ShenanINGRAMS

Wow, these last 2 months have gone by quicker than I can blink! With Joe's return, we headed off to Belgium for a weekend, where we had Belgian waffles (which I didn't like) and Belgian chocolate (which Joe didn't like) and saw a vial that supposedly had the blood of Christ in it, and saw a sculpture by Michelangelo in a very large cathedral. (Madonna and Child, to be specific.) I never knew I was such a sculpture buff, but I really like that. It is even more impressive lately because our friend has taken up carving wood and we've seen, first-hand, how difficult it can be to work with raw materials and turn out a finished product. Michelangelo used stone and it is flawless. It looks like it was poured into a mold, but he did it with a hammer and chisel, in the 1500s, no less. It's amazing. We spent Thanksgiving here at home with a family that we've recently reconnected with. We played games, ate lots of food, including two very mushy, runny pecan pies. W

209 Days is how long I went without a Dr. Pepper. I had one yesterday and it was wonderful. The girls had their first soda in almost as long (they started the fast a couple of weeks after I did), and they were equally excited. Don't get concerned, Dad, this is not going to be a habit. It was just a treat for one day. :) Joey has cooked 2 fabulous breakfastsys (that's how Josh used to say it) and we're having steak for dinner! Josh started running a 102.7 fever yesterday, just out of the clear blue, but it's down to 100.7 this morning. He woke me up at 630 making himself some chocolate milk. I guess when you have a fever you feel a certain sense of entitlement. He beat me in checkers last night. One dumb move and a triple jump on his part, and I was done, but I beat Caylea in chess. That was fun. I still stink at chess, but she stinks worse. I have no idea if any of us will ever take the $100 that my Dad took from my Mom to give to anyone who could beat him,

Chloe walked into the bathroom yesterday and said, "It smells like Daddy in here." See? Smell is one of those fabulous senses that God gives us to associate good (and bad) memories. I did stand there smelling him for a long time. I fell asleep on his chest and I don't care if any of you think that is sappy. It was wonderful. He has lost a significant amount of weight, so his chest was just the right height. :) He also doesn't snore any more. I woke up several times throughout the night to put my hand on his chest and make sure he was still breathing. Likewise, he kept reaching over to pat me throughout the night. He's in there cooking breakfast while singing and the kids love it. We're taking him grocery shopping today. He has missed out on lots of little things, like fried eggs (not the egg beaters that they serve at chow halls across the world), real bacon, and driving. Yesterday he kept telling me to slow down but I wasn't even going to spee

1,000 Dr. Peppers couldn't make me this jittery. I am finding things to clean just to keep myself from going nuts. 4 more hours. At some point I'm going to take a shower, but I am trying to hold myself off so I'm not sitting here at the house, ready to go, 2 hours early. The house is sparkling. The kids put on clothes that look decent, including Josh, and I already made my bed. I cooked a "BIG breakfast." I cleaned the kitchen really well. I used a toothpick on the cracks. I used oven cleaner on the stove top. Seriously, I am finding things to do. I dusted. I swept. I vacuumed. I mopped. All of that I did yesterday after running 3 miles and I still feel like I have more energy than I know what to do with. It took forever to fall asleep last night but I had a great moment of clarity while reading C.S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity." It was a laugh out loud moment which, from a scholar like him, was unexpected. I giggled for a good while.

I am so excited I can hardly contain myself. I'm teaching piano while daydreaming, cleaning things while getting utterly distracted by the thought of having him home again. I can't even begin to describe the flutterbys in my stomach. I'm having trouble sleeping, eating, and talking. By this time tomorrow, and I can't believe I'm typing this, I will have him home again!!!! I told the kids that they can hug him first. They each get 30 seconds and then I will shove them out of my way if they don't willingly move. They all grinned and said, "Okay, Mom." I think I must've had my serious face on when I said it. Before any of you ask, NO, I did NOT stock up on Dr. Pepper. That is not very high on my list of priorities, to be honest. I told Joe that I just want to stand there and smell him. I don't care if you laugh or think I'm gross. I miss his smell, among other things. He wants to eat at his favorite restaurant here in Germany to

"Shutzen" doesn't not mean "to shoot" in German. Remember back to the little boy with the water gun who was repeatedly shooting me in the face. I said to him, "Du musst stop shutzen mir in mein Geschist." I got the word, not from a dictionary or from some other learned source, but it came flashing into my brain in the heat of the moment. There is a strawberry field down the road from my house. In front of the giant strawberry (a house, shaped like a strawberry), there is a small white sign that says "Shutzenhaus" with a picture of bows and arrows and a man shooting what appears to be a gun. So, my brain assumed that "shutzen" meant some form of "to shoot," and so that's what I used on the boy. Who wouldn't have assumed that? My German teacher tells me that "Shutzenhaus" does, in fact, mean shooting range. However, she also informed me that "shutzen," by itself, means 'to protect.'

I am sitting here listening to an elderly man tune my piano by ear. When he first arrived, I showed him my low C. This key is constantly making a 'twangy' sound after it is played, and then sometimes it stops playing abruptly. I didn't know how to fix it. Now I do. He is kind enough to show me all sorts of tricks, and I feel confident that if I had the tools, I could tune a piano by ear. I love learning new things, especially things that are useful to me. I pay him 85 Euro per tuning, per year. I could tune 2 pianos a week and make what I make teaching piano for 12 hours a week. Anyway, back to that C, it sounds terrible. When my piano students are playing, it is an obvious error because they tend to pluck the keys. When I play, I am able to cover it pretty gracefully, but it is a strain on the finely-tuned ears that God has given me. I always hear it, even when other people don't. He fixed it first. He saw my face and knew that I wouldn't leave him u

Luke 11:39 says, "You Pharisees are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy--full of greed and wickedness!" Chloe spent the first half of the summer carefully tending her tomato garden. After about a month, I had to remind her every day to go weed it. After that second month, I decided to let her 'earn' her own trouble by not reminding her to cultivate her garden. After all, she had paid for the plants and soil with her allowance. Her tomato plants were growing beautifully by then and they were enormous! The tomatoes on the outside looked great, but it seemed like they were taking a very long time to turn red. It hasn't helped a bit that this "summer" was so cold. It only got above 80 for a couple of weeks and then not consistently or any amount of days in a row. So, one day I got out there to mow, weed-eat, and tackle Chloe's garden. I started pruning the tomato plants in the hopes of salvaging a

It has been 176 days since my last Dr. Pepper. I know that Scripture says that when you fast to do it quietly, with a happy face. I've got the happy face part down, but not the quiet part. I think a lot of people misunderstand what fasting is. They give up food or whatever but they think that the simple act of giving something up gives them clarity. Jesus was very specific. He said, "These things can't be done except through fasting and PRAYER." So, every time I want a Dr. Pepper (or some kind of sweet sugary something when I'm fasting sugar), I pray. I gave up DP for my hubby. Every time I've wanted one, I've prayed for him. You would think that 6 months without it would make the craving diminish, but it hasn't. I still want one every day, sometimes I dream of 2 liters. That's when I wake up praying at 3am. I have to say this, too. It hasn't been as simple as just not purchasing the D.P. I have two Dublin Dr Peppers (made with r

I can't possibly upload every picture, so if you want to see more, make sure you go to our Snapfish page. I just wanted you all to see that our friends aren't imaginary after all and the proof is in the pics. No babies were harmed in the making of these pics, and no adults left our home without grinning from ear to ear. Good food, good times, good friends, Good God, and I mean that literally, not in the blasphemous way. :)

Well, yesterday was our first day without company in over 2 months. I went back and recounted....17 days this summer without having someone living with us. :) It made the time go faster, I guess, but it also wore me out. Looking ahead, I know that 8 weeks isn't a "long" time, but it sure feels like it. People think they're being helpful when they say, "Not much longer to go" to me, but that doesn't help a bit. It's still a long time and I pray that we never have to do this again. The kids have handled it well. No one has cried this month....yet. :) I think the main thing God was trying to get through my thick skull was to be content in all circumstances (Phil. 4:11-12, 1 Tim. 6:6) and to not be easily flustered when things don't go according to Tori's awesome plan. :) We start school on Tuesday. I am keeping 3 kids all weekend while their parents go to Prague. I'm keeping 4 kids in September for a weekend. Fortunately we lik

So, there I was, entertaining my niece with my phenomenal dancing skills, when I hit a snag. Well, a pillow actually. Apparently my children left a rather large pillow on the floor and in the midst of my moon walking, I forgot to check my rear view mirrors, hit the pillow, and fell flat on my back. Were it not for the pillow, it would've hurt. As it is, it was hilarious. She laughed until her tummy hurt, as did I and the other people who witnessed the event via Skype. What is a moonwalk? Well, I don't rightly know. I mean, I slide my feet on the floor while trying to appear like I'm floating backwards, but I really perform that particular dance move quite badly. Michael Jackson did it best. My rendition is definitely in the top 10 laughable moments this year. No one got video, sorry. Moral of the story? Always look behind you when you moonwalk, OR, encourage children to clean up after themselves. :)

Mom: Why are you in trouble? Child: I don't know. I stopped when you told me to. Mom: When SHOULD you have stopped? Child: Ummmm... Here's the problem as I see it. In Deuteronomy, and throughout Scripture, we are told to "Do what is right in the eyes of the Lord." Does that mean that we are allowed to do what is wrong as long as no one is there to see it? Or that we can do what is wrong as long as we stop when we are told? Nope. Whether we like the messenger or not, we must receive admonition as it comes. For my children, they do not receive well from each other. When one speaks in an unkind way and the other says to stop, the first thinks the other is just being sensitive and continues. However, put the shoe on the other foot and let the older one be the offended one. Wow, different ending! That is why I gave all 3 of my children permission to respectfully say to me, "Mom, you're speaking ugly." In the South, that means that I'm yelli

Here are suggestions I have received from other people. "You should have..." 1. Taken his water gun and 'accidentally' broken it. 2. Taken his water gun and shot him repeatedly in the face. 3. Taken his water gun and given it to Josh so Josh could shoot him repeatedly in the face. 4. Brought my own, much bigger water gun and had Josh shoot him repeatedly in the face. 5. Taken his water gun after the mom yelled and shot her in the face. All of these were said by "good" people. It just shows that there are reasons why it repeatedly says in Scripture to "Get rid of all anger, malice," etc. (1 Peter 2, among other places.) Too many of us hold things in and then at just the wrong moment, anger erupts, leaving a wake of damage that can rarely be undone without years of therapy for one or both parties. I am wondering why no one has said, "Yes, Tori, you should apologize" or, "Yes, Tori, you reacted badly," or "My goodnes

We went to the Miesau pool today. I had my 3 kids, plus my niece, Jana, plus we invited another family that has a 2 year old little girl that I'll refer to as Z. Z is quite the swimmer and fearless. It was my turn to watch her and I was having a blast until I got blasted...in the face with a water gun. I saw the boy who did it, gave him a look, and thought that would be the end of it. He shot me again, in my face. Had he been shooting me anywhere else, I would've ignored him. Instead, we moved away and tried to ignore him, at which point he (and I was watching) aimed at my face and got it again. I'm not one to overreact, so I just said loudly across the water, "Schtop," which obviously means "stop." He shot me in my face again. I would've just left the area, except that I had a 2 year old who was swimming underwater in the only place that she could at this particular pool, and she was using me to maintain her balance when she did come up.

For the last 2 weeks, since June 3rd, we have had two extra girls in our house...both 14, both friends of ours from Alabama. I can honestly say that the giggling is, in all honestly, funny, and that it has been a lot of fun to be around these "poorly socialized" home schooled girls. I will mention names at this point... Natalie talks so fast that I often take out my imaginary ticket book and write fines for her speed. She says it's because her mouth is so diligently trying to keep up with her brain and I do believe her. What is even more amazing is that my Texan brain can comprehend her now. The first week she got somewhere around 10 tickets a day, and I haven't had to issue one in the last few days. (Exaggerating, yes, but the girl definitely speaks far faster than anyone else I've ever met!) Rachael is hilarious. If Caylea tells her, 'You like chocolate," Rachael very animatedly says, "I LIKE CHOCOLATE!" Caylea will then immediately sa

The Grand Parents left Saturday morning after a beautiful trip to Garmisch, finishing the tree house, fixing various things around the house, keep me still, and eating lots of good German food. I am confident that they went home happy, but my kids all cried. We had to put them on a shuttle to go to the airport because I just wasn't up to the drive yet, and I had to assure my mother repeatedly that I wouldn't hurt myself. I think she knows me a little to well. :) This morning I sat down, on her behalf, and wrote out my chores. I've always kept them in my head and when I got finished I thought to myself, "Wow. No wonder I sleep so soundly at night!" So, for the next 2-3 weeks, my children will take over my chores. They already began, but I have just been telling them, "Right now I'd be doing this..." and they do it. I really do have great kids. I am so thankful. Caylea has been cooking regularly for a month now. She seems to enjoy it, althou

This is what happens when Grand Parents visit. Yes, I separated those two words on purpose. My parents are quite grand. I like them a lot. I am convalescing, which is incredibly difficult for me, and they are finishing my projects and Joe's, including the tree house. Notice it has a new location, much safer, much better, especially since the neighbor whacked off the trees surrounding it. The kids have worked hard all day, so we're going to eat at a castle for dinner tonight. You just can't beat that! :) We woke up this morning and the girls hauled wood to the wood shed while Josh, Dad, and I went to the lumber store to get what we needed to finish the tree house, which Dad had cut down yesterday. He also trimmed up the mutilated trees, so they look much better. Nana supervised the girls and weeded my entire front driveway. It looks so lovely! We had banana splits for lunch. The Grand Parents and the kids tackled the stump. They pushed, pulled, and jumped until

Well, I had great plans to take my parents hither and yon, but it turns out that hither and yon were too much for me. We'll have to stick to yon, some other day. I did take them to France today, though. Dad got permission to drive and he drove 120 miles per hour on the autobahn. He liked it a lot and said he could get used to it. :) I took them to Cora, where we attempted to purchase cheese and wine and some other goodies. The main point was that I got my parents' feet in France. Next week I'll put their feet in Austria and they'll have been in 3 countries. I would love to take them to more, but the surgery wiped me out. I'm feeling fine, but I definitely have to take it easy. My Mom is doing a great job taking care of me and keeping the house running. The kids are such great helpers, and my Dad has taught the girls to play chess. Caylea stale-mated him today, and he wasn't distracted! Caylea was so proud of herself. Chloe is pretty good at it too

I lost my appendix yesterday. My Mom was there to watch me faint. She said I went out like a movie star. I only saw blackness from afar. Caylea is cooking. Chloe is cleaning. Josh is looking, My Dad is being a meany. Not really, but he likes to pick On Caylea as she cooks. And little did I know She's inherited my dirty looks. I'm doing well My kids are great My parents are super and I need to go to sleep. I hope you liked my poem. It took hours to write. :)

The panel discussion went well. I got to hold a microphone. The lady in charge prefaced things with, "These ladies are not experts. They simply want to share what works for their families." The first question came up and none of the other ladies even started, so I took the microphone and said, "I have a microphone. That makes me an expert." Everyone laughed and things went well after that. Sometimes you just need an idiot to make everyone feel better. I don't mind being her on occasion. Both of my girls babysat at the conference and made a whopping $66 EACH! I was impressed. I told them to buy me things and I'd be nicer. They didn't. I guess I'm too nice. I did sell a lot of books and was able to purchase things I need for next year at a significantly reduced price. That always makes a thrifty girl happy. Speaking of thrifty, my friend took me to the German thrift stores. I'm in love. High-end clothing for very little cost. I f

We have had a very eventful day. It started by my waking at 522am, which has been the norm for the last 2 weeks, and it has not all been the mouse's fault. I think God wants me to pray, so I do. Then we Skyped with Joe, which was distracting enough for me to still be in my p.j.s at 715am, when I had to leave the house at 745am for the kids' appointments. I took all 3 kids in for the annual sports physicals and it turns out that Chloe needed 4 shots. She knew she needed one, not four. Chloe is my professional shot taker, took allergy shots for 3 years, never cried, never whined, even as a baby. So today she was sitting there and I could tell she was letting her brain freak out, so I reminded her that it hurts like a pinch, but she'll be fine, and when they asked if she wanted two at a time, I said, 'Yes, get them over with." They gave her the first two and one was the tetanus, which is horrific and she said, "Oww, owww, oww," and as she was lamenting

2 mornings in a row something woke me up at 5am scratching on the rolladen...the German metal blinds that completely block out the sun and roll down outside the window. Well, yesterday during some of my piano kids' lessons, a mom practically yelled, more like exclaimed loudly, "TORI, YOU HAVE A MOUSE." I lifted my feet up like a total girl and got embarrassed at my reaction. I freely admit it. It was instinctual and I can't help that. She said, "NO IT'S OUTSIDE!" It was right outside the door. I went out to hit it with a shoe and it went down the crack, right where I heard the scratching coming from! Today, during some other student's lessons, I saw it again out of the corner of my eye and ran out to get it, but again, it was too quick. The older brother of the girls I was teaching stayed outside a bit to see if he could kill it, but it never came back out. I'm going to buy a mouse trap. It is around 4-5 inches long and dark brown, almost

I got the strawberries and cucumbers planted in a "Topsy Turvy" planter and hung it outside. I used a power drill all by myself and did not fall off of the ladder. The Topsy Turvy is not all it claims to be, though. I don't know if the cucumbers will survive. You see, you have to push the root ball through the hole and, in doing so, part of the roots get damaged no matter how careful you are. (Does anyone else see the relationship between this and sin? No matter how sneaky you think you are concerning your sin, there is always damage. God speaks to me in crazy ways sometimes...either that or I'm crazy and He speaks my language, and that makes me happy too. It made me think that I needed to talk to my children about the sneaky sins...and I did, and they 'got it' and we ate and were merry.) The cucumbers looked like they had been bludgeoned this morning but the strawberries looked okay. I haven't planted the tomatoes or watermelons yet. We ran out

Caylea is 14 years old today. Where did that time go? Ohhhhh, I remember... playing house, letting her tuck me in like a caterpillar in a cocoon, listening to her sing "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" while sitting on the potty at 2 years old, hearing her answer the preacher's question..."When did you ask Jesus into your heart?" Her reply at 6 years old, "Jesus has always been in my heart. I talk to Him all of the time. I want to get baptized so everyone will know that He is in my heart." She said this as if she were teaching this 65 year old pastor something. Watching her face as she came out of the water...priceless, hearing her 'invent' a piano song at 7 years old and wondering, 'How do I teach THAT?' watching her do flips and tumbles and twists and turns during her 4 year gymnastic stint, crying with her when we all realized that her ankle could no longer tolerate her dream sport after a significant injury, helping her determin

Yesterday, April 17th, was Joe's 39th birthday. I just can't begin this post without saying that he is a great man. He is a kind person, one you would want to have around as a friend because he'll give you the shirt off of his back without you ever having to ask. He may be picky about food and the preparation of it, but you'll never regret eating at his table. He is genuinely interested in people and he is my favorite friend! We did all of our gardening on his birthday AFTER taking my daughters to an indoor yard sale so that they could sell their homemade jewelry. I didn't expect them to do well, honestly, but Chloe made $50 (more than covering the cost of her materials and she still has tons of materials left, so her profit margin will be quite high) and Caylea made $40 but spent a lot of it. That's the problem with an indoor yard sale. You're there, you see something you like, you spend the $5 you just made. I got some good laughs out my soon-to-b

Well, it's official. We now await the end of October. Our plan is to get the family pool pass and have some fun this summer so time will go a little easier. We don't want to rush God's blessings during this time, and we receive whatever He has to give. Joe is safely where he needs to be, although tired. He got 2 hours of sleep in a 48 hour period. Josh is now officially 9, Chloe is officially 11, and Caylea will be officially 14 in a few days. When I think back on their lives, I am amazed at how quickly time can pass. My chubby babies are now grown enough to fend for themselves, learn on their own, and take care of me when I need them to. We're in a great phase where we play constantly, talk excessively, and love each other no matter what. I am so thankful for my husband and his willingness to serve, my children and their ability to cope, and for good friends who call or email every single day to check and see if we need anything. I'm still mowing, althoug

We left Virginia after more snow, rain, go-cart riding, and lack of visit to historical markers. It's just a bad time of the year to expect to go to Williamsburg and walk around when it is 37 degrees and extremely windy. We drove from Newport News to Bristol, TN. We had to make it to TN. There was no other option for my husband. We spent the next day driving through TN and only made it to Memphis. Tennessee is pretty long. The third day, we drove from Memphis to my brother's house in Sulphur Springs, TX, where it was raining, again, but the kids were too excited to care. My parents had just helped my brother's family build a big tree-fort in their backyard. We spent 4 days just hanging out with them, going to tennis lessons, watching softball get cancelled due to inclement weather, and celebrating Chloe's 11th birthday. She had a blast. We went to my parents' ranch to ride go-carts and eat cake, of course! Christina (my favorite sister-in-law) made home-m

That's all it takes...one phrase said in a crazy voice while making a crazy face and all 3 of my kids run away, screaming, including the 'old' one. It really makes me laugh. We made it to Georgia after the 30 hour flight. We did our best to stay awake until 7pm the first night we were in the States, but we only made it to 5pm. We woke up at 5am, ready to go, but no one was open yet. We had to wait for the breakfast place to open, wait for the rental car company to open, and then we were on our way. We finally had Chick-Fil-A for lunch. It was just as good as we remembered it being! We made it to Mamaw's house and were ready for bed by 7pm. We all woke up at 430am. The kids enjoyed it because Mamaw always wakes up early and she gave them all hot chocolate. Who am I to argue with the grandmother? Pop stocked up on ice cream. Apparently the kids were given ice cream for breakfast, lunch, and one dinner. Well, after they ate Mamaw's good Korean food, THEN

Our trip to the States was pretty uneventful. We arrive at the AMC, hoping to catch a flight to Jackson, MS, but there was only 1 seat left. We considered squeezing into it, but it's a long flight, so we waited on the next one. It was heading to BWI (Baltimore, MD) and was supposed to leave at 530pm, but didn't take off until almost 9pm. Of course, we sat in the terminal the entire time except for a quick run to get lunch at Macaroni Grill at the KMCC (Kaiserslautern Military Community Center...fancy acronym for MALL). The lunch wasn't good. We read our books, played games, and made a few friends while sitting there. I got to talk to a baby, which is always a plus, and she smiled and cooed at me. :) When we left Germany, it was somewhere in the low teens and had been snowing off and on for a few weeks. There were 6 inches of snow on the ground. The flight was okay. It was really crowded, the food was terrible, and we didn't sleep at all. How can you when your

I had forgotten the United States' clutter. I had forgotten what a mobile home being driven down the road looked like. I had forgotten that there can be a church on one corner and a liquor store on the other. I had forgotten that, in the South, there are 10 churches on the same street with 10 restaurants on the other side. I'm not complaining. I had just forgotten. I have become accustomed to not needing Wal-Mart, not buying two just because the second one is half-off, and wondering how one family could live in a house that big. I can't say that I will never go back to the old me, but I can honestly say that living in another country really does change your perspective and that I don't "need" as much as I used to think I did. The amazing thing is that my kids have changed too, without my prompting. :)

I was rereading the older posts in this blog and realized that I never corrected a mistake via this venue. I corrected it via Facebook, but I must make amends in every direction. I did not run a 6:50 mile. It was some time around the 4th or 5th time that I went to this particular track that I noticed, in very large letters (much to my chagrin), a sign that said, "1 mile = 5 laps." I had been running the standard 4 lap mile. I was so heart-sick, heart-broken, and discouraged! Here I had been working so hard to get my "mile" under 7 minutes and it turns out that I wasn't even running a full mile! I know, I know. I did get my 4 lap time down considerably. The first time I ran 4 laps, it was around 9 minutes, so I did knock off an amazing 2:10. So, I timed myself running an actual 5 lap mile and my average is somewhere around 8 1/2 minutes. I'll be running again this spring and summer and my goal is to get the ACTUAL mile under 7 minutes just so I can