One of those days & Is "ship" a bad word?

This day has started out wrong and has gone from bad to worse! It started with the boys and I sitting at the kitchen table as we have done almost every day this summer to work on some school work. Of course, I was still in my pajamas when we had a knock at the back door and the doorbell at the front door rang. The backdoor was the carpet men coming to install the baby's carpet 3 hours earlier than expected and the front door was the Jehovah's Witnesses. So, come in carpet men (even though I am still in my pjs with no make-up on) and no Jehovah's Witnesses, we are not interested (sorry if you are Jehovah's Witnesses but we are very happy going to our Baptist church, oh and sorry I was little short with the visitors at my door). So, in come the carpet people as I rush around trying to make myself look presentable. I was actually happy that they were here because we really want to work on that room. However, things did not go as planned. They brought the wrong carpet (berber and we ordered frieze) and ours might still be at the factory on the other side of the state. Of course!
After they leave I decide that since they are not sure if they will be back today, and I am hosting Bunco at my house tomorrow night, I may as well give my house a good cleaning. This is not the way I wanted to spend my last day of summer break before I go back to work tomorrow, but I might as well be productive if I am stuck at home and can't go to the pool. That's when the kids started in. They were in and out, in and out of the house, leaving the back door standing wide open every time, tracking dog hair in from the garage (our yellow lab is shedding terribly right now and I can't keep the garage clean), and they spilled water all over the kitchen floor. Cole comes in tattling on Alex that he keeps saying the word "ship." I say "Ship?? How did he use the word." Cole says that ship must be a bad word when he is talking about fighting- like a warship. I say, "Well, I think that is okay as long as you are not saying 'Oh, ship' because then it sounds like a bad word." Both boys say, "Why would someone say 'Oh, ship" and "What bad word are you talking about?" Oh, forget it! Go back outside and play. Then Cole pitched huge temper tantrum that I would not allow him to take his Nintendo DS outside for the neighbors.
Back to cleaning, I am dusting the entertainment cabinet and find that there is a TON of dust behind the DVD player, much more than my dust rag can handle. So, I go get the vacuum cleaner (which just had $30 in new parts over the weekend to make it work again). I start up the vacuum to suck up that dust and it starts billowing smoke! It manages to spit melted black rubber all over the carpet and stink up the entire house in less than 10 seconds! Now, I need a new vacuum cleaner, have stained carpet in the living room, and still have no carpet upstairs! I am afraid to touch anything else and it is only lunch time! At least the boys are happy to stay outside playing for the day since the entire house smells like burned rubber!!!

Some good news!

This wait for our daughter has been filled with highs and lows. We never knew that it would take this long, especially once we decided that we were going to adopt a child with a medical condition. We just new that we would have our referral by now. Last spring we received an email for our agency saying that we would likely wait 18 to 20 months or more from the date that we turned in our medical conditions checklist (MCC). Our 10 to 12 month wait had turned into a 18 to 20 month wait. We have been waiting for 15 months now and our agency has been doing a ton of special needs referrals this month. So, I decided to email again to find out if we are getting any closer. For this first time ever, they said that yes, we are getting closer to our referral! I was so scared that they were going to say that we were going to have to wait even longer than 18 to 20 months. They could not predict exactly when it is going to happen, but they said the current wait time is still 18 to 20 months. We could see our daughter's face as early as October!! We are back at work getting her room ready. We ordered her carpet last night and a chandelier this morning. I will post pictures as soon as it all starts to come together. I really want to have her room ready before we get her referral so that we can concentrate on getting ready to travel. It feels so good to finally feel like there is an end in sight. We can hold on for another 3 to 5 months, no problem!! Our prayer is that she is safe and well cared for.

Our agency has been doing a lot of work with the Henan province to help them learn better techniques for childcare in the orphanages. They have been going into the orphanages and helping them with supplies, training, and placing as many kids into foster care as they can. They have also been helping to pay for the process to prepare the children's paperwork for adoption so that these children can have forever homes. Without all of this hard work, these children would have to live out their childhood in orphanages with inadequate care. Our daughter is most likely one of these children in Henan. We are so grateful for the work that our agency is doing.

Another Camping Trip

We came home Sunday from a camping trip at Stone Mountain Park with another family from church. Between the 2 families, we had 5 boys ranging from age 8 to 2 years old! We got to the campground late Friday evening. Saturday morning we hiked to the top of the mountain and back down. We were all hot and exhausted by the time we got back to the campers for lunch. Then we went swimming in the most crowded pool I have ever seen. The pool was very small and there must have been 80 people in it. As we were getting ready to leave the campground to go to the Lazer Show Saturday evening, Cole got stung by a bee on the top of his foot. If you know Cole, you know that he is our drama child. We were really late leaving to get to the Lazer Show, and we had to park really far away and Mike had to carry Cole most the way since his bee sting was right where his Croc was rubbing his foot when he walked. By the time we got there, the Lazer Show was so packed that we could only find a little spot just big enough for all of us to squeeze in on the lawn. Still, the kids really had a great time and this was the first time that Alex actually watched the show. Every other time he has covered his ears and hidden his face in my shoulder. The first picture in today's post is Mike clowning around with glowsticks before the start of the Lazer Show. Mike thought it would be fun to "accessorize" his outfit before the show started. And I wonder why Alex always seems to march to his own beat...

Tonight Cole has guitar lessons and then we are going to a neighborhood cook-out. I can't believe that I only have 2 more weeks left of summer break. I am starting to get into the mind-set of what I need to do to get ready to go back to work. I really love my summers home with my boys. They just seem to fly by.

4th of July Weekend

We have made it home from a great 4th of July weekend camping in the mountains. We took our little pop-up camper to an RV park and camped right next to a creek. The boys had a great time playing in the water, building a dam, and riding their bikes around the campground. We also got to see Mike's parents several times since the RV park where they spend most of their summer was just down the road.

The boys enjoyed riding in the golf cart parade with their Nana. Then, we were invited to a lake house to watch fireworks on a boat dock.

This morning it started raining, so we had to pack up early to head home.

There is nothing like folding up a camper in the rain! We made it home in one piece- a little wet though. We spent the afternoon trying to dry out the camper and get everything cleaned up so that we can take another little trip next weekend. We are trying to squeeze in as many little trips as we can because it will not be long before the boys and I will have to go back to school.