Hi,
On a more serious note, please visit my alter ego blog post at Help Out a Great Endometriosis Organization...Yankee Candle Fundraiser. Please forwarded the information on about the Yankee Candle Fundraiser to everyone you know.
I suffered from this disease since I was a teenager and here's My History with Endometriosis.
Please help out the 7 million girls and women in the US and the 70 million around the world with this disease. It would mean so much to me.
~Jen
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Friday, July 18, 2008
Pictures of Day out With Thomas 2008
Daddy finally took the pictures off of Mommy's camera from our Day out with Thomas this year.
We hope that you enjoy them!!!
~from Ryan, Katie, and Bella
We hope that you enjoy them!!!
~from Ryan, Katie, and Bella
Two preschoolers...one hour...one room
I'm not even going to bother telling you about their "fun" on July 7th outside of the fact that this is my room (along with Katie's) and my brother and sister were "playing" in there.
This is what Mommy saw when she first opened the door.
Not a pretty scene is it???
I wasn't please either since all of the clothes in my dresser were emptied out onto the floor.
~Bella
This is what Mommy saw when she first opened the door.
Not a pretty scene is it???
I wasn't please either since all of the clothes in my dresser were emptied out onto the floor.
~Bella
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Music Request this afternoon...
The music came at the request of my oldest daughter, Katie. She really wanted it on. I ask her if she wanted this or other music like Sesame Street and she said with her emphasis added No I want to see the video that we got at Christmas. The kids got a children's video with dancing and singing on it from us.
The kids were dancing today to children's music DVD. They were having a grand ole time. At times all three of them were dancing to the music in their own way. Katie was trying to imitate the people and children dancing. At times, Ryan was either dancing or drumming to the music on the drum. Bella was busy trying to jump up, marching, and dancing around the room. By the time I got my camera, all they did was stop and smile or make funny faces at the camera. So I put the camera away out of reach of the little ones. They were giggling through the songs and singing along to the music.
During the DVD, they stopped dancing one by one and sat down next to each other. Ryan was in the middle while his sisters were on either side of him. They were all snuggling up underneath a blanket for my bedroom that I hadn't folded up yet. Ryan had made sure his sisters were tucked in.
They were singing once more to the music. Then the big conversations came up about music, who was going to play what musical instrument all located in their Bee Bop Band drum (Katie was playing two shakers, Ryan was busy conducting who was playing what instrument at what time, and Bella was busy shaking her head no to the instruments Ryan was giving to her to play) and more.
One of the songs was Happy Birthday, another was Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, another one was 10 Little Indians (okay not PC but it was on the DVD), and more.
Did I mention that Katie's requested video that we watched, the children music video, is a Korean children's video??
Music is universal. I listen to all sorts of music that I don't know most if not all of the words to. I listen to some German (I grew up in a church that was started by Germans so we sing alot of German Christmas hymns), a little more Spanish, Georgian Chant, Celtic, and Korean. And that's in addition to the English speaking groups/solo artists and genres that I listen to. I listen to 50s Rock and Roll music right up to today's stuff. I also listen to classical music and I love Mozart's music in particular. I feel wonderful when I'm listening to each of the different types of music since each puts me into good mood (whether it causes me to sing or hum along to it, dance to it, or just relax to it).
This children's music video was put on this afternoon because my daughter highly requested it. Maybe she needed to see and hear some kids' singing and was sick of Wiggles or Sesame Street songs. Maybe this type of music makes her feel all happy inside and that shows on the outside of her by her beaming face. Maybe she wanted to watch it and try singing to it since it's Korean. The title of this children's video is 동요나라 or Dance and Sing with Jumi and Dienna.
Seeing the kids dance and sing, play and have a discussion about the instruments and about the music was wonderful enough to me and I enjoyed listening to it and dancing to it with the kids too.
~Jen
The kids were dancing today to children's music DVD. They were having a grand ole time. At times all three of them were dancing to the music in their own way. Katie was trying to imitate the people and children dancing. At times, Ryan was either dancing or drumming to the music on the drum. Bella was busy trying to jump up, marching, and dancing around the room. By the time I got my camera, all they did was stop and smile or make funny faces at the camera. So I put the camera away out of reach of the little ones. They were giggling through the songs and singing along to the music.
During the DVD, they stopped dancing one by one and sat down next to each other. Ryan was in the middle while his sisters were on either side of him. They were all snuggling up underneath a blanket for my bedroom that I hadn't folded up yet. Ryan had made sure his sisters were tucked in.
They were singing once more to the music. Then the big conversations came up about music, who was going to play what musical instrument all located in their Bee Bop Band drum (Katie was playing two shakers, Ryan was busy conducting who was playing what instrument at what time, and Bella was busy shaking her head no to the instruments Ryan was giving to her to play) and more.
One of the songs was Happy Birthday, another was Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, another one was 10 Little Indians (okay not PC but it was on the DVD), and more.
Did I mention that Katie's requested video that we watched, the children music video, is a Korean children's video??
Music is universal. I listen to all sorts of music that I don't know most if not all of the words to. I listen to some German (I grew up in a church that was started by Germans so we sing alot of German Christmas hymns), a little more Spanish, Georgian Chant, Celtic, and Korean. And that's in addition to the English speaking groups/solo artists and genres that I listen to. I listen to 50s Rock and Roll music right up to today's stuff. I also listen to classical music and I love Mozart's music in particular. I feel wonderful when I'm listening to each of the different types of music since each puts me into good mood (whether it causes me to sing or hum along to it, dance to it, or just relax to it).
This children's music video was put on this afternoon because my daughter highly requested it. Maybe she needed to see and hear some kids' singing and was sick of Wiggles or Sesame Street songs. Maybe this type of music makes her feel all happy inside and that shows on the outside of her by her beaming face. Maybe she wanted to watch it and try singing to it since it's Korean. The title of this children's video is 동요나라 or Dance and Sing with Jumi and Dienna.
Seeing the kids dance and sing, play and have a discussion about the instruments and about the music was wonderful enough to me and I enjoyed listening to it and dancing to it with the kids too.
~Jen
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Please view this video
I saw this on Margie's blog and finally had the chance to watch it. It made me think as well.
Let me know what you think.
~Jen
Let me know what you think.
~Jen
Sunday, July 13, 2008
More preschooler questions for you to answer...
How does a river get made?
Why is the sky blue?
Why is that airplane chasing the other one? Mind you we told Ryan that the first airplane (the Cessna) was bringing the other airplane (the glider) up very high in the sky so that it can glide back down to the airport.
Did you know that milk comes from cows?
Why do birds fly?
Is it going to thunder again?
Is THAT a coccoon??
How do fish get made?
So I'm curious, how would you answer my two oldest children's questions?? Particular answer the one about how fish get made to satisfy a 4 year old little boy's and a near 3 year old little girl's curiosity.
~Jen
Why is the sky blue?
Why is that airplane chasing the other one? Mind you we told Ryan that the first airplane (the Cessna) was bringing the other airplane (the glider) up very high in the sky so that it can glide back down to the airport.
Did you know that milk comes from cows?
Why do birds fly?
Is it going to thunder again?
Is THAT a coccoon??
How do fish get made?
So I'm curious, how would you answer my two oldest children's questions?? Particular answer the one about how fish get made to satisfy a 4 year old little boy's and a near 3 year old little girl's curiosity.
~Jen
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Memories of Camp Mu Ji Gae 2008
Jeff, Bella and myself along with my parents who brought Ryan and Katie attended our Korean cultural camp's family day on Sunday afternoon. We saw friends of ours there at camp. Some of them are local and one from far away that we met last year while we were in Boston at the KAAN Conference. Some of them were familiar faces we have seen since our first camp experience in 2004 when Jeff and I went to check it out.
We met up with Katie's mentor, Kathleen, her mother and my friend Maggie, Mike and his daughter Gillian.
It was so good to meet you again Chris, author of A Euro-American on a Korean Tour at a Thai Restaurant in China, at Camp Mu Ji Gae. I'm glad that you finally got to meet my kids in person. As you can tell, they keep me on my toes!!
We watched the Korean drummers and the women from SIWA at Sookmyung Women's University (also in Korean at Info about SIWA in Korean and Info about SIWA in English) do their mask dance.
~~~~~~~~~~~SIDE NOTE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These women paid their own way to the US to help out our camp. And we are appreciative of them doing so!!!
~~~~~~~~~END OF SIDE NOTE~~~~~~~~~~~
The drummers then had asked if any of the campers wanted to join them dancing around they could. So Ryan and I went up and danced along with some of the other campers. We also went in under the arms of the drummers, parents, grandparents and other campers similar to what we do with the Mu Ji Gae train. Then after dancing with Ryan, I took Bella up as well and danced with her. She enjoyed it as well. Katie was watching us from the rest of the crowd. She opted not to join in the dancing and Mu Ji Gae train and we respected her wishes.
Ryan mentioned afterwards that he was upset with us. When I asked him why he told me that he "wanted to bring our Korean drums next year". So next year, if he is still interested, we'll be bringing those drums with us to camp. But that will be his choice.
Monday night, my mom and I attended our camp's guest speaker (Chris Winston) and her discussion about how we build a relationship to the Korean community, why is it important, all about race (does it matter, our perspective on diversity versus our children's perspective, etc), and more. I'm so glad that I attended this event even though I heard some of this at the KAAN conference last year. I still learned some information from this event.
Adoption is a lifelong learning experience...you can't possibly know everything that there is to know to help your child at each stage of their development (infancy, toddler, elementary school, pre-teen, teenager, and adult adoptees) when you bring your child home. Hence my reason why I'm attending these events when I can. Jeff mentioned on Sunday that it would be like going to a KAAN session and in a way it was.
In attendence were Korean adult adoptees to talk about their experiences and without them sharing their personal experiences it wouldn't be the same. I am forever thankful to them for their willingness to talk to us, the adoptive parents, especially face to face to tell us what their experiences were when they were growing up and are now as an adult. Other people in attendence were adoptive parents like myself with young kids, adoptive parents with teenagers, and adoptive parents with adult adoptees. Also in attendence were representatives from a Korean language school in this area. I chatted with them after the talk and gained some valuable information just in case my kids are interested in learning when they turn 5 years old. I learned that they also have a parents' class as well.
Tuesday afternoon we went back for the kids' sessions. My parents came to help us out and to videotape and take pictures. Katie graduated into the older kids class (Curiosity for ages 3 to 5 year olds) so she joined her big brother for the class. Jeff took them into their class while I helped out a friend of ours, Angie, and watched Bella in the younger kids class for under 3 year olds called Rising Stars.
We started off with group pictures and went into the gym for music time, free play, story time, more free play and then snack time.
I sang London Bridges in Korean and taught the parents as well as the kids. In their goody bags they got some arts and crafts stuff to do made by Angie and Jennifer, flashcards that I made up for the campers and particularly their parents to learn some basic words/phrases and included a link to a website that has all of the words/phrases and their correct pronunciation for the parents to listen to, a Korean flag sticker, and more. After that we had freeplay and then gathered back together to do one of the 3 crafts in their goody bag. After that we listened to the book Bibimbop read by Jennifer and 2 other books. After some freeplay, the group had mandu, orange wedges, and popsicles for snack. Bella and I shared our Korean rice cookies that we picked up at the local Korean market with the other campers. I was complimented on the flashcards by several of the mothers and a few of the fathers as well and that they would definitely be using these to learn a bit of Korean themselves.
We had 2 big folding tables set up for resources for the parents to take and one big folding table for books for them to look at. It contained a packet of 5 pages of websites for parents to check out, catalogs from various adoption related businesses, a map of Korea for them to look at, and more. We had Korean children's music playing for all to hear.
In Curiosity, they had paper folding, a song and dance with the girls from Sookmyung Women's University SIWA group, snack and more.
After that camp was done for us for this year. The kids are already talking about next year's camp. We are looking forward to family day events and the kids individual classes for as long as they want to participate in it. I need to make a mental note to ask the kids if they want to bring Korean drums with them to next year's family day since Ryan wanted to play his drum along with the Korean drummers on Sunday.
Katie said the sweetest thing last night to me as I was tucking her into bed that I'll close this post with:
Thank you Mommy for bringing me to camp.
My response to her is the following: Thank you Katie for bringing me to camp.
Katie's simple sweet sentence is why we will expose my children to things Korean for as long as they show interest. Her simple sweet sentence is why we will bring our kids to their Korean cultural camp for as long as they show interest.
~Jen
We met up with Katie's mentor, Kathleen, her mother and my friend Maggie, Mike and his daughter Gillian.
It was so good to meet you again Chris, author of A Euro-American on a Korean Tour at a Thai Restaurant in China, at Camp Mu Ji Gae. I'm glad that you finally got to meet my kids in person. As you can tell, they keep me on my toes!!
We watched the Korean drummers and the women from SIWA at Sookmyung Women's University (also in Korean at Info about SIWA in Korean and Info about SIWA in English) do their mask dance.
~~~~~~~~~~~SIDE NOTE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These women paid their own way to the US to help out our camp. And we are appreciative of them doing so!!!
~~~~~~~~~END OF SIDE NOTE~~~~~~~~~~~
The drummers then had asked if any of the campers wanted to join them dancing around they could. So Ryan and I went up and danced along with some of the other campers. We also went in under the arms of the drummers, parents, grandparents and other campers similar to what we do with the Mu Ji Gae train. Then after dancing with Ryan, I took Bella up as well and danced with her. She enjoyed it as well. Katie was watching us from the rest of the crowd. She opted not to join in the dancing and Mu Ji Gae train and we respected her wishes.
Ryan mentioned afterwards that he was upset with us. When I asked him why he told me that he "wanted to bring our Korean drums next year". So next year, if he is still interested, we'll be bringing those drums with us to camp. But that will be his choice.
Monday night, my mom and I attended our camp's guest speaker (Chris Winston) and her discussion about how we build a relationship to the Korean community, why is it important, all about race (does it matter, our perspective on diversity versus our children's perspective, etc), and more. I'm so glad that I attended this event even though I heard some of this at the KAAN conference last year. I still learned some information from this event.
Adoption is a lifelong learning experience...you can't possibly know everything that there is to know to help your child at each stage of their development (infancy, toddler, elementary school, pre-teen, teenager, and adult adoptees) when you bring your child home. Hence my reason why I'm attending these events when I can. Jeff mentioned on Sunday that it would be like going to a KAAN session and in a way it was.
In attendence were Korean adult adoptees to talk about their experiences and without them sharing their personal experiences it wouldn't be the same. I am forever thankful to them for their willingness to talk to us, the adoptive parents, especially face to face to tell us what their experiences were when they were growing up and are now as an adult. Other people in attendence were adoptive parents like myself with young kids, adoptive parents with teenagers, and adoptive parents with adult adoptees. Also in attendence were representatives from a Korean language school in this area. I chatted with them after the talk and gained some valuable information just in case my kids are interested in learning when they turn 5 years old. I learned that they also have a parents' class as well.
Tuesday afternoon we went back for the kids' sessions. My parents came to help us out and to videotape and take pictures. Katie graduated into the older kids class (Curiosity for ages 3 to 5 year olds) so she joined her big brother for the class. Jeff took them into their class while I helped out a friend of ours, Angie, and watched Bella in the younger kids class for under 3 year olds called Rising Stars.
We started off with group pictures and went into the gym for music time, free play, story time, more free play and then snack time.
I sang London Bridges in Korean and taught the parents as well as the kids. In their goody bags they got some arts and crafts stuff to do made by Angie and Jennifer, flashcards that I made up for the campers and particularly their parents to learn some basic words/phrases and included a link to a website that has all of the words/phrases and their correct pronunciation for the parents to listen to, a Korean flag sticker, and more. After that we had freeplay and then gathered back together to do one of the 3 crafts in their goody bag. After that we listened to the book Bibimbop read by Jennifer and 2 other books. After some freeplay, the group had mandu, orange wedges, and popsicles for snack. Bella and I shared our Korean rice cookies that we picked up at the local Korean market with the other campers. I was complimented on the flashcards by several of the mothers and a few of the fathers as well and that they would definitely be using these to learn a bit of Korean themselves.
We had 2 big folding tables set up for resources for the parents to take and one big folding table for books for them to look at. It contained a packet of 5 pages of websites for parents to check out, catalogs from various adoption related businesses, a map of Korea for them to look at, and more. We had Korean children's music playing for all to hear.
In Curiosity, they had paper folding, a song and dance with the girls from Sookmyung Women's University SIWA group, snack and more.
After that camp was done for us for this year. The kids are already talking about next year's camp. We are looking forward to family day events and the kids individual classes for as long as they want to participate in it. I need to make a mental note to ask the kids if they want to bring Korean drums with them to next year's family day since Ryan wanted to play his drum along with the Korean drummers on Sunday.
Katie said the sweetest thing last night to me as I was tucking her into bed that I'll close this post with:
Thank you Mommy for bringing me to camp.
My response to her is the following: Thank you Katie for bringing me to camp.
Katie's simple sweet sentence is why we will expose my children to things Korean for as long as they show interest. Her simple sweet sentence is why we will bring our kids to their Korean cultural camp for as long as they show interest.
~Jen
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