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06/20/09: Jon and Kate
Yes, I watch Jon and Kate Plus 8. I have had this blog post rumbling around in my head for some time now and I figured I'd might as well get it out before it's official and known to the world that they're divorcing.
Jon and Kate,
I have watched your show since the beginning. You invited us into your home and, as strange as I know it is, I feel like I know you.
I love watching your show because I feel some commonalities between our families. I don't have eight children or any sets of multiples. But your youngest children are the same age as my eldest son. They're only a month or so apart in age, so most every week I look at their accomplishments and developmental milestones and compare them to my son's. I watched their personalities develop just as my son's did.
My family, like Jon's, is from Hawaii. So of course I loved watching the episodes shot in Hawaii. My family is Japanese not Korean, but Korean is my favorite cuisine. I appreciated Jon making Korean food for the kids and appreciated his effort. I am not having much success introducing the food of my heritage to my kids!
My husband and I are Christians. I was excited to see a family professing their faith and still receiving such publicity and wonder. What an amazing opportunity to be a witness to the general population.
I almost wrote in to the show once. It think it was after the show where Jon was cooking Korean food. But it wasn't about that. It was because I saw this chart on their refrigerator. The title read, "Praying for our children" or something like that. Kate's organization is something that always piqued my interest because I love organization, I'm just not so good at follow through. The chart intrigued me.
Anyway, I've watched your show from the beginning and am so sad to see what has happened to your marriage and your family. Marriage isn't easy. Raising kids isn't easy. And obviously it's harder with the publicity and scrutiny you've endured while raising eight children.
My hope is that just as everyone has watched your marriage fall apart, they'd be able to watch your marriage be healed. My hope is that you would reconcile and that through that reconciliation people would see Christ. What an amazing testimony it would be to see you both push aside your pride, your pain and your "rights" and make strides to healing your marriage. What an amazing thing that would be to see! What a blessing that would be to your children.
Kate, I am sure you feel as though you deserve all the fame and accolades you've received. I'm sure it feels great to be able to do all that you do. As a mom of preschoolers, I know what it's like to miss the feeling of accomplishment and appreciation that we want so badly. Raising children is often a the most difficult and thankless job there is. I would think the swarming fans, autographs and book royalties would be almost like the high you'd get from drugs. But you've got to stop. For the sake of your family, you have to put aside your own right to be happy and successful and just stop. Stop the show if you have to. It's not worth it.
Jon, regardless of what's going on with Kate you should not be going out to clubs with other women. That's just ridiculous. Regardless of what Kate does or does not do. And it is clearly not going to help the situation.
You must remember, because even I certainly do, that you renewed your vows last year. You recommitted yourselves to each other. You said you'd always be partners for life. Jon, you said that you'd love, edify and encourage Kate to grow in Christ. You promised to make God the foundation for your marriage and your family. Kate, you said you were publicly promising your children that you would always be together complete as a family for always. You promised to love and respect Jon and strive to do better and be more respectful of his needs. Kate you said you'd follow God's leading together.
I pray that you will seek the Lord and reconcile your marriage. I pray that it would be a testimony to millions.
06/19/09: Derby Cars
We got a call from Nina, our Children's Ministries Director at church, sometime in August asking whether or not Caleb wanted to take part in Christian Service Brigade. The Sunday children's programs!? I didn't think he was old enough, but sure enough he was. Caleb and Kevin took part in the Tadpoles group all year long. It was a great thing for them to do together. At the end of the year, there is always a derby car race held a the church picnic. Caleb was excited to paint and assemble his derby car this year!
When the church picnic came, the boys (okay, dads) lined up their cars after weighing and tweaking them last minute. Caleb and Grant lost the first round, but it was a double elimination so they made it to the loser's bracket. Thankfully, they continued to win for a few more rounds and then lost at the same time. If they had both won one more time they would have had to race each other!
06/17/09: Who took our kids!?
One night Kevin went to put something in the kids' room and was shocked to find the kids missing. Caleb's bed was perfectly made. There was a lump in Cate's bed, but it turned out to be a teddy bear. He looked around, then went into our bedroom to check for them there - nothing. Kevin will admit that he began to panic. I mean, when you can't find your kids and they're not where they're supposed to be, you panic. So he went back in to look again. As he was passing by the bed he tripped over something. Turns out it was a foot. That's when he found this...
06/14/09: Pool fun!
One of the requirements for our vacation house in Orlando was a pool/hot tub. Our kids don't get much exposure to pools so we wanted to have that treat available to them. In addition, we didn't want to have to travel to a pool because of Cameron's naps. We thought it would be a good idea to have a house with a pool so that when Cameron went down for his afternoon nap we could play with the kids in the pool.
Anyway, there were some problems getting the pool heated properly and with all the rain the pool's chlorine levels were a bust and the pool got kind of icky. But the kids loved it when we could use it and loved the community pool when we went there. The community pool was zero-entry and only 3 1/2' deep. Nice for all involved!
Here are some pictures:
Can you tell it was a bit chilly in the pool?!
I think Cate is "watering" Ben and Grant here...
Cam chilling in his float
The community pool
Cam warmed up to the pool over the week
And this is one of my favorite sequences of photos...
06/13/09: T-REX
We walked by T-REX in the morning and thought maybe we'd give it a try for dinner. Since we had been eating at the house every night, we figured it would be fun to do one big fun dinner. But when we recommended this place Caleb wasn't so sure. After we came home from Downtown Disney we tried to warm him up to the idea by showing him lots of pictures of the place and preparing him for what he might see. It worked, and he agreed that it might be fun to eat there for dinner.
Let me just tell you, this place is crazy. It's owned and/or operated by the same people who do Rainforest Cafe. It's pretty over the top. A huge animatronic T-Rex greets you at the door and roars at you. There is an animatronic octopus with a huge aquarium to your left and a gift store and "Build-A-Dino" store to your right. As we were being seated we walked past the "Ice Cave" to our seat where a monarch caterpillar the size of Cate and Caleb combined greeted us on the wall next to the giant sequoia.
Suddenly the lights go down, thunder crashes and the lights begin to change colors. Ah, the meteor shower (or whatever) that brought down the dinosaurs. At least that's what I'm guessing it is.
06/13/09: Downtown Disney
Caleb's getting a little old to fall for it, but we like to let the kid think that Downtown Disney is actually Disney. Which I guess it is to a point. But much cheaper! We spent the morning at Downtown Disney, went home for naps (and thunderstorms) and then came back for dinner.
The newest thing at Downtown Disney is the Characters In Flight hot air balloon. It's a 10 minute ride 400 feet into the air. From the top you can see as far as Cape Canaveral if the sky is clear. We would watch it each day as we drove by the area and the kids were really excited to check it out.
As we walked from the balloon over to the shops, we stopped at the Harley shop because there were two Harleys you could sit on. I thought that would be fun for the kids and took the camera. This is some of what we ended up with.
We had to stop a the Lego store while at Downtown Disney. There really wasn't any choice. Caleb wanted to build and race a car. Cate wanted to build one and then carry it around on the playground with her. I think the boys were a bit too boisterous for her.
And here's why we can get away with telling them this is Disney...
06/12/09: Sea World pics
We chose to go to Sea World for part of our vacation because Caleb already had a Sea World pass that was good until the end of the calendar year. My mom had gotten him one when he stayed with her for part of Spring Break. So we decided we might as well take advantage of that pass and just get one for the rest of the family. It was a great time to visit the park because school wasn't out yet and everyone had already been through Spring Break visits. There were hardly any wait times. Even the new coaster, Manta, only had a 25 minute wait.
We went to Sea World for two mornings. We were able to get there close to opening time both mornings and then left around lunch time. Just in time to get back to the house for the afternoon storms and Cam's naps.
I was disappointed that the kids didn't want to pet the rays more. Kevin and I thought it was really cool. We fed them sardines and the kids just watched.
We also visited the sharks twice. Caleb had to see his favorite shark - the saw shark. The kids were excited to feed the sharks. I think it's because, unlike the rays, they didn't have direct contact with them. We also saw the Shamu show. Caleb had already seen it and loved it again. Cate was a full participant - clapping and making all the movements. Caleb is very adamant, though, that we will not sit in the splash zone. "We DON'T want to get wet!"
Both mornings we hung out at the kids area. Shamu's Happy Harbor, it's called. I was actually quite impressed by it. There's a big fun house/climbing apparatus. There's a mini roller coaster, a mini drop-tower thing, one of those boat things that rock and turn at the same time, a carousel, splash park and a ride that goes up and around. I know, so descriptive. Let's just say I don't dig the rides so much and wasn't thrilled when Caleb declared that it was mommy's turn to go on the roller coaster with him. (Cate was mad that she was too small to ride!)
06/11/09: More vacation pictures
One of my favorite things about our vacation was the jetted tub in the master bath. Our house was built in 1972 and has the original bathrooms. That means we don't have one of those big luxurious bath tubs that so many of the new houses have. The house we stayed in for vacation had a master bathroom the size of my kids bedrooms at home - combined. I am one of those people who LOVE a good soak in a tub. So, needless to say, I indulged a time or two. And I made sure the kids did, too. They love baths, so they thought it was pretty cool to be in such a big tub.
06/10/09: Vacation
I was under the impression that we don't get to take vacation very often, but looking back I've realized how fortunate we actually are. I think I was under that impression because there are very few times I can recall where we have gone on vacation without other family or friends. And now that we have, I realize how sweet it is. Not that we don't spend time just the five of us, because we do. I'm actually kind of protective of it at times. But we are very rarely all together AND away from the house. Being away from the house is something I can only liken to being set free from a heavy weight. A weight that mysteriously has the power to transform my personality to one that lacks patience, grace or a carefree spirit.
So this last vacation was incredibly sweet. We were in Orlando for 9 days and 8 nights. We rented a house just south of Disney. It had a pool, hot tub and a community center with another pool, hot tub and playground. It had enough rooms for all of us. Caleb and Cate even slept in separate rooms for the first time. (It may not have happened except for the fact that there were Cars and Princess themed rooms!) It had a room for my mom to stay in for two nights. And another for some friends who came to stay for a night. We were close to Disney and Sea World and all the fun stuff that the kids couldn't get enough of.
I did so much work gearing up for the trip that it took a while to unwind once we were there. I often have such high expectations that my disappointment spins out of control when those expectations aren't met. For this trip, that happened when the pool wasn't heated as it was supposed to be! Anyway, all in all it was a great time. I felt unburdened by cooking (although I did - we only ate out twice), cleaning (although I did that too), laundry (yep, every day), bills, shopping, errand running...something about it not being your house or something makes it easier and, somehow, more enjoyable too. Once the burden of keeping up my home was removed, I felt like I could really just soak in the moments and enjoy my kids. I sat and watched them play together and with Kevin and didn't have to think about the other responsibilities that usually cloud those moments.
Vacationing in Orlando is weird, though...having grown up there and all. But I wish we could have stayed for a month. There are a lot of friends from growing up I'd like to have caught up with. Reconnecting on Facebook is one thing, but actually meeting up would have been nice. I think it would have made things crazy and then I wouldn't be blogging about how relaxing it was. It's strange to have so many memories and experiences intersect in one place. I drove by many places I'd been as a teenager and remembered parties, proms, dates, and all kinds of firsts...all while my kids were taking things in for the first time (or what might as well have been the first time).
We had a great time. The Wherleys came at the beginning and we just played. Which was sweet since they were about to pack up and move to Texas. Then we drove to Jax for a family BBQ and back. Then lunch at Fuddrucker's in honor of my daddy on what would have been his 70th birthday. We grilled out, played in the pools, played the Wii (much to Caleb's delight) and relaxed. We went to Sea World and Downtown Disney. We had one fun eating out night. T-REX...crazy place. My mom came one night and Kevin and I got to go to a real adult dinner. And we rounded out the week with more play in the pool and just relaxing. Needless to say, it was sad to leave. Not that we did anything monumental...we just got to enjoy each other's company.
Okay, enough said...here are some pics...
Caleb and Cate with our first visitor...one of the grey herons that came to visit our first morning. We were startled by them at first.
Yes, we think she's adorable. Unfortunately, she knows it, too.
Caleb and his best bud Grant. We were thrilled they could come to hang out with us for part of the weekend.
Currier and Wherley kids. I like to imagine that we could one day be one family. Cate has two Wherley boys to choose from!
Cam and his buddy Gavin. Okay, so Gavin is younger than Cam and he's bigger, but he looks so much bigger here because his booster is taller!
Okay, so there are lots of pictures to post even when I choose just a few. I'll post some more later...