April Showers

Me: “Why did you change your clothes?”


A: “Ummmm………Because it was raining out there” (points outside to the extremely sunny, beautiful day)


Me: “No. It’s not.”


A: “Well, it was raining in my pants.”


Yeah, that’s what I thought.

I Believe...

So, a friend of mine did this writing prompt and I thought it was great...so I pulled a single-white-female and copied her (shout out Writing Fuels My Soul!).  The idea is to come up with 20 things that you 100% truly believe.  It might sound easy.  And you could make it easy by just saying things like, "I believe 2+2=4".  But that would be boring and lame.  The truth is, it's hard to find 20 things you believe without a shadow of a doubt as an adult.  Here are 20 things I believe:

I believe in God and Jesus Christ, and if you are faithful to them then they will be faithful to you.  And I believe that when God is for you, no one can be against you.

I believe I have my own Guardian Angel.  She's been with me through bad car accidents, a robbery at gun-point, cancer surgeries and treatments, and the births of my children, not to mention travels (Mexico, anyone?) and everyday life.

I believe I married the man God made for me.  We may have our differences, but I truly am the better other half of him, and he of me.

I believe I was put on this earth to be a Mom, first and foremost, and that it is the most influential job I will ever have. 

I believe in taking lots of pictures and displaying them to remind us of who we are, where we came from and where we've been along our journey.

I believe being neat and tidy keeps me sane and feeling somewhat in control.

I believe nurturing my children's independent spirits is as important as teaching them their ABCs.

I believe in miracles.  What else could explain the arrival of Woody and Buzz Lightyear on Christmas Eve?  Or the birth of a baby?

I believe we should all be at least a little "green."  It's our responsibility to leave this planet in as good or better shape than when we arrived on it.  How hard is it to recycle and use reusable shopping bags?

I believe a little bit of sunshine without SPF is really okay.

I believe buying good shoes is worth the price - for multiple reasons.

I believe time with girlfriends is healing and that it's important to make room for that time.

I believe we should hand-write thank-you notes for gifts received and send them as soon as possible.  Sometimes "as soon as possible" is three months later, but late is better than never. 

This one may sound scary, but I believe I'll have to face cancer again.  And it won't win that time either.  I can't explain this - just a feeling.  Sort of like the feeling I always had, after losing Nanny, that I would be connected to her by that - I would fight that same battle.  And I did.

I believe that some people just don't get it.  And they never will. 

I believe concealer, bronzer and mascara can go a long way.  Don't leave home without it.

I believe knowing when to keep your mouth shut is invaluable.

I believe we all deserve things every once in a while that make us feel good about ourselves - like a pedicure...or those designer jeans I work my ass off to look good in.

I believe you should always tell someone if you love them and tell them often - your mate, your children, your parents, your friends. You never know what they may be going through and how good it might make them feel...or when it will be the last time you tell them.

I believe God answers our prayers.  When Alan and I talked about having kids, I wanted three and he originally wanted only two.  I used to secretly pray we'd have twins the second time around and I'd win by default!  Anaya's name is Hebrew, meaning "God answered."

Seconds, Anyone?

Last night we had Chicken and Rice Casserole and Mom threw some leftover broccoli in there for “a little color.” It’s just like my Mom to not let ½ cup of broccoli go wasted. As Adam was picking through the rice, he pointed to a piece of a broccoli stalk with his fork and said, “Mommy, what is this?"  I said, "It's broccoli."  He said, "It looks like it came out of someone’s nose at school.”

Seconds, anyone?

A Different Kind of Zoo

Mom's walking Rosie, Adam's at preschool and Anaya and Audie are sleeping, so I've got a minute or two to tell you about our trip to the zoo here.  Since we all know what the standard zoo animals look like, I won't bore you with those pictures.  Here are some gems we shot, though.

First we saw some emus.  One took quite an interest in Adam so we got him out of there pretty quickly.  Don't be jealous of Adam's innovative style - wristband on one ankle?  Genius!

Next, we saw a hen and rooster.  How often do you see those at the zoo?  Hardly ever.

Here's Adam by the hippos.  The half-scared face *might* be explainable - I may or may not have told him they wanted to eat him for lunch.  And he knew it was lunchtime.

The thing that was the most interesting and hilarious were the signs.  Of course, we couldn't read them but the Japanese have a knack for illustrating everything (a few weekends ago we drove up to the aquarium and kept seeing signs illustrating a habu snake and a mongoose with boxing gloves on, pointing you to the habu-mongoose fights).  Here were some funny ones at the zoo:

On the anteater cage:  Something about the rain, clearly.  And maybe something about walking your dog with an umbrella in the rain?  Not sure... 

On the deer cage.  I can only assume the arrow pointing to the butt is showing us that the tail is white, hence the name "White-tailed Deer" 

You may think this one is for a raccoon but, in fact, it's for a "Raccoon Dog," which is different than a "Common Raccoon."  I'm sure this handmade sign would educate us on that (given the lightbulb), if we could read kanji.  The empty speech bubble is my personal favorite. 

Last, but certainly not least, beware of the spraying tigers and lions that they let you get within 3 feet of.  I'm pretty sure it's how we all ended up sick.

I always love a day at the zoo, but here on Okinawa, it's an unimaginable adventure!

Quench his thirst

Chillin' in some 3D glasses

Grandma asked for a drink from Adam’s water bottle and he replied: “No, because if I share with you, I will still be thirsty.”

This one actually shows his brillance.  As if he had carefully calculated that it was going to take exactly the amount of water in that water bottle to quench his thirst.  So, of course, allowing someone else to take a sip would still leave him thirsty!

Workitecht

Last Friday, Adam was having a friend over for a playdate after school. I told him I set up his bouncy house for them to play in but it was really windy, so we would have to see if it would be safe. Here was the dialog that followed:

Adam: “Well, did you put a top on it?”

Me: “No.(?)”

A: “Well, I really wanted it to have a top so it wouldn’t be so windy.”

Me: “It doesn’t have a top. It’s never had a top. I don’t know how I would even put a top on it.”

A: “It’s okay. I’ll just build one with my tools. I can because I’m a workitecht.”


Good thing we have one in the family!

We did it!

We survived a month!  Hey, around here, that's a victory.  We didn't know what to expect and have heard all the crazy stories about having twins, so we're pleasantly surprised to have everyone still alive and (relatively) normal.  It actually hasn't been as chaotic as I had imagined it would be - busy, yes.  And not easy.  But not out-of-control chaos, either.  Meticulously scheduled chaos.  Here are some pics of Anaya and Audie at one month old, along with an example of how we put everyone to work in order to get things done.

On Wednesday we had an appointment to make these guys official.  Since they were born overseas, they're kind of a big deal ;-)  We had to fill out all the paperwork to get them birth certificates, social security cards and passports.  Yes, passports.  We actually had to try and take their pictures to the specifications required of a passport.  This was not easy.  Here are some that didn't quite work:

But, alas, we got some keepers and they will definitely be able to come to the States with us pretty soon.  We can't wait!

One last thing: Last week we had newborn pictures taken of the babies.  If you're interested, check out www.kerrymillsblog.com.  My super-talented friend shot them and is in the process of uploading the pictures to her website, so you may have to check back to see more pictures.

Take care! 

Courtesy of Adam

So you guys know how kids are - they say the darndest things.  You've all heard them.  Well, Adam is no different.  He's a regular comedian.  I thought it would be fun to do a weekly post with some preschool wisdom.  Since we can all use a laugh on Mondays, I'll try and stick to Monday.  I probably have enough material to do one daily but, hey, I've got 1-month-old twins.  They're kinda' high-maintenance.  Especially that girl.  In honor of our Saturday morning 7.0 earthquake (and the NINE aftershocks we've had since then), here's today's funny:

This was the conversation after the 'quake at 5:30 a.m.:

Adam: "Daddy, what was that?"
Daddy: "That was called an earthquake."
Adam: "Oh, I thought a dinosaur was coming.  A T-Rex."

Seriously priceless.