The Magic of an Ordinary Day

I've really got more to say, but for today I'll just leave it at this: my family, and the love we have for one another makes everything worthwhile.

the pumpkin farm

was a bust.  We got as far as the animals when Hannah decided she didn't want to do anything or go anywhere.  Even Papa's antics didn't cheer her up to the point where she was tolerable.  Uhg.  We left pumpkinless and grumpy. 

Maybe next year.

fall

It was beautiful yesterday, and we finally got out of the house to enjoy it.  Between Hannah's cold and the icky, windy and cold weather we've been kind of housebound.

Here she is, enjoying the yard...

I am working tomorrow night then it is dinner at Don and Candi's on Friday night, then the pumpkin patch on Saturday!  Good times!

happy family photo, part 2

Ah, the effort that goes into taking a decent family photo.  Hannah was not into it at first but finally warmed up.  We need one more photo for our dossier to Vietnam.  I'm frantically hoping for our INS paperwork this week so we can get going before we have to have anything redone. 

Hannah's been feeling sick...she brought home some crud from the preschool and I got it, too.  We're on the mend now, but nothing is scarier than a sick kid with a bad cough.  On Wednesday night we did the hang out in the bathroom with the shower on hot (for the steam) and it helped that barking, croupy cough she had.  She missed her "show and tell" day at school on Thursday, but the teachers said they would schedule her later.  She wanted to bring her most prized possession, Woobie.  He even got a bath for the occasion.  Oh, well.

There are snow flurries as I am writing this now.  It's been cold and windy for days.  We went to Don and Candi's house for dinner last night, and it was soooo nice to be in a warm place.  It's a completely different climate zone down there. 

In honor of Halloween

Our neighborhood spider has decided to set up residence on our new window.  I haven't decided what to do about him yet--it's been so windy that his web is blown away every night.  One one hand it's pretty and educational for Hannah (and hopefully she won't have the creeps about spiders that I do) but on the other hand...the web is huge and so is the spider!  Here's a (blurry, sorry) picture of him, and he's about as big as Hannah's head!  Yuck.

CPS family of the week

Hannah's preschool teachers asked about the "bruise" on her back last week.  They were completely appropriate, but were wondering how she hurt herself.

Hannah has Mongolian spots on her lower back, and had them around her wrists and ankles when we got her.  They are flat birthmarks common in Asian, Hispanic and African children.  But they look exactly like bruises. 

I wasn't offended or upset by their inquiry; as a matter of fact I was glad that they noticed and asked questions.  I would hate for some abuse to be going on with some poor child and have it be missed.  And as teachers I'm sure they are mandated reporters. 

Anyway, I told them what they are and we chatted a bit about them.  I told them our Pediatrician (who is the local expert on adopted children--who is also Chinese) gets calls to the ER all the time on suspected abuse cases that turn out to be Mongolian spots.  I was feeling good about being cool about things, educating where I can about different races, etc. I even printed up an article to bring to them for reference.

Then this weekend Hannah ran into an open drawer and gave herself a shiner. She's never had a black eye before but now she has a little bruising and a small cut.  Now all I can think of is what her teachers are going to think when we get to school tomorrow. 

home improvements, part one million

We got our new energy-efficient windows installed on Friday, and -- man, what a difference!!!  We have this great pop out window in the living room that looks over the yard and the mountains beyond that, and it had this window style that broke it up into little pieces.  Circa the 1970's.  It was U-G-L-Y and drafty.  So while we got the rest of the drafty, single glass ugly windows with busted up screens replaced, we redid the livingroom window, too. 

Dwayne is now working hard at pulling out the ugly light fixture that was hanging in there, repairing the ceiling, insulating around the window (now there's a thought to whoever built this bump out!), texturing, painting and finishing the sash.  He's been a busy boy this weekend.

Here is the new window (the ceiling/sash, etc is all tore up in the photo)...

And here is the old window (this photo was taken when we did the walk-through before closing on our house)...

And can I just say "Holy Cow!!!!!"  Look how much Hannah has grown!  She looked so cute in that little coat and the chukka boots, though, didn't she?

school photo angst

It turned out nicely, considering.

The crying, the whining, the sitting on the bench so we could watch all the other boys and girls do it.  The encouragement, cajoling and even what I like to call the "Mom church voice" whispered in her ear that she was going to get her picture taken.

Everyone else got theirs back on Tuesday.  When I went in to get hers, they said "Hannah?  Ummm...those will take a few more days."

Because they had to photoshop me out of it.  She wouldn't do it unless she sat on my lap.  The photography people were wonderful, though, and got her to smile through her tears. 

Jeez, I'm glad that is over for another year.

Things are all going well at Casa Frijole this week.  I had Sunday night off from work so we had a whole weekend off together.

Hannah is doing great.  Loves school now, and actually asked to "eat lunch with her friends" after school and have me pick her up later (some of the kids stay for an extra half hour with a bag lunch). 

Dwayne is doing well.  He was finally able to tackle that water heater issue (after discovering he had to replace the whole heating unit) and built shelves in the laundry room for me. 

We were able to have movie and popcorn night on Friday night, and Saturday night we had our neighbors over for steaks.  We had such a good time!  Dinner was late so we could actually have an adult night, which I really need from time to time.

I'm kind of having a rough week emotionally.  Today would have been Mom and Dick's 25th wedding anniversary, and I'm really sad that he didn't make it to be here in person.  Mom went to Chippewa Falls last weekend and planted some flowers on his grave, then stopped at my brother's house on the way home.  I can only imagine how hard today will be on her.  They really had a great relationship and loved each other so much. 

Here we all are during better days, when we took them camping at Bandelier National Monument during the Perseid meteor showers...

"what do you want to be when you grow up?"

Hannah: "I just want to play with the dogs."

Mamma: "Do you want to be a doggie Doctor like Uncle Don?"

Hannah: "No Mamma.  I want to be a Doggie Nurse!"