A family full of birthdays!

Some things I miss, not living close to my family....

Every year Thanksgiving evening there is a birthday gathering. My Dad had his birthday on Thanksgiving this year.....Can you say Turkey? He shares it with my cousin/godson Phil and my grandmother, who I am sure smiles her Irish eyes down at us.
My uncle, Starla (niece), Stone, and even me also are part of the birthday song and dance. Okay, so we don' t dance...but that would be funny.

I almost feel a little sense of relief not having to "fit" on the couch with this bunch..... Almost.





Thanks Aunt Jamie for the pictures. I especially like the cake picture. It looks like either Russ and Phil are worried it will be eaten up by my Dad, Scott....or they are master minding a plan.

Jr Indians will return in 2007!

That is the latest news we heard at the award banquet last night!
The Jr Indians celebrated and received awards at the best wing place in the world. (OUR FAVORITE ANYWAY).

Buffallo Wild Wings

The boys all sat and played interactive poker on one of the 24 TV's in the room. We all ate wings with lots of choices of sauces.
Votes were tallied, and at our table the medium and spicy garlic a took a close first. Mango something-or-other took honorable mention. Of course our table consisted of Bart, Lucy, Stone, and ME.
You can take your own poll, if you don't agree. I recommend the tall draft Bud Light with it!
Dante tired the blazin' and vows never to try it again!


Notice the picture of all the sauces...YUMMY!









Football went great this weekend. Dante kicked it up on Saturday and came out on fire. After Friday's game he needed to. He ended up with a belly ache from eating right after weighing in. Bad thing is after dieting and loosing weight the max was 98 not 90 lbs.

They played at a field that overlooked a military cemetery. Breath Taking.
This picture here shows a taste of it in the background.


Last night at the banquet, coach called him "the project". He said all the coaches agree that after they tame the rough edges, Dante will be a heck of a ball player. He was really the only one out of 15 that he said anything about. I almost had tears, but saved them for the DVD picture collage one of the moms made. He is not in a whole lot of the pictures, since he joined half way through, but after getting to know all the boys and the pictures themselves it was touching.

On the way home we drove through the park to see the Christmas lights.
An hour later, we drove out. Stone kept yelling...."Stop, Stop, Stop, Stop it" to Bart to stop the car so he could tell us about each display all 200 of them.

The day before Thanksgiving

While the boys make the outside look all festive and pretty....
















I destroyed the kitchen. Only to have to clean it up myself, but pumpkin pieS (two), peanut butter kisses, and no bake (gooey) cookies were so worth it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
GO jr. INDIANS! Fri, Sat, and Sun!
Unless there is a MAJOR adventure to report,
I will be away...making adventures, I am sure.

under 90

Dante has a big tournament the weekend after Thanksgiving in St. Louis. I even have to have a copy of his birth cert., report card, and a small picture for proof of age. AND he has to weigh in. Because of his position he has to weigh in at under 90 pounds. The coach even talked to me after practice about the importance of this and gave some "guidelines" in case he is close to 90. And said either way it would be a good idea to have:
NO LATE NIGHT SNACKS...after 8:00 to be exact and
NO JUNK FOOD!

I just can't get Dori from Nemo out of my head....
"NO Eating here tonight, NO Eating her tonight. You're on a diiiieeet!"

Thanksgiving feast......?????? 

The Hello Kitty Club

It has been a little over 7 months of LID waiting. We still have a long road of waiting so it seems by the slow moving dates each month that referrals are getting through. Towards the end or beginning of the month China sends the referrals to families next in the LID line. August 25th was the last cut off date. August 25th of 2005. WE ARE LID APRIL 12,2006. The current stretch of dates the are getting through has a range of about 10-18 days. If this does not increase to what it once was of month to month and a half then the wait will increase.

I have had good days and bad hours. Not bad days. Our time will come and there is a reason for the delay. God is in charge of this, as well as all things in our lives. I do honestly believe that and am at peace because of it (as noted earlier, most of the time).

A fellow "kick butt" (she is a strong single parent ready to face the world with her daughter) adoption MOM sent me this link that made me smile. Made me see the future. Made me believe in miracles. Made me rethink my sad thoughts. Made me happy.

TAKE A LOOK AT THE HELLO KITTY CLUB!

Stone turned 5!

Stone's birthday was outstanding!
Click here to see some pictures.
We started celebrating Sunday really as the kids at Sunday School sang to him. He was very proud! Then, after I created Mickey from flour, sugar, milk and some other ingredients, it was on to Disney on Skates. What a great show. Lucy of course was scared and cried the first 15 minutes to go home. Stone sat with his mouth open and Dante was even not ashamed to say it was cool. By the middle Lucy was marching and clapping and Stone was getting just a little bored. My favorite part was watching the reactions of the kids. I missed half the show, but I had a much better one I was watching!

Monday "THE BIG BIRTHDAY DAY" started with Big Gingie's of course. The library second and then off to school. I took "fancy cakes" (his favorite litte Debbie treat) for him to share with his friends and he left school with a hat, and other birthday goodies. He was extremely excited and happy.

Dinner was spent at his favorite Mexican restaurant. Here he eats, and eats, and eats. He opened mail and presents. He even hugged an unopened present sent in the mail by Aunt Jamie and Uncle John saying he loved it. He loved it more when he found out two games were in it. Both big hits! Kim Possible and the Little Einsteins!
Finally the Spanish version of Happy Birthday. The waiters come at us with instruments and ONE VERY LOUD DRUM. Scared Lucy to bits. Screaming and crying for 5 minutes. Stone shook and hid. A good laugh, and a never forget moment!

The Cake celebration was super. Friends came to share and everyone enjoyed Mickey. I was surprised how easy it was to cut into him and eat him up! (Guess I need to splurge a little more often). Stone ended up in bed with us at some point and it just seemed to me he was bigger, now that he is 5.

5 years ago....part 1

Today my Stone turns 5.
And that is all I can say right now without crying.
Today he is the magic age of growing up.

All the details later!

Buy a candle, topper, accessory...support Dante's Jr Indian football habit!

JR INDIAN FOOTBALL NEEDS YOUR HELP!
We are holding a fundraiser to help offset some of the cost to play in the holiday tournament Thanksgiving weekend. SaltCity Candle has so many outstanding scents. I was hesitant until I went to an open house and was ready to walk out with over 5 candles. I decided to just get two now and when orders are due I may just get more.
Check out the site by clicking anywhere on this post. Candles are candles to some people...but these really did blow my mind by the mixtures, the strong scent, and the unique scents as well. After choosing what you want let me know...DO NOT ORDER THROUGH THE SITE!
I will be putting the order in TUESDAY! I was told they will be in before Christmas. I will do everything to get these to you. Especially those of you from afar!

MY PICKS

• Candy Cane (burning now)
• Christmas tree (REALLY NEAT)
• Banana Flower
• Strawberry Shortcake
• Cappuccino Brulee
• Pumpkin Pie (OF COURSE)
• Splendor (A big favorite)

These are a few of my favorite things...

Stone had an early birthday. His gameboy (stolen from Dante) broke awhile back...scroll down to fountain incident.
This year we bought him a black one that came with lots of games, ebay style! Since the weekend was spent in the car going to football he was given part of his birthday early. I love to see joy on his face. It is genuine and that you really don't see too often anymore!

Check out the football star, with his team sweatshirt! He smashed heads and scored big on both Sat. and Sun! The Jr. Indians did not let either team score! He also got knocked on his butt too! The kind when the whole crowd goes, "Ohhh", "EEWWHHH" and "OOOUUUCHHH"!
Couch yelled to Dante to "answer the phone" with a chuckle. He jumped up and ran the ball! Yippee!


Lucy amazed me with this. She loves the magnadoodle! She came to me and said "this you Momma". I glanced and said great job. Typical me answer. Then did a take back to stare at this. I have two eyes a nose and a mouth. She had no help and drew her Momma. I especially like my little patch of hair on top!

And PUMPKIN PIE Blizzards!!
I finally broke down and decided not to eat lunch or dinner and splurge on this delight! Yes, I planned on skipping the lunch and dinner to eat this. Well worth it too!











DONT FORGET TO CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR RAGGEDY ANNE AND RAGGEDY ANDY.

A vote not related to Elections, but to CUTENESS!

I am having a little fun with this.

Got to this site www.shopwestpark.com.
Once there click on EVENTS and then the HERE to vote.

I will try to link the voting HERE. That may not work though. You see, I can't get to the voting and think it might be the cookies on my computer. Since I can't vote right now YOU have to!

There are two pictures of the kids (aren't they cute)...Raggedy Anne and Raggedy Andy. I am not sure which one to vote for....either I guess!
The person adding the pictures actually liked the pair.
Yes, Stone is crying (about the "chocolate") and has slobber from the trauma coming out his mouth, and yes, Lucy is scared to bits that her brother is crying so hard from something she allowed Mom to do to her a few moments earlier. BUT, that is real life, especially at the ONE HOUSE! The rest of the day did not stay in this state. The distraction of Candy made things better!
And I just found out DADDY voted for his little girl. Hmmmmm......
I should have only put one...oh well. TOO CUTE to choose. If you vote, I might just win, I mean they might just win.

So go now and vote, before it is too late!

Halloween 2006

A Happy Halloween for the ONE house! Raggedy Andy (dispite crying over the red lipstick checks that he called chocolate) was in full gear this year. Scarey pirate (the kids named him) was Dante and scared everyone, but was an angel of a brother. He was also embarressed of his Dad. Raggedy Anne couldn't have been cuter. She recieved touches from all the old people in Walmart in the afternoon and is opening up all the candy taking one bite and throwing it away, only to open another! And yes.....Puppy Daddy returned for another year! Lucy was petrified of him and only got close to him a couple times. Stone laughed at his barking, and I already mentioned how Dante felt. Hard to be 9!
We got our kicks at the Mall...dry and warm...bad candy. But then also hit a few house in the neighborhood. GOOD CANDY! Returned home only to realize the lights were on! OH NO! I guess I did not deactivate the programmable lights! Thank Goodness no soap on the windows or Toilet Paper in our trees. I felt bad. I had bought candy and was ready too!

The one thing I realized this year...
As each kid ages a year, understands it more, (and we get more kids) our bounty increases. I say we really did good this year!