Got Tiger Balm?

I woke up with a stuffy nose today and decided to try Tiger Balm for the first time (I "bought" it on Singapore Air with a voucher they gave me because my audio didn't work on my entertainment system on the flight). It immediately cleared up my sinuses and quite possibly those of the entire neighborhood. This is good stuff, people!

How can you not love something that's description on the jar reads:

Fast and effective relief for headaches, stuffy nose, insect bites, itchiness, 

muscular aches and pains, sprains and flatulence. 

Apply Tiger Balm gently on the affected area.

We had plenty of discussion on the trip about where exactly you would apply it for flatulence ;)

If you are only going to have one thing in your medicine cabinet, sounds like Tiger Balm is the way to go.

{update - I was telling Caleb about this and he said his nose has been stuffy for about a week. One swipe of TB under his nose and he is cleared out. Love it!}

{update #2 - After reading the description to the kids, they decided we need to look for a Tiger Balm body wash for Paige. She has one of those ailments a lot. She just told me she has been "flatulating" all night.}

Let's get logical, logical....

For the next three days, I'm teaching a logic class to 96 kids ages 9-14 (they will rotate through in groups of 24. Thank goodness!) I have been studying for the past few weeks and already felt smarter....until I just realized that I am wearing my pants inside out. I think I maxxed my brain cells out cramming this week!

Sometimes the best teacher is the one that is willing...right?!?

shirt to skirt in 10 minutes

The other day, I read this post on how to turn a shirt into a skirt and knew I had to try it. It took some searching but I found the elastic thread at Hancocks in Tulsa and it was on sale for $1 a spool. I bought 2 b/c I knew I wouldn't be back out that way soon and hoped to love it. It took some playing but I finally figured out how to make my machine do this for me and BAM, I'm in love! I picked up an XXL tank top from Old Navy today for $2 and made a little red skirt for me. Now, I am not really a skirt wearer but this thing is comfy so I'm thinking it might be my new "hanging around the house" attire.
Then I went scouring the boys closet for stained old shirts. I found this one with a stain on the front but at the top:

Notice that it has pink in it so Princess P will wear it, even thought it was the boys (have to be careful there...she is a bit picky).

10 minutes later, it looks like this and she is a happy little girl:

I'm hooked. She likes to wear skirts every day so making them out of "trash" makes me more likely to let her wear them to play in the mud, like she wants to since she isn't going to be ruining a good skirt.

I'm also thinking they would make cute tops too if I shirred a little wider...off to find some more shirts to cut up!

Sew much fun *haha*

-think about such things

Terrific T just asked me, "How long does it take God to do something you asked Him to do?" Wow, that is a tough one. I told him that it is up to God and His timing is perfect. I asked him what he had asked God to do and he said that Wednesday, when they were at the park, he accidentally read something on the slide that wasn't good and he had asked God to help him forget it, but he still remembered it. He finally told me the awful words he has read...."I hate God". This really has been bothering him and I love his tender spirit that knows right from wrong. I told him maybe he could memorize a verse to think of anytime those bad words tried to creep in his head. We looked up Philippians 4:8, which says, "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." He is in the other room now, memorizing it and drawing pictures of noble, pure, admirable, etc things, then going to put it on his locker in his room so he can look at it anytime he needs to reference it. I pray that one day soon, God will take those bad words from his head as T works to replace them with lovely words from Him.

This verse is a good reminder to all of us though.

whatever is true

whatever is noble

whatever is right

whatever is pure

whatever is lovely

whatever is admirable

 if anything is excellent or praiseworthy

think about such things

Wordless Wednesday: That's my boy!

Camping...again.

Last year, we bought a motorhome and loved camping so much that we sold it and got a nicer pull behind camper this year. We have been so busy that this was the first weekend we could take it out. Ironically, last year our first weekend out was Father's Day weekend too. We went to Natural Falls State Park near Siloam Springs and had a blast. I forgot my camera (like last year) but took tons of pictures with my phone. I hate that they are crappy quality but a good friend reminded me that the best camera is the one that is with you...so at least I have memories saved :)

He went from thinking this was lame to laughing so hard when T started pushing him.

Teaching lil sis how to use a sling shot.

You might be lazy if you use your dog as a chair on a hike.

Our new home away from home!

We played a thousand rounds of Ratuki. So much fun!

I bought camp fire size marshmallows but didn't think it through very well.

They were WAY too big for s'mores. Oops.

They still found a way to eat them!

Little T's favorite part of the weekend was hiking Bear Trail.

Happy Father's Day!! We love you!!

Today's installment of "Choose your Battles"

trying to look tough.

For some reason, T wants a mohawk every summer. I tried to ignore him this year but he started crying when I cut the back short...and it broke my heart so I left the top long (for now) but didn't shave the sides...compromise ;o)

Here he was last year.

And the year before that.

Thankfully it grows fast!

And in other news...

Totally not Cambodia related, but in the "what's happenin' at the E house" news: On the 5th, C got bit by a tick while he was in Alabama, staying with my family for the week while I was gone (hey...it kinda still relates to Cambodia so not totally out of order). My sister talked to Big Daddy and they agreed to wait it out...I would have done the same thing. On Monday, the 13th, I decided to take him in because his neck looked like this:

It is hard to see in the picture but it looked like he was hiding marbles under his skin. Crazy. The doctor took one look and said, "Wow, those are impressive lymph nodes." I was so proud :) He ordered a bunch of tests that I was too loopy to know what he was talking about (my body thought it was 12 hours ahead for a few days there). He began treatment as if he had Rocky Mountain spotted fever...just in case. Today, I finally got word that his tests were negative and he was ok. I guess he was just having a reaction to the bite, but nothing serious. We are going to go ahead and finish the antibiotic...just in case ;) They are finally starting to go down some today, 12 days later, and I don't know if it was the meds or just time. He hasn't been on an antibiotic since he turned one so I figure I would rather give it to him unnecessarily than stop giving it to him and he continue his reaction. So we both will suck it up and continue our meds for a few more days. I really hate taking drugs but in this case, it is better than the alternative.

the town

Driving through the town of Poipet, I was trying to think of a way to describe it to people back home. We have nothing here to compare it to though. The driving is insane - hilarious looking back on it. That first night, I thought we might die, but now that I am home, I find myself honking in my head at people and wanting to pass on the curb - lol. No stopping for slow traffic, babies walking down the street, kids on bikes, etc...just keep moving. One morning, CW and I decided to play a little game of human Frogger and cross the street in front of our hotel, stopping in the middle to take pictures. As long as you move slowly, you are good...people avoid you. If we were to try to run, we would have likely been hit. Slow and stead wins the race.

Our hotel.

Our pets. Terrific T wanted me to set a trap to bring some home to him. I tried to stay as far away from them as possible and jut pray they were eating all the bugs!

Traffic jam? no problem. Just keep pushing forward and people will get out of your way.

From the middle of the street in front of our hotel.

Here are some pictures from around town. They don't do it justice at all, but give you a little idea of why people are lined up to get their kids into the children's center! The poverty is something I couldn't have even imagined.

She was still wearing this dress, two days after the pics. Reminded me of P...finds something she likes and won't take if off.

Then the center. Gorgeous! I'm so thankful that God allowed our church to help build this.

Peeking through the center wall, you can see what is right across the street.

On the drive back to Siem Reap, we passed this truck full of live pigs several times. A flat tire caused us to stop for a minute or two but we caught back up. I love how this 2 lane road is really a 4-5 lane road in Cambodia :)

 

One more...not so lucky pig.

And a beautiful double rainbow to end the week.

...more to come. But probably not until next week. Spending the weekend with my family!

VBS - Cambodia style

I have so much to tell about my trip to Cambodia that it is overwhelming me. So I am going to break it down into little posts and post them as I have time. I am finally back on Central Standard Time as of yesterday and feeling much better. I even watched a TV show last night before bed instead of falling asleep before dinner...yay.

We went to Poipet to offer a Vacation Bible School type event for the kids that live at the center and neighbor kids. There are about 55 kids that live at the center right now and they told us to expect about 500 kids. We did advertise or canvas the streets like we do here in America. We didn't make an event on facebook. We just were ready...and they came. The first day we had 250 children and by Wednesday we had 750. If you build it, they will come :) We divided them into 4 groups and did game time, songs/memory verse time, craft time, and story time.  Some kids would sneak into whatever group they would benefit most from (aka...when they gave out snacks in crafts one day, many, many kids went to crafts twice) but for the most part, they made the rounds and had a good time.

I was so excited to be able to photograph all the kids and print their pictures on the spot for them. They got super excited over seeing their picture print out...moms especially! Some moms were taking their kids home, redressing them, and coming back for a second picture. The second day, one of our printers broke. We tried to take it apart but it was shot. So we started printing them two on a page to make sure to be done when it was time to go. I was praying for God to bless the paper and ink (we only had enough for 650 prints and I didn't know how many would come that day). I kid you not, I didn't have to open a new paper or ink set until we finally got the second printer working. God blessed it like the loaves and fishes for us! I was splitting the pictures between two memory cards so they could be printing two at a time but since one printer was broken, I had them all on one. That left me one (now working) printer just sitting there. I was able to then take pictures of some of the mothers and fathers that were there for a parenting class and family pictures too that I wouldn't have been able to do if that printer was working and I was running them through like planned. It was very cool to do "pictures that matter". I know that people treasure the pictures I take for my business, but if I wasn't doing it, they would just go somewhere else. These might be the only family pictures these people ever get, so they were very special to me to get to do.

Here are a few pictures from the time of VBS. I took WAY too many...so narrowing it down here :)

Starting the second day, we would pull into the center at 7am and there would already be a crowd waiting for us.

Lots of siblings holding little siblings. They seem to take such good care of them.

A group of boys in the back of the line (they line up from smallest to tallest).

Older brother was sharing his Silly Bandz with the baby to keep him happy during the lesson.

A couple of the beautiful parents that came. They have chosen to have their kids live at the center so they will have a better life. I can't imagine having to make that choice of seeing my kids daily or giving them a better life. These are amazing people.

Andrew climbed up the water tower to get an overview of the kids. I couldn't get them all in one picture from the ground. This was Thursday morning's group (we did two sessions a day.)

A few of the older kids weren't too cool to dance with us :)

Snacks bring out the smiles!

This is one of the little ones that their moms redressed and brought back. She is precious and lived right across the street from the center.

Using some Cambodia creativity to get the sound to the back of the tent :)

The flannel graph was a big hit. The kids were retelling the story to each other with it later that day.

*love*

I have so many more pictures. I'll put more on facebook too but wanted to at least get a start on blogging this. I journaled tons of pages during the week and have tons to share...just need time!