Congratulations, Drew!!

Drew was so happy to hear today that he made the IHSA "All State Chorus" and the "Honors Chorus" with his vocal audition! This is an advance from the District Music Festival he participated in at WIU a few weeks ago. Now he will perform with the two chorus groups during the IL Music Educators Association at their annual conference ... which, conveniently for us ... is in Peoria! Congrats Drew, we are very proud of you!!

Basketball Tourney

TJ played in four basketball games this weekend in a tournament in Pekin ... they had a great time, but I think they are all pretty tired! The games were more in the evening (5pm, 7pm, 8pm) so at least we didn't do a lot of basketball running right in the middle of the day. It was nice to have the long holiday weekend ... and now it's back to work! Here's a pic of the 3rd grade team just after their loss in the final game ... they were plotting last night to all wear their medals to school today! HA TJ also received one of the medals because he played in the final 4th grade game. They were a little short on team members, and he was happy to help out!

Three Years Ago Today!

Create Your Own
It's hard to remember what life was like before Abby joined our family ... but I have no problem remembering what the day was like 3 years ago today, November 17, 2003 ... the day our referral from China finally arrived!

After all the paperwork and waiting, it was finally time to learn who the little girl was on the other side of the world who would soon join our family. It was exciting and surreal all at once ... a bit like being in labor with the boys, and every bit as emotionally draining ... but with much less physical discomfort. At least for Mama! And finally, late morning the call came ... it was official, a baby girl in Zhuzhou City, Hunan named Guo Kui Yan would be our daughter! She was 9 months old and her report from the SWI said that she loved to be outside and got especially excited when motorcycles passed by the orphanage gates. Which was a direct match of her new daddy's home study report that talked about what he enjoyed most ... being outside and riding his motorcycle!

We knew this little one would change our lives, but how do you ever truly prepare for the blessing of a beautiful child to enter your life. The next few weeks would be a blur as we went through the motions of enjoying the holidays and preparing for our trip halfway around the world. Our last Christmas as parents of two boys, which I tried to enjoy as much as possible ... but thoughts of that little one 8,000 miles away made the holiday bittersweet.

Three years ago today Abby didn't know we were about to turn her world upside down, but it was one of the best days of our lives. This morning as she snuggled in bed with me just before it was time to get moving, it seemed like yesterday we received that call. But so much has happened and she has changed so much ... it also seems like an eternity.

Enjoy the slide show with the first 3 pics we saw of Abby with her referral, taken about 4 months before they were sent to us when she was 5 months old ... mixed in with 3 more recent photos. It is a special day!

A Basketball & Music Kind of Weekend!

The 3rd grade boys basketball traveling team kicked off its season this weekend with games on Sat & Sun ... TJ is so excited to be part of this. Sat morning we had to meet up with the team early to get uniforms all set, and that was a big moment for all the kids. Sun morning TJ had his uniform on by 7:15 am. I think he is just a tiny bit excited about all of this.

Small slide show from the games, but tough to get good pics of these fast-as-lightning moving targets! :-)

The music part of the weekend came with Drew on Sat ... he was gone from 5:45 am until 8:30 pm at the IHSA District Music Festival at Western IL University, singing in the District Chorus. Two students from THS were placed in the District Chorus, and we are very proud of him. No word yet on the status of who made the All State Choir or Honors Choir ... will post as soon as we know!

Back to Reality!

Dang, it's cold here at home!
:-)

We arrived home from Cancun about 10pm Friday night ... of course we hopped off the plane in Peoria in our shorts and flip flops and shivered all the way home!

It was a great, relaxing week for our family in Mexico. A little rain, but mostly sun, sand and warm days! We enjoyed the resort and its awesome pool ... and took a couple of side trips. One day we took a free hotel tour that took us by bus through the Hotel Zone, where we got to see lots of beautiful hotels and also some that are still recovering from Oct 2005 Hurricane Wilma. Hard to imagine what this area must have looked like a year ago! Then we took an incredible boat ride out to Isla Mujeres, where we lounged on the beach and ate lunch ... then hopped back on the boat for the second stop and some straw market type browsing.

Our second trip a couple days later was back down to the Hotel Zone by bus for some shopping ... yes, I did actually get Mitch to agree to go shopping, but only because it was a rainy day! It was a good souvenier stop, and TJ finally got the ukelele he had been begging for all week!

Smooth flight home, although we did have a bit of turmoil when our landing was aborted at O'Hare due to a plane in our way (yikes) and we did a hard, fast UP ... back to the sky and land of circling planes! After a few loops in the sky we gave it a second try, which was successful ... but a bit much for Abby and she experienced the joys of air sickness. UGH! But after her feet hit the ground, she was just fine and did great on the short hop from O'Hare to Peoria.

Today has been spent unpacking and getting laundry done ... reorganizing for the work and school week ahead! I have created a long photo show from our trip that you can see here ...

http://www.photoshow.net/tremontscotts/2006_travel

If you are longing for a little sun and warmth right now, these pics might do you good! I'm going to enjoy them for awhile, and hope they get me through the wait for Spring Break in Destin! Check out the new countdown clock at the top! HA

Glad to be home, and so glad to have shared this wonderful week together as a family!