A Taste of Normalcy

In the midst of all of this chaos, I am desperately trying to keep a shred of normalcy for the boys. Today, Oalin and I carved his pumpkin and painted the others. Oalin was very excited to finally get to see a pumpkin "turn into a Jack-O-Lantern". I painted a tractor on Daddy's pumpkin and when I turned it around for Oalin to see, his eyes lit up. I thought to myself, "This, this moment, is why I'm not packing, or calling to shut off services to the house, or packing for this weekend, or doing anything else but spending time with Oalin." Oalin has been having a very hard time lately without Daddy. There have been many tears shed and a constant repetition of, "I love Daddy. I want Daddy to come home." Getting ourselves full of paint was exactly what both of us needed today. I did hear from Sung's mom. She said that "Cooba Sung" (Monk Sung) was doing well. Though she later went on to tell me that he said,"This is worse than any boot camp I've heard of." Now, some, who have actually been to boot camp may disagree, but for Sung this has obviously been difficult.

Here's Oalin with our pumpkins. Once he saw the tractor I painted, he did his own. I thought it was quite cute that he included a smoke stack and grass. He even put himself in the tractor, but he did it in black so you can't see him. He decided that he must be, "driving the tractor at night."

Pumpkin Picking

I took the boys to McQuestin farm this morning to go Pumpkin Picking. Kheenan had a great time... he slept in the Bjorn the entire trip :)! Oalin and I had a lot of fun riding on the vedry bumpy hay ride out to the pumpkin patch. Oalin decided to pick out a pumpkin for each member of the family. Afterwards, we walked around and looked at all of the farm animals and tractors. Oalin is really into telling me when things are "similar" or "different". "Oh, look at that! That Kaboda tractor is similar to that John Deere because they are both green!" He's so funny! His conversation always makes me smile. When we got back I tried, desperately, to take some photos of the kids. I had forgotten to take my camera to the farm. Not a big surprise considering that my mind is on overload right now. Unfortunately, Kheenan was way more interested in picking the grass and licking the pumpkin (the bottom photo) than he was in picture taking!! Which pumpkin do you think Oalin picked for himself?

The biggest one, of course!!

As for Sung, this is the latest from his sister, Sing:
I spoke to my aunt and my dad VERY briefly as they were all very busy with preparations for the Temple. My dad said that Sung slept at the Temple last night and everything is going well. Dad said that yesterday they had about 400-500 visitors at my aunt's house and they expect the same today and tomorrow. Everyone was getting ready to head to the Temple when I called.

My life makes sense

I heard from Sung last night. He was preparing to get his head (and eyebrows!) shaved and go to the temple. He said that people had been up all night preparing for the ceremony. Though our talk was extremely short he said,"The living conditions are so poor here. It's so sad. Everything my parents have done, decisions they have made, now all make sense. My life seems to make more sense." Obviously, being there just a few days has already made a profound impact on him.
The boys and I are doing well, but we all miss Sung so much. Oalin asks about him constantly. After being together nearly ten years, it feels revitalizing to hang up the phone each of us saying, "Bye." five times over waiting for the other to hang up first. :) I'll let you know when I hear from him again!!

Found this clip of Lao monks collecting alms (that's the rice I talked about earlier).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaKciqlmkdQ&feature=related

Hear Ye! Hear ye! We've got news!

Okay, here comes some news.
First, Sung is currently en route to Laos. He left yesterday morning at 6. As of noon today, he was in Thailand.. though I haven't heard from him and probably won't until next week. He is going to be practicing as a monk in a Lao Buddhist temple. Essentially, 500 villagers will be celebrating his arrival and will help to shave his head and put him in Buddhist monk clothes. He will then spend the next 7 days praying and living in the temple. Every morning at 5:30 he will wake up and have to walk down the dirt roads of the village holding a bucket in which the villagers will give rice as an offering to Buddha. Sung will get breakfast and lunch, but will have no dinner. Sung's biggest worry though seemed to be that he had to poop standing up over a hole. Okay, that does sound a little tricky. On the 7th day, he will be given tasks such as cleaning the "toilet" to show that he is ready to live on his own. Then, his sister, Sang, will prepare a HUGE noodle dish for all the villagers. At this point they will drink lots of Lao Lao, the countries beer, and party till all hours. Pretty wild! I can't begin to tell you how excited, scared, and proud I am of Sung. For his parents, doing all of this will bring a tremendous amount of good Kharma to his family. The weeks and days before his departure he was very scared. I tried so hard to be strong and brave for him. I'd often say things like, "No worries. Lots of men do this." Of course, the truth is I'm scared out of my mind for him. This is one piece of information I read right before he left:
Travelers should also be aware that between 2004 and 2006, seven Lao- and Hmong-American citizens were murdered in northern and northeastern Thailand near the border with Laos. During the same period, a number of non-Americans with ties to Laos were murdered in this region of Thailand. In addition, in March 2006, a Hmong-American disappeared from his residence in Chiang Mai along with seven other individuals. In most of these cases, no arrests have been made. If U.S. citizens, particularly Lao-Americans or Hmong-Americans, must travel to these areas, they should exercise caution and remain vigilant with regard to their personal security. It is recommended that persons wishing to travel to border areas check first with the Thai Police and the U.S. Consulate General in Chiang Mai or the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok or the U.S. Embassy in Vientiane. In addition to these cases, three Hmong-American men went missing in August 2007 after reportedly going on a business trip to Xieng Khouang Province in Laos. The Government of Laos stated that the three departed Laos for Thailand, but none of the three has contacted family members in the U.S. since they were last seen in 2007.

Little scary to say the least. I am just unbelievably proud of him that he got a plane (something he absolutely hates to do), is traveling days to get to Laos, and will spend most of his time without anyone he knows because he knows that it is so important to his parents. What a powerful role model for our own children.

So.... now onto life back in NH. We're moving! Yup, a week ago we got an offer (only $5,000 less than asking!). Appraisal and inspection were done on Monday. Everything came back positive so we will be closing on the 28th of this month!! Crazy! Sung will be back only 3 days before! So, while my husband spends the next 7 days practicing as a monk, I will be diligently packing our house. We spent a day last week looking at houses to rent (no time to buy right now) and just got approval yesterday for the townhouse we wanted. Amazingly, there were TWO other people trying to rent this one place! It's in Manchester off of Bodwell Rd. Not an ideal location, but it'll be fine. Here's a link to it... http://www.beangroup.com/real_estate/listings/Condos/NH/Manchester/622159

We are really happy and excited for the move! Oalin really likes our new house. When we toured it, the tenants had a "Lightning McQueen" car which probably plays a big part as to his positive outlook:) So, there's our news!!! Here's a picture of the boys! You gotto love that they can be so happy at 5 in the morning! I couldn't help but wake them up to say bye to Daddy. Look at Kheenan John!!! He's sitting up now!

Stolen: Velcro Sneakers

As you probably already know, both of my boys were born with big feet. So much so that Sung used to say Oalin had feet like the characters in Lord of the Rings. Halflings, maybe? Recently, I put Oalin's sneakers on his feet after a long summer hiatus only to find him spicy and resistant to wearing them. Only after I saw him walking awkwardly did it finally dawn on me that perhaps they were too small. Indeed, they were much too small.
Today, we journeyed to the mall in search of the perfect sneaker. The last time I bought Oalin sneakers it took us almost an hour to find them because he wanted "red ones" and nothing else. Our first stop was a running store. After measuring his feet, the woman said, "He's an 11." Eleven? Gosh that sounds big. "So, we can choose from any of these shoes?" I ask, pointing to the children's section. "Oh, no. They don't go up that high. He's over here." As she points to the Big Kid Section! I nearly fell down. How could this be? He does have big feet, but he's only 2! The sneakers looked so big. So grown up. They had, dare I say it, laces! Real, big boy, laces! Oalin tried a couple on, but I felt so sad looking at them. I know they are just sneakers, but in my eyes someone had come from behind me and stolen my sons world of Velcro sneakers. The ones that made his smile light up just as bright as the lights on the sneakers themselves. The ones that seemed to scream,"I'm the happiest little boy in the whole world!" These sneakers with the... laces... were much, much too sophisticated for my... baby! Weren't they? So we left. We went to our old faithful, Stride Rite, and immediately both of our eyes landed on the perfect pair of little boy sneakers. Monster trucks that would light up when he walked with Velcro and not laces. He could hardly wait for the sales woman to come back with his size. "I'll just take these." He repeatedly said as he insistently took them off of the shelf. Having gone into the store with sandals the woman had put those silly, old-woman-looking, peds, on his feet before she tried the sneakers on him. Need I say, those silly "stockings" are now sitting on Oalin's bedroom floor because he absolutely had to wear his Monster Truck shoes home. I may have bought Monster Truck shoes, but bigger than that, I realized that I needed to hold on a little tighter, as if I were Velcro, to Oalin and Kheenan's childhood. In the blink of an eye, it truly just.........

The number THREE

What is it about the number 3? In Feng Shui 3 is often considered the number that is most harmonious. In religion, we have many three's such as the trilogy: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When we are about to take a leap of faith, or otherwise, we say, "1, 2, 3!" Today, was Oalin's third day of school. From the second he woke up, he kept asking, "We're not going to school yet, right?" We kept saying our prayer, "God, when I am afraid I will trust in You. Because of your love I am never alone." He was crying before we even left the house. Thank goodness for "Uncle Chad's Book" that Oalin brought with us in the car or the tears might have kept coming all the way to school. As soon as we were there he started really, really crying. I reminded him that he had two choices at school (I had written them on a piece of paper with some stick figure drawings) "1)Be happy and have fun at school until Mommy comes back or 2)Be sad and have NO fun until Mommy comes back" He told me he was going to choose number 1, but bless his heart he just couldn't stop crying. I continued on into the school and his crying turned into screaming. Ms Mary Lou joined us outside and after I reminded him to make a good choice, I ripped my hysterically screaming child off of me, handed him to Ms Mary Lou, smiled and blew him a kiss. I felt, yet again, horrible. I spent the next 2 1/2 hours trying to accomplish errands, but the world seemed against my efforts. At 11 o'clock I went to pick him up. One child comes out.. miserable. The second child comes out looking shell shocked. The third child comes out still crying. Oalin is the fourth child out and he's... happy!! Yes, I said HAPPY! Ms Mary Lou and Ms Nancy tell me what a wonderful day he had. Oalin says, "I had a good day. I was sad a little bit though." Ms Mary Lou says he cried for less than a minute! Less than a minute!! She said he was a big helper, a real preschooler, and that he even talked. ( a big accomplishment :) I felt like I wanted to dance.. Okay, actually.. I DID dance and clapped my hands and hugged him SO tight! Of course, then he said, "Okay, let's go in the car now." On the way home we talked about his day. He told me, "I hugged Ms Nancy. I painted. I did Lego's. Ms Sara came in and she played different songs than last week." Then I asked him if he had gone to the playground.
He said, "Yes! It was a lot of fun. I shoveled!"
"You shoveled? Shoveled what?"
"I shoveled... hmmm.. what's that called?"
"Dirt?"
"No."
"Bark Mulch?"
"No. Hmmm... Compost! I shoveled compost into buckets."
"And this was fun?"
"Yes! Compost is kind of like snow. I love shoveling!"
He does love shoveling. Who knew a perfect day at school would consist of shoveling worm poop. :) I can only hope day number 4 goes just as well. I told him that we'll get to go back to school next Tuesday. His reply, "Can we go on Sunday and then Tuesday?" Awww... my big preschooler!

Aunt Claire's Garden

Last week, Kheenan, Oalin and I went to visit Aunt Claire. We had a wonderful time reminiscing and touring her garden. We were amazed at all the great fruits, vegetables, and flowers she is growing. Squash, tomatoes, strawberries, broccoli, grapes, peaches, mushrooms, pears, cranberries... and even peanuts! I must admit that I was beyond excited to see a peanut actually come from the ground and not a bag! After our delicious lunch with some garden treats it was time to go and Oalin was very sad :( In the car, Oalin told me he wanted to have a garden. I asked him what he would like to grow and he said, "Grapes, strawberries, and ice cream!" Considering how many things Aunt Claire is able to grow maybe next year she'll be "growing" ice cream, too :)

Oalin was worn out from our adventure to Aunt Claire's Garden, but was sure to cling tight to his Black Eyed Susan that she let him pick. (I think she should charge admission to see all of her fruits and vegetables!)