Welcome Beverly!

The newest member of the Tremont Scotts clan arrived about 5 pm last night in Peoria!

She settled right in and bravely ate tacos with us for dinner, ha ha. And even though some lemonade she had was a bit sour to her, she put on a brave face and continued to drink it. Today we shop for 7up, which she said is her drink of choice.

Mitch had a short conversation with Beverly's dad when he called last night to check to be sure she had arrived. We were, unfortunately, over at the neighbors house with her and she missed the call, but we got her set up to email him and we'll work on a phone call today.

I'll update more about her on the "Ten Months in Tremont" blog, but will include her here on regular family/event posts.

The Heebie Jeebies

I came out of work tonight on a beautiful summer evening ... stepped down off the curb in the parking spot next to my car ... and this slimy creature was standing guard at my driver side door

I don't know if you can really see it ... you can click on the picture to see a larger view if you would like to ... but it was a 3-ish foot snake! Kind of gold and brown/black diamond pattern, all zig zagged up and soaking up the sun on the parking lot. I screamed, of course. After taking a couple of pics and standing there trying to decide what to do ... I walked to the business across the parking lot and asked if anyone was "snake friendly" enough to move it away from my door so I could go home. Three guys came over and had a good time chasing it ... it went up against the building and got pretty mad at them, and it ended up coiling up under a garden hose box adjacent to the side door at my office. Great. How many times do you think I will look for that thing now when I come and go?

Cats Love Reading Too

Abby loves to read to our cat, Calvin. She pretends to be the teacher and holds the book out so he can see, just like a teacher would do for their class. And the funniest thing of all is that he actually LOOKS at the book and LISTENS to what she is saying! This is a common scene in our family room about every night!


Only 8 more days until Beverly arrives! TJ and Abby made a new video for her that I'm loading to the "Ten Months in Tremont" blog, but You Tube is taking f-o-r-e-v-e-r to load it right now!

Family Ties

Drew sent me this ... it's a picture that I took of he and Abby at Grant's Farm on a recent visit there. No other words necessary. It speaks for itself for what he's thinking and feeling about his move to college life, and his ties to family. You can click on the picture to see a larger view if you can't read the words.

A Special Package from China!

Today I received a very special package from China! Click on any of the pictures to see a larger view.

Beverly asked if there was anything from China that I would like to have ... and I told her that I had always regretted not purchasing one of the beautiful porcelain figurines that I saw in the shops in Guangzhou. So since she lives in Guangzhou she of course ran right out to Shamian Island and picked out not one ... but two ... of these gorgeous figurines!

She mailed them about two weeks ago and was told the package would probably take about 6 weeks to reach us ... but here they are! It was exciting to get a box with Chinese characters and the mailing label with our info in English and Chinese ... we laughed and wondered if anything from China had ever come through the Tremont post office before! ha ha
What I loved about them was the detail and delicate features. Note the painted fingernails and bangle bracelets in the close up picture. I talked myself out of buying them in China because we already had a suitcase full of special items, and we had lots of people who helped us along the way with our adoption that we wanted to bring special gifts to ... and I decided that these would take up too much valuable luggage space, and were probably far too delicate to pack in our luggage.

There were a few minor casualties of the more delicate parts ... a few fingers, to be exact ... but they are now in tact and beautiful, as you can see. A little crazy glue does wonders! ;-)

Thank you Beverly! Now the only thing we are anxiously awaiting to arrive from China is YOU!!

Summer classes are over!

Way to go Drew ... today was the final exam for his summer Chemistry class! He has had a pretty intense 8 weeks of chemistry lab and lecture, 5 hours a day on Mondays and Wednesdays. All to make his freshman year of college a little bit smoother, at the recommendation of the choral music chairman. Now he has 5 weeks off before college!

Happy 10th Birthday, TJ!

TJ had a fun day turning 10! He and I had some mom/son time today to have lunch and take in a movie together (Wall-e) and then the whole family went out for dinner at Chevy's. He got the usual treatment of their birthday celebration, complete with singing, clapping, ice cream and a souvenier sombrero. HA

His aunts/uncles/cousins made sure he has some spiffy new shirts ... Bulls and NASCAR, so those were fun to open. We came home kind of late from dinner and he thought the fun day was over ... but he had one last surprise. He was happy to see the snare drum kit he wanted to get him started on the drums for 5th grade band. Yes, we are crazy. He's just a drum kind of kid, though ... it just fits him!



So we finally got it opened and assembled and he started playing the drum about 9:30pm ... I checked everywhere in the drum bag, but I didn't find any ear plugs or Tylenol for the owner's parents! HA

And you can tell it was past Abby's bedtime in the video because she is tired and at the end is saying a very dramatic, "You never do videos of meeeeeeeeeeee ..." She was tucked in shortly thereafter! ;-)



Happy birthday, TJ! I can't believe I now have two of my kiddos in the "double digit" years. And it won't be too much longer before Drew is celebrating his last birthday in the teens!

An Honorary Member of the Tremont Scotts!

The Tremont Scott Trio becomes the Tremont Scott Quads for the 2008-09 school year!

We are happy to announce that we will be hosting an exchange student from China for the upcoming school year! Jia Yu (Beverly) is a 15 year old girl from Guangzhou, Guangdong and will be a Sophomore at Tremont HS! She will arrive sometime after August 15, but we do not have firm travel information yet.

Of course we will keep you updated on her here as part of the family ... but I have also created a special blog to post more info about her, pictures of our home and around Tremont and more to help her get to know us before she arrives, and to help her family stay up-to-date on her life in Tremont while she's here. You can view that blog (and offer up your own welcome message to her!) here ...

http://www.tenmonthsintremont.blogspot.com/

We'll be a bit cozy in the two-ish weeks after she arrives and before we take Drew to college on August 31, but we'll make it work! The kids are excited to meet her and learn more about China, maybe even learn a little Mandarin along the way! Drew is taking Mandarin as a freshman year class at Carthage, so maybe when he's home at holiday time, she can help reinforce that to him as well. Should be a fun adventure, stay tuned!

The Bespectacled Beauty

So we went in for the kindergarten eye exam, a new IL state requirement for all kiddos entering kindergarten this year. Pushed into law by the optometrists, of course. And we left with an order for glasses. Nickelodeon glasses, to be exact.

She did need some correction, but her vision isn't too bad and the doc thinks wearing these for the next 6 weeks will even strengthen her eyes and maybe the prescription can be reduced at that time. Tonight we picked them up. She is SO proud of them. Thank goodness I don't have to fight her to wear them. Now if we can only keep them on when we need them and keep them from getting broken!

Happy July 4th Weekend!

We had a beautiful and relaxing long weekend at the marina to celebrate the 4th of July. Watched the fireworks over the Peoria skyline on Friday night. Here's a glimpse of the downtown lights and sky as the sun began to set. Click on the picture to see a larger view. No fireworks pics that turned out, but they were beautiful as always!