All About J.T.

Here are some things JT has been doing the past week-- Delivered presents for a little girl in foster care. It is fun being Santa!

Started basketball season at the YMCA. This is one of JT's coaches. This is JT's first time to play basketball.
Waiting on the sidelines. We were proud of JT's attitude during the game. This group is a 10-12 year old age group and the other teams have players much bigger--one boy looked much older and even had a really good moustache going (you could see it across the floor, all the way where we were sitting). JT was not intimidated by all of these big kids and got in there and played hard and played fair. I think soccer helped with that "go-get-'em" attitude. His team lost both games--kinda hard to win against giants. Oh well, we are in this to learn the game and to have FUN.

Next to his favorite cheerleader

Practicing before the game

The adoring fans

Look-A-Like Meters

The Wal-Mart Cat

A blonde was weed-eating her yard and accidentally cut off the tail of her cat, which was hiding in the grass. She rushed her cat, along with the tail over to WAL-MART!

Why WAL-MART???

WAL-MART is the largest retailer in the world!!!

Thanks, Lori, for sending me this joke!

Enchanted

John and I just got home from a date (how rare!) for dinner and a movie. We saw Enchanted, and it really was enchanting. Such a sweet date movie! I highly recommend it if you don't want a heavy movie for a date. John even sang to me on the way home. I'm going to try singing "A Little Cleaning Song" on Monday to see if it helps the kids and me with our chores.

When we got home, JT met us in the garage with some complaints about the babysitter (Bryan) and Bryan was vaccuming our bedspread. I don't think I want to know why.

Still feeling somewhat enchanted, though!

Check out my Slide Show!

Children's Museum

Watch the slide show in the post above to see photos about all of this:

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday Bryan volunteered at the Children's Museum of the Shoals. (Dad, that's where you took the kids while Mom and I did laundry in June--and if you click on the link, you'll see Luci's picture on their website! She had the very first birthday party in their Enchanted Kingdom room.) Bryan helped school groups through the exhibits and, at times, was Clifford the Big Red Dog.

Today there was a special lunch with Clifford. I was pretty sure that Luci would scream and run away, but I signed up Luci, JT and me anyway. "Surprise, Surprise!" as Gomer Pyle would say. Luci met Clifford earlier in the week when Bryan had on the costume and she loved him. Today, Luci started out very shy but, as you can see here she warmed up really fast. We may have to try Santa again.

A good thing happened this week for Bryan: He began his first real work, as a volunteer, and he loved it. More importantly, they loved him! They ladies in charge of the museum have asked Bryan to be a regular volunteer! I am so proud. He will be busy for the rest of the Fridays in December, helping with the morning story and craft time. Nice job, Bryan!!

For Mom

Mom, I thought you'd like to see how we decorated the front of the house. I've always wanted lighted garland, and I really like those kitschy lighted deer. So here we have it! All of those items were on sale today when I went to "just look" at them. Lucky me! We also have two little fake trees in pots flanking the front door (on sale the day after Thanksgiving at Linens-N-Things). Can you see Luci on the very far left of the front porch? She's standing on the railing and her head is just above the top of the railing. The deer are standing in our little flower garden area. It was fun putting everything out. Luci helped, sort of, and Bryan and JT did a lot of work. John got home in time for the "finding another extension cord" phase. I think John was surprised that we did it almost all by ourselves and didn't wait for him to do most of the work. It is nice having a decorated house--at our old house, we were in the woods and no one could see the house, so no decorations there. I'm enjoying it.
Here's a countdown calendar I made in 1995 from directions in Woman's Day or Family Circle magazine. Good thing it got done before children #2 or #3 got here--certainly I feel like there's no time anymore for really crafty things that take time and need room to spread out while I'm working on them. I thought you'd like to see it--I don't think I've ever told you about it, much less shown you a picture. Just another look into our lives since we are so far away. Now, don't cry! Luci wanted to pose for me--she has her little right foot propped up against her left leg. I have no heart to tell her that fashion models are always tall. She loves posing, she loves clothes, she'd make a good fashion model.

This Is the Best She Could Do

Luci has a love-hate relationship with Santa--love the presents and chocolate, scared of the big guy. Today at Wal-Mart Santa showed up, and we hustled Luci over in hopes she would say "hi." Luci would not get out of her stroller, but seemed interested in telling Santa that she wants a Snow White dress and some chocolate. So we wheeled Luci up to Santa and she just stared at him, hoping he'd keep his distance. Later I asked her if she told him what she wanted. I got the "oh no" look. I reassured her that we could tell Santa later. Maybe next time she won't be so scared.
I got a vanity plate thing for the front of the van--I've been looking for one of these for a long time. Online they are very expensive. We finally found a family operation at the Redstone Arsenal PX who would make what we asked. I love it!

How to Get a Teenage Boy to Read His Bible

Just tell him what Big Don Williams from Pepperdine University told us one year at Ivydale's Teen Camp:

"Song of Solomon starts out with 'Kiss me again and again and again...' and it gets better from there!"

Bryan got a new Bible today and read all the way home. ROFLOL!!! (That stands for Rolling On the Floor, Laughing Out Loud!)

Homeschooling

I saw this on a cyber-friend's blog (cyber-friend--haven't met her yet except through blogging) and it was so fitting to us, even though we've had some really difficult times this year with the boys' attitudes. So, thank you, Alabama Brands, for saying it so succinctly.

I'm really thankful for the opportunity to home school my kids. I count it a blessing.

It's WAY not easy and sometimes not the funnest way I can think of to spend my days, but I really believe it's worth the effort.

I'm thankful, too, that my kids are doing as well as they do with it.

I Want to Be Faith!!

Our family has "adopted" one of the Agape children whose families registered for Christmas presents. The little girl we chose is Faith, who is 3 years old, and loves Disney Princesses and all things pink. John thought maybe Luci nominated herself, since the description fits her to a "T."

JT and I got most of our gifts on Sunday afternoon--without Luci knowing about it. Today Luci and I were in Family Dollar store and found a little Disney Princess purse. I said, "This is for a little girl named Faith." Luci got to pick out a little princess painting set for herself, and seemed happy with that. Until we got home, and the fit started! She tried to get to the purse but I moved it again and again. Then, the yelling started, and Luci's cry was,

"I WANT TO BE FAITH!"

Santa Baby

I found this little Santa suit that JT used to wear. It brought back a lot of happy memories! Bryan had one, too. Luci's our third Santa Baby.
Oops! Mama, my elastic is shot!
Guess I need some suspenders.


Here is our Thanksgiving tree. We put leaves on it up until Thanksgiving. We missed a few nights of thanks when the boys went camping. Next year, there will be up to 30 more leaves because Thanksgiving comes later in the month.

Thanksgiving at Granpa and Grand-Je's

Maggie and Haley with The Man
Maggie and JT playing a game
Grandpa and Grand-Je with haley
I don't know who took this one, Audrey--

Before the Feast
Haley and Papa John
Maggie and Bryan
JT and Maggie
Marie, John's youngest sister

My Fruitcake Recipe

(It's not really mine, I got this "recipe" from Snopes.com and it was too funny to pass up. And no, I don't drink--but there have been days when chasing these kids around has made me wonder about taking it up....)

All this talk of dry fruitcake made me pine for the days of yore when I would help grandma make Christmas cake. Here's the recipe (as best as I can remember it, it's a little fuzzy):

You'll need the following: a cup of water, a cup of sugar, four large eggs, two cups of dried fruit, a teaspoon of baking soda, a teaspoon of salt, a cup of brown sugar, lemon juice, nuts, and a bottle of whiskey. NOTE: Whiskey may be replaced with your favorite swill beverage. Being of Scottish ancestry, me and grandma naturally used Scotch.

Directions:
Sample the whiskey to check for quality.

Take a large bowl. Check the whiskey again. To be sure it is the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink. Repeat.

Turn on the electric mixer, beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add one teaspoon of sugar and beat again.

Make sure the whiskey is still okay. Cry another tup.

Turn off the mixer. Break two leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit. Mix on the turner.

If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers, pry it loose with a drewscriver.

Sample the whiskey to check for tonsisticity. Next, sift two cups of salt. Or something. Who cares? Check the whiskey.

Now sift the lemon juice and strain the nuts. Add one table. Spoon. Of sugar or something. Whatever you can find.

Grease the oven. Turn the cake tin to 350 degrees. Don't forget to beat off the turner. Throw the bowl out of the window, check the whiskey again and go to bed.

I Said I Wasn't Going to Do It, But I Did....

John took the boys to his folks' in South Carolina (pictures soon) and Luci and I stayed home (because of female problems, and that's too much information to be giving out here!).

Anyway, Kathy's family, the Van Dykes, invited Luci and me to eat dinner with them yesterday. It was a hoot! And the food was good, too. They are just as nutty as the Willinghams and the Bryans. They had an Aunt Marie, an Uncle Sam, and a few other familiar characters. It was just like being with our own family, so Thank You very much for letting us be a part of it all yesterday.

The Big Question came up, about going shopping on The Day After Thanksgiving. We all proclaimed, "No Way! That is for the fanatics."

Guess what Luci and I did on the way home from the Van Dykes'? We went to Walmart! Luci needed a new coat and I got the ingredients to make John's favorite holiday side dish, Ambrosia. That was Thursday, early evening. Wal-Mart was not crowded at all (the full and the sane people stayed home).

And then, today, we did it again. We went to Verizons to see about changing my phone up (didn't do that, phone contract was not over--but there was parking in the Verizons lot in the Mall parking lot). Then we went to Lolly Lobby (Hobby Lobby craft store, for those of you who don't understand Luci-ese). We got some stocking hangers that spell out J-O-Y (half-price!); we'll see if Luci bonks herself on the head with these. We also went to Linens-N-Things in the Target shopping center (no problem finding parking, even though the lot was pretty full). We got some decorations (40% off!) to put on the front porch. The hard part was trying to catch up with Luci in that store--the aisles are not really big enough for their buggies and when you have a 3 year old who would rather go that way instead of this way, it can get pretty exciting. But still not as exciting as Luci opening the door to the pick-up as we were tooling down County Road 47 at 45 miles an hour!

Kalyn and Luci as Elves

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9574645249


This elfin' greeting brought to you by OfficeMax®.

Elf Yourself!

This is funny! Make sure your speakers are turned on.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9566749199

This elfin' greeting brought to you by OfficeMax®.

I first saw this on the Hodge Family News blog.

New Stockings

I found these today at Wal-Mart and think they are so funny! Everybody is my favorite, and I tell each child, "I'm glad I'm your Mommy. You're my favorite ____ in the whole wide world." For Bryan, he's my favorite 15 year old. JT's my favorite red-head. Luci's my favorite girl.

Bryan is ready to go play paintball next Sunday. He's hoping you can't see him in this picture--he's wearing a set of John's out-dated BDUs (that's Battle Dress Uniform to you un-military folk).

Papa, This One's For You

If you've ever had your babies around my Dad, your kids have probably been blessed to have "Papa" sing a special little song to them. (Connor, I remember very well hearing Papa sing it to you so long ago!) It's called Mighty Like a Rose, written by Frank L. Stanton, and you can find version #2 of the original lyrics if you click on that title.

I've changed them a little bit for Luci, and I sing this to her often as I rock her to sleep. She surprised me a few weeks ago by singing it with me, and here's what we recorded today:

Luci's version:

Sweetest little girl. . . anybody knows.

Don't know what to call her, but she's mighty like a rose.

Looking up at Mommy, Sweet as she can be,

Makes me think that Heaven is sitting here with me.

Nothing on the Calendar --M.O.T.H. Update

We have only two days this month with nothing on the calendar. Absolutely nothing. Today was one of those days. So how did it go with our M.O.T.H. schedule, since there was nothing to compete with our homeschooling and housekeeping? It didn't go at all!

Rebellion set in, and the boys would not get up until 10 am. I was beside myself. Everything fun was taken away and extra chores added on. Since they missed breakfast, and got up so close to lunch time, they had to fix their own meals. Did you hear the arguing and moaning? I don't know what to do to get the boys up earlier. Not much works. Bryan is wanting to spend time with his friends next week before we go off to Grandpa's on Wednesday. He has school scheduled Monday and Tuesday, but his friends are out all week. Friend time is not going to happen.

As for our Feingold/ADHD diet, the boys are keeping a "food diary" but so far it is not showing what infractions might be causing a breakdown in civility. I think it is just plain, old-fashioned rebellion. Sin. Disobedience. Near anarchy.

CoCoRaHS

You know those days when it is sunny all day long, and your garden is drying out, but the weatherman says that your town got 0.5" of rain? This project is aimed at finding out just where that mysterious rain fell...lets farmers keep a better watch on their crops...lets you know that your son could have mowed the yard after all.

Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network From the CoCoRaHS website: CoCoRaHS is a grassroots volunteer network of backyard weather observers of all ages and backgrounds working together to measure and map precipitation (rain, hail and snow) in their local communities. By using low-cost measurement tools, stressing training and education, and utilizing an interactive Web-site, our aim is to provide the highest quality data for natural resource, education and research applications. The only requirements to join are an enthusiasm for watching and reporting weather conditions and a desire to learn more about how weather can effect and impact our lives.

From Susan: I just signed us up to be a part of this--it is perfect for Weather Geeks (or is it Nerds?) and/or Homeschoolers--both of which describe me! If you join, too, let me know!

I'll keep you posted. When we get our rain gauge and set it up, I'll let y'all know more about our project.

Maybe Baby, It's You!

Okay, So I got the title for this post from one of the many songs we sang in swing choir in high school.

We've had fun this year, finding ads with Luci's picture in them. Sears photo shop and Hallmark seem to have taken Luci's picture without telling us! We think this one is the real ringer--Hallmark's recent ad in Martha Stewart Living magazine.

And, some silliness after supper Tuesday night...

Luci Can Count Higher! :)

please bear with me--this is our first home-made video on the blog. Luci is shouting because we kept asking her to "count louder." She obliged.

Luci Can Count Higher!

please bear with me--this is our first home-made video on the blog. Luci is shouting because we kept asking her to "count louder." She obliged.

November 12

Once again, Dr. Sus gets the diagnosis right. Who needs that medical degree, Dad? I called the doctor's office this morning and the on-call nurse confirmed the hand-foot-and-mouth disease. I wondered if it might be thrush, but h-f-m was my first thought. This diagnosis is better than thrush, for the simple reason of administering the medicine. For thrush, it involves about 2 weeks of getting a liquid medicine into this little-girl-turned-fighting-octopus. For the h-f-m, it involves getting her to put 1/2 teaspoon of Maalox in her mouth, then spitting it out. Hallelujah! A medicine that she's required to spit out! Luci's an expert at spitting medicine out. Luci and I practiced taking the Maalox a couple of times today, swishing and spitting, and so far it is lots of fun for her. Which means it is not a trial for me.

Here's Luci tonight, enjoying a Popsicle in the bathtub. She can't remember the word "Popsicle" and keeps calling them "pop-tarts" or "lollipops." You can see one of the blisters on her tongue (ouch, poor baby). Luci kept saying, "my teeth hurt," and requested a band-aid. It's there, on her chin, and it does help her feel better.

This was the view from our living room window today. John took several, and this was my favorite.

Last week John took Bryan camping in the Smokies. JT stayed home with Luci and me--he had an overload of activity last week and would have made everyone there miserable, so we kept him home. John and Bryan had several stories to tell, and I'm going to let Bryan do that on the kid's blog. Let's just say that on the first night, Bryan was super-hungry and ate about 3 night's worth of suppers. You can imagine what happened. I'm glad I wasn't there to have to take care of it.

Is This Girl Spoiled, or What?

Luci seems to get everything she wants (well, almost) and lots of things she never asks for. The latest thing??

Hand-Foot-and-Mouth Disease! Blech. I am not completely sure, but that's surely what it looks like. This child catches absolutely everything.

Bryan had this when he was 2--Melodie, do you remember us showing up at your house 'way back when and we thought he had chicken pox? We were wrong! It was this. The dead-giveaway was a year or so later, when he came down with chicken pox.

Kitty Bear

One of the places we visited at Riverchase Galleria was the Build-A-Bear Workshop. If you've never taken a little girl or boy there, you ought to. It is so much fun watching the kids! Luci picked out a kitty cat that looked a lot like Garfield. She named it Kitty Bear. Here she is doing some fun things with a little heart that will go into her kitty. She rubbed the heart on her forehead so the kitty would be smart, on her belly so the kitty would never be hungry, and so on.
Putting the heart into Kitty Bear.
Giving her Kitty Bear a bath. Even the boys loved this shop!
Lovin' that Kitty Bear on the way home.

Tabriz

Mom and Dad--I finally found a place where I can get the Tabriz rug cleaned. The kids helped me load it into the van and we took it to Birmingham. That was the same day as our zoo trip. We picked it up yesterday after looking around the Riverchase Galleria mall--what a treat to go there, since the mall in Florence is a small one!

The rug came out looking great. the floral designs are much brighter, I suppose because 40-something years of dust are gone. It looks great in our living room. Thank you for this valuable gift, Mom and Dad. We all love it!

Does She Look Like Her Father??

Some of you have heard this story...

Not long after we got home from China, the kids and I were eating lunch at the McDonald's in Walmart. A lady who is at Walmart nearly as often as we are came in to the restaurant area. She saw Luci and began asking questions.

Is she yours?

Yes, she's ours. We adopted her from China.

The woman was hard of hearing, so I repeated my words. She asked lots of questions, but apparently didn't think she really was mine. Since she was hard of hearing, I spoke louder and louder. Finally, I realized I am practically shouting Luci's history so that all in McDonald's and the near-by deli section can hear. Poor Luci, this is her story to tell, and I'm shouting it away to a stranger. So I wised up and shut up. Eventually, though, the woman got the idea that Luci was indeed mine but missed the point that we had adopted Luci.

Then, the next question:

Does she look like her father??

Yes.

Luci looks like her China-Daddy with her dark hair and dark eyes, we know that without knowing anything at all about her biological dad. John, of course, claims her good looks as coming from himself. And we hope most of all that eventually she will have her Heavenly Father's eyes.

Father's Eyes sung by Amy Grant, written by Gary Chapman

I may not be every mother's dream for her little girl,
And my face may not grace the mind of everyone in the world.
But that's all right, as long as I can have one wish I pray:
When people look inside my life, I want to hear them say,

Chorus:
She's got her father's eyes,
Her father's eyes;
Eyes that find the good in things,
When good is not around;
Eyes that find the source of help,
When help just can't be found;
Eyes full of compassion, Seeing every pain;
Knowing what you're going through
And feeling it the same.
Just like my father's eyes,
My father's eyes,
My father's eyes,
Just like my father's eyes.

And on that day when we will pay for all the deeds we have done,
Good and bad they'll all be had to see by everyone.
And when you're called to stand and tell just what you saw in me,
More than anything I know, I want your words to be,

go to Chorus

I'm Thankful For...

Some of the things that have made our Thanksgiving tree the past few days are...



Lu Min Jie (that's Luci, if you didn't know!) JT



I'm thankful that God loves me John



I'm thankful that it's Thanksgiving again Bryan



Luci's hair makes me happy Susan



China Luci



My new bike JT



A family that thinks everything's funny Bryan



I'm thankful that my kids have nice friends Susan



China makes me happy Guess Who? Luci again!



Here is why Luci's hair makes me happy. It was so fun to fix--it was sticking out all over, so I decided we would just give in to that and not force it down. Can you tell there are 4 little ponie tails? It was adorable on her, and just right. Can't get away with this kind of stuff for long, so I'm glad Luci sat still for me Sunday night.

Everybody Won Saturday!

Auburn, Boise State and Navy made their alumni very happy on Saturday.

Dad, did you know you can get Navy's Midshipman fight song ringtone for your cell phone?

Thanksgiving Tree

Denna told about 30 Days of Thanks on her blog, and challenged us to join NaBloPoMo.

That is National Blog Posting Month, and you can join officially on that site. I won't be posting what I'm thankful for each day: I'll post it at home instead. I thought I'd tell you what we have been doing at our house during November--we started in 1998, I think. Every day up until Thanksgiving, everyone (visitors too!) who is at our house at supper time writes down what he or she is thankful for that day. It is written on a leaf (cut out at a teacher's supply store on one of those die-cut machines) and then put up on our Thanksgiving Tree. Here's what it looked like after we put yesterday's leaves on it:
It looks kind of empty right now, but by the time Thanksgiving comes around, it will be so full it will be hard to find places to put the leaves. Everyone over the age of 5 has to think of something different every day. The younger kids are asked, "What makes you happy?" and we write down their answers. Everyone signs his name, and the date is written down, too. That first year, JT was 2 years old and he had "Walmart" written on most of his leaves. Yesterday Luci said, "I like China."

When we started this tradition, I cut out a tree from brown paper grocery bags and glued it to bulletin board paper, then stapled it to our basement door (stapled on the back of the door, where it would not show the staple "scars" when I removed the tree). We glued the leaves on then, and that seemed pretty good but it made it very difficult to save our favorites each year--they were glued on very well! After about 5 years of that, I figured out that making a tree we could use year after year made more sense, so I had the whole thing--tree and bulletin board paper--laminated (if you do that, make sure your design will accommodate the doorknob and also will fit in the laminating machine!). I have Velcro on the door and tree at the top and bottom, and the tree comes down after Thanksgiving. The Velcro stays on the door all year long, but it's on the inside where it won't show. The tree paper extends long enough to go over the top of the door and slips under the door at the bottom, and the Velcro on it sticks to the Velcro on the door. We use "sticky tack" stuff to put the leaves on with, and we can save every single one now.

Oh, Good Grief!

I really, really thought I checked my spelling on the slide show. Sorry!

The Zoo

We had so much fun going to the Birmingham Zoo on Tuesday. Thank you, Denna for getting everyone together! I loved meeting all the moms whose blogs I've been reading...Denna was there with her whole family--Brooke and Luci are about the same age... I kept hearing a mother call to her daughter, Anna Claire, and I knew that she was the little girl who appears often on Katie Lin's blog (we missed you, KL!)...and it was so nice to see Dr. Jennifer there with her girls, Lily and Kate. Dr. Jennifer is one of the great ones at the International Adoption Clinic. She (and her whole staff, really) is special to me because she was able to tell us more about Luci just by checking her out and watching her with us when we visited the clinic when we got home from China.

There were many more there Tuesday. It was quite nice to see so many families together just to have fun, and most of us had never met each other. It didn't take long for the group to act like old friends.