Sunday, December 28, 2008

Well seems like the Holidays spun by us as fast as they snuck up on us. I was very happy to have taken xmass eve off and be home to straighten up a few things and relax into making our dinner for xmass eve joined by my sister and her family. And may I say dinner was a smacking hit! We had ham, stuffing, bread pudding, red cabbage, sweet potatoes, baby reads, corn and beans for the kids, homemade rolls, gravy, black forest truffle man I have not cooked like that in a long time and had it all planned out so well that it was completely stress less and done in perfect timing. Ok so enough of the food it was simply yummy lol….

My sister and family was here the kids got to open their presents from Oma and Opa and my nephews got to open their gifts. We all watched a movie together ok so mostly the rest of the family did and my sister and I just chatted with a glass of wine. It was in spite of the nasty winter weather snow and drifting a very nice evening and I was so happy that they made it out to our house in spite of all the snow. I had debated on taking the kids to the late night church service but it really was not very safe to go out. And since our snow plow broke down it was hard to stay on top of keeping the driveway clear.

After everyone was gone I put together some backed French toast to soak over night and Garry and I wrapped up some last minute gifts from Santa ;-) and got a bit of shut eye ourselves knowing the kids would be up bright and early.

Christmas morning came and Santa did visit our house even thought I am sure he must have seriously debated that one given the rascal behavior our Samuel has been going thru this past year. Santa was good to all of us thought Garry and I did agree that really we don’t need anything and did cut back quite a bit.
I just find myself feeling more and more guilty over all the things that our kids want thought they have so much and I keep thinking of all the children in this world that have nothing. Unfortunately my children are the ones that do not seem to want to understand that concept. So we feel ourselves torn between giving our kids some of the things they would like and really do they need them --- NO

It’s really been an ongoing battle between me and watching my family… how do you find a way to change their way of thinking? It’s so much easier to look away and so much harder to face the fact that really we don’t need all that do we? I take a clean home and everything in order over getting gifts but being told no gifts for the house…….sigh… you would think leading by example would do the trick? Nope…… I wish there could be a magic pill that would make us all see the light and make better choices. Christmas even more then other times of the year these are the things I think about. This is the Holiday Season we should all be able to live in peace and harmony but there is so much negativity going on in the world and I find myself more and more against anxieties of what will become of my children if this world keeps heading down hill like this… what will happen to us all. It just makes me physically ill…….. Sometimes I wish I could turn my mind off for a while and just relax….

But then it’s Mom this Mom that again and realty pulls me right back in… and my kids are my world and that is what somehow has to keep things going... We have much to be thankful for as a Mom you just our children could see that all we can do is keep trying to lead by example.

Tomorrow it’s back to work and in a few days we are upon a new year………
Let’s pray it will be a better year for all of us no matter whom we are or where we are!

Christmas 2008

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Ok so Sarah had her first Concert Event today it was the Holiday Concert at her Preschool and of course Mommy took the opportunity to get the little girl all dressed up and looking pretty…. Oh my she looked so beautiful! I just wanted to sit and look at her… yes this is my little girl, hugs and kisses and all my little blessing from God!


She did an awesome job at the concert was all smiles all the kids did fabulous, I just love watching the kids that age when its all still innocent and fun and cute! This was her night and she was fine right until the time when Santa came in and oh she had a melt down. But some lemonade and a cookie took care of that really fast. She just is not too keen on the man in the red suit yet.


Tomorrow I will take time off at noon to see Samuel’s concert at his school, he is very excited and then oh my I have to go and pick up Steven to get his learners permit. Yes my baby is officially starting to drive……….shighhhh but I have to learn to let go and he is growing into a young man. I am so proud of him he has been doing awesome in school this year and showing everyone what his dad an I knew all along that he is one smarty smarty kid!

A Weekend gone by way to fast…

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Where did this weekend go we where so busy and yet I feel like I got nothing accomplish. Garry was on call this weekend which always makes scheduling anything very iffy. And of course he had a call to run on Saturday which took most of the day but it is what it is. The kids and I went to see Santa which was fun we met up with a friend and her cute twin boys. Sarah was uncertain as to what to think of the man in the red suit and I had to put her on my lap just to get a picture.

After we got home I was able to start putting up some Holiday Decorations get our tree up and by this afternoon the tree and most of the decorations outside where done. I am so excited I love Christmas and I was excited to see how the living room turned out, I wish I could capture the warmth that the decorated fireplace throws off when the lights are dimmed....


The kids and I worked on our Gingerbread House and I was even able to make a couple of batches of cookies…. Yipee ...



Sam had a lot of fun playing with all my Nutcrackers and I was excited to put them all up again this year.

I still have to work on finishing my xmass cards tonight and get those out tomorrow. Our Weather forecast is anticipating a winter storm with a potential of 6 – 12 inches of snow, Happy Holidays!

The kids have their holiday programs at both the school and their daycare, which will be a nice way to end the week as work is heading into a busy season for me and there will be a few extra hours to put in…

Blessings
Angie

This is the season....

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

I love Christmas, it’s my favorite time of the year. Christmas is about family, about love, faith and hope and in these tuff times we all need a little of each and each others support and strength. Today marks the one year anniversary of our move to these parts of Wisconsin and ironically as the weekend we moved it is snowing out and we are to get a few more inches by tomorrow. How fast this year has gone by………….

We had a nice relaxing Thanksgiving Holiday in Michigan with family and are now back home… I don’t care what anybody says but there is no place like home! I am very much looking forward to putting up my Christmas tree and my decoration. We realized that we had not spent a Christmas at home for the past 3 years so I am most certainly looking forward to that. And just think next year this time around Shawn will be home with us celebrating his first Christmas with his forever family!!

I finish up the program for the children’s Christmas program at their Preschool this weekend and need to pick up my xmass card in the next day or two. Saturday we are going to visit Santa and then make some yummy cookies. Daddy is on call so hopefully we won’t get called out this weekend so that he can join us and get my decorations out of the garage. I wish I could take a day or two off just to get the house all festive and Christmasie looking.

Hugs Angie

Monday, November 17, 2008

The past two week seem to have been crazily busy and just flew by. We had teacher conferences, board meetings, organizational meeting and Tae Kwon Do practice twice a week now for Samuel. Steven is done with Soccer for now until he starts up with Golf again in late March. Garry is trying to finish up his finals in his classes and of to the next set before hopefully in spring he will get this degree wrapped up.

And with the upcoming holiday season I am afraid that the schedule will not let off for a while either as we have xmass committee meetings, more board meetings, xmass programs and getting ready for the Holidays ourselves.

Oh yea that’s right Thanksgiving in two weeks……yikes… I could use another month or so in between.

But hey on the very exciting positive side our Homestudy passed its reviews with the China Agency and we received our certified copy yesterday so on to the so dreaded I800A, so at this point we will definitely need that DTC extension but yet one step closer to bringing Shawn home.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

We spend the last weeks carving our pumpkings, prepping the yard and garden for winter and the kids fighting off colds already. In about another week we are all to go into the doc to get a Flu shot, yes all of us including me for the first time ever. Not sure yet how I will get past that needle issue but it needs to be done.

The kids had a ton of fun when we where carving pumpkins Sarah dug right in as usual and it was her brother Samuel that was not a big fan of the goop digging part. We ended up with 4 big pumpkins sitting in front of the fireplace and they lasted well till this weekend and found their home now on our compost.

The kids had two days off and we all got lucky that Halloween was such a nice day for all of us and we did not have to bundle the kids up to much. We only went out for a short period of time since the hours to trick or treat are limited. Next year I think we need to take a half day off and get out right away as we live outside of town and drive into town to make our rounds. The nice thing is Mom and Dad both get to go trick or treat since we don’t have to worry about anybody coming out here to our house. No neighbors no trick or treaties

Fall is here for sure.......

Monday, October 27, 2008

It was a very nice weekend about a week ago and here we are fall winds and yes even snow, you can tell fall is now really making an entrance in WI. The leaves on the trees are mostly done turning and the winds are picking up there is frost here and there. Our second to last weekend was a good one to put our apple trees in the ground that came in the mail a few days prior to that and I am glad we did this last weekend as this weekend just passed was just to cold and breezy out. We also have a plum tree coming but not until spring. I can’t wait to plant some of them and expand the garden in the spring.
We also got luck and went to the pumpkin farm a week ago rather then waiting till this past weekend as it was no weather for being outside. They really had a blast in the hey forte, spend a great deal of time in the petting zoo and enjoyed going for a guides short horse ride with Mom.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

We have had a over busy couple of months behind us with more on our hands and minds then hoped for and we pray that things will slow down now that the kids had time to get settled back into school, the garden harvest is over, all our paperwork for the Homestudy and Dossier is done and the Holidays are upon us.

We continue to make little progress here and there in settling into the house I don't feel like a big rush on that we do the best we can one box at a time one project and one room as it is in a newer home. Garry has 3 semesters to wrap up before graduation and that is important. He may have to take one semester for when we travel but I am confident that he will graduate in 2009.

The kids are doing well they really like the new daycare and school is going good and we seem to finally start to get into more of a regular pattern and I seem to find more time again to cook a bit more to. Steven is almost done with his JV season of Soccer and then we will have a break from sports until Spring comes. Once we get his new Birth Certificate he will get his permit yikesss and then I guess I have to learn to let go a bit and let my baby drive.



Samuel is very excited for our trip next spring to China I think it will be an amazing experience for us all as a family and he talks about it a lot. The kids have picture day at school today so I hope to have some new ones uploaded of them soon.



We endured the loss of Garry’s Grandfather whom after many years of battle with Alzheimer’s was laid to rest. During that week we had chance to visit with Garry’s sister and Cousin Kyan. The kids had a lot of fun during the visit it was nice to have them here.




My sister came to visit that weekend and we took the kids to a Farm Day event and out to a nice long hay ride. It was an absolutely gorgeous day in September



Garry and I will take off one day next week and just spend a day enjoying the foliage around here and simply have Mommy Daddy time we are very much looking forward to that.

If you feel that you want to join a good cause and help us support the kids in China please visit www.theELISONproject.org the heart of a dear friend of mine, learn about what you can do to help!

Till then xoxox

Back to school...

Thursday, September 4, 2008

So the kids are back in school this week and we enjoyed our last holiday weekend with some exceptionally nice weather and then only in WI can it drop 20 degrees from one day to the next. I am guessing this was our last weekend to be able to use our pool so that will come down pretty soon. We spend our weekend with Grandma and Grandpa visiting. The guys worked on getting some outside lights put on our garage and started to put the foundation down for our shed next to the garage for some needed storage. I spend a great deal of Monday out in the garden pruning away anything that did not yet have fruit so that the remaining can ripen and be harvested before we get the first frost.

Grandma and Grandpa brought us a wonderful cedar log swing for outside, well mostly for Garry and I J and oh year lol... we celebrated Garry’s 40th Birthday though I have a feeling he was trying very hard to just sort of swoosh thru that un-noticed.

We tied up some loose ends to get the kids ready for school on Tuesday all very excited after meeting with teachers at the open house the previous week.

Samuel started first grade he was excited but then a bit nervous when we actually got to the school. Garry and I both took some extra time in the morning to drop the kids of. Well not Steven at his age it was up breakfast on the bus and see ya later ….lol… teenagers. His days are still pretty busy as he has varsity soccer till the end of October. I am also excited that he is taking German this first semester. I have to admit I was never good at teaching any of my kids the language, as the English language comes so easy to me… I know its bad but some people are just better at one thing then others. But I hope that as he learns more we can use it at home and continue to do so in the hope that he can maintain it. He has to take German 1 thru 3 before graduation.

Sarah started a new daycare AND early child hood class at the Elementary school this week. I am not sure who was more nervous…But more on that at sarahyongdai.blogspot.com

I have also taken on the project of doing some webmaster tasks for a wonderful project that I encourage everyone to take a look at as new things are added and we continue to work on new projects to advocate and help China ’s Children.

Come visit www.theElisonproject.com for more info!

ALSO … if you have not yet done so PLEASE enter our Giveaway to help us get our Dossier to China in time to bring our son home!! Watch for more info once I get Shawn’s site up as well.

Blessings

Angie

Help us raise fund to bring our son home....

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

He is 6 years old and waiting for us in Shenyang , Liaoning , China . I can not provide a lot of details at this time as this is not favorable to the CCAA and we want to honor that.
He has a cleft lip / cleft palate and is small for his age but we are confident that with love and nourishment we can provide him what he needs to be the happy loved son that he deserves to be as part of our family. We are very excited that God brought him into our lives and are praying that it won’t be to long before we can bring him home to our family. Our paperwork was sent out to the CCAA one week ago and we have until the end of November to have our Dossier in China .

We are having a Nintendo Wii giveaway to aid us in this quest. Every giveaway entry is $5.00 and you may enter as many times as you like. The objective is to raise $2500 by September 26, 2008 to allow us to move forward and stay on track as we are on a snug timeline. Just think how excited the kids the whole family will be when they find this Wii under the Christmas tree. Please spread the word and help us bring our son home, we are ever so grateful and thank you for your support.

About Our Family Site

We decided it is time to switch sites from that of the one we created for the journey to our daughter Sarah to one that keeps everyone updated on the whole family. We will still update Sarah’s site as it may pertain to things special to her as we will create a site special for her brother as we near that journey which really we have already begun.