Lake

Joe and Papa

Jennie and Alex
Addie and Ferba

We went to the lake this weekend and had a great time. The kids did very well on the 3 hour drive there and back. My step sister Ferba lives on the lake and there's a resort just a few minutes from her house we we're able to rent a room for the night and a boat for the day. The kids were leary of the deep water and enjoyed playing on the boat ramp MUCH more than being on the boat and getting into the DEEP water. Saturday night we went to a fire works display and saw one of the best displays I've ever seen. It was crowed and Addie didn't like all the noise but the display was pretty. Of course I had to forget my camera this morning so I don' t have it with me to post any pictures of the kids from this weekend.

My vans in the shop this morning. It's been such a good van and has 150,000 miles on it now. it started making some ticking noises this week (no it's not out of oil) so I took it in this morning. Hopefully it'll be a quick fix that won't cost too much. The tire on Johnny's truck went flat yesterday and ruined the tire so we have the addede expense of a new truck tire on top of my van repairs. Pray it won't be too bad. I'm wanting to hang onto my van until the kids are in school and we're no longer paying preschool expenses!

Have a blessed week. I'll try to post pictures from the weekend one day this week.

Big Kids

So Sunday morning the kids decided we needed to move the twin bed from our bedroom into their bedroom. I didn't have time on Sunday so yesterday morning Alex reminded me and then when I got home he reminded me again. So Johnny and I moved it to their room. Both kids slept in their own beds last night like big kids. Our bedroom just doesn't look right without the spare bed in it. After 3 years of having it our room it just seems odd not to have it in our room. They are getting so big so quick. I am really amazed at how they just did this on their own without any prodding from us to sleep in their own room.
This week my Aunt and cousin came in for a visit. My Aunt comes in every few years but her daughter hadn't come to visit in 9 years. We were looking at pictures and found a picture of my Granny's 4 granddaughters standing in the river. The date was June 23rd 1984. Twenty five years ago! So Sunday the 4 of us headed back down to the river and took a 25 year picture. We then framed them for a before and after look. It was fun. Wonder what the 50 year picture will look like? Yikes I'd be 65! The kids enjoyed playing at the river so I'll attach some pictures of them. I didn't get a digital print of us 4 girls to share with you all.
Have a great week.
Give a blessing and be blessed!
Tina

lyrics

Thanks to Amy for the lyrics to Alex's throw up song. Here's how it goes.

I think I'm gonna throw up, I think I'm gonna throw up I think I'm gonna throw up my hands to the Lord.
Next verse: I think I'm gonna hurl, I think I'm gonna hurl, I think I'm gonna hurl my sins out the door.

Too funny I guess he new more than what I thought he did about the song!

Two Big Kids

This week Alex mentioned several times that he was going to sleep in his own room. So last night I put Addie to bed and hollered at him to come get in bed. He hesitated because he was playing with Joe. I told him he was either going to bed in his room or going to bed in our room so he went ahead and climbed in his own bed and went to sleep and stayed there all night. Last week he tried it one night and stayed for about 15-20 minutes before beating a path back to our room. So this morning I made sure I bragged on him and Addie both for being such big kids and sleeping in their own room. I'm hopeful it's just a matter of days before we can move the twin bed out of our room and into their room. I talked about moving it once before and Alex assured me it was way to heavy to move!
Addie is truly a girlie-girl. She likes to have her hair done, she like her nails painted and she likes to primp. She doesn't really like to wrestle or play ruff and really prefers just to snuggle in the evenings. Alex on the other hand is all boy. He likes to wrestle, be loud and play video games with Joe. They both like to sing and often compete to sing alone. The other day Alex came home singing "I want to throw up... and praise my Lord". Well I think he forgot the part "my hands". He was raising his hands but only saying I want to throw up and praise my Lord... too funny. I asked Addie if he was singing the song correctly and she said no but wouldn't sing it for me so I'd know how it went to correct him. Last weekend on the drive back from Tulsa they sang the song I shall not be moved over and over. It's funny how much music they pick up from church and from day care.
Well have a great week.Thanks,Tina

Great Weekend

We had such a great weekend. The kids really enjoyed themselves so much. They didn't understand why we had to come back to the real world yesterday. Both asked to stay another night. I told them we'd be able to come back in July for China camp and that seemed to have done the trick. Alex got up this morning wanting to wear a hat he'd made at Vietnam camp.
Alex and Samuel picked up right where they left off last year. Within a few minutes they were holding hands as we walked in the parking lot and playing like old pals. We were so blessed to be able to meet so many families we'd only known thru blogs. All the kids were just too sweet and it was so good to see them with their forever families.
I'm going to post a few pictures from the weekend. Some will be before and after pictures. Look what a dfiference a year/two make!

We found all 4 Santa's this weekend. In order Sameul (Tam), Kien (Kien),Maile (They Trang), Alex (Hung)

and now..Samuel, Kien, Maile and Alex

Moms and kids. Samuel and Amy, Kien and Cynthia, Maile and Kim-Lan, Alex and Me!
Alex, Samuel and Maile then

Samuel, Maile and Alex then

Samuel, Maile and Alex now - with Maile's big brothers

Miss Addie hanging out at camp

Mr Alex enjoying camp.

Well you can look at the pictures and see that camp was a succss and you can see the wonderful kids and how happy they are no.

Have a great week and make it count for the Lord.

Busy week

Boy how the week has flown by. Monday started out fairly normally with not much to do then things started changing quickly. Tuesday afternoon Miss Addie came down with a 104 fever at 4 in the afternoon. Johnny took her to the doctor and he didn't find anything other than a runny nose and he thought she might possibly have something on one ear but wasn't sure. Gave her antibiotics and she came home. By the time she got home she was back to her normal self and doing well. Wednesday morning she got up feeling well but by noon preschool was calling saying her fever was 102. I brought her home and again she went back to her normal playful self. Then by evening she was running a fever again. It soon went away and she hasn't had any more issues. Praise God she's feeling better.
I'm on call this week. So I've been dealing with on call issues each day. Well Tuesday night I basically had little to no sleep. I got paged twice to work on issues then my boss called me at 1:40 AM letting me know that lightning struck next to our Dual Data Center and the electrical backup failed to kick on so the hardware in that entire building was off line. So off to work I headed to help recover about 400 systems. I finished up my part around 8:30 AM and then came home and slept for about 5 hrs. Talk about a bad on call!
To top that off the Kirby salesman came by Tuesday evening. I thought oh boy a free carpet cleaning. You know with 6 people and 2 dogs in the house I can always use a free carpet cleaning! Well... Yep I'm the proud new owner of a Kirby! I've been looking at vacuums lately and my steam cleaner recently went out on me so when it was all said and done we decided to go ahead and break down and get it. The living room looks great by the way.
If that doesn't sound busy enough we had 12 baby guineas born this week also. I guess 2 dogs, 2 horses and 23 chickens weren't enough to care for. Johnny decided to incubate guineas. We've had guineas before and enjoyed them. As long as Johnny is able to keep them in the chicken pen I don't really mind. But if they start getting into my flower beds I'm going to have a fit. I've really been working hard on planting flowers and trying to make the yard look presentable and chickens and guineas just scratch and dig way to much to have a nice yard. So here's hoping the guineas behave themselves when they get older. It's a good learning experience for Addie and Alex. They like watching them hatch and getting to hold them.
Tomorrow we're heading to Tulsa to meet up with Alex's travel buddy Binhson and his good friend Samuel. We'll also see several other Dillon friends that we've never got to meet before. Our agency (Dillon International) is holding a Vietnam Heritage weekend for the kids and I'm really looking forward to the weekend.
Oh one last thing. I'm officially old.. Yep you heard it.. I went to a dermatologist on Saturday for a spot on my leg. He looked at it and told me it was an old age spot and froze it off. So yep I'm officially old. Not to mention the Kirby salesman asked me if Addie was our granddaughter. What's the saying? You're only as old as you feel. Hmm after 24hrs of no sleep I kinda feel old right now.. LOL
Well enough rambling. Just hadn't posted anything all week and thought I'd post an update.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend filled with many blessings..I'm planning on it.
Tina

23 years

Wow how time flies. Johnny and I celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary on Sunday. We went out to eat on Saturday night and enjoyed a quiet evening alone. We don't know what to do with ourselves when it's just the two of us! On a serious note I can't say that everything has always been roses but I can say that I am married to a good man that loves me and loves our family very much. I am truly blessed!
Last night Johnny came in and said Alex had one the good citizenship award for the day at preschool. He had helped another little boy get water at the water fountain. Now if you know anything about Alex you know he's not the biggest of fellows but he's got a big heart and is very strong. We told him what a good boy he is and how proud we are of him. He's been eating like a horse lately so I'm thinking the growth spurt will be kicking in soon. Addie outgrew him just shortly after he came home and continues to be bigger than he is. She reminds him about it from time to time. She'll stand there real sassy looking on her tip toes and say "mom I'm bigger". Alex will look at me and say "mom I'm bigger too!" With which I respond yes you are Alex. You are a big boy! Joe and Ashton took them swimming Saturday and Sunday and they both started learning to dog paddle a little bit. They've both come a long way in their swimming efforts this year so far. Last year I could barely get them in the water when we went to the lake so dog paddling in the river is a really good start.
Well it's lunch time and my tummy is starting to let me know about it.
Have a great week.
Be blessed and be a blessing!Tina