Strange Humor

Why is this funny to them? Because they are little girls whose mom is out scrapbooking at a Friday night crop and they get to stay up late with dad. Because they found an entire basket of their mom's clean laundry. Because looking like mom doesn't become a horrible thought until you are a teenager. Because how often do you get to share a shirt with your sister...while she's still wearing it?!

Popcorn and Chocolate

Thursday night Danya decided to share her "special time" after the little ones were in bed. She, Penny, and Gloria had popcorn, milk, and chocolate while watching a "Hannah Montana" DVD. We had never seen HM before, but Penny assured us it was 'great'. I've heard of HM, but didn't realize it was Billy Ray Cyrus and his kids on the show. I remember the controversy when I was younger and he sang, "Achy Breaky Heart". Everyone was saying that he stole the song from his brother. I wonder if that was ever prove true or false?

Last night, Friday, Penny got to have her first ever "special time" and she chose to share it with Danya and Gloria. In our family you have to be five or older to get a night of the week where you can stay up an hour late and choose what activity you want to do. At least one parent is required to participate. I was at a crop that I'd signed up for over a week ago, so Daniel got to enjoy eating cookies with whipped cream, having a dress up fashion show (he was the photographer), and getting "monkey rides" to bed. That means that each kid gets a turn to wrap their arms around Daniel's arm and he carries them through the house to their beds one at a time while they swing like monkeys. Glory and Penny loved it, but Danya opted for an airplane ride instead.

School Registration

Life changing. That's what this will be. I know it's selfish, but I keep thinking how this simple act is going to be the beginning of a massive lifestyle change for the next few months.

We enrolled Penny in third grade at a local elementary school on Thursday. She was none too impressed with the school while we were there, but that's expected in a little girl who will be starting her third school within a two week period.

Our lives will now alter to revolve around her school schedule. We have to have her ready to walk to the bus stop by 7:30 and be home to pick her up at 3:20. Then there are all the other school events that we'll need to plan our lives around. Monday it starts when I'll have to call to change our other two foster daughter's appointments with their families so that they are either before or after that 3:20 window. I know the rest of the population faces these same scheduling issues for five days a week, 9 months a year, but it seems like such a loss to me. One of the reasons we love homeschooling is the freedom.

There is also the factor that it will be harder to spend one-on-one time getting to know Penny, bonding, helping her to feel like part of our family, when she will be gone for such a large chunk of the day and then working on school work for a portion of the evenings and weekends, too. I'm afraid she'll feel left out when she's shipped off to school while all the other kids get to spend the day with me. Already we've been receiving the same question from everyone, "Why aren't you going to homeschool her, too?" As if we are kicking her out because she's a foster kid and not worthy of my time. That is so far from the truth. She's already been sitting in with us when I homeschool Danya and Gloria and she loves it. She's such a bright little girl. She participates in the games and discussions about the subject. Right now it's George Washington and the American Revolution. We're learning about both ancient history (the Middle Ages) and American history concurrently.

I'm going to be praying for both Penny to do well in her new school and for our family, that this becomes an opportunity to "see how the other half lives" and make new friends and that it doesn't over stress us all. Please pray for peace and unity for all of us.

Growing By 2 Feet

Our family grew today by two feet. We got a call this afternoon asking if we'd be interested and if we had room to take Bunny's big sister. We said, "YES!" We've had an extra bed ready in Danya's room since the begining just waiting to add an older girl to our group. As of about 4 o'clock today we have six kids!

It was a little chaotic for her first night since we were hurrying to get ready for AWANA and band practice. She did come just in time to enjoy the delicious dinner Daniel made for us, though: breaded chicken, corn, and peaches, yum! She did really well at church despite the fact that she was tired and wanting to just go home. She sang along during worship time, raised her hand and answered several questions during green meadow time, and got chosen quite a bit during game time. She was sort of instantly popular because she was visiting our class of first and second graders and she is a "big third grader".

Tomorrow we will go see about enrolling her in school. I'm glad we took the time to check out all the different area schools last summer so we know which one we'd like to enroll her in. She's almost exactly a year older than Danya and her birthday is about a week after Kevin's. She's happy that she gets to be with Bunny. They've both been holding hands and hugging a lot tonight. She even gave Bunny a bedtime hug and kiss after she was tucked in. I'm not sure if Bunny really remembers her since they haven't lived together in a long time, but she's loving having a sister.

Since I can't use her real name I've been thinking about a nickname for her. She is very much a "mother hen" to all the little kids. The first "hen" name I thought of was "Henny Penny" who did all the work to bake the bread but couldn't get anyone to help. So for her nickname, to protect her identity, I'm going to call her "Penny" on this blog.

Trumpeters in Training

Danya and Gloria have been enjoying playing on their borrowed trumpets lately. Since my friend, Mark, from our church praise band lent us a couple of his spare horns it's been really nice because I can show the girls how to hold their horns and position their fingers while doing the same thing on a third trumpet.

We've been watching the video that came with our beginning trumpet book and it's informative but funny. It was obviously made in an English speaking country meaning that they don't use American terminology for music. So we're learning not only "half note, quarter note" but also "quaver, semi-quaver". Danya seems much more excited about playing than Gloria. Then again, she has always seemed to enjoy learning other languages, and what is music but another language? I'm liking it, too, because I can already play tunes on the trumpet if they only use the notes C,D,E,F, and G.

Child Safety Hazzard

This is the bag that they sent Latte home with after her dental surgery. They gave this to her full of paperwork and little things. It has no warning label, but does have draw strings (safety hazzard #1) and no holes for air to escape (suffocation hazzard #2).

When Daniel and I took a look at this bag we were both surprised since it seems to break all the safety rules we are warned about. They even gave it to a three year old. So we've decided that when we take her back to The Children's Hospital tomorrow for her after care visit we're going to tell them about it and see if they do anything about it.

McD's Break

Today the kids were just wild so we decided to take a break and "put a smile on". We called Deanna and invited her and her boys along the way. The kids had a blast running around, climbing, making friends. Danya made an instant buddy, a girl her age named Amanda. Kevin, on the other hand, pushed someone down and took their ball.

It was a much needed break. Afterwords I was able to put the three little ones down and get a good chunk of homeschooling done with the girls. We're currently reading about the childhood of George Washington and studying different biomes. I'm thinking about making a trivia game to reinforce what they've learned about the different areas such as, grasslands, rainforests, deserts, and mountains. Today w played a game called "Popcorn." The way it works is one person starts reading. After at least to sentences the yell "popcorn!" and the next person has to take up where they left off even if it's mid-sentence. It helps keep the kids paying attention.

Locks of Love

For Valentine's Day this year Danya and Gloria gave a gift not just from the heart, but from the head...literally. It was a shocking amount of hair to cut off, but we had promised them that they could finally donate it on Valentine's Day. They were both excited that they looked so cute with their new shorter hairstyles. I'm so proud of both of them for the love that kept them fighting with the hassles of long hair for all these months. They decided they wanted to help other kids, and they stuck it out. They are so tender hearted and compassionate. We love them fiercely.

My Loves

This was my first attempt to do that editing trick where you merge a black and white photo with a color photo. I think it came out cute. You may be wondering how I got the white background in these photos. I just had the kids stand in the middle of the aisle at Target (or sit) and then angled the camera so that the background was only the white tile floor. The camera focused on the kids and blanked out the rest!

Simply Danya

Happy Love Day!

We went to Target last night for our annual Valentine's Day photo shoot. The pictures came out beautifully! The kids got new movies as gifts. Latte and Bunny also got new matching dresses. Kevin got a new outfit, too, due to the fact that we somehow walked out the door with everyone in Valentine's colors except him. He was wearing orange and camo!

Twist and Shout!

Since the weather was perfect Wednesday I took the four older kids to the park during Kevin and Daniel's nap times. Latte wanted to try out this twisty pole for the first time, but she was scared. So Gloria and Danya showed her how to do it, I walked her through it step by step, and she did it! After the first hesitant time down with me holding a hand on her the whole time, she was ready to tackle it alone.

She kept rushing up to do it again and again yelling, "Mommy, look! I'm doing it!" She was so proud of herself. She encouraged Bunny to try it once, too. Bunny made it down, but wasn't interested in doing it again. She is just so petite that her tush falls right into the middle of the twisty loops. She did, however, master the pole that goes straight down. She's very strong for her small size.

Meanwhile, Glory asked me to help her swing on another toy that spins in a circle and I ended up accidentally spinning her too hard. She smashed her thigh into a pole and we had to cut our park time short so that I could carry her home. What a day. I hope we get more beautiful weather soon.

What We're Reading Now: Knights & Math

We've been reading several books about what it was like to be a knight and live in medieval times. We've also been watching movies like "A Kid in King Arthur's Court" not for any kind of historical reality, but just for fun and to see some knight costumes and jousts. One book we've recently read is You Wouldn't Want to be a Medieval Knight which talks about how hard it was from being sent away from your parents at the age of 7 or 8 and then all the difficulties along the way. The girls liked the comic book look of it.
Another book series that our kids really like is the Sir Cumference books. They are all about a knight named Sir Cumference and his mathmatically named family that help solve the King's math dilemas. So far we've read the Sword in the Cone which is about shapes and the one where Sir Cumference helps King Arthur design the round table after several other unsuccessful shapes are tried.

Sword and Shield

We're reading about the middle ages in history right now. We've been enjoying learning about knights and armor. We also read about the family crests used on shields and flags. So we decided to do a project. I cut shield shapes out of cardboard boxes (pizza boxes) and had the girls work on coming up with a simple design.

Then they each got to draw their designs with pencils onto the shields. Then they painted them, mostly using their fingers. It's hard to tell from these photos, but Gloria's design is a cross and Danya's is a lamb to represent the Lamb of God. I thought they both had great ideas and they did the whole thing themselves. Afterwords I surprised them with some gifts I bought a couple of months ago in anticipation of this lesson coming up. They are technically gladiator shields, gauntlets, and swords, but the girls don't mind. Even Kevin has gotten in on the act having sword fights with Glory around the house.

Space Chimps!

Last Saturday Daniel and I had an early Valentine's date. We went to the movies to see "Fool's Gold" which was very funny. I just wish they had left out one unneccessary 1/8th of a second scene at the beginning. On our way out of the theatre we were given free tickets to a movie screening for the next day. So we brought along some friends. 8 kids in all while our 3 youngest stayed home with Shannon and Sarah.

The movie was actually pretty cute. It was a cartoon about Chimps who get to be astronauts because the government isn't willing to send actual humans through the wormhole they've found. It wasn't entirely finished, a lot of the special effects weren't added yet. So you'd see the word "volcano" on the screen or "smoke" where those things were supposed to be. But for a free movie it wasn't bad. All we had to do was fill out a questionaire about it when it was over. It's a shame they were only allowing kids ages 6 to 12. I know Latte and Bunny would have liked it.

Brass is Class!

It just so happens that in the brass section of our little church band the trombone player, Ron, and the trumpet player, Mark, both just had birthdays within a couple of weeks of each other. So I made them both a birthday present. The outside of both CD cases is the same with a picture of the three of us taken during the Christmas concert last year. On the inside of the trumpet player, Mark's, gift I cut out a picture of our actual sheet music. The CDs have photos from the Christmas concert and videos from that and also Mark and Ron's recent brass duet.

Sweet Hearts

The girls used Valentine message hearts to make individual gifts for their friends at Sunday school. They wrapped about 30 hearts inside of some plastic wrap, tied them with ribbon, and hung tags on them. They came out really cute and were a hit with all their friends.

We gave an entire bag to Latte and Bunny's Sunday school teacher. In the first service they just handed some out at snack time. The second service teacher was very clever, though. He used them as part of the lesson plan and hid them all over the room for the kids to find. The lesson was about Ruth gleaning wheat from Boaz's fields, so the kids got to "glean" the hearts.

Too Much Stuff

Sometimes I start feeling guilty that I have way too much scrapbook stuff. I get determined that I'm going to use up what I have before I spend a single penny on anything else. That has occasionally lasted a whole month! At least, the not buying any more part. Using up my enormous stash of supplies seems to be an impossible goal. From now on, though, when I start feeling that way I'm going to go to this website and I'll instantly feel better knowing what too much stuff REALLY looks like. There's got to be a 12 step program for when it gets that bad!

Crafty Lady

I'm having fun getting back into scrapbooking more. I think knowing that someone thinks my work is good has really inspired and motivated me to really enjoy the artwork aspect of scrapbooking again. I had sort of gotten into a mode where I was just working to get caught up and not really enjoying the process anymore.

Today I made a "quote border" that turned out really pretty. I also drew sketches for a couple more that I plan to make soon. The layout pictured here was one I made last weekend at the scrapbook store. The store owner, Wendy, liked it so much she asked me to make her a duplicate for her daughter's album. She brought me all the materials, all I had to do was assemble it. In exchange she gave me five dollars off my next crop! While I was making it several customers in the store stopped by to tell me how much they liked the pages, which I consider a really nice compliment since I was just one of several women cropping in there at that time.

This afternoon the girls and I swung by the scrapbook store on our way to get groceries. I picked up the materials for my upcoming Tuesday night class. I'm still nervous about that, but I'm hoping that it will just be the beginning of developing a base of women who will start coming every month. Wish me luck!

When it Rains, It Pours!

While Daniel was with Latte at the Children's Hospital Thursday morning I was busy calling friends from church to get a referral to a good plumber. Our music minister, Les, told me to call Brother's Plumbing. They came out in under an hour and had the whole thing fixed before Daniel and Latte came home.

Danya and Gloria had noticed the wall bulging out the night before as water was clearly running down the inside of the wall of the downstairs bathroom. Daniel tried to find where it was coming from, but couldn't locate the source. We figured it was from the upstairs bathroom so we closed that room off and told the kids to just use the downstairs one. That didn't stop the leak, so the next morning we shut the water off entirely.

The plumber, after getting a ladder and contorting himself around the pipes inside the utility room behind the bathroom, was able to find a small pipe with a hole in it spraying water directly against the back of that wall. This is the same wall that we had to hire someone to patch for us when we were remodeling that bathroom. We pulled a large medicine cabinet out of the wall and had him patch the wall so that we could hang a much smaller cabinet. Now that section of wall will have to be replaced again right away. My friend, Tiffany, says that we need to get it done fast before mold starts to grow. The fun never stops around here.

Kevin's Latest Interests

Lately Kevin has developed an intense love for Dora the Explorer and Blue's Clues. We don't get actual television at our house, but we do have some old recordings and videos of both shows that we bought or recorded when Danya was about this same age. When he sees a backpack he'll wave his arms back and forth while singing, "Packpack! Packpack!"

Sometimes it's hard to believe that Kevin is just 19 months old. He speaks so well, putting three and four words together to make a sentence or tell a story. He'll come up to us and say, "Ow!" while pointing to some part of his body. Then he'll say, "Nay-a, push, me" and fall down on his hands and knees to show us just how Bunny pushed him to the ground. Then he'll say, "No! No!" and take my hand to lead me to her so that I can ask her why she pushed Kevin and tell her to apologize. When it's Kevin who has done the injury to someone else he'll say, "Soddy" and give them a big hug.

He is so loving. Whenever one of the girls cries or is in time out he'll go over to them and start hugging them and patting them on the back. Sometimes he'll just stand next to them with his arm around their shoulders. It's the cutest thing. He takes his role as the only brother in the family very seriously.

Dental Surgery

Yesterday Latte went to the Children's Hospital to get her teeth fixed. I woke her up at about 4:30 am, she checked in to the hospital at 5:30 and didn't get to leave until almost noon. They put her under general anesthesia because it was a 2 1/2 hour surgery and she had to have 12 teeth drilled and filled or capped.

Looking at this photo taken just before she left that morning you wouldn't think she needed any dental work at all. She looks so strange now with her silver teeth on both sides of her mouth. It's a relief that they were able to get the problems fixed before the rot spread to her permanent teeth. Hopefully, all the bad teeth will fall out as she gets older and good healthy ones will replace them. I worry, though, depending on where she ends up living eventually whether she'll continue to get the dental care she needs to protect those adult teeth. As a side note, you may also notice from this photo that Latte got glasses. They are pink and are only temporary for the next two months. This prescription is designed to help correct her severe astigmatism. At the end of March she'll get her correct prescription for near sightedness.

Snakes!

Yuck, snakes! No, I don't mean our elected officials. I'm talking about the wooden snakes that the girls and I painted today for an art project. It was messy and fun. Gloria painted the biggest snake, Danya did the one on the right, and I had the littlest one on the left.

We also watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade today where they show how Indy got his fear of snakes. It was way icky. I can't wait to see the new movie coming out, although I can't really picture Shia LaBeouf (can't spell his name) as Harrison Ford's son.

My First Caucus

Daniel and I got Sarah to babysit tonight while we went to our first caucus ever. Each table you see in this photo represents a different precinct. Our group only ended up having nine people in it. We took a straw poll which just means a vote to see what we think that really carries no weight whatsoever. Of the seven people who arrived on time and were allowed to vote we had supporters for:
Romney - 3
Huckabee - 3
Ron Paul - 1

A very knowledgeable and outspoken man named Steve and I were both elected to be the delegates to our county and state caucuses where the actual election will take place. Daniel was chosen as the alternate. I also got to be the secretary at tonight's caucus, which just means that I got to fill out the paperwork and count the votes. It was all very interesting and I learned a lot.

Daniel and I were also chosen as our precinct's comittee members for the next two years, which means we will be given a list of everyone in our precinct the next time a caucus comes up. We plan to use that opportunity to call and send out notices to everyone so that they will know where and when to vote. One couple that came late tonight was very upset that they didn't get to vote. They didn't know that they had to be there by 7 pm or they would not get to vote. Daniel and I had a hard time finding out where to go tonight, too. We want to make sure next time that as many people as possible at least have the information they need to vote if they want to.

Super Bowl Crop

Last weekend I got to crop at The Stamp & Scrap Station for several hours on Saturday and Sunday for free. Wendy, the store owner, liked one of my layouts so much that she asked me to make her a duplicate for her own album! I created the "Heart Breaker" layout for her to use as an example to show people how to use some of the page kit pieces in the classes I'll be teaching.

Horn Harmony

Sunday the praise band performed the special music that Ron, the trombone player in this photo, arranged. It featured special parts for trombone and trumpet. They sounded good and both did a great job. I was supposed to play along with the saxophone part, but I managed to lose track of my music TWICE. Yes, I feel like a disorganized loser.

The first time was my fault. I don't have any clue how I lost my music. Ron kindly printed me another copy. The second time was half my fault. I left my music within Kevin's reach, and he grabbed it and threw it all over the house. Daniel cleaned up, but that particular sheet music was missing. So I didn't end up playing that song on Sunday. I'll get an opportunity to let the church hear how (badly I play) much I'm improving soon, though. Ron is going on vacation after next Sunday which means I'll have to play the trombone part by myself for two Sundays in a row. EEEEeeekkk!!

Four Daughters

I don't think I've really fully grasped the idea that I have four daughters yet. I do know that I've had to allow more time to get ready in the mornings because I've got to brush and style hair for myself and four little girls. I've also had to purchase more rubber bands since they seem to wander off at twice the usual rate now. One of the major changes to our household has been that Latte keeps getting in trouble for whispering at bedtime and nap time. She loves having a room mate, but it's definitely more work getting them to sleep.

A nice benefit to having another little girl Latte's age in our home is that they play together while I'm getting school work done with Danya and Gloria. On the other side of that coin, though, I have to be constantly alert for silence which signals me that they are getting into mischief again. The other day Latte took all her blankets and pillows, piled them up against the wall in Kevin's room, climbed onto his bed and used his curtains to swing on like Tarzan and fall into the mound of bedding. Of course the curtains shredded, the curtain rod bent, and the whole thing ripped out of the wall. These two girls have managed to find all new kinds of mischief and destruction previously unknown in our home. Through it all I just keep thinking, "Thank God they aren't teenagers!"

Swimming Against the Tide

"Swimming against the tide? Conservatism goes against the ease of the population, the vapidity of cosmic justice like fairness and inequality that sounds so good. Conservatism is constantly swimming against the tide, because it's hard. Conservatism is an intellectual application. One arrives at conservatism after having thought about things, after having been curious. You know, liberalism is simply what you feel. You feel good about things. It's the most gutless choice that you can make. Anybody can be a liberal. ...

Liberal is not something somebody has to be convinced of. It's not something you have to run around and persuade people about. You don't have to argue with them to change their minds. It's just the natural ease of dealing with ephemeral issues and it is not really solving them, but making you and everybody else think you care deeply about them. Conservatism is not easy. It takes work. It takes thought, conviction against easy answers from the left that do not work but they sound wonderful -- and it really grates on a lot of conservatives who have devoted their lives to try to bring the ideology to as many people as possible; remind them it's the structure and basis for the founding of our country. It just grates to have people on our side so easily defect and then turn around, and turn the guns on us as though we are the problem, which is what is happening with the McCain campaign. Senator McCain successfully targeted the weak, the mushy, the squishy, the Jell-Os, some of the left, the Drive-By Media. The maverick... Here's the dirty little secret. The "maverick" is swimming with the majority. The maverick is not a maverick. The maverick is with the majority, and he's swimming very easily with the tide. He's not a maverick." - Rush Limbaugh

Snow Surprise

The weather report Wednesday said that we might get a few flurries, a light dusting perhaps, of snow. Instead we got a few inches! Yesterday we let the kids go out and play in it. Gloria immediately got in trouble for hitting Bunny with a snowball that got directly in her mouth and ran down inside her coat. That's why Glory looks so grumpy in this photo. We told her no more snowballs and set her to shoveling snow. She actually had fun with that and did a good job.

While they were outside freezing their begonias off, I was inside working on scrapbook pages. Wendy, the scrapbook store lady, had asked me yesterday if I could bring in some example pages that show how to use my kits. She said she's had a lot of interest in my classes, but that people aren't sure how to actually use the pieces on their pages, probably because they are pretty big. Today I'm going in to the store to deliver the pages and also to attend the Saturday crop. I'm disappointed that it's been cut short, but it's still 8 hours of uninterrupted crop time.

Blue Team!

This is our crew of first and second graders at AWANA. They are a great group of kids. Right after the big group time where all the different teams are together for announcements and singing we head up to our room. There we listen to the kids say the verses they've memorized for the week. While the leaders are busy with individual kids the rest of them don't have much to do except work on Bible coloring pages.

That's why I've been trying to come up with more fun games to play during that time. We've played "Doggy, Doggy, where's your bone?" and, more recently, a form of "Pictionary" using the dry erase board. I'm thinking of bringing a book next week about missionaries to read to them. Last week we were short two leaders so I couldn't do anything with the other kids. That was okay, because they decided to play the games I had taught them on their own!

Temporary Cubbie

While Bunny is here she has been going to Latte's AWANA Cubbie class on Wednesday nights. She really likes it, but we're not sure whether we should shell out the money to sign her up. We just don't know what her future holds or how long she'll be with us.

She got to visit her grandparents this week. She's anxious to be back with them, but we haven't been given any information or any kind of time frame regarding how soon she could go home. We just keep telling her that her old home wasn't safe for kids so her grandparents are working on getting a better home ready with a nice new room for her. This photo is of the kids at Cubbies playing Duck Duck Goose. Latte's in the middle since she got tagged and Bunny is in the bottom right corner.