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Thursday, December 10, 2009

"I don't do laps"

Annikah and I attended a free Christmas story time with Mrs. Claus session at the local library here and even though we had stand by tickets we got in probably because it was below zero outside and most sane people stayed indoors. Our outing was mostly based on my need to do some stuff so that I do not sit around going nuts because mtoto mchanga is still hanging out. Annikah enjoyed the Polar Express and 'Twas the Night Before Christmas with many other kiddos. At the end of the stories Santa made a surprise visit and as soon as he was in sight some kids started clapping but Anni announced LOUDLY "Mama, me no want to sit on his lap!!" All the adults found her over share hilarious. Waiting in line she also was sure to tell me that the two boys playing light sabres behind her were "them acting too silly Mama." Once she got to see Santa she set her boundaries clearly concerning the lap issue again but was sure to let him know about her wishes for an Ariel doll, a castle, and a bath tub. She also told him that she does not like the cold here and that she lives in Africa where it is "so hot." At least no one can accuse my kid of not tellin' it like it is...or at least like she sees it. She got an Eric Carle book from Mrs. Claus that she treasures and is now snug in her bed asleep with...sweet dreams Anni Joy...

waiting to see Santa

"just so we are clear... I don't do laps"

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

busy weekend!

We had a crazy busy weekend in Chicago. It was a great mix of visiting friends, celebrating, and sharing at our church. On Friday we headed out to Roger's Park to search for a few things in our storage space and Anni and I stopped by to visit dear friends Manda and Zella before they move to Vancouver at the end of December. I used to watch Zella and cannot believe how big she is!! Manda is a great friend and it was exciting to hear and share a bit about how our lives have changed in the last 2 years. Zella & Anni

After visiting for too brief a time we headed over to meet another family and the newest Studee boy born a few weeks ago. We got to catch up a bit over lunch and Joshua and Anni had so much fun playing they even got to skip naps. Laura looks great and seems to be rockin' it out as a Mama of 2!! Joshua was very proud to show off his baby brother Wesley and we can see why: he is a cutie!!

Anni & Joshua
Joshua shows off his new brother...Anni will soon be a big sis so he had to show Anni how it is done! That night we headed to the Jerozals (where they hosted us for the weekend- thanx!). They had a small Christmas dinner party that night and it was an awesome blessing to attend a party with friends where guys and girls could be in the same space and hang out. Great food, fun games, and even better conversations was a blessing to us.

fabulous dinner party Friday night with dear friends

The next morning we dropped off Anni at the Aneeds as they offered to have Miss A over to play with their oldest daughter Ava. Jason and I headed to a family's house to share about the last year and a half. We then realized that the photo presentation I had spent about 3 hours working on was NOT on the laptop we had brought. I thought Jason had saved it and he thought he thought I had done it. Argh!! I was so frustrated and we decided that Jason would drive back out to my parent's place (driving makes me sick) at some point that day to get it before our presentation for the kids at church the next morning. I think Jason was only willing to do this to avoid a major prego meltdown moment as I did not want to re-do everything. After many phone calls we realized my parents were at U of I at a game with my sister, the house was locked and my brother's keys were stolen last week so if we wanted to get in we would have to 1.) drive out and try to break in or 2.) wait until my parents returned at midnight to let us in. Argh Again!! As a last ditch effort Jason checked the thumb stick we had in the laptop bag and THE PRESENTATION WAS THERE!!! Seriously, this sounds crazy but it was a miracle as I have no memory of even seeing the memory stick in weeks and Jason swears he did not save it there either. We just thanked God and cancelled plans to drive to the burbs in the middle of the night. Yeah! God helped us even in our scattered lives and brains!
After speaking with friends from church and lunch we headed back to the Aneeds to join Annikah. The girls were taking a nap and Kim, Marc, Jason, and I enjoyed catching up a bit. Everything from parenting to politics, TV to traditions, our island life to Chicago to travels. The kids were soon up and Anni and Ava got along great as Ava is a kindred girly girl spirit and the girls played princess dress up and "mom and sweetie." Their adorable boy Phin who was not even born when we left was keeping up with the girls too. We loved chatting so much and the kids seemed to be running from room to room playing creating chaos but keeping busy so we continued enjoying our "adult time." We soon discovered just how much fun.....Once we started cleaning up Marc discovered a empty box of fruit roll-ups!! That is right: the girls had gotten a box, unwrapped each one, and eaten the entire box!!! The funniest part was my daughter came to me and asked for help in opening one. I was thinking this was her first one and gladly helped her open it. After we made our discovery we tried to discipline the girls but they gladly explained that yes they had eaten them all..... "her have 4 and me have 3 Mama." It was pretty adorable and we could not stop laughing at them thus our intentions of punishing them were abandoned because of their cute charm and sweet smiles at their devious deed. That also helped explain why both girls had crazy energy and Anni was not interested in dinner.

Anni & Jason enjoy ice cream cones!

Anni & like-minded-princess-lovin'-girly-girl Ava played together all day!


Sunday morning we headed to our church early to set up for the Winter's Farmer's Market and to share pictures and stories with the kids in the children's ministry. It was great to reconnect with the kids because they have kept in touch by sending cards and even calling us in Africa. They had great questions, hilarious answers to questions we asked, and as always interesting comments.....our favorite was a little boy that asked "will you get arrested for wearing that?" after seeing Jason's local kanzu and hat. Maybe no more Fox news for him! Gotta love kid's honesty! After that we sold spices at the Farmer's Market. It was an awesome collection of fresh foods and creative crafts. The best part was that many friends stopped by to say Hi and although it was drive by visiting seeing friends is always fabulous!! I even got see Jill and her new bling! She got engaged last week and she showed up all glowy and wonderfully joyful- Congrats girl! And thanks to everyone to stopped by and supported us by buying some spices. Anni was crazy hyper since we were there for hours and she was running around barefoot (we are still working on the wearing socks and shoes inside) but as soon as got in the car to drive like mad to make it to our hospital tour back out in the burbs she was zonked out. Busy but great weekend!

KidMix kids at First Free

Monday, December 7, 2009

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas......

well, commercial Christmas anyway. As a family we try really hard to make Christmas what it is about. The birth of our Savior. The looking forward to the fulfillment of scripture in the person of Jesus. That is hard when you live in the land of Rudolph, Santa, and shopping! Admittedly it was much easier last year since we were among few that celebrated Christmas and we were able to share the true meaning with our friends and focus on it ourselves. As a family we had few distractions present this year. It also helps that there is no competing sales, mall decor, and Toys-R-Us circulars on our island. But last Christmas was really hard for us being away from family, friends, and the familiar and cultural traditions that made us "feel" like it was Christmas. Ironic because where we live in Africa is actually much closer to the conditions, weather, and culture that Jesus was born in the midst of. This year we are excited to be here with family to celebrate but also realize we need to define this time of year because it is too easy to let it be about stuff, stress, and busyness. We did tell Anni about the story of Santa and she knows it is not real in the way the Bible is real but she was still excited to go visit "the man dressed as Santa" and we would not deprive her of this American kid tradition (We are also determined for her not to be too weird :) The visit was a must since it was at Wheaton Drama, the local drama group that my mom is involved in and her good friend was also playing Mrs. Claus. So sporting an adorable dress a friend of Rhoda loaned us and new "sparkly princess shoes" that Bibi bought her we headed out for a kid outing to see Santa. She still is not a big Santa fan but caught on quickly...
Annikah did not want to sit on his lap but for a kid that lives in Africa she caught on quickly about the requesting gifts part :) On her list: a castle with a bath tub, an Ariel doll, and a glitter dress.
We also joined my grandparents at Winsor this past week for a performance by some local singers of Christmas carols. I think Jason, Anni, and I were the only people under 60 in the room but she had a blast listening to the songs and dancing to each one. She got many compliments on her moves!

interpretive dancing at Winsor

As far as Annikah was concerned the singers were singing to accompany her dance performance!

some comfort food cooking with Bibi makes it feel like Christmas is almost here!

And SNOW!!! I promised Anni she could wear the pink boots a friend loaned us when it snowed and as soon as she saw the centimeter of white this morning she insisted on sporting them. We went for a walk as a family to enjoy the lights and Annikah celebrated by walking through the snow trying to collect as much as possible on her boots.

more Christmas fabulousness to come.....

wishful thinking....

"Mama, me have boobies for wearing this"

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

tree trimming

Last year we did manage to put up a small tree but it was pretty Charlie Brown pathetic and only took about 5 minutes to assemble and decorate. This year; however, we are taking full advantage of being home for Christmas and Annikah got to help both of her Bibis' decorate their trees. She loves tree trimming and although a few branches had about 12 ornaments each and were in need of a bit of redistributing of the ornament love later she did a pretty good job. Here is to another holiday favorite: tree trimming!!

carefully placing each one
Anni's favorite branch
Round 1 at Jason's mom's house
Auntie Katy helps Anni
round 2 at my Mom's house
admiring her brilliant decorating flair from under the tree

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

a word on branding

Annikah managed to survive the first 3 years of life without really knowing about many "American kid favs" such as McDonald's chicken nuggets, Cheerios, Goldfish crackers...to name a few. In Africa we very rarely get American brand name anything and are happy to find ANY cereal or crackers at random dukas on the island. Well, she is making up for lost time!! It is amazing how quickly kids catch on. In just a month our Anni can spot a McDonald's from the car, knows "good chocolate milk," and now requests certain cereals by name. She learned a new brand name cereal from Auntie Katy this past weekend and her version of the name is precious. priceless. and pretty hilarious. Check her out.....

Annikah is for sure fitting in as an "American kid." And I would like to suggest the Kellogg's people consider her for their next ad campaign. Yep, Anni knows her American favs. So far we have managed to keep Oreo's under raps....but who knows what she will uncover next....

Monday, November 30, 2009

spicy!

I am posting a shameless plug for the First Free winter's farmer's market on Sunday Dec 6th from 12-3pm after the church service. First Free is our fabulous home church in Chicago and is in the Andersonville neighborhood in the city. We are visiting friends in the city this weekend and will also be selling some fresh spices, dresses, jewelry, oil, lotions, scarves, and other goodies we brought back from Africa. These are some of our favorite things we can buy on our island and wanted to share them with friends and family here. We are using this as a fundraiser to cover medical costs as well as have some fun money we can spend on outings and things we could otherwise not afford while we are stateside! If you need some fresh and amazing cinnamon, cloves, cumin, nutmeg, vanilla, curry, pepper, teas, coffees, or some fun and unique gifts stop by!!

fun stuff we brought back!

not exactly as planned...

We had Thanksgiving round 2 on Sunday but not after a eventful weekend!! We were planning to have dinner together with my family on Saturday but a series of crazy and unexpected events made us push back our family celebration. First, my grandma that lives at a local retirement community fell and broke her elbow. When she fell she also dropped chili all over their carpet and was unable to get up. My sister and Mom went to the rescue and they spent all day cleaning, in the ER waiting for treatment, and then getting her settled into a bed for the night. Her elbow was very painful and the doctor said she shattered it and will now need surgery this week. Then on my Mom's way home at around 9pm she found out that my brother who had driven my mom's car downtown Chicago to show a condo had just discovered the car was broken into and his briefcase and backpack were stolen! His laptop, passport, clothes, work documents, and tons of other important stuff was gone. He had to wait for the police to show up but his phone was dying and since his charger was stolen he had no way to charge it. We felt terrible for him!! Not to mention that he then had to drive home since parking a car with no window on a city street overnight would not be good. He got home sometime after 1am and now has to replace all his belongings and get ready for a job interview he has today. After my mom got home from the hospital she was understandably stressed and I tried to listen and cheer her up. Although everything was stressful we found some things to laugh about. Namely my dad not being able to work the lights and turning on the ceiling fan fill blast and him trying on a new hunting shirt he had bought that day. The color was so bright it was actually making me nauseous!! I guess you had to be there but at least we found something to laugh about. The next day we also found out that my grandpa had fallen and my mom again had to go over and help him. We did manage to have a fabulous Thanksgiving meal on Sunday in the midst of the chaos before my sister headed back to college; a tribute to how amazing my mom is! I told my her as bad as I want this kid out I will try NOT to go into labor today since that was the last thing she needed after a stressful weekend! Perspective is needed as everyone is fine and we can cope but if you think of my family pray for my Grandma's recovery, my brother, and our sanity around here.

visiting great grandma

Saturday, November 28, 2009

bumpers & bowling!

On "Black Friday" while some brave (and nutz) people headed to the malls at ridiculously early hours the Engstrom clan decided to head to the local bowling alley. It was the first time for all the kids and we all had a great time. I pleaded 9 months prego as a handicap and played on the bumper lane with the kiddos and tragically I still did not manage to break 100! Add bowling to the list of things I pretty much sink at! Annikah loved the shoes and was really into the cheering for everyone part. The actual bowling only managed to hold her attention for about 5 frames but we still had a great last day with family in Iowa.

"I totally rocked it!!" Anni celebrates her mad 'lobbing the ball' skills
baby hand off
Jason teaches Anni Joy how to properly roll the ball
Anni and Silas show off the scores.....all the kids were beating me at this point....

thankful

We enjoyed a fabulous Thanksgiving in Iowa with Jason's family. During the prayer Jason and I both started crying as I guess it really hit us how much we do not take special times like these for granted after living far away from the cultural comforts of home and the amazing time with family. It was a blessing to be together and enjoy amazing food, crazy cousin time, and fellowship. We now are at my family's home for round 2...Yeah!
Thankful.....that is us!
Rhoda's 3 days of cooking and preparing made for a delicious meal!
Annie, Justin, & Claire
Mark, Jorie, and littlest cousin Joshua
Jim & Jason about to dig in..yummy!
Oh Yeah!!!
beats last year's bread and salad on a school day!
turkey induced semi-comma
cousin jammie party!