A few garden pictures...

Some of the most recent basement pictures

Walls are all painted...

All the colors look a little funky here but you get the idea.

... family room & bedroom are 'delicate lace' which is a creamy color...

...laundry room the lightest gray called 'steam white'.

It really just looks white.

...bathroom is blue!? by the name of 'snowdrop'.

We're still shaking our heads about that! What were we thinking!?

Here's the infloor heat.

Self leveler is being poured down.

Here's the bathroom tile...although you really can't see the color of it. It's a little lighter than it looks here and has some variegation-tan and gray.

My linen closet shelves. Still my favorite room and I love the shelves!

Bedroom closet shelves and hanging rod.

Oh, how I miss my mom today.

I don't know why it hit me so hard right now, but I really miss my mom right now. Actually, as I was sitting here last night, way too late reading blogs, it just hit me. I have the deepest ache in the innermost part of my heart right now for her. I miss her all the time but right now it's just really hurting. I don't know if there's a day that goes by that I don't think about her, some fleeting (or more than fleeting) thought or memory, but today I miss her so much!

Sometimes it makes me so sad that she didn't get to meet my girls, but it makes me even more sad that they didn't get to meet her. She was truly an angel on earth.

I wish I could call her and say, "Mom, you should have seen what my girls did today." I am so proud of my girls and I wish I could share their most special moments with my mom.

I wish I could call her and ask, "Mom, how did you make that candy that I took to school in fourth grade for our bake sale?" That candy was so good and I still remember the taste and feel of it in my mouth. I've wished many times I knew how to make it.

I wish I could ask her if she really hid the money in the spots so that we could 'find' it when we did an extra job without her asking us to do it. I remember finding money under the car seat every time I cleaned the car without her asking. I also remember finding money in the blue cupboard when I cleaned in there. I remember her telling me her mom did just that for them - she hid money so that they were rewarded when they did an extra job, and that when mom was grown her mom telling her that she had done that.

I wish I could tell her how much I appreciate all she taught me in life about cooking, baking, cleaning, sewing and everything else. And I wish I could call her when one of my girls is so excited to help me do something like make oatmeal.

I wish she was here to give me a hug. I wish she was here so I could give her a hug. I wish she was here so I could tell her, "I love you, Mom!"

I wish...oh, I wish a hundred things, a thousand things...I miss her!

She was the most wonderful mom and would have been an out of this world Grandma. I guess she is just that - an out of this world Grandma. She is Grandma Dorothy, an angel in heaven. She is my mom, and I miss her.

First Day of School Bus!

Off we go to the bus and our first full day of school!

A little excited...a little worried?

You expressed the feelings in this picture so well Joni, that I hope you don't mind my borrowing your words, not quoted exactly, but the same idea. "A day full of emotions! The girls - excited, maybe a bit nervous ... me - excited for them because they're excited, but worried how the 'big, bad world' will treat my babies, and wondering where the time has gone."

Indeed, 'Where has the time gone?' Where did my babies go? Wasn't it just yesterday that I was in China meeting each of them for the first time, getting to know them and them me? I hear so many times from others, "Oh, I'm so ready for school to start, I'm so ready for them to go back." Personally, I am never ready for school to start again, for summer to be over. I'm so not ready for them to go back. They truly grow up too fast and I can't ever feel like I get in enough time to be with them, to just enjoy them. They are such sweet, compassionate little people. Oh, they have their bad moments - don't we all? But I do so love them, so enjoy being with them, the little people they are.

The girls have been, in the last weeks of summer a bit excited to be starting school, and I have been happy for that bit of excitement. No matter how much I would like to keep them little, they do grow up and so things do happen like summer ending and school starting. And so I send them off ~ Emm to another year of school, and Bee to her first year of school. May God watch over them and keep them safe.

Big 3rd grader ~ how'd she get so old!

... and with her good friend.


Big kindergartner ~ Waahh!


At the bus stop. Yep, a little worried, I'd say.


On the bus they go. My baby ... gulp!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Here they come ... home again from the first school bus day of school...


My big girl!

My little girl!

Friends ... buddies!
~ Sisters ~

My daughters, my heart!

First Day of School!

Bye, bye summer! Hello school!

Well, another summer (if you could call it that) has come and gone. How has it gone so fast!? And another first day of school. It's not just any first day of school - it's the very first day of school for my baby. Our first day of school is also orientation day. So I go to school with them and sit in the classroom for an hour to get to know the teacher a little bit and to see how things will be in the classroom. We do have to attend - if we don't the child is counted absent. I have really liked doing this. It has helped Meikiina so much to be able to go with me first. Last year and this year it happened that we were the only one in the classroom in the hour that we had chosen to attend.

Off we go to our first day of school.

All smiles...but that might have been because I was taking the picture with the camera pointed backwards towards them with me looking forward. ;-)

When we arrived at the school we had pictures taken and then attended the general orientation given by the principal. Then off to the classrooms we went.

We went to Meikiina's classroom first. We were greeted at the door by her teacher, Mrs. Aanenson. She whispered to Meikiina, "Were you adopted?" Meikiina said, "Yes." Mrs. Aanenson told Meikiina, "I was too." That was a very good start. As Meikiina emptied her backpack of supplies, I filled out paperwork and chatted with her teacher. I gave her some heads up as to what we went through at the therapy center in the summer so that she is aware that there are issues. She was very open and it seemed like she wanted to make sure things could work for Meikiina. Hopefully I can get together with her soon and go over with her what Melissa put together for us.

Meikiina in her room with her teacher.

Then away we went to Brynlee's classroom. We are very excited that she has Mrs. Guldseth, the same teacher that Meikiina had in kindergarten. Mrs. Guldseth shared with us a typical day in the life of a kindergartner in her class. We all attended a 'morning meeting' with the teacher, which they will have each morning. We had written out a 'hope' we have for our child and shared that during 'morning meeting'. We did a little motion activity to get wiggles out. Mrs. Guldseth then went through what they do during a typical day. Brynlee got to do a little coloring and playing and then we put away all the supplies and figured out which was Brynlee's coat hook, and her bins. We then said good-bye to Mrs. Guldseth, who sent Brynlee off with the advice to get lots of rest for her big day the next day.

There must have been a teacher color theme, because here is Brynlee with her teacher, who is wearing the same colors as Meikiina's teacher. :-)

Off we went home to get the girls ready for bed and ready for the next day - the first day of school bus!