Homeschool family camp...

This past week was our homeschool family camp/retreat. It was located at a family campground about an hour and a half from here. The retreat featured "The Amazing Chemistry Show" and many science sessions that the kids could go to and learn more about science, magnets, rockets and all sorts of things. The weather was terrible and didn't really cooperate very well, but leave it to a bunch of homeschoolers with very large families to not let anything get in their way. (I mean really...once you get that many kids in the car and you get all loaded up, I'm not even sure a natural disaster would stop them)

We were initially supposed to camp out in a tent, but with projected thunderstorms coming we switched to a primitive cabin. It was a nice cabin large enough for us all and a covered deck so I could cook out our meals on the camping stove. The rain, however, just didn't seem to let up too much, but we decided that was our life this week...so we made the best of it.

So we "tromped" through our share of mud to go horseback riding and "tromped" through puddles to get to the zip-line and rock-climbing wall (which they opened up when it finally stopped raining). We dodged our share of rain drops to go to several science sessions where I think the kids tried very hard to blow something up. They made rockets, learned about magnets, and played foosball and ping pong (not all at the same time of course). We played so many card games I lost count and at night the kids were so exhausted from all of the fun, we just scraped off the mud and poured ourselves into bed. Yes...it was a great week.

4 reasons...I'm a mother

4 reasons...I'm a mother

Can you pick them out? I'll give you a small hint...I'm the one in the middle. I am crazy about my kids and they are wonderful to me.

This morning I awoke to 3 beautiful hand-made cards (my favorite kinds) and 4 smiling children who couldn't wait for me to open my present. Between you and me, I couldn't wait either. Come to find out it was the complete DVD series of my favorite TV show...Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. Yeah for me! (Go Daddy on that one...)

I was loved on a ton by everyone and just had a wonderful day. I am so very thankful that God has blessed me four times over to be a Mom. And to my wonderful Mother...Happy Mother's day to you...I love you.

The box...

There are times that I think my husband loves to drive me crazy. Earlier in the week he told me that a box was coming and that I "WAS NOT" allowed to open it. Hmmm...interesting. Yesterday, the box arrived. Now anyone who knows me well enough will tell you that I don't do well with "unopened" presents addressed to me anywhere in the near vicinity of me.

With Mother's day at the end of this week, it wasn't hard to guess what the box was for. Well, if I wasn't "allowed" to open it...maybe my spies could tell me what was in it. "Kids", I yelled. "Come here for a minute, I have a question to ask you". Nope, that didn't work. They had no clue what was in it. Drat! My husband had covered all his bases well this time. Hmmm...maybe if I shake it. Nope, no sound. I could speculate what's in the box but I'm pretty sure that a pop-up camper wouldn't fit inside it, so I'm fresh out of ideas.

For now I'm working on my x-ray vision technique...I'll let you know how it goes

Fun in Omaha...

This past weekend we headed over to Omaha to go to Nebraska furniture mart (a HUGE furniture store) to do a little shopping. We go every year around the beginning of May. The first day we are there is the "shopping day" and the second day is the "zoo day"...or as the kids put it the "fun day".

This year we only bought a kitchen table which seats 6. An upgrade from our present kitchen table which seats only 4 (someone always has to sit in a folding chair). I tried very hard to "steer" my husband into other sections of the furniture store but he was like a bull on a mission to leave with eyes pointed only at the door. Oh well...maybe next year.

The second day we went to visit the Omaha Zoo. It is a fantastic zoo that you could easily spend all day there. All the kids had a great time and by the end of the weekend we came home all worn out. And for this busy family of 6...that's a really good thing.

A big day for us...a VERY BIG day

Ask anyone going through any kind of adoption and they will all tell you one thing...they just want their adoption to be done - final. No matter how many people tell them that it will never happen, they want to erase any fear in their heart that someone could come and take their child...the one they have come to love and adore...from them. They want their child to have the same rights as their biological children...be a permanent US citizen, get a social security number and even a US passport. But in order to do so you must have one very important piece of paper...the final adoption decree.

Today was a big day for us...a VERY BIG day. For you see, in the eyes of Ethiopia our adoption was finalized when we were there in December. Today, our adoption was finalized in the states...we received our final adoption decree. What does that mean for us? EVERYTHING... Today we can apply for an Iowa birth certificate with his legal name change (we kept his African name as his middle name). Today we can apply for a social security number. Today we can apply for him to move from a temporary US citizen to a permanent US citizen. And today we can apply to get a US passport. His case is now sealed and cannot be opened...and our fear, my fear, is now gone. He is our son, now and forever will be.

Yes, today was a big day for us...a VERY BIG day!

Hoot n' Holler day...

After working all weekend cleaning out the garage and storage areas and now being terribly sore and very tired I really don't have too much energy to think of a new blog post for my favorite day. I know it doesn't seem fair to "reuse" blog posts but this is one of my favorite ones I wrote last year for one of my favorite days in our city (which just so happens to be today for us). Anyway, I'm old and I've got muscles that hurt that I didn't know I had...I hope you enjoy it one more time.

I love spring...actually I love every season, but I especially love this time of year. The birds begin to come back, the flowers start to bud and bloom and then...there is "hoot n' holler" day. Now, if you are unfamiliar with it, it's a time when you can rummage through those items you swore you would use someday and of course you never did and finally decide to throw it out. I believe here in the Midwest they call it "spring-clean up" day. However, I was born and raised in the south and I do so love to call it "hoot n' holler".

So picture this...you take a few weekends and you gather up all your cherished treasures that you've toted around with you for years (and never used) and you haul it out to the curb. Then...cars come one by one and rummage through your items taking what they will then call their cherished treasures. I can hear their conversations now..."Oooh, wheee! Lookie here, Earl. They got them here a shovel-thingy I saw on TV once. Now who would throw a good thing like that out. I'm gonna keep me this one."

I just love "hoot n' holler" day...

This is a garage sale...right???

In honor of garage sale season which is now in full swing here, I thought I would share with you a story that I've heard a hundred times and I laugh every time I hear it. I always think about it during garage sale season. It goes something like this...

My mother and father loved to get out on the weekends and drive around. You know, looking at houses, doing errands...just getting out and about. One weekend in particular they were out driving around when they spotted a house with the garage open. The man had pulled all of these boxes from his garage out onto his driveway. Believing it was a garage sale, my parents pulled the car over and got out to take a look. Walking up the driveway they looked in box and after box and thought..."man, this is some really nice stuff here".

As they continued to look through the boxes a sudden realization came over them..."this is a garage sale, right??" Oh boy, they thought. As the man continued to clean up his garage, my Mom and Dad tried very hard to "slither away" unnoticed. It wasn't until a few blocks later that they busted out laughing. Only my parents could do something like that.

Today, I can't look for a garage sale without pausing for a split second to say...this is a garage sale, right??