Gotcha Day!

This is Gotcha Day number SEVEN for us!  Wow, the years have flown.  Gotcha Day is what many call the day they met their adopted children.  I usually say "Family Day" instead, because "Gotcha Day" puts the emphasis on the parents' meeting their child instead of the child being enfolded into a family.  Family Day sort of spreads around the love, the feeling of "it's about all of us" and is not entirely from the parents' point of view.  Important to some.

Right now, "Family" Day is not important to Luci.  She wanted to call it "Gotcha" Day.  So we did.

We met Luci when she was just 9 1/2 months old.  Tiny, skinny, beautiful baby.  She did not cry much; now that I know her personality so well, I think she was taking it all in and waiting to see if she should cry about her new situation.  She's a quiet studier until she feels comfortable, and then--oh, then!  Then she talks non-stop!

If you look closely, you can see that her eyebrows are sort of in an "I'm not too sure yet" position.  That photo was taken in the Howard Johnson Hotel in Guiyang, Guizhou, China on August 14, 2005.  Don't laugh about us being in a Ho-Jo's; in China they are deluxe hotels!  JT was nine and missing his two front teeth.  Bryan was thirteen! 

So.  It is "Gotcha Day" at our house.  Luci had a lot of things that we "must do, Mommy!  It's my day!"  I think part of her frenzy over her day had something to do with the fact that every single one of us, except her, had birthdays, Mother's Day and Father's Day and wedding anniversary since mid-May.  She truly felt left out.

Things got so busy that I dubbed the day "Luci-Palooza Day."

First, we had to have a cake.  Rectangle, Mommy.  And 'nilla.  With pink icing. 

The cake must have 7 candles--but don't sing "Happy Gotcha Day to You!"  Just say, One, Two, Three! and I'll blow them out.

Lots of good food to eat with her new chopsticks!  We got the chopsticks while we were in China, so that made them more special.  What made them even special-er?  They are pink!  We had sweet and sour chicken over rice (don't be jealous of my super-fancy way to serve rice--straight out of the rice cooker with a plastic measuring cup so I won't scratch the cooker) and jiaozi!    They turned out so well that all fifty (yes, I said fifty!) were gone when supper was over.  Here's a recipe for jiaozi.  I cheated and bought the wrappers from the produce department of our grocery store.

Bryan made a special card for Luci, and JT wrote a cute story about her for her presents.  John and I gave her the chopsticks, plus the kids' names written in hanzi, the Chinese characters.  One of the boys, and I can't remember which one (that is a good thing because then I can't embarrass him too much!) asked how I got those.  Did you find them in China, with our names already on them, all packaged like that?  If you've been to China, you already know, but I'll inform the rest of y'all:  There are people everywhere with booths, and in stores, who will do calligraphy for you.  I had a man do these for us and he packaged them up so we could bring them home safely.  We'll get them framed and they will go in our "Hall of Fame" here at home.  (The man did not understand "J.T." so he wrote out "Jonathan" instead.)

After supper (dinner to you if you are not from the South), Luci had a list of things for us to do:

She dictated the first four; then decided she wanted to write them herself.  So I spelled for her as she wrote, until she got tired of that and sped things up by writing numbers 7 and 8 in her own phonetically fine writing.  (7. Watch Luci Videos and 8. Origami)

She told the boys they must stay with us and do all the things on her list.  I checked them off as we went.  I LOVE number 5!  LAUGH.   Luci taught us how to make a doggy face with Number 8, origami folding.  Number 2, "Kiss the baby," was a game we played in China.  I'd say, "Kiss the baby!" and we'd all lean in to kiss Luci on the noggin.  It was to get her used to us touching her, and getting up close and personal.  When we played this last night, she let the boys kiss her on the cheek!  She never does that on any normal day.

Number 7, "watch Luci videos," was sweet.  We'd watched all but one during the day, so video #1 (of us meeting her) was the only one left.  One of the girls in our adoption group was distraught and cried the whole time.  It was heartbreaking to hear and watch on the video, but honestly?  When we were there in the midst of getting our princess, I didn't hear her at all.  My focus was on Luci!

Luci's comment last night about that day and the one crying:  "It was a very commotional day."

So, what does a girl do when confronted with too much commotion (emotion)?

"I'm going to get some cake."

And she did.

Jeremiah 29:11

Luci's Bible verse...She is decorating the border.  Once it is memorized, it will be posted in her room, for her to remember as she grows up in the Lord.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans 

to give you hope and a future."  

Jeremiah 29:11

How does your garden grow?

Bell Peppers

Banana Peppers

Luci's Treehouse

Grape Vines

Cucumber Blossoms.  I may just cry.  Those blossoms mean that more are coming.   I've canned gobs of Bread and Butter Pickles and Dill Pickles.  Gobs.   John just keeps bringing in more cucumbers.  We took three bags full of cucumbers to church today, to foist on unsuspecting people.

After the Storm

Our Yard

First Day of School

Yes, we began school earlier than the public and private schools around here.  We also got out of school last year a whole month before they did, so this starting date makes sense.

Annual shot of the schoolkids in front of the hutch:

Hey!  Where's Luci?  Move over, JT!

And, since JT feels like he's incarcerated every school day, we have the mug shot:

Look at my babies in the school photo from 2007:   JT has grown so much!  So has Luci.  I love that each child has their signs either backwards or upside down; in Luci's case, also in front of her face!  So cute.

Something I tolerate in our school room:  Passing Notes in Class.  Luci makes a "nest" below the table to do her school work.  She wrote a love note to JT.  :)

Happy Birthday!!

Last Monday was Bryan's birthday. I'm sorry I'm so late adding this post. The lateness of this tribute is in no way indicative of my feelings for this young man! He is a great son. Bryan turned 20 last Monday. He was not sure I put enough candles on his "cake." Luci was helping in the background.

Why the strange "cake?" Because Bryan requested blackberry cobbler for his birthday. You can't successfully put candles into a cobbler, so I got a ziploc baggy box and poked 20 holes in it, then painted it. Black was the only color of spray paint we had on hand. Viola, a pretend cake.

Hope you have a great year, Bryan! New job, starting college, it's going to be exciting!

This Week

We are still getting plenty of use out of the easel that Mom and Dad gifted to us a while back.  Luci made a checklist of things for her to do during her day:

Slep  (sleep--get out of bed in the morning)
Et      (eat)
Play   (I think you can figure this one out!)
Slep  (sleep --go to bed at night)
Chorz  (chores)

Please, someone tell me:  How can she spell phonetically but not be able to read?

Luci grabbed my camera and had a photo shoot with her Barbie and Ken dolls...

Not too shabby of a photographer, huh?

I've been canning or freezing many things that John has grown in his garden.  I learned that I should not have cut the banana peppers because it looks a lot like canned calamari.

We have so many pickles (the cucumbers did quite well!) that I told John, "No more!"  He brought in two dozen cukes last week and I nearly cried.  We've started giving them away.

Happy Birthday!!

JT's birthday is today.  Sweet 16!  He got a new car!!

JT sometimes helps in the garden...

 umm, JT, put the iPod down!

 And now the boy young man has enough candles on his cake that we can turn off the overhead lights!

Goin' to the Chapel.....

Luci's big on playing wedding, family, everything with her dolls.  If it's not Barbie, it's her little friends from Littlest Pet Shop and the other small dolls. 

Here are a pair getting married, complete with the white carpet down the aisle.  (It's toilet paper)

Here's what I heard during the ceremony:

Do you, Sandy, take Christopher to be your husband?  In sickness and in hell?

That's what she said. 

Yes, I corrected her.  After I wiped up the coffee I spit out.

Yard Work?

John spent the morning mowing the yard.  Afterwards he hooked up the wagon to our old tractor (it has no blades--it's just for "fun") and hauled Luci around, looking for blackberries.

The definition of spoiled!

Water, cushy seating, Barbie dolls, ear protection, and an umbrella.  Oh, and the ride, too.

John found enough wild blackberries to make a good cobbler for tonight.  Luci picked one or two; she got enough to be able to say she helped.

Our Front Yard

Our front pathway...what it looked like before John attacked it.

and after!

John removed each brick and pulled the grass out, and put everything back.

Hardest working man I know.

Great job, Honey!

And, our one surviving camelia bush.  We started with four, and this one nearly died, too.  This year it is blooming like crazy!  Luci loves the scent.

Sew much fun!

Luci wanted pajamas for her Barbies.  The last time I sewed for Barbie, I used an internet idea that used t-shirts--cut a circle, cut a head hole and arm holes, and viola.  The first time I sewed for Barbie, I nearly went mad, hence the t-shirt/circle idea.  Here is that post about the first time:  Harder than it looks. 

This time I hunted for free Barbie patterns on the internet, and found this page.  The patterns were fairly easy to follow.  I used the pants pattern (but made them larger in the waist and added elastic), and the crop-top (making the crop-top longer for modesty's sake).

Since we were hunting for "a little bit fuzzy" fabric, I also got a pajama pattern for Luci and made her a pair of pajamas, too.  All in all, four Barbies have pajamas now, and one real-live doll has pajamas.

To solve that problem of "which side is the front, mama?" I put a button in the front...and what do we call it?  A belly button!

Milestones

This has been a big week for two members of our family.

First, Luci got a new bike!  It's about time, hmmm?   Here she is with her new bike and old bike.

Such a happy girl!

Bryan started college today!  He got up early, which never happens.  I don't expect it to happen on any other school day this summer.  I met him at the breakfast table with this sign:  "First Day of College:  May 30, 2012"

He grinned!  I was concerned that he would think it was just too stupid to pose, but he did, and did it happily.  John did remind him that college was not like homeschool, and he'd have to change out of his pajamas to go!

We've been doing this tradition since Bryan began Kindergarten.  Every year I have the kids stand next to the hutch, to measure their growth.  My, how he's grown.

The Princess Bride

Yesterday, Luci was introduced to the movie, The Princess Bride.

Oh, so fun!  She was scared by some of the fight scenes, the Gas Swamp, and a few other things, so she spent quite a bit of the movie watching while partially hidden behind a door. 

One of the characters said, "Have you ever heard of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates?"

Luci's reply:  "I've heard of Play-Doh!"

Card Machine

We are home from visiting family (posts on that to come).  I thought I'd tell you a Luci-ism in the meantime.

Luci has a birthday party to go to today (YAY!).  She is so excited.  Last night I asked her if she wanted to make a birthday card for the Birthday Girl or buy one. 

I want to make one!  We have a machine to do that!

I need to buy more printer ink, Luci.  We can't print one.  I meant, make one yourself.

But we have a card-making machine!

But, Luci...

It's ME!

And so she did.  Make a card, I mean.

Oh. My. Word.

We are on our journey to Idaho to see my folks.  With me are JT and Luci; John stayed home with Bryan.  They almost had to stay home...have you seen a Prius automobile?  Fitting three people in, with their luggage, is just enough.  A fourth person would burst the seams of the vehicle.  Put all five of us in the car for the trip to church (the only time all five of us are in the car together) and when we get there, you can see us pile out like clowns at the circus.

Well.  I love my Prius.  Bryan and JT make fun of it, but I don't care.  I get awesome mileage! The mileage will be what gets regular folks to buy it, not the lower-emissions/save the Earth thing.  Lower emissions are a bonus, not the selling point for me.  And it's cheaper than the Honda Odyssey minivan we used to have.

It has a built-in GPS with a map like a little TV screen.  That works great most of the time.  Two places where the GPS fails are 1)  it does not estimate travel time well when going on state roads (like our county roads in Alabama, and today through western Tennessee); and 2) it is hard to get the little genie inside to re-route the trip easily.  For instance, today I wanted to go from Corinth, MS, through Jackson, TN, and Dyersburg, TN up to Missouri.  The little booger wanted me to go through Memphis (an hour longer!) and did not like me going a different way.  I had to call John and get him to look on maps.google.com to tell me which state road went to Jackson and on to Dyersburg.  The machine will let you put in extra stops along the way--but it wants a street address; you cannot just input a city's name and have it take you there.  I could not just put in "Dyersburg."  I finally figured out how to get around that--I had the machine search for McDonald's in Dyersburg, it found three, and I clicked on one.  Voila!  We made it to Dyersburg without being routed through Memphis.

I was so frustrated.  JT and Luci kept busy with their TVs and Gamecube console, so did not mind the detours. 

I minded.  At one point, I was quite lost in Jackson.  We found ourselves in, shall we say, interesting parts of town. 

Going down one street, I told the kids, "Close your eyes!"  because, on the right, were the first prostitutes I'd ever seen.  It was quite obvious that they were ladies of the evening.  But come on!  It was only 11:00 a.m.!


Luci did not obey--her eyes were wide open. 

Her question:  Are they going to the Prom?

I never woulda thunk it...

but...

This week has seen JT actually eager to shovel a huge load of horse manure fertilizer.  Eager to work in the garden.  Eager to help his dad with cedar chips for the flower garden.

This boy loves nothing better than playing video games.  And yet, he was working outside, happily, for the past two days?

Why?

To earn two tickets to a WWE event in June!   That's wrestling, y'all.  I don't understand the attraction, but I guess since we are in Alabama, it's okay to be a little redneck, don't you think?

JT thinks it's cool.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
added later Tuesday evening...

Now he's willingly scrubbing the boys' bathroom from top to bottom!

Which Song Comes to Mind?

John is helping JT with his final project for the year, after our study of Human Anatomy:

The Visible Man.

As they worked on the skeleton, and inserting the brain, this refrain from The Wizard of Oz kept going through my mind...

If I only had a brain!

JT's GPA for his first year of high school is 3.44.  Way to go, JT!

From the Heart

Yesterday was a Day of Awful Proportions.

Not a Happy Homeschool Day, that's for sure.

We had one who was reacting to some scents he had been exposed to, and one who thought noon was just an idea, since he rarely sees it with his eyes open.

So.

After supper I spent a great deal of time convincing (convincing is "Susan-ese" for talking extremely loudly) the boys to clean their rooms.  They did, but they were not happy about it.

After that melee, I took my Kindle Fire and went to my own bedroom and had a nice, quiet time.  Until Rock Band exploded in the living room!  Wowzer!  All three kids, getting along, and playing nicely!  Nice and LOUD.

Since this was a rare occasion, I took a photo.

The music went on for several hours.  Luci found some sunglasses, a wig and a cool hat.

And it's going on again, tonight!  It is NOISY.

And NICE.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tonight I was figuring out JT's grades (he did well this year!) and putting them into our online reporting program.  Since the dates of JT's birthday and Bryan's birthday are so similar, I had JT come check to make sure I got it correct. 

This discussion brought Luci...who has studied right along with JT and his anatomy classes this year...

Mama, when is my birthday?

October 26!  The best day of the year!

I wasn't born in your tummy.  I was born in your heart.  And believe me, it is not pretty in there!

from Apologia Science text