Good Grades!!

Good grades for the first quarter are flying high around here!! :-)
The middle school awards were held recently, and Emily got a certificate for earning all A's. We got a little extra surprise thrown in when her name was called out a second time....she was given an "Effort Award" from her team teachers as well (for going above and beyond in the classroom).

Although there were no award ceremonies for them, both Allyson and Claire were on the A/B honor roll this quarter. I must say that both Randy and I worked HARD to get those A's and B's for these two!! LOL This is the first time I've really thought hard about home-schooling...I mean, as much as we've studied and practiced, we practically have our own home school anyway! We've stopped tv and video games for the past month or so, and that has helped a lot. Family reading projects have also helped. The work continues on though.....

It's all about the Teeth

Claire lost her 3rd tooth over the weekend! Well, "lost" may not be the correct term....more like "manhandled". LOL When we visited grandma's house, Claire suddenly became determined to get the loose tooth out...so she pushed and pulled and twisted. After about 15 minutes, she came and presented the tooth to me. Grandma was so impressed that she secretly gave me $5 to supplement the tooth fairy's money. :-)

On Monday, Allyson received her pretty PINK retainer! Thankfully, she only has to wear it at night (so far). We had a bit of a scare last night though...Allyson couldn't find the retainer and we thought the dog had eaten it!!

Corn Maze

After visiting a few craft fairs on Saturday, we went to the corn maze in SW Missouri. The girls all had a good time on the farm-style slides, hay ride, corn maze, corn cannon and rope swings. We all went through the maze together, and amazingly made it out without any help!lol
This was a great kick-off of the fall season...now I guess I need to get some pumpkins bought! :-O

Craft Fairs

We went to a few of the local craft fairs this weekend. Didn't buy much, but we had a good time just getting out and looking at all of the stuff. Randy and the girls just HAD to buy the kettle corn though...I guess that's a requirement. :-)
When we came out of one tent, we saw an ATM van. I hadn't seen one of these before, but I guess if there is an area with a lot of people, and there are things to spend money on, there's a need for an ATM machine. When Claire saw the van, she asked, "What are they selling mom...money?" :-D Don't I wish! As my grandpa Roberts used to say...give me a nickels worth of five dollar bills!
While walking through the vendor tents, we noticed a guy dressed as a pirate (he said he was a renaissance man). He had a pet bird on his shoulder...and offered the bird to Emily. She was a little surprised when the bird jumped onto her hand.
Gotta run now...more pics of our weekend to come later.

It Has Finally Happened....

I've become my mother!!! AGH!!! The horror!! LOL

I never thought I was much like my mom at all (in appearance or personality). I've noticed lately though that I am JUST like her now in some ways. No, I'm still not skinny like mom - probably never will be, but I've started acting like her sometimes. :-O
You see, mom is what I would fondly call a "miser"...you know, safe with her money. I've always been perturbed by some of the little things she does === like, her way of buying the cheapest little canvas shoes she can find...and literally wearing them until they fall apart. She also doesn't like to spend money on clothes...she's perfectly fine with the cheapest shirt she can buy. I guess I should say I USED to be perturbed by all of this....now I just know that's how mom is. She definitely has the means to buy better things, but if it isn't important to her, she doesn't worry about spending much on it. A good way to measure this is to see her garden or her dogs...she spends huge amounts on plants and accessories for her yard, and the dogs...well, they ARE her babies now! lol

Back to my original point...I'm becoming a "little" miserly like mom in that I now LOVE going to thrift stores! I've never been a buyer of "used" anything...but that's all changing now. I am having an absolute blast - I guess it's the "thrill of the hunt"!! LOL

I've been promising to redecorate Ally and Claire's room, but we're on a tight budget right now. I wanted to put a bench at the end of one bed, but all of the benches I found were too expensive, so I hit the thrift store. I ended up getting a 70's coffee table - am going to paint and distress it, put a pad on it, and wah-lah a bench! I also found a cute pair of round frames at the thrift store too that just happened to match the theme of their comforters!

Here's a pic of my latest thrift store finds: a plain shelf and a folding table....both for under $20. Both of these items are going in my scrap room. My scrap room is pretty much all a mish-mash of furniture, but I love the room anyway! The shelf will fit perfectly under another shelf (bought from a thrift store also), and the table will be great to pull out when the girls want to scrapbook with me.

Hmmmm, wonder what kinds of goodies I can find this week? I still haven't conquered my fear of garage sales, but I'm loving the thrift stores. I'm hoping to hit a few auctions soon too! Maybe I can get mom to go shopping with me soon...I know she loves a bargain!! :-)

Picnic

We went to dh's company picnic a couple of weeks ago. They had the usual things like dunk tank, karaoke, face painting, and food (bbq brisket and chicken). They did donation jars for the management (as a fundraiser), and Randy just happened to have a big amount put into his jar, so he had to sing karaoke (not a big deal, since he's a singer anyway). Randy ended up singing IOU by Lee Greenwood and he sounded really good.
The girls' favorite part about the picnic was all of the fun kid entertainment. They all tried out the bull riding (Claire has a knack for this! lol). Emily and Allyson both did the rock climbing. Other items of interest was the inflatable slide and a couple of "jump houses".

Bye Bye Expander!!

Allyson said goodbye to her palette expander this morning! She was SOOOO excited about having this removed. She has been planning her first "treat"....a big bowl of popcorn which she'll have tonight! LOL
The process didn't go perfectly smooth though. As excited as she was, Allyson was also worried about throwing up. (She has a HORRIBLE gag reflex, and vomited on her first visit to the orthodontist a year ago.)
The doctor explained that the "cracking" sounds were the glue breaking off...not the teeth. Allyson was fine until the expander was out...she immediately jumped up and ran to the sink.
Once back in the chair, the assistant continued to work at removing the remaining glue...this involved a few more quick trips to the sink to rinse. While Ally was gone, I explained about her gag reflex....so the assistant decided to put off doing the mouth mold until the last thing. Allyson cooperated while they took new x-rays and photos (of her now non-existing under bite). Allyson became very sad at the thought of what was to come next though.
Finally it was time....time for the mouth mold. I knew they had to do it, and I knew how Ally would react (we've really been talking positive about this all week hoping to make a difference). The assistant was great. She explained to Ally that it would feel like a cold glob, but that it would set up fast..and that Ally needed to breathe through her nose. As soon as the mold was put into her mouth, Allyson became stiff in the chair. I saw a tear run down her cheek and she pulled her legs up. In an effort to get Ally thinking about something else, the assistant quickly told her she needed her to raise her left leg into the air. Then the right leg, and back to the left. It worked!!! HALLELUJAH it worked!! They got the mold they needed for the retainer, and Ally didn't vomit this time! Since she was already late for school, I then treated Ally to breakfast of her choice...and McD's it was! Ally was excited about taking her expander and head gear for "show and tell" at school today! LOL
We go back on Monday for the retainer...fingers crossed that all goes well!!

scrapbookers habitat

Thought this was pretty funny...documenting a scrapbooker like a wild animal! LOL Not sure I should let Randy look at this...he already says I have a "store" in my scraproom.

Floral Beauty

We visited my mom's house (WAY out in the country!) this past weekend. I took the camera along, planning on going on a photowalk. We got busy with other things and then it was time to go. I suddenly remembered that I wanted to take a few pics of mom's flowers, so I snapped these quickly while dh and the kids waited in the truck.
Mom has a huge green thumb, and I'm hoping to put these pics in an album for her as a Christmas gift (along with pics of her hummingbirds I took earlier this year).

About Emily

When I started the post yesterday about Emily's birthday, I got a phone call and had to rush out...leaving my post unfinished.

Emily was adopted from China when she was an infant....a fact that she has known about since she was around 2 years old. We've always been open and honest about adoption with our children. We talk about the circumstances that led us to adopt, as well as the circumstances that led to the girls being available for adoption (some of the details we will probably never know of course, but we talk about that too). We talk about our differences, as well as our similarities as human beings. We've had a LOT more conversation lately due to the fact that we took Emily on a heritage tour this summer. Even Allyson and Claire have asked more questions and pondered the "what if's" of their lives.

Hmmmm. Well, after I started this post, my mind has gotten sidetracked (that's been happening a lot to me lately! LOL)...so I'm not sure where I was headed. For all of the "unknowns" in our lives, I am certain of these things: God knew we would adopt these beautiful girls. He knew their names (both Chinese and American) before we did. He knew they would each have their own distinct personality. He knew we would feel the need to return to their birthplace to try and "fill in the blanks" as much as possible.

Oh yeah, sorta figured out where I was headed! lol
On her birthday, Emily talked about being left on a street by her birth parents 11 years ago. We were so glad we could talk about WHERE she was left, and then HOW she was named by the orphanage staff....the "Rising Sun"....a beautiful name for a beautiful young lady!

I guess we need to start a fundraising campaign because it's so important that we return to China with Allyson and Claire as well.

Birthday Wishes

Our "baby" girl turned 11 years old this past weekend. HOW did that happen? It was JUST yesterday that she was placed in my arms!!

China Heritage Tour

We recently received the flyer announcing Dillon International's 2008 China Heritage Tour. (Permission received from Dillon prior to posting this on my blog.) :-)

If anyone is on the fence about if/when to take their children back to their birth country, I highly recommend going...and doing so before the children are teenagers. Emily was 10 when we took her to China in June of this year (you can read about some of our trip in the June archives).
Emily was at a really good age to understand what was going on, without all of the "emotions" that usually come during the teen years. Our return visit to the orphanage and finding site is something we will always treasure. We really enjoyed being able to experience our return trip with other adoptive families as well.

We can't say enough good things about our tour experience. The Dillon staff member (Rebecca) who accompanied us on the trip was so wonderful and even lent a shoulder when we (the adults!) needed our cry time. OK, I'll admit it, it was the parents who were emotional when we visited the orphnaage and finding site...but the kids handled it very well! :-) Emily announced again yesterday that she is looking forward to going to China again soon.

If interested in learning more about the China Tour, you can visit the Dillon site here.
Note: I'm not being paid to advertise for this agency....I'm just a happy customer who has been blessed by adoption. :-)

Photowalking

Emily and I went photowalking yesterday (both of us armed with a camera) and took lots of photos. We just focused on things that caught our eye and tried to get some different shots. At first we thought our neighborhood was a bit on the boring side and there was nothing to photograph (empty lots, etc), but we got a new perspective when we started looking at all of the "little" things in life. So much beauty lies around us each day....we have so much to be thankful for! And yes, we did photograph some trash in the empty lots - it even takes a pretty picture! Looks like we'll be walking with trash sacks this week!

Here's a slideshow of the photos I took during our walk:

And here are the photos Emily took. I thought she did an amazing job...she may just become our new family photographer!! Not bad for a 10-year-old eh? (Ok, so she'll be 11 next week....yikes!) :-)

By the way, I first read about photowalking here: http://scrapbooklady.typepad.com/katie_the_scrapbook_lady/2007/09/photowalking.html

IKEA Photo Project

Thought this was a really neat photo project.....
Even if you decide not to participate by uploading photos, the daily photo assignments will give some great ideas for taking unique and fun photos!
The project is for this week only (Sept. 17th to 23rd)....we're in the middle of the week already, so I need to hurry and catch up!! They also have a great section on photo tips from the pros.

http://www.myamericaathome.com/index.php

I'd love to know if any of my friends do this...please drop me a line and let me know! :-)

Bake Sale

Our school had its first fundraiser last week, and I was asked to make something for a bake sale. I didn't have a lot of time, so I made things that were easy.....lemon bites, funny face sugar cookies, and s'mores on a stick. (I ended up adding "hair" to the face cookies after I snapped this pic.)
I was able to get all of these done in 2 hours. Everything was packaged in pretty colorful baggies and labeled with a computer-generated tag. I didn't stay for the sale, but the lady in charge said these items sold out very fast.
Getting hungry now....I think there are some graham crackers and chocolate left...and maybe some marshmallows too. yummmmm

Bad, Bad Blogger

It seems that we've had so much going on lately that I haven't had the time or energy to blog....or maybe I just haven't felt like writing anything interesting. :-[
I'm not even sure I can remember what we've been doing for the past few weeks, but I'll list what I can think of (since this is my way of recording the events of our life). :-)
Let's see....the girls started piano lessons. I know that Randy is so happy to see the girls playing on the piano that once belonged to his grandma. I think Grandma Ruth would be happy to know they're continuing on her tradition of making music.

We hosted Claire's China travel group over the labor day weekend...for our annual "gotcha day" (aka adoption day). It's wonderful to see the Nanping girls - how they change and the bond between them grows each year. This was our 5th year to celebrate - of course with a Chinese meal, cake and presents!! I can't post photos of the events because I need to respect the privacy of the other children and their parents....but trust me, there are some really cute photos of some really cute kiddos!

Miss Emily was selected to participate in the middle school choir. She was very happy that her audition went well. Way to go Em!

Emily also applied and was accepted as a member of the student council....looks like she's going to be a busy kid this year!

OK, that's it for today. I'm tired and "The Biggest Loser" is coming on....man, how I wish I could be on that show! I can't imagine seeing myself in those skimpy spandex clothes and stepping on the scale in front of everyone though...ewwww! :-O

More Teeth

It has happened again...the tooth fairy had to make yet another visit to our house this week! :-) On Sunday afternoon, Claire was rough-housing with her big sis when all of a sudden I hear this: "Allyson! You knocked my tooth out!!"

Claire was SO excited and came running to show me her second baby tooth. She wasn't mad at big sister at all, but was really thankful instead. lol And did I mention how she also isn't bothered at all by the blood in her mouth? Funny kid!

It didn't take long for the two girls to sit down together and write a letter to the tooth fairy. The following is the note that accompanied the (now in a ziploc bag) little tooth:

Dear TF:
This is my 2nd tooth.
I want $10 - ten dollars - please!
Love, Claire

She didn't get quite that much, but it was still much more than the quarter we used to get. I need to have a talk with that "TF".....

Back To School

Our summer is officially over as school started yesterday. I sometimes feel bad because the girls didn't have a "normal" summer due to Randy's vision problems (meaning I was his chauffer for work...still am), and then fil's declining health. The girls were troopers through it all though....but they were definitely ready to get back to school!
As part of our annual tradition, we spent time together as a family shopping for new school supplies. The girls had fun looking for each item on their list. Then, we had to label and organize everything...for a picture of course!
Let the madness begin!!

Baby Teeth

Claire has been hoping for a loose tooth for the longest time! She can't stand that her sister has braces and she doesn't. It seems that every time we visit the dentist or orthodontist, she says she has a loose tooth (but she really doesn't).

Well, about a week ago, she complained of a tooth hurting when she bit into an ice cream cone. Dad checked, and sure enough there was a loose tooth! When we looked closer, we could see the new permanent tooth had already started coming in behind the baby tooth. Claire was SOOOO very excited and expected the baby tooth to fall out the next day...that didn't happen, but she wiggled it off and on the next few days. Last night to my surprise, Ally came down the hall screaming, "Claire pulled her tooth!"....followed quickly by Claire - carrying that precious tooth in a bathroom cup. :-) She carefully placed her tooth in a ziploc baggie and put it under her pillow. The tooth fairy was so proud of her for pulling the tooth on her own that "he" left her a whopping $7 !!! I guess the tooth fairy must live in an area with high inflation! lol

Wild Things

The girls and I went with the church group on a "Terrific Tuesday" outing....this particular week's event was the Wild Wilderness Safari. It was so much fun listening to the LOUD screams from the girls as the animals approached our car during our drive through the place. Even though you are asked NOT to feed the animals, it is apparent that some people do, as the animals walk right up to the window and stare at you. I think the loudest screams the girls let out were when we drove by the caged baboons...and then the baboons proceeded to present their brightly colored bottoms to us! Lots of "eeeeewwwwwwss!!!!" were heard then! lol
After the drive through, we parked and had a picnic lunch with the group. Then, we were off to the petting zoo. The girls took turns petting sweet baby leopards - the babies were just tuckered out though and slept silently as the girls touched them. The baby goats were a different story though! They were ALL about getting petted, and more importantly, trying to eat pretty much anything they could get their mouths on! lol
We had a tender moment with a mommy kangaroo and her little joey. The baby was in the mommy's pouch and would stick it's head out and stretch while we petted it.
~~~A fun day near the end of our summer vacation.