Vitamin C

Ever wondered which type of orange juice contains the most Vitamin C? Since I'm not a big fan of OJ, I never did. :-) Emily's science teacher required all students to do a science fair project, so Emily decided to check out V-C levels in OJ. She found a recipe on the internet that could be used as a vitamin C indicator when added to juice. She compared freshly squeezed OJ, canned, frozen, and bottled.
The verdict: freshly squeezed has the highest concentration of Vitamin C, followed closely by the frozen variety. I think it's probably best to not even bother drinking the canned OJ though, as it had 3 times less the amount of "C" than freshly squeezed...according to our testing anyway. :-)


Oh and Emily got an "A" for her work on the "C". :-)

Emily's 12th Gotcha Day!

We recently celebrated Emily's 12th Gotcha Day! I say it every year, but it really is amazing how quickly the years have gone since we adopted Emily. We are SO blessed to parent this child! Emily is beautiful, intelligent, funny, mature, articulate...well, just an amazing young lady.

There are 3 other families in Emily's travel group, and we all take turns hosting gotcha day weekends. This group of girls has become SO close and have dubbed themselves the "F4E's". This year's gotcha weekend was hosted by Natalie's family in Texas. After our arrival on Friday, the kids got busy playing the Wii and just hanging out together. On Saturday, we went to a fabulous shopping area in South Lake for a photo shoot (of course we squeezed in some shopping too since the girls are at "that" age!). :-) Dinner was at a Mongolian grill - where we all loaded meat and veggies of our choice into 2 bowls and watched as the chef cooked them on a hot, round stone in the middle of the room....pretty cool! We also celebrated with cake and presents later in the day. The parents really went all out for this year's gifts which included: a special custom necklace for each girl, shadowbox frames with a few photos from past reunions, and a photo frame with F4E tiles. Our gift to the girls was a photo book with pics from the past 12 years of gotcha days and China camp (the book ended up being 39 pages total and I also left a spot for this year's gotcha day photo). Before we left for the weekend, the girls wrote messages to one another in their books. (Note: I'm happy to share the contents of the book with other adoptive families, but don't want to post the slideshow here on the blog...just contact me privately if you'd like to view it.)

Lurch

I'd like to introduce you to Lurch. Lurch, meet the blog readers. :-)

My sis-in-law Holly is friends with the woman who owns and loves on Lurch. While we were in Mountain Home visiting Randy's dad, we made a quick stop to meet Lurch. Lurch is a world-famous guy you know. He's been featured on Animal Planet and the Ellen DeGeneres show (Ellen even built a new barn for Lurch). Lurch is a 14-year-old African Watusi steer. He is famous due to the size of his horns....they are doozies! Lurch owns the Guinness record for their size (no surprise there...not many guys would want to carry something that big around all day!).

While we were surprised at the size of Lurch's horns, we were also surprised at his wonderful, gentle nature. He is aware of how big his horns are, and is careful to not hit anyone with them. We were sad to learn that Lurch has been sick though. He apparently has a cancer in his right horn. The cancer is making his right horn heavier - thus the reason for the way he is holding his head. :-( Janice (Lurch's owner) said Lurch is feeling better though, so were were able to meet him and take photos.

Janice is a gem of a lady. She has a huge heart for animals and runs the Rocky Ridge Refuge. If you're even near Mt. Home or Gassville, AR and want to meet Lurch, give Janice a call! If you'd like to read more about Lurch and the gang, check out their website here.

Writing in the Sky

Behind on blogging....again. :-( Hope to catch up later today - after I find Claire's little camera we used on a trip!

We went to visit Randy's dad after Thanksgiving. As we were driving (3 hours), we noticed all of the jet trails in the sky. It was a beautiful day and the trails just looked perfect for photos...so we pulled over to snap a few. Take time to enjoy all of the little things...

"X" marks the spot

Pumpkin Bites

If you're looking for a new yummy treat to serve during the holidays, I highly recommend pumpkin pie bites! I found the recipe at Bakerella last week and made the little treats for a church gathering on Sunday. My family LOVED these...even Emily who is my picky child! My pumpkin bites looked different than Bakerella's as I used a flower cookie cutter instead of a pumpkin shape. The family thought the mini pies were adorable because the flower shape cutter gave the crust a little scalloped edge. I was also able to fill every hole in the muffin tin since I didn't have to worry about a "pumpkin stem" on the crust.
I would post a picture of our little pies but unfortunately, they didn't last long enough. Trust me though - make these and they will be eaten! ;-) Oh and you can even serve them warm (they just melt in your mouth!). Now...get thee to Bakerella and start baking! :-)

His "Good" Side

Just thought I'd post a pic of Max's "good side". :-) The boy thought it was SO much fun to slide head-first off the chair and get stuck between the chair and ottoman.

It wasn't long before he discovered it was even MORE fun to slide backwards off the ottoman. It's a good thing he has such a hard head!

Flu Shots

Our schools gave free shots for both the H1N1 and seasonal flu, so we took advantage of the offer (just wish they had done this before Emily and I got the flu!). Claire wasn't very happy when she came home last week after her shots though. Apparently, they ran out of the nasal mist, so she had to have TWO shots, and THIS one hurt the most! I told her I would take a pic of her battle scar and put it in her scrapbook, so she was willing to pose for me. :-)

Pool - Week 2

Our girls were SO excited at the end of week #2...the 'cement pond' was finally looking like a pool. The water started going in on Friday, and the girls just HAD to try it out when they came home from school. It was a bit cold, but they didn't seem to mind much....well, only for a little wading in the shallow end.

The squirrels decided to check out the pool too....

I like Pink!

Daddy's biggest fear has happened....Max likes pink! LOL We have a rug near the garage door where the girls in our house drop our shoes when we come home. (Haven't managed to train the boys yet - doubt we ever will.) Last week, Max perused the pile of shoes for awhile and then chose a favorite....the pink ones! He wanted to wear these shoes constantly. No matter which room I went to, I could hear Max "clomping" after me in his pretty pink shoes. They caused quite a few falls and ouchies, but Max didn't seem to mind much. He looks pretty good in pink!

Pool - Week 1

I think we've gone too far to turn back now. Our front yard is torn up from the dump trucks and cement trucks plowing through...and we also have a big hole in the back yard. Yes, maybe a little too late to turn back now. Since I was sick with the flu, I took the photo from inside - this is the view from our formal living room window.
Amazed at how quickly it's taking shape....

Deep End

What are these silly kids doing? Swimming in the deep end of course!

We've talked about putting in a pool for several years, and we finally took the plunge (pun intended). The girls are "swimming" where the deep end will be. This is what our yard looked like at the beginning of the week before the digging began. We had to remove one tree (where the corner of the pool will be). And yes, we will be fighting the leaves every year.

Honor Society

So proud of our girl.

Earlier this week, Emily was inducted into the National Jr. Honor Society at her school. It was a formal event, so she had to wear a dress (thank goodness she's changed her mind about wearing dresses!). When I was in school ("back in the old days" according to the kids!), we were automatically put into the honor society if we had really good grades. Not so anymore. Emily had to fill out a 4 page application, and get signatures from former teachers, activity sponsors, etc. - quite an ordeal. There were only 41 students (out of the 1,000 at her school) who made the Honor Society this year, so this is truly an accomplishment for her.

October Round-up

Someone please stop this train...I want to get off! Life is moving WAY too fast for me. I can't believe that October is gone. I think I missed a couple of weeks - I'm sure they're around here somewhere! October was a hard month for us. Emily first had strep, then the flu so she missed quite a bit of school. Claire then became ill and missed several days. Just when I thought everyone was good, *I* became sick too...the flu...hooray! Max now has a cough and runny nose, but I think it's only allergies. Whew!

I missed posting during most of the month, so I'm just doing a recap of some things I missed (& can still remember! LOL).

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Allyson's orchestra teacher hasn't allowed the class to use their bows until recently. Allyson was so proud to show us how much she has learned.

The 3rd grade performance at school this year was "I Have a Dream". The students were asked to dress in clothing that represented their ancestry. The music teacher suggested that Claire wear one of her Chinese dresses, and Claire was more than happy to oblige. Claire was so happy that all of the other little girls just LOVED her dress. Even some of the boys told her how pretty she was...they even went so far to ask what it was made from. All was well until Claire told them she thought it was silk...that's when the boys went "Ewwww, that's worms!" LOL Kids are SO funny! When it came time for the program, our hearts filled with pride as our little girlie opened the show with her speaking part.

Now, let's zoom all the way to the end of the month for Halloween. As usual, we went to daddy's office for trick-or-treating (I don't think our kids have EVER gone door to door for candy). The office staff goes all out for Halloween. They have a competition for best costumes and office decorations. I'm always amazed at their creativity. These are just a few of the themes/costumes from this year:

Looney Tunes Characters

The Beatles

Yosemite Sam (anyone else remember him?)

Wylie Coyote

DH's group - the doctors

Our kiddos dressed as a doctor (Emily), nurse (Ally), Raggedy Ann (Claire), and a spider (Max).

And finally, our display for our church's trunk-or-treat event. Since dh had to dress as a doctor at work, we decided to go with a hospital theme for our car. I painted a simple backdrop of medical staff and then pasted pics of our church staff onto that (with the staff's permission of course). We hung white sheets from the sides of the van and put red crosses on it. Then we just used various medical items from around the house (cotton balls, peroxide, alcohol, etc.). We were blessed to win the grand prize for decorated cars!

Blog Troubles

A test post to see if it will show up on the blog. Not sure what's going on, but all of my previous posts have disappeared! yikes!!

Oh Joy...it's the Flu

I haven't posted much lately...partly due to just being boring (lol)...and partly due to taking care of a sick kiddo, plus lots of other seasonal projects. Emily has been blessed with good health for the majority of her 13 years, but something happened once she entered Jr. high. A few weeks ago she missed several days of school due to having strep. Last week we were the lucky recipients of news we really didn't want to hear: Emily has swine flu. Oh joy! Emily was one pretty sick kiddo (fever of 105 at one point). I'm hoping everyone else will avoid the sickies now....

Little Monkey

Since we always participate in our church's annual trunk-or-treat event, we've been trying out a few costumes. I bought several costumes for Max just after we received our referral...this is one of them. I think it's cute, but isn't "the" costume for him. He LOVED wearing it though - such a monkey (says "ooh ooh aah aah" every time he sees his picture)! It's a size 12-18 month and fits him really well.

Starfish Scrapping

I was blessed again recently to be asked to make a few scrapbook pages for a Starfish baby. I love when I get an email asking if I can scrapbook for them. Miss Virginia is a wonderful lady who has taken on the huge task of making scrapbooks for all of the Starfish babies who are adopted. Amanda (who runs Starfish) takes tons of pics of her babies and sends copies to Virginia when the babies go home to their forever families. Virginia then distributes the photos to several scrappers (including herself); we all make pages, and then Virginia compiles everything into a wonderful book for the adoptive parents. I imagine it's an awesome gift to receive after returning home with their little ones.

Anyway, these are a few digi pages I did recently. Isn't she the cutest?!

Blue layout was made using a template...don't remember designer's name

Teenager!

We now have a teenager in the house! Yikes, when did that happen?! Can't believe our little Emily is now 13 years old. Seems like yesterday when we were traveling to China for our first daughter. Now, she has grown into a beautiful, smart and talented young lady. (You can tell I'm not biased right?) :-)

Emily has been asking for texting for the past two years....as apparently she is the ONLY person in our state without it. At least that's what we've heard. :-) For her birthday, she received the gift of her dreams...an iPhone (yes, we have some pretty strict rules in place for her).

I have to admit I've found it very useful to have the texting too (i.e., letting Em know we were waiting forever in the eye doctor's office this week, where to pick her up from track, etc.). Just don't tell Em I admitted that.....

A Runner

Emily is really enjoying being on the cross country track team at school. She has improved her 2 mile time by 4:40 since the beginning of school. While she isn't the fastest runner at school, she is having a good time, and that's what matters the most. I tried to get a few shots of her during the track meets with other schools, but it's really hard to pick her out of the crowd as they run by! :-)

Ally's 10th Gotcha

A couple of weeks after C's gotcha day, we met with Ally's travel group to celebrate her 10th adoption anniversary. We were also missing one of the families from this group due to the father having a stroke. (Jim, Lynn and Kailynn - you were missed!)

Once everyone arrived late on Friday evening, the girls jumped into the cold pool, while the parents visited (& the mosquitoes feasted on us). After breakfast together on Saturday morning, the group went to a nature center for awhile, then back to the hotel for swimming (some...Max and I...took a nap. Well, someone had to look after him. lol). Dinner was Chinese of course, and then the kiddos opened presents. Later in the evening, another mom and myself took 8 girls to the mall where the girls had a great time trying on matching outfits at the Justice store. On Sunday, the group had breakfast together again before heading to our respective homes. I was still feeling "in a fog" that weekend, so I didn't get as many photos as normal.




Poor guy....no pets allowed. :-) He was only pretending!

A smooch for the stuffed bear at the nature center