Computer problems

I am without a computer this week before we go out of town camping for the 4th. It's got some weird thing going on that has caused porn icons to show up on my desktop among other things....nice. I'm thinking we need to take care of that.

My kids make me laugh!

I keep forgetting to post this and I want to be sure to since I don't want to ever forget it. Tanner, among the rest of them, just cracks me up with some of the stuff he says.
Last week we were at a screening for him for kindergarten. He gets very quiet and serious when he's doing stuff like this with someone he's never met. There was one point where the woman asked him to name some things in categories. Like, can you name some colors for me? Can you name some letters for me? Then she asked, can you name some animals for me? Very quietly, he says..."a tiger..a leprechaun...a lion.." I'm like, HUH?? Leprechaun?? Where the heck did that come from? I started chuckling under my breath cuz he was so serious. I felt myself getting the 'church giggles'. I had to stop looking at him cuz I would just keep shaking my shoulders and laughing and I didn't want the lady doing it to see me. Mom's are supposed to be quiet during these things, ya know.
At one point, she gave him some time to get up and stretch and take a short break. Out of the blue, Tanner says...."we're eating healthy now". The lady was impressed and asked him what that meant. "well, mom's making healthy snacks...and healthy dinners..." She asked him if eating healthy meant he got to eat at McDonald's every day. "no!...that's not healthy". She said, yep, you're right. It's a treat, but you shouldn't eat there all the time.
So, conversation and stretch time ended and it was time to get back to business. About a few minutes into more questions, she was asking him the definitions of words...
What does castle mean....
What does umbrella mean....
Then she asked....what does the word double mean....
Tanner, totally serious and without missing a beat said...."um, can I have a McDouble please?" Oh my Lord! This time, I did not hold back, I cracked up! So did the woman doing the test. I looked at her and said "hence the reason we're eating more healthy now". I mean, this would have been funny enough on it's own...but the fact that we had JUST had the conversation about healthy eating and not going to McDonald's. I could not wait to tell that one to Jason. Good humor!!!
I swear, it's worth all the chaos that kids put you through just to get those moments where they say the best things and make you laugh.

Help out

Over at Ni Hao Y'All, Stefanie is doing a promotion where she will donate $1 for every comment left on this post. I just did and it's already up to over 600. Hmm......wonder if she knows that yet. LOL I'm sure she does, she's got a heart of gold and a real heart for kiddos with special needs over in China. Specifically to an organization called An Orphan's Wish (it's where we met the baby girl we sponsor and got to name, Grace) So, if you go there and leave a comment you too can help out. Plus...link it up to your blog and you'll be entered in a drawing to win a prize. Bonus!
Okay, go...go now.

Father's Day

Yesterday was Father's Day and we had some good family time together. We had considered going bowling, but then we ended up taking advantage of the nice weather and playing some mini golf. I guess every other family in the city had the same idea because it was soooo packed. We had to wait about 20 minutes to start the first hole and then about 10 minutes at every hole after that....plus, it was not just a nice day, it was scorching!
We actually ended up leaving after 15 holes that took almost 3 hours. It was fun, but I think next time we'll definitely take the crowd into consideration before starting. It was just too much waiting and plus, we felt pressured to go pretty quick at each hole yourself cuz others are also waiting for us. So, all in all it was fine and it's always good to have some family time.

A Ramp....why not.

This past Christmas, Santa decided it would be a good idea to give the boys a ramp for outside. Something they could ride their bikes or skateboards or rollerblades over. I'm embarrassed to say that it got put in the garage until winter was over and we just got it out today. I completely forgot about it. Timmy came in today asking if they could take it out and set it up. Yah, sure...but please be careful. Famous last words. I couldn't help but think about what happened almost a year ago to the day. I believe I said "please be careful" then too.
They were beyond excited to go get the box out of the garage and get it outside. When they were done, they came in to get me and actually, it was pretty fun looking.....a bit dangerous, but fun. I had to go get the camera and get some pics of the fun.
I think they make some great action shots. :)
Timmy....

Trae-Dogg.....

Tony.....

Tanner.....


The post about our trip to the ER with some version of broken bone is coming later.......or not, hopefully. Fingers crossed and gaurdian angels beckoned.

My new blog

I finally did it. My new blog about my attempt at healthier eating and living is up and running. I make no promises except to say that I promise to give a try. I've never really been able to stick with any sort of diet/excersize plan before and I'm not quite sure how I think this will be different....but what the heck.
The link is on the side and will magically bring you there. Try it out.
See you lighter....I hope.

Sunday Snapshot: Fishing

One of the many great things about living in the Land of 10,000 Lakes is that, well....there are 10,000 lakes. And to be a Minnesotan means you take full advantage of each and every one of them. Whether it's 90' outside or 20 below, there is always something to do at the lake.
We swim, we skate
We fish from the dock, we fish through an ice hole
We go cross country skiing, we water ski
We go boating on the lake, we drive on the ice.
It's great, really. Always something to do and never a long drive to get there.

Today was a fishing day. Well, a wading and fishing day actually. It was supposed to rain so I didn't think we'd be there for long, but the rain held off and the fish were biting.

The boys LOVE fishing! Not many birthdays go by these days without something on the list that has to do with catching the big ones.

Rods, lures, tackle box, net, minnow bucket, fillet knife, rubber worms, you name it, they want it.

The best part about going fishing is that it is just about the best free thing to do as a family.

Today, my sister and niece joined us along with 2 of Tyler's friends that slept over last night.
We made a picnic for lunch. Thank goodness my sis always has her hand sanitizer with her cuz their hands were dir-her-teeeee. Although I'm pretty sure no kid ever got too sick from fish slime and a bit of worm guts....I'm just sayin'.

I love to see hubby helping the boys with their casting and catching.

I love to see their faces when the bobber starts to, well....bob.

I love to see the huge smiles as they show off a 2 oz. sunny.

I love the excitement of seeing them catch their first northern or bass.

I love seeing Trae, who is my neat-freak-of-a-kid grab a worm and cringe when he has to break it in half.

I love that I can sit on the blanket in the grass and just watch and relax....this is dad's territory (though I was quite the fish catcher and cleaner in my day)

These days, I relish the role of observer and official picture taker.

Most of all, I love to see something that ALL of them love to do together.

Cuz just like 'there's no crying in baseball'....there is no arguing in fishing and THAT, to me, is priceless.

Where we're at

It's been a while since I laid out exactly where we are at in our adoption process. Last thing I explained was when we found out about China's new law that put us back a few months. Since then we've been working hard to get all the paperwork and legwork done in order for our dossier to be complete. The dossier is the entire compilation of everything we've done up to this point and then some. It gets sent over to China for approval and THEN we can get matched with and locked into a child.
Some of the things that are included in this process are....
~background checks and fingerprints (both with our local authorities and the federal immigration office)
~more writing about how, when, and why we want to adopt....very specific (think, 5 paragraphs...first says this, second says that, third states your "definite desire" to adopt...be sure to use the phrase "definite desire") The Chinese are nothing if not particular....whew.
~again, a very specific collection of family pictures (i.e. no posed shots, only things showing activity, 4 with dad and kids, 4 with mom and kids, front of home, adopted child's room/bed, etc....)
~new fees
~employer letters stating our work position, time at company, salary, etc.
~certification of Jason's out of state birth certificate through the Illinois Sec. of State
~letter of good standing for each of us written by our local police station saying we are upstanding citizens
~tons of financial documents
~more fees
~physicians forms that are so specific they had to be done as much as 3 times by our doctors.
~new marriage and birth certificates issued again because they have to be issued within the last 6 mos. at the time China gets it
~all MN documents sent to our Sec. of State for certification
~fees, fees, fees.....did I mention fees

So, there's that in a nutshell. And that's not even everything, but you get the point. It's madness.....I swear, they act like you're trying to adopt a kid or something. :)

The one good thing about having to do all this before getting locked into a child is that it won't have to be done AFTER we're locked in which is how it might have been otherwise. So, I'm hoping that this means we won't have as much time between our lock and travel. Hope. Pray. I'd still love to go by the end of the year, but I'm less sure of that than I was.
We did hear from the woman at the agency that watches the special needs list for matches and she said that there were definitely kiddos in the last batch added to the list that matched our family, but we couldn't be called on them since we don't have our dossier logged in yet. Hmm.....I wasn't sure if I was sad to hear that or happy. Sad cuz we could have had that picture by now....happy though to hear that there are girls out there who need us and who would be a good match for us. I have to believe though that this timing is all for a purpose and that when we finally do get matched and we finally get to travel to the other side of the world to get her, we won't be able to imagine it being anyone else. She's already been chosen, we just have to wait until we're privileged enough to meet her. I can't wait.

Couples Retreat

This past weekend we had our retreat weekend for our Couples in Christ group. We went on Friday evening and stayed until Sunday morning. We had such a great time! We used Friday night to just make some pizzas, hang out, play games, and....have a few drinks....hey, Christians can drink. :) I was snapping pictures all weekend and we did kinda joke that we would have to make 2 videos, one with us being very good and one with us not. I'm kidding, of course, we were model citizens. We spent some time in the morning and then the afternoon to do a marriage workshop lesson. That was really nice, actually because we broke into groups of men and woman. We don't ever do that in our monthly meetings throughout the year and I thought it was very good. We talk to each other differently when we're with our same sex peers. We opened up more about stuff about what kind of wives we are and what kind of husbands we have.
I think when you can spend a weekend in the same house with 3 other couples and not get annoyed with anyone or feel awkward around anyone, you have yourself a great group. We feel very blessed to have this group and look forward to our future as friends.

Memorial weekend

We broke in the camper this weekend. The boys always look so forward to going camping and so do I, but I forget just how much work it really is to get ready. It's worth it though cuz we have such a good time. Camping has become our favorite family time thing to do by a mile. I love that we can do something that costs so little (we paid, for 3 nights, less than we would have for dinner and a movie with the kids) and makes such great memories. We love having the camper cuz we can treat it like a home away from home. We don't just do cereal for breakfast and hot dogs for every other meal. We do fun stuff.... Like make eggs, bacon, and pancakes in the morning.... ....and walking tacos for dinner. These were a big hit! We also have a lot of fun things to do. This campground is great for having activities for the kids.... like candy bar bingo and crafts... relay races... shuffleboard... and, of course, swimming... making sandcastles, finding a turtle, and catching tadpoles. After packing everything up on Monday, we headed to a concert in the park given in honor of all vets for Memorial Day. It was great music and a perfect way to spend the day remember what this weekend is really all about. It's important to us that the boys don't see Memorial Day as just a day off of school and camping weekend. It's very purpose of honoring our vets is key and we wanted to do something to remind them of that. They played of a song where all military branch theme songs were played. During each, the vets from that branch were supposed to stand up and be recognized...all while one of the band leaders ran around making sure to shake the hand of everyone standing. It was awesome to see such a tribute.