Garden update

Here are a couple pictures of the garden. I don't know what happened with the peas and beans. About 1/3 of the row of peas did not come up. I noticed birds were really pecking away in it soon after we planted it and I am wondering if they pecked out a lot of seeds. We also planted 2 seeds in each hole and not one came up with 2 plants. Each place a plant came up, only one plant came up, not two. The beans were like that too. Gregg did replant some in each row, and a few new plants are coming, but still not as many as he planted. Hmmmm... Well, whatever comes up will be fun. We will learn each year. I am so happy that we got a garden started. Our other little garden does have watermelon plants just coming up today too. We should get a harvest as these watermelons said 70 days from planting to harvest. We'll see.

We did have to put wire around it as the rabbits were loving the pepper plants, and were nipping leaves off the first day after they were planted.

Parties, picnics, and bike rides...

June has been birthday parties, well only 2 so far, but...

My supervisor is of Japanese and Brazilian decent and we talk together about our kids a lot. Her son, Matteus turned 6 in June and she invited the girls to his birthday party on June 6th. He had his party at a place called 'My Gym' so of course the girls had a great time. It was organized play so it wasn't like they got to be too wild or anything, but they did have fun. Of course the pinata was a big hit too, well the candy in it. She was pleased that we came and Matteus loved the gift that Meikiina picked out for him. I can't ever remember what they are called, but little boys that age love them. No good pictures from this party. I took the camera, but both sets of batteries I had with died.

This weekend Meikiina was invited to a birthday party at Chucky Cheese for a neighbor boy. She rode over with her friend from across the street and her mom. She loves to go to Chucky Cheese, had a great time using up her tokens, and came home with a little prize that she was more than pleased with.

When she got home from Chucky Cheese we went to a FCC (Families with Children from China) picnic at the most fun park. It is always fun to get together with other families with Chinese children. The girls had fun playing with the other kids on the playground and then on a most fun looking slash pad. We didn't get there too early so didn't get to spend too much time with the other families, but it was fun anyway. The girls did not want to leave and we were there long after everyone else was gone.

Here Brynlee was hitting Meikiina as often as she could, but howled if Meikiina hit her!

She hates getting her face wet in the shower, but went under these buckets many times!

Brrrr..... So cold!

On Sunday we went bike riding, the girls and I. As we were biking past the lake, which was quite active with boats and jet skiis, Brynlee got real excited and said, "Look mom, there's someone ice skiing (water skiing) behind that boat. We stood there for quite awhile and watched the 'ice skiing' on the water. On our way home we went through the park and stopped to play for a bit, as we do quite often.

Busy, busy, busy

I've had so many things I've wanted to put on here and haven't had a minute to sit and put down a thought. I've been so busy with year end at work, with long days and at work late for the last 2 weeks. I'm sure I won't remember anything I've been wanting to get down.

It's so hard on us when I have the long days and I literally don't get to see the girls for days at a time. It's especially hard on Meikiina. Deep inside her she's still so scared that she will lose another family. She's been very good about my being gone, but calls me at bedtime and I can hear the loneliness and fear in her voice, even as she's being so brave about it. She had her last day of school on June 4th. I hadn't seen the girls from Sunday when I put them to bed until I got home from work (late, but before they fell asleep) on Wednesday. They were beyond excited to see me when I got home that day. The next morning I stayed home until Meikiina got on the bus for her last day of school. She was so happy that I stayed and saw her off to school. Here's a picture of her and her best neighborhood friend going off to the bus on the last day of school. She wasn't real excited about being done with school. She said she will miss seeing her friends. But I think she's enjoying being home. She's having fun and seems so much more relaxed already.


During Meikiina's last week of school Brynlee went fishing with Gregg. She caught her first fish, and second, and third, and all the way up to 21 fish between the two of them. I asked Gregg to bring the camera with them in case they caught anything. Here's Brynlee with one of her big catches.

Ever since I've moved into my house I've wanted a garden. This year we finally decided we will have a garden. Gregg wanted a boxed in garden so we discussed how we would do it and kept talking about we need to get the lumber to build the boxes, but never got it done all spring. Some neighbors have been building and had a pile of lumber in their yard for many weeks and I kept on telling Gregg that he should ask if they are getting rid of it and he went a couple of times and no one was home. Finally one day I saw them loading it up to bring away and told Gregg to go ask what they are doing with it. Most of it they were bring back to the store for a refund, but there were these 2 - 2"x12"x26' boards that they said they couldn't bring back and did we want them for $20. He told us that he had paid $75 each for them. We didn't know for sure if we believed him but we thought $20 was a good enough deal and we took them. A few days later the guy who fixed our house after the last hail storm stopped by and asked us why we had them and Gregg told him the story. He told us they are worth about $150. So we had our boards for our boxes.

Then I started bugging Gregg about dirt - call and price dirt, call and price dirt. He finally called a couple of places and we decided we would get dirt from the same place that I had bought the black dirt for my yard when I moved in and we would get it as soon as we got back from memorial day weekend. As soon as we drove in the driveway from our camping weekend our next door neighbor came out and brought us our mail and asked us if we want some black dirt for free. His next door neighbor had done some yard work and needed to get rid of the rest of the black dirt. So Gregg hauled over the black dirt and we built the box for the back yard and we had a garden spot. Now we've planted it and the plants are starting to come up. I'm so excited. Here's a picture a few days after we planted it and you can see the lettuce coming up already in this picture. Now all the plants are coming up. We just finished putting in another box on the side of the house, but I'm not sure if it's too late to plant stuff in that one.


One more topic. Gregg is a shopper and he loves garage saling so they usually hit a few garage sales a week. Meikiina is a shoe girl. She loves, loves!, shoes - especially high heeled shoes. She always wants me to buy her high heeled shoes and she wants me to wear high heels. She called me at work one day when they got back from a bunch of real good garage sales and told me all the treasures she had found. Then she told me about how she found these high heels that she figured would fit me and she told me she really wanted to get them for me. Oh, how she wanted to buy them for me. She told me that she thought they would look so nice on me, but that I would put them and she could just imagine me going up the stairs and just waddling like a duck. Yeah, they were nice, but she was just scared that I would just waddle, waddle like a duck. I was laughing so hard at work, and trying not to let her know I was laughing. Honestly, she wasn't saying it to be mean, because I know that she wouldn't have a clue that it could be a mean thing to say. She was so sincere. She always want to buy thing for me and gives me all kinds of little treasures to take to work so that when I look at it I can think of her and know that she loves me. Who knows. I just got a good laugh and I'm laughing again as I type this.

At the end of the conversation Meikiina says to me, "Oh, and Mom! You have to talk to Brynlee!" I asked her what about. She told me about a comment made by Brynlee. They are at a garage sale that apparently didn't have a lot of stuff that Brynlee was interested in and so she announced very loudly, "What a bogus garage sale!" Meikiina told me that the lady looked at them and had a sad look on her face. But the comment is very Brynlee style. I don't have a clue where she heard the word 'bogus' but I think maybe she was trying out the word. We talked to her and tried to tell her that that is a very hurtful comment and that you can't say something like that in front of someone. You don't have to like the garage sale, but you don't say anything about it when you are at the garage sale. When you go and get in the car then maybe you can say something , but it's not ok to say something that will hurt someone's feelings - not even garage sale people.

Camping - Memorial Day Weekend!

What a great weekend! It was so much fun to take time off from work, totally relax, and best of all be able to spend time with family. I love my family so much! We are a great bunch of people, if I do say so myself.

I took Thursday through Tuesday off from work. On Thursday we went shopping for camping groceries and did most of the packing for our trip. Friday, we finished up packing and doing everything we needed to do and were ready to go when Meikiina got home from school at about 1:45. We were on the road by 2:00. Yeah! On the way up, we talked about how fast the weekend goes every year. The only bad thing about this weekend is that you barely start it and it's done. We made it up north in enough time that we got to drive up to the camp - Knotty Pines Resort near Park Rapids and unload the van. We got a really cute small cabin (a real cabin built in about 1920). We hardly wanted to leave, but we did and off we went to graduation in Menahga to see Caitlin graduating. I've always enjoyed going to graduation in Menahga to see if I see anyone I have known from the past. This year I really noticed that it has changed so much from since I was there that it's almost a little sad. I don't know any of the teachers any more. Even if I saw someone that I went to school with, I probably wouldn't recognize them. The graduates seem so young!! Anyway - after graduation we went back to Knotty Pines. We saw that Becky and Brian had arrived and were staying in the cabin right next to us. Their cabin was lit up, but we couldn't see anyone there. We found out the next day that they had gone into Park Rapids for groceries. I got the girls to bed and sleep that first night in our cabin. I stayed up for a bit and then off to bed I went too.

I woke up Saturday morning with the most puffy eyes I have ever had. I could hardly open my eyes they were so swollen and puffy. I found out that I had gotten the only down feather pillow in the cabin and I am allergic to down feathers. I didn't realize what a reaction I would have to them. I washed my eyes and put a cold cloth on them and they got better and I switched pillows for the next night and was fine after that.

I let the girls each plan a day of meals. They picked oatmeal/cold cereal, pbj/Ramen noodles, Fettuccine/mac & cheese. So Saturday morning we had oatmeal for breakfast. That's a normal weekend breakfast for us. We all like oatmeal. Then off went the girls outside to explore. The first things they asked were can we go swimming and can we go to Becky and Brian's. They spent a lot of time next door at Becky and Brian's. I had to tell Becky that if they spend too much time there to feel free to send them back over. Brynlee started asking me so much to go there that I asked her what she wanted to do over there. She said she wants to go in their back yard. In their 'back yard' was the volley ball sand pit. She spent hours playing in the sand there or sitting on a rock with her chin in her hands watching the big kids play volley ball. She also asked me several times if she can go in our back yard. I asked her where is our back yard? She said the playground. This playground was very much in our front yard. Maybe cuz we have a swing set in our backyard at home, she figured that the playground has to be our backyard? Who knows - I don't correct her, I just enjoy all the funny and cute things she comes up with.

On Saturday lots of the family came and we got to spend lots of good time with family. Joni and Ami and crew came out, Kaisa and her crew, Janelle and Pete and Meagan came - who else? Gina and Dan arrived Saturday morning and set up their tent site, which was very close to our cabin. So we got to see Sylvi and Michael toddling around alot. What fun. They're both so cute.

We just totally enjoyed the day - so relaxing. We wandered around and spent a lot of time walking back and forth between the beach and our cabin. Gregg and I took Brynlee on a paddle boat ride. The girls both tried swimming. Brynlee didn't last very long and actually didn't get very far into the lake. Meikiina swam quite awhile. Of course Saturday evening there was a bonfire and the required marshmallows and s'mores. Lots of talking and visiting around the bonfire. Saturday evening Gregg did fireworks. He has done fireworks every year and the kids sure do look forward to it and enjoy it so much. He also brought a whole bunch of sparklers and all the kids got to do several each both Saturday and Sunday evening. They had fun with them. Saturday evening, we finally left the bonfire when Brynlee told me she was tired and wanted to go to bed. She's funny, she had been sitting between Carl and Ashley (her kummis) and yawning, but if someone asked her if she's tired she would say no. As soon as the last word was read from the book she was sleeping. She did not fall asleep until the last word tho.

Sunday we did pretty much the same thing. Oh, on Sunday afternoon I took the girls and went to a graduation open house in Menahga for Caitlin and Ashley. Joni rode with us. I got to see our cousin from China, Brian and Joyce's Trena. Oh, is she a cutie. I could have taken her home with me in a heartbeat. Joyce brought her picture book that she had put together and printed off. That was fun to see pictures of their China trip. I saw a lot of familiar places. I got to visit with a bunch of people that I don't get to see very often, so it was fun to go. I kinda hated missing out on the beautiful afternoon weather at the camp, but wouldn't have missed going to the open house.

Sunday, Brynlee was begging me to play with Meikiina and her friends and I said that she should play with the girls her age. She told me, "But Mom, I want to play with the big-agers." We found Kaisa and invited her to our cabin for a little bit. When we got to the cabin, we found Meikiina entertaining, and doing a good job of it. She had 3 of her cousins at the table and was feeding them snack. She had filled up a bucket (her sand bucket!) with water and was scooping with a dipper glasses of water for her friends. I started saying you're not giving this water and she told me that it's good water, she heard someone say it's good. I said, "But this bucket..." and then, "...but Mom it's clean, see look, I made sure it was clean" She had rinsed it out real well and it did look real clean. Oh well, I'm sure we all ate dirtier things in our life than that. So, sorry moms!

Sunday evening at the bonfire, Brynlee again told me at about 11:0 that she was tired and wanted to go to bed. I didn't want to leave the group yet, so I asked her if she could sit on my lap and fall asleep. She said, "But then I would miss my book." I said, "How about I read you 2 tomorrow." She was ok with that and crawled up and cuddled into my jacket with her head on my heart and fell asleep. So I sat down there for another hour and a half and finally decided that I better get up to the cabin. So I carried her up there (is she getting big and heavy). I got to the cabin and couldn't get the door open! And you know how when you are holding a sleeping child and you try do something like that how the child flops this way and that, so I thought I would lay her on the picnic table and she didn't like that so I thought I would put her down on the chair but her head was flopping forward and back so violently I thought she would fall. Then I heard someone so I called and it was Dawn and Tonya. Dawn went and got Gregg and Tonya kept me company. Gregg came up and it was locked. He had to go and wake up the owners at 12:30 at night. He said there was a sign that said 24 hour availability. They were so good about it. They said that with how the lock is, it happens with that cabin. It scared them tho, they thought someone had gotten hurt or something.

Monday morning came way too soon! We all slept quite late - 9:30, which never happens in our house. Well, I was awake a lot and dozing off and on after 7:00, but thought I would let everyone else sleep in. I spent most of the morning cleaning and packing. I had the girls do their own packing and Gregg was hauling stuff into the van. We sat and relaxed a bit and visited a bit more and then were off. Monday afternoon there was a graduation party for Deanna, who graduated this year from college. What an accomplishment for her. I am so proud of her. We stopped there and got to visit more with relatives and friends. We got to see Trena again. She was very curious about my girls. Because I've been very excited about it, I've talked about her a lot with the girls and told them that they have a cousin from China but it must not have really totally sunk in. Meikiina watched her and watched her and finally asked Joyce, "Is she from China?" Brynlee was also very curious. She followed her around and was watching her too. I finally asked her if she knew where she was from. She said, "Is she from China?" I hope that we can spend time with them and the girls can get to know each other.

Finally we had to leave and head back to reality. We did not hit too bad traffic and made it back home about 7:30. It was hard for the girls to fall asleep as they had been staying up so late, but they finally did fall asleep and Tuesday morning it was off to school again for Meikiina. I had Tuesday off from work. I unpacked and washed clothes all day so that Gregg wouldn't have to deal with all the dirty laundry.

Now for the next tree quarters of a year we can live the memories of camping this year. They already have so many wonderful memories of Memorial day weekends and camping. Both of them talk and talk about it. And then the girls and all of us will start looking forward to next year camping.

Wedding, Flower Girl, New Toy, and Mother's Day...

What a fun weekend! It was my niece Ashley's wedding weekend. Ashley is my god-daughter and Brynlee is Ashley's god-daughter and she asked Brynlee to be Flower Girl at her wedding. Brynlee was quite excited all the time leading up to the wedding.

I took Friday off from work and got to take Brynlee to the bride's breakfast at Perkins. I let Brynlee choose what she wanted from the kids menu. She didn't pick the pancake plate with the pancakes placed to look like a Teddy Bear. She didn't choose the pancakes all sprinkled with colorful sprinkles and a dollop of whipped cream on top. She picked the plate with 5 plain silver dollar size pancakes. When they came she put her butter on - the big tab of butter that came with them on about 2 of the pancakes and announced that she needs more butter. She asked if she could put her own syrup on. She did with gusto (leaving the jar half empty) and started eating. A few minutes later she pointed to the syrup container and said, "Mom, look! Who used all that syrup!?" Hmmm...I wonder. It was fun to be able to go to Ash's breakfast.

After we got back from breakfast I cut Brynlee's hair. I cut quite a bit of hair off. She has had quite thin hair and several months ago a whole new bunch of hair has been growing, so she had 2 layers of hair. I cut it so that all the thin long hair was off and now it looks so much thicker and healthier. She looks so cute.

Friday evening we went to rehearsal. I told Brynlee if people ask her who cut her hair she should say Ginger. She just giggled and told me, "No, you cut it." So when we got to rehearsal Becky asked who cut her hair and I asked Brynlee, "Did Ginger cut it?" Brynlee giggled at me, but didn't say anything. Later Becky heard us talking about it with someone else and she said she really thought someone named Ginger had cut it. Brynlee did really good at rehearsal. There were 2 flower girls and they hit it off and had fun together. We got home quite late. My adorable nieces (Tonya, Dawn, Caitlin, Karisa, & Brianna) had called and asked if a they could come and stay the night. I got my girls to sleep and the big girls got here about 10:15. Gregg and I stayed up so late talking with the girls. What fun! I don't get to see my nieces often enough. They are growing up and have their own lives. I do understand, but we sure enjoyed having them.

Saturday, Brynlee and I had to be at the church quite early so that she could have her hair done and be ready for pictures at 3:00. Tiffany worked on her hair and did such a cute job. Her hair turned out soooo cute! Brynlee told me in the morning and several times during the day Saturday that she's scared. I didn't make too much of a big deal out of it. She was watching the people come in and about 15 minutes before the wedding started she told me to hold her. I did and she started crying. She was crying quite loud and telling me she is too scared and she doesn't want to be flower girl. She doesn't want to do it. I brought her into the bride's room and held her and tried to comfort her as she sobbed with tears streaming down her cheeks. Then terrible mama that I am, I asked her if I could get her something if she does it. I asked her what she wants and she sobbed out, "I wa..hant a Baaarbie pool, but Daaa..aad said I couldn't have one." I told her I think Dad will let her have one. The other flower girl's mom said she had a whole pack of gum she could give to each of the girls if they walked up and did their flower girl job. She was still teary eyed when I had to go sit down. I didn't know if I would see one or two flower girls walking up the aisle.

She did it. Oh, was she scared, but she did it. She was not smiling the whole way up the aisle. No one else knew how scared she was, but I could see it. She got up to the front and up to her spot and stood there so nicely. About 5 minutes after she got up there I could tell she remembered that there was a piece of tape she should be standing on - she looked down at her feet and lifted one up and moved over an inch. I could tell she was relaxing then. Pretty soon she turns her head around and looks at me and I smiled real big and she smiled at me, then a bit later she turned her head around again and gave me a little wave. She was ok. I had told her to try to not stand with her legs stiff the hold time she is up there, because she might faint. I saw her at one time bend her knees and then bob up and down a little bit, not real noticeable. After the wedding she told me, "Mom, I was standing up there with my legs locked." I asked her if that was when she had bent her knees, and she said it was. Sometimes I swear she doesn't hear a word I say - she does hear :-) She stood up there so straight and cute during the whole wedding. She knew when to turn, except once, I think Kara had to remind her to turn. She and the other flower girl walked back down the aisle so cute. She just pranced around the church all evening so happy and had so much fun.

On Thursday, Gregg called me at work and told me that he had gone to a garage sale, and with his gift of gab started talking about some books they were selling and the topic got to China and adoption. They have done mission work around the world and they want to go and work in an orphanage in China. Well, the man started getting out a bounce-about (one of those thing that you blow hot air in and it puffs up and kids jump in it). Gregg asked how much he was gonna sell it for. The man said, "You can have it." Oh, my gosh - it's a gold mine. When he called me I thought it would be a small one. It's really big and has an area for jumping, then a wall you climb up and a slide out to the yard. I have been so sad that we lost the trampoline in the storm (although I was always nervous because of liability with the neighbors). It was so good for Meikiina to jump on it when we had it and she really missed it. This has been just lovely! All the neighbor kids are wanting to be in it. What a gift!

On Sunday I got to be wished a happy Mother's Day by my lovely nieces that were here, and of course by my lovely daughters and Gregg. The girls left about noon and I had a very relaxing rest of the day. We did light our birth family candle on Sunday morning in honor of our birth mothers in China. I think of them a lot and in a very special way on Mother's Day. Thank you birth mothers and thank you God!

Happy Mother's Day!

Beautiful flower girl

2 beautiful hairdos

Bride and beautiful flower girls

Lovely, sweet Meikiina

Brynlee before haircut

After haircut on her new toy

Meikiina going into her new toy

Lovely nieces and nephew Brady

Happy Forever Family Day...

Seven years ago today I became a mother. I received, that day, the most precious gift a woman can receive...a child. Seven years ago today my first precious daughter was placed into my arms. It seems a lifetime ago and still seems like only yesterday when I was holding her the very first time. Now Meikiina is almost to the end of 2nd grade in school and has grown in so many ways. She's still my baby, but she sure is growing up.

Today we had Chinese food for supper and lit our 'birth family' candle. My thoughts are often in China, but even more at these times. I think often of that first mother who did the only thing she knew to do to try help her baby have a chance at life. My heart is full of thanks to her for choosing life for her infant daughter. What a gift she has given us. When Meikiina blew out the special candle she folded her hands and closed her eyes and said, "Now I'm going to do my wish." She then opened her eyes and threw her hands up and out in the air and said, "There, I threw it all the way to China." I wonder what she wishes.

Sometime this weekend we will do her foot print. I have a footprint of her each year starting the day of her official adoption in China. She had such tiny feet. She wore size 0 shoes until she started walking at 16 months.

This day is always a thought filled day. It's such a bittersweet day. My heart just overflows with love for this precious child. I'm so happy on this day, but this day also bring sadness to my heart for a mother in China who is surely missing a little girl. I thank her often from the innermost place in my heart. My ultimate thanks, tho, of course goes to God for bringing the perfect child into my heart and my family from that land so far away.

I love you so much, Meikiina!

Your forever Mama

Cute Old Stories

I was going through some paper piles and found some things I had written out about Brynlee from last summer.

Early June 2008 - Brynlee is sitting thinking. She says, "Mama, how do we learn these words?" I asked her what words she's wondering about. She says (putting her hands up wide in the air), "See these words, all the words we say. How do we learn to say them all?"

On 6/29/08 - We went to Spud Fest Parade in town 6/28. After breakfast Brynlee dumped her candy on the table and is discussing with me which ones she likes and which she doesn't like. She asks me if a particular candy is hard, and tells me she doesn't really care for the hard candy. She just likes spicy chicken. That's the only hard thing she likes?? I don't know what she was thinking here, but it sounds so funny, some of the things that come out of her mouth.

On 6/29/08 I was reading on the couch and Brynlee came and tucked herself under my arm with a book. She was talking about the book and she saw a picture of a mama pushing triplets in a stroller. I heard her quietly say, "I won't have 3 babies." I asked her why she thought she wouldn't have 3 babies. She told me, "Because I don't have 3 spoons." She has 2 baby backpacks with all the feeding accessories in them, bowls, cups, spoons, etc. There are only 2 spoons...

Jane Brown Playshop

This weekend was very interesting. Jane Brown was in town. Jane Brown, mom to 8, is a social worker from Arizona along with other titles, who works a lot with children who were adopted. I went to a presentation she gave for parents of adopted children. She presented on, 'Adoption and the media.' Very interesting talk.

She also did several 'playshops' over the weekend for the children. Meikiina participated in a playshop on Saturday morning. She was very apprehensive about going, and told me several times after I signed up that she's not going to that play thing. She has a very hard time in groups and in new situations. She also has a hard time separating from me in unknown situations. When we arrived, Jane Brown did a quick activity together with the parents and children together. Then she had the parents raise their right hand and swear that we would not leave our children, and that if our child needed us they would come get us and we would be there likkety split. Meikiina happily gave me a hug and kiss and 'I love you' and went off with the group. It was a nice size group of kids, with 10 in the group. I heard Sunday's group had 25. Meikiina would have had a much harder time in the larger group. After a couple hours, Jane Brown brought the kids down and took the parents with her. She told us what topics had been discussed and what they had done together. She did not tell anyone anything specific that the kids had said. She said it's her job to talk to the kids and have them talk to her. It's the kids job to talk to their parents, and it's not Jane Brown's job to talk to their parents. I won't go into detail about what they did or talked about, as I feel that it's something that is for Meikiina alone (and for me if she ever wants to talk).

Meikiina did have a good time, because when we were walking out of the building, she said, "When is Jane Brown's next class?" I told her that this time she is having one more Saturday afternoon and one on Sunday. She said, "Well, why can't we go to the other one she is having today?"

I had a hard time deciding what I should do this weekend. I had paid (quite a sum of money) for this weekend several months ago. Then this week uncle Vern passed away. Oh, how I wanted to go to the funeral. I may have been able to switch Meikiina to Sunday, but she has a real hard time too, with too much activity in any one weekend. So what to do - go to the funeral Saturday up north, and playshop on Sunday and have a very anxious child all week long, or go to the playshop like we had scheduled on Saturday and not go to the funeral. I think I made the right decision. It was a very hard day (emotionally) for Meikiina. Lots of tough topics come up. I know it brought some thoughts. She woke up in the night scared. She kept telling me she's scared. I had to lay down with her and hold her to me all night.

I emailed Jane Brown to thank her and ask her for some feedback on something and she emailed me back. Here was a little bit of her email... "I am glad that your sweet daughter had a positive experience. She is very very dear-- expressive, curious, eager to share and take in all that others have to say." How could I not brag about that? :-)

Brynlee is 5!!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday Dear Brynlee!

Happy Birthday to you!

Wow, I can't believe Brynlee is 5! My baby. They are growing up so fast. I know, I say that too much, but they do grow up so fast...too fast? She says she had a good birthday. I think she did. Saturday we had 2 little girls over for a little party at home. They played a lot, mostly outside. Meikiina organized lots of games for them to play and handed out lots of candy prizes. Of course, that was fun for them. She wanted a 'My Little Pony' party again this year, but we couldn't find any 'My Little Pony' or any other theme for that matter. So she just had a birthday party theme, and was happy as could be with that. She's mostly a happy girl and pretty easy to please. After lots of playing we had cupcakes and ice cream and Brynlee opened her presents.

After presents we brought the 4 girls to Chuckie Cheese. What a hit that always is. They all played and played and played. The all got enough tokens that they were all tokened out by the time we left. We got going from there way too late. We had to use up all the tokens and then, my gosh, to pick out the prizes! That is a long drawn out affair. I was disappointed that I didn't remember to bring the camera. There would have been some very cute pictures. One of the little girls had not ever been there. She was in awe and had such big grins on her face. She spent quite a bit of time with me the first half of the time we were there. It is quite busy and noisy there. We dropped the girls off at their respective homes real late. Sorry moms, but thanks for letting us borrow your precious girls. They all had fun and made a wonderful party day for Brynlee.

A couple of cute stories...

We had her party on Saturday and she asked me, "Since we are having my party Saturday can I say I'm 5 that day and not wait til Monday til I can say I'm 5?" I told her that's fine. She can say she's 5 on Saturday if she wants. A couple of times between Saturday and Monday, Gregg said something to someone else about Brynlee being 4. She corrected him real quickly each time, "No! I'm 5 now!!"

Today she called me at work and asked me, "So now how many years til I start school?" I told her it's not years, it's only some months. So she asked me then, "How many days til I start?"

I always have their pictures taken around their birthdays and she remembered today that she hasn't had her picture taken and told me, "Mom! We didn't get my picture taken yet!" I answered that we hadn't yet. She said, "Well am I going to get to start school still?" She was very concerned that she wouldn't get to start school now, when we hadn't gotten her birthday picture taken yet.

Happy Birthday, baby! What a gift you've been. You've given us so much!

Brynlee's 5 Year Check & Easter Weekend

What a wonderfully fun and busy, but oh so relaxing, weekend we had. We spent the weekend with Gregg's sister, Jennifer, in W Des Moines, IA.

We started the weekend by leaving home at 7:15 a.m. Friday to make it for Brynlee's well check scheduled at 8:30. She did really good - passed all the little tests Dr. Benson did with her with no problems. She grew 2 3/4" and gained 3.2 pounds. She is right at 30th % for both height and weight. She also had to have 5 shots. She was not impressed with that even when they told her that all the kids starting kindergarten have to have lots of shots. But Dr. Benson gave her 5 stickers and she was very excited about that. The first thing she said was, "I'm going to give two of them to Meikiina." I was so pleased that she was so generous. There were lots of tears after the shots, but then we drove by McDonald's to get ice cream cones for being so brave to have so many shots.

Our next stop was to pick up James from the house he rents in Apple Valley. I had not seen it yet. It's a very nice house. We also got to meet his room mates. One is an Iraqi vet who has a white German Shepherd pup. It was fun to see his puppy, as it brought back memories of growing up with our German Shepherds, and all the puppies that Trixie had over the years. He was very quiet when we stopped on our way down. When we stopped on the way back he chattered quite a bit more to us. He was injured when the vehicle he was in was hit by an IED. He is 22 years old and has the look in his eyes of someone that is old way beyond his years. My heart went out to him.

We made it to Jennifer's about 4:00 and relaxed for the evening. Jennifer made a super meal for us and we played the game 'Apples to Apples', which I had heard about, but never played. It was fun! Oh, and I won. :-)

Saturday morning Jennifer bought me a gift of a massage. While I was there she and Gregg took the girls swimming at their gym. They had lots of fun, and I had a wonderfully relaxing hour long massage. Oh, my - if you ever have a chance to have a massage, don't pass up the opportunity. Several months ago I was having 20 minute massages that were concentrated on one part of me, usually my upper back and shoulders. They were awesome, but nothing beats an hour long massage. I have had them in the past, but it's been many years since I had one. I had them concentrate on my back and neck, but they did do my arms/hands, legs/feet, and head too. Oh, did I enjoy that.

Gregg spent time with his dad in the afternoon and I laid down with Brynlee. I knew it would be a late night so really wanted her to sleep, and she did. I did too. It felt good. The weather was so nice on Saturday. I didn't spend enough time outside, but did get a short walk in. I took Brynlee with me and she could see Meikiina jumping on the trampoline with Jennifer and she did not want to walk, so ended up going back pretty quickly. But the girls did get to spend quite a bit of time outside on the tramp and swingset. They have a BIG dog - a Newfoundland called Mai (pronounced May). She's 95 pounds right now and they are thinking she will gain 20 more pounds. She's pretty good and obedient, but is still a puppy so can get a little wild. I was looking over the fence in the back yard watching Meikiina jump on the tramp and I said to her, "Hi, Mei-Mei." Mai - all 95 pounds of her - came flying across the yard and jumped up on my back, with her big paws over my shoulders, so excited that I had called her. I had a hard time getting her off my back. Poor Brynlee is scared of any dog, and that dog is as tall as she is. Our bedroom is down in the basement and when she would go up alone she wouldn't know if the dog would be in the house or outside. Jennifer told Brynlee that she could just come to the top of the steps and call her to see if the dog was there. She did! She would get to the door and hollar, "JENNIFER!! IS THE DOG THERE?!?" Jennifer would so patiently answer her each time.

Saturday evening Jen & Irv treated Gregg and me to an experience that I'm sure we will never have again. We went to a musical (play). It was 3 hours and was great! We all really enjoyed it. For some reason, I thought Gregg would not really enjoy it, but he did! On our way there, Irv said Brynlee had commented to him, "Irv, why do you spoil us so much when we come here?" He got a kick out of that. It made him feel good, I could tell. And they do spoil us! We didn't get back there til almost 11:00 and the girls were not real happy with us, but it was so good for us to get out to do something like that.

Sunday we went to Irv's club for Easter brunch/lunch. It has the most amazing layout of food. They had set up a room special for us, along with another couple and their daughter, who are friends with Jen & Irv. All the workers at the club knew and greeted (very cordially) both Irv and their friend Guy, who are both to put it modestly, very well off. The food is very, very good. I had fruit and a breakfast type of fancy roll, bacon, ham, vegetables and au gratin potatoes (super good), and for dessert - strawberry/rhubarb crisp with whipped cream. I'm sure there was more. I could tell Meikiina's favorite was the au gratin potatoes, as she went back several times for them. I think Brynlee's favorite was the bacon. Oh, they also loved the chocolate fountain where they could dip strawberries. I think what Meikiina was most excited about was the raspberries. When we go out walking and biking at just the right time, we can pick them along the paths in our woods. She brought one special for me. If there is something missing - like chicken tenders or marshmallows - you just ask and they bring them to the table. Meikiina was so cute. She usually has such a hard time in groups, and this a big room that has lots of tables of people in it. I was very surprised when she told me that she wants to go back for more and then said she can just go by herself. Then when Brynlee wanted more, Meikiina told me that she can bring her and help her get what she needs. I let them go and then went too, to get myself something just so I could see how they did. She was so good with Bryn, she was very patiently telling her what each type of fruit was and did a very good job of helping her. I was so proud of her and I think she felt really proud too. The big boys have an eating contest to see who can eat the most. They can eat a lot! After we are done eating, the kids get to go see the bunny and sit with him for pictures. They then colored eggs and got a box with treats in it.

After we were all done at the club, back we went to Jen's house. Irv had been up at the crack of dawn hiding eggs for all the kids, big and little. This year the little kids, the 3 girls, had a scavenger hunt. They each got a card with a certain number of eggs of each color that they had to find. It looked so cute to see them watching their cards, even Brynlee, to make sure they got the right amount of eggs of each color. They got lots of treats and each of them found 3 gold $1 coins in their eggs. When they got back in they found baskets that Easter Bunny Jen had filled with all kinds of toys and treats. The boys eggs were quite a bit harder to find. They each got one egg that had a $5o bill in it and another smaller egg that had something else in it, so they had to work pretty hard to find theirs. Once again the egg hunt was a big hit and so much fun. Oh, the girls also each got a gift card to Dairy Queen from the mom of the other little girl that was there. The little girl is Irv & Jen's god-daughter and is quite special to them. We don't go to the DQ very often so the girls were pretty excited about that.

And being as all good fun must come to an end eventually, after the hunt sadly we had to start packing up so we could head home. We got going a little after 3:30 and got home about 9:15. It was sad to leave. We always have such a good time with them and it really is a relaxing trip each time. When we got back we discovered the bunny had been here too so the girls had to hunt for their baskets and all the eggs the bunny had hidden in the house. Good thing they slept a long time in the car on the way back because they did not get to bed real early. Also, Meikiina got to start school 2 hours late on Monday. It was perfect.

So ends a wonderful, relaxing, and perfect weekend. And now back to real life.

Easter Egg Hunt

This past weekend was our favorite local annual Easter egg hunt. We almost missed it. I had been watching for it in the paper, but never did see it. Sister Joni called and told me that it was that morning. The girls have fun and they are always excited to have the treats when it's all over. Even though it's fun for her, Meikiina is so scared to do things like this. Crowds of people are always so hard on her and hard for her. It breaks my heart when I watch her. She so wants to do something like this, but still it's so hard for her to do. You can see the tug-of-war in her. She might start acting out and I know that she is wanting to go, but is thinking about how scary it's going to be for her.

They do have the kids broken into age groups, but there are still lots of kids in each group. But there are soooo many eggs all the kids get lots of treats. It doesn't matter what the weather is there are lots of kids. We've seen warm sun, rain, and snow, and the crowd was always just as big. This year was not too bad. It wasn't really warm, but we did not freeze.

Phone calls and big words..

Often I get phone calls at work from Brynlee. She always wants to know what I'm having for lunch. Today when I asked her what she's having for lunch, she told me she's having Chimichangas. She explained further, "They are actually Chimichangas, but they're not the spicy kind so we call them Britos (burritos)." She always makes me grin. One other day when she asked, I was having mushroom soup. That evening she said, "Meikiina, did you know they actually make mushroom soup?!" She does not care for mushrooms.

When Brynlee calls me at work she usually doesn't want to talk long. When she first started calling me at work she would say a few words and then would abruptly say bye. I told her that manners tells us that we need to say goodbye in a little more polite way. Now she asks me, "Are you gonna have to go now?"

Right now Meikiina's favorite word is apparently. She uses it alot! I love listening to her talk. She uses big words a lot and sounds so grown up.

Snow again! ...and art & my girls...

Well, I can hardly believe it. We got an abundance of snow again. Isn't it about enough of that. I know - we could get a lot more, but hopefully we will be at the end of it soon. I am really ready for spring and summer.

Right now the girls are sitting here with me working on creating books. They love to staple paper together and make books. They love any art projects. I always have new art to hang up at work. What a lucky mama I am - they are such good kids.

Yesterday I was talking to Meikiina - my usual call to her to say bye and I love you before she leaves to school. I could hear Brynlee just howling in the background - not very nice sounding. I don't even remember what it was about and I asked Meikiina to tell her mom says to lay on her bed for a little while. Meikiina told her and I could hear Brynlee stomping her feet really really hard as she walked away from the phone and still howling just as loud. It sounded like she was actually walking (stomping) toward her room, so when I got home I asked her if she went and laid down when I had asked her to. She said yes, and I told her what good listening and obeying that was. That even though I wasn't here she still listened and did what I asked. She looked at me and said, 'But I stomped!'

Time at home

I took some days off from work last week and just spent time at home. We didn't do a whole lot. Thursday we went and washed the car and stopped at a couple of consignment shops in town. Brynlee was all excited because she found a pink I-Dog that she could buy for Meikiina. She knew that would be a big hit with her big sis. She found a pair of shoes that she fell in love with. I asked her if she thinks she really needs them and said she does. When I asked her how many pairs of shoes she has, she told me, "At least 60,000, but I like them." Dad didn't like them, but guys - what do they know about shoes. When a lady sees a pair of shoes she needs... So Brynlee got her shoes. Friday, I got to have lunch at school with Meikiina and then was lucky enough that my day off coincided with her pod celebration, so got to see that. She's always so excited when I get to be at that. I got to do a lot of cuddling with my little one during the day Thursday and Friday. We both enjoyed that and it was good for both of us. And both days I got to bring Meikiina to the bus stop and be waiting outside for her when she got home. She just grins when she sees me waiting for her. What a feeling!

This weekend wasn't super warm - into the lower 40's, but the girls love to be outside. We tried one walk, but they both got too cold. They both spent hours roller blading. They are so good. I can't believe how good they are...and they look soooo cute. Meikiina got inline skates a couple years ago for her birthday and started out with those. She did pretty good, then she found mine - Roller Blade brand and pretty nice. She put those on and has never used hers since. She gave hers to Bryn and taugh her how to roller blade in our basement. Now they have so much fun on the driveway 'blading' together. It's unbelievable how quickly they can learn when they are little. I taped them for a bit and got to see them doing all kinds of tricks. Meikiina showed me what tight and fast turns she can make. Bryn showed me that she can jump with hers. What fun they had, and I had fun watching them.

We ended the nice long weekend with a ham and mashed potato meal on Sunday evening. And tomorrow it's off to work again. So sad. Oh, if I could be home.

Baby Poems

I love this poem and saw part of it again in an email, so did a search on it and stumbled across this version and had to post it here. I do try so hard to remember to love my babies in the moment and enjoy each moment of their baby years. My babies are still young, but I often think back to when Meikiina was an infant in my arms and truly wonder how these past years have gone so fast. I know the years ahead will be gone in a blink of an eye too.

Babies Don't Keep

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,

Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,

Hang out the washing, make up the bed,

Sew on a button and butter the bread.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.
Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,

Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due

Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo
The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew

And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo

But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo

Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?

Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.
The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow

But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.
- Ruth Hulbert Hamilton

It's been so long!

Wow! It's been so long since I've done anything on here. So long that where do I start?

Tonight we have a cousin over with Meikiina and she loves to sleep on the hide-a-bed in the living room when she has a friend over. I was putting Brynlee to sleep and she told me, "I don't want to be in here alone. I don't want any peace."

The other night said to me, "Mom, I know what 7-1 is. It's 6." I told her, "Yes, you're right. How did you know that?" She told me, "I just did a backspace."

She still says such cute, funny things. Time is flying by and I can't believe that she will be 5 in a little over a month and she will be starting school. Where did my babies go?

It's supposed to be really nice tomorrow. I hope so, as I've so been waiting for warmth. It's been a long winter.