One quiet house... well sort of !

Someone enjoyed being the "only child!"

For one night this week - we were parents to a SINGLE child! WHOO HOO! On Tuesday, we took Big A over to Seattle to spend a few days with his Grandma, and on Wednesday night, Little J spent the night at Nana and Grandpas!

It has been really nice and quite around here! Talk about peaceful!! Oh well... that will change tomorrow!

Amy

Part four: Last Days in Kremenchuk

(Edited! Just so you know - some of the information runs together with part 3! It was a posting and tracking nightmare! Thanks for reading!)

Ukrainian Independence Day Party

We were invited by Svetlana and her husband, Vitaliy to join them in celebrating the 10th anniversary of independence from Russia! The gala event was held at Svetlana's home in the country. They came and picked us up and we spent the morning helping them prepare for the feast, while enjoying a tour of their home and relaxing outside! Svetlana made tables full of food in her summer kitchen! Much of it - we could not eat - mystery meats, fish with heads and stuff! We did try small bites as to not offend her! They also had more vodka on this table then we could ever imagine... and all bottles were empty by the end of the day! They had other friends come ot the party, and we enjoyed hearing about most of them! One, Sasha, spoke excellent English! He did most the translating for the day!

After folks had ate their fill and needed to walk off some of the booze.... we were taken down to a small pond that was connected somehow to the Dniper River....
One of Svetlana's guests thought it would be really nice to strip down in his briefs, jump into the Dnipro river and retrieve me some flowers... very touching! Well.. and he was very drunk!
Enjoying one of the last outside visits with the boys-- eating crackers and bananas!






The view of the Hotel Kremin from the Red Square of Kremenchuk
Here are the boys on their last day in the baby house... we were waiting for the final PAPER to be sealed so that we could leave!
The hubby waits outside the office for birth certificates... for some reason it took hours! It was a long long day for us!
Here are Svetlana and myself enjoying a drink in the Central Park near our hotel. Svetlana walked EVERYWHERE! She walked in high heals and had no problem with it!

Amy

Part three - our 2001 adoption

(Edited to let you know that some of the information runs together with the previous and next post!)

Daily Life in Kremenchuk

Each morning while in Kremenchuk, and the every wonderful Hotel Kremin, we started off our day with a shower and occasionally washing our clothes in the sink! We'd set them out to dry on whatever free chair back, hanger, knob or otherwise that would hold the item! Svetlana would usually meet us at 9am in front of the hotel. We would end up walking for about 30 minutes through town, and then she would get us a cab to the orphanage. We did LOTS of walking each day! We would stop on the way to the orphanage and get a snack or small toy for the boys. Some days we stopped at different parks while Svetlana would give us a brief broken English version of history of the town! After our morning visits with the boys, we would get a cab from the orphanage, that would usually drop us off somewhere in town - usually a mile or two from our hotel... Svetlana LOVED walking! We enjoyed taking Svetlana to lunch - and treating her! She always put up an argument - but ended up caving each time... for us, it was no big deal to pay $15 for a really nice lunch for 3 people! We usually ate borscht and an awesome cucumber and tomatoe salad.. super yummy! Some days, we tried different things that Svetlana suggested.. some good - some not so good! Every couple of days, Svetlana would take us to the postoffice.. it was an odd building that had about 15 phone booths inside, as well as two computers with internet access. We would spend about $5, which would get us about 2-3 minutes to try and call home with a very brief update. We would usually try to send an email at the cost of about .20 for 10 minutes. We also would go and get our pictures developed and look for kids clothes. Each afternoon, we usually bought a big jug of water to put in our small fridge in the hotel.

Getting to know the boys

For the next week, we saw the boys in the mornings, and occasionally in the afternoon. For some reason, Svetlana had to get the boys for us each time. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the Director was not happy with us. After about 3 visits, we paid to have a Western trained doctor come and look at the boys. Her name was Dr. Anna Groban. She worked at the American Medical Center in Kiev. She was a godsend! She spoke British English fluently! She checked out the boys head to toe, tested development and helped answer a ton of questions! It was funny when we look back, as she said that Alex was the very healthy one, and Jason was the one with the "Olympic Front (forehead) that he was going to be the one to keep an eye on! She said that she would do the boys exit medical exam for their Visas when we got back to Kiev. That was nice!


We really enjoyed spending time with the boys and getting to know them! They started to understand English pretty quick. Svetlana (a teacher by training) did an amazing job trying to teach them words in English as well as teaching us words in Ukrainian to help. We would take snacks each day for them. Those boys LOVED bananas! Little Dima could eat one faster than you could get it unpeeled. We were told that both boys were not really good eaters... after seeing some of the stuff they had to eat - who could blame them! Little Dima was left to feed himself at meal time... he had little coordination... it was no wonder that he was soo tiny! Vitaliy had lots of energy and loved to play with the toys we brought each day.. he loved to put them all in his mouth!



We spent time playing with them in the music room, as well as mainly outside on the playgrounds. We brought them bananas, juice and crackers each day.

Vitaliy and his Papa... in the groupa room that he lived in
Mama and Dmitriy in his groupa room in front of his locker - #1
Dima and Vitaliy playing in the outdoor playpen

While we enjoyed visiting with the boys and getting to know them better - we were also very anxious to get home! We had brought clothes that would fit Vitaliy, but we had nothing small enough for little Dima, who was wearing 6-9 month clothes! So, each day, we would look at different stores.

Ukrainian Independence Day!

We were invited to Svetlana and her husband, Vitaliys house to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Ukraines independence from Russia.

Court and stuff

We had our court date on August 25th. Svetlana and her husband dropped us off outside the courthouse -and said their goodbyes... which was a little weird after spending alot of time with them that most likely we would never see them again. Svetlana cried - and almost had me in tears as well.

Court went pretty fast... we were declared the parents and quickly whisked off to a building that had maybe 2 lights in it to obtain birth certificates. After a few hours, we went to lunch, then back to the orphanage to spring the boys out... but not until we had some last "paper" from the capital city of the region....

2001 Adoption - part one

THE BEGINNING

We started the process for our very first adoption in the end of 2000. We figured since the world did not end on Y2K - we'd go for it.. haha! We did some online research and first thought about going to Russia. At that point - we were interested in ONE child... gender not important and going for the youngest child we could! We found an agency - I asked alot of questions to the families that had already used this agency. This agency had been doing Russian adoptions since Russia first opened to international adoption. They mailed me out their packet of information and we got the ball rolling. (just fyi -I will not put down the name of the agency... if you read the whole story - you'll find out why!) We were referred to a agency here in our state and started the homestudy. The more information we read and learned, the more concerned we were with trying to determine OUR child from a short medical report and pictures of a child from Russia. Since this agency had just started adoptions from Ukraine a few years prior - we decided to look into Ukraine. It made alot more sense to us to actually MEET our child before going through the whole process. So... Ukraine it was! We put together our dossier (a 2 pound document that basically summarizes your life, that gets all kinds of stamps, and then is sent to Ukraine to translate.) In April of 2001, our dossier was sent to Ukraine and submitted to the National Adoption Center (further more called the NAC). Then we waited...

GETTING THE REFERRAL CALL!

In mid July, we got a call from our adoption agency in California. They wanted to know if we could fly to Ukraine ASAP (like a week later!) and meet TWINS! Since we were only approved for one child... this was a little odd (side note - pre-selection of children was not "allowed" in Ukraine.. but some translators had an "in" with different orphanages and had ways around the system.. little did we know at the time that this was a no-no!) that they would call us for TWINS! The agency was very excited about this referral... as the twins were healthy and almost 27 months old, and a boy and a girl! I remember that I was at work when I got the call... I remember being so excited that I almost burst! The hubby and I talked it over for a day or so... decided to go for it - but needed an extra few weeks to get our homestudy changed, and INS papers modified. Our travel date... set for August 18, 2001.

Getting Ready to Travel

We started packing like mad... bought new HUGE suitcases, money belts, translator books, kids clothes and shoes! We bought our tickets and I remember thinking how awesome it was that we'd be getting TWINS! The hubby was excited because he (thought - haha) we would be done with two kids! We were traveling on Northwest and KLM to Amsterdam then to Kiev (now called Kyiv)... it would be a long flight! We did not think much about names... we had not purchased any furniture or toys... we were still a little worried that it might not work out.

The Trip to Kiev

We left the Yakima airport on our way to Seattle, then Seattle to Amsterdam on August 18. We arrived late the next afternoon in Kiev. We departed the plane on the tarmac and were bused to the terminal. We had to cross a weird little carpet to clean our shoes for some animal based disease that I can't remember now! We stood in line for passport control for over an hour and realized we were in the wrong line and had the wrong forms and forgot to purchase the $8 insurance! We finally got through it - gathered our luggage and looked through the crowds and saw our driver holding a sign with our last name. That was the first time we met Valery (pronounced Va-larry) and our Kiev translator, Irina. We loaded our luggage into Valery's big Ford Van and they took us to a grocery store in the middle of a high-rise neighborhood... looked alot like a ghetto! We bought enough food to last a day or two... then they took us to an apartment.

First Days in Kiev

The first day, we just rested in our apartment. I don't remember venturing out or exploring at all! Day two we went with Irina to the NAC. To make things "official" we had to look at the infamous binder of children there to pick one out to go and visit. This was extremely difficult, as Irina told us to not ask questions or say anything about the fact that we already "knew" who we were going to see. It was like an act... we thumbed through this notebook... Irina said a few things to us like "this child has AIDS, this child has dislocated hips" the pictures that we saw were very hard to take in. At some point, Irina took a page from the binder - said something to the social worker and we were on our way. Basically, we were just getting permission to go to an orphanage. After our apppointment, Irina took us to lunch at an outdoor cafe and we had our first Ukrainian borscht - it was awesome! We did alot of walking and then Irina and Valery did alot of running around. Later that day, we went to meet with our facilitators. Who were Michael, his wife (whose name escapes me!), Nina - who was supposed to be our regional translator, Valery our driver and another man who was driving us to the region. We asked about the Twins - whose names were Alina and Dmitriy. We did NOT ask their age, as we had already been told by our agency. We were told they were very healthy and good children... we were very lucky to find such a good referral. We were told alittle about the region (Poltava) and that the driver and Nina would pick us up for the drive at 4am the next morning.

The Drive to Kremenchuk

Nina and our driver picked us up at 4am. We had to load everything into the little car. We did not eat breakfast (dumb Americans - we thought we'd be stopping at breakfast time!) The first hour, Nina was "running errands" picking up gift bags (bags of bribery! booze and chocolates!)and paperwork. We left Kiev about the time the sun was coming up. Our driver had an extremely heavy foot and the scenery raced by! Outside the city, we enjoyed the countryside for the first hour or two... beautiful farmland and lots of sunflowers! It was a beautiful day! We stopped only once to use an outhouse on the side of the road... it was a little weird! We arrived at the orphanage about 10am. We did not know what to expect. We pulled up to a large white stone building with greenish trim... there was lots of sheets hanging up to dry out front. Nina took us inside the building and up stairs to the Directors office. We went inside and met the Director, whose name was Nataliya. She seemed very efficient and to the point. She asked us a few questions. Not long after - two little children were paraded into her office.

MEETING THE TWINS

My first thought was - OMG - these children are HUGE 2 year olds! The twins came in saying "Privyet Mama, Privyet Papa!" It was an odd sensation and feeling. After about 10 minutes of the nurses telling us about the children (via Nina) we were asked "You will adopt them? They are beautiful children - very healthy" . Lina and Dima were beautiful indeed. Lina had light brown hair and blue eyes, Dima was a blue-eyed blonde. Both children were told to sing for us, tell us things they liked (more like we were told what we had to buy for them!) and then these tornado children started going thru our bags and taking our camera! We asked Nina and the director if we could play with them before making our decision. Nina kept pushing us, telling us how good they were and healthy. Our adoption agency told us these twins were 27 months... in reality - they were 47 months and would be moved to the pre-school in a month. (this was lie #1 from the agency).The hubby and I asked to talk it over in the other room... Nina was ok with it - the director was a little put out by how long we were taking. We went into the music room across the hall. I remember that I sat down and the tears started. They were not tears of joy - more like tears of uncertainty and grief. I knew in my heart that these twins were not our children. Nina came into the room and asked us what the problem was. We told her that our adoption agency had told us that the twins were 27 months, toddlers. Nina told us over and over that SHE had personally talked to the agency and told them the birthdates more than ONCE... she was upset about the fact that we had been misled, but she was persistant about us taking these twins home. She gave us a few minutes to talk, think and breathe. We both felt the same thing. These twins were more than we could handle - we just did not feel it in our hearts. We were worried that we were making a huge mistake. During our hour talking and thinking and trying to figure out how to put it into words that Nina could understand... the twins each came to the door a few times and said... "Mama? Papa? blah blah blah in Russian"... it was heartbreaking.Finally, Nina returned and we told her that we could not adopt these beautiful children and that she could take us back to Kiev.

The Second Referrals

Nina went into the Directors office and apparently told her our decision. There was a lot of screaming on the part of the director (Nataliya) ! She was not happy at all! Nina came back and told us to wait and she would see if there was any other available siblings to look at while we were here. We were pretty numb at this point... we just wanted to get outta there! It was beyond emotionally draining! Nina was gone for maybe 20-30 minutes and came back and told us that there was only ONE set of siblings available interesting, since this place was overflowing with children! Within a few minutes... Nina left the room...

Meeting Vitaliy

Not long after Nina left, a nurse brought in a little boy (who was wearing the same exact clothes that Dima had been wearing a few hours before) who had dark brown hair and brown eyes. He was extremely quiet. He sat in my lap and once I handed him some crayons, he began to color. The nurse stayed and answered lots of questions about him, via Nina. We moved to the carpet and played on the floor for a bit... not long after - we heard screaming coming closer. And in came Vitaliys little brother screaming his head off... and his name is Dmitriy.

See part two....

Our 2001 Adoption - part 2

MEETING DMITRIY A nurse brought us in a tiny little blonde haired blue eyed boy - screaming at the top of his lungs! His name... Dmitriy. Nina told us "you have to take this one too..." We played on the floor with the two little boys. Dmitriy sat on Johns lap for a while... no longer scared - but refused to give us a smile. He was very serious! At 17 months old - he was very small and had just started walking on his own. We played with both boys for awhile. During this time, we were not pushed hard at all to decide on the adoption. It was late afternoon when Nina finally asked us if these two would become our sons. After a brief discussion - we decided that they were the ones.

OUR FRENCH TRANSLATOR, SVETLANA

Not long after making the commitment to start paperwork, we were ushed back into the Directors office (thankfully she was gone for the day) and we started talking to the Asst. Director, Lydia (who is now the director). Nina told us that she had to go back to Kiev... uh oh. In the room was an attractive dark haired woman. She was introduced to us as Svetlana. Svetlana was to be our translator during our stay in Kremenchuk! We talked for a few minutes and thought - no biggie.. until she told us that she is truly a FRENCH translator and does not know English very well! UH OH! Nina told us that she was unable to find anyone else to help us while she was gone. We figured that as long as Svetlana could get us around and could understand the basics, we would be fine. Svetlana left - telling us that she would see us in the morning at our hotel.

THE NOTARY AND NAMES

Nina and our driver wisked us off to the "attorney" aka a notary - to start signing papers. We get to a nice office and wait in line. Nina introduces another large older woman named Ludmilla. She is apparently our "attorney" or something like that! This woman spoke awesome English! She was excited to meet us and talk to us! She was very nice and put us at ease, until Nina came over and said "What will their (the boys) names be? We need it now for the papers..." Ummmm... NOW? Names were not something that we had thought about AT ALL! Nina gave us like 5 minutes to come up with names! Wow! We decided to keep the boys Ukrainian name as their middle name. We came up with Alex and Jason. After signing some unknown papers - Nina took us to our hotel.

HOTEL KREMIN

Nina and our driver took us to this odd looking hotel that sat next to a large town square that had a statue of Stalin. Very communist indeed! We were quoted a price of $45 a night, which included our own bathroom with hot water. Before we commited, we were shown the "nicest room they had"... lets just say that it was nicer than alot of other places that we could have stayed! Down the hall from our room - it reeked badly of sewer gas! I think that we were on the 5th floor, and we had a little balcony... whoo hoo!

Miss O - Professional Cat painter!

It's not every day that one of your children shows you that they have great aspirations in life! Yesterday, I was given a small glimpse into my daughters future as an artist!

I do have to say that we have never had a cat with such patience...but the look on his face at the very end of the short video told it all! After Lyger the cat had his two minutes of fame - he sulked away and hid... poor Miss O was nowhere near done with him!

Helping other adoptive families......

Being around this crazy world of Ukrainian adoptions for so long, you tend to get addicted to things like adoption blogs, following Embassy rule changes and following the stories of those children who have found their forever families!
Every so often there are certain stories that come along that just amaze me. Here are a few that have been at the top of my list for awhile!

The first is Michelle. I got to know Michelle back in 2004 when she was a member of our Ukrainian Angels group. Though she ended up adopting with a different group and bringing home her daughter, Yana... I still followed her story and watched how Yana grew and blossomed with her new family. Michelle and her family are again in the process of adopting from Ukraine yet again, and again, and again! They are looking to bring home three more angels! Two of these children are older, and one little one with special needs! Michelle has given countless hours of advice on FRUA boards, advocated for hosting programs and adopting older children even after she was diagnosed with cancer and recovering from her surgery! She is truly an inspiration! If you have never met or read anything about her story - you can click http://findingrdaughter.blogspot.com/ and read more about her journey.

The second person who holds a special place in my heart is Christine. Christine and her family JUST got home with their newest family member - little Dennis! I still don't know HOW she does it... but she does everything with grace and a huge heart! She has a very large and blessed family filled with amazing kiddos! Christine and her family will be facing a bit of a bumpy road in the next few months while they all help and support little Dennis with his adjustment to a new family and whole new outlook on life!
You can follow their story here.... http://theukrainetrain.blogspot.com/

If you feel moved by their stories - as I have been... let them know! They both are appreciative of your thoughts and prayers for their families! Both families have links on their blogs if you would like to support them in other ways as well!

Park fun

Yep - this made me a little nervous!
Yep - this too... jumping from the top was a no-no - but someone thought I was not watching!

Maybe its just me... but they look ALOT alike!

Yesterday, the gruesome threesome and I had a fairly laid back day. I woke up late, they slept in and of course missed summer school.. yep - I am SURE that they were bummed about that! HA!

Instead, we went to the library, putted around town, ran some errands and then had lunch at the park. It was amazing that for 20 minutes I could actually SIT and read a book while they were all running around... unfortunately, every 5 minutes I had to get up to either rescue the princess off the slide, or to remind the boys to NOT climb on the roof of the slide... oh well.. I'll take the 20 minutes!

Amy

Soccer Stars!

Little J with his coach
Big A with his coach

Last week - both boys got to go to the UK International Soccer Day Camp! The camp was run by soccer coaches/players from the UK! Both boys had a blast and really enjoyed playing with friends and learning new soccer "skills"! It was a nice break from summer school... for all three of us!

On Friday, which was the last day of camp, they had an awards ceremony - which I was able to come and watch... which was a really good thing - or I would have missed out! Each coach chooses an MVP from their group and tells everyone WHY they picked this player. Since Big A was in the oldest group - his coach went first. He was telling the crowd all the great things about the MVP he chose... this player was energetic, helpful, extremely willing to learn, fun to be around, and a good listener! I was then a little flabbergasted when he handed the award (MVP shirt) to my Big A! Shocking! Ok, not overly shocking - as Big A is "most" of the things he mentioned, with the exception of a good listener! I was really surprised - as there were LOTS of kids at this camp - and LOTS of really talented kids! It was a nice award - Big A was really proud (and a little surprised!).

Little J's group was next... and I was too busy chatting with my pal, Jessie (a fellow Vegas-er) about how surprised I was, etc... that I totally missed the first part of the next speech.... The coach was talking about HIS MVP choice... who was kind, encouraging to other players, helpful, funny, easy going, a great team player, had a great attitude, cared about others.... then he handed the award shirt to LITTLE J! Again - SHOCKING!

I had to laugh at the end - as Jessie and I were talking about all the "things" I had to do to make sure that the boys actually did get to go to camp each day... since this was a privilege not a right... they had to earn it daily with good behavior - no lying - no back talk and following directions! Little J surprised me with how GOOD he was all week. Big A had a bit of a struggle and only missed one day... but it actually made my life easier for the week! Now... I should have thought about it sooner and signed them up for more camps! haha!

Oh well... I'll have to remember this for next year!

Amy

Captured!

Two days ago - we set out the "trap"... apparently dog food was not an attractive bait, so we switched to something a little more... gross (a partial chicken carcass - yuck!) The first night - something tripped the trap, but was not captured... this morning though... at 5:30am - the beloved hubby hurried in to tell me that we had a critter in the trap! A SKUNK! Bummer! I was hoping for a less "offensive" guest - like a weasel! Now the problem was actually having to get rid of IT! Unfortunately, I love most all animals - even the stinky ones! I did not have the heart to kill it! Though it killed many many chickens and my beloved duck - I'm just not that vengeful when it comes to critters!

Since the hubby ducked tail and ran off to work, I called in the ever dependable Uncle Jim! It was determined that the best method for disposal was to cover the trap - and then dunk it in a large garbage can filled with water. Yep - a little gruesome - but the one most likely to cause less mess (and less smell). Unfortunately, it was WAY too windy to cover the skunk with the tarp so that the cage could be moved... so - the less attractive method had to be used...

So - Uncle Jim loaded the .22 and gave the skunk the final verdict and carried through the execution. In a sick way - I wish I had the video of him giving the final verdict - or carrying out the sentence - just for the verbal stuff - it was pretty funny! Uncle Jim has a great knack for coming up with comical lines from the hip! Uncle Jim saved the day again!

So, now we have to hope that this was a lone stinker - and our remaining chicken pair will be safe! I think we will have to leave the trap for awhile just to make sure!

Amy

The critter killer

I have posted very little about the current steep decline in our critter population - but I figured I had better - so I don't make the same mistakes twice!

Over the last 3 months - our chicken population has been dwindling quite rapidly! In the last 5 days - 3 chickens have "disappeared" at night. Early on, I was blaming the dogs... but now - we have evidence that it is something "else"!

I am now down to TWO chickens - one rooster and one hen... who, quite frankly are scared to death to sleep in their chicken coop! Last night - they decided to sleep in the barn. Good thing - as they were both here this morning!

Last night, we borrowed a have a heart trap - to see if we could catch this varmit in the act! Whatever kind of critter it is - it is not a coyote or an owl - as it drags the prey and is gone without a trace! This critter actually crawls into the hen house and drags the victim out.

Amy

The Great PIG chase and clean up!

I had to post this so I would not only share - but so that I can have Big Al read it NEXT year when he gets pigs again!

Last Friday, Big Al decided that it would be nice to spray down his pigs in their pen. You know, like a shower to cool them off. Unfortunately, his pigs do not appreciate the fine cold hose shower! It made them go bizerk! They ran around the pen - all the while Big Al was spraying them. One of them decided to take the opportunity to run out the gate that Big Al was not paying attention to! So... there are TWO problems. #1 - Loose piggie! #2 - EVERYTHING is soaked! (we have a ton of clay and when it gets wet - its horrible!)

Unbeknownst to me that there was a loose piggie - I came outside because I had very little water pressure and I KNEW that he was wasting water and playing with it! So, as I round the corner - I see a piggie standing in the field and Big Al standing spread eagle trying to waive it back with a look of "oh S#%*!" on his face! There was water and mud everywhere outside the pen. The pig decided to run to the horses, as if the horses would save her! The horses are not exactly fond of the pigs, so they ran like their tails were on fire and took off down the hill.... and the piggie followed! Big Al looks at me with the "what do I do now" face. I yelled (to say that I was not happy or humored by the situation was an understatement!) at him to get down there and get her! Poor Big Al had to run as fast as he could to keep up... I made him close the gate at the end of the driveway to prevent the porker from running towards the road. Slowly, he was able to work the pig back up to her pen... but it took another 20 minutes to get her in - which she actually did by herself while we were strategizing on what to try next! I so wish that I had my camera!

After piggie climbed back in - it was time to beat the living daylights out of Big Al... fortunately - it was only a loud verbal lashing! Mud was everywhere, water was everywhere.. it was a huge mess! The clay at our house takes DAYS to fully dry out - even in hundred degree weather!

So - today, we had to do a full, royal cleanout and institute a NEW water policy! I made Big Al do 99% of the work... he was covered in mud, pig pee and pig poop by the time he was done...but hopefully, he has learned something. God I hope so! Even though I only manned the hose, my hands smell like PIG! Yuck!

Amy

Hand picked from Ukraine!

I saw these pajamas at Costco today....I could not pass them up! She so does not need any more pajamas or clothes....but.....I thought they were so extremely fitting for little Miss O! She is now 3 and a half... actually wearing a 3T, up to 33 pounds and doing great!

I am thankful each and every day that we traveled to Ukraine and "Hand picked" her!

Amy

Ahhhhh Summer school!

Today was the first day of summer school! Whooo hoooo! The boys have been a tad bit...... difficult (I would use another more descriptive word - but it's probably not appropriate!). Hopefully they are having a good time! It is hard to believe that it has already been 2 weeks since school got out! You would think that it has been 2 months!
Amy

Viva Las Vegas!

Me and Dog, the Bounty Hunter

Funny - we ran into a young slim Elvis!

Jessie, Jenny and Me finishing off our drinks!

We had a total blast on our annual Girls Only Vegas Vacation! We had easy flights on Alaska, and a really great timeshare to stay in (thanks to Nicholes Mom!). The weather in Vegas was about 108 during the day.... NICE AND HOT! The first day felt awesome - as we have not had a good hot day in a long time! It was not too bad!

As a group we went and saw Wayne Brady at the Venetian - too funny! And then Nichole and I wanted something a little more "raunchy"! And we saw Rodney Carrington at the MGM... it was awesome! We had so much fun! We rode in style with limos to and from the airport too!

AND I got to meet Dog, the Bounty Hunter! Hehe! I think that out of everything I got to do, including being actually gone - this was the one thing that the hubby was most jealous of!

The kiddos were pretty good while I was gone... Mr. Mom did pretty well too! He is lucky that Miss O is our EASIEST kiddo! Even at 3 and a half - she is the easiest to deal with! (hmmm what does that tell you about our boys????)

So - it is good to be back.... back to the old grind! UGH!



Amy

Friday the 13th

I can't remember if this day is supposed to be good luck or bad luck????? I guess it depends on the person, right???

I managed to get about 3 of the chores around the house done that I wanted to (out of the about 20 I had on the list!) before I leave for VEGAS on Sunday! Whoo hoo! It will sure be nice to get away from the daily grind for a couple of days - and sit back, relax by the pool, soak in the heat, and make my annual donation to the state of Nevada! Not that I am a big gambler - I usually leave with much LESS than I arrived with - oh well!

I managed to get a facial, and get my toes painted, go shopping (for food!) get some stuff watered outside, visit with the horseys.... and one more day of family time - and first thing Sunday morning - I'M OUTTA HERE!

My thoughts will also be with my friend, Christine, who will be flying out of LAX about the same time and on her way to Ukraine to pick up her son... You go girl!





Amy

Is summer here?

Well... today was the last day of school... I still don't understand WHY the school district sends kids to school for TWO (yes that would be TWO) whole hours. IF I would have let the kids ride the bus today, they would have spent MORE time on buses than at school. Just plain DUMB!
So, we got report cards, that was exciting. Big Al's was as expected. Little J made dramatic improvement in music... he went from a 1 (pretty bad - you just have to be breathing to get a 1!) up to a THREE... so that was good!
The weather has NOT been cooperating what so ever! It has been cold and rainy and windy! Windy - meaning over 30mph.... So, the 60 degrees it is outside feels like 45! Gotta love that in June! Yesterday, there was SNOW in the hills around us! Geez! It is almost middle of June!

Since school is out (haha) the boys are already annoyed with each other! I can't wait until summer school starts in two weeks... actually I CAN'T wait until Sunday, when I fly down to VEGAS! Whooo hoooo!
Amy

The great pig weigh-in!

Picture taken right before being "tagged"!

Yesterday was the day that Big Al had to take his piggies in to get weighed and tagged for the Fair in August.

It was ...... challenging to get them loaded into the horse trailer! One piggie was really easy and sort of sauntered in.. the other... well... lets say it took bribery with food, poking with tools, slapping, blocking and lots of cursing and tempers rising! But, we got it in!

We sat in line at the fairgrounds from about 3:30pm to about 5pm, and finally unloaded a few minutes after that. Some of the teens helping were gossiping about the sizes of some of the pigs coming in... they took a look at ours and were pretty surprised! After seeing alot of the other pigs there - I too, was surprised at #1 - the size of the pigs and #2 - how much nicer our pigs are put together than most! Not that I am any pig expert - but ours look pretty darn good - as far as pigs go!

Big Al had a hard time watching them "tag" (aka ear piercing) both of the ears on each pig... LOTS and LOTS of loud squealing! He had his ears covered most the time!

After the tagging, the pigs were pushing thru the chute on to the scale.....

Pig #522 weighed in at a whoomping 128 pounds! Pig #523 weighed in at 120 pounds!

Now Big Al needs to get these piggie girls up to over 260 pounds before Fair!

Amy

In Memory of....

Our amazing wonder duck, Blackie Quackie. Today, he went to the big pond in the sky to join his former flock mates. As usual, I was the unlucky one to have found him. He would have loved the weather today, as it rained for hours. I'm not sure of the true cause of death, I am sure that it had 4 legs and a tail. I believe that someone who helped gather eggs yesterday forgot to close the door to his hutch, so he would not go in there in the night time. Unfortunately, he slept outside for the last time.
He leaves behind a flock of other friends that are slowly reducing in numbers....
Amy

Under construction!

Excuse the mess! Working with a new design is alot of fun - but no so fun when you realize that your info was not backed up! UGH!
Fresh page coming soon! :)
Amy

Memorial Day Weekend and the story of 4 fish

Saturday - all smiles!
Nope- the Barbie pole did not catch these - but she enjoyed pretending!
4 of these were Big A's - one of them belonged to the grumpy boy on the left!

It's hard to say where to begin!

So - here is a day by day!

Monday - took all three kiddos to the dentist. 2 kiddos - no cavities! Whoo hoo! One kiddo - cavitity and lecture about bad brushing! Went shopping for summer clothes in Wenatchee... no luck finding tank tops for boys - only muscle shirts - ugh!

Tuesday - enjoyed another day of Little J BEGGING to go fishing again.....

Wednesday - continued to "enjoy" the begging for fishing by Little J. Miss O enjoyed pre-school.

Thursday - had follow up appt for Big A (long story....) and continued to remind Little J that fishing will have to wait for the weekend. (can you see where this post is leading??)

Friday - NO SCHOOL! Some idiot decided to make sure that the snow make up day was right before a 3 day weekend! We had days this winter that no sane driver should have been on the roads - BUT NO - the school district does the 2 or 3 hour late start and gets the kids to school... so, the kiddos and I went out to lunch and hung out.

Saturday - The morning was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! We got alot of the garden in and taken care of, yard mowed, weeds killed, dogs washed, went to a BBQ at friends and then made a quick stop off at the pond for yes - FISHING!

Little J caught 2, Big A caught one. Miss O, whom received a brand new fishing pole gave up after about 10 minutes. She found a few little rabbits to watch instead! It started to rain - so we had to leave. Little J is not satisfied!

Sunday - we had rain and wind off and on. Little J was extremely concerned about fishing conditions! He just would not let up! Finally, we caved. We took the boys for a short stint at about 3:30pm. We figured that they would catch one or two - we could call it good! We had some nightcrawlers left over from the day before - so we were set!

The boys both casted off and within 5 minutes - Big Al landed his first fish of the day! Little J was a little honked off and started the tears.... he got over it. Big Al moved to a different side of the pond. 10 minutes later we hear "I GOT ANOTHER ONE!" Now, Little J is getting emotional. The tears start, the crying and the "its not fair"... we give him yet another pep talk, move him to a different spot, and both pray REALLY hard to the fish gods to have one destined for him! 15 minutes later "I GOT ONE! IT'S HUGE!" Big Al has #3 on and reeled in. Now, the high-pitched wailing really begins! It's almost painful to listen to! There were other people at the pond, of course staring and wondering what in the world was wrong with this little guy! Big Al was ON FIRE! He was so excited, he almost burst!

I had to finally tell Little J if he did not stop the crying, we were going to leave. I also had to give him all the "right" lines, about sportsmanship, being happy for others, etc. I also told him that if his big brother caught another, he should congratulate him. I figured that would go out the window! But you have to try, right???

10 minutes later (take a guess what we heard!) Yep - that's right! "I GOT ONE! I GOT ONE! eeeee" So, I run over to Big Al with the net to lend a hand. I had to get away from Little J and his current stretch of one hour whimpering! About 20 seconds after I ran off - Little J shouted to his brother "Good Job Alex" (followed by wailing and sobbing and tears!) I was very proud of him for actually doing one small thing right!

We told Big Al that he had limited out (no more fishing today!) I don't think we could have come anywhere close to consoling Little J if he caught another! So - Little J, still has not had even a small bite, and he is on his last worm! He casted out - was mad because the wind did not cooperate with where he wanted to be - started to cry about that - and WHAM-OLA... got a fish on the line! The comical part - he was really excited and then would whine "I only have one!) I had to pray hard that he would be able to reel it in, and hang on it to.... I was really dreading the fact that if he lost it - we would ALL suffer!

Little J was able to bring it in.... and we HAD to leave! We were tired of the crying, it was raining and it was time to get home, clean all FIVE of the fish and get them on the BBQ! The whole trip home Little J cried, whimpered, complained, etc.... UGH! He did enjoy helping to clean the fish, and got to clean one on his own, so that helped a bit... but oh my! It was alot to tolerate in one short window of time!

To make a really long week short.... he has not asked about going fishing again! haha!

Amy

Ukraine bound!

Well....
My fun update from the last week has been somehow "lost" on blogger! Gotta love computer problems!
I am sending out my infamous Ukraine cell phone to another UA family traveling next month! I decided that I need to start tracking its travels - just for fun!
Next week, the phone goes off to Staci and Damon - whose blog is listed down on the right. Hopefully, it will bring them good luck, as it has brought all the others who have used it! So far, it has been a lucky charm!
Amy

Sunday Fishing Fun!

He caught this fish so fast - I did not have time to run over with the camera and record him pulling it in! Little J was VERY overjoyed!
Miss O, sitting in my lap, caught this beauty of a rainbow trout... she did NOT want to touch it - but she was thrilled!
Big A catching his first fish of the day! He caught another a little bit later, but released it so that each kid in our family had an even amount - ONE... It was a very kind act!
Miss O lost alot of interest after catching her first trout... she enjoyed watching and running around instead! I helped my nephew, Georgie, by casting and helping him. We found a great spot and he and I reeled in this MONSTER trout - biggest of the day! He had a delayed reaction to the excitement! I was very proud of him - he had more patience than most the other kiddos!
At the end of the extremely successful "family" fishing derby - all the kiddos lined up for a photo opp... hard to get them all the look the same way! Each kiddo caught at least one fish each! So everyone left happy!

Well.... we "told" Little J that we might try fishing again today.... so - 6:15am - he is waking us up, ready to go! UGH! So, we got everyone ready, got breakfast at the McDonald's drivethru, stopped and picked up some nightcrawlers (that would have helped us yesterday!) and headed to the same pond we were at yesterday. Along with cousins, aunt and uncle, we started the "family" fishing derby! Four adults chasing seven kids, that was entertaining!

Everyone was getting all baited up, Little J had his line in the water about 2 minutes and had a fish on! He lost it in the end as is was not hooked well enough - but he was super stoked! After he got new bait - in he cast - and within a few minutes, he had another one on and reeled it in! It was so fast, I could hardly get over there and take a picture, let alone record it!

Miss O caught the next fish with me (parents can't fish at this pond - it is a 14 and under kids pond) so she was on my lap, and I helped her reel it in.. she was happy - but not close to tears with joy like her older brother!

My nephew, Harry, caught the next one... then it was Big A's turn! He lost a big one earlier, so he finally brought his first in.. he was really happy! After Miss O lost interest, I stayed with my nephew Georgie, and we fished together. We found an awesome spot! We could actually see the fish (as well as lots of tadpoles - which he called catapolds!) He got a big bite, and I helped him reel in a HUGE rainbow trout! The biggest of the day! My oldest nephew, David, had not fished yet - he was enjoying watching and visiting! He then decided to give it a try (with the same pole that his brother used) and within a few short minutes, he brought one in too!

All the kiddos had a great time! It was a positive experience - as no one left upset or with hurt feelings!

We brought the trout home, the hubby cleaned them and showed the boys how to clean them.. got them marinading and ready for a BBQ at Nana and Grandpas house later!

Since they caught them - they have to eat them! hehe!

Amy

Kiwanis Fishing Derby

Miss O and Little J waiting patiently for the trout to start biting!

Papa helps Big A get all baited up!
Quickly losing interest in fishing for the "live" stuff... Miss O decides to fish for a sure thing! Candy!

Saturday. we went to the Kiwanis Fishing Derby for kids. This is the first organized fishing activity our kiddos have ever been to... so it was "interesting!" Needless to say, none of our kids caught anything, other them slime and weeds! The event was a bust for them! Little J was most upset, as he showed the most amount of patience and sitting still! I have to give him alot of credit - he tried very hard! When the time was up - he was in tears that he caught nothing! So, we made the mistake of saying that we might come back tomorrow and try our luck again.....

Oh boy - see the Sunday post!

Amy

Things that are not fun that come in threes!

In the last week or so... we have had one thing after another either break, fail or need to be replaced!
#1 - We had some electrical problems with our well - and so we were without water (sound familiar?) We will need to have new wiring done and a new ditch dug (ughh!)
#2 - Thursday night - our phone and internet stop working properly (the phone company came and fixed it yesterday - but the computer is still super slow!)
#3 - Friday night, of course it was 100 degrees... our AC stopped working! So- at 9pm, the repair company came out... we are stuck until Tuesday when they can get a part in!

What's next????

I am starting to feel like it is the pioneer days around here! hehe!
Amy

Unsolicited comments......

Have you ever had someone you know fairly well make a comment to you that really sets you off? One of those comments made that makes you feel like you want to smack the person about 6 hours later? One of those comments that the longer you think about it, the more hacked off you get about it? One of those comments that comes out of left field and you really don't have a great immediate disfusing statement for them?
This happened to the hubby over the weekend.... it sort left him shaking his head and quite perturbed for the rest of the weekend. And no - it was NOT me! :)
What are some of your methods of shaking it off??
Amy

Surviving the weekend

We are hoping to have a good week ! I have cleaned out alot of the kids clothes and listed them on ebay! Though I have sold stuff before - I usually don't sell lots of clothes! I am hoping to get rid of them! We have been slowly trying to downsize our "stuff" - at least try to minimize it a bit - but it is tough - as we both tend to have pack-rat tendencies! I have bags ready for Goodwill and piles sorted by gender and size for the kids clothes. I have given a ton of clothes previously - but this time - I think that trying to sell them in lots on ebay would be worth a try!
This week will be full of trying to get things cleaned out and neatened up before the weekend! I'd love to have a weekend with NO housework! We'll see about that!

Have a great day!
Amy

What do I want for Mother's Day?

This was a question that the hubby asked me at 5:30am before he was on his way work.
Hmmmmm... such a broad question! There are sooooo many things that I want - but which of them would I actually get?
Here's the short list....(in random off the hip order!)
* I'd like each of my boys to be able to get themselves out of bed, actually take a true shower (without lying), get themselves dressed, make their beds and be ready for breakfast WITHOUT me having to do ANYTHING. Just one day would make me smile!
* I'd like my daughter to be toilet trained! At least for a few days!
* I'd like boy #2 to not back-talk for atleast a day
*I'd like boy #2 to leave his nasty attitude in bed for a day or two
*I'd like boy #1 to be truthful and honest for an entire day - about EVERYTHING!
* I'd like someone to bring a dumpster to my house - take all the clutter and stuff and get rid of it! (I'd like to be gone that day!)
* I'd like boy #1 to actually follow directions for a whole day - with no attitude!
But, more than anything... I'd actually LOVE a full day to my whole self... not at home, maybe a nice hotel, with a hot tub! One day to recharge, sleep in, read whatever "I" want, watch whatever "I" want on tv, eat whatever "I" want and have someone pick up after me all day! Yep - it is a selfish request! I know that it won't happen... but it gives me something to dream about! At least I can say that I told him what "I" wanted! heehee!


So - what do YOU want for Mother's Day???? Do share!

What I did today....

I went to Albertsons. They were having their 10 for $10 sale on cereal,etc. But, the kicker is... I got all this stuff for $4.72! The coupons actually paid off - and since I only go to Albertsons to purchase the stuff on the 10 for $10 sale - I walk out with exactly that! While the 5 boxes of cereal and granola bars will go fast - it was too much of a screamin deal to pass up! So - I added the $5 saved to my Vegas fund! (It will be gambled away faster than I saved it!) hehe!

This happened because.....

There was no wind! (That would be days ago!) And Big A was able to run his new RC boat on the pond!
The three kiddos and I went to Family Reading Night last night and they got some new books and HAD to share them with their Papa last night!
And this happened because I was so stuck in my ways and bound and determined to bring this little angel home! Enough said!

Have a great day!

Bringin home the bacon!

Well, the months of anticipation and hard work getting prepped for Big A's porkers has finally paid off! The hubby, Big A and myself went yesterday and got the pigs!

Technically - Big A got the pigs, I just paid for them!

They actually did it as a lottery type thing - so to speak! Each 4-Her got to pick a number and that is how they picked them out of the pig pile in the first picture! Unfortunately, Big A got #15 - so he was almost last! One is the leaders, Brandon, helped him choose the pigs - which was a great help! All of these pigs were shipped down from Canada - so literally, Canadian Bacon! hehe! Once the lottery started, and as they pulled each chosen pig out of the pen, the squealing began! Big A was extremely apprehensive when this all started.... it was sort of cute! He kept backing up further and further from the pen and backing into Brandon, who had to gently push him back towards the fence!

We brought them home (still have no idea if they are male or female!) got them unloaded and now Big A is on his own! He managed to get them fed, watered and got them started on some mud!

They are sure cute at this size! The cuteness will probably wear off in about 20 pounds!

Why on weekends?

Weekends are usually our time to get the whole clan excited to get big projects done! This weekend, our project was to spread the 10+ tons of washed rock that was delivered yesterday! Well, Big A had a 4H field trip, the hubby was too busy cleaning up his "bonus" from work - a somewhat "free" truck... (I'd rather have a $$ bonus!) and then the wind started, and then it started to rain! UGH!
Sunday, Little J will be going with his grandpa up to a Field Day put on at CWU (weather permitting - I'm sure!) Miss O will spend some time with her Nana and the hubby, Big A and myself will be going out to pick up Big A's pigs! Who knows what the weather will be like tomorrow! It would be oh-so nice if the weather would just cooperate in the morning so we can get the rock off the driveway and where it belongs!

Here's to hoping for some decent weather!