Updates

The bottom of my foot is still bruised a pretty bluish purple color and it has a nice red spot that might be a blood blister near the bruise. Good thing it's a small bruise and on my arch so it doesn't hit each time I step.


T has regressed some in his progress on weight loss. Sigh...we're working on it.


The girl's last home soccer game is tonight. Go A and E!!


J's bed was wet this morning. Sigh...but he's doing so much better than 4 months ago. Then it was an occasional dry night and now it's an occasional wet night. And he told me the truth about it and the fact that he hadn't washed yet. Weird things to be happy about but happy none the less.


Misty fell off the stool this morning. She was going to jump but her timing was off. She is the funniest and least graceful cat that I know.


It rained a little in the last few days. Woot! We needed it so bad. Now the sun is out and the temps are cooler.


A and T went shopping Sunday afternoon and got more candle making supplies. A made a real pretty candle that afternoon and she's working on getting the scents right.


J wrote out a song in church Sunday. It has music staffs of three lines each and beautiful scrolled notes on it. It's precious. It's a song he came home from Haiti singing about little David playing his harp. The words he wrote out and the way he spelled them is too cute.

Words as written;
litte Dave play in your heart ala lu' ala lu
Dave was a sheper boy he celeh Gliya and he is shing of gorne
litte Dave play in your heart ala lu ala lu



Words as they are supposed to be;
Little David play on your harp
Hallelu, hallelu
Little David play on your harp
Hallelu, hallelu

David was a shepherd boy
He killed Goliath and shouted for joy

Little David play on your harp
Hallelu, hallelu
Little David play on your harp
Hallelu, hallelu

The lake, again

The last time we went to the lake (two weeks ago) we said it was our last time for the season. Ha! We went again yesterday. My dad and brother spent the night in dad's cuddy cabin Friday night. I worked Sat morning but T and the kids picked me up at work as soon as I was off and we headed out.

Some friends (husband and children of J's babysitter extraordinaire) were with us, and another guy (Mr. Incredible from the super hero party) had gone out Sat. morning with his boat. So we had three boats and 10 people. It's such a blast to ride around, tie up together in the middle of the lake and swim off the boats, tube and ski.

Our boat was designated the tube boat and Mr. Incredible's boat was the ski boat. My brother skied after spending about a half hour trying to help A get up. She made it a little ways a couple of times but she got too tired before she really got the hang of it. Oh well. She can truly say she tried her best.

At one point we were pulling 10yo "M" on the tube and he was getting bounced over some waves and loving it. Then we got some huge waves and he caught some big air, like I thought he was coming out of the tube, three times in a row. The look on his face was pure terror, which of course made us laugh. When we pulled him back into the boat we were saying, "Wow! You caught so much air! I don't know how you hung on. Were you scared?" and of course he said, "Not really." Yeah, right. Too funny.

Injuries to be reported were some sunburn, a pulled knee for "big M" sustained while climbing into a boat and a bruised foot for me sustained while climbing out of the boat. A is sporting some sore muscles today but moving much better than I was after I skied a couple weeks ago. So, sore muscles and sunburn aside, if we could just get in and out of the boats without hurting ourselves we'd be in great shape. Beam me up, Scotty. The rest of what happened on the lake, stays at the lake.

Life-with pix

My head is so full of thoughts right now that there's no way I can get them all out. Not safely anyway. Adoption can be such a traumatic thing for all involved. My heart wrenches at the decision that J's birth mom had to make. In a situation with very few options for her she made the decision to give up her parental rights in hopes of a better life for him. I am thankful, so thankful, that I have not had to make that choice.

J continues to be bothered with abandonment issues and telling lies. We are thankful that he isn't experiencing attachment issues. The lying is getting very old. The whining and complaining are getting very old. The fear of being left or left out continues to show itself. I think his lying stems from 5 years of living in an O where they all yelled in unison, "Not me! Not me!!" when asked, who did this. He's so afraid to admit the truth that he'll lie about something as simple as, "Did you change your underwear?" Sigh...

I wonder about the future with J. What will he be like as a teenager? What effect does parenting him have on our marriage relationship? What affect does it have on A? What affect does it have on him? Lord, help us.

He does continually crack us up with the things he says. He was reading with his babysitter extraordinaire yesterday and complaining often about how long this book was and that it was taking forever to read it. She pointed out to him often that if he'd just quit whining he'd be done already. He kept looking through the book to see how many pages there were and huffing loudly about it. She finally told him to look at the page numbers and that there were 63 pages (of mostly pictures). She said he finally got to page 60 and realized he was close to the end and he said, "Praise God!" She was probably thinking the same thing.

He was doing dishes the other night and kept coming to me with, "Can dis go in de dishwasher?" over and over. He exalted over things that could go in the dishwasher and "oh manned" over things that couldn't. Then he brought me a strainer and said it didn't even look dirty and did he have to wash it. I told him to wash it. He asked if he could wear it on his head while he washed the other dishes and I said sure. So, he danced around, put things in the dishwasher, and washed dishes all while wearing an aluminum strainer on his head and declaring himself, "Hellious. Ha, ha, ha. I'm just so hellious." He never has been able to say hilarious.

Here are a few pix. This is Misty. Her head and shoulders are in the window and her bottom is on the entertainment center.
Her belly is jelled down between the two.

I love this picture. The boy really enjoys baseball. Can you tell? He was funny because he was worried about people being able to see his underwear through his pants.

J got baptized the other evening along with another little guy. He is the son of J's babysitter. This is the interim pastor talking before the baptism. He asked for people to say some words of encouragement to these boys and it was very touching.

"A's" baptism.

T got in to assist with J's baptism. Apparently the water was cold.

He had his nose plugged and he was ready.

And up he came!

I like my job. How many people can honestly say that? I work in an antique mall and there are lots of interesting things in there. Every once in a while you come across some really unique things. This is one of them.

It's a Howdy Doody doll from the 40's or 50's. I have a Howdy Doody ventriloquist doll from the 70's that A can't stand. It gives her the creeps. This one is just a doll, not a working ventriloquist doll, but I took a pic of it on my cell phone and sent it to R because she used to work there and would appreciate it. There is something wrong with my cell phone camera so the pic was a little distorted. She told me A would hate that pic. I asked R if I should send it to A and she said yeah, lol. I sent it to A and she texted me back, "Scary". I happen to think this doll is precious. Not cute, precious. And two people are in line to buy it, so it's already taken.

Tonight

Tonight I had praise team practice, A had an away game for soccer and J had a fall ball baseball game. A went by herself and they lost 9-0 and she got the wind knocked out of her. She's ok thankfully. She said they were really good. Maybe next time.

T and my dad went to J's game. J's team lost 14-7 but, when J got up to bat their score was 0 and they had one guy on 2nd (I think). J hit one between first and outfield and then just stood there. Everyone was yelling for him to run and it finally dawned on him to run and he made it to first. Then he stole second. T said he was tip-toeing like he was sneaking up on it. Then he made it home on the next hit or so. He was given the game ball by the coach. This kid took up baseball a couple weeks ago. He may have found his game.

My mom and I were at praise team practice. Some songs were pretty cool. I hope they turn out well during the service.

That's our evening in a nutshell.

The cake

Well, the hickory nut cake turned out pretty good. I tend to think of recipes as more like suggestions and this was no exception. I did follow a basic recipe pretty closely but added an ingredient from another recipe and added something of my own idea. We were not so good at picking the shells out before we made the cake. Therefore, we have to be good at picking the shells out while we're eating the cake. Se la vi.

Li'l stuff

We are busy as always but nothing major going on at the moment. A is house/cat sitting this week. That's a little nerve wracking without her here each night. We're trying to keep up via phone.

R is back to school at Liberty University online and liking it for the most part. JT is fine.

J is still struggling at school with his attitude. He's a very smart kid but no one ever expected much out of him before he came home. I suspect they did the same kind of things year after year and they didn't have much for resources. He is trying but balks when he feels like it's too much. Same scenario as last year.

T has lost about 25 pounds now. Woot!

A has two soccer games this week. They are both away games and both a pretty good distance.

We picked up hickory nuts and buck eyes on our walk this evening. T and J are cracking the hickory nuts and hoping to have enough for me to make a small spicy nut cake tomorrow. We shall see. The nuts have a cinnamon/maple/brown sugar smell. J's pockets were full and T and I both had our shirt tails up using them as pockets. I'm sure we were a sight.

At the lake Saturday while we were dodging rain drops J kept asking for us to put the "carnival" top up. He was going for "convertible" but it came out "carnival" over and over. Too funny.

Earlier conversation with J;
J-I burn my tongue today.
Me-On what?
J-De hot food.
Me-Well I kind of figured that. (T-Captain obvious.) What was the food?
J-Mmmmm.
Me-What did you have for lunch?
J-I don't know what you call it but it start wif "chef".
Me-Ravioli?
J-Yeah!!

Thank you, Chef Boyardee.

I did it!

We went to the lake again today and I skied for the first time in like 25 years. I got up first try. I was using "trainers" with the ski fronts held together with rope. I did a short loop and I'm sure it wasn't pretty to look at but I did it.

J did some more tubing and we all did some swimming. Plus we ate a picnic lunch on the boat. We went to the waterfall again after we picked up A, her friend E, and another friend of theirs, JD. E tried to ski and got up three times and actually skied a ways on one of those. She also used the "trainers". Then we took the rope off and JD got up no problem (his family has a boat) and he impressed us all by hanging on when we made a sharp curve and slowed down. I thought sure he was going down but he held on.

We had to dodge a few raindrops but it was a beautiful day overall.

Media fast

We have decided to go one week without tv. J can't seem to stop lying because of his intense desire to park his butt in front of the tv. T and I had been talking about it anyway and now seems like a good time, Lord help us.

Yesterday was not so good. I have not had "fibro flu" in over a year since I took 2 months of doxycycline and yesterday I had it. Achy, sore throat, low grade fever. Today I'm fine. If I have it again soon I will ask about going back on doxy.

The girls won their soccer game again last night, 3-0. Woot!

I got my hair cut this morning. Woot! What is it about a hair cut that just feels so good?

I came home from work yesterday in time to grab something to eat and get J and then mom picked us up. We took J to the soccer game to sit with my dad because T had a meeting to attend, and then we were heading to church for practice. Just as we got into town I remembered that I had $20 worth of meat melting in the back of my car and we had to go all the way back home to put it in the fridge. Sigh...

We are struggling with J and his lying and his complaining and pouting at school about the work he has to do. I'm thankful for a network of people who will be helping us keep track of him and let me know if he's complaining or telling lies. I am thankful for those people. We also told J that he has to come up with his "punishment" for telling lies. He's supposed to tell me when he gets home from school. Should be interesting.

Bleacheritis

When the girls were little they were in dance. I took them to dance class once a week and they had a recital at the end of the year (with expensive costumes) and summers off. Then they both got into theater and were in one play after another for several years plus youth conservatories in the summer. T and I even got in on that action.

Then J came along and we spent some time last Oct.-Feb. in the gym on bleachers watching him practice and play basketball. Then A took up soccer her last year in high school. And now J is playing fall ball. His first practice was tonight so we spent two nights in a row on bleachers. We are going to have to get some bleacher cushions because our backsides are getting bleacheritis. Bring it on!

They won!!

A's soccer team won their game tonight. Woot!!

J starts fall ball practice tomorrow night.

Did I mention that T has lost 20 pounds?

We are back on the low or no sugar and need to get back to the exercise routine.

Go to the Livesays blog or the Heartline site and give for the Heartline hospital fund. These are great people that I've been privileged to meet and they are doing a great work in Haiti. Plus, it would be cool to see John McHoul with a bald head. :)

That's all for now.

More lake pix

Well, the sore muscles have peaked but we are still thrilled that we got to the lake in our own boat. A is really sore because she went to Fall Creek Falls yesterday along with my niece, nephew and niece-in-law and a bunch of others. T bought some waterskis on clearance yesterday and we're trying to figure out how to make them "trainers". I'm confident that T will come up with something and we plan to go again this weekend, Lord willing and the creek don't rise.

These are pix my dad took. J and I in the towable with A and T in the boat.

I'm not sure why we have that "huh?" look on our faces but the sun was glorious.

Ah, the jet ski before it died. We sort of took bets on what would still be running at the end of the day and none of us thought the jet ski would be the dead one. Keep in mind that the boats are 23, 23, and 34. Woot!

This is at the waterfall. I don't know what T was doing. We saw 2 snakes in the water here. Zoiks!

Is this not a gorgeous place? God's creation is awesome.

Priceless.

Another falls in that same little area.

Tubing wars on the way out of the waterfall area.

Picked up the jet ski and pulled it with the 34yo boat. Too funny.

Nephew getting ready to ski.

And he's up!

My brother popped right up on slalom behind the old boat. He's been skiing behind that boat for most of his life. No wonder he's emotionally attached to it. Dad did not ski. I'd like to see him ski yet this weekend but I don't know if we can talk him into it. We'll see.

The lake

First, I had to show these pix of Misty. She is so funny.

Wow, I have a lot of scratches on the wood floor. Don't look at those. Just admire the silly cat.
Finally. Us rednecks made it to the lake. J LOVED tubing. A tried to ski but her ankle is still a bit weak. The boat ran ok once T turned the distributer (or something like that). We pulled skiers. We went to a waterfall. No one got hurt, though several of us have sore muscles and some bruises. Dad's bilge pump didn't work and he took on some water and at one point he could only go in reverse but those are just minor details that make good stories. We were blessed.

J and I in the raft/tube thingy. Did I mention how much he loved it?

Dad's two boats. If the orange one is on the other side of the red one, you can't even see it.

The jet ski is the only thing that died. This is where we left it while we continued on to the waterfall.

I have to get more pix from my dad and I have to get to work so that's all for now.

Pix

The cats seem to pick a place in the house and sleep there for several days in a row and then pick another spot and sleep for several days in a row. Anyone else's cats do that? Here is Misty in her favorite spot for that day. It's a box that the life jackets and boat seat covers came in.

Here is Dexter that same day in a box of R's books. Does anyone want one of R's books, btw? I can't remember who I'm supposed to send one to.

He tried to sleep on top of the piano but he kept knocking things down.

So, his current favorite place to sleep is on top of the little stand that holds our towels in our bathroom. Misty decided to join him the other day and they had a little bunk bed thing going on.

Here are a few action shots from A's soccer game. She's in the middle, front.

Sort of middle, front again (I think).

T, dad, my brother and I were all looking at dad's new to him boat last night. T noticed some wasps going into a vent on the side and figured there must a nest. Dad got some spray and sprayed it in there. There was a nest all right. C and I were in the boat and the wasps came out and swarmed around and I practically flew out of the boat. Dad and T backed up to safety. C stayed in there a minute and then told T to cover him, he was coming out too. No one got stung so it was pretty funny really.

Happy Thursday.

Li'l update

Can you believe it's September already?!? Where does the time go?

Let's see. A's soccer team lost again last night. Poor girls. They kept the other team from scoring in the first half but fell apart in the second half. Sigh...keep going. Don't give up.

T has lost about 20 pounds now. Something to do with being careful what he eats and not being a couch potato.

Dad bought a boat last night. It looks a lot like ours but is a cuddy cabin. He may have sold his older one already. Mom seems not impressed.

J has one of the top grades for his class in math. Go J! He's only been here for a year. That's amazing. He's really trying hard in reading right now too.