Two Years and Going Strong

This is our two year anniversary blog update!

It's hard to believe that I've been doing this for two years already but in another way it just seems a part of my routine. I enjoy blogging, it's my version of scrapbooking. It is fun to go back and look at old posts and it helps to remind me of how we've grown as a family.

Speaking of growing as a family, Jason and I are in the beginning stages of adopting a child from Ethiopia! We have kept this news quiet for awhile just in case we felt a change of heart or if something came up to prevent us from this adventure. God made it clear to us over the past year and a half that this was the path He has called us to walk together as a family and we are eager to see what He has in store for us! We will update you through the blog as we continue on but at this moment we are wading through a sea of paperwork and official documentation and education that is required before we move on in our process.

We started out our summer with Vacation Bible School at our church. I volunteered on my days off and worked in the nursery with my mom. Emily volunteered and helped with the missions portion of the program. Both Ella and David attended and had a wonderful time! The Thursday evening of that week the children put on a program to show the parents what they had been learning all week and also performed a few songs. David went up to the front of the church, reluctantly, with the younger children and instead of singing spent the entire time sitting on the floor acting embarrassed. Ella on the other hand had a great time performing with the school aged kids!

Father's Day weekend we had a get together at my parent's house. My sisters, their husbands and children were also in attendance and we had fun time swimming and celebrating the fathers in our lives.

Hey Thom! Does this look familiar?!

The high flying Smelly boys!

This past week, Emily spent six days at a local camp volunteering and helping with the children there. The camp brings in inner city kids and puts on a camp for them and also lets them know the truth about God and how they need Him in their lives.

Emily and some of her girls

Meanwhile, Ella and David and I went to a nearby park that also includes a water play area and had a good time playing. The fun only lasted until some other child threw up in the water area and it had to close down for over a half hour while they cleaned up the mess and cycled the water through without anyone in it.

We had a busy Saturday this past weekend. We spent the day along with Jason's family having a garage sale! We had never done this before but it was great to go through the house and declutter and get rid of a lot of things that just didn't serve any purpose for us anymore. The sale was at Jason's parent's house which, if you ask me, was an ideal spot for a garage sale. They have a large tree in the front yard that kept us shaded all day! I was amazed at how many people showed up to the sale when it was scheduled to end! I guess people were just looking for a deal and believe me they got a deal! We made out pretty well with the sale of our "junk" and afterwards loaded up our trailer with the leftover and took them all to Goodwill.

Jason's sister showing off our wares

Emily keeping track of the money (and eating our merchandise)

We've had an end to a lot of activities lately but it doesn't seem that things are going to slow down any. The soccer season ended for Emily but she will be attending soccer conditioning and camps this summer in preparation for trying out for the high school team in August. School ended for everyone but I plan on having everyone still reviewing as much as possible in order to keep all the learning that was done this past school year from oozing out their ears over the summer.

As I mentioned, school ended, and as a result we had another ceremony to attend. Emily had a "promotion ceremony" for her eighth grade class. My parents, David and I attended this and got a preview of just how involved her high school graduation will be. Thankfully the ceremony did not take long but it did take over 30 minutes to read through all 360 students' names, ugh!

To start off the summer, Emily had a makeup party! We invited some of her friends over to learn how to properly apply make up and how to take care of their skin. Unfortunately I don't have much knowledge of makeup application so I thought we could both learn together and have a good time doing it!

The girls after having put on their makeup!

Ella joined in the fun and after having her aunt put makeup on her she looked in the mirror and said "I look goooood!"

We decided to change up our scenery this past weekend and went downtown to enjoy the park by the river. The younger two had a good time looking at the river and playing at the playground, making friends with whoever they happened to meet.

I love this shot!

My mom shared a story with me about something Ella said this past week. They were driving along and were watching a string of cars go past and my mom referred to them as a parade. Shortly they turned onto the same street as the "parade" and joined in the line of cars at which time Ella said "Now we're the clown car!" You never know what will come out of the mouth of young ones!

I'll leave you with a few snapshots of my garden, taken earlier this week. I would love to share it in person with anyone interested! Gardening is my hobby. Jason has his cars, and I have my flowers. Until next time!