handsful

Last weekend, we had the privilege of traveling a few hours east to attend my grandma’s 90th birthday party. In this last year, she’s become more frail. She’s now living in a wonderful assisted living home, since she can no longer care for herself.

But, her mind is sound and she’s just as beautiful as ever.

About 80 some family members gathered to celebrate. Some I’d not seen in many, many years. That was a blessing to her and to the rest of us, too.

One of my favorite parts was looking at ALL the old photos. People brought in albums with photos of grandma as a child, teen, young married woman, and on and on. We laughed at our weird hair dos, 70’s clothing, and noticed how all the old shots were posed behind their cars. I absolutely love looking at my history.

Love the “90” balloon! And, the goofy grin on her face! That’s my mom in the pink and white shirt…she and my Aunt Gail arranged and planned the whole party. It was a lot of work, I’m sure, but oh how we appreciated it!

Grandma has had a hard life, and a great life. Married at the age of 15. She lost my granddaddy years ago, when my dad was just a teen. She married again, and lost him very soon after. Most of her life has been lived alone, but she’s always been surrounded by many friends and always family.

All of her children came…that’s my dad, 2nd from the left.

We were only missing one of her grandkids.

And a couple of great grands weren’t there. But, this is the first time that some of these kids have ever met. Ever.

Wonder what her wish was? And, I hope I inherit her gorgeous white hair. Softest hair ever. Dylan kept trying to play with it! She thought that was a hoot.

My favorite memories of her are when I had sleepovers at grandma’s house. We lived just down the road, so I spent a lot of time with her. She would always give me one of her pretty nightgowns to sleep in, and safety pin them so they’d fit. Her home was heated by coal, and the grate was in the hallway…I still remember how warm it was standing over that! Days were spent watching baseball games from the tree in her backyard (the fence looked down onto the little league field!) or climbing the tree in the front yard.

And, oh my, could she COOK. Chicken pastry, her creamy boiled potatoes, and chocolate pie to die for.

You are a treasure, Grandma, and I’m so glad that we could show you that on your special day.

Love, your granddaughter
Donna

I received our “official” Chinese New Year photos in the mail and was most pleased!  We’re all looking at the camera.  We’re all smiling.  No one has a goofy look on their face.  It’s a first, I think.

Forgive the picture of a picture thing, but…

Not bad!  We’re having our family portraits taken again in April…the natural, casual clothes, outside kind.  I’m extremely excited, since MckMama is taking them!  Her blog is on the sidebar under “Love to Read – My Charming Kids”.  She’s seriously good, and had a handful of openings for her shoots while in Charlotte.  We snagged one.  Now, I’ll start to fret over what we’re wearing pretty soon.

We let the littles have their photos taken individually since…well, they get to be the privileged ones at CNY :)

Maybe not her best smile ever, but such a cutie with gorgeous Chinese eyes :)

Caught in the middle of a giggle, I think.  And, his outfit will last him for YEARS.  Seriously.

I think we all cleaned up pretty well!

to get a decent picture of a large group of people! 

Here is the best of Randy’s mom, step-dad, and all 12 of her grands. 

Maybe 3 people not looking, out of 14, isn’t so bad? 

Here is the whole gang…the grandparents, the parents, and the kids.  Too much giggling in this photo.  Really, are we here to have fun or take a good picture?? 

This is better, but apparently Dylan is done with the whole process. 

Because Dylan had to go and break his leg on New Years Day, our Christmas get-together with Randy’s mom and Paul had to be rescheduled to last weekend.  Presents, yummy food (including the famous FUDGE), silliness, and lots of laughs were enjoyed.  I’ll take all that over a perfect picture anyday.

Last week was the Autumn Moon Festival, and annual holiday in China. It is characterized by watching the full moon, hanging lanterns, and eating moon cakes. It dates back 3,000 years to moon worship.

Last Sunday, we had dinner at the table and then had our little celebration. We read the origin of the Autumn Moon Festival, the legend of Chang’E, and the origin of the mooncake. Then…

We opened up the mooncakes. This was our first time ordering mooncakes and trying them. They came from Chinatown in San Francisco. I ordered a variety of flavors, but ended up with only one flavor. White lotus paste. Is your mouth watering?

Slow down, buddy.

Randy gave us each a slice. Hmmm…the inside looked like chocolate which I think made it taste worse. ‘Cause that was NOT chocolate.

Lainey had 2 slices. I mean, she crammed them in her mouth and wanted more. I just don’t understand that girl. Her favorite thing to eat lately is celery. With ranch dressing. It’s amazing having a child eat anything!

We tried mooncakes. Maybe next year I’ll try and find a recipe that I can tweak a bit? In the meantime, we decided to send in a replacement for the mooncakes.

Now, THAT’S chocolate.

Moonpies count…right?

This past Saturday, Randy and I celebrated 17 years of marriage.  That sounds like such a long time!  20 seems just around the corner.  We actually began dating in 1985, so we realized that we will have been together a total of 25 years next year.  Gracious! 

Randy surprised me with a slideshow complete with music that he created the night before our anniversary…come to find out, he stayed up ALL night making it.  What a sweetheart.  It was great, and I held back the tears during the whole thing.  The kids loved seeing all the pictures of me as a little girl leading up to us dating, marrying, and having our brood of kids.  It was the best anniversary present EVER. 

The girls decided that our anniversary deserved a cake, so they made this while we were out at a baby shower that day.  Pink frosting, baby blue cake (someone had fun with the food coloring…), the wolf represents Randy’s college (everything always comes back to NC State somehow), and they found a stray “1” candle and added 7 others.  How sweet is that??  We saved the cake until after we all got home from our wonderful steak dinner out.  

 

Why I love him…

He’s my best friend.  I know most everyone says that about their husbands, but he really is.  I prefer an evening spent with my husband over any other option.

 

He makes me laugh all the time…one of the first things I loved about him all those years ago is still true (more so!) today. 

 

He’s generous with the resources that God has blessed him with, and enjoys doing for others – what’s not to love about that? 

 

He’s a fantastic dad, with a great relationship with all the kids.  He balances firm discipline with all-out, crazy fun. 

 

He endures ME!  My constant to-do list suggestions (some would call it nagging, I prefer not to), my simplistic cooking skills, my “how can I handle all this today” rants.  He loves me completely – just as I am – and I can’t say how much that means to me. 

 

He loves Jesus.  As much as his “I can do it all” self tries to push him, he strives to lay it all at God’s feet and accept when things don’t go his way.  And, he’s quick to give God the glory when things do. 

To quote Winona Ryder in Beetlejuice “The man next to me is the one I want.  You asked me.  I’m answering.  Yes, I love that man of mine.”  :)

On this Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d show you some things we LOVE…

I LOVE every kid in this picture!  They are my heart.  The one in the middle is opening her birthday present…

She LOVES her new camera!  It’s just like her mama’s and she’s already drained the battery twice using it :)

How can you not LOVE this smile?!?!  Abbey LOVES the fact that those braces are coming OFF in a month!

Lainey LOVED playing in shaving cream the other day!  I LOVED that Marley and Payton were nice enough to clean it all up for me! 

We all LOVE our homeschool co-op!  Why?  EJ gets to jam on stage with his guitar class during praise assembly…Marley is learning to cook from a local chef…Abbey is (today!) building a cement boat with her class…Payton’s drawing skills are improving like mad and, Lainey hangs out with her buds.  Oh, and the senior high does this cool thing called “Wake Up” where they come to your house before sun-up, blow a very LOUD blowhorn, and video your reaction as you jolt out of bed wondering what in the blazes just happened.  The boys were the lucky wake up recipients a while back and LOVED it.  (Yes, us parents had to approve this). 

Lainey LOVED her Valentine’s party at co-op yesterday.  This is about half of her class. 

She especially LOVED the cookie!

I totally LOVE this guy on my right.  We celebrated Valentine’s day early with a fantastic dinner at the Melting Pot.  (Good thing, too, since today I’m seriously battling a yucky cold). 

And, lastly, I LOVE my blog…I really enjoy posting about our lives, however boring it can be…guess we wouldn’t make a very good sitcom!  And I LOVE visiting all the other fantastic blogs of my friends.  Happy Valentine’s everyone!  I’ll blow you a kiss, so as not to spread my germs…Smmmooocha!! 

Our local FCC is the BEST!  Saturday was our annual Chinese New Year banquet and it was fantastic.  I took the girls back in 2006, before our referral of Lainey.  And, we were IN China for last year’s CNY, so we missed the FCC event.  I was so excited to get all dressed up and take the whole family this year!  Here are some of the pictures we took last night! 

Red envelopes filled with chocolate coins! 

I believe she’s having fun :)  Lainey was recognized as one of the new babies from China in 2008.  They gave her a silver keepsake box in the shape of a fortune cookie. 

The entertainment was amazing…lots of traditional dances by our own FCC children, wonderful martial arts demonstrations, and of course the traditional CNY lion dance! 

This is Lainey after the lion dance…she was PETRIFIED of him and literally clung to me shaking the whole time he was in the room.  He was gone at this point, but she was scared he might come back.  This girl hates dressed up characters of any sort.  Better delay Disney World a little longer…

My friend Kelly with her son Zane.  She is one of my ladybug group friends who also happens to live here!  She adopted Zane in 2007, and is waiting for her referral from China. 

After the lion dance, all the kids ran up on stage and played.  The trips had to join in, and this little girl took a liking to our Payton. 

We had a GREAT time…see ya’ next year!

Jack, you should have been there!!