Somewhere Out There

Day 18:

Well, Kora has officially been sick for two weeks, so Doug decided to take her to the doctor this morning and had a little free time since our teacher wasn't able to come this morning.  Kees and I stayed home, much to his dismay.  That boy loves his sister so much.  The whole time they were gone, he kept saying things like, "I think Daddy and Kora will be right back!"  or "Why are Kora and Daddy gonna be gone so long?" or "I think I heard something, are Kora and Daddy back yet?"  It was sweet albeit redundant.

At home, Kees and I were doing our school work. He said his "Arthur Goes to School" (lift the flap) book is his favorite!  We also played with some "Brio MEC" toys.  They are wooden pieces with plastic tools that you build with.  We were busy with this for a while.  Kees wanted everything pulled completely a part and mommy wanted to organize and count everything.  I brought Kees these re-used yogurt cups to sort everything...later in the day I found baggies for all the stuff!  These toys were also given to us last week when we helped Mark move.  They are so cool!

Kees used the wooden parts from the kit and made a house boat.  He told me there was an office for daddy, a bedroom with a pillow (that yellow connector was the pillow) and a bathroom on top. The blue thing he is pointing to is the "tiddy" paper. That is what Kees calls toilet paper, I hold back laughter every time he says it. :)

Kora at the doctor's office, her appointment was for 11:30, but I think Doug had to wait quite a while and from what I hear, Miss Kora was quite busy!  (P.S. For all you grandmamas wondering, she has an infection and the doctor gave her antibiotics.  She also weighs 22 lbs!)

When Doug came home he brought lunch, a package (eeek!!!), and ice!  Not sure what I was most excited about, it was all so awesome!  Kees had been playing a dice game with me in the school room, so he brought it with us to lunch and after every bite, he and Doug rolled to see who would "win".  He's getting pretty good at recognizing the numbers and knowing which one is bigger.

Ice makes everything better!

The top row is from when we were playing in the school room and the bottom row is Kees showing Daddy how to play.

Our package, from Stephen, Randee, and Tieghan!  We also got more cups for the kids!!!

After lunch, Momma was roasting, so I decided to see if the kids would play in the bedroom while I listened to my Thai lessons.  They played nicely for a little while, but it's always a challenge.  Kees wants to do things a certain way, and Kora wants to do whatever Kees is doing.  Twice today, I took Kora into the office where Doug was working and she was only gone 5 minutes and Kees would beg me to bring her back...when not 10 minutes before she was getting into his stuff and he was happy to see her go.  I really think he'd play by himself for 2 hours as long as Kora was in the same room, but when he senses she is gone, he needs to have her nearby.  I'm proud of him, though, he's a great big brother 99% of the time and he looks out for her too.  So sweet to see.  I've included some pictures of what they played this afternoon and tried to describe what they are doing.

Forgot to mention, that Doug made us iced coffees right after lunch.  You know my new kitchen aid is my baby, well Doug's baby is his Aeropress.  His Momma brought it to him last time she visited and Doug loves it so much!  They are around $30 and they make a seriously delicious cup of coffee AND they are WAY easier to clean than a french press, this little device may have saved our marriage for that reason!

While Doug was making the iced coffees, the kids sat in the floor and drank out of their new cups! Kora eventually figured out you have to tilt it back.

Momma was pulling out all the stops today, trying to keep Kora busy, but she ended up mostly getting into Kees's stuff anyway.  I started off by giving her the green topped cup you see in the picture on the left, I put various scraps of paper and fabric inside for her to pull out.  I think she would have played with it a lot longer, but she was too interested in what Kees was doing, so we improvised, again...I took a bunch of the small gray connectors that Kees wasn't using and put them in her cup.  She LOVED that.  She got to do what Kees was doing but she wasn't getting into his stuff.  I also had all of Kees's stuff baggied up at this point so if she got it out of the bucket it didn't make a huge mess.  Okay, the top right is Kora playing with and stacking yogurt cups, her idea.  Middle right is her using one of Kees tools to "stir" the little gray connecters in her cup. Bottom right is her playing with clothes pins and a small basket, putting them in and dumping them out.  That was one of the other things I had brought into the AC room for her to do.

Playing trains. 

Sick baby girl, taking her medicine. 1 dose down, 19 to go. ;)

This evening after about 3 hours of the kids playing various things in the AC room while I studied, I made potato soup for dinner. It's 100 plus degrees lately, so I brought the potatoes into the bedroom to peel them and both kids wanted to be involved.  I ended up sitting on the floor, singing the whole time, while Kees helped name the potatoes as he handed them to me to peel, then I inserted the name, gender, and sea color of his choice into the song "Baby Baluga".  Kora helped by putting the peels in the trash, Kees would pick them out of the pot and hand them to her and then she put them in the trash. Our potatoes names (that I can remember) were: "Teemo, McQueedo, Cocoa, & Chocolate.  They each had their own color of sea to swim in.  After the potatoes were peeled and chopped, I had to actually cook in the kitchen aka convection oven.  Kees continued helping and Kora went with Doug.


 

Kees, pouring the water in the pot, adding the potatoes, cutting up the cream cheese...he was not happy about it getting on his hands, and then doing the dishes after dinner.

Both kids ate the soup. Kora had two bowls, Kees had one small bowl that I had to spoon feed him after everyone was done, but he finally ate...I'll take what I can get.  Then he helped me do all the dishes and he actually did a really good job. I love having company.  Kora took a small nap while we cleaned the kitchen up, and now we are all watching "An American Tail".

Potato soup, and my yummy dessert: banana slices, drizzled with honey, sprinkled with cinnamon and topped with pecans!  It was a pretty yellow/white meal, have to be sure and include some watermelon & broccoli next time to liven it up a bit.  And even though it looks like dessert was huge, it really wasn't...just zoomed way in. :)

Classic!

Forgot to mention, while I was making the soup, Pi Noi came over and we finalized plans to go with their family out of town Monday for Songkran. We've celebrated Songkran twice in the city, but have never been out to the village to see how they do things out there.  So I'm pretty excited, and Pi Noi is one of my favorite people...EVER.  After our language session tomorrow morning, we start a long weekend, super excited!  I actually have a lot of work to do over the break, but it will still be fun! Sometimes, I like working. :)

My good word of the day is another Francis Chan quote, I might make this a regular thing for a while because he's got some really good stuff!  I wanted to specifically share this one, for my sister, who's had some crazy life happenings over the last couple years with adoption and now fostering. She has taught me so much about how to be a good mom, and how to be a faithful child of God.  On Facebook yesterday it was "sibling day" and I was really wishing I could be with her for various reasons, so my "good word" today is for her.  Here it is: “If life were stable, I'd never need God's help.” I like this, it's a great reminder that God often allows hardships in our lives so that HE can get the glory.  That may be hard for us to understand at times, but when we reach the end of ourselves, God and his love, faithfulness, and adequacy become more evident.  I've learned and re-learned this so many times, I wonder if God's getting tired of my doubt.  Every time he comes through, every time he shows me more of his character, I'm reminded of the last time he taught me the SAME thing and I am forced to wonder again, why do I doubt?  His track record is and always will be SOLID. Tonight I'm praying for a few people specifically who I know are needing reminders of this right now.  Love to all of you, from us!

My sister, Kristee, she ROCKS! This picture was taken in MO when our family came to visit Doug and I.  Fun, fun!

Plus also, to my family, sure do miss you!  This movie is making me homesick and ready to see you all! You can watch the video here.  I'm thinking of you and loving you tonight!

Somewhere out there beneath the pale moonlight
Someone's thinking of me and loving me tonight

Somewhere out there someone's saying a prayer
That we'll find one another in that big somewhere out there

And even though I know how very far apart we are
It helps to think we might be wishing on the same bright star

And when the night wind starts to sing a lonesome lullaby
It helps to think we're sleeping underneath the same big sky

Somewhere out there if love can see us through
Then we'll be together somewhere out there
Out where dreams come true

And even though I know how very far apart we are
It helps to think we might be wishing on the same bright star

And when the night wind starts to sing a lonesome lullaby
It helps to think we're sleeping underneath the same big sky

Somewhere out there if love can see us through
Then we'll be together somewhere out there
Out where dreams come true