Hi Bgpeacock


https://goo.gl/ixH2Jn



Robert

salutations Bgpeacock

 

http://bit.ly/2GCzAOo

 

 

Robert Maccuswell

hey Bgpeacock

http://tayhoriverview.chungcuvn.com/enlargeproduct.php?result=db2qvegq637dza9z




Robert Maccuswell

Summer is Almost Here!

So as I said I am only popping in to do the occasional post from time to time. So what has been going on with the Peacock family the first part of 2012? Well been pretty much the status quo more or less. Emma is finishing up 7th grade, she got a 3 for her EOG's which considering she has only been in the US since 2010 I would say is quite an accomplishment. She also took a trip with her schools Jr Honor Society to New York for a week. Lots of folks talked about how big NYC was and Emma was saying well actually Guanzhou is as big or bigger so the size did not overwhelm her at all. Said she was disappointed in Chinatown as all it was was ladies selling pocketbooks! Other stuff, well we went to Myrtle Beach for Sadie's 5th birthday. Yes 5! We ate a kings pizza which she loves and then the next day hit the Hard Rock Cafe. Sadie ate off of her plate and her Uncle Bruce's and by the end she had her head on the table saying I am too full! Boh girls have been in one martial arts tournament this year. It was a small local tourney and honestly we did not plan to go as the host school fields all of the judges so it is slanted towards their kids (which I understand) Even though Emma walked off with two seconds and a third ( she actually had instructors from other schools saying she was robbed and it was not fair. We just shrugged and said oh well, she did not seem to mind) Sadie was in her first tourney and the judges wanted to send her to the tiny kids because of her size. I told her she would be fine and they said we just want it to befair for her.....yeah ok. Anyway Sadie got two first places and a second and the judges were blown away. On top off all that early in the year we went to West Virginia where Emma collected a Grand National Championship for her division. Yes i am bragging on my girls but they have done great! Our summer plans, maybe Washington dc and Kings Dominion. We will see where it all ends up.

Happy New Year

So I admit, I have been pretty bad about updating the blog and stuff. Facebook is pretty much where all of our family pics, journeys etc. are these days. I will at some point get a few pics up from the holidays. Until then, the family is well! Emma made Jr Honor SOciety at school and wrapped up a Grand Champion for United MArtial Arts Tournament Alliance sweeping first place in her division for the season. Sadie is itching to compete in martial arts tournaments like her big sister and we will turn her loose on the world this Feb. March maybe.

We will expand and add more when I get a chance but Happy NEw Year to anybody who follows this these days and we wish you much happiness in 2012!

School is back in Session

Well summer is over the house is empty during the days once again but we had a good summer. Lets see, couple of trips to Myrtle beach with the inlaws, girls had a blast both times, lots of just hanging out around the house. Fixed up the spare bedroom for Emma so now she has her own room. It was always there for her when she was ready. Martial arts all summer. Emma competed in the Karate for Christ world championships end of June and walked away with a third place in forms and actually won first in sparring. anyway Emma is now in 7th Grade, Sadie is at 4year old kindergarten sort of. She is at moms and my mother is working with her. Mom is a retired teacher so she will get more there than most 4yr old classes. Hmm Hurricane Irene was a pain. Lost power for 3 days, loads of limbs down in our yard still have to clean the backyard. Well that is a brief update to just touch base

Summer is Here!

Well I know, I have been very bad about posting and updating this blog. Honestly if you follow this and are that interested in keeping up with THE PEACOCKS, find me on facebook under Gene Peacock and shot me a friend request. That being said I will probably continue here every month or so for a friendly update.

Speaking of update,,,,,,, school is now out for the summer and the girls are both wide open. Emma has become a mini martial arts guru! She has participated in 4 tournaments this spring and has 11 first place trophies and one third. The third came in the team pairs form competition in the black belt division! Sadie has also progressed quite alot in her martial arts. She has come out of her shell so to speak and now thoroughly enjoys performing in public! I mean performing,,,, she has decided that in the house is just not enough and loves doing public demos with her martial arts teacher!

Sadie spent some time at Myrtle Beach with her grandparents down from Knoxville and we even headed down for a weekend. Now they both spend alot of time at a local pool with their aunt and cousins. Sadie in particular loves the water, Emma likes to float and take it easy. I will add pics one of these days but loads on FB so anyway,,, that's all for now!

Disney Pics!

feb. 2011

So been a very busy month for the peacock clan. Where to start,,,, well the highlight, we spent a week at Disney World! Yep, we were there from feb. 11-16 and had a blast. We stayed at Coronado Springs Resort which is part of WDW and visited each of the parks over the course of four days. The girls liked the Animal Kingdom and Magic kingdom. My self and Dee like Epcot and the Animal Kingdom and all of us though Hollywood Studios was ehhh. They got to meet all of the characters and princesses and rode rides ate loads of good food and in general had a grea time. I still have to download some pics and I will post a few here.

Other big news Emma and Sadie both tested in their martial arts. Sadie now has her yellow stripe belt(which is for little kids) and Emma has her high Yellow Belt just a step away from Green. Gotta say Emma has turned out to be a martial arts expert in a way. As she has learned more myself and her instructor have found out she already knew lots. Turns out she was also selected to go to a martial arts school in china at the age of 10 but she talked her foster mother out of it as she told us the uniforms were ugly. We are very amazed at what all she knows and it is almost frightening at times watching her. She routinely spars with higher belts(sometimes much higher) and gives them fits. She is participating in a tourney in two weeks and is very excited about that as well. Will post some more pics of the girls t practice as well.

Oh and Sadie is quite funny doing this at home. Our washer nd dryer will never be the same after becoming practice targets for a 4 year old!

Welcome 2011

Yes I know I am a little late on this put we have been s busy it is not funny. Christmas was great at the Peacock household. Emma and Sadie had a blast got lots of goodies, visited with family and friends and in general had a good time. Christmas Eve we went to a candlelight service at our church. We go to very small church out in the country(by choice of course) and loads of folks showed up. past members family etc. It ws great , we ended up getting home about 10pm and the girls proclaimed they were staying up. Well took no time for them to be out cold. They woe us up about 6am and into presents we went. Emma got cowgirl boots and hat as well as some Ugg type boots(not real Uggs with growing feet). She got and Itunes card , a Chinese Kids TV series that she loves and other stuff. Sadie got an Ipod shuffle plus princess stuff. All in all they were surprised and happy.

New Years Eve we had their grandparents from Tennessee in. we pretty much just hung out at the house and honesty we hit the sck early. I ued to have a grand old time New years Eve but now ehhh ,, no big deal anymore. We are now gearing up for Chinese New Year /Tet. Same basic festival but called two different things in China and Vietnam. We are going to have a nice family dinner with their cousins over and grandmother. We converted the tree to a Spring festival tree with red and green and little envelope all over it.

we are planning a big trip this spring, not gonna say when but we are hitting Disney World for week. The girls are over the moon they are so excited. Got a great deal, all four of us at Coronado Springs Disney resort, dining plan and park tickets for our stay for 1800$. That is $600 a person for hotel at a Disney resort for a week, food and entrance for 5 days into the parks. Pretty darn good deal.

Well more later as I get time. May even have to post some holiday pics. It snowed here Christmas (like it seemed to do almost everywhere). We ended up with about 11 inches and I am sick of winter now!

Christmas 2010 is almost here

Well it has been since Oct that I last posted, mainly because it has been crazy busy around the Peacock household. Thanksgiving saw us in Knoxville at Deanna's parents house. Good times had by all. December has seen us all buys. I have been all over the state with my work, and we stay buys taking the girls to martial arts classes and other activities. Top that off with getting ready for Christmas. Both girls are literally bouncing off the walls with excitement. I would go into more detail but will write a more in depth rundown of the holidays maybe sometime next week. Here is a Christmas pic of the girls. Until the Merry Christmas to all!

October Updates from Gene

Well it has been almost two months since my last post and alot has been going on. Between school and work all four of the Peacocks have been busy, Deanna and myself with work and the girls, Emma with school, martial arts and her modeling and Sadie,,, well being Sadie. She is a force to reckon with and I predict by the time she is in kindergarten I will have to have a conference within the first month of school. Lets just say she is intelligent, strong willed and outspoken, which gets her in time-out every once in awhile! Funny Sadie moment here to insert. I was walking down the hall the other day and she had an unused paint roller pretending it was a microphone. As I passed by she was singing held it out to me and sings, sing it Daddy! I just laughed as she was on her 'Stage" and in the moment.

Emma had her 13th birthday early in the month. She was very excited but did not want big party, just family at her request. We went and ate at a very good local Chinese place for a good sit down lunch and then at home it was cake and presents. She did pretty good but she got the Ipod and the flat iron she had been wanting. Those long with all of the other presents from grandparents aunts and uncles made her day. In other news she had her first mrtial arts test and did great. She has not been at the school long enough to test for a belt but has done so well her instructor gave her 4 black stripes for her white belt. She can test again in December and will get a belt then. She is a natural and has told me she took kung fu in China for several years so she has fallen right in step and is quite advanced for her rank but she has to go through the steps. It is her thing and her choice and she loves it. Better than video games and sitting around so I am glad she is a very active young lady. Although at school a boy challenged her to see who could kick the highest and do the best split. She won. Sadie has been taking in a little kids class for over a year so she has a test coming up soon. While not at Em's level it is amazing how it has helped Sadies coordination and out goingness.

Halloween is almost here as well. Both girls are keyed up. Apparently in China Emma knew about Halloween but to her it is the holiday where all the kids get candy. Which seems to ring true!. We have a big event at the park I work at so the girls will be there for trunk or treat and a hayride. Should be fun. I will post more pics of this and some other stuff in a few days. Until then.

Thanh Hoa 3 Get Together

Here are a couple of pics of Sadie (one with Emma) and her two Vietnamese "sisters". All had a blast and the porch swing is always a hit. The blue mouth btw is due to just finishing a blue ringpop!

Emma First Photo Shoot

She had a blast doing this and it was all her. She wanted to do this. I told her you don't have to but she says yes that way I can be in movies with Jackie Chan! So you can probably figure out she is a huge fan of his and we have loads of his movies now. Apparently she watched his movies in her foster home quite often in China. My the way in China he is known as Chun Long.

School has Started!

So a new school year is upon us. Deanna has started back teaching at two different schools. Makes for a tough day but she loves being able to teach a wide range of kids. Emma has started 6th Grade. She is at the middle school her mom teaches at so that is turning out to be fun. We will see how it goes when she has her mom for art during the second semester! Emma has started off the school year with a bang. She has popped off 3 100's on three test this past week. A 105 on a Science test and 100 and 101 on spelling and definition tests. She study hard all week, and it may have had something to do with a deal I made that if she made A's on 2 out of 3 I would take her to eat crablegs, which she loves!

Sadie is still her wide open self! Full speed full time is the way it goes. She is in "school" also she says. It is in a way. We considered putting her in Pre K/3 yr olds but decided to let her get another year with her Gaga. My mother is a retired elementary school teacher and she essentially works and teaches Sadie during the week in small doses. She is counting to 10 sometimes to 20, working on ABC's and can say most of them when she feels like it. Has learned to write her name and loves to draw.

What else, Emma caught the eye of a talent scout and was asked to do some modeling pics for a local agency. We let her decide and she really wanted to so she had her first real photo shoot two weeks ago. We have some of the proofs and I will post a few to see as well as a couple of photos from our recent get together with Sadie's two Thanh Hoa "sisters". As all three girls are less than a couple of weeks apart, all from the same place and all adopted at the same time, we try and get together a couple of times a year. It works out as all of us live in central NC sort of.

Summer is coming to an end!

well summer is almost over and the family is doing great. Emma is starting 6th grade next week and is excited. She met her new teachers this week and thinks it will be a good year. She s dreading her rt class some however, Why? Her mother will be her art teacher! I almost for sorry for her. Ms Sadie is still a mess if there ever was one. She is turning into quite the character. She also is ready for school, although it is really her gaga teaching her to read count etc. Both girls are in martial arts classes and they love it. Emma says it is fun to kick on boys! Sadie just likes to scream hiyaa!!!1 as loud as she can. So photos and more as we get a chance.

Photo Update

Not going to do a long post about how things are. It is all good. Emma and Sadie are enjoying the summer with their Mom. We have traveled a little but mostly just enjoyed being a family. Here are a few pics from the spring and summer.

New Blog

Well, I have been getting loads of questions about adoption and adoption travel over the past couple of years. I have started a blog dedicated to that. This blog mainly documents my family adventures, the new one is morespecifically about travel and travel issues. Feel free to read it, comment etc. And like this blog, not all agree with what I may say or type and that is certainly cool with me. My views are always mine and I know that to each his own. I will update this one occasionally but the otehr blog will be far less personal and more informative.
Thanks

oh here is the link

http://adopteddad.blogspot.com/

May. Mothers Day and Summer Approaching

Well first off, I have been bad about posting new pics for folks,, just have not gotten around to downloading the loads we have. For the life of the Peacock family,, here we go!

it has been about a month and the girls are doing great. Both Dee and myself have been really tired lately but more so due to work related stuff than anything. She is a school teacher and this time of the year is crazy, me I am in state parks and we are gearing up for the summer season.

Emma at school is doing great. She does very well in math and science and as her English improves her social studies is getting better. She is reading a couple of levels below grade level but is improving and doing well on her AR test. Emma and Sadie are two peas in a pod. If Emma does something you can be assured that Sadie will be doing it, eating it or saying it! Emma has several dvd's from china, she along with the videos is even teaching Sadie Chinese.

Mothers day was pretty exciting. Once Emma got the gist of what the day was about, I took the two girls to Old navy so each could pick out something for their mother. It took a while but I convinced them that Dee does not necessarily want a pink shirt and pink pants. Oh and when they found the things they started laughing and asking to get that. Sadie was even proclaiming loudly that she wanted one. A couple of ladies looked at us, I explained mothers day shopping and no we were not buying things and they laughed and said how sweet. Anyway I finally convinced them and we had our purchases. Mothers Day they were both so excited to give Dee her presents, which also included jde earrings I bought in China.

So life goes on and summer is approaching. The girls have a swing set and has already been used so much. My mother bought a giant waterslide thing and it is in her backyard so when the girls go over there, loads of chaos happens. All in all pretty good, looking for some summer fun and getting Emma ready for middle school.

Thoughts in General 2 months home

Well 2 months home, almost three with Emma and things are pretty much standard family things. She has fit in remarkably well in the family and at school. Went on a field trip with her school class last week and well there are two boys who follow her around like puppy dogs and it was quite funny. They would even come over to me and raise their eyebrows and look over at her. I just shook my head. Things I will worry about in another 3 years or so, but for now just funny.

Had alot of emails from folks traveling soon to China asking about Guangzhou. Well we loved it, but alot of questions have been about Shamain Island and why I seem to not like it. I have even had some folks get nasty with me via email about how great it is. You know I do have my own opinion and to me the Island while ok is not any place we would choose to stay even if it was not under construction as is now. It really strikes me as a nife safe haven for westerners(which is what it's original intention was.) Our family really enjoyed where we stayed and prefer that kind of experience, to each his own really.

Anyway things are good at home. Emma had her first trip to Deanna's mothers and father and loved the mountains but was a little in awe about it all. She has fallen in love with her Papa, especially since he gave her a dollar to sit in his lap. But after that she was all about him and really was before. He is the only person she will literally hang on, kiss their cheek and follow everywhere. It tickles him to death as well. I do have pics from the trip and will get some up as I get a chance.