Happy Grandparent's Day

Happy Grandparent's Day to MeeMee, DeeDee and Nana. We got to go to dinner with MeeMee and DeeDee tonight, but I didn't get any pictures of all of us. We will see Nana next weekend.

Josh and I had a nice time this afternoon. We took a walk (me)/bike ride (him) around the neighborhood. We started off with Ellie, but Kevin came to get her after a bit and they went home. It was nice to have some "just Josh" time to talk. He is a sweet boy.

Here are a couple of pix of Ellie after church today as she was "singing" and doing her "motions" to her songs.



Talking on the phone, well, not really ...


The wheels on the bus go round and round...


Round and round


Flying in an airplane, looking out the window, watching the clouds go by.


Up so very high [the airplane, of course]


And finally, signing MeeMee and DeeDee's Grandparent's Day card. She loves to write/scribble.

Vikings Smoked

Josh's football team was just smoked today in their game against the Station Camp Bisons. Their lineman weighed in around 200-210. This information was pried out of their photographer in the end-zone. *smile*. Our largest lineman (and there is only one) weighs in at 195. It was just a slaughter for them and they lost 43-8 with a mercy-rule call in the end of the third quarter.

Today was also picture day. I wanted (so badly) a picture of Ellie and Josh in their "uniforms" and it wasn't Ellie that was uncooperative, it was Josh. At first he refused to have it made. Then I told him he had to and he told me he didn't like me. [Honestly, I didn't care if he liked me; I wanted a picture.] Then he changed tactics and told me, "Well, she's not really a cheerleader anyway. SO??? He finally did have a picture made but I'm sure when we get it he will have the most horrible facial expression. UGH. I guess I'll have to try one day to get a picture of the two of them myself.

Ellie took a long nap at the park today. We have a sweet friend, Casey, who takes care of Ellie at the park. She LOVES Ellie and Ellie LOVES her. Casey pushed Ellie around in her stroller the whole time she was sleeping.


Ellie eating a hotdog


Look at this face. I have something to look forward to, don't I?"

1000th Post: The List (and other thoughts)

May 17, 2007 I was sitting in a hotel room in Columbia, South Carolina working on a St*te F*arm project, learning how to "blog", and writing my first blog entry. For the last several months I've pondered what I could do that was "monumental" or special as I knew that my 1000th post was coming up before long.

And then I decided to do "The List" after reading the book "The Next Thing on my List". I spent a long time pondering the list. I'm still not sure the list is complete, but it forced me to spend chunks of time thinking about my life, what I really want to accomplish during my life, if those things are obtainable, if we really have any say about the things we accomplish in our life, where my life is right now, what changes I could make to improve my life. MUCH thought has gone on in my life in the last few months. There have been fewer posts as I've been busy living life and trying to keep my head above water. I want to blog. I like blogging. I've found many have left the blogging world for Facebook. While I think FB is ok and has its place, I think blogging will be a staple for me for a long time. This is primarily because as I write, I realize my children will have a tangible record of their lives along with a record of their mom. I might not be in a lot of their pictures, but I will be the words on the pages of their lives. I will be the author of the words that relive their memories. I will be writing their biographies as children. What better present can I give them?

During my time of introspection I have pondered religion, politics, talk radio, the Bible, financial matters, futures planning, what kind of future our country will have, my job, my husband's job (I'm sure he doesn't want me pondering that, but I do), our friends, our families, my interests, my time wasters, my bad habits, my sins, my relationships. So much has been going through my mind -- I'm wondering if this is a "mid-life crisis" sans a new sports car or wanting a divorce -- which I most certainly do not want.

And in that process, I developed a relatively simple list of things I'd like to do. I've come to realize that if I do them, I will be happier, but that if I don't get to do all of them, it will be ok. They are the dreams that fuel my days, I think, of things I want to do and things my soul longs for sometimes. They are the inner core of who I am -- the things that make me happiest. It's the "what I want to do when I grow up" list that I probably should have come up with, oh, twenty years ago. Better late than never, I suppose. The list is in no certain order. I'm sure the list will change as the years do, but I feel pretty certain this is a good start.

THE LIST

• Read the entire Bible
• Work in a vet's office taking care of animals
• Raise a really good garden and share it with others
• Travel to Europe and see Italy and London
• See New York City at Christmas
• Go on a mission trip
• Walk where Jesus walked; visit the Holy Land
• Take a photography class (maybe even enter a photo contest!)
• Learn sign language (fluently)
• See my children grow up to be responsible, happy adults
• Print and scrapbook all the photos that are important to me and my family
• Meet Ellie's birth family.
• Go on a second honeymoon cruise with my husband (he loves cruises and I love him)
• Take Ellie to Disney World for the first time (and Josh back)
• Make a difference in people's lives
• Be brave enough to share my faith more freely with others
• Help my family feel loved, happy and content through my words and my actions.

Some of these are pretty ambiguous, like "make a difference in people's lives" and "help my family feel loved ..." but I think I will know if I'm doing or have done these things and they are really important to me. If the list seems, well, simple, it's because it is. I've learned that really, that's who I am and that's ok. God made many to be powerful, goal-oriented, achievers with really big goals, and then, He made those of us who are content with the small goals of things like a nice garden, a happy family and helping others when things are hard in their lives. And that's just who I am and who I want to continue to be. If I never am the president of a Fortune 500 company, I will certainly be happy -- even more so if I have made someone else's burdens a bit lighter. If I never live in a huge house I'll be happy (because I don't have to clean it!!) if my children enjoy looking back over the memories they made as children by looking at my photos and stories of them. If I never have a bank account with a million dollars, it will be fine if my husband and I can simply share time together and know that our marriage is happy and secure.

1000 posts ... I never set out to be here (in so many ways), but here I am and by God's grace I will be allowed to post 1000 more, and "Constant Reader" will still be here. I'm amazed all the time that people read my blog (85,000 hits since it's inception). WHY??? Thank you, though, it is humbling to know that you care about me and my family. Know that we love each of you -- even those we don't know who are reading -- very much. Without you, our lives would not be as full as they are.

This post in memory of all those who lost their lives in the 9/11/01 tragedy in New York. May none of us ever forget that we are not promised a tomorrow with those we love and that each day is monumental and precious. To all those who didn't get to finish their "lists", may I remember you as I attempt to complete mine.

____________________

“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today. ~Matthew 6:34

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. ~Romans 8:38

How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. ~James 4:14

Happy Birthday Grandmother and Nana!

September brings about the birthdays of Kevin's mom, aka "Nana" and my grandmother. We hope to see Nana next weekend when Kevin's brother from Atlanta and his family come to town. Tonight, my mom planned a small party for Grandmother to celebrate her 83rd birthday with pizza, sodas and brownies.

I'd like to report that I took time and got some fabulous photos, but that just didn't happen. Grandmother has thrush in her mouth and wasn't feeling well. Ellie was tired and threw multiple "throw downs" in the floor and I was exhausted from that. So... here's what you get. Great stuff, huh?



This one is as close to decent as any of them.

Happy Ellie, huh?Ellie wants DOWN.

As we were leaving the nursing home, Ellie wanted up in the back of my mom's vehicle. She got in the back seat, pulled the seat belt around her (she couldn't latch it) and started motioning for my mom to DRIVE. It was the funniest thing. So, we strapped her seat belt and my mom drove her around and around the circle driveway. There were no other cars there so it was perfectly safe. Every time my mom stopped, she would lean forward and point her finger and her as if to say, "Keep going!" We are amazed that she knew to do this. Kevin called it her "Driving Miss Ellie" mode. HA!!

On our way home from this event, Josh informed me that his ear was hurting really badly. It's 7:15 and the after hours clinic in Springfield closes at 8:00. I call Kevin because Ellie is asleep in the back seat and I certainly don't want her exposed to anything funky in a clinic. We met, swapped Ellie and I made a mad dash to the doctor's office where it took longer to fill out a patient form than it did to be seen. We arrived 10 minutes prior to closing (I'm certain they were happy to see us coming), and were out 10 minutes after closing. He did have a pretty serious ear infection. Odd since he just started mentioning his ear this afternoon after school. A quick trip to Wal*greens and we had antibiotics. It's been a long day.

Bragging on Josh

Progress reports came home today from school. Not to be confused with report cards, these are the "half-way" markers to let you know how your kiddo is doing so you can jump his case make corrections to his approach in time to save the grade for the semester.

Josh brought two of his four home. One he says he "forgot" and the other we still don't quite have a reason for its absence, but I'm told (by him) he will get them tomorrow.

However, in the two he brought home, he has done an excellent job in both Math and Language Arts (if you don't count the spelling/vocabulary tests that aren't quite what I would have liked). He came out with very high A's in both those classes. Science and Social Studies are still to be reported. I'm glad he is having a good year so far. I hope it continues both academically and behaviorally.

We also got TCAP scores back this last week and he did very well on those as well. His two areas of highest scores were math and social studies. Interesting, I thought.

Go Josh! Dad and I are very proud of you!

Cute Things Ellie is Doing ....

I didn't want to forget some of the cute things Ellie has started doing, so I'm going to record them here.

She loves her squeaky shoes that we purchased both at consigment and from Becky B. (sorry Becky, I'm too tired to find your link right now) as a fundraiser for her family's adoption. Her feet are finally big enough to wear some of them and she loves stomping around in her shoes terrorizing the dog. I say terrorizing because every time Bear hears the squeak (think dog toy), he jumps up and runs around looking for it. It's hilarious. Anyway, I digress. So, when she is not wearing them and wants to be, she looks at her feet and stomps them trying to make them squeak. If she has on shoes that don't squeak, she tries so very hard to get them to. It's a riot!

The other thing she does that I tried today to get a video of is she will look at you, flip her head backwards and open her mouth up very wide. Any guesses? Well, she has a Barney video with the song, "If all the raindrops were lemon-drops and gum-drops, oh what a life that would be. Standing outside with my mouth open wide -- ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha." and the kids stand there just like she is doing with their mouths open. She will stand there like that until you sing the song.

And, finally, the diaper stuff -- yeah, fun, right? If she becomes wet or dirty, she immediately comes to you and pats her bottom and says, "OW". If that doesn't work, she will go and GET you a diaper. The girl does not like a dirty diaper. I think we are going to have to start talking about potty things around our house very, very soon.

We are currently trying to learn the signs for shoes and socks. She knows what shoes and socks are and can point them out to you, so it seemed like a good sign to begin to work on.

She knows where her eyes, ears, nose, mouth, toes and head are located and will point to them.

I don't have any fun pictures of the above things because I'm a lazy picture mom this week. I do have a cute picture of her and her friend Macy playing at the football park Tuesday night while their big brothers practiced so I will share that instead.

A FRIENDLY REMINDER that it is Grandparent's Day on Sunday. Make plans now to spend time with the grandparents in your life or your kids' lives this weekend.

I leave you with this Bible verse. I've talked to so many people these past few weeks who are so discouraged about situations in their lives. I can relate many days, and I wanted to remind them, as well as others who are reading, that God tells us the following in His word. May it be a source of strength and comfort to us as well as a prescription for fixing our attitudes and hearts when we hit the bottom.

Why am I discouraged?Why is my heart so sad?I will put my hope in God!I will praise him again—my Savior and my God! ~ Psalm 43:5

Scrimmage

Josh's team had a scrimmage last night against Goodpasture Christian School in preparation for this week's big game against Station Camp. I had a great opportunity to be right on the field and to take lots of pix of Joshua.


Lining up





"If you could grow just "this much" taller..." *smile*




My FAVORITE picture from the night. Josh is to the right. I'll bet that poor boy was sore the next morning.

Holding on tight -- Josh, on the ground, has his leg.

"Rolling" on down the road

One of the reasons I work a "non-traditional" job is so I can take and pick Josh up from school. In the process, I also pick up a few other friends since we are going the same way (and because I really enjoy hearing about their days!!). When I pick up the three extras (Braiden, Kirstin and Megan), I have to move the carseat to the back so when you see the following photos, realize I don't normally have a carseat sticking up in the back.

Today, after moving the carseat, I just didn't feel like moving Ellie's rollers from the floor. Imagine my surprise when I looked in the rear view mirror and saw Megan and Kirstin rolling their hair! HA!!!

We got a little further down the road and picked up Emily from her school, she wanted to roll her hair too!! It was funny. We asked Braiden and Josh if they wanted to roll their hair, but they declined (thankfully!!).

It was pep rally day today, which is why Megan is wearing a pompom in her hair!!

Vikings Wrangle Cowboys

Ok, I'll admit, I'm just flat out STEALING this blog post from the "official" Vikings blog. However, since I write the blog posts for that as well, it's technically not stealing, it's "creative time management". You see, I want to go to sleep and I've already written about this game once, so.... here goes. (Of course, if I were truly smart, I'd just put a link to the post and go to bed, huh?)

The temperature wasn't the only thing hot on the football field yesterday as the Joelton Vikings faced off against home team Ashland City Cowboys. The Vikings were smoking as they took the win over the Cowboys at 36-0. The game was called with 1:33 left due to the score. Ironically, last year's score was 36-0 with the game called with 3:16 left in the game. Talk about deja vu.

Former Cowboys, Austin Poss, Jarrett Ray and Hank White were team captains along with Cody Risner as our honorary Captain for the day. Cody has been battling leukemia and it was such a blessing and honor to have him attend today and be our Captain.

Josh had a good game with the official stats listing him with two tackles and two assists. I was fortunate that another parent was taking photos from the opposite side of the field than I was because Josh plays opposite field (or at least he did for the half that I was actually at the game) and I didn't get a lot of pix of him. Brandon's dad, however, did and they are here.

Of course, I did manage to get a few *smile* of Josh:

While you might not be able to tell that my son made this tackle and is underneath, his mama certainly can from the white shirt sticking out and the cleats he is wearing.


At least with this one, we can see his name on the jersey!



Water breaks were certainly important as hot as it was today.


I think the final score says it all. Go Vikings!!

Request

For those of you who are "entrenched" in the Krygyz culture and tradition (well, it sounds good, doesn't it??), I have a request.

I'd like to TRY to make some type of authentic Kyrgyz meal for Ellie's "Forever Family" day. I know I remember reading from some that there was a Kyrygz cookbook floating around and I thought maybe someone could email me a recipe to try for that day.

Only one stipulation: it cannot have horse meat as an ingredient *smile*

If you prefer to email me: mblatham@charter.net

THANKS in advance!!

Nostalgic

I've spent the day feeling nostalgic for some reason. I called Elizabeth today to tell her I was feeling this way. Elizabeth was my travel mate (along with Jennifer and Elizabeth's mom) when we went to pick up Ellie and Aidai.

The air is starting to get cooler, the month has changed on the calendar and I remember so vividly all the emotions that were coursing through me last year around this time.

I believe I'm correct in saying I had started my "number" countdown for the number of days before I travelled. I was giddy, anxious and scared out of my mind pretty much every day. I remember waking up each day, thinking how many days were left until we left and wondering what might happen that day to delay the process a bit further.

We were in a mad dash around our house to get everything done and ready and we were frantically trying to figure out where the last of the funds were going to come from to pay for the return trip. Josh was deeply into football and we were enjoying what would be our last year as a family of three at the football field.

Somehow it doesn't seem possible that almost a year has passed since we travelled around the world. I'm certain this last month before "Gotcha" Day will be filled with more emotions. I spent today working and remembering so many details and emotions from the trip. It was certainly a two week period where I experienced the high of highs and the low of lows -- all crammed into a very short period of time. I plan to take the time this month to read back through my [very detailed] posts about my time leading up to and during my time there picking up Ellie.

I am such a different person in a short year's time. Good changes and probably some that are not so good, but certainly different. I will never have the same outlook as I once did.

I saw a friend today that I have not seen in about 17 years. He told me that he and his wife didn't have children, that it "just didn't work out". I asked had he ever considered adoption. He responded that "if we had it to do over, we probably would, but we are just too old now." He's the same age as my husband. I pointed out that I knew how old he was and that it was certainly not too late. We talked about my trip to Kyrgyzstan (me showing pix of Ellie from my camera) and telling him how age and money and the size of your house just don't matter when you see babies lying in an orphanage in a third world country. Sadly, though, some people just don't get it or just aren't called to adopt. I will never see things that way again. I will always have burned into my mind the visions of the children at that orphanage. I am so thankful that they were there to take in and care for the children, but it's no place for children. It's not a place to play and belly laugh and for hugs and rolling in the grass with brothers. It's not a place where food is abundant and clean water is always available. It's not a place to always be warm in the winter and cool in the summer or a place where clothes are anything more than functional. It's a sad place, honestly, and if I had one wish, I'm certain it would be that all the orphans in the world would have forever families and there would be no more orphans. One day, I'm certain there will be no more -- but not in this world.

So, bear with my nostalgia over the next month.

I will tell you, there is a surprise coming in the next week -- "The List" will be posted. For those of you who are not "constant readers" (I love Stephen King's term of endearment he uses for his readers, so I took some liberties here), I recently wrote a post about a book I read and have created a list of things I'd like to do -- well, I don't want to say before I die or anything, just things I'd like to do. You can read the post here.

I will also tell you that in search of that link, I went back and re-read my posts from September 2008 -- and I cried. It was just all so real all over again -- the emotions, the fears, the absolute panic in some of the posts. And, I know how it ends and yet I can still get emotional reading through it again. I am such a wimp!! *smile* I love reading back through my blog. I really NEED to get it put in a book.

Eating Breakfast

The only time the silly dog [aka "Bear"] wants to have anything to do with Ellie is when she is eating. He is hoping for some "fall-out" from the highchair. Here is evidence.



Ellie finds it terribly amusing.


Here is Ellie modeling her shirt that "Aunt" Carla, from the ball park, got for her. She's using it as a sleep shirt until she grows into it.



Here's a close-up of what it says. Appropriate considering her recent "diva" behaviors.

More photos of Josh coming soon -- as soon as he'll agree to let me take some, that is.

Ellie Photos

I just needed to get out of the house today and get my mind on something new and off work and life and blah, blah, blah -- mundane things. SO..... Ellie became my subject for an hour or so this afternoon. Here are some of my favorites:



She was playing with her Little People Farm set -- look at those lovely lashes!!



This is our neighbor's old Ford pickup. Ellie loved playing in it. I think I will edit his back porch out of it and see what it looks like then. I love this one!!



Ellie is
always looking down at something, which makes it hard to get good face pictures of her.



Look at those dirty feet. Her other favorite pose is running away from me to her next activity.



No, this is not Ellie; this is Maggie one of the neighbor's dogs. Ellie LOVES Maggie, who is deaf and just and old girl. Maggie loved having her photo taken.



Another one of Ellie in "Mr. Terry's" truck.



Driving...



I told her to "lay down and take a nap" and this is what I got.



This is "Beau". Ellie actually has said his name. He is another one of Mr. Terry's dogs.



This was an "accident" but turned out beautifully. I love the silhouette.



Ellie was cracking up over the dogs wanting to lick her. Look at those tongues!!



I call this one "Anticipation". Doesn't she look like she's waiting for someone or something?

Let me know how you like the new format of the blog. I'm still working with it, but wanted to have bigger photos. I like photos -- they are worth 1000 words so I don't have to write as much!

My Hubby

I know I complain about my husband a lot -- like many wives do, I suppose, but I wanted to take a moment to be thankful for him for all he does for me.

He is the first person up at the house each day. This morning, he got Josh up and "herded" him to get ready for school. He made biscuits and bacon for breakfast, woke me up and then proceeded to run the carpool for school -- even taking Ellie so I could get ready and leave on time.

Almost every night, he gives Ellie her bath and puts her to bed so that I can get paperwork completed. He does laundry and will help clean house.

He is a good man. He is a good husband and he is a good father. Whatever complaints I have -- usually from selfish concerns of my own -- should be overshadowed by the fact that he is so helpful and such a good provider and family man for all of us.

Our entire family is blessed by God to have him in our lives, and I just wanted to publicly thank him.