Sounders

On September 4, Darrick and his buddy Eric told Jacob and Quinlan to a Sounders game.  Eric can get tickets through his work and so he invited Darrick and Jacob to go along.  They get to sit in really great seats and enjoy a buffet.  They had a great time!

Updates are on the way

A friend, who shall remain nameless, told me that she is tired of looking at my mason jar craft every time she clicks on my blog to see if I have updated.  I have been busy and lazy but I am going to do a better job!

Open House

Late afternoon Jackson Elementary had Open House.  It is a time when all the students are invited to come to school, bring their school supplies and meet their teacher.  I saw a really cute gift on pinterest so the kids and I made them to give to their teachers.

We loaded up the backpacks and took the short walk to school!

We first went to Naomi's classroom.

She is truly a girl after my own heart and is SO excited for school to start.  Her teacher was super kind and she has some great kids in her class.  She was very excited to see things on the classroom calendar for her birthday!

Then it was on to Jacob's classroom!  He is going to have two teachers.  He spends the morning with his homeroom teacher and then he will switch classrooms and have his other subjects with the other 5th grade teacher.  We met them both and were so impressed with them.

We cut the last ring off the chain and tomorrow morning is the first day.

Micah started 7th grade today.  His teacher is the best I have ever seen!  Tomorrow morning we have orientation for him and his classes at Port Gardner.  This semester he is taking 7th grade math (I know when I have reached my limit), Middle School Block and Digital Photography.

Our Day at the Evergreen State Fair

 We have a tradition of celebrating the last day of summer by going to the Evergreen State Fair.  The weather was awesome and we had such a fun day!

That sheep has dreadlocks too!

Naomi rode the swing all by herself and loved it!

Picture Darrick took for the ferris wheel

There was free admission all day to the drag races.  Any one could enter their own car and race.  It was so fun to watch especially when a VW bug beat a mustang!

The kids favorite at the lumberjack show

Darrick told the kids they couldn't put this sticker on our bumper so they found another one!

Back to School is coming...

The other day Naomi and I made this really cute chain to countdown to the first day of school.  She really needs a visual to help her understand when school starts. The picture was taken a few days ago and we are now down to 4 links.  I found the idea on Pinterest and she had fun making it. 

Then on each side of the bus we hung their letters they received from their teachers.  Naomi's is on the right and the purple one is Jacob's on the left.  Naomi's 1st grade teacher is Mrs. Lusier and she has been teaching for 32 years!  Jacob's 5th grade teacher is Ms. Baker.

Yesterday we went back to school shopping.  Darrick had the day off which was a huge help.  We had a bunch of supplies to get and also new socks and underwear for everyone.  It took us a couple of hours and we got it all done.

We have also been working on cleaning up and clearing out our garage.  It has been sadly neglected since we moved in 2 years ago.  It became a dumping ground for all the stuff we didn't know where to put.  Last week Micah and I worked really hard going through all the stuff and cleaning everything up and organizing it to surprise Darrick.

He was really happy.  Now he is doing his part organizing all of his "stuff"-mostly tools.  I will post pictures when he is done!

Losing a tooth

Yesterday Jacob had his 6 month cleaning.  The hygienist was cleaning his teeth and *surprise* one of his teeth popped out! It was already pretty loose but it was still a surprise.  The dentist also gave us a referral to take Jacob to an orthodontist. 

In other news, things have been rough with Naomi.  About a month ago her doctor wanted to try and reduce her medication and see how she is doing since it has been a year.  We talked it over with her counselor too and everyone was in agreement that we should give it a try.

Darrick and I said that if we saw any signs of violence returning then we would put her back on it and all were in agreement about that too.  Instead of 2 pills a day, she was taking 1 a day.  About a week after that we started to see big changes.  Her outlook on life was completely negative, she was causing fights with everyone and then she said she was so frustrated that she felt like hitting her brother.  So we put her back on her normal dosage.

We have seen some improvements but also a strange new behavior.  She has started pulling her hair out.  She pulls on her dreadlocks and we are finding hair all over the house.  I have even found whole dreadlocks on the floor.  It has been a week and a half since she started doing it and she has a good size bald patch in the front of her head, it is horrible!  When we ask her about it, she says she doesn't want to talk about it. 

On Monday our counselor told us it is called  trichotillomania.  You can read more about it if you click on the link.  Today I re-twisted her dreadlocks to get ready for school and I tried to make it not so noticeable but I think she will be wearing a lot of hair bows.

I am going to call her doctor and see what she wants to do.

Bremerton

Today we all took a trip to Bremerton to attend Darrick's Command picnic with him.  It is a 2 hour drive south and then west.  We got up bright and early so that we could leave the house at 8 am.  We arrived in Bremerton early so Darrick took us on the base and showed us where he works.

Then we had to drive about 10 more minutes north to get to Naval Station Kitsap which is where the picnic was being held.  It was a nice location.  They had bouncy houses and had the lunch catered by Famous Dave's, delicious. 

Jake and I are getting used to potlucks and such not being too good for us.  There is usually not much variety of what we can eat.  Today we were able to have either the BBQ chicken or ribs and a snack size bag of Doritos.  We had to pass on the beans, potato salad, corn muffin and cake, boo.

After the picnic Darrick took us on a small tour of that base, which is where most of the housing is.  We saw the houses that we would be living in if we had sold our house and moved to Bremerton.  They were very nice, new and huge but I would take our little house any day!

We decided to ride one of the Ferries on the way back.  We rode the Ferry that goes to Seattle.  We had an hour before the Ferry left so we got out of the car and walked around by the docks.  They had an awesome fountain which kept the kids occupied for a long time.  That was a good thing because a seagull pooped on Darrick's shirt and arm and he had to take some time getting it all cleaned up.  We also had time to treat ourselves to some ice cream at Cold Stone.

We had never been on this Ferry ride before.  It was a great ride and we all enjoyed it so much.  We got out of our car and went to the upper deck to look at the water.  The boys had fun counting how many jellyfish they could see on the voyage and they saw 111!  Amazing!

It was pretty windy, which you can tell by Micah's hair and Jacob's shirt!  We had a great view of Seattle as we cruised in and the whole voyage took 45 minutes.

Six Week Post Op

Today I had my six week post op appt.  It was pretty uneventful.  The Dr. asked how I am feeling.  I said awesome.  He did a vaginal check to make sure things are healing up.  He said he did not feel anymore stitches, but things did not feel totally healed.  So just be careful and try not to lift really heavy things.  Praise God!  I am so happy to put this whole ordeal behind me and move on to good health.

I have been very careful about avoiding gluten and I think that with the surgery has me feeling better then I ever have.  Now that I feel so good, I realize that I have not been good for longer then I realized. 

In other news here is a cute picture of Oliver and Zelda.  They are becoming friends and usually play around in the morning chasing each other.

Jacob made it home safely from camp.  He had a lot of fun but was home sick.  He said he felt especially sad one day and cried so one of the counselors took him to the office so he could call home.  We talked for about 10 minutes and he sounded better by the end of the conversation.  He said his favorite part was the rock wall climbing.  So all in all it was a good experience but I am very glad to have my little bird back in the nest!

All Done!

Today is a very exciting day for our family!  Today we turned in the last of our paper work for our adoption!

The last few items we had to turn in were

• Darrick's TB test results
• Our CPR recertification
• A photo collage of our family

It has been 4 years since we felt God calling us to adopt again and it has really been a journey.  I cannot believe that we are finally at this point.

Once our home study is finalized and  approved we will be ready to be matched with our daughter.

How long will it be?  Only God truly knows.  We just  know that she is out there, waiting for her forever family!

Zelda

It is time for some new cute pictures of Zelda.  She has captured all of our hearts and we are having so much fun with her!

Reading Nook

It is now 3 weeks post surgery and I am feeling pretty good.  During my time of inactivity I made a huge list of projects that I wanted to accomplish.  For 8 months or so, because of my health,  I have been letting things in the house slide.  And when that happens things pile up, get stuffed, get lost and get cluttered.

As I am feeling better I have slowly been checking things off my giant to-do list.  One of those was to put some vinyl on a wall in Naomi's room.  I have a Silhouette, which is a craft cutting machine.  With this machine I am able to pick my color and design my own vinyl.

Here is the area where I wanted to put the vinyl:

We are setting up this area in Naomi's room to be a Reading area.  I found a really cute font online, with hearts, and designed it and had the vinyl cut.  Then this morning I placed it on her wall.  I love how it turned out!  What do you think?

 Here is a close up of the letters:

P.S. I made all those adorable pillows!

Zelda

Yesterday afternoon we went and picked up Zelda.  Micah was so excited he could hardly contain it.  He set up a whole area for her so that it would be ready when he brought her home.  We decided that the best place for her would be by Micah's bed so that he could hear her if she cried during the night.

When we arrived at the house, the owner handed Zelda to Micah and the mom cat did not even seem to mind.  Surprisingly, it was one of the dogs that seemed to be having an anxiety attack.  It was whimpering and following Micah.  The owner said that the dog was like a second mother to the kittens.  The poor dog even followed us all the way to the car.  Micah tried to hold her but Zelda wanted to crawl all over the car so he put her in the cat carrier.

We had to go to soccer practice for Jacob before we could go home and Zelda did great and slept in her carrier the whole time.

When we finally got her home, she was pretty scared and as soon as Micah put her in her area she hid in her cat house.

It took about 2 hours before she was ready to come out.  Micah just sat patiently in her area reading a book.  When she did come out she was very playful and they kids had so much fun watching her!

It is really awesome to watch Micah nurture this sweet little kitten.  He talked so gently to her trying to make her feel safe and comfortable.  By the end of the night his efforts had paid off because when she was tired, she curled up in his lap and went to sleep.

She did really good during the night.  Micah said she woke up around 3am and was crying so Micah got up and played with her.  He was up with her for about 2 hours.  He said she ate and drank some water too.  Around 6am they both feel asleep again and slept more.  Micah did great and we are proud of him.

Cadet Camp Out

The boys had a great time at the Cadet Camp Out.  Here are some pictures that Darrick took!

The Blob!  This is Darrick.  You wait on the Blob and someone close to your weight jumps on it to launch you into the water.

This is where they slept.  They said there were 4 bunk beds inside.

This was the dining hall, restrooms and extra rooms.

Micah

Jacob

Jacob

Two other people besides Jacob were Gluten Free.  Jacob said they had great gluten free food!