterest.com/tabicati/

Now the 1 and ONLY problem I have found with Pinterest is the downfall of just "pinning" ideas all day instead of actually following through on the ideas. Do you do this? or am I somehow the ONLY person who struggles with this. Pinterest needs "rewards" for those individuals who actually fulfill their pins! Like a sticker, balloon or cookie :) Anyone with me on this one? So after pinning for a year and fulfilling a pin once every 3months I completed/made 4 pins in 1 week! aaahhh, I feel fabulous! It's like I lost 5lbs! Anyways, I am going to try better on how crazy I get with pinning. I want to actually MAKE what I pin, complete that organizing tip, bake that recipe and put that outfit together!

Here's to a year of doing and not just pinning. What Pinteresting item did you fulfill this week?

Here's one of mine:

A Day with Mickey

Here are just a few of my favorite Disney memories:

This proves Disney was a HUGE hit

"It's a small world after all"

Nothing like squishing together in the People Mover

Just as we were walking away Eden turns around and shoots Goofy Pirate! It turned into quite the fight! Goofy with his sword and Eden with her gun. I could not stop laughing and cheering her on!

Auntie Sarah gets in on the dress-up fun, literally, this dress size; 3Years and up.

Camp

There is just something about camp that I LOVE!!! and I LOVE camp at Word of Life Florida! It's exciting, heart-pumping, you run around while you sing songs, you jump, scream, cheer, worship, are challenged, encouraged and blessed. I have missed camp!!! and it feels like we have never left. Also, my kids LOVE camp!! They love to run around with the counselors, cheer, scream, clap their hands and sing as loud as they can. The guitarist in the band gave us the set list of songs we have been singing so we can "youtube" them, why? because my girls have been asking none stop to keep singing camp songs and we cannot remember them all! They are all wonderful, convicting, encouraging and such a blessing to sing together as a family. I love how the Praise Band here has written many of the songs, what a blessing to have such talent being used for camp!

I love the feeling of family here, and many of them are my family! Everyone is Uncle or Aunt, and even many of the Conference Guests have become family over the last 5+ years of working with them. It's amazing how we immediately catch up with one another, encourage one another, and leave refreshed after visiting with them.

Another key element I love is the contagious desire to serve here. When we need help with something we never hear, "no" or "we can't do that" it's always, "let me see what I can do and if I can't help you I'll find someone who can" and it always happens. That is encouraging! What a blessing to be surrounded by individuals who desire to be Servant Leaders. A rare quality even in believers today, and right now I'm surrounded by 100's of them! Greatly blessed to be here these past two weeks! We are having a wonderful time!

Michigan, Furlough Part I

It's amazing how fast our time in MI went, furlough is going by way too fast and its making me sad already! it started out kinda nice and laid back but it sped up quickly and didn't stop until we landed in Tampa last Thurs. It's hard to sum up one blog post for one whole month so I will highlight the major events that happened over our 30 day stay in MI:

Frankenmuth

If you have never been it's a must visit location if you are anywhere near it. It's know as "Michigan's Little Barvaria" I still cannot believe I did not get a pretzel! It has many unique shops, such as Bronner's where it's Christmas ALL year long,

the little Coo-coo Clock shop, Fudge and ice cream shops, leather, scrapbook, candle and candy making and too many more to remember! We had a relaxing evening browsing the little shops after the World Famous Zehnder's Chicken dinner http://www.zehnders.com/dining/zehndersdining.htm. We stayed at the Splash Village hotel where we swam, made Ashley go down the "scary" slide, tried to relax in the lazy river (too many people mushing us to really relax) :) the girls went down slides, shot water pistols, got water sprayed and dumped on them and ate DOTS ice cream. we all had fun swimming and playing. http://www.zehnders.com/waterpark/splashvillagewaterpark.htm

Outside of Bronner's

Eating our 5 course Chicken Dinner

Behind the little unique stores

Great Grandparents

I treasure and enjoy the moments my girls have with their grandparents but nothing it more precious than time spent with GREAT grandparents, sharing stories, reading books, playing chalk, games and in the sprinkler, touring the farm, playing at the park...we made some wonderful memories.

Our home

We were greatly blessed my Ms. Lynette for providing us with a beautiful apartment, rent free, utility free. Words cannot express what a blessing she has been to us. What a dear lady to hear of a need and take it upon herself to make it happen for strangers :) Than you again and again! thank you to all the Members of Deckerville Bible for furnishing the apartment and for Ashley carrying it up all those stairs ;)

Supporters

How encouraged we have been by our monthly supporters, 1 time gifts, churches, friends and family members in MI. We had 14 meetings, every Sunday and Wednesday night was full, we had dinner with friends, family and supporters, a park day to catch up with friends and supporters, toys, clothing and money given to our family and ministry, and many words of enocuragement and prayers. We came to encourage them but always left greatly encouraged. Thank you for your faithfulness!

Butterflies

We released our butterflies today. A friend of ours home schools her 4 children (and as a home school graduate myself I remember all the unique opportunities I had growing up having school at home) she ordered us some caterpillars (larvae) to watch grow and change into butterflies. The day we arrived June 2nd they started to build their cocoons so we missed them as caterpillars but we got our little silk-spunned friends and dove into learning about butterflies. They hatched a week later and we had 4 Painted Lady butterflies fluttering around our little cage in the kitchen we watched them eat and fly for a few days then released them into the Autumnwood butterfly garden. It was such a fun thing to do with the girls and for those of you with small kids the waiting period is just perfect for a 3 and 4 year old :)

Eden Louise

My little Spunky, crazy, cuddly, horse, Pirate and tool loving little girl turned 3 last week. We flew over to America the day of her 3rd birthday making it literally the longest birthday of any one's life. After 20+ hours of flying, driving, traveling we got to America at noon to start June 2nd all over again :) 2 days later we celebrated Eden's 3rd birthday My Little Pony style. Complete with Aunt Ashley, Grandma, Grandpa, both Great Grandmother's and Grandad we ate hot dogs, mac-n-cheese, pickles and a very wobbly (melting) rainbow cake. All requests of our little Eden.

We had ponies hanging from the ceiling, on the plates, napkins, table, crowns, cake and table. We had Pony crowns, snacks and whistles. We blew bubbles, sang, open lots of Pony presents and had a tea party. What a wonderful afternoon celebrating Eden. Happy Birthday little Edy-crazy-Lou, I cannot believe you are another year older and old enough to start Kindergarten now. I am blessed to be a part of your life, and I love being your mommy. You are hilarious and unpredictable!

Walmart

So, as Andy and I got closer to America we started talking about all the people we would see, food we would get to eat, places we would visit, stores we would browse, and items we needed to purchase to prepare for the next 2 years in Hungary (mostly shoes and winter items).

The car ride to our new "home" for the next month was over 2hrs from the airport and in order to keep us all awake we decided to hit Walmart to get out and walk (and truthfully I was excited since it's been 2 years since I've perused Walmart) yeah, I had forgotten about Walmart. Andy and I were so overwhelmed with the CHEAP!!! prices and countless options for one item that we actually started to get dizzy and sick. I just wanted to get out of there! How weird is that! We were also exhausted and beyond the limit any normal body should be pushed to which added to it, but what a surreal moment not what I had anticipated.

Also the gas prices here are so cheap as well, $4.20 per gallon! It's over $8 in Europe. Again, we were shocked and surprised. Didn't think we would be saying, "everything is so cheap!" every 2 seconds :)

http://www.walmart.com/

Put things into perspective... and Walmart you really live up to your slogan.

Flying with kids

As we anticipated leaving for furlough we always forgot one small thing that has to happen before we actually arrive and see our family and friends. The trapped in a flying, metal, claustrophobic non-kid friendly plane thing. The girls were awakened at 3am and stayed awake for the next 20hours straight. Eden slept 2 whole hours the whole trip and Novie slept a whopping 20min. The first 10 were actually quite a breeze, they had new games, toys, snacks we never allow them to indulge in, and a wonderful perfectly timed layover, giving them the chance to run around. But man those last 4hrs. on the plane felt like a whole day in itself. We were seated right in front of the "grumpy" passenger who was asking the girls every few minutes to be quiet. First off they were not screaming or crying just playing. Lots of laughing, giggling and being different animals yes, there were some toys that were loud, and I understand that. When you don't have kids you have no idea, when you've never flown with a 3 and 4 year you have no idea. I thought they were amazing! Now we did have a meltdown and of course he didn't say anything during that time..kinda inconsistent...didn't make sense..I was waiting to see his head pop around or his head so I could pop it, either way...kinda surprised he didn't chime in during the meltdown (someone had lost a sock) amazing what spurs on a meltdown :)

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150638871690650&set=a.10150579923910650.679820.904125649&type=1&theater

The Lord blessed me with patience any other time I would have given him a piece of my mind for speaking to us that way. :) But again inexperience and naivete was his worse enemy and the fact he kept forgetting it was 9am-5pm, that's typically when kids are wide awake and playing right? :) But anyways I was proud of Novie and Eden kinda impressed how well they did, and kinda disappointed in myself for expecting the worse from them, I keep forgetting I can trust them now. We took several walks, found out a lady sitting in front of Novie was also celebrating her birthday just like Eden, 50+ she said and Novie said, " you're five!" I'm going to be 5 this year like you!" when she held her hands and pumped them by 5, Novie hasn't learned multiplication yet :) also 2 rows back we met a man also celebrating his birthday! it's like they seated them all together to celebrate together, we thought it was pretty funny! Eden sported her felt crown and told the stewardess it was her birthday. (I was kinda sad to hear Delta does not have anything for kids anymore, no wings, tours to meet the captain or have him come back, no one would sing or do anything special for her, no crayons, coloring books or lids for cups) it's been 2 years since we last flown and we did that whole list last time. Amazing how non-kid friendly Delta became in 2 years..seems they would improve in this area not minimize it. But we celebrated her 3rd birthday the best we could, we have special prizes, games, a crown and new outfit! Also I think we sang to her about 10 times :) I was so excited to be able to have such an exciting birthday for her, how often do you fly on your birthday!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150638871690650&set=a.10150579923910650.679820.904125649&type=1&theater

Here's a funny story, but how would you respond if it happened to you?! especially if you had kid's in tow!!

At the airport for a business trip, Maureen settled down to wait for the boarding announcement at Gate 35. Then she heard the voice on the public address system saying, 'We apologise for the inconvenience, but BOAC Flight 937 will board from Gate 41.'

Maureen picked up her luggage and carried it over to Gate 41. Not ten minutes later the public address voice told her that Flight 937 would in fact be boarding from Gate 35.

So, again, Maureen gathered her carry-on luggage and returned to the original gate. Just as she was settling down, the public address voice spoke again, 'We would like to thank all passengers for participating in BOAC's physical fitness programme.'

and lastly, Brian sums flying up in a nutshell, again, it's always exaggerated with children :) but when flying you have to laugh or it would be torture :) watch this before you leave on your overseas trip, it lightens the mood greatly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9em-ZCddWk

As we were flying I knew people were praying what a blessing to know people love and care for us on BOTH sides of the Atlantic! The girls did well, the flights were quick, smooth and they served PIZZA and ICE CREAM for dinner (of course it was our opportunity to again celebrate Eden's special day!) we got to load first, had many people help, we got to skip lines to board and get through customs, which is always a huge blessing! Overall it was a successful day of flying and now we are Stateside ready for furlough, family and friends!! See you soon!

Anyak Napjara

Happy Mother's Day!

For Mother's Day the Ovoda kids invited all their mommy's for songs and playtime. They sat on our laps, quoted poems and showed us their favorite toys at school. Such a wonderful day with my little darling Novalie. I only wish I could have understood what they were saying :)

Quoting poems and singing songs together

Novie's little cubby

Time to clean up and play outside!

We spent most time outside on the swings and chasing balls