things are better

I'll post more at a later date/time. But, things are definitely better now that I've had time to calm down, decompress, and relax. I have been assured by several people who have authority, that the stuff we are going through happens to foster parents regularly, and that things will be ok.

At the very least, the pent-up frustration and anger from the situation helped me do better than normal at the gym this morning!

garfield

Daniel was playing with the soft, fuzzy blanket today.

what a disgusting week full of not much pleasantness

Here's the vent of the year. Only, I can't vent about a lot of it since it's confidential...

Since Wednesday, we've witnessed many people go through life-changing events that are never pleasant to go through. Family death, miscarriage, job loss, lack of job prospects, and something else that I don't remember yet. Our own situation is really frustrating, but maybe it'll be taken care of soon.

At least there was some pleasant stuff this week. Kelly is playing volleyball this fall, her first sport! She played her first 2 games this week, and did really well when she forgot we were watching.

Another pleasant side effect is the support we've been offered since the garbage we've have to deal with started. It's comforting (although not fair to them either) to know that we aren't the only people who've been targeted in a hateful way before.

Princess Kelly

PRINCESS KELLY

IS 13 TODAY!

(sorry for the poor quality of the scans...)

Now, Kelly gets to sit in the front seat.
She's the best big sister, even to her big brother.

In the words of her father, "She was always a different child..."

Happy birthday in 3 days to Grace, Kelly's cousin.

budgets

I am so sick of money, where it goes, and where yet more needs to go. It just stinks having to budget.

I have fun reading Christine's blog. She is awesome in how she raises her children, biological and adopted...all 12 of them! It's good to see good, healthy families that are large, not that there's anything wrong with smaller families. It's just good to see big, happy families too.

Peaches without end

I think I just finished about 95 jars of peaches. I'm all peached out.
Pears are next.

Andy, Lilly, little legs, Daniel, Josh, Maggie--playing a game...we've been doing that a lot lately.

September 11 is a sad day for many, but I just wanted to remind everyone that good things can happen on this date too. One year ago, on September 11, we met the littlest member of our family. I've got some super-cute pictures that I wish I could post, but they'll just have to wait. The little one is doing great and acts and looks so cute all the time, but especially since we have recently bought some new, bright, fall clothes.

I'm no farmer

We went and picked some peaches today.
We picked 6 boxes for canning this week.
Daniel has a thing for fruit, all fruit, but especially canned peaches.
He'll eat a whole jar at a time, if we let him.
Actually, he can eat a whole quart jar of any canned fruit in one sitting at any time.



The peach place was actually about 20 minutes away and it seemed like a whole different world.
The smell of pig farming was way too strong for me.
I learned that Andy worked a summer taking care of pigs and their living quarters when he was young.
We got to see many baby piglets and their mamas.
I want some animals, but nowhere near the scale of this operation and stench that we saw and smelled.

Maggie got to hold this baby piglet for a few seconds before it squirmed out of her hands.
It was born this morning!

Tonight for Family Home Evening, we switched things up a bit.

After the opening prayer, I was in charge of the activity early so we could ride bikes to the local school.

Everyone was excited to "follow the leader" (me) to the school and we could have our lesson and treat there.

Everyone except Kelly.

She was in charge of the lesson and had a very fitting one.

It was a story about a girl's grumpy day that changed into a happier and more pleasant day after a lesson at church.
One part of our FHE is accolades, where each week we tell what our favorite thing about one family member is.

This week it was about Lilly.
We're so glad she's part of our family.

Grumpity Kelly

Daniel

Josh wanted me to document his glasses look.

He was doing all sorts of fancy moves on his bike on the way to the school.

The baby pulled himself up to standing today! He stood while holding on to furniture. Progress, I'm sure he'll be walking before we're ready for it!