More boys work

The school year is dwindling down (thank goodness....welcome SUMMER!) so I wanted to share a couple more things that the boys have been working on at school.

Rhett wrote a short story entitled "My Luckiest Day Ever."

I lookt behind a tree.
I fownd this little leqerkun.
I namd him Lucky.
He lede me to the pot of gold.
I thot I was rich.

CUTE!

And Braden wrote a poem.

I am
BY: Braden Kennett

I am smart and hilarious,
I wonder if dragons are real,
I hear a blue cardinal,
I see a purple cardinal,
I want a dirt bike,
I am smart and hilarious.

I pretend I am a cowboy on a horse,
I feel like a clown,
I touch a dinosaur,
I worry that someone is going to kidnap me,
I cry when someone makes fun of me,
I am smart and hilarious.

I understand that 1+1=2,
I say dragons are real,
I dream I am at the beach swimming in the ocean,
I try to be my best at soccer,
I hope Ill never mess up anything,
I am smart and hiliarious.

Braden also filled in some blanks about himself on a worksheet. His responses are in ALL CAPS.

If I could change something about myself, I would change:
I WISH I WASN'T HUNGRY WHEN I PLAYED SPORTS.


I am glad I am the way I am because:
I HAVE AN AWESOME FAMILY.

Everyone has some things they do well. List things you do well.
1. SPORTS
2. ART
3. EXERSIZE
4. SOCCER

Everyone has some things that are difficult for them to do. List things that are difficult for you.
1. ROLLER COASTERS
2. RUNNING VERY FAST FOR A COUPLE OF MINUTES WITHOUT MY RIBS HURTING.
3. DEALING WITH MY BROTHER.

I have some FUNNY and COOL kids. :)

Out of the mouths of babes

I have the sweetest, funniest kids on the planet. (I know, we all think that about our kids, I'm sure!)

The Friday before Mother's Day, we went to the annual Mother's Day breakfast at the boys school. Afterwards, I went with each of them to their classrooms and got the goodies they had been working on for me.

They each had sheets of paper with "fill in the blanks".

On Braden's sheet- his responses are in ALL CAPS.

Dear MOM,

I am glad you are here to take care of me. When I am not feeling well, you help me feel better by RUBBING MY BELLY.

When I am lonely, it helps for you to SIT WITH ME.

You make me laugh when you SAY A JOKE.

The funniest thing you ever did was DANCE AND TELL ME ALL YOUR JOKES.

I will remember that forever!

I love the meals you feed me, especially YOUR CAKE and PIZZA.

I am going to try harder to help you with chores. I will do MY LAUNDRY and WATER THE FLOWERS.
I'd like for you to teach me to PLAY AN INSTRUMENT.

I like to watch you BAKE YOUR AMAZING CAKES.

The thing I most apreciate about you is YOU CARE FOR ME.

The story I most like to hear you tell is GOODNIGHT MOON.

I love you most for CARING FOR ME.

Happy Mother's Day!

Love,

Braden

(The only thing that made me go "hmmmm" was that he hates pizza. He usually gets mad when I make or we order pizza because he reminds me that he hates it. But mostly will tolerate it. And bless his little heart-- he wants me to teach him to play an instrument... and I have no idea how to play any instrument or read music or anything musical for that matter. I love to sing, but I don't sound great outside of my own head. Looks like we'll be paying for lessons at some point down the road!)

Rhett's was an acrostic poem describing me. The letters spelling out HAPPY MOTHERS DAY were written vertically down the page and he had to fill in the blanks with the first letter starting with the first vertical letter and so on.

Has a cumputr

Always wroks

Plays with me

Plays with my brother

You're loveing

Might get a dog

Often works

Tries not to work

Has a bed

Eats popcorn

Remembers my birthday

Says I'm Cute

Doesn't play alot

Always does laundry

You're cute

(What stood out to me in this one? Well- the fact that he mentioned that I always work and that I often work. BUT that I try not to work! That really cracked me up. And made me sad. I hate that he recognizes that about me above lots of other things. But... such is life in our household I guess. The other thing that stood out was that he mentioned first that I play with him and his brother, but at the end, mentioned that I don't play alot. It's true. I rarely ever play with the kids. I've noticed that about myself and have even talked with Jason about it many times. I'm making more of an effort to play with them now than I ever have, but I'm still not a big play-er. My reasons- well... the aforementioned 4 letter word W.O.R.K. And the next to the last thing he mentioned. "Always does laundry." That is such a true statement. But, I know that I need to take the time and be more intentional in loving them in their own love language. I love to cuddle and read and love. And they are sadly getting too big for that at their ripe old ages of 9 and 7. Their love languages are playing and quality time. I'm working on it.)

I LOVE those boys.

I'll leave you with the other sheet that Rhett gave me. It really warmed my heart that both of them mentioned my "awesome cakes". Their words, not mine. Made me feel good that they love that about me. And that they called my abilities, "Awesome". Well... what mom wouldn't be proud of their boys bragging on them?

Garden

I do not have a green thumb. I have killed far more poor plants than I have cultivated, unfortunately.

However, in an effort to provide a neat project for the kids for the summer months, we decided to let them plant a little garden in an empty spot in the backyard.

Technically I have had nothing to do with the garden at all. Jason bought the seeds/plants and he planted the garden with the kids.

Here is the first picture right after the planting took place.

We planted a strawberry plant in the middle. On the bottom left corner, is Gracie's flowers. On the left of the strawberry plant, is the boys sunflowers. On the right is a watermelon hill. We are hoping to get at least 3 watermelons out of it. 1 for each of the kids. Behind the strawberries is a patch of carrote. It will be fun to eat the fruits of their labor.

The boys are in charge of the watering. They have done a great job and haven't even had to be reminded yet. Although it rained 7 out of 10 days after we planted, so they haven't had to work too hard at it yet!

Here's a picture 2 weeks after the planting.

We have some green! The L shape on the top of the picture are the boys' sunflowers. They wanted them planted this day so they could get inside of them and hideout after they're grown:)

We had 7 sprouts coming out of the watermelon hill. Jason thinned them down to the 3 top performers this weekend. Hopefully we picked the right 3!

Battle Max

On Mother's Day- while I spent the afternoon working in the office- Jason kept the kids busy and the house quiet.

They hung out in the backyard and had a Battle Max War. The boys got the guns, ammo and barriers from Bammaw and Grandpa for Christmas, but we had been waiting for warm weather to pull it all out. Jason also used lawn furniture and football tackling dummies to make their "course".

They came up with an elaborate scoring system and Sissy was happy to be the scorekeeper.

Mother's Day Weekend

I had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend! It started off on Friday morning. After I got the kids to school, I met up with Jason and we went back "home" for appointments with our doctor. We have to have physicals for our adoption paperwork. We also had to have bloodwork.

I wanted to document our boo-boos. Not that we're ever happy about having to be poked with needles, but we're just so happy to be doing it so we can go get our baby girl! One step closer now!

After our appointments, we got to eat lunch at Lucky Dragon. We really miss that place! When we lived there, we probably ate there at least 2 times a month. Usually more. Now, it's just every now and then. This was only the 2nd time we got to go since the beginning of the year. We enjoyed every minute of eating the yummy food and also enjoyed every minute of each other's company. We don't get out without our kids very often, so we did lots of talking and catching up while we were all alone for those few hours.

On Saturday we were busy with soccer and church, as usual. Between the last soccer game and church, Jason took the kids home to rest and I headed out to do a little shopping. I've been in search of a plain black bikini to wear UNDER my swim dress for months. (No one besides my husband will see me in the actual bikini, but you have to wear SOMETHING under the swim dress!) Anyways, do you know how hard that is?! It's about impossible. I have already been looking, but on this day, I went to 6 different stores. As usual, I found the best prospects in Dillards, but they didn't have my size. And I'm not sure I would've made a purchase even if they did. They wanted $60 for the bikini top and $48 for the bottom. THAT NO ONE IS EVER GOING TO SEE! Ahem. I did spend WAY too much on the swim dress last year at Dillards, but it was super cute and I promised to wear it for at least 2 summers. But the old black bikini that I've been wearing under it has seen better days- hence the shopping.
I ended up purchasing a few items for myself for summer as I shopped, (I've lost 27 pounds since we moved here almost 2 years ago. I need new clothes!) but never did find the bikini I was looking for. I ended up in Kohl's as my last stop, and found a darling little swim dress that was on sale. I ended up paying only $20 for it! It is cut higher around the neck as opposed to my other expensive swim dress which is a very low v-neck cut. So, I just bought the new swim dress and I'll wear my old black bikini under it. No one will see any of it at all since the new dress covers more. It may have been my Plan B, but at least the Misson was Accomplished!

On Sunday, I got to lay in bed while my breakfast was cooked for me! We usually don't do big gifts for Mother's and Father's days, but breakfast in bed is always on the agenda.

I requested Biscuits and Gravy. Yummmy! This is the plate my sweet hubby made for me. He's the best!!
I got several homemade cards from the kids!

And here's the Big gift! We moved into our house almost exactly a year ago. I LOVE my new office furniture that we purchased after we moved in, except I don't have room to put my mouse on the keyboard tray. So, I've been holding my arm up to the top of the desk to reach the mouse all these months. I struggle with carpal-tunnel like symptoms anyway since I work at the computer so much. But my right arm/hand/wrist has been having major problems. After about an hour of working, I end up with a numb and tingly hand and fingers. So, my dear sweet husband made me this contraption for my desk! It's a pull out shelf that my mouse can sit on! Yay! I love it and I so appreciated his time and effort because he's the busiest man I know.
I don't deserve to be loved as much as he loves me! He's the BEST!

Along with the cards he made for me, Rhett gave me $3 cash out of his wallet. I told him several times that I didn't want his money but that he was so sweet to think of me. He INSISTED that I take the money and buy myself something.

You better believe this is what I spent my Mother's Day money on!

That's right. My drug of choice! A Large Diet Coke. Heaven.

I used to get one of these almost every day, but since we've restructured our budget and priorities in order to come up with the money we need for the adoption, the first thing I said bye-bye to was my precious Sonic (or McDonald's or Chick-Fil-A or anywhere with styrofoam cups and Diet Coke on tap) drinks. I have only had a few in the past 6 weeks.
Thank you Rhett, you sweet boy!

After breakfast, I spent about 6 hours working in the office, which wasn't all that much fun. Especially since the only other thing I really asked for besides the breakfast was an afternoon nap. But, Jason kept the kids well entertained and I watched tv and listened to my favorite tunes while I worked, so it really wasn't so bad. Plus, I got a lot of work done so that always helps me sleep better at night.

As I reflect back on my journey as a mother, I realize yet again how very blessed I am. I have 3 wonderful, beautiful, smart children that I would do anything for. Their father is my best friend in the whole world, and I'm more in love with him every single day. I love them all so much.
On this day, it was nice to hear all the extra "I love yous". It's always nice to be reminded that you are appreciated. I soaked up every minute of it.

Stick Horse Rodeo

The First Graders participated in their annual Stick Horse Rodeo last Friday. The've been looking forward to this all year! They worked for about a week on their horses, t-shirts were ordered and the teachers worked so hard to get everything together.

It was supposed to be all the first graders from the school district, not just our school. And they were all supposed to have the rodeo at Parsons Arena.

Threats of storms caused the event to be cancelled, but our school's wonderful teachers weren't scared off by a few sprinkles and a little weather threat. They set up games at the school and still made it a fun day for the kids.

I was glad I got to go witness the fun that day!

Rhett's Class

Cowboy Rhett
Rhett with his horsey

#89
Getting ready for the parade. All the First Graders rode thier stick horses and galloped through each classroom in the whole school.
Rope 'em Rhett!
Stick Horse Racing is serious business!
Run Rhett Run!

Updated Adoption Info

Updated to add:
Another cool thing that I forgot to share...
I had been mistaken about when we actually go on the official waiting list. We will go on the list when the dossier is mailed to Washington D.C. That will put us on the list considerably sooner than what I was thinking!


I just got off the phone with our Ethiopia program assistant at Gladney and I found out 2 exciting pieces of information!

1. The CIS form that I was told could take 2-3 months to get approval--- there's a new process now on that and they're being told that it should just be 30 days!!! How awesome is that?!

2. There is a possibility that we could get a younger infant! I just needed to let them know on another form that we would be willing to accept a child younger than 4 months old. Wow! I didn't even realize that was a possibility.

God knows I would LOVE to have our baby be as itty bitty as possible. I've already made that request quite clear :) However, He also knows that we trust Him to give us OUR perfect child that He's already picked out. We will trust that He'll give us what we need. Whether it's a child under 6 months or one that is 1 year old.

This process is proving to be stressful but exciting and fun at the same time. I'm a paper pusher and I LOVE paperwork and staying organized with stuff like that. And I also love a challenge, so I'm not too overwhelmed by it all so far. Hopefully I'll still be saying that by the time this part is over!

Thanks again for all your prayers!!