Frontier Thanksgiving~ Part 1

We did a really awesome thing for Thanksgiving this year. Exactly one year ago, we booked a cabin at Disney's Fort Wilderness for this holiday. Yes, they book that far in advance! These "cabins" are really mini motor homes edged in wood. They're about 800 sq. feet and have a bedroom with a queen, and bunk beds, full bathroom, FULL kitchen w/dishwasher to boot, and living room with a murphy bed. Each cabin is set in it's own "woods" among all that Ft. Wilderness has to offer. They have a petting farm, trails, pools, fishing, biking, horses, boats, nightly campfires, sing-alongs, outdoor movies, restaurants and more. We went on Thanksgiving day.....Mom had prepared our feast from scratch the day before and had it packed in coolers ready to go....including a 14 lb. turkey with all the fixings. We took our bikes, Barbie electric car, baby joggers, flashlights and oh yea.....the girls. :) Our particular cabin this year was set (see pic) in the middle of a cypress swamp. Joy, oh joy. Disney is trying to go "green" and is getting rid of all vegetation that is not indigenous to Florida. They have gone through and pretty much cleaned out all of the little cabin's wooded areas surrounding them....in hopes that this spring...the Florida stuff flourishes. That left us....with the swamp...full of tadpoles, frogs, a snake or two, and lots of green gooey stuff. The girls were in heaven! The dad declared swamp safe for girlies....after all, having been in so many 3rd world countries....american swampland looks very safe in comparison. We went through our whole sock quota the first day we were there. And we had no washing machine. Oh well. A small price to pay for the fun the girls had. We sent them out in their duck boots and let them run. They tortured froggies, tadpoles and whatever else they could find!

We have much to be thankful for this year. We have chosen as a family to walk the hard road both with our faith, jobs, our family and all decisions we make. It's definitely not easy, but the Christian walk never is. Our home is not on this earth. The first day was mom, dad, Julie and the little girls....... and others joined us as the weekend continued. We had a blessed time together! And Eloise actually behaved herself (even the fish-throwing wasn't out of control:)) TBC....

And as we sat on the first day there, at our outdoor Thanksgiving table and had everyone share what they were thankful for.......Katie for "EAT!", Kristin is thankful for polly pockets, turkeys, bunk-beds, ... Julie for her family and friends, .............Leni in a direct quote....." I'm thankful for my God, my Lord and my SWAMP!" (see pic.) Yes, she actually said that.

To be continued. If you want to see prissy girly girls you may not want to see the forthcoming pictures. Our girls are not known for their ruffles, lace and decorum when there is swampland nearby!!

This Is Toe-tally Wrong!

Scott has our Thanksgiving pics on his camera that still need to be downloaded......so in the meantime, I thought I'd share what happened to the mommy last night while putting away mounds and mounds of laundry. I broke my toe. Not the first time, and definitely not the worst....but none the less.....a dreadful, dreadful, dreadful inconvenience. Now I shall have to lay on the couch and drink champagne. (only kidding:)) This mommy doesn't sit down from sun-up till well into the night:), toe and all.

Rare Blond Indian Seen Wandering Fort Wilderness Armed and Dangerous!!

Oh, yea....and in her pajamas. ...........More news to follow. Obviously, we've been gone for a few :) We're baaaacccckkkkk!

Wild Indians Take Break From Turkey Hunt to Wish All A Happy Thanksgiving!

Girls Will Be Girls....and sometimes boys!

A bit of business here at the beginning......this post is meant to tell a Leni story. However, we used Dad's fancy-schmancy camera we bought for China....and the thing has so many pixel-thingy-do-dads that the photo's won't download to blogger normally. The only way we can post them is to do them this way. So.....I added a few more pics to make this post postier. End of business.

Saturday we did one of our favorite outings when it's not 95degrees here in Florida. The local Farmer's Market. Now, they have beautiful produce of all kinds, plants, baked goods, INCREDIBLE kettle-corn popped hot right out of a cast-iron barrel pot thing, tastings, cheese sellers, and the list goes on. We wander, watch the trains go by and visit the local park. It's a great time for everyone. What makes it even more interesting is that this particular market is in the high-rent district of town. It's got to be one of the countries more "posh" markets. There are many hip-surburbia, trendy, beautiful people who come with their pampered poochies in tow....many come decked out bejeweled from head to toe with expensive stiletto heels (to the Farmers Market!!), and more Furla, Gucci, Lucky brand, Prada, Chanel duds than should be allowed among produce. I personally do not think that a person's body parts should enter a room many minutes before the actual person. (trying to be politically nice here towards one's choices of personal enhancement of body parts.):) Like I said....it's a fun time watching all this circus-activity. Then, we show up with our own personal circus act. We get our snacks, go to the park and proceed to climb (Leni) to the very top(!) of the large evergreen tree (at least 20 ft up there!) where there was a clear sign that said, "Please, do not climb the tree." She gets stuck, and Dad has to climb to the top of the tree, where there was a sign that said, "Please, do not climb the tree", and rescue child. Then same child (parents had sat on bench for a breather) shows up.......covered in mud. Covered in mud. Covered in mud. It deserves repeating 3 times. All the other little children there ....were playing AROUND the mud section, not IN the mud section....in their plaid, button down shirts and sweater vests, some sitting in their $400 strollers, others with perfectly placed hair bows on top/european shoes on bottom. Some spoke French. Many spoke Spanish. We didn't recognize a couple of languages.....and our dear, dear little one, wallers in the mud. The pictures don't do it justice. We're still working on the shoe-cleaning. BTW...they were new. :) Any ideas on getting this mud out?? We're coming up on Leni's official adoption anniversary soon.....and during this National Adoption Month....we just want to say..we're very grateful for this little girl who really, really, many days thinks she's a boy....or an animal of some kind. That's ok. She's ours.:) mud and all.

I will leave you with this thought." The Cross of Christ is the only hope of the world. Our constant danger is that we cry, Behold this new opportunity! Behold our new methods! Behold our human brother-hood. And forget to cry, Behold the Lamb of God!" A. Carmichael.

She's Baaaccckkkk! This Time Eloise is a Morning Hero!

As I've said before ....this child makes us laugh like we've never laughed. Everything she does is copied and said by Katie. She runs the show with the neighborhood kids (at the ripe old age of 4)....and has given us multiple gray hairs. Today, she did a very good thing. At a little after 7am, Miss Katie was wailing away in her crib. This is unusual as she has been "taught" to wake up happy. (Side note here: Jason, child 1, was in a big-boy-bed at 18 months. Fast-forward 4 more kids.....Katie will be 12 before she's allowed out of hers. Wisdom speaks:)) Anyway, Eloise who is ever the tumbling-tumble-weed of emotions....scampered (yes, at 7am) up to Katie's room and look how mommy found them. Eloise was reading to Katie and being very,very loving. Mommy was so impressed, she took pictures. Kristin has had major issues with being demoted from youngest to middle child. This is huge people....huge!!

I thought while I was at it...I would give you an excerpt from the book "Eloise" by Kay Thompson...so you can see for yourself the personality we have here in our little kingdom of princesses.

I am Eloise. I live at the Plaza. I have a dog that looks like a cat. His name is Weenie. Sometimes I put sunglasses on him. Then I have to scratch his back with a wire hanger. I have a turtle. His name is Skipperdee. He eats raisins and wears sneakers. The Plaza is the only hotel in New York that lets you keep a turtle......I have two dolls which is enough. Their names are Sabine and Saylor. Sabine is a rag doll and she has absolutely no face at all, partially because whe came from Jamaica by Air Express. Otherwise she has shoe-button eyes and two right legs. She is rawther unusual. Saylor is a very large doll and has a hard head and no arms. She was in the most terriblest accident and she bleeded so hard she almost choked in the night and this ambulance came and took her to the hospital and it was an emergency and they had to give her all this terribly dark medicine and a lot of Band-aids and when she came back home she was weak weak weak and had to take cod-liveroil. I gave her a strawberry leaf from under my grapefruit for not whimpering and Weenie licked her face. They are an extremely lot of extra work....Getting bored is not allowed. Sometimes I comb my hair with a fork, Sometimes I wear my arm in a sling...Sometimes I put a rubber band on the end of my nose. Toe shoes make very good ears and sometimes I wear them to lunch. Here's what I like to do...pretend...Sometimes I pretend I'm the mother of 40 children.....Check out more Eloise books at your local library and pretend Kristin lives in your house too! Book Eloise's mother is 30 and shops at Bergdorfs. Florida Eloise's mother is 40ish and shops at Publix and Wal-Mart.

Yes, our little Eloise has developed into her own own own person. I told my friend Cyndi she is available for a weekly rental. :) But then what would this mommy do without her? Be bored bored bored!! Eloise is awesome!

P.S. For a story that will provoke, sadden, and move you, read the latest post here. Then pause, pray and give thanks for all God has done for you and your family! I have this blog bookmarked!

Weekend Stories~

Just when I think the day is going to be routine, monotonous, dull, boring....something happens to change that. The mommy got a sinus infection on Thursday night. By Saturday I was glad we hadn't planned anything but a 'home maintence' day because I was not feeling the greatest. Leni shows up halfway through the day saying "mooommmmm! I can't feel my finger! " Sure enough, her finger was swollen about 2-3x normal size. Dad determined she got bit by something and sent her on her way. A few minutes later...she's back..."moooommmmmm! Look at my other finger!!!" Sure enough, now other fingers, and even whole hand is following first fingers swelling. There were no marks. No red places. Mystery. A little while later, the other hand was completely swollen as well. Hmmm.....Dad said probably a spider bite. Lovely. We dispensed Benadryl very reluctantly because with most VanLue children it makes them hyper. Didn't want that. But a few minutes later, mom found Leni asleep in her bed upstairs. She slept for 4 hours!! It took another day for the swelling to disappear but now all is well. Did you see "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" where the selfish girl blew up like a giant blueberry? Her hands looked like that. Oompa-loompa hands we called them!:)

Dad had a meeting that night, Mom now has a 101 fever, and we're out of milk. Soooo, we put Mom Jo (grandma) in car with all of us,and troop to the grocery store. ....oompa-loompa and all. We all had ice-cream sandwiches in the car on the way home. The minute I walk in the door, Katie asks to be picked up and then projectile vomits all over the kitchen, me, herself, you name it. Lovely again.This is a first for this child. My reaction at this point was that she probably wouldn't have gotten much attention if that happened in the orphanage. She is washable and we cleaned it up.:)

Where is Eloise you ask? Remarkably normal through all of this. I sent the older girls upstairs to brush teeth and put on jammies. Then Eloise strikes. She decides that new Princess Pink toothpaste looks lovely as lipstick and eyeshadow and tries to be Tyra Banks. THEN she put toothpaste all in Leni's newly washed church hair. Now Leni has oompa-loompa hands and toothpaste coated hair for church. Eloise does it again. Mom was too sick. I dealt with all of it the next morning. (I emailed my friend Giselle after this, and she sent me scripture right away! Thank you Giselle!)

Next day...Sunday...Katie is fine. Leni is fine (except YOU try to comb toothpaste hair!!), and Eloise is perfectly happy. Mommy is still at 101. Why go to church? Because we have "sheep rehearsal". That's why. What is this you ask? Well, we missed the Sunday before because of our little retreat, and both Leni and Kristin are sheep (as are all K-level kids) in the church Christmas production. We aren't sure about one of our little sheep....the Leni sheep tends to get distracted and wander.....so parents want her to have as much "sheep rehearsal" as possible so we are embarrassed as little as possible on production day. How'd they do? Not "BAAAAAAAAAAAAD!" I needn't have worried. The VanLue girls are stellar sheep and will do an outstanding job! Mommy was proud!! Our only issue is that Leni is a little tall for her age. She's over 48 inches tall and weighs 51 lbs. She's the size of the average 8 yr. old. (doctors prediction is that she'll be a minimum of 5' 11".) Our precious sheep is bigger than all the shepherds! (the first graders). Not by a little....alot. We have a sheep on growth hormones! It was pretty funny!

Sunday afternoon mom took a nap with Cade (we had him for the afternoon) and believe it or not. ....the neighbors sent Leni home. She was outside playing in long pants but.....topless. Kristin had decided to clothe herself in one of Julie's shirts and flip-flops. .....(no comment, but they were being watched by a family member:) Sometimes they fly under the radar with their antics:))

One of my absolutely favorite shows right now is Jon and Kate plus 8. It's a reality show in TLC, Monday's at 9 (reruns on Disc. Health on Tues.). They are a Christian couple in Pennsylvania that have 6 yr. old twins, and 3 year old sextuplets. That's 8 kids, under the age of 7. Whenever I have a challenging day, I always feel better after watching this show. It's hysterical to see how they manage. I don't watch much TV at all, but try to always catch this one!! Gotta see it to believe it!

Today's picture is of our craft in school today. Kristin goes to school on Monday's so Katie and Leni are home with mom. Kristin's teacher has been sending home extra craft materials so Leni can do them too. That's a great teacher! Today we made turkeys with our hands as feathers! Kristin came in just in time for the pic. Her turkey like this is on the wall at school still, but she contributed her turkey from her Spanish class today. Mom still has a fever...but is hopeful that this will end soon:) Adios amigos for today! We're pressing on!!

Please Don't Forget~

That tomorrow is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church! Please take time to pray for those around the world suffering for the name of Christ. I found this awesome site called Missionary-Blogs where Christian blogs from around the world have been collected and linked from this one site. It's legitimate and many of the countries represented are in areas noted for extreme persecution. One of my favorites is Under the African Rain. Look for yourself! It's about a young nurse in Sudan who has starving children left at her gate (scroll down) and her story of the complexities of missionary life. I feel very small after reading these....yet motivated as prayer transcends all boundaries when you can't be in all places at once!! (As I would place myself in any of these locations should God call us!!) The picture you see today is Katie....representing China....one of the focus countries of IDOP this year!

"Glorify ye the Lord in the fires (Isaiah 24:15), not when they have passed or you are out of them and they are only memories, but in them. (Amy C. .....Candles in the Dark)

And This is Florida In November!

This post will seem tame compared to the previous ones! All my Eloise stories from the weekend are told I'm afraid:)(scroll down for explaination). Here are more pics from our getaway. Mommy hasn't been feeling too well lately and we're trying to figure out why (I know you're snickering....yea...go ahead...anyone with a 2,4,6yr. olds + adult kids should be fatigued, right?:)) I'm battling mono-like symptoms and extreme fatigue which is pretty abnormal for me. Anyway....we were planning on doing the theme park thing as part of our weekend.....but let the girls swim and run free instead. Mommy "tried" to rest. Just being away was helpful....but we didn't plan a whole lot.
Daddy got to work on business stuff.....thanks to wireless....and we had a blast just hangin.
People are usually very kind, but you can always tell the curious ones. They watch us for a while....then cautiously ask....ARE THEY ALL YOURS? (we're VERY LOUD so they ask VERY LOUD). Katie throws everyone off because of her Swedish -I-mean-chinese look.:) Anyway....I politely answer ....yes. To which people usually say....wow, 3 girls! That must keep you busy. (all eyes are still on Katie). Sometimes Eloise speaks up because she notices everything and sees people looking at Katie....In her 4yr. old very shrill tone says "THATS KATIE SHES FROM CHINA!! Then if I feel like entertaining the kind people I say....there's one more girl. (wait for gasp from people)....And..... a boy (louder gasp)...They usually say, "you mean you have 5?!" I smile.....nod.....say yes......(people have mouths hanging open by this time)..and if I'm really feeling mischevious I throw the final blow their way....."Yes, and I have a grandson only 10 months younger than my little Asian Princess here..she's really Auntie Katie." (now people are shaking heads while mouths are hanging open in disbelief) Then the VanLue group skeedaddles out of there leaving formerly kind, polite people scratching their heads. It's fun. We do this routine alot. If we stick around we usually are asked if we're Catholic, or Mormon. (no) or how many times I've been married before. I say,(very happily)...same husband...married almost 25 years. Response is more like ....wow. Wow. WOW!
One pic in the slideshow deserves a better explaination. You will see Leni asking Kristin to forgive her. It went something like this Kristinpleaseforgivemeforgettingofftheseesawwhenyouwereatthetopanddroppingyouonyourheadpleaseforgiveme.
Kristin forgave her. We have wonderful girls. We are blessed. This includes Julie. She watched all girls Friday night so her parents could have a hot night on the town. She's wonderful!!

"If the care of a soul be entrusted to me, and I consent to subject it to weakening influences, because the voice of the world-fills my ears, then I know nothing of Calvary love." A.C.

Eloise~Take Two!

We've been gone since Wednesday on a planned long weekend getaway. A friend of ours has a townhouse out by Disney that we use whenever it's not rented, which has been a godsend for us this year. It's a mile from the Disney maingate...so...there you go! Daddy commutes from his day job :) and Julie joined us on the weekend after Christmas production rehearsals. After Tropical Storm Noel blew remains thru the Kissimmee prairie.... the weather couldn't have been more perfect. We spent the week getting some much needed R&R and enjoying our girls. Kristin ( a.k.a. Eloise) kept us in stitches most of the time. Where she comes up with the things that come out of her mouth is beyond us! We're constantly scratching our heads (between laughing)! Really...scratch..laugh...scratch...laugh. This post is about her. More about everyone else to follow:) Hold your breath...here goes!!!

The first night there...apparently Eloise got up in the middle of the night ...probably to go potty. That little bar of soap the cleaning people left was soooo tempting....so she shampooed her hair with it. In the middle of the night, AND didn't wash it out. So, by morning when she awoke.....she had this hair stuff sticking out in stiff peaks from all sides of her head. It was like she had been poly-urethaned with high gloss glaze. Crunchy doesn't even begin to describe this! Whoa! The things that go on after dark!! That's the first pic. We went to the pool later and the water was foamy:) Then, we went to the park where our free-spirit caught a baby lizard and the mommy caught her kissing it on the lips many, many times...while carrying it around to everyone there...to show all the tourists how wonderful Florida lizards are. They are not so very scary you see! The grandmas were horrified! (See pic.)The next pic is the next day....when Daddy was taking girls to the park. Look closely in her hands. Do you see what she gathered to take ??(she was waiting by the door with items in hand to go....) A half eaten piece if pizza, a beanie kitty, an orange crayon (!), and a piece of someone's stick candy. Must have items for the park! The only thing missing was tape. (see previous post). She explained very eloquently that the orange crayon was so she could write her letters in the sand. A perfectly reasonable explaination in her book! AND the next pic is the next time, where she tried to smuggle a roll of toilet paper under her shirt to take to the park. She wanted to do ribbon dancing with toilet paper for the other nice people at the park who would undoubtedly take it upon themselves to watch the dancing 4 yr. old with mouths hanging wide open in wonder. Last pic is Eloise taking a break from swimming by lying on a chair listening to Mommy's I-pod. Here she is SHOUTING the song (notice I didn't say singing:)) "Hallelujah, What A Savior" by Paul Baloche right in the ears of the nice, older UK , speedo-clad group next to us. Just to let you know...her next concert is already sold out:)! If you need a ticket, please contact the management:) Never a dull moment with this child. Does she sleep? Apparently not. That's when she does hair! Anyone need an appointment??........TBC (to be continued!!) (Also, please take notice of the cute little Chinese born piggy behind Eloise in the last pic. That would be Katie...who is absolutely adorable these days!.......................)