My Happy Place

From all the readers that actially post, I know that the majority of the people who come here are from my cyber adoption community and many I have never met. However there are some family and my "real-live" friends that visit as well. Lately I have been torn posting things because of personal reasons. Let me put it this way...

Who doesn't love to look at pictures? They are ALWAYS of good times, smiling faces, and happy moments. No one takes a picture of their kids fighting (or fighting parents for that matter). I don't recall ever seeing a parent snapping a shot of their child in the middle of a temper tantrum. However, we know those moments in life happen. They are not shared for the world to "enjoy," but, preserved in memory only.

This is the way I kind of feel about my blog. It's a good place to post happy thoughts and pictures. However, my family and I are going through a bit of rough waters right now. Sometimes I want to say something fun or happy, but feel a bit awkward about it because we are having to take such a serious approach to life right now. I don't want readers to assume life is always cheerie and rosie for me or anyone all the time. IT'S JUST NOT.

So for that reason, let me say I enjoy showing fun, happy times that we have, because we do have a lot of them. But, I am one blogger who can say that we have trouble times as well. This blog is one of my "Happy Places" and I will no longer feel guilty posting all happy posts here!! (Can I say "happy" one more time?) Thanks for letting me express some guilt here. Please know that we are a strong family, we trust God. We are just on a little detour in life we did not plan to take. Prayers and good thoughts would always be appreciated. More HAPPY posts to come!

Another Month

The day almost slipped by without a thought of our LID-versary. It's 7 months down now.

Will post some more thoughts later...

Oh Happy Day!

What a happy day for Jay and Angela, a couple we met in a monthly adoption support group. They are on our adoption blogroll to the left - but you can click HERE to see them as they received their daughter Laney into their arms today in China. These pictures continually give us hope that we will have our daughter one day too. There have been many ups and downs throughout - but this is a great "up"! Congratulations Jay and Angela!!!!

Father's Day at the Lake

We had a nice little gathering at the family lakehouse for Father's Day. There were plenty of aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, in-laws and in-laws' in-laws but most importantly our fathers. Erik relaxed (a little) I'm hoping he gets a little more needed mental rest this week. Alexia especially enjoyed having some rowdy uncles around to play with and get thrown off the dock!

Scary to think...

This morning the kids were playing well together (as usual) and I noticed Alexia was giving Caleb (the 21 month old) a computer tutorial.

Here is how I found Caleb a few mintues later "playing" Sesame Street!



Later in the day we enjoyed a fun afternoon at the pool. What I want to know is - Who teaches little boys that there are frogs in the pool filter - and how to open it for that matter?? Actually today all he found were some stray tennis balls that he HAD to get out. - yuck!

Who Are You?

The other day I put a site meter on my blog. Minus the times I come to my own blog to read comments or use it to go to other sites, I am surprised at the number of hits I am getting. So, in order to find out who you all are, and to encourage you to leave comments, I did something. I changed it so that ANYONE including those without blogger/google accounts can leave comments. All you have to do is click your identity as "anonymous" when you want to leave a comment- then of course you would have to sign your name in the body. But, I would like to know who my audience is. So, don't delay, comment today!!

Young Chefs

It was a lame excuse...2pm - It's too hot to play outside, the pool is still considered "freezing" by any adult without a wetsuit. So... "hey kids let's make mommy's favorite - chocolate chip cookies!"
I think this was the first time I've really involved Caleb in any form of baking. Alexia loves it - I think Caleb did too -at least the end result he loved. He kept trying to dip his licked-clean beater BACK into the dough for more - that's my boy!

Grrrrr...

Shock and frustration. This is what I felt like yesterday when I heard that there were only 6 days worth of matches made this month for Chinese adoptions. This snail paced rate is not getting us anywhere!!

California

We're back. It was all nice and good. San Francisco was quite a bit chillier than I expected. We had a spectacular view from our hotel which we could see the entire bay area (when lack of fog allowed). We did the "hanging off the edge of the trolly" ride which was not by choice but lack of room on a seat. They were like a New York cabbie - They don't put up with anyone getting in their way. We did all the common tourist sites as you can see from our pics. Chinatown was great! Our favorite was a itty bitty store front that made fortune cookies. If you give them a few bucks for taking their picture they load you up with hot-off-the-pan cookies. I have never roamed around a place "snacking" on fortune cookies! We also had an enjoyable lunch with Erik's uncle Jeff and aunt Marlene who drove up from Carmel to see us since we copped out on making the trip to see their gorgeous hometown.
We stopped at a redwood forest on our way out the city to Napa. I just have two words BI-IG! Since we took that little detour we got a taste of rush hour out of San Fran. I can't say it was a whole lot worse than some of the highways here - but it wasn't fun.
Then Napa...hummm... to sum it up it was vineyard, vineyard, vineyard a winery, vineyard, vineyard. It was very reminiscent of southern France which I love and didn't expect. Lots of lavender, olive trees (equals lots of specialty olive oil -yum!) and the beautiful terrain of the rugged mountains and the valleys. One particular winery that was my favorite was filled with gardens and buzzing bees and birds including hummingbirds that we don't get a lot of here in GA. I could have sat there all day soaking it in. The fresh produce there was awesome. I wish my California strawberries I get at the grocery store tasted like those!!
I was ready to get back and see my kids though. We had a fun little day rebonding as I try to pry Caleb off my leg. I got called "mimi" a few times with a quick "mommy" afterwards - they were in good hands and I know they had fun too. Thanks Mimi and Papa Jacques for the babysitting!