My Baseball Player

Megan decided she wanted to play coach pitch baseball this year (something entirely new for us!).  She's doing great!  At the completion of week 2, she's hitting the ball out of the park within 2 pitches--something she had been doing at home without much problem pre-season and she's learning how to do a good job fielding.

The great thing about the club she is playing on is that every week they practice a character trait.  Week 1 was listening and the coach selects one player who then gets a medal for practicing that trait. This week was Sharing/Taking Turns.  This is something Megan is VERY good at...she's very inclusive.  Its a characteristic she exhibited at a very young age.  Well, this week she was given the medal.  (Every kid will go home with a medal before the season is over.)  She was so surprised and excited to get the medal this week!

Practicing fielding balls

With her medal

The medal winner also gets a sign to take home for the week saying that they won the award this week.  She's talked about it all day!

She's growing up! This week marks 6 years since going to China to bring our little bundle of joy...and she'll be 7 in just a few short weeks. Boy, is time flying!

Summer Vacation

This crazy family went to D!sney World last week for our family summer vacation. (Going in June is nuts in and of itself because of the heat & humidity, but the crowds were RIDICULOUS!) I was smart enough not to tell the girls until just 10 days before we left, and yet that was too many days.  Megan had the suitcase to the car at least 3 different days ready to leave LONG before the day we were supposed to! They were far more interested in the character meetings than the rides, though.

Dad & I have vowed we're not doing that again.

 Mag!c K!ngdom

An!mal K!ngdom

in front of the "Tree of Life"

Megan's dream vacation was to go to the beach, so we made the hour drive (after 4 days of D!sney) to spend the afternoon at Cocoa Beach.  Megan LOVED letting the waves push her..she could have spent the entire week at the beach and gave up D!sney she loved it THAT much!  Dad sat on the sidelines...acting as photographer.

The next vacation will be for a shorter period of time and much more relaxing (like the entire time on the beach!) as this was too busy for all of us!

9 years--A Great Enlighenment

Its been 9 years since we last held our precious son, Ian.  Yesterday we marked that anniversary/birthday/celebration/whatever-you-want-to-call-it-day.  Its so hard to believe its been that long...and yet its almost hard to recall what he smelled like, what he looked like, what his hair felt like or what it looked like.  I know that is what happens with the passing of time.  There are so many things I wish I would have done if I had only known I only had 7 days.  But we did what we could at the time and there are no take backs.  I do wish we had more pictures.  I really, really wish we had BETTER pictures since its all we have.  And more than anything I wish we had family pictures I can be proud to display.

Yesterday as I was driving to class, I was thinking about the significance of the day for our family and whether or not I should share it with my students.  I got to school about an hour early and since the school is pretty close to the cemetery, I decided to stop there for just a minute since it is no longer close to our house. I noticed that he needs some new flowers.  Then I noticed something I also look at when I stop: I noticed how many infants have been buried since him.  I would guess there are about six rows of babies that have died after him.  After I got into the car to head back to school, I prayed for each of those families.  I prayed that if they didn't know God, that He would make himself known to them.  That they would know the peace, comfort and hope that He alone brings to those of us who have been asked to walk the path of child loss.  Then I was reminded of the many people in my circle of friends and acquaintances who have walked the path or who have friends who have walked or are walking the path of child terminal illnesses or child loss.  And I prayed for them, that God would be close to them, that He would comfort them and bring them peace through their trials.

Then I couldn't help but think about a series that our pastor, Bob Roberts, is doing at our church.  He started it on Easter.  Its called "Its time to Heal Your Wounded Heart".  You can hear or watch it here.  He said something on Easter that I've thought about for the past two weeks: Jesus experienced every kind of temptation that we have or will experience on this earth.  He had to in order to take on your sin, he had to experience the temptation.  As I was pondering that, I thought of Lazarus.  In John 11, the Bible says that Mary & Martha (very, very good friends of Jesus--maybe even like sisters to him) sent word that their brother, Lazarus, was sick.  I have to wonder if Lazarus was like a brother to Jesus.  They identify him as the "one you love". Jesus didn't come for 2 days and Lazarus died.  I do think that Jesus waited so that he could raise Lazarus from the dead, but honestly, something hit me yesterday I had not thought about before.  I believe Jesus waited so that he could experience the sorrow, hurt and pain that we experience when we lose a loved one.  If he experienced every temptation that could possibly experience, why wouldn't he experience every hurt?  The thought overwhelmed me.  It STILL overwhelms.  What great love.  He knew he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead, and yet, in John 11:35 it says "Jesus wept."  Very simply, very obviously he felt the pain of the loss of someone he loved so much.  He felt the hurt.  He felt the sorrow.  Purposefully.  PURPOSEFULLY!!!  He purposefully didn't send word to heal Lazarus so he could feel the hurt that we feel when we lose a loved one.   We can take our hurts to him, he's felt the pain.  By choice.

Lots of RUNNING!

Literally.  We've been running around here a lot.  I made the decision last summer (I think) to run a half marathon in honor of my 40th birthday which is this spring.  So, I began looking to see what half I wanted to do.  I found the Chosen Marathon.   Its run entirely by volunteers so that families who are fundraising for their adoptions can form teams and all fees can go to help them do that.  Those who are not on a team, their fees go to help orphans around the world.  Since this is a cause near and dear to my heart, I knew this was the half I wanted to run.  The only problem--it was in October.  This was a lot earlier than I really wanted to run it, but I really wanted to do THIS half marathon so, I began training.  Then we moved and my training got derailed about 3 weeks.  I honestly wasn't sure I was going to be ready.  Two weeks before the event, I ran 9 miles for the first time.  Well, I should say I ran about 7 and walked about 2 and it was painful.  It was horrible.  I came home, updated my facebook status saying something like this "oh my gosh.  what in the world was I thinking?  I could barely make it through 9 miles.  How in the WORLD am I going to make it through 13.1?"  Yep.  I was NOT looking forward to this.  The next week I ran 11 miles, and it went AMAZINGLY well.  I felt GREAT!  I was 9 days before the race and felt like okay, I can do this!  I need to add 2 more miles, but surely I can do that.  I had planned on running over the weekend, but I woke up Sunday with a sore and slightly swollen left ankle.  Monday morning--6 days before the race-- it was VERY swollen and I could barely walk on it.  I called our chiropractor who works with athletes and was able to get in that morning.  I drove the hour to the appointment and they set to work.  They did acupuncture and beat the heck out of it.  It really hurt.  I rested with my foot up all day on Tuesday, then went back to the chiropractor on Wednesday. It felt better, but it was nowhere near running ready yet. Again, they did acupuncture and worked on it some more.  I was hurting REALLY bad. I rested it. But by Thursday morning, it was feeling better, not running better, but very, very close.  They wanted to see me again Friday morning.

Thursday night, I came home to a sick Megan.  I was pretty sure she had the flu (as in inf1uenza flu).  She had a fever (she NEVER has a fever), stuffy nose, cough.  Crap.  Just what we needed.  The race was a 4 hr drive from our house. I convinced Dad to stay home from work (he was only working a half day anyway), I called the pediatrician as soon as their phone lines opened and we were able to get in at 8am.  They confirmed what I was thinking--but she was past being contagious.    And she seemed to feel "okay".  Dad & Megan took Murphy to the pet sitter's house (an hour away as well) while I headed out to the chiropractor for one final acupuncture treatment before the race.  Can we say stress???  Oh my.  I grabbed some quick lunch for Megan as we all got back home about the same time--lunch time. Then I had to finish up the packing.  (That's SO NOT LIKE ME!  But having to rest my foot all week..I was really behind.)

We had already arranged to get Rachel out of school early so we could head down and get to the hotel before too late.  But it was still 7:30 before we got to the hotel.  Megan was tired (past her bedtime and being sick). I raced to get my packet for the race picked up before the 8pm deadline (I had no idea where I was going mind you!).  I then took Rachel down to San Antonio so she could stay with her friend, Hope.  And it was past 10pm before I got back to the hotel.  Megan didn't sleep every well--being sick and not in her own bed.  And 5:30 came pretty early so I could get to the race start by a little after 6am for the 7am start.  Dad & Megan dropped me off, then went back to the hotel to hang out.  It was a COLD morning.  It was only in the low 40s, but there was a brisk north wind.

Dad tried to keep Megan in the car/at the hotel as much as possible because she was sick and it was so cold (and I should have brought her winter coat, but I didn't realize it would be THAT cold!).  I had expected it to take me about 2 and half hours.  However, I ran the thing so fast (my fastest time in fact) that I was done in 2:17.  Dad saw me run past while they were parked in the parking lot and he missed my finish.  So, no pictures. But here's a picture of the finish line!

Then Megan had a "fun run" at school to raise money for her school.  She had a goal of running just 5 laps.  I tried to get her to make it higher, but she was pretty firm on the whole "5 laps" thing.  She ended up running 21!  She was quite proud of herself!  I ran a few with her, but some of them she just wanted to run herself!

She's high 5'ing me on the "high 5" lap!

She's loving the run!

Pumpkin Patch

We went to our first TRUE pumpkin patch this weekend.  We accidentally went to the wrong one, but we were blessed when we drove into the lot and were handed a wad of tickets for Megan to be able to get to ride on rides we would not otherwise have paid for.  Besides, everything was for charity, so the pumpkins we bought were for a good cause.

Megan riding in the swing.  She LOVED it.

I think she'll love our summer "destination"

(and yes, its still a secret...) 

 Try 1 for a pic.

Rachel was pissed I made her keep her glasses on.

Megan was making her traditional "silly smile" face

I'm sure Rachel will be very proud of THAT picture! LOL! 

Hopefully that will teach her. (yeah right!)

Rachel laughing at me telling Megan she was making a funny face.

Megan giving me a much better smile! 

Megan riding in the barrel train

We also had a hay ride which was fun!

The new house & other new news...

Here's  a picture of the new house...well, before it was ours!

We moved in August 30th, 4 days after the girls started school.  It was a stressful week for everyone.  I think Megan took it the hardest.  I think she's finally settling in though.

This is probably Megan's FAVORITE part of the house!  She has her own personal play area (with sandbox underneath).  She's now taught herself how to swing (yay!).

Then to make things more interesting...5 days after moving in, we decided to add to our family!

Murphy, the 18 month Golden Retriever, joined our family. 

He's very active.  He's so funny.  He's a challenge.  He's WICKED smart. He has lots of energy.

Oh, and he's a BIG boy!  We thought Irish was big, but he's definitely bigger than Irish--both taller and weighs more.  He's down a few pounds (much needed, I might add!), but he's long, lean and loves to chew.  Holy moly does he love to chew.  We forgot what having a younger dog in the house was like! :-) Whew.

As you can tell, getting him to sit still for a picture was a bit...difficult! :-)

But, I did finally succeed!

First day of school

I'm a bit behind..I know...it's been INSANELY busy.

Here are the pictures from the first day of school

I have a big kindergartner now!

Megan outside her school on the first day. 

 Mom can't believe she has a kindergartner already!

My big 9th grader

She's too cool to take a pic right by the building (not that I blame her!)

So we resorted to just outside the car door

The girls started not only new grades (and therefore new schools), but new in a school district as well as we've moved.  We didn't close on the new house until the 4th day of school, consequently, we had an hour long commute to school the first 4 days of school.  It was not fun for anyone involved.

Update on Megan

I've been meaning to update on Megan since I originally posted information on Rachel...but its been crazy around here!  So, some things about my very soon (too soon!) to be kindergartner:

• She LOVES hats.  She specifically loves a hat that I got from a fellow mom that she wears practically all the time.  Its a super cute hat, but it has certainly seen better days.
• I found her winter coat at a garage sale (super cute...for $5!) and it came with a hat with a bill...well, for the past week, she's been wearing THAT hat all the time.  Seriously...100+* outside, she's wearing a winter hat.  Its hilarious!
• Speaking of winter hat...in the past month or so, she's gotten into having to wear a mitten.  Not just any mitten, but these very specific mittens that she had when she was about 2 that went with an old coat.  They are too small, but for whatever reason, she LOVES these mittens.  I can't tell you the number of times I've let her wear a mitten to the grocery store.  I'm sure people think, oh, my goodness, look that little girl, how funny...she's wearing a mitten!  It's 2 gazillion degrees outside! :-) One day at quiet time, she quietly worked a huge hole in one of them, so I've not seen the mittens much lately.
• She's very, very, VERY much into the Cat in the H@t knows a lot about that from PBS k!ds.  She loves to watch this show.  And she loves to be the cat. To the extent that she often has to refer to herself (and wants us to refer to her) as "the cat"...or "this cat".  Its hilarious...and frustrating at the same time!  Of course, that also means that she likes to wear a "tie bow" (aka bow tie).  She wears the one she got at christmas ALL THE TIME, but its starting to look "sad" (aka the sides don't stand up like they used to).  So, now we've branched out and sometimes like to use a shoelace tied in a bow.  For the longest time, she also had to have a tail, but lately that hasn't been as necessary (thank goodness!)
• She has 3 very best "friends": Polly (the parrot puppet she got from her play therapist b/c she played with it at every session & was a special toy to her), Buggy (her ladybug pillow pet), and of course Bops (her sheep).  Life CANNOT go on without her friends.
• She can read at least upper first grade level words.  At least.  She's sounding out words like "hazardous," "elephant," "bicycle" and "trumpet" without even having trouble.  However, we were reading a book the other morning and "custodian" tripped her up a little bit, but she came really close in her attempt.  However, I'm fairly certain that's well beyond first grade!
• She's very much into counting by tens right now.  Forwards and backwards.  
• Writing.  The girl will be my note writer.  I was in class last week and I came home to find 8-10 notes from her spread all over my bed as a "surprise!" from her.  She loves to draw pictures, too.  
• She's sleeping better...and later.  Today she slept until after 7am!
• Her favorite colors are purple and pink.
• She's swimming.  She's figured out how to swim on her own.  We've told her to shovel water (paddle) and kick, but otherwise, she's done it herself. She's been working on holding her breath under water in the bathtub for some time.  We've been spending a lot of time at the pool, and she learned to "take the plunge" and is now officially swimming.  Its still very basic, and she still needs lots of practice to improve, but she's doing it.
• She's taught herself to whistle.  Its not very loud, but she does it before she's going to sleep and when she wakes up in the morning.  She also likes to do it to try to get your attention.
• Logic.  The girl is scary smart logically.  Of course the fact that dad likes to show this stuff and "play" these types of games...and because she is so dang smart she's picking up on them....doesn't help!  She's beginning to have logically conversations.  I'm afraid of what she's going to be able to do as a teenager..at which point conversations will go like this in our house: me to Dad: "This is YOUR FAULT! You created this by teaching her how to do this when she was 5!" Dad: "why is this MY fault?"  me: "ha!  Don't even try that one!" :-)
• Here's an example of her being smart beyond her age.  The other day at supper we had baked beans, so Dad said to me, the girls could have "weans & beenies" (aka beans & weenies) for lunch the next day.  Megan pauses and says, beans & hot dogs?  I looked at Dad, raised my eyebrows, smiled.  The girl scares me.  No one has ever told her that word play "secret" that he likes do.  Dang we could be in t-r-o-u-b-l-e!
• She's not really into dresses although she seems to be selecting more of her skorts this year to wear.  When she does wear a dress (and she does wear them to church), she likes to see if its a twirly dress. She's not into girly things, she much prefers throwing the football, t-ball, sticks, dirt and other not-so-"girly" things.
• She's going to be my athlete.  I've started jogging and she frequently wants to go jogging with me.  So, she'll jog with me to the end of the street and back.  She does pretty well.  We got her some pretty good quality shoes this year and I think that will help her, too, if she does run with me more.

Megan is VERY excited about kindergarten starting in just a week.  Mom's not so excited to see her little girl grow up!  Where has the last 4 years gone????