brownies and little rascals

Happy Thursday to you all!

As I sit here,
Brenden is in the kitchen making brownies.
And I'm way nervous about that.
K-man is reading an ad in a magazine to me about mole removal.
(As in, the rodent).
Macy is lying quietly on the couch.
Nick is helping Brenden (mainly just moral support).
And Lucy is mooching chocolate chips from her baking brothers.

There.
That sums up what's happening at this moment around here.

Ok so, Brenden got his fingerprints yesterday!
Yeah, baby!

We walked in and kindly asked the guy in charge
if he could possibly squeeze us in...
to which he seemed completely annoyed that we would dare
be so presumptuous.
His exact words were,
"Well....we might be able to do it...but you'll have to wait
until ALL these people who are already here
get their prints done."

Alrighty.
I turned around to take a second glance at just
how many people here were ahead of us.

3.

Yes, so needless to say, we got in within about 20 minutes.

Yay!!!

And today we got K-man's passport/visa.

We are SO set.

And as far as I can see,
we are done with all OUR work for these adoptions.
Hahaha...well, except RAISING them.

It has always cracked me up how women complain about labor pains.
Are you kidding me?
That is nothing compared to shaping and molding these little rascals
into half-way decent human beings.

Alright then.

I gotta go.
Lucy has gone overboard on the chocolate chips...
Brenden is sitting in the her bean bag chair licking the brownie bowl.
And now Lucy is crying profusely because he
won't share.

I really gotta go.

getting you up-to-date...

Well, you are all just so darn sweet
with your comments and emails regarding my...
condition.

I can't even bring myself to say it.

It's weird.

But anyway,
your prayers have made all the difference
because I am feeling SO GOOD.
Pain-free, even!

Catching this thing early is key.
FYI.

******

So in just a little while,
Brenden and I are heading to H*meland S*curity
to get his fingerprints done.
We are just walking in since his official
appointment isn't until the end of April.
We can't wait that long!
PLEASE pray that we get in and out with no problems!




And I'll leave you with this conversation from this morning....


Nick,
"Mom, I really need your help with this English lesson."

Lucy,
"Nick...don't you speak English??"

goldfish riding a tape-measure

I'm not even going to tell you about my miserable day.

Well OK, if you insist...



I have shingles.

There, I said it.
Don't just 78 year old men get shingles?
I'm pretty sure that's true.
So, now I have something in common with old guys.

Anyway, thanks to the pain I'm in and the pain/antiviral medications,
that have caused more misery than they prevent,
I've been pretty useless today.

UNTIL...I rallied this afternoon and I felt SO much better.

So here's what happened after that...

Yes...that would be Nick sliding a Goldfish down a tape-measure
into Brenden's mouth.
And look at my dear husband...acting as if this sort
of thing happens all the time.
Oh wait...it does.

Now another fearless stunt.
Nick having ME put a Goldfish on the end of the tape-measure...

And the ingenious plan was for him to push the button,
allowing the Goldfish to ride the tape as it coiled up, landing
strategically into his mouth.
Ahuh.

It hurt, ever so slightly.

And here's my sweet Macy.
Innocent and antic-free.
Sitting here quiet, as usual, and working on
her latest blog post.
Girls are nice, aren't they?Back to the boys.
And here Brenden is lovingly embracing Lucy-bug.

They really are best buddies.

And will turn on me, quick as a flash.
Literally.

My big girl and me.
Because we're cute.
Well, Macy is.
Remember, I've been sick.

I hope you had a great Monday!

a productive weekend

Our weekend was rather uneventful.
But productive.

We spent a lot of time getting the boys' room ready.
That was SO fun!

Macy and Lucy helped a lot.
It was great to have their input.
Well, with Lucy...you get her input on anything and
everything, whether you want it or not.
I've never known a more opinionated or controlling person
in my entire life.
Well, except for the gal in the mirror.

Ahem.

I'll show you pics of the room once we put the finishing
touches on it.


So, speaking of our new boys...
we've been re-thinking names.

I think we are pretty set on Isaiah Jack for our littlest guy.
We've already been calling him Isaiah,
but a huge part of me thinks he looks like a JACK and
I'm a tad torn to want to call him that instead.
We don't plan to keep his Chinese name...I hope we don't regret that.
We didn't keep Lucy's Chinese name either.

And as far as our older fella,
here's the dilemma...
We definitely want to keep his Chinese name (Hao Hao...pronounced How How)
and we also want to keep the name Andrew,
which was given to him by a really special person who volunteered
and spent a lot time with him in the orphanage.
But I really love the name Elijah...and call him Eli.

So...that leaves us with,
Elijah Andrew Hao Hao.

Do you think that's way too long?
Obnoxiously long??

We are kind of thinking of just dropping Elijah
and call him Andrew...or Drew.

I don't know!!


I hope you all have a super duper week.
If you think of it,
please pray that our TA gets here this week!
That's a little on the early side,
but you know how it is,
we can boldly approach the Throne of Grace with our
heart's desires!


Let me know what you think of the name situation.
If any of your Chinese children have long
names, has it been a pain?
Or is it no big deal?

Thanks, everyone!

urgent prayer request

Most of you have heard this story by now, I'm sure.
But if you haven't, would you
please, please, please,
jump over to Adeye's blog to read about a little boy whose
very existence is teetering on the need for a gigantic
mountain to be moved.

But we know of a great big God who specializes in just that,
now don't we?

Please pray with fervor, friends.

is my phone ringing?

Things I have been observing lately:

1. I can't feel my phone vibrate in my back pocket. I find this very disturbing and wonder if I should perhaps research a bit more about this trendy thing called exercise.

2. Nothing makes teenage boys whine more than when you change their shower-head to a water-saver one. Yet their friends are relieved, saying the old one made them hover in the corner of the tub for fear of being pelted to the point of bleeding. I think we've just discovered where our water dollars have been going.

3. The school year is almost over and I couldn't be more joyful. Yet, I find myself eagerly planning for next year's homeschool stuff. There is something very wrong with me.

4. The dust accumulation in my house is out of control. And as lazy as I am on many of my housekeeping efforts, this one has me. I can't stand to see dust. Maybe this means I'm becoming a big girl.

5. I can't feel my phone vibrate in my back pocket. I think this means I'm becoming a BIG girl.



I think my phone is ringing...I'm not sure.


Have a great Friday!!

sick girly {and thank ya!}

This is going to be quick.

I have a sick girly.

But I wanted to thank you all so much for your
incredibly sweet comments on
Macy's blog.

She is SO tickled that anyone would take an interest.

You guys rock!

I told her last night that she needs to be thinking of a fun
blog post to do for today.
She said,
"I don't have time for that! Maybe this weekend."

Well, okay then.

Don't worry, I'll try to nudge her along.
:)



Back to my sick one.

Lucy told me last night that her cheek hurt.
I prayed for her and she went to bed.

Then this morning she told me it still hurt.
I eventually figured out that it was her THROAT that hurt.
**Note to self: Schedule an anatomy lesson with Lucy**

So I gave her some ibuprofen and thought that was that.

Not at all.

She told me her tummy hurt.
She says this ALL the time so it didn't register with me that
it hurt really bad.

Until her morning noodles ended up on the floor.
Nick cringed and declared his concern about his future parenting
skills because he had NO CLUE how one would go
about cleaning that up.

Neither did I.

But I figured out a way.
I'm a super-hero, thank you for noticing.

Then I had to go pick up Macy from her math class.
Not sure why in the world I didn't send Nick to get her.
I don't always think things through.
In fact, I rarely do.
Or I over-think them.
Either way, it's usually not to my advantage.

Nick texted me minutes later to say that,
"Get home quick, Lucy is barfing like crazy."

Long story short...she's better...at the moment.
Thankfully.

And I now have a gob of laundry to do.

Whites.
Darks.
Barfs.

The End.

I Hope your day is a pleasant one!

my sweet chinese girl :)

Oh my goodness.

Macy started a blog!

You gotta go check it out, okay?

She's so cute!

the importance of commas {and TA coming soon!}

I'm so happy to tell you that we are officially waiting
for our TA.

Travel Approval for you civilians.

Our Article 5's were picked up yesterday.
Which was actually Monday night for us.
Tuesday for China.
Got it?

So now it is said to be 2-5 weeks til TA.

Two to Five weeks.

Do you mind praying for TWO, please?

Then we travel, shortly thereafter.
And by we, I mean my dear husband.

I have high and mighty plans while he's gone getting
our new fellas.

For one,
I want to make and freeze enough meals to last
us until February of 2025.
It's cute how you think I'm kidding.

Alright, so we all know that isn't going to happen.

But I'll try to get enough stocked away to last us
until...mid-June of this year, anyway.

And I have an embarrassing admission to tell you.
I haven't sent either boys a care package.

Stop it!

I know.

This is how I roll, people.
Hahaha, see how important commas are?
If I hadn't inserted that little gem,
it would read,
This is how I roll people.
Isn't that funny?
Seriously though, I don't really roll people.
That's why I used a comma.

I digress.

So anyway, I sent the orphanage an email with
pics for little Isaiah Jack to see.
I'm told they're super cool with stuff like that.
I'll let ya know if I hear back from them.

And as for Elijah Andrew
(whose name may change, much to my chagrin),
he knows about us and has seen our faces,
and we did send that t-shirt he's wearing, via another family.

But I joked with Macy tonight that by the 5th & 6th child,
this is just how things work.
She thought that was hilarious.

And speaking of Macy,
I do need to do a post regarding her progress.
And my progress.
Because it turns out that she's made me a better person.

So that's the latest, my friends.

Please don't forget to use your commas wisely.

first day of spring 2011

Jump in my time-machine with me and let's go back a bit, alrighty?

First day of spring 2010.

First day of spring 2011.

It's about time global warming started living up to its promises.

Nick is taking advantage of the new dunkable
height of our basketball goal.
You da man, Nick.

And Macy-girl attempted some math homework outside.
But it was too sunny.
In my estimation, it's always too sunny for math.
Even when it's cloudy.
I hate math.

Cutie-pie.

Lucy's love of her scooter only grew stronger over the winter.
And so did her cuteness.

Note to self: Have K-man bring a whole suitcase full of
sunglasses, that actually fit little noses, back from China.
We will make a small fortune with the Asian population here in the states.
Happy Spring!!

whip the socks right off of ya

Lucy has taken a liking to giving hand/feet massages.
The girl loves her some lotion.
And will smother anyone who is willing to indulge her.

Which is only her Dad and me.

The siblings just don't understand what they're missing!

She's none-too-shy to whip the socks right off of ya and
give your tootsies a once-over.

We are saving a fortune in pedicures.
Not that we were getting pedicures before, but you know.

Oh and just so you know...those are NOT my feet above.
I happen to have my mother's beautiful feet,
thank you very much.

re-thinking frugal

We have been re-thinking frugal around here.
Well, the kids haven't.
They are impossible to deal with sometimes.
These children continue to believe there is an endless supply of
free money coming from...somewhere.
Actually, I have moments that I pretend to believe that too.
That's a whole other problem.
Lucy did say the other day,
"I need to turn off the TV to save some electricity."
Thata girl.
Perhaps we are getting through to them.
At least the little one.
Maybe.

I've been focusing on groceries the last couple of months.
According to this site, one can widdle-down the food budget
to $50 per person, per month.
At first, I was like...okie dokie...I can do that.

Well, it turns out that, okie dokie...I CAN'T do that.
I think we are spending around $75 per person, per month.
Although...if I were to dig a little deeper in my research,
I'm sure I'd find two boys who are each consuming
about $140 each...and two tiny girls, $10.

So anyway,
I'm NOT a coupon gal.
I've tried.
It doesn't work for me.
For many, many reasons.
Don't make me list them all here.

But suffice it to say that if I do come upon a coupon for something
that we use/consume on a regular basis, I will do my darndest
to use it at my next shopping trip.
So that generally shaves off about 75 cents a month on my
total food bill.
That kind savings is padding our retirement quite nicely.

Ok so, do you all have any idea how much you spend each
month on food?
Do you try to stay within a strict budget?


Please tell me your magic formulas for keeping your food costs
super low.

Please tell me you have magic formulas. Please.

not in the mood for blogging

Oh, I'm becoming such a bad, bad blogger.

My deepest apologies to the two of you who noticed my absence.

I am just not in the mood for it.
It's rather odd.
I'm thinking God is gearing up up for the busyness that awaits me
with two new boys comin' here soon.

I've been nesting, just a tad.

Not nearly enough though.

Anyway,
just thought I'd check in with you all.
I don't even have any fun pics to show you.
Or exciting news.

Oh wait.
I can show you a pic of a recent trip to Home Depot.
This is what happens when you take
teenage boys...who never ever stop taking advantage of near-by props.


Have a super fabulous weekend!


I'll try my best to get back on track, blogging-wise!

naan {richer and joyfuller}

Hello, my dearest friends!

I hope you are having a glorious Monday morning.
I know I am.
It's spring break...and as I glance out my window,
the snow is barreling down.
Of course it is.

But that's okay because I'm flexible.
Very flexible.

I know how to roll with the punches, weather-wise.


Last night was fabulous because my entire crew was here
and we had some great family time.
*Oh, how I savor it!*

I also got creative and made some Naan.

Okay, that's not actually my picture.
I sat and starred at my plate of freshly made naan,
which looked eerily close to the one above...
but I knew for certain my family would call me all sorts of
weird if I broke out my camera to photograph food.

And the above mentioned family time would be ruined.

Well, not really, but you know.

Anyway, my dear heavens, it was delicious!

Gasp!

I made a little meatball/gyro kind of sandwich out of mine.

Gasp! Gasp!

If you'd like the recipe,
and believe me, you do...google it because I can't find
the one I used.
Well, I have it on paper, duh.
But how do I get that to my blog?
I do not know.

So google it, okie dokie?
Your life will be richer and joyfuller.

I promise.

**********

So now as my week free from school begins I simply must
kick-off my super-heroic efforts to be productive
around this place.

I'm not sure where the heck to begin.

leading scorer and a super fan

Well hello, you!

So sorry for my lack of blogging this week.
And thank you so much for all of you who emailed, concerned about my absence.
Actually, I didn't any emails.
But, whatever.

Moving on.

Last night was our Winter Sports Banquet.
Nick received a nice recognition for his great contribution to the
team. He was the lead scorer for the JV team. He's cool.
Note that Nick is wearing his golf belt.
He was also texting his golf coach during the ceremony, setting
up a tee time for today.
He's die-hard, I tell ya.

The middle of the ceremony was dedicated to recognizing
a very special fan.
Or should I say, a Super Fan.

Brenden.

They made him a great collage poster.
He will be SO missed next year!

And this has prompted a slight interest in trying out
for yell-leading at his college of choice this spring.

That equals: FUN.
And it also equals: MORE $$$ for college!
But I think for him it only equals: Cheerleaders.

Whatever.

birthday party fun

Our birthday boy had a wonderful party!!

We started out at our house w/ burgers and cake.
And lots of friends.
Always a great combination.

Then we hit the rink.
And let me tell you, I learned pretty darn quick
that the "it's like riding a bike" rule does not
apply to roller skating.
I nearly freaked out as my 70s skating skills did not flood back to me.
But I'm happy to say that I didn't fall.
That was my goal.

After about the 16th pic like the one above,
I had to tell Macy that it really wasn't necessary to take a
pic of me each time I circled around!

Lucy was reluctant at first....but LOVED it once she
got the hang of it.

And by getting the hang of it, I mean she clung to me
for dear life the entire time...smiling big the entire time.

Nick and Nate. Apparently Nick is Nate's other twin.

Macy also loved "skating" but held tight for all her might as well.
My arms are SO SORE now!
I never thought skating would be such a work out to my upper body.
Note to self: Take the girls skating more often
to get ready for swimsuit season.

Birthday Brenden and friends...

Speed skating race.Groovy moves.

And backing up to the party at home...
You will notice that most of the guys are wearing dinner jackets.
Apparently B's party was worthy.
Funny!

This group of kids is the best EVER.
I love them.
And here they were contemplating the fact that most
of them are now old enough to smoke cigars.
Great.

Love these kids!
Did I already say that?
Well, I do.
I love them.

It was super fun!!

friday post {creative title, huh?}

Hello, friends.

I don't have a whole lot to blog about today.

EXCEPT that we got our NVC letter yesterday!
Woo!
In simple terms, that means we are another step WAY closer to
traveling. But we're still teetering on that fine line
of getting there and back in plenty of time for Brenden's graduation.
I mean, I definitely think we'll (and by we I mean my dear husband)
be back in time...it's just that it may be only a week before.
That's not much time.
I'd love for the boys to be home and "settled" just a tad longer than
that if possible.

Anyway, I'm praying for mid-April.
It's very doable.
ESPECIALLY since I know of a great big God who
is incredibly good with time lines.


And in other news:

Brenden turns 18 tomorrow.

Dang it.

We're having a roller skating party, at his request.
It will be a blast!
And all his friends will ooooh, and aaaah at my awesome skating skills.
I did grow up in the 70s, you know.

OH, and speaking of Brenden...
his place of employment,
Dairy Queen,
burned down.

Well, not down...but destroyed totally on the inside.
Apparently someone left the fudge-warmer
on overnight.

Let that be a lesson to us all:
Never leave your fudge-warmer on.

neked day {i declare}

I declare today,

*Neked Day*

and everyday thereafter until I can get this dang
pile of laundry down to a reasonable
height.

Oh, but this only applies to the children.

Good heavens it would take me months (who am I kidding, years)
to get in shape for such a day.

So...

you in?