Foreign Chocolate

Our church is having a bus and soul winning conference this week. We have invited various churches in the area to come and are expecting around 300 guests. One of the guests came a long way to be here. He came all the way from Ireland! He is a convert of one of our church missionaries to Ireland. He has been here once before and really connected with our church.

After Sunday morning church, we stood talking to the church secretary in the lobby. He came up to ask her a few questions. We all then got involved in a conversation with this gentleman from Ireland. He's a really nice guy. He was even kidding around with my kiddies. C later commented that he had an accent. It's not really a strong accent, but just enough to be noticed.

We stood talking so long that the church had pretty much cleared out. This gentleman asked Daddy if our kiddies liked chocolate. Yes, of course. He said he had a present for them and could we wait while he went to get it? He brought back 2 boxes and a bag of candy. The bag of candy was for Daddy and I: caramels and coconut something-or-anothers. Each of my kiddies got a box of candy. It looks like a large box, but actually there wasn't much candy in it. There was a large, hallow, chocolate egg and 2 tubes of these smarties. These smarties are not like our "American" smarties. These were chocolate, covered in a fruity-like coating. Nice thing--there were no artificial colors or flavors in them. The smarties had an interesting taste, but the chocolate was very good.

It was very nice of him to give them to my kiddies and it was a fun experience to try new candy. I also tried to read the side of the box. Even the calorie section is set up very different from what we are used to. I am planning on having the kids send him a thank you note; but I want to wait til he's back home and have it sent to Ireland.

C has learned about many different countries this year in school and seemed very interested to learn about all the differences. (One of the countries he learned about was Kenya and he still asks what the temperature is there today--so Daddy checks on his iTouch) So after lunch, we got out the big world map to point out Ireland and show C where it is in relation to some of the other countries he has learned about. So despite having no school Sunday, it was a very educational day.

Here is a picture of the candy that we got. Kinda fun!

C's socks

My poor C. We just bought him some new dress socks on Saturday (see future post regarding shopping). When I got home and compared his old socks to his new socks---my poor C! I can't believe he was still wearing those old ones! And not complaining! Well now he has 3 new pairs.

Here is a picture of the old versus the new--notice how small the old ones were. I'm thinking they would even be too small for K. I think they are size 2T. Poor guy!

K's ear

Thursday night as K was giving out good night kisses, we heard a pop that sounded like it came from her ear. When I looked in her ear with a flashlight, I could see the tube. But it was just far enough back that there was no way I could reach it. When we asked her if her ear hurt, she just said it sounded funny. I spent Friday trying to get her an appointment with someone, her pediatrician or the ENT that put the tubes in. The pediatrician didn't want to touch the issue since they didn't put the tubes in. The ENT couldn't see me until March 16, unless I wanted to drive 2 hours to his other office. I was not comfortable with waiting that long! I don't want her hearing messed up! So I called her peds doctor back and they agreed to see her and see if they could help.

Her appointment was Tuesday afternoon (after Wal Mart, errands, and lunch with Daddy). The doctor said that the tube was sitting in her canal but not touching her ear drum. But the doctor couldn't get it out. So we now have an appointment with a new ENT on Friday. Hopefully this new doctor will take it out. I just don't like the fact that it is just sitting in there.

While we were there, I mentioned to the doctor that C has had a horrible cough for a few days and he has also had diarrhea every morning after breakfast for 4 days now. She didn't seem worried; we just need to let both run its course. We'll get worried if he still has issues in 6 more days. I am sooooo ready for spring to come and all these health issues to GO AWAY!

Our new TV

Saturday morning I went downstairs to turn cartoons on for the kiddies. As soon as the TV clicked on, it made a horrible, high-pitched sound, but had no picture. Not even snow. As I kept saying to Daddy, I hate the fact that we have to say we NEED a new TV. But since I homeschool using a DVD program, we need 2 TVs--one upstairs for school and the one downstairs to watch. We could have moved the upstairs TV to the downstairs, but then C would have to do school downstairs. We have tried that before and it is NOT fun. We could have gone out and bought a small TV/DVD combo, but they usually are not really worth it. These are all the ideas that we discussed Saturday morning while trying to figure out what to do. Buying a new TV is fun, but NOT when you have to buy one. We had planned on buying a new one next year with tax return money, but that got moved up a year.

We got started shopping kinda late cuz Daddy researched TVs and stands online. We finally headed out and had to stop at Wal Mart first. Finally we got to Best Buy and picked out what we wanted. After paying (gasp!) we loaded (stuffed) everything into the van and headed home. I was picturing the back hatch popping open on the way home and that very expensive TV falling out on the road. But we made it home.

Now the trick was unloading the old TV cabinet and finding a place for it in the garage. And finding a place for everything that was on it as well as the old (huge) TV. Oh, in the midst of all this, we had a guy from church come to look at our outlets in the kitchen. Three outlets don't work-at all. Frustrating. When I make coffee, I have to move my coffee pot to an outlet that works. He was here for about an hour and couldn't figure it out. He'll have to come back later this week.

After he left, Daddy and I started working on the new TV stand. We put a movie on for the kids upstairs, to keep them happy and out of our way. K ended up falling asleep because she missed her nap. Well that just made her grumpier once she woke up. We took a break from building and gave the kids baths and put them to bed. Daddy and I worked on that darn stand til probably 11. Then we had to hook up the TV to all the components and try to straighten up some of the cords (I still have more of that to do). We finally finished around 1 am and spent about 30 minutes enjoying it.

Daddy also bought some kind of a HD antenna (I don't want to pay for the HD package of Dish just yet). We have spent the entire weekend trying to get that thing to work. I think we will be taking that back and just waiting for HD through Dish. But let me tell you, when it is working and you get a picture in HD, it is BEAUTIFUL!

Now that it is all set up, it is nice. I just need to finish hiding cords and get a nice lamp for behind the couch. I really like how it all looks. It's so streamlined and not cluttered. We will have much fun, I am sure.

Here is a picture of the old cabinet that Daddy and I moved (anybody want to buy a TV cabinet?) and then there is a picture of the after--the new look in our living room.

Happiness is......

Happiness is..... waking up at 4:14 am, thinking it is almost time for your alarm to go off, and realizing that you still have 2 hours to sleep.

UnHappiness is..... not being able to go back to sleep due to a stuffy nose and the Cinderella theme song running through your head.

Happiness is..... going out to buy a new TV--THE one you want and a new TV stand (see next post).

UnHappiness is...... buying the TV because we NEED one and fighting to get the TV stand together until 1 am.

Happiness is..... starting out a slow Saturday morning by all snuggling in our bed (that's why I have a king sized bed)

UnHappiness is..... rushing around all afternoon buying the new TV and stand, putting it together, keeping the kids happy, giving baths, making lunch and dinner, keeping the kids happy---oh and I had to buy new jeans too cuz I got a hole (in a not so good place) in my one and only pair that fit.

Happiness is...... putting the kids down for a Sunday afternoon nap.

UnHappiness is..... checking on a playing K girl and finding her naked---again!