Sweatin' With A Smile On!!!

Earlier this month our church had Vacation Bible School. As we were driving home one day in 100+ degree weather Jacob said to me..."Mom, I'm sweatin'." Then after a few seconds I heard him say, "But I'm doin' it with a smile on!" I said, "Why are you smiling?" He said, "'Cause I'm mad about it, but I don't want to be mad, so I'm gonna smile!"

Out of the mouth of babes! How many lessons we could learn from our children if we just take time to listen. It's taken me a few weeks to mull over this conversation with him. I've just started studying the book of James and interestingly enough in chapter 1 vs. 2 it says, "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials...."

I have a very good teacher/friend at my church that has taught me to be deliberate in my thinking. I think that is just what Jacob did that hot summer day. He could have been mad about his situation, but he made the deliberate choice to take control of his emotions. He "considered it all joy" instead. I hope that the next time I encounter a trial I can remember to apply this lesson.

My Tribute & FYI

Hats off to my fabulous sister, Laura, who knows exactly what to do in order for my blog to run smoothly! She helped me get my pictures where they're supposed to go so that you all don't have to scroll to the bottom of the screen anymore! Yeah!

FYI, it has been brought to my attention that dryer sheets such as Bounce, clean soap scum from shower walls. I've not tried this yet, but thought that I'd give it a whirl next time I clean. I do know from personal experience that Mr. Clean Magic Erasers do a marvelous job at cleaning soap scum from the tub and shower walls as well. Happy cleaning!!!

School and Court

The boys started school Monday and absolutely love it! They wear uniforms to school and were so handsome. I took their picture and a picture of them with our neighbor kids that also go to school with them. Anyway, they LOVE their new school and I think we're off to a great start to the new school year.

David will be playing violin this year. He's really excited about that and has his first class in violin today. Guess who gets to be his private teacher????? : )

Today is our first court hearing regarding our adoption of Emalee. It's our official "Petition to Adopt" her. From what I've heard the Judge just verifies with us that we do want to adopt her. It looks like she'll be "officially" adopted sometime in February. That's when she'll become a U.S. citizen too. We'll be so happy to have all of this over with soon.

David and Jacob

David and Emalee

Jacob and Emalee

Wound up like an 8 day clock!

So, here's the scoop on the last two weeks of our lives...

The weekend of the 21st we took a little mini-vacation to Branson. We stayed at a friend's condo and really had a great time. It was nice to just leave all of our responsibilities behind and to abandon the everyday grind for awhile.
We went to Celebration City and Predator World. Celebration City was a lot of fun. I rode several roller coasters with the boys while Brian observed from the ground with Emalee. I love roller coasters! Brian would rather not have anything to do with them! Predator World was just O.K. It just wasn't what we were all hoping it would be. It was like a regular zoo except they have a few sharks and sting rays. It was way too expensive for what it was.
We played mini-golf and swam a lot too! I think the boys enjoyed swimming the most! Even Emalee swam. She loves playing in the water!

We got back from our vacation last Sunday and the following Monday morning David went to Baptist Hill for Boy's camp. He was gone Monday-Friday afternoon. He had a great week and can't wait to go back next year.

While we were in Branson Jacob had a lot of asthma problems. He's struggled with his asthma for several days now so we decided we'd better get him checked out. David's allergies are yucky too, so we took both of them to the Dr. this past weekend. Jacob was very close to having pneumonia and David has some major sinus allergies. So, Jacob was put on prednisone and flonase along with an increase in his albuterol and flovent. He also has an antibiotic. David just has to take some flonase.

For those of you that have had experience with albuterol....pray for us!!! Jacob is wound up like an 8 day clock! He's sooooo hyper!!!! He's taking 2-4 puffs every 4 hours!!! On top of that the prednisone is making him CRANKY!!! Tomorrow he gets to go to every 6 hours and maybe he'll start calming down by then.

I think Emalee is starting to get a cold too. She's just finishing up her antibiotic for an ear infection, but last night started a runny nose and sneezing and just hasn't been herself today.

WARNING: Major venting just ahead....
Did I mention that the VCR downstairs went out? We've had it since we were married so it's about time....BUT...the DVD/VCR player upstairs went out AND if that wasn't enough my dishwashwer bit the dust too! Why do things like this always happen in 2's or 3's???

Road trip!

We're leaving the house at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow so that we can go to K.C. David is running and jumping again in the Jr. Olympic State Track meet tomorrow. He competes at 10:00 a.m. We have to be there by 9:30 a.m. This will be Emalee's first time traveling further than across town and back! That's why we've decided to leave a little bit early. Hopefully, she'll be a great little traveler for us! After we leave K.C. we're traveling to Jeff. City to sees Brian's cousin Michelle and her family for a little bit and then we'll come home.

Good news this week is that all of Emalee's blood work came back and everything tested normal! Yeah! We also had the Dr. look at Jacob's back today because of suspected scoliosis. The Dr. said that Jacob definitely has mild scoliosis. He said that it's nothing to really worry about yet and that we will just monitor him as he grows.

Feeling Sad......

I just learned some very tragic news. One of the women on my adoption forum lost their newly adopted daughter to SIDS. This precious baby was only 10 months old and was brought home to her family around the same time we got Emalee. She simply went to sleep and woke up in Heaven. I can't imagine the pain that this family is going through. To wait sooooooo long for a baby.......it just doesn't seem fair. We just don't know what tomorrow brings do we? We think we have things all figured out, but the Lord tells us to live for today.

I also learned that another family that got their daughter around the time that we got Emalee has decided to terminate their adoption due to unforeseen medical needs that their baby has. Please pray that this baby finds a family that is able to care for her and that these parents would find peace and comfort in their decision.

These two families really need our prayers.

Hug and kiss your kids today and let them know how much you love them.

Checking In

What a busy summer we're having! David played baseball this Spring and Summer. He's had practice every Monday and games on Thursdays with an optional practice on Saturday mornings. He has 2 more games and baseball will be over for the year. I know he'll miss it, but I'll be glad to slow down a little bit.

Last Friday we had some friends from church over (The Pulliam's). The boys all played in the sand and built a volcano. They had the garden hose running up the volcano so that when they turned the water on "lava" would spray out of the volcano creating a wonderful adventure of play for them all! It was loads of fun for all the boys! Reminded me of some of the great things me and my siblings would play.

It's quiet this morning because the boys went to a VBS with our neighbors and Emalee is sleeping right now. Speaking of Emalee, I took her for a check up Monday. She weighs 17 lbs and 2 oz. She's 27 inches long. She has to get some lab work done so I took her to get her blood drawn. After 3 attempts to locate her veins and much crying and screaming on Emalee's part I decided that we were done for the day! They only got a few drops (literally) of blood so we'll have to go back at some point this summer to try again. This is not a future trip that I'm looking forward to. : (

We have our interview with the school that we've picked out for the boys on July 3. We're all very excited. Both boys are looking forward to going to a new school. They already know a few kids that go there, so I think that will make the transition a little easier for them. We also have neighbor kids that go there, so we can car-pool too! If you'd like to look up their school I think their web site is http://www.graceclassical.org/

Well, I'd better go get some laundry started!