Boys & Football

Levi, flying across the goal line for a touchdown!!!

It doesn't get any better than watching your boys play football on a Saturday afternoon! They are so fun to watch at this age. Levi and Tanner's games are all on the same day, at the same time, at the same location. Sounds handy but not so much......just means I don't get to see both boys play the whole game. At half time I swap to go watch the other boy. Scott got sucked in to being the defensive coach for Levi's team, so he misses seeing Tanner's games altogether! So it's just me running back and forth, from field to field.

I miss all the good stuff but thankfully, one of the dads on Levi's team is there with his camera, taking lots of great shots. Levi informs me after the games that I "missed all of his touchdowns"!! But at least we got a picture of one! I did however, get to see Tanner's great tackle! He and another guy, totally sandwiched this kid!! Thankfully all 3 of them were under 70 lbs., so no tears when they got up.

Surprise out of the blue!!!!!!

Saturday afternoon I received a phone call from one of our birth mothers! For those of you familiar with adoption, you know that adoptive family's phone #'s are not usually made available to birth mothers.....unless they agree on it ahead of time.

When this phone call came however, I welcomed it wholeheartedly!!!! It was an answer to prayers! When you adopt, questions come up that you wish you could ask but you are usually left to just wonder about.

This sweet birth mother followed a prompting she must have felt in her heart and so as scared as she was, picked up the phone and called us. She was afraid of what we would think. Afraid that we might reject her. I hope I didn't scare her with how joyful I must have sounded!!!

It had been many years since we had spoken and life has not been easy for this young lady. Choices she has made have brought heartache. She has been with men who have caused physical and emotional pain.

She had a little 18 month old girl already when she gave birth to the child we adopted and she also has a 2 year old daughter now.

But in talking with her, I gained understanding and new knowledge of things she struggles with that our child struggles with as well. Answers that now help one child's life make sense.

I wished when I hung up that miles didn't separate us. I would have loved to reach out to her and given her the biggest hug. Now that we have "found" her, we will resume sending pictures and letters and give her the opportunity to catch up on the sweet child we now call our own.

How nice was that!!

There he goes, up and over to find that cat.

Darn thing is hiding under the edge.

Getting off the roof, mission accomplished. Look at that, he didn't even take time to change out of his work clothes......what a guy!

Scott just flew in from California moments ago. He could see the cat on the roof when he drove in. He grabbed the ladder and hopped onto the roof. After chasing the cat around up there for a minute, he finally got the cat cornered between him and the edge of the roof. After a few seconds of debating, the cat flung herself off the roof, made a clumsy landing and was off like a shot!!!!!

She seemed very ungrateful and even a little miffed that someone was chasing her around up there. She didn't even stick around for a picture!!! Oh well, maybe that will keep her out of our yard for awhile!!!

Where's Waldo?

This one is pretty easy, right?

How about now? Can you find Kitty in this one?

Ok, we're going to play a game today called Where's Kitty? This thing is driving me crazy!!! Does she know I have better things to do all day than look out the window to see if she's off the roof yet? In the first picture, she was laying in the gutter, all acting like she was sleeping so comfortably. She saw me taking her picture and she got up and started making those little "help me down" sounds........

Next thing I know, I look out and she's back up on the tip top of the roof! Great, not like I need Levi to go out and find splatted cat in the yard and pick it up and bring it in to show me (see previous post)!!! Ick.

Stay tuned! Who knows, maybe there will be something more exciting to post today.......maybe not.

Crazy Cat

What a weirdo cat. I hope she knows how to get down!!

Look closely. Do you see her?

Just when you think it's going to be a boring blog day, with nothing exciting to write about, you look out your back window and see the neighbor's crazy cat sitting on the roof of your guest house.........I'm pretty sure she's doing this because she knows we can't stand the sight of her fluffy little paws in our yard! And here she's out of reach!

Don't get me wrong, we love cats! When they are at someone else's house!!! All summer we chased the neighbor's 53 cats out of our yard because they must have all agreed to poop here! Throughout our bark and bushes, we kept finding cat poop, barely buried beneath the surface. Our little ones would go outside to play and inevitably come in the house with cat poop on their shoes or even worse, bare feet!!!!!!!!!! I don't "do" poop on body parts! It's not enjoyable to me and I prefer that we not mess around with that! So to remedy the problem, we chased cats and sprayed nasty smelling stuff all around our yard. It worked! But I guess the spray is wearing off because we have started getting a few cats milling about again........grrrrr.

My thought is this: Have a cat, clean up it's poop. Don't let it poop in my yard because it's not my cat! Seems simple, right? Now I don't want to offend any cat lovers, but to be fair, if one of my kids pooped in your yard, you would sure as heck be letting me know, right?

That's Disgusting!!!!

So Levi walks through the front door, holding something in his hand. "Mom, what's this?" I turned to see what he had and just about threw up. You see, Levi is such a boy. He will pick up anything, try anything, eat anything....ok, you get the idea. So really, I never know what to expect from a question like that......Anyway, I turned to see what he had in his hand and immediately started yelling! "LEVI, PUT THAT THING DOWN! WAIT, DON'T PUT IT DOWN, GO PUT IT OUTSIDE IN THE GARBAGE CAN!! DON'T TOUCH THE DOOR WHEN YOU OPEN IT. I'LL OPEN IT FOR YOU. DON'T GET SO CLOSE TO ME! CAREFUL, DON'T LET IT TOUCH ANYTHING! NOW GET IN HERE AND WASH YOUR HANDS, UP TO YOUR ELBOWS! DON'T TOUCH THE FAUCET, I'LL TURN IT ON FOR YOU!!!! UGH, YOU ARE SUCH A BOY!!!" "Mom, stop freaking out and just tell me what it was!" "Levi, I'm pretty sure there is a raccoon running around outside that is missing a chunk of it's fur and you were holding it!!!!!" GROSS!!! Levi says, "Geez Mom, why do you have to be such a girl??"

This comes after the conversation I had with him this morning. I was leaving the bathroom as he was coming in. I watched him lift the seat (good boy!) but was thoroughly grossed out as to how he did it. He just grabbed the thing and lifted it up!!! Ick. I said, "Levi, thanks for lifting the lid. The way you did it grossed me out and is another reason why we wash our hands after using the bathroom!!" "What??", he says. "How would you do it?" Me? "Well, I actually use a sheet of toilet paper to lift the lid!" "Oh my gosh, Mom! You're such a girl!!!" Well, yes Levi I am, thank you very much. And if you would keep your aim a little straighter, I wouldn't have to do that!!!!

Hand cleanliness after using the bathroom is a big deal at our house. Nothing grosses us (me and Sam and Sabrina) out more than to see someone walking out of the bathroom, without washing their hands. We are constantly bugging the boys especially, to wash their hands!!!! Any good suggestions you have would be lovely!

Money well spent

There it is, all 4 feet of it!!! (Sorry for that blinding flash spot)

Oh hey, look at that! The missionaries are over for dinner.

"Girls, stand by your dollhouse and show me your favorite thing in the dollhouse!!" Whew, I was hoping neither one was going to hold up the cute little purple toilet!!

Sometimes you just have to suck it up and buy the dollhouse. I didn't want to spend the money but to be honest, I knew that two little girls would LOVE it.....and (most importantly) play nicely, together for hours on end!!!!! It's true, they do!!! And then there are the two hours when Savannah is napping and Talisha has it all to herself! That girl can carry on 5 conversations at once, as she plays all the characters in her story. It's quite comical to be in a different room and listen to what she's actually saying!!!

Tough Boys

Great picture Tanner, now give me "tough"!
Um, ok. We can call that "tough". Looks pretty darn cute to me though.....

Levi, can you just stand there, no goofy poses?

Um, yeah, that's goofy. Try again.

Yep, still goofy. Keep trying.

Yeah, ok. No muscle shots. Just smile.

Levi, cracking himself up. Never got around to getting a "tough" pose. Didn't have the time....

Football season is upon us! Levi and Tanner are playing again this year. Levi is in his 4th year of playing and Tanner is in his 2nd. Both boys love the game and they are so fun to watch. I wanted to take a couple of pics of them in their uniforms. Tanner's pics were short and simple. "Tanner, let's take your picture. Good, now give me a tough look. Great, you're done." Now Levi's turn. "Levi, let's get a picture of you before you leave for practice. Just smile, nothing silly." After repeated efforts to take a "normal" picture, we decided to just call it done. After all, being goofy is pretty normal for Levi!!

"Such a Parent!!"

Making beds is a big deal at our house. Everyone makes their bed when they get out of it in the morning. Period. Not much to debate there, that's just the way it is. Trust me, we have plenty of other topics that get plenty of negotiation....but not beds.

The other morning I went in to check Levi and Tanner's beds. Levi's looked pretty good but Tanner's was not looking so great. So then they know, they have to re-make it with me so we can go over the finer points of "bed-making"! Tanner thought he was done at one point and I pointed out a particularly lumpy spot. He huffed a little and fixed it. But his over zealous attempt to fix that part, pulled another part all out of whack. I showed him what had happened to which he responded, "Mom, it's fine. Who really cares??" "I care", was my reply. And then I got the biggest compliment of the day. In a very exasperated voice, Tanner yells, "Mom, why do you have to be such a, such a .....Parent???" Ahhhh, music to my ears. He couldn't understand why that brought such a smile to my face. He was hoping to have thrown out the worst thing he could think of......."why do you have to be such a Parent?" That's my job Tanner, that's my job.

Do You Remember?

There is a country song by Alan Jackson that he wrote in the days after the attack. It's called, "Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning". To this day whenever I hear that song, it takes me back to that day, 7 years ago when our "world stopped turning" by terrorists attacks.

I remember how helpless I felt as I sank down onto the couch and watched the television screen unfold with each new horror. I remember gathering my children around me and sobbing. I remember not wanting them to go to school that day but just to stay by me on the couch. I remember for days, weeks and months afterward, watching the continued clean up efforts by so many everyday people.

How thankful I am to live in the Land of the Free, Home of the Brave. I'm so grateful to the men and women, past and present, who have dedicated their lives to protecting our freedom.

Lee Greenwood sings it best:

"And I gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today

'Cause there ain't no doubt, I love this land

God Bless the USA"

Sunday Girls

Big Girls: Samantha, Vanessa, Sabrina

Little girls: Talisha, Jasmine, Savannah

I was thinking the other day that I have not been very good at taking pictures lately, especially of baby Jasmine. With school starting last week and the week before that being spent getting ready for school, we haven't had the camera out at all! But Jasmine is growing so fast and I'm missing it. She's almost 7 lbs.!!!! Anyway, I thought today was a great day to get a picture of our sweet girls.

I will try to do better at getting more pics on here, now that school has started and I have soooo much (cough) free time!!!!

And Samantha's first day.....

Samantha on her way to school!!!

Samantha and Sabrina just left for school. Samantha is a Junior this year and thrilled beyond words to have Sabrina at Glencoe with her. They can hardly wait to eat lunch together, walk home together and be able to see each other during the day. So cute.

Back To School!!!!!!

Levi, Tanner, Vanessa and Thomas on their way to school!!
Sabrina off to her first day of High School!!!!

Wow, can it really be the end of summer???? Today was everyone's first day, except Samantha's. The high school has only freshman come today and then everyone else starts tomorrow. Lucky Sam got one more day to stay home with me.

They all were so excited to go to school this morning. Everyone had definite ideas of what their "first day" outfit would be. So funny to watch the boys pick out their outfits. Tanner, a 4th grader, was all about comfort. Levi, now in 6th, was all about "looking good"!!!! Thomas, in 2nd, didn't really care. Vanessa, in 1st, was totally about what was "cute". She had to ask her older sisters this morning, which shoes looked the cutest with her outfit. She didn't bother asking me.....what's that supposed to mean???? Well, to be honest, I ask the teenage girls if my outfit looks ok all the time, so she went to the right source!