Happy Halloween!

Spencer and Dave headed off to the land of sugar and goodies tonight. We got some photos and some footage of the evening. Our neighbors did a "spook alley" type thing with a mummy and wolf-man. There was also a coffin and "scary" witch. From what Dave said they had a lot of fun.

Spencer was Bob the Builder and here is a video peek of the night. . .

Pen-tol

Spencer has made a new joke. Instead of calling a pencil a “pencil” he calls it a “pentol." He thinks this is the funniest thing . . .ever. I finally got some “pentol” footage. After I filmed him we watched the video and he laughed even harder at the video then he did in the video.

After we watched the flip video together I told Spencer it was time to put the flip away. . . instantly he had a tantrum. Since I still had the flip in my hand I thought I would capture the moment and share, (since the blog is private now and only 25 people actually read/see this.)

The ups and down of toddlerhood.

Wednesday

Not much happening. . . just a quick mundane update.

We went to the library this morning, after the visiting teachers came. My November book club book came in "The boy in the striped pajamas" I am currently reading "The Good Earth" (so far I like it.) These two book will be #49 & #50 for the year. It is good to have a goal and reach it. Although I think next year I will just be reading without a goal. . . although I am pretty competitive. . . I just might set one.

Today we got our property tax break down and last year we paid $117 for the county library. Worth. Every. Penny. I think in the last year we have borrowed over a 100 books and a handful of movies. Plus we get story time every Wednesday with an activity. I have also taken Russian Lessons online with Mango Languages through the library. Maybe I should have been a librarian. . . Of all the taxes we pay I consider this one a privilege.

The funeral for Sadie was on Monday, it was a sad and emotional day for everyone. Yet, there is a power in knowing that the Lord is at the helm and families are forever. The signing for the grandpa went better then I could have hoped. At one point a person was sharing a story about an ancestor from Scotland. . . and the sign for Scotland just came to me. I had probably seen that sign once 7 years ago and all of a sudden I was signing it without even thinking about it. That happened time and time again over the hour-plus service, it was a testament me that the Lord does bless and sustain us.

Still no news on the adoption. . . I am starting to think it wont be this year. . . nothing is happening. A blogging buddy of mine (at a different agency) was told the family ahead of them in line just got invited to go to Kaz and their agency told them that their LOI was about 2 months away. . . ouch. I have no clue where that leaves us, but I think being cautiously optimistic is a good policy.

I will update for the Halloween weekend and promise pictures and maybe a video.

Just Like Dad

Dave got a phone call for work, he took his phone and laptop into the office to work. Spencer followed Dave to the office, watched him for a minute then went to the family room.

I followed him and he looked so cute I had to film it. Spencer loves the flip camera and it is hard to film him without him wanting to touch the camera.

Enjoy:

Sunday

On Friday morning we got some devastating news. Our neighbor’s two year old daughter had died. This sweet angelic girl is the same age as Spencer, they had play-dates and were in nursery together. Sadie died suddenly on Thursday when she stopped breathing due to the croup.

All day Friday I was in shock and couldn’t believe Sadie was really gone. I brought some flowers to their home with a card, but was so emotional all I could do was give it their son and say, “Tell your mom I say hi.” I turned to go and almost burst into tears. This is so overwhelming. We had a play date scheduled with the twins (Sadie has an identical twin sister) for Thursday but because the girls had the croup we postponed it.

On Friday Dave and I planned to go to the opera. I wasn’t sure if I could go, but thought I would try. We left at intermission to come home. The entire weekend has been so sad and yet removed from reality.

Last night my neighbor gave me a call, I was so surprised to hear from her. I felt on the verge of tears and falling apart, I just wanted to tell her how much I love Sadie and their family and how I feel so keenly their loss. I wanted to offer support and love, but my throat choked up and all I could say was, “I have been thinking about you so much.” She asked if I heard about Sadie, I said yes. She asked if I could do her a favor. . . I said “anything.” She asked if I could interpret for her father, who is deaf.

I know some sign language, but it has been years since I did anything seriously. Even then I was not even a level one interpreter. Just a casual signer, but I told her I would happy to do anything for their family. She asked me to sign the sacrament meeting this morning, and the family prayer and funeral services tomorrow.

Last night I spent time practicing and viewing videos for ASL. I felt very unqualified but wanted so much to do something. This morning I woke up early to practice again. I asked Dave to give me a priesthood blessing, I needed divine help. He blessed me that I would be able to give this service and remember the words I needed. He also blessed me that I would be calm.

Today I felt that the Lord did bless my hands and mind. I was able to interpret the meeting, the signing came to me more easily then it should have. There were still words I missed but I think overall it went well. I hope at the funeral and graveside service tomorrow I can serve this family and that the Lord will continue to bless me.

This is just a sad and sorrowful time.

Chopper-One. . . come in. . .

Today Spencer had a real treat. We have a new hospital that is just opening up 10 min. from our home. It is lovely and state of the art. Today they had an open house for the public to tour the facilities. We got to see the MRI, CT scanner and X-ray rooms. We also got to see the operating rooms and Primary Children's Out patient hospital. It was great to take the tour.

The primary reason we went was because they said there would be a helicopter, ambulance and fire engine there. Of course knowing our boy how could we pass that up?

We first saw the ambulance. Spencer really liked it, he was able to look around in the back and the paramedic also let him sit in the driver's seat and push the siren button. He was in heaven.





Next we went to the helicopter. Spencer kept saying "big helicopter" and "big blades." The life flight crew was great and even let Spencer "drive" by letting sit in the pilot's seat.





The only down side was that we missed the fire engine. I guess the local fire department was there earlier in the day but were called away. Spencer was sad to miss the fire truck, but he had a great time. On the tour of the children's wing he saw a a truck book and he conned a hospital admin person to read to in. It is a great facility and I can't wait to have such a nice hospital close to us. It officially opens Nov. 1.

The waiting is killing me. . .

Well peeps. . . it has been 40 days since we got our letter from the DOE logging us into the system in Uralsk. Last night I had a dream that I was in the office of the DOE and watching them put our paperwork together and sending us out our Letter of Invitation. I have been thinking about it almost non-stop. . . we have got to be getting close.

Our agency is getting their Hague accreditation renewed this week and the major focus is getting that done. So this week we will most likely be quiet.

Just waiting. . . and waiting some more.

Bob the Builder & Karla the Sewer

It looks like we have a Halloween costume winner. Let me present. . . Bob the Builder:




So Spencer LOVES Bob the builder and you can hear him everyday say, "Can we fix it?. . .. Yes we can!" We really limit his TV (about 30 min./day. . . 4 or 5 days a week.) But even with limited exposure to Bob he loves it. So when we found the hard hat, tool belt and some other accessories it was a no-brainer. Spencer was so excited to try on his hat and loves to hit things with the hammer . . .now I am wondering if it was such a good idea :).

I also had a busy day yesterday with a sewing project. It is that time of year again to bust-out the winter duvet. There was a little problem, the duvet cover 1) did not match the bedding we got last Feb. and 2) It was stained, it had some green marker/ink type thing on it that will not come out.

I priced some duvet covers. . . sad. It seems that the ones I liked were in the $100 range. . . very sad. So, what's a girl on a budget to do? I took an old sheet (from a previously homemade duvet cover, some old pillow cases from the sheet set that came from the matching bedding set and a King size sheet from Target $15. Toss it all together and. . . poof.

Update on the ultrasound

I posted about some “protocols” that might be changing in our adoption process. Well, it looks like like the protocols for gender selection have (or will) change. We originally were expecting a girl. As you know by the pink nursery and all the cute girl clothes we have ready for “little sister.”

Well “little sister” has now been replaced by “little one.”

It is kind of exciting! We will truly be surprised by the gender, (like not having the doctor check the gender on the ultrasound). It looks like we won’t know the gender until we actually get there and meet our child. If we have a boy we will have a bit of painting and shopping to do, but there is such an excitement about it. We have already talked about boy names. . . so far Percy and Hector have been ruled out :)

We will keep you posted as we know more about “little one” and when we might travel.

Yeah for brothers. . .. and sisters too!

Conference Weekend

This last weekend was General Conference Weekend. It is great to get together as a family and listen to the leaders of our church give such wise council and advice. The speakers were from North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Europe. It was amazing to hear so many voices from so many cultures all focused on and sharing a message of peace and happiness.

We got to see Grandma & Grandpa and Janelle & Chris and Spencer's cousins too. We had fun hanging out and playing too. When the choir sang "Love is spoken here" Spencer was mesmerized and at the end shouted, "I love that song!"

We also made "Priesthood Scones" during the Priesthood session and Janelle brought honey-butter to indulge in on Saturday night. It was simply a perfect weekend.



Here's the video to prove it. (My favorite part is Spencer singing in the last segment.)

50 books. . .

My goal this year is to read 50 books, I am currently in the middle of book 44. I really enjoyed all the great books I have read and am glad I tired some books that I normally would have passed on.

What I have discovered about my reading tastes:

1. I love Young Adult fiction (Sci-Fi/Fantasy) with strong female characters with lots of adventure.
2. I adore a good memoir and absolutely can’t stand the mediocre ones.
3. All graphic novels are not created equality.
4. Classics are classic for a reason. If a book is 100+ years old and still in print there is a reason.
5. A great tip I learned this year from my husband. Read the first chapter in the book store/library and if it doesn't keep your attention. . . pass. There are too many great books out there to waist your time.
6. Being part of a great book group makes reading a great book even better. . . and even makes reading a mediocre book more fun.

That’s what I have learned so far this year. Viva la reading!