Mother's Day at the Park

 

 

 

CLICK TO MAKE COLLAGES LARGER!
We met my parents, Grandma and my sister at Allerton Park. It was a fun day being together. We froze to death at first. Poor Anna was in a dress and froze, but luckily I had grabbed an outfit at the last minute and threw it in the car. The sun finally came out after a while, thank goodness and we shed some coats, etc., but before that....BRRRRR.....it was a chilly picnic. I borrowed a wheel chair from church and Logan gladly got in it when Grandma wasn't.

By the way, does anyone know what the purple flowers are called??? I am dying to know!

Happy Mother's Day!

 

Happy Mother's Day to all my blogging friends. It is so nice to share this journey of parenting with you! I feel so blessed to be the mother of 3 wonderful kids. And I have a wonderful mom in my life that I love very much. We are spending Sunday with my mom and Grandma and my sister at the Botanical Gardens. It will be nice having all the generations together for a picnic and fun.

The kids got me these flowers.....although they were just as suprised by them as me....heee heeee.......

Logan in Seussical Jr.

 

 

 

 

What a great show it was! The kids really didn't have very long to prepare for the show, but they did great. Logan was the Mayor and he is shown with his "wife". Way to go, Mayor! We are very proud of you!After the musical, the show choir did their competition show. Logan did a great job on his solo, but his voice is definately changing....much lower than a few months ago. He didn't do very many of the competition show songs since he feet were killing him. Surgery can't come soon enough. He should be OFF his feet all day tomorrow, but we are headed to a botanical gardens. We are at least taking the wheel chair for Logan or my Grandma to use.

Playground Fun

Anna and I headed to the new playground at the ZOO. She wanted me to take a bunch of pictures to show the Hamby's since they are hoping to move back to this area! Jessica (from Guangxi, too) and her mom met us, too. It was fun checking out the playground. It has a LOT of areas that are a bit toooooo high up for Anna, but it really didn't stop her at all!

Anna's preschool

 

 

 

 

The school year is coming to a close and Anna has had a wonderful preschool year.I cannot say enough wonderful things about her preschool. Tonight was open house and we and took a friend who is going to be teaching preschool next year. We took pictures of all the projects for her to get ideas from.The room was full of a ton of projects, charts, books, etc that the kids have done throughout the year. It is amazing what this place does in a year. I will be sad to see the year end, but I know that kindergarten will be much of the same for Anna. She has definately been prepared for kindergarten in the best way possible. Thank you Mrs. Harting and Mrs. Dodwell. Anna was so cute showing Brandon around the school and telling him all about the things she has done at school.

Anna

Anna is a flower girl in my sister's upcoming wedding. The little ivory dress is just perfect on Anna!

Julie's shower

 

Saturday we had a shower for my sister. She and Paul are getting married on July 11. It was fun seeing all the cousins and aunts, etc. that we don't get to see very often.

 

 

 

Grandma's bday party

 

 

 

 

After my sister's wedding shower, we all headed to the local Chinese Buffet for dinner to celebrated my Grandma's upcoming 83rd birthday.

THIS IS GOOD

A friend emailed me this. Had to share. I love this! Click to make larger!

Zoo Time

We have Zoo passes each year and Brandon has been dying to go to the zoo. It is a small zoo, but it is nice to walk around and see the animals, have a snow cone and play on the new playground. We escaped the house since Logan was staying off his feet that day and Barry was painting the garage door, front door and mowing.

Birthday Boys

This past weekend we celebrated the boys' birthdays. Brandon had a swimming party and then on Sunday evening we celebrated both birthdays with the grandparents. Hard to believe that I have a teenager now and Brandon is officially 10 on Thursday! Their birthday lists are the typical. Logan loves Game Stop and anything in it and Brandon is into these little Bakugan things that I don't quite understand. It is the latest fad, I guess. He talks about it constantly. Doesn't even watch the show, thank goodness, but he sure has learned a lot about them on the school bus from his friends!

Chicago Weekend

Barry and I headed up by train to the Credit Union of Illinois' Annual Convention at the Hilton Chicago on Michigan Avenue.He had some meetings throughout the days on Thursday, Fri, and Saturday. At night our job was to take his board of directors out for dinner (on the credit union's bill). It was their thank you for serving the Credit Union another year. They are all nice people and we spent the dinners just chatting and eating, of course. We went to The Chop House and Fogo De Chao's. Oh my.....these places were amazingly good. The Hilton was a very nice hotel and close to everything. Thursday afternoon I walked to the Shedd Aquarium. Friday I walked for HOURS! I wanted to find the Macy's on State Street and did that successfully and then walked to find the Grand Lux Cafe(yummy asian chicken salad!) to meet a friend. I had lunch with Karna, a high school friend and got to rest for a great lunch visit. Karna works at the Sears Tower so it is nice that I can have lunch with her now each Spring when we go up there for the convention. We ended up at Water Tower.I was so pooped that I took a cab back to the Hilton. I walked around the exhibit hall in the afternoons with Barry. They were all eager to give their speech to him on why his Credit Union needed their product. I was there to smile, shake hands, and of course, take all the free pens, paper, magnets, etc. that I knew the kids would LOVE.

I roamed around and took lots of pictures, too. It was a fun weekend...exhausting, but fun. It was nice getting a closer work at what Credit Unions do. It was interesting learning some new things at a couple of the meetings that I went to. I won't dread next year, but I look forward to it now.

The train back was interesting with a horrible passenger that we had to sit near. He got kicked off at Joliet, but it sure was the LONGEST ride until he was off. He was cursing, threatening passengers, calling people names (including my husband!). It was very bad. The conductor did apprehend the man and put him in holding or something after things got bad near us.

Thanks to the Grandparents at home who took care of the Schmidt Trio at home and also my friend, Elisa, who helped with Brandon!

What else is up?

We are just still crazy here. We do finally have a signed contract on the blue house! YEAH....finally last week, the guy who owns the house we would like to buy finally accepted our offer with a contingency. Persistence paid off. I think he thought that a ton of people would be lining up to buy his house...not. He just did not want a contingency that stated we had to sell our house first in order to buy his. Finally he accepted it. A couple would like to buy our house, too, and they have a house to sell. It had been sold and that fell through, so they are skeptical about making us an offer. So, they are trying to sell theirs now. SO, we'll see......

Easter Weekend

Been a little busy here, but here are the Easter pics. Anna was excited to wear the same dress as last year. It was the Chinese Dress from American Girl. Can't believe it is still long enough. Barry's sister and her family were up here for Easter so we got to see everyone on Saturday some and also Sunday. Sat. night we went to my Grandma's. The kids enjoyed the Egg Hunt outside on Easter Sunday after church.

Egg Hunt/Gotcha Day

After Brandon's soccer game today, we picked up Justin and we also had Nick with us and we headed to Anna's preschool for an Egg Hunt. This is the mother of all Egg Hunt's! Seriously. It was packed, but in the 5-7 year old range, very few kids were there, so Anna and Justin really got a TON of stuff. They were so cute running around stuffing their baskets. It really bugs me every year at an egg hunt that I am always by myself and they separate the kids. I can't be in 2 places at once, so I always have to stay with the littler ones. I didn't get very many pictures of Nick and Brandon, but I did try to run over real quick to catch a glimpse of their faces in all the excitement. After we dropped Nick back off at the soccer field we headed back to take Justin to the restaurant. We drove right by Nelson Park and had to stop and get pictures with the beautiful daffodils. I would love to take Brandon back when we has a different color shirt on, but I doubt he will be cooperative. Actually he is such a ham, that he probably would agree!

Happy Gotcha Day Guiping Girls!

 

 

 

 

Today marks the day we met our JIN YAN YI four years ago in Nanning, Guangxi in China! It was such a wonderful day! As wonderful as the day my sons were born to us. The journey to China was long and worth every minute it took to get there and the few months of waiting and paperwork. We met this scared little tiny 17 pound bundle of joy who was 13.5 months old. She quickly melted my heart and her daddy's, too. Barry and I will never forget being in that room with the 9 other families were were "giving birth" at the same time. Many babies were crying and it was quite a loud room on this Gotcha Day! My dad was videotaping the momentous occasion and it was really neat to have him in China with us. He shed a few tears that day, too.

Happy Gotcha day to the 9 other families that shared this special day in China with us on April 4, 2005. It has been so wonderful having all of you as "family".

Fun Day with Friends

On Saturday Anna and I picked up Carly and Michelle and headed to Heidi's. We had a nice lunch and luckily a room all to ourselves there. The girls had as much fun as the mommy's chatting forever. We headed to a pottery place for a few hours. Anna was in her element. She got to pick out what she wanted to paint and I even did a couple things, too. I am NOT usually into all that creative stuff, but it was actually fun. The items need to be fired or whatever, so it will be interesting to see what they look like when we get them back! We then headed to Heidi's and the girls and Jack had an Egg Hunt. FUN FUN DAY! Robin and Kailee weren't able to make it. Hopefully next time.

Fun at the Park

Since we had an Open House today, we headed to the park for a few hours. Then we stopped by my parents for a while. I took a ton of pictures at the park. There are a ton of Brandon because every 2 seconds he was posing and asking me to take his picture. Not so many of Logan, the almost 13 year old, who was "in a mood".

House for sale

Our house has had a for sale sign for a couple of days. I really hate this part. Keeping the house constantly clean and tidy. Drives me nuts since Anna and I are home most days and she is a little tornado. The boys are pretty good, though, and Barry is pretty helpful. With that said, it takes about an hour after they all leave to get the house "ready" for the day. We have had 4 showings so far since it was listed on Tuesday. A couple are, of course, at the dinner hour, so that just really complicates things. It is all just part of this little game of buying and selling. The homeowner from the house we want to buy is being difficult. He wants no contingencies and wants a firm offer. Not sure what planet he lives in, but Barry doesn't want 2 mortgages, so we have to try and sell our house and hope that the other is still available. If it sells first, I am not sure what we will do. I can't take much more of this. I have had enough of looking at houses and not finding agreeable people to buy from.I just want all this to be over. I am not sleeping well and just feel icky all the time because of my stomach.

Our realtor is having an Open House here on Sunday and so is the house we are hoping to buy. Let's hope we get some takers...and that they don't!

New Lifelink Families formed in China

Check out my first 5 links on the right in the Lifelink Families section. These 5 families are in China right now in the Guangdong Province and met their sweet little ones after over a 3 year wait! Keep in mind that it took us 7 months of paperwork and then only 5.5 months to wait to receive her pictures. Over three years? Sad....I am sure that the families are already realizing that their daughter was worth the wait. I just wish the wait would go back to being shorter. The sixth link (Lucey Lu) has been home just a little while. Such cute little ones.

Logan and his broken arm

 

It is never a good thing when the phone rings in the middle of the night! Logan was in the St. Louis area Friday thru Sunday and we got a call at midnight on Saturday that Logan was at the ER in Alton. Lovely. He was playing a game at the campground and tripped and fell in a ditch. Not really sure, as the story tends to change often. His feet have been giving out some since he needs foot surgery and he did fall in Indiana a couple of weekends ago, so who knows if the bad feet played a part in it. Could have simply been a boy scout playing a game in the dark and not watching where he was going. The good news is that it was a small break, but the cast will be on for 6 weeks. The bad news is that we have to cancel the April 29 bilateral foot surgery. Let's just hope he can walk upright until we do get to have the surgery. Since he can't bear weight on his feet and would be in a wheelchair for 2 weeks, he can't put all that weight on a newly healed arm while transferring to and from positions.

At least now he will get to probably finish out the school year and not be in a wheelchair and he will be able to be in the Show Choir Musical.

Misc.

Since I haven't taken any pictures, I thought it would be fun to add a couple from the past. Anna was about 17 months in this picture, so she had been home from China for about 4 months. She had gotten into a round container of wet wipes. It was a hoot. At this time she still was just starting to understand English and was walking around everywhere. She was just so stinkin cute.

Had a good weekend in Indiana. Logan's Show Choir got second place. YEAH...that is better than they had done in the other 2 competitions.

House stuff is going, as usual. We made a bid on a different house. It is blue like the house we had in Bloomington. We wouldn't ever build a blue house, but for some reason, they are the ones we like inside. This one is a cape cod style and has a very interesting roof line.We are still playing the number game with the man. I hate this part. Our house is all cleaned up and waiting to put the sign in the yard as soon as we come to an agreement with this man. It would be nice to move on to the next phase in this. The house is big and I am sure that I will curse cleaning it. It was hard to pass up a house with that much space for the kids to roam. The kids would all have rooms on the upper floor and Barry and I would be on the main level.

Kindergarten Registration/screening was last Friday for Anna. It went well and she passed with flying colors. Darn....I was hoping to keep her around home with me for another year. It is a little weird losing that year with her when she was in China.

My daughter is dancing around the house right now as we are listening to the MaMa Mia soundtrack. Oh..and she is cleaning dirty pennies with the vinegar and salt combo to make them shiny!

Logan is in a ton of pain right now and we are scheduling his foot surgery. We have no choice. I can't keep doping him up with meds and the pain isn't going away. He is extremely flat footed and the surgery will prevent his ankles from turning inward. It is called MBA surgery or something like that. He will have to be in a wheelchair for 2 weeks at school since it involves both feet and then hopefully he will walk for 2 weeks in Frankenstein boots. This is not going to be fun, especially while selling a house, packing and moving! YIKES.

Various

 

 

 

 

What a few days it has been! Anna got the flu on Friday, so I missed Logan's big show. Luckily Barry went with all our parents and he got a DVD so I could see it. Her flu was short-lived. I was unlucky enough to get it in the night on Sunday and was very sick until about 2 pm Monday. I am still puny.

Had to add a few pictures. I love the one of Anna and Brandon because I spontaneously found them playing Guess Who? Anna loves that game and as little as Brandon will admit...he really does enjoy playing these "baby" games as he calls them. It was a nice surprise to open the den door and see the two of them playing sooo nicely with each other! Anna has been playing that game a lot with everyone! She is also loving pick up sticks right now and even got the contractor man to play. She calls him Uncle Mike.

Speaking of the contractor man.....since we are selling the house soon, we decided to have Mike and his crew back to do knock down ceiling in the sunroom and also touch up a few places on the lovely popcorn ceiling. One thing leads to another and now my bedroom has been completely freed of any popcorn ceiling and is ready to be painted. The darn stuff just fell off everywhere and there was no choice. So, don't you love my sunroom that used to look so nice and clean?

So, we made an offer on a house last Thursday. Not the one I preoviously mentioned, though. I still love that one, too, but Barry liked the location of this one better. It is a newer area right off of Main St and we would still be very close to school and also his parents and the kids' friends. We got an offer back and now we wait and play the game. We look at another house tonight, so who knows. I think we will put a sign in our yard on Monday or Tuesday. I am really not wanting to do that until we have a contract, but Barry really wants that sign in the yard, so.....we'll see.

Way to go Logan!!

Logan won "Best Male Soloist" at the last competition.

Happy 5th Birthday, Anna!

 

 

 

 

Well, now Anna can say she made it to the thumb! She marched down the steps today declaring she can now show her whole hand when people ask how old she is. She is a hoot today. She was just getting out of the bathtub with her swimsuit on! She was playing with a new mermaid barbie that has color changing hair. Not sure why she wanted the suit on, but hey..it is her day!

We celebrated yesterday with a McDonald's party with all of her best buddies and last night with her Grandparents. She was excited about the whole day!

Today we are off to have the Chinese Restaurant since Justin is off of school and then Anna will go to preschool. Just another busy day being 5!

Valentine's Day Hunt

 

We had our annual Valentine's Day Hunt yesterday. It all started YEARS ago when Logan was into watching Blue's Clues. The kids really look forward to this each year. Even when you are almost 13! We had a nice hunt and ended the evening with a big rib fest with Barry's parents at our house.

Did we find THE ONE?

I think we found a house to make an offer on. It has been for sale for a while, but we didn't know about it since it is by an owner and it is hidden away a bit. It has a lot of space and bedrooms for each of the kids. Logan staked his claim to the HOT PINK bedroom that has a walk in closet and its own TANGERINE bathroom with zebra shower curtain. This family has 2 girls and they went nuts with paint, but hey...we have 2 green walls and 2 orange walls in the boys' lizard room, so....I can't say much! I am sure that Anna will gladly want that room in just 5.5 years when Logan goes to college, though. It has a bonus room above the garage and TONS of storage in the basement and a rec room and extra room down there. And we love that it is on a cul de sac like we are used to!

Brandon is excited because a few boys his age live in that area. A cutie that is in his class lives around there, too, but he doesn't seem to excited to live by Erin. Works for me! His friend, Chase, lives on the road, too. And there is a few younger girls in the area for Anna to play with that we know, too. The streets are crappy over there because they are not Mt. Zion Streets and that area just doesn't seem to have a clue about streets or something, though.

There is a bar area in the basement, so Barry seems certain that it will host his gazillion Schmidt Beer items nicely. Barry's high school buddy and college roomate lives in the adjacent subdivision, so I am sure that it will be nice for them to see each other more often.

The thought of keeping the house in tip top shape all the time gags me, but it is just part of the game we are playing, right?

So, anyway...who knows what will happen at this point, but we do seem to like the house.