Thankfulness in January

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We started to keep a Gratitude Journal for 2009, and we want to post our thankful list at the end of each month! It's rather long, so we won't elaborate on anything. Just want to focus on our attitude of gratitude!

In no particular order, January's thanks:

1. Tickle sessions
2. Crunchy apples
3. Doritos
4. Kitty cats hiding under brightly lit Christmas trees
5. Ruled paper and fine point pens
6. The letter "O"
7. Internet access and email, facebook, blogger, myspace, Google Reader
8. New beginnings
9. Salt
10. VISA cards and their international acceptance
11. Rosy cheeks and noses
12. Lights and electricity and heat in a country where the sun rises after 8 a.m. and sets before 5 p.m.
13. Layered clothing
14. Hoodies
15. Digital cameras
16. Mommy and Popeye
17. Things that bounce, slide, and roll
18. Bubble bath and little empty shampoo bottles
19. Seat heaters in rental cars
20. Escalators and elevators
21. Nesting dolls, especially the baby doll
22. Belly buttons
23. Chips (not just Doritos)
24. Silk scarves
25. Sunshine and rainbows
26. Microwave popcorn
27. Juice in a box
28. Felt book from Grandma
29. Wireless internet
30. Dryers - no laundromats!
31. Connect 4 game
32. Tea parties and a baby girl who is starting to try new foods again
33. No rain during our walk
34. Birds outside, especially steller jays and robins
35. Spaghetti and meatballs
36. New laptops
37. Beads
38. A new bicycle!
39. Free time
40. A common language by which we can communicate
41. Neck massage
42. Watching a movie ALL the way through...
43. Long walks
44. Rivers
45. Did I mention CHIPS?
46. Sabbath School
47. Boys
48. Pretty dresses and shoes
49. Kitty cats everywhere I go!
50. Dry diapers

Here's a silly rhyme Mommy brainstormed:

And be thankful that you have
hot water to do your dishes -
That you don't have to wash them
in a river full of fishes
and crocodiles and hippos
and bilharzia-carrying snails.
However down and out you are,
an attitude of gratitude never fails...

Furry

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For this week's Photohunt theme of "furry," here is a photo of me and my Flame, Kitkat. Papa says we look related. But I'm not quite as furry as he is.

Thursday 13 - What We Like In the US

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For today's 13 list, we thought we'd give you thirteen things we are enjoying while here in the US (specifically Oregon):

1. Wearing Stockings. I got to wear stockings for the first time now! It is much too hot for them in Mozambique, but they keep me warm here - even better than pants since there is no opening between the sock and the pants. Mommy surprisingly likes them too, since they make her legs look flawless, but I don't have to worry about that...
2. Shopping at 10 p.m. Can't find anything open in Mozambique at that time, but here it is the perfect time to go grocery shopping, since you can get any parking spot you want! And I'm still a little jetlagged, so don't fret too much about my sleeping hours. Sleep time is all relative.
3. Microwave Popcorn. Did I ever tell you how much I like popcorn? It is SO easy to make here, so I get to eat it a lot! You DO get microwave popcorn in Africa, but it is waaay expensive.
4. Libraries. We checked out a bunch of DVDs so I can watch something other than Barney all day. Though I still like Barney the best. And of course I can expand my collection of books beyond the small handful we brought back with us - and even rotate volumes in my collection!
5. Kid Classes at Church. It's nice to walk into a classroom that's all decorated with bright things just for us kids! And there are lots of kids in my class, and they all speak English! The teacher gave me a CD with the class songs on it, and a memory verse card and a magazine, and I've got everything memorized now!
6. Wireless Internet. It's so nice to be untethered by by network wires! Technically, you can get this in Africa, but we've been unable to get it to work at all. Thanks in part to serious communication issues with our internet provider there. Which brings us to...
7. Customer Service. I know you all have your horror stories even in the US. But on a scale of 1-10, I'd average US at about a 7 and Africa at a negative 9. Most places we've been to in Africa have the attitude that it is the customer's PRIVILEGE to be able to shop at their store. The reason it's not a negative 10 is there are a few shining exceptions.
8. Soft Feet. We're not running around barefoot here. Well, actually, I am. I always kick my socks and shoes off. Unless I have fancy pretty new shoes that don't match my Scooby Doo shirt (see yesterday's post). But Mommy doesn't let me run around barefoot OUTSIDE. So all our callouses are softening up...
9. Berries. That's Mommy's thing. I could do without the berries, personally. Grapes are okay, though. And I really like watermelon!
10. Taco Bell. Had to mention it. Just had to. But now that I'm refusing to eat beans, it's not as exciting any more. Nachos work. And those fruit slushie things. I far prefer pizza, myself.
11. Craft Supplies. It's amazingly odd to be able to just go buy the craft supplies we need for the week. We're used to being innovative with whatever we've got on hand. Which isn't a bad thing, just a little tougher. The hard part now is staying within a budget when there are so many awesome and reasonably priced things available...
12. Decent Drivers. Don't laugh. If you've never driven in Mozambique, you don't know how bad drivers can REALLY be. We can't imagine why people have road rage in this country. Especially when the roads are so nice and smooth, too.
13. Playgrounds. There weren't any public playgrounds for me to play on in Africa. What few playgrounds there were weren't very safe. I'm loving the slides and swings here!

Lest you feel we are whining about African living at all, don't you fear. We'll balance this all out with a list of 13 things we miss about Africa next week...

WFMW - "T" Crafts

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We had a terrific time with "T" activities this week! And that's even without getting to tee painting and Twister and tornados and triangles like I wanted to do. So here are the activities that worked for this 21-month-old...

Treasure Hunt. Mommy gave me four things to look for, like the tub and a tree. Sometimes she had to point me in the right direction, but I always found it! The last thing I found was Papa's shoe, and inside it was a wooden train! I got to paint the train...

Train. Speaking of trains, Mommy helped me put together this little one. We put all my animals in the cars (chairs), and the sheep and I rode in the caboose while we sang "chug chug chug chug choo choo choo choo." It looks a little empty cuz almost all my toy animals are in Africa.

Tulle. Mommy had a roll of purple tulle on hand, so I draped it around myself and made a tutu for my Kelly doll. It's fun cuz you can see through it!

Tags. We made ten tags out of index cards. Mommy found some rubber stamps at a thrift store for $0.99, and she colored them with markers while I stamped them onto blank index cards. Then she cut two corners to make the cards look like tags, and we cut a hole in them and put tulle through the hole. She still wants to add some witty sayings to the tags, and then we'll have tags to use on gifts. By the way, we've already started using them as bookmarks.

Tea Party. Mommy never did find the perfect little teacups and teapot while shopping this week, but we had a tart 'n' tea party anyways! My tea was cooled down with fruit juice and tasted pretty good - enough for one sip, anyways... The fruit tarts were yummy, except I dumped all the fruit off of them. Who needs fruit?

Trash Bebe. This activity was entirely my own invention! I found a trash bin and showed Mommy how cool I looked with it on. Fortunately it was empty.

Turtle. We made a turtle shell out of a paper bag with markers and tried to get Kitkat (aka Flame) to model it. He wasn't a very good model, though - he kept trying to hide in his shell. Guess that means he was a good turtle!

Tiger. Mommy asked me to make a tiger mask out of a paper plate. She brought out my toy tiger to give me an idea of what to draw. But rather than draw it, I wanted to trace it, so that's what I did!
Then we turned the plate around and did the tiger mask. See that really great circle I drew around the plate? When it was done, I held it up and showed Mommy how tigers grrrrrr.
Tracing. Speaking of tracing, I LOVE to trace my hands and feet and head and whole body! Here is a hand tracing we did - I had Mommy do it in three different colors cuz it was so much fun. (If you're wondering, we are studying about being helpers at my church class.)
Tennis. I watched lots of tennis on television while we were at Eagle Crest. Here I am, table tennis bat in hand.
And here I am demonstrating my game. Though I have more of a golf style, to be honest.
Textured T. We've read a lot about sandpaper letters and even sand glued to make letters, but we didn't have any sand this week. So we made textured Ts from glitter glue. We also made some glitter glue trees and all the letters in my name, too! After it dried, we taped everything on the wall at my eye level so I could trace the letters with my fingers.
Tub. Tub time is so much fun! Here I am in the jetted tub at Eagle Crest.
Telephone. I LOVE things with buttons like telephones! I try to make calls all the time, and now that I can climb, there's nowhere that's out of reach! Though this week all I got were recordings and busy signals. Nobody wants to talk to me! Toes. What would "T" week be without some toe art? Mommy didn't let me have her nail polish, so I had to use markers instead - once again a project of my OWN initiative...
Toothpick Tree. I love poking toothpicks and craft sticks into styrofoam things, so we decided to make a tree this week. We couldn't find any cone-shaped styrofoam, so we just used a styrofoam cup. And we used toothpicks with little frills at the end, mostly green. It was so much fun I made two trees...

So there you have it - the activities that worked for me this week! By the way, we're gonna be zipping to "Z" for next week in honor of Operation Love Zimbabwe, but we'll be back to finish the rest of our letters - don't you worry!

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If you have a post or link related to "T" Activities for toddlers, link up here!

Wordless(ful) Wednesday

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Here's the budding photographer...
Here are just a few of the 599 photos of my feet that I took on our trip to Scotland. Great feet, eh?!

And one of the ceiling of our rental car for a little variety...

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Just a reminder that Operation Love Zimbabwe is only FOUR days away!

Tiny Talk Tuesday

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The chatterbox stage is coming on! It's fun to go shopping with Esmé (21 months) and listen to all she has to say about things.

Last night after 10 p.m. we snuck into the grocery store - me furtively glancing around to make sure no one would call Child Protective Services on me for having her out so late. She was in no mood to be quiet.
On the cereal aisle, it was "Tiger - Grrrr!" as we passed Kellogg's Tony the Tiger. "Kitkat - Meow!" as we went down the pet food aisle. "Open - peez! Now!" as the snack boxes were placed in the cart - though she managed to open the cardboard just fine, only getting stuck on the inside wrapping. "Cold!" as the frozen items joined the snacks in the cart. "Balloons! Frog! Kitkat! Fish!" as we went through the checkout line. All at TOP volume...

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I love her interpretations of pictures and objects. We finally have "donkey" and "horse" straightened out. But a helicopter is definitely an "airplane." Tomatoes are "apples." And of course all ballerina dolls are "Mommy!"

And sized objects now have identities. The big measuring spoon is "Papa." And the littlest one is "Me" - and of course she has to eat something with "Me."

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Possession is also becoming extremely important. Shoes are "Papa," "Mommy," or "I", "me," "my," "Esmé." Same with other objects of clothing. And if we don't remember exactly which seat we sat in last time, Esmé helps us out by pointing to the correct chair and naming which of us belongs in it.

Sometimes she gets a little confused, though. Daddy is borrowing Uncle Jaques' watch at the moment, and it was lying on a table by the bed. She came over while he was still sleeping, woke him up, and motioned for him to put the watch on her.

"No, that's Uncle Jaques' watch. You can't wear it."

With absolute fierceness in her face, she pointed at herself with both fingers and said, "MY! Put on now!"

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Her songs are becoming more and more appropriate and understandable too. Today she pulled out her stroller, sat down on it, and started singing "walk today, walk today, walk today" - part of a song we sing in her class at church. So of course we had to go for a walk today!

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Esmé also likes to role play other objects. Like with her graham crackers - in teddy bear and bee shapes. She called me over to show me "bear, bee kiss, Mommy!"


And she's also naming objects as she draws them. We can't always understand what she's telling us, but round squiggles are often "apples," and she can draw identifiable "hands," too.

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"Thank yous" are so sweet! I cut up a burger for her the other day, and as I finished, she said "Thank you, Mommy! Thank you, Mommy! Thank you, Mommy!" over and over. She then proceeded to eat not a bite, but she sure was thankful for it...
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If you're wondering what the joke is below, she took the sock off her foot and put it on her hand. Yesterday she put one sock and shoe on a foot, and the other sock and shoe on the opposite hand, and started walking around on all fours...

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Only 5 more days til Operation Love Zimbabwe!

Joy

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Countdown to Operation Love Zimbabwe

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Hey folks!

In case you're getting a case of winter doldrums, here's a surefire fun thing to do: unravel your dental floss all over the house. And when that's done, pull out all the tissues from your Kleenex box. If you still have extra time, dump out the cat food and trail the toilet paper roll around the house, too. It is GREAT entertainment!

We are getting excited about Operation Love Zimbabwe, coming up February 1-14 right here on this site!

Here's the idea again: Two weeks of African-themed giveaways to attract readers to our site. And mixed in with the giveaway posts are informative posts that give you a glimpse of the real tragedies in Zimbabwe, as well as ideas on how you can make a difference in the lives of Zimbabweans.

We've got some great giveaways that I've been wanting to play with myself! And we've got some interesting posts in the works, too.

Only one week to go! So help us spread the word. Thanks to Summer at Summer's Nook, we have a button you can put on your site. And we'd love to have you post about the event on your blog as we get closer to the date, too.

<a href="http://moziesme.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee24/summeresque/operationlovebutton2.png"/></a>

Thanks, folks!

Chipped

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For today's PhotoHunt theme - chipped - I thought I'd demonstrate my golf chip. I mentioned yesterday that it was too cold to golf on the course, but I did get a few shots in the condo.


Alas, I didn't get any air on my shots - just low rolling shots. I think I need to get another set of clubs so I can do some real chipping.

Eagle Crest

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We are finally back at home near Roseburg, Oregon after our week at Eagle Crest in Redmond.

It was too cold to golf and too expensive to ski, plus we all still have various degrees of colds, so we didn't do much.

But it was nice to just relax with all the amenities at our disposal, including a hot tub on our deck, a dishwasher other than myself, cable TV (but no Barney!), gas fireplace, and all that other good stuff. Eagle Crest accomodation has always been terrific.

Here is the view from the hot tub...

Bundled up on my ride through the resort...
Ordering my mango guava smoothie at the coffee bar...

Wishing you all a blessed weekend!

Thursday 13 - Signs

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Here are 13 signs that we were in England & Scotland...

#1 - This is a follow-up to the "Danger of Drowning" sign in the last post. As several commentors mentioned, there is a "Way Out." Just check out the subway platforms in London.

#2 - This sign just screams "Scotland," doesn't it?

#3 - "When taking a shower, please close the door as steam may be liable to set off the fire alarm. Thank you." This was in our London hotel bathroom. It had Mommy paranoid that she was going to make everyone evaculate the hotel everytime she showered. (Don't worry - she showered regardless...)

#4 - This one made Mommy nervous, too. What exactly are the dangers involved with a "Weak Subway?"

#5 - There were a variety of "Fouling" signs around. Just seems so British to refer to poop that way, doesn't it?


#6 - This was at one of the entrances to the Parliament Building in London. Wouldn't you just love to enter a building through the "Sovereign's Entrance?" So grand...


#7 - This "Danger" sign was posted at Ben Lawer's Pass in Scotland. Such a tranquil scene with sheep everywhere, it just seemed out of place. But we could probably use a few more of these signs in our lives, eh?


#8 - Does this really need to be spelled out so clearly? Also at the Ben Lawer's visitor center.


#9 - It's not enough to drive slowly in this neighborhood. Our Scottish neighbors want us to go DEAD slow.


#10 - OK, this sign ONLY makes sense in York, the walled city. This is one gorgeous place to visit - and a walk on the wall just completes the tour. I guess they don't want any "fouling" on the walls...


#11 - Only in England can you insult so politely...

#12 - and have such a witty, dry comeback.

#13 - Doesn't this Edinburgh sign hold true for all of us? If only we could know now what the new priorities are going to be...

3 Word Thursday

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The state of Mommy's life at the moment...

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Photo taken near Aberfeldy, Scotland