We are back in indo

hey all...
we are back to slow internet and so much more!
i will be writing again???
:D ha ha ha...we'll see!
but i have a new blog cuz we aren't copeland five anymore...we are now COPELAND COMPLETE!

so...
go to http://copelandcomplete.blogspot.com
or just click on the address there in green (i have to say this for my mom who is now on the internet!!! wooo hooo!!! :D)
for more about our lives :D

one of the first family pics of copeland complete :D

the reasons i love being called mom

Baby Ian and those loving him

Copelands + one Hansen

uncle joel

uncle mike and aunt carrie with baby ian

grandma carolyn and grandma linda

uncle eric

grandpa copeland

Some of greg's mural work in bellflower, ca

Family times

Birthday celebrations

March 2009

Brookie painting pinecones with kiddos

We all enjoy the green grass parks

the ocean is a favorite

gavin climbing under the pier

hazel got a pic of gwandma "winda"

Ian Elias Copeland

Everyone- IAN ELIAS COPELAND IS BORN!

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!! Ian is here, as of 2:20 pm, April 24, weighing in at 8 lbs. , he's 20 inches long. He has a good amount of hair, a good sized head (mom is glad she went the C-section route after hearing that) and pretty content so far. The first thing he did when the nurse laid him on the table was to pee all over the place. It caught the nurse by surprise and I had a good laugh. Maybe the beginning of a great sense of humor? He is doing great, and after waiting 5 1/2 hours to finally get to hold him, mom and son are together atlast. The last hour before I left the hospital to come home Martha finally felt a little bit of relief from the constant pain she is in- the med. helps take some of the edge off, but she has been through alot! Sorry there are no photos yet, it is late and I'll get on that tomorrow and post one as soon as I can. . . .thanks so much for all the prayers, the love and little facebook notes sent our way throughout this last little bit, we appreciate it all. That's all for tonight!
Greg

birth days

happy birthday to my dad! he would have been 62
happy birthday to chrissy! a stunning 21???? :D
and it will be a BIRTH day on friday for our little #4! YAY!

we have relocated to a very nice place in seal beach and we are enjoying the area a great deal...the sun has been hot since we moved so we get in on the pool action and the beach every day! life is refreshing...and then life is also coming at us very quickly...little baby #4 has turned into the breach position so i was advised that standing on my head in a pool would work to turn him...so i did...and he did! i KNOW he did cuz his feet remained in my ribs for the entire night. the next day we went swimming again and i could tell he was moving around but didn't expect him to totally flip...but he did. so he is breach again. the dr doesn't really want him to be flipping around any more for fear of getting all tangled up...so we had to weigh the options of having him turned in the hospital (which i hear is very painful) and then being induced right after...or going for a C-section. i don't know why, but C-sections are way scary for me...maybe because all 3 of my births have been prepped for an emergency one? i don't know? but i have never had one...but i couldn't make a decision on what to do...so Greg made it for me. he called it out that there are still lots of tricky parts going for inducing...but with the C-section...it's easy and done and people do it more and more these days and it's less stress on the baby and most likely me...so that is what we are going for. We prayed for peace and we both feel relieved today to say this is what is going to happen:

1:00pm on Friday, April 24, 2009...we will be having another baby! that is weird to even say that we know the timing and all but it's also a relief to make the decision and just pray we don't go in before that. my contractions are still hard and often but not consistant so today i am trying to lay lower and not do as much so that we make it to friday with no big deal.

so now i can say i have had all the ways of labor...no epidural, epidural, and C-section...i can give my opinion on all 3 ways...crazy! so if anyone has good advice on a C-section...let me know...otherwise we would appreciate your prayers as we go into yet ANOTHER transition :D

Gavin my Gavin

What a kid! i can't believe it's been 7 years...that seems like another stage of life he has entered now. he now reads, writes, plays grown-up games with us, takes care of babies and little kids without being asked cuz they love him (maybe he is like his father and will be a pied piper as well???) i love what gavin brings to our family. his character is all his own and he represents sensitivity, structure, commitment, love, sillyness, creativity, adventure, and his inward world is yet unknown to anyone...his brain and emotions run deep inside him and it's mysterious to us. how great to know he brings such things into our family. i love his freckles that come out more and more as we have been playing at parks and at the beach (where he feels most comfortable in the waves). i think his doggie that he has had since his 1st birthday (given by grandpa paul and grandma linda) will stay with him till his wedding day...he holds on to those sensitive things...and even though i am not one to hold onto much...i can appreciate why he does and how he does it. as we wait for our new little addition to come into the world, he asks how i am doing and asks how he can help and wonders what is wrong with me when i grunt and groan to get up into our van...ha ha ha! he cares for people...and...he knows his role as big brother...how to get paul and hazel to do what he wants, how to get them in trouble, how to make them scream, how to trade candy for his benefit...it's so funny to watch! Greg and i are proud of gavin for going through so much the past year+ in indo...it's not easy for him to go through what he does but we are all learning to trust in our God more. i pray that as he grows even more this year that his faith develpes as he grows to know he is a SON to our God and not an orphan just wandering about aimlessly...there is a purpose to math, reading and writing. there is a purpose to learning responsibility and the hard stuff of living overseas... there is a purpose to having fun in life...there is a reason he is the oldest in this family...we praise God for gavin in our family...happy birthday mister gavin...we love you!

too long

i know, i know, i know...
i haven't been keeping up with the blog...mostly cuz i can hardly keep up with my own daily life. but nonetheless...i have heard from MANY of you that you want updates so you know we haven't fallen off the grid here in good ol bellflower, CA

no baby as of Easter sunday night :D...still waiting...
the first dr...my main one...told me he thinks i am earlier than we thought and wants to induce on the 24th of april...trying to wait for baby to be ready INCASE the 24th is early and yet trying not to wait too long in case he is right. he can't prove his theory without a test and the test normally starts labor...so we wait...on God...and HIS perfect timing...right? :D but i am definately ready to go!

we have been active and busy out most nights visiting friends and catching up with stories of life. during the day greg has been super busy with work and we praise God for the work but now he needs to slow down and we are thinking 3 days a week will work good. he has quite a few murals lined up and has already done one...he loves that! i am trying to keep 3 kids busy and happy at the same time while also homeschooling gavin. this has been a huge challenge for me...i knew it wasn't going to be easy...but it's way harder than i thought it would be! i am just not that structured of a person...but i have heard of this new thing called "unschooling" and i think that is what we do in our lives...learn without curriculum...but thankfully i have a friend who is helping me and gavin out in a most huge way! she takes him every wednesday morning and does a bit of schooling with him and then gives me "lesson plans" for the week...so that it's not so overwhelming for me :D what a gift she has and i am in debt to her (pamela) for this blessing in my life! and gavin loves going to her as well...cuz she is a "REAL" teacher...i'm his "MOM" :/

the kids still love it here and often say they don't want to return to indo...hmm...what to think about that? i don't know? we have so much we have yet to accomplish that it's not yet time to think of going back...so i think we have time to cross that bridge at a later date. but you can pray for them as they process america, indonesia, friends, new baby...and pray for us to have wisdom in helping them along the way...

juggling...i feel we are juggling a lot of balls right now...

i have some friends here who are very precious to me and it's been sooo sooo sooo great to have them around to look in their faces and talk and laugh and cry and live life again...but i am learning that writing has become my main form of communication...one in which i just am not doing right now...so i think i better start again! ha!

so tomorrow i will write the delayed birthday blessing of gavin...only 2 weeks late!
and we will do homeschooling...
and help greg recover from a small surgery he had this weekend...one in which will aid in us NOT having more than 4 children... :D i have taken extra good care of him so that he recovers as fast as possible in case i should go into labor! and just be able to help with the kiddos again!
we will go to the library and check out more books...return some books...get some movies and return some movies
greg will go and check out a job and we will research for a mural he is doing next week
i have two loads of laundry
3 meals to fix
deal with hazel who has a fever...at least she did today
and 3 kids who will be coming off the sugar high of Easter candy...
but i will get to this blog tomorrow...i promise :D

Jet Leg

so...we haven't slept so much since we left indo...i am thinking...oh...this is how it's going to be with a new little baby too! greg and i went to our dr. appointment today and for some reason it hit both of us that in about 2 months we are going to have a little baby! the time has gone fast...i guess? but the dr. was so interested in our time in indo...he wanted to talk about that more than the pregnancy and i wanted some answers! but he was not concerned with where i am now. he says having more contractions are normal with each child and with the stress we were under, it's just no doubt that brought on more. he says to monitor and call him if it gets to be more than 5 an hr...with consistancy. so all in all it was a very quick talk on my life the past 6 mo but i am relieved to know that he isn't so concerned...and he didn't put me on bed rest or anything...i just need to rest when my body says so. and i think my body knows the stress of the matter of getting here is over so it has calmed down but my body is all weirded out with the new time zone...along with everyone! it's 1 am and we have all been up since 11pm. eating and playing and reading and playing hide and seek. i feel good right now...but during the day...we are all like zombies trying to stay awake. yesterday we went to bed at 5 am and had to get up at 6:30 am for the dr appointment. greg and i said we were just going to keep moving till 6pm...we barely made it...hazel went in and put herself to sleep about 10 min before our goal. we all slept 5 hrs and somehow our bodies say "get up!"...and we do try to just lay there and sleep but we are wide awake. hungry! and the uncles gave the kids a PS2 for their birthdays so this keeps everyone occupied as well...and quiet for grandma and grandpa. anyway...just a little update as to what is happening...we have so many good friends here bringing us warm clothes to wear and waiting for us to get over this groggy state so we can be alive again. it's good to be back where i feel comfortable and just KNOW what to expect...but everything seems very open and spread out and big and yeah...definately some reverse culture shock going on. i'm excited for when the sun comes up...we are going to TARGET!

On the other side!

hey you all! we made it! God gave us so much encouragement to keep going with the whole trip! we are here in LA and it's pretty surreal but we are here all the same and only the last five hours of the last flight were more uncomfortable with contractions. i am just updating this so you all know cuz i KNOW there have been MANY praying and that is what brought us through...faithfulness and persistance to our God...he has taught me so much through this whole pregnancy...it's good to be in amercia...the kids are already in culture shock with drinking fountains, automatic doors and toilets flushing, not too many motorcycles on the freeways and getting a taste of a malt...its' all good and we love america! good night!

T - 22 hours

ok! so we are down to the hour count! we plan to make it through the whole way to LA. thank you so much for praying...there won't be another update until we are on the other side...so stay tuned but we will let you know asap! love you to all!

Happy Birthday Paul

oh what a kid! he comes in to our room at 5am asking if it's light enough for it to be his birthday yet. and so i say "happy birthday paul" while still sleeping and he jumps up and wants to party! he wants to decorate and get the plans going for the party today and have people over all day and come on mom...why aren't you already up!? thankfully miss ashley came over at 6:30am to wish a happy birthday (and goodbye) to us so he had a visitor already! he has to wait until 1 to have his party...19 friends will all go and play at a play place downtown...they will eat a soccer cake (not made by me...so very sad for me...but bed rest keeps one down) and drink kool-aid. it's going to be a great party in paul's mind cuz they have a trampoline...and he has tricks!

paul is right now sitting in a cardboard box, poking holes in it with hazel on the outside...all is well. he is such a great kid and we love him so! i can't believe he is five already...the days go too fast and he is asking so much of life already...he expects grand things from it and has passion for everything he does...whether he is happy or mad...you don't question cuz it's written all over his face. he loves to laugh and make others laugh...he is quite smart...and asks a lot of deep questions. he is into bugs, cars, drawing, Ben 10, super man, spiderman, batman, (and even enjoys a good barbie movie, computer games, skateboards, skitters, scooters, bikes, and the like...he has a bigger social schedule than anyone in our family and makes instant friends with any age. people around town know paul and like to call out his name when we are out. he does get embarrassed about this but i think he really likes it. his mouth is always going with some noise coming out...he will maybe be a sound effects guy? or a drama king? or a great dad! i think he will LOVE school and be excited for each new subject and getting to be like big brother gavin. right now he is annoyed with a little sister who wants to be just like him and is pretty much a parrot for him. he doesn't understand he is already a leader...and he has followers who love him.
we are happy to have paul in our family to keep us on the lighter side of life. he is so excited to get to america to go to chuckie cheezes...good times! we love paul and are blessed by him daily. happy birthday bud...high 5 for 5 fingers!

3 more days

just a little update for those interested...thanks so much for your prayers and notes already!
still having to do this bedrest thing. i tested the waters and tried to do little things but that backfired pretty good and so i MUST lay. ;(
we have been doing our best to research meds to take on the plane to stop contractions, seems everything has pretty bad side effects. please pray that something comes up very soon that will just "WORK" and it's not so scary. i don't like meds to begin with!
but we went to the dr last night and found i am only 1cm so that confirms in our minds that i can indeed get on those planes unless God closes the doors. we have done what we know and most of what we KNOW is that He is in control and this is why we follow Him in the first place...to put all trust IN HIM and not to think we can handle it ourselves. i have been gossiping the gospel to myself all day cuz i want the control on this one since i figure this is one of the bigger decisions we have had to make. (to get on the plane or not to even start) the idea that we are being taken care of is totally breathtaking...and sometimes hard to grasp but slowly slowly i am learning i am so proud to want to do it all myself! i am a daughter, having a son to a King...it doesn't get much better than that. so help us rest in that peace by praying us through and we'll let you know just as fast as we can that we arrived safely.

8 more days

so i am going to write to update everyone at the same time since i am not SUPPOSE to up.
one week ago i started having contractions...but as there was much to do and i knew this was normal braxton hicks...i kept going with day. by the end of the day they were pretty strong and within minutes of each other. so the OB nurse for our school sent us into the hospital to see if i could be monitored. Praise the Lord they recently acquired a monitoring machine so i was able to get some meds to relax everything and be hooked up to the machine. the contractions stopped within 10 min and i had no more for the hr i laid there.
so the next day i had more contractions and everyone decided i should take it easy. so i rested for the day and went out to dinner with many friends that night but then pain started under my belly and lasted all night. i didn't sleep. the next day i rested again and contacted who i knew could help. my dr in the states can only really reply with "i recommend you not fly" for legal reasons i suppose...and most here were saying the would not recommend it either. so we all decided i would go on bed rest until i was stable. and i also did a urine culture to see if there was any infection making all this happen...but no...only a slightly elivated white blood count...but we decided to go on an antibiotic to see if that could be the cause. and it has seemed to help! the spazms have gone way down and the contractions only go when i am standing. the pain has been reduced by 80% and i feel fine when i am laying down now...so i guess it makes it harder to remain laying down :/ but i do lay as much as humanly possible for me at this time...we leave in 8 days. there is still a lot to be done and while friends are helping with certain things...there are things that have to be done by either greg or i...we are doing our best to deligate and the community here is great to lend hands to help! i had planned to lead a women's retreat this weekend but in the end...i am not there...i handed it over to another lady who will do it for me. thank goodness i have a helper too! this whole pregnancy would look so much different if i didn't have her! she at least feeds the family and helps me not to have to get up every time they need something! so anyway...long story! after one week i am much better but i am writing all this so that you can pray better for us...we leave Feb 27 at 3pm california time and we arrive in LAX Feb 28 7pm...so we need a good amount of prayer in that 28 hr period...i really don't want to be walking off the plane with a baby! i am more and more confident that things are going to be just fine... the indo dr. here gave me the same med i had that night of the contractions and told me to take one before i get on the plane and then every 6-8 hrs after until i get to LA...and that seemed to work for me very well and didn't affect my very active little baby boy inside! so we will pray that we get on the planes we need to and God will stop anything we aren't suppose to do. He knows this plan and so i trust we are in the best care possible. you can also pray for mr. greg...he is so stressed with all this, getting his school work done for the subs to take over, getting the things done that i can not, the stress knowing that i am on bedrest, he has an ingrown toenail...just to slow him down with pain! we are going to be grateful to land on the other side of the world here next week! the kids are very excited and can't wait to get there...we have 4 birthday parties from today until we leave and one of them is Paul's...he will be five already!

so there is our life from the last week...sorry for the many words...but we appreciate the prayers!

peace and love
martha

Gavin learns about Germany

This past month was international month for the elementary. because there are so many kids from around the world, each class picks a country to learn about and then on the last day they invite all the parents and other students to come and travel the world. this year gavin has a many from around the world in his class of 12. some from america, holland, germany, indonesia, korea, and denmark. this year they picked germany for their class to learn about and here are some shots of the boys making food from germany.

if you ask gavin about germany, he will tell you quite a bit of information. he learned about WWII and what happened and who helped the Jews. He learned about how poor people were that they had never even tasted a banana but had only seen pictures. He knows the black forest isn't really black but dark green. he knows why castles were built high on the hills. He even knows some german lingo. it's great they can be exposed to other countries from people who actually live there!
other countries they learned from the K-6 were Dessert countries, India, Costa Rica, and Thiland. Paul and Hazel were given passports to travel around with and get stamped at each country. it was a great creative day :D

Lizard found

this morning when i dropped off greg and gavin at school, paul decided to put on his cowboy boots that had already been in the car overnight. he got on the boot and screamed and threw it off...out came the big lizard onto the passenger seat and hazel, paul and i were all screaming! luckily we were still parked and not on the go! greg came back to rescue us but even he didnt' want to be surprised by the lizard who had now crawled under the floor mat. about 2 min later greg found it and got it out of the car. the poor thing ran to a drain probably suffering greatly after spending the night in paul's shoe! (chrissy, you can sleep at night now...there are no known animals in the car)

27 more days

till we reach LA!

Princess Parties

have you ever been to one? today was my first! hazel and elleah (hazel's friend who has almost the same birthday as her) had their 3 yr. old princess party this afternoon...combined. we had 9 little girls showed up in their party dresses ready to be pampered. we did hair (hazel had hers done 3 times and took it out each time saying "actually, i don't want that.") we did nails. we did toes. we did make up. we did body jewels. we did lipstick (i have to say this one for elleah cuz she constantly put lipstick on for the 2 hours we were there). we did dress up (hazel changed outfits 3 times...are we seeing a pattern here?) the girls were primped and princessed...they felt and acted like it! we played a game, and had a story told to them by miss ashely. then we decorated cupcakes and i made a special barbie ice cream cake. "what?" you might say! yeah...i wasn't thinking...ice cream cake in Indonesia? the two don't mix...i got the form ok...but it melted pretty fast...so i stuck it in the freezer overnight...the next day i took it out to frost. i was proud of the frosting that uncle eric had sent especially for this occasion from america...but the frosting didn't like us! i began to put on the pink icing...trying to make it look like a dress of a barbie (and then later i would put the barbie in the middle) but i could see right away this wasn't going to work! the ice cream was melting, the frosting was drooping, the whole thing was becoming a huge mess...so i stuck it in the freezer for 5 min...opened, and the little bit i had done was NOT what my eye was looking for! so i stood in the freezer and attempted to spread the frosting little by little...having to keep closing the freezer every min. or so...wait 5 and then go again. it was torturous... but in the end barbie wore her dress and all the little princesses ooohhh'd and awwww'd and it was successful...but i learned my lesson...even on a colder day in Indo...we don't frost ice cream! (cuz it never get's that cold) after they ate, all the little ladies went outside to play on the play structure...it looked pretty funny...all the color and fluff out there...pretty soon we heard a brawl. hazel had taken the body jewel off of hasten's arm and hasten was willing to fight for it back! so, we watched and the two of them eventually made up when hazel asked miss ashley for her jewels and then returned to hasten with jewel's AND a ribbon from the decorations...friends again! so easy. i must say this party was much more quiet than any of the boys parties i have had (besides the few screams of excitement)...will this continue to be this way? the brothers thought it was VERY unfair they did not get to attend the all girl event...but we did save them some frosting and cake and ice cream cuz they didnt' like the idea of getting all princessed up...but all that mattered was that we saved them the frosting! (on a side note paul and i came home real quick before the party started to grab a few things i had forgotten...and we found a large lizard in the house...paul HAD to catch this lizard for all the boys (gavin and elleah's two brothers) back at elleah's house...HAD TO MOM! so i tried to wait patiently and a little timid as i was scared of it too and didn't want it in my house...after several attempts and me hurrying him along...he truimphed with little giggles and his cowboys boots to show the friends and brother...but oops! he lost it in the car as he was showing the boys! uh oh! oh fun days...gotta love it! but the lizard was never seen again...does this mean...it's still in the car? oh i know Chrissy would just scream and faint!) the day ended very well and hazel had a great time...even though she ended up looking more like Cindy Laper (spelling help?) than any princess i have seen... but then again...she is "her own princess" as she likes to say :D

Hazel is officially 3!

It's amazing to me that our kids are this old...especially Hazel. How does it happen so fast? I guess when life goes at full speed...it's bound to happen faster! She is very proud to be 3. our big goal was to have her going potty all by herself...she has been trained for almost a year now but she insisted on people helping her to the potty and being with her while she went. she COULD do it by herself, as she would at other friends' houses, but i guess that is the part of girls want company in the bathroom? i don't know? but for what ever reason turning 3 was the magic day (cuz we had been talking it up) and now she climbs up all by herself and has yet to fall in all by herself! one time this week i did help her get to the toilet quickly as she was getting ready for a bath and had not realized she had to go so bad as she pulled her clothes off...she replied a little frustrated after i sat her down, "what? now i am 2 again?" no no hazel...you are seriously 3!
she brings a lot of joy to our lives and a lot of patience practice. girls are just very different than boys and she keeps us on our toes with more creativity in this journey of parenting. we enjoy her hugs and her soft touches to our faces. her attention to detail. and all her questions and comments! greg loves it when she helps him shave. i like to have someone to do my hair and make-up with. she loves to be held or be in the middle. she takes care of her babies and sings to them when no one is looking. playing dress up and grocery store is a favorite past time...along with picking on her brothers. she knows just how to push their buttons or give them a nudge as she walks by to show them "who is boss"...if we can all just play her game and keep her thinking she is boss...life is grand! paul in turn, loves to put her in her place. she is strong in all her personality strengths and she knows where she is going in life. she is a favorite among her aunts and uncles here in Indonesia...it's great to know she is loved world wide too :D we can't wait to go back to LA so she meet everyone again and speak to them this time :D...the girl doesn't stop talking most of the day...one can even hear her talking to imaginary friends and gavin has the hardest time with this..."why does she do that?" he askes. hazel is a blessing to anyone she is around and we are grateful she is in our family to help us grow and love better. Happy 3rd Birthday Hazel Bazil

Family photos

Martha's Grandpa Emmert...in Italy WWII

Greg and Eric...in Bellflower 2007...enough said

Martha's Dad...Paul taking wheat from a Colorado field in 1981

paul sayings

paul asks a lot of questions.

he asked, "Who made God?"

and he said, "When God makes a turkey, he stuffs it with cheese."

he said, "my dad has the biggest muscles of anybody i know. you can see his bone."

life in 2009

it's great to be able to tell you that we are having another BOY! fun fun fun! hazel seems to be in denial about it though and will insist she is having a "stisster" NOT a "brudder" but i think she will love on the little guy anyway! paul and gavin both said they knew it was boy and it seems we have been calling him a "he" for some time now. (except for hazel) we do have names we like...but we are keeping them on the downlow this time :D but gavin and paul want to name him after their favorite cartoon...

and now for a few of paul's quotes

they kids were climbing around on an old abandoned building and they wanted me to join them. i said i better not cuz i had to protect the baby. paul says, "why?" and i said, "cuz i am the mom and that is what mom's have to do with their kids...keep them safe" and paul says, "why? you think you are having baby Jesus or something?" and i said, "no...." wondering where this was coming from but he went on to ask a lot of questions about Mary being Jesus mom. this christmas we all watched the movie "the nativity" so they really got into it i guess.

another time i was doing laundry and this is always the time paul likes to askes questions. he said "mom, we have to go to america to have this baby so it isn't indonesian right?" and i said, "well, this baby will be a copeland no matter where he is born." and then he clairified..."but if he was born here, he would have brown skin right?"

we were having a particularly hard day with cultural things here and by the end of the day we were both pretty frustrated with what to do. paul came in with a new found catepillar. it was as big as a man's middle finger and bright green...like the hungry little catepillar. his eyes though were the funniest thing and i wish we could download our pictures of it...but it looked like someone had drawn cartoon eyes on him...they were big and droopy and just halarious. i told greg this must be God's way of telling us to just laugh off this cultural stuff and that He sees us....everything's gonna be alright.

hazel and gavin crack us up too. they enjoy picking on each other just as any normal siblings would but i think hazel tends to have the upper hand...and the higher pitched scream. if it weren't for our kids...we wouldn't have near as good a time in life!

gavin has entered into a new stage of life...losing teeth! he lost his first one while eating an apple. it kind of freaked him out a bit but he was pretty happy to wake up and find Rp. 9,000 under his pillow in change. that would be coins in Rp. 100 and 200! so it seems like a gold mine for him but it's acutally about 80 cents!

we are counting down the days till we return to LA... just 42 more days!

i am officially in month 6 now and this little guy likes to sit in my ribs like gavin did. i have to fight him. my sickness has calmed down but not disappeared...and i am exhausted most days but continue to keep moving. we have much to do before we go. life just keeps on the fast track.

Christmas Eve Quote

Christmas gave us some great times with the kids! they said so many funny things and reacted to each gift they got with great drama and joy! halarious and fun for us parents! on Christmas Eve we went to friends house and had the whole turkey meal and it was so nice. on the way home, paul said, "oh my goodness! i have waited sssssssooooo long for Christmas and it's HERE! i can't believe it's here!!!! mom, dad! Christmas is in my heart!!!!!!!!!"

A good shot of the Mt. (volcano) around Salatiga

Mr. Greg AKA studmuffin

Dream and Kelsy, two students and good babysitters for us!

and little Hazel...pretending to be shy

Chrissy is almost on her way!

and i am almost on my way to bali to pick her up! it's a sacrifice i must make. i have to leave my family and go to bali for 3 days to get her. i know, i know...:D life will be good with her around!
greg and the kids are going to another beach with members of our org so life will be good for them as well! then on the 31st Chrissy and i will meet up with them and ring in the new year with spray paint hair dye...and glow in the dark glow sticks and i am sure some fireworks...we can get anything here! so yeah...just to let you know we are still kicking even though i still haven't really updated this thing...and i can't download our pics onto this computer so i can't put our pictures on but the friend that we are borrowing from has a couple of pictures i would like to post...so that should happen :D and this is really just to let you know that we are out of town til the 3rd....so see you next year!

poor bruiser

we found out that the chicken that brusier supposedly killed was NOT killed by brusier. the ladies, our neighbors and friends, came here just to get money out of us. it was a set up. merry christmas to us.

cultural and communtiy living

here's a few things that have had happened in the past 2 months...

we found that if you spray cecuks with soapy water while on the ceiling...they will fall and the boys can catch them much easier. we have lost one cecuk and 1 other lizard thing in our car...we see them occasionally...how long will they last? right now we have 2 frogs, one hamster, several cecuks and one dog.

the only one dog story came about because bruiser started killing chickens after the celebration of sacrificing animals. he ran down to the mosque and grabbed some bones in which he thought tasted good so he went after two chickens in one day. our neighbor wasn't so happy with us as she brought the chicken to show proof of the kill and we had to pay a high price of $6. so the only nice thing we could do to keep good relations in our community was hand over bruiser to our other neighbor who went and made "sate" out of him...meat on a stick. so sad...very very sad. so now poor sassy sits alone in the backyard and cries for her brother to come back.

i brushed my teeth with an ant. enough said.

the termite season keeps living on. i don't know how many times we have woken up with 100's of termites on our floor. it's getting old.

the mosque just down the street is decorated with christmas lights...hmmm????

we wrapped our christmas presents last week and they are now "molding"... the paper is damp and all...so nice and refreshing. mold is growing everywhere in our house now. coming up in all sorts of areas...

two mornings in a row now we have woken up at 5:30am to someone cutting wood with a saw. they only make about 10 cuts...just enough to wake us up. just cuz the sun is starting to come up...does it mean we ALL have to be up?

i went to our ibu-ibu meeting...a monthly meeting of women in our community where we all wear the same outfit to be united....and we went and visited a lady who is sick with diabetes. it is really nice to be in a community who really cares about their neighbors. we went and prayed for her...

we are alive

so sorry to many of you wondering "where in the world are they?"
but we had too many computer problems along with rainy season and no internet to contend with for 5 weeks but we are back in the game...not fully but almost! our computer died after 5 weeks of open heart surgery. it's over. we have to get a new one. in the mean time we are borrowing our gracious friends' computer till we get back to the states in just 74 days! we are looking to buy our tickets here this week coming into LA on Feb. 27 (paul's birthday) and flying out of LA on Aug. 1.

things are going ok here. i, martha have been sick with a nasty flu for 10 days and today is the first day i feel a bit "back"...besides the constant nausea i still have from baby #4. still throwing up daily but that comes with it :D
thankfully the kids and greg did not get what i had...paul had a minor case of it for 24 hours. but now we are hoping to stay healthy for the duration of christmas break coming up on friday thru jan. 13. our great friend Chrissy is coming to visit for the break and we are so excited!
so that is our lives in a tiny little nutshell...just wanted to poke our head in for anyone who might still check this????
we are here...and i will get this updated asap :D

red handed

hazel was busy in the kitchen. i could hear her. she came around the corner with a pack of gum. i said from a distance, "no gum hazel." so she put the gum down and ran away. shortly she came back with a towel and wrapped the gum in the towel and began to come towards me again, not realizing i had been watching the whole situation and i think she was thinking she was pretty smart to be doing this cuz NOW she would get past me to give gum to all the kids outside. but no. mom caught her red handed. she didnt' want to admit there was gum in the towel but yes...eventually we all break under pressure...she confessed and hung her shoulders as she put the gum away.

Quote

Paul asking on our way home from swimming today, "So does anyone like onions in this whole wide world?"

He might like to know if you DO!

i'm publishing Gavin's first story

this is all in his writing and wordage...Go FIRST GRADE!

October 30, 2008
The raddit is jumping out in the fores
t and he bonk his heab. One little
raddit jumping in the forest in he
bib not bonk his head.
The End.

coming out of the woods

well...its' been a long time since i have updated this site. it's been a long time that i have not felt 'up to it'. this baby is a gift and we are excited about that but i have been much too sick, in my opinion, for having such joy in our lives! i didn't even leave my house for 3 weeks. but i am now starting to walk a little in the mornings and going to friends houses to lay on their furniture and have a different atmosphere. my energy is returning and the meds are working to keep food down. it makes a huge difference to have food and water in your system! but in all this i have become a little more negative and i wish to be a little more positive. i wanted to wait to write on this BLOG until i could say some positive things! and it's the kids that keep me going on the funny stuff. they have all become good little encouragers making cards for me, rubbing my back, asking if i need anything. and so here brings me some funny stories for you from them in this time of my laying down and them trying to understand it all.

episode #1: Paul is telling Greg what he wants to write on my card (i get them almost daily from all 3) but first Greg has to write it out and then paul copies it...so in a very dramatic and sad voice he says "dear mom, i am sooo sorry you are sick, but this is just the way it HAS to be" and then in a very happy-party-like -there's-no-tomorrow voice...he says "but I'M SO GLAD WE GET TO GO TO AMERICA TO HAVE THE BABY!!!!"

yes it's true, with my past history in labor, we think along with nurse and dr. here that it's best i go back to america to have the baby. so that means we will be living in LA starting the first week of March for a couple of months :D

episode #2: about every other day i still seem to have to throw up. and because of the stress on my body from all the previous times...something has pinched or pulled on a spot in my head. and so now whenever i throw up this spot becomes inflamed again and it drops me from the pain. i can't move for like an hour cuz the pain is so intense. but again the kids are getting more used to this and paul asked me as i was laying on HIS bed, "mom, do you just feel like you can move?" and i said, "no paul, i can't" and he said, "YES!!!!!" and greg pulls him aside and asks, "why are you cheering that mom is sick and can't move?" and he says, "because that means i get to sleep in her bed!!!" so there are pluses to everything when you are 4...1/2...

episode #3: many times the kids would ask me a question and i just couldn't answer with words for fear of opening my mouth. so i would nodd yes or no or communicate with a "uhhuh" and hazel has heard from us what she said to me. "mom, use your words, i can't understand you!"

there are more episodes of course but these are the ones that stand out still today. :D i'm glad for my family taking good care of me and that we can have the opportunity to come back to america to have the baby and live at the copeland house. the school is going to cover greg's classes in the last quarter here so we are thankful for that too and we hope to get gavin into first grade in bellflower. greg will hope to find some murals or painting jobs and maybe even work again with his old boss. my doctor that delivered Paul and Hazel has agreed to take me on as a patient. seems God has had all this planned for us...we just have to keep resting in that...that He is blessing us with another life!!!

yesterday in Kopang...just up the mountain

Notice

we are giving you fair warning that our blog site will have to be changed come spring time 2009. copelandfive.blogspot.com will no longer suffice seeing as how we will be adding another child to the mix come may!!!! we are excited to say that copeland baby #4 is well on it's way. Hazel is certain it is a "pink" baby. Paul wants to name it Sally. Gavin likes Luke. whatever the sex...this kid is definately a copeland at heart. it doesn't care for sweets! how am i going to make it nine months with noooo sweets??? and my cravings are all AMERICAN so far...so sweet Hazel is my little waitress and she takes down what i would like and we dream of eating great things from a far off land :D. it's nice to do that kind of thing since i am sick 24/7 anyway...and most of what i eat...comes right back up...BUT i think the worst is done...i hope...but we could really use your prayers to make it the rest of the way! and we have some big decisions to make on where to have the baby. not one situation is easier over another. but we are grateful that we have a Father who knows just what we need and sees our lives and all the details it takes to run it. we trust Him completely. thanks for celebrating with us!

Foliage

take a look at these vines growing on this palm tree...
















and this grasshopper hidden in the grass

Beans, Beans, the musical fruit...

While we spent some time up at the retreat center, the kids found the ground was covered with all sorts of beans...so of course they began collecting them. (Gavin was intrigued because they are taking about planting trees and garden stuff and he thought he could use these to start NEW ones :D)
they spent a good hour one morning doing this...until they found a momma cat carrying a lizard to her baby kittens...then all focus was on the baby kitties
But before we saw the cat...we had to count all the beans...in all we counted 530 beans...this was after we had collected brown ones AND red ones...

Jr.-Sr High Retreat - Salib Putih

Last Thursday-Saturday we spent on a retreat with 117 students from Mountainview. We went 10 minutes up the mountain to this GREAT retreat center. Good view of the mountains, Salatiga, and all the area surrounding. The focus of the weekend was on community...so it was good to focus on that whole idea through hanging out, eating snacks, listening to a speaker, having worship time together, bible studies, playing 3 legged soccer, and swimming together. unfortunately i didn't have my camera out at all these activities...but here are a few shots (the only ones i got!) of the weekend...we all went away a little more encouraged and more rooted in our community and a little more aware of "names and faces" for me...cuz i don't get to hang out with the H.S. as much as we did the first time we were here...so sad :(
Some of the teachers brought their younger kids...it was pretty cool to see how the students really wanted to love on our kids and haul them around. we barely saw them the whole time from all the help we had there! they had a great time worshipping too...
the dining area...some of the kids...this was breakfast...most looked pretty tired...so i didn't think i should take more shots...

Hazel and Daniella

The beloved swimming pool. the big pool is an infinity pool that looks over to this great view. during one of the sessions greg came up and took the kids swimming instead of them "listening" to the speaker :D what he doesn't sacrifice for his kids...

local village soccer

Greg and his team played a local village last sunday night. these shots were taken before all the rain came. the field became a pool and most of them said "this was the best game i have played in a long time!" i think the mud and water added to that great experience :D

Beena Anna

Hazel is starting to come out of her little girl words starting to say the "right" sounds for the words...but my favorite that is leaving is her word for BANANA...which she has about 3 a day! she calls it a "BEENA ANNA"...but the last couple of days i have started to hear "BANANA" and i say "oh...i like the Hazel word for it better" :D but i guess we all have to keep moving and growing

do we understand? can we understand?

yesterday and today we are experiencing a difficulty to really understand the poor here. our helper here in the house, Ibu Yanti, (we are down to one helper because i am not going to school full time anymore and we don't need the accountability that two held with watching kids...)...but yesterday this is our conversation: of course i will translate into english for you!
Yanti: Good morning ibu. i hope you are strong and healthy today.
Me: yeah... we are good except for each person is just a little sick today.
Yanti: Oh Ibu! what is wrong?
Me: blah blah blah...i went on to explain our tiny little pains and then i ask "how are you?"
Yanti: yeah, God keeps me strong and healthy.

an hour passes and i go in to tell her about the laundry i was just doing with Greg's socccer clothes cuz they had played in the rain the day before and all was MUD...then she began to tell me the story of HER day.

her and her husband, their two kids (3 and 1) and his mother moved into a tiny little house in the inner city of Salatiga so that they would be close to everything without having to walk too far. this was earlier this spring. they didn't know that when rainy season would come...which is starting just now...that their entire house would be wet on the inside. so much so they have to sweep out the water. so much so that all the mattresses are soaked and they don't have a dry place to rest their bodies. and her baby is already sick on top of this. some bronchitis thing that he has to take meds for like 6 months...the electricity went out all over town this particular night and the kids were scared, the food was ruined from the rain, and they had no place to sleep. her telephone was out of pulsa so she wasn't able to call anyone. her neighbor invited them stay at her house but her daughter wouldn't sleep there cuz it was so dark and dirty and smelly. she began to cry like a little girl but her mother-in-law told her to stop. so she did and she began to pray that God would keep her family strong and healthy. that night they all went to bed with hungry stomaches and she sat up and held her kids so they could sleep.

i felt soooo foolish for having complained of our little sicknesses to her. i feel so bad for her and this whole situation. the owner will not help fix the roof and they still have a contract with the house. they can not afford to move again! nor can they just leave this spot with so much money already paid. now that ramadan season has started...there is a lot of theft that goes on because people are trying to "pay back" debt they owe...so they steal in order to pay back. it's an awkward thing, and their house has already been broken into 3 times. she feels unsafe as well.

what can we do? i say lets build a big house in our back yard and let people live there...we know this family and one other that would go nicely there. wouldn't that be the easy thing to do? just save them? shouldn't we let them sleep in our house? she won't do it. i already told her to just come...it's a fine line here of helping and handing out...but i can't help but think out loud on this blog to all of you and wonder what to do? i know you don't understand all the cultural ins and outs of this matter and why we can't just jump on getting her into a new spot...but what i am wondering now...'would it be so bad if we overlooked culture right now?' couldn't it be said that it's "ok"? i am finding out that MOST people here have leaky houses when it rains...even foreigners...but not to the extent that Indonesians live with. what to do? can i really say to her "i'm so sorry, i will be praying for you and i hope you can find a better place to live."? and call that good? i don't think so! so please be with us in prayer over this and many matters of culture here. we just can't even begin to understand the miles they have walked in their shoes.

friends

just liking this shot of me, brookie, and hazel and how symbolic it is of friends going the distance...with each other. i am really feeling that lately. we are settling in more and more here but i am finding that i am missing the friendships more and more of "good old friends"...God speed!

Michael's photo

paul

Miss Ashley says, "Paul, i need to hurry up and find a husband and get married so that you can be my ring bear."
Paul replies, "But i don't have a wedding dress yet!"

soccer coach

Greg is enjoying the soccer season. the guys (33) seem to like him as a coach so that always helps. they are working towards their first game. the one down fall is that they hardly have any games to play because of Ramadan...season of fasting here for the Muslims starts Sept. 1 and goes for one month. in that time people are pretty lethargic because of the obvious. so they hope to accomplish team building and more foot skills this year and hopefully next year they will have more "game" time. none the less...it's good for mr. copeland to be out there!

Gavin's first day of 1st Grade

i think it's a little obvious that brother and sister are going to miss big brother as he goes to school for a whole day. but they said good-bye to him and everyone is adjusting to the new schedule. you can pray for gavin as he is doesn't like this change yet. he wants to be home playing all day and he is still having ear problems. pray for his ears to be healed completely and that he can hear 100% and that he doesn't mind the new strict diet of getting rid of all the yeast in his body. we are doing everything we can to help him out!

Independence Day for Indonesia! Aug 17

There are certain games everyone in each neighborhood plays every year for the celebrations of Independence Day. the day is actually the 17th but they play games throughout the whole week. i was gone to Singapore so Greg and the kids went and had a great time carrying marbles on spoons, eating krupuk from a string, having bike races, being blind folded while swinging at a plastik bag filled with water. then the grown ups played ping-pong and greg came in a winner! i missed not being there but i did find out some great things from the doctors in Singapore. i am completely healthy...i just need to allow my body to catch up to the shock of the past year! so thanks for your prayers for our family...as you can see...we are adjusting better and better and life is going to continue to get better and better! enjoy the pictures!

17 Agustus 2008...night time

the night festivities were all done on a stage and everyone that performed was all dressed up to do their dances. the women of the neighborhood made food for everyone...called "soto" and it's one of my favorite meals here. the party lasted until 1am and it was fun to be "the official photographer". here are a few shots of the night.

i was the official photographer

the night before the wedding, the father of the groom came to ask greg if he could drive the bride and groom around for the day. greg had to decline cuz he had to teach at school, but he offered me to drive...so of course i said yes! but then i realized i had no idea what the cultural obligations were! so i began asking and i had to go get some fake flowers and ribbon and dress up the car for the day....putting a bunch in the front, on the back and on the doors with ribbon tying them all together. so that morning i was talking with my ibu and she said that she had never heard of a woman driver before. she thought it was a little funny that i was driving. so i thought maybe i should hire a man to drive. so she went over and asked the family what to do and they said they have a whole family of drivers (it's actully a job here to drive for people) so they would be happy to drive for me, but they still wanted me to come and take pictures. but i didn't even know that i was to be taking pictures! the groom had forgotten to ask me... but because i have a camera...it works like that...that i would be asked :D !!! so i quickly got dressed for a wedding and took the camera and the whole grooms family met at his house and we ate food. then we piled in two cars (ours had 15 people in it) and maybe 10 motorcycles and we all drove to the church where her family was waiting on us cuz the groom was 'late' and the ceremony began immidiately with only family there (and me) and this was a christian wedding so it seemed pretty typical of what we would see in the states. even the lighting of the candle. then after the ceremony we all jumped back in the cars and on the motorcycles and drove to the brides home where the whole neighborhood was waiting under a tent. we arrived and the bride, groom and parents sat in front and we all sat in chairs looking at them. about 4 guys got up and talked for a bit and then we ate and left again. they were married. but rituals will go on this whole week and not until saturday will they come together to live in the same house. and on saturday we will have another party with more people and more driving and more pictures! but here are a few pictures of the day. they don't like to smile for photos but i did manage to get a couple of people grinning (i know only a few words in 'javanese' which is the island language and i would say those words and everyone would laugh so i would take the picture cuz they think it's so funny when we speak 'javanese'!) :D i took 247 pictures in 4 hours. it was a great day and i felt honored to be apart of the family experience. it's great to know our neighbors in a time like this :D we love to help and it seems they are always having to help us!

We are going to miss you

and it won't be long before you are back here...we know it!

Gavin, Paul and Hazel will cry when they need their hug-a-bug hugs from you and we will cry when we want someone to play games with...or eat more food with...or...

Brookie and Michael contributions to the copelands

Brookie bought Blue and Purple hair dye for the kids

Brookie and Michael took the kids to McDonald's one night in bali...and it was a huge story of mishaps...but greg and i got to go eat out on a DATE at Hardrock Cafe and have REAL food!
(and no mishaps)

Borobudur. but something was added this time :D Michael is so funny!

Brookie and Michael laughed as they took about 10 pictures of paul cleaning out the inside of his nose. he had no idea anyone was watching...and now the world gets too!!!!

We found this really cool bug. it's GOLD...all over...and just like a button! we were so impressed by it and wondering how come we have never seen this in a book or something???

Martha's 4th - 29th Birthday

Brookie and the kids made me a special chocolate cake with a GREAT frosting!
it was almost like marshmallows...(thank you to Susan...Brookie's mom)

i THINK more got on the cake but who knows?
aunt Brookie tends to like to spoil the blue mouthed short people in this house

awe...thanks kids...i love you too!

Greg made for a special day as well...
breakfast, gifts all week long, and then supper out with friends and family...
after we put the kids down to bed we went back out to play cards...up and down the river...
in which Michael has become quite the card shark while being here...:D

Happy days

we went to a new water park in Solo. it was truly a water park and we had a great time! the whole teacher staff and all their families went...a great way to start out teacher meetings!
i was impressed with the kids...they did all the rides...even the darkest dark tunnel i have ever been on! this is the only picture we have from the day cuz the battery died...

this is "Uncle Greg" to those in the elementary and "Mr. Copeland" to those in the H.S. taking off for his first day of school. isn't this a great picture of a stud muffin?
this is livin' the dream of being a teacher overseas and driving a motorcycle to school!
thanks to Nate for letting us borrow it for the six months he is gone :D

Shots from inside the car

a traditional Javanese style house

but a "not-so-traditional" satalite dish on top of the house :D

a typical site of a woman selling produce on the side of the road

i just shot this picture out the window of the car and caught a woman showing her only tooth

important finds at the waterfall

a little dragonfly???
it had purple wings and landed on brooke's hand...
she loves purple...this was an important moment :D

Paul opened a peanut shell and found 3 peanuts...
Greg opened a peanut shell and found 4 peanuts...
this was an important moment!

Hazel found these purple flowers on our way up.
they cheered Gavin and helped him to stop crying from his legs hurting...
these were important flowers

Greg found this caterpillar to help Gavin get his mind off the hurting legs as well...
and then we saw that this caterpillar had a baby...
just behind him on the leaf...
a little "fuzzy" :D ha ha ha...
and this caterpillar too was an important find

the waterfall

the great adventure of being outdoors and having leaf races in rivers.

Mommy and Hazel...having a rest before climbing again

Brookie and Michael chillin' under the waterfall...
what great friends to troop all over with us...
and have a good time doing it! we love you guys!

the stairs we hiked...
we counted this time...
849 down and then 849 back up...
everyone but hazel accomplished this feat!

Waterfall

kids trying to look up to the top of the waterfall...
and hazel nearly falls over because of the height of it.

Paul is loving the freedom of playing in the water, rocks, mud, and fresh air

it didn't take long for gavin to take all the clothes off

and get serious about making a better waterfall out of the remaining rocks

We Loooove the Beach...and Bali has plenty to go around

Bali babes????

a big party in bali

Jan and Edith were also in bali...we all stayed at the same hotel...we just can't get rid of each other!

our kids love each other so much...and it was hard to keep them all in this spot for the picture...but each one had a great day boogie boarding, splashing, making sand forms, building water holes, making perfume out of the tropical flowers, doing whatever they do that makes them happy together...they call themselves...a family

good thing i snapped it quick...they were off and running...but hazel was still posing :D

still posing :D

Bali scooters

Paul and Michael showing their tough guy automatic scooter faces

Hazel and Dad sporting the attitude and a just a size too big helmet

Gavin is slightly embarrassed to have his picture taken on a PINK bike.
"Please mom...don't make me ride the pink one!"
But brookie was all smiles to ride it...she didn't understand why no one wanted to ride with her. we rented the scooters cuz the taxi's were costing too much and this way we could explore all the beaches we wanted to and go to all the little shops we wanted to. it was good fun! we were a little gang of slightly burned people...but we were happy (even Gavin on his pink one :D)

North Kuta Beach...Bali

Brookie and Paul having a "BFF" moment

the waves out there were pretty harsh, and so loud! it was great

Brookie is teaching Hazel all the ins and outs of being a girl. #1 rule is to keep your nails and toes polished...with cute little stickers or designs on them. Hazel and i are both learning :D

Michael (Brooke's boyfriend) and Hazel...who claims SHE is Michael's "special" friend

sand art...by crabs

how cool is this?
we were walking on the beach, in Bali, and we see all this art all over the place. so we sat down and noticed that the little crabs were coming out and rolling the balls of sand in little formations to make this great work of art. God is so creative isn't He?

Brookie is more than entertaining :D

i know you all know that Brookie is here cuz she hijacked my blog for the lack of my abilities to sit down and get something out to you. we all love brookie for that reason...she takes care of us and helps even things out around here. the first day she was here the kids wanted to show her their new slip and slide from uncle joel :D...and she wanted to show the kids a new trick. so here is hazel kind of showing you the new trick....if you want to try it out yourself...take a straw...the short kind you get in a juice box is best...and then stick it inside your armpit and blow. the results are hilarious...at least to us...thanks to my dad...we have 'THAT KIND' of humor :D

coffee

you might already know this? but this is how coffee grows...little berries that when ripe for picking, turn red. you can eat them. inside the berry is a little center and INSIDE that center...is the coffee bean. it's amazing to see the process from here to your coffee cup! if you drink from starbucks...you are drinking from beans just like this from indo :D only here they call it "kopi"

Hijacked Blog

Hi! This is Brooke. I'm here in Indonesia visiting Greg and Martha and the kids. I taught with them back when they were here the first time. Now I'm just back visiting for a few weeks.
If you're anything like me, you get on this website at least once a day to see if Martha has updated her blog. If you're anything like me, you get sad when it hasn't been updated in a long time. If you're anything like me, you wonder, "what's going on over there? I haven't heard any fun stories in a long time!!!" If you're anything like me, you get way excited when there are new pictures to see and new adventures to read about.
As I was sitting here checking my email this morning, I decided to look at the blog and see if there was anything new. Nope! So, I've hijacked the blog so that all of you people can know what's been going on for the past couple of weeks.
Let's see . . . I got here on July 18th. It was SO good to see Martha again. I haven't seen her since the day they left the States (I live in Texas, but I was out in California visiting). My plane got in at 6:10, but for some reason, the information that Martha had said I was to get in at 4:30. She was a bit worried when I didn't arrive on that plane, but knew that's the way things go in Indonesia!! We had a nice ride home, talking and catching up. It's good to be with friends! That first week I was here was spent seeing old familiar faces and places. We went by my old house, which had been completely redone, it doesn't even look like the same place! And, right next door is a new "grocery store" that sells American food!!! It has everything from cereal to pasta sauce to refried beans (they are even the same refried beans that my granddad uses back in Texas to make his famous chalupas!!) We went to the school, which seems to have doubled in size since I taught there. We had some delicious martabak and sate! Delicious food that I ate WAY TOO MUCH of, but how could I not??
The kids went to day camp on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On Friday, the boys came home with their faces painted as tigers. Their other 3 friends at school were tigers, too, because they wanted to be a "family." Too cute! I wish I had gotten pictures of this, but I forgot. Sorry!!
On Saturday, we went to a town about 1 1/2 hours away to an Italian restaurant called O-Solo-Mio. We went for Martha's birthday (no, you haven't missed her birthday, we celebrated early . . . it's Aug 6 . . .FYI) It was Greg's first driving experience outside of Salatiga. He did a GREAT job. It did take a little longer than usual, but I'm sure that's just because there was extra traffic on the road =)
My boyfriend came in to town on Friday (don't forget that this is Brooke writing, Martha does NOT have a boyfriend!!) and we're all leaving for Bali this afternoon. We found some good prices on airline tickets and a place to stay. So we're packing up and taking off for the week. Needless to say, you don't need to check back on the blog for at least the next 5 days. When we get back from Bali, I'll try to get some pictures put on here. Hopefully we'll have all kinds of fun stories about snorkling, shopping, playing on the beach, and other fun adventures!!!

Grandma and Grandpa are on their way home

our time with grandma and grandpa is done for now and we left them at the airport for their trek back to the USA. we are grateful for their time here and how they blessed us with great places to stay in this country. the time flew by very fast and the kids were so excited to show them around their 'host country'. i think the kids are a little more settled in now that g-ma and g-pa have seen where they sleep, eat, play and live. we spent most of our days on the go to give a wide variety of experiences and i think they went home pretty tired but glad for coming. you would have to ask them personally what they REALLY thought of it here :D there isn't just one pat answer.

and since i am a little emotional tonight...i do have to say my kids tears broke my heart on the way home from the airport...and this would be the number one reason why it's hard to live overseas...and that is our kids hearts break because they miss their family and friends. as soon as we got to our car hazel realized what had just happened and she began to weep a very sad cry. we see her cry everyday but i had never seen this kind of cry... she was just really sad...along with gavin and together they sat on my lap and mourned their grandparents all the way home. (good thing we don't have to wear seat belts here for cases like this) but what a great thing to be able to love someone so much that you cry when they leave and you can't wait to see them till the next time....so....you start counting down the days from 300!!!! we are blessed in this life to have family and friends to love and who love us back and i just wanted to say that many tears have been shed on this side of the world because we miss so many of you but we are grateful that we have you to miss. blessings to you.

Borodudur Temple and Jogyakarta

A great view from the top of Borobudur (nirvana) there were a lot of tourist making the climb this day and we joined them and stopped when they wanted our picture with them. we feel like movie stars cuz there is a poperazi (i am NOT famous so i don't know how to spell that word) following us wherever we go!

as we hiked up Borodudur and made it to the top...sweet little hazel announced "i have to poo!" so i trekked back down and then she said "i don't have to..." and i said "yes you do!" and after i realized i forgot our 10 cents to enter the bathroom...i asked very politely if my crying child could use their hole in the ground free of charge! they let her...and we climbed back up and i thought my knees were going to give out! if any of you have ever climbed this...you might understand the sympathy i need here!
because we needed to get some good gifts for grandma and grandpa to take back, we went to Jogya (the big city) and enjoyed the bird market, shopping, the beceks, and grandma and grandpa even saw a good play while we were there....and of course...McDonald's was a highlight for the kiddos.

Karimun Jawa

this is our story to the 27 islands north of java named Karimun Jawa...this story is not all in order but that doesn't matter cuz it's all vacation and there is no order to a vacation like this! these are some shots of our boat ride to the smaller island...in a smaller boat...(not the main island or our ferry)...but we loved the clear blue water and white sand beaches...


can you see the blue/purple/yellow fish in the center of the picture?
this is a sunrise we saw from the door of our hotel room...pretty nice huh??? we can thank God all over the place for giving us such beautiful scenes and colors this whole weekend! and we can thank our kids for being early risers so that we can see such great sites!

while Greg's parents were here we wanted to explore Java a little more and found this great island chain north of us. so we hopped on a boat/ferry that took us across to our new adventure. the boat ride was a little worse than normal (so they say) cuz it was windy...so for 4 hours we saw a lot of rocking and the women got sea sick but the men stayed strong and children slept. but we arrived to paradise and since it was NOT high season...there wasn't too much food on the island (cuz it has to be imported) but we made do and had a fabulous time anyway...cuz how could one NOT have a fabulous time at a place like this that God made for us to relax and enjoy ourselves...i couldn't help but wonder... "where do all the natives of this island go when they want to 'get away from it all?" and carolyn (greg's mom) answered, "the mall" :D

Sharks

this is a boat we rented to take us from our paradise island "karimun jawa" to another smaller paradise island where there are no inhabitants...we sat in the open air on the front of the boat...but on the way to the smaller island...
we stopped at this other little island (cuz there are 27 little islands in a chain) where fishermen have put these sharks in a pool with rock walls after they catch them in their nets.
everyone petted the sharks and greg felt that just wasn't enough...he needed to be closer
so greg being the wild, dangerous, and crazy person he is...jumped into the pool with the sharks after the natives told him he could. they said he would be fine cuz they feed the sharks well...he just needed to remain calm...they sense fear...so he laughingly climbed in and swam with the sharks! but funny...because they could smell his wildside...the sharks were scared of greg and wouldn't come too close...so i didn't get a good shot...this is the best i did...but there was a fish about the size of a dinner plate that came and started attacking greg and nipping at him...this scared greg a bit and he fought back but the fish wasn't about to stop so greg hopped out of the water before the fish bit him too bad!!!! we had a good laugh when it was all over!
and as you can see...greg made it back on the boat safe and sound with his mama right beside him and gavin so very calm too...

Karimun Jawa...enjoying ourselves

a shot of our hotel from the beach (and two guys who wanted their picture taken)...a very very nice place to rest our heads

Karimun Jawa beach time

for a full day we just played on this beach (and another close by) and had fun with the 'rest' and 'relaxation' that comes with being at the beach. we miss being just 20 minutes away!
Grandma and Grandpa enjoyed playing in the water with kids too...it's fun for all...
Greg took turns with the boys taking them snorkling on his back...the water was a little rough from all the wind for them to try themselves but it was good for them to open their eyes to a whole new world under the sea! we saw so many different kinds of fish and coral. my favorite was the blue starfish...

had to make uncle mike a birthday cake since this is where we were to celebrate! happy birthday mike!

the kids always have to be buried...and since there was "time"...sculptures had to be made!

Karimun Jawa

Gavin used his writing skills and knowledge of his family and put it together in large font on the beach. he is so smart!
A sunrise from our balcony...
Eating with a view like this was heavenly...if only the hotel was prepared to have guests...we could have had food other than nasi goreng! (stir fried rice) but we made do and had a great time with our own private beach cuz no one else was at the hotel for the first 2 nights!


The hotel even had a four wheeler that we got to use whenever we wanted. and this is a funny side note...when grandma and grandpa were packing to come they had asked "what do the kids want us to bring them?" and paul answered "a four wheeler!" so of course he forgot about his request but i reminded him that it was pretty special that we got to ride a four wheeler cuz that is what he asked for...so from then on he thought the four wheeler was his...but he let the rest of ride it :D

did you know??

that this is how a cashew grows? and this is grown on a tree that towers like a big oak tree with good climbing branches. each nut has it's own "pepper" and is pulled off to dry when the "pepper" is red in color and then the nut is roasted for our eating pleasure. i enjoy eat nut more knowing this for some reason...

eating at Ibu Rini's

we love going to this little resturant where we get a good view of the two volcanoes here in our town and the rice patties...so of course we had to take the parents there for grilled fish and chicken and a good sunset.

pasar-market

grandma enjoying her pineapple on a stick (there is a picture later of the making of this)

and none of us were brave enough to try the fish on a stick

dried fish

walking in the pasar ikan...fish market

this cute little lady was selling shrimp...i loved the colors and her attitude for life :D

the pasar...local market

various bags of snacks

chickens with their heads hanging over the table...next to the cucumbers...

fish in baskets...i think we would say sardines

i have no idea what these are but they are so funny looking

this nice woman cut up pineapples for us to eat on the stick...it's an art...fresh and beautiful

the train ride

took an hour train ride through the rice fields and it was quite the ride. we rode through areas where we were right up next to peoples houses and could look in on them sleeping, washing, and looking at us. we saw half a surf board, a horse and a water buffalo in 3 different houses! in these shots you will see workers in the fields and most were very excited to see us go by even though this train goes by every hour or so...this country is so relational :D but i am glad to see that these shot actually turned out cuz i was shooting randomly from a moving train.

rice fields above and fishing below

we also saw this site on the ride...this picture below is for all those of you who like to do mud masks. this is where they are getting the mud from...the bottom of this river...the scoop it up and carry it off...you can see a man with a bucket on his head and they load it into big trucks and then they ship it off to europe and america and people pay high money to put it on their bodies :D way to go bath and body works!

still having fun

We eat most of our meals in our backyard now...nice and refreshing...

Grandpa is really getting into the swing of things

the first day we took Gma and Gpa to our local "resort" and hung out at the pool

everyone swam, ate good food, and then to help G-ma and G-pa get over their jet lag we bought them their very first massages ever! since then they have had another and today they want to go for another...i think we have them hooked :D

Daddy and Hazel love vacation as well...

Grandma and Grandpa have arrived !!!!!

let the games begin! the kids had a hard time waiting until 12 to get them from the airport today. they had an even harder time waiting an extra 1 1/2 hr when they didn't come off the 12 o'clock plane but rather the 1:45 plane...bummer for both parties :(

but life was renewed as they got to touch, hug, hold, sit on laps of their grandma and grandpa copeland again! we made the trek home and grandma was a little nervous watching the traffic but she made it just fine...and they were really ready to NOT sit anymore once they got here...so the kids had them playing on the swingset and playing tag and watching tom and jerry (a new movie they got)...and having lots of laughter...

then we had to TRY to get them settled for bed cuz grandma and grandpa were exhausted...so grandpa read some NEW stories to them and all were asleep by 7:30 pm...including g-ma and g-pa. i think our time will be fun filled and i already enjoy Gavin as he talks to them...a little of his old self is there...we want him to remember that...it's a good thing

so just letting you all know...they arrived safely and we will treat them well now that they are here :D

summer scenes

the kids got some new sun glasses...cuz that is what you do in the summer right? :D they are soooo cheap here! it's great! they feel good when they have them on

Pak Wijaya made this table and benches for us...we love them! and this is the car we get to drive around till jan!




this is our tree we made in our bedroom...we felt sooo great for this mural cuz we started and ended in one day...( the rest of our murals go unfinished to this day!) all four walls have decorations similar to this or words...a lot of words...:D

and here is the kids mural wall...we told them we would FRAME their art if they would stop drawing on the walls :D they got very busy and made us 100's to choose from...its fun for them to show off their work like mom and dad too :D

Ace Hardware

i don't know if any of you regularly go to Ace Hardware or even know what it is...but i come from small town iowa...where we have an ACE hardware in my town of 2,700 people! we found out that in a city close to us there was a new store opening called "Ace Hardware" and i thought...could it be the SAME chain of ACE? so we traveled 1 + hours to see this new store and sure enough...it was the very same ACE Hardware that i know! but i love it so much more now!!!!! because it was like stepping into America! the shelves were the same, the smell was fresh, things were dusty when you picked them off the shelf...we recognized things right off the bat and gavin and paul ran around the store saying "i remember this!" or "hey mom, you have one of these!" but in reality...i don't anymore...but i thought it was good for all of us to see things from the homeland! we took our time looking at everything on all 3 levels...they even had TIDE detergent...my favorite...so i just smelled it cuz one little bottle was $12! they had laminate wood flooring....and mr. clean...they had drano and i hear from other sources that it actually works! so many things you buy here thinking they are going to be great...and they turn out "NOT"... we found vacuum cleaners...they had rubbermaid tupperware...and plastic that feels like it won't break after one week of use! they had nice frames and clocks...garden stuff...those little trees you hang in your car to make it smell good! they even had IGLOO chill boxes...and tents, backpacks, tools and toolbelts and just everything you need! they even had a toilet with toilet paper! and i don't know if my siblings remember "the green machine" we had growing up...or at least the brothers had it??? THEY HAD ONE!!! so funny! the prices were very shocking to walk into but at least we know this kind of thing exists...it's like traveling back to america only a lot cheaper! and it was fun to be there...in all it's glory! just had to tell you about our "little america" experience :D

we are still here...

sorry it's been so long...i guess when you get out of routine...you don't do things that you "normally" would do! summer has given us a lot of freedom to NOT have a schedule...but it's still been pretty fast and running. i think nearly all the ex-pats left town the first week after school was out so we felt pretty alone...not in a bad way...but it was just different to not see anyone. so in that time we decided to get a bunch of things done on the house that we had been putting off...like more murals and painting and figuring things out...it's been fun and the kids have been going to a day camp 3 days a week in the mornings...so greg and i get a lot of running around done in that time cuz our car lets us!!!!!! and we have also been working in the art room cuz 7 years of no "official" art teacher...means a lot of stuff getting piled up and unorganized...so it has been a lot of work going through that as well and getting it ready for school this year...it's been fun to find old pictures that i took, drawings we did, lesson plans we made, and just remembering the days of our first time in indo. the days in the art room too have been therapy for me cuz we get soooo much accomplished in ONE morning! i am frustrated a lot with how LONG it takes to get everything done here...but this was all fast and fun...and then our pimbantu comes as well and helps us sort and she took home all the trash from the room and recycled it for $10!!! pretty good and smart!

our house is getting more in order with projects getting finished instead of just being in our heads :D...now we will have to think of more! but greg's parents are going to be here in less than a week so we wanted to have the place looking more "finished" for them. the kids are so very excited and can NOT wait...i'm most excited to see the reunion of them...it will have to be videoed!

greg is right now watching the finals of the soccer in europe with good friend Jan(pronounced Yan) and they are sad that Holland is out...

hazel...she talks almost not stop...she has a lot to say...(and if she isn't talking...she probably isn't feeling well) every night she prays this prayer "Jesus loves me, sassy loves me, bruiser loves me. amen" sassy and bruiser are our dogs :D she likes to carry her baby around with her everywhere...she treats it just like she is treated...when we read books with her...she notices how people are feeling...where the boys tend to notice what people are doing...so interesting...and she loves to stand in front of the mirror and make faces at herself...or if she is really crying she will go and watch herself in the mirror to see a really good show...

paul is a bit naughty these days...trying us on everything...but at least he keeps us laughing... i think this camp thing wears him out...he is so tired all the time and it messes with their schedules...but he loves going to 'school'...everyone loves him there...his class is full of characters just like him...i kind of feel sorry for the kinder teacher (not for one more year of course)....ha h ah ah ha! it will be one creative year!

gavin is a bit sick at the moment...he has a hard time laying down but he feels just horrible so he keeps trying to forget about it and keep moving with his brother and sister or whoever is in the house...but every so often he comes to me just dragging himself and saying he doesn't feel good...so i put him back down in comfy spot and sit with him but then he goes again...it's hard to be sick when you are young huh?

anyway...i put a bunch of pictures from a couple different days here recently on the blog so you can keep reading for those...and i will try to stay up to date with the parents here...we are going to some fun places and we are excited to have a break now as well...thanks for reading...c ya soon...

Dad's day in 2008

The kids and i decided to keep our tradition of celebrating Father's day here in indonesia...even though there is NO day for Father's here...instead they have two days for the mom...hmmmm????

but we decided he deserved a pretty good day since he is one of the best dad's around! the kids made their homemade cards the day before and kept it a secret...and we just wanted to bless him for the blessing he is to us...God honors a good father...so we thought we would help!

so to start the day...i had paul wake me up very quietly at his normal 5:30-6 am wake up and this day we all went out and made choc. chip pancakes, scrambled eggs, coffee and juice...the kids did most all the work (and they are too bad at it either!)...and we only broke one dish! since the commotion was a little on the loud side...and our house isn't sound proof...dad woke up and tried to 'get up' but we wanted to give him breakfast in bed...so we sent hazel in to distract him and keep him in bed...she did a fine job! they played guessing games and she wouldn't tell him 'outloud' what was going on but in so many whispers...she let everything out of the bag!

so finally after an hour...we served him breakfast in bed and told him that the day would include going to a water park in a bigger city 45 min. away! we were very excited to go! (on a side note here...just the other morning i woke up and paul asked me "is today mom's day?" no...i said. "well...then...is it father's day?" no...i said...so then he said with a huge smile "then it's kids day!" cuz we told him after they asked "when is kid's day?" that every day other than birthdays or father's/mother's day is KIDS day...so anyway...paul wanted to go back to his bed and have me bring him breakfast in bed!)

on our way to Solo (the city with the water park), our driver, Pak Agung, told us that a water park had JUST OPENED here in SALATIGA! unbelievable! so we decided to stay here in town and try this one! little did we know that we would be the first foreigners to enter the park! lucky us! we got a sticker for the back of our car!!!! so the next pictures are of the brand new water/amusement park in Salatiga! enjoy

The games for Dad!...right?

First we HAD to hit the bumper cars...and since our driver Pak Agung was with us, we invited him to try the "little cars" and it was fun to see...of course a couple minutes into it paul and gavin both had personal gas pushers for their cars cuz they couldn't reach the gas :D
and hazel got to ride with the celebrated FATHER
Air Hockey is a family favorite so we were excited to see this game and what a nice table!
Basketball hoops...Gavin is getting better and better at making more shots now a days...you can see the ball going in the hoop! sweet!
Paul giving a goofy smile for the camera...he was content knowing he had just made a score on Gavin

they also had a race car game that i drove and it was like being in LA again...i beat the lady next to me...she has probably never driven the freeways...so i had that one in the bag!!!! poor greg mostly helped his sons play and didn't revel in his own game...but that is what Father's day is all about huh?

and they also had a big room that is all enclosed with soft plastic so kids climb all over the place...like McDonalds type deal. then outside there was a big huge playground...like nothing i have seen here...just like america!!!!!!! along with other rides that looked pretty scary but we'll see how it goes...maybe there will be more pictures in the future of more rides ????

The water park...fun? or not fun?

after the games...we got ourselves ready for some good fun...(i was slightly nervous cuz from a far i saw no other women in the water and i wasn't quite prepared to go swimming in our town...with other indonesians...but i found out there were a few other women in the water...of course with all their clothes on!) it was quite busy and Hazel didn't like everyone touching, grabbing her and thinking she was so sweet. so a natural reaction is to be crabby to them...so maybe they won't do it??? but this doesn't turn people away...it eggs them on... doesn't she look like she is having fun?
the water slides are all brand new and looked so fun! greg tested them all out first for us and you should have heard the bumps and bangs coming from the slide...and the whole thing would wobble and his feet and body seemed to fly and i thought he was going over once...so did he!!! so we pretty much have ruled the blue and the orange slide OUT...but it was pretty funny to watch greg do this...indonesia just doesn't have the safety codes america does...nor does the safety check people come to test out the slides to make sure it's all good as well...and notice that all three slides end at the same spot...so people are getting hit all the time...anyway...maybe it's only MADE for indonesians and NOT big MR GREG
found got the hang of the little slides really fast and went down them maybe 100 times by the time we left...he just loved it! and all the people around got a kick out of him...they love dramatic and paul gives it to them :D
poor gavin was brave tried the big orang slide...it bumped his head around and was no fun...here he is telling you all about it...

the diving board

Who's your Daddy?
Gavin with perfect diving techniques!
A perfect cannon ball splash for paul

after some time at the slides we were tired of all the people wanting to take our pictures with video and camera...so we went to the big pool and we tried to stay in the deep end of the big pool because most of the indos there didn't really seem to like the deep end...we were alone for the most part (or at least we felt we had room to breathe!!! ha ha ha...so i brought out MY camera!)...and they even turned on the water fall for us :D...which also makes into a diving board! so the kids had a great time doing all sorts of tricks and show off moves for their DAD on father's day!

Indonesian Amusement park

the next 10 or so pictures are of an Amusement park we went to right after school got out. you can see we are with Edith's family and i'm so glad our kids love their kids...i think they could play 24/7 and still get along pretty good! Paul tries to be the one in charge with his BIG STORIES...it's a true blessing to have friends! but in this case Edith's dad paid for us to eat lunch here and to get into the park...luckily Greg jumped the gun and paid for all of us to enter the zoo...a whole 10cents per person!!!!...it's also a fishing pond where you can fish for your own food...we just had them pull ours up with a net and they hit the poor things twice over the head, and a little time in a pan and WHALAH! Great tasting fish on a huge platter for all to enjoy and get sticky-yummy fingers! the park includes rides, swimming, a zoo, a big playground, the fishing pond, and probably more that we didn't even see...we will have to go back :D



it's only 10 min outside of town...and some great scenery of the rice patties yeah? unfortunately my camera ran out of battery so i didn't get to take a ton of good pics...just quick ones...:D

kreta gantung

or for those who don't know the indonesian language yet...(like we do :D) 'kreta gantung' means 'the hanging train'...and so we of course had to ride this ride when we went for an afternoon trip to a little amusement park with Edith's family. we were a bit nervous cuz it doesn't look safe AT ALL but there is water underneath most of the ride...so we figured we wouldn't land too hard. :D
the boys car was quite entertained by putting their faces to the window and making all sorts of good fun things to look at for the girls car :D
mom and hazel...i don't know if hazel liked the ride?


Brit and Ilsa, sitting like ladies, taking in the boys ahead of them in their car...

another Indonesian swimming pool

we didn't try out this one but saw it from our ride from above...looks pretty nice though :D

Indonesian Graffiti

i loved this...i always love graffiti...and even here...it's such an art form...love it! it's carved into the wood...takes a little longer though...might get caught with this one!

Indonesian zoo

we saw alligators, birds, snake, goats, chickens, lizards and monkeys galore (one grabbed Ilsa's arm...yidda! and tried to pull her and her peanuts into the cage and another grabbed my dress and tried to pull it in as well!!!). their homes are a far cry from "nice"...mostly just a box big enough for the animal to take two steps...i figure if any animal rights activists read this blog...they will get ahold of this zoo here in Salatiga. the poor orangutan just kept spinning circles by hanging onto the bars about him...the alligator's water was so little and so dirty...and this one little monkey is pouting but seriously...he was smiling for the camera just 30 seconds before this...what a charmer!!!

a cat nap?

so it's custom here for everyone to lay down at about 1pm...except for us...and the neighborhood ladies let me know that we should be trying to lay down and rest cuz that is why we are sick. sooooo....we tried it once or twice...but does anyone sleep except hazel? no!!!!! maybe paul if we are lucky...but as you see here...she is bright eyed and bushy tailed...so what we do instead is have them go to bed at 6:30 pm and they wake up at 5:30 am with the mosque :D so we feel it's an even trade cuz culturally...indo kids go to bed whenever they want to...

Beautiful family!

if you want to see some great shots taken by my good good friend, Julie Dirkse, or you want to see some great shots of my good good friend Kindy and her new little baby Colin...you can go to the right side of our blog and click on julie dirkse and that will take you to her "moments of grace" page. (she is a professional photographer) then you go to her blog and look under "chen family"...they are really cute...i just wish we could see all the shots! thanks to both Julie and Kindy for being creative in photography and beautiful kids! miss you guys!

Electricity

well...because of oil going up...gas has gone up...and everything is going up, up, up...so that means our electricity has gone up because all electricity in Indonesia is run on Diesel Fuel...so wednesday...friday and saturday (and periodically at times before that) we had no electricity for about 5-6 hours at a time...with no warnings...and for us, it is only 'inconvienent' ...but for many it causes big headaches cuz their businesses can't run. and "they" say that the electric company is only doing this so that people will appreciate their electricity more...cuz our bills are going to go up. OR...it could be that now we will just have blackouts periodically every day to conserve. who knows what this means for the future of indonesia? it's just so hard for the people already...maybe solar energy will get a boost and they will learn new ways of doing things??? but in the meantime...we are thankful for the times we do have electricity...and then today i am thankful because we were in town shopping and i found Q-tips!!!!!!!!!!!!!! real ones! so all the ex-pats are going to be so excited for this! and we are also very very thankful that we have a car to drive! we were getting down the "two bike/5 persons" deal pretty good but we are realizing after just 24 hours of having a car...that life just got 100% easier! it's so great to be able to go when you want to go and come back when you want to come back and not be relying on others so much...be it public transportation, hired drivers, bikes, stroller, our own two feet, or friends cars...we have loved that time without the car cuz it made us appreciate "this life" here but i have to say "we are all (especially gavin) so glad to come back to the life of having a car!!!!!!!!!!"

Kitty cats

i think maybe she will work in a zoo? or maybe be like that Australian Crocodile man? or just have 10 different pets of her own?? who knows... but the girl loves animals and animals love her.

meet our next door neighbors

this is a great family. always happy and ready to help out. and you will hear this story in our next prayer letter...but for those of you who don't get that...you can read on...
they collect trash for a living and sell it
they live in a 12x9 room...that completes their house
when it rains...they get wet...along with everything else
they can't afford to send their daughter to school (nor can most indonesians as the price of gas just went up 20% here...it's a stiff price to pay when you can't even give the necessities in life...like food and clean water)
they bath in the open air behind some trees and a free standing wall
they treasure everything we throw away...it's weird to throw things away now cuz i know it's like "giving" it to her. she collects our trash for the little fee of putting her daughter through kindergarten. but now that she is entering grade one...it's a little more. of course we help and of course we want to solve all their problems but this culture prohibits us from doing too much. we have already done too much in the communities eyes around us. there is jealously going on. we must be fair to all...but it's hard when they are the most in need. if we don't...it will be dangerous for them and for us.
and its so completely hard to have this kind of life around us when we are trying to make our home "a home"...and even though we live minimally...we still have way more than they will ever dream to have...and we live next door! they come visit every day and watch sponge bob, tomand jerry (the universal cartoon cuz it has no words!) or veggie tales with the kids...they play outside all day with ours as well...i really like her. she really tries to help me out with cultural situations...like yesterday a kid fell out of a 3 story coconut tree and i asked her what we need to do. usually all the women go and visit all at once when someone is sick (or in his case...a broken leg) and the men all go and visit another time. and you bring money with you. anywhere from $1-5 to help with costs of not working and medical care. she is quick to help me cuz she knows we don't have a clue!
in the picture above of their family...this is the first time they have had their family photo. had i known...we would have done things differently but she was so cute...this is how she wanted it. so maybe this is best :D. i had asked her earlier in the day to get their family photo sometime...well she came over THAT same night with everyone bathed and in nice clothes for this special occasion. i can't wait to get it framed for their house! so...this is just one story...there are so many more...please pray for them...we love them so...

paul

one of paul's favorite past times is playing computer games. we try to go to the educational sites cuz they have some great games...like poptropica...at funbrain...it's so great! pbs kids has some good ones too...and then of course there is fancy pants...a modern version of what we used to play as kids...mario brothers? it's fast and fun and has great music...and yeah...but i am amazed at how kids are born with computer chips in them these days...he can get around and do whatever he needs to...he only needs help reading...and even then he is figuring out what some words "look like" because he knows he needs to "exit" or "enter" or type passwords...it's amazing and fun to watch!

finally

i finally figured out...or the doctor i finally saw...figured out that i must have had mono or Hep A this past year. i am hoping that it's all coming down to the end but i have had some weird sickness stuff going on for quite a long time now and he says it looks like the classic "coming off of" Hep A or Mono...

so i just ask for prayers for more health and strength to finish out lang. school this next month. i feel myself coming back a little bit but i can't do too much yet or else i get depleted right away. my hands have this tingling, burning, itchy feeling and they say that is another way for a virus to leave your body??? still fighting off a cold that has different symptoms every other day for a month now...i'm really sick of being sick and more sick of trying to figure out what it is... so i am glad to "kind of know" and just rest in that it's slowly coming out of my system.

Pesta Ulang Tahun #2

here is greg enjoying the first moments of his surprise! ( just after his hour long massage too!) he was really surprised so i was happy about that! he knew something was up but wanted the anticipation of "not knowing"...what a good sport!
and here are the kiddos of some of our close friends here...eating away...they were playing so hard that i think they ALL ate very well. our yard becomes VERY busy when they are all over and the noise level rises almost to a 10! it's amazing! but they all get along great (for the most part) we only had 2 ice packs out the whole night!
here is the new tent/shade cover (all the little roadside businesses are getting them...so i am just trying to 'fit it')...and our friends enjoying the night of fun...it was humorous talk around the table with a lot of laughing...my kind of party :D it feels good to be laughing more and more!
and here are our good friends and teammates...lisa and jeff. we just said goodbye to them today. they went back to the states for a time of renewal after being here 6 years. we are borrowing their car, microwave, TV, spices, baskets, and lamps...it's great! but we would much rather have them around than have their "things" :( we will miss them a whole lot and hope they return in January!

30 Years of Bliss!

yes! greg turned old on wed! we planned out a whole day of surprises for him as he enjoyed entering into this new decade. what a guy! we love our greg! and we are grateful he remains faithful to God to take him to the next stages of life. he is almost done with language school and he can pretty much carry on any conversation he needs to! he is great at learning languages...and he is so good in this culture too...i'm so glad for him that he is here to teach art and be used with all his gifts just spurting out of him!
He relaxed around the house reading a new magazine we just got in the mail from our good friends in Canada...it was fun to sit and look at "North America"...THANK YOU PATTI!! (the kids also say thanks!) we also just had this bench made by our good friend Pak Wijaya. so it was fun to sit on it for the first time on his birthday.
then when he went to class, the kids and i and our helpers got ready for his surprise birthday party #1. and we got a little picnic for the backyard ready so that after his class he came home to a picnic on the bamboo extravaganza. it was good times. we gave him a charcoal grill and a patio cover (shade thingy) for his birthday. little did he know, we were going to use it all that night for a fun party #2! after his lunch he laid down for a nap with hazel and then he woke up to go "out for coffee" with Jan. but when they got to the resturant/resort...they really had a massage planned for him. He, Jan, and Paul Noble, another friend of ours, pampered themselves with an hour massage. Greg was in heaven!
Meanwhile, back home, we were scrambling to change the backyard into a resturant and fixing up the food. we laughed cuz here were the women trying to learn how to grill on a charcoal grill while the men were getting massages! our helpers made great food and this is what every Indonesian has at his birthday. A volcano of rice! Pretty good stuff and i hope you can see all the detail of "happy birthday" and the vegetables made to look like flowers. this culture is so artistic. it was fun to get ready and keep everything a surprise. but paul did say at the picnic, "this is party #1 and we are waiting for party #2 tonight! but i'm not telling you about it!"

not yet the last...but more pictures of mural

here are some more shots of the ongoing project in the boys room.
gavin and paul sleep in bunk beds so we labeled the walls in the right places for them to see as they go to sleep...


then we have a zebra's bum-bum with a bird on it...seems to be most favorite part of the room from short people's standards. and i don't know if you can see it but there is a jungle sized ant on a vine as well here...

more jungle

a lizard trying to escape a snake with no head cuz martha thought that was "less scary"
in the room there are 4 trees in the 4 corners...this being one of them...and there is ocean behind all the jungle because this is paul and gavin's own little island :D

here is the cougar (leapord?) that you have already seen, a bird perched on a vine, an elephant bathing in the water below and monkey's far out on the branch...another corner of the room...

room makeover

this is our garage BEFORE

and this is the same spot AFTER...it's our garage that we made into an enclosed storage/wash machine area to hold bikes and good things like that. putting bamboo on the walls made such a difference and we like this look. our house is pretty 'open aired' so one can get away with this kind of thing here. in the picture is our 'tukan', Pak Wijaya. He has been making a lot of the things in our house and we are grateful for his handy work!

our kitchen

very modern for indonesian standards...and most foreigners have a very little fridge but we came to the school when there were none left so they had to buy a new one! it's so nice and we also have a new stove for the same reason...none left at the school.

SICK!

Lurking on us as we play...

Same spider...just out of the tree on a bamboo branch

Kindergarten fun

twister...these three could look like brothers :D
Gavin posing as uncle "Ehwic"

this past week Gavin stayed ALL day at school...to get in some extra learning and understand what going to 1st grade means, the class went swimming, made kites, picked up trash around the neighborhood, played kickball against the older kids (and gavin got a home run!) and they even had ice cream! the last week of school is truly for learning what life is all about! meanwhile paul is home wondering, "When is Gavin going to be home?" Paul found himself busy with more neighborhood kids, picking on his sister, bike riding with dad, playing cards with mom, swimming in his own little pool (with goggles) and of course watching movies on our "newly borrowed" TV from friends who are going to America! Life is great with little kids!

What a year will do!!!

it's been a year since we took this picture and left our friends there in bellflower. and we miss them all so! it's a great thing to miss people we love...i would much rather have it that way than not miss anyone at all. we have traveled a lot of miles, in cars and in planes, seen a lot of faces...new and old, and in my opinion...experienced too many "new" things for one year! i think we are all a little exhausted as we look back on what we have come through but i am writing to cheer ourselves on! tomorrow greg and i have an 8th anniversary! we made it! tomorrow gavin graduates from kindergarten! he and we made it! tomorrow signifies the beginning to summer and one more unit left in language! we are making it! this year has been so hard but i am rejoicing today that we have not been left to do it on our own...we would not be rejoicing if that had been the case!! God has stepped in and held us the whole way...we have a huge support system of friends and family who care enough to stand with us as well...community is such an important factor in our lives and we want you all to rejoice with us as we celebrate tomorrow!

pak greg...seniman bagus

aka...Gavin and Paul's room :D
i had a bit of time to put something on the blog and so i am going back in time to find old pictures and here were a few of the mural Greg has done in the boy's room. we have more to add but will soon...after we get a camera...most likely tomorrow! we have been waiting to get the "final" touches done on the walls before posting...but seeing as how we did this back in march and haven't had time to finish...i am thinking it might just "be done" :D the boys love it and that is what matters, yeah?

Mom and Hazel

we are continually being challenged by our two year old. Hazel Basil. she loves life so much! and she expects a lot out of it. her passions run deep and she is on a mission most days. she insists that our number system goes 1,2,3,6,8,9,10...there is no room for 4,5 or 7 and she really believes this! how her little brain works in both indonesian and english is quite amazing...i can see she understands so much indonesian. i think she believes she is actually Paul or Gavin's age and this is what gets her into so much frustration. she really WANTS to be able to do and think like they do...writing, drawing, communicating, running, swimming, going...but some things just can't be done at their level yet! because of her strong will, she spends a part of every day crying/yelling about not getting her way...and she doesn't give up easily! with her smile and quick wit, she wins people over in an instant here and all the neighbors and friends love her. they don't understand this "other side" and they can't stand to hear her cry. i say all this because we are having "a time" trying to be consistant with her. when we are here alone, she knows our rules. (and doesn't always like them) when we are with her and there are Indonesians around, she knows there is a different standard and she will get her way with them. when we aren't with her and she is with our Indonesian helpers only...i can only imagine her world is perfect! this culture doesn't want to hear children cry so they tend to get whatever they want to keep them from crying. most kids i see though, don't show that much emotion or strong will...so i just wonder what they do here with "hazel's" born into the culture? i wonder what that looks like? we are trying to figure it out for ourselves and right now we feel a little bit like our hands are tied to how we truly want to parent her because raising her is a community effort here. we have had to hand over the right to single handedly raise her because we are in language school. they know we are weird and have foreign ideas but i think hazel is beginning to think we are weird and have foreign ideas as well! so i write all this to ask you to pray for wisdom in raising our kids. i know a lot of you read this cuz you care about them...and i know you pray already...just giving a little more specific ways to do so! God has made her with a special purpose and he has made us to be her parents...so this all fits but we still need good wisdom and humor and flexibility and stability and love...about all...we need love!

Kids are just too sweet

Daily faces in the neighborhood

kreta api dengan Skitters

good times with this new invention. we installed a driveway so now it's easier for the skitters to play in our yard as well. everyone is enjoying it! the kids have a made a train out of skitters

wednesday

today we were outside hanging with the neighbors. after giving instructions to the neighbors to watch the kids...and no motorcyles...greg went inside to get some money. i was not in the area of the kids at the time. when greg came out, paul and hazel had been escorted around the neighborhood on a motorcycle. they were gone. this is something we frown on by the neighbors. there are times we put the kids on motorcycles for transportation sake cuz we HAVE to but not just for the fun of it. then they wear helmets. and they were gone for quite awhile. greg was getting more upset with each minute. as we were waiting...an "m" came rushing around the corner on his motorcycle and asked "are your kids ok?" and we said "we don't know where they are?" and he had heard that a child around the age of 5 (a foreigner) had fell into a river from a bike accident. my heart instantly choked up to my throat and i couldn't imagine. i grabbed my stomach and prayed to God to keep my babies safe! we continued questioning this man as to what other info he knew...not much...but i was rationalizing that it couldn't be our kids. not enough time had past. and 2-3 very long minutes later they came smiling around the corner. hazel standing on the back of the bike. i was thrilled to see them! but frustrated with the driver! my heart and stomach still uneasy for the "one" who was hurt. tonight we found out that Anna, a 3rd grader, died. her and her mom were riding bikes. her mom was in front of her and they turned a corner but anna didn't follow. when her mom realized she wasn't behind her, she began, what was an hour long search for her daughter...only to find her at the bottom of a hill face down in the river. they don't know what happened? i can't imagine. i only know the instant feelings that rose in me when i "thought" it could of been mine. but that only lasted a few moments. this family will deal with that feeling now for REAL. this family also has an older boy and they have been serving here in indonesia for 5 years. please pray for them as they begin this grieving process.

monday mornings

Paul and hazel have some little chicks here today from the neighbors yard…and they are in a cage…but Paul opened the door…and one got out and I had to chase it around the yard to put it back in the cage.

He said “mom, the chick was just trying to be a “nickpacker” cuz it wanted to nick on this wood and pack it down.” So needless to say, he took the wood out of the cage to prevent such things from happening again. i guess chicks don't want to be "nickpackers" and that is why he HAD to escape from his cage.

and big news! our caterpillar is now a beautiful butterfly! Saturday morning it came out of it's cocoon and we let it fly free. we would have pictures for you but Hazel broke our camera. she is such the photographer. i did get video of it but i do not yet have it figured out how to put YOU-TUBE on our blog :D sometime i will learn... when things slow down :D or...stina...could you just come over and help me??? again???

we were back on the sick wagon for only a bit...now we are all better today! head colds, the big D, and fevers...sickness never makes sense here in our family. but we are getting longer spurts of time between sicknesses...which means we are getting adjusted...right?

today, like every monday, we have a test in lang. so i better keep studying. it's not Cramming...like i used to do...it's actually remembering what i have already studied. have a great monday wherever you are in the world! i say that cuz i have recently met old friends on facebook from different places...one being our foreign exchange student in 1990, Defne, from Turkey! i love facebook!

this is Greg talking

Last night, from 7:30 to 10:30 pm, I went to my first Javanese wedding. It was an experience I will never forget. Most ceremonies are set up outdoors, in front of the host's house, taking up a large section of the street on that block. This wedding was held on the street next to ours, I didn't know who was getting married- but it was important to attend because it is our community. So I get waved over to sit down in the middle of a group of guys who offer me a smoke, but I decline. They light up, as do all Muslim men smoke, and continue to light up one after other for the whole wedding. It actually smelled ok, but gave me a nasty headache. Was I noticed right away was that this was a very relaxed atmosphere for the crowd- they chat and snack on a box meal that everyone gets, along with a bottle of cold tea. I taste the gummy rice bar and it's not bad-lucky for me because they were all motioning for me to eat it. Unlike the crowd, the wedding party was really serious and formal. The bride walked in behind her parents, with a lady that seemed to be the wedding organizer following closely. The bride reminded me of the Japanese women, (I think called Kimono?), where they paint their faces white and their clothes are really intricate and wrapped extremely tight. Only this bride had a fancy hairline painted black. She had to shuffle her feet and sit very prim and proper while some songs were sung and some Javanese words were spoken. By the way, I was humbled because I have been studying the language for 5 months and I understood NOTHING of what was being said in Javanese or Bahasa (which is what I study). Then the groom walks in, with his parents a whole train of what must be extended family, as the bride and family rise and slowly walk towards each other to meet in the middle of the aisle. He tosses something at her, and she bows for a minute at his feet. Then, interestingly, the father of the bride wraps a red cloth around the couple and himself, and they walk back up to the stage in a tight pack, the wedding planner following behind holding and pushing them up the stage.
Blinker. Amidst the smoke there's a blinding light shining on us from the roaming camera crew, and a speaker system so loud and distorted I winced every time someone spoke loudly. I happened to be 15 feet directly in front of a speaker.
Behind the wedding party, there's a huge display of flowers, draped over really ornate wooden dividers. The men are all wearing black and gold sarongs (like an Irish kilt) with a tux-like suit coat, a wrapped hat, and a sword tucked behind their back and into a cloth waist belt. There are two little girls with fans, like our little flower girls, who flank the wedding couple and fan them off and on. They couple feeds each other some wedding cake, like we do, and some tea. I was looking for one of them to smash the cake into their spouse's face, but it didn't happen. Then there are some more songs, one by a guy who paused for 10 seconds at a time, singing mostly through his nose. All of this so different, so fascinating.
Then the whole wedding party leaves, and another box meal is served. At this point I am thinking it is over, because usually when you serve food that is the signal that you can eat and then leave. But 15 minutes later the wedding party returns, having changed clothes. They bride and groom are now both wearing solid bright yellow outfits from head to toe. I'm watching them slowly proceed to the front when I get hit in the chest by something. It startled me and when I touch my chest I feel this small round object in my shirt pocket! I quietly fished it out and saw that it was an olive-shaped nut that had fallen from the tree above me. How goofy.
So once they all were seated again, a man gets up and begins to talk really slow and serious. He then begins to pick speed, cracking jokes one after the other. At first, the wedding party was to uptight to laugh, but pretty soon they couldn't help it and would occasionally break into laughter for a few brief seconds. I was really wishing I could understand him, I was the only foreigner at the wedding, and the only one not knowing what's so funny. At one point, he turns to me and says, in decent English, "I am sorry, I do speak English very well" and then he went back to his stand-up act. I was surprised he even saw me amidst the crowed of 200+ people. He must have went on for a solid hour, cracking jokes one after the other. He reminded me a lot of Chris Rock. Fast talker, lots of different voices and facial expressions. He was so different from the formal, slow rhythm of the whole ceremony, it just made it all the more interesting. As soon as he finished, it was all done and I went home with a huge headache but a great memories.

mr. caterpillar?

yeah...we are still waiting...how long? the leaves are all dry and i wonder if he is still alive???

hard at work

these kids...i tell you...they just love to work and study! (at playing :D) you can see that paul is face painted to look like spiderman...this was the day greg and i painted faces on the kids at the school and he didn't EVER want to wash his off :D ...they are making...???? something very important! good times hammering with your toes so close to the nail paul!

an inside shot

this was taken by hazel and i thought..."oh...maybe people would want to see a shot from the inside of our house?" this is sitting at our computer desk in our office looking out to the dining room. we keep pictures of you friends and family on our doors so we see you everyday... i will try to put some more "inside shots" on here in the next few days. i know my mom has been asking :D sorry to delay those but the inside is soooo daily to us

Ladies

the ladies from our org went out for a 4 day retreat and had some great times together. we were given the pleasures of eating amazing food, talking in full complete sentences (in english) and without children to interrupt, and sleep all night long in air conditioning! we had some relaxation mixed with spiritual deepening...so all in all...it was truly a "retreat" and i discovered i am very blessed to have so much wisdom to glean from and grow with.

Martha teaching how to make earrings

yeah...i'm not so crafty but ladies really enjoy learning how to make earrings...or anting-anting as you would say in Indonesian. everyone is surprised at how easy it is! it's all good!

Field Days at school

with it being April, Gavin has had a lot of activity at school.
Field day with the entire school. it's a FREE day for the students and an extra hard day for the teachers but a whole lot of fun :D there are maybe 10 teams and there is almost one student in every grade on each team. Gavin was carried around the whole day on Mr. Jay's shoulders and then when it came to track and field day i asked Mr. Jay if Gavin would have to run his own races? :D he did and it was good competition! he came first in the frizbee throw...my favorite part was the long jump...most of the kinders ran, stopped and hopped. after 3 or 4 jumps and watching others...they caught on pretty quick. then he had a field trip...and paul and i got to go along with :D we went to the train station and road a little train through what seemed to be national geographic! it was amazing all the things we passed and if we stuck our hands out we could touch it all. men were digging up mud that would be bottled and shipped to places to put on people's bodies all over the world. men were fishing, herding ducks, plowing the rice patties with cows, smoking, carrying huge loads on their backs, talking with neighbors about the load of foreigners in the train and the women were doing a lot of laundry! it was a great trip and then afterwards they got to climb on a bunch of old engines that were parked there cuz the train no longer runs through there. good times this mr. gavin has had!

Miss "I DON'T WANT TO"

we knew that she was a loud child when she was born. we knew that she liked the sound of her own scream since she was born. we DIDN'T know that in all that screaming she was just trying to tell us "I DON"T WANT TO!" cuz now that she talks...it's all she says :D so we have to be very creative in how we ask her to do things and how we suggest things. even when she obviously has to go to the toilet, it has to be her idea to go. so we don't ask otherwise she waits for the last second! i don't know who she gets this from????

diligent children

we have hard working children. they are studying all day long and we can hardly tear them away from their studies. (i wish i could be more like them :D)

Jan (yon) and Greg

this is Edith's husband, Jan (showing how tight his shirt is)...he is also a good friend...and so edith and i thought that since they are such good friends...they should enjoy wearing the same shirts...and they got into it. they wanted the same drink, the same pizza, the same the same the same! it's good to have "the same" in foreign places :D

so much going on

we have had a busy time on our hands here lately. does that mean it's spring? we can't tell any difference in the weather other than it's not raining EVERY day :D. we have had a lot of workers at our house again.
+hazel had a bed made that has stairs up to it and she can play underneath...ohhh soo big!
+the kids had a long table and benches made to hold them while they draw and eat with friends and what not...then we are painting them all fun...so it's good! then we had little step stools made i am going to go check out a local furniture factory here and see if he would be interested in started some painted furniture and then we could teach and employ those who need better work? if anyone knows or needs this kind of thing stateside...let me know :D. this guy already has a lot of connections...it's just a matter of him wanting to take us on :D
+we are making our driveway cuz we reached the 6 month mark and we can get a car! but friends in our org are going to be stateside for 6 months...maybe a year...so we can borrow their car until they return. we just have to wait till may 20 to get it...no problem! even our fence is being painted and we are adding a lot of plants around...feels very good to be getting these things done! and the fence in our front yard is pretty cool...i have to take a picture when it's done.
+school had a fun day last week where we painted faces on the kids and next week is an elementary track and field day...i'm excited to see Gavin race for that!
+we end unit 4 this week in lang...so that mean we get out of school on thursday and friday! and then we start unit 5 on monday again. i am still not a very good lang. learner but somehow i am able to communicate :D this week i will be teaching about 20+ ladies how to make earrings in our neighborhood...they are all so excited...so i hope my lang. holds up for that :D they are calling me "Guru Marta" which means "teacher Martha"
+then i also hope to meet with a group of prostitutes that i met with back 7-8 years ago. i used to help teach them art to make for money instead of being on the streets. i don't know if it will work this week, but hopefully by next week! that is exciting for me cuz they want someone to help them learn English...I KNOW English...:D hopefully i can help again :D
+the kids have been pretty sick all week. fever, bad coughs, throw up, the big D...now they just have bad coughs...hazel might still be sick and still sound the worst...but she rests the least...so naturally she will take longer...poor girl is trying to learn potty training as well...she is doing great though! no diapers back on her anymore!
+Greg has been really improving in his lang. and has long conversations with almost anyone. i am glad i married him...he can get us through anything! He is also growing so much with His relationship with God right now...it's a bursting time for him where he is seeking and finding in a way he has never known God before. we are blessed to know a God who cares so much for our details in life...and HE never gives up on us!
+i too have been having a lot of exciting things going on in my relationship with God. He is showing me so much in picture form that i will treasure it always...and i have been asked to give my testimony to the school here before it ends in 5 weeks. i did that 7-8 years ago as well and i think about what i talked about then...in comparison to what i have to ADD to it now....and it's amazing how far God has brought me in that time. i too am blessed here.

and while i can list all the amazing things going on...somehow even after 6 months...it remains hard to be here. somehow we will always be foreigners in this land and we will always long for the road where people can at least understand what is coming out of our mouths. where people understand why i doctor my children the way i do. where i can sit with an old friend face to face. where i don't get stared at for walking down the street. where i can do things like shopping, getting from point A to point B, seeing a Dr. and getting all projects done quickly and efficiently. i guess culture stresses will always be here and sometimes i will have a great attitude about it and sometimes i will have a rotten attitude about it. lately...it's been getting rotten again...but I know we are here for bigger reasons than Culture Barriers...there are TREASURES to be found in our own hearts as well...so please keep praying for our attitudes to see the treasures.

i know i haven't been keeping up with the blog as good but i will keep trying...thanks for reading!

Potty Party Day for Hazel!

"mom, there's a cecuk on the wall. mom...look..." anything else to talk about instead of what is going on...
"can i have some more grapefruit?" (actually jeruk bali...a HUGE sweet grapefruit) she just gets hungry after sitting there for so long...chit chatting

this is all just too much fun!

well...it wasn't like gavin's day...i followed the book (potty training in less than a day) to a tee (and he has hardly had an accident since!)...then with paul...i didn't so much but still got the idea across but he had already learned from his brother. (he had accidents cuz gavin wouldn't stop playing to "let him go to the bathroom" so he just continued in his play and would change his pants when it was more convenient) now hazel has figured this all out on her own and didn't need to be taught...or so she thought! (her brothers have enlightened her on the bathroom world and she mourned the fact that she isn't made like them but seems to get along fine now.) she would not do the 'practicing' and only told the doll to go "pee" and that was over for teaching the doll. she wasn't going to have it. so she then got on the pot and went herself. she didn't need this instruction! so we were all happy! we went on with the day and tried to just play it her way and she had a few accidents but she doesn't like them so i don't think it will be a rough road for her. she just takes FOREVER sitting on the pot...she actually likes it. but she doesn't really like the thought of #2 because she kept saying "but it will smell stinky!" and i wondered why this mattered now? she has only been 'sitting' in her stink for the past 2 years! but she did come through a couple of times already and had to run as soon as she was done! funny girl! but i am rejoicing cuz i have no more diapers to contend with! we made it!

Before and After shots

Before in her big ol droopy diaper that the neighbors could never understand. they were always telling me she needed it changed. they don't use diapers...they use nothing but the clothes they wear. we think it's gross yeah? but they think we are gross for letting our kids walk around with it attached to their bodies...



but here she is in her all her panty glory! she has such a hard time deciding "which one" she will wear...maybe that is why she is having accidents...just to pick out another pair!!!

mr. caterpillar

well...we said we hoped that he would make a cocoon...and he must have heard us! the next morning we woke up and couldn't find him in the bug box...he had, overnight, made his cocoon! greg caught him just in time...now we just have to wait...how long? the very hungry caterpillar had to wait for 2 weeks...

dad and daughter naptime

after a half days work, there is only one thing to do....so they can make it for the rest of the day. normally it's just hazel who takes a nap but if dad is the one to put her down...it usually turns out this way...so irresistible!

the very hungry catapillar

yes...greg has found him! we are so lucky to have a dad with great eyes for bugs! i don't know if you can really get a sense of his size by these photos but he is pretty fat and big! we are going to see if we can't see him make a cocoon and become a beautiful butterfly! later on him...