Canaan Sayings

Canaan comes up with new, funny things to say everyday. We just have a blast laughing with him. Here is just a tiny glimpse of our fun!

Imagination

Canaan: leaning over in front of Max's face, Oh, Ok Max. To Mommy: Max want to play with me.

Mommy: Yes?

Canaan: He was callin' me!

Master of the Gross and Obvious

Canaan: That was my fingernail.

Mommy: Is it in your mouth?

Canaan: Yep.

Mommy: Yuk. Give it to me.

Canaan: after digging around in his mouth: I think it went all gone.

Drama King Seeks Confirmation

Canaan: What happened to my hands???

Mommy: They are dirty.

Canaan: After we get home, I will wash them?

Mommy: Ok.

Canaan: That is a great idea?!?!

Sweet Whisperings

Canaan Praying: Thank you for this, and this, and this, and everything!

Say That Again?

In the car on the way home:

Daddy: Canaan, are you awake?

Canaan: No.

Daddy: Do you want to sing?

Canaan: No, I want to sleep.

They Must Be Like Me!

Canaan reading a book to us: "...and Thomas took all the animals to their new apartment!" It was supposed to be, 'new home!'

Right Back At You

Mommy: very distracted, Canaan, it is time to get dressed. Take off your pants.

Mommy: again, and still distracted, Canaan, take off your pants.

Mommy: finally paying attention, Canaan, take off your pants!

Canaan: Mommy, don't ask me that again!

What Kind of Parents Are We?

Canaan: playing by himself, Nobody cares for me!

Canaan: another time, talking to me, Go Away! Leave me alone!

When Canaan spit out these sayings, we were baffled as to where they came from. Even Uncle David was concerned he might have said, "Go away, leave me alone" to Canaan and was feeling bad. Hearing these statements out of our two year old's mouth, we were feeling baffled and like bad parents! But then we discovered where they came from. The first one came from the book, The Little Read Caboose, that his MeeMaw gave him, we realized that is what the caboose says in the book! Now he quotes whole sections of that book when he is trying to go to sleep at night! "Go away! Leave me alone!" comes from the movie The Jungle Book. We have since corrected that by talking to him about how we don't say that to other people. It is not nice.

Pictures, Finally!

Hi there! I am finally posting some pictures. In the States, we bought a new computer because our old was has been acting like it wants to die on us for a while. My husband is a HUGE fan of Mac, sothat is what we bought. However, I am having to re-learn how to do a few things. One is resizing pictures. But, now that I figured it out, it is SUPER EASY and I can do it way faster than on the PC. So, I am a big fan now too! :)

Canaan loved playing on his "playground" my dad had built. Max enjoyed his very own swing in it too. Canaan also loved hanging out with his grand-dad. Whenever he was home from work, he would go outside with Grand-Dad, move the water hoses to water various parts of the lawn, pull weeds in the garden with him, check the mail at the end of the driveway, etc. Sometimes he would randomly look at Grand-Dad and say, "Oops, there's a weed! Get out of there weed!" It was like their little inside joke. Too cute! And when Grand-Dad wasn't around, he would pull and tug on the water hoses by himself, thus one of the pictures below. In one pic, Canaan is walking in front of my parent's wildflower garden. It was in full bloom part of the time we were there and was just beautiful!

Kharkov Vs. Lubbock

It had been a bit over a year when we went back to Lubbock on furlough this past May. There were a few things that stood out to us while in Lubbock:

• Small and medium sized drinks looked like larges (and horray for those free refills!)
• Mom's oven looked about 30% larger than I remembered it being. I guess mine is more mini than I realized!
• The washing machine held about 2.5 times what I thought it should.
• You don't have to sack your own groceries- or take them out yourself.

Some things I did enjoy, besides the obvious family and friends that we LOVED being around:

• Walmart
• Taco Bell
• Abuelos
• Many more places and things related to food! :)
• The Dollar Tree 
• Books in English- big bookstores where I could read everything!
• Theaters in English (we saw 3 great movies while there)
• Wide Open Spaces: I love big cities, but they do leave me feeling a bit claustrophobic after a while. When I get out to my parents' house or am driving down a desolate road in the middle of no-where Texas (...trip to Tarzan, anyone?)- it is heaven. I love how much SKY you can see and how flat the land is. 
• People understanding Canaan when he spoke, though he has started back in Russian mode a tad by saying hi (stras-voo-tyey) in Russian to our neighbors. 
• BIG Bible class for Canaan. We do Bible class here, but Canaan is one of three boys (it was down to two when we were gone). So, going where there were "lots of kids" was unique for him. Canaan was shy, but loved it. Even though he went to various churches over the weeks, he did get Mrs. Sherry (Roberts) three Sunday mornings. He was talking about her yesterday when the context of singing and class came up. 

Things that I've noticed since being back in Kharkov (they really just relate to driving because that is what stood out to me yesterday when I went to the store and market):

• Just because there are now white lines painted on the roads (there wasn't before- I guess they had worn off during winter), doesn't mean that he drivers follow them. Actually, it is a bit dangerous to assume that cars stay in the lane markers. I was driving down the road and a bus started veering into my lane and then continued down the middle of the two lanes! And cars have repeatedly crossed the double white middle lines to travel into oncoming traffic-sometimes us. We just have to move over into the right lane because they took over ours! I guess there is good reason the speed limit is so low.
• The lanes marked for turning and going straight are really only for turning. So, just stick to driving down the middle lane. Otherwise you get stuck turning left when you really don't want to.
• No rights on red. 
• Watch for policemen waving a stick on the side of the road. 
• No talking on cell phones while driving. (Shouldn't this be a law everywhere?)
• Road construction isn't quite the inconvenience it could be. We must take a picture to show you. But here is what is happening: on a major road nearby, they are ripping out the trolley bus tracks that go down the center of the road. So, the middle of the road is torn down to the dirt. Driving is done in a narrow strip on the side. But, when they aren't working during the day, people park in the middle dirt strip of the construction area! Crazy funny. 

Ok, I have more, but it is late. I need to sleep because I've been a bit sick. Keep our health in your prayers (someone from all three of our families has been sick this week). Hope everyone is doing well. Keep an eye out. I have some CUTE/FUNNY sayings of Canaan and PICTURES to come SOON!

Back Home

It is a bit weird to title the post "back home" since I call two places home. One is my parents' house which I keep returning to for various amounts of time after graduating high school. But, I am sure they don't mind, as long as I bring the grandkids with me! :) The second is my home here. Yes, after 15 months here in Eastern Europe, it feels a bit like home. It is where Canaan has spent 1/3 of his life and where Max was born.
Ok, enough nostalgia.
We arrived back in Kharkov on Friday afternoon, Lubbock time, Friday evening, Ukraine time. We were met by Rob, David and Brandon. (Brandon and Katie- our future teammates- are visiting our team this month.) They had planned to have two taxis also meet us to bring us home, but because of several miscommunications, there was none. Oops. We finally got one to show up after an hour. We chatted for a bit with Liv and Katie (and the boys too) and then went to bed. It is always nice to lay out flat after being on airplanes for a long time. Our travel time home was about 25 hours, of which we slept less than 5 hours. Well, Max slept more. The trip home was good. Canaan had a mini-meltdown on our second to last flight when he woke up from an hour sleep crying. Then Max started crying. The poor people around us. Max settled down quickly, but it took Canaan about 30 minutes or more to calm down. Poor guy. He was just completely and utterly exhausted. We bribed him with everything, to which he finally said, "I don't want anything!" We even threatened. I think he just wanted to cry.
We made it back with everything except one suitcase and our stroller. Dougle is walking in the door right now with it. Yeah. Actually, they called to tell us it had arrived at the airport and Dougle confirmed, "I will come out there and pick it up?" They just laughed at him and said, "You think we would bring it to your house?" Silly us. Look what that month in the U.S. did to us!
Well, I am not going to attempt to recount everything now. My goal is to make more frequent, but shorter posts with pictures. Unfortunately, this one isn't coming with a picture. Soon... But Canaan is waking up and Max is fussy and Dougle is in the kitchen looking for something for dinner.
In case you were wondering, it starts getting light outside around 4am. I could look out the window and see everything. Max and I were up to view it. He was still on Lubbock time...thinking it was only 8pm. Canaan is adjusting well and has slept the majority of the last two nights. God is good. He even gave us energy to stay awake in church today! That way Brandon wouldn't think we were slacker teammates sleeping through his sermon. (Yes, if you visit, you might just be asked to preach!)
It was more than wonderful seeing those of you we got to see. We missed not seeing some of you or not spending more time with you. It was really a whirlwind trip. We love you all. Keep us in your prayers. And we will pray for you too. Send us a note sometime to let us know about specific requests. Just because we are overseas doesn't mean we don't love you and care! Blessings.
Lucy