Worth Celebrating

Some things are worth celebrating and Jack is most definitely one of them. So we did just that this weekend. Friday night was his birthday party. Jack's newest obsession is baseball, so he had a baseball party.
This felt a little deja vu to me since last year he had a football party. At this point, I need to explain something about my kid's birthday parties. I LOVE planning my kid's parties. We start planning in the spring for their fall birthdays. My favorite part is the invitations. Go figure, I love words. I love having a theme running throughout the invitations, the favors, the games. And I love the creative process of coming up with those ideas. Though it is their birthday party, it can easily become more about me and what I want to do in the name of fun and creativity, than what I want to do in the name of blessing my children. In saying all this, I'm not try to say that I throw incredible parties. Oh, in my head, they are FABULOUS. But the problem is, though I love the brainstorming and creating aspects, I am terrible with organization and execution and terribly good at procrastination.

Having said all that, the boy wanted a baseball party. So he got a baseball party. No cajoling him into something that would be more fun for me, this time (minor victory). I did have a little fun with the invitations...
But it breaks down after that because I was sick the week before and Bill made me promise that I wouldn't knock myself out to throw a great party. Especially since all they really want is some icing and time to open presents and play. They had that...
In a weak moment, we said it could be a sleepover. With only two other boys spending the night, it was actually a breeze. Until they woke up at 5:52am...
We made them go back to bed and thankfully, they obliged...
Saturday was his actual birthday, which he was clearly keeping track of...
He had a little surprise waiting for him on his birthday morning of our first snow ...
Snow on October 10th? I thought my fall decorations looked kind of cute with some unseasonal "frosting".

We spent the day at Gunga's. He was pretty excited about his gift from Gunga...
Guess what it was...
This is how excited Emma was for him to get something that she also wants...
He was also excited (along with the rest of us) about having his cousin, Josh, home from the Air Force Academy for the weekend...
In case you're wondering how old he is now, he wore a shirt that advertised his new age...
As if there wasn't already enough excessive celebration, the final event was lunch with Grandma at Red Robin on Sunday. Guess who took these pictures with his new camera?

My what big eyes you have, Grandma. He likes zoom a little bit.

And finally, my favorite picture from all of the birthday festivities is Jack doing armpit farts...
He may be a new age, but he is still my same Jack. And I'm so glad. We love you, Action!

I think I'm having a Jack Attack!

He used to be this...

and this...
Now he's this...

And this...

I'm not even sure how it happened, but it's sure been a fun ride!

Happy 7th Birthday, Jack!
You are a Jack, a King, and an Ace.
Never a dull moment.
Never.

8 is great

Her Loveliness, Luci May, is 8 months old today!

Since I may take a few pictures of her once in awhile, we have 8 photos to
celebrate this occasion.

Serious.

Or should I say seriously cute?

Momma love...

Daddy love...

Surrounded with love...

Bringer of joy...
Eyes that sparkle...
Kissable, pouty, perfect lips...
The whole world envies Angelina Jolie's lips. Angelina envies yours, baby.

Dimples...
and a Lizard tongue, of course.

Lovely Luci...
You grow lovelier each day
with a light than shines from within.

Oink.Oink.

Call it Swine Flu. Call it H1N1. Call it nasty. Whatever you call it, it has been my constant companion for the past several days. I can't know for sure what I have since they tell you if you suspect you have swine flu, DO NOT COME INTO THE DOCTOR'S OFFICE. So we're just guessing here. But with the cough and the headache and the fever and the congestion and the overall malaise...I'm thinking it's a safe assumption.

It was probably exacerbated by my near hit and run accident of late. I should sue!

I was feeling a little better today, so Bill got take out and we had a little lunch date...
Along with our sweet little girl, of course. And plenty of kleenex. It was a casual date. Very, very casual considering I was in jammie bottoms.

Do we know how to have hot dates or what? Yeah, baby.

"YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!"

Civic Duty called and I answered. I went to Jury Duty. I was the second to last person (of 30) to show up. Technically I was the very last since the last girl never showed up at all. What happens when you don't show up for Jury Duty? They probably send Chuck Norris for you. Anyway, I was only 3 minutes late. In my book that's not even considered late. I guess all those other people were just excited to be there. Though nobody looked remotely excited.

We sat around for awhile in a waiting room while I desperately wished that I a) wasn't coughing, b) had a coffee, and c) had a People magazine. After about a half hour we walked into the courtroom for jury selection. It wasn't "A Few Good Men", but it was my first time in a courtroom so it was kind of cool. The judge did a few introductions and explanations and then they chose 21 of the 30 to enter "the well" for further selection. And...

I wasn't chosen. After a week of desperately wishing I could get out of jury duty, I suddenly felt rejected. Why didn't they want me? I felt like the girls who get sent home on the first night of The Bachelor. I didn't even get my chance to show them what a great Juror I could be. That lasted for about thirty seconds until I realized that I would get to go home to this...
And my sweet little Emmie who was recovering from sickness at home...
And I might even get to take a nap. And I wouldn't have be there for the next 4 days from 9-5 when I'm feeling icky. So whatever made me a reject...I'm just happy to be me.

The truth is, I think I would have been a terrible juror. In just the 2 hours they kept the rejects there to observe, I had decided the prosecuting attorney was a slime ball and the defendant was a nice, honest-looking man. I shouldn't tell you about the case, but I will say this: if you fall down a couple of stairs and hurt yourself, without knowing all the specifics, I'll feel bad for you until you try to sue the local restaurant where you fell for a butt load of money. Then I'll just be annoyed.

You may think all my drama ended in the courtroom, but you would be wrong! On a break I decided to walk across the street to the gas station for some watery coffee. While walking across the parking lot a car nearly hit me going fairly fast for a gas station. When I say "nearly", I am not exaggerating the way I usually do. I literally jumped out of my left shoe while avoiding a full on hit and the man ran over my shoe. Then, he backed up and ran over my shoe again. Then he pulled forward and ran over my shoe a third time! In the middle of all this I am trying to knock on his window saying, "Sir, please stop! You need to stop!" and he completely ignores me and goes off to fill his tank with gas seemingly unaffected.

I, however, was quite affected. A guy stopped to make sure I was okay. Alright, now I'm exaggerating. He was already stopped because he was standing outside having a smoke. And I'm not sure he was even as concerned as he was amused by the whole thing.

But my husband was concerned. I was on the phone with Bill at the time who was a little freaked out (as freaked out as that steady man gets) by his wife's frantic yelling on the phone. Having the cat-like reflexes that I do, I never dropped the phone. I told Bill I was going to go confront the man, but he didn't want me to do that. The guy was probably 75...I could have taken him. As long as he didn't have the advantage of a moving vehicle this time.

So instead of a citizen's arrest, I called the police with his license plate and had them follow up. With how clueless he was about almost hitting a pedestrian, I somehow think he might be a danger on the open road. I told the dispatcher that I was fine and that I couldn't talk more because I had to get back in for (reject) jury duty. She told me to call back later if I wanted to press charges regarding damage done to my shoe. Seriously? I don't need another unnecessary court case in my life.

Besides, they are Dansko's...
What damage???? They looked no different after they were "assaulted" three times. Those things are tanks. They aren't the cutest ever. In fact, Emma asked for prayer in her Sunday School class because her mom can't wear cute shoes anymore after her foot surgeries. But they can withhold being squished by a car three times and not show a hint of damage. Take that, Christian Louboutin's!

Next time Civic Duty calls, it might be safer for me to let it go straight to voice mail.

Baby, it's cold outside

Something went terribly wrong with the transition of the seasons around here. It looked as if fall was going to get the boot altogether on Friday as we jumped right into frigid temperatures.

The annual Walk-a-thon at the elementary school on Friday was not quite the fun it usually is with gale force winds. For the sake of my kid's classes winning the pizza party for having the most walkers, Lulu and I braved the weather...
She was a very good sport. I might have whined a little bit.

Warming up, literally and figuratively, with jumping jacks...

The rest of the weekend wasn't as cold and windy, but it was definitely chilly. We had a Getaway with our students. It was at a camp with a high ropes course...
Tate used to be afraid of heights, so it was really cool to watch him. Really cool in a "I'm smiling on the outside even though I'm scared to death my son may plummet from that height" kind of way. Bill and Lulu cheering him on...

The camp also had some "low ropes" for little ones...


and a zip line...
and a petting zoo...
and no heating. The older 3 kids opted to stay with Bill while I stayed at the home of friends with Lulu. They stayed in this room...
It was much better than the open air cabins our students stayed in. It did have it's own uniqueness, though. It looks like a regular (unheated) bunk room until you see the other half...
The good news is that if there been a medical situation, they would not have needed to go far.

I almost felt guilty as I enjoyed cheesecake and hot tea with friends and then settled into a warm bed. Almost. I started feeling pretty sick, so it was a much needed blessing.

As usual, there were plenty of opportunities to love on Lulu...

It was a great weekend indeed...
And thankfully, it looks like Fall is making a comeback. I hope I can make a comeback physically too. I need to be well since I have Jury Duty tomorrow. Once they hear my phlegm-filled voice, maybe they will send me straight home. Not that I don't relish doing my civic duty, but well...I
guess I don't.

Can you say "overstimulation"?

In one moment we went from a normal home with a few baby items around to Babies R Us. My friend Hilary came by with her hand me down toys and Lulu went from being on her blanket with a toy or two like this...
To being on her blanket surrounded by Baby Wonderland, like this...
It was like Christmas around here. Lulu has been having fun, but I think the older three are having even more fun with the baby toys!

Not only is Hilary generous, her family has also been a part of our adoption story. After our surprise pregnancy and miscarriage in the summer and early fall of '06 we needed some time to heal and see where we stood with international adoption. We had been ready to move forward with China before the pregnancy, but everything became fuzzy after that.

But in November, while we were at Jack's preschool Thanksgiving Feast I saw Hilary with an Asian baby. My heart start beating faster and the blood started pumping through my veins, as it always did back then when I was confronted with international adoption. I did the awkward, "I don't mean to pry, but is your baby adopted?". And the flame that had seemed to die out during our grieving was ignited again.

As the fuzziness started to come into focus, Hilary would encourage me about our next steps in the process. We didn't know what country, we didn't know what agency and we moved very slowly. But she kept cheering us on. She would patiently advise me on myriads of adoption related things. She was (and still is) a good friend. Her whole family is delightful (go see for yourself). But it was Anara, who was adopted from Kyrgyzstan, that had me had me at hello. Everyone time I would be with them, my heart would leave so full. I would be filled with excitement and courage to take the next steps we needed to take, but there would also be a little ache in my heart wanting to have a baby of my own. Sometimes, I can't believe I am admitting this, I found myself wishing I could just steal theirs. (Forgive me, Hil!)

It was sweet to have time together for the first time since Lulu has been home. Here's a picture of Lulu with Amelia (Mia) and Anara...
My heart was still very full, but there was no ache in it this time.