Beach time!

We're having a great spring break week ... beautiful weather, favorite restaurants, much relaxation. Friends from Tremont are here as well, and Abby loves hanging with the girls, and TJ has his buddy Jared ... so all is right for the kids! I'm sure we'll have some beach/pool pics to post soon, but right now it's just relaxation time!

Two Weeks til the Beach!

Two weeks from today, this will be the view from my beach lounge chair for the week. We are ready!

Drew is back from his spring break tour with choir. Mitch is busy this weekend with the IHSA basketball tourney in Peoria, and the kids and I are off to the school carnival tonight. Seeing some signs and temperatures of spring around here this week has been a really welcome thing!

Somehow, February just evaporated!

February came and went with no post here! I knew we were busy but did not realize I had completely neglected the blog!

Work and school and basketball weekends consumed most of the month. February is the month of my biggest work event of the year (home show) so it always goes by in a blur.

Now it's March ... we leave for Spring Break in Destin 3 weeks from today! WOOT!!

Drew is starting his spring break today, heading out by charter bus early this morning with the Carthage Choir. They are stopping in TN for a concert on their way to Florida, then have concerts in Jacksonville, Naples, and St. Pete before making their way back up with concert stops in GA and IN. Sounds like they have a partial free day near the Everglades, and then a full day to spend on the beach in St Petersburg. I'm sure with 50 college students on a bus there will be lots of fun.

Also wanted to share these pics, taken from my office window this week .. the eagles have been so active on the Illinois River, and have been putting on quite a show! My camera is just average. Can't imagine what you could capture with a good camera! Click on the pictures to see a larger version.

Birthday Weekend, Part Two!

Abby got to enjoy a 2nd weekend of birthday celebrations, as she had a party with her friends on Saturday at the place where she takes tumbling! They had a great time and burned off a lot of energy ... they had full run of the place with the tumble track, trampolines, bounce castle and an 18' slide. They stopped once to do the Cha-Cha Slide when the song came on, and those who didn't already know how sharpened their cartwheel skills. It was fun
Afterwards it was to the upstairs observation room for cupcakes and gifts. They were so well behaved and cute!

My niece sang with the IMEA All State Choir in Peoria yesterday, and we got to share a meal with them before dashing off to TJ's double-header basketball game. Good game for TJ until he was fouled and hit the floor/wall and bruised up his shoulder. He's sore this morning, but luckily no major injuries.

Drew is home this weekend since he has a short break between their J-Term (January minimester) and the start of Spring Term next week. Great to have him here to share some time with us!

Happy 7th Birthday, Abby!!

Today is the big "7" for Abby! She has been so excited to see this birthday come, and has been crossing off the days since the calendar changed to January!

She has had a fun-filled weekend ... starting yesterday with THS Cheer Clinic for the grade school girls all morning. They learned a cheer routine and will perform at half time of the boys JV game this Friday night.

After TJ's basketball game yesterday, she requested dinner from her fave birthday dinner spot ... Chevy's! Celebrations are fun there with ice cream, singing, clapping and a sombrero to take home! I think we have a couple dozen of those sombreros in the play room, as all of our kids enjoy a Chevy's birthday! ha

Today she was up for her favorite breakfast ... a sausage, egg & green pepper casserole. After breakfast it was time to open presents, and she was excited to see her new "Madeline" book, paper doll book and doll. She's such an avid reader that you just can't go wrong with books with this girl!

The rest of her presents were the next favorite thing ... bling! A headband with rhinestones, a dress with sparkles, and some pink pearl earrings and she is set!

Now we're off to TJ's Sunday afternoon game. Along with dinner, we'll have the "birthday cookie and ice cream" that Abby requested instead of cake. I made a pan chocoloate chip cookie and we have it cut into the shape of a "7", ready to go! It has been a fun weekend, and I'm happy to have had the time to wind down and relax after being in Vegas all last week! Back to work and school tomorrow, the real world strikes again! ha ha

Haiti

UPDATED 1-16-10: MIKE IS HOME!! Check his mom's blog in the link below for more details, but kudos to the US Air Force for getting citizens back on American soil.
----------

Thinking of a friend whose son is in Haiti teaching this year, and the helplessness they feel being here and wondering how he's doing. They have heard from him and he's ok, but the situation is so fragile there right now that of course there are worries.

Send some good thoughts and prayers Mike's way. And you can see how things are going here on his mom's BLOG. Even though their last name is Scott like ours, we're not related ... we just accidentally found each other in 2002 during our China adoption journeys due to an agency paperwork mix up, and have remained friends since!

Snow Day!

Looks like we got about 8 inches of new white stuff on top of the 6-7ish inches we already had! Thought it had stopped earlier but it's snowing again. WHEE! Home today with the kiddos enjoying a snow day. Abby and I just finished her January book report project, and she's enjoying the morning in her jammies, watching PBS! haha

Family Day!

Six years ago today, on the other side of the world ... in a hotel elevator lobby in Changsha, Hunan ... we were given the precious gift of our daughter. It was a whirlwind of emotion. Thinking back, it is a pretty surreal experience to have someone just hand you an 11-month old child who is suddenly yours. But we could not love her any more if she were born to us.

Abby cried at first, and then was pretty solemn most of our time in China. Today she is a happy and such a beautiful child. Hard to imagine life without a little girl in it. Hard to imagine life without a grade school daughter to keep us on our toes! Hard to imagine not having experienced the joy of growing our family through adoption.

Happy family day Abigail Kui Yan! Our trip journal is here, Our Beautiful Sunflower

Happy New Year!

The first few days of 2010 have been good to us ... pretty cold here, but it won't last too long. Hey, only 10 weeks until spring break! :-)

Drew headed back to college and starts classes tomorrow, and the kids both head back to school tomorrow as well. Back to work for mama after taking some time off for the holidays, too!

We got back into the 6th grade basketball routine this weekend with 3 games. TJ (#22 in picture) loves to play and have the whole team experience! He made a 3-pointer today, woo hoo! Happy 2010!

Christmas 2009!

Wow, Christmas has come and gone. But it sure was fun! The big guy in the red suit was good to all of us, as usual. And it is lots of fun to still have a family member who BELIEVES in him. This might be our last year, though!

We spent Christmas Eve and Day at home with the kiddos, it was great to have everyone here and just relax and open gifts. Abby's big wishes for the year mostly included books, books and books ... and a few pretty clothes. TJ got a new bike, since he has just about driven the wheels off of his other one. ha

On Saturday, we headed to the Scott family Christmas and spent the night at grandma and grandpa's, with all the extended family. The kids love this special time with their cousins, as some years it is the only time we manage to get everyone together.

Saturday was also our 27th anniversary, and in the typical busy Christmas season fashion, it pretty much went un-celebrated. Guess I'm finally used to that after all these years, ha ha.

Sunday was grandma and grandpa Scott's 50th anniversary, and we helped them celebrate their special day with a family lunch. We got a surprise 7 inches of snow that made the drive a little hectic, but made for great scenery from the lunch window. And TJ got home just in time to have a little snow play time with his friends before dark.

Now this week I'm off work with the kids, and we'll do some exchanges and shopping. Abby is anxious to get to the mall and get busy at that famous bear-stuffing place with a gift certificate that Drew gave her. We'll keep the decorations up until the end of the week ... I think I enjoy them more now when things are so peaceful, and that's also why we don't put them up very early. On Saturday Drew will head back to college and we'll get back into the basketball travel team routine, AKA bleacher time!