Kiddo Update

Ryker went on his first church camp weekend getaway. He loved it but was so exhausted! I drove him and 3 other kids Friday night, 2 hours one way, 2 hours in peace on the way home. But I was tired the next day. They had cute little cabins with about 8 boys in each. Well there were girls in their own cabins as well. They had chapel, games, bible time, free time and more. He talked about the fun of hiding in the bushes at night to scare the girls. And he liked that a cute girl from his old neighborhood was there. A 14 yr old boy that rode with us said, "with girls Ryker, it's not all about the looks. I learned that a long time ago!" what a kill! He's getting advice from a kid a few years older then him. I'm glad he had the opportunity to go. He really wants to go next summer for their week long camp. He's almost done with soccer, then we start basketball. He's still addicted to some online games that I have to monitor and make sure he doesn't abuse. At his teacher conferences one teacher said that he really has the respect of his peers! I love that! He's new there this year, so I was happy to hear that.



Raven is the spit fire she's always been. She cannot keep still or quite for 2 minutes. I'm thankful for the dvd player in the car although that doesn't always work. She loves her brother and sister so much. She teases her brother and bugs him so that usually leads to a few fights. She loves getting her sister up in the morning, so I thought it was funny yesterday when Paisley woke up she was yelling, "Bay-ben! Come!" She is doing very well in school, does great on spelling test and loves to read. She is still an outdoors girl and I wish we had a bigger yard in this temporary house! She does too. She also wishes she had a bigger room and an upstairs. "What kind of a house doesn't have an upstairs?" She doesn't get the concept of a Ranch. Morning and bedtime can still be a struggle. We have to be sure all her things are ready for morning and that she has a couple of outfits picked out ready to go. At night she just has the hardest time calming down for bedtime. Then she just keeps coming out of her room to tell us things or needing something. She loves her friends. She talks about a couple of them from her class all the time. They were taking gifts to school to exchange but the teacher put a stop to that saying there was some jealously and it wasn't good to do. The teacher said when she gets something in her mind that needs to be expressed she can't wait to get it out! (we've always known this) She may just need another pencil or cut her finger a little so that hand goes up and she can't focus on what the teacher is saying till she gets her thoughts out. It's funny because my husband always says she's just like me, which may kinda be the case right now, but when I was little I was so painfully shy. And I was never that outgoing in school till high school. OH and guess what she just told me? They had school pictures last week and she wanted to wear her Hannah Montana shirt, ok fine. But when she got out of the car I discovered she had on a zebra striped coat with big white feathery color and arm cuffs that is a size 2T and looked like a crop jacket on her! She looked like a little pimp! Well she just informed me yesterday that she wore that jacket for her school pictures! I was like, WHAT?! She thought it was cool. I was not happy and told her I was to approve what she wears for pictures. She said sorry she didn't know:) Riiiight!



Paisley is getting more and more vocal. When we drove in the driveway last night she said, "Dadda (pause) home" It's so cute cause she'll say a couple word sentences with a long pause between words. She says "stop it!" That's when her sister gets in her face or does something she doesn't like. She loves me to read books to her and sit on my lap and do "whoa-whoa", row-row the boat! And she sings a lot. Loves to sit and rock her babies and sing to them. Still likes to take her shoes off in the car! She just started throwing things when she's upset. It might be her sippy cup, pacifier but she will just chuck it and yell "no!". oh oh her comes the 2's! She is usually the happy baby she's always been. If she's tired you all know it though. She's had a couple of rough nights and I think it's her teeth. But a little motrin helps it all. If she bumps herself or gets hurt in anyway she says, "i-ack", ice-pack and points to the refrigerator. She loves puppies and yelps like them if she sees one. She also loves babies and like to sing "the wheels on the bus". We're growing her bangs and she refuses to leave a barette in which looks so cute so we occassionally add the pony tail on top or piggy tails. I'm looking forward to taking her sledding this winter. I'm going to become a snow bunny since the past 2 winters nearly did me in so I'm going to embrace the winter activities! Maybe I'll learn to ice skate! Anyway I want to pull her out on the snow with her cute little snow suit on. We put out our Halloween decorations. We haven't made a trip to the pumpkin patch yet so we'll have to do that this weekend. It's not always easy with kids so spread out in age. Ryker likes the scary haunted mazes and houses which are at night but the younger ones like the little kid things. We've had great fall weather! Yes!
And don't forget to vote! Time for the last presidential debate 08!

Eight Days of Hope

Cedar Rapids is in need of help from the horrible floods this summer.

Coming October 26th -November 2nd Eight days of Hope

Eight Days of Hope was meant to be a one-time visit to the Gulf Coast with a handful of people after Hurricane Katrina. God has allowed this ministry to blossom into so much more! On five different occasions thousands of volunteers have descended on the Gulf Coast to minister to people needs and help them put their lives back in order after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. We also recently had our first non-disaster relief effort in Tupelo, Mississippi. We partnered with Global Outreach as they complete their offices where they will train and equip missionaries before they depart across the world spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ! For our sixth disaster-related trip we will be ministering to the people of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, following the flooding that has affected over 4,000 homeowners this past June. 8 Days of Hope VI will be visiting our country’s heartland as we try to help hundreds of these homeowners in this area who did not have any flood insurance and are left without the use of their homes. We will be doing mechanical work, electrical, drywall, carpentry and painting jobs just to name a few.

We're volunteering through our church, please join us to help those in need!

I can no longer be a Sunshine Girl!

Yes I'm one of those that 25 years ago (man does that make me sound old or what?) used to fry myself out in the sun with my friends. We were obsessed. Obsessed meaning, laying on black roof so we get better rays, using that silver blanket reflector thing to lay on, using iodine and baby oil, butter, I think we even tried cocoa cola, and other things we heard would get us a better tan! The worse was one Memorial weekend that was still a little breezy out but I layed out in sweats, socks and bathing suit top, and I got wind burns on my chest! I had 2nd or 3rd degree burns with blisters covering my chest and it looked like raw hamburger and hurt like you know what! I left school to go to the dr. and he gave me pain killers and sauve to use on it. I couldn't certain things and had to wear a baggy t-shirt so it wouldn't touch it. Then when I was a senior in high school the tanning beds came out. I LOVED them! When I was in college I worked at a tanning and toning salon. When I was able to later in my adult years I bought my own tanning bed and had my husband build a special tanning room in our basement to fit it. But with the kids honestly I barely ever used it. One of my all time favorite things to do it to lay out by a lake, ocean, pool, backyard with a good book. I used to do this when the kids would nap. Well a couple of years ago I started noticing the signs of all that tanning. So I quit. I used sun screen but occasionally still tanning because I liked how it made me look and feel. I occasionally use the spray on tans but it's not the same as the sun.
well I went to the dermatologist this week for bumps on my face and she immediately noticed a tiny pink scar looking thing on my arm. Yup! Skin Cancer! It's the most common one, Superficial Basal cell skin carcinoma and luckily doesn't spread but I'm done with the sun! Scary! I will wear sun screen every time I set foot outside. My Dermatologist has the clearist, smoothest, prettiest skin I've ever seen! She is my motivation. Wish I thought of that 20 years ago! I'm not trying to make light of skin cancer. I am still a little in shock. Don't let unique looking spots go people! I saw some awful pictures online, and they were all so bad because the person ignored it and waiting on treatment. Mine didn't look bad at all and I hadn't even noticed it. Unfortunately people that get that have had one are at risk for more. I slathered on the sun screen before the soccer game tonight. A friend was kind to recommend some nice, natural self tanner. (remember the days of QT?) For now I'm just worried about my skin being exposed to any sun at all! AND all the pictures and stories I found online were of people 70 and older! That was a little depressing! Now I'm off to research the best sunscreen out there. This picture below isn't mine, but similar to what mine looked like except really only looked like the pink dot.

I was told to get my "Smarties" up!

We were all sitting around the table after dinner. My kids started talking about how they wish they were home schooled. They know two families in the area that home school, plus some kids that went to Vietnam with us, that's it. But it's funny because they will bring them up because for some reason they think life would be easier if they were home schooled. They said they could sleep in sometimes, take fun trips and not do so much home work. So this is when my dear sweet 6 yr old princess says, "you better get your smarties up Mom!" What???!!! Does she not think I'm smart enough to home school? We all laughed so hard at her for saying this but now I'm like, What? Why the heck would she say I need to get smarter? AND she IS only 6 for petes sake! I try to live up to the blond image and it has gotten me this far in life, but now I may have to dye my hair! AND I will remember this when it is college time sister! Smarties Up...... what will she come up with next?

A sad day

It was a sad day in Vietnam Adoption Land. Vietnam adoptions officially stopped. I'm so sorry to all those waiting that didn't get referrals. Hopefully things will get resolved in the future. Check out this link
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jp1qmvyR1pqc_TliypfenNxy6wJQD92TTMR80

This will be a hard thing to explain to our kids when they get older. I pray ours was all done ethically.