Funerals in Hanoi

If you spend any time in Hanoi you will see a notice posted on different walls at any given time during the month. The paper is a death notice and it tells the community that someone has died and gives all the information. Below is the notice that we saw on our neighbors wall 2 days ago and then today we saw them preparing for the funeral.  It was NOT our neighbor who died, but a family member.

 Im not sure why they wear what they do, but what you wear depends on what generation or distance you are from the deceased.  Often when you are driving down some of the narrow roads, the whole road is blocked with a big blue tent and then you know that a funeral is in progress.

 50 days after the funeral we saw these table and chairs being delivered in front of our house. Our grandmother next door said it is the 50 day observation of the deceased and the tent will be put up in front of our house. Little did we know exactly what that meant. Below is the tent that was put up. It was so interesting to see. The tent took up our whole road and since we only have 1 front door the only way out was to open the door and see all the mourning Vietnamese eating lunch and observing this momentous occasion. I wish I had taken pictures of what it looked like when we opened the door, but it was awkward enough to open the door and be stared at let alone take a picture of it. You'll just have to use your imagination.

Luckily the tent was put up on Sunday afternoon. The funeral was Monday afternoon and by 3pm everything was being cleaned up.

skype with grammie

A couple times a week Preston will get on skype (with our help) and have Grammie read him books. She goes the library every week and picks out 2 or 3 she thinks he'll like so she is always ready when Preston calls. It is so cute! They have been doing this since Preston turned 2. It totally captivates him like watching  a movie. It's hard to see, but on the computer screen is the book she is holding up for him.

February sensory bin

I have made 4 or 5 sensory bins for Preston. I made one for the month of Feb. with a valentines theme. While I cook dinner he plays in and explores the bin. I only bring it out when I cook dinner so that it doesn't loose its appeal.

He knows that if he drops things on the floor by accident no problem, but if on purpose then we have to clean it up and he can try again another day. So far it has been a hit. I think I will take this one a part and make a greened themed one for March.

Father and son

I love watching Tim teach and instruct Preston. He is both patient and wise. I love that when Preston grows up he wants to be just like his dad. Obedient to God!

Beyond words

I have tried to think about how I will tell this story over the last week. I'm not a great writer, I'm not even a good writer, but I want everyone to know about our little miracle. When Preston turned 11 months old which was November of 08 I weaned him so that we could begin trying for baby number two. After 6 months of trying I went back to our fertility Dr. and we continued trying to have a child and did 4 rounds of clomid before returning to the states for a much needed break. During our 8 months in the states God spoke to my heart in a myriad of ways. Most of all I felt like I would have another child. In some ways looking back I was just sure we would deliver a baby in 2010, but when that time came and went I held out hope that we would get pregnant in 2010. By the end of 2010 and the week of Preston's 3rd birthday I realized my hopes and dreams would have to change. After two rounds of fertility treatment in Thailand resulting in 1 hospital stay and 1 miscarriage. We knew it was time to take a break. The months following our miscarriage were lonely dark days. Depression had begun to set in, but mostly a longing to hold a child that I began to feel I would never have. I had many sleepless nights praying for a miracle in our lives. Believing that one day Preston would be a big brother.  After our failed attempt in November to have another baby, I knew in my heart I had to begin to move on. There is so much to this story I'll never be able to convey, but the long and short of it is that God granted us our miracle.

We were preparing to start another and probably our last round of fertility treatment at the end of March. I was to start my meds on the 20th of Feb. Over the weekend I took a pregnancy test just out of routine before I started my meds. In utter disbelief I looked at the test and saw a double line. I held my breath and prayed, "God please let this be true. Please don't let this be a trick." I took another test and it was also positive. Tim wasn't to come home for days, so I waited for his return. I had dreamed of a time when I could tell Tim in a special way that we are expecting another baby. I had so many great ideas.  However the excitement took over and with in hours of his arrival I through the box at him and yelled, " We're pregnant!" Of course he couldn't believe it.

That was last Saturday. It has now been 1 week since I found out I was pregnant. To the best of my ability I am pretty sure I'm 6 weeks along. I'll be 7 weeks on Monday. God is good! Of course it is easy to say when your prayers are answered, but something I realized even when I didn't think our prayers would be answered is that God knows us. He loves us more than we could ever imagine. His heart is not for withholding from us. He sees our tears! He knows our pain!  God is good!

So we are telling the world now. I'M PREGNANT! Please pray for me. My heart is so fragile. Pray for baby #2 to be born in October. We will go for an ultrasound end of March I'll be 10 weeks and looking forward to a healthy heartbeat 120 beats a minute.

Blogs I follow

I have many different blogs that I would like to read, and all of them for different reasons. I have personal blogs of friends so I can keep up with their lives while living so far away. Cooking blogs to help inspire me to change it up sometimes. My favorite these days are preschool crafty blogs. I love getting new ideas from the various blogs I subscribe to. The best part is they all come into my google reader. Some of my favorites are below.

skiptomylou.org is great because of her made by you monday post I like to quickly look through these and find new blogs that I haven't discovered yet. Anything form fun crafts to knew menu items.

If you're familiar with ucreate you'll love kids create for all of their great craft ideas. Red Teds blog introduced me first to STart (story art). You take a story and from the story do a craft with your children. For example If you choose Go Dog Go by Dr Seuss when you finish reading the book you can then make funny hats with your child afterward just like the dogs talk about in the book. Here is an idea that we used at the house.  Preston winter tree turned out beautifully.

A few other blogs I follow for fun preschool ideas are:
counting coconuts
growing up our style
pink and green mama
1+1+1=1

Of course there are a ton more, but for now those have been some favorites. Then there are a number of cooking blogs or food blogs I like to follow as well. In the last year moved away from baking blogs like bakerella  and geared more toward blogs that posted weekly menus and meal ideas.

Dining with Debbie always has a weekly crockpot post . Of course we all know the pioneer woman can cook.  The last one I'll post about food is Ucreate food

There are so many creative ideas out there. I love to create, but don't have the time to think of many of these things on my own. I loved getting inspired over Christmas to do many fun things to decorate the house with items found around our house. I love being able to create things with Preston that help him expand his imagination rather than buy more store bought toys. What are some of your favorite blogs?

Our Neighbor

We have the cutest old lady that lives next door to us. We call her our Vietnamese Grandma. She always loads Preston down with lots of goodies. Here is Preston leaving her house with Banh chung (common sticky rice cake during TET)

 Then before we opened up the sticky rice cake she kicked the soccer ball with Preston for a while. She is so great and ALWAYS has a smile on her face.

This is what the cake looks like inside the banana leaf.