Oh, Oh, OH Canada!

What a game!!! We were not really divided as we are proud of both of "our countries" I am a bit relieved as I bet that I would jump in the pool if the USA won. Our pool is icy after record cold here in Florida.

Wanna Bet????

Our family has pretty much conceded that Canada will win the Gold Medal in hockey. And we will be happy, however....bets have been flying back and forth around here.

Because I live with a bunch of chickens, I am the only one that will make good on my bet which is this: If the US wins the gold medal I will jump in the pool... average night temps here have been nippy, around 45 which means that the water will be cold....so we will see, I may be the first member of the South Florida Polar Bear Swim Club.

Big shout out to Canada for those Gold Medals! Way to go!

Anna and Jia

I want everyone to know right up front, I do not favor Anna or Jia. They are big "hams" and Katie runs when she sees the camera. I really have to sneak up on her.

Today Anna had her professional pictures taken for her rec team-the Sharks, but her Dad took some really nice pictures of her after they were done. And of course we always have a few thousand pictures of Jia "take my picture" Parnham laying around.

We have been glued to the Olympics from the time we wake up until the time we go to sleep at night. All of us love it and Vancouver is doing a really great job. I'm keeping quiet now, but at the end I will tell you who I think the hero of the games was. I am sure you are all waiting with baited breath.

Funny (?) story: Anna and Katie have been getting quite a few inquires from colleges. On Friday they each got one from Vanderbilt University, the first page states in HUGE letters "You can afford Vanderbilt!" Which means right then and there that we can't afford Vanderbilt. Thought that was kind of a poor way to get prospective students....(plus their football team stinks---just kidding).

And tonight, a proud moment for the other third of our family

A proud moment for China, the country we consider the third nation of our international family.
Xie Xie for two beautiful Chinese performances in pairs figure skating.

OH CANADA! CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR NORTHERN NEIGHBORS & RELATIVES!

FIRST CANADIAN GOLD ON HOME SOIL!!!!!

Jia's First Sleepover or Jia is the only one with a Valentines Date

This is a weird day for us. Drew and I decided to postpone our Valentines Dinner until next weekend as the resteraunt we wanted to go to was booked. Anna had a secret admirerer that never overcame his nerves and Katie had no interest whatsoever....

HOWEVER...Jia not only has a date, she is sleeping over at Parker's House. Please don't question our morals, several of Parker's female cousins will be sleeping in the "girls room" with Jia.

We told Jia that if she got scared we would come over and pick her up--no phone call yet. and it is 10:45, so I guess she is staying.

Holding our breath on Men's Moguls--GO CANADA, First Gold medal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THEY DID IT!!!!!!!!!!! YEAH CANADA, YEAH PARNHAMS!!!! CONGRATULATIONS.

Gung Hay Fat Choy! Year of the Tiger

Happy Chinese New Year! This is a big deal for us because the New Year is China's biggest holiday. Keeping Jia's cultural background is very, very important to our family. Jia has already celebrated in school wearing traditional dress and handing out red envelopes with chocolate coins. Because this year the New Year coincides with Valentines Day (IMHO a Hallmark holiday)
The Dragon Festival will be on Tuesday. I am so happy that my 6 year old asked me "when is the China Festival Mom?"

As for the Olympics--we thought the Opening Ceremony was beautiful and were very proud of Drew's beautiful country of Canada. We all watched the athletes walk into the stadium and cheered loudly-of course for the USA, Canada and China.

Wo ai ni
(I Love You)

all of us...

Ps. Snow in Florida tonight.....

SUMMER GATOR!

SOOOOOOO PROUD OF ANNA. DIDN'T WANT TO SHARE HER NEWS UNTIL SHE TOLD HER NONA AND GRANDPA, BUT ANNA IS GOING TO GAINESVILLE !

ANNA HAS BEEN ACCEPTED INTO THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA SUMMER JOURNALISM INSTITUTE. AND.......SHE HAS BEEN NOMINATED FOR A SCHOLORSHIP.

CHOMP, CHOMP. CHOMP.....

SAINTS AND FOOTBALL

I DON'T FOLLOW PRO FOOTBALL. I KNOW IT IS A HUGE DAY FOR FOOTBALL FANS. (ANNA AND I ARE WAITING FOR THE GAME TO START TO DO OUR GROCERY SHOPPING, FIGURING IT WILL BE PRETTY EMPTY AT PUBLIX).

OKAY, SORRY, GOT OFF TOPIC. TODAY WE ARE SAINTS FANS. WHY? FLORIDA GATORS DON'T USUALLY GO FOR THE UNDERDOG. WE ARE JUST THAT GOOD.

WHY ARE WE SAINTS FANS? BECAUSE NEW ORLEANS NEEDS THIS, THEY NEED A BOOST. I AM NOT NAIVE ENOUGH TO THINK THAT A FOOTBALL GAME IS GOING TO MIRACULOUSLY MAKE THINGS ALL BETTER. BUT THEY DESERVE SOMETHING GOOD.

THEY ARE NOT ALRIGHT, SO MUCH WORK STILL NEED TO BE DONE. THANK GOD WE NOW HAVE A PRESIDENT THAT KNOWS THAT.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK "THE GREAT DELUGE" BY DOUGLAS BRINKLEY. IT IS ONE OF THE BEST NON- FICTION BOOKS I HAVE EVER READ AND TELLS THE TERRIFYING STORY OF NEW ORLEANS.

ALSO: CHECK OUT: http://www.makeitrightnola.org/
IT IS HEARTENING TO SEE WHAT HAS BEEN DONE. SOME OF THE HOMES ARE AMAZING, HOWEVER THE PEOPLE OF NEW ORLEANS STILL NEED OUR HELP.

SO HERE IS SOMETHING I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD SAY:

GO SAINTS!

Year of the Tiger (a little early)

Chinese New Year this year is on Feb. 14--Valentines Day, so Jia's awesome teacher devoted this week to the Year of the Tiger and next week will be a Valentines theme.

Today Jia dressed in her traditional Chinese clothes, this is one of the larger suits that we brought home from China. And I ordered her Chinese shoes from this really great place called China Sprout. If you are interested in anything Chinese or anything about adoption this is the place to go!

Anyway, Jia was thrilled with the shoes.

Jia took red envelopes in to her class, they had chocolate coins in them. In China, children get these with real money in them. This is China's biggest holiday.

Usually on the real Chinese New Year we take Jia to DragonGate to see the festivities, but they won't be until next week. This morning she asked me if we were going to the Dragon party.She has been there ever since she came to the US . I had to explain to her that it wasn't until next week.

Jia has two other Chinese girls in her class both dressed traditionally and also brought red envelopes so I thought that was kind of cool.

Check back later--you guessed it, soccer night.....

Rainy Days and Mondays....

Don't have any idea what happened but we woke up to stormy skies and it rained ALL day. The girls were kept in their classes. Where we live is basically at sea level and it is built up Everglades swamp land. Here are some pictures of what happens to our backyard if it rains all day....

Don't forget to scroll down, there are some new Anna pictures under this post.

Anna is now a Shark....

High school soccer is over, one day later rec soccer started and Anna went from being a Falcon to being a Shark (colors silver and black). I did not get great pics from the first game as my little Jia kept wanting to sit on my lap (that's ok with me x0x0x0x) but here are two that Anna chose as being her favorites. First game: tie 2-2.