Girls Just Want To Have Fun

All is well here at our home.  The last week or so has passed so quickly.  We've been busy with a number of things, but we've still had time for some fun.

 Jadyn is off from school tomorrow, so who knows what we will get into.  I hope it's nice enough for a little trip to the park.  I haven't checked the weather yet.  I think neither of us would mind the rain.  She loves to be out in it as much as I will let her.  Following, are some photos of her playing in the rain on a pretty cold day.

We planted some seeds recently and hopefully they will grow basil and tomatoes.  Jadyn just loves to do this sort of thing. No sprouts yet, but maybe they will be up any day.  They are on the kitchen windowsill.

Last weekend, I took Jadyn to an open house at a local nursery.  She was so excited to do the children's activities. Here she is, having her face painted.  She also planted seeds, and had her caricature drawn.  There were treats and balloons too.  What's not to love? 

Planting sunflower seeds.  They are already growing!

Jadyn and I went shopping yesterday. We were actually just shopping for pillows, but of course we had to stop and take a look at the purses, hats, and flip flops.  We had some fun trying on hats.  

Jadyn snapped a couple of me.  They were pretty fuzzy, but I'm adding this one anyway.  It was fun to be silly together.  

Treasure from a 6 year old.  :)  Some day, she won't be into picking the dandelions for me, so I'll enjoy this phase.  

Have a very wonderful Mother's Day weekend with your family!

Has Spring Sprung?

We believe spring is here.  There are signs of it here and there, and we have had Easter.  Surely it must be here.We long for warm days with no wind, and no jackets required.

Our Easter weekend was really nice.  We spent time with friends and family and enjoyed it very much.
On Saturday evening, we had Lauryn and Aaron over for dinner and games, and this was our Easter meal together.  The highlight of the weekend was worshiping at church on Sunday.  We are so blessed to have a Savior who is alive and active in our lives!
We ate a light lunch after church and then spent the day just relaxing. We had an egg hunt late in the afternoon.

A couple of times during the weekend (actually more if truth be told) my thoughts turned to Evan.  When Jadyn was dyeing eggs I said, "Guess who will be dyeing Easter eggs with you next year?"  She couldn't guess, and so I told her it would be her little brother.  Then on Sunday I was thinking that he will be here for the egg hunt next year.  Exciting thoughts!  I think it must be sinking in.  I have gone from - Will This Really Happen?  to - He Will Be Here With Us!

Easter flowers

This was not my best year for taking Easter photos.  Seriously.  I didn't get a picture of Jadyn in her Easter dress. There wasn't time to get photos before church and then she had ketchup on her dress and it was all wrinkly afterward. I will just have to dress her in it again and do some photos.  A few years from now, I'll be glad I have the photos and it won't matter what day they were taken.

Here is Lexi.  She had her 12th birthday on Monday!  She looks pretty good for a lady who is advancing in her years.  ;)  She is 70 years old in cat years.  I think she has the right idea about how to spend her days. -- Ask for food, nap, maybe do a little self hygiene, nap, ask for food again, nap, snuggle with someone special, nap.  

I am looking forward to the weekend and time with family.  Enjoy yours, whatever you choose to do!

For The Birds!

For the birds!  That's what this weather is.  I think winter just loves Minnesota a bit too much this year.  How can we miss winter if it won't Go Away??  Oh, that's right, we won't miss it at all.

I looked out this morning, and I saw 2 beautiful cardinals in the tree.  I do have to admit they looked beautiful in the snowy branches.  I wanted to snap a picture of them, but of course they were gone by the time I came back with my camera.  I did take quite a few other photos of birds.  I will share how lovely they looked on this April morning.

I do want to thank you for your kind words about my little accident last week.  I am feeling much better.  I can't wait to get my stitches out in a couple of days.  My finger is still sore and a bit swollen, but hopefully it will be back to normal very soon.  I still have a hideous bruise on my thigh, but my arm no longer looks hideous and that's a very good thing. Thanks for your concern and well wishes.

Now, enjoy the birds....

In order to see birds it is necessary to become part of the silence.

- Robert Lynd

The Crazy, No Good, Very Bad Day

I have to share about my Tuesday.  It was a very crazy day, and so NOT what I was expecting.  The morning was great, I ran a couple of errands and then came home just a few minutes before Jadyn was due to arrive on the bus from Kindergarten.

I pulled into the garage and got out of the car.  Maybe I should say that I got most of myself out of the car.  Somehow, I misjudged and 2 fingers of my right hand were slammed in the car door.  In the split second that it took the pain to register, my brain was also thinking, "Holy Cow! My fingers are shut in the door!" I opened the door and got my fingers out and let me tell you, the pain was among the most intense pain I have EVER felt in my life.

I somehow made it inside and to the kitchen sink.  I turned on the water to start rinsing my fingers. I was trying to reach for the paper towels and I started to feel intensely like I would pass out.  Amazing how quick it happened.  I bent my knees and hung my head down, thinking it would pass.  I remember thinking I should go to the kitchen table and sit.  That's the last thing I remember, until I was crashing into a wooden railing that separates the kitchen from family room.  I passed out and on the way down, I did battle with a wooden chair.  It won.

I badly scraped my forearm, bruised my head, cheek, thigh, hand and who knows what else. I even broke my glasses.  My head was just swimming as I tried to sit up and I was realizing that I needed to get Jadyn from the bus immediately. I rose and had the sense to call my neighbor next door to see if she could step out and get Jadyn. Of course, there was no answer. Isn't that how it always works?  I realized that I would have to somehow get out to the driveway so the bus driver would release Jadyn from 4 houses down.  I made it out there and got her.

We came inside and I told her what happened.  I was so afraid she would be freaked out at the sight of my finger and hearing about what I'd done.  She was so calm and helpful!  I tried to call a friend, and there was no answer.  Next I called Alan and he was on a walk a lunch time.  He was able to come get us and take me to the minor emergency clinic.

The great news is that I had no broken bones, and I only needed stitches.  Thank goodness for that.  Getting stitches was not fun, but very minor compared with fingers in a car door. It is now 3 days later and I am doing much better.  I've had pain during the last several days, but it's almost nil now.  Fingers are swollen and the middle one looks, let's say...quite colorful.  I feel they look amazingly good considering what I did to them.  I am thankful things actually turned out so well.

The moral of the story?  Make sure that your hands and all body parts have exited the vehicle before you slam it's door.  ALWAYS take it seriously when you feel you might faint.  Stop, drop, and sit, or the results are not pretty.

That is my crazy, no good, very bad Tuesday.

Here's a picture of me, with my bandaged hand.  Notice that my middle finger has the huge bandage.  You would not believe how much grief I've heard about my middle finger and the inappropriateness of that.  Oh my.

Chair at right of table and the railing I crashed into.  Never try to battle with a chair of this sort. It hurts.

Our Kansas City Trip, etc.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!  It's sunny and mild.  Love this!  There are only a few patches of snow here and there, and the pond is trying to go from solid to liquid -- ever so slowly.  The geese are stopping by to check on it's progress.  I see little shoots beginning to come up in the flower bed.  Maybe spring is on it's way to MN.

Last week was Jadyn's spring break and we enjoyed a trip to Kansas City.  We visited our daughter, Kaitlyn and son-in-law, Chris.  It was so good to see them.  We stayed for 3 nights, and the time went so quickly.  We enjoyed visiting, eating, shopping, a museum visit, and more.  We met our newest grandkitten, Tony.

Jadyn had tons of fun playing with him.  He is sweet, and it almost made me want a kitten. Almost.

Jadyn, Kaitlyn, and Chris in Kansas City.

Downtown KC

Jadyn and Kaitlyn playing a game.

Kaitlyn, Alan, and Jadyn at dinner one evening.

By the way, please excuse the quality of some of the photos.  Some were taken with my phone.  It was just one of those "snap what you can" trips.  :)

We visited at Chris' mom's home one afternoon.  Jadyn enjoyed visiting the horses and other animals.  

Jadyn, holding a baby chick.  So soft!

So now we are home and back to our usual schedule.  Jadyn's back in school and this is good.  Little Miss Active needs her Kindergarten time.  

My brother came for a visit yesterday and stayed the night.  It was nice to have the opportunity to visit with him.  He lives in Texas, in our home town.  It's always a bonus when family comes to visit us.  

Have a wonderful week, friends!

Feeling Blessed

We've had a nice weekend. We've had time with friends and family, and you know that always gives me such joy.

I joined the Yahoo! group for Evan's province to try and find other families who have adopted from the same orphanage.  I just joined the group yesterday, and today I've connected with another mom. Her family adopted a  child from the same orphanage.  She had really good things to tell me.  She was able to visit the orphanage after her adoption and meet some of the staff.  She assured me over and over that the children there are so loved.  This certainly made my day.  She shared other things too and it's good.  At the end of the phone call, she told me they would be praying for Evan.  How sweet!

I've been praying for Evan to be loved at his orphanage and have at least one caretaker who loves him.  Now I have confirmation on it.  God is good!

Here is a photo we received 2 weeks ago.  It's Evan when he was 3 years old.  Sweet boy.

Thursday's Random Thoughts

Hello, and Happy Thursday to all!

Life here at our house just keeps rocking along.  All is well.  I'm enjoying having some time this morning to just enjoy the quiet and do what I want to do. With all of life's responsibilities and the daily to do list, one doesn't always have true quiet and leisure time.  Sure, there are things I could be doing or should be doing....but I'M NOT!

This post will just be random bits and pieces, as my posts will tend to be from time to time.  One thing that has many of us a little irked around here is Our Snow.  Just when most of our snow had melted, we got this yesterday.  How lovely.

Oh dear!  That's just wrong, isn't it??  The sun is out today, and hopefully it won't take long for this to melt.  I heard all of the birds outside this morning, just chattering away.  I doubt they were singing.  I'm sure they must have been expressing confusion and disgust.

I went to visit a friend early this week and as I was on my way out of her neighborhood I saw this.  I had to use my handy dandy phone to snap a photo.  Can anyone tell me what's wrong with this picture?

If you have guessed that the color of the house in the middle is A Little Wild, you are right.  :)  Who paints their house this shade of green?  If this is your house or you've painted yours this color.  I'm sorry.  I hope I haven't offended you.  All I have to say is, "What were they thinking?"  This really makes me scratch my head.

We're checking a few things off of our list with more things for Evan's adoption.  We have quite a list of things to do and complete.  Oh my.  I know it will all be done, one thing at a time.  I needed to get a form notarized one day this week, so that it could be mailed off to Texas.  We went to our city offices to have this done.  Jadyn has a piece of her artwork on display there right now, in the school district's art show.  So we were able to see that while we were there.  Here she is with her little snow-woman.  The snow-woman is wearing a tutu.  Gotta love it.

Jealousy and Other Things

My parents have adopted a new kitty.  I haven't heard all of the details yet.  It's a boy, he's 6 months old and he's yellow.  He's going to be an indoor kitty. This is really different for them.  They live in the country and have always had outdoor kitties.  My mom posted on Facebook that she slept in the guest room last night, my dad was sleeping with that cat.  Hilarious!  I'm a bit jealous.  I want a kitten.

Yesterday was Bryan's birthday.  His girlfriend came to visit for the day. She lives out of town.  She brought him a tied fleece blanket she had made.  Those things are so toasty warm for winter.  She also brought him a giant chocolate chip cookie with icing.  I'm jealous.  It's not that he wouldn't share with me.  It's just that I'm older, and sedentary.  :)  This would not be good for me.  I do have to weigh in tomorrow.

It's high time that I leave my sedentary ways behind, don't you think?  Thank goodness I will soon be going for lots of walks.  The weather is getting mild.

We're doing paperwork and other things for Evan's adoption.  Filling out forms, sending things here and there.  It's definitely exciting to think that we're doing all of this again.  It's the funniest thing that once or twice a day I suddenly realize again that He Will Come Home.  Glory be!  Jadyn is excited and it's fun to see it in her.  She asks where he will sleep, and asks again to see his photo.  She says she will comfort him if he cries or gets scared.

Doing paperwork. Yay!  There's lots to do, but it feels good to be making some progress.

Jadyn's teacher at church shared the sweetest thing with me.  Jadyn told her that we were praying at home for Evan to be her brother.  They had also prayed in class for him.  Recently, she told her teacher that Jesus had not answered her prayer yet, and looked sad.  Last Sunday, she was able to excitedly tell her teacher, "Miss Karen, Jesus answered our prayers!"  What a wonderful faith-builder for a little girl!

Jadyn is a sweet child, and hardly a day goes by when she doesn't color something for us or make something. Here are 2 hearts she made for us.  The smaller one is what she made us for Valentine's Day.  Don't you love the randomness of the one on the left?  

Here's Jadyn with her little sundae she had after dinner tonight.  I was only a little jealous. Ha ha.  All of this denying myself desserts better pay off.  

Have a great weekend!

Random Bits

Here are some random bits from our weekend.

• Spent lots of time...not doing much.  My fav!  There was just enough time for relaxation and time with family and friends.
• I got a much needed haircut. It's a little different shape than I had, because I wanted something different.  I'm not sure if I am I'm happy with it.  We were almost late to church this morning, because I was in a mini-panic about my hair.  Funny thing is, no one even noticed it's different.   :)
• A birthday party that Jadyn was invited to was postponed due to illness. I was running later than I'd prefer for getting a gift, so I wasn't sorry the party was postponed. How terrible is that?
• I went to my weigh in meeting yesterday.  How is it possible to see a weight loss at home and get to my meeting and see no weight loss?  Hmm.  (I think their scale tells lies.)
• We celebrated Alan's birthday with 2 lunches out. Delish!

A little birthday fun for the Señor

Pretty in Pink

O, how fun.  

Still thinking about how blessed we are to have our PA for Evan.  It's going to be many moons before we can go get him.  Right now, I'm just super happy he's going to be our son.  How very blessed we are!  

Dearest Father in Heaven,
Bless this child and bless this day
Of new beginnings.
Smile upon this child
And surround this child, Lord,
With the soft mantle of your love.

Here He Is! Meet Evan.

It has been a really great day for our family.  First of all, it's Alan's birthday and we've spent most of the day together.  Alan took the day off from work and also Jadyn and Bryan had no school today.  It was nice to just hang out together as a family.

I checked my e-mail just before lunch and there was a note from our adoption agency.  Hooray!  We got our pre-approval from China.  We can adopt Evan!  Oh, how excited we were that the news finally came.  I was jumping up and down and doing the happy dance.  They said, "Yes"!!  What a joy and relief it was to get this news.  There may have even been happy tears shed by this mom.  :)

I was so excited and Jadyn had this look on her face like, "What has gotten into you?"  I told her I was that excited on the day we found out we would get to adopt her.  She thought that was pretty cool.

I am so happy for Jadyn.  She WILL be getting her little brother!  She's been asking me almost every day lately if I will show her his photo.  Sweet.

Once I finally settled down to a halfway normal level, we went out to lunch to celebrate Alan's birthday.  It was a double celebration for us.

Here are some photos of our little guy.

Evan Joshua

Recently, Alan said he thought it would be so cool if we got our PA on his birthday.  Well what do you know?  That's exactly what happened.  In the China adoption community, that would probably be referred to as a Red Thread.  I think it's also God's timing.  He's like that, you know!

I was doing some reading this morning, and came across this verse in the Bible.  I wrote it down and stuck it on my refrigerator.  ~ Lift up your eyes and look around; all your sons gather and come to you. Isaiah 49:18
It was only a short time later when we got our e-mail about the PA. Too fun for words.

Happiness

Happy Tuesday to you all!  I hope it's a great day wherever you are.  I see a bit of sun peeking out here in MN and I am happy about that.

Seriously, melting snow is a beautiful thing.  It's been a long winter for us here.  I believe I heard them say we'd had 79 inches of snow, when I was watching the news last night.  79 inches! How exciting ridiculous.
As I walked down the street to get Jadyn from the bus at noon time today, I could hear the sound of melting snow.  What is the sound of melting snow?  It's the sound of water running down the rain gutters on homes and down into the street drains as well.  :)  If you live in a really snowy place, you probably love the sound of melting snow too.

Can't wait for SPRING!  Jadyn asks me almost every day when spring is coming.  I tell her that the calendar says March 20th, but it will be awhile before it looks like that around here.  Just knowing it's coming soon is a relief.

We had some good news last week.  Our paperwork has gone to China, to ask for their approval to adopt Evan.  So now we await word. We hope and pray it's a resounding "Yes!"  There's an adorable little boy over there and a family with tons of love for him over here.  We want those 2 to come together.  :)  Thank you again, for your support and prayer, it's super helpful.

I found this on the chalkboard above the computer desk, when I came downstairs a few minutes ago.  My husband wrote it.  Too cute. ;)

~ Happiness is having a home full of the love of family.~   

Cherish every moment!