gregandmeg.net

Last Updated on Friday, 06 May 2011 00:22 Written by Meg Thursday, 05 May 2011 22:58

Today is Cohen's due date!  Happy cinco de Mayo.  What a blessing little Cohen was to come 2 1/2 weeks early.  For example, today was Ana's mother's day performance.  I was able to go.  Just wanted to update the blog with a few things.  This is for those of you that like the newsy posts...

1.  This should be "pic of the week."  I know you can't tell by the girls' faces, but they are all healthy and feeling better!  We just went through close to a month of solid sickness (a virus traveling from one person to another).  It all started the week before Cohen was born, and we just finished up (he is now 2 1/2 weeks old).  The biggest thing for me is that Greg can hold Cohen.  It was so sad that he tried his best to stay away from him while he was sick.  Can you tell he loves holding him?  And praise be to God that Cohen and I have stayed healthy through it all.

2.  The kids are great.  Many have asked about jealousy and Maggie.  Besides being absolutely pitiful during her sickness and wanting me to hold her all the time, she hasn't shown a bit of jealousy.  I can tell that Ana is extra sensitive right now.  She cries about little things that she used to not cry about--I wonder if this can be attributed to the new addition and all that has been going on.  I certainly haven't been a good example.

Ana is a great big sister.  She loves holding Cohen and always asks if she can hold him on the couch.  She strokes his head and loves giving him kisses.  She always wants to comment, "Awwwwww, he is so cute."  Love it.  This is her in her "granjera"  or "farmgirl" costume today.

Maggie is actually talking more.  Used to, she wouldn't attempt to say most words that we asked her to try.  Last night, I prayed with the girls before bed.  When it was Maggie's tunr I started saying every family member's name and our teammates' names.  She attempted every one.  And she says a pretty good "Pop and Gram" and "Memaw."  Gram, you aren't coming out of her mouth as an explitive like Ana.  You are "Ham."  So funny.  And when I say "thank you for Cohen..." she refers to him as "Bah-beez" still.  Here is my little toodle-bug in a sweet little dress that I remember AG wearing.

Cohen is still a sleeper.  He hasn't moved out of our room yet.  I am not sure when I will make that transition.  He eats well, and seems to be a healthy growing boy.  His little eyes are becoming more and more blue.

3.  Today I loved going to AG's performance.  She was the star performer (in my opinion) in the song "Old McDonald Had A Farm."  The kids are learning English, and she was in the group that showed this song they learned.  What can I say?  She is a natural when it comes to her English subject.  I took Manuela with me to help with Maggie and Cohen.  I determines after going that right now, I CANNOT handle all 3 kids alone.  Manuela mainly helped me with Maggie, but here she is holding Cohen.

Because I was the photographer.  This was the best I could do to get a picture of me with the girls.

4.  I guess the biggest news to hit the McKinzie Family here in Peru is that WE ARE MOVING.  Our landlords decided to not renew our contract because one of their sons is moving down in to part of our rented space.  We completely understand the reason, but it came as a little bit of a surprise to me.  I was majorly bummed the day we found out.  It has been very difficult to find a house to rent in our targeted area.  Greg looked before now, and had absolutely zero luck finding anything.  Kyle, our dear teammate, found a great possiblity the morning after we found out that we needed to move.  Greg and I took the kids with us to check it out and we loved it.  Papers have not been signed so nothing is official.  I have been strongly warned by my husband to not get my hopes up until we know for sure.  (I am afraid that I have already gotten my hopes up.  Oh well.) I took lots of pictures and will post them if we end up here, but for now I will show you what it looks like from the road.  It is located in Alto Selva Alegre (the community where Kyle and Larissa currently live) so it is in our targeted area.  It is close to another large park and a major combi route.  The house is completely new, and the owner has done an excellent job with it.  He said he might possibly call us if it is done by this Saturday.  It would be awesome if it all works out to have my mom here to help with the move.  We will keep you posted.

It sits behind his grandfather's home and aunt's home.  It is the tall yellow and cream house back behind the pink and yellow house facing the road.

Last Updated on Friday, 03 February 2012 20:33 Written by Meg Friday, 03 February 2012 18:48

The Title of this post in Spanish is "Magicas Princesas."  It is a song that brings me to tears by Jesus Adrian Romero.  He writes it from a father's perspective, but it is a song dedicated to his two daughters.  If you see him perform this song, they always have a slideshow on the big screens showing his daughters going from babies to young women.  As a parent of two little girls, it definitely strikes an emotional chord within me.  I use this blog to record things I don't ever want to forget, and this post is dedicated to the two Magicas Princesas that live in our home...

First of all, these girls can laugh and have the best time together...

1.  I have a sister, but there is enough of an age gap that I never got to play with my sister like Ana and Maggie get to do.  I have two older sister-in-laws that say that their best friend is their sister (both are very close in age to their sister).  I absolutely adore seeing these two grow a friendship.  They not only share a room, they share a bed.  Some nights there is tickling and hysterical laughter coming from their room after bedtime, and some nights someone is crying.  That is what friendship is made of, right?  Tears of happiness and sadness.

2.  These two love being princesses.  Ana in her high heels, Maggie in her tutus.  Maggie even calls her tutus her "princisas" (she is trying to say the Spanish word for princess).  They love playing in their dollhouse castle, and right now Tangled and The Twelve Dancing Princesses are the favorite movie selctions.  Ana has requested a "Princess" birthday party this year.

3.  They love to help me in the kitchen.  I have to admit that on some level I get annoyed with it somedays.  I love baking and cooking and it is a way that I do something for me.  But many meals, (Ana especially) they insist on doing something to help.  I have to check my perspective and think, "One day they will be doing the cooking (hopefully for me!).  And the more they learn now, the more independent they will be later."  Ana loves to help measure things.  Since she knows her numbers she puts things into the microwave for me.  She also is big enough to get my ingredients out of the fridge for me.  Maggie likes to press the start button on the microwave, but her main job is turning the timer off when it starts beeping on my oven.  I don't want to forget the image of her dashing down the steps in when she hears that beeper!  She is also a pro at putting a bag of pasta into a pot.  I think my favorite team work between the three of us is snapping beans.  We have that one down!

Anastasia

1.  Some days I cannot believe how fast Ana Grace has grown.  She still loves to crawl up in our laps, and when I look at those long legs I cannot believe how tall she is.  Right now, Ana still loves art so much.  We bought her art supplies with some of her Christmas money, and in the month of January, she used all of the paper.  She loves making cards for others.  She also draws me a picture about once a day.  I am going to put an "art line" across the white wall in my kitchen so I can display more of her art.  My fridge is only so big.  What I love so much about this is that it shows a piece of what God is doing in her heart.  She loves to give cards to others.  If someone has a birthday, if someone is sad, her first thought is, "I can make them a card."  I love this about her.  On a side note, this little artist made me a 3-D birthday card for my birthday.  Greg and I were very impressed.

2.  Speaking of art, she also loves music.  I sing to the girls every night before bed, and there are some nights that Ana wants to share a new song she has made up.  I love it.  She loves to dance with the music in the kitchen with me.  Her favorite requests are the Disney Princess album and Veggie Tales.

3.  Ana loves being outside.  One thing I really miss is a yard for our kids to play in.  We have our rooftop, but it isn't kid friendly.  We have beautiful parks, but unless the timing works for naptimes I am unable to take all three by myself.  This girl loves the outdoors.  There aren't too many days when Ana doesn't ask to go to the park or go for a walk.  She loves it.  She also loves riding her three-wheeler she got as a 2-year-old.  We are thinking this birthday girl (she turns 5 next month) may be getting a big girl bike.  It is quite a sight to see those long legs peddling that small bike.

4.  Ana is a bottomless pit when it comes to eating.  She will finish any meal when it comes to getting dessert afterward.  She also will eat her meal and be hungry 20 minutes later.  I am thankful she likes fruit so much.  She is one that will go in the kitchen and help herself to a whole apple.  She chomps away until the core remains.  Her favorite food right now is Tortellini Soup.  She could also eat a "sandwich and chips" every day for lunch.  For example, I might say, "Ana, do you want some left-over spaghettie for lunch?"  She will answer, "Yes, and with some chips and a sandwich."  (She doesn't get her request but she always tries.)  Her favorite dessert is cookies crunched up in ice cream or an Oreo milkshake.

5.  I love to work on school stuff with AG.  She has loved reading her first set of Junie B Jones books with Greg.  Greg has commented that with her short hair she looks like Junie B.  :-)  What do you think?

She is practicing her letters and reading sight words right now.  She writes well, and has been learning things that I know she won't get at school: days of the week, months of the year, English phonics.  One day I may be homeschooling her full time, and I won't mind it.  I enjoy working with Ana.  She starts back to school in March and will complete Kindergarten.

6.  Ana is bilingual.  There are words she only knows in Spanish.  Their are phrases that she translates from Spanish to English.  This is part of being a biligual kid living in a culture where they speak a different language than their parents.  One phrase I don't want to forget is Ana saying, "Things pasen."  Pasar is "to happen" in Spanish.  She will tell Maggie, "It is okay Mags.  Things pasen."  She also thinks of soccer whenever she hears football.

7.  This girl loves her style.  I have told Greg that if we really needed to punish Ana we would just need to tell her she couldn't dress herself for the week.  Her "thing" is a skirt with tights, boots or her sparkly shoes, a "cute" shirt, and a matching headband.  Do you see that picture of Junie B?!?

Maggie

1.  HOOT.  That is the word I use to describe Maggie.  She loves to get people to laugh, and once she figures out she is the star of the show, she milks it for all it is worth.  I LOVE how that picture above captures Maggie's smile.  Her laughter is infectious, and she loves nothing more than for someone to be laughing with her.  A favorite memory is of her running down the stairs in her tutu one Sunday when the house church was here.  She came out into the middle of the room, held her hands out like she had just finished a gymnstics routine and shouted, "Hola!" to the same effect as "Tah-dah!"  I died with laughter that day.

2.  Maggie has been potty training and she has done very well with it.  She gets an M&M whenever she does her business, and she is sure to cash in on it.  I mentioned her liking her tutus.  I think one of my favorite memories of late is of Maggie walking around the house in her tutu made of pink sheer material with no underwear.  Quite a sight.

3.  Her favorite food is soup or pasta, hands down.  Today she asked me if she could have soup for lunch.  I said, "You love soup."  She said back, "Yep.  I love sopa (the Spanish word for soup)."  She could also eat eggs every morning for breakfast if I allowed it.  I make waffles about once a week.  She can eat her wait in waffle, butter, and syrup.  She also enjoys eating her "pan" (Spanish for bread) on Manuela days.

4.  She pronounces her "C's" like a "T."  It is really quite adorable.  Her brother is "Tohen."  Her Daddy loves "Toffee."  And our teammates are "Shaye, Torah, Tyle, and Tarissa."  She also loves a special treat of getting to drink "Toke."

5.  Speaking of "hoot" and "t's", let's make the word "Toot."  Ana was the easiest going child.  ever.  Maggie has been a little bit of a different story.  She tests her boundaries quite frequently.  And now, she just goes ahead and asks, "Do I get spankeens?"  The answer is usually yes.  She can be the sweetest child when she is well-rested, but if she has not slept well or lacks in the nap department, she is the moodiest thing.  She takes a 2-3 hour nap every afternoon.  We sing a song of her choice, she gets her baby and baba, and I have to wait to hear her say, "Don't let the bed bugs get you!"  She then giggles and waits for me to say, "Ok, I won't.  Don't let them get you!"  And then I have to let her say, "Night Night, I love you."  I have walked out of her room enough times without going through that ritual to hear her cry and cry until I say it.  It is pretty funny to hear her all choked up saying, "But I didn't tell you "I love you." (imagine her barely getting that out.)

6.  Right now Maggie loves books, playing with balls, dressing up, and play cooking.  She will start school in March with Ana.  She is starting a year too early according to the Peruvian calendar, but we will just have her repeat it.  She needs the social interaction, and this is how she will learn Spanish.  Right now I am working on her colors, basic shapes, and numbers in English and Spanish.  I can't wait to see how she like school this year.

7.  Also one thing that I want to remember about Maggie living specifically here in Arequipa is what she does when she hears a whistle.  Here in Arequipa, the night watch man that patroles the neighborhood is called a "watchyman."  He walks the streets blowing his whistle.  Whenever Maggie hears a whistle, she will shout with excitement, "Watchyman!"

We love our princesses!

Last Updated on Tuesday, 01 March 2011 02:30 Written by Meg Tuesday, 01 March 2011 01:42

So can we say "major catch-up?"  I have been absent from the family site for most of this month, but tonight I have made several new posts.  I am on a new roll.  Here is what has been going on:

1.  Greg is editor-in-chief of a missions journal that comes out twice a year.  This was the month of publication so when I had the time to blog, he usually was using the computer to finish up the journal.  I am so proud of him and the board of editors for their hard work on this issue.  Here is the website to the journal (totally free).  Check it out if you haven't seen it before: http://www.missiodeijournal.com/ .

2.  Greg took a trip 5 hours outside of the city.  It is a really neat mission opportunity for the church here in Arequipa.  If you haven't read the article he posted on the team site, you can click this link: http://teamarequipa.net/stories/245-chaclaya .

3.  We hosted a Valentine banquet for the church.  It was a lot of fun besides all the rain we had that evening.

4.  The rain.  We have had LOTS of it this month.  It has kind of dwindled down lately, but the Peruvians are saying that the rainy season will last thru mid-March.  We shall see.

5.  One of the women that has attended the library study in Porvenir for the last year has decided to be baptized.  She has studied and attended the group that Abraham worships with in the Porvenir community.  We rejoice with her and her decision and look forward to hearing the details of when and where.

6.  I have written updates on all 3 children.  I need Greg to help me post some video footage and we are good to publish.  Be looking for those.

7.  March is a big month.  Our second incentive program for the Porvenir library happens this Saturday.  We are hosting a back-to-school carnival for the Porvenir community a week after that.  Ana starts school next Monday.  And Ana turns 4 on the 23rd!

8.  I started language classes again today.  I will take them until Cohen arrives.

9.  Greg and I are really being challenged in some similar thoughts lately.  I will have to say that I am so blessed to struggle thru this step in my Christianity with my partner in ministry.  God is molding us together, and that is a neat part of marriage.

10.  Nearly 2 months from my due date!  Collin, my brother, hopefully finds out his placement for residency this month and graduates from Med school 2 days after my due date.  My mother's hip recovery seems to be going well, and she plans to make the trip to Arequipa to help us after Collin's graduation.  It will be here before we know it.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 21 December 2011 04:35 Written by Meg Sunday, 18 December 2011 00:00

December 18, 2004--The date that Greg and I got married SEVEN years ago.  Well... time in grad school, moving to a different country, and three kids later, here we are to celebrate.  In honor of the seven years I want to list seven things I love about Greg:

1.  He is the father of Anastasia Grace, Margaret Kathryn, and Cohen Timothy, and he is a GREAT daddy.

2.  He can build things, hunt, repair things, fish--he is a manly man.

3.  ALSO... He can cook, wash dishes, fold clothes, staighten the house, feed a baby, change diapers--he can play the role of Mr. Mom when I need him to.

4.  He likes to watch the XFactor with me.  :-)

5.  He is absolutely delighted with some very simple things in life: cooking him a meal he likes, saving the "crunchies" in a popcorn bowl for him, being served a cup of coffee in the morning.

6.  He is such a thoughtful gift-giver.

7.  I am told by so many of my Christian brothers and sisters (in the states and in Peru) that they have so much respect for Greg.  That makes me so proud.

Greg arranged a surprise anniversary date night for me.  That is a wonderful way to make a girl feel special.  He arranged for childcare and told me that I needed to be ready to go out Friday evening.  He even bought me a new dress for the occasion (I don't dress up very often here).  When Friday arrived, that morning he gave me a small bag from one of the nice Peruvian jewelry stores we have here.  Inside was this sterling silver handcrafted Peruvian bracelet.  He told me he thought it would look good with my black dress.

Around 5:15 we took the kids to our friends' home.  On our way into the center, I realized that I had forgotten Cohen's pacifier (perfect mistake for the 7th!  Ha.).  It took us 45 minutes to go back home, get the pacifier, drive it to Cohen, and get back into the center.  Boy did I feel like an idiot.  Those three kids caused me to lose so many brain cells, especially the ones for memory, I am afraid.

Greg took me to share a frapuccino.  We then walked to an art gallery that was featuring an Arequipan artist (which we loved).  From there we went to eat at our favorite steak restaurant.  It was a wonderful evening full of time without kids to distract me (except for forgetting the pacifier) and conversation over our past year, the ways we have grown, and looking into the future.

Thank you, Lord, for seven sweet years with a godly man that strives to serve you with all that he is.  Continue to bless him with wisdom to serve you and lead his family.

I love you, Greg McKinzie, with all of my heart!  Thank you for choosing me to be your one and only.