Where Have I Been???

Not sure. Mostly on Facebook I guess. Nobody has really asked me about the blog in a while so I wasn't really feeling the need to post. Still not really feeling the need to post actually. Definitely not feeling the time to post here. Plus, blogs are so 2007 anyway. Facebook and Twitter seem to be much more popular.

The End of Flag..........Football

A better term that I have heard for flag football is flackle football. For flag, there is an awful lot of tackling going on. Which is not all bad. The boys need to learn to be a little bit aggresive with each other when they are playing football. Caleb had a great year. I'm not sure how many touchdowns he scored but it was a bunch. He threw a touchdown pass or two and caught a touchdown pass or two. He grabbed a lot of flags on defense. But most of all, he had fun. And that is the most important. Oh yeah, I had fun too.

Coy and Katie enjoyed going to the concession stand during the games with Grandmas and Grandpas the most.

Basketball season starts soon but not until soccer season is over. The last weekend for Graceland is this coming weekend while Katie has another Net Surfer's game on Halloween.

Coy had another appointment with the plastic surgeon last week. The speech therapist is encouraging us to have a surgery to help him maintain the air in his mouth when he speaks. The plastic surgeon is recommending that we stay with the speech therapy and not be in a rush to do the surgery. We don't know what to do so the easiest thing for us to do is wait. That is hard for us to do when we know what we want to do or should do but in this situation, I don't think we have a clue as to what to do so we will just wait......and pray. We have seen some pretty amazing things happen and I feel like if we stick with it, we will see some more.

The first pictures are from a corn maze that we did in Lanesville a couple of weeks ago. The kids had a great time and we walked alot. The other picture is from a Halloween party that we went to in Versailles last weekend.

Nothing New

Not really much new to report. A funny story, for some reason, Caleb was wearing around this Eeyore costume last weekend. He and Katie were wrestling around and all of a sudden, in a pretty good Eeyore like voice he said, "This is a good day for wrestling." It made me laugh.

Happy Birthday Coy

Wow, I have really let time get away from me. I wasn't intending for this blog to document our life but I rarely have time nor energy to write about anything other than what we have been doing. We have done SO much the last couple of weeks that I just have not had the chance to post it on here. The biggest event in the last couple of weeks was easily Coy's 5th birthday party. This milestone is huge for us because it means that he has almost been with us for as long as he was in Ukraine. By Thanksgiving, he will have been with us for as long as he was in Ukraine. That boy has such a joy in life that I wish that I could imitate. It is hard for him not to smile, when he gets enough sleep. Caleb and Katie have also done a great job of making Coy's birthday a success. I think that they realize, at least a little bit, how lucky we are to have Coy in our family.

Soccer and football are in full swing now. Katie and Caleb get to play on the same team again this year. Kinda bitter sweet because this might be the last time. Coy is actually improving too. He has kicked the ball several times this year and is not quite as timid as he was last year. He even kicked the ball in the right direction and almost scored a goal. He has fun playing too.

Coy started his school on the Wednesday after Labor Day. He seems to like his class and his teacher. Stacey likes the start and stop time for the school. We are hoping that he will get ready for Kindergarten. He still goes to speech a couple of times a week. His speech teacher is encouraging us to take him back to the plastic surgeon to get him tested for air leaks in his mouth because he continues to have trouble making some sounds. We have not done that yet but need to soon.

On Labor Day, our plans to surprise the kids with a trip to Holiday World fell through so we ended up going to French Lick to the indoor water park. It is a Great Wolf Lodge lite kind of place and it was fun to just spend the afternoon there. Three and a half hours was just about right.

I had the privilege of going on Katie's field trip to Squire Boone caverns not too long ago too. We had a lot of fun. Katie really impresses me. She is so smart, and so beautiful, and is such a hard worker and has such a servant's heart. Me, on the other hand, got in trouble with the teacher twice while on the field trip. I should have known better. Maybe if I get to go again I won't misbehave. But I love having fun with the kids.

This is too much for me

We celebrated Caleb's 9th birthday a couple of weekends ago. It just doesn't seem possible that he is that old already. But I guess he is. We had his birthday anyway.

Katie helped a friend of her's celebrate her birthday by riding in a limo to go and get ice cream. She then spent the night at the girl's house. Needless to say she was tired the next day.

The lizard is Mr. Snuffleupagus. I have seen bigger ones than this crawling on the side of our house but this is the first time I have troubled myself to go and get the camera to take the picture. He actually fell from the top of the basement door onto the concrete and I thought that the fall might have killed him but in a few minutes, he walked away.

Football and soccer are in full swing now. Between practices and games, we have something going on 6 nights of the week. Is that too much??? I'm not sure. Actually I am sure, I just don't want to admit it. If we are here, we end up watching TV so I am glad that we are out. We do spend a lot of time in the yard playing too but somehow we always end up migrating back to the idiot box. Me included.

Katie scored a goal this past weekend. She is still playing up (U-8 on a U-9) team but the girls are a lot more her skill level this year. I'm expecting great things from her and another girl that plays on her soccer club for the church team. Don't tell Caleb but both of those girls can play circles around him in soccer. Except for goalie. He is a pretty tough stop there.

Coy has spent some time with his grandmothers/grandfathers this past week and will again next week. His school doesn't start until after Labor Day so it makes for some tough times with Stacey's work. He has a blast though but he doesn't sleep well. I think he gets too excited to sleep.

Its Over

I have finally scanned the picture of Stacey and Caleb from the newspaper the day after the triathalon. Caleb had wrecked his bike and didn't finish as well as he had hoped. The timing was all messed up anyway so even if he had not wrecked, we would not have known how he did compared to the others. It doesn't matter though, they finished and did their best. That is all that counts.

Summer break is over. The kids got on the school bus today. They were kind of excited but not excited enough that I have any hopes that it will last all year. They both have friends that are in their classes so that is good.

Soccer is getting ready to be in full swing. I'm looking forward to it but I know that it will be a lot of time too. Luckily, just two teams this year and not three like last year. Katie is "playing up" with the 8 and 9 year old league at Graceland. She actually only misses their cut-off date by a little more than a month so it is not like she is in way over her head.

We Are Family

We had our annual trip to Holiday World on Monday. Lots of other people must have had the same idea. Although the crowds weren't as bad as we have had at other times. But we all had a good time. The bad part was that we had van trouble on the way home and had to call Stacey's parents to come and get us. They took the kids back to their house and then we drove Richard's truck back to Floyds Knobs and got home at 3 in the morning. We would have gotten home sooner if that State Policeman had not been so concerned with my speed. 72 in a 70 Mom, with a warning. : )

Caleb rode the Voyage 4 times and Katie rode it 3 times. The last time, they rode it with their hands up the whole way. I rode it too and that thing was fast. It has been a long time since I rode any roller coaster that size but I think it was just as fast as I remembered the Beast being. And my two oldest kids rode it. Coy rode a lot of things too and he has a blast. He just has a love of life that is unmatched. Even late in the day, after a long day of playing and walking and riding and standing in line, he doesn't whine or complain. He just loves whatever we do.

A Wild One

Last Saturday was an awesome day that I hope to not repeat again for a very long time. To start things off, Caleb played a baseball game at 8 PM on Friday night. That put us all getting home around 10 PM and trying to settle down and get to sleep. Then we were all up and gone by about 6:45 the next morning so that Caleb and Katie could participate in a kid's triathlon. They had practiced all week for it (Coy, the ever present cheerleader had gone to practice too) and come EARLY Saturday morning, they were ready to go. We were at the race by 7 AM. The race only lasted less than 20 minutes but they were going at it hard for those 20 minutes. Caleb wrecked his bike during the race and got a pretty good strawberry on his shoulder and leg. Katie fell down during the run and skinned her knee up pretty good. The best part was though that they both finished.

From there, we packed up and went to Louisville so that Katie could play in a 3 vs. 3 soccer tournament. She and 5 other girls played in the U-8 Division. 4 of the 6 girls had done the triathlon so they were a tired group. They didn't fare so well but they gave it their all. Caleb and I only stayed for the first couple of games though because we had to be in Lanesville for the first of 2 games for him that afternoon and evening. He didn't do so well as far as the W/L column either but he had fun and kept a good attitude about it the entire time.

I was so proud of Coy though because he NEVER complained. He didn't whine, he just went everywhere that we asked him to go. He normally does not complain or whine (unlike the other two) and it helps out a lot when Grandmas and Grandpas are there.

Stacey and Caleb also made it on the FRONT PAGE of the Clark County Indiana newspaper on Sunday. Caleb was upset that he had wrecked his bike and was nearly in tears as he crossed the finish line. Stacey caught him and gave him a big hug soon after he finished. The picture in the paper was of Stacey giving Caleb that hug. We have a couple of copies of it. IF I get around to it, I will scan it and post it here. We had been looking for it on the web but were unable to find it. If I find it, I will post the link.

New Pictures

A friend of ours is a budding photographer and she took our kids to a nearby park to take some pictures. These are just a few of them. I posted all of them to my facebook page. If you are on facebook but aren't my friend, send me a friend request and I will accept and you can check them all out!!

Lanesville All-Stars took it on the chin this week at the tournament in South Central. They won the first game but then lost the next three. Two of those losses were to the Graceland Baptist All-Stars. Their team had 5 or so boys that Caleb is friends with so they were hard losses for him. Truth be told, Lanesville is a small league and they just don't have the talent pool to pick from that most of those other teams do. Most of the kids play really hard and give it their all, which is the most you can ask for at age 8.

This weekend is shaping up to be a wild one. Caleb has another baseball tournament and Katie has a soccer tournament. Plus, they are both scheduled to participate in a triathelon next weekend too. We will see how it goes.

We went to the Great Wolf Lodge last week. It was a lot of fun. We were going to stay and go to the Air Force Museum in Dayton and then to Kings Island but Caleb's baseball tournament got in the way so we came home early. We are still hoping to go to an amusement park sometime in the near future.

Diving In and KAZ

The kids are taking swimming lessons at the local middle school again this year. This is the fourth year in a row that our oldest two have taken them. This is Coy's first year. Funny how kids grow up. Last year, we were begging Caleb to jump off the diving board. This year, he has been doing front flips off of the diving board (more like back splatters but every once in a while he gets all the way around). Well, Coy is really progressing in his swimming and today he got to jump off of the diving board into 12 feet of water. That is not the amazing thing though. The amazing thing is that Stacey can sit by and watch these kids do these things. Caleb and Katie swim up and down the pool like little fish too.

A good friend of mine that lives in central Kentucky got news today that their adoption dossier has been submitted to the Kaz consulate in Washington DC. They have been waiting to get past this hurdle for quite a while and now they have. What this means is that they will likely get to travel to Kaz for an adoption within 11 months, but hopefully sooner. The process in country seems to be a little different than Ukraine but the result will ultimately be the same. A child that does not have a home today will ultimately get a forever family. Way to go Kara and Michael. Stay with it....

Caleb was the third grade camper of the week at his basketball camp. Not sure out of how many but it didn't matter to him. His reward was what looked like an old Floyd Central HS jersey that won't fit him for 5 years or so. We were all pretty excited about it though. Katie is excelling at her drama camp this week. All except for the getting up and getting ready to go part. She thought that she was going to be doing one of those big productions like "Sound of Music" or something. I don't think she needs any practice at drama but perhaps this will give her an outlet for her drama other than here at home with us.

We are really enjoying the pool too. At least when it is not raining we are.

Don't Eat the Ice Cream

When you come to our house and we offer you ice cream, you might want to double check and make sure that it is a brand new package and not one that we have already opened as evidenced by the video. Katie and Coy love ice cream. Caleb can take it or leave it. We were playing a version of baseball in the pool tonight and Katie and I lost and Stacey and Caleb won and Coy was just kinda in the pool. When we lost, Katie storms off mad and Stacey yells "Losers get ice cream." Coy, who was not even paying attention, yelled "Mom, I'm a loser!". Nobody got ice cream tonight.

Coy had his well child check up the other day. Unfortunately, I was out of town so I did not get to go but I will report what Stacey reported back to me. He is in the 75th percentile in height and 60th in weight. No real other concerns. According to Stacey, our regular pediatrician was acting very sleepy so he wasn't his usual happy self so she didn't get a lot out of him. Oh well, Coy seems to be very healthy anyway. He did get three shots and blood drawn.

Katie appears to be healing very well. She was able to do the monkey bars over the weekend just 4 weeks after breaking her collarbone. She goes back to the no good Orthopedist in a couple of weeks but we are pretty much letting her do most things already. This is Katie at her soccer team awards dinner. She is going to practice with her travel team in the fall but play games at Graceland.

Caleb made the all-star team of the Lanesville baseball league. There are just three teams and the coach picked at least 5 kids off of Caleb's team but he was excited just the same.

The kids have a pretty jam packed first few weeks of summer. Basketball camp, swimming, drama camp, and probably some soccer camps and probably a soccer tournament.

This is vintage Coy happy face.

Maybe.......

Katie has the most to share this past week but I have to start out with a story about Coy. Coy likes to eat, there is no secret about that although I will say that his volume has slowed down from the early years. He is still a good eater. He likes to take his time when he eats (he is easily distracted and looks around a lot while eating). That is a good thing, we could learn from him, but we usually end up waiting on him to finish. On Friday night, we went to Cici's and ate pizza. Everyone was finished and Coy was still munching away. I asked him by saying "Coy, do you want us to leave you here while you finish and then come back and get you in a little while??" and his response to me was a sheepish grin, a thoughtful pause and then......."maybe." We all shared a big laugh with that one.

Katie broke her collarbone on Saturday night. We had some friends over and she was out in the yard running in flip-flops and down she went. Softball season is now over and soccer season is more than likely over. The worst part was that we had planned for her to get baptized on Sunday. Even though she was in some pain, she decided that she wanted to go through with it so she got baptized, broken collarbone and all. Caleb and Katie also got the "opportunity" to get slimmed last weekend too. They each only missed one question and so they were only slimmed once.

Earlier in the day on Saturday (last Saturday) we went to Jeffersontown to visit Gayla, who was one of the ladies that helped us while we were in Ukraine. She is a sweet lady and her voice took me back to that apartment and those days that we spent with her. We didn't get to spend a lot of time with her but we did get to show her our other two children and let her see Coy for a bit. Seeing her also reminds me of the other children that are still over there, waiting for parents, or anyone for that matter, to love them.