Weekly Recap

Much like my friend Mayme, I think I might have to go to weekly updates on my blog. While it makes me sad because I LOVE to blog, we are just running 1000 miles an hour lately and I just can't seem to find the time to get it all done.

We had VBS all week at church. It was SO MUCH fun. I worked in the crafts area, which was a lot of fun because I love crafts and I got to see almost all the kids that way. If you want to see some awesome pix of the week, visit this Facebook page. There are even some cute ones of Ellie there!!

Doesn't she look pouty???

VBS ran from 8:30 - 12 each day so most of my day was filled with that. Josh took his friend Jarret to VBS and spent a couple of afternoons with him swimming and playing video games while I worked.

Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights we had our last three baseball games. We won two of the three. Why is it they decided to come on strong on the last two games but couldn't pull out a win throughout the season? I don't know, but I will certainly tell you that this has been the absolute longest baseball season I have ever endured and would ask Josh to give up baseball if I had to endure another season like this one. I won't go into details in order to spare the feelings of those who might read the blog, but I will say it was the absolute worst baseball season we have ever had. Josh played well, don't get me wrong. He had two out of the park hits, one of which was a grand slam. He learned to pitch and could have improved substantially had he had more game time practice, but did well, nonetheless. Other than that, well, not so much. I'd like to say we'll look back on it and laugh. I doubt it. I am awaiting pictures from trophy night as *surprise, surprise* my battery died after taking ONE picture. I asked another mom to take some and as soon as she emails them, I'll post them. When I don't even feel like taking pictures, you know it's bad.

Saturday was a BUSY day for us. We met with Hotdog and her family for a mini-playdate as they passed through town on their way to vacation. After that, we went to our friend Cooper's first birthday party. It was outside and HOT HOT HOT. We didn't stay long as we had to move along to my grandmother's "Senior Prom" at the nursing home. We actually had a lot of family time fun there. I left the house around 10 that morning and never returned until 9:30 that night. I'm hopeful that this next week will not find so much activity.

Here are the photos from Saturday's fun:

Have you ever seen such a happy boy??


The kids all got cool Shrek watches.


I love this kid!!


The $1 princess ring/earring set was the hit of the party. Hotdog LOVES jewelry!


Isn't this sweet? He put earrings on all the girls' ears.




Look how serious Ellie is about this!




These two became FAST friends. I think they could be "T"rouble if they were together too long *smile*.




A lot of play leaves a lot of tired little bodies (lying around):











We were sad to see them leave because we LOVE visiting with them and watching the kiddos play, but they had several more hours to travel until their next stop.

I'm hoping to "steal" a few pictues of Ellie and the birthday boy from my friend's Facebook page, but she hasn't uploaded them yet. Stay tuned!! Did I mention how HOT it was there?? :-)

After the birthday party we headed over to my grandmother's where they were having a "Senor Prom" for all the residents of her nursing home. Other than the fact that it was INCREDIBLY HOT (see a theme here?) inside, we had a nice time. We helped grandmother get dressed and then went down and had snacks and let the kids play and watched the residents dance at their prom. They even had a King and Queen of the prom. Sweet!!

Grandmother's "pretties":


We figured out that MeeMee and Ellie wore matching outfits so they must be each other's "Date". Here they are delivering a book to Ms. Kay.



Grandmother looking all pretty:


I LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture of Josh and my mom.



Kevin and Grandmother (who looks like she's trying to go to sleep, I think!)


Group shots:



(Oh, it's time for post placement visits, can this be one of our "family" shots?? *smile*)

And I LOVE this picture of these two going out to see the birds.


MeeMee giving Grandmother a smooch:


Prom decorations:






Play time while we waited for the Prom to start:






Learning to "snap" her fingers:


Patty-cake with Daddy:


Pattycake with Bubba:


Giggles with Bubba:


Dancing with her prom date!


Snacks -- YUM!


Grandkids acting silly with MeeMee:


Prom King and Queen:


This cracked me up. All night long, Ellie wanted to ride in MeeMee's cart with Josh pulling her. She looked like a piece of luggage that Josh was rolling around!




All in all, it was a great day! This week brings preparations for Father's Day and preparations for Josh to leave for 4-H camp for a week. Ellie's babysitter is going on vacation for a while so the week Josh is gone for 4H, Ellie will be home with me, Kevin and/or Nana through the week. We are going to hit the potty training hard that week. I'm hopeful for a sedate/slow week this week!!

More Unrest in Kyrgyzstan

Poor, poor Kyrgyzstan. They are experiencing such unrest throughout the country. Currently, from my understanding of the news reports, fighting has broken out in the southern part of the country in the Osh area and neighboring Jalabad. It seems that this is ethnic fighting between the Kyrgyz people and the Uzbek people. There are news reports (along with video) here and here. The headline of these articles are very disturbing, "Shoot to Kill in Kyrgyz South ...". "Mobs burn villages, slaughter Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan."

Osh is Kyrgyzstan's second largest city. Fires have reportedly destroyed a large part of the city. Looters have stolen much of the food.

According the the Associated Press article (second link above), "The official casualty toll Sunday rose to at least 80 people dead and 1,066 wounded and 600 hospitalized."

While searching for articles on this conflict, I came across a very interesting (albeit long) video on the current interim President Roza Otunbayeva. For those who are interested in the history of her coming to power in Kyrgyzstan, it's a fascinating piece.


I continue to pray for this country and its people -- my daughter's country and her people.

More Saddle Up Photos

Do these two have the SAME looks or what???

Will Pee Pee for "Chokit"

Last night Ellie said, "Pee Pee!!" while she was sitting in her high chair. I asked if she wanted to go to the potty. She said, "NO!". I said, well if you go to potty you get some candy. THEN she wanted to go. I took her in there, sat her down and left and immediately heard the potty music playing. WHOO HOO. I got her a piece of chocolate (it was the only candy I could find!!) and gave it to her and she ran running through the house yelling, "CHOKIT!! CHOKIT!!"

This morning, when we were getting ready for church, she wanted to potty and went in the big potty. She didn't ask for "CHOKIT" because apparently she had already talked her daddy into a piece just before she pottied.

Whatever works!! Two weeks we are going to be serious -- buy the panties and the works. While Dee'Anna is on vacation and Josh is at 4H, we are going to spend some serious time pottying, or would that be "partying"???

Saddle Up

Ellie is ready for VBS. Sadly, since she is only two, she can't "go" to VBS, but a couple of days I am taking her and she'll be in the nursery/preschool area.

Today, in honor of VBS, she wore her "Cowgirl Duds". I'm going to try to take her to get better pictures with the VBS stuff at church tonight, but she was so cute I had to snap a few this morning.

Week in Review

Sit back and get ready because there is a LOT of blogging about to happen. I've been busy as a bee the last few weeks and haven't blogged much so I'm throwing it ALL into one post and calling it a day.

I've started doing quality assurance review for the company I work for so I feel like I have two jobs instead of one. Now in addition to going out in the field and completing inspections, I'm reviewing work of inspectors in Florida. I'm glad to get the money, of course, but squeezing a little more into my week is proving a bit challenging -- especially at summer time.

We joined the Y this past week so that we could use the pool (Kevin IS cleaning ours out) and for Josh (and seriously the entire family NEEDS TO) to begin exercising more. He has started a youth strength training class today that runs for four weeks. After that, he will be able to use all the equipment at the Y (except free weights). I hoping he can teach me then and we can "work out" together. :-) While he is at his class, Ellie and Daddy are going to enjoy the pool. Unfortunately, I'm here working. Josh and I went to the pool this week and after half an hour, he decided he was "bored" because he didn't have anyone to play with and we left. *sigh* Mental note: next time be sure to take a friend or stay home.

Josh finished up his pitching lessons last week. I sent the camera with his dad but Josh was a bit mortified that he might have to STAND BESIDE his teacher and get a photo so he convinced dad to take some of them "in action." They aren't the greatest (not knocking Kevin, it was just hard to take through a net), but at least he'll have something to remember it by.







Speaking of pitching, Josh got to pitch in a game this week. He did a really good job at pitching, however, he does need a little more experience in picking people off at the bases as he made two errors in that area. All in all though, considering the very small amount of actual game time experience he has had, he did REALLY WELL. His accuracy has improved a LOT and his speed is incredible. We are hopeful that he will continue to improve with some more lessons next year. It was dark when I took these and they were just too grainy for me to like so I converted them to black and white. I kind of like the look.



Check out this look he is giving!




It was funny watching this interaction transpire. Caleb (on second) was on Josh's team a few years back and they play football together. Josh turned, looked at him and Caleb shook his head "No". Funny!



On Tuesday this week, we went to Dragon Park. This is a park with a concrete dragon sculpture, designed by Pedro Silva that is tiled with the tiles forming different pictures all around it. It's a beautiful piece of art and is also something for the kids to climb and play on. For more pictures of Dragon Park and the sculpture, visit here. The images are just beautiful.

I got some really good pictures of Josh on the dragon.





Here are a few closeups of the tile art:







And a few of the entire dragon (broke up in pieces because it is so large):






Of course, Ellie didn't want to be left out of the picture taking action:


Doesn't she look tiny in comparison?


There is also a stone wall with a pipe running through it for the kiddos to play in. Josh and Ellie both liked the wall. My tomboy, Ellie, thought climbing was "the bomb". (This tomboy nature of hers will explain why she currently has not one, but TWO bruises on her face. She is certainly not a girly-girl!!)






This photo turned out dark, and I wish I could re-create it because for some reason I LOVE it.



Of course, the reason we were even AT Dragon Park was to go meet our friends for a playdate. Here are Ellie, C. and J. playing on a sort-of teeter-totter ride. Josh was on the other end bouncing them up and down and they were having a BLAST!!







Look at these sweet faces!!


After the park, we went to C. and J.'s house were their mom fixed us the most WONDERFUL homemade pizza. Seriously, people, this was some good pizza -- homemade crust and the works -- YUM!!! The kids played outside in the wading pool. We didn't think to bring Ellie or Josh any swimwear, so Ellie borrowed one of J's and Josh made do. They had a blast!!









I am SO GLAD we are blessed to have not one, but TWO Kyrygz kiddos in our area. I know these friendships will mean so much to all three of them as they grow up. I know they already mean a lot to me!!

In addition to the above fun, we managed to squeeze in a physical for Josh at his new doctor, free Spicy chicken sandwiches at Chick Fil A last night and free Krispy Kreme donuts yesterday in honor of National Donut Day. Can't beat free donuts.

I hope your week was as fun as ours. Stay tuned to more NEXT week when we have VBS all week, three ballgames, trophy night for the baseball team, Father's Day, a birthday party, Josh's strength training and, well, work to squeeze in there somewhere!!