making progress April 28, 2009

Well last night Dave and I finished the second coat on the girls’ room! We are making progress. Now trim! Today we bought their beds and mattresses, and spent an hour after supper working on the front yard. Peanut and I pulled out all the dead leaves and plants in the flower beds and trimmed some of the bushes before they start to leaf. Dave and Budder washed both vehicles. It feels great to be getting stuff done and to know that the girls exist. Before the referral it was often hard to be motivated. Now we can see their faces and it makes it very easy to keep going. It’s 8:00 and I haven’t stopped running since before 7:00 this morning. -I’m grabbing a book and taking a “time-out”! 

Nope. No news on court yet. Still waiting.

no news of court April 25, 2009

We heard from our agency this week and so far there is no news of a court date for our girls. We were told that “based on very recent cases”, we might expect a date of mid-May. But I think that window is now closed… that’s o.k. I’m not in a panic at all. I want to bring the girls home as soon as possible, but I have such peace since we saw their little faces. We know it will happen. We know we can’t control any of it. AND we have lots to do while we are waiting!!

A HUGE THANK YOU to my parents who drove out of their way on their recent trip to the states to pick up Ikea shelving for all the girls toys for our new rec. room!! Dave and Budder are on their way right now to pick it up and I am the designated (well self-designated) builder of the shelves!! I can’t wait to get them up and filled with play mobile, polly’s, doll clothes, etc.

In addition, today IS the day that I finish painting the twin’s room. I say “IS” because I’m trying to work myself up for it! I usually love painting. Here’s the thing. I just finished the report card period at work yesterday. We had a FULL house from our Ethiopia group last night which was SO amazing!!! (thanks everyone for coming out – it was one of the best nights yet, and I can’t wait for the next one – hair classes are such an amazing idea!) We cleaned after work yesterday like crazy  to get ready and then had two of the boys over for night. This morning Dave woke and cleaned the kitchen, but the rest of the house is still clean and looking good! – so here’s the dilemma… I have a clean, quiet house. I don’t have school work. I could spend the evening playing rock band guilt free…. instead of painting. Oh procrastination is lovely.

Fun Project April 19, 2009

I spent some time working on some necklaces for our family the other day. I cut small blocks of cedar wood, which smells really good and is light weight, and water proof. (We live at the lake and my parent’s pool all summer so it needs to be resilient!) I researched the amharic spelling of mom, dad, brother, and sister and then simplified the letters so that I could burn them into the cedar. The result was a very tribal looking necklace that all my family was very excited about! Oh – and I made one for my sister that says “Aunt”! (surprise Marshie!) 

My biggest concern is that when I “simplified” the words, did I mess up and it now says something else all together? Those in the know – is this close to right?

What kinds of kids have we raised? April 18, 2009

Today I laughed so hard. We were at Dave’s parents for a gathering and I had all the little cousins help me mark a sociology project. My students had written children’s books on Canadian values and part of the assignment was that “real” children would mark part of their books. After reading a book about a girl who fought to play on a boys baseball team, Budder comments: “Mom, but it’s about SO much more than that… it’s also about accepting cultures and things like that without judging them… it’s not just a gender issue!”  People, the boy just turned 11!! He’s no nerd – he’s all mischievous silly boy, but he does have a way with words sometimes that stuns even me.

We just got home and the kids decided to watch a movie together before bed. Dave and I are doing other things and we let them chose their own movie. After a couple of minutes Dave comes over to me and says, “Is that Pride and Prejudice they are watching?” I stop to listen. Yup, sure enough. Both kids are snuggled in blankets watching and discussing the movie. Dave then commented, “Our life is so much more unexpected than I ever thought it would be! – You just have to sit back and watch those two and you never know what surprise is around the corner!” So true. They are best of friends, they are hilarious, and they keep us on our toes! We can’t wait for the girls to come home and join in on the fun.

Gymnastics April 2, 2009

Both our kids have had a great year at the gym! It’s been fun watching them compete. We also realize how lucky we are that they both love the same sport! They each spend six hours training every week and really enjoy the friends they’ve met through the program. It’s great exercise too – check out those arms!! I think he can “take me” and he’s only 10. I’ve also included a picture of them in “normal clothes” just so Ramona can see the family – she wanted more pictures!

Budder and Peanut hope that their Ethiopian sisters will love gymnastics too – I’m sure they will – they’ll get coached at home whether they like it or not! Our trampoline is in constant use for “training” from the day the snow melts until it falls again. It’s to the point where it’s “not big enough”. (kids opinion) I have to admit when I look out the window and see a body flipping through the air I am often in agreement! They are begging for a tumble track for home. I don’t even know if they make them for home use?!

Quilt rescue!! April 2, 2009

Oh boy. I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time. That quilting fabric was driving me insane! My mom finally put me out of my misery and came over to look at it. We played forever and then came to a conclusion – we really didn’t like it. So now what? On top of not liking it, I had calculated wrong and bought almost twice as much fabric as I needed (spent a whole whack of money). Poor Dave. He didn’t know what hit him. In all my years of quilting (I started when Peanut was a baby 13 years ago) I had never once bought the “wrong” fabric. People actually called me and asked me to help them pick fabric!!! I was so sheepish. 

My mom left and I sat there and almost cried. Who wants to work on a quilt that they think is ugly? There were three fabrics I really loved and they did work together. So what if…? I figured and calculated until I didn’t know which numbers were for what – and came out with a solution – I’d need just a wee bit more fabric (imagine telling Dave) and I could make it work. 

My mom was my hero again – she spent two whole days at my house sewing up a storm with me! We had such a great time – two machines humming so hard the table was shaking! But at the end of two days we had two beautiful quilts that I am proud of and love. My amazing mom even volunteered to take the quilts home and hand stitch the binding on for me – the last thing that needed doing! Yeah!!! So the girls will have a very fresh green/blue/aqua room with cream. 

I didn’t take a picture at the end, so all I have is a part way through pic. The colors are off – think much fresher and not so dull, but it’ll give you an idea of what we finally created!