This weekend

This weekend was the start of the Garden City Community College Broncbuster Football games. We enjoy getting to go each year. We have a really nice stadium at the high school that both the high school and college use. Exciting things happening too in our neck of the world - we now have a Jumbotron at the football field (the TV where they can do graphics and show replays and what not). Very exciting for our neck of the woods. It's kind of funny though, it's somewhat smallish, we decided it is probably the smallest size of Jumbotron available. You have to squint to see the replays. We (Bobbie Jo, Dan and I) nicknamed it the Jumbotron Jr. It was pretty fun to get Grant to say Jumbotron- all he could get out was 'tron'. It was hysterical. But in the end, we won our first game!
Before the game we went out to Bobbie Jo's (Tara's sister's) and spent the afternoon working on their basement that they are refinishing. Dan fixed the bathroom cabinets, worked on the lights, and painted. Tara and Bobbie Jo stained, sanded, and painted. Jeff worked on painting. Today, Dan had to work (unfortunately he works retail), and I cleaned our house. It's basically done, which is a good feeling since it hasn't been done since May, I believe. Sad thing is, I have lost my cell phone! Lost it on Thursday, and have yet to find it. We pulled out my old one tonight to get it charged up so we can switch the service back to the old phone tomorrow. I am going to do one last look through the office in the morning, maybe I'll find it there, but if not, it's back to the old phone. So, if you have called me kin the last 4 days or so, sorry! T

Last Weekend - Tumbleweed Festival

Last weekend was the Tumbleweed Festival here in Garden City. The last two years I have taken the niece and nephews. It has always been fun, but really exhausting. This year Dan got the day off and was able to come with us for the first year. Unfortunately, Macy didn't get to go with us this year, she went with mom to Wichita for a bridal shower. Here she is at 6:30 a.m. when Bobbie Jo dropped off the boys at the house.

Here are two of the three excited, but exhausted, boys.

The day starts out with the Annual Balloon Festival. It's small, but fun. This year there were 13 balloons. It is hit or miss whether or not they get to fly because of wind out here in southwest Kansas, but it is always fun to go regardless. We showed up at about 6:45 and they were already getting started.

For those KU fans out there...

Here is my wonderful husband with three 1/2 awake boys - Brendan, Trevor, and Grant.

And for you K State fans.

One cool thing is that you can go right up there next to the balloons and watch the action. You don't have to stay behind ropes or anything, you get right up there and can talk to those setting up the balloons.

The wind started picking up and these last two balloons didn't get the chance to get off the ground. They are just huge!!

Dan even got to get in on the action. The people running this balloon needed some help holding the basket down and steady, so Dan got to help out. I think he had a good time and would now love to do this as a new 'hobby'. I told him some day when we are old and independently wealthy we could consider it.

After the balloons we took the kids and headed to IHOP for some yummy breakfast. It's one of the only places here in town to get breakfast. Then it was onto the tumbleweed festival. It is down at the grassy area to the side of the zoo. It if a fun time for all. There are two stages going with live music all day, there is a huge tent with free crafts for the kids to do, and a kids stage with magic shows, story tellers, and all sorts of other fun shows for the kids. Face painting, and plenty of yummy carnival foods. When we got to the zoo, in the parking lot, the kids were so excited to see this...a leaf bug. The had never seen one except for on Horton Hears a Who. Do you see it there on the tree...

Here is a closer view.

Before things started, we stopped to play at the little playground at the zoo. They have some great toys there - the kids had a great time.

Dan had as much fun as the boys playing on the equipment. Here they all are on the big spiderweb.

Dan helping Trevor bead a bracelet.

Brendan loved the shows, I mean loved them!!! Here he is waiting for the next show to start in the morning.

Grant really wanted to make a bracelet, so here we are working on it. He did it all the beading himself, I just held the end so they didn't all fall off the other end.

Grant didn't get his full nap before it was time for lunch. This is shortly after he woke up and we had eaten lunch - you can tell he isn't fully awake.

Here is Brendan loving the shows.

Here is Trevor getting his face painted. We tried to get Grant to get something on his cheek, but he refused.

All in all it was a fun day! We stayed all day and didn't take the boys home until 6 p.m. It was a full day, but we all had fun!

ON THE ADOPTION FRONT: There have been a huge group of people traveling this past week and another big one getting ready to go next weekend, which, in other words, means more babies going home, which makes room for more babies to come to Hannah's Hope and be referred out to families waiting their children (like us!)

2 wks ago...

So, I am apparently not doing the best job at keeping up with posts, but am determined that I am going to do better. At least, one post per week. Now, after I say that, life has been crazy - still! I don't think it is going to slow down anytime soon. I have come to this conclusion -- from my information (not first hand), I believe that during a pregnancy, God is preparing the parents for the child. Beyond just the excitement of having a child, but there is discomfort, lack of sleep, things - such as morning sickness and backaches - that throw a wrench into you plans. You know, just pregnancy prepares you for life with children. I am also now a firm believer that God does a similar adjusting time for adoptive parents. Our life is crazy! We have even taken away some of the distractions and stepped down from things we used to do, and we are more busy! How does this happen!!! We are going to bed later, getting up earlier, and running all day! God is definitely preparing us for the crazy journey of parenthood - and we couldn't be more excited!!! It is just fun to see how God is 'providing' for us during this time of wait!

Ok, an on to two weekends ago (15 & 16) - we went to Colorado Springs to help Dan's parents work on their brand new house! What excitement. We were joined by Dan's siblings and accomplished alot. We painted the ceilings on two floors, switched out dishwashers, and pulled flooring, did some work, and replaced flooring. It was lots of fun! Enjoy some of the pictures of our handiwork... (I will add them after work - sorry didn't have time during lunch!) - Now, here are the pictures of us working on the flooring in the 'crawl space'.

And, if you know Dan and I at all, you know it doesn't get much better than Chipotle. It's not something we can get out here where we live, so of course, every trip to a 'big' city, we must eat there at least once. This time, the only chance we got, was on our way out of town. As you can see, Dan wasn't too sure how eating a big burrito while driving would work, but he managed...

And on the ADOPTION front: It looks as though some referrals have gone out in the last few weeks, so we are down some numbers on both the girl and boy lists. I am not going to post any 'unofficial' numbers, but movement is awesome!!!

New August Numbers and FDL update

So, this will be the last post for tonight. IF you are trying to keep up, go to the post at the bottom that is about our camping trip. It is what I started the evening out with... So, on to our newest set of numbers.... for the month of August we are on the lists as:

Boys:

Girls:

Siblings:

So at this point, who knows what we will be referred? It is all in God's hands...

Oh, and guess what... we got our FDL today!!! Yep, you read that right. 5 days and the FDL shows up. It was post marked as of this past Friday! How awesome is that. If you had looked at my earlier post, you will know we only went last Wednesday to get fingerprinted! God is so GOOD!!!

2nd and Last Fundraising Garage Sale

So this past weekend, the 7th and 8th, we had our 2nd (and final) fundraising garage sale. We had a garage full of stuff and a room in the house also fairly full! Garage saleing (sp?) in this town is an art form. The paper had 28 garage sales listed in this town, let alone the ones who didn't advertise. There were 4 in this small neighborhood. This town is only about 28,000 people, so it's a big deal on the weekends. Here is when we were just getting set up to go!

We had this sale at my grandmothers house. It has a much bigger and more level drive than we have. Our dog had a great time playing in the ivy.

We had about 21 tables full of stuff plus 4 huge racks of hanging clothes and 3 tables piled with clothing!

By the end of Friday, we were exhausted. It was in the 100's both days (approx 103). Down right hot! Dan decided to relax a few minutes on a table he cleared off!

Then one of the girls, Melody, who helped (from our Bible Bowl team) and my friend and Bible study leader Deb took a little break on the sofa we were selling.

Come Saturday morning, we had already changed our prices b/c we didn't want to have anything left over. Mel manned the clothing in the garage b/c we sold it by the bag full.

Here are our two other helpers Katrina and Chris. Everyone was excited b/c we sold all three tables we had full of books to one lady!!! Way to go Katrina!!!

By the end of the day, we wanted as much gone as we could, so this is how we went about it. And, let me tell you, we got some hefty donations doing this (more than we would have charged even at the beginning of the garage sale.)

It was a fun but tiring two days. We could not have done it without the full time help of Katrina, Chris, and Melody. Thanks to their parents who let us take them for two days and work their tails off. It was a successful garage sale and we figured between the two garage sales we proffited approx. $4000 give or take a bit! Pretty exciting since the great majority of our funds are having to be raised. God is good and has provided in abundance every step of the way!