Thanksgiving and another adoption for this family

Thanksgiving
Over the river and through the woods to Granny's house we did go. Andy's mom lives about three hours away from us, and we do literally go over the river and through the woods to get there. Our thanksgiving feast started with a tradition started a few years ago by my mother-in-law - communion. We then enjoyed all the turkey and trimmings followed by pumpkin pie or red velvet cake for dessert.

Our niece Page is always helpful with the little people. I met Page just after meeting Andy when she was a week old. Time does fly. It is so hard to believe that was 17 years ago.

Andy's Aunt Judy (left), and his grandma visited along with his Uncle Walt. Andy's mom is in yellow.

This is Ben, Dianna, and Pam. Dianna and Pam are Andy's sisters, and Dianna is Ben's mom.

We had an uneventful trip this year, and given the number of people hanging out at Jean's house, we opted to stay in a hotel. This was the first time that it appeared we would need two rooms. However, the hotel staff found Wyatt and Julia to be small enough to allow us all to stay in one room. This is just one of those adjustments to a bigger family. I figure that once we have two rooms, we might as well fill them...one more child won't cost that much more...lol.

This year I am quite thankful that we have had an easier year than last year, but I am most thankful that "Peter" (mentioned in a previous post) got to be at home for Thanksgiving. During communion in church on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, I prayed that Peter would be home with his family for Thanksgiving. There was a sliver of hope there according to the last update, and I really felt like God said to me, "it is going to happen." Yet, I did not dare share that with anyone for fear that it was my own wishful thinking. We do indeed have much for which to be thankful, not the least of which is a personal God.

Tradition

Our church paper asked us to share our favorite Christmas traditions. I sent a message about our long-standing tradition of having Mary and Joseph travel through our home during the holiday season. They stop for the night in each of our bedrooms at some point during the journey and arrive in "Bethlehem" on Christmas Eve. The baby Jesus arrives some time later that night, and the wise men arrive later Christmas Day. Yes, this means that aside from a couple of animals, our manger is displayed, but empty, until Christmas. However, I started this in hopes of the children being delighted by the arrival of the baby Jesus, not just the arrival of Santa Claus.

So, I sent this information to the church paper, and they sent me on a photo shoot. Whoa, I wasn't expecting that. So, I managed the following shots.

We do have some funny stories behind this tradition. There was the year that we got everything set up and had some old boxes that needed to be tossed. I asked Andy to dispose of the boxes thinking of only one stack. However, I did not specify which boxes were to be trashed, and he cleared out all of them...including the one that held the baby Jesus. Thus, we rebuilt our nativity set and chose a classic set that did not have breakable pieces so that the children could handle them. Our old set was porcelean, and by the time the baby Jesus landed in the trash, one of the wise men had already had to have his head glued back in place a few times. Unfortunately, this was a pricey collection, so we continue to add one piece a year until it is complete. This year I bought a traveling Mary and Joseph to better suit our tradition. Of course, it arrived the day after I submitted the pictures :)

Adoption
I am guessing that for some of you, the rest of this blog entry has been skipped. After reading the title, you jumped right to this sub-heading. You may have already known about our new addition. If not, you might have been thinking baby thoughts. To be honest I am praying about the baby thing. I know, I know this is coming from the woman who said upon marriage that I would have no more than two children. Well, look at me now. How much can I nurture?

Anyway, this is the story of Shiloh. We have been looking at dogs for several weeks. Long before we said goodbye to Bambi, we felt that this family would always have a dog, and the last 4 1/2 months have been the longest that we have been without a pooch. My only rule for this dog hunt was that the dog could not be big enough to open our doors that contain our cat to the only area of the house where she is allowed and that the dog cannot be big enough to drink from the toilet. Visions of a spoiled, tiny lap dog danced through my head. However, beagle kept coming up. It came up when I bought my new vacuum cleaner. "They make great family dogs" the clerk said. They kept coming up on the Humane Society web page, and finally, I realized that my selfish desire for a spoiled foofoo dog is really not fair to a family, and this next dog will hopefully see our children to adulthood. So, I found this little cutie last Friday night on the Humane Society site. We had to go out of town for wrestling on Saturday, and when we returned, she was no longer on the site. I inquired about her and learned she had been moved and to call the next day. On Sunday I was told that she needed to see the vet and probably had a cold. On Monday I learned that she was being transferred to a location very close to my work. Hmmm, everything seemed to be working together, and the books in the library indicated that you could not go wrong with a beagle. So, I went to take a look at her and brought her home.

She had been named Tula by the Humane Society and had sisters named Tilly and Taffy. I mentioned Shiloh as a name. I believe that Shiloh means "home." Since dogs generally greet you, I figured it would be an appropriate name. Savannah pushed hard for this dog and latched onto the name Shiloh. Ultimately, the name came down to a vote that included only Savannah, Wyatt, and Julia. They chose Shiloh unanimously. Although, Wyatt and Julia both toyed with Tula.

So, I brought home this dog and spent money that should have been used to paint or buy a kitchen table and then spent the whole first night worrying about what I had done. Shiloh's paws indicate that she may just be able to sip from the toilet...blech! She will certainly be strong enough to open the doors, and I am trying to be diligent in training her so that she will be a very good dog. I am also praying very hard. After all, God loves all his creation, right?

The kids are enamoured. I could not get home with Shiloh before picking up three of them from the bus stop. Zach was the first to see her and immediately asked to hold her. He would not let her go until she was at home. Savannah has been attentive and worked at training her. Julia is a hoot and loves that Shiloh follows her around. Wyatt is a riot! He called to our neighbor who was cutting his grass.."Hey, Neighborhood! " Wyatt shouted this while waving the neighbor over. "Look, we have a new dog!" Wyatt then took a look at the fence and asked, "what if she gets into your neighborhood?''

Shiloh had her first vet visit today. She is 7 pounds and 2 ounces. She was born September 18th, and her training is going well. Shiloh is feisty today. I think she was quite nervous until today.

Not everyone is crazy about Shiloh. Our cat has hissed every time she has been near the dog. She is so mad that she won't let anyone near her and scratched Andy pretty badly tonight when he tried to love on her. I have to admit that I often think that cat is the spawn of Satan. She is a piece of work!

Did you know Native Americans and pilgrims could be this cute?

Today the kindergarten class at Julia's school held their kindergarten program and feast. They did a fantastic job, and I enjoyed having the day off to enjoy this special time with Julia.

They started with their usual style by asking the audience to join them in the pledges to the American flag, Christian flag, and Bible followed by a prayer. Julia led the pledge to the American flag. We were a tad worried about this as she kept mixing up the pledges when she practiced. However, Julia took the microphone and clearly and confidently led the pledge. Of course it was not lost on me that my little girl who did not become an American citizen until her first birthday was behind her was leading this special pledge. Julia's class played the role of the pilgrims, and they acted out the journey to America on the Mayflower. Some of those complaints on the Mayflower were quite familiar. "I am hungry." I have to go to the bathroom." " Are we there yet?"--Julia's line

Every child in all three classes had an opportunity to state what they are thankful for into the microphone. Julia stated that she is thankful for the world.

Following the program we enjoyed a feast. Andy and I were responsible for corn for 50 people. I think maybe 10 servings went out from that batch. I have no idea what we will do with the leftovers.

Unfortunately, Julia was facing the other direction for most of the performance. I thought about moving to the other side and wish I had done so. Her teacher pointed out that Julia turned and smiled at Ian after every song. Ms. Cheser said it was so cute. I missed it...GRRR.

In addition to watching the program and enjoying the feast, I also learned this funny story about Julia. My friend Jane, who works in the school cafeteria, shared that the kids get a piece of candy if they eat all of their fruits and vegetables. One day Julia brought her tray to Jane with the napkins carefully placed on the tray. This is the conversation that followed:

Julia: I ate all my fruits and vegetables.

Jane: Did you eat all of your apples?

Julia: Yes

Jane: Did you eat all of your carrots?

Julia: Yes

Jane: Are you sure you ate ALL of your carrots?

Julia: Yes

Jane: (After lifting the napkin and finding the carrots) Julia, what happened here?

At this point Julia was wide-eyed and silent. Jane told her that everyone makes mistakes and that she needs to remember not to tell lies. Julia walked away quickly and silently and did not speak to Jane (she was embarrassed) for days. Jane was laughing so hard about this encounter with Julia.

A funny thing about Julia is that when she is at home and intentionally does something wrong, she tries to charm her way out of it. Unfortunately, this does work for her sometimes. However, when she does something she shouldn't unintentionally, Julia is inconsolable.

I think Julia truly enjoyed performing today. She was dismissed from school right after the feast. However, we had to return in two hours to pick up the cookie dough she sold (all to me-ick), so we ran errands in the area including stopping by my work to drop off some books. Julia would not speak to my students and colleagues. She is such a study in contrasts-very shy or very outgoing and pretty unpredictable with both.

She's Amazing! Wins and a note to my Facebook friends

She's Amazing!
"She's amazing! She does everything I ask her to do." These words were stated by Julia's gymnastics teacher when she approached me about moving Julia up to the next level in gymnastics. Of my four children, Julia is the only one whose God-given talent has been so easy to identify at such a young age. We knew within months of meeting her that she had impressive upper body strength, and her fearless approach to playgrounds and anything that she could find to climb was revealed shortly thereafter. Ironically, Andy said early on that he would not allow his girls to be involved in gymnastics stating that he would have a heart attack trying to watch them do such a risky thing. I think it was the second or third time that he pulled Julia down from the top of the swing set that he told me to sign her up. He figured she was going to do it anyway and might as well do it safely.
Now about that class...the price tag is higher than her current class, and she can remain in her current class as long as she is five, so we will be discussing this and taking it to God in prayer before making a firm decision on this.

Wins
It appears that Zach has found his niche as well. Today he placed 1st in a wrestling tournament and was 2nd in last week's tournament. Last week's second place finish was rather interesting. At some point in the match, the opponents coach had a chat with the referees and the score keepers, and Zach's opponent got five points out of the deal. While Andy agreed that some points were missed, five seemed a bit high and the final score revealed a two-point difference. Zach is having a blast! This, however, is draining Mom and Dad. He practices three nights a week and spends his free night at youth group. I never anticipated having him gone so much at 14...18 yes, but not 14. Football remains his first love, and he is a talented lineman, but wrestling pays off for him in the off season.

A Note to my Facebook friends
If you saw my post on Facebook yesterday, you are aware that a nasty virus hit my Facebook account. I tried to open a video in my inbox that was supposedly sent from a friend and had comments attached to it from another friend. This friend had reported problems earlier in the week and had appeared to have them resolved. Unfortunately, they were not resolved, and my attempt to open the video resulted in links and videos landing in the inboxes of my friends. I did not send any of them. My mom attempted to clear them out using my account from her computer as I was on the road to pick up Julia right after this happend. Ultimately, I followed Facebook's advice and changed my password, but I also deactivated my account in an effort to protect my friends from this. I am very sorry if you opened something supposedly sent by me before I could warn you not to. I don't know when I will return to Facebook as this virus immediately disabled my firewall and spyware protection. All scans on our computer are clean at this point, but there is a malware attempt to get into our computer that is ongoing, and I cannot get rid of it. Unfortunately, I am afraid all of this will appear again if I reactivate my Facebook account since it acts as if you never left when you reactivate the account. Therefore, I believe I will not be on Facebook for at least a few weeks.
This has been a rough week as I have been sick and attempted to support a grieving friend. We also had a difficult situation going on with Wyatt. Work has also been busier and when I finally sat down to enjoy a break and catch up on Facebook, this happened. UGH! So, I did not "unfriend" you on Facebook. I miss catching up with everyone, but this too shall pass.

The Dancing Diva Turkey

After sending two kids through kindergarten at the same school, we are well-versed in this school's kindergarten traditions. One such tradition is the decoration of a turkey--a family project. Julia's turkey was due today, and this girl definitely has her own, strong opinions about school projects. First, she adamantly insisted on pipe cleaners and glitter. What were we going to do with pipe cleaners and glitter? I pushed hard for a mosaic and thought beads would be very nice. She pushed equally hard against such a thing. Finally, we reached a compromise. We used construction paper to create a mosaic on the head, feet and part of the body, trimmed this part with pipe cleaners and covered it with glitter. I know that we have finished the turkey with feathers one other time but can't remember if we did that for both Zach and Savvy. When the project was complete, Julia dubbed it "the dancing diva turkey." This is the one part of Julia that is all girl...the gaudier, the better. She does not play with dolls, really not even toys, but she loves glamour. So, approximately $12.00 spent on a kindergarten project. The result...priceless? Go ahead and click on the picture, so you can see the full, glitter and feather effect.

This One's for the Boys!

It was all about the boys in this house last week. On Tuesday, November 3rd, Zach officially saw the end of football season with the team banquet. Mr. Griffee, Zach's line coach, referred to Zach as a "yes sir, no sir" kid and stated that Zach does everything he is asked. hmmm...Could those coaches coach him on cleaning his room? Zach is seen here with Coach Griffee. His coach was not the only one to offer a nice compliment to Zach over the last week. A mom from school stopped me to tell me that Zach always allows the ladies to get on the bus before him in the morning, and she tells her girls that Zach is the type of guy you want. Andy was stopped at church today by yet another mom who told him that Zach gave a very nice prayer for lunch at school recently...we never knew he even did that. His lunch room is a rather crowded place, and Zach revealed that he stood on a chair to get every one's attention to pray. Apparently, this is a job normally performed by a high schooler.

The sometimes great, sometimes not so great part of having kids in two different school systems is that sometimes the schedules do not match. On Thursday and Friday Wyatt and I were out of school while the rest of the crew had to attend. We spent those days making up for lost time. Thursday's schedule included an oil change, a vacuum cleaner purchase, and an appointment to have two couches cleaned. I also re caulked one of the bathtubs, so it was not so much fun. However, we made up for that on Friday. Because Wyatt missed his field trip to the pumpkin patch, I agreed to take him on Friday. First, he had to visit the surgeon, and we got great news....no surgery until next summer at the earliest. WOOHOO!!

We then headed to the farm only to find that post Halloween, nothing but the market is open...no petting zoo, no playground-nothing. I got one fun picture and then we...

headed to the zoo. I felt like we would never get out of the van, but we were able to see this bird up close.

Wyatt got to see a snake eat a meal (sort of). The snake was taking it's sweet time with that, and we gave up. He then got to pet a snake, and we have proof!

The zoo sells nectar for the lorakeets, and I thought Wyatt would enjoy feeding them. The only problem was that the zoo raised the price, and exact change is now required. This meant that I could not buy the promised nectar. However, a very kind gentleman bought an extra and gave it to us. ah, the kindness of strangers...Wyatt was afraid of the birds at first. He never fed them, but eventually, the caretaker convinced Wyatt to give it a try as you can see.

Before our day was over, we were able to see kangaroos up close and the baby elephant playing. It was a beautiful day, and I think Wyatt thoroughly enjoyed it.

Happy Halloween!

We have embraced Halloween in this house. Originally, it was a holiday that I wanted to avoid in our household. However, Zach felt left out in preschool, so we have done variations of celebrating Halloween over the years. Savannah is not crazy about it and gave it up last year. Zach still wants to dress up and go trick or treating, but an invitation to a college football game trumped that plan. Our celebration this year included a visit to the zoo on October 15th. The afternoon was chilly, but it was just plain fun. I talked Savannah into going with me against her better judgement, and she seemed to enjoy herself as well.

Optimus Prime and the disco diva are ready to go

This pumpkin scared Julia, but Wyatt was unfazed. The pumpkin spoke to the kids and commented on their costumes.

I enjoyed the characters.

disco dancing under the disco ball

The carousel runs backwards on Halloween.

Savannah wanted to ride too, but I did not have enough money on me. I felt terrible, but as always she was gracious.

On Friday I visited Wyatt's class for their Halloween party.

Optimus Prime and the disco diva pose near the pumpkin Julia chose on her field trip.

This is Julia's, "I do not want to pose for pictures. I want to check out my candy!" look.

finally willing to cooperate

Wyatt insisted on posing with candy.

Do you think this is a little much?

I carved this pumpkin from our family trip to the pumpkin patch.

Andy carved Julia's pumpkin.

Andy took the kids trick or treating. He reported that Julia informed him every time Wyatt forgot to say "thank you." One man came out of his house and to his driveway to tell Andy how cute our little people were and how polite. hmmm, maybe, just maybe, we are getting something right here