JPC - June 3

June 3 - Table

I like a clean home.  I do!  My mom always kept our home spotless when I was growing up.  There were 3 of us kids, a dog, a cat, and white carpet it was always spotless.  OK, we didn't always have the white carpet, but the house was still always immaculate.

When I had just 1 child, my house was easy to clean.  It was almost always presentable for impromptu guests.

When child #2 came along, the house wouldn't always be as presentable.  I could whip through pretty quickly though, in a few moments, if someone announced a unscheduled visit.

With 3 children, there's no time to clean.  I should put an "Enter at your own risk!" sign on my front door.  I like to say now that having friends over for scheduled visits forces me to clean.

This is our dining room table today.  We bought this table at Ikea when we were in the adoption process and needed a larger table for our growing family.  I love the 2 leaves in this table!  We eat here when we entertain.  I love entertaining.  I homeschool at this table.  I love homeschooling!

I very much prefer it to be just the table runner and my glass vase with silk flowers and Lake Michigan rocks.  Simple and clean.  No clutter, no mess.  Contemporary.  Less is more.  Today, and most days sadly, it looks like this.  Chairs askew, stacks of mail and papers to be filed, multiple pens, library and/or school books scattered, snack dishes that never made it to the kitchen sink, a toddler's smeared banana, toys, iPad, water bottle and comb, my cell phone, keys, Jay's wallet, and this week only, Jay's MRI films.

This is life in my home.  It's messier than I want it to be, but it's the season in which we find ourselves.

Enter at your own risk!

JPC - June 2

June 2 - Healthy Snack

My food obsessed 3 year old got into BIG TROUBLE last week.  I had made smoothies to go along with our dinner.  Mangoes were relatively cheap so I made my own version of my favorite smoothie, the Mango A-Go-Go at Jamba.  Miss L loved the smoothie and downed hers with her meal.

Smoothies are filling, so the boys and I chose to save ours for dessert after dinner.  I cleaned up the dishes and went outside to tackle my pool (see previous post for the disaster I've been having with my pool this year).  When I came back inside, ALL THREE smoothies, Super C's, Super E's and mine were gone, sucked dry by one sneaky, naughty, food obsessed, Chinese daughter.  She had taken advantage that the boys and I were out of the room and daddy was laid up on the couch with his bad back and she snuck into the kitchen and helped herself to food that didn't belong to her.  She knows this is a no-no.  I can't even tell you how much she ate!  She should have been sick!  Needless to say, I have now ordered an extra long baby gate with a swinging door to keep Miss Food Obsession out of the kitchen.  It will serve both her and dogs.

Today I made good on my promise to make more smoothies.  Mangoes, pineapple sherbet, mango nectar and ice.  Does this qualify as a healthy snack?  There sure are worse snacks out there.

Mango Smoothies.

Love 'em!

JPC - June 1

June 1 -- Outside

Believe it or not, at the end of April we hit 100 degrees here in San Antonio.  That made me think.  It was such a "cold" winter here and I wondered if we were in for one heck of a HOT summer.  With that thinking, I opened my pool early.

BIG MISTAKE!

This being our 3rd spring here in Texas and our 2nd one in our home with an above-ground pool, I totally forgot about pollen season and our big Live Oak tree in the backyard.  What was once a blue pool turned green and then brown with pollen.  It took me days to vacuum and scoop it all out!  What a MESS!

Lesson learned:  

NEVER, and I mean NEVER

 open the pool until the Live Oak is done dropping it's catkins everywhere 

and the yard and deck have been cleaned from the mess!

Once I got the Oak's catkins out, the water never returned to clear, it was always cloudy.  I was constantly at the pool store spending money on chemicals.  Pool store #1 gave me some bad advice which I regret following and that makes the story even longer, and I won't go into that saga.

Then I battled algae.  Oh my gosh!  For about a week I was sucking the slimy, green stuff out with our vacuum, running to the pool store for water tests and dumping chemicals in to clear up the pool, spraying out the filter with a hose at least twice a day.

I got the algae cleaned out and it was just back to cloudy again, but rain came.  Four inches of rain fell over the course of a couple of days at the end of May.  Ever since then, the pool is either cloudy or green and cloudy.  This weekend, pool store #2 thought the green was algae (again) so I bought an algaecide that was supposed to make one really cool chemical reaction when I mixed it with shock according to the directions.  Nothing.  No reaction.  No change in the water.  Still green.  Still cloudy.  Diagnosis: It's not algae, it's pollen!

Today I gave my pool store one more chance.  They tested my water again and suggested a partial drain on the pool.  So this picture finds me using the sump pump we bought in Nebraska for our flooded basement, draining 12 inches of green, pollen-y water out of my pool.  It's definitely not algae or else the walls of the pool would be slimy.  They are perfectly clean as I drain.  I will refill with water straight from the hose, shock it with chemicals and then take another water sample to the pool store tomorrow.  More chemicals will be in store to get the pollen out, but for now it's all about balancing the water so that the chemicals will work!

The store clerk promised my boys they would be swimming in their clear pool this week.

Fingers crossed!  I'm not beyond asking for prayers for our pool at this point.

June Photo Challenge

My friend Sheri is one of the most creative people I know.  She recently blogged about missing her blogging due to her new job.  So, she came up with the idea of a June Photo Challenge and challenged her readers to join in too.  Game on!  I miss writing and I love taking pictures, so I'm all in on this challenge.

Sheri created her own list and I may have to tweak mine here and there, but here's her list.  If you want to join, be sure to comment below and let us know where we can follow you (blog, Facebook, etc.)

June Photo Challenge List

1..... Outside
2..... Healthy snack
3..... Table
4..... Reading
5..... VBS (I may switch this up because our church doesn't do a VBS)
6..... Work
7..... Smile
8..... Hair
9..... Lawn
10... Road
11... Transportation
12... Pattern
13... Front porch
14... Family
15... Father (I may do this on a different day, and you'll see why)
16... Game
17... Upside down
18... Birthday
19... Home
20... Bedtime
21... Sister
22... Groceries
23... Numbers
24... Foot
25... Flower
26... Hose
27... Patio
28... Asia
29... Hot
30... Garden

Two Year Post Placement

Today is our daughter's 2 Year Gotcha Day Anniversary!  And there's nothing quite like scheduling a post-placement visit with the social worker on this celebratory day.  Scheduling this appointment has been nothing but drama for over a month, and it should have been done long before today, but it's done now [insert large exhale].  Now we just pray, pray, pray that the report gets written this week and mailed to our agency by it's due date on June 7.

You may recall our list of required social worker visits and reports, and it now looks like this:

1 Month After Adoption DONE!

6 Months After Adoption DONE!

1 Year After Adoption DONE!

2 Years After Adoption DONE!

3 Years After Adoption (May 2015)

5 Years After Adoption (May 2017)

That means we only have 2 reports left, one next year, then we get to skip a year (and there will be much rejoicing!), and one when L has been home for 5 years.  Then we are DONE with our reporting to China....... unless they change their rules, which is always a possibility (please God, no!!!!).

Not to be a whiner or anything, but today's appointment came at the end of a very long weekend full of drama, drama and more drama.  It started on Thursday when Jay drove to work and his car died about a mile from our home.  We had it towed to our friend's shop and almost $500 later, it's running again.  CRAP!  On Friday, Super E was running upstairs to play, his foot slipped off a step and he came crashing down, hitting the stairs with his EYE!  Oh, how he screamed and how it ballooned up and turned as purple as an eggplant.  Shortly thereafter, Jay came home very early and announced his back was out.  He has a herniated disc and while it hasn't flared up in the 2 years since we've been in Texas, it sure is rearing it's ugly head right now.  He spent the entire weekend upstairs in bed watching TV hoping the muscles would stop their spasm.  I ran out on some errands and Super E vomitted back at home.  Worried it was from the head bump, I called the nurse who told me to just keep a good eye on him.  It was a long night of checking up on him every hour or so.  Then on Sunday night I was making a chopped salad for dinner and accidentally cut a good portion of my thumb.  It was bad enough that I left the kids home with my husband and went to urgent care for some steri-strips and dermabond.  No stitches thankfully.  Oh, no, it doesn't stop there.  My husband ended up sick in the bathroom all night on Monday night.  He's scheduled for a fresh MRI this week to see if his disc is worse than in years past.  Yeah, Memorial Day was awful.

The visit today went well but you can imagine how I wondered what my social worker would say to all of us, minus the girl and Super C, being banged up.  Today's visit was much more detailed and I shared a little bit more of the ugly that this year has brought.  You see, this second year home with our Quiet Tiger has been harder than the first.  There may be a post about it later because I know I'm not the only mom who has struggled more in year 2 than in year 1.  Today I laid it all on the line and told my social worker about all our struggles.  She too assured me that it's all normal that she wasn't concerned.  She didn't offer much advice, but she said it's all typical adoption stuff.

But what I really came here to share with you were the required photos and accompanying captions that I was to send with the report.  It was much harder to choose with a full year in between reports, so I sent more than the standard 15 photos.  With the cheap cost of prints at Walmart, I didn't mind sending more pictures.

5 PICTURES OF L ALONE

(I chose more)

7-22-13
L on her 3rd birthday with some gifts
[My agency may choose not to use this because our dog is in the photo, but we'll see.]

7-22-13
L with her Cookie Monster birthday cake made by mommy

8-16-13
L at Sea World
She loves getting wet on the water rides

10-13-13
L's first visit to Ikea in Austin, TX
She loved the store

1-31-14
L in front of our home on a cool winter day

2-2-14
L in her qipao on Chinese New Year
She gets a new qipao for Christmas every year to wear on Chinese New Year

2-14-14
L on Valentine's Day

4-21-14
Cooking outside over a campfire at a friend's house in Illinois

5 PICTURES OF L WITH MOM & DAD

12-3-13
L and Mommy all dressed up and going to Daddy's Office Christmas Open House

12-21-13
L and Mommy at Horseshoe Bay, Texas

12-24-13
Family Christmas picture in front of our Christmas tree

5-4-14
Mommy, Daddy & L at church

5-21-14
Mommy, Daddy & L at home

5 PICTURES OF L WITH SIBLINGS, EXTENDED FAMILY & FRIENDS

(I sent more -- too hard to choose)

7-2-13
Our 3 beautiful children at home

7-4-13
Celebrating America's Freedom on the 4th of July

5-27-13
Out to dinner with Aunt Patty (paternal great-aunt)   [China likes to know the relation.]
in Kingsland, Texas

10-31-13
Halloween costumes
Darth Vader, Minnie Mouse and Obiwan Kenobi
I tried to get L to pretend to be scared, but she was laughing

10-27-13
L and her brothers were invited to a birthday party at a gym
with inflatable bouncy houses!
She thought this was the best place ever!

12-3-13
Our 3 kids visit Santa Claus
L was scared at first of the man in costume, but she quickly warmed up to him
and told him what toys she wanted for Christmas.

12-21-13
L and her brothers with her 2 cousins (paternal) from Dallas, Texas.

12-22-13
Beautiful Christmas lights at Sea World with our new friend
whose daughter was also adopted from China!

2-2-14
Chinese New Year Lion Dance.
It was a cold day and I had to put a jacket over her beautiful qipao.

3-6-14
Long time friend Eileen from Minnesota visits Texas.
Eileen and her husband Vern spent many years in China on sabbatical.
This was Eileen's first time meeting L in person.

4-14-14
L with her Godparents from North Carolina who we met for lunch in Chicago!
This was the first time they met in person!
Their son in the white shirt was adopted from the USA and he and L were fast friends.

4-15-14
While in Chicago we met with other children who came home from China around the same time!
This was great fun for all families with children from China!

4-15-14
Dinner with Grandpa Collins (paternal grandfather) in Chicago.

4-17-14
Hugs from Grammie (maternal grandmother) at her home in Chicago.

4-21-14
Easter Sunday hunting for plastic eggs filled with candy outside.
Uncle Todd (maternal uncle) and cousin Emme visit from Minnesota.
This was the first time they met L in person!

4-21-14
L and her Uncle Todd.
Uncle Todd travels to China annually for work.

Happy Gotcha Day, Quiet Tiger!

School's Out!

Today was our last day of school!  What a great year of homeschool! 

Super E started his 1st grade year barely reading.  He was still sounding out simple, 3-letter words.  This week he shocked me by reading a Level 3 Reader and rarely needing my help.  Reading still isn't his favorite subject, but he has done a super job!  His favorite subject this year was Science, with a particular fondness for his unit on Space.  We'll keep working hard on reading over the summer just to keep him challenged and hopefully instill in him a love of reading!  We'll also keep working on those important math facts!

Super C's 5th grade year highlight was probably his History book about the World Wars.  We had a great book with lots of internet links.  My boy definitely has an appreciation for our military!  Perhaps he'll go to the Air Force Academy like his Uncle Todd and Cousin Scott.  Super C also completed 2 years of math in 1 year!  He started out completing 5th grade very quickly and in late January he started 6th grade math.  He still has a few more lessons to complete and he'll have those done by the end of this month.  Next year, we have high hopes of completing both 7th and 8th grade math in 1 year.  Might as well keep him challenged.  That's the beauty of homeschool!  This summer C will keep a writing journal as I haven't been all too happy with the writing portion of our current curriculum.  He already has some fun fiction titles written down.  We thought of even starting a kids blog that your kids could follow.  Stay tuned.

Our co-op was really fun this year too.  Last year it was solely dedicated to weekly PE classes at our local park.  This year, participating moms rotated teaching the group on different subjects.  I had the privilege to teach about Chinese New Year in February and Limb Differences in April.  Both were very well received and I was really impressed with the group of kids we have in our co-op.  My kids have made some good friends who we see multiple times each week.  I'm getting to know the moms better too and that makes our weekly Tuesday gatherings all the better.  While our co-op has wrapped up for the year already (due to the increasing Texas heat outside), we still have our Year End Party on the calendar for the end of May that we're looking forward to.

The plan for next year is to absolutely continue homeschooling!  We'll keep using Sonlight Curriculum for our core and I'll switch to a different writing program for Super C.  One friend is again willing to lend me her used curriculum for 2nd grade and all I will have to look for is used 6th grade curriculum.  What a huge blessing that is to us!

And just so you know, our Quiet Tiger listens in on everything we've learned about this year.  Case in point, on our way into Walmart one day, she just blurted out a story about WWII without any prompting from me or the boys.  We weren't even discussing school at the moment, so I have no idea where it all came from.  She said, "Mom, in WWII, there was the Air Force and they flew in the sky and shot at people and they died.  And they were under water [she was referring to submarines] and they shot at people and they died too.  And we won."  That's a 3-year-old's take on World War II and I think that's pretty darn impressive!  One more funny, just because I can:  On our trip to Chicago over Easter, L insisted that she knew math.  So, Super C asks her what one plus one is and she answers, "2."  Then he asked her what 2 plus 2 is and her response was, "Math."  Yes, my girl, 2 plus 2 is math.  Too smart for her own good!

Our Quiet Tiger will begin some preschool activities at home in the fall but we'll also attend the ABC Club at our local library.  She is excited.

Great job this year, Super E and Super C (and Quiet Tiger too)!  I am so proud of you!

My boys with their certificates of completion!

Meet McKinley

We have a new addition to the family and his name is McKinley!

McKinley "Mack"
Named for Mt. McKinley in Alaska

Let's face it, if I could live at the zoo, I would.  To say I'm an animal fanatic is a huge understatement.  I was thrilled with our 1 American Eskimo dog.  Our Juneau is a love.  I adore him.  But for a while now I've felt the desire to have another dog.  

We live in a nice neighborhood, but break-ins are the crime of choice across this city.  My neighbors across the street were broken into in broad daylight, while I sat at my dining room window that faces their house, homeschooling the boys all day [burglars broke in the back door and that's why I never saw a darn thing].  Having a dog can help deter a burglar in some cases.  

Juneau's recent separation anxiety also made me wonder if he could use a new friend.  It has been about 13 months since Juneau's littermate brother Kenai was killed by something mysterious in our backyard. I'm not sure if dogs can sense those milestones like people do, but the dog that once didn't cry or whine a bit when we left the house, turned into a howling mess when we'd run out on errands.  Perhaps a new canine friend would be good company for him.

To add to that, I like having a little extra security in the house when Jay is gone.  He doesn't travel much for work at all, maybe once or twice a year, but having a big dog by my side makes me feel just a bit more secure.  Again, we don't live in a dangerous area at all, but this isn't the Midwest either, this is a big city!

So, I had been searching for a Samoyed for a long time.  The nearest Samoyed rescue to us is an 8 hour drive away and they wouldn't allow us to adopt due to the great distance.  Other rescues charged as much as a purebred puppy from a breeder.  That angers me.  I understand that rescues have costs that can add up with large vet bills, but I firmly believe that rescues shouldn't be charging hundreds of dollars for adult dogs, especially if these are strays pulled off the street.  

I had hoped that we might be able to find a Samoyed in Illinois when we go home for Easter.  There is a large rescue right there in the suburbs near my hometown.  But that rescue never emailed me back when I asked questions about a couple of their available dogs.

Then after a weekly Petfinder search, I found a Samoyed mix right here in our city.  His pictures made me smile and his described personality sounded like it would be a good fit with our family.  And the rescue's small adoption fee was right in line with my wallet too.  So on a Sunday afternoon we went to an adoption event at a local pet supply store to meet him.

Petfinder Photo #1
Love the one ear up, one ear down.

Petfinder Photo #2

Petfinder Photo #3
Love the blue tongue!

Love at first sight!  He walked beautifully on the leash with me and the boys.  He was very submissive.  We stood and talked to his foster-mom for quite some time and asked all the appropriate questions.  She had me fill out an application and told me to take him home for a trial period to see how he'd get along with Juneau.  Honestly, to my surprise, we left with the dog!  I really had intended to just go meet him, leave him there and head home to pray about it for a while.  But when we learned that we could take him for a trial period without spending a dime, we left with him.

And we're not sending him back!  

Juneau has to learn how to play again because Mack just wants to play with him.  And Juneau gets territorial and jealous, but it's very trainable behavior.  Mack needs basic obedience training because he was once a stray and has no indoor manners (he is house trained though), so I have to teach him not to go after shoes and the kids' toys, etc.  And he needs to learn his new name (he didn't even respond to his given name at the foster mom's home despite living with her for 2 months).  But he is so trainable!  In just 2 days he learned that he cannot go upstairs (yet).  He looks, but he doesn't follow me up there.  Of course, I knew he'd be a great dog, when on Day 2 in our home, he followed me into the bathroom.  Ha!

We're not sure what Mack is mixed with.  We do believe he's part Samoyed but he has one ear that flops down 95% of the time and both ears are tan.  His fur isn't as white as a Samoyed's would be, so he could be part Chow Chow, maybe Golden Retriever, Akita, something brown.  And he has that blue tongue, which Samoyeds don't have.  He's big!  I can't lift him.  And he has a warning bark that makes me feel secure, but his play bark is surprisingly high pitched!  He is very affectionate too and loves to be hugged.  He's a great dog just as he is!  When he's trained he'll be awesome!  

Welcome, Mack!

Happily relaxing together in the kitchen.