Wednesday and Thursday

This was Cala last night after getting stung by what was evidently a hornet. (she saw something fly away, and then today a neighbor girl told Cala that they have lots of problems with hornets' nests- and the bush where Cala was stung by, borders our property and this girls' family's yard.).

Not knowing if Cala was allergic, we watched her carefully, called the nurse line (from our insurance) and gave her ibuprofen as her finger had swollen twice its normal size! She was quite miserable, but never had chills or fever, etc. She woke up just fine this morning and all is well.

AND in other news! Seth was wrong... I called and verified that Seth actually had one more day of pre-school, so TODAY was his actual last day. Here is a picture of him holding his certificate. He told Cala he is no longer a pre-schooler, but a kindergartener. He is quite proud! I, of course, am wondering where my baby boy went! What will I do in the fall, when he begins Kindergarten?!

Farewell Pre-school

Today was Seth's last day of pre-school. While many of my online friends are shedding tears at high school graduations this week, I am wondering where my little baby man went?! (and he's only five! I can not begin to imagine what they are going through!).

The picture today is of a magnet Seth made for me, at school. I absolutely love it! It will be one of those I keep forever, like another magnet I have- from when my now grown, 22 year old nephew was in Kindergarten and made a drawing onto a magnet. It's still precious to me now!

Time does really fly even if we aren't ready.

Have you ever contemplated what a horse in Minnesota looks like? Well, wonder no more! Here you go... we have many horses around here, many cows, many farms! I absolutely love that!

Yah, you betcha!

Catch up pictures!

So here we go... Friday- We went to Ethan's field day at school. It was early in the morning and windy! Ethan's team placed first in most events.

That evening, Glenn was gone into the Cities and so it was just the kids and me. We had a wonderful time, stayed out shopping for Glenn's upcoming birthday, ate pizza (it spikes Glenn's blood sugar too high so this was a real treat for the kids and I since we just don't get it anymore)... I let the kids stay up way too late and we all welcomed Papa back home.



Saturday- We stayed in, did our usual "big" cleaning, continued Spring cleaning... and was just still happy to have found this painting on Friday at a yard sale... we have it hanging above our bed.... Since we moved here, there has been this space that needed a painting or a picture, something! We would look, but at the stores, everything is just way too expensive and at yard sales even, most things were more than I wanted to pay. We spotted this on Friday, and I got out to look. I snapped it up when I saw it was just ONE dollar!!!! We both laugh now that we can't believe we bought a SNOWY scene but it is a mountain scene which we both love!

And then there's today- Sunday.... This afternoon, following dinner ("lunch"), I made a grocery list and headed to Wal-mart while the kids (and Glenn) took a nap. Being from busy central Florida, I am used to crowds at Wal-mart, and so, admittedly, the crowd here on a Sunday is nothing compared to that, but it was crowded for here, and I've grown accustomed to the slower pace. HA I think I'll stick to week day grocery shopping!

We are so often headed on the road in this direction, it just seemed the right thing to do to take a picture! :o)

Please pray tonight (or whenever you read this) for Ethan. He's not doing so well right now with his mental illnesses. In fact, right now, depression has hit him majorly. I ache for my son and can't help but wonder what his life will be like years from now... Yet, I know that God is able and I simply need to live in the 'here and now'. (otherwise, I would spend much more time crying!).

Please pray for Ethan and all those struck with mental illness. It's real, and it's rough.

More scenery from around here :o)

Today has been spent with a headache! I hate when that happens, but it happens often lately. (something to do with that ol ' barometric pressure).

I enjoyed church tonight anyway, and am so glad I made it. I needed that "re-charge" for the rest of my week!

Cala is so photogenic! I took this this evening as she came out of group therapy. The kids enjoyed it, and it gives Glenn and me 3 hours alone. We get to have a date and enjoyed supper out and then went by Target for a few groceries.

Weather wise, it couldn't have been a nastier day- so very dreary and chilly. The Florida girl in me wanted to rebel and take off the coat, but alas, that wasn't possible! May? Really?

Saturday's picture and Today (Monday)

So, as promised, a picture from Saturday... Saturday was May 8th... Cala's Family Day- some call it Gotcha Day, Adoption Day, Forever Day, but we call it Family Day. Cala became our daughter on May 8th, 2001 when we were able to take her home! :o) We then lived in St. Petersburg, Russia, her native city.

Each Family Day, we give our child something that represents their native culture, their heritage... this year, we gave Cala this sweat shirt with Russia on it, the map of the country and a Russian girl with a traditional dress on. Cala LOVED it!

We are truly blessed with this sweet girl! She suffers from Fetal Alcohol as her birth mother drank throughout the pregnancy, but Cala is just the type to turn that around and use it to her advantage- her creativity is amazing, and she has turned out to be a wonderful artist.

***** Now, for today- Monday, May 10th... ***** This morning, I told the boys that it is Mother's Day in their native lands of El Salvador and Guatemala. Ethan asked, "so, it's our birth mothers' Mother's Day?" :o)

We had a full afternoon of appointments and as I type this at 10:25 p.m., we really haven't been home too long. That's life for us right now, as we try to get Ethan all the help we can with his mental illnesses. We are just grateful we are able to get the help we need.

Today's picture: This was taken in the parking lot of a store Glenn ran into today. The kids and I waited while he went in for a few minutes... it was such a rainy, rainy, dreary day. The kids enjoy the van and the fact that it's easy when waiting to get up out of their car seats and roam around a bit.

I will have to post yesterday's picture with tomorrow's. Today, though, I didn't want Mother's Day to pass without posting a picture of my Mama and me. This was taken last year in July, when she visited us for two weeks. We are planning for her to visit us again this July or August, and I am so looking forward to that.

Mama is a wonderful woman, and is the type of mother all mothers should aspire to be, the type of lady all women should aspire to be. (I can hear her now reminding me that all ladies are women, but not all women are ladies!).

I am truly blessed and miss her very much! I can't wait to see her this summer. Happy Mother's Day!

Today, as my Mother's Day gift, we picked up the kids a little early from school and went an hour and a half away to spend the night and part of tomorrow. We had a wonderful afternoon and evening!!! Where we are staying has an old timey arcade (complete with Pac-man--- a blast from the past) and a pool table.

This has been what the kids call, "the best day ever!"

Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday's picture- this was taken right after church last night. These boys are such blessings to my life! They are rascals, they are sweet, they are buzzards!, they are precious, they are real characters!, but I am just so very happy and grateful to God that they are my sons!






Today's (Thursday) picture- Ethan was in a play today. It was really cute. He was thrilled we were there (and so was a couple of our church members).

Monday and Tuesday's pictures

Yesterday, this little guy spent the afternoon waiting on his sister and brother while they had appointments. Seth has gotten used to it and does well to have to go to so many places throughout the week.

Today was yet another busy morning, with a psychiatrist appointment for Ethan. We came back by the school, dropped Ethan off, came home, waited on the bus to take Seth to pre-school and I thought that would be it. Thankfully though, Glenn surprised me with lunch out, just the two of us. We tried a Mexican restaurant we had never been to and really enjoyed it!

Today's picture is just one of the trees that we have growing around here this time of year. I love the colors we are starting to see... no, not as much as I enjoy fall, but the trees around here are beginning to get beautiful!

Tomorrow is promising to be yet another very busy day, but at least we have church in the evening , where we can re-charge :o)

Sunday

After church this morning, we all changed clothes and headed out for Sunday dinner. This picture of my kids was taken this afternoon. I love these little guys! I'm blessed and so very grateful to God for allowing me to be their Mama.

**Pray for our family in South Carolina once again... my Uncle Ernest died two weeks ago yesterday. His wife, Aunt Juanita died this evening! She told Mama right after my Uncle's death, "I won't be here long!" Praising the Lord she has been reunited with her dear husband.**

Saturday's post

This is the picture I was going to post last night but obviously did not!

I recently got my hair cut and am loving it. I've had it similar to this before but it had been awhile.

I just felt the need for a new style I suppose!

Saturday was a nice, peaceful, enjoyable day. That was such a treat! We spend our Saturdays sparkling our home in preparation for church held here on Sundays. That it went so peacefully yesterday was a blessing :o)

Friday Family Night

Tonight was Seth's turn to choose what we would eat and what we do for our weekly family night. He chose chicken nuggets and fries for supper, candy for dessert, and playing Star Wars on the Wii for the activity!!! We really enjoyed tonight!

As you can see, Seth really got into playing the game! I was actually playing him when this picture was taken by Glenn. Seth won!

Poor guy really got a workout! He was pouring sweat by the night's end.

Thursday's picture/post

Yesterday I would have posted but it was one of those nights I was so exhausted! We had a long, but good day. In the evening, we took Cala to get her hair cut, as she is the last one in the family to not have their hair done recently. :o)

I LOVE the way they did Cala's hair. She picked out a look in a book at the salon, and after she and I finally agreed on what would be a good style, I think they did well!!! (for the record, she wanted even shorter hair!)

She is indeed pleased with how it turned out... it's supposed to have a style on the top and will when we get her hair trained to stay that way :o)

Wednesday

I thought I would share the pictures Cala took last night as we were coming in.

I understand she wasn't quite in focus, but I still enjoyed these pictures! She is really starting to show an interest in taking pictures, something I share with her. Any of my family who may be reading may be saying, "Yes, we remember when you would take pictures of folks and their heads would be cut off." My Daddy used to joke about how many pictures must be laying around the house with cut off heads, or blurry people, etc. :o)

Today, Wednesday, was spent taking Ethan to his 7 year old check up, and then having church service. Previously, I slept a lot! That's why I am so awake now as I type this! Having a kidney infection makes me tired, but not when I should be! ha

This was taken this evening (through the van mirror) while waiting on our kids in their group therapy session. Glenn loves to read and really gets serious about his books :o)

Today was 16 years ago, that our first child was due. We were planning to name that baby Evan. It's so hard to believe it's been that many years! I can't imagine being the parent of a 16 year old just yet, but Cala is just 4 and a half years away from that now! Yikes.

Monday's picture

Ethan and I both were scheduled for appointments with our therapists. I planned for a few days to let this somehow be an afternoon that I could take Ethan on a "date." Glenn and I do this as often as we can with each of our children. It is a special time for that child and for each one of us.

Since Ethan has mental issues, and his anger is aimed towards me, it is rare that we can be alone... it has been suggested more than once that we are indeed never alone for a long period of time. When I realized that because of the time of our appointments, if we all went (meaning Glenn, us and Seth), we wouldn't be back in time for Cala to get home from school, I suggested that this could be a date for Ethan and me. So, it was planned, and looked forward to... then this past Saturday, I became "sick as a dog" with kidney/bladder infections! I knew somehow I needed to get through today. I enlisted the prayers of many and thankfully, we made it! I did indeed get sick on the way home, but Ethan managed really well during our time together.

I even stopped and had my hair cut while we were out and once we made it home, I just had to get a picture for the blog, of Ethan and me. Yes, he did start getting 'fustated' as he said (frustrated) but he realized it and was able to utilize some techniques he has been taught. I praise the Lord for His goodness in allowing me some much needed time with my oldest, precious son!

Sunday

I love this picture! For our family devotions at night (right before bed for the kids), we have been studying the book of Job. I was surprised this evening when Seth said, "Ethan! Will you go with me upstairs and get our Bibles?" He went on to say how their Sunday School teacher told them that they should be reading their Bibles and learning all they can about God. I was so proud :o) Of course, they can't yet read many words, but they were sure to have me get their Bibles turned to the right book and the right chapter and verse!