Thanksgiving weekend 2008

These are a few photos from our Thanksgiving weekend.

Well, another Thanksgiving is over. This year was a tad different than other years, because we didn't actually have any turkey at all on Thanksgiving Day because we were travelling. We left home in the morning and arrived at my father's around 2. We thought we would stop for a quick lunch on the way, but we had a very difficult time finding anything open between her and my dad's. When we arrived, we saw that Subway was open until 2, and luckily it was 1:55! So we quickly went inside and order our sandwiches.

So our Thankgiving Dinner consisted of a cold cut combo sub for DD1, a chicken salad sub for DD2, a spicy Italian sub for me, and a foot long tuna sub for DH. Gracie was asleep, so we left in her in the car with DD1 while we ordered our food to go. We ate when we got to Dad's. He was just returning from my sisters' where he'd eaten a more traditional turkey dinner with her family. My brothers' family came over later to spend the rest of the weekend with us. They had spent the day with my sister-in-law's family.

Friday morning some of us went out shopping for Black Friday deals. DD2, DD1, my sister, my niece, arrived at Walmart at 4:55 a.m. just before the employees cut off the black plastic that was wrapped around all the deals. I was looking for toys for our family gift exchange and maybe a few things for Grace and the older girls.

I snagged a cart from one of the employees, and we set off. First thing we got was a big flat screen tv for my niece. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten my cell phone at home, and my sister had forgotten to charge her phone the night before. So we had two cell phones, DD1's and my neice's to keep us connected. If it weren't 5 a.m. in the morning, we probably wouldn've had a better plan than the one we had, which was for me to stay with the cart and everyone else was to go out looking. I was stuck in a crowd of people. I could literally not move. There were people in front of me, people to the right of me, people behind me, and on the left of me was a big pile of toys. I was blocked in. I didn't know where everyone else was, and we didn't have a plan for how to meet up. So I just waited, and waited, and waited. I finally decided that I'd get out of the mess, walked down the side of the store and try to meet up with everyone in a place where there were fewer people. I waited at the new location for about 15 minutes, and finally my sister found me. Everyone was up at the checkouts. Checkingout turned out to be the longest part of our shopping experience at Walmart. We finally abandoned our cart and checked out at the Jewelry department counter. It seemed like we were in the store for 3 or 4 hours, when in truth it was really only an hour and a half.

Our next stop was Target, which was alot less crowded. We then went to Marshalls which was even less crowded. It was about that time, that I started to fade. We ended up being out for about 3 maybe 4 hours, but I was pooped out! It was a fun, but tiring time. The remainder of the day we rested. We had our Thanksgiving dinner at Old Country Buffet, and headed back to my dad's to relax.

Saturday was yet another shopping day. This time we went to the mall, and we had Grace, my twin 8 year old nieces, my sister, DD1 and DD2 in towe. Our first stop was JC Penneys where Grace got a stuffed rudolph, DD1 got her Winter Dance Dress, and the rest of the girls just window shopped. My sister got a gift card at Holister, and we met up with my sister-in-law for lunch at the food court. We had a good time, just us girls. Later we met back up with the guys, had pizza for dinner, and then watched Ironman. A pretty quiet day.

Today we heard that there was a mix of snow and ice coming so we left early to head back home. We got home around 2, unpacked the car, and put Gracie down for a nap. Tommorrow it's back to work, school and daycare for all of us.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just a quick post to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful for many things this year. For our health, our jobs, our children, our mostly reliable transportation, our families, and friends! I'm thankful that there is enough food to feed our family, and that God is watching over us.

We are headed north to be with family for the rest of the holiday weekend.

I think this is a record for us!

Yes, our Christmas tree is up and decorated, and it's not even Thanksgiving Day yet! We decided to go ahead and get it put up last night because we weren't going to be home this weekend. It was either put it up then when we could, or come home early on Saturday to be able to put it up on Sunday. The girls, of course, didn't want to wait and didn't want to come home early. Well, I should say that DD2 didn't. DD1 would like to be able to come home, but not to put up Christmas decorations. She would like to spend the weekend with her friends. Ah, living with a 15 year old!

We still have lots of other decorations to put up, but we've got a good start. Gracie loved putting the ornaments on the tree. She actually was quite helpful. Unlike last year when all she wanted to do was to take everything off the tree that we put on it.

I think she'll really enjoy Christmas this year. She's already going around singing her version of Jingle Bells, which is all of "Jingle, Jingle Bells, all the way" over and over. It's really very cute!

We are headed to my hometown for Thanksgiving to spend time with my father, my brother and his family, and my sister and her family. We plan on shopping early on Black Friday, which is somewhat of a tradition for my sister and I. Sometimes we get to go together, and sometimes we're not in the same town. But we always go shopping and check in with each other during our shopping. What fun!

Happy Thanksgiving!

A good day!

Here it is Sunday evening already. DH and I are watching football and just relaxing. Today was a quiet day. I cleaned house some, DD1 and DD2 played PS2 games with DH, and Gracie just hung out with whomever was available to hang out with all day. She's going through a mommy phase, where she wants me over anyone else. I like that she feels connected to me to want me, and I know that this is a good sign that she is properly attached. She also loves her daddy and her sisters, but has no problem saying hi to strangers as long as one of us is closeby for security.

Grace really is an amazing little girl. I can't tell you how many times I've heard from people that they are surprised that she is only 2 years old because she's talking so well. I don't know if it's because of the First Steps therapy she went through or not, but she is something to listen to when she talks. Her favorite expression now is "Oh My Gosh!". Her intonation is too cute when she says it! It's pretty funny.

DD1 was in a good mood today too, for the most part. That's a good thing, when a moody 15 year old is having a good day. She even was playing around with me when she went to come to say good night to me by sitting on me and trying to squish me. Sometimes she's really a wonderful kid! Oh, I shouldn't complain. For the most part she is a great daughter. It's just that it's hard on all of us, when she's trying to find her own way, and doesn't really understand her own feelings nevermind ours. Because of that, I appreciate the good days like today even more!

DD2 was her usual happy self. She rarely has a bad day. I guess that could change as she approaches her teen years, but for now she is in a good place. She's not perfect, but her loving, happy spirit more than makes up for that.

I guess I'm just really blessed to have such great children. Our Hands of Hope ministry had an adoption information meeting last night at church, and I was talking with people that were interested in adoption. I was telling them that most people believe that the only reason to consider adoption is because of infertility issues, but that's not true. That was not our reason for adopting. Our reason for adopting was because God told us he wanted us to. We are being faithful servants, and praise him that we are, because if we hadn't follow his calling we would be missing out on sooooo many blessings! Yes, it's hard sometimes being older parents and having a two year old, along with 2 other daughters, but it's totally worth it! I wouldn't trade it for the world!!!

As we approach Thanksgiving, I'm thankful that God has given me the opportunity to be a part of His plan. I'm thankful to Grace's birth mother for carrying her, caring for her prenatally, and for leaving her in a place where she could be found, taken care of and brought to a place that led her to our family. I'm so thankful for my daughters, my husband, my job, my warm home, for having enough food to feed my children, and for the many blessings that have been bestowed on us all. Thank you God!

Don't try this at home!

On Friday, I decided it was time I took Gracie in for her 2 year old portraits. You might remember that last year I took all three girls to Olan Mills for portraits. They all wore their Chinese dresses. They turned out great!

So, the question was, do I try to top that this year, or with money being tight, do I do something a little less expensive but yet document Grace's 2nd year. I opted for the latter. I made an appointment at our local Walmart for a session, thinking that I would use the online coupon that I found while making the appointment. I scheduled the appointment for 11 a.m. on Friday morning, thinking that it was late enough in the morning that she would be well rested, and early enough that she wouldn't be cranky and need her nap.

I had the dress, shoes, and tights. The dress came from a friend that had bought it for Grace last Spring. A very cute black and red holiday dress. The tights red, and the shoes black patent leather mary janes. We didn't have any matching bows for Grace's hair, so I decided to pick one up at the store beforehand. Much to my surprise, there were really no red hair bows at Walmart!! So we settled for a frilly red pony tie. It worked well, and Grace had the extras that came in the package of multicolored ponies to play with while we waited. So were were ready, or so I thought.

What I didn't count on was a 2 year old attitude! She started out pretty well, trying to accommodate the photographer to make her happy. We were to have 7 different poses, and by about the 3rd pose Grace had had enough. She wanted nothing more to do with this photo shoot, and decided to show both me and the photographer who was in control. Let me give you a hint that it wasn't either of the adults! She had a meltdown, and refused to cooperate. Finally after prodding to try to get her to cooperate for "just a little bit longer", I decided to try something that every parent swares they will "Never do that when they have children!". I bribed her! I told her she could play with my cell phone if she cooperated. Somehow that worked, and we made it through.

Really only abut 4 of the poses were good enough to consider for purchasing. And of course, after the photo shoot was over, we had to sit through the photographer's sales pitch to try to get me to spend $199 to get "the best deal" they had, and then the $149 next best deal, and $79 deal. During that time, Gracie decided that it was time to let mother nature take her course, and she dirtied her diaper. So instead of taking the time to take her to the restroom and change her diaper right then, I decided to wait until we were finished ordering the portraits and then change her, which really was only another 30 minutes or so.

So after we finished up, I reached in the diaper bag, and much to my surprise there was NO wipes in the bag! Who took the wipes out of the bag? Why would I leave the house with a diaper bag that didn't have wipes in it? How in the world was I supposed to change her diaper without wipes? This is where it comes in handy to have the photo shoot take place in Wally World! I just went back to the baby department and picked up a package of baby wipes, went through the checkout, purchased them, and headed to the restroom. We were able to get her cleaned up and head home, but I have to tell you I was pooped out (no punn intended)!

Gracie came home, ate a quick lunch, and took a 3 hour nap. So it was obviously tiring for her too. I have to say, it was not a fun experience. I will not ever take a 2 year old to get their portrait taken again. But I do have to admit that my little girl's photo that we selected, which was the coupon deal they had with one pose, is mighty cute! So maybe it was worth the hassle. I'm sure when I pick the package up on December 5, I will have almost forgotten about all the hassle, and just enjoy the beautiful smile on my girl's face!

What did I do today?

I was checking some of the other blogs today, and thinking I should post on my own. So here I am, thinking "what did I do today, and what happened today that I might want to write about?". First off, it was blissfully a pretty quiet day.

We got up fairly late, around 8, and then ate a breakfast of egg and hash brown scramble ( a speciality of DH's), and cinnamon rolls. It's a rare thing that all 5 of us sit down to eat breakfast together. Even on the weekend, either one of the girls is gone, DH is up early doing something, or one or more of the girls sleep in. So it was nice to sit down together. I suppose as time goes on this will become even more of a rarity as both DD1 and DD2 become more interested in their friends, rather than their families. It's really already the case with our 15 year old. It appears to me that she only spends time with us when she has to. Now I understand that this is normal for her age, and that she's trying to figure out who she is the world, but all the same, sometimes it's hard to accept as a parent. Anyway, it was a nice relaxing morning.

After breakfast, we moved on to cleaning house. DD1 wanted to go to her girl friend's house, and the rule is you can't go anywhere until your room is clean and the bathroom is clean. So she was highly motivated. DH worked on fixing our desktop computer that crashed hard. He still hasn't been able to get it to boot. Gracie played with DD2 and kept herself busy.

Every year our church has what's called the Frontline Expo, where all of the outreach ministries have a manned booth where people can come and talk to any of the ministry representatives to find out about it, and hopefully help people find their passion for serving. This is that weekend. So I had to get to church early to get our Hands of Hope booth set up. We're having our giving tree with Christmas ornaments attached to donation envelopes for our adoption fund that we're giving away, and a medicine drive for orphans in Guatemala. And of course we have the man the booth. So my time to be there to talk to people wandering by is tomorrow at noon.

The giving tree looked really good. I'm planning on taking the camera with me tomorrow, so I can get photos. After getting everything set up at the booth, and making sure the people were there to work it, we headed into service. Afterwards we headed to DD1's friend's house because she's spending the night there, and then headed home to eat dinner. The rest of the evening was quiet. DD2 and I went to Miejer and Gracie went to bed, to get milk and other food essentials. DH went to bed early, and DD2 and I are watching Jack Frost.

And that's it for the day. Nothing exciting, nothing boring, just a nice peaceful quiet day. Ahhhh! I like those kinds of days.

Gracie made the display case!

I few weeks ago I wrote about how our local library was having a display case featuring National Adoption Month, sponsored by Linked By Love, a network of churches that are working to care for the orphans of the world as mandated by Jesus.

I also posted the photos that I sent in for consideration. Well, we were in our local library on Monday night, and I have to admit that I'd forgotten about the display case. So when I walked by and saw my daughter's referral photo blown up to 8x10 as part of the display I was surprised. So I went and got the girls to see the photo. Of course Gracie didn't really appreciate that her photo was on display, but the others two were pleased.

I tried to take a couple of photos of the case using my cell phone. I'm posting them here, although I don't think they are that good. Gracie's photo is in the lower left hand corner of the case. She's wearing a red jacket.

Catch Up Photos

This is DH's birthday cake for his birthday that was on September 8. The girls wanted to use the "1" candle instead of the 54 individual candles that he should've had. I guess it's less of a fire hazzard. LOL!

Happy Birthday (belated) Sweetie!

No photos for you!

Remember that line from the Soup Nazi episode of Seinfeld? Well, apparently our memory card reader has taken some lessons from the Soup Nazi! I think I told you that we got a new memory card reader to download our digital camera photos to the computer because the girls lost our old one. It worked great for photos off the memory card in DD1's camera without any setup or anything, but somehow the photos that were on the memory card in our camera (which is a different card format) than DD1's didn't work. I didn't think too much about it, and asked DH to help try to get the photos off the card.

He installed the driver on my computer and put the memory card in the slot. But wait, there are NO photos on the card!!! Apparently without knowing it, I earased ALL the photos on our memory card!!! That's most of the photos from the Weekend of Servic project, and ALL of our Halloween photos!! That means NO photos of ANY of the girls in their Halloween costume, and most especially NO photos of Gracie in her fairy costume. I AM SO BUMMED!!!

I'm thinking of having the girls dress up again, and take photos even though Halloween ended over a week ago. I just can't imagine not having photos of the girls dressed up.

Right now I'm so frustrated with myself, I could just scream!

Finally some photos!

Well, we finally got a replacement memory card reader. It's nothing fancy, but it got the job done. Here are the photos from our weekend of Christmas card making for orphans in Ethiopia.

Looks like we're going to have a violin player in our family!

DD2 came home from school on Monday saying that she talked with the Strings teacher at school. The teacher told DD2 that she could join Strings if she wanted to. So now she'll be in Strings on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and in Choir on Tuesday and Thursday.

DD2 has wanted to take violin lessons for about a year now. I really thought it would pass, and that she'd forget. Her memory is not that great. LOL! But since she's brought it up again and actually talked with her teacher about it, we are going to let her do it. The only problem is that she needs a 3/4 violin. Have you ever priced violins? They are pretty expensive, and I hate to spend too much money on one if she isn't really serious about sticking with it. She can rent one for $25/month or $129/year, or of course we can buy one. So I started looking around online to see how much I could buy one for. The prices are all over the place! You can get one for a cheap as $30 or as expensive as $500. So okay, I thought that I'll just check Craigslist. Surely someone is selling one cheap there, but no such luck. The cheapest was $150!

So now what? What I did was post a question about what way to go to Mamasoure.com. I got back several responses, but haven't been able to read them yet because that website is blocked here at work. So when I get home, I'll check and see what great advice I get from other mamas in our area!

We'll keep you posted!

Whew! That was a long weekend!

Well, the Weekend of Service is over and I think it was a great success! We had 69 people over 4 sessions come to our Christmas cards for Ethiopian orphans project at Archiver's.

Out of all those people, only 2 got angry. Why you ask? Well, apparently they got some bad information from somewhere about the start time of the session they had signed up for. Consequently, they arrived 1/2 an hour early for a 1:30 start time, and noone was there. That's because Gretchen, DD1, DD2 and I were all out getting a much deserved break after our successful morning session. Gretchen came back early (about 1:05) and apparently the two young women went off on her about how they were told that the 9:30 session was cancelled, and to be at Archiver's at 1, and how they were put out about noone being there at 1 p.m. I think they some pretty strong language must of been used. My daughters overheard some of what was said, although it was over before I got in the building, and they said it was not pretty. I felt so sorry for Gretchen. She is so sweet, and these young women wounded her. So I went over to talk to the two young woman and apologize for whatever they felt they needed an apology for because really I don't know where they got their bad information. They seemed to settle down some then, and finished out the session okay. They even seemed a bit happy when they finished up before everyone else at 2. But as you can guess they never apologized for their behavior.

Later in the day when I was back home, I checked the email that I'd sent out to one of the two women to see if I'd inadvertently messed up the email to them. I checked both my Sent and Inbox, and the one email I'd sent them didn't have any of the info in it that they claimed was there. So the only thing I can think is that they got some misinformation from church, but who knows.

I have to say that I don't understand the attitude of these women. Surely they understood that we didn't purposefully feed them bad information for a volunteer project, did they?!! We are an orphan care ministry affiliated with a Christian church for goodness sakes! Why would we intentionally sabotage the project for them? Also, why would they be the ONLY ones that were that early to the session start? I think that if they would've thought about that instead of jumping to conclusions, then maybe they would've been better off themselves, and for sure it would've been better for Gretchen! I think it must be a maturity thing for them. I sincerely hope that when they got back home that they reread my email to them, and understood that maybe they'd misread the information or didn't completely read the email. And maybe it's unChristian of me, but I sort of too wish that they feel bad about their behavior because it was really uncalled for and inappropriate given the circumstances. MOst of all, I feel badly that Gretchen had to take the brunt of it as she really had nothing to do with communicating any of the information about the session. She just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time!

Enough about that, for the rest of the news is really good news. We must have about 200 cards to sent off to Children's Hope International for the orphans in Ethiopia!!! And everyone else was so nice and seemed so appreciative of the project, the organization, and the ministry. I'm really happy overall with how it went, and if and when we do this again, I'll have lots of experience under my belt with what to do and what not to do again!

Oh, and lest I forget, I also have to tell you that Archiver's was GREAT! They were very accommodating, kind, pleasant and helpful. I don't remember the assistant manager's name that worked this weekend in the store, but she was really a Godsend! So a big Thank You to Arhiver's is in order!!!

We still can't find out card reader to get the photos off of my camerea, but when I do, I'll post some photos of the entire weekend including the girls in their Halloween costumes.