Everything always happens in batches

Why does life always get busy in batches?
hmmm??

I'm excited to have life slow down a tad bit this week.
(big deep sigh)
In the mean time, I have pictures.

This week we had two photo friendly activities.
Peekaboo had her homecoming dance
&
We held our Fall Recognition Night for Activity Day Girls.

First- Homecoming.

Peekaboo was very excited for the homecoming dance this year. She really wanted a long dress so that she would be different. Homecoming is usually much more casual and short dresses are the norm. As a family we all went out and helped her shop. JR and I were not as enthusiastic as she but we still had fun(ish). Her friend Abby also came along. She found the perfect black dress right away but the price was not budget friendly, so on we went. The girl's enjoyed finding silly dresses to try on (check out those wedding dresses). I loved this beautiful blue dress she tried on but I was the only one....eventually she found a pretty pink, budget friendly grecian style gown. She said she had an "OK" time at the dance but really, I think her favorite part of the whole experience lay in finding the perfect dress and then getting all dolled up and posing for pictures.

Now on to Recognition Night. I actually can't remember how many years I've been a leader in Activity Day Girls. It's truly fuzzy. It's maybe 6 or 7 years. So that means I've done 12-14 Recognition Nights, somewhere around there. The program has gradually grown and expanded over the years. I try to have the girls do as much of the program as possible. This year the girls conducted, gave talks, conducted the music, performed a special musical number "We are different" and gave the opening and closing prayers. They did such a wonderful job. I had 18 girls earn awards for their FIG. I award a charm for each of the goals completed. Out of the 18 girls who were being awarded 15 showed up. I awarded over 100 charms. It was a fun evening. In addition to all of the girl's hard work, my co-leader created a darling slideshow and my other co-leader played the piano, and another was in charge of food.... I couldn't do all of this without all of the help I get. I love serving in the Activity Day Girls program. Recognition Night is a lot of work, but always worth it...but, now I need a nap (or 3)

Becoming a family

As an adoptive parent, our family's milestones are different than other family's. Do you remember when you realized you were pregnant with your first child? I remember where I was that August day when I got the call that a committee of social workers had voted that my hubby and I were the perfect family for an adorable little two year old girl. I'd waited at home all day on pins and needles for the phone call but I was positive that it wouldn't go our way (others hadn't), When the social worker called to give me the good news my momentous first words were "you're kidding", she then spent several minutes explaining that she wasn't kidding.

Another big milestone was the day that the adoption was actually finalized-9 months later. Usually adoptive parents are permitted to be at the signing of the adoption decree but our social worker discouraged it, so one day we came home from a fun family day and found a big packet of papers in our mailbox...It turns out that we'd been legally Peekaboo's parents for several weeks. The date of our finalization was June 10th, and we were at the Oregon Coast that day, as a family. While digitizing some of my old negatives I found the photos we took that day. Our first official finalized family photos...and we didn't even know it then.

Here's another milestone. The day Peekaboo was finally blessed and given a name. A tradition in our church. It was a big deal. We held the blessing at our home and invited friends and family. It was pretty tight in there. I remember nothing much from that blessing because I started to bawl the moment my husband spoke her name. We only have this one picture of the day because I didn't realize that I was out of film in my camera.

Here's one of the last...one of my favorites. Peekaboo kept her distance from my hubby, a lot.... she bonded initially with me but didn't focus much on my Johnny... I took this picture because it was a time when he was working on the computer and she walked up to him and wanted to be on his lap. We had other pictures of them together, but this is the first where she 'chose' him. It was a special moment.

Creating a family is an intricate, delicate experience regardless of how it is formed. What are your memories of your milestones for your family?

Girls Camp IE Miracle Camp!

I believe in Miracles. I believe in small miracles that slowly saturate our lives. I try to recognize these small miracles but sometimes they are hard to recognize until time has passed. Other miracles are more obvious and overt. I want to tell you about some of our miracles lately associated with my daughter's LDS Girls Camp. My sweet girl, Peekaboo, is a handful and a half (maybe even three quarters). She's never been easy or easy going. She has always challenged everything in every way. This past year she has been refusing to attend church or even participate in anything religious (any religion). She's been defiant and unappreciative of the love that surrounds her at home and at church. It's been hard. Her father and I have had our hearts broken so many times that we began to wonder how they could possibly break again, but they did. In the Spring Peekaboo announced that she would not repeat NOT attend Girls Camp this year. Her intent was to do NOTHING all summer long. All of the alarm bells sounded in my head. This was not good. ( Church camp was not the only thing she refused to participate in ) She was shutting out good things in her life (church, vollunteer work, exercise). As a parent it was frightening to see your child shut off like that. I pleaded with her to change her mind. My pleading only provoked long drawn out arguments where I was accused of trying to control her...end of discussion. I tried everything I could think of and got such negative responses that eventually I just had to quit. In the begining of June we were at church and miraculously our daughter was along. She and a friend run up to me and thrust papers in my face and triumphantly say "We're going to Girls Camp!" I think I may have sung part of the Hallelujia chorus in the hallway of church. I ran home and signed those permission slips post haste and e-mailed them directly to the people who needed them...I was not letting her back out. I expected her to change her mind back and gripe, but she didn't, if anything her attitude improved. At one point I took her out shopping for a bathing suit, a taxing expedition under any conditions- add onto that the fact that we needed to find a modest bathing suit that would suit our modesty rules and the camps and we had a potential war on our hands. She kept looking at and picking up suits that were not ok with me and she'd look at me longingly and then put them down. I stuck to my guns and several hours later as we were about to stop we found THEM, multiple good choices...MULTIPLE!!!! Can you say Miracle, all were on sale, all were in our budget range and all of them she loved. I actually cried in the dressing room because I knew that God loves my girl.
So, this week she finally went to camp. She went without tons of makeup. She went in a positive mood. She participated in ALL (well, almost all) of the pre-camp prep activities. She went, she had a good time, she came home with hundreds of usable pictures and she came home happy. To me that is the Miracle. A happy child.

our Drama Queens

I am blessed to be an Aunt and I try (emphasis on try) to be active in my nieces and nephews lives.  My brothers daughters are the ones who I know the best and who I live closest to.  Recently I got the opportunity to attend my nieces play "Star Power".  She had participated in a 2 week 'drama camp' and this 'play' was the end project.  I love theater..... but, this is the kind of theater that only a loving and adoring relative could truly appreciate....the most important wonderful part of the play is how much the children love, love, love what they're doing and all of the loving accolades poured upon them by relatives (such as I, who understood probably 1 out of every 7 words and having missed the first 10 minutes spent the following 3 acts trying to figure out the plot) who sat and cheered and absorbed the cuteness.  My niece is particularly cute (in my very biased but I believe accurate opinion), she broke character a couple of times to wave at her dad or scan the crowd or fix her antennae (see following picture)..... she was darling and most importantly, she had a wonderful experience and she wants to do it again next year... My other amazing niece was also in a similar camp but I missed her play (in which I must believe she was darling and completely amazing....because that's how she is).  Of course with loving family gatherings comes photo ops...and with photo ops and my family comes lots of goofy pictures (ugh...they drive me bonkers.... I mean, is it totally awful to ask for just 1 nice picture where the whole family is smiling???)

I do love these goofballs.  I am so lucky to be part of their lives!

So, similar topic, separate subject.....after the daahling play I took my eldest niece "A" to Borders bookstore.  A couplea weeks ago I gave her a gift card for her birthday and declared we'd go spend time together @ Borders and she'd get books and I'd spend Auntie/niece time....a few days later Borders declared they were closing all of their stores..........grrrrrrr............ so, since we couldn't go right away I had to hope that some decent books would be left in the store by the time we got there.  The pickins were pretty picked but some of the deals were awesome (some were just so-so and some were blechy)....but, we spent our auntie/niece time together.  I adored talking to her.  She has so much personality and is getting old enough so that we can talk person to person instead of older person to younger person...granted I am still a lot OLDER but I figure since we have the same shoe size right now that I'm granted some leighway..... (is that how you spell leighway or is it leeway???)

Sometimes I want to remember, Sometimes I want to forget

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the loss of my brother Richard, or part of Richard.  He was in a horrible accident and lived for 8 years following..... but I want to forget that.

I have been unusually lethargic lately.  I pondered today what my reasoning could be...and then my eye caught the calendar and I knew.  My husband and I have been in family and couples therapy and I believe that bringing up my brother briefly last week...he stayed on the surface.....

Grieving is odd.

Sometimes you feel fine, for a long time....sometimes NOT.  Richard's accident took him on August 9th, 1991...an overcast but warm summer day.  Eight years later Richard passed on August 25th, 1999.  For years the approach of August provoked a feeling of dread... I just didn't want to face it.  If we could skip August, I would....  Recently though, I've been able to enjoy August and not associate such negativity towards it, that's why I was so surprised that my mood took such a tumble this year.  Maybe I just need to remember, for a little while, so I can forget for a longer while.

I adored my brother.  I fell in love with him minutes after he was born.  Really, I fell in love.  He annoyed me sometimes (brothers!) and he was eccentric, and I adored it ALL.  He was silly and serious and very affectionate if he felt close to you (if he didn't feel close to you, he didn't exist!!)

Following his accident I wrote a poem.  Forgive me if it's juvenile.  I was a juvenile.

Richard

He had a funny gait.   kind of saunter with an extra kick.

He hardly ever smiled, but when he did he meant it and it came from the bottom of his soul and emerged in a large toothy grin.

His eyes were of a serious grey.

He had years of serious contemplation in them, with questions ever on the verge of being asked, and answers ready to be given.

He had a bit of a stoop, like he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders, but he never once seemed to regret it.

He had a lisp, just a little one that emerged when he became excited and spoke too fast.

Now he can not walk, so his funny little gait is hidden.

He can only smile with his eyes.

He can not stand, but now lays flat, indeed feeling the weight of the world.

And his lisp, his cute little lisp, is now hidden with slurred babbling.

Some would say it is a pity that a child as rare as he should be hidden from sight.

But he is not truly hidden, he is simply watching and waiting for the day when he once again will get up and walk, this time freed from the weights of the world, when he will get up and dance and sing and smile 

emerging as a new, more vigorous child .

I miss you Richard
(If you want, click on "I miss you Richard" and you can see the book I made for my mother about him...)

SunRiver 2011

Without a doubt my family's favorite vacation destination is a campground outside of SunRiver Oregon.

 We've been going to this particular campground for probably about 10 years.  I love Eastern Oregon.  If I could live there I would.  I love how warm it is in the daytime and yet cools off in the evening. 

I loved sharing our favorite place with my family this past week.  We spent 6 days there with my sister and her 3 children and my brother's 2 children, + my own & for a short while her friend. We had plenty of adventures.  We went Kayaking (a sport I actually enjoy!)

frog hunting,

swimming in the pool,

and floating in the river (not pictured because the photographer *ME* was in the water

miniature golfing (love it!)....gotta hole in one!

 biking

shopping in SunRiver

they bought books!

a wacky scavenger hunt

and tons and tons and tons of walking.  WE also got about a zillion mosquito bites and my daughter's friend had an allergic reaction to the bites (bummer),  two of my nieces got bee stings but they were mild and treatable (whew), I got a bad sunburn and blister and then burned my arm on our stove.  For a while I thought we had a miniature first aid station operating out of our camp site.  It was memorable and worth all of the itching and anti-histamines

very cool- literally

We just had the coolest experiece and I had to share. We (as in the town I live in...NOT just my family....) have the fun opportunity of having the special olympics here in town (I hear rumors that it will be for the next 4 years.). I'd heard that they needed vollunteers and so in mid may I started trying to convince my daughter to do it. She was less than motivated. First her school and then our church contacted us asking us to vollunteer. To my hubby and I it was somewhat irresistible, so we signed all of us up (daughter and foriegn exchange student included). Early on Saturday morning we all walked up the road to where the Olympics (or at least the part that we were asked to help with) was being held. I was excited to literally have it 5 minutes up the road. We shivered as we walked (since it was raining and cold). We were assigned to be officials and score keepers in Bocce Ball....."Bocce Ball??????" We had to goggle the rules and still were confused. Fortunately, they had a very thorough volunteer training and we were able to figure out what to do. The girls shivered and shook as they scored the games but JR and I were warm as we officiated (sounds so official doesn't it?). The athletes are so polite and friendly. The knew their rules and they came to play and were actually very competitive. Just like in all other aspects of life I found that the men were much more competitive and even contemplative while playing while the women cheered each other on and were a bit more animated. I can't begin to tell you how much fun it was. I totally, definitely want to do it again. It was an experience worth repeating!

man, my family's weird!

And I kinda like it!

my personal Goliath

Recently I've been contemplating the biblical story of David and Goliath.  A friend had suggested it as an analogy for how we sometimes feel in our life like something is too big, too hard, too challenging but we have the Lord on our side just waiting to help us out. She compared the rock that slew Goliath to small and simple things that we are given by the Lord to cope with the challenges we go through in our lifetime. 

Maybe I'm overthinking it or maybe not....the point is that I've spent some time thinking about what my own personal Goliath(s) are.  I find that I have quite a few, but I also find that I'm very blessed.  I don't have a history of abuse or neglect or physical infirmities to overcome as my Goliath.  To a large degree my challenges are self made, self inflicted. 

Right now I'd say my goliath is my struggle with self acceptance.  I know I don't fully accept myself as I am right now and I'm tough on myself when I fail or falter at something I'm trying to do (like running). 

So, if this is my goliath, what tools has God made available to me to conquer it?

There's the usual (primary) answers, prayer, scriptures, etc....but I'm faltering ...

any suggestions?
What are your personal goliaths and how are you taking them on?

I love it when the weathermen are wrong

Life in the Pacific Northwest is a largely damp lifestyle.  I'm accustomed to walking in the rain, running in the rain, shopping in the rain and vacationing in the rain.

On the whole I'm OK with this abundance of moisture.  I'm used to it.  So, when we got ready to go camping for spring break and the weathermen predicted rain I didn't gripe or complain or even particularly notice.  We just packed and left. 

Our first day out it did indeed pour down rain.  torrents of it. 

However, the second day....the weathermen were wrong.  It was G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S!!!!!!!

I wish the weathermen were wrong more often!!

My crazy teen was so excited by the sun that she insisted on running down to the beach and jumping in the water...(for anyone not a native Oregonian or pacific northwester--- we do not jump in the ocean---it's too cold)....

obviously peekaboo doesn't believe that we don't go in the water.... at one point she was in way over her waist.

I had so much fun at the beach playing with my new camera.....

check out this shot.  I don't know what I did but it turned out cool!

the only thing that was not delightful about this trip was our sweet little dog treena.

She's such an adorable little thing.  So sweet, so loving.... BUT she hates riding in the car she wines and cries and jumps all over the car the whole time and then when we took her to the beach she barked, at the waves...at other dogs...at us.....whatever.....t'was super duper uber annoying.

speaking of annoying

do you ever see this face on your beautiful child?

I thought it was funny to document it...she was less than thrilled!

So, other favorite photos from this trip!

dang it!

This just keeps happening to me.  Every year I get older.  I don't like getting older, but I do like gifts and cake..... So, I keep putting up with it. 

This year has been a crazy year for a birthday.  I was scheduled to go to Lincoln City with some friends but the horrible earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, causing a Tsunami alert here on the Pacific Coast and they evacuated Lincoln City.  Also that day we had a going away party for K and R ( our niece and her hubby)  who are leaving to hike the Pacific Rim Trail starting in April.  So, we didn't celebrate my birthday on my birthday.  Instead, we  all got together the following Saturday (the 19th) at our home to celebrate.  It was fun.  We had an impromptu pizza party along with some yummy cake given to me at the farewell party the week before.  I got a new NIKON camera (if you wonder why this is huge refer to this post)!!!  YEAH! and I also got a new external hard drive (so important!!) and a fun new cookbook.  Twas fun, fun, fun!!  My favorite part of the whole experience was the sun coming out inspiring me to drag my beautiful nieces outside for a little picture taking by aunt Hope.  They're rather used to me pointing a camera at them but they're pretty darn tolerant of my getting in their face and bossing them around and with my wonderful new camera I got some beautiful shots of them!!!  Yeah!