Everybody really should have at least two blogs, right? OK, not really. We had the hairbrained idea the other night to start posting one picture, funny quote, etc. that pretty muched summed up our day. In order to not clutter up this blog, we started a micro-blog, titled Наша Пригода...щоденний (which means, "Our Adventure...Daily"). Our aim is to post something everyday, but we'll see how long our faithfulness holds out.
We've linked to our daily blog above and also on the Links section in our sidebar. Enjoy!
P.S.--In case you've been completely out of touch with the weather in the Southeast U.S., Hurricane Gustav is bearing down on the Gulf Coast. Much of Southwestern LA has begun evacuating, to our house, now dubbed Chateau Gustav or Hurricane Barracks--just kidding, it's only Rachel's family plus my mom on an ill-timed pleasure trip. All that to say we may not be posting for several days because a) it's going to be busy around here and b) we might end up evacuating ourselves, depending on the course of the storm.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Clark's new look.......
This week brought a new look for Clark....his glasses. We aren't having any problems at all with him keeping them on. He learned pretty quickly that he can see much better with them on. The first day he tried taking them off a few times (he thought his plastic horse needed to wear them, etc.), but he is doing great now. He looks pretty cute...I must admit.We had a couple of playdates with friends that are starting back to school this week. The schools around here start tomorrow (Monday), so Ali will miss getting together with her friends now that the summer is officially over. She has been on a two week break from swimming, so it is back to the grind with that this week.
Clark starts a new gymnastics class this week. The gym where he has been taking closed its doors...so we have been in search of a new one. We finally found one this past week. I think he will really enjoy the new class. He starts preschool in two weeks, on Sept. 8th. I know he will just love it.
After we returned home from Ukraine last summer, we became a reference family for our agency. We have been contacted about a dozen times over the last month from families wanting to hear our story. We are so happy that adoptions in Ukraine are still going well. One family contacted us this past week, and we found out that they lived in Texas also. They were going to be in Houston for an appointment on Friday, so we decided to get together on Saturday. They came by the house, and we were able to share our story and answer all of their questions. It was so neat. I know how many questions we had before we traveled, and we were so glad to be able to hopefully help them. They travel in Sept., and we can't wait to hear how their process goes!
T.C.'s mom is coming for a little visit this coming Saturday. The kids are so excited. We haven't seen her since the first of February, so it has been quite a while. We will enjoy having her here.
Well, I will close with a silly picture of Clark. I was trying to get some cute glasses pictures the other day, and I caught this picture without knowing he made that face at the last second. Silly kid!
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Not much news around here.........
Hello blog friends...not much news around here. Ali and I are getting used to being back in school. Things are going pretty well thus far. She is going to have a lot of work in science this year with a bug collection, leaf collection, and a science research project. She wants to do her project on how food affects your swimming ability (that could go for any athlete, really). She wants to know how sugar/protein/carbs, etc. all affect the athletes body. I think it will be very beneficial for her to learn about that.
We found out this week that Clark needs glasses. He is farsighted and has an astigmatism. We picked out little metal frames....pretty cute in a nerdy sort of way. Ha! Don't tell him that...he thinks he looked great. He asks everyday where his glasses are. He doesn't understand that they had to be ordered. We hope this takes care of the problems he has been having. It was really funny, he was trying on frames and at one point he looked at me and VERY loudly said "HEY BABY!!" I laughed so hard. Believe it or not he loved trying on all the frames. He needed one of the smallest ones they had.
Clark learned how to pedal his tricycle finally. Well, actually his legs haven't been long enough to reach the pedals...but they are now! He did the most clever thing in his room the other day. He can't reach his light switch and usually drags over his rocking horse to stand on (yes, real safe!!). Anyway, he was playing with his kitchen and discovered that his ladle can have multiple uses. He uses the hooked end to hook the switch and turn it off and on. I was impressed.
Ali has been in the process of trying to update her bedroom. We found bedding on a great sale at JC Penney's the other day. She worked yesterday to pack away all of her American Girl doll and clothing (sniff, sniff). We found a cute chair at Target..again, on sale!! It looks so cute in there. She wants new artwork for the walls...but must wait until Christmas for that. It is an ocean theme. (ummmm, yes...like our whole house)
So anyway, think of us this week as we are trying to keep glasses on a little wild 4 year old boy! His surgery was moved to Sept. 4th as the doctor is going to be out of town on the 2nd.
We found out this week that Clark needs glasses. He is farsighted and has an astigmatism. We picked out little metal frames....pretty cute in a nerdy sort of way. Ha! Don't tell him that...he thinks he looked great. He asks everyday where his glasses are. He doesn't understand that they had to be ordered. We hope this takes care of the problems he has been having. It was really funny, he was trying on frames and at one point he looked at me and VERY loudly said "HEY BABY!!" I laughed so hard. Believe it or not he loved trying on all the frames. He needed one of the smallest ones they had.
Clark learned how to pedal his tricycle finally. Well, actually his legs haven't been long enough to reach the pedals...but they are now! He did the most clever thing in his room the other day. He can't reach his light switch and usually drags over his rocking horse to stand on (yes, real safe!!). Anyway, he was playing with his kitchen and discovered that his ladle can have multiple uses. He uses the hooked end to hook the switch and turn it off and on. I was impressed.
Ali has been in the process of trying to update her bedroom. We found bedding on a great sale at JC Penney's the other day. She worked yesterday to pack away all of her American Girl doll and clothing (sniff, sniff). We found a cute chair at Target..again, on sale!! It looks so cute in there. She wants new artwork for the walls...but must wait until Christmas for that. It is an ocean theme. (ummmm, yes...like our whole house)
So anyway, think of us this week as we are trying to keep glasses on a little wild 4 year old boy! His surgery was moved to Sept. 4th as the doctor is going to be out of town on the 2nd.
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| this and that... |
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Back to school....and already a field trip
Ali and I had our first full week of school. We took a "field trip" on Thursday, and headed to Brazos Bend State Park to attend a children's program. One of Ali's friends from swimming, Lilly, joined us also. They started out by taking a nature walk on one of the many trails in the park. They were learning about the animal food chain, etc. After our HOT walk, we headed into the visitors center for some book reading and craft. The kids seemed to enjoy it. We then headed to a playground for a picnic. A funny thing happened during lunch. I began throwing little pieces of our food to a squirrel that was checking us out. He had obviously been fed a million times before. I turned my back to take pictures of the kids, and Mr. Squirrel climbed onto our table and tried to steal some of our food bags. Ha!
Not much news around here. Seems we have and will remain busy with doctor, dentist, and pre-op appointments. Clark is having his adenoids removed on Sept. 2nd. They said it would be beneficial for him to have them removed. We are hopeful that this will greatly help his nasal speech. He is also having some type of trouble with his eyes. He will be seeing a pediatric opthamologist next week. When he watches t.v. or looks at books...his eyes really bother him. We are anxious to see what is going on.
Well, to our dismay... our little girl (ok, not so little....)is moving up to the middle school group at church. How did that happen? Anyway, our church offers a 3 year confirmation program during the Sunday School hour, that she will begin in Sept. Sixth grade students study Old Testament, 7th grade is New Testament, and 8th grade is Luther's Small Catechism. I believe it entails quite a bit of work...but we know it will be so good for her.
Clark is moving out of his toddler bed, and into his big boy bed. Not that he doesn't fit in the toddler bed anymore...truth be known, he would probably fit in that bed several more years! However, he would have more play room in his bedroom if that toddler bed was out of there. His bedding is so cute....it is a beachy, surf board theme. Yes, we LOVE the ocean around here.
Have a great week.
Not much news around here. Seems we have and will remain busy with doctor, dentist, and pre-op appointments. Clark is having his adenoids removed on Sept. 2nd. They said it would be beneficial for him to have them removed. We are hopeful that this will greatly help his nasal speech. He is also having some type of trouble with his eyes. He will be seeing a pediatric opthamologist next week. When he watches t.v. or looks at books...his eyes really bother him. We are anxious to see what is going on.
Well, to our dismay... our little girl (ok, not so little....)is moving up to the middle school group at church. How did that happen? Anyway, our church offers a 3 year confirmation program during the Sunday School hour, that she will begin in Sept. Sixth grade students study Old Testament, 7th grade is New Testament, and 8th grade is Luther's Small Catechism. I believe it entails quite a bit of work...but we know it will be so good for her.
Clark is moving out of his toddler bed, and into his big boy bed. Not that he doesn't fit in the toddler bed anymore...truth be known, he would probably fit in that bed several more years! However, he would have more play room in his bedroom if that toddler bed was out of there. His bedding is so cute....it is a beachy, surf board theme. Yes, we LOVE the ocean around here.
Have a great week.
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| Brazos Bend State Park |
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Our little family celebration
Well, Thursday was Clark's Happy Adoption Day (like I mentioned in a previous post). We had a great day celebrating his one year home. The kids and I started our morning off with a stop to Shipley Donuts for a kolache. After we had our bite to eat, we went to Challenger Park for a couple of hours of playtime. It is a very nice park with a nature trail and a great playground. They had a blast. When Clark was nice and worn out, we headed home for good ole' nap time. That evening we celebrated with a nice dinner on the water. The restaurant is called Clifton By The Sea and it has a great view of the water. We like to get their crab-burgers because they are OH SO YUMMY!! The children each got a little gift in honor of their special day...we can't forget Ali waited 10 long years to become a big sister. We ended our fun day by all gathering around our computer and watching our video clips from our trip to Ukraine. It was a lot of fun reminiscing about our time in Ukraine and how much Clark has changed. All in all we had a wonderful day of celebration.
We found out yesterday that Clark might need his adenoids removed. The ENT doctor was out of the office, but his PA looked at his x-ray from last week and said his adenoids were enlarged. I am waiting to hear back from the doctor hopefully by the first of the week. The PA said he would benefit from having them removed. We will see. I still need to talk to the doctor and make sure this would actually benefit his speech.
Have a great weekend. T.C. has National Guard duty...we are just hanging out around here.
We found out yesterday that Clark might need his adenoids removed. The ENT doctor was out of the office, but his PA looked at his x-ray from last week and said his adenoids were enlarged. I am waiting to hear back from the doctor hopefully by the first of the week. The PA said he would benefit from having them removed. We will see. I still need to talk to the doctor and make sure this would actually benefit his speech.
Have a great weekend. T.C. has National Guard duty...we are just hanging out around here.
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| Happy Adoption Day! |
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Glorifying the Father of the Fatherless
I came across this article on John Piper's website and loved it. Click here!
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Happy Adoption Day our sweet Clark!
*Update*
I forgot to add some Clark "funnies" to my post the other day. Ali and I were petting our cat, Angel, the other day and Clark walks up and says "Angel is sooooo prettiful"...it took us a minute to realize he meant beautiful. Isn't that cute? The other night at dinner we were clowning around and I was telling Clark something and he told me "you are driving me crazy"....wonder where in the world he heard that? Hummm! His favorite song these days is "I like to move it move it I like to move it..." He will sing his heart out!
Has everyone enjoyed their summer? It is flying by incredibly fast here. I can't believe it is the end of July already. (and Ali can't believe school is about to start back) We have enjoyed our summer very much. This weekend was spent shopping for new cell phones, after a little mishap at swimming yesterday. It seems Ali "misplaced" my cell phone at swim practice yesterday morning. I sometimes send her to practice with my phone so that she can call if they get out of practice early. However, it didn't make it home this time. We went back in search of it, but it had vanished. Soooo....out phone shopping we did go. Thank goodness we were actually eligible for upgrades. It was just a bummer because I lost all of my phone numbers. So that is what I spent too long last night doing...programing my new phone. Then, the rest of the afternoon we spent in search of the perfect mattress. Aaahhh....ours is shot and we have put it off for far too long. Ok people....I will just say that there are WAY TOO many mattress choices out there. Eeek! Was that just about enough boring information for you?
On to other things...like our upcoming Happy Adoption Day! I have been reminiscing quite a bit the last few weeks. I can't believe a year has come and gone since our adoption became final. It seems impossible. We waited what felt like an eternity to bring Clark home, now a year has passed. We have been trying to get him excited about his big day coming up on Friday. We were telling him the other night before bed time about it and he was getting so giddy with excitement, though we know he doesn't fully understand it. When we were explaining he had been part of our family for a year he proudly announced, "UKRAINE"...yes our son, that is where it all began. One year ago I knew that I would love our son completely, I was pretty sure I would feel the same way about him that I feel for Ali...surely biology didn't matter, right? But now I know with confidence that I do love him completely and biology DOES NOT matter. He is our son, that is all that matters. Love is not bound by the blood that runs through our veins. Adoption is very much a miracle gift given to us by God. How far has our son come in a year? Wow, he is such a resilient little guy. He left his home country, the only place he had ever known, to be part of a family. He waved good-bye to the children he had grown up with, and the caregivers that had given of themselves to care for him. He proudly left the orphanage, and ran to our waiting taxi...ready for his new life. It was as though God had prepared his heart for just that moment in time. He excitedly loaded our plane in Kiev, Ukraine bound for a new land. He overcame food issues, a new language, new faces, having freedom and choices for the first time, and most importantly he was introduced to our Father in Heaven. He is learning about his Savior, someone he had more than likely never heard about. How beautiful that is to be an eyewitness to. He learned his first Bible verse this past week. A soft answer turns away wrath. Proverbs 15:1. God is so good. Does he have a ways to go? Absolutely. He still needs reassurance in areas, he is still very much a creature of a schedule, still likes to eat a little too much, he is by nature a whiny boy, still needs a little warning on changes, etc. But those things are so minor when compared to the big picture. He doesn't seem interested in learning colors and shapes....he honestly doesn't care if it is red, green, purple, a triangle, or the number 20. He wonders why in the world that is of importance. It will all come in time...I am confident. Though he has managed to memorize a lot of "The Lord's Prayer" and recites it with us in church every Sunday morning. I feel certain that is more important anyway. He is just on his own timetable. So would we do it again.....in a heartbeat! In fact, I am ready to adopt again. So if someone were to drop a large chunk of change in our laps any time soon.....Ukraine, here we come!! Heehee...but since that is not likely to happen...we will wait to see what the Lord leads us to do.
I sat in worship this morning with my arm around our precious daughter, and our sweet son on the other side playing with a couple of Hot Wheels. I thought to myself "how blessed am I." Thank you Lord. The pastor pointed us to the cross of Christ and how nothing in this life is for certain except for that. Only our eternity through the cross is certain. Things in this life will disappoint us, but we have confidence in the cross. What a great reminder.
I forgot to add some Clark "funnies" to my post the other day. Ali and I were petting our cat, Angel, the other day and Clark walks up and says "Angel is sooooo prettiful"...it took us a minute to realize he meant beautiful. Isn't that cute? The other night at dinner we were clowning around and I was telling Clark something and he told me "you are driving me crazy"....wonder where in the world he heard that? Hummm! His favorite song these days is "I like to move it move it I like to move it..." He will sing his heart out!
Has everyone enjoyed their summer? It is flying by incredibly fast here. I can't believe it is the end of July already. (and Ali can't believe school is about to start back) We have enjoyed our summer very much. This weekend was spent shopping for new cell phones, after a little mishap at swimming yesterday. It seems Ali "misplaced" my cell phone at swim practice yesterday morning. I sometimes send her to practice with my phone so that she can call if they get out of practice early. However, it didn't make it home this time. We went back in search of it, but it had vanished. Soooo....out phone shopping we did go. Thank goodness we were actually eligible for upgrades. It was just a bummer because I lost all of my phone numbers. So that is what I spent too long last night doing...programing my new phone. Then, the rest of the afternoon we spent in search of the perfect mattress. Aaahhh....ours is shot and we have put it off for far too long. Ok people....I will just say that there are WAY TOO many mattress choices out there. Eeek! Was that just about enough boring information for you?
On to other things...like our upcoming Happy Adoption Day! I have been reminiscing quite a bit the last few weeks. I can't believe a year has come and gone since our adoption became final. It seems impossible. We waited what felt like an eternity to bring Clark home, now a year has passed. We have been trying to get him excited about his big day coming up on Friday. We were telling him the other night before bed time about it and he was getting so giddy with excitement, though we know he doesn't fully understand it. When we were explaining he had been part of our family for a year he proudly announced, "UKRAINE"...yes our son, that is where it all began. One year ago I knew that I would love our son completely, I was pretty sure I would feel the same way about him that I feel for Ali...surely biology didn't matter, right? But now I know with confidence that I do love him completely and biology DOES NOT matter. He is our son, that is all that matters. Love is not bound by the blood that runs through our veins. Adoption is very much a miracle gift given to us by God. How far has our son come in a year? Wow, he is such a resilient little guy. He left his home country, the only place he had ever known, to be part of a family. He waved good-bye to the children he had grown up with, and the caregivers that had given of themselves to care for him. He proudly left the orphanage, and ran to our waiting taxi...ready for his new life. It was as though God had prepared his heart for just that moment in time. He excitedly loaded our plane in Kiev, Ukraine bound for a new land. He overcame food issues, a new language, new faces, having freedom and choices for the first time, and most importantly he was introduced to our Father in Heaven. He is learning about his Savior, someone he had more than likely never heard about. How beautiful that is to be an eyewitness to. He learned his first Bible verse this past week. A soft answer turns away wrath. Proverbs 15:1. God is so good. Does he have a ways to go? Absolutely. He still needs reassurance in areas, he is still very much a creature of a schedule, still likes to eat a little too much, he is by nature a whiny boy, still needs a little warning on changes, etc. But those things are so minor when compared to the big picture. He doesn't seem interested in learning colors and shapes....he honestly doesn't care if it is red, green, purple, a triangle, or the number 20. He wonders why in the world that is of importance. It will all come in time...I am confident. Though he has managed to memorize a lot of "The Lord's Prayer" and recites it with us in church every Sunday morning. I feel certain that is more important anyway. He is just on his own timetable. So would we do it again.....in a heartbeat! In fact, I am ready to adopt again. So if someone were to drop a large chunk of change in our laps any time soon.....Ukraine, here we come!! Heehee...but since that is not likely to happen...we will wait to see what the Lord leads us to do.
I sat in worship this morning with my arm around our precious daughter, and our sweet son on the other side playing with a couple of Hot Wheels. I thought to myself "how blessed am I." Thank you Lord. The pastor pointed us to the cross of Christ and how nothing in this life is for certain except for that. Only our eternity through the cross is certain. Things in this life will disappoint us, but we have confidence in the cross. What a great reminder.
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| Then.....a |
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Our weekend getaway......
In true Judd fashion what started out to be a nice, romantic weekend.....ended up with me at the urgent care center getting a steroid injection and prescription for yet MORE steroids. YEP!! Oh well...better luck to us next time! Ha!
My parents came into town on Friday so that T.C. and I could head up to downtown Houston for the National Guard marriage enrichment seminar (that he was helping teach). Started out great...met the other chaplain wives...yada yada yada...have our Friday evening session, head to bed....only to wake up with an allergic reaction to something which resulted in HIVES!! Yes, I was pretty much miserable...but thank goodness the hotel shop carried Benadryl. I made it through the Saturday sessions (which lasted from 8am-4pm)...albeit a little drowsy from the medicine. Well, we had a nice romantic evening planned beginning with a nice dinner downtown. But in all actuality we ended up going on a group date with the other chaplains and their wives and ended with me crashing in our bed from taking 2 Benadryl. Yeah, not the weekend we had anticipated. Well, the Benadryl kept me fairly comfortable until 5am...made it through our morning sessions and headed back home...T.C. put the pedal to the medal and got me to the urgent care center. Doc said "yep, you had an allergic reaction...we don't know what caused it...but I have what it takes to fix it"...I said "do what you have to do!!" So in walks the nurse with the steroid shot...informs me that it has to go into the muscle in my hip...but fails to inform me that the intense pain afterwards would cause me to about pass out. THANKS!! But here I am 4 hours later SOOOOOOO glad I went to the doctor, despite the pain. My itching has subsided quite a bit. YIPPY! Now I have to take 5 days worth of oral steroids. I am so thankful for the relief...it was beginning to scare me a little as I was having some joint swelling, etc. Still not sure what caused it, didn't eat anything out of the ordinary. T.C. says it was because I was so stressed about leaving Clark for the first time. I haven't spent a night away from him since we brought him home. The thought of it did stress me a little...but I didn't feel stressed enough to cause this. Sheesh!! Who knows. Come to find out Clark was GREAT for my parents...very obedient, sweet, a snuggle bunny, etc. YIPPY!! Though he did end up calling several times because he "want talk to Mama." SWEET!!!
Enough about that...Ali and Clark had a great time with Nona and Poppy this weekend. They kept them busy with activities and going out for ice cream, etc. Saturday they went to Space Center Houston and fought the vacation crowd. Today they went to Galveston and rode the ferry, and ate lunch at a restaurant on the water. Sounds fun to me! We so appreciate them coming here to keep the children.
This coming Friday Clark will be evaluated by an ENT to see if there is a medical reason for his nasal speech. We are anxious to see what he says, and anxious to begin speech therapy if there is not a medical reason.
That about sums up our weekend. No pictures to add. I am hoping my parents took some, but I haven't asked.
My parents came into town on Friday so that T.C. and I could head up to downtown Houston for the National Guard marriage enrichment seminar (that he was helping teach). Started out great...met the other chaplain wives...yada yada yada...have our Friday evening session, head to bed....only to wake up with an allergic reaction to something which resulted in HIVES!! Yes, I was pretty much miserable...but thank goodness the hotel shop carried Benadryl. I made it through the Saturday sessions (which lasted from 8am-4pm)...albeit a little drowsy from the medicine. Well, we had a nice romantic evening planned beginning with a nice dinner downtown. But in all actuality we ended up going on a group date with the other chaplains and their wives and ended with me crashing in our bed from taking 2 Benadryl. Yeah, not the weekend we had anticipated. Well, the Benadryl kept me fairly comfortable until 5am...made it through our morning sessions and headed back home...T.C. put the pedal to the medal and got me to the urgent care center. Doc said "yep, you had an allergic reaction...we don't know what caused it...but I have what it takes to fix it"...I said "do what you have to do!!" So in walks the nurse with the steroid shot...informs me that it has to go into the muscle in my hip...but fails to inform me that the intense pain afterwards would cause me to about pass out. THANKS!! But here I am 4 hours later SOOOOOOO glad I went to the doctor, despite the pain. My itching has subsided quite a bit. YIPPY! Now I have to take 5 days worth of oral steroids. I am so thankful for the relief...it was beginning to scare me a little as I was having some joint swelling, etc. Still not sure what caused it, didn't eat anything out of the ordinary. T.C. says it was because I was so stressed about leaving Clark for the first time. I haven't spent a night away from him since we brought him home. The thought of it did stress me a little...but I didn't feel stressed enough to cause this. Sheesh!! Who knows. Come to find out Clark was GREAT for my parents...very obedient, sweet, a snuggle bunny, etc. YIPPY!! Though he did end up calling several times because he "want talk to Mama." SWEET!!!
Enough about that...Ali and Clark had a great time with Nona and Poppy this weekend. They kept them busy with activities and going out for ice cream, etc. Saturday they went to Space Center Houston and fought the vacation crowd. Today they went to Galveston and rode the ferry, and ate lunch at a restaurant on the water. Sounds fun to me! We so appreciate them coming here to keep the children.
This coming Friday Clark will be evaluated by an ENT to see if there is a medical reason for his nasal speech. We are anxious to see what he says, and anxious to begin speech therapy if there is not a medical reason.
That about sums up our weekend. No pictures to add. I am hoping my parents took some, but I haven't asked.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Then there were 4 again.......
We missed our girl like crazy this week. It was her first time to be away at an overnight camp...and I am proud to say...I survived!! The wimpy mom that I am wasn't too thrilled about it...but I did make it. Ha! As for Ali, she had the most incredible week...and for that I am thankful. She met a lot of new people, experienced camp life, had a great counselor, and learned more about God. It was a wonderful camp. She was able to canoe for the first time, and said it was the highlight of the week. Let me just discuss my laundry issue........for starters....GROSS doesn't even begin to describe it. Seriously! They got grubby, muddy, sweaty.....and then they brought it ALL home. Her tennis shoes were in great shape just a measly week ago...2 pair mind you! I will just say that we will be tennis shoe shopping very soon!! All that said, it was worth it for her to have experienced it all. The cabins had names and hers was "The Truth". Isn't that neat...another was "The Light", etc. She slept almost 12 hours last night, guess she was extremely tired. Every morning they woke up at 7:00 and didn't go to sleep until 11:30 or so at night. The in between hours were very busy with games, Bible study, swimming, canoeing, hiking, water play, and ended with a group devotion before heading to their cabins for much needed showers! I am assuming the kids melted into their beds at night. Oh, they even got to have a cook-out and camped outside one night. A very neat thing that they did after the closing ceremony yesterday is that each cabin huddled together afterwards and ended in prayer. It was a beautiful sight to see!
Ali even turned down a birthday party that she was invited to today. It was a boating party where they were going to go tubing and ride a jet ski. SHE TURNED IT DOWN....she definitely was wiped out. Hey, we didn't have parties like that when we were kids...I wanted to ask if I could go!! Ha! But, me tubing...no that wouldn't be a pretty sight.
T.C. has National Guard duty this whole weekend. The kids and I are going to see the American Girl movie "Kit" that is out. Ali used to read ALL those books when she was younger. I have heard that it is a really cute movie.
Clark had a fun week even though he wasn't too happy that Ali was gone. I tried to keep him busy with friends. Tuesday he had a play date with some little twin girls from church, Wednesday we went with another little friend to "Palm Beach" in Galveston...it is a man made beach with white sand beaches and chlorinated water and all sorts of fun fountains and things for kids, Thursday I took him to see "Wall-E" at the theater and later that day a friend came over to play for a few hours.....and yesterday we were off to pick up Ali. This afternoon, Ali has an end of the year swim party for her summer swim league. Next weekend doesn't slow down with T.C. having to teach at a marriage conference for the National Guard in downtown Houston...and I will be joining him. My parents will be coming to keep the children. Summers sure can get busy......but we are having fun!
On a different note..........this time one year ago today, we were seeing a picture of our sweet son for the very first time! One year ago today we had our appointment at the adoption center in Kyiv or also spelled Kiev, Ukraine. We would hold him for the first time the very next day on July 13, 2007! What a wonderful gift God chose to lavish upon us. We are forever thankful. As I sit here typing, I hear him downstairs playing with a pile of toys and know his life has forever changed. He has come so far since coming home a year ago. Not to say we don't have rough days, we do, but we know he has come a very long way. He loves life, loves to play, loves construction equipment (oh how he loves this!!!), tractors, cars, trucks, and motorcycles! This boy also LOVES to eat. Ha! He is 3 inches taller and 3 lbs. heavier. Samuel Ruslan Clark.......we love him so very much!
I am off to wash more laundry...wish me luck!
Ali even turned down a birthday party that she was invited to today. It was a boating party where they were going to go tubing and ride a jet ski. SHE TURNED IT DOWN....she definitely was wiped out. Hey, we didn't have parties like that when we were kids...I wanted to ask if I could go!! Ha! But, me tubing...no that wouldn't be a pretty sight.
T.C. has National Guard duty this whole weekend. The kids and I are going to see the American Girl movie "Kit" that is out. Ali used to read ALL those books when she was younger. I have heard that it is a really cute movie.
Clark had a fun week even though he wasn't too happy that Ali was gone. I tried to keep him busy with friends. Tuesday he had a play date with some little twin girls from church, Wednesday we went with another little friend to "Palm Beach" in Galveston...it is a man made beach with white sand beaches and chlorinated water and all sorts of fun fountains and things for kids, Thursday I took him to see "Wall-E" at the theater and later that day a friend came over to play for a few hours.....and yesterday we were off to pick up Ali. This afternoon, Ali has an end of the year swim party for her summer swim league. Next weekend doesn't slow down with T.C. having to teach at a marriage conference for the National Guard in downtown Houston...and I will be joining him. My parents will be coming to keep the children. Summers sure can get busy......but we are having fun!
On a different note..........this time one year ago today, we were seeing a picture of our sweet son for the very first time! One year ago today we had our appointment at the adoption center in Kyiv or also spelled Kiev, Ukraine. We would hold him for the first time the very next day on July 13, 2007! What a wonderful gift God chose to lavish upon us. We are forever thankful. As I sit here typing, I hear him downstairs playing with a pile of toys and know his life has forever changed. He has come so far since coming home a year ago. Not to say we don't have rough days, we do, but we know he has come a very long way. He loves life, loves to play, loves construction equipment (oh how he loves this!!!), tractors, cars, trucks, and motorcycles! This boy also LOVES to eat. Ha! He is 3 inches taller and 3 lbs. heavier. Samuel Ruslan Clark.......we love him so very much!
I am off to wash more laundry...wish me luck!
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| camp week.... |
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Happy Late 4th of July!!!
Hope everyone had a fun 4th of July. Ours was interesting, to say the least. We had fun plans to have a picnic lunch at a park with some friends. So...we get to the park (were very excited we found a picnic table under a covered awning to get out of the sun)... unload the vehicles...get children settled with their lunches...start eating....and low and behold it started raining. We finished up our lunch, and the kids run off to play on the playground before the downpour started. We ran to the cars...load kids...and head home. BUMMER! Later that evening, we called our friends and we all decided to go out for the traditional 4th of July pizza buffet. Ha! The rained stopped and we sat at our friends for a couple of hours just chatting while all the kids just played...then we had watermelon! YUMMY! Pretty much all 5 kids were covered in watermelon juice by the time they were finished. All in all we had a fun day despite the rain! It was Clark's first 4th of July as an American.
We had a fun outing today. We headed over to Brazos Bend State Park (you can check it out at http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/brazos_bend/ We went on a hiking trail and saw over 20 alligators. We actually lost track of how many gators we found. It was really neat...we started trying to see who could spot them first. Clark decided to grab some poison ivy, so we will see if he breaks out. Ali is extremely allergic, so we tried to make sure he didn't touch her before we could scrub him off. That is all she needs at camp this coming week...to break out with poison ivy. YUCK!
Speaking of camp...Ali is all packed and ready to go! She is just so excited. We will leave after church tomorrow to take her. We were told by some friends that if we get there early she can pick what bunk she wants. She will want to bunk by her 2 friends that are going.
I will leave you with some pictures from our week.
We had a fun outing today. We headed over to Brazos Bend State Park (you can check it out at http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/brazos_bend/ We went on a hiking trail and saw over 20 alligators. We actually lost track of how many gators we found. It was really neat...we started trying to see who could spot them first. Clark decided to grab some poison ivy, so we will see if he breaks out. Ali is extremely allergic, so we tried to make sure he didn't touch her before we could scrub him off. That is all she needs at camp this coming week...to break out with poison ivy. YUCK!
Speaking of camp...Ali is all packed and ready to go! She is just so excited. We will leave after church tomorrow to take her. We were told by some friends that if we get there early she can pick what bunk she wants. She will want to bunk by her 2 friends that are going.
I will leave you with some pictures from our week.
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| July 4th |
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
One camp down...one more to go!
Ali returned home this weekend, quite spoiled I might add, from her grandparents house. She had such a great time at music camp last week, and very much enjoyed spending some time with her Nona! I don't use the word "spoiled" lightly. Let's see, Nona took she and Sierra out to dinner, out for ice cream, skating, and to the park. Abby joined them on a few of those outings, which was fun for them. Clark and I joined them in Lake Charles on Wednesday. One night we took them to play at Chuck E. Cheese. It was Clark's first time there...and he absolutely loved it. About music camp...there are a few pictures from the musical they performed on Sunday morning. Ali was in the set design class...so the picture of the poster is one that she made. She won a little award at camp for being creative.
While Ali was away, T.C. and I took Clark to a place called Jumpin' Jungle. It was a place with all types of inflatable bouncy things. OH MY GOODNESS...he had the best time. After bouncing for a solid hour, he was pretty pooped....oh, and so was Clark. Ha!!
Ali swam in the Reserve Meet on Saturday. She did well, and was glad she swam so well in the summer league. (not that we are heading to the Olympics or anything..ha!)
We take Ali to her second camp on Sunday afternoon. This will be her first "real" camp. (overnight) She will be there from Sunday late afternoon through noon on Friday. She is so excited. I just hope she can keep all of her stuff together and make it home with everything. (she isn't known for her super organizational skills..haha) I hope I can get everything crammed into one bag (towels, toiletries, shoes, clothes, beach towel, sunscreen, etc.). There is quite the packing list. They even have to take a pair of jeans and long sleeve shirt...ok people, we are in TEXAS! What were they thinking when they wrote that list? Ugh! I guess it is for the night they go camping to help with mosquitoes maybe? I am going to pack each days clothes in individual giant Ziplocs. Ali also isn't known for her fashion sense. I know she is 11, and most girls her age LOVE fashion....but Ali...not so much. She probably won't be so thrilled with this prospect.
It has been so interesting lately...several families have contacted us regarding adopting from Ukraine. We gave our agency permission to use us as contacts in their Ukraine program. It has been so fun retelling our story and thankful other children will have a family. It makes me very happy...but a little amazed that we have been home almost a whole year now. That is crazy! This time last year we were frantically preparing for our trip of a lifetime! I have also been corresponding with another family that adopted from the same orphanage that Clark was in. They adopted a beautiful little girl back in February. It has been fun seeing their pictures with the same children in them.
I felt like Superwoman today......I grocery shopped with 4 children. Yes, 4...and did quite well actually. Ok, so I forgot a few items...what's new? I was babysitting today and we were in desperate need of groceries...so what's a gal to do...drag them all along! Ha!
Here are some pictures from our week...
While Ali was away, T.C. and I took Clark to a place called Jumpin' Jungle. It was a place with all types of inflatable bouncy things. OH MY GOODNESS...he had the best time. After bouncing for a solid hour, he was pretty pooped....oh, and so was Clark. Ha!!
Ali swam in the Reserve Meet on Saturday. She did well, and was glad she swam so well in the summer league. (not that we are heading to the Olympics or anything..ha!)
We take Ali to her second camp on Sunday afternoon. This will be her first "real" camp. (overnight) She will be there from Sunday late afternoon through noon on Friday. She is so excited. I just hope she can keep all of her stuff together and make it home with everything. (she isn't known for her super organizational skills..haha) I hope I can get everything crammed into one bag (towels, toiletries, shoes, clothes, beach towel, sunscreen, etc.). There is quite the packing list. They even have to take a pair of jeans and long sleeve shirt...ok people, we are in TEXAS! What were they thinking when they wrote that list? Ugh! I guess it is for the night they go camping to help with mosquitoes maybe? I am going to pack each days clothes in individual giant Ziplocs. Ali also isn't known for her fashion sense. I know she is 11, and most girls her age LOVE fashion....but Ali...not so much. She probably won't be so thrilled with this prospect.
It has been so interesting lately...several families have contacted us regarding adopting from Ukraine. We gave our agency permission to use us as contacts in their Ukraine program. It has been so fun retelling our story and thankful other children will have a family. It makes me very happy...but a little amazed that we have been home almost a whole year now. That is crazy! This time last year we were frantically preparing for our trip of a lifetime! I have also been corresponding with another family that adopted from the same orphanage that Clark was in. They adopted a beautiful little girl back in February. It has been fun seeing their pictures with the same children in them.
I felt like Superwoman today......I grocery shopped with 4 children. Yes, 4...and did quite well actually. Ok, so I forgot a few items...what's new? I was babysitting today and we were in desperate need of groceries...so what's a gal to do...drag them all along! Ha!
Here are some pictures from our week...
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| goofing around.... |
Monday, June 23, 2008
Going crazy around here......
Ok, so it is too quiet around here this week. Ali and her best friend, Sierra, are in Louisiana attending a music camp that my brother is leading at their church. They are staying with my mom (as my dad is out of town this week). They are having a great time...however, I sure miss her. Clark and I will be going over on Wednesday and bring the clan home on Friday afternoon. She will go to swim practice Friday evening, attend a swim meet on Saturday, we will leave bright and early Sunday morning to head BACK to Louisiana so the girls can participate in the musical that they are learning this week (they learn a musical at camp and present it during morning worship), then rush back here so that Ali can play her guitar in a recital Sunday afternoon. Wowzers!! As you can see, it will be one crazy weekend.
We have been having some fun the last week. I started watching Sierra and her brother, Jacob, last week. I will watch them off and on throughout the summer. One day I took them to Space Center Houston (our kids LOVE that place...obviously!) and they had a blast. I had to just about drag them out of there.
Ali had her last summer league swim meet this past Saturday. The only thing left is a special meet on Saturday. She made a certain time on her events and it qualified her for this meet. (lucky us...hahaha...just kidding...she was proud of herself) So after Saturday the summer league is officially over...minus a pool party in July. She will be back to just her year around team. She will get 3 weeks off for a summer break in August which will be very nice. What will we do not going to the pool just about every night? It will definitely be strange.
Clark......OH CLARK....he has been a little tart for the past week or so. Tart is putting it nicely. I don't know what has gotten into that little guy. We are having to buckle down and be extremely consistent with consequences. He really fights us. He is either super sweet/compliant/easy going.......OR......strong willed/irritable/fighting our authority, etc. It is exhausting! However, I know we will overcome this. He truly has a very sweet nature and we DO love him dearly. He is just wiping his poor Mama out. Ha!!
So what good books are you guys reading these days? I am horrible at trying to get through like 3 books at one time.....never quite finishing any of them! Anyone else like that? Right now I am usually reading some type of parenting book. I am trying to get through Bringing Up Boys, The Strong Willed Child (both of those are by Dr. James Dobson), and What's So Amazing About Grace by Philip Yancey. Bringing Up Boys has been so helpful in understanding boys...they are OH SO DIFFERENT than girls. What's So Amazing About Grace is fabulous. We are going through it during the Sunday School hour at church. It is so convicting in its teaching of God's grace. I love a quote by C.S. Lewis that is included in the book "To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God forgives the inexcusable in you." If that isn't convicting, I don't know what is. In the book Yancey makes a statement, "Grace alone melts ungrace." I just love that. How often do we harbor resentment and hostility towards someone when we should be showing grace because of the grace Christ offers to us. I am so glad that I decided to take the study and read this book.
Oh, the cutest Clark story. This past weekend we had a storm pass through and T.C. spotted a double rainbow outside afterwards. He called for us all to go outside and check it out. As we were turning around to come inside Clark adds, "Noah did it." We were shocked that he put that together. Ok, so he wasn't exactly right...but close enough! That was awesome.
So where are the comments blog friends? What are you guys doing this summer...please share!!
Oh, I will clarify about the picture with Clark and the gator...it is fake. Since the summer swim team are the "Gators"...they have this fake gator at the pool. However, after looking at the picture it looked like I plopped our son right down by a gator. Ummmm, NO NO NO!!
We have been having some fun the last week. I started watching Sierra and her brother, Jacob, last week. I will watch them off and on throughout the summer. One day I took them to Space Center Houston (our kids LOVE that place...obviously!) and they had a blast. I had to just about drag them out of there.
Ali had her last summer league swim meet this past Saturday. The only thing left is a special meet on Saturday. She made a certain time on her events and it qualified her for this meet. (lucky us...hahaha...just kidding...she was proud of herself) So after Saturday the summer league is officially over...minus a pool party in July. She will be back to just her year around team. She will get 3 weeks off for a summer break in August which will be very nice. What will we do not going to the pool just about every night? It will definitely be strange.
Clark......OH CLARK....he has been a little tart for the past week or so. Tart is putting it nicely. I don't know what has gotten into that little guy. We are having to buckle down and be extremely consistent with consequences. He really fights us. He is either super sweet/compliant/easy going.......OR......strong willed/irritable/fighting our authority, etc. It is exhausting! However, I know we will overcome this. He truly has a very sweet nature and we DO love him dearly. He is just wiping his poor Mama out. Ha!!
So what good books are you guys reading these days? I am horrible at trying to get through like 3 books at one time.....never quite finishing any of them! Anyone else like that? Right now I am usually reading some type of parenting book. I am trying to get through Bringing Up Boys, The Strong Willed Child (both of those are by Dr. James Dobson), and What's So Amazing About Grace by Philip Yancey. Bringing Up Boys has been so helpful in understanding boys...they are OH SO DIFFERENT than girls. What's So Amazing About Grace is fabulous. We are going through it during the Sunday School hour at church. It is so convicting in its teaching of God's grace. I love a quote by C.S. Lewis that is included in the book "To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God forgives the inexcusable in you." If that isn't convicting, I don't know what is. In the book Yancey makes a statement, "Grace alone melts ungrace." I just love that. How often do we harbor resentment and hostility towards someone when we should be showing grace because of the grace Christ offers to us. I am so glad that I decided to take the study and read this book.
Oh, the cutest Clark story. This past weekend we had a storm pass through and T.C. spotted a double rainbow outside afterwards. He called for us all to go outside and check it out. As we were turning around to come inside Clark adds, "Noah did it." We were shocked that he put that together. Ok, so he wasn't exactly right...but close enough! That was awesome.
So where are the comments blog friends? What are you guys doing this summer...please share!!
Oh, I will clarify about the picture with Clark and the gator...it is fake. Since the summer swim team are the "Gators"...they have this fake gator at the pool. However, after looking at the picture it looked like I plopped our son right down by a gator. Ummmm, NO NO NO!!
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| summer happenings |
Friday, June 13, 2008
Summer outing....
We had a fun outing to Space Center Houston yesterday. However, I think every summer program in Houston had the same idea. There were kids everywhere! There were YMCA groups, day cares, etc. Wew! We got there just in the nick of time and were able to get in line right before most of them. SCH has a traveling exhibit called "Daredevil Island" that I thought the kids would enjoy. Boy did they! Clark was too small for some of it, but he enjoyed what he was able to do. Here is what it says on the SCH website: "Nowhere else can you swing high in the air unharnessed on a giant trapeze; test your climbing skills on a 4 story high spider web; bungee jump on bouncy trampolines; or test survival skills through a mystical maze! Thrill-seeking visitors craving an "Indiana Jones" type of experience will discover a wild expedition only at Daredevil Island!" At first I thought "sounds good, but what will it really be like?" You know when you expect something grand and you get there and it is a flop? However, we were pleasantly surprised that it was exactly like it sounded. Ali was able to swing from a trapeze, climb a tower of bungee cords, and more. Clark was able to jump on the trampoline with a harness, try his hand at the tower of bungee cords (he was just too small to make it past the first level), and he did the maze with Ali. The worker that helped Clark into the harness later told me that he needed to be on a diet of steak and eggs so he could be a football player. Ha! Yes, he's little...we know! They also played in the huge play structure a little before getting overrun with all of the other kids. I am sure we will be going back while that exhibit is there.
Ali began a morning swim practice this week.......can I just say it gives new meaning to the word MORNING. I had her at the pool by 5:30 (as in AM!!) and she swam until 7:30! Oh the life of a swimmer.... But, that is just for the month of June. Next month we are back to her 2 hour evening practices. Right now they are sharing the pool with a summer league and therefore having to work around their practices. Believe it or not she doesn't seem to mind it...once she is actually awake. She is a little slow to get out of the door. Ha! Well, one summer league swim meet tomorrow and then one more to go next Saturday. (no complaints here) She will have 3 weeks off from her year around team for "summer break" in August.....what will we do with ourselves? Just imagine 3 weeks of NO practice. I am not sure what that will be like.
We are awaiting a referral to go through for Clark to see an ENT. He had an appointment with his pediatrician this week, and she decided that we do need to move forward with his speech issues. She said we must first rule out a medical issue for the nasal sounding speech before we hit full force with speech therapy. My gut feeling is that it is a learned speech issue and perhaps not medical. He is...shall we say...a little lazy when it comes to his speech. He will run things together, skip what he would consider not important words, and just doesn't take his time to speak clearly. We have been trying to be more diligent with making him repeat us word for word. He gets frustrated, but I think it will help. We will see. It could be much worse. We just want to take care of it before he gets older. He is so darn cute it is easy to let the speech slide sometimes. :) On a side note, our little man has grown 3 inches since he came home last Aug. Wahoo! He is now 37 1/2 inches tall and 30 lbs. So at 4 1/2 years old he isn't on the growth chart yet, but I have confidence he will be soon.
I want to say HAPPY FATHER'S DAY early to my wonderful hubby! Our children are blessed beyond measure to have such a fabulous Daddy. And HFD to my Dad and father in law.....we love you both! Oh yes, my brother has something to celebrate this Father's Day also.....they are expecting a baby boy in November. How exciting...we need another boy in this family! (congrats again Jay and Paula...don't worry, I'll try not to spoil him too much...NOT...heehee!!!)
Ali began a morning swim practice this week.......can I just say it gives new meaning to the word MORNING. I had her at the pool by 5:30 (as in AM!!) and she swam until 7:30! Oh the life of a swimmer.... But, that is just for the month of June. Next month we are back to her 2 hour evening practices. Right now they are sharing the pool with a summer league and therefore having to work around their practices. Believe it or not she doesn't seem to mind it...once she is actually awake. She is a little slow to get out of the door. Ha! Well, one summer league swim meet tomorrow and then one more to go next Saturday. (no complaints here) She will have 3 weeks off from her year around team for "summer break" in August.....what will we do with ourselves? Just imagine 3 weeks of NO practice. I am not sure what that will be like.
We are awaiting a referral to go through for Clark to see an ENT. He had an appointment with his pediatrician this week, and she decided that we do need to move forward with his speech issues. She said we must first rule out a medical issue for the nasal sounding speech before we hit full force with speech therapy. My gut feeling is that it is a learned speech issue and perhaps not medical. He is...shall we say...a little lazy when it comes to his speech. He will run things together, skip what he would consider not important words, and just doesn't take his time to speak clearly. We have been trying to be more diligent with making him repeat us word for word. He gets frustrated, but I think it will help. We will see. It could be much worse. We just want to take care of it before he gets older. He is so darn cute it is easy to let the speech slide sometimes. :) On a side note, our little man has grown 3 inches since he came home last Aug. Wahoo! He is now 37 1/2 inches tall and 30 lbs. So at 4 1/2 years old he isn't on the growth chart yet, but I have confidence he will be soon.
I want to say HAPPY FATHER'S DAY early to my wonderful hubby! Our children are blessed beyond measure to have such a fabulous Daddy. And HFD to my Dad and father in law.....we love you both! Oh yes, my brother has something to celebrate this Father's Day also.....they are expecting a baby boy in November. How exciting...we need another boy in this family! (congrats again Jay and Paula...don't worry, I'll try not to spoil him too much...NOT...heehee!!!)
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| Space Center Houston |
Saturday, June 07, 2008
Our summer has begun!
Well, it is scorching here in good ole' Texas with temps already in the 90's. Ugh...guess this means we have one hot summer ahead of us. Thank goodness for AC and the beach! The beach usually has a nice breeze.
We had a fun start to summer with family in town for a few days. I tortured them with touristy "stuff" (heehee...hopefully I didn't REALLY torture them) The first day we spent several hours at the Kemah Boardwalk. Our kids love it out there and our cousin, Christopher did also. The 3 kids played in a dancing fountain for quite a while. I think they would have stayed much longer, but the adults were melting. We were just about to the point of running through the fountain as well. We also took them on the little train ride, had lunch, and fed some sting rays. They have a large tank full of sting rays that you can feed. Clark just couldn't get up the courage to stick his hand in the tank....so Mama had to feed those STINKY little fish to the rays. My hands smelled forever after that. LOVELY!! After Kemah, we hit Dairy Queen on the way home for some much needed ice cream. That evening Ali had swim practice, so we just stayed around here. The next morning we got up and headed to Galveston for the day. We took a drive down the main drag to see the beach and then we stopped at the state park to let the kids play in the ocean. They had a great time. Clark is always content to dump out all of his sand toys and go to town digging in the sand. There was a storm out at sea, so there was a lot of seaweed and rough waters. The children didn't seem to mind at all...despite the not so pretty water that left their white shirts discolored. Oh well!! We then headed to The Strand District to visit Ali and Clark's favorite old fashioned ice cream parlor and candy store. All in all we had a great time and enjoyed their visit VERY much. Lisa, you didn't think I would include that picture of Clark with that *funnel* did you? Ok, I will explain...we were in a Wings beach shop and Clark spotted a beer bong....his Aunt Lisa just COULDN'T resist getting a shot of him with it. I know it was a little tacky of me to include it...but what can I say? Let's hope he isn't a future wild frat boy!! Ha! Mom, I know you are thinking "oh we raised her better than this." Ha!! No, I lied and told him it was a huge funnel to play on the beach with...heehee. Don't worry...we didn't buy it!!
T.C. is officially a chaplain in the Texas Air National Guard 147th Reconnaissance Wing........FINALLY! This has been over a year in the making. He transferred out of the Air Force Reserve into the Guard. We just didn't know it would take SO long. But, the wait is over and he is very excited about this new chapter in his military career. He began work this weekend. He will pull one weekend a month and 2 weeks a year (or something like that). Today we attended a family day at the base. It was fun and the kids enjoyed it. They were changing from a fighter wing to the reconnaissance wing, so they had a ceromony for that. Afterwards, there was a catered lunch, bouncy houses for the kids, car displays, plane displays, booths, etc. Ali loved looking at all the cars as she is quite a fan! Clark loved the bouncy houses and literally cried when it was time to get out. I was able to meet the other chaplains and a few wives. We are excited to see what ministry opportunities the Lord opens up for T.C.
We hung a bird feeder in our grand oak tree the other day. Ok, it isn't so grand...it is a baby actually! T.C. still questions why a builder would plant the slowest growing tree in the yard of a new house. Ha!! He wants to uproot it...but I have become quite attached to it. Anyway, Ali and I were doing school the other day when I looked outside. I thought the bird at the feeder looked odd. I went outside for a closer look and low and behold it was a parakeet. I am guessing someone in the neighborhood is missing their pet bird. It has returned several times since then...quite an odd little sight.We have very much enjoy watching all the birds that show up at our lone little feeder. We have quite a few birds despite our lack of trees in this neighborhood. Lisa brought us a hummingbird feeder this past week, and we are anxious to see if some hummingbirds find it soon!
Clark is continuing to do well. His speech still needs quite a bit of work, but maybe this is to be expected with changing languages only 9 1/2 months ago. If we still feel he is behind in a few months I will have him re-evaluated by the speech pathologist. We understand a lot of what he says, but others don't always. Aside from that we are having some whining/crying issues, but we are really working on that. I think it will improve over time. He just gets upset easily...I am sure it somehow stems from orphanage life. I don't mean he throws fits, it is literally just a true cry. (but still grates on the nerves after the millionth time..haha) Anyway, when the fam was here this week we took the kids to our pool one evening. Clark was really getting the hang of the whole swimming thing! He just might take after his big sister after all. He was really moving those arms and kicking those legs. You could tell he had watched Ali a zillion times as he was trying to move his head like on freestyle. Now that was quite funny! We also think he is going to love music. He hums to himself non stop. He will start children's choir and hand bells in the fall. He loves it when the children perform a hand bell special in church. He stops what he is doing, stands up, and doesn't take his eyes off of them until they are finished. Uncle Jay, does that just warm your heart?
That about sums up our start to summer. Leave comments on what is going on with you guys and your summer plans!
Here are some photos from the week. It is not letting me post captions with the pictures. I will try again another time....blogger is giving me a fit tonight.
We had a fun start to summer with family in town for a few days. I tortured them with touristy "stuff" (heehee...hopefully I didn't REALLY torture them) The first day we spent several hours at the Kemah Boardwalk. Our kids love it out there and our cousin, Christopher did also. The 3 kids played in a dancing fountain for quite a while. I think they would have stayed much longer, but the adults were melting. We were just about to the point of running through the fountain as well. We also took them on the little train ride, had lunch, and fed some sting rays. They have a large tank full of sting rays that you can feed. Clark just couldn't get up the courage to stick his hand in the tank....so Mama had to feed those STINKY little fish to the rays. My hands smelled forever after that. LOVELY!! After Kemah, we hit Dairy Queen on the way home for some much needed ice cream. That evening Ali had swim practice, so we just stayed around here. The next morning we got up and headed to Galveston for the day. We took a drive down the main drag to see the beach and then we stopped at the state park to let the kids play in the ocean. They had a great time. Clark is always content to dump out all of his sand toys and go to town digging in the sand. There was a storm out at sea, so there was a lot of seaweed and rough waters. The children didn't seem to mind at all...despite the not so pretty water that left their white shirts discolored. Oh well!! We then headed to The Strand District to visit Ali and Clark's favorite old fashioned ice cream parlor and candy store. All in all we had a great time and enjoyed their visit VERY much. Lisa, you didn't think I would include that picture of Clark with that *funnel* did you? Ok, I will explain...we were in a Wings beach shop and Clark spotted a beer bong....his Aunt Lisa just COULDN'T resist getting a shot of him with it. I know it was a little tacky of me to include it...but what can I say? Let's hope he isn't a future wild frat boy!! Ha! Mom, I know you are thinking "oh we raised her better than this." Ha!! No, I lied and told him it was a huge funnel to play on the beach with...heehee. Don't worry...we didn't buy it!!
T.C. is officially a chaplain in the Texas Air National Guard 147th Reconnaissance Wing........FINALLY! This has been over a year in the making. He transferred out of the Air Force Reserve into the Guard. We just didn't know it would take SO long. But, the wait is over and he is very excited about this new chapter in his military career. He began work this weekend. He will pull one weekend a month and 2 weeks a year (or something like that). Today we attended a family day at the base. It was fun and the kids enjoyed it. They were changing from a fighter wing to the reconnaissance wing, so they had a ceromony for that. Afterwards, there was a catered lunch, bouncy houses for the kids, car displays, plane displays, booths, etc. Ali loved looking at all the cars as she is quite a fan! Clark loved the bouncy houses and literally cried when it was time to get out. I was able to meet the other chaplains and a few wives. We are excited to see what ministry opportunities the Lord opens up for T.C.
We hung a bird feeder in our grand oak tree the other day. Ok, it isn't so grand...it is a baby actually! T.C. still questions why a builder would plant the slowest growing tree in the yard of a new house. Ha!! He wants to uproot it...but I have become quite attached to it. Anyway, Ali and I were doing school the other day when I looked outside. I thought the bird at the feeder looked odd. I went outside for a closer look and low and behold it was a parakeet. I am guessing someone in the neighborhood is missing their pet bird. It has returned several times since then...quite an odd little sight.We have very much enjoy watching all the birds that show up at our lone little feeder. We have quite a few birds despite our lack of trees in this neighborhood. Lisa brought us a hummingbird feeder this past week, and we are anxious to see if some hummingbirds find it soon!
Clark is continuing to do well. His speech still needs quite a bit of work, but maybe this is to be expected with changing languages only 9 1/2 months ago. If we still feel he is behind in a few months I will have him re-evaluated by the speech pathologist. We understand a lot of what he says, but others don't always. Aside from that we are having some whining/crying issues, but we are really working on that. I think it will improve over time. He just gets upset easily...I am sure it somehow stems from orphanage life. I don't mean he throws fits, it is literally just a true cry. (but still grates on the nerves after the millionth time..haha) Anyway, when the fam was here this week we took the kids to our pool one evening. Clark was really getting the hang of the whole swimming thing! He just might take after his big sister after all. He was really moving those arms and kicking those legs. You could tell he had watched Ali a zillion times as he was trying to move his head like on freestyle. Now that was quite funny! We also think he is going to love music. He hums to himself non stop. He will start children's choir and hand bells in the fall. He loves it when the children perform a hand bell special in church. He stops what he is doing, stands up, and doesn't take his eyes off of them until they are finished. Uncle Jay, does that just warm your heart?
That about sums up our start to summer. Leave comments on what is going on with you guys and your summer plans!
Here are some photos from the week. It is not letting me post captions with the pictures. I will try again another time....blogger is giving me a fit tonight.
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| some summer fun |
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Not much of anything....
Not much news here. Our school year is winding down, had to recoup from vacation, back to swimming/swimming/swimming, and that is about the extent of it. Seriously, how boring of a post can I possibly make it you ask?
Ali had her first swim meet today with the summer swim team, Dickinson Gators. She came in first in everything she swam in. It pays to swim year around when most of the other kids only swim on the summer team! Hahaha...it was a boost to her self esteem, that is for sure. Because she isn't the fastest (or even close to it) at the year around meets...which are USA meets. So this is nice for her...more relaxed and can have some fun with it. I will attach a clip of her freestyle...she is the one in a white cap on the far left.
We have some of my family coming in this week from Shreveport. We are so excited. It will be their first time to get to come since we have lived here. Ali is just glad her cousin, Christopher, is one of them!! They get along really well and have a great time playing. We have some fun things planned for while they are here.
It is officially HOT around here...summer is definitely in full swing. We had to go and buy a huge umbrella for our patio to get some reprieve from the sun. The kids love to play outside...but that sun is scorching.
We are thinking of looking for a soccer team for Clark to play on. How cute will that be? He has a pretty good kick...but will he pay attention long enough to learn the rules? Humm...we don't know.
Enjoy the beginning of your summer......
Ali had her first swim meet today with the summer swim team, Dickinson Gators. She came in first in everything she swam in. It pays to swim year around when most of the other kids only swim on the summer team! Hahaha...it was a boost to her self esteem, that is for sure. Because she isn't the fastest (or even close to it) at the year around meets...which are USA meets. So this is nice for her...more relaxed and can have some fun with it. I will attach a clip of her freestyle...she is the one in a white cap on the far left.
We have some of my family coming in this week from Shreveport. We are so excited. It will be their first time to get to come since we have lived here. Ali is just glad her cousin, Christopher, is one of them!! They get along really well and have a great time playing. We have some fun things planned for while they are here.
It is officially HOT around here...summer is definitely in full swing. We had to go and buy a huge umbrella for our patio to get some reprieve from the sun. The kids love to play outside...but that sun is scorching.
We are thinking of looking for a soccer team for Clark to play on. How cute will that be? He has a pretty good kick...but will he pay attention long enough to learn the rules? Humm...we don't know.
Enjoy the beginning of your summer......
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| swim meet |
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Back to the grind.....
Our vacation is officially over, and we are back to the grind. We had a fabulous time in Destin, FL. The weather was glorious with no rain and a breeze everyday. It was so wonderful to relax and be refreshed. We felt like we were seeing a little piece of paradise from morning until night while we were there. It was absolutely gorgeous. We would eat breakfast on our patio, and hit the beach shortly afterwards. The kids had a great time. Clark loved the ocean, and wasn't even afraid of the waves. We began our vacation with a night in Pensacola. On the way we stopped off in Gulf Shores to have dinner with a friend from high school and her husband. It was great to see an old friend! The following morning we took the children to the Naval Aviation Museum on NAS Pensacola. They loved seeing all the airplanes. We used to take Ali there when she was a toddler, since we lived an hour away. Speaking of that...after we left the museum, we went to Ft. Walton to take a tour of the town. We had not been there since we moved from there almost 9 years ago. Ali wanted to see our first little house and the hospital where she was born. It was a lot of fun driving around our old stomping grounds! After being all nostalgic, we finished our drive to Destin. We could NOT believe how much the area had grown up since we had moved. Destin is one high rise after the other now. We were sad to see all the changes. However, we pulled up to our little apartment and we were in awe at the beauty of the ocean right out in front of our window! The view was amazing. When not out on the beach, we lived out on the patio! During our stay, we took a sunset dolphin cruise. We were fortunate to see quite a few dolphins. They would come out of the water so quickly that Clark kept telling me "Mama, I can't see their eyes!" Haha..it was so cute. One evening we also went to a park called "The Track" where we played putt-putt and rode go-carts. Clark also rode a few kiddie rides like a train and some airplanes. We had a fun time that night. We were able to see some old friends from our Ft. Walton days, Becky and Hannah. Becky and I met at church and were pregnant at the same time. Ali and Hannah were little playmates back then. They hit it off instantly and had a fun time running on the beach. We were so sad to see our time at the beach come to an end. I guess that is how you tell a good vacation though, when you are sad to leave! On our way home we stopped off in Gulf Shores for a picnic at Gulf State Park. We went there many times growing up and I wanted to see it again. It had changed quite a bit due to having damage from Hurricane Ivan, which was sad to see. After our lunch, we stopped off in Mobile to tour the USS Alabama. We then spent the night in Biloxi, MS and then spent Friday night with my parents.
Now we have bags to unpack and laundry to wash. YUCK! That is always the downside to taking a vacation...but it is worth it.
Ali and I have 2 weeks left of school. We will both be glad when we are finished up. Hope everyone has a great week!
Now we have bags to unpack and laundry to wash. YUCK! That is always the downside to taking a vacation...but it is worth it.
Ali and I have 2 weeks left of school. We will both be glad when we are finished up. Hope everyone has a great week!
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| vacation |
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Happy Mother's Day!
Happy Mother's Day to all of you fabulous mothers out there. Enjoy your special day. Here is a quote from Humor for a Mom's Heart "Who am I? I am a cooker of oatmeal and cleaner of soap scum. A taxi driver, spider killer, purchaser of folders with pockets and prongs, pencil finder, and dental appointment maker. Loudest cheerleader and most fervent pray-er, encourager of dreams, and holder of hands. I am a tear wiper and boo-boo kisser, the tooth brushing gestapo and an example of faith. You know who I am. I AM MOTHER." I thought that was pretty cute. You know what they say "Motherhood is the toughest job you will ever enjoy." Right? I am blessed to be a mother as a result of giving birth, and also through adoption. No matter how I became my children's mother...I am their mother. It doesn't matter that my blood doesn't run through one of their bodies, I am HIS mother just the same. I have loved Ali from the moment I found out we were expecting her...and I have loved Clark from the moment God called us to adopt. Each so unique...they are so loved. I hope one day they will each know just HOW MUCH.
I also want to say a special HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to my incredible mother. She was a wonderful example of a Godly mother and woman of God....and also to my mother in law who raised her son up to be an incredible father and husband!
We decided to celebrate Mother's Day and my upcoming birthday yesterday. Ali and I began our morning by heading off to get pedicures! It was such fun to just sit there and watch her. She looked all grown up in that massage chair. She had a ton of fun getting her toes all pretty. She wanted our toes to match...so she chose the color. We also decided to have a little fun and get flowers painted on our big toes. Hers turned out just adorable...mine...well, my gal went a little crazy. (I am not sure what is supposed to be on my big toes!!) Oh well...it goes a little like this: The cost of 2 pedicures with "decorations" $59 (yikes, a little steep!!) The cost of my precious daughter telling me "Mom, thanks for taking me to do that...I had such a good time with you." PRICELESS!!! It was definitely a special Mommy morning. I loved it. We just thought that all gals need pretty toes at the beach, right? heehee...any excuse for a pedi!
After our fun morning, we attended Clark's end of the semester gymnastics showcase. It was so cute. He started out strong...then lost a little interest. He would take his turn, then turn his attention to any ledge he could catapult off of, etc. All the children received medals and a t-shirt. He was pretty proud of wearing that medal around his neck! After gym we had a late lunch at a new Mediterranean restaurant we had been wanting to try. That is one of our favorites! It was wonderful and we had a good time just being together. This morning I also got pancakes and eggs cooked by T.C. and Ali! What a treat.
If I don't get a chance to post again before we leave on Thursday, I will be posting lots of pictures from our trip when we return. We have some fun things planned for the kids. Take care.....
I also want to say a special HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to my incredible mother. She was a wonderful example of a Godly mother and woman of God....and also to my mother in law who raised her son up to be an incredible father and husband!
We decided to celebrate Mother's Day and my upcoming birthday yesterday. Ali and I began our morning by heading off to get pedicures! It was such fun to just sit there and watch her. She looked all grown up in that massage chair. She had a ton of fun getting her toes all pretty. She wanted our toes to match...so she chose the color. We also decided to have a little fun and get flowers painted on our big toes. Hers turned out just adorable...mine...well, my gal went a little crazy. (I am not sure what is supposed to be on my big toes!!) Oh well...it goes a little like this: The cost of 2 pedicures with "decorations" $59 (yikes, a little steep!!) The cost of my precious daughter telling me "Mom, thanks for taking me to do that...I had such a good time with you." PRICELESS!!! It was definitely a special Mommy morning. I loved it. We just thought that all gals need pretty toes at the beach, right? heehee...any excuse for a pedi!
After our fun morning, we attended Clark's end of the semester gymnastics showcase. It was so cute. He started out strong...then lost a little interest. He would take his turn, then turn his attention to any ledge he could catapult off of, etc. All the children received medals and a t-shirt. He was pretty proud of wearing that medal around his neck! After gym we had a late lunch at a new Mediterranean restaurant we had been wanting to try. That is one of our favorites! It was wonderful and we had a good time just being together. This morning I also got pancakes and eggs cooked by T.C. and Ali! What a treat.
If I don't get a chance to post again before we leave on Thursday, I will be posting lots of pictures from our trip when we return. We have some fun things planned for the kids. Take care.....
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| Mother's Day |
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Life zoomed in.......
It occurred to me yesterday as I was attempting to take pictures of some precious little ducks we see on our nightly walks....that I often look at our lives "zoomed in." What I mean is, I was trying to zoom in the lens on a little duck's face and realized it was zoomed in too much. I couldn't make out what the picture should be...it was blurry. All too often I do that with our daily lives. I ZOOM in on the little things...this tantrum or that whiny fit or this preteen attitude or that. But the big picture needs to be zoomed out and allowed to come into focus...where I focus on what incredible gifts God has bestowed on us. He chose us to be Ali and Clark's parents. What a gift! At the end of the day, do I choose to focus on the little things that drove me crazy...or relish in the fact that I am home with our children and got to hug them and kiss them and watch them blossom into incredible little (and not so little) people. I got to walk into Ali's room and see her Star Wars city come together...and see her floor covered in Build a Bear clothes because she decided the drawers where she kept them needed to be cleaned out (right as we needed to start school...see, I had to zoom out again!!)...and I got to see Clark fit inside a storage cubby, because he is just that little :) ...and help him tie a teddy bear around his waist with a ribbon because he wanted to carry it on his back. Those are my precious moments. No, I may not be saving a life or keeping an astronaut safe (heehee)...but what sweet moments I get to treasure! They are my two amazing treasures. How unworthy I am of this calling, but so thankful he entrusted me with these blessings.
The pictures speak for themselves. Ali dressed she and Clark up the other day as Luke Skywalker (and someone else...sorry, I don't know anything about Star Wars). They played and played on the trampoline and it was so funny. She has quite a few Star Wars Lego's sets, and the other day she covered her floor with all the sets. She takes pictures of everything...so she took those. The ducks we have been watching for weeks now. When we first spotted them they were so tiny...16 of them actually. Now, they are growing and there are 14 left. We love to stop and watch them when we walk...and of course Clark loves to feed them. We try and remember to bring bread once a week or so. He thinks the baby ducks are so cute.
Well, the vacation bug has hit us hard..............can we make it another week? We have to, right? We will leave next Thursday afternoon when T.C. gets home from work and spend the night in Lake Charles. That will put us 2 1/2 hours closer to Florida. I am also going to get to see a couple of old friends from high school...oh that was many moons ago. Anyway, since I graduated from high school in Pensacola...I still know a couple of people in the area. That will be fun. We will see how shocked they are by how much I have aged. Ha!
The pictures speak for themselves. Ali dressed she and Clark up the other day as Luke Skywalker (and someone else...sorry, I don't know anything about Star Wars). They played and played on the trampoline and it was so funny. She has quite a few Star Wars Lego's sets, and the other day she covered her floor with all the sets. She takes pictures of everything...so she took those. The ducks we have been watching for weeks now. When we first spotted them they were so tiny...16 of them actually. Now, they are growing and there are 14 left. We love to stop and watch them when we walk...and of course Clark loves to feed them. We try and remember to bring bread once a week or so. He thinks the baby ducks are so cute.
Well, the vacation bug has hit us hard..............can we make it another week? We have to, right? We will leave next Thursday afternoon when T.C. gets home from work and spend the night in Lake Charles. That will put us 2 1/2 hours closer to Florida. I am also going to get to see a couple of old friends from high school...oh that was many moons ago. Anyway, since I graduated from high school in Pensacola...I still know a couple of people in the area. That will be fun. We will see how shocked they are by how much I have aged. Ha!
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| Star Wars and ducks |
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Nothing exciting.......
Well, I don't seem to post much lately...same old same old just isn't real exciting. The summer should bring a little more fun into our lives. We are READY for school to be out. Ali and I have the summer bug already. We will finish up the first week of June. Ali is excited about what her summer has in store. Her first week long camp, swimming on not one but two swim teams, music camp in Louisiana, hopefully a sewing day camp, etc. It will be full and hopefully very memorable for her. Clark will continue taking his little gymnastics class, and will have to tag along for everything on big sisters list! I am going to help out a friend since she works full time, and watch her children a couple of times a week during the summer. It just happens to be Ali's best friend and her brother...so they are SO excited about seeing so much of each other come June!
We met my parents half way between here and Lake Charles today for lunch. It is just over an a hour each way. We enjoyed seeing them. They are leaving on their vacation this coming Friday...so we wanted to give Mom her Mother's Day gift before they left. Speaking of Mother's Day...it will be my first one with Clark home...and his first to have someone to call Mama! I LOVE that. (and let me just add...he says it a lot...like a million times a day...haha)
Ali had a photo shoot with our cat, Happy the other day. We had the windows raised in front of her school desk and the cats just love the windows up. He jumped right in the window and spread out. She got some great shots of him being his typical lazy self.
I have been working on Clark's life book. What that is is a book that you make for adopted children that tells their life story...or at least everything that you know. It keeps the children from guessing about what happened to their birth parents, etc. and nothing is ever a secret. You write it in storybook form, so that you can read it to them. I am putting pictures in his. Well, I had a copy of the earliest picture we have of him...it is a terrible quality picture of a group of kids at a Christmas celebration. He is a small toddler. I pointed him out and he loved seeing it. He held the picture and looked at everyone else and looked up at me and said "Mama all gone?" He noticed I wasn't in the picture. It was so cute. I explained that he didn't live with us yet. We try to always be very open about everything. A few weeks ago T.C. was talking to him at bedtime about what it was like in the orphanage. He asked him if he got to sleep with a stuffed animal at bedtime. Clark said "oh no Papa, one toy behind door." He remembers that he had a little cubby/closet where he would put his shoes, jacket, and ONE red truck. Though he didn't get to leave the orphanage with it....he does still remember that detail.
I am reading "Bring up Boys" by Dr. James Dobson. It is so fantastic in explaining the differences in raising boys verses girls. It is great to actually read in print that we are not alone in this venture. Ha! A couple of months ago I begin to panic as these traits were coming more and more into light. But, I can breathe a little easier now knowing that boys are just different!! I mean...I knew it all along...duh, right...I just don't think I knew just how different it would be. But, with that said.......we wouldn't change a thing! He brings so much joy and laughter into our lives.
Clark will soon have a little wooden play structure to play on in our yard. I am so excited. Our neighbors are giving us an older one out of their yard. It was in the yard when they moved in...and they have no need for it. Clark will really love it. We may need to purchase new swings for it, but we sure can't complain about FREE! Woohoo! Their teenage boys are going to help get it into our yard in the next couple of weeks.
Here are a few random pictures.
We met my parents half way between here and Lake Charles today for lunch. It is just over an a hour each way. We enjoyed seeing them. They are leaving on their vacation this coming Friday...so we wanted to give Mom her Mother's Day gift before they left. Speaking of Mother's Day...it will be my first one with Clark home...and his first to have someone to call Mama! I LOVE that. (and let me just add...he says it a lot...like a million times a day...haha)
Ali had a photo shoot with our cat, Happy the other day. We had the windows raised in front of her school desk and the cats just love the windows up. He jumped right in the window and spread out. She got some great shots of him being his typical lazy self.
I have been working on Clark's life book. What that is is a book that you make for adopted children that tells their life story...or at least everything that you know. It keeps the children from guessing about what happened to their birth parents, etc. and nothing is ever a secret. You write it in storybook form, so that you can read it to them. I am putting pictures in his. Well, I had a copy of the earliest picture we have of him...it is a terrible quality picture of a group of kids at a Christmas celebration. He is a small toddler. I pointed him out and he loved seeing it. He held the picture and looked at everyone else and looked up at me and said "Mama all gone?" He noticed I wasn't in the picture. It was so cute. I explained that he didn't live with us yet. We try to always be very open about everything. A few weeks ago T.C. was talking to him at bedtime about what it was like in the orphanage. He asked him if he got to sleep with a stuffed animal at bedtime. Clark said "oh no Papa, one toy behind door." He remembers that he had a little cubby/closet where he would put his shoes, jacket, and ONE red truck. Though he didn't get to leave the orphanage with it....he does still remember that detail.
I am reading "Bring up Boys" by Dr. James Dobson. It is so fantastic in explaining the differences in raising boys verses girls. It is great to actually read in print that we are not alone in this venture. Ha! A couple of months ago I begin to panic as these traits were coming more and more into light. But, I can breathe a little easier now knowing that boys are just different!! I mean...I knew it all along...duh, right...I just don't think I knew just how different it would be. But, with that said.......we wouldn't change a thing! He brings so much joy and laughter into our lives.
Clark will soon have a little wooden play structure to play on in our yard. I am so excited. Our neighbors are giving us an older one out of their yard. It was in the yard when they moved in...and they have no need for it. Clark will really love it. We may need to purchase new swings for it, but we sure can't complain about FREE! Woohoo! Their teenage boys are going to help get it into our yard in the next couple of weeks.
Here are a few random pictures.
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| being sillly, lazy cat, and early Mother's Day |
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Who says make-over parties are just for girls?
Ok, so we headed to Lake Charles on Friday so that Ali and her friend, Sierra, could attend Abby's 9th birthday party. (Abby is our niece) Well, have any of you heard of a Club Libby Lu party? Well, Lake Charles is fairly small...so they have a local version called Club Tabby. You can check out this website http://www.clublibbylu.com/ to see what it was like. It was cute. The girls get their hair done complimented with crazy colored hairspray, nails painted, make-up, dress up clothes, walk a runway, etc. Ali, being anti girly girl, just had blue spray in her hair and nails painted. She left the other stuff for the younger girls. It was cute watching them all strut their stuff on the runway! Well, I will admit, Clark decided that NO girl was upstaging him...yes, he jumped right up there and strutted his stuff also. You will see in the pictures that someone stuck a PINK hat on him...we are still searching for the culprit of that one. Ha! We secretly called him "Hef" during the party (as in Hefner!!) They called each girl up by name and had them walk the runway...at the end, they leaned down and asked Clark his name...and called him up there as well. Too funny! After the party, Ali and Sierra headed over to Abby's for a sleepover. They stayed up until at least midnight and were awake again by 7:00am! Needless to say, Ali and Sierra slept most of the way back home.
Clark is registered for preschool! We finally made a decision on where to send him in the fall. I fell in love with a small program at a church very close to us. They only allow like 28 children total...and that is spread between 2,3, and 4 year olds. I think he will have maybe 10 children in his class. The director was so sweet and I just felt at peace that it was the right place for him. It is actually called "Mother's Day Out", but they have very structured days with crafts, letters/numbers/etc., chapel, memorize a Bible verse every week, gymnastics once a month, story-time, etc. I think he will love it. He was able to take a tour of his room. He will attend twice a week from 9-2. They bring their lunches also.
This week Ali and Clark made stepping stones for our front patio. I wanted to get his little hands and feet in stone while they were still small. Nona and Poppy gave them the kits for Christmas. They turned out cute. Ali made the state of TX, and I put Clark's hand and footprint on his. He is so proud of it. Every time he walks by it he has to talk about it. Pretty cute.
We decided to let Ali attend her first summer camp in July. She is attending with 2 of her best friends...Ashlyn and Sierra. They are all so excited. It is a Lutheran camp located in La Grange, TX (in the hill country). Check it out http://www.lomt.com/ ! It looks like so much fun...Ali loves the outdoors. We drop her off on a Sunday, and pick her up on Friday. I think it will be a great experience, and opportunity to meet many different people.
Ali was asked to move up into the next level in swimming. She is now expected to swim a minimum of 8 hours per week. EEK! Oh and I already felt like we lived at the pool. Ha! She loves it though. She will swim 2 hours 3 evenings during the week, and 2 hours on Saturday mornings. She and Sierra also want to join the same summer swim league that they were on last year. It is our community swim league...Dickinson Gators. I suppose we will let her do that, I mean...why not swim every SINGLE day of the week...right? Ok...not really, but it feels like that. I think she will swim mostly with her normal swim team and just occasionally with the summer league...mainly she wants to participate in the weekend meets to see how she has improved from last summer....and to see her friends that swam last year.
We only have about 24 days of school left...yahoo!!! We are SOOOOO ready for summer. We leave for our little vacation in 19 days, but who is counting? Ok, we are!! Destin...here we come!
We were in the living room this afternoon and we thought we heard Clark playing in the front room. It was a strange sound so we called him...no answer. T.C. went into in there and found Happy's nose plastered to the front door and the noise continued. There was a snapping turtle at our front door. It was seeing his reflection and snapping at it. T.C. had to pick it up with a shovel and take it back to the ditch beside our neighbor's house. Interesting thing to find, to say the least.
Have a wonderful week!
Clark is registered for preschool! We finally made a decision on where to send him in the fall. I fell in love with a small program at a church very close to us. They only allow like 28 children total...and that is spread between 2,3, and 4 year olds. I think he will have maybe 10 children in his class. The director was so sweet and I just felt at peace that it was the right place for him. It is actually called "Mother's Day Out", but they have very structured days with crafts, letters/numbers/etc., chapel, memorize a Bible verse every week, gymnastics once a month, story-time, etc. I think he will love it. He was able to take a tour of his room. He will attend twice a week from 9-2. They bring their lunches also.
This week Ali and Clark made stepping stones for our front patio. I wanted to get his little hands and feet in stone while they were still small. Nona and Poppy gave them the kits for Christmas. They turned out cute. Ali made the state of TX, and I put Clark's hand and footprint on his. He is so proud of it. Every time he walks by it he has to talk about it. Pretty cute.
We decided to let Ali attend her first summer camp in July. She is attending with 2 of her best friends...Ashlyn and Sierra. They are all so excited. It is a Lutheran camp located in La Grange, TX (in the hill country). Check it out http://www.lomt.com/ ! It looks like so much fun...Ali loves the outdoors. We drop her off on a Sunday, and pick her up on Friday. I think it will be a great experience, and opportunity to meet many different people.
Ali was asked to move up into the next level in swimming. She is now expected to swim a minimum of 8 hours per week. EEK! Oh and I already felt like we lived at the pool. Ha! She loves it though. She will swim 2 hours 3 evenings during the week, and 2 hours on Saturday mornings. She and Sierra also want to join the same summer swim league that they were on last year. It is our community swim league...Dickinson Gators. I suppose we will let her do that, I mean...why not swim every SINGLE day of the week...right? Ok...not really, but it feels like that. I think she will swim mostly with her normal swim team and just occasionally with the summer league...mainly she wants to participate in the weekend meets to see how she has improved from last summer....and to see her friends that swam last year.
We only have about 24 days of school left...yahoo!!! We are SOOOOO ready for summer. We leave for our little vacation in 19 days, but who is counting? Ok, we are!! Destin...here we come!
We were in the living room this afternoon and we thought we heard Clark playing in the front room. It was a strange sound so we called him...no answer. T.C. went into in there and found Happy's nose plastered to the front door and the noise continued. There was a snapping turtle at our front door. It was seeing his reflection and snapping at it. T.C. had to pick it up with a shovel and take it back to the ditch beside our neighbor's house. Interesting thing to find, to say the least.
Have a wonderful week!
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