Our busy week

This week was busy but routine – we had school, of course and piano lessons, art lessons, Nathan went over to the Meyers while Mandy and I did our weekly chiropractic appt.   Mandy had a horseback riding lesson ( she has finally lopped (not sure of spelling but it is between a trot and a gallop). On  Thursday, we did school and then visiting teaching, drove to Tomball and went to Wal-Mart and then had dinner.  Nathan had a baseball game at 8:00 ( I hate late games – we didn’t get home until after 10) and so Glenn was able to see the game, having arrived at 6 in Houston. 

Friday morning, Nathan had a doctor’s appt (foot doctor – nothing new to add) and then we came home and worked on planting some bushes and then we got ready to go to Pack meeting.  Nathan was trying to finish off a achievement called “farm animals” and he had to go to his den/pack meeting and talk about a book and his knowledge of an animal.  Here are some pictures of pack meeting.  They are doing a group race to show how we have to work together.

My picture of Nathan and his presentation -  evidently didn’t come out.  No trace of it but what Nathan did was:

1) made a poster of the baby chicks new and now – identified them,  (2) also posted his science notes about incubating Fred (the only egg we incubated before we lost our flock) and posted pictures of him as well as bringing four baby chicks and Fred for everyone to look at and touch.  He did a presentation in front of the pack about this.  Finished off the farm animals achievement, check!

On Saturday, we had a mixed day of culture and sport.  Mandy and Nathan were in a Spring Festival.  Mandy and Nathan had worked on 3 songs each and they presented them in front of judges.  They each received a ribbon and a write up on their performance. 

Waiting to be called in to the judging.  We were in a group of around 10 children and each of them played 2 to 3 songs a piece.              Mandy playing her pieces.  I have found it is very hard to get a good picture when they are playing.  Nathan waiting for the judge to  tell him to continue between his pieces.

 

 

 

 

After the performance with their music and their ribbons.

Next,  we hurried home and everyone changed clothes and then rushed to Tomball and played Nathan’s 4th game of the year.  Sorry, I didn’t get any pictures of the game.  I find it hard to take pictures through the wire fencing anyway, they are 4-0 and won this game 8 to 5.  They are in 1st place and more important Nathan was able to get out of his batting slump.  At the beginning of the season, his coach decided it would be better for Nathan in the future, if he batted left handed.  It has to do with balance, etc but he has had to switch his body stance and it has not been easy.  Lately, he has had the batting stance and swing down but he has been so frustrated that he hasn’t hit anything.  He had two hits on Saturday and I think he will be ok from now on.

This isn’t in order but Mandy had refreshments for FHE and wanted to make cupcakes and so here is Mandy and her cupcakes. Looking forward to next weekend and General Conference.

Just a snippet from Mandy

“Mama, I don’t want a Nintendo for my birthday.” said Mandy.

“Really, what do you want?” said Mama.

“I just want to have a beach house!” replied Mandy.  What is so interesting is that she was serious.  She didn’t see any problem with it at all.

My reply?  “Good luck.  Daddy won’t even buy me a beach house.”

Spring Break

Spring break means one thing to children and an entirely different thing to adults, I have found.  I was looking forward to a week when we could clean the house, wash all the windows and doors and work outside.  The kids, on the other hand, were looking forward to a week of computer play, watching tv, and going neat places.  I don’t think either party got what they wanted!

We did do a few things I wanted – went through all of the kids clothes, sorted and cleaned out drawers.  The kids cleaned the game room and resorted and organized.  It’s funny what the threat – “I am going to empty this room of toys if they don’t find homes” – does to motivate children.  We gathered up our recyling and dropped it off, while still doing art lessons, scout-date (kind of like a play date but they work on Scout requirements),  we visited an art gallery in the Woodlands and afterwards had cupcakes, at the first Cupcakery that I have gone to.  We worked in the garden each day – as much work as we have put into this garden, it should look better!  We went to It’z on Friday afternoon and had (depending on the view of the person) a pretty good time.  I have decided I’m not particularly happy with that type of place because of the tickets they earn.  They are never enough to buy anything even remotely worth it and that leaves everyone rather unhappy as you are leaving. 

We had a nice day with Kathie’s family on Saturday as they came to, yes again, work on the garden.   We had yummy tacos for lunch, the kids got the privilege of raking and shoveling dirty hay/manure into the trucks and putting it on the garden.  Such fun, such joy, such non-enthusiasm!

Sorry, I have not taken any pictures as I was too involved in the process.  Our 43 baby chicks are growing, we haven’t had any calves yet (soon though), we have a cat that is expecting any day and is really cranky!  Our world is starting to green up even though we are in the midst of a bad drought.  The cows have found a way to get into our yard (inside the white fence) without knocking down a fence and have gotten into the garden and walked through the berry patch  without doing any major damage???? 

Tomorrow, school starts again with all of the other factors: art class, piano classes, horseback riding class, baseball, baseball and baseball and scouts.  Oh well, I like the scheduled days of school in some ways.  I am already looking to next year and have started buying school books.  If anyone has found a elementary text book or curriculum on Texas history – I would love to see it.  It looks like I get to put one together and I would really just like to see what others are doing.

The Grand Slam of 2011

We have begun the Spring season of LL baseball.  So, we are very busy.  We have had 3 – 5 days of practice a week (Daddy has been home and could take Nathan or it wouldn’t have happened) and Saturday was the Grand Slam, as it is called.  We had a parade down Main Street to the Little League Fields and then started warming up – which was considerably hard as it was sooooo cold! 

 

Miss Tomball coming down the street – really! She had the princess wave and everything.

 

The requisite fire truck with sirens blaring.

Nathan is in the orange, of course.  He was also the loudest.  You have to realize it was incredibly cold and everyone was kind of scrunching down into the hay.

Last week we had beautiful Spring weather.  Not a drop of rain, clear skies.  On Saturday morning at 5:15 am the skies opening with ripping winds, crashing thunder and bright lightning.  The fields were soaked when we got there and  some of the kids had dressed in shorts!  The wind was incredibly cold.  Nathan’s game was postponed for an hour while they spread new sand on the running areas and hoped everything would dry out.  Jason and Becca, Sammi, Jessi and Lizzy came to watch and cheer Nathan on.  They were also going to stay and play at the carnival but it was so cold and Jessi had to go to a girl scout activity so they stayed in my van and we talked and looked at Jason’s iPad and drank hot chocolate.  In fact, I spent the game in the car and parked as close as I could and watched from there.  Jason got several good shots of Nathan.  We eventually won the game 8 to 5 with a great outfield catch by Nathan and his teammate, Max’s first homerun.  At 1:40 the skies cleared and the temperature rose a little.  We went over and played some games and had funnel cake and barbeque sandwiches and had team pictures taken.  A cold but fun day, after all!

 

Nathan winding up to knock over some pins.

 

Mandy at the treasure chest.  Winning a prize.                     Mandy sliding down the slide.  Even though at one time I thought I would freeze we did have a great time!  Thanks, Turpins for coming out and hanging with us in the cold.

The saga of 2 cameras, NO camera and finally one camera!

 

The night before we left for Florida, Nathan and I brought our camera’s into the kitchen and charged all the extra batteries.  We were ready!  We had two cameras, count them two and we could take a million pictures.  We had to leave very early in the morning and had packed suitcases and all of the packing things the day before.  I even put my purse beside the camera bag so that I wouldn’t forget it. 

We got up extra early and gave ourselves a full thirty minutes before we had to leave so that we would have plenty of time.  Then Nathan couldn’t find his camera.  Where could he have put it?  We searched in every room, went out to the car and searched it.  No camera.  It also was supposed to get cold while we were gone and so Glenn sent me out to drip water in the apartment, just in case.

We headed out to the airport and about 3/4’s of the way there – I realized I didn’t have my camera.  No camera – going to Disneyworld and Cocoa Beach and no camera.  We didn’t have a camera for the first four days.  There is a program at DSW Photo pass.  They put professional photographers at all of the places that you want to take pictures.  That way the whole family can be in the shot and let’s face it a professional gets better shots. (I haven’t pulled up Photo pass yet but will get some other pictures and post them)

I did find that taking the camera out of the equation let’s me be in the action rather than recording it.  We took one backpack to DSW.  I decided that one was sufficient and I didn’t want to end up carrying three backpacks.  Each day I emptied it and the next morning added water, snacks, etc.  On Wednesday morning, I reached into the bottom and pulled out what?  NATHAN’S CAMERA!  So, we have lots of photos of the last part of our vacation.  Oh, my camera was fine and found on the kitchen table when we returned.  Here are some of the pictures that Nathan took.  We enjoyed the week of Disney (although for me it was too long) and my favorite part was sitting in the sand making a sand castle with Nathan and Mandy on Cocoa Beach. 

                          Daddy and Donald Duck, quack-quack.

Having dinner with Tigger and pals.

 

 

 

 

 

Cinderella’s castle at night.  They shine lights on it and it reminds me of the scene where the good fairies in Sleeping beauty keep changing her dress from pink to blue and back.Nathan’s purchase from the Hollywood Studios – Indiana Jones performance.  Big sigh. 

We stayed at Saratoga Springs Resort in the Grandstand area.  They were nice rooms with a living room and a kitchen but only one bath.  We have found we are a little spoiled about having more than one bathroom especially when everyone needed to go to the bathroom at one time!  The Magic Kingdom have wonderful fireworks and if you can stay until 8 pm they are worth seeing.  Nathan took videos and they will be on his blog.  One last picture of us and Donald in Frontierland.  Everyone was different but I liked Epcot Center the best.

Next onto Cocoa Beach.  We spent Friday morning and afternoon at the Magic Kindgom and then headed to Cocoa Beach.  Florida reminds me a lot of Houston – same trees, bushes, etc. but it has more water standing everywhere. Here are Daddy and Nathan walking on the beach on Friday.  We were still fairly cold and didn’t venture into the water that day.

     I was trying to get Mandy’s sandman.  She was trying to build a snowman with sand.  The attempt is in the front on the left.

The next day -

Not the best picture but there were  cactus in bloom right beside the beach.

 

 

Finally, we made it to the beach and played in the water and the sand.  We also made a beach fort and decorated it with bird feathers and shells. 

I look a little windblown but we had fun. Our sandcastle almost finished.

 

 

 

 

We had a great time but are very glad to be home.  Yesterday, we went to China Town for Chinese New Years and I will blog about that later.

The Three Musketeers

Sammy Ricks has come to spend a couple of days with us and we are having fun with him.  I will get some pictures, I promise but just wanted to share this with all.  Our Mandy seems to be surrounded by boys most of the time and so she has given in and started playing some “boy” games.  The three of them had finished school and were outside playing football.  I looked out and watched Nathan try to tackle Mandy and decided it was time for flag football.  After handing out the flags, I went back to washing lunch dishes.  I looked out and Mandy is doing the “happy dance” with Nathan’s flag and all three of them were laughing.  It was a very cute scene.  Gotta love em!

Mandy’s comment

We are approaching the end of a very busy holiday season.  Mandy loves being with family and playing with cousins!  Tonight we were riding in the car on the way home from dinner with Cyndi and her family.  Mandy said

“What I wish for next Christmas is that all of the family – Cyndi’s family, Shelly’s family, Kathie’s family, Bob’s family, Donna’s family, and Asia’s family – that we could all live together in a really big house.”  Daddy said “that would have to be a very big house” and Mandy’s reply “Ok, we could all live together in a neighborhood and be neighbors, why can’t we?”. 

She does love her family and so do we!

Merry Christmas, family and friends

As we approach the end of 2010 and arrive at the brand new 2011, we wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a wonderful, productive and safe 2011.

We love you all

Andrew’s baptism

Andrew and Jeremy right before the baptism. Our Jacob and Andrew after the baptism.  They are really growing.

 

 

A really yummy cake and other refreshments after the baptism.  Grandpa cut the cake and the pieces were big!

Mandy, Michael, Nathan, Jacob, Andrew and Aiden. Aiden is Jeremy’s brothers son.  Except for Michael this group plus the Bishops daughter sang “Baptism” during the baptism.  It was very cute.

From left to right:

Taylor, Justina, Ava, Lynn, Cyndi, Jeremy with Michael, Glenn

Aiden, Nathan, Jacob, Andrew, Mandy and Debbie

Trip to Arizona

It has been a long while since I posted.  Many, many things have happened and I have been very busy.  We spent part of last week in Arizona where we played with Cyndi, Jeremy and family and most importantly, Andrew was baptized.  We are so blessed to be with each of our grandchildren as they are baptized.  We started the visit with a quick trip to McDonalds and a really big play around and then we were able to go to the Mesa Temple and view the wonderful lights and nativities.  My highlight  of this night (it sounds funny)was to hear Pres. Hinckley voice when we were standing by the nativity with Mary and Joseph and the baby.  No, I am not going crazy, I know he is dead but it was a recording and while it was wonderful to hear his voice again, I do miss him.

How many kids can fit into a tube?  No one knows but we keep trying. 

 

 

We took Nathan’s camera with us – it is smaller and he actually took this picture of the Temple reflected in a pool of water.

 

 

Michael enjoying the lights.

A mass of greenery with colorful red lights.

 

 

Mary and Joseph on their journey.                              The three musketeers

 

All of us in front of the Mesa Temple

 

 

The statute ‘Christus” in the Mesa Visitors Center.

 

 

 

             The next day we went down to Picacho Peak and did some climbing.  Nathan and Mandy had not experienced cactus or the desert and so we went “experiencing”.  We stopped and ate at a hamburger chain called In and Out Burgers.  Here we are enjoying our lunch.  Yes, Mandy is talker than Andrew.

Picacho Peak in the background from the play area.

 

Heading up the trail.  We soon gave up on the stroller  for Michael and he was carried or walked the rest of the way.

 

I thought this was neat.  It is the inside of a Saguaro cactus.  The long sticks are the inside and the way the water travels up the cactus.

 

The path led to the children’s cave although it wasn’t much of a cave but it was fun.

 

 

 

 

The saguaro cactus are very large and live for a long time.

There isn’t a lot that grow is the desert but this lichen which was a brighter green than appears was growing on some of the rocks.

Mandy and I did a little off the trail exploring.  She has a stick she used and we had a great little hike.

 

 

 

I thought the above cactus was cool as it was green and red.  Below, I wanted to show how long the barbs were.

 

 

 

 

 

I will close this post and put the baptism pictures on the next one. We enjoyed seeing a part of the country the kids hadn’t experienced.

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Around and around we go

Dealing with any government agency in any part of the world is crazy, so many rules, so many mistakes.  Dealing with the US passport agency is definitely not delightful.  Glenn and I have decided to go to Mexico this fall for a week.  Under new laws if you leave the US for any foreign country, including Mexico or Canada you have to have a passport.  Didn’t think of that.  We looked and mine had expired, Nathan’s is good for  5 more months, Glenn’s is fine and Mandy doesn’t have one.  As Nathan has started saying “great, just great!”.  It annoys me when he says it but its very applicable in this instance.

So, since we have to get Mandy a new one we decided we would go ahead and renew Nathan’s since you have to have 6 months left on your passport after you come back.  (Why 6 months?)

I pulled together all of the papers that you need for an adopted child and then asked a silly question.  Since Nathan already has a passport can we just bring his current passport and the pictures, and the money and call it good.  No good.  You don’t renew a child’s passport.  It has to be a new one each 5 years.  Why???  Has anything changed since we filled out the last one, I ask you?  No, nothing has changed, he is still the same boy and we are the same parents and we have the same documents.  Ok, I give.  So, we go to the Post office with all of our passport documents, birth certificate (Chinese), adoption certificate (Chinese), our wedding certificate (what is this suppose to prove?), 2 new photos, I threw in the S. S. card, Certificate of Citizenship and of course, money. 

They did the same thing as last time – no, we want an American birth certificate (sorry, we don’t have one of those – they weren’t born in the US), a different adoption certificate (sorry again, it is the only one we have), and now we have to take all of the originals and send them to the government and in 6 weeks or so, you will get them back.  I said “absolutely not!”.  I will not part with originals, no way, no how.  The Certificate of citizenship – OK, I can get another but the others huh-huh.  Not happening.  Blank stares from said Postal employees.

So, they gave us a telephone number and said we had to make an appt. downtown.  I called the telephone number and after talking to a computer for quite a while I actually talked to a human.  He asked when we were traveling and we said this fall.  Sometime in September but wanted to get the passports out of the way before we booked travel.  Bear in mind that it takes 6 weeks to get a passport by mail.  3 to 4 if you pay the expedited fee (which doubles the passport fee).  I am talking to a government employee and he says basically I will have to leave the originals and they will be sent to me by the US Post office.  This is the same Post Office that I mailed a check to my property manager on January 19, 2010.  He finally received the check on June 30th, 2010.  He lives in Houston, it should have taken one day.  At least the months start with the same letter!  I again said “no” a very resounding “no”.  I also said I don’t trust the post office with something that is not replaceable.

He suggested that we make an appointment 14 days before we travel – get this we have to have travel tickets in hand – and then they will see us for an appointment to get a  passport.  I asked rather confused “14 days before we travel when it takes 6 weeks to get a passport?”.  I was not exactly my nice self but a very confused and frustrated self but I didn’t yell.

What happens in this instance is that you either leave with a passport in hand or receive one the next day.  Ok, we will see.  More later on the continuing saga of the PASSPORTS.