Sell This House

I just wanted to tell everyone that our episode is on again this weekend. In case you missed the first time or just really want a good laugh at our expense. It is on Sat. at 9:30am. The link is included above if you want more information.

Almost Minnesotan

Today we had a thought of going to the zoo for a bit. We got a zoo membership this year for Christmas and our church is only a block away from the zoo. So after church we decided to stop by for a bit to see some animals. My "great" idea was to go see a new exhibit that was built last summer, but we haven't been there yet (due to lack of membership, thanks Grandpa). The exhibit is called Russia's Grizzly Coast and it is outside! If you just go to the front page of the website you get the idea of what it was like to visit today. Well, it was around 20 degrees so we thought "hey, it's warm, let's go see it". That's the part where we look and think Minnesotan, however we proved we are not true ones. After looking at the animals for about 15 minutes, I was frozen and so was Lance. We were in "church" clothes and my toes were frozen solid. My excuse of course is that we were not dressed for looking at animals outside, but the true thing is that we are still wimps and not very Minnesotan yet. We did go in the zoo and walk through the tropics section to thaw out. The next zoo we will be visiting will be in Central Florida and it will be more my style of weather hopefully.

P.S. I really can't complain about the snow and cold yet. Not because I don't want to, just because it is too early in the winter and it would be a lot of complaining. However if anyone wants us to come live with them in one of the warm weather states, I'm there when you offer!

Play time

I just had to post something cute. I wish I had audio, although I don't know if you would want to really listen to it. Last night, as part of our classic movie watching, we watched Oliver. Today, I have two boys playing "Survivor" using Star Wars figures and everyone has a British accent suddenly. It is fun to listen to.

First Day of Winter Break

Yesterday was the last day of school for 1st semester, so the boys are officially on vacation until January 20th now. Since we were just sitting around the house today and we got some new snow, they went outside to play in it. We haven't been hit as hard as a lot of places around the country, but we still have some white stuff to play in. Ryan went out with them to have some fun also. I elected staying indoors to get the hot chocolate ready. With the short days, they haven't been out much because it is almost dark after school.

Liam thought it would be fun to jump off the swing, he came up laughing, so I guess it was.

Independance

Update: Thank you all for the nice comments about the boys and for wishing us a quick recovery. As of Thursday, everyone is healthy again, back to work and school. Thank you also for putting up with my random stream of consciousness talking with no ending punctuation. Ryan finds it hard to believe that the comma splice queen can be an English teacher also.
This has been a rough week around our house because we have all had the stomach flu. Tues. morning at 2am Ryan and I came down with the fun bug. We kept both boys home from school because Liam was still recovering from his bout on Monday and Lance because we didn't want him to get sick at school and we needed someone to take care of everyone. I have never felt so helpless and with Ryan out of commission also it was quite the day. We had Lance carry Ryan's cell phone and I had mine and we called him when we needed something. Today I woke up feeling better and finally made it downstairs to the BIG mess that greeted me, however I just wanted to share all the wonderful things Lance and Liam did yesterday to help out.
Lance helped by
1. Bringing us water and Popsicles when we asked
2. Entertaining Liam
3. Making his own lunch of a PB&J sandwich
4. Making rice for dinner for them (I walked him through it on the phone)
5. Putting clothes from the washer on the line downstairs (Oh yes, our dryer decided to break during my laundry frenzy on Monday, so I had to make clotheslines downstairs)
6. Emailing his teacher and told her he was home and he was going to email her his homework ( I found that one this morning, but he couldn't work it enough to actually email the homework)
7. Taking all of the phone calls from family that wanted to know how we were doing
8.Feeding Liam throughout the day
9. Helping make Liam's bed (which I stripped the day he was sick)
10. Feeding the dog and letting her out
11. Overall taking good care of everyone
Liam helped by...
1. Not fighting with his brother
2. Not being too demanding
3. Helping with laundry
4. Resting and being good
5. Helping Lance by being errand boy
We are very proud of our two helpful boys and we are sure they are going to make fine adults some day.

Christmas Card Chaos

I guess I'm a procrastinator this year, okay I know I am. Today the boys went to get pictures taken professionally after church, so I decided since I had them dressed I would take my own photo for our Christmas cards this year. It took me over 30 pictures and many minutes to get one picture I thought would maybe be suitable for our card. These are a few of the many bad photos we got today. You can make up your own captions. I know that ALL of the blame lies in the unprofessional photographer, but they could have helped me a little:)

Wordless Wednesday- First gifts in the mail

Thanks Pea!

Christmas fun

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Thoughts about Christmas

I know I haven't been good at writing lately, I guess just nothing exciting to write about. However, I thought I would share a new website that our pastor used in her sermon today. Go here and just watch the video, it's eye opening. Then browse the website for more ideas.

Adoption Update

As of today we have been waiting 10 months for a referral. It seems like such a long time especially when you add how long we have been planning. To think we visited our first adoption agency information session before Liam was even conceived. So, I guess that makes our wait more like 8 plus years since we started the research phase, so ten months to wait for them to find the right children for our family isn't so long.


We are trying to stay positive and busy during the wait. We are using the time to get ready financially. We have the next "payment" that we give our agency when we accept the referral in savings now. We are going to start saving for travel money next. We could use the time to get the house ready, but we still haven't painted or rearranged like we want to. I guess if we keep putting it off it makes the wait shorter in a way. We will get our referral and have to get into action right away.


We are just taking life one day at a time and enjoying them all. We are thankful for all that we have been given and enjoy our boys everyday. It is a little difficult to know that somewhere halfway around the world our children are waiting for us. I think the holidays make it harder also. We keep all our boys (the ones that live with us and the ones we are waiting to go get) in our prayers. Please keep them in your prayers also.

The Season of the Eternal Birthday

If you haven't heard yet, Liam turned 7 this year. The official kick off of his birthday party started in late October and it seemed to never end. I do recall the birthing experience of this child and it lasted a while, but it was hours not weeks. However, now at age 7 we had a month of birthday fun including 3 parties and many gifts. (Sorry if he is behind on your thank you card, he is catching up). Thanks to all that made his birthday month a joy. It was fun, but I'm kind of glad it is all over. Here are some highlights:

Blowing out candles at the 2nd family birthday party.

Showing off one of his great gifts. He wants his name included to this poster some day.

Oh yes, the friend party!The reason I'm probably tired is that we saved the best (most work) for last. We invited 8 little first grade boys over for 3 hours of fun. It was just cold enough with just a dusting of snow, so that would equal cold, muddy boys. So we kept it inside. We started the party with Liam's requests of "board games" and Madlibs. Pictionary went okay, but we lost them at Outburst. No one liked the Madlibs but Liam. I ended up going upstairs and dragging down every bin of Lego's I could find. This entertained them for a half hour. I chose to have them decorate cupcakes (check off another half hour) and then they played a rousing game of hide and seek for the last half hour or so. I really wanted to count, but they wouldn't let me. I was thinking 1,000,000 was a good round number to count up to. The important things were that Liam was happy and they all left with a sugar rush. I guess it was a successful party.

Thanks again for anyone that helped make the the month of the birthday fun!!

Brag Time

I just have to brag about my husband and how great he is. Yesterday he took the day off just to burn some vacation time. I had to go to a teaching conference for most of the day. He had told me that he was just going to play video games all day and have a me day. He would try to get to the honey do list. However, while I was gone he ran a bunch of errands and picked up the house. And to make my day brighter he bought me a rose and left it in my car. So when I was done with my training I had a nice rose and beautiful card waiting for me for no reason. That's why I married him :)

Happy Birthday Liam

Happy 7th Birthday Liam!!

Today is Liam's birthday! We celebrated by making it a birthday day for the family. It started with homemade caramel rolls for breakfast. Then Ryan and Liam got to open the cards they had gotten (thanks to everyone that sent one) and Liam got to open a family gift. We bought a Wii Fit game for the entire family's birthdays. We have been looking for one for a while because that is what we were buying for our June birthday people. So we got it and gave it for 2008 birthdays. So the rest of the day was spent in p.j.'s playing video games, watching football and eating. I made Stromboli for Ryan's birthday dinner also. Overall a great stay at home birthday kind of day.

Don't worry Liam is still going to have a "family" party next week and a friend party the following week. We'll do the big hoopla then, but it was nice to have a quiet day.

Happy Birthday Ryan

Happy Birthday Ryan!!

Ryan's birthday was yesterday and we had a fun day! First we went to a potluck for people adopting/adopted from the Philippines. We ate some good food, met new people, and watched some Filipino folk dancing. Ryan and Lance also played a game of basketball with some guys. It took up the first part of our day.

Then in the evening we went to dinner and a show with a bunch of friends. We were going to meet at a local chain restaurant, but the wait was at 80 minutes already when we got there. So, we ended up at a kind of fast food restaurant. But hey we had quick service and it was quieter. Then we raced downtown (we talked too much at the restaurant and left late) to go to the theater to see Wicked. It was packed, the tickets were impossible to get (unless your my resourceful friend Ann!) The show was amazing! I loved the storyline, the costumes and the singing was wonderful. Ryan (the birthday boy) enjoyed it also, but liked Spamalot better. Wicked ranks way up there in my favorite shows.

So, Ryan's birthday was filled with cultural events. Probably not the day he would choose, but he had a great time anyway.

We do live in a winter wonderland

This is what we woke up to this morning.

I knew the post that I put up on Wed. was too good to be true. It started with a big wind/rain storm yesterday. The wind was so strong that it blew our yard waste container about 50 ft. and then flipped it over. This is why we need weather people in MN, we never know what is going to happen here.

Wordless Wednesday- with words

Gas prices in our area- $1.99 a gallon
Average Temperature the past few days-
around 70 degrees!

I'm not complaining about either, just surprised!

Tag, are you it?

My blogging friend sent me this tag and I thought I would pass it on.
The rules: Remove 1 question from the list below, and add your own personal question to make it a total of 20 questions. Tag 8 people, list them out at the end of this post. Notify them in their chat box that he/she has been tagged. Whoever does the tag will have blessings from all.

1. At what age do/did you (wish to) marry? at 26 (so last year right?)
2. What color do you like most? PINK- I'm such a girlie girl that way
3. If you can have a superpower, what would it be? I would be invisible like Violet in the Incredibles
4. If you can travel anywhere in the world, where would you want to go? Anywhere away from MN, really Italy would be very cool
5. Which part of you do you hate the most? the fat I insist on carrying around
6. When you get sad, what do you do? I don't get sad, I just get mad at someone else
7. What book are you reading now? Little House in the Big Woods
8. If you win $1 million, what would you do with the money? Pay off debt, oh you meant something fun? Travel!!
9. What did you love the most about last year (2007)? Materialistic, but I love my new minivan
10. How did you get your name? My parents were going to name me June but changed their minds at the last minute due to an actress' popularity named Julie
11. What is the moment you regret most? I regret losing touch with many people I've met over the years
12. What type of person do you hate the most? I dislike people that talk and have never investigated or researched or lived what they are talking about
13. What is your greatest asset? my family of course, no monetary value
14. If you had one wish, what would you wish for? I would like to live on an island with just my family, but we would be visited by friends and have the Internet
15. How did you celebrate the New Year? Same as every year, to bed at 10pm, just another day
16. What tv show do you watch that you are embarrassed to tell people about? America's Next Top Model
17. It’s 2008. What are you looking forward to this year? meeting our new children
18. Anything in your life that you wish weren’t so awful? I should knock on wood because all is good right now
19. What’s the shallowest thing you intend to do this year? Ryan said, highlighting my hair every few months is shallow
20. What’s the meaning of life? To raise my kids so that they can become better people than we are

Now the fun part...I get to tag. Of course I have to tag Amy because she would tag me. I will also tag Michelle because I know you just don't enough to do during the day with homeschooling three kids and everything:) I'm going to tag Mel because I want to read her answers. Renee (even though you are out of town) as punishment because you still owe me that recipe. Now that Patricia is blogging again, I can find out what you are thinking also. I can only do 5 because it took me almost a week to get my questions up and everyone else I know has already been tagged.

Wordless Wednesday-Fall Clean up

Our weekend without the kids

This weekend we went to a Bed and Breakfast in Duluth with some friends. The boys were busy in their own right. They had birthday parties to attend, fun functions at church and they hung out with grandma and grandpa. We went with our friends Mariela and Rodrigo from Argentina, they have never been up there. We didn't get up north until late Friday evening, so we just got some food and hung out. The B&B was the best. They thought of every last detail and we loved staying there. We had to rent the smallest room because I lost to Mariela on heads or tails when booking, but it was still a great place. On Sat. morning they brought breakfast to our room (a requirement I have for B&Bs, I'm not getting all dressed to go eat breakfast with strangers). It was wonderful, eggs, muffins and fruit. I had to take a picture because the fruit was so cute. They even made little hearts out of the watermelon. It was delicious.On Sat. afternoon we went to the Split Rock Lighthouse and then to Gooseberry Falls. It was cold at the lighthouse, but it was nice walking around the falls. We just spent the day walking and talking and not worrying about kids. That afternoon we went to lunch and that was quiet also. At night we went to see the bridge and walk around downtown Duluth. It sounds really boring when you read it, but just know we had a great time.

Sunday breakfast was wonderful also, but then we had to pack up to leave. I 100% recommend the B&B we stayed at for anyone going to Duluth!

We picked up the boys, it was good to see them. Came home and did dishes, made dinner and did laundry. Pretty exciting way to end a weekend, huh?

I give up

In an effort to be cheap and in denial of winter coming, we have put off turning our heat on in the house. Well today may be the day that I give in. Ryan said I would be the first to break because everyone else in the house is so hotblooded. Here are my three justifications as to why any sensible person would want to turn it on:

#1 From the news website:Current Forecast
6 PM
Rain
44 °F

#2 The boys have some ice cream bowls that turn blue when they have ice cream in them. The one on the left is how they are supposed to look empty (I had to put it under hot water for a few minutes to get it to its natural state). The one on the right is how they both looked in my clean dishes rack from sitting on the counter all day.

This is the thermostat in our house right now. It is 60 degrees in the day, can you imagine the night time temp. Yeah, I think I'm going to turn it on now.

I guess the cold weather is on its way, I can't stop it by not turning on the heat!

My favorite church sermon

Caution contains religion and politics:

I'm not one to talk about my views very often in the area of religion and politics. I think this is due to the fact that I believe more in "doing" than just talking. I avoid the topics because I don't want to offend anyone because everyone has different views and I am no better than anyone else. However, I wonder if people that really know me understand my views at all. I heard the most wonderful sermon the other day at church and I just have to share it. It is so similar to my views that I felt I could have written it myself. So I thought I would share it with anyone that wants to listen. I'm not trying to change anyone's views or convert anyone. I just want you to not judge, but just listen and get to know me and what I believe in better.

So if you have 20 minutes of free time to listen, you are welcome to a glimpse of my views. The sermon is based on Matthew 22:15-22 Click here and then click on the sermon "God or Caesar-Who to obey?"

Yes to the greyhound, but later

I know the voting period isn't over, but I just wanted you to know that we are going to get the second dog. We are going to wait a bit longer than my original Christmas present idea though. Instead for Christmas, I booked a trip to Orlando yesterday! Yay it will be warm there. We are going to go in Jan after all of the hoopla. When we have gone to Orlando in the past we have always stayed at a Disney resort and just went to their parks. This time we are staying with my dad and step mom (newly retired) and we want to check out some other places. So my questions to you are...1)recommendations for things to do (or avoid) in Orlando and 2) a way to get by on a small budget. We are still planning on going to Disney World for a day or two, I can't go that far and not go there. I think I could live there ;)

Don't you wonder how I make it through a day when I have to ask my blog friends all of these questions about how to live my life?

Do we need another dog?

I am in love with Greyhounds and I've been wanting to adopt one for a while. We always thought it would be our next dog after Daisy left us. Well yesterday while shopping at the dollar store I saw a van parked next to us that had 3 greyhounds in it. They went into the pet store, so Lance and I went in to see if they were doing an adoption day. They were doing a meet and greet for this organization, it helps retired race dogs find homes. After talking to representatives for a while, I thought that now is the perfect time to get another dog. We have been reading through the literature and everything sounds perfect. We are thinking of starting the process in the next couple of months to make our new dog a family birthday present. If you know anything about retired racing greyhounds please share. I also included a new poll to get your opinions.

The little things they do

In Lance news...Last night Lance was moved up in his city orchestra to 1st violin. He auditioned a while back and he was happy with playing 2nd, but very excited about being moved up. The bad part is the songs are harder now (who would have thought?) His next goal will be to move up to the better orchestra.

Last night was Liam's last soccer game of the season. (The pictures were taken on Sat. because I am a fair weather fan, I only go in fair weather, haha. No, really I had to take Lance to orchestra. I just didn't want to fool you into thinking we have good weather here, full disclosure) He really improved this season. All of the boys did actually. They used to just run in a clump, but now they understand positions and they really try to score goals.

Okay, they are still near each other more than they should be, but spread out a little bit more. Liam is the one doing the Karate action in the middle (I don't know why, must be the way he runs faster)The back of Liam looking for the ball. At least he is looking in the right direction (Look at the kid in the background looking the wrong way). The funniest part of their games is when a kid would just take off with the ball and everyone has to scream..."go the other way!" Fun games:)All the kids got a little medal for playing this season. He is trying to show you that the picture changes on the medal, why can't you see that?

Brag Time

(This post is mainly for grandparents etc. because it is just a brag about my boys).

The end of the quarter was on Friday and we got report cards.
Lance- His major areas are broken down into smaller things and each thing receives a grade. I will tell you in which area he got a little lower grade. There are specific assignments that count in the different areas, sometimes it's only one assignment that got him that grade.
Reading-3 A's and a B in comprehension
Writing-2 A's and a B in Handwriting and Word Processing
Math- 1 A and a B+ in Mathematical Reasoning
Social Studies- A's in all the units covered
Science- A's in all the units covered
Art- A
PE-A
Spanish-A
Music-A
Latin-A

Liam's is stranger since he is first grade. They have a 1-4 grading system. 2-needs improvement, 3 meets expectations, 4 exceeds expectations.
Reading- All 3's
Writing- 2's (handwriting being one again)
Math- All 3's
Social Studies- All 3's
Science- All 3's
Art- All 3's
PE- All 3's
Spanish- All 4's (I think he is a little charmer with the Spanish teacher)
Music- All 3's

Overall, we are really happy. We just ask that they do all of their work and they do their best. I warned you that this is a boring post:)

Shout out

Just have to give a shout out to my blogging buddy's new Etsy shop. Go here to see the great things she has made and she is willing to sell. Think Christmas gifts!

I baked!

Suddenly I had a burst of domestication. I don't know why. It could be this post or maybe I'm nesting (maybe our kids are just around the corner?) Anyway, I baked cookies yesterday! I used to cook and bake more, but then I had kids and life got busy etc. Lately, I lack successes, maybe the issue of being too busy plays here also.

Ryan always teases Lance telling him that it is his turn to cook dinners because mommy used to cook until Lance was born, therefore it must be Lance's turn.

Another sign that reminded me that I do nothing in the kitchen was yesterday as I went for my mixer that sits on the counter, I noticed cobwebs on the beater. The possible causes of this could be a) We have an unusual amount of very active spiders b) I don't use it very often c) I don't clean. I think it is a combination of b and c.

My boys almost died of shock when they came home from school and saw the cookies. They of course wanted to know the next time I would be baking and can they put in a request.

I just wanted to share my small victory. My hopes and dreams are to be as good as some of my blogging buddies (you know who you are domestication divas, with your good for you foods). For now I'm just happy that my oven still worked.

Dancing all night

On my mother's side of the family there are 43 first cousins. My youngest cousin got married last night. I was excited to go to the wedding because I have great childhood memories of dancing all night with my cousins. We would go the weddings as my older cousins got married. Last night I got to take my boys to the wedding and the dance. They don't know their second cousins very well, but they still had a great time.

The cousins in attendance.

(The groom is the one at the end)

Liam's haircut

Before

After

We went camping!

If you know us, you know that we are not outdoors people generally. We did enough of that in the military. However, as the boys get older we have decided that we need to get them out more. So we took the kids camping this past weekend and we had a great time.

We went to a state park along the Mississippi River. It was nice and out of the way and it was a quiet campground until we got there. We went with another family because they are experienced campers. They taught us a lot, but more importantly the kids had a great time. They played football, soccer, rode bikes, sat by the fire, played card games, all the usual stuff. We even took a hike. The only 2 things that were bad actually had up sides. It rained all night, but it started at 10pm and ended when we woke up. Thanks mother nature. The toilet in the area was an outhouse, but it was clean and the boys didn't have to flush. (It's hard to get them to remember to flush at home:)

Liam with his "walking" stick. It became firewood later when he wasn't looking.
Hanging out at the camp fire.

Lance enjoying S'mores

We went for a small hike on Sunday before we left. The campground is up about 500 ft. on the bluffs of the river. We chose a path that took us down to the water and then we had to come back up. It was a tough hike for kids and inexperienced (unprepared) hikers. It was only about 3 miles but it was mostly up and down the bluff. Everyone did a great job hiking, no one complained and it was getting hot near the end. The 3 year did have a small meltdown close to the top, but she did great!

The bottom of the trail was so worth it, but we still had to go back up.

Ren Fest

Grandma came to visit and we took her to the Renaissance Festival. Lance wanted to

dress up this year, that came out of nowhere. He wore part of his pirate costume from last Halloween. Liam didn't have any special outfits to wear, so he wore the t-shirt we got him a few years ago that says "Dragon Bait". I think he got more reactions from his t-shirt than Lance did dressing up.

We did the same old things. The boys had to pet the snakes for hours. The boys loved the snakes so much that Grandma bought them each a stuffed animal snake for a gift.

We ate a lot. We watched some shows. We ate more. We shopped.

Liam was called up on stage because they needed to feed the dragon in the show. It was in the kid's part, so not that many people were there to watch, but he was really nervous still.

We stayed 9 hours and had a great day. We were very tired and dirty when we got home.