Master Bathroom Remodel

After living here for 12 years with a leaky shower & probably not using it for about 10 years, demolition started today... thanks to a generous gift from Michael's folks! Within minutes of their arrival, Jesse & Isaiah set to work and, bucket by bucket, completely removed the shower and linoleum.

Michael & I made a trip to Home Depot tonight & picked out our tile for the shower & the floor. It took us a few tries but then we agreed-even on grout color! Picked out a new shower head & faucet & we're done! Thanks to Matt for babysitting Madeline so we could do this quickly without kids.

1st Official Date!

I am really feeling old now. My oldest daughter went on her first official date yesterday!

Lindsay & Jonathan went on a "double date" with Jackie & Kirsten. (Jackie is Jeff's, {my nephew}, girlfriend & one of the youth leaders at church & Kirsten is another one of the kids in the youth group.)

The kids all met up at Cal Poly to go bowling. Jonathan, being the perfect gentleman that he is, let the ladies win! :) Then they were off to Woodstock's for pizza, Barnes & Noble & Parable for shopping, & then Bali's for dessert. Kirsten drove the 3 of them to our house, (ok this is where Jackie wussed out & HAD to go see Jeff- hahahahaha, so she didn't come over), and they played with Madeline, watched some TV, gave Matt a hard time :) & then out to shoot hoops for awhile.

Talking with them all today at church, it sounds like a fun time was had by all!

Pony put out to pasture!

Our beloved pet pony, "Pony", has been put out to pasture. :( Seems he was recalled for throwing kids off the front & back! Imagine that. I guess the pictures tell the truth, huh? Poor Ellie got thrown off to the side in one of these pictures. Didn't get a picture when Maddie got thrown! But never fear, the kids were not hurt! So Pony will be out grazing the fields for a few months until he "calms down". (Ok, when the replacement rockers come in mid to late May.) Seems like there should be some kind of song playing now as the pony goes off in the distance...

Gotcha Day 1 Year later

Today is a very special day for us...we received a wonderful gift from God 1 year ago today in Hefei China. Meng Chan, now known as Madeline Grace. What a year it has been. Madeline is such a great baby (I'm going to have to stop calling her baby soon!). She is almost always happy. She, like us, has her moments though.

It is so hard to put into words what I am feeling now. I am amazed at the depth of love I have for this little China doll. I could never imagine my life without her. Thank you Jesus for this sweet baby girl. Help me to be the best Mom I can for her & also for Lindsay & Matt. Thank you for entrusting this little one to us. I pray that more people would be willing to open their hearts & homes to these precious children.

I am definitely feeling older, but yet younger too. Does that make sense? Madeline is going to keep us young-keeps us hopping, which also makes us feel old at the same time. All 4 of us love to just watch the antics that this little one comes up with. She turns everything & I mean everything, into a phone. Lord help us when she's a teenager! haha To hear her giggle with her brother & sister is priceless.

It breaks my heart when I think of what her life could have been, about the millions of orphans world-wide & what their lives are like. There was a family that just got home in the last few days with their little girl that is just 6 weeks younger than Madeline & was in the same orphanage. They were allowed to take some video inside (Michael wasn't allowed too) & to see all those little babies, some just laying there. I want to take them all home with me.

Would I do this again? Some days yes, some days no. But if God called us to do it again, I would, but only if Michael felt called too.

Not only did God bless us with Madeline, but new friends. Auntie Alison was our angel in China. What a wonderful woman of God she is. Such an inspiration to us all. I still get to keep in contact with her & I truly hope that some day I will get to see her & meet her family. I love you Auntie Alison. :) Another blessing is the Weers' family. What a hoot they are! We had such a fun time with them earlier this month when they came out to see us! That blew my mind that they would go to all the expense & trouble just to come see us. Rachelle is like a sister to me & we have become close friends over this past year. I am grateful for her friendship. I love you guys! I would also like to see the Montejo's, the Quinn's & the White's again. Reunion anyone? :)

Thank you for allowing me to ramble on & on. I just can't express the intensity of my feelings about Madeline. Thank you too, to those of you who supported us throughout this whole process.

It was long, but ohhhhh so worth it, don't you agree it.

Now, I'm going to go in & hug my baby before I go to bed!

Girls Night Out!

3 hours! Only 3 hours! That's all the time we had. It seemed like it was only about 15 minutes. We had a few months worth of "talk" to catch up on. How could we do it in only 3 hours?

Stacey, Julie & I used to be able to get together every few weeks for lunch, but that was before babies & jobs. Then we did some of the lunch things & park play. Now it's the occasional dinner with just the mommies.

Life has been getting more & more crazy for all 3 of us & it is harder to schedule our girl time. But it is so necessary for us to get together. Through our highest highs & lowest lows, we are there for each other-to encourage one another, to hold one another accountable, to share our books & most importantly, share our chocolate!! :) Isn't it great how God sends those special people into our lives? (Rachelle-you'd love these 2 crazies!)

Anyway, we pretty much had the run of the restaurant. Monday nights at Jaffa are great! Very quiet, except for one corner! LOL Great friends, great food, great times! Thanks girls, for a fun evening!

Happy Easter

Here are some pictures of Madeline's first Easter egg hunt. After showing her how to find a few eggs, she did great on her own finding them! We hid some here at home & then some more when we went to Grandma & Granpda Ream's house.

No diet coke, day 2

Well, I have now made it 2 days without any diet coke. I'm putting the water & iced tea away though! :) After a rough weekend with lots of heartburn, I have decided to give up my beloved diet soda, to see if it will help. If you know me, you know how hard this is going to be. I think the only thing harder (food wise) would be chocolate! But with God's help, we will make it! So stayed tune...

A girl & her phone

Just had to post these priceless pictures of Madeline on her favorite thing-the phone! I think she was talking to either Ellie or Grandpa Ream! If she's this phone obsessed now, oh what will she be like as a teen??? She can turn anything & everything into a phone. :)

Perseverance

How do you like to spend your Sunday evenings? Lindsay & I spent ours making a DNA model. We had lots of fun. Most of the time. :) A gummy bear fight would break out now & then. We started this project at about 7:30 in the evening. I had gotten some directions to making a candy DNA off the internet. Estimated time to make it? 15 minutes! Cool - I thought! But shortly into making it, we realized we would need more gummy worms. So we trucked off to the store. (Of course, I think it's in the let's-wait-until-the-last-minute ordinance that if you go to the store for more supplies, you had to buy Dreyers loaded chocolate brownie ice cream!

Now to really get started on the project. :) Lindsay has sorted out the gummy bears- Nice job Lindsay! I got the licorice cut Over her shoulder in one of the pictures, you can see the time of 8:30. Ok, so more then 15 minutes into it already! SO we actually get it all made (licorice strung on wire & gummy bears speared with toothpicks) & have it on the cardboard. Then we're trying to figure out how to twist it & to have it stay. The internet instructions didn't give any of that kind of info! Time to call in the big guns-Dad! After much thought, we decided to use this clear tube that houses an autographed baseball bat that Matt has. (so now we have Matt involved too!) As we are putting it in the tube, we realize it will be too short for the tube! Also, every time we try to put the twists into, the red licorice is starting to rip off of the wire! So now we are putting tape over the red licorice pieces. Wait, it gets even better! haha It is now about 10:00 & we keep trying one thing after another & nothing is working.

Ready to give up? Not us! We are going to conquer this DNA project!!!! Now it's about 11 & Lindsay & I decide to start over with thicker wire! Cut up more licorice & spear more gummy bears. We get it all done, the wire-taping every red piece of licorice-just in case! We get it slid into the clear baseball bat tube & try to twist it. Again we have to call for help from the "smart one". WE finally get it in there, twisted & secured! Lindsay gets the key made & we attach it to a guitar stand. Taadaaaaaaaa-it is finished!! Now it's only midnight! Thank goodness for late start Monday's at the highschool!

I got a text message from Lindsay a little while ago saying thanks & that everyone loves it & the teacher wants to keep it for awhile!! So we persevered & did it! It looks totally cool. I had to take pictures of it so I can do a digital scrapbook page, some day.

So what did we learn in this lesson? Don't procrastinate & leave it until the night before. And more importantly black licorice holds up better then red. Now for nap time....

Amazing!

Well, I'm trying something new. We'll see how we do with this whole blog-thingy! :) Just what I need, something else to keep me on the computer!