Rain, Rain and Bible School

We are still here. The girls attended Bible School and LOVED it. After the first day they asked to go early the next day do they could sing all the songs. We also attended the Church on Sunday and the girls Sunday school, and they LOVED it too. Jeff and I also enjoy the church which is very active in all areas. It is also good that it is only 5 minutes from the house.

The girls enjoyed some cute time playing dress up and swimming at the YMCA.

We have also been very busy staying dry. In case you have been living in a cave, we are having rain like never before. Even the puppy Cooper only gets out of the covered patio for his business and we are letting him inside a little more so he does not get webbed feet and swim away. I am positive that our 2 year drought is now over, and the lakes would be reopened except that now instead of the boat ramps being too short, the water has flooded all the parking lots to the boat ramps and the lakes are closed again, but for the opposite reason!

GREAT Aunt & Uncle

Today Jeff's Sister Laura's daughter Elisha gave birth to a boy....something very rare on both sides of the family......and Kyle and mom are doing well. We understand that Kyle had a lot to say upon birth and quite some time there after....should fit in well with my two daughters who ALWAYS have something to say. We are waiting photos but are confident that he is a cutie. Not sure how Jeff's sister is taking becoming a grandmother.....

Happy Father's Day!

This morning I fixed a special breakfast for Jeff and the girls made some very cute father's day cards. My parents were still in town so I got to spend father's day with my father too. In the evening the family went to our favorite restaurant China King and stuffed ourselves crazy.

Finally home!

We have had a successful trip to St. Louis area and visited family from both sides of my family, aunts, uncles, Great Aunt Teresa, cousins, second cousins, third cousins, and some that we are not sure how we are related, but we are. Ruth was reintroduced to the family and Sara met them for the first time. The weather was good, but got a little hotter towards the end. The Holiday Inn Select in St. Peter's was terrible! The driving was smooth and visited the old camping grounds where we spent a lot of our childhood, and stopped off at my parent's acreage in Arkansas. We got to ride the train in St. Louis to IL, visit the Arch, the zoo and Grant's farm. Jeff was greatly missed and we called him every other night.

Sara's Bball

Sara began basketball camp at our high school on Monday. NO, she was not the shortest 5th grader, but tied with 3 other girls, and some of those girls were HUGE! Sara wanted to do basketball because the HS girl who helped her during school played on the HS team. Sara did great!!!! She is so small that she is a great defensive player, she just sneaks in there and sticks her hands out and stands her ground. Shooting is a little touch, but she did make some baskets. She had a great time and we will be looking for more bball camps soon. One thing of interest, Sara can dribble equally well with her right or left hand. Coach thinks that she may actually be left handed....or was at one time.

ROADTRIP

We are leaving tomorrow morning EARLY for a trip north for Sara to meet my extended family, and for them to see Ruth again. It has been 3 years since we have been back home, and the last time was for my cousin's funeral. My parents are coming with us and dh Jeff is manning the house and killer dog and cat. We will check back when we get back on Father's day and back track some of the entries....we have been VERY VERY busy....how much longer until school?

Cooper got a haircut!

Our cute fluffy dog got his summer cut. Afterwards, two people strongly suggested obedience training for him.....duh! The first thing he did when we took him to the groomer was pee on a woman's foot. She said that she will always remember this because it was her birthday! I am sure I turned a thousand shaded of red. He then marked the room 5 more times. The groomer had to hold him the entire time because he kept wanting to escape. Yes, it was his first trip and we did not recognize him!

A day with Dad

Jeff took Sara to the Aquarium today. Ruth stayed home with me because she was not feeling well. Sara and Jeff had a great time. I think Sara's favorite thing was taking the pictures....got to get this girl a digital camera!

Yesterday Jeff took Ruth to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. They both thought it was good.


The best part of the weekend is that the neighbors are now moved in with their 3 children in close age to the girls so now....I have 5 kids! They are good and the oldest, a boy, likes to play chess with Sara. The youngest, a girl, likes to follow me around the house.

Happy Birthday Son

It was 23 years ago today that I gave birth to the most beautiful child. Bryan Christian had the softest skin I have ever felt. Though born a month early, he was perfect, so we thought. Bryan died the next day due to Group B Strep, something that all pregnant women are not tested for due to so many other babies dying. Thought I do not have a lifetime to hug my son, I do have a lifetime to hold him in my heart until I see him again and we finally get to be together. Both of the girls know of their brother and talk of them a few times. They know about death and heaven and are OK with this. So tonight if you have kids, give them a huge hug and kiss because you never know when it will be you last.

Two "A" graduates

Today both of our girls graduated their respective grades, both on the A honor roll with perfect attendance. They both also got reading awards and won a free ticket to Six Flags for a reading challenge. Next year Ruth will be in 4th grad and Sara will go to Intermediate school...she is a little hesitant but pleased that they have a chess club.

Soccer blast

This evening was the end of the season soccer party. The girls swam and ate, and did some very funny dancing to old rock and roll music. And they also decided to paint their faces with the icing from the cup cakes....those with red ended up with red dyed faces.....thank goodness my girls had white icing! We are now done with soccer until the second indoor season when Ruth and maybe Sara will play....at least it is inside and air conditioned!

Denee Frazer

This morning a very special woman died. She was Denee Frazer. I met Denee online through our orphanage yahoo group right after we got our referral for Sara. She was very helpful and I was looking forward to meeting her after we returned from China. When that time came, I wrote Denee and she told me she had been diagnosed with stage4 ovarian cancer. The treatments began and she fought a hard battle which she lost this morning. Denee is now with God and no longer suffers from the torture of cancer. She leaves a very loving husband and two beautiful daughters. I am sorry the timing was not better so that I could have met her in person, but I will never forget this woman!

Swimming party

Today we let Sara have two friends from school come over for a few hours. They played video games, watched a little of a movie, had snacks-twice in the treehouse, and played in our pool. It is small, but always provides fun. Since the girls are close in age, they can play with each other's friends with no problems.....what a blessing for this. Incase you don't know that is Sara in the front and Ruth is in the back middle.

Colorblindness

Ruth has been in the gifted program since kindergarten. Each year they must do an independent study. First they chose a subject and propose a question, do indepth research, prepare the presentation and present it to the class. Ruth chose "What is Colorblindness". She learned so much about the anatomy of the eye, causes, and actually presented a colorblind test for the class. No surprise she got 100 on the presentation, which was a large part of the gifted program grade. We are very proud of Ruth and the work she is doing.

Happy Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day. According to all theories, it is a day for Moms to be pampered, but what is a mom if she is not fixing breakfast for the family, feeding the dog, washing and putting away the laundry....you know the drill. So, after all of this, we let this mom be the queen for the day and was taken to dinner-dad even drove us there. I got a great book of poetry from Sara and a beautiful glass vase hand painted from Ruth. They are both such talented children. The meal was great, of course as usual I had one child eating off of my plate with me...the salad is always greener if it is mom's! Then we went home and watched the mover Happily Never After-very cute. I actually got to watch it without a child sitting on top of me...JOY! Another special happening was that DAD took the girls swimming and I got to stay home and veg out! Sara suggests that we do this again tomorrow, and I agree. Oh Yea...our puppy Cooper James is wishing me a happy mother's day too...with a wet kiss!

SCHOOL FIELD DAY

Today is field day for the girls. I managed to spend all day there with the girls and enjoyed their fun. Both girls wanted to show me something...always. This is the first year they held field day a little earlier to avoid the 100 temps....thank you school. The day was warm but bearable. Sara looks like she has snakes for hair...she likes for me to make as many little braids as I can in her hair. The girls were so fast it was hard to get a good photo and they were not willing to slow down for a photo op.

3rd grade park day

Today Ruth's third graders from her school went to the local park for the day. They ate about 50+ pizzas, but the best thing was the huge volleyball court which became a sand castle competition. I took Ruth and two of her friends down the linear trail to explore a little.



This is Ruth with her friend Nikki(white shirt) and Aeriel (pink shirt)

CHESS WINNER

Today was the final day of the school's chess tournament. Of course Sara, being the competitive person that she was, would only be happy with #1-as usual. I am trying to teach her that is she is not #1, she still had fun and this was important....this morning we went to check the standings and ......she came in first place for the 4th grade. REMEMBER--this girl learned to play chess 2 months ago and loves playing. Of course Jeff beats her every time, but each time she learns more moves. Sara is finally beating Ruth too, who is a good player. Mrs Rike is the school librarian and she runs the chess club and organized the tournament.

ANNA HAS A FAMILY

This morning we looked on the Fuzhou site to check Sara's friend Anna....because very early this morning (yesterday in China) Anna got her new Mama and Baba. We are so very happy for Anna and can not wait for her to come home so her friends that have already come home in the last 6 months can reconnect! Welcome Anna!



Here are the girls that have come home that attended camp Bring Me Hope last summer...Ling, Sara, Anna and Dani.....now all have mamas and babas!!!

soccer and flowers

Today we had soccer practice as usual. Ruth is such an amazing player, now specializing in defensive. Ruth is the one in the pink shirt with the pink ball.

As we waited for the practice to be over, we found some bluebonets and I of course had my camera with me, so I got some great photos of both the girls.