I would like to promote some really cool T-Shirts. I think these shirts are awesome looking and I think the woman that started this business is pretty cool too (Stephanie is in the process of adopting her 5th Chinese doll and has 4 bio kids too!).
Anyway hop on over to Wild Olive and check out these cool t-shirts that come with their very own verses on the back. They come in classic and fitted.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Tennessee Vacation
Over Memorial Day weekend we took a mini vacation to Pigeon Forge, TN. We only got to spend a couple days but it was a great get-away. We started out by going horse back riding. Olivia was so excited because it was the first time she has ridden a horse and she got to ride it all by herself (the guide did have a tow rope to help guide her). Thankfully she was in the front with the guide cause after 9 hours in the car with that jabberbox we were happy that someone else got to listen to her chatter for an hour. I told Mike to give the guide a good tip because she earned her money on that ride.
Next we went to Cirque de Chine (basically a Chinese Acrobat show). That was really neat. Olivia sat for two hours mesmorized. We weren't allowed to take our camera's in but at the end I got a shot of Olivia with a couple of the performers with my cell phone.
The girls got to do some swimming in our hotel. We got to meet up with some relatives that live just a few miles from where we were at. We got to eat lunch with Ken and Bev and get some pointers on things to do while we were there.
We also took a drive through some of the Smokey Mountains. Going someplace like this reminds me that I am so small in this world. God's handiwork just amazes me.
On our way home we took a detour to Bloomington and stopped in to see Katie. We took her out to supper and got to visit for a little bit before heading home to get a little relaxation in before bed. Monday, May 25, 2009
ENGAGED!
My Baby Boy is Engaged!!!! Evan proposed to his girlfriend tonight while walking on the beach in Florida (they are on vacation with her family). I am so excited. Lexie is an absolute doll and we can't wait to add her to our family!
Friday, May 22, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Happy Birthday Baby Girl!
Today is my baby girl's 5th birthday!!! Yeah. She is having so much fun. I wished her a happy birthday this morning and she hugged me as if she had won the lottery. Grandma Fetter and big sis Katie called her and sang happy birthday and her eyes lit up and the smile on her face is undescribeable. We had barbeque chicken, wild rice, corn and a plate full of apple slices, oranges and strawberries (the birthday meal she requested). Then cupcakes for dessert. She felt like a princess all day.
We had a family/friend birthday party for her this last weekend and I will post some pictures as soon as I get them downloaded.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Fundraiser
I have launched a new fundraiser...click here to reach the site.
Last year my mom and step dad had a wonderful girl stay with them as an exchange student. Her name is Juliene and she is from the Philipines. She was able to come to the US because of a scholarship that was offered to her. This Spring my mom was able to travel to the Philipines to see Juliene again and got a chance to see her living conditions. We knew she came from a poor family but we never realized how poor they were. While there my mom and step father committed to build Juliene's family a new home (their current home has three rooms, dirt floors and rusty countertops. They have pigs living practically in the next room, which helps to supply some income). They are also trying to help Juliene's mother take her test to become a nurse and want to put Juliene through college. There are 4 children in the family plus their parents. Juliene is an excellent student and a bright and energetic girl. I am kicking off this fundraiser to try to help raise the funds for the above items plus to help provide money for milk, fruit and dental care for the kids.
The fundraiser is an easy and great one. We all have magazines subscriptions. At this site you can renew or order new magazines. The prices are as good if not better than the prices directly from the publisher. We will then get 40% of the price added to our fund. Please check it out. Help out Juliene and her family.
If you would rather donate directly to the fund leave me a message with your email and I will get my address to you.
Below are some pictures of Juliene and her family.... (Juliene is in the purple in the last picture.)
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Chicago
Katie came home on Monday for a couple days. Yeah! This will be the first summer that she won't be home. She is now living down in Bloomington year round. She finished up finals last week (straight A's again!) and came to see us for a little break. On Tuesday I took all three girls to Chicago for a girls day out. We went to Chinatown and the Lincoln Park Zoo. It was a beautiful day and a nice day to get out and walk and just hang out.
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Update #2
Okay I promised I would also talk about the positives of apartment living.....
About the middle of July I would say I am happy to not be doing yard and landscaping work. I am missing it right now, but I know when it is hot out I will be happy to not have to do it. (Apparently they don't do it here either since the grass is not about 14 inches long.) The utility bills are small. Our highest was about $100 and I think our lowest should be under $50. That is really nice. Even running two woodburners our bills were higher than that in our big house. Smaller living space = faster cleaning time. Can't complain about that. I am getting some exercise using the stairs. I love the location. I am 7 miles from ANY store or restaurant you can think of. We are learning to live with less. When something needs to be fixed I don't have to put it on Mike's to do list, I just call the office. (Unfortunatley Mike does a better job fixing things than these yahoo's).
We have Olivia all signed up for kindergarten. Oh man is this girl ready. All she talks about is going to school. She had an assessment test a month ago and the results came back yesterday. She is ready. The one bad thing about kindergarten round up being early in the Spring is that she has to wait 6 months for school to start. It is almost more than she can bare.
Morgan gets out of school on June 10th. The summer I am sure will be full of things and activities. I know she is going to want to go back to Middlebury a bunch for things going on there. She is really doing well here though too. She made the honor roll again, she has a best friend, Courtney, that lives across the street from us so they are always hanging out together. Yesterday they walked to the park to play tennis. She loves her youth group pastor. She seems to like most of her teachers too. I am really proud of her and how fast she was able to adjust. She is such a great kid. She is growing up so fast and she is the spitting image of her older sister. UGH! Boys beware. Dad is gonna be on the warpath.
Katie is finishing up her finals this week. She is coming to stay with us next week before she starts her summer classes. She is doing great too. She should make the Dean's list again this semester, has her internship set up for next year and this summer will start applying to the Physical Therapy schools for her graduate school. She broke up with her boyfriend of almost 3 years last month and has been struggling some with that.
Evan is busy working! Lots of hours. He is planning something big for this month, but I can't tell yet.
Mike is stressed out at work, but glad to be working. He won't be working the hours this year that he has in the past, but with the economy the way it is, we are just glad to be getting a paycheck.
Thanks for checking in. I will try to do better.
About the middle of July I would say I am happy to not be doing yard and landscaping work. I am missing it right now, but I know when it is hot out I will be happy to not have to do it. (Apparently they don't do it here either since the grass is not about 14 inches long.) The utility bills are small. Our highest was about $100 and I think our lowest should be under $50. That is really nice. Even running two woodburners our bills were higher than that in our big house. Smaller living space = faster cleaning time. Can't complain about that. I am getting some exercise using the stairs. I love the location. I am 7 miles from ANY store or restaurant you can think of. We are learning to live with less. When something needs to be fixed I don't have to put it on Mike's to do list, I just call the office. (Unfortunatley Mike does a better job fixing things than these yahoo's).
We have Olivia all signed up for kindergarten. Oh man is this girl ready. All she talks about is going to school. She had an assessment test a month ago and the results came back yesterday. She is ready. The one bad thing about kindergarten round up being early in the Spring is that she has to wait 6 months for school to start. It is almost more than she can bare.
Morgan gets out of school on June 10th. The summer I am sure will be full of things and activities. I know she is going to want to go back to Middlebury a bunch for things going on there. She is really doing well here though too. She made the honor roll again, she has a best friend, Courtney, that lives across the street from us so they are always hanging out together. Yesterday they walked to the park to play tennis. She loves her youth group pastor. She seems to like most of her teachers too. I am really proud of her and how fast she was able to adjust. She is such a great kid. She is growing up so fast and she is the spitting image of her older sister. UGH! Boys beware. Dad is gonna be on the warpath.
Katie is finishing up her finals this week. She is coming to stay with us next week before she starts her summer classes. She is doing great too. She should make the Dean's list again this semester, has her internship set up for next year and this summer will start applying to the Physical Therapy schools for her graduate school. She broke up with her boyfriend of almost 3 years last month and has been struggling some with that.
Evan is busy working! Lots of hours. He is planning something big for this month, but I can't tell yet.
Mike is stressed out at work, but glad to be working. He won't be working the hours this year that he has in the past, but with the economy the way it is, we are just glad to be getting a paycheck.
Thanks for checking in. I will try to do better.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Update #1 and negatives
Okay Okay I know I am really lagging here on the blogging agenda. A whole month! I skipped a whole month. Now I am sure a few of you are thinking...wow she must be really busy...she hasn't had time to blog. LOL!!! I know the majority know the truth. I am a slacker! I am on the computer everyday. Sometimes several hours a day. I faithfully read all my favorite blogs but to sit down and write something here....I guess you could say I have writers block. I feel like my life is so boring I can't think of anything to write about. (How many times have I already said all of this?)
Sometimes I feel like I can't blog if I don't have some good pictures to post. Sadly my pictures are HORRIBLE compared to my bloggy friends. I really want a new camera. I looked at mine the other day and realized I have such a bad outdated camera (it has only 3.1 mega pixels) that my cell phone has a better camera in it. No wonder my pictures are always so crappy. I gotta save up for a new camera.
We are doing well. STILL waiting for our house to sell. We are getting very few showings at this time, so I am not counting on much happening there. We have been in our little apartment now for 6 months and it is okay. There are many things that I don't like. The girls share a bedroom so Olivia is up every morning at 6:30 cause that is when Morgan gets up. We have so much of our stuff packed away that I can't find anything I need (see next story). I can't paint my stark white apartment so I feel like I am living in a hospital. The parking is terrible here. If you come home any time after 8:00PM you have to park a couple buildings over. We have no handicap people in our apartment building so everyone uses the handicap spaces. (Yes, it is sad and yes even we do). Well yesterday Mike went out and had a parking ticket. UGH! We have been parking like this for 6 months along with everyone else. In fact the handicap spaces are normally filled too. They are just like other spaces for us. (Besides our apartment building is not handicap accessible anyway. To get to any apartment you have to use stairs!) Crap!!! There goes $50. They haven't mowed the yard yet this spring. (Evidently the mowers are being worked on.) Well at this time when I put Annie out to go potty, you just see the grass moving where she is walking. The poor dog probably feels like she is in a jungle. Thankfully the apartments are pretty quiet. The only noise that really gets to me is the upstairs apartment. The first 4 months they were quiet. These last two months I think there is a family of elephants living up there. I am sure of it.
(Okay here is your story). A couple weeks ago I realized I didn't have Mike's summer clothes tub out. Didn't know where it was. I dug around for a couple hours and finally found the dumb thing. It was under our patio table in the back of the storage garage. In fact it was wedged under there. The support bars from the table were holding the lid down. I had cleared a path to the table, the table was piled high with stuff and I was hot sweaty and mad. I contemplated just going and buying Mike a new summer wardrobe, but knew that was not possible. I cleaned the table off a little so that it could be lifted about 2 inches. Problem now was that I couldn't lift the table and get the lid off the tub at the same time. So, I waited until Mike got home and we went out together. He lifted the table while I laid on my back, on the pallets lining the floor, wedged between his legs cause there was barely enough room for both of us in that little corner. When he lifted the table I worked quickly to unsnap and slide the lid off the tub. Mike then put the table down and I continued to lay on my back and hand him clothes from the tub 1 or 2 pieces at a time until it was empty. So now we have an empty tub in the back of the garage...but at least we have his clothes. (I am glad I have a crappy camera...those would not have been good pics.)
Well, I will post again on the positives so that you all don't think I have a real negative outlook on life. :)
Sometimes I feel like I can't blog if I don't have some good pictures to post. Sadly my pictures are HORRIBLE compared to my bloggy friends. I really want a new camera. I looked at mine the other day and realized I have such a bad outdated camera (it has only 3.1 mega pixels) that my cell phone has a better camera in it. No wonder my pictures are always so crappy. I gotta save up for a new camera.
We are doing well. STILL waiting for our house to sell. We are getting very few showings at this time, so I am not counting on much happening there. We have been in our little apartment now for 6 months and it is okay. There are many things that I don't like. The girls share a bedroom so Olivia is up every morning at 6:30 cause that is when Morgan gets up. We have so much of our stuff packed away that I can't find anything I need (see next story). I can't paint my stark white apartment so I feel like I am living in a hospital. The parking is terrible here. If you come home any time after 8:00PM you have to park a couple buildings over. We have no handicap people in our apartment building so everyone uses the handicap spaces. (Yes, it is sad and yes even we do). Well yesterday Mike went out and had a parking ticket. UGH! We have been parking like this for 6 months along with everyone else. In fact the handicap spaces are normally filled too. They are just like other spaces for us. (Besides our apartment building is not handicap accessible anyway. To get to any apartment you have to use stairs!) Crap!!! There goes $50. They haven't mowed the yard yet this spring. (Evidently the mowers are being worked on.) Well at this time when I put Annie out to go potty, you just see the grass moving where she is walking. The poor dog probably feels like she is in a jungle. Thankfully the apartments are pretty quiet. The only noise that really gets to me is the upstairs apartment. The first 4 months they were quiet. These last two months I think there is a family of elephants living up there. I am sure of it.
(Okay here is your story). A couple weeks ago I realized I didn't have Mike's summer clothes tub out. Didn't know where it was. I dug around for a couple hours and finally found the dumb thing. It was under our patio table in the back of the storage garage. In fact it was wedged under there. The support bars from the table were holding the lid down. I had cleared a path to the table, the table was piled high with stuff and I was hot sweaty and mad. I contemplated just going and buying Mike a new summer wardrobe, but knew that was not possible. I cleaned the table off a little so that it could be lifted about 2 inches. Problem now was that I couldn't lift the table and get the lid off the tub at the same time. So, I waited until Mike got home and we went out together. He lifted the table while I laid on my back, on the pallets lining the floor, wedged between his legs cause there was barely enough room for both of us in that little corner. When he lifted the table I worked quickly to unsnap and slide the lid off the tub. Mike then put the table down and I continued to lay on my back and hand him clothes from the tub 1 or 2 pieces at a time until it was empty. So now we have an empty tub in the back of the garage...but at least we have his clothes. (I am glad I have a crappy camera...those would not have been good pics.)
Well, I will post again on the positives so that you all don't think I have a real negative outlook on life. :)
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Our Mini Reunion
This weekend Morgan, Olivia and I made a trip down to Kentucky. We were part of a little reunion with our adoption group. When we went to China there were several families that traveled together. We got several of those families together to celebrate our "Gotcha Day" in China three years ago. It was so much fun. I have not seen any of these little "babies" for three years and they are getting so grown up. Olivia is the oldest of the group by almost a year (and still the littlest!). 
Sophie, Makana, Gianna, Emily, Ava and Olivia
Sophie eating pizza!
Beautiful Emily.
The hostess...Makana
Funny Gianna.
Hilarious Ava. What a doll. A little Chinese girl with a southern accent. TOO CUTE!
Olivia and her buddy Ava.
Olivia and Ava putting on tattoos.
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