All kinds of fun stuff

The little dutch boy helping fix the bike.
Eating dutch "patat"with mayonaise. He really got into it!
Helping papa fix the bike.
Looks gross but tastes good. Trust me on this one... At the Ford Museum.

Somehow these pictures did not down load in order. But I trust that you are all smart enough to figure out how they go. The weather here has turned beautiful! Sunny and warm (but not too warm). Yesterday a friend of mine from high school came to visit and we spent the whole afternoon sitting in the garden. Jeremiah went with Aaron and Opa to the Ford Museum that is close by. It has the largest collection of classic Ford vehicles in the world. Go figure.

We have been introducing Jeremiah to all kinds of interesting new foods. The other day it was patat (french fries) with a really good mayoniase type sauce. He loved it and had fun dunking the fries in the sauce. Jeremiah and Oma have a morning tradition of going for a walk. As soon as Oma comes down the stairs Jeremiah is getting his shoes and pointing to his stroller. He sees cows, sheep, boats and all kinds of interesting things on their walks. I think though that his favorite thing to do here is just play in Oma's garden. He spends most of the day dragging watering cans around and digging in the dirt!

Jeremiah also seems to be picking up some dutch words. He says "nee"which means no (it should be obvious how he heard that) and "acht" which means eight. We are still not sure why he likes that one.

This afternoon we will head to the beach. I am sure we will have some great pictures to post!

Gotta Love Europe

OK _ I would just like to say that I love being in Europe! This morning Aaron, Jeremiah and I walked through a cool prestine morning with the sun shining brightly, past a children's petting zoo and beautiful gardens to the town market which takes place every Wednesday morning. There we helped Oma get fresh fruit, veggies, and baked goods. Jeremiah sat contentedly in his stroller and watched the scenery. Once home again we made a great pot of tea and enjoyed some of the fresh baked treats we had bought. This afternoon I went with my mom and Ramona by bus into the city of Haarlem where we walked down quaint shopping streets. We sat outside in the sun at a restaurant in the town square where enjoyed delicious fresh sandwiches and watched people walking and biking by. Wonderful! Every store closes here at 6pm so families are at home to eat dinner and then in the evening they sit in their gardens or go for walks with their dogs.

Well, dinner is ready....

World Cup Disappointment

Jeroen, Martijn, Ben and Aaron in their full make-up.
All of us before leaving for the game!
The youngest Viss/Rapier Holland supporter.
Ramona and I smile in spite of our disappointment.

Sunday night was fun for us in spite of the loss of the Dutch team to Portugal. Aaron and I went into Haarlem with Ben & Ramona and two long time friends of my brother, Jeroen and Martijn. We found a cozy cafe and ate dinner while we waited for the game to start. The cafe was filled with Dutch fans, all in orange and the atmosphere was great! Of course it would have been better if our team had won.....but I don't want to talk about that now. All I can say is that the Portugese did not play fair and the ref was an idiot.

JEremiah did great at home with Oma and Opa so Aaron and I have gone ahead and booked a hotel room in Amsterdam for next week Tuesday! We are going to spend the day exploring the city and get some time to ourselves. Should be great!

Monday was rainy and cold here so we just hung out at home and slept a lot. This morning I will go and visit one of my friends from high school. That should be fun. Of course, I have to remember to watch for people on bikes while I am driving. It is my greatest fear that I will accidently hit some poor person on their way to market or something!

We are looking for great weather the rest of the week so a trip to the beach may be in the future and tomorrow we are going to take Jeremiah on a train into Amsterdam. Since he is so obssessed with trains we figured it is a cheap and easy way to keep him occuppied for the morning.

Boating

As you can see from the pictures we had a great afternoon Saturday on Opa's boat. The weather was perfect and Jeremiah had a blast.

Petting Zoo

Having fun with Oma at the petting zoo. We barely got him to sit still for this picture...
Walking among the goats.
Petting goats is fun!

These big hairy cows are very docile and roam the park next to Oma and Opa's house. It is abit unsettling at first to be taking a nice walk in the woods and come across 7 large beasts across the path. Notice Jeremiah is not too sure about the whole thing...

We had a nice day yesterday. There is a fun petting zoo right down the street from my parents house. It is just a big enclosed farm like area where kids can go in and walk among the animals. There are goats, pigs, chickens, sheep and all kinds of birds. Jeremiah loved it! I foresee many more visits in the future.

Today we will go for a boat ride so stay updated for those pictures. Jeremiah is all outfitted in a high-tech life preserver that makes him resemble a large orange grape. :-)

World Cup Fever #4

Aaron and Ben in their team make-up.
All of us in our orange!
Even Jeremiah wanted to see the game.

These pictures are from Wednesday night when we watched Holland play Argentina. We had fun. The next game is Sunday night - Holland vs. Portugal. Aaron and I are hoping to leave Jeremiah with Oma and Opa and go with Ben and Ramona to watch the game in a cafe in Haarlem. Should be very exciting!

We are here!

In Oma's garden. Jeremiah went straight for the water fountain and his watering can! This kid loves water! Wonder how he will do on Opa's boat? :-)
In the airport. Jeremiah had so much fun watching the airplanes and the little trucks riding around servicing the airplanes. Although he thought the luggage trucks were trains... Whoo, Whoo
About 15 minutes after seeing Opa and Oma again he was holding hands and walking through the airport!

Ok - these pictures didn't download quite right -but you get the idea. We made it here safely and Jeremiah seems to be a good traveler. He slept for about 5 1/2 of the 8 hour plane ride. We were so pleased that he took right to Oma and Opa with no anxiety what so ever. I guess the webcam communication works well and he knows who they are.

Our first day here (which was Tuesday) we tried to keep him on a normal napping schedule and he seems to be adjusting OK. He was up for abit from 10:00pm to 12:30am but we realized at 11:00pm when I brought him downstairs that he was hungry! So a snack and some play and he was out for the rest of the night... Hopefully tonight he will sleep right through.

We are enjoying watching World Cup soccer. Regular TV station here shows every single game! That plus fresh bread, cheese, chocolate, stroop waffels..... This must be heaven!

It rained today but that was fine. The rest of this week is supposed to be nice so we are hoping to get some boating in and maybe a trip to the beach (which is just 10 minutes away from the house). Tonight we will eat fondue and watch the Dutch game. We are all wearing orange shirts and have funny hats and Ben and Aaron have painted their faces. We'll post pics of that later. :-) Hup Holland!

More Music!

Ok - this is 2 posts on one day - but I couldn't resist. We had all forgotten that Steve & Brenda have a piano. Which just shows how unobservant we are because it sits right in their living room. But Jeremiah found it today and started playing. Call it mother's pride by he actually sounded pretty good. It was very rythmic and tonal. Not the usual banging we hear from kids who manage to sneak over to the church keyboard and start pounding away. Everyone present agreed with me - but we must say the room was filled with grandparents and uncles and aunts.....

We are off tomorrow! The next post will be from Opa and Oma's house!

Music

I think we can officially say that Jeremiah likes music. He dances to music, sings to music, and makes music on his many instruments (recorder, xylophone, glockenspiel, harmonica, drums). Last week where we were staying in Gatlinburg he found a piano and next thing I know he is banging away and singing. Should make his great-grandpa Viss proud! :-) Last week in church he had his eye on the drummer and after church got a hold of the drum sticks. He also loves the rhythm egg and tamborine. Should make is Uncle Ben proud. :-)

Anyway, I know that a lot of this is normal developmental behavior, blah blah blah, but I can't help but think with musical genes on both sides of the family that it is not pure coincidence.

Here are Aaron and Jeremiah this Father's Day morning jamming to some music. Aaron does his best to indoctrinate Jeremiah with Niel Young, Johnny Cash etc. while I indocrinate him with more "pop" during the day. My guilty secret - Celine Dion. I must say Jeremiah loves it!

As an aside: Notice Aaron's orange shirt. By strange circumstance I married a man who loves the color orange even before he knew it's significance as the Dutch national color. He is bringing 4 orange shirts to wear in Holland! What I love most (and frustrates me most sometimes too) about Aaron - he does not care one bit what others think. Wear it proud baby!

World Cup Fever - #3

NL 2 - CIV 1

Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole We won! But it was a nail-biter (at least for me). What is it with the Dutch defense? Everytime things seem to be going well they fall apart. I mean, CIV should have scored at least 2 more goals, but thankfully luck was with the men in orange. If they want to make it in the next round against teams like Argentina, Italy, Mexico they need to pull themselves together. Though I will say it seems like this has been the best game of the tournament so far. Unfortunately Aaron was at work, so whenever NL scored a goal I would cheer and pick up the phone to call him. This sent Jeremiah into his hysterical cheers and hand clapping as well. Funny. I am trying to teach him to say "Hup Holland" or "Ole" but have been unsuccessful.

In other news - we are slowly but surely getting things together for our trip (now just 3 days away!). Let me just say that it is so much more complicated trying to make sure that I have everything that Jeremiah will need. I have a new respect for how my parents had to anticipate and pack for 4 years at a time in Nigeria. Whenever I talk to Jeremiah about our upcoming trip he automatically says "auto?". Which makes sense - so far the only trips he remembers have been in the car. He should love watching the airplanes at the airport! We'll have to get one of those cute pictures of him looking out a big airport window.

Jeremiah seems to be getting better. He was definitely more playful today and had less snot coming out of his nose. Ok - gross but true. He is still not eating as much as usual - but that's ok. I refuse to make food a battle.

Aaron has his last day of work for 3 whole weeks today! He has been so busy with work and school - he definitely deserves a break. Let's just hope that he can get all of his work done and be home in time for dinner. Tomorrow we will finish laundry and packing and clean the house. Sunday we will be at Steve & Brenda's for Father's Day and an early celebration of Steve's birthday. Monica and Caleb will be in town. Monday morning we hit the road!

Naps

I would just like to say that I absolutely love naps! This afternoon I was dreading putting Jeremiah down for his because the past few days it has been quite a battle. So today I decided to try something different. I got almost all of his books (which is huge pile) and we both snuggled up in my bed. We read books, head to head and cheek to cheek, until his eyes got droopy. Then we both turned over and slept. And then I woke up to his fingers on my face. It was beautiful and peaceful. It reminded me of the days not long ago when I would nurse him in our bed. His little body cuddled up against mine. We would drift to sleep and I would wake in the middle of the night when he needed to eat again and just stare in awe at his little face. The curled fists.

This afternoon I took a nap with my son. There were dishes waiting to be done, the floor needed to be vacuumed, a load of laundry was in the dryer waiting to be folded, I have no idea what I am going to make for dinner. But those things are not important. My memories are.

A Cold

So Jeremiah has developed a cold and is a slobbery, snotty mess. I took him to the doctor today just to make sure that it was only a cold. She said it was. But just to be sure we are to bring the nebulizer on vacation with us and she prescribed one for the airplane that doesn't need electricity. So we will keep an eye on him for the next few days. Please pray that he feels better soon. He is such a happy little guy that he doesn't really complain when he is sick - he just wants to be held to sleep which prevents me from getting anything done. Anyway, we are both off to take a nap......

New Things

So our little climber continues to find new challenges. Here he is up on his little table. It took him a few days to figure out just how to make it up - but once he did he was very proud of himself. Yesterday while we were in Office Depot he found a step ladder and was up 2 steps before we saw what he was doing. He sure is faster than he looks!

He continues to learn new words and come out with them at random times. This morning while we were doing our morning ritual of sitting on the back step and waving bye to papa while he gets on his motorcycle, Jeremiah all of a sudded just said "ball." I looked around and sure enough, there was his yellow ball sitting in the grass. Guess I need to watch what I say around him - who knows what he will come out with next? :-)

World Cup Fever - #2

Ned 1 - SMT 0
Need we say more? Good game.
Of course it took us all day to finally see all of it (had to stop to put Jeremiah down for his nap, watch the Portugal game with friends, drive home, put Jeremiah to bed etc.)
Can't wait for Friday!

We're Back

Jeremiah and I got home around 5pm this evening and we are both exhausted! Everything went well this week and I am so thankful that aside from a few tearful moments Jeremiah did well with Brittany and seemed to enjoy getting a lot of attention. He is tired though because I don't think that he slept as deeply as he usually does since he was in his pack-n-play and his schedule was all off whack. But all in all I think he did well and am so thankful for all your prayers.

As for the week in general - the training session went very well, 5 couples attended and were all very attentive and genuinely concerned and compassionate in their consideration of foster care or adoption. It is always such a huge blessing to me to meet families who are pursuing this path. I love hearing their stories and seeing God's providence in their lives. These weekends are always a faith-builder for me.

I am tired because of teaching all day, caring for Jeremiah, and not sleeping well. So we have both already had a nap, are looking forward to a good nights sleep, and a relaxing day tomorrow watching soccer. We are taping the Dutch game while we are church so do not send me emails or anything with results of the game......

Southern Roots

A shot to show that Jeremiah comes by his southern roots honestly....

He likes to wear his granddaddy's cowboy hat and his Uncle Chad's sunglasses. Coordinates well with the plaid shirt don't you think?

We have a busy week coming up so I don't know when I will get another chance to post here. On Wednesday Jeremiah and I are going to Gatlinburg, Tennessee so that I can do a training session for potential foster and adoptive parents. We will be gone until late Saturday evening.

A few items for prayer:

- Safe travels

- That Jeremiah will do fine during the day with Brittany who is going to be watching him for me (he is in a separation anxiety stage....)

- That I will have the energy I need to teach class all day and care for Jeremiah as well in the evenings without Aaron's help. I am usually completely exhausted by the end of these training sessions. But I have found that God always gives me the strength I need when I make a point to pray and to ask others to pray.

Once we get back we have one week to prepare before we leave for the Netherlands! We can't wait. And in that week we have a lot of soccer to watch. HUP HOLLAND!

(Note: I will post more pictures on Katana in the next day or two hopefully.)

World Cup Fever

The World Cup is just one week away! We are getting so excited! We are going to have to figure out how to watch some of the games here since we don't have cable. But we arrive in the Netherlands one day before the Dutch teams final game in the first round (and of course we are hoping that they will make it farther than that)! I know that soccer is getting more popular here, but there is simply no way to describe what it is like to watch the games in Holland. There is electricity in the air. One year I went over to a friends house to watch a game. The Dutch team won and on the way home the whole city of Amsterdam had errupted into one big party. The driver of the tram was letting everyone get on for free and kept yellig "Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole" over the intercom. It was amazing to be in a tram with people being so friendly and open - usually Dutch people on a tram barely make eye contact. And in our old neighborhood when the Dutch team would score we would run into our back yard and cheer with our neighbors who had also run into their backyards. The man in the house right behind us would run around and around his coffee table! One summer while Aaron and I were dating he came to Amsterdam for a visit and we watched a game at the local cafe (which is a pub). He loved it! There was such a feeling of community and closeness.

So we are looking forward to putting on something bright orange, opening a beer, and cheering with all our might. Who knows, we might even get Aaron and Dad to run around the coffee table. :-)

Homework

My homework for my Bible study this week is called the "Tongue Assignment." No - it does not involve kissing! hee hee For one week I am not to:
- Gossip
- Complain
- Criticize
- Blameshift (or make excuses)
- Defend myself
- Boast
- Deceive others

WOW! As you can imagine I have failed miserably and am only two days into it. Yesterday in Wal-Mart I had to wait in the check-out line for a long time and complained about it to a friend I saw there. I realized as I was leaving that I had complained but then I thought - well, I did have to wait for like 20 minutes and Jeremiah was getting antsy and........ oops, defending myself & making excuses.......
As I was praying last night I realized that in the past few months I have not really had a problem seeing my sin. I am pretty good at feely guilty constantly about things that I am not doing right. The problem is that I am still not able to let the knowledge of my sin drive me to the grace of Christ's work for me on the cross. I still want to fix my sin myself. My problem is simply allowing myself to be still and accept the gift I have been given - no if's, and's or but's. Why why why is this so hard?

(Note: Is posting comments about Jeremiah's accomplishments considered boasting?) :-)

In the pool

Oh my goodness! I know that I am his mother - but is he not just so cute you want to eat him!

He has a new pool - one at the Rapier grandparents and one at our house so I guess it is technically two pools. But he just loves to play in the water. I took way too many picture of him this afternoon so these are just a few. Visit my Katana website for all 31! (Aaron is going to stroke...) I tried to get a lot of pictures so you can see his facial expressions. We got slathered with sunscreen and spent an hour playing around. We had lots of fun. Jeremiah loves to splash, throw things out of the pool to watch me get them, and of course try to climb out of the pool himself. It is nice to be able to spend some time outside even when the weather is so hot and humid - yes Georgia summer has arrived! Someday when Aaron is home we must get him playing in the water on video. It is just priceless. Guess he is practicing for our visit to the water-logged country of the Netherlands. :-) (Which by the way is now just about 3 weeks away!)

Characteristics of
The Rapier

As my first post to our blog I would like you all to read about the characteristics of the Rapier. There will be a quiz later & if you don't pass then you can't read the blog anymore.