J, K, and the 10 Plagues

I have been rather neglectful of my Bible craft blog posts since Frank came home but now that I have started teaching homeschool pre-school I figured I should probably start again.  The last 2 weeks have been working on the letters J and K and doing the 10 Plagues. 

Gluing Jellybeans onto a J.  We later did a counting activity but eating the jellybeans was still the best part!

A counting activity we did for K

The 4th Plague, don't those flies look menacing!

The 6th Plague: boils, please note the sad face on the Egyptian.

The 7th Plague: hail, although Rebekah hated that we "took away" the styrofoam ball in order to wrap it in aluminum foil, all the kiddos had a great time making it "hail" in the back yard.

The 9th Plague: darkness.  Hard to do so we just did a light vs. dark craft.

The 8th Plague: Locusts.  By far the kids' favorite.  We mixed butterscotch chips, peanut butter, and chow mein noodles together and then made little piles of locusts legs on wax paper.  They were enjoyed as dessert that night!

For the Death of the Firstborn, I decided to focus on the Passover rather than attempt to explain the plague to pre-schoolers.  So, we made some Passover cups, decorated with jewels, and we will use them at our Passover meal in a few weeks!

Life with 4

No, we didn't have 2 more babies in the last week but we did have a 100% increase in the number of kiddos in our house for the last 5 days.  My dear friend Sabrina chaperoned the 9th grade girls on a mission trip to Arlington, TX and rather than drop her kids off at the CDC all day and have Tor alone to deal with them at night, I volunteered to take them for the week.  What a great way of supporting missions without having to chaperon 12 pre-teen girls!  They basically moved in here and then Tor came over for dinner and to put them to bed.  It has been a tiring but awesome experience having what essentially amounts to two sets of twins.  With my new mini-van I was even able to take all 4 kids in their car seats out of the house nearly everyday.  The 5 of us went to the commissary one day where the little ones rode in the car cart and the big girls were my helpers in procuring our foodstuffs for the week.  I got many interesting looks from the mostly geriatric patrons of the commissary who were there with me but I told them how full my heart was to have such a wonderful troop to shop with.  All 4 kids nap basically at the same time but are spread throughout the house so I really haven't been able to sew but I have gotten a lot of reading done!  I haven't gotten a full night's sleep in a week but it is always the fault of a different child each night, so they are at least all sleeping well :)  Seriously though, I learned a good deal about myself, my kids, and Sabrina's kids through this whole experience and I would totally do it again anytime.

Faith August - 35 Months

My baby's last post as a toddler!  Next month Faith will officially be a child! 

Eating:
Faith continues to eat well, especially breakfast.  I think when she turns 3 we are going to start enforcing the fork and the no talking with your mouth full (I guess I'll have to do it to!) as she is getting to be a bit too old for not complying with these table rules.  For 2 weeks of this month Frank and I were in Australia and both sets of grandparents watched the girls, so I know there were more desserts offered during this time but to Faith's credit, she has yet to ask me for any :)
Sleeping:
This week her naps have been great, and I am actually laying her down at 2 but last week she didn't hardly nap at all.  It didn't seem to affect her attitude during the day though so I just made her be quiet while she was laying in bed.  I am sure it will continue in this manner until the naps move fully to rest time but I don't anticipate that happening for another year.  Her nighttime sleep continues to go well although now we are in reminder mode about not screaming at night to let me know she needs to go potty. 
Play:
Faith really enjoys helping me cook, both "reading" the recipe cards and the actual mixing of ingredients.  She also likes to do her pretend cooking.  We had the Melissa and Doug Cookie Set on a toy swap this week and she had the best time "baking" her cookies.  Unfortunately, one day she left her cookies in the oven and later that I day I began to pre-heat the oven without checking it first.  Yep, I baked her cookies.  Fortunately, the cookies were fine, it was just the cookie tray that became a little warped and nothing a 3 year old would really care about but I felt like an idiot.  All the toys that were in Utah came back home with my parents this month and Faith was happy to see them, especially the School Bus Gym, which has become an outside toy (eventually next winter I'll move it back in the house).  She enjoys being the doctor with her Critter Clinic but she doesn't really want to be a vet to the animals, just a doctor to her sister and Daddy.  She continues to love to be read to and her favorite stories this month were anything about Noah's Ark!  She has also really enjoyed tea parties with her sister.
Skills:
Faith knows all her numbers by site now (1-10) and we have started working on counting and she does really well up to about 5.  She is a jumping fool on the trampoline at the tumbling gym now and she can do the balance beam all by herself.  She enjoys practicing at home on our little garden boarder as well.  Rebekah also has been inspired by this!  Faith is improving in dressing herself but does still need a little help with shirts.  Part of that is probably because she really needs more 4T shirts but I don't want to buy more winter shirts when summer is coming in full force and if I can just hold out for Rhea Lana's!  During this past week, Faith's best friend Mackenzie and her brother, Brock stayed with us for the week while their momma was on a mission trip with the church youth group.  Mackenzie is very well mannered and although Faith usually is, she has picked up a great deal from Kenzie that I appreciate!  We have two areas of improvement (other than table manners), one is obeying right away, and the other is being silly at the table.  Part of the silliness may go away when she no longer has a friend to impress, I hope :)

My First Car

Over the 2000 Christmas break my junior year at Tech, I finally had my parents convinced that I needed a car.  We found a 1997 black, manual, VW Jetta in Cedar City that was exactly what I wanted but was $3K over my price limit.  Fortunately, the check engine light came on during the test drive and the Ford dealership didn't have the needed tools to check the Jetta engine so they sold me the car at my offer under the condition that I would drive it to the nearest VW dealer (Las Vegas, also my home) and have the engine checked out.  They would pay for whatever needed to be fixed.  It was an oxygen sensor that just needed to be turned off but it got me the car. 

My parents were unwilling to let me drive the car the 3,000 miles back to VT alone so I called up my bud Frank who, having been relocated to southern Illinois during our freshmen year at Tech, knew no one there and consequently could have nothing better to do than deliver me and my new car safely to Virginia Tech in time for the spring semester.  Little did he know that this would be the best decision he ever made! 

This car has driven across the country 3 times, been plated in 4 different states, insured in 5, cost me an entire paycheck at least once, sat in traffic at the HRBT for approximately 1,000 hours, and overall been an awesome car.  It was mine before I was a Theising but as our family is continuing to grow, it was time to say good-bye and trade her in for the dreaded mini-van (which, alas, I am already in love with).  Thanks for being a great little car, Jetta.  

Rebekah Joy - 17 Months

Rebekah is a talking, laughing, and almost running pre-toddler these days.  We missed two weeks of this month being in Australia but I know her grandparents enjoyed every minute of this joyful and happy little girl.

Sleeping:
Her nap still starts between 1 and 1:15 and she continues to sleep until about 3:30 or 4.  Her sister usually sleeps a bit longer and I think Rebekah really enjoys the time she and I have together just the the two of us but then she also loves having her sister around.  Her nighttime sleep continues to go well. We've started putting wool socks on over her tights (under her PJs) and that is keeping her feet warmer at night.  But, no real issues to speak of there.
Eating:
Rebekah continues to eat like there is no tomorrow.  She will rarely eat the meat on her plate first but she eventually gets around to it, especially because she knows she can have more of whatever good stuff there is once the meat is gone.  I still warm up her milk for her, I guess out of habit really because she drinks it just fine when I forget.  She uses her spoon to feed herself soup!  She loves using her utensils and that might be one of her favorite parts about meal time. 
Skills:
She has become quite the climber and loves to work on getting up onto the playground when we are at the park as well as random rocks.  She can get off the couch by herself but not quite onto it yet.  Rebekah has always loved books but this month she really started "reading" and what is even cuter is that she tries to say the letters for every word that she sees on random tags or in a book she is reading to herself.  She will point to the calendar numbers or the alphabet poster and try to say some letters.  They are just sounds (and most sound like E) but she is so cute!  Rebekah is also a big helper.  She loves having a task to take something to someone or put something away.  She enjoys helping me with meal preparation although lately I have started just giving her some kitchen things and some water and really she is just as happy with that and it is less stressful on me.
Play:
Well, we finally did something about solo play.  It took 3 days of correction every time she cried but now we are having 45 minute - 1 hour solo playtimes with no crying.  I am not sure how much actual play goes on in there but there is no crying and I figure she will play eventually.  She enjoys sitting down to tea with her sister and having a little party as well as anything to do with babies.  With Frank being home she has found a new love for being chased by him and lives for him chasing her so she can run and laugh.  She is continuing to do Bible craft and worship time with us in the morning and enjoys the time singing together.

Australia Day 13 - Coming Home

This was the longest day of my life.  We left Sydney (in the pouring rain) at 1130am on Thursday, March 8^th and arrived in LA at 630am on Thursday, March 8^th which is technically before we left Sydney, hence the reason for it being the longest day.  It does make up for the 24^th of February which we lost on the flight over.  Two connections and a lot of coffee later we were met in Little Rock by my dad who took us to home sweet home.  Lady was so happy to see us, especially Frank, whom she’d missed for the last 8 months.  We had a wonderful vacation and adored Australia.  Our next vacation is going to have to be pretty spectacular to top this one.  We have now seen 5 continents and have 4 more Christmas ornaments and one more teapot for our collections, Faith loves that my teapot is pink J   

Australia Day 12 - Blue Mountains and Sydney Opera House

A bus ride a short way out of the city took us to Featherdale Wildlife Park just after breakfast.  This was a great experience.  Up until now we’d seen a few native Australian animals in their own habitat but didn’t have too many great pictures.  Although these animals were not in the wild, we do have plenty of pictures of native Australian animals!  There were multiple species of Kookaburra in addition to a myriad of other birds, including the Southern Cassowary, Spoonbill, Brolga, Magpies, and too many more to name.  We were treated to a feeding session with a saltwater crocodile (a dead chicken on a stick, anything more would have been way too exciting!).  We fed the kangaroos and emus, got our picture with a koala, tried to get a picture of a Tasmanian Devil while he was standing still (doesn’t happen often), watched the dingoes sleeping (grateful our babies weren’t there!),  and really had a great time! 

We boarded the bus again and followed the route of the earliest explorers to cross the Blue Mountains to find the Three Sisters monument.  We ate a nice home-style lunch at a little revolving restaurant which offered a spectacular view of the Three Sisters.  When we headed out to take pictures of the rock structure, the rain started!  Oh well, we have plenty of pictures of us in our rain jackets, they were a much needed part of our wardrobe for this trip.  When we went to the next Three Sister’s lookout, Echo Point, the sun started to peek through the clouds a little bit allowing some spectacular views of the Blue Mountains, which look blue because of the evaporating eucalyptus oil coming off the dominate tree in the area. 

We had close to a 2 hour drive back to the hotel so Frank and I got our tour evaluations done, some reading accomplished, and looked out the window a good bit as well.  Coming back into the city we saw several of the venues used for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.  Upon arriving back at the hotel we did a quick change and headed out again for our night at the opera!  The concierge at the hotel recommended a great restaurant for us and I enjoyed the pumpkin ravioli and Frank dined on the Mea and Guinness pie.   From there it was about a 10 minute walk to the opera house (not yet raining but threatening).  Our seats were great and the venue was amazing.  I don’t think there is a bad seat in that house.   Following the Act I there was a 30 minute intermission where Frank and I watched the rain pouring off the opera house roof.  It was beautiful but made us question the romantic walk home we’d planned.  After Act II the rain had subsided a little and we were able to walk outside and get a nice night view of the Harbour Bridge and the city.  By the end, the rain was coming down pretty steady though, so we ended up in a cab on the way home and began to pack up some of our things for our departure tomorrow.  The opera was awesome and I am so glad we seized the opportunity to go! 

Australia Day 11 - Sydney

The day started with the same breakfast but with some new twists including a cheese bar, juice bar, and omelet chef – it was a nice change.  We began the day with a bus tour of the city which took us to the Botanical Gardens for an awesome view of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.  We visited Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair where the governor’s wife used to sit and watch the ships sailing out of the harbor for England.  We passed through some of the hamlets surrounding Sydney like Woolloomooloo, drove by some beautiful churches, the art museum, a view overlooking Bondi Beach, the beach itself (where Frank got an unexpected footbath while posing for a picture!).  We went to an opal museum and learned about Australia’s largest gem export.  After lunch we embarked on a tour of the Sydney Opera House which was a great preview for our following evening’s entertainment of Turandot.  

We were on our own after the Opera House tour and Frank and I decided to go to the Hyde Park Barracks, or the Convict Museum, we’d seen during the driving tour earlier that day.  To get there we had to stroll through the Botanical Gardens again which was beautiful (although threatening rain!).  The Barracks was a great museum and I thought it was very informative.  After just finishing The Fatal Shore the convicts were fresh in my mind so this was a great museum to tour.  We walked back to our hotel through the city intent on walking through Darling Harbour of which we’d heard great things.  The rumors did not disappoint and we found this to be a lovely, almost refuge from the rest of the city.  We had some ice cream and a little pizza appetizer while enjoying the view and the water.  After a quick change we were ready for the Sydney Tower Dinner, an optional excursion we’d signed up for.  We boarded the city’s monorail at Darling Harbour only to find out that our exit was one stop behind us, so we got a an entire monorail city tour.  Unfortunately the monorail doesn’t traverse much of the city so it was a bit anti-climactic.  The view from the tower was really nice but we were sitting at tables of 6 perpendicular to the window so only the people sitting flush with the window got a really good view.   It was a buffet style dinner and although the table portion of the restaurant revolved, the area with the food did not so I kept forgetting where the food was that I wanted!  The meal was okay but the conversation was great so all in all it was a nice evening.  The monorail doesn’t run as late as we left the restaurant so we walked back to our hotel, which really wasn’t much longer than the walk to the monorail stop in Darling Harbour! 

A view of Sydney's tower from Darling Harbour

Australia Day 10 - Travel to Sydney

We said good-bye to Melbourne today (which overall was my favorite Australian locale) and boarded the plane for Sydney.  Upon arrival and check in to our hotel (the nicest one we’ve been in, not only b/c of the bottle of champagne to celebrate our anniversary, although that did help) we headed out again for Manly Beach.  Really we wanted to catch a view of Sydney from the water and this, we were told was the best way to do it.  We took some great pictures and the day was just beautiful, one without any rain!!  At Manly we found a nice little beachside restaurant for lunch, walked in some surf, and then found some ice cream and eventually the ferry back.  We meandered in to the Rocks area around Circular Quay (which they pronounce Key) which was the original settlement in Sydney when the First Fleet arrived in 1788.  Now it consists mainly of shops, cafes, and pubs with few historical remnants other than the storefronts look older than the rest of the city (in a nice, well-kept kind of way).  I gave in and bought a pair of Ugg boots here and am still happy with my purchase a week later so I guess that is a good thing!  We walked back to the hotel and were quickly ready for the group dinner at a neighboring hotel and restaurant.   We had done a lot of walking that day and were going to do even more tomorrow so we were both happy for an early night!

Australia Day 9 - Melbourne (Yarra Valley)

One of the first excursion packages we knew we wanted to take on this trip was the one to the Yarra Valley Wineries.  We boarded the bus (in the rain) and headed towards the Yarra Valley.  Before arriving there we stopped at a roadhouse that hosted a bird petting area and we were able to feed and get pictures with a few of the winged locals.  At length we arrived in Belgrave Station where we boarded Puffy Billy, a century old steam train built to haul timber off the mountains, and rode it while sitting in the windows with our legs hanging out of the train, to Menzies Creek, about 30 minutes.  It was a blast! 

From there it was about 45 minutes to the first winery.  The scenery along the route was breathtaking but I still was able to finish the last remaining pages of The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes which I would highly recommend to anyone interested in Australian history.  The first winery served a great buffet lunch and then offered some tastings and some wonderful walking paths.  The second winery, De Bortoli, presented a wonderful tasting menu and a great setting.  The landscapes were beautiful and the rain had cleared to offer a spectacular view of the valley.   Darren and his wife, Juanita, picked us up after this tour and we wandered around Healesville for a bit looking for but not finding a Christmas ornament for Melbourne.  Oh well, the company and conversation was what we really enjoyed!  For an early dinner-ish we headed into Innocent Bystander and there met another couple friend of theirs, Kristen and Nathan Burkett and their little 2 month old, Eden.  This experience was by far our favorite part of our Australian vacation.  God has blessed us with awesome Christian friends at every duty station over the last 10 years  (and even before that, really) but I am continually amazed at how He provides for us in this way – even while on vacation on the other side of the world!   We sat and talked for nearly 4 hours about politics, religion, and nearly everything in between.  Then we had another extended conversation while Darren and Juanita drove us the hour back to Melbourne.  God is just amazing and we had the best time with them!  After that we went to the Gloria Jeans Coffee Shop which we’d patronized the other day for use of their free WiFi.  This being a Sunday night it was closed when we got there but Frank reasoned that the WiFi would still work outside the door and he still knew the password so we just sat on the sidewalk to check our email and download some pictures.  It was an interesting people watching experience J

Australia Day 8 - Melbourne

Breakfast this morning was the same basic fare we’d seen throughout our trip, apparently it is something like the national breakfast (scrambled eggs, English bacon, chicken sausages, baked beans, and either stewed or herbed tomatoes).  It is not bad, just monotonous.  It is actually worse for Frank than for me as he has been eating this same basic breakfast since July when he arrived in Afghanistan where the British Army was in charge of the chow hall.  We took a bus tour of the city this morning stopping at a prominent Catholic church, the ANZAC Shrine of Remembrance, and the Queen Victoria Markets which were some palatial open air markets that carried everything, literally. 

We returned to the hotel and Frank and I set off for the shopping district to find some food, coffee, and a tea pot.  We spent several hours crisscrossing the dozen or so blocks that make up the shopping district (in the rain).  I was on a mission to find a tea pot if not made in Australia then at least with some kind of Aussie design or theme.  We went into a dozen stores and always came out disappointed until finally we happened upon Flinder’s Ln, a road Darren said would be a good one to stop for a cup of coffee.  As we went down that road I saw a shop with items all made in Victoria and there was a tea pot in the window display!  We left there triumphant and with renewed vigor to find the Sophitel Hotel and the splendid view from their 35^th floor bathrooms.  It was totally worth the walk, the view was awesome. 

We decided to take the free City Center tram back to our hotel but 2 stops into it, the driver announced the tram was shutting down and we would all have to get off and wait for the next one.  Well, the next one never came so we decided to walk back.  By this time my rain jacket was starting to get soaked through so I was ready to be at the hotel when we arrived.  An hour after we got back we were out again but this time only just across the street to the Football stadium to see our first Australian Football League game, the Melbourne Demons against the Collingwood Magpies.  The Magpies were likened to the NY Yankees so we decided Melbourne would be our team that night and guess what, they won!  During most of the first quarter we had little clue what was happening on the field but Frank asked some guys a row ahead of us what was going on and they were all too happy to share their passion with us and make us fans as well.  This sport, while not as exciting as American football, certainly beats out baseball as far as constant action and way outperforms soccer in that it is actually entertaining to watch.  We really enjoyed the experience and it was one of the most fun things we did while in Australia. 

Australia Day 7 - Uluru and Travel to Melbourne

We missed the sunset last night but Frank and I rose early to catch the sunrise at Uluru.  The earth lightened that morning but the path of the sunlight to Uluru was blocked by a cloud so we missed the supposedly spectacular colors on the rock at sunrise.  Oh well, I guess we’ll just have to come back!  After breakfast the sun was out and we went to Uluru and Frank and I opted to take the half base walk around the rock and we loved it.  It was as beautiful up close as it was striking when you are far away.  The base walk took a little under an hour and then we had a bit of time in their culture and information center. 

After our time in the park we headed to the Yulara Airport and boarded a plane for Sydney where we would take a connecting flight to Melbourne.  The flight to Sydney was uneventful other than the 1 ½ eggplant falafels I ate (Frank didn’t want his, go figure!)  The connecting flight to Melbourne turned out to be the most awesome God ordained part of our trip.  To allow a couple in our tour group to sit together a young Melbournian named Darren switched seats with them and ended up sitting to my right.  We found out later he wasn’t even supposed to be on that flight but rather a later one.  We started talking and found out we were all brothers and sisters in Christ and the conversations just rolled out from there. It was so awesome to feel like you’ve known someone  for years when really you only met them a few minutes ago.  Darren invited us to go out on Sunday with him and his wife and we said we would take him up on it!  By the time we got to the hotel that night it was super late but we were starving so we went for a walk down to the Crown Casino and stopped at an IGA on the way back for some peanut butter, crackers, ice cream, a bottle of wine, and a peach (I tried to be healthy).

Australia Day 6 - Travel to Uluru

Today was bus travel all morning / afternoon.  The ride to Uluru was about 5 hours but that included several stops, one at a camel farm where we could ride a camel for about $6.  Sounds great except – it was raining.  Pouring actually.  I didn’t care to ride a camel in the downpour and then spend the rest of the day smelling like wet camel.  I am sure Frank appreciated that! 
Our lunch stop was at a roadside stop which, like many along the Stuart Highway, are run by the cattle ranchers in the area as a side business.  The meat pies there were awesome even though they came out of a bag.  When we arrived at Yalara, the town next to the national park, we got to the hotel and Frank went out in search of some more aloe vera (I was in bad shape!).  Later we rode out to see Kata-Tjuta (the Olgas) which are several sandstone domes veering out over the outback.  The Olgas are many layers of sandstone different from Uluru (Ayers Rock) which is one giant sandstone monolith. 

After viewing Kata-Tjuta (which we think would make an awesome name for our next girl, middle name at least!) we went to Uluru to watch the sunset there as the hues are supposed to be awesome as the sun sets near the rock.  There was champagne and snacks waiting for us which was a tasty surprise but the sun didn’t make an appearance which wasn’t surprising given the deluge we’d experienced all morning and afternoon.  We took some nice pictures and went on a walk but seeing the sunset at Uluru just wasn’t going to happen that night, oh well, it was gorgeous anyway.