My Vultures

With 2 teenage boys in the house, both about 6 feet tall, they are bottomless pits!  I did notice a difference with actually having leftovers while Steve was gone to camp, but they are back!  They know that after I dish out dinner they only get to take 1/5 of what is left if they want seconds, until they see if anyone else wants seconds.  If there is some left after that, they can split it.

So last night after the alfredo was served up, the big boys got their seconds.  Then they were slyly prowling around waiting to see who else wanted seconds.   Soon Zach announced he was full.  He had eaten all his pasta, and just had some chicken left in his bowl.  Pete was on that and before Zach could even get up from the table, had grabbed his plate and sucked up the rest of Zach's dinner.  Mike and I each announced we were done, so the feeding frenzy began. 

I hear Pete saying to Steve- you only get half! 

and Steve's reply - you ate the rest of Zach's so I should get more

Zach didn't have much left, I get half

Fine.  You can have half.

You'd think I never feed those boys.

To Cheese or Not To Chesse

First of all, I want to appologize in advance for any delays in my posts, I took my computer in to get fixed, pretty sure it had a virus, only to find out the hard drive is crashing.......  It will cost too much to be worth fixing, so I have been working hard to save everything I have on here onto a flash drive.  The computer is very unpredictable right now and does funky stuff on it's own so some days I can use it and other days, not so much.

Conversation with Zach after I made chicken alfredo ravioli for dinner:

MOM, I don't like cheese

I gave you mostly no cheese (well, ok, the sauce is cheesy, but he didn't know that!)

OK.  (tries it).  Mom this is good with cheese, thank you (right now his thing is to thank me for EVERYTHING I do for him)

I'm glad you like it.

But I still don't like cheese.

You eat other things with cheese on it.

What??

Let's see, macaronie and cheese and grilled cheese

NO!  I don't like grilled cheese..  Oh yeah, I ate it at the campout.  I do like that

And my mexican lasagna that dad made you try.  And pizza.   And you put parmasean cheese on spaghetti.

You're right Mom.  I do like cheese!!  (and off he went happily finishing his dinner)

IT'S HERE

OUR TRAVEL APPROVAL CAME TODAY.  WE LEAVE FOR CHINA ON AUGUST 2ND!!!!!  13 DAYS AWAY.

A Day At The Beach

Today is laundry day.  It's a beautiful day, a slight breeze, no humidity to speak of, and not so hot that just stepping out the door makes sweat drip from bad places.  I decided this made it a great day to use the clothes line for drying. 

On my first trip out back with wet laundry, Zach decided to go outside with me.  His "play ground" is behind the clothes line, and he headed straight for the sandbox.  Ooops.  Someone forgot to put the lid back on the sandbox last time they played out there (no, it was NOT me).  We finally got some rain yesterday and a bit more this morning, so his sandbox has a lot of water in it.  As soon as Zach got to it I heard "AAWWW, it's full of water", then in the next beat, "That's ok, I'll make a beach with sand and water".  Talk about turning lemons into lemonade, my new saying will be turning rain into a beach.  Zach has now been going in and out with me all day, playing in the beach everytime he goes out. 

He likes to hide "burried treasure" in the sand and he found a very soggy bandana that he hid a while back.   "It's all wet, Mom."  He watched me hanging laundry for a second and began to wring out the bandana, "This is my washer too, I'll just rinse it out"

And The Planning Never Ends

You all know that all this summer we have been "planning" for our trip to China.  This planning has envolved phone calls to family memebers for moral support, ideas, or help; with my sister and my mother getting most of the calls from me.  Mind you, my uber planner self comes by this trait honestly - my sister has it and so does my mother.  HHMMM, wonder how far up the chain this gene really goes????  That's research for another day.

Mike is always amazed at that wonderful day, usually during school shopping season when I come home, excited, because I was able to find next year's calendar, and begin to transfer all the birthdays and other important days on to it, as well as any of those nasty 6 month appointments, made before the calendar came home.  He usually just shakes his head and lets me have my fun. (note to self, add genetic research of the uber planner gene to my 2013 calendar when I get it).  Yesterday, I'm not even sure what he was doing, but Mike looked at me and asked if I had the new calendar yet (I think he was wanting to look up a date - there should be no reason for an appointment there yet).  First I simply said "No, not yet", and then I rememebered WHO I was talking to.... the man who is amazed at my compultion of planning ahead.... Let's hope our kids will get my Uber Planner gene and not his Procrastonater gene.... (Can adopted kids get our genes... add that to my research project...)

Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble

We are living in a rain bubble.  Our grass is so brown and crunchy, that when we heard rain forcasted for today we did a happy rain dance.  Mike went on break at work (he works about 3 miles from home) and called me.

"Isn't this rain beautiful?" he asked me

"What rain?"

"We've been getting a nice steady rain"

"HHMMM, we had a few sprinkles a while ago when I took Sadie out"

GGRRRRR, I was hoping for rain.  Now the sun is out, and the white, fluffy clouds are floating by.  I guess no rain for us again today

My Little Sweeties

I am remembering something about having small kids in the house.....  I never realize how much we say something until we hear it parroted back to us.  I have apparently gotten into the habbit of calling Zach "Sweetie".  The last couple of weeks, Zach has been "freaking out" Pete (his words) by calling him "Little Sweetie" whenever he can.  Knowing that Pete isn't real fond of the name, Zach says it in a teasing way...."Hi, Little Sweetie".  In trying to figure out where he got that phrase, I started watching our speech, and sure enough, when Zach says, "Hey, Mom..." I usually answer, "Yes, Sweetie?"

Zach has been trying out names for everyone.  Besides calling Pete "Sweetie"  he will ask me  "Mom, can I call you ________?"  So far it's been Mommy, Mom, MaMa, and Ma.  At this point, I really don't care what form of Mom he calls me, whatever makes him feel comfortable.  I know at the other house in Tenn, he called her Mom, so I am thinking that now he is trying to find a way to make my name different from her.

For all the picking Pete and Zach do to eachother, for all the naughty-ness and willfullness Zach shows Mike and me, for all the love and hugs everyone gets....  I think it was said best last night, by my cousin who was watching Zach and Pete interact  "It doesn't matter what biology says, those boys are brothers".  And we're all family.

I'm Back

We returned yesterday from our time away.  Mike had to work the National Rally and rather than have him gone for a week, we went with him, for a week in Virginia.  Zach loved his first official camping trip, and Pete had a good time too.  We get to relax and see Mike when he comes back to the camper for meals.  It was SO hot, we had a rule, everytime dad came by the camper, the boys ran a popcicle out to him (he preferes red ones).  The campground had a great pool/water park to use for free and we were there daily.  Zach is very comfortable swimming with his life jacket on now - Pete taught him to dog paddle before we left, when we went out to Great Grandma's house to play in the lake.  It was a nice, shady park.  It was very nice to see green grass.  In fact, we arrived between thunder storms - the campground office did not have power when we got there, but they had on paper who was coming in for the rally and we got all set up on our site before the next thunderstorm arrived.  We had 2 other storms overnight while we were there.  Luckily for Mike and the other service guy, the storms stopped before 8 AM when they had to be out and about in the campground doing repairs for the rally goers.

The way down was slow going.  We ran into 107 degree temperatures driving down, and that along with running the A/C on high and pulling the camper overheated our engine.  We stopped for the night before we planned, but then got up at 2 AM to begin our drive during the coolest part of the day and drove slow.  On the way home, we had 77 degree temps and the drive was much easier.

I missed Steven on this trip, but he's having a great time with Grandma and Grandpa.  He had lots of fun at the Youth Rally and he is just loving helping navigate the motorhome on their trip.  (The one on one time with Grandma and Grandpa is an added bonus for him)

We stopped in Hershey PA on this trip too.  Zach loved the ride that took us on the factory tour to see how Hershy bars are made.  Pete and I loved the 5 pound chocolate bar that we bought.

Paybacks are Heck!!!

When Peter was little, we noticed that even though he has dark brown hair like I do, he had a spot of hair about the size of a quarter where his hair was darker.  Pete is now 13 and as he has gotten older, the spot blended and became the same color as the rest of his hair.  Yesterday Peter was sitting directly across from me, usually he sits to my left at the table.  I noticed some white in his hair, but knowing that earlier he was in the apartment we are building for my in-laws, and that there was white paint out being used, I told him to turn his head.  Nope, not paint.....he has a spot of about the size of a quarter, behind his ear, of WHITE hair!!!  And he talks about Mike and me being old!  Mike told him this means he will start balding soon .... time to get back at him for all those jokes he makes about Mike losing his hair.  I told him at this rate he will be the only kid in his graduating class to have gray hair AT his graduation.

Next Step

We received word today that our Article 5 has been issued.  This is our final approval from the US government to adopt our children.  Our paperwork is now on it's way back to the Chinese adoption authority.  We will wait 2-4 weeks now for them to issue our TA (travel approval).  That is our invitation from the Chinese government to come and adopt our children.  We then travel in 10-21 days.  Please pray for our speedy travel!!!

My life

My living room is not a family space anymore.  My dining room is not someplace we can sit at the table to eat.  The hallway is a storage facility, and the only way through the downstairs is through the kitchen.  The hallway is filled with half packed suit cases for our upcoming China trip (No, still no more news).  My dining room table is home base for packing whoever/whatever I am on to now.... Steven is all packed to go to his BE camp in Colorado, I have things sitting out all over the living room as I am preparing for our camping trip for Mike's work rally - I have all Zach and Pete's clothes ready to go, about half of mine, and Mike.....well he's next on my list......  My life right now is totally living in the future getting everyone prepared for everywhere they need to be.  When Steven gets back home, it should be time to hit the school sales for our back to school supplies.  Then I will begin packing everyone's backpacks for that......

FYI, my musical genious son, has created his own flute.  At camp they have a talent show. Somewhere along the line he decided that since computers are not allowed at BE camp, and his trombone and keyboards are too big and not allowed in Grandma's motorhome for the trip, he needed a smaller instrument to take with him.  So he looked measurements and requirements on line for flute making.  Not a flute like a recorder, a flute like in band.  He and Mike just finished cutting to length his pipe, and drilling the holes.  It plays.  Now today is Tuesday and camp starts on Monday.  That gives him 6 days to teach himself to play.  And ya know what?  I bet he does it.  And well enough to not embarass himself at the talent show.

Good Bye

About 10 years ago, we had 2 stray cats hanging around our house.  We would put out some food, since they were very thin.  One was very friendly, one was afraid of everything.  "Fraidy Cat" would not come near us, but would come up with the other cat to eat the food we put out.  The other cat would come up to us for attention too if we sat on the steps.  I decided to take in the friendly one.  The boys were 3 and 4, Shrek was the big movie of the day, so we named her "Princess Fiona".  She was starving because she had been declawed (all 4 paws), our vet estimated her age to be 5.  She became a much loved memeber of the family.  She would curl up quietly with me in my chair, sleep at the foot of the beds - she rotates a few weeks at a time on one bed, then move to another, giving everyone in the family some of her time.  She was my constant companion when I had my foot surgery and was confined to sitting around the house.  She has had digestive problems, that have been getting worse the last few years.  I have to rotate the dry food between brands or she throws it up all the time.  She recently had her top teeth fall out, we think from all the throwing up.  She has been moved to soft food from the can to help her toothless state, and it seemed to also help her digestion.  Until now.  She can't keep down her food and is always hungry.  It's time to do the humane thing and take her to the vet to put her down.  I will miss you, Old Friend.