It’s time for another contest, yes?  My friend Miiko puts together incredibly neat/wonderful Picture Story Activity Keepsake Books.  She sent me one when James was in the hospital and we all love it.  So anyways, I asked her if we might be able to use one for a giveaway, and she said, “sure!”  

Yippeee! The winner will be given this ebook, Ken and His Tow Truck

Here’s how to win.  Just tell me a joke.  I’ll start with my new favorite, which I totally filched from somebody’s blog – what’s worse is that I cannot remember which blog it was, so if it was yours, SORRY!  

Knock Knock

Who’s there?

Control Freak. Now you say, “Control freak, who”.

I love that.  Ok, the best joke (according to my unpredictable sense of humor) wins.  And just so you know, I generally laugh at things that nobody else thinks is funny (sadly, many of those things are lame senselessities that randomly pop out of my own mouth) – in other words, no dumb joke is too dumb to enter.

In the meantime, while you rack your brain (and/or ask your seven year old for some good material), enjoy this entirely humorous page which was sent to me by somebody who knows me too well.

 And lastly, I was greatly honored with a tag and an award, respectively, from two of my favorite Jr. Bloggers: Bethy  and Mariel .  Thanks girls!   

ok… tell me a joke…

July 30th, 2007 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments

**Ok… read this and tell me if it does *not* totally freak you out.  

It’s a fascinating read.  You know me, I am a sucker for fatalistic- end-of-the-world- we’re-all-a’gonna-die stories.  I hope the fish in our pond aint drinkin no city sourced water.

**So anyways, I got this horrible canker sore in my mouth, right?  Canker sores have plagued me since I was like four years old.  So I was laying in bed feeling sorry for myself because I couldn’t sleep on account of my poor inner lip / gum, when I suddenly got this idea that swishing hydrogen peroxide in my mouth might help.  And I learned two things:

1)      Swishing hydrogen peroxide around a canker sore completely sucks all of the pain out for about eight hours.  No joke.  Yes, I was surprised as you are.  Often-times when I come up with bright ideas in the middle of the night, generally myself, or others, are  physically or psychologically harmed in the process. It looks like my luck is beginning to change.  I feel like a real scientist.

2) I learned I have an inordinate fondness for the taste of hydrogen peroxide.  Have you ever tasted it?? It’s really good.  I put some in my tea this morning.  No, not really, but I really do like the way it tastes.

**And to round off my weird news post, I’d just like to say that the thirteenth chapter of Mark is entirely fascinating.  And, unrelated to that, I’d also like to say that the body of Christ is an incredible thing when it is working biblically.  My daughter, Ryann, has memorized the entire 12^th chapter of Romans and as she was reciting it to me, this part stood out and really dazzled me: 

For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are m any are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.  Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality, he who leads, with diligence, he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.  Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.

Really, the whole chapter is spectacular, but that segment stood out in a very awesome way.  And does anybody else think it is odd that we are told to "show mercy with cheerfulness"?  I was trying to come up with some sort of an example of that, but I confess, I am not totally sure what it means.  It would be a neat study, tho, I think I’m going to look into that.

**Lastly, I thank God that He has led us to our church.  It really has been an amazing example of a ‘body functioning properly’.  We have been so blessed there.  I hope you are in a good group of believers where you can exercise your gifts to serve the body of Christ. It is a glimpse of what eternity will look like, and that is awesome.

** Which reminds me, for some reason, that the annual Abingdon Barn Dance is quickly approaching.  See here for details (you’ll have to scroll down below the Great State of Word Confusion— which is a fun read).  If you are in a 12 hour driving radius, start making plans now to come!  It will be the best time your family ever has! I know this from personal experience. 

July 28th, 2007 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments

I don’t know how my little sister got so funny, but these two picture posts that she did on our family made me laugh:

post one

post two (my personal favorite)

and in honor of Jessica’s weird sense of humor, I give you:

Eat Your Sausages  ** edit: ok, sorry, but i had to take out the link because when i was watching that clip earlier, a commercial came on in between the skits and it was *really* horribly awful. yuck.  i tried to find the skit on YouTube with no luck. if i can find it somewhere else without site-grossity i’ll re-link.

OH! and i almost forgot.  You can see the neat-o chainsaw bear carving here

July 26th, 2007 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments

Yesterday I was in my room and all of a sudden I hear this cackling laughter erupt from the living room.  Coie told me that James had turned his big truck on its side and lined up about six of his little hot rod cars against the belly of the big truck and started making sucking sounds.  Do most three year olds let their cars nurse?  Wow, my family is consistently weird.

Tomorrow my Emmsi-doodle turns 12.  Over the weekend we let her have a few friends come over and have a camp out on the lawn.  It was a sweet day.  Her actually birthday is Thursday the 26^th.  The real surprise is that her Gramma Sharon is flying out from California to spend the week with her.  All of my kids are going to die from utter overjoyed excitement.  This may be the best summer they’ve ever had.

And here’s a note of interest — Gramma Sharon is actually the one who came up with emmi’s name.  We had a home birth (yeeowch, I prefer being drugged up with no pain during labor), anyways, Gramma Sharon, who is from Geoff’s “Japanese side” came over and was cooing, “ahhhh… Emmiko…. Emmiko….”, which we later found out meant “Happy Child”.   So we took it.  And a very happy child she is.

 We roasted hot dogs, made S’mores, and when it got dark Uncle Charley put on a major firework production.

… and later she opened presents.  She told me that her very favorite gift ws the cookbooks and measuring cups/spoons that aunt jess gave her.  She also got tons of artsy-type stuff — her all time favorite thing to do  (besides cooking)

Happy Birthday,  Emmiko!  I hope you always stay as sweet as you are now.

And lastly, sadly, J and C finally left to return back to the land of Alaskians.  How sad we are.  But before they left, Mr. Preston got a chain saw and found a log and in about two hours he carved us the most incredible (cute) bear and then also carved a little wooden sign that said IGARASHI for the little bear to hold.  Good golly gracious it’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. I need to get a pic of it.  That man’s talent has no limit!  We already miss them SO much.

July 24th, 2007 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments

Yep, this is the way to live life

  Lounging with Jess and Co in my room

 (pictures by –who else ? … Ryann)

Having my little sister and her husband here has been a mini vacation.  I thank God for them both.  God is very kind to me; He cares so intricately and specifically and gives us more than we ask for or could even think of.  He knew what I needed this week, and what I needed was Jess and Cha Cha – yes, Cha Cha — that is my husband’s nickname for his new bro-in-law.  It has to be said with a thick Mexican accent: “Hola Cha Cha”

So anyways, I totally forgot what a real date was. Last night Cha Cha and Jess forced us out of our normal routine of fuddy duddy dates (a cheap 20 minute lunch where we talk about finances) and took us out on the town.  We have lived here for almost two years but we’ve never cruised thru Gatlinburg, which is one of the top ten most toured places in America. They had more little fun shops and mini villages than I could comprehend.  Taffy, gyros, corndogs, pizza, burgers, ribs, fudge, candy shoppes, etc. There were so many things to eat out there.  They should have named it Fatlinburg. Boy was it fun.

First we got all snickered up and went to a fancy dinner at a restaurant called The Park Grill.   You can see I’m not lying based on the evidence hovering directly on top of my head.

And then we walked the strip — and there were tons of all different sorts of things to see.  I wish I would have gotten a picture of the mountain music clogging trio.  They were very cute and they had cute puffy green dresses.  Alas, here instead is a shot of two non-cloggers:

Us old timers had to sit a spell:

And I can’t remember what he said, but I reckon it musta been pretty funny

 I honestly can’t remember the last time I had such a good time. 

Thanks Jess and Hola Cha Cha! 

And thanks, Cokes and Washi-Wash for holding down the fort so we could go out and play with other grown-ups for the night.    I know Sir James did *not* appreciate our audacity to leave. You are such good (brave) girls.

July 21st, 2007 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments

And they’re back – hip hip hooray!  As soon as they came home, the Preston Team of Utter Destruction slapped down Team Igarashi (without mercy) in a game of Bible Trivia (how rude).  I’m pretty sure those cheaters rigged the game from the get-go.  We’ll get ‘em next time.

But before they came back, as the Prestons were jaunting around Ohio (yawn) we took advantage of those two days and got back onto schedule (i.e. SCHOOL).  I don’t know about your family, but over here it’s hard to get thru the school hours without some sort of comedic mishap that ends up throwing the whole lesson into irregular spurts of snorting interruptions.

 In our history/government class (we use The Mystery of History – the absolute best history book I have ever used), we have just moved into the Classical Period (600 bc to 400 bc).  Anyways, we got into a discussion about how if ‘ideas’, ‘philosophies’, ‘books’, ‘music’, or even ‘movies’ can withstand the test of time, then that qualifies them as a “classic”.  So we started coming up with examples of classics – the ideas of democracy, equal representation, movies like The Wizard of Oz, etc.  I asked the kids to come up with books that have withheld the test of time — ones that we would now consider a classic.  Emmiko (who always tries the hardest to be serious during school) piped up with her suggestion of a book that had become a classic: The Dictionary.  

The rest of the lesson pretty much went downhill from there. 

July 20th, 2007 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments

Mr. and Mrs. Preston are taking a couple of days to visit friends in Ohio – the house is decidedly less exciting without them.  But the kids are keeping busy with the 60 foot tire swing that Uncle Charley made them (it rivals even yours, Mr. Burggraf!); I am keeping busy with the vacuum cleaner that Uncle Charley somehow fixed to run even better than brand new, and Emmiko (thanks to our lady goats) is keeping us supplied with fresh, homemade, goat milk vanilla ice cream.  Here is the very simple recipe, found on Kaboose.com.  Use regular milk and let your kids try!

Ice Cream in a Bag

What you’ll need:

• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 cup milk or half & half
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 6 tablespoons rock salt
• 1 pint-size Ziploc plastic bag
• 1 gallon-size Ziploc plastic bag
• Ice cubes

How to make it:

1. Fill the large bag half full of ice, and add the rock salt. Seal the bag.
2. Put milk, vanilla, and sugar into the small bag, and seal it.
3. Place the small bag inside the large one and seal again carefully.
4. Shake until mixture is ice cream, about 5 minutes.
5. Wipe off top of small bag, then open carefully and enjoy

 I wonder or not if you can use regualar salt instead of rock salt.  I actually had some on hand, but maybe next time I will try regular old normal salt and see if that also works.

July 18th, 2007 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments

SO, some very good news is that my little newlywed sister and her newlywed husband have come all the way from Alaska to help around the house.  Don’t they look thrilled to be here?

To their credit, I am amazed they even looked this cognitive. They had a ten hour flight to DC and then rented a car and drove for another 8 hours straight to get to our house yesterday morning.  Despite that killer of a trip, they soon sprang to life.  My kids were in heaven, they brought a whole suitcase full of very fun presents.  They will be here for a week – it is exactly what we needed.  They are experts at keeping things light and very very fun.  Plus my sister is an abnormally proficient organizer and cleaner, so that’s an added bonus!

My new bro-in-law is a very funny guy.  He does not sit still for long. In the afternoon, Geoff had Coie work on her car; while they were doing that, Mr. Charles Preston made himself useful in any and every way he could think of.  Here is Coie taking care of business.  Can you see Mr. Preston in the background also working hard? 

Their rental was giving him some trouble on the way down…

Mr. Preston has kept busy since he got here.  The kids love it.  He has been building (or teaching them to build) all manner of stuff – tire swings, bows and arrows, etc.  Very sweet.  I like him quite a lot, even despite the fact that he has the nerve to beat me at Boggle. 

And…for those of you scratching your head, yes, I know what you are wondering, and no, I can’t explain it.  But thank you for your emails and for all of the very kind comments and especially for your continued prayers.   

July 14th, 2007 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments

*** all fixed now, emails are fine

Speaking of Coie, her first sewing class starts today.  She has done a lot of prep work and I am sure she will be a fabulous teacher.  She’s excited about it.  Still speaking of Coie, she has a great article on her page today, which is definitely worth the read.

July 10th, 2007 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments

First of all, I am a bad friend.  I missed Annemarie’s birthday – even tho I had determined to remember this year.  Happy late birthday, my dear friend!

Another First of all, Praise God that our friends made it safely back from Ethiopia.  The Lord accomplished so much on this trip.  Please continue to pray that they would be strengthened and that God would continue to use them in such an unbelievable way.  The gospel is going out and lives are being completely transformed.  Eternal work is being done. Only the power of God can do that.  You can read about their incredible trip here.

Second, my amazing Coie, Ryann and Bobo single-handedly killed and skinned twelve chickens today.  It is astonishing what a 10, 13 and 18 year old can accomplish.  Our children are so much more capable than what we usually suppose them to be.  What a blessing – a freezer full of fresh, free range chicken.  Yipppeeee!

Third, a huge Happy Birthday to young Lady Julia Austin!  We are excited to see you guys tomorrow!  And for the rest of you, here is a clip of the Sherlock Holmes production they have been working on.  What talent!  You can see Ryann in it, too.  She’s the girl all tied up.

Fourth, last week I was inspired during our family bible time.  Geoff was reading thru 2^nd Kings (ch 5) where this captain, named Naaman, with leprosy heard that Elisha could get him all healed up.  So he traveled long and far and showed up at his place and when he got there, Elisha didn’t come out to see him but instead just had the servants tell this guy to go dunk himself in the Jordan.  Well, Naaman was furious.  FURIOUS.  And it said that he went away in a rage.  But his servants went after him and appealed to him saying, “if the prophet would have told you to do some great thing, wouldn’t you have tried it?  So why not try this when he says ‘wash and be clean’?”  So, big fat crybaby fit-throwing Naaman finally went down and did what Elisha told him to do and guess what?  He was totally healed.  Is that not incredible?  Here you have a guy who is offered a priceless gift and instead of being thankful and having faith, he flies off the handle and has a big cow.  But what is even more incredible … is that even though he was such an ungrateful jerk, God STILL HEALED HIM.  I was dumbfounded at the grace and mercy of God.  Amazing.  As I was marveling over this, all of a sudden I shrieked out as an inexplicable pain shot thru my large toe; it took me several seconds to figure out that one of my sons had plucked out one of my unseemly toe-hairs.  And yes, while I acknowledge that ladies should not have hair growing on their toes, this is no excuse for people to yank them out unprovoked and without invitation.  The impenitent boy was squarely smacked in the back his big goofy head.

The End.

July 2nd, 2007 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments