Drew's Summer Adventure!

Drew has taken 2 years of Mandarin in college and has developed such a strong interest to learn more of the language that he is adding a Chinese Language minor to his Music Education degree ... and this summer, he's heading to China to do a 6-week language immersion program at Beijing Language & Culture University!

BLCU was established to teach Mandarin to foreigners, and he'll live in a dorm on campus. This will be quite the adventure, and it will take up about half of his summer break ... from mid-July through the end of August. Since Mitch and I spent two weeks in China, we know what's in store for him in the way of adventure and culture shock, but we know this will be a wonderful experience for him all around. He'll be much more on his own, whereas we spent most all of our time with a bilingual guide. The BLCU campus is just about 2.5 miles from the Olympic Village, and there will be much to see in this historical city.

Drew thinks that after college he'd like to spend some time teaching music and English in China, so this will give him a good intro to life in a large city (Population in Beijing is 13 Million) in China and help him know more about his desire to hold onto those future goals. If the current school/teacher cuts in the U.S. continue for the next 2 years, it may be a great plan to have!

Back to Reality!

Back in the work and school groove for a week after spring break now ... but my mind drifts off to those beautiful days we spent on the beach, and how I love that time away from home and work and laundry and house cleaning. Time spent with the kids, watching them play on the beach. Lots of good seafood to eat and absolutely no agenda or schedule!

The boat is in the water now, and I shot the sunset pic here from my cell phone on Saturday night.

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.
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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