Jiu Jitsu and wrestling

In October, the boys started learning Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at a gym in town. The boys go to class typically 3 days a week, where they receive a mixture of instruction learning new moves, do lots of repetition to practice, and on Thursday it’s open mat for grappling. In addition to learning self-defense, the boys are learning about respect, discipline, humility, commitment, and friendship. The boys have really enjoyed the training, and are always looking forward to going to class. These two videos are from grappling nights. There are always multiple instructors per class and on these nights, instructors work with two kids at a time while they grapple and they help guide the fight and keep the kids safe. In jiu jitsu there is no kicking or punching, the goal is to obtain dominance and get your opponent into a submissive position.

Another value at the gym is creating a family environment and they work hard to include families in everything, from training, to competitions and events. In December, the gym had a white elephant Christmas Party for the kids and families and they had a great time playing with the other students.

The gym recently added Wrestling on Fridays. One of the head instructors is from the area and he wrestled  as a youth, then went on to coach wresting for middle schoolers in the area, and he also wrestled at Virginia Military Institute. He has a passion for the sport and wanted to offer training at the gym. Caleb is planning to tryout for wrestling this winter, so this will prepare him with the fundamentals of the sport before tryouts later in January. 

The boys are really enjoying the training, and we are looking forward to watching them grow in this new sport.

Fall festivities and visit with the Purcells

We love all things about fall. The weather, the changing colors, and fun activities that come with it. During the fall, we also pull out puzzles. The first one the kids wanted to do this year was their cat puzzle. They worked on it for a few days, and discovered there were some pieces that didn’t make it from Turkey.

The elementary school held a trunk or treat the week before Hallloween. Benjamin dressed up as an animae character and Eliza was Ariel from the Little Mermaid.

On actual Halloween, the kids went trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. It was their first Halloween in the US since they were infants. They caught onto the concept quickly, and came home with a lot of candy. Caleb went trick or treating with another friend in the neighborhood, and Benjamin went trick or treating with a group of friends and a few parents. Eliza and I joined them for a little while, and came home when Eliza was tired, and Nathan stayed at the house to pass out candy to all the kids. It was a fun evening, and they brought home so much candy that we ate it for probably the next month. 

Caleb was Tanjiro from the animae Demon Slayer

Benjamin was Zenitsu from the animae Demon Slayer

Eliza was a cute witch.

In early November, Mark and Betty came to visit for the week. I had to go out of town for a few days and they also helped us with the kids that week. Grandma helped Eliza with a Thanksgiving  project to hide a turkey - they did a good job!

Another day they went to Skyzone…the kids favorite place!

Another day they met up with Ron and Nancy for lunch then Ron and Nancy came back to our house for a visit to see Nathan and the kids. 

Another day, Nathan and I unpacked some boxes and Mark and Betty took the kids to the Air and Space Museum by Dulles Airport. They have a nice observatory over looking the runway where you can watch planes take off and land.

Standing in front of one’s of the space shuttles - it is a very impressive museum.

And the best part of the museum (according to the kids) is the iMax theater.

They were here to see Caleb and Benjamin do jitsu, Caleb and Eliza’s gymnastics, and Benjamin’s last two soccer games. It was a fun visit and we are thankful they could come be with us for the week and have some time to relax during their stay.

 

Benjamin is 11 and quick trip to Williamsburg

Finishing up our week of celebrations is Benjamin’s birthday, and this year we celebrated him turning 11 years old!

Benjamin has lots of hobbies and talents, but the ones that stand out most at this time are his love for soccer, yo-yo, Pokémon, and Rubik’s cube. He is determined to learn and master new things, and we are confident there will be plenty of new challenges in his future. Benjamin enjoys being with friends and has no shortage of them. He loves his siblings and his bond with each of them has grown in new was this past year. This year we were leaving for a quick weekend trip to Williamsburg on his birthday, so we celebrated at home the day before. We had birthday breakfast of cinnamon rolls, bacon, and fruit salad on the ‘You are Special Today’ plate, that we found days before his birthday while unpacking.

Benjamin requested a carrot cake for his birthday and since we were leaving after breakfast that morning, we had a tiny one.

Make a wish….

Next he opened gifts, the kids enjoy celebrating each other.

Once we got to Williamsburg, we stopped at a go-kart place to celebrate, and we all had fun riding go-karts for the next couple of hours. The boys were big enough to drive alone, and Eliza was big enough to be a passenger with them. It was a fun afternoon.

Our hotel was right in the middle of Colonial Williamsburg, and we could easily walk through the Colonial village and into the downtown area. We didn’t spend a lot of time looking at the sites, but enjoyed walking through the streets and looking at the different old homes and businesses of that era.

On Benjamin’s birthday, we visited with friends we made in Amman, Jordan, that now live in Williamsburg. They have a son that was in Caleb’s class for 2 years and friends with both boys. It had been 4 years since we saw each other, but the kids seemed to pick up right where they left off, and we all had a fun day together.

Later that evening, we went to Mellow Mushroom for dinner, and Benjamin kept asking when the waiters would come sing him happy birthday. He had the show he was hoping for and enjoyed every second of it. Happy 11th birthday Benjamin, we love you. Keep dreaming big!

 

14 Years!

This year Nathan and I celebrated 14 years of marriage. Over the past 14 years, 10 of them have been spent abroad living in 4 countries, and we have been blessed with 3 kids and the opportunity to travel around the world. Through the ups and downs, there is no one I could imagine doing it with than Nathan. 

Happy Anniversary, Nathan. I’m thankful that we fell in love and that God chose me for you. I love you.

Celebrating Nathan

This year Nathan turned 43 years old, and we all enjoyed celebrating the wonderful husband and father that he is. Nathan puts other first and is always present with his family. He looks for ways to challenge us and find new things for us to do as a family. He likes celebrating in a low-key way and that is what we did. We started the day with the typical birthday breakfast of cinnamon rolls, bacon, and fruit salad.

Then Nathan opened some gifts, Benjamin had a soccer game, and we had dinner and cake in the evening.

Happy 43rd birthday Nathan, we love you!

House projects and getting settled

This fall, Nathan spent a lot of time outside working in the yard getting the grass healthy, trimming trees, and bushes, and landscaping, while he had time off of work until the end of September.

The first picture is the backside of the house. Nathan trimmed the apple tree in the middle and date tree on the left side, planted bushes alongside the back of the house, and spent a lot of time mowing and watering the lawn. 

He trimmed all the bushes and trees in the front of the house, planted new bushes along the walkway and front of the house, and hung an American flag.

We had the front door and shutters painted from brown to black, and had the outdoor light fixtures swapped out from gold to black. The new landscaping and fresh paint brightened up the house a lot.

We have two very productive persimmon trees in our yard that produced way more fruit than we knew what to do with, so we invited people to pick the fruit. This sweet fruit is very popular amongst Koreans, and they would come to our home with their own ladders and pickers to make sure they got every last fruit that was ready for picking.

A few days before Nathan went back to work and a little over a week before I went back, we received notice that our shipment from Turkey  was here and available for delivery. We were anticipating it arriving in late October/early November, so it was a welcomed surprise. We got used to living off of minimal stuff the past few months. Receiving our stuff is always a blessing and a curse, and like always we purged as we unpacked. We were mostly unpacked by the time I went back to work, aside from several straggler boxes of photos, large pictures to store away, and one more run to Goodwill.

Shortly after, we had our deck redone and a patio installed. Our deck had several soft spots and part of the frame needed to be reinforced. It was mostly a one-for-one redo, but we did upgrade the railings from white wood posts to black aluminum, and it made a big difference in its appearance and visibility from the deck. We also had lights installed on the deck and patio, and an access door built into the deck lattice to store items underneath the deck.

Starting the excavation for the patio. The patio was built within a few days, then the team took a few days to very carefully build the sitting wall out of individual stones. The craftsmanship was impeccable, it was impressive to watch.

When the patio was complete, Nathan planted bushes around the edge of the sitting wall. 

He and the workers did a great job on all the projects.

And we had a little over a month to enjoy the patio before winter set in.