I see this a hundred times a day...

and... I love it!

Temporarily distracting myself from 'stuff' with...

...HALLOWEEN! Such a fun distraction. What are you going to be?
We have no clue. Gracie has said a witch 2/2 times.

Katie is showing you that we put up our Halloween decorations. She loves to pull the spiders off and eat them. Several neighbor kids have come by and asked when we are going to put up our giant spider. "Soon my pretties, soon and then you better watch out..."

P.L.O.P.

What is P.L.O.P. you say? In the special education system it stands for "Present Levels of Performance." Here is our P.L.O.P:

Katie is walking EVERYWHERE! She puts one hand on her chest while she walks around. So stinkin' cute. And she has hair that is fun to play with.

Gracie is being so sweet to her sister and parents and others. She tells us all that we are her "best friends ever." She even complimented me and our friend Kristin after volleyball tonight. "You did a good job catching the ball mom." Ahhh. And she invited Kristin to a thumb war... and won.

Luke is job searching and being a good dad helping me at home and trying not to get bummed out or depressed. Still wondering what he should do. He is currently waiting to devour some chocolate zucchini bread warm from the oven. Hollie still loves Luke!

Hollie felt all cool getting dressed up professional again for her first job interview since like 4 years ago. Waiting to here back still!! Set a personal record of making the exact amount of meat sauce for the just right amount of spaghetti noodles for the family for one meal. Awesome. Also spray painted inside the house 'again' and made dad mad because we got high all night and he couldn't sleep. At least you couldn't see any paint overspray this time. Sorry Luke I will never do it again. Luke still loves Hollie! He has taken care of the girls twice this week for like 4-5 hrs.

Warning: don't learn how to open multiple tabs!

When Nancy was at my house a while ago, she was amazed at how many tabs I had open at the same time. It was probably about 30. Oh man oh man! I planned to do a couple of things on the computer during naptime. Kids just woke up and so I gotta get off, but how did I get so side tracked? I HAVE 89 TABS OPEN at the same time ranging from sewing to decor to cooking to maps to jobs to wait... I forgot. I think 89 tabs means I have a problem. And now I can't shut down my computer till I do something with them and 2 hours are gone pointlessly.

Solution: I am "waiting" (seriously?) for my invite to Pinterest so I can just pin the things I like.

I know I can get dangerously sidetracked on the internet... so I purposefully go a couple of days without getting on. So sorry internet, just know I love/hate our relationship.

"But dad, they are just having family home evening..."

Luke just went to check on Gracie who we put to bed a half hour ago. He peeked under the door and saw her sitting on the floor with a doll so he opened the door and scolded her to get back in bed. She said with tears in her eyes, "But dad they are just having family home evening!"

Also the other day I was rocking her before bedtime and dad had just left after saying prayers with us. Gracie said to me, "Dad's my cousin. And you're my cousin. I like you. But dad's a furt furt furt furt." (That is what we call a toot or a fart.)

Whenever we are with another mom and her kids, Gracie always asks the mom, "Where's your dad?" --meaning her husband. It is funny to see how they respond, about their real dad or their husband.

Double sink bath...

After swimming outside...
Gracie: "Mom, what's Katie doing?"
Me: "Taking a bath."
Gracie: "In the sink?"
Me: "Yep! You took a bath in the sink too when you were a baby."
Gracie with eyes wide: "Can I get in the sink too?"
Me: "Sure."

If Katie is missing...

...look upstairs. Yesterday and the day before, we couldn't find Katie. Both times I found her at the top of the stairs. She crawls up the stairs and then walks down on her feet while holding onto the rungs. She's got some mad walking skills too. Oh Katie you are growing up. I don't think you would do very well alone walking around the preschool in China or strapped to my back/hip in a baby sling either -- without your mama's attention. You are seriously a mama's girl. If anyone tries to hold you, watch out for the whining. ;)

China was a go... now it's a no go!

So we had to make the decision to go to BEIJING or not by last Monday because Luke had job offers in school districts here that needed a answer. We didn't have very many details about our job responsibilities or pay or living arrangements in China or if they even wanted us for sure yet. After a nervous weekend of pretty much doing nothing but discussing, praying, fretting, and getting excited and dreaming, (sunday night we stayed up till 4 am deciding to go, then talking ourselves out of it, and then talking ourselves right back into it) we got no answers from the China company by 10 AM. We decided to go on FAITH and decline both speech-language pathologist jobs here with our answer to China being YES pending the contract being what we expected. SCARY but it felt right.

NOW about a week later...
we finally have more information from the moneybags guy (Daniel Wang) that changed our decision to NO. We are BUMMED but feel good because it is the RIGHT DECISION. It turns out that they wanted us to be a LEAD COUPLE meaning we would be fully involved doing and being whatever and whoever -- WHENEVER they need it. And frankly, that just doesn't work with kids.

Anytime we have put our kids second or sacrificed their needs, it is always the WRONG choice and we usually end up being mad at each other, mad at our kids, or mad at the obligation/thing that made us put our kids second. This last year and a half has been the hardest ever with many challenges and trying to run a business with Luke's dad. We have spent MORE time talking about business stuff and thinking and working on it than we have gotten out of it, and really our kids have been the ones who have suffered when our minds and energy have been absorbed elsewhere with no time for them. We KNOW that is what it would be like in China or even worse combined with new culture and other unkowns. And WHY make sacrifices if we aren't even invested in the company? I think the TURNING POINT was when Luke pointed out that if one of our main reasons for going to China is to build a little money nest egg, we could do that right HERE in a couple of months by having me go to work too and having someone else watch our kids. DUH! We are so BLESSED that we don't have to do that and we CHOOSE not to. Money is not that important and we DON'T have to go to China to GET it if it was!!! That is WHY I have my degree!

The final DEAL BREAKER is when Wang said he wanted a 2 YEAR CONTRACT and while there, MOVE and start new schools after each one was up and running smoothly. So just when bus routes, restaurants, parks, and stores would start to get familiar, we would have to start all over again. TALK ABOUT COMMITMENT AND STRESS AND TIME that is not worth the ADVENTURE, CULTURE, FUN, or MONEY... if there was any time left over for fun anyway.

So... I am going to go work for few hours doing HOME HEALTH speech therapy to take the STRESS off Luke while he decides what career path he wants to take. He is going to put his resume on Monster and Career Builder to see if anyone would hire him for his skills not in Speech Pathology. Here are the job choices he is CONSIDERING....

• speech therapist turned administrator/principal in a couple of years and schooling
• speech pathologist manager
  
• fireman/paramedic after going back to school
  
• railroad guy
• UPS boxman turned fulltime driver after like 6 years
• elevator repairman/installer with 4 yr apprenticeship
• internet marketing if his skills/experience are enough

SO FAREWELL BEIJING! You will always have a soft spot in our heart for what could have been...Maybe someday we will cross paths again ;)

THANKS to everyone who let us pick their brains, offered perspective, or just let us dream! It is good to see Heavenly Father's hand in making tough decisions and in our lives.