handsful

Abbey, Sharpay from High School Musical…Marley the lady pirate…Ethan the hologram skeleton…and Payton, the grumpy old man. Abbey had a costume party with the Jr. High at church tonight, then we all went around the neighborhood together. They loved every minute of it.

Here is my “boo bag” of goodies, from Lisa! A few of us on my Ladybug Believers online group (we’re all in the process of adopting from China) decided to swap names and treat each other. She had bags for each of the kids and chocolate, ladybugs, and a great magazine for me! Perfect. Thank you, Lisa!

Fall in Florida…lizards on pumpkins!

Today marks 1 year since we turned in our Medical Conditions Checklist, to be matched with a waiting child. Our agency is due for another list of children ANY DAY now, so we are praying that November 2008 is our time to finally see Lainey. As soon as they announce the new list, I’m back to the craziness of mentally adjusting the time to CO time (“well, it’s 5:30 here, but it’s only 3:30 there, so they could STILL call…) and back to jumping everytime the phone rings. So, if you call me and I sound a tad bit disapointed? Don’t take it personally :)

We received a gorgeous baby blanket that was handmade by Jennie, an online friend of mine. I “met” her more than a year ago, when we were both turning in our China adoption paperwork. We’re both with the same agency, and both hoping that our new daughters are on the next list of waiting children. (The list is due any day, by the way!)

Jennie has a side business with her sewing, and I emailed her the other day to order a blanket for Lainey. She replied, telling me that she had already decided to make one for Lainey as a gift to her! I was so touched that she wanted to do this!! She asked me what colors we liked, and I told her the nursery colors. The blanket goes beautifully with the crib set and I just love it! The flowers are flannel, and there is a SO soft pink bumpy chenille on the back. Jennie, I hope to meet you in person some day…maybe even in China!

Below is our quilt in progress:

The final arrangement

Me, looking down on the quilt from the barstool, making sure it’s just right!

My friend Rhonda, who is making our 100 Good Wishes quilt for us, came over tonight to lay all the pieces out in order so she can begin sewing! She had already cut them all down from the original 8″ to 5″ squares. The white background is actually a vinyl backed table cloth…the squares clung to the flannel white side, so when we were done getting them in the right pattern, she just rolled it up to take it home. Clever!

The quilt will have sashing between each square, a border fabric, and binding fabric around the edges. She’ll be sewing it in her spare time (ha…she works part time and homeschools her 2 daughters). She promised to have it done before Lainey comes home, which is good enough for me. Can’t wait to see the finished product!

A beautiful flower in St. Augustine

Since we moved here about 3 years ago, and since he bought a really nice digital camera last Christmas, Randy has loved taking photos. His favorite subjects seem to be nature-related…flowers, palm trees, etc. I thought I’d share a few of his latest takes!

View from the bridge at sunset, looking over the St. Johns river

Majestic palm, St. Augustine

pink sunset, overlooking the pond in our backyard

Gram, Pa-Paul and kids in St. Augustine

Randy’s mom (Gram) and step-dad (Pa-Paul) came for a visit this past weekend. We crammed quite a bit of fun into 2 days! On Sunday, we went to church, had lunch, and then headed to Mickler’s beach for the afternoon. The girls enjoyed looking for shells and shark teeth (so did Gram!), the boys swam with dad and then used a big shovel to dig a hole (what can I say, they’re boys), Pa-Paul tried to stop their dog Panda from sneezing her head off (something about the sand really got to her!), and I enjoyed taking pictures and catching up with some reading.

On Monday, we spent the afternoon in St. Augustine…we did some shopping while walking around the historic town, enjoying all the old buildings and skinny cobblestone streets.

The homeschool mom in me HAD to get this photo!

Payton asked for this picture!

Outdoor cafe in St. Aug.

After leaving St. Augustine, we decided we weren’t ready to go home…so, we drove to the beach at Washington State Gardens. There are lots of big rocks here, that the kids love to climb. We were fine when we first got there. But, soon we were all stuffed up, sneezing, and our eyes were stinging and watering. Randy ran into someone who explained that the red tide algae was the culprit. It’s evidently been really bad in that area! We stayed long enough for some pictures, a little rock climbing, and some beach combing (shark tooth, a coconut, and some dead sea horses!).

Randy and his mom, Ann…before the sneezing began.

Pretty, huh?

** funny side-note about some seahorses we found. Marley (animal lover to the death) insisted on bringing the seahorses home. She laid them on the small brick walls near our front door, to dry out so she could keep them. The next day, all 5 were gone. We think our lizards (tons of them hang out around those nice, warm bricks each day) must have had an unexpected seafood dinner!

Tonight, just as we were getting ready to set the table for dinner, the power went out all over our neighborhood. So, we gathered candles and enjoyed eating our soup and baked potatoes by candlelight! Unfortunately, the lights came back on and threated to ruin our special evening! So….we turned them back off. Power outages…the things memories are made of.

Not much going on with the adoption right now, just waiting for our agency to announce they have a new list of waiting children. We pray that it comes sooner than expected! They’ve just about finished their existing list, and have placed almost all the children. Unfortunately, there are always those children who aren’t placed through our agency. Their files are then sent on to other adoption agencies where they have another chance at finding their forever homes.

In the meantime, we’re busy with school and all the kids activities. We’ve had tons of rain lately, which has opened up a leak in our guest bathroom and caused the gutter over our garage to sag just short of falling off completely. Randy was especially excited to come home from his out of town trip to all THAT.

Oh, and the dog tried to “off himself” yesterday. Well, actually, he decided to peruse the “things to take to China” bin that I keep in Lainey’s room. I buy things for our trip, a little at a time, so we’re not scrambling to get it all at one time. There was a bottle of baby Motrin drops in the bin and Jack thought that would make a splendid after dinner snack. Thankfully, one of our very best friends here is a pharmacist and he was able to tell me that Jack drank the equivalent to 3 adult Motrin, so he’s fine. Guess I’ll be keeping the lid on that bin from now on.

Tomorrow is Friday! We have 2 baseball games this weekend, plus the usual around-the-house jobs and…Randy’s favorite…errands. Happy, happy, joy, joy! ***update, 10-5…the weather forecast is rain, rain, and more rain. So, not sure about these scheduled ballgames OR my bathroom ceiling. :(