Success Tasting Mighty Sweet Tonight

This time last year sight words were an awful thorn in the side of one young man and mom was dreading their arrival with Kindergarten for Maria. Those words that don't mean anything are a little harder when they don't mean anything to you. I'd been hearing for quite some time that two children really really really wanted a little house for the backyard. Mom, not having priced these things, agreed to a deal on sight words that BOTH had to meet for the house to become a reality. Daniel's was accomplished in January, and Maria met hers with the close of school. So, the house got finished today. This rain is messing up two little ones, but they love it. We've already (pre-rain) taken three rugs out there for carpet......ate dinner out there.....and checked out the doorbell many times. Mom, of course, had to deliver dinner out there like the pizza man! I predict many fun hours back there for at least a few years.

It has real planters in the front. Maria wants to plant pumpkins there so they can make a jack- o- lantern for their house. Typical idealistic first time homeowners!

Growing up!

Last night was probably the first time aside from school or a Parent's Night Out that I've taken Daniel and Maria to something where my presence wasn't needed. It was to Vacation Bible School at an unfamiliar church - one that has VBS at night. Its sounds nice to have 2 1/2 hours to grocery shop of whatever, but I must confess to being a bit antsy after the groceries were in the car. I knew I had plenty of time to go put them away at home and be back in plenty of time - a rare treat, but I sure found myself curious and a bit anxious about how they were doing. Were they making friends? Were they enjoying themselves? What were they learning? So.....I went to the church to take a peek. I was MADE instantly by Daniel waiting to go to the music class and standing outside on a second floor landing. He hollered "Momma, why are you here?" My heart was glad immediately! That little expression clearly laced with a little mild disappointment and turning immediately back to his new friends just made my night. He's getting a little independent!

Now, four more nights this week of VBS. Won't be needing to peek in.....laundry...bathrooms.....a little extra time at the office. Who knows, but I know they'll be having a great time and that's fine with mom!

Lovin' the Library

We've been loving the library this summer. Daniel knows right where the shark, animal, and insect books (oh yes....and baseball books, too) are. Maria's reading anything and everything she can. 10 days into summer she's already read the required books to get the prize. And, we are to the point that we're spurring big brother on to read - and not just enjoy the pictures. Daniel LOVES studying the pictures and noting every detail. It cracks me up when I've read a book first with Maria and then go back and let Daniel read it later - you really do get the rest of the story with him!

Today was a really cool experience at the Jones Creek Library. They had therapy dogs that usually help children and adults with illnesses feel better - even getting to go into the hospitals. Today, they listened to stories as read by 5-8 year olds....a lot of them. We got to hear {Chewy Louie" then read to the dogs. Daniel got a little shy on me, but Maria enjoyed every bit of it to its fullest - even reaching over while reading to take the leash of one dog so that she could be sure Suzie would pay more attention - hilarious. There were older girls around dying to read to Suzie and Maria kept reading the book that I got intending for Daniel to read to the ducks (a little hard for her....didn't bother her one bit - she continued on and improved the whole way!). I'm so thankful for lots of fun and expensive things we're getting to enjoy. I think all of the children enjoyed it as much as Maria....had to drag her away so the people could take their dogs and go home. Great idea - and one I hope they repeat at the library!

Laying Puppies

We've had a lot going on this spring and summer around our house. We had a couple of ducklings - Jellybean and Flowerpower that way too quickly have become full blown DUCKS. We've discussed the possibility of eggs and how we don't want MORE ducklings and Maria is HORRIFIED that we could think of eating their eggs....that we should let them all become ducklings. Did you know ducks can have 120 eggs per year? Think we're settled in for the long haul now (now that they stay out of the pool!).

We've also been heavy into the reading this summer and enjoyed a great book about chicks hatching....we've learned a lot about eggs!

Advance that to this morning and the brief 1 mile ride to summer camp this morning. There's a black lab running loose in the neighborhood and I comment that he's not supposed to be loose like that. Daniel turns to Maria and says "They probably didn't want babies." I was interested with that comment about the full grown dog and asked Daniel what he meant. He said that "he was probably getting ready to lay some babies and the people didn't want the babies so they had to turn him loose". He then went on to explain to Maria that "dogs don't lay eggs like ducks. They lay babies - a lot of babies." How is a mom not supposed to laugh?!?! Guess we'd better keep reading!

Enjoying the Journey Continues!

OK - we're having WAY too much fun to let the the limited Facebook status fill in for the much more fun version of some stories. Here it is just a week into summer vacation and we've already had it seems like a whole summer's worth of fun - and Daniel's already ready for school to start!

SO......I'm going to resume blogging (feel free to go back and read the story of anticipation and the early days of Daniel and Maria's arrival and settling in). I'd thought about starting a new blog but when I think about the title that so aptly describes what we're doing that I thought we'd keep it.

We'd love to have you join us for the continuation of "Enjoying the Journey". Funny how 2 1/2 years later I'm loving every day even more than before....but somehow my tongue isn't hanging out quite as much!

Updating Blog

The purpose of this blog has been to create a record for Daniel and Maria - so they will know how much they were loved even before they got to America and to recount the story of the time of how good God was to bring us together as a family. They're at an age now where I think they'll forget very little of the new things in their lives so the purpose of this blog is over. We're going to print out books for each of them of the whole blog and I sure hope they'll enjoy looking at them in the years to come as much as their mom loved recording treasured memories for them!

I love recounting their joys in life....swimming with friends, trying ice cream cones, and all of that - and I never want to quit being grateful to God for bringing Daniel and Maria, so I'm going to think of this as more of a change of venue. Since I don't need to record it for print for Daniel and Maria we're going to use facebook to record the joys and challenges of the day. Please come find me as a friend on facebook if you've been "Enjoying the Journey" with us and we'll continue the journey there!

Markay

Weekend Update

I'm happy to report that life is getting just plain old ordinary - or at least as ordinary as it can be with two very interesting children. We finished off the work week with church pictorial directory photos Friday night. Mom was wishing it could be at a different time because I've been sick really off and on for two weeks and still wasn't feeling that great, but we hurried home and got everyone fixed up for pictures only to go up and wait for an hour (when will Mom learn to take colors even if I don't want them wallering on the floor to color they love doing it and its a great distraction they enjoy). We survived and realized they really do enjoy dressing up. Afterwards we headed to Wendy's for a late dinner. They can certainly entertain me with their thoughts and Daniel loved studying the proofs - in black and white none of which we purchased!

On Saturday we sort of took it easy because mom still wasn't feeling so great. I'd called Daniel and Maria in to watch the alligators (their new favorite pretend animal) get tested for West Nile on "Dirty Jobs" when unexpectedly an alligator swiped the announcer in a spot that would hurt Daniel a lot more than it would've hurt Maria and Momma. A few hours later, Daniel was taking Maria's blood and checking for West Nile. I was amazed at how much they copied the "Dirty Jobs" show - Maria (the alligator) squirmed when Daniel took her blood and even though she didn't squirm within a foot of him he play acted the announcer's inadvertent injury with everything he had. He is a hilarious showman....of course, I already knew that. I'm not sure how many more nature shows will be added to their usual limited diet of Noggin shows, but they loved that show. Maria pretended to be a friendly alligator all weekend - snaps and growls but doesn't bite Momma in case you were wondering what a friendly alligator is.

Sunday was more interesting than I'd hoped. We got ready for church and headed out the door. All was wonderful until Daniel got sick about 10 steps from the SS building door. He was quite sick and Mom had to find a deacon that could help clean up the mess. Maria didn't want to leave church without going so she went with a friend I called on my cell who was walking in and Daniel and I went home. Daniel was some kind of sick for a about 6 hours but he's fine and back at camp today. He's getting sick less often these days but it was not that much fun for any of us for a few hours yesterday. All day yesterday I heard that they wanted to watch the alligator show so Mom's gotta start watching for alligator shows.

They're continuing to enjoy camp. This week Daniel has his first field trip for a movie. They love their Friday water slide days especially but both assure me that it is very different from school. They both miss their teachers they loved so much at preschool but would skip right through summer in a heartbeat to start big school early - they can't wait.