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Sunday, 22 November 2009

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

Today's Mama and ProvoCraft are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year?
- "30 Rock" Season 3
- A new digital camera
- A food processor
- More Fabric!!! More! More!
- A couple sewing books (Alabama Stitch and Weekend Sewing come to mind)

2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received?
Hmmm. I don't even remember! It may not have been my favorite but the most memorable is probably this: when Dan and I were dating, I was "into" making necklaces, bracelets, etc with hemp twine and beads. (This was probably about 10 years ago...) At the time he was working for a boat parts factory, and one day came home with a necklace he had made for me with hemp twine - instead of beads he had used nuts, washers, etc. It was so unique and he had made such an effort!

3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle?
I have not knitted in a long time but I have always wanted to make a sweater! Doesn't that sound like the classic nightmare gift that you would have received as a child, though? A sweater from some ancient female relative where the neck is too small, the sleeves are too long, etc...

4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?
I honestly don't remember. I liked crafts even as a child, so I was always excited any time I got a new cross-stitch kit or craft project!

5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year?
I don't think Claire even knows Christmas is coming. I'm not sure Natalie knows that you get presents at Christmas (ah, the joys of living overseas!) but I do know she is nuts-o for the Polly Pocket she got for her birthday, and talks constantly about getting an animal from Build-a-Bear when we get back to the States!

6. What is your favorite holiday food?
Eggnog. Yum. And my Nana's Christmas tea. And all kinds of cookies. I just love food!

7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays?
I'm planning on making a few purses/bags for friends but haven't thought about it too much yet. I love making handmade gifts, though, so I need to start planning a little better what I'm going to make!

8. What is your favorite holiday movie?
We always have to watch A Christmas Story every year!

9. Favorite holiday song?
I love all Christmas music - I'm going to start playing it all day long pretty soon!

10. Favorite holiday pastime?
I love evenings in front of the fire. I love making Christmas cookies with my kids. I love sitting around at night with only the lights of the Christmas tree, listening to Christmas music. I love putting up the decorations.
Daily Photos: November 9-20

Aaargh! I can't believe how long it's been since I've updated this! It doesn't help that our internet has either been too slow to use, or non-existent for the last couple weeks.

So here you go... almost 2 weeks worth of photos

Monday - Claire was sitting on my lap while I was using the computer, and kept reaching for the camera. I didn't want her playing with it, but I grabbed it and snapped a couple pictures of us. She kept squinting in anticipation of the flash

Tuesday - One of Natalie's friends, Megan (on the right in the picture) brought out her old roller skates today for Natalie to use. This was Natalie's very first time on roller skates! She did amazingly well, especially considering that she wears a size 8 or 9 shoe and the skates are size 13!

Wednesday - For the past couple years there have been 3 New Tribes Mission families living here in Wamena. The guys have been doing survey trips into the jungle, figuring out where they will live and make their ministry. After they figured out where they would live, they began building their homes. Now, they are ready to start moving interior! Tonight we had Craig & Shelly over for dinner. They are the first ones that will move interior (they move on Friday!) The second family will follow in a week, and the third family will not move for another few months - their home isn't ready because they have been in the States for the birth of their second child. MAF won't serve them quite yet because right now they don't have an airstrip yet - so the helicopter is the only way they can get in and out!

Thursday - Just relaxing outside. I was chatting with some of the other ladies, sitting on the grass, while Claire and Natalie ran around with the kids in our yard.

Friday - I made this table runner out of batik fabric I got in Bali. I love the look of the fall leaves, and that it adds a little fall decor to our dining room. the back is a piece of Christmas-looking batik, so it is reversible for the next holiday!

Saturday - Natalie's birthday! here my 4-year-old blows out the candles on her cake!

Sunday - We needed to take a picture for our new prayer card today, so I picked out some clothes that were sort of matching. My mistake was getting Claire dressed more than just a few minutes before picture-taking time. By the time I figured out where she had disappeared to, I found her outside playing in the mud in our yard!

Monday - More fall decor. There is a shop here that is run by missionaries. The items in it are made by locals, and a lot of the items are things that are "native" to this area, but sometimes the missionaries ask the people to make items they wouldn't normally - christmas tree ornaments, certain kinds of baskets, etc. These kind of ornaments/decorations fall in that line. Natalie and I painted the ornaments and hung them up under our cabinet in the kitchen. I like the little touch of fall!

Tuesday - Natalie having fun with her friends. These three girls are the 2nd NTM family - they are going interior on Wednesday. They have been in the guesthouse for the last week, and Natalie has sure enjoyed having so many friends to play with!

Wednesday - Claire loves to play with my phone! She likes to press the buttons and pretend she's talking to people. She has her own play phones but I guess they're just not the same! She hasn't done anything bad to my phone.... yet. Sometimes I will find weird numbers programmed into my phone and on occasion she'll call someone by accident, too (sorry, Nate & Becky!!!)

Thursday - Natalie was sick today. She woke us up very early this morning, throwing up at 1:30 am, and then was up every 30 minutes or so the rest of the morning. Not much sleep for anyone! she laid on the couch most of the day but by the evening was feeling much better.

Friday - Today Dan bought donuts from the local bakery to share with the national employees during their break, and I decided to bring the girls to visit Daddy and enjoy some donuts! The girls were so excited to see Daddy! Here Natalie is holding Dan's hand and Claire is holding Uncle Anne's hand (he is our maintenance specialist from the Netherlands.) By the way, you don't see any national employees in this picture because they were in a meeting when we arrived.

Just a note - One of my favorite websites - 5 Minutes for Mom - is having some amazing Christmas giveaways. Head over here and check it out!

Monday, 16 November 2009

Natalie's 4th birthday!

My sweet Natalie girl. How can it be that you are four years old already?! You have been counting down the days for the past month, telling everyone you meet that on "November fourteen" you will be four years old! And now it is finally here!

Natalie's birthday was on Saturday. We had a party outside here on the base and invited all the families with little kids as well as the families that live here on the base, since all the kids (older and younger) play together all the time anyway!

Natalie requested a "white cake with a blue four", so this is what she got! I also made cupcakes so that we would be sure to have enough cake for everyone. I had some leftover chocolate frosting from another dessert, so I used that too. It looks pretty boy-ish, but I don't think she cared!

Me and my girl with her birthday cake. This is the "party dress" she picked out to wear for her birthday

Singing the birthday song and then blowing out the candles. She got quite shy when everyone was singing to her!

After singing we all had cake and ice cream. I made three batches of ice cream - mint Oreo, chocolate, and vanilla.

Natalie enjoying some "white" ice cream. She didn't even want any of her cake!

Some of the party guests...

Isai...

John... and Victoria who is holding his face...

Here is the "pondok" on the base where we had the party.

Claire had fun too! Love the polka dot dress Granny DeSalvo bought it for Natalie when she was this age and now Claire wears it too.

Opening presents. This is one of Natalie's favorites that she had to put on right away - a butterfly wing/antenna/wand set. Too cute!

After the kids were all sugared up Dan took them out into the field to burn off some of that energy playing with water balloons. You can see here what Claire thought of the water balloons!

The kids all got in a circle and were passing/throwing the balloons around the circle, taking steps backward to make it harder and harder.

Eventually Dan started bypassing the little kids and tossing the balloons all the way across the circle to the bigger kids

A lot of balloons got broken but they did a good job throwing and catching!

Then when the water balloons were gone, I don't remember what all happened but there was something about the whole bucket being overturned, and a hose being brought out, and water being sprayed... anyway, everyone got pretty wet... including Claire

A good time was had by all.

Happy Birthday, Natalie!!!

Sunday, 08 November 2009

Daily Photos: November 1-8

Sunday - We've started doing nursery again for church, and today it was at our house. I tried to get a picture of Claire and the other kids playing but this was the only one I got that wasn't blurry - just Claire, all by herself. Oh well!

Monday - Yum, yum! Popsicles! Or as Natalie says, "Pocksiples!"

Tuesday - John, Claire, and Natalie all watching Dora together at our house. John's been over at our house a lot lately. Usually I don't mind - keeps the girls entertained!

Wednesday - Me and my Natalie girl! I need to start taking more pictures with me in them. Kind of hard to do, though!

Thursday - Claire's got a new trick - she hangs on the back of her high chair and swings from it. So far she hasn't fallen off! It keeps her entertained for quite a while!

Friday - We got a package today! Actually 2 packages. One was Christmas presents (already wrapped!) from Granny Karen - those will go into the gift closet until Christmas. The second one was from Dan's mom. A lot of it was quilting fabric I ordered, but she threw a few treats for the girls in there too. Claire LOVES this little ducky - it quacks when you squeeze it! It's so much fun to get packages, and it means so much here when we're so far away from friends & family (and all the yummy States-side treats!) Usually it takes many months for a box to get here, but recently we've been having our packages sent to MAF's main office in jakarta. They go through customs there rather than here in Papua (which is where things usually get hung up for weeks to months), and then our co-workers there forward the packages on to us via local mail. So far it's working just fine - these packages only took about a month to get to us. In the past we've had packages take anywhere from 2 to 5 or 6 months!

Saturday - Today we were feeling the need to get off the base. So we took a little drive to a nearby area we call "White sands". You can see why from the picture. The whole rocky area is covered in fine, white sand. I have no idea where it came from! We took a picnic lunch and hiked up in the rocks a bit before the girls got tired. We even saw a baby goat with its mommy!

Sunday - In the package we got from Dan's mom, she included some fun fabric with cows all over it. So I decided to make the girls matching skirts this morning. (I will also have lots left over to make "helmet underwear" for Dan and the other pilots!) I used this online tutorial - I love the way it uses ribbon at the edge, eliminating the need to hem it. Unfortunately I only had enough ribbon to do Natalie's skirt, so Claire's I just hemmed and put rick-rack at the bottom. Out in the boonies, you just have to make do with what you've got! Oh, and the girls love their skirts! Claire's been walking around saying "Cow! Cow! Moo! Moo!"

Friday, 06 November 2009

Problem solved...for now anyway!

Well, the keyboard is not fixed. But Dan talked to one of our MAF employees who seems to have connections with everyone, and she bought us a keyboard that plugs into the USB port. (there were LOTS of old but workable keyboards laying around at MAF but they were all for desktop computers and not able to plug into our laptop.)

So I am typing on a new keyboard. It's pretty cheap quality and cost us $20 but it does the job! Whew!

Dan looked up some stuff online about spilling water on laptops, and I think the problem wasn't the water spill itself, but that I pressed on some keys when i was trying to sop up the water. I guess I should have just let it dry by itself rather than trying to dry it off, because evidently if you press on the keyboard when it is still wet, you can do permanent damage... oh well! I'm still hopeful that it may start working again in a few days but if it doesn't, at least we have this cheap-o external thing to use!

Thanks for your sweet and funny comments