Funnies

I'm in the mood for some funnies today. The following came on an email I received from a quilting store. This made me smile - hope it does the same for you. :-)

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Children's Science Exam

If you need a good laugh, try reading through these children's science exam answers...

Q: Name the four seasons.
A: Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.

Q: Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to drink.
A: Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes large pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists.

Q: How is dew formed?
A: The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire.

Q: How can you delay milk turning sour?
A: Keep it in the cow.

Q: What causes the tides in the oceans?
A: The tides are a fight between the Earth and the Moon. All water tends to flow towards the moon, because there is no water on the moon, and nature hates a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins in this fight.

Q: What are steroids?
A: Things for keeping carpets still on the stairs...

Q: What happens to your body as you age?
A: When you get old, so do your bowels and you get intercontinental.

Q: What happens to a boy when he reaches puberty?
A: He says good-bye to his boyhood and looks forward to his adultery.

Q: Name a major disease associated with cigarettes.
A: Premature death.

Q: How are the main parts of the body categorized? ( e.g., abdomen)
A: The body is consisted into three parts -- the brainium, the borax and the abdominal cavity. The brainium contains the brain; the borax contains the heart and lungs, and the abdominal cavity contains the five bowels A, E, I, O, and U.

Q: What is the fibula?
A: A small lie.

Q: What does 'varicose' mean?
A: Nearby.

Q: Give the meaning of the term 'Cesarean Section.'
A: The Cesarean Section is a district in Rome.

Q: What does the word 'benign' mean?'
A: Benign is what you will be after you be eight.

Cheese Balls

In an effort to NOT think about the possibility of waiting even longer to travel for Max, I'm choosing to think about some fun things. :-)

As Randy and I shopped at Sam's earlier this week, we passed a lady with one of these giant barrels of cheese balls in her cart. We both immediately thought of the girls and their love of Cheetos, so one of the barrels hopped into our cart as we passed the display. "-)

I wish I had a photo of the girls' facial expressions when they came home from school and saw the barrel for the first time. I snapped this pic this morning as Ally and Claire were preparing their lunches. Want to guess what they are having with their sandwiches? :-)

Visas and Swine Flu

Good News: We just received our Chinese visas today! woohoo!
Bad News: Rumors are floating around that China is halting adoption travel due to the swine flu outbreak. :-( We're praying this isn't the case. We've waited long enough.....

Which Room?

Since receiving our referral, we've been trying to figure out the bedroom situation here. (Yes, we should have already had this figured out, but with the wait being SO long, it was just something we didn't think about.) Currently, we have 2 spare bedrooms. One is a guest room, and one is what Randy has dubbed "the store"...aka my scrapbook room. :-)
Emily has never liked sleeping in her room during storms as the rain always hits the window so hard (no roof overhang). I have offered the scrap room to Emily several times (it would make a great room for a teen), but she doesn't want to lose our craft space. Sweet girl! :-)
If Emily moved to the scrap room, Max would (probably) be put into Emily's former room, and then I would move "the store" to the former guest room. Confusing? ;-) I'm even willing to move most of my scrap supplies to a downstairs closet and get rid of some things if I need to completely give up having a craft room. What a sacrifice! lol
What to do, what to do?! We played around with some of the bedroom furniture arrangement this weekend. I think we're going to allow Emily to make the decision about which room she wants, and then we'll go from there. This is what my scrap room currently looks like (well, when it's clean). I wonder what will become of this room....

Sprained

Claire is down and out today with a sprained ankle. This is our child who can never just WALK anywhere.....she is either at full running speed, a skip or a sideways gallop. Yesterday after school was no exception. Claire put her backpack away in her cubbie and then went running down the hallway, calling "MOM!". I saw her speed by the kitchen doorway and then heard the crying as she crashed to the floor. I knew immediately what had happened, so I grabbed the ice wrap and helped her to the chair. Claire was perfectly fine with missing school today, but she's bummed about not getting to go to Silver Dollar City tomorrow.

This is a rare shot of our girlie without a smile. ;-(

Trip to India

Randy just returned home today from a business trip to India. The girls and I are happy to have him home again - safe and sound. :-) Before he left, I handed Randy the camera with strict instructions to take lots of photos. I had to laugh as I scrolled through the photos this afternoon. I was expecting lots of architecture and people shots....and while there *are* some, there are also some striking shots like this:

We all need these wonderful, linear shots of store shelving now don't we? :-) Oh yes, I forgot that it *was* a business trip after all! lol I decided not to post the shot of the underwear aisle...but hey, if anyone really wants to see it, let me know and I'll oblige! :->

And here's what a small scale Wal-Mart in India looks like (it's more like a convenience store):

On his Sunday off, Randy did the tourist bit and went to see the Taj Mahal. It was an all-day trip via bus, but it's one of those "must see" things in India. There was a physician on the tour who happened to wear a watch that had a thermometer on it...it was a blazing 112 degrees! Here are a few more photos from the trip:

When the tour bus stopped at the halfway point for lunch, Randy took a break from all the hustle and bustle with an elephant ride. :-)

Even though this shot isn't very clear (taken through a window), I love it. It shows that no matter where you go in the world, people are always happy to show off their children. Precious!

Last, one of my favs. Not sure how it will show up on the blog, but it's a reflection of the Taj Mahal in Randy's sunglasses.

Scavenger Hunt

Several weeks ago, the girls participated in a digital scavenger hunt with the TNT program. (I just got the CD with the photos and finally had time to upload a few of them.) The girls had the BEST time driving around town, jumping out of the van to get photos, hopping back in the van and quickly head for the next destination. Here are just a few of the things on the scavenger hunt:

• baby changing station in men's restroom (100 points)
• group praying around a flagpole (50 points)
• spell something with people (100 points)
• group with a Wal-Mart greeter (50 points)
• "I can't believe we all fit in here" (5 people in a small space) (200 points)
• group at the local Popeye statue (100 points)
• largest stuffed animal they could find (50 points)

There were many other fun things they had to find and take photos of. It was really amazing to see the different shots the 4 teams got.

Care Package

Since it will be at least a month before we travel, we decided to send a care package to Max. We are including a little tag blankie, a Mickey, some small toy cars, a camera, and a photo album. Randy chose the little Mickey Mouse because he thought it was distinctly American. :-) We actually have several other items we like better, but we're taking those WITH us so we know Max will have them to play with. We put labels with the Chinese characters for "mommy", "daddy", and "big sister" on the photos (the cute little album was from our DTC secret pal). I'm guessing he won't actually get to keep the blankie or toys, but we're hoping the orphanage will take lots of pics with the camera for us. We're also hoping they'll show Max the photos of us often (hopefully, he'll recognize us and won't be so scared).

April 15th

April 15th isn't a day that most people enjoy, as it's known as "tax day". It's a special day for us now because the acceptance letters for our travel group were sent to China on the 15th! Now we just wait for travel clearance and consulate appointments!
I spent today filling out visa applications. We'll go for visa photos tomorrow and then get the apps in the mail. Fun stuff! :-)

Easter

Happy (belated) Easter! ;-)

Our Easter was really low-key this year. We went to church at our normal time, but instead of having Sunday school, we were treated to a light breakfast (well, if donuts are light that is!). We then went to church service, where we watched the choir/drama presentation. While watching the drama, I got teary thinking about the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. This year's drama was designed to be more real-time than some we've seen. As people came to Jesus, he took their "baggage" of sins from them. One particular girl kept watching, yet avoiding Jesus...until she too finally ran and handed over her baggage to him. My description of it is poor, but it was pretty powerful to watch.

Since it was rainy Sunday, the girls weren't able to hunt eggs. Fortunately, they participated in an egg hunt at church on Saturday, and they got plenty of candy. I didn't get any great pictures, but we plan on taking some more pictures this weekend.

Several friends asked where we were registered for things for Max. Our answer: Why, nowhere of course! We hadn't registered for gifts when we adopted the girls, so we hadn't planned on doing so this time. When those friends then suggested/requested a registry, we complied. '-) So, on this rainy Sunday afternoon, we trudged to WM and scanned a few things. I have to admit it was a pretty fun experience, but we really only chose a few basic items like security gates, car booster seats, etc.

Photo Blessing

The internet is such an amazing thing!! Since receiving our referral, I have been in touch with a woman who visited our son's orphanage in February. The woman (Rebecca) told me that she was able to take photos of some children in the orphanage, and "might" have photos of our son. I just received an email from her WITH those precious photos attached!! Look at that little grin in the first pic!!! (He apparently liked the chocolate kisses they gave him!) :-)




Here is what she had to say about our little Max:

"He is a great little guy. The nannies had his hair cut that way instead of a complete buzz cut because they thought he looked so cute that way. About the haircut, everyone else has a buzz cut except him. I asked why and the nannies said that they thought he'd look cute in that cut (kind of a modified mohawk, shaved back and sides but a longer strip down the top) because he was a funny boy. He is quite a character! He didn't like me at first but then warmed up and showed his great personality on the second day we were there. I am so thrilled that he has a home! He is beautiful!!! I do have him in several pictures and he is a complete doll baby. His eyes are like giant pools of chocolate! Honestly. You have a very handsome son. He is in the Snoopy Room and he has great care. "

Thank you Rebecca! You have made me one happy mommy! By sharing your photos with us, you have given us a most wonderful gift!

Feeling very blessed and crying great big, happy mommy tears now......

One X or Two?

Friends have been asking how we're going to spell our son's name. I had just thought it would be M-a-x, but several people asked if we were putting two "X" on the name. Sooooo, what should it be? One X or two....Max or Maxx??

Big Sisters

When we received our referral, we asked to girls to sit together so they could all see the pictures at the same time. It was SO sweet to hear their "awwwwwws" and "he's so cute". I must admit that they were a bit shocked when they saw the updated photos though! :-)

Little Emperor ?

Hang on to your seats folks.....I'm about to post an updated pic of our NOT so little guy!!! LOL He's a "hoss"! Oh my, how he has grown and changed since those earlier pics were taken!

We received a photo in our referral packet where he was crawling and one of his eyes REALLY tracked up and in. We had a similar experience with Claire which required surgery, so we weren't too alarmed, but we just wanted to be sure Max's sight was ok. (His eye tracked MUCH worse than Claire's did.) The medical exam forms in our referral packet stated nothing about his vision, so we asked our agency to see if they could get an update on that for us. We also asked if maybe they could take a similar photo so we could see the progress of his eye (the other photos are about a year old).

I was surprised this afternoon to receive an email from our agency stating that not only did they get an update on his eyesight, but they also received 4 photos, as well as an updated form that tells us about his personality and daily schedule. The photos are really pretty funny because he is looking up and to the side (wellllll, that's sort of what we were worried about lol). They also took a new forward facing photo (his eye looks fine now thank goodness). :-) And....by the looks of his stylin' haircut, we have a little emperor waiting for us!! LOL

The new report says: he listens to music (fits well with our musical family); has a good appetite and isn't particular about one food (our family certainly likes to eat! lol); is outgoing and active; is ready to laugh and loves playing games; and is used to being naughty and independent. Oh dear, little emperor indeed!! :-)

OK, so here he is!!

Then & Now

Here He Is!

After waiting 3+ years for our referral, I am SO happy to introduce....

Maxwell Chase

(We'll call him Max)

I was hoping the hard copy photos would be better quality, but unfortunately not. The little passport photo above was just that...passport size and grainy.

Here's a photo of our little guy in the play area...

Since he's 2 now, we're guessing these photos were taken when he was younger. Can't wait to put our arms around him!

It's a BOY!!

We received "the call" last Friday night (4/3/09) at 5:17 p.m. We were on our way to work at the church garage sale, and I had to pull into McDonald's so we could get the info without being involved in an accident. :-)

In our letter to China, we asked for a toddler boy, and we have been blessed with a beautiful little boy!

Name: Sun Han Ming

DOB: 3-01-07

Residing in Shanghai Children's Institute

We *just* received the emailed photos and medical info this afternoon. I would love to post a pic, but that will have to wait until tomorrow when we receive the hard copy photos. (The email photos are blurry...bummer!)

Again, we are SO blessed!!!

Garage Sale

On Friday evening, we worked at church, preparing items for a HUGE garage sale fundraiser. We were raising funds to reduce the price of church camp for the kiddos. (At this point, we have 21 kids from our church attending camp.) The campers and parents all had to help with the sale in order to benefit from the funds.

We were back at church at dark thirty on Saturday morning for the big sale, and worked our time slot until 10:30. This was the view inside the fellowship hall first thing in the morning. Wow...that's a LOT of 'stuff'!!!

Every one's hard work paid off -- we sold over $4,400 worth of 'stuff'.

School Auction

Our school had its big, spring fundraiser this week. Each class is required to do a piece of "art" for a live auction. We are a newer school and this is only our fourth year, but the completed projects always astound me. The students are supposed to help with the projects, but some of the pieces look like they were created by professionals, not the kids. :-)

The homeroom mom for Claire's class decided that we would make a quilt for the auction. The teacher chose a jungle/safari theme, so the kids colored animals on white quilt blocks. Once colored, we ironed the excess wax off and sewed the blocks together. (Yes, I volunteered to sew the squares together into a quilt.) We also included a photo of the class, as well as all of the kids' signatures. My dad's quilt shop donated the batting and did the quilting for us....and here's the finished project.

Art - Armadillo

This week's art is "Armadillo in Space" by Claire. :-)

Got Dentist?

I've been going through thousands of digi photos - sorting and uploading them for printing. Came across this one of Claire with fake teeth. It cracked me up (& sort of grossed me out at the same time). :-)

Maybe I'll post this in her bathroom as a reminder to brush her teeth.