The Farns: Introducing....

Sunday, 8 July 2012

Introducing....

Introducing Annie, the newest member of our family!

Many of you are thinking - were you pregnant again and didn't tell anyone? No, not this time - though you are all justified in thinking that, since it has been known to happen before... Annie is 23 years old, from Vietnam. She is here in the UK going to university. She needed a place to stay for the summer and we needed someone to do cute, complicated hairstyles for three little girls. So it was a match! She has been living with us for about three weeks so far and things could not be better. We love Annie! We are glad you could be a part of our family. The only problem I foresee is that the girls will be completely depressed when she has to leave but that is not for another month and a half. So we won't focus on that bit right now....

Charles went to Germany and brought us all back these German football t-shirts. Germany was one of the finalists in the Euro Cup at the time. However, the next night they lost and were out. I think we cursed them wearing our shirts.

Annie's birthday was on July 7th. We celebrated with a big cake.

For the 4th of July we went to some American friend's house and let off fireworks. Annie had this lantern that the girls and her wrote all their wishes on and released it into the sky.

Annie played with sparklers for the first time on the 4th of July. Sammy is too afraid of sparklers now since she burned herself on some last year. She would not even come near them.

Funny story about the lantern - The girls and Annie have been writing down their wishes on the lantern for weeks now. They were so excited to launch it into the heavens and make all their wishes come true. They all had visions of "Tangled" in their heads. Just before we left the house, they all (at different times) accidentally stepped on the lantern tearing little holes into it. The biggest hole was on the top. We tried to fix it with tape. We launched it at our friend's house much to Charles relief. At first it did not look like it was going to fly but slowly it started to rise. It went up and flew over our friend's house but then we could see that it was starting to fall back down because of the holes, no doubt. We all went barreling to the front of the house. Much to our horror, it landed on the neighbor's roof across the street and looked like it was going to stay there, flame and all! We were all in a complete panic by this point. Visions of the neighbor's house going up in flames was all I could think of. Fortunately, it slowly slid down the side of their house and onto the ground. WHAT A RELIEF!!! Good thing those neighbors happened to be out of town!

Alright, back to Annie. Here are some of the amazing hairstyles that she has done for the girls. Unfortunately, I have not gotten pictures of all of them. The girls love it because they go to school and get so much attention. Some of the mothers at their school have asked if Annie can hold some kind of class and teach them all how to do the various hairstyles.

Every night, Abby and Sammy are on YouTube looking up more hairstyles and deciding on which one they will have for the next day. Now I just need to learn how to do some of them but that may take a miracle. I can't even french braid!

Here is Sammy getting sock curlers. Did you know you can use your Daddy's CLEAN socks and curl your hair? Amazing!

Abby's sock curlers

Annie made Sammy's hair into a bow. Beautiful!

On a completely unrelated note: One day after school, Sammy and Alexandra put on these fancy hats and were walking the neighborhood. It happened to be the same day as Womens' Day at Ascot (the horse racing arena where part of the dress code requires women to wear very big and fancy hats). A neighbor said they looked like they were ready to go.

Notice Alex's wellies with her summer dress and fancy hat. I am so jealous how she can get away with that and I can't.

Walking the neighborhood

Alex discovered that she fits in the dryer. This is quite impressive actually since it is a European dryer which tend to be pretty small...

Last but not least, Sammy finally lost her first tooth. She has been waiting for what feels like forever. She has even lost a second one since this picture was taken. Hooray for money from the tooth fairy!

And one more of Alex "making dinner" with my onion goggles up side down, serving up dry pasta from the bag! Mmmm...delicious!

2 comments:

BYU Hottie said...: Sounds like things are going just Swimmingly over there! Hooray!
Wish I was there SO badly....but after having Annie, my simple french braids just won't cut it...these girls will be used to FANCY! Yay for Annie!

:); 23 July 2012 at 09:46:00 GMT-7
Kam said...: It's been awhile since I've checked in. Sounds like things are going well -- fun summer stuff. Annie sounds like a wonderful dream addition to your family. Maybe she'll decide to stay longer? I love all the fancy, fun hair-dos! We'll have to try sock curlers sometime, sounds fun. These last pics of the girls are hilarious! I'd love to meet Alex, she sounds like she has such a feisty, fun personality.; 23 July 2012 at 21:02:00 GMT-7

Books I Have Read Recently

(Let me know what books you have read recently or what your favorite book(s) is. I am always looking for a good book. Here are a few I have read.)

-The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

-Pope Joan by Donna Wolfolk Cross
(Definitely one of my favorites)

-Men to Match my Mountains by Irving Stone

-Life of Pi by Yann Martel

-The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown

-Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life by Queen Noor of Jordan

--Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
(This is one of my favorite books.)

-Those Who Love by Irving Stone
(This is a book about Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams. It was an enlightening read.)

-I Love You Ronnie by Nancy Reagan

--The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
(I didn't like this book.)

--The Alchemist by Paul Coelho
(I liked this book when I read it several years ago but when I recently re-read it, I did not like it. I guess my tastes have changed.)

-The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh
(Begins in 1885, with the British invasion of Mandalay and the capture of the Burmese king and queen, and encompassing over 100 years to modern-day India and Burma (Myanmar). It was a great read.)

--The Peddler’s Grandson; Growing up Jewish in Mississippi by Edward Cohen

-Brick Lane by Monica Ali
(I liked this book a lot except for the middle part where you are reading a bunch of letters written in poor English. I could have done without that.)

-Nine Parts of Desire by Geraldine Brooks

-Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
(I saw the movie and loved it. It stars Queen Latifah as August and she is great!)

--Power and Glory by Adam Nicolson

--How To Run a Traditional Jewish Household by Blu Greenberg

-Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin

-The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

-Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake

-The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
(This is a very thrilling read. I could not put it down. It may not be for everyone though.)

-Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behavior
by Kate Fox

-The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom and John Scherrill

-Girl with the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

-Atonement by Ian McEwan
(A very intriguing book and I loved the movie, even though Kiera Knightley was the star.)

-Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

--The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory
(Great book about Katherine of Aragon, King Henry VIII's first wife)

--The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
(A book about Ann Boleyn - King Henry VIII's second wife)

-The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory
(This one is about King Henry VIII's fourth and fifth wives - Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard.)

-The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory
(This book is about Queen Mary, Katherine of Aragon's daughter, and the Queen-to-be Elizabeth, Anne Boleyn's daughter. There is also a fictional character Hannah. I loved it!)

-Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

-The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad
(A great overview of recent Afghan history. Check out the bookseller's rebuttal book published this year.)

-Virgins of Paradise by Barbara Wood
(I loved this book. It focuses on an Egyptian family from the 1940s to the present. It was a really good look at Egyptian culture and politics as they have changed through the years.)

-A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

-The Chosen by Chaim Potok
(This is a good look at Jewish life. I liked reading the history of the formation of the state of Israel and the different reactions of various Jews throughout the book.)

--The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham

--The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

-Children: The Challenge by Rudolf Dreikurs, M.D.
(I am still in the process of reading this book)

-The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
(I admit, I skimmed this. It was long with too much political rhetoric for my taste.)

--The Hours by Michael Cunningham
(I didn't like this book, I wouldn't recommend it.)

-The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
(This was an amazing book. I could have read it in one night, easily. I could not put it down. It is about an innocent boy living outside the fence of a concentration camp.)

-David O. McKay and The Rise of Modern Mormonism by Gregory Prince and WM. Robert Wright

-The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
(I loved this book!)

-1-2-3 Magic: Effective Discipline for Children 2-12 by Thomas W. Phelan
(I have been doing this with Abby and it works like "magic!" I even went to a lecture and heard the author speak about the method and it is great!)

-Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

-They Dare to Speak Out by Paul Findley
(A book about an Illinois congressman who lost his seat to the Israeli Lobby.)

---“The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” by John J. Mearsheimer, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, and Stephen M. Walt, a professor of international affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard
(This is an excellent paper.)

--A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
(I must admit, I did not finish this book. I found it very slow moving and a bit boring. I read about half and gave up.)

--The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman

--Stasiland; Stories From Behind the Berlin Wall by Anna Funder

--These is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881 - 1901 Arizona Territories by Nancy E. Turner
(This was a great escape. I loved it!)

--Escape by Carolyn Jessop (This is a disturbing book but a good read. It's all about a girl who escapes from a radical FLDS polygamist cult.)

--Tall Grass by Sandra Dallas

--The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
(Doctors took her cells without asking; those cells never died. They launched a medical revolution and a multimillion-dollar industry. More than twenty years later, her children found out. Their lives would never be the same.)

--FREE RANGE kids: How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts with Worry) by Lenore Skenazy

--Standing Alone: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam by Asra Q. Nomani
(I loved this book. It is a very detailed account of the hajj and her take on Islam.)

--The Year That Changed The World: The Untold Story Behind the Fall of the Berlin Wall by Michael Meyer
(Meyer is a myth buster. The myth he tackles in this book is Americans' idea that communist regimes in the Cold War fell because of the United States' involvement. He is an excellent historian. I really enjoyed this book!)

--Hunting Eichmann: How a Band of Survivors and a Young Spy Agency Chased Down the World's Most Notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb
(This book is now on my list of all-time favorites. It was thrilling and so fascinating. I highly recommend it!)

--Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez
(I loved this book. It was adventurous and inspiring!)

--Someone Knows My Name By Lawrence Hill

--The Great Fire of London in the Apocalyptic Year 1666 By Neil Hanson
(I knew of the great fire in London but nothing else. This was very informative and kept my interest. It did get a little too detailed in parts though.)

--Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue and Unthinkable Choices By Mosab Hassan Yousef
(I like this book)

--Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
(Excellent book on the history of China and how it has changed over the century.)

--Hana's Suitcase by Karen Levine
(I would read this to my girls one day. It is a good look at the holocaust for children.)

--The Flying Carpet of Small Miracles by Hala Jaber

--Mengele: The Complete Story by Gerald Posner and John Ware

--Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese

--In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson

--The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

--The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

--Faith: Behind The Fences: A True Story of Survival In A Japanese Prison Camp by Kelly Dispirito Taylor

--Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls

--We Were Not Alone: How an LDS Family Survived World War II Berlin by Patricia Reece Roper

--The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

--Pillar of the Earth by Ken Follett

--Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

--The Cultural Revolution: A People's History 1962 - 1976 by Frank Dikotter

Books I Want to Read

--Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill by Jessica Stern
--Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Capetown by Paul Theroux
--Through a Glass Darkly: A Novel by Karleen Koen
--Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
--The Jewel of Medina by Sherry Jones
--Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
--The Art of Making Money: The Story of a Master Counterfeiter by Jason Kersten
--An Enduring Love: My Life with the Shah - A Memoir by Farah Pahlavi
--Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West by Benazir Bhutto
--City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre
--East of Eden by John Steinbeck
-- The Agony and the Ecstacy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo by Irving Stone
--One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
--Year of Wonders, a novel of the plague by Geraldine Brooks
--Ms. Ayaan Hirsi Ali's autobiography "Infidel"
--Call Me Anna: The Autobiography of Patty Duke by Patty Duke and Kenneth Turan
-- The War against the Jews: 1933-1945 by Lucy S. Dawidowicz
-- Alicia: My Story by Alicia Appleman-Jurman
--Vintage Sacks by neurologist/author Oliver Sacks.
--Helen Keller's "The Story of My Life"
--I Thought my Father was God (a collection of peoples' stories from NPR's National Story Project)
--Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
--I, Elizabeth by Rosalind Miles