December 1, 2009 - World Aids Day

Today is World Aids Day!! Join Red and support your brothers and sisters! It's Life Saving.

Black Fridays Already!!

Bad Blogger, I know. . .

I know, I know. . .
BAD BLOGGER! Sorry, it's busy at my house, I don't know about you, but I'm having a hard time finding some time to sit and upload pictures and comments at the current chaotic time!
For being a second year mom and dad I think we are doing pretty darn good. The girls are getting up in the morning and we send them to school clean and fed, with lunch in hand, backpack on shoulder containing take home folder and whatever homework they may have had from the previous night. The come home and they are fed a snack, play outside for a while, eat dinner and get ready for bed. Sometimes a story, depends on the level of chaoticness around here!
Bond is his usual busy self and me? Well just trying to keep up. With what? Everything? Work, the house, school, the kids school! Please, I ask you, please, don't just drop on over to visit, because you may never know what shape you might find my house! And we might not even be home!
So for now, this will have to do. I feel somewhat "caught up" in my readings for school so perhaps on Friday night I'll make time to post some pictures! Since I won't have to get up at o' dark hundred for work! Why Friday and not sooner, well, I have a few projects I have to finish for school with a Thursday deadline and Friday reflection. So if I'm successful in that endeavor, I'll post on Friday! Again, can stay up a little later :-)

First Day of School

Well, today is the day! The official end of summer, the first day of school for mommy. The next four days will be all about getting the schedules together, the kids schedules, the specialists schedules, my schedule, my family schedules, etc. I think you get the point!

I find it amazing no matter how long you've been doing something, when the first begins again, your body/mind, well my body/mind anyway, feels all this anxiety, excitement, waiting for the new news, the unknowns that have changed over the summer, on and on.

So I set my alarm for 6:00 am and of course am up at 5:00, decided that 5:30 was good enough and got up. I actually made my lunch, set up the coffee pot and prepared things as much as I could last night! We'll see how long that lasts :-)

The girls are still sleeping and this is good! Next week will be the week of firsts again for them. For now, I'm going to let them sleep in just a little longer.

So for everyone and anyone who reads! Happy First Day of School, or Happy Tuesday!

Oh yea, and posting this early in the morning, it'll probably never happen again after this week either!

Really, I'm working on it!

So I started some vacation posts while in Kansas, but speed was too slow to upload pictures, so now I have to upload them here. (big SIGH)

This week has been about getting back into routines before school starts! Oh yea and me, the mom, is going to graduate school to get more 'educated'! So this week, I registered for three classes and tonight found the website to order books! (another big SIGH).

I also start work a week before the kids start school and so am trying to get some last minute things in order! (a third big SIGH)

So really, I'm going to put up some pictures and update the wonderful world about the beautiful abyssinian princesses! I promise! (And they are doing well, really wanting to start school, like yesterday!)

I do like to be busy, I am realizing ~ crazy busy it seems ~

Totally off topic, but it's summer!

A friend, Julie, put this on her facebook with the caption, "You can't help but smile when you watch this . . . . . . ;-)
It's pretty neat!

Madison Zoo adventure

our state animal ~ the badger, looks nothing like on the sweatshirts!

We spent an afternoon at the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison. It was a good time and after lunch the big lion was grumbling quite a lot (pretty big roars~)
girls in awe of the black bear
the prairie dogs ~ aren't they cute?
nice teeth
beautiful animal and girls!



look how the girls measure up~
looks pretty content
this was pretty cool, the female lion was a little squirrely.
I've heard of parking yourself in front of the trough, but really IN the trough?

Some random postings~

Here are a few pictures from some summer activities that were never posted.

Swimming with mom

This was the last day of summer school for swimming and parents were encouraged to swim with the kids. The instructor gave Bond a little bit of a hard time when he walked in with pants and a long sleeve shirt on!

Here is a quilt that my
mom started, I finished and the girls modeled!

Here are some pictures from the Olbrich Gardens Butterfly exhibit. The girls had a good time and so did their mom and dad.

beautiful butterflies

this was the 'sensitive fern'
that we saw while enjoying the flowers in the garden.  we didn't say
anything hurtful as we didn't want to bother the 'sensitive fern'

the girls in the Thai garden

some fun with the camera

wordless wednesday

My beautiful catepillar and chrysalis!

Vacation, Rest, Restoration, Reconnection

Vacation = cram all the activities that you can't get into a regular work week into a designated period of time.

Really, I don't think this is the definition, although sometimes it feels like it. The past few days the four of us and our beloved doggie Fenric, have been spending time in the woods in upper Wisconsin. Eating food, reading books, watching movies, meeting new people, sewing (really, alot of sewing), some running and walking and did I say eating?? We had planned to do a bunch of activities outside: swimming, hiking, etc. but the weather. . . It was partly cloudy with some peaks of sun or partly sunny with some clouds! Oh and the rain, let's not forget about the rain, some days heavier than others. We did manage to get a few walks in, but not warm or dry enough to swim!! So we took this opportunity to rest, restore and reconnect! One night we read a bunch of books, my favorite being The Perfect Nest I just love the different characters of the chick, the duck and the goose (honk!!)

I am also becoming a fan of Skippyjon Jones. Judy Schachner, the author, does a wonderful job of writing in rhymes. If you've not read a Skippyjon Jones book, please do so soon!!

We were so relaxed that we decided at lunch time of the day we were to return home, to stay an extra day!! It was nice to be able to just decide that and know that we didn't have any commitments waiting for us at home.

So we returned today. We regathered a bit, ate some food (whatever we could scrounge) and then headed off for the Rock County Fair. Always a good time. We looked at all the animals and then we rode some rides! (I promise I'll post pictures, just not tonight, I'm tired :-) The girls went on a swing ride by themselves and well. . . it all turned out ok. . .

We came home, ate some sugaries, said our prayers before bed, kissed and tucked the girls in.

That's all for now! I'll post some pics soon and as you see to the right, I can't wait for the EAKC Heritage Camp. This is our first year. There are 75 families and about 300 people attending! The biggest crowd ever! I'm sure it'll be a great time. The girls are excited about drinking buna (coffee), but I'm really looking forward many of the other activities!

COC - Certificate of Citizenship - Check

OMG - Oh My Goodness, what a bunch of paperwork. . . get ready for some rambling . . .

It was amazing that the girls SSN's came in record time, like a 4 day turn around time. Let's see if that can happen at the USCIS office in Milwaukee!!

So this has been a grueling process, just gathering paperwork! I tell you I feel like I should be traveling back to Ethiopia to pick up another child or two! But really, this is the piece that makes me the happiest. That the girls will have U.S. citizenship and can never be deported! (I'm smiling now!)

So after filling out an eight page application (one for each of the kids I remind you) I had to gather and make duplicate copies of the following:

~ permanent resident card (remember that one I talked about having an exp. date?)
~ readoption certificate and proof of legal name change
~ birth certificate and/or U.S. passport for mommy**
~ birth certificate and/or U.S. passport for daddy**
** we sent both just to cover ourselves
~ front page of both kids passports
~ visa - stating which kind, you know there are a few (IR3 or IR4)
~ marriage certificate
~ driver's license for both mommy and daddy
~ both kids foreign birth certificate with certified translations
~ both kids final adoption decree with certified translations
~ Wisconin certificate of birth facts - we sent this just as another form of ID, etc.

AND FINALLY that icky money order for WAY TOO MUCH MONEY ~ But like I said before, it's the one last thing that will make me the happiest!

So tomorrow I will take it to the post office and send it certified mail requesting a return receipt so that I KNOW they received it. Thanks be to God that one more long, time consuming and what I think is a crazy process is just about finished!!

New friends ~ new fears (not really, well. . . just a little)

The girls have made a new little girlfriend, Sarah, the girl next door. She is the granddaughter of our neighbors. Sarah and her little brother and mom are visiting for three weeks. So we introduced them to each other and right away they starting riding their bikes up and down the sidewalks. . . very cute. Sarah just graduated from training wheels so this makes me feel a little better.

So today, we get home from summer school and it's right away, "Mommy, can we go play with our friend?" "Sure" I say . . . next thing you know it's raining and I can't hear them anymore. So of course being the good mom, I walk next door to see how everything is going and it's going just fine.

A first for mommy! Letting the kids out of my sight for just a little while!! YIKES!! So, we exchanged phone numbers and the kids (all 4)are happily watching Snow Buddies, yes, I know it's summer!

A little selfish this morning

Good morning to everyone! This morning is my selfish post. The alarm went off, the girls got up, Fenric jumped off the bed to make sure of it, Bond got up and I didn't! A few minutes later, my DH came and said, I can make the girls breakfast and take them to school this morning if you would like to sleep in a little. What do you think I did? HELLO!!!! I said, that would be very nice. And I attempted to sleep for just a bit, only to be awakened briefly by, "Mommy, could you just do my hair and then go back to sleep?" And the other say, "Daddy said to let mommy sleep just a little bit!" SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! So, this morning I was able to wake up a little bit more leisurely and have some coffee in the quietness of my living room. What a great start to the day :-)

Bananas: Green, Yellow or Polka Dots?

This mornings conversations revolved around banana characteristics! Can you believe it. So when I shop I usually pick up a bunch of green bananas and a smaller bunch of yellow bananas so that there are some immediately edible. Make sense?? Well, Bayat will not eat a banana that is even the slightest over ripe! She calls it polka dots!! I think that's pretty funny. Anyway, this morning, I gave each of the girls a banana unpeeled and Bayat was able to tell that the banana was more green :-) Go figure! And then she stated that she really doesn't like the bananas with the polka dots! So there you go, banana preferences!! What kind of banana do you like??

4th of July Weekend

The girls really like to see grandma and grandpa so when we told them we were going to the cabin and that they were going to be there, the girls start to jump up and down and giggle with excitement because not only were they going to see the grandparents, but we were going to the cabin!!

It was a nice time. We arrived Thursday and left Saturday, grandma and grandpa and friends, Jim and Mary, arrived Friday afternoon. We gave up our room for the 'guests' and so the girls and Bond and I slept on an airmattresss in the three season room (as close to camping as well will probably get). But the girls loved it. The girls chased Fenric around, we ran 1 mile, made a variety of suncatchers, painted kind as well as translucent made with some colorful beads) ate smores around the fire and found lots of ticks!! YUK! Oh yea, we ate, ate and ate some more! Food is an important thing up at the cabin. It always seems that all dietary habits known to any of us before arriving at the gate, leave and don't come back until after returning to the 'real' world!

Bayat by the fire.

daddy and Kidist

the girls tending the fire

We came home on Saturday because our church had a picnic at a local park and we wanted to be part of that too. Bond also had to work on Sunday, so it was probably helpful that we let him do some sermon prep on Saturday :-)

We stayed and watched the fireworks after dinner and games. The girls remember last year (their first fireworks) but this year was cool in that the girls have so much more language. So they were saying, 'awesome','wow', 'cool', 'mommy did you see that?' Last year the girls didn't really have much language so this year it was really neat to hear what they thought.

First Fruits

Of the garden are in. Two radishes, yup, that's it. Take a look:

And the urban garden seems to be doing well too! The lettuce and carrots are not doing so well, but everything else seems to be happy.

The girls get excited about seeing the new vegetables come from the flowers. The sugar peas are about 1 inch long and we have some nice pepper and tomatos too.

wordless wednesday