Seniors

This year, even with all the chaos of our lives, I couldn't keep my girls from growing up.  This was their senior year.

Let me just say that again: THIS WAS THEIR SENIOR YEAR!!!  When did that happen?!

We had their pictures done in the fall.  Here is a sampling.  My family will be happy to finally see them!

Bundling Skills

We like to watch the TV show American Pickers at our house. If you've seen the show, Frank always likes to go for the bundle. Instead of paying one price for something, and one price for something else, he tries to bundle two or more things for a little lower price.

Those skills came in handy when Sparky went to the Dominican Republic in February. They had some good shopping close by, and she was able to buy lots of bracelets and necklaces for practically nothing to give to her friends. We even have a few left over.

The same man who made the jewelry also made wooden carvings. Sparky always tries to get Caboose some kind of carving if possible (and he loves turtles), and the Hispaniolan Woodpecker was a must for her dad. Not to mention her dad's love of birding, Sparky saw the Hispaniolan Woodpecker when she was in the DR.

The woodpecker was $10 and the turtle was $7. She looked around and didn't seem overly interested, and then asked if he would take $12 for both. He did.

She came home and told me all about her bundling skills! She did good.

MG Sparky — MT2

I realized when I was linking up Sparky's previous trips, I never posted a follow-up to her Bolivia trip last October.

I know why I probably didn't. We were a little consumed with some doctor trips from a bacteria she brought back, which was intestinal. And since this was only a few weeks before Hubby's surgery, I was especially concerned. Actually I was a little freaked out. But Sparky was all clear just prior to Hubby's surgery and he was fine and it was all good.

And just in case you're curious and want to know, she contracted campylobacter, we have no idea how she contracted it, she did not drink any water, they take their own food, she did nothing different from anyone else on the trip (except she was around some children and a dog, but she did use the hand sanitizer properly), she wiped her lips after the shower with a clean cloth before she licked her lips, etc. Everyone is clueless and it will go down as a mystery.

Everything was a little more complicated when she was prescribed an antibiotic that the doctor hadn't prescribed for the last five years because it makes most people sick but was the one she needed. It made her sick. She couldn't quit throwing up. So we ended up in the ER and went home with a prescription for the second best medicine, hoping it would work. And IV meds wouldn't work because the medicine needed to be taken orally and processed through the system. Fun, fun.

I thought the best thing to do would be to show you a few pictures from her trip and then share a couple of pictures from her letter she sent out to people who contributed to her trip:

Thank you for your prayers and support for my trip to Cochabamba, Bolivia, that I took October 10-16, 2010. I had a great time and God really worked in my life on the trip. This was the first trip that I have taken where *** was building a church, and it was a new and different experience for me.

I worked in the kitchen helping cook the food, cleaning up afterwards, and doing the dishes. I liked experiencing the different culture of Bolivia. It was definitely not something that I had encountered before. The coolest thing about the trip was that after the dedication service the night before we left, a lady that had been sitting by me came to know Christ as her Savior as a result of the service. And since there were people there that spoke English they acted as translators for me when I had the opportunity to have conversations with people. That was another thing that I greatly enjoyed about this trip.

It was amazing to see how quickly the building got finished, and how it was already being used. Although after the trip, I still feel like Africa is my place to be when I go into the missions field full time, it doesn’t diminish the excitement of having gotten to go to Bolivia on this trip.

This is a picture she took from her window seat looking at the city sitting down in its valley in the Andes.

They drove by where they were building something, and Sparky was amazed that they were using what looked like bent and jerry-rigged wood pieces to hold it up. And that's actually what it looks like even though the quality of the picture is not the best.

The possible culprit of the campylobacter.

The bird she saw every day. We're all jealous!

Another possible, but much cuter, culprit of the campylobacter!

Sparky looks tall! Sparky looks tall! (If you don't know, she's 4'11" and done growing, and I can say that because I'm 5'1". I'm done growing too. I'm into shrinkage age. Someday I'll be as tall as her.)

Sparky took several pictures of statues that were in the intersections. They almost look like our traffic circles here in Michigan, but I can't see enough of them to tell. But the statues are large and varied in theme. This one was interesting...corn.

The group went to see what was the tallest statue of Jesus in the world, the Cristo de la Concordia, at 34.2 meters in height, on a pedestal 6.24 meters, bringing it's total height to 40.44 meters. It had been specifically built slightly taller than the more famous one, the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, so that Cochabamba could boast the tallest statue. In November, 2010, Poland unveiled a much taller statue, so now it's not the tallest. But it was when Sparky was there.

Of course all of that is dependent on whether you count the mound and the crown, and then the one in Cochabamba is still tallest.

The holes are for air to go through. The group went up in the statue. They were in the armpit. It still feels wrong to say that.

This is the project they worked on and completed in three weeks.

I hope you enjoyed a small and varied taste of Cochabamba, Bolivia, South America. And a little trivia to boot!

Naïveté Is Bliss

Sparky always has to fly to meet the rest of the group wherever they are leaving the country. The last two times have been from Miami.

Even though she could take two checked pieces of luggage on the international flight, she is only allowed one because the group may need her second one to take food or materials or tools. This time we had prior permission for her to take two so she could take all the items for the orphanage.

Her chaperone (who she flies out of Michigan with) suggested that they upgrade to business class so they didn't have to pay any domestic baggage fees. The cost was pretty much a wash.

Hubby and I were joking about the free beverage, and I said that it did say she'd get a free cocktail, and Sparky said, "You mean I get shrimp!?"

She's so sweet. We had a really good laugh about that one.

Her chaperone had some fun at her expense too. She made fun of her because the seats were bigger in business class and Sparky's feet didn't touch the ground.

Sparky's Newest Journey

We were packing again at our house. This is a suitcase full of 100 stuffed animals, over 200 pencils, two Ziplocs of diecast cars, six dozen combs, and a few hundred ponytail holders. They are for an orphanage in the Dominican Republic.

This is the last week of a four-week project where the group is building a church for local missionaries. Sparky is going to have some special opportunities to teach Bible stories during the week to both Dominican children and to the American missionary children. She is very excited!

She was able to fit all of her clothes and personal items into her carry-on and backpack, with the exception of a few packages of trail mix and an extra bag of cashews. The second hard suitcase has 30 more stuffed animals, dum dum lollipops, soft peppermints, and other goodies. It helped that she didn't have to take bedding, a pillow, or towels this trip.

Her suitcase is new to her (less than $5), but it's basic black. Somewhere behind the scenes she usually loses her luggage strap, so she needed to mark her bag to identify it on the luggage carousel easily. She opted for "MG" for Missionary Girl. It's lime green nail polish.

Her so-far always chaperone:

They will also be visiting a Haitian refugee village in the Dominican at the end of their week. They will purchase food at a grocer and distribute it to some of the families. Over the course of the project they will have fed every family in the village.

Togo, West Africa, last February.

Cochabamba, Bolivia, last October.

In May, she's going to Nicaragua.

Her passport is filling up!

Floating Isn't Floating Anymore

We have floating shelves in our kids' rooms to display their collectibles. I don't know what it is about the floating shelf, but it makes me a little nervous. It's just hanging there. Floating.

We had floating shelves in our bathroom, but they weren't floating quite right. There was a gap at the top and they leaned forward. Bothered me every time I walked in the bathroom. I dealt with it for about one week.

Then I bought black iron brackets at Ikea and placed them as supports under the shelves. Actually Hubby and I did, and we didn't even attach them to the shelves. We just left the shelves attached to the walls as they were and attached the brackets to the wall for support of the shelves. Worked like a charm.

So when Sparky told me that 'Big Derek' almost hit her on the head the other night, and when she started placing things back up and they were sliding off, I knew we had a problem.

These are her hanging shelves right after we finished painting her room a couple of weeks ago.

You can tell the left one is slightly droopy. I had already taken the wall bracket down, redrilled holes, and put in new anchors. I think the bracket had bent a little and that was the problem. It started pulling away from the wall again. (I usually don't take the brackets down when I paint the walls. I just paint around them with the knowledge that if and when I take them down, I'll have to do some work on that area. I'd have holes to plug up anyway.)

I had four more of the black brackets from Ikea that I planned on using for another shelf in our mudroom area that I've never put up. Sparky and I decided that was the best option for her shelves, because she didn't want to lose those green shelves.

It works and it matches the black bed. If and when we ever take those down, there are a lot of holes in that wall, and they all have brackets in them!

Tour The Rooms — Sparky's Room

This is the color that I thought I would be painting either my living room or my bedroom. I happened to have the swatch card and it's the one that Sparky picked! I wouldn't let her do the glowing lime green like the bathroom.

She's very happy with it and thinks it brings out the green she has in the room nicely.

This is the view when you walk in her room out the front windows of the house. (None of our bedrooms are on the first floor.) Her room is slightly recessed from the doorway.

She painted the picture on the wall between the windows when she was eight years old. There was an older couple in Illinois from our church that were good friends of ours, and he taught her how to paint. She has some natural artistic ability.

This is the view to the left.

We (as in I) just hung that mirror after we got done painting. I found it for half price at Hobby Lobby about a month ago and knew it would be perfect for that spot. She has trouble getting to a mirror in the bathroom occasionally when everyone is getting ready at the same time. I couldn't hang it too high or she wouldn't be able to see in it.

This is the view to the right from the door.

She definitely has some green in here!

Her bed, nightstands, green shelves, and red dressers are all from Ikea.

Her paint color is Cloudy Day by Behr. I have a lighter color of blue for my room, but if I don't like it, I'm going with this one.

♪ They Were 16 Going On 17... ♫

Now they are 17!

They have been since December 3rd.

I keep hearing, "Have you done our birthday post?"

We saw the new Chronicles of Narnia movie (LOVE it) in the afternoon on the 10th and then had a sleepover. We had two decks of Dutch Blitz going so the boys could play too.

Dutch Blitz with eight people is fast and furious! I teamed up with Caboose part of the time to help him out.

We kept things small since Hubby is still recovering. We had a variety of ages over between 13 and 19. I love that about our kids and their friends. Age doesn't really matter, and they didn't have to become grown-ups to realize that. These girls all have strong Christian values and have great attitudes. They enjoy being together and playing games and not gossiping or talking about boys.

The first group of three girls went to sleep at 2:00 a.m. and the second group of three went to sleep just after 4:00 a.m. They decided they should get a little sleep.

The other night when we went out to eat, the waitress asked if we needed two kids menus. She was thinking of Caboose and Sparky. Hubby said pretty soon people are going to think they are twins! Sparky didn't think that was very funny.

By the way, they don't drive yet. We are going to enroll in driver's ed in the spring/summer when the roads aren't snowy and icy. You know, I wonder if they even do driver's ed in Michigan in the winter? Well, I just know Hubby and I do not have the constitution (especially me) to teach them to drive.

We'll warn you once they are on the road! :)

Piranha!

This is the kind of cool gift a 14-year-old boy gets from his sister when she returns from Bolivia.

He's roughly as big as my hand. Or she. Look at those teeth!

Looks great as an accessory with little baseball helmets.

Stitch Marks and Blisters

Tonight Buddy played a ball game with no injuries, bruises, or stitch marks.

Then he got home.

Buddy and Hubby were tossing the ball out in the yard before they came in the house. They were talking and tossing. Buddy pulled his glove down too soon from in front of his face. He just doesn't normally do things like that.

Sparky was totally impressed because he has stitch marks on his nose. That's the sign of a good injury to her. She loves stitch marks.

Buddy's nose appears to not be broken. He's had lots of ice on it to keep the swelling as low as it is. There's been a lot of blood. Hubby had to pour some water and rake the grass so it didn't look like a crime scene.

Really, Sparky had sunscreen on over the weekend. She is our sunburning child. She never goes without, and she uses the serious stuff. We just don't know what happened.

She has the unfortunate first of blisters, for her and all the kids.

I'll just add that if Chatty were here and not at horse camp, she'd be all over the Brady Bunch line, "Oh, my nose!"

"I Hope I Don't Have The Fanciest Dress"

"Can we please get there extra early so people aren't watching us walk up? I'd rather be watching other people walk up."

"I can't walk in these shoes. I think my dress is fancier than everybody who is here already."

It's Senior Banquet time for the girls again, an event arranged for our church's youth group (9th-12th graders) each spring.

Girly Chatty loves shopping for the fancy dress and accessories. Sparky doesn't. Can you guess that she was the one who said all those things at the beginning? She had the teeny tiniest of heel on her shoe. Like maybe an inch. But this is only the second time she's worn one.

The first time was last year's Senior Banquet. Since Sparky has a tiny foot to go along with her petite frame, the heel last year was chunkier because we could only find her a shoe in the children's department. It had pictures all over the shoe (which her foot did cover up when it was on) of a current pop star. She cringes to this day to think about it, but she was going to wear them again this year.

Fortunately, they had almost the exact same shoe in the adult section this year in a size 5, appropriately named the Hannah, just without the pictures. And a slightly skinnier heel.

If you go back and look at last year's pictures, they are even wearing the same color dresses as last year. Just so you don't think I posted the wrong pictures.

Sparky picked out a sweater because she likes to be covered up. She didn't want to wear a bracelet, but you will notice that she is sporting her (ratty) friendship bracelet and a couple of brown or black ponytail holders. A nice matching bracelet wouldn't have worked. I see that now that I've looked at the picture closer.

Here are the girls with two of their good friends. The one on the left is a grade older, and the one on the right is in the same grade and shares Sparky's love of green.

Green girl has a set of older fraternal twins that are a brother/sister and a set of younger brothers that I think are identical. I can't remember what her mom told me. If they are fraternal, they look an awful lot alike. They are Caboose's age and friends with him, and they call each other Brother so nobody really knows who is who. She is sweet as can be and has one other sister in the middle with her.



This is the entire sophomore class. Some of these kids just come to the youth group and don't come on Sunday, but they have been a part of the youth group since they were old enough.

They went to a nice restaurant and then the rest of the evening's plans were a secret. Since it was only in the 50's here, I think they were probably happy when they got inside where it was warm!

Pillowcases and a Fancy Shirt

Yesterday I popped into Marshall's to pick up a pair of white pillowcases for my pillows. I need to put my flannel ones away, and I love to get the high quality pillowcases at a really good price.

While I was on my way back to the front to check out, I couldn't help my eye from wandering to the sides. There was a shirt hanging on the end of a rack where it didn't really belong. It stuck out. It was pretty. It caught my eye. It spoke to me. It appeared to be my size.

I did not have time to try it on, but I was willing to get it and take it back if I had to. But I did not want to have to.

Isn't it pretty?

I'm saving it for Mother's Day. I'm going to have to go buy a skirt though.

I've showed it to every member of my family at different times since last night. The most fun was showing it to Sparky. I prepped her on the way with, "What's the one thing that makes this shirt not fancy?" All because of her issues with fancy shirts. And dresses and any other item of clothing really.

She said exactly what I thought she would. "It's white."

Then as she left my room she said, "Except that wedding dresses are white, and those are the fanciest dresses you can get, and a wedding is the fanciest day of them all."

Delivery

It's important.

Comedians find that if their delivery isn't good, their jokes aren't as funny.

In baseball, the delivery of a pitch is of utmost importance.

To parents, a safe and healthy delivery of their newborn baby concerns them.

Almost daily we rely on the postal service for delivery of our mail without giving it much thought, until something goes wrong.

The same could be said for luggage.

Remember this suitcase that Sparky checked in Detroit on the way to JFK on the way to the Accra, Ghana, airport in route to Togo. This was the last time we'd seen it.

Until today.

We received a call at about 10:45 last night that we missed. They called again about 6:00 this morning. They delivered the suitcase a little before 11:00 a.m. to our house.

The outside is cracked.

One of the latches is also bent badly.

And the suitcase strap that secured it since you can't lock them is completely missing, as are all her identification tags. Every single one, except for the original tag the Detroit airport put on it that had the numbers that identified the suitcase as Sparky's.

The inside had been messed up quite a bit. The only thing originally on this side were the stuffed animals, her pillow (which was on the other side now), and a bag with water balloons, chocolate chips, and unsweetened Kool-Aid.

This side wasn't messed up quite as badly.

Except that the two jars of peanut butter were missing, along with those chocolate chips I mentioned. The Kool-Aid was untouched.

I think the suitcase made it to Ghana and the food was taken. Hubby thinks it was taken since it was perishable and the airport people didn't know when it would get back to the appropriate person. The airport still can't tell us where they located the bag and if it ever actually made it overseas.

The last time we saw this bag was on February 20th. It was reported missing at JFK on March 1st. Today is April 10th. If this bag could talk it might have a really good story to tell.