Ty's 100 Good Wishes Quilt

Ty's 100 Good Wishes quilt is off to a good start. If you want to see all the fabric's then click over to his site.
Here are the directions if you would like to join in:

The colors are Navy, Brick red, Khaki, Lime green and butter yellow. Anything with those colors and appropriate for a boy will do.(please no flowers or ballerinas) Below are the "official" instructions. Thanks for being a part of this.

To welcome and celebrate a new life, there is a tradition in the northern part of China to make a Bai Jia Bei, or 100 Good Wishes Quilt. It is a custom to invite 100 people to contribute a single square patch of cloth. These quilts were originally made from garments of family and friends, which would surround the child with luck/energy of the people who wore these clothes when she is wrapped in the quilt . The 100 patches are sewn together into a quilt that contains the luck, energy, and good wishes from all the families and friends who contributed a piece of fabric. Part of the patch of cloth goes into the quilt for the baby, and the other part of the cloth will go into a creative memory notebook with the wish for the child. The quilt is then passed down from generation to generation.

We would like to ask you to be a part of this tradition as we assemble a quilt for our new son, Ty waiting in China. Along with a piece of fabric please send a small note card with your good wishes, name and a small swatch of the fabric glued or stapled to it. We will make a book with the cards so he will be one day be able to identify where each piece of his quilt came from.

Ideas for selecting fabric:
100% cotton fabric is best, as it washes and wears better.
Purchasing new fabric is GREAT! There are so many types of prints to choose from. If you are purchasing new fabric have the salesperson cut only ¼ of a yard. (Or you can purchase something called a “Fat Quarter” at many stores like Michaels, JoAnns, WalMart.)
I only need about a 6” square but any remnants can be used for the borders. Don't wash it please
The color scheme is Navy, Brick red, lime green, khaki and butter yellow
Include a little note with your name and a picture if you've got one. A 4x6 index card will work fine.
Please do as many squares as your family would like. You can choose to do one square from your entire family or let each person choose their own fabric and send multiple squares.
Email or call me if you have questions dszkwalling@kingwoodcable.com

Due Date May 10th. (Sorry it has to be so early but I would really like to get the quilt made before our trip to China) If you live near me you can definitely hand it to me or if you live in Westlake and don’t want to mail it then you can drop it by Mom’s house.

How much longer?

We get this questions often. And the answer is not a simple one.

We are 11 weeks into a 12 - 17 week wait for our Letter of Confirmation. Then once that is received we will tentatively travel 6 weeks later. If everything goes as planned, means we will travel sometime between late June and late July.
Hopefully we will be home before the official start of the Olypmics.
The olympics begin 08-08-08.

August 8th, Hmmm....that date sounds familiar. Surely if the Chinese officials knew that was my birthday they would let me travel now. The number 8 is Very Lucky. So I must be too.

She speaks the Truth

Mia was happily eating a happy meal in the back seat

and I said, "Can Mommy have a french fry?"

Mia says "Yes, and hands me ONE"

I said, "Can I please have more than One?"

Mia replies, "If you break that one in half you will have Two"

Interesting

National Geographic magazine’s May 2008 issue is devoted to China! I thought I would share some of the facts in this issue. If you have a chance go and pick it up!

1. China’s one child policy created a generation of only children that numbers 90 million.
2. 119 baby boys are born for every 100 girls.
3. The number of unmarried young men – called bare branches – is predicted to be 30 million by 2020.
4. 45 percent of Chinese women surveyed say they do not want to give up their careers to get married.
5. Three in ten Chinese families have grandparents living in the same household.
6. Beijing enforces a one-dog policy that prohibits pets more than 14 inches high.
7. China is expected to overtake the U.S. as the world’s largest economy in ten years
8. China has the world’s highest number of annual deaths triggered by air pollution
9. Urban Chinese earn more than three times as much as those in rural areas, the highest income gap since the start of reforms in 1978
10. Public protests rose by 50 percent last year.
11. On in four residents of Beijing is a migrant from the country.
12. 67percent of millionaires surveyed say they are sacrificing health for money.
13. China has the world’s largest number of Internet users - 220 million – surpassing Web surfers in the U.S.
14. Authorities have added 171 new pop culture phrases to China’s national language registry.
15. Cell phones in China have grown from 87 million in 2000 to 432 million.
16. Today31 percent of Chinese 16 or older say they are religious, four times the official estimate a decade ago.

Go Fish

The kids have been wanting to have fish. I grew up having goldfish so I thought it would be fun to set up an aquarium. We went to PetsMart and I had decided to let everyone pick out 2 fish for the tank. But then as we looked we found several guppies that we all liked. Then when I informed them that guppies reproduce easily and that we could have baby fish it was all over. Everyone changed their minds to guppies.

With the advice of the store clerk we asked for 2 males and 4 females. (He said If there are to many males they will fight each other, (no joke here make your own up) )

So on the drive home the kids were excited and called Nana to fill her in on the new "pets" Then when I was talking to her I said I hope now that we can get them to breed. She responded, "Well as prolific as you and David seem to be you shouldn't have a problem" Ha! Ha! Yeah, thanks.

So about 3 hours later Zane says how many fish did we buy?6 . Well there are seven now? Seven? OK so the guy must have mis counted or slipped us an extra one.
Then that evening someone discovers there are babies. What Babies already?

So here is a break down of the last few days. People we are literally going to be swimming in guppies around here soon.

Day 1 - home from the store 6 fish
Day 1 +3 hrs 7 fish
Day 1 + 6 hrs. 7 fish 4 babies
Day 2 7 fish 5 babies
Day 3 7 fish 6 babies

I think the babies have been there all along but they are just now getting big enough to see. Maybe they came in with the tank water from the bag.

David says if we keep going at this rate we can open our own store. We haven't decided on the name for the store but we'll keep you posted.

Another Teacher in the family?

Each student in Kaylee's class had to do a report on a country. Kaylee chose Scotland. She then had to present her project to the class. On her poster board she had a picture of the flag, Queen Elizabeth II, a guy in a kilt playing bagpipes and some examples of different plaids. She did such a great job. She remembered all of it and really seemed to enjoy "teaching" everyone. She even had a red pointer that she brought from home.

As a part of Scotland's traditions she told them how many people have Tea and Crackers. So I brought 26 glass tea cups and saucers. I had to scrounge around to get that many but locally goodwill had the last few I needed for .25 each. The kids all loved drinking tea from the fancy cups. We were also able to find some English Cookies at Fiesta grocery store

Sra. Buitano told them that they all had to drink with their pinkies up. It was fun watching the boys try this.

Go Rocket

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Princess?

Mia is so into Princesses. Every day she tells me, "Mommy, I want to be a real princess." Of course I always tell her "Mommy thinks you're a princess"

Of all the princesses, Cinderella is hands down her favorite. But a few days ago she annouced, "I have decided to be Snow White. And mommy you can be Cinderella"

When I asked why she said, "Snow White has black hair like I do. And Cinderella does all the cooking and laundry like you do."

.....Hey wait...... maybe I want to be Snow White too!!! I could use a few working dwarfs around here.

It's the week for 11

Our previous neighbor had a dog named Molly. She was a yellow lab that looked almost exactly like Rocket. (In fact several times we would see her running through our front yard and think Rocket was out.) She was young and had not been fixed. Rocket, who had never been a digger before, suddenly kicked it into high gear. There were about 3 days in a row that he and Molly had been found "together" On one such occasion I found them more than a little together. However, we won't go there because I am still trying to block the visuals from my memory. Plus, it may have been the most challenging disucssion I've ever had with Trent. I really did my best not to lie, but frankly he wasn't ready for the truth.

Fast forward two months.......... we went over to the old house to do some pressure washing and found out that Rocket had been the proud father of 11 puppies. 8 of them survived and they all were light brown/yellow like he and Molly.
They had sold all but 3 of them. The kids had a blast playing with the puppies. Mia was content with petting them and letting them nibble the edge of her dress.

Yes, of course they all wanted one. But the answer was a firm NO!

He's the Same Forward and Backward

Zane had a great 11th Birthday. The weather was perfect and we heated the pool for a fun afternoon. The kids had a blast squirting the water guns. We also played a few "messy" games. There was whip cream and shaving cream and Ice Cream!!!! The kids at the party were all Zane's classmates. They have all been together since the 1st grade. They are all in the Spanish Immersion program. In first grade it started with 25 students and now it's down to 13. It was a nice relaxing party and I can tell we're going to have a lot of fun this summer with the pool.

Playgroup comes visiting

We had a few friends and moms over today for playgroup. It was a lot of fun. And since Gayla did such a great job of blogging it already, just hop over to her blog and read all about it.
But wait, read this first

Three things I need to add to the day's events are:
1. Apparently the middle of the hot tub is a little deeper than the step and Amy was the first one to discover this. So, her mom had to get all the way in, clothes and all!!!
2. The kids were served the PB&J's. I did serve something different to the adults(ckn. salad) Even though some of the moms acted like kids and refused to eat my ckn salad!!
3. I beat Deborah at a game of pool. (this was my first win ever) But who's keeping score?

FINALLY!!!

This girl has wanted a tooth to come out for months. I think the primary reason is the whole Tooth Fairy = CASH!!! So when one tooth finally became somewhat loose, she pushed and pulled on it, she tied dental floss to it, she ate the hardest apples she could find and then with a little assistance from mom the tooth finally came out.

I could never do it

Why I could never be a newscaster or model for that matter. Watch this

Kaylee's Baptism

We had a special Easter this year. On Easter Sunday morning Kaylee was baptized. She was so excited and not nervous at all. A couple of weeks ago she asked David and I about becoming a christian. I had talked to her quite a bit before but she never was ready to pray to receive Christ. This time she brought it up and she was ready.

........buried with Christ in Baptism

.........Raised to walk in a newness of Life

Wordless Wednesday

Mud Bugs

We all enjoyed an afternoon of crawfish. Playing, Boiling and Eating them.
Kaylee was trying coax Mia into touching the crawfish. I think she finally succeded.

Of course the boys had no problems touching them. They tried to find the ones with the biggest claws.

I think Zane may have won the biggest claw contest.

It was time to move the crawfish from the ice chest to the pot. Mr. Butch reached in and grabbed two big handfuls of crawfish. He said, "Here Kaylee, can you help me? Just do this." He was really just picking at her but as soon as he moved over, Kaylee was right there grabbing two big handfuls as well. This girl has NO FEAR

It took the boys a few minutes to get up enough nerve to try it.

Mmm! Mmmm! Mr. Butch is finished boiling, and about ready to pull them out.

Everybody trying their hand at peeling them. The kids tried hard but Nana and Mrs. Eva peeled a lot of them for the kids.

Bloggy Makeover

With everything in nature so fresh and new I decided I wanted to make-over the blog. I drool over some of the neat designs that other people have created. (NiHao Ya'll) But I found out that they Pay people to design them. So, being the tightwad that I am, I tried my hand at a new look. I'm pretty pleased with it. It needs a little tweaking but the overall look is there.

And it only cost me 2.99 for the patterned paper that I bought to scan.
If you're a scrapbooker you'll recognize it.....(K&Co)
Let me know what you think......

Just a year ago....

Every morning Granny had cookies and coffee. The kids loved to gather around her chair and help her eat her ginger snaps. It was one year ago today that our Granny went home to be with Jesus. The kids and I had been in LA last year about this time for spring break and had just returned home when we got the news that she had just slipped away. The week we were here we had boiled crawfish and Granny ate them like there was no tomorrow. Which was really unlike her because for the past several years nothing had really tasted good.

We miss our Granny and talk about her often. She would have loved to see the azaleas blooming and all the amaryllis buds coming out of the ground.



I can only imagine what flowers she is seeing now.



Perhaps we'll have some boiled crawfish today.......

Casa Abre

It was casa abre at the kids school. (Or open house as most of you non-spanish speaking people would know it.... including me) We visited all the classrooms and got to see a lot of special work for Zane, Kaylee and Trent.
The science fair was also part of the open house. Zane's project won second place. He competed against 103 other 5th graders. We were all very proud.

Trent's class had just concluded a lesson on space. Here Trent is standing next to his alien portrait. He drew it during a listening activity. The teacher would say draw your alien with as many eyes as you have people in your family. Draw as many legs as how many birthday's you've had. It was really cute.

We dropped by Zane's class to see his animal habitat and special adaptation that he had designed.

Kaylee read us a book in espanol about the red hen. We also did a map skill activity with her.

Throw me somethin' Mister

Our cousins in Slidell, LA sent the kids a Mardi Gras box. In it was all kind of "Loot" that cousin Gabe had collected from the parade. Mail is a big deal around here and when packages come it's like Christmas morning.
The anticipation....... I'm not sure what was more interesting, waiting for the box to open or waiting to see if Zane would cut himself with the knife.

Mia loved the beads and light up wand. NO they didn't throw Hannah Montana dolls from the floats. This was a birthday present.

Trent found the Frisbee first and claimed it as his own.

David and I searched and searched the bottom of the box for a King Cake but we never found one. What's up with that? We would like to formally request a Strawberry & Cream Cheese one for next year.