9 Years Ago Today

I was getting my hair done,

the girls were getting ready
in the bride's room,

I had a team of ladies putting me into my dress,

Ms. LaWanda was making sure my lipstick was right,

the guys were hanging out upstairs,

my dad suffered through a few hours of
tuxedo shoes
(thanks, Dad!),

we posed and posed
so I could have beautiful
pictures to look at today,

we headed toward the doors,

we enjoyed a beautiful time of worship,

and we were finally
Mr. and Mrs Yellow Hat!
October 28, 2000

9 years later

No eye has seen,
No ear has heard,
No mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him.
I Corinthians 2:9

Spreading Some CHRISTmas Cheer...

...one shoebox at a time.

The Olmsted Foundation paid for us to have a house hunting trip prior to our move in 2003. Because I had been to Ukraine twice previously on missions trips, I had some very good Ukrainian friends that we stayed with as we scoped out the city. Sergei is the head of the Slavic Gospel Association's regional ministry center for Ukraine, so we were able to tag along on some of their outings that March. The following pictures were taken when a pastor spoke to some orphans. Afterward, the children lined up, anxiously awaiting the gift of a shoebox. I can tell you that post-Soviet orphanages are not homey. I have seen Ukrainian orphans smiling from ear to ear because they got 2-3 new crayons out of a new box split between several children.

These were priceless gifts to the children.

This weekend we had a young lady speak at our church. Luba lived in a Moldovan orphanage and received a shoebox from Samaritan's Purse that changed her life. You can watch a video of her testimony here.


If you've never been involved in Samaritan Purse's Operation Christmas Child, please consider doing so this year. Or would you consider adding an additional box to what you planned to do this year?

We were blessed to have the opportunity to travel around 20 countries- many Eastern European- during our assignment in Kyiv, and I can assure you that we are the most materially blessed nation on earth. We have been entrusted with much and this is one way we can be faithful. It's also a wonderful way to involve your children in missions!

God bless!

It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

Baby Girl's hair has been growing.
Today is the first day she had some little pigtails!

Mr. YH finished his conclusion for his thesis yesterday and sent it on to his adviser, and seeing as he is not panicking yet, he decided to join us on our field trip to the Pumpkin Patch. It's not everyday, you know, that your principal goes on a field trip with you!

So we hopped in the van and went down to the Carmel Valley. Don't let those long sleeves fool you. It was HOT!! Amazing how the temperature can change when you move away from the coast a little!


I love the blue pumpkins!

These ladies had come on their own little excursion from an assisted living home. I could tell they were immediately taken with the children, so after the first photo, I picked up Baby Girl and headed over to the pumpkins right in front of them. They loved it (and of course, my children will take any attention they can get!)!! They had the gentleman that had brought them running all over the patch picking out pumpkins for them and placing them in a wagon to take back to their center.

My kids make me laugh so hard!
The Boy and Big Girl were quoting
lines from Charlie Brown-
and then Linus fainted
when the Great Pumpkin arrived!

Yes, that cookie really was $2.99.
It was pretty tasty, too!

Sharing Mama's zucchini bread.

Happy Fall!

For Avocado Lovers Everywhere

Mr. YH's birthday dinner: Avocado Pizza

This recipe comes from a cookbook entitled Absolutely Avocado which my sister-in-law sent us last year for Christmas. Mr. YH could survive on avocados.

1 frozen pizza crust (12-14")
1 jar red Italian-style sauce
3-4 cloves garlic, very thinly sliced (Can I suggest maybe 1-2? Seriously, it's plenty.)
1/3 c grated extra sharp Cheddar cheese
1/3 c grated mozzarella
1/3 c freshly grated Parmesan
1/4 c chopped fresh parsley
1 c slivered ham
1/2 c roasted pepper, julienned
1 ripe avocado, diced
2-3 T chopped black olives
1 T capers
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven according to directions for pizza crust. Thaw the crust and place it on a baking pan. Spread with sauce and sprinkle with garlic. Toss cheeses and parsley together. Sprinkle about 2/3 of the mix over the crust. Put ham, pepper, avocado, olives, and capers onto pizza. Season to taste (Mr. YH said no extra salt was needed) and sprinkle on remaining cheese mixture. Bake according to crust directions or unti lthe cheeses are bubbling and the edges of the crust are browned. Serve hot.

Just Because...

....she's SO cute! I know- she's mine, so I have all rights and privileges to say so!

She woke up crying from her nap the other day and when I went in to get her, she stood up pointing to her bow holder and pitifully cryied, "Bow!!!" I asked her if she needed a bow and she nodded yes and told me "bow" again.
Oooooooooooooh! I could just squeeze her (I did!)!!!!!

Baby Girl and her bow

Symphony No. 8 in B Minor

One of the toughest, buy most enjoyable courses I had in college was Music History. As music majors, we had an entire year of it. Exams were tough, though. There was a multiple choice scantron section, an essay section, and the listening part. We were given a list of pieces we had to listen to and then they played "drop the needle" and we had to name the piece, the movement, the composer, and spell it correctly after getting a 30 second blip. The toughest was when we were in the Classical and Romantic periods because folks, symphonies with four movements are long, and composers like Mozart and Beethoven were geniuses. And let's face it, for someone like myself who is a perfectionist and got her first C (ever) in freshman ear training but equally loves to socialize, this was challenging. I mean, who wants to sit in their dorm room critically listening to music over and over when there are hundreds and hundreds of other young people on campus to get to know?! And I wanted to get married one day!

Yes. So I went on for my masters degree, too.

About a month ago, we were on our way to the gym for one of the kids' practices and I turned the classical station on during the middle of a piece that I could not remember the name of for the life of me. But I knew this is one that ought to be part of my very fiber! And I couldn't sit in the van until it was done to hear the name. But I distinctly remembered that I was able to recognize the piece in college because it sounded like music from The Smurfs. I came home and googled Smurf music. Couldn't figure it out (I had the wrong composer in mind). I called SJM and sang it to her. She couldn't remember. I was ready to rip the diplomas off the wall. Ok, not really, but I was irritated that I couldn't remember.

Today is Mr. YH's birthday (he doesn't read my blogs, but just in case- honey, Happy Birthday!) and he requested avocado pizza for dinner, and since the van needs a brake job and I can't have it to do my grocery shopping today (commissary is closed on Monday), I had to go to Safeway last night for some ingredients. And guess what was on the radio?! I called Mr. YH and said he needed to turn on the radio, set himself down and listen for the title of this piece. And when I got home, he teased me mercilessly before handing me the slip of paper.

It was a DUH moment. Of course! Schubert's Symphony No. 8 in B Minor- the "Unfinished Symphony." First Movement Allegro moderato in B Minor (the one I heard) and Second Movement Andante con moto in E Major.

By the way, the Smurfs did use it- it was the music for Gargamel.

Whew! I can sleep again!

Holly Homemaker Takes on Scrapping

Big Girl began asking about the ABCs before she was two. I had seen an album that someone had done that used a photo of the child relating to each letter, and I thought this would be the perfect thing to make for her. So I ordered an album on Ebay, started taking photos, and collecting stickers and paper. And then I sat down to "scrapbook" and this Type A became totally stressed out! I don't know how you people do it beacuse I had a theme and only had to put one picture on a page and it STILL stressed me out! Here are some of the pages from her book. The words I chose for each page are words she knew and used as I was making the book, so it's a neat record of her early language, too.





It was a hit, and Mr. YH said I really needed to do one for each child. And seeing as one of my love languages is words of affirmation, I readily agreed. I had no idea what I was getting myself into! But I had ordered another album and already had a bunch of stickers, so I started planning out the photos. I meant to have this done for The Boy for his 3rd birthday which, come this November 19, would be a year ago. Sigh. I have a few more stickers to locate, and the final photographs (minus 1- we need M and dog-gone-it! Mama is going to have her picture in this book!!!) are on their way. So, per Brandi's request toget a peek, here are some of my favorite pages out of his book:






And now, the planning begins for Baby Girl's book. I have to take some photos before we move because I don't know when we'll be able to see Baba, Didyc, Gigi and Gramps again! Have I mentioned we are SO done with having babies inside the Yellow Hat?!