Name Change

Guess the African Groggs blog will have to have a name change.  Not sure to what quite yet.  Too be honest, I still feel like an African Grogg.  But in reality, we are American Groggs again (and always were really).  Our family just went to DAR (which stands for debriefing and renewal) for a week in Colorado.  The great thing ab this time for me was that while Jon & I were debriefing, with a theme for each day, the kids were doing the exact same thing.  One day they gave each of us balls of yellow and blue play doh.  First we were told to squish the two balls together, then try to pull them apart.  Impossible.  Next we rolled the squished balls into one ball...and it looked similar to the globe now w/ the two colors mixed together.  The yellow represented "me" before moving overseas.  The blue represented who "I" became in my new culture and country.  The end product was the person I am now, a "world christian" was the term they used.  The kids, however, came back from class w/ green play doh.  They got to mix their blue and yellow play doh together, representing that they are neither "American" or that of their second culture, but they are both.  And the two colors will forever be mixed; cannot be separated.  They are what is known as TCKs, third culture kids (there is a book called Third Culture Kid if you ever feel like learning more ab these amazing kids and the challenges/joys they face growing up).  No doubt ab it: we are blessed by our time as "workers", we have been changed by our time in Africa, and this is the hardest transition we have made so far.  The kids aren't sure which direction is up at this point.  We are all looking forward to moving into a rental house in Manhattan, KS on August 1...and watching the Lord unfold the things He has planned for us.  Exciting, scary, happy, & sad are just a few of the emotions we have been experiencing since saying goodbye to our life in Africa on May 23rd.  Maybe blogging can help me continue the "debriefing" process.  Hahaha I always say that :)

Kids quotes from Oct to Dec 2011

Well, I am pretty much behind on everything I always think I want to do w/ my life...one of them being collecting the kids' funny things they say every month and then putting them on my blog so we can laugh ab the things they say later. I started writing things in October on sticky notes but so far they never made it to the blog (either has anything else in our life!). Today its so windy here I am sure if I were hiring a nanny and there was a long line of them at our front door, they would all blow right down the street. So I am gonna pop in Mary Poppins for Gabby to watch while Kyler naps and Kolby is in arabic class and catch up on my piles. This being one of them. I obviously didn't record them all...and Kolby's list is short bc now he goes to school and most of the things he says that are funny are too inappropriate to keep track of :)

Kyler:
"Don't worry."
"No thank you please!!!"
"I santa! I eatin' my cookies and drinkin' my milk!" (as he drinks almond milk and eats banana chips)
"NO NO DOGGY! NO NO!" (yelling at the barking dogs from our bedroom window)
"I gotta bootie, I gotta bootie" (repeating several times while dancing in the bath tub)
"Nut job"
"you stink!"
"night night elephant poop"
"chocolate milk angee, chocolate milk angee" (receiving his almond chocolate milk he adds angie on the end bc she drinks hot choco w us sometimes)
"OOOH! NICE!!"
"Lay down, Mommy! Lay down!"

Gabby:
"Someday I'm gonna be a rockstar."
"When you are satisfied He shines thru..."
"I'm doing so good at preschool Angie's not gonna know what to do w/ me."
"Mom, sometimes Kyler likes to play poke in the hole, spinny spin spin, and go grandpa go!"
"That's killing me!"

Kolby:
"We need to take the grogg outta the grump."

A Sunday Morning Message from Gabby

This is the song in Gabby's heart this Sunday morning :) Actually I think it was inspired from the sparkly heart on her shirt that I can see her rubbing as she sings to her audience in the TV...

Swinging alone & haircuts...check.

On Thursday Kolby learned how to swing! I think he has been "swinging" for a long time alone but something just clicked and he was swinging so high!! His whole face was one big smile. This is what he said to me, "Mommy! I learned how to swing! God just gave me a push and then I just started pumping my legs and doing it all by myself! Daddy is going to be so proud of me!"
Kyler's first hair cut! Ok, so I really didn't want to cut it but it was making him mad (hair hanging in his eyes)...I took the first cut and handed the scissors off to Angie b/c she is braver than I...and does a better job! Before pic.
After pic. Well he started to get a little impatient so we just had to be done...but its really cute and he looks super grown up now. (There you go, Leanne!)
Angie cut Gabby Girl's hair too...just a trim.

Angie w/ the kids before our Arabic class on Thursday...after the fun haircuts and swinging. We are totally enjoying having our "Angie" back!

In Bed

Well today I have been in bed almost all day w/ this darn cold turned into something living in my sinuses. Jon was so good to stay home today so I could try to get better before our busy week begins tomorrow. So since I am in bed, what better time to catch up on some blogs. I posted an update on each of the three little people that occupy most of my time. I also finished reading "Three Cups of Tea"...uh so good. Thanks Mickey for bringing it for us to read...a year ago! I am pretty sure I cried through at least half of it. If anyone is looking for a good down to earth reality story ab the Muslim world this is a great book to read. It's about Greg Mortenson's journey of starting schools for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan...w/ an incredible message of promoting peace. Ok, must close my eyes before they pop out of my head. Look at me blogging.

Kolby, almost 6 1/2 yrs old

This little boy has a vivid memory and imagination. Therefore, I think sometimes living overseas away from his family is hardest on him. He remembers last Christmas w/ Nana & Papa and Grandma & Grandpa and longs for traditions to stay the same. He had a hard holiday season...but when Nana sent this magical packet of fake snow in the mail he was thrilled! He missed the snow and even though he loves seeing pictures and hearing stories of his cousins in the snow I know it's hard for him to not be apart of it.

One morning I woke up to find this letter on the table. He wrote it after having a hard night of missing his friends and family in America. I had my computer hooked up to the TV and thought it would be fun to just have a slideshow of pictures running so the kids could play and watch. Seems like right after I did that I had to go help Kyler, Gabby went to play in her room, and Jon had to answer the gate (and was having difficulty figuring out what the man wanted) so Kolby was left alone to watch the pictures. All of a sudden I am coming downstairs and he is coming upstairs just sobbing. Broke my heart. He was crying b/c he just missed everyone so much. He's so tender. Nothing makes me want to pack my bags more than that...not even political unrest. This is what his letter said the next day, "Dear Dad and Gabby and Mom and Kyler, I will take you to America." To say the least, he is looking forward to a visit this summer.
One afternoon out w/ Daddy just walking around I think...and Jon captured this of Kolby. He still loves to curl up in small spaces and could watch for hours what is going on around him.
And yes, he wears this Halloween shirt at least once a week :) This is the big carrot he and Jon bought at the market one afternoon.
Angie has returned!! She came back at the beginning of Feb...and Kolby is back in action w/ some one on one time kindergarten instead of constant interruption kindergarten that he was having w/ me everyday. She took these 2 photos of him during school time. The top one cracks me up. He draws a picture and then journals ab it everyday. He seems to have some little thing happening in his mind this day w/ the car and his "dog" Harley sitting on his journal. The photo below is of Kolby's first day back to kindergarten w/ Angie. He got all dressed up for her :)

Gabriella, the almost 4 year old (in 4 months)

Gabby, put some clothes on! It's winter! Everyday I have to tell this girl to put on some pants or tights or socks...or clothes. She loves to wear summer clothes all year. What she really loves to do is run around in her underwear!
Jon took Kolby and Gabby to this little park the other week after Gabby had a nasty battle w/ the flu for 5 days. She was so happy to get out of the house and start eating again. I am sure she lost at least 10 lbs.
This is one of my favorite pictures of Gabby from Jan. She is growing up (too fast) into such a pretty little girl. Her facial expressions just kill me sometimes...I wish I could capture them all on camera.
Gabby and Ellie had a tea party this week (Kyler joined in on the fun too...his first tea party :) ).
Sipping water and eating toast. Such joy! Gabby adores her friend Ellie. She is very lucky to have a little girl her age, who is an American, live next door! They get along so good (most of the time). Gabby talks about her and prays for her when she's not around. It makes my heart so happy that she has a friend like that.

Kyler, 17 months

Here is our ornery little third child. If ever you were to forget he was in the room, don't worry...he will remind you that he's there and ready for everyone to look at him!
Kyler and Alex, best buds, 5 months apart, playing in Gabby's kitchen like sweet little boys should :)
Kyler and Alex at the local amusement park playing in a car together (you know the kind you can put quarters in and it goes back and forth and honks)...oh great fun! I think Kyler kept trying to sit on top of Alex so he could hog the steering wheel.

Kyler started walking at the beginning of Jan...and by the end he's getting his groove on and loves to walk around carrying our cell phones or vonage phone as he tells whoever is listening about his day. (The background noise on the video of Kyler dancing is Gabby just talking to herself while she plays! No lie!)

Spoke to soon...

Just kidding don't listen to me! Seeing updates now about demands for the president to resign...so we will continue to watch and pray...and stay at home :)

Riots Update

Well so much for how I usually find myself saying we moved to one of the safest countries :) But I guess we are still very safe! Today is the day the city is supposed to be completely shut down (the threat of no water or electricity did not come to pass THANK YOU, LORD!). After a speech from the President last night we are all feeling extremely hopeful though. We even ventured out of our house...okay so we walked down the street to Veronica's and the boys went to look for some lunch just out of curiosity really. They weren't able to find shwarmas but did find chipotees and several opened hanuts (little stores). So we were celebrating w/ take out and playing outside this morning. The guys did say they saw several burned things and many broken brick pieces up and down streets. From what we have heard from friends, online, and TV it sounds like people are, for the most part, happy w/ the talk that staple food items (bread, sugar, eggs) will be cut down in price; more freedom of speech; no more censorship of the internet; and the president won't run for another term (after having ruled for 23 years). Today is pivotal...to see if he will follow through. We are continuing to pray for peace, both political and in the hearts of people. We are rejoicing that things seem to be calming down...and will see what tonight brings. Still have not heard officially that the curfew is lifted. I feel like I am handling all this pretty well :) I have been most thankful for friends and family...here and across the ocean. The group of Americans we have here has been wonderful...seems like again we are all working together like the Body should. We have also been encouraged w/ prayers, phone calls, and emails from all of you in America! I have been reminding myself of a verse I memorized the first year I lived in Phoenix when I did a bible study w/ my Mil...Ps 56:3-4, "When I am afraid, I will trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?" Okay, except they can shut off our power and water...but hey, we were ready w/ every bucket and pan in our house filled to the rim!

Kyler is walking

Just yesterday out of the blue Kyler started taking 10 or more steps!! I am so happy! He will be 16 months in a few days (1/11) and I have been begging him to walk (well mostly my back is begging!). The funniest part is how motivated he is when his big bro and sis are cheering him on. They were SO excited for him and yelled, clapped, jumped around, danced...he was all smiles and kept walking to them over and over. Love that about having older siblings. Its so funny for me since I am the baby of 3 siblings. I can see myself in Kyler. "HEY EVERYONE LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! AREN'T I CUTE AND FUNNY AND PRECIOUS?!" I have some videos of Kyler (and tons of other things) but for some reason I can't get anything to upload so videos will have to wait till I figure out the problem..

Engagement Party, Part 1

We kicked off our New Year here with our language teacher/good friend's engagement party...here she is waiting for her man to come!
Here he comes to claim his woman! He enters with his whole family and they are carrying gifts for the couple. There is lots of noise and its high energy! Our friend met her fiance through the American Embassy. A match made in heaven no lie. They both speak fluent English and though they are from here...much of the time I swear they are Americans. We could not be more thrilled for her to have been blessed w/ him. He has lived in America, works for the American Embassy and even lived w/ a pastor's family while in the states. And yes, don't be confused...this is only the engagement party!

Oh I have so many fun videos from this...so I have to figure out what is wrong w/ my blog or camera so I can upload them. More to come!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

15 months

Kyler, 15 months
Gabby, 15 months

So sad I don't even have pics of Kolby at 15 months...well I do but not digital and not here. Back in the day when I had film :) All those pics must be in America somewhere...I hope.

Just wanted to see them together so we could laugh at how similar Kyler and Gabby look!

Litttle Groggy stories

24 hour little girl getaway for us...so fun to not have an agenda...well at least it was for me :) Thought I would throw the pics Ang took on my blog since I didn't take my camera.
Having coffee...Angie (always the one taking the photos!), Susie, Veronica, me, and our good friend Corrie.
Going to our hotel! Yes, we are super excited!

Yep, a little boy and little girl in there!!!!!! I think this pic she is 25 weeks. She looks so good!!!! Everyone is always asking to see pics of her so here they are.
On the way to find Kyler some antibiotics for this horrible spider bite on Wed, (it was a little stressful b/c it was a holiday) Kolby prays, "Dear Mom, I mean God, would you please help us find a store that is open so we can get medicine for Kyler. We believe in You, God! We know You can do it! You created everything in this world. Amen." Sure enough the Lord helped us find a pharmacy that was 1. open, 2. the woman spoke english, 3. they could order the antibiotic and we could pick it up at 5 p.m. (thanks so much for all your help, Aunt Cathy!!) This little guy is my spiritual giant these days. These are photos from Ang during kindergarten when it was 70 out and he felt the need to wear his coat, hat, and gloves!

This is one Ang took of Kyler playing during our language class. He is getting braver and might some day go into K & G's class room w/their teacher Rautha! Yesterday he actually went in and played for a little while w/out making a fuss....then Rautha brings him in and says, "oops, sorry, I thought he crawled in here w/you guys but he was out in the office...." He had crawled out into the office area and pulled all of the papers off the desk and out of the drawers. Sorry Nedra!!

Our Spooky Six year old

Kolby really wanted to have a "spooky ghost" party for his sixth bday...what can you do? It worked out nicely since friends had leftover Halloween goods for us to use! Yep, I made each kid a ghost sugar cookie to decorate. I practically should be in a magazine or something :)
His spider man card from Nana, Papa, & cousins. We let him open his gifts in the morning before his buddies Kaedren and Kian came over to play. For real, fix the date on the camera!
He was so giddy the whole day I could hardly get a good shot of him. He was HIGH on sugar and birthday love. Thanks so much, family, for working so hard to get his gifts here!! Sorry, we were hoping to skype w/ some of you but it has been a really busy week and weekend. We saved his gift from the Groggs for Sunday in hopes of skyping when he opened it but again, busy day. Poor kid just wanted his gift so we finally just let him open it. He loves his new pet :) , his singing dog. Would love to blog more about life but the 6 yr old is breathing down my neck in hopes of watching Scooby Doo so I must hurry hurry!

Kolby's tongue bugs

While reading to Kolby and Gabby tonight before bath time, Kolby gets little hairs or something on his tongue from these black fuzzy gloves he is wearing. He tries to get the hairs off with his gloved fingers. Not working out so well for him. So I say, "It might work better if you take the gloves off, honey." He does and continues to "itch" his tongue. I ask, "Does your tongue feel funny?" Here is his response:

"Yea. Well it's all bu.....ggy. (I think he's going to say bumpy like normal people.) There are lots of little hidden bugs on my tongue dressed in camouflage. Oooh its all buggy!"

For his sixth birthday he wants to have a "spooky ghost" party. I was trying to get him to have a pirate party (b/c he really does like pirates) but in the end he always comes back to spooky ghosts so I decided just to go for it. Saturday is the big day. Our son with the buggy tongue will be six! I can hardly believe it. I wish I would take the time to write down all the things he says and does. Some of them are so funny and others are so sweet....okay and some of them are sassy. I want to be able to tell him someday when he has kids of his own some of the things he said and did!

Here a sweet one: reading "Make Way for Ducklings" tonight and the mommy duck says to the daddy duck that he doesn't need to worry about her b/c she knows all there is to know about raising children. Kolby looks up at me, giggles, and says, "Just like you, Mom!" Oh, if only I really did, Kolby!!! But it warms my heart to hear you say that. A little confidence booster for the end of the day.

Halloween fun

Heading out w our pirate, princess, & football player to party at Angie's cookie decorating party...
so thankful to have good friends to celebrate holidays with!
our 3 babies (until the other round of babies hits in Jan!)...Kyler, Drew, Maisy (all born w/in 2 weeks of eachother last year). Kyler and Drew are football players together. oh so sweet :)
my little pumpkin (hahaha squash) carvers!
Hope you all had a fun halloween too! We missed you all and talked about how last year we were trick or treating in Kansas w/ our cousins and the Holdrens :(

September days gone by!

The other day I found Kyler happily sitting on Jon's guitar case. He loves music and listening to Jon play and sing. I think it's so sweet that he acts like such a big boy. He was so proud of himself sitting on the guitar case.
My first try at making almond milk....yes Kyler has a soy "food sensitivity". Of course he does. The Dr. says to me over the phone, "I guess you will have to make almond milk if you can't find it." WHAT? Yes, another thing to do every other day!

And yes, here is the first almond milk response. Its a no go. I still haven't given up...he's still drinking soy...but I'm hoping sometime he will be drinking almond milk! He spit it right out onto his bib.

The boys sporting In n Out burger hats that Gma sent in the mail. Gabby didn't want to wear her's....I think she thought there wasn't enough pink or purple on it so why should she wear it?
Our little Cardinals fans...thanks, Gma. Gabby says, "DADDY! Its your team!!!" and then proceeds to play soccer :) but Kolby is getting the football idea. Cinderella Baby just wants some undies.

Just a short little update on life in Sept. I'm a horrible blogger!

First week of school for us

Here's our kindergartner! He took his "pet" Harley to school with him the first day.
Kolby started Kindergarten on Sept. 13! Angie is his faithful, loving teacher and he LOVES her! She teaches him Tues-Thurs from 9 a.m. to noon. Then Fri & Sat I teach :)
Even though they don't really get to "go" anywhere we they filled their backpacks and we took pics of course! Gabby does go to Ellie's on Tues mornings to have preschool for an hour with Ellie and Veronica. Then Ellie comes to our house on Thurs mornings and I facilitate.
Gabby LOVES saying she is a preschooler. She loves to learn and have "friends". We find her in her room talking to all her "friends" who aren't really there....Every morning at breakfast the kids are so excited to do the date and weather.

So we are finally in full swing around here and the first week flew by with lots going on (plus visitors from KY). Here is a glimpse of our weekly schedule:

Monday: Day off
Tuesday: Kolby school till noon. Gabby preschool from 9 to 10. Arabic at Manel's from 3:30 to 5:30 (me and all 3 kids).
Wednesday: Kolby school till noon. Gabby & Mommy preschool time. AWANA 4:15- 5:45 (Jon & I are leading the Jr. Highers this year...it will be the first Jr. High group! I am SO EXCITED I am beside myself really. Last night we kicked into youth ministry mode as we were planning...it felt so good to do something I KIND OF KNOW and enjoy!)
Thursday: Kolby school till noon. Gabby & Ellie here for preschool. Arabic at Manel's from 3:30 to 5:30.
Friday: Kolby & Gabby & I do math as much as we can. 4:00 Jen's house for an arabic lesson with a believer.
Saturday: We try to do science! Church at 4 and the rest of the night is spent in fellowship with our fam here.
Sunday: "Sheraton" time for me! Jon goes to "church". The rest of the day we spend playing and getting ready for the week.

Well, those are just the "big" things that must happen during our days :).