***** There are two videos in this blog post. You may have to go to the right side and pause the music in order to hear the audio from them!!*****

I realize that it has been well over a month since my last post, and I apologize for the suspense that I have kept you in (that's sarcasm by the way). As with every end of summer and the beginning of school things get crazy and out of hand so... without further ado here is what's been happening with our family!

Soccer, soccer and more soccer!

Emily's soccer season officially started and because they have a larger JV team this year she doesn't see as much playing time as she would like. Despite this drawback she is doing excellent and her father and I applaud her effort and perseverance!

David started playing soccer (his first time) and if anyone has watched 5 year olds playing soccer it is basically watching a herd of children chase a soccer ball around with only one or two of them actually having a clue as to what to do with the ball! It's amusing to say the least and frustrating at times too. David seems to pay more attention to seeing if we're watching him than to what it happening on the field.

This clip is from his first soccer game. I should tell you that his team named themselves the "Purple People Leaders". David is #5. I can be heard in the video as Jason was the one filming it. The end of the video is "typical" David on the soccer field.

Learning to ride a bike!

I had a few goals at the beginning of this summer but one that I was really determined to accomplish was having Ella learn to ride a bike (without training wheels). I'm sure many of you wonder why at age 8 she has never learned to ride a bike but my excuse has always been that we do not have sidewalks in our neighborhood. Truthfully, looking back this was a pretty lame answer but we have now rectified the situation.

Toward the middle of August, Jason and I took Ella to our neighbor's driveway (which is long, smooth, and being used with their permission). We spent the better part of a hour taking turns running up and down the driveway holding onto the back of the bike listening to Ella's frightened noises. I tell you what, it was only three sessions later that she was riding on her own with no fear and two times later she was starting herself out with a "push and hop" up onto her bike.

David was ever present at Ella's bike lessons and taught Ella how to concentrate on what she was doing despite the distractions!

Bullfrogs and Butterflies

OK, so there are no bullfrogs in this next bit but there is plenty about butterflies, Monarch butterflies to be specific. I shared last time that we were starting to get a lot of Monarch butterfly caterpillars on our milkweed plant and we decided to "study" them up close.

We took one of the biggest (about 2 inches long and as fat as a pencil) that we could find and put him in a bug catcher along with a stick and plenty of milkweed to eat. That very night he climbed up top and overnight turned himself in to a chrysalis! I was amazed that it happened that fast and thought that since we had such luck with this one that maybe we could watch two! We quickly moved our one chrysalis from the small bug catcher into a large pretzel container and moved in our new caterpillar! He took over a day to decide to metamorphosize and so I was able to get photos of him just before he made his first transformation.

Our first chrysalis

Our first caterpillar's "skin" that he shed when turning into a chrysalis.

Our second caterpillar after attaching himself to the lid with his "silk button" and getting into the "J" position to form his chrysalis.

Another shot of our second caterpillar with the first chrysalis in the background.

An itty bitty caterpillar that came in on some milkweed, see him? He's just to the left of the dime!

It was about 10 days later before we noticed any changes. It was on a Friday morning that I noticed that our first chrysalis was clear and you could see the tell tale orange and black stripes of the newly formed Monarch butterfly! I was excited and upset at the same time. Excited because our caterpillar would be hatching soon but upset because I had to go to work that day and in all likelihood would miss the main event! I was right, I missed it, but I put Emily on butterfly watching duty and here are the results of that day. By the way, that's Emily narrating the video, not me!

VIDEO!

As soon as I got home we let him out of the pretzel barrel but he really didn't seem like he was in that much of a hurry to leave. He flitted onto David's leg and then onto the ground and just sat there. I decided to move him to a safer place and put him on a coneflower and took advantage of the photo opportunity!

Labor Day!

It seems like so long ago but we spent the weekend of Labor day camping at our land (surprise!) Again, that sarcasm, I just can't escape it! We were unable to make it down to the land as much as we wanted to this summer which is a shame because the weather this summer was just so perfect! We didn't do anything extraordinary but Jason did drive back to the city to enjoy the fireworks and then came back down in time to load up in the pouring rain. Needless to say I drove home while he slept (this is a role reversal)!

First Days of School!

Believe it or not all of the previous events happened before school even started. Our district started later this year due to construction and we enjoyed the extra little summer break! Emily is now in high school (unbelievable, I know). Ella entered third grade and David started kindergarten! Here are their first day of school photos!

David's first bus ride to school!

Bullfrogs and Butterflies Revisited!

I'm sure you thought I forgot all about our second chrysalis waiting to hatch, but I didn't! He waited until the kids were in school to hatch. I was excited because the morning I noticed his chrysalis was clear I was home for the day and was sure I'd get to see him hatch! WRONG!!! The bugger (pun intended) hatched in less than 15 min! I went into the bathroom to clean and when I had come back he was already out with his wings unfolded! UGH! I snapped some photos of him and waited till the kids came home from school to show them and to let him go outside. I was expecting this one also to be slow to fly but he crawled right onto my finger and then onto David's finger and before I could get my camera ready he had already flown off! My guess is that butterfly personalities (if they have them) are just as variant as people's! Here are the second butterfly's photos!

News on our adoption

There is little to tell at this point. We did get our home study done and got word today that it was officially approved. We are waiting for our copy of this document (the last one) so that we can send it all in together with a bunch of other official paperwork that I spent the summer getting accumulated. Once this is done we have to apply with the immigration services (US CIS), be fingerprinted, and wait for all our paperwork to be processed and then sent over to Ethiopia to be translated and make it's way through the process over there. It will be a few months until we hear anything but in the meantime we are still praying for our newest family member. We ask that you pray along with us that even at this time God would be with them and their birthfamily and preparing all our hearts for this big transition.

Until next time, enjoy my favorite time of year. Breathe in the wood smoke from campfires, listen to the geese flying south, and view the changing leaves and remember who is in control of it all... our heavenly Father!

Celebration!!

It's been a busy and eventful past few weeks. We have had much to celebrate, all of which included the following....

Ella's birthday!

Ella turned 8 recently and we headed to her favorite restaurant to celebrate. We were joined by a good portion of the family to help us have a good time!

If you want to see Ella eat and ask for more, take her here!

Ella on the phone with Uncle Thom

Ice cream at Graeter's

We headed to Graeter's for some ice cream after Emily had finished a soccer tournament on hot and sunny Sunday afternoon. We weren't really celebrating anything in particular at the time but it appears as if Graeter's was! They had all types of things going on at the store including face painting. We were in no hurry and so allowed Ella and David to get their faces painted.

Monarch Butterflies

I planted some milkweed this past spring in the hopes of attracting Monarch butterflies to my garden. It appears my plan worked. In late July I was happily surprised to find several monarch butterfly caterpillars happily munching away on my milkweed. I was also able to find an egg but since then the caterpillars have disappeared and I have yet to find a cocoon. Hmmmmm.......

An adult monarch on the milkweed plant!

The tiny white spot in the middle is the egg!

Some of the caterpillars!

A weekend getaway

Jason and I were able to join 14 other friends this past weekend and go to Gatlinburg to celebrate our friend Shane turning 30. We rented a chalet for 3 nights and had a good time hanging out, shopping, hiking, and being kid free.

The first night we were there Jason and Shane were cleaning up at the end of the evening (3 am, guess that's technically the morning) and Jason happened to open the front door to the chalet to find a large black bear on the front porch! Jason quickly closed the door and told Shane about the bear and the two of them woke myself and Shane's wife up to show us the bear. It was exciting to see the bear (from the safety of the interior of the house). What was unfortunate was what attracted the bear to us, Jason's cornhole bags. We had brought down with us our cornhole set and the bags got left out with the set. Apparently the bear found the bags to be good eating because he ended up ripping into three of the eight of them that night. We did have three other bear sightings during our trip, each around the house and all involving the cornhole bags! Now we know the secret to attracting the bears!

The second night we were there we all got dressed up to "party like it was 1979"! In costume we headed down into Gatlinburg to the Hard Rock Cafe and had a good time hanging out front of the restaurant drawing stares and comments from those passing by. Once inside the staff at the restaurant played "YMCA" in our honor and we did a conga line to that song all through the restaurant. We had people up joining us from their tables and kids dancing on the floor, it was a blast!

Jason was wearing his father's wedding tux!

The hat was not a part of the original outfit.






The guys!




The girls!

The next day we took a hike. The majority of us went and did the Alum Cave Bluf trail. I found out exactly how out of shape I am and am still feeling the "burn" in my back end. It was a beautiful trail and was worth the effort.

My birthday!

Although no pictures were taken at my birthday party last night (ah-hem, Jason did not take them) I did have a good time with my family. I spent the majority of the day of household chores and discovered that this is just about as exciting as a birthday gets at this age. I did however get a Wii Fit (which I bought for myself) for my birthday and I have yet to touch it! Emily has been on it several times and I find myself thinking, "Hmmm, that looks like fun, I should try it." Ella and David like getting involved too, here's a cute photo of the kids all doing Wii Fit yoga together!

Emily made the JV soccer team!!!

We are celebrating today having just found out that after a "grueling" (according to Emily) summer of soccer conditioning and camps and try outs yesterday that Emily made the high school JV girls soccer team! Jason and I are very proud of her efforts and now look forward to a fall filled with soccer! Go Emily!!!!!

Paperwork, FINISHED!!!

On the adoption front we have something to celebrate too! We finished the mountain of paperwork we had to get done and put together. We will have our first homestudy interview this coming Sunday. After that point we have to send in our remaining paperwork (already done) into our agency and then wait for them to process it, translate it and send it to Ethiopia to be taken care of. This will take awhile and we're hoping the step after that includes a referral of a child to us! We are still very excited about adopting a child and can't wait to see what God has in store for us as a family! We appreciate all the support and prayers that we have received and would ask that you would continue to keep us and our future child in your prayers.

We are hoping that you look around and see that we have much to celebrate, the big and the small. May God be glorified in our celebrating!

Our July

Summer is flying by for us, as it usually does, and as a result I haven't posted for almost a month! We've been busy, here's what has been going on!

Emily has been busy getting up early several days each week for soccer conditioning. She is not thrilled with this fact but is putting in her time is hoping to make a high school soccer team in early August. I saw this comic and think it accurately describes the morning battle in our household.

In the last frame the mother is asking "Scrambled or fried?" Jeremy (the teenager) responds "I'm willing to bet it's against the Geneva Conventions to wake someone up before ten during summer vacation."

We went to "the land" for the July 4th weekend and had a very rainy time. Despite this fact we were able to relax and go "hunting' for crayfish and salamanders.

We have been frequenting the library and participating in their reading program this summer. Ella has become quite the avid reader and she has taken to reading to both herself and to David so that they both earn "points" toward the prizes offered. Ella got so many that she was given the following sign to put in our yard!

Nearby we have friend/neighbors/fellow church members who are also adopting from Ethiopia. They are a lot further along in their journey and will be hopefully going to Ethiopia very soon to pick up their new 11 year old daughter, Hannah. They had a fundraiser during two weekends in July offering pony rides, a car wash and a bake sale to help cover the enormous cost of their adoption. We were happy to participate and lend our support to them by stopping over and joining in the fun!

Last but not least was our vacation this summer. We headed to Kelley's Island in Lake Erie with my best friend Jennie and her family. We spent six days and five nights camping and had a wonderful time together! Except for the thunderstorm and a few showers the first night and morning that we were there, the weather couldn't have been more ideal. Highs were in the upper 60's or lower 70's and the lows were in the upper 50's or lower 60's. It is such a blessing that our families get along so well. Our time together was just long enough that we felt like we could relax and short enough that I only had to miss one day of work!

I have a slide show running at the top of the page with the photos from our trip (there are 326 of them, so it's a long slide show)!

Some of the activities we enjoyed while on Kelley's Island included....

*Hikes in the woods

*Swimming in the lake

*Fishing on the dock

*Looking for LEWS (Lake Erie Water Snakes), that are ONLY on Kelley's island

*Cooking over the campfire

*Playing games

*Exploring the small town

*Visiting Inscription Rock (has engravings from Native Americans from long ago)

*Visiting the Glacial Grooves (places where you can see how the glaciers of the ice age left huge track marks in the rocks)

*Just enjoying one another's company!

Until our next post, enjoy your summer!!!