Pictures

The other day I scheduled for our family to get an updated family portrait taken (Saturday). Shortly thereafter Chase fell and now has 3 bite marks and a bruise on his chin. That is now hardly noticeable compared to the (NOT washable) magic marker that he used all over his hands, feet, and chin! So much for doing barefeet pictures. That stuff was not scrubbing off! Well, the picture will be taken and hopefully these things will not be too noticeable among us all...

Last Day of School

Today was the last day of school...summer vacation begins tomorrow! Now the task will be keeping children occupied for 13 weeks until school begins again the end of August.

This morning I joined the students for the "special assembly". Each class had a part...sing a song, say some Bible memory, do a reading or skit. The "Track-n-Field" awards were also presented. It was nice to be there.

This past weekend

Friday evening we spent with Randy's brother, wife, & daughters. We enjoyed supper and hanging out in their back yard around their fire pit. Made banana boats and mountain pies for snack.

Saturday was a good day...a catch-up day. A day where we got a bunch of stuff done that needed done. The bathroom is now finished...I attempted to take pictures but due to the smallness of the room it just didn't work real well. We bought new swings and hung them as our old ones had all broken. Randy bought and installed a basketball pole...now we just need a new basketball as our old one popped. I took the older children for new sneakers. Also did mounds of laundry and cleaned up the house in preparation for our cookout on Sunday. In the evening we went to "Community Days" and took a few rides before returning home to relax in our backyard.

Sunday we worshiped with other area believers at a community worship service held in conjunction with our local "Community Days". Then we hosted a group of friends from church for supper (chicken bbq) and the evening capped with fireworks from said Community Days.

Monday, Memorial Day, we did normal Monday things....such as laundry! Randy left on his normal run. I took the kids to (the drive-thru) Arby's for supper. Upon arriving home I discovered they had not heard the (4) in front of the roast beef sandwiches...so we had 2 sandwiches to share with 5 people. But plenty of curly fries and potato cakes! And there was leftover bbq chicken in the fridge for those still hungry.

This week is fairly open. Thursday is the last day of school. And I need to come up with a schedule for our days during the summer so (1) the work gets done and (2) the children have something to do other then pick on each other!

Then Sunday is Josiah's baptism and relatives will join us for lunch so I need to plan for that also.

Gardening

We are finding gardening to be interesting. Between to much rain, insects, and a little boy who likes to pull things up (like onions for instance), we are hoping to still get some yield from our labor. The radishes and carrots are in desperate need of thinning...sometime when the boy is not around to pull up more then we want!

May 25

Our life has been rather hectic the past week or so with school ending (the last day is this coming Thursday), finishing the bathroom (completed Saturday), and general errands and chores.

Last Wednesday I went to Autumn's class for a Mother's Tea. Autumn greeted me and we had our picture taken together. Then she escorted me to my seat and served me tea (hot or cold meadow tea). We ate fruit kabobs (made by the students), pretzels, cheese, and cookies (also prepared by the students).

Afterwards the students sang some songs including one they wrote to the tune of "Jesus Loves Me". I believe it was called "I Love My Mom". The presented us with a plaque, and we playd some games. It was a delight to spend time just with her (and 15 other students & moms/grandmas).

May 19

Today is going much better then yesterday. To begin with, the weather is absolutely beautiful--no humidity, bright sunshine, and temps in the 60's. I think it will hit the low 70s later. Chase has been in a good mood for the most part with very minimal tantrums. We walked to the neighbors and chatted with my brother who is replacing their roof. Both boys' naps are overlapping right now and Janae is playing outside so I even have a few moments of solitude.

Yesterday actually did improve as the day went on. I even took the time to play piano a bit. Occasionally I even got to play by myself!

The rest of the day I plan to straighten up the house and simply enjoy the outdoors. I'll need to be out quite a bit anyway to supervise. Since we don't have a fence I need to be out if Chase is out to keep him where he belongs.

Today

Last night was a rough night. Chase woke up crying at least once an hour (I think..it's kind of fuzzy). This morning he is alternating between screaming, pulling hair, smashing cereal, etc. Naptime will not come soon enough!

Mark is doing well. He got another tooth making 6 now.

Janae is excited about some new clothes someone gave us.

Josiah and Autumn are counting down the days of school. They have 3-1/2 days this week. And 2-1/2 days next week. Then we switch to our summer schedule. Wednesday afternoon Autumn's class is having a tea for Mother's (or aunt/grandma if mom can't come) and I am looking forward to attending that with her. Wednesday is also the day the boys' caseworker comes to visit. Our foster care coordinator is coming as well to do our yearly recertification.

This coming weekend (Memorial Day Weekend) is our town's annual community days complete with rides, food, entertainment and fireworks (weather permitting). We plan to at least take part in the community worship service Sunday and view the fireworks. We'll see what else we take in.

Today I am doing piles of laundry.

Oh yes, and the bathroom is slowly being completed. Saturday night we put together the one new cabinet and hung the other one. I am very excited for the extra storage space as we do not have a linen closet in the bathroom.

Well, I hear more cereal being dumped and crunched....better run!

Life in Pictures

Autumn opening her presents (May 8).
Her birthday cake.

Saturday (May 16) at the BCCYS FPA Spring Fling.
Autumn

Josiah and Janae

May 10 - Make-A-Wish Truck Convoy

Lancaster, PA

Randy (& his truck), Chase, Janae

Life

Well, I can see it's been awhile since I've posted anything....so here's a bit that's been going on since my last post:

• Autumn turned 7 on Friday the 8th.
• Saturday we spent the day enduring another training required for us to be able to adopt the boys. I'd like to say I learned something new...but unfortunately it was mostly a refresher of what I'd learned when we took our initial foster care training.
• Sunday we enjoyed going to the Make-A-Wish Convoy. I have pictures on Randy's camera which I would show you if I could find the cord!
• I am currently reading (2) books: "Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families & Churches" by Russell D. Moore and "Emma" by Jane Austen.
• I am watching the extended version of the Lord of the Ring DVDs. I've completed "The Fellowship of the Rings" and will start "The Two Towers" on Randy's next night away. I do shorten them a bit as I fastforward anything involving the orcs.
• As to our garden, today I was stringing up wire for the rest of the peas. I also bought sweet potato plants which need to be planted.
• Now...I need to fold and put away laundry, empty the dishwasher and refill it, straighten up the house etc.
• The toddler refuses to sleep this afternoon. I have never before had issues of him staying in bed but this afternoon he kept getting out. Now he is in the 'Pack-n-Play' yelling "MOM!!!"

I will attempt to post some pictures of the above soon...

Birthdays and Such

Autumn has been anxiously awaiting her birthday for many weeks now...and it's almost here! Tomorrow my baby girl turns 7! This morning I baked her cake and hopefully will get it iced this afternoon when Chase is taking his nap. She has requested large flowers with smiley faces on them....we'll see how it turns out! I am also going in to her classroom tomorrow for "Mom Time". We will have her birthday snack and do crafts (pom-pom animals, foam fish) and if there is extra time I will read to them. I'll be there about an hour.

As this is teacher appreciation week the patrons are providing lunch for the teachers all week long. I am helping another mother tomorrow with the meal. My part is the dessert. So I baked a 2nd cake with Autumn's. Now I just need to come up with decent icing...perhaps I should use a recipe instead of my standard "little of this little of that"!

Sunday is the Make-A-Wish Truck Convoy. We hope to take the truck through that. I've never been along but this year we may all go....so Friday (weather permitting) is dedicated to cleaning up the truck as we have an all day adoption workshop on Saturday. Because of this, we will celebrate Autumn's birthday at Grandpa & Grandma's house. She has requested subs for her birthday dinner...so I just need to decide whether to buy the fixings and make them or take it easy and order from Subway!

And speaking of weather....it has been raining for a long time! We get short (cloudy) breaks, but then it rains again...everything is growing wonderfully but we are all ready for some sunshine and time out of doors! When we do sneak out for a bit we (well the kids) end up soaked from the puddles and muddy spots in the yard! Josiah did manage to get the yard mowed yesterday before it started raining again....and yes, I know that in another month or 2 I'll probably be saying how badly we need rain.... :-)

Gardening

We are very excited to have a garden this year (I think I mentioned this before). The peas, onions, radishes, carrots, and beets are poking out of the ground...it's so exciting! We have also planted beans. Last week I planted some plants that I bought at a local greenhouse so obviously they are also "up"--regular tomatoes, plum tomatoes, grape tomatoes, green peppers, and jalapeno peppers (1 plant of each). Over the weekend we put up wire for the peas to climb. We are considering adding sweet potatoes to the garden yet. We also bought watermelon seeds but aren't sure if we have the space.

As to flowers....we planted sunflower seeds and zinnia seeds. I also bought some other plants: vinca, marigolds, impatiens, petunias. I may get some geraniums yet but am waiting till the bulb foliage is cut down to see how much space I have. The day after we planted the sunflower seeds Janae looked out the window and said "the sunflowers are coming up!". She had spotted the marigolds planted around the edge of that flower bed!