Rain, cannibal dragonfly nymphs & Singing my guts out,

1. the empty shell
2. the beautiful dragonfly

Sorry, my 2 faithful blog readers for letting you down. It's been ages since my last confession. It's rainy season & so I haven't taken any nice pictures lately. But soon the kids will be out of school so we'll take pics, I promise.



Kiki brought home a bunch of dragonfly babies from school.

After "rescuing" them from the stagnant rain water that had been collecting in the school pool in their bare feet I might add, (This was actually part of the 3rd & 4th graders curriculum), Kiki brings home a bunch of dragonfly nymphs/larvae. I'm like thinking that they are sort of like sweet little baby butterflies that feed off of little green leaves. Little do I know that they are very active predators & must feed off of live prey, or they will eat each other. The pet store has no red tiny worms that the school says you are supposed to feed them, so I'm just hoping that the mosquitoes in the yard will lay eggs in the dragonfly water so the poor things won't have to be cannibals. Anyway, one of them already shed it's skin, turned into a pretty dragonfly & flew away, so we are waiting for the other "fittest" to survive & live to tell the tale.

I made it clear that before random pets make their way to my house, I need to know how to feed them.



So, I've been really busy & that's good, singing away for my supper.

Well, I wonder if a boring post is better than none at all but you asked for it.
Cheers.

Mom's Grave

Dad sent me this picture. I've been wanting to see the stone for ages as it wasn't ready when I was there.

It says: "God's little angel, always by our side" (Paraphrased lyrics from a song she wrote when we were little.)

"Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord" (Mom technically died of lung failure due to cancer & even though she had such a hard time breathing, she was always so brave & cheerful.)

Trying to catch the baby doing her tricks

click Lina's animal sounds & hear her attempt animal sounds. Babies never do their tricks properly when you get out the video camera.

And, just for our information since this is my kids log basically here are the words Lina says:

Mama, Dada, ball, meow, dog, duck, apple, bear, no, uh-oh, all done, chiwawa, bye, more, nene, mine, bubbles, book,

Sushi

The chef--Carole likes arranging the sashimi

Family Band Pic --Sorry, no babies allowed

Riding the scooters at the park

MOM's Birthday

NEway, so here's a corny cropped pic of me (& my bangs) & mom that I'll have to post becuz I don't have that many pix of us together. I had some kind of norovirus on her birthday so I spent my day thinking about my tummy & enjoying a few moments of silence.

I'm glad you guys & Dad got to go out to dinner & have cake & ice cream. I think maybe I will be having some of that in the near future for no particular reason.

Sunny Days

I am a child again:

You read to us
Teach us to read,
We learn Psalms 23
You love picnics, nature walks,
Eating ice cream,
We drive you nuts (Sometimes or most of the time.)
I help you with all the little baby brothers & sisters.

I am a teen again:

You cope with my adolescent attitudes
You even apologise to me when we have an argument
You understand my insecurities
You listen
I try to act all smart & grown up
But I fall short & often hurt you with my words.

I am 18 again:

You become my friend,
We talk about love & life & grown up things
You cry when Tom & I go away on our travels
You give me poems & I cry too in secret.
You leave to another part of the world & I will only see you every few years
When I do see you, you always have gifts & we talk & enjoy our family together.
The time goes by quickly & I have to go home again.

I am expecting my first child again:

You give me things for the new baby,
You give me good, strong advice
You give me love & prayers

I am a young mom again:

You always remember each of my kids birthdays
You send little presents whenever you can
I start to learn how hard it is to be a mom & I finally understand your sacrifices
I hear you are sick with cancer & I am scared
You are so brave, you fight, you win,
You recover awhile
You visit me a few times & my kids get to spend time with Grandma

It is 2008 again:

You are sick again
This time it takes you down a very difficult road
You lose so much weight
You can't sleep well or eat or breathe
You are so brave though
And we hope you will recover soon.

It's Christmas day again:

Our hearts break
As the angels take you away
We can't believe you are really gone
We can't even grasp the gravity of our loss
We try to understand it all
But it's so hard

It's your funeral again:

I try to find some closure
But the hole in the ground seems so small for someone so big in my life.
We try to be brave
We try to enjoy the flowers & each other
And hope you are watching

It is mothers day again:

I can't post anything because I look at last years post
And it's so lame
I don't want to write more now when you are gone,
Than when you were here.
I wish I would've known.
I would've said it all,
All you meant to me
How beautiful you were.

It's Children's Day

The KIDS top 5 favorite things:

Carole:

Buying stuff

Playing with Lina

Putting on Makeup

Going fishing with daddy

Drawing

Kiki:
Sleeping with Mama

Eating Spaghetti, pizza, sundae

Playing with friends

Reading

Riding scooter

Leila:

Pink clothes

Hello Kitty stuff

Eating Ramen, yakiniku, ika rice & ice cream

Playing at the park

New scooter

Lina:

Reading books with daddy or mommy

Going outside, walking, the park

Eating strawberries, dried fruits

Animals

Being with Mommy

Tiny Lei is 6 today

the cake

the birthday party

the birthday present

the babies

Well, ok, there is one nice thing about May

When she was about 4

The said dress

Cuddling before that haircut

Outside

When she was 3

Tomorrow is Leila's birthday. We are making the cake today so we'll be prepared for our friends tomorrow. I followed a recipe from MarthaStewart.com strawberry cream cake & well, the cake looks a little dense but we'll have to taste the final outcome tomorrow. (I'm always mad when I waste real butter) As back up I made carrot-cake muffins with cream cheese frosting.

Leila is very excited about her birthday & has been talking about her party dress for days. I took her to the hair salon & got her hair trimmed so we hope to take some cute pics.

MAY

It's May again
Why are the flowers allowed to bloom?
Why is it beautiful
Even though you are gone?
It's almost your birthday
And Mothers day
I know I'll miss you
More than I can say.
Now all the flowers
At the shops
Seem prettier because
I can't buy them for you
Even the corny mothers day cards
(and this poem)
Would do
If I could only send them
To you

I miss you...

The Zoo

So, we went to the zoo because the baby never went before. Lots of People & sleepy animals. We had better luck taking pics with the animal statues that are placed strategically around the zoo. Lina loved the animals though, so it was all good.

Pictures from the park.

It was windy & the sun was just not in the right place but, I thought I'd force the kids to take pictures anyway. Lina is so not used to it she kept looking away right when I had the perfect shot.