Creepy. . .

At dinner tonight, Aidan had been playing with two cars. I asked him, several times, to give them to me. Finally, and quite exasperatedly, I said "Daĭte Mama!" And Aidan looked at me, gave me a cute and wise smile and said, "What do you want me to give you?" As I experienced the goosebumps, I looked at Pat and said that Aidan remembers waaaaaayy more than we think he does.

"Daĭte Mama!" means, "Give it to Mama!" in Russian. We haven't used that phrase with Aidan since we came home from Russia. . .2 years 2 1/2 months ago!

Creepy. . .

Hero Worship

Every child needs a hero. And if it is Mommy or Daddy, it is really cool. Aidan's hero is his Daddy.

Daddy drives a Bucket Truck and Aidan thinks that is about the coolest job in the world. He informs everyone he meets that "My Dad drives a Bucket Truck and I'm going to too when I get long legs like him!" He even draws pictures of Bucket Trucks at school, totally amazing his teachers:



A colorful option that shows Daddy with the long legs and googgly eyes in the cab and Aidan with the short legs in the bucket.



And another one with a man standing sideways with a great big head, no body, long legs with feet and arms with fingers. . .he is the sign guy you see on the road. . .

Yes, Big Boy Aidan, Mommy thinks Daddy is a great hero. In fact, he's mine too! He even replaced the camera I lost at the Russian Embassy with a new one I can take anywhere in my purse!!

And now for a couple of pictures from this weekend at the pool:




I think we must be getting ready for a major growth spurt. . .for the past three mornings, Aidan has polished off 3, yes THREE, bowls of cereal along with a huge glass of milk. . .wonder what my food bill will be in a few years??? : )

47. . .

Really? How did this happen??? Well, on this day, 47 years ago, I was born to David and Jacque at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, California. Yep. 47 years ago. Yikes!!

I really shouldn't complain. I am healthy. I have a wonderful and loving husband and a fantastic son. I have great family and friends and a good job. I have a beautiful home. I guess it's just the number that bothers me. . .it IS just a number. . .

Today, I plan to go to the pool and relax (swim like crazy with Aidan until each break) and then go out to dinner with Grandma and Grandpa. I have a few gifts to open from my family--the one from my Dad I suspect contains several jars of Gourmet Olives. . .I love olives, but. . . : )

My gift from Pat is a vacuum. That's right. A vacuum. It is a pretty red one. We bought it a couple of weeks ago when we took the old vacuum in to see if it could be fixed. No such luck. We wound up walking out of that store, nearly $500. later, with a beautiful upright, a year supply of bags (back to the bags) and a year of free service. I felt like we had "Sucker" written on our foreheads, but I have to be honest and say that this vacuum is totally awesome! It really does the job. Love it!! But, a vacuum again for a birthday present. . .At least he could have gotten my dive watch battery replaced!

Okay, I won't whine. I'll be gracious and be happy with my lot. It is a really really good lot. . .

Aidan got in bed with us again this morning. He hasn't done this for a long time and I wouldn't have minded today, except that I had been sleeping really good. He sleeps sideways and I wound up with his head on my side for a while and then his feet in my stomach. I finally gave up and came downstairs. It wouldn't be so bad, but I have a terrible case of laryngitis (no idea why--not sick) and wanted to rest some more.

We've been working hard on little projects lately. Painting is basically complete-for what we started, that is-the garage is getting cleaned up and the deck has been powerwashed (it looks almost as good as it did 10 years ago!). Pat's going to be out of town Monday and Tuesday so I'll start the new curtains for the Living Room and Dining Room on Wednesday--they will be some basic Jabot and Cascade things. I bought this beautiful material about a year ago and am just now getting around to having the time to make them! And, we've begun making a pile (a huge one) of things for a garage/yard sale that we hope to have in August sometime.



Pat gave me this really cool clock several years ago for Christmas. I really love it and have it hanging over the door in the Office. The main time is our time hear on the East Coast. The one a the 3:00 level is Mom's House (Las Vegas); the time at the 6:00 level is Chicago (my sister); the time at the 9:00 level is London; and the time at the 12:00 level is Moscow. You can set these locations up with little preprinted signs and I chose these when I received the clock in 2005--before we even decided to adopt. I love how God works! The only problem with the clock is that the batteries do wear out. . .and the time changes twice a year! : )

We bought a new desk top computer. It is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. There really isn't anything wrong with the laptop except that it isn't very kid-friendly on use. Aidan is a whiz on the computer at school. So, when I ordered this new one, I made sure it had the Student Package included. There is a great website for kids www.starfall.com that his teacher told me about. We've checked it out and it really helps and encourages the alphabet and reading through little games, etc. Aidan loves it and he'll be able to do this a lot easier with the new computer. We will then be a two computer family with a house network. Who knew that would happen??? I can see that, in the near future, we'll probably be a three computer family. . .

I don't have any wonderful pictures of Aidan to share today. Maybe later. . .The new computer does have a fantastic photo shop program that I can't wait to try out. Maybe it will inspire me to organize the photos better. . .And, I am finally going to start editing the blog for the hardbound book version. New computers are such great motivators!!

Have a great day! I'm going to go take a nap before the boys get up. . .

Final Re-adoption Order Approved!!!

It came in the mail today. . .it was approved on the 17th!!! That's only 3 days after I re-submitted the corrected paperwork!!! Now we're just waiting for the Virginia Certificate of Foreign Birth. . .It feels really good to have this behind us now. So, we're going to go out to dinner to celebrate!! : )

We are now a recognized in Virginia family.

Father's Day!

Wow. What a weekend! Crazy continues!! : )

Yesterday, Aidan and I went to the pool and hung out for a few hours. . .we swam, got browned and pretty much had a great time. Then, we came home, de-chlorinized and went out to dinner with Daddy and then. . .we saw Toy Story 3!!!!! AWESOME!!!





Did he pose for these??? Okay, maybe. . .Aidan loved the movie. It was really funny though. When we were walking in, several other children saw him and said, "Hey! Look! There's Woody!!" So cute!! Then, after the movie, we went to Borders Books (where we bought Grandpa's Fathers day present. . .and a lot of other books. . .) and a little girl saw Aidan and became soooo excited she could hardly stand it and said to her Daddy. . ."Daddy!!!! Oh My Gosh!!! THERE'S WOODY!!!" How cute was that???? She actually followed him around the store for a while. . .

Today, Aidan and I went back to the pool again for a couple of hours and browned out some more with our swimming and then we went out to dinner with Grandpa and Grandma to celebrate Father's Day!!! Must be special because Daddy and Aidan are still outside and it's past Aidan's bedtime!!!

But, really, it was nice to see Grandma and Grandpa. We hadn't for a couple of weeks. . .






Meanwhile, I'm just looking at house plans. . .Vacation Home???

A Week in Our Crazy Lives

Another crazy week down. Honestly, I thought we would be slowing down this summer!!! I purposely didn't put Aidan in any sports for the summer for that reason. . .I guess Crazy is going to be our way of life for a while!

This week was the final week of formal learning at Aidan's school so there were many end of year celebrations. Add to that, they had a Toy Story 3 coming out party and Father's Day Pancake Breakfast. The pre-K graduated on Wednesday and those children will go off to Kindergarten in September and Aidan will move up to the Pre-K. Lessons will continue over the summer, but it will be a much more relaxed schedule with a lot more play time and Water Day once a week where the children wear their swim suits and play in the hoses outside for a good length of time. I remember that Aidan really loved this last summer. . .

But, let me tell you about the Toy Story 3 coming out party. It was really cute. The children were asked to dress up as their favorite Toy Story character and they had snacks and foods that had names from one of the Toy Story movies. And they watched Toy Story 2. Aidan dressed up like Woody:









Those are Iron Man Walkie Talkies clipped to his pants pockets and you can't see that he is wearing his Cowboy Boots, but the shirt is actually from a Woody Costume that his cousin Tyler loaned him! He wanted to wear his own Cowboy hat though instead of the one that came with the costume. As you can see, the rest of the costume didn't fit--Aidan is too big!! But, how cute! The badge is one he got from the Loudoun County Sheriff at one of the parades we have. I'll get more pictures of him dressed like this tonight when we take him to see the movie!! I'm excited to do this--it's Aidan's first theatre movie!!

Daddy went to the Father's Day Pancake Breakfast with Aidan yesterday. I'm so glad. At first he wasn't planning to because of work. I didn't like that decision much, but it is up to him. But, then Thursday morning, when Aidan woke up, the first words out of his mouth were "Is today Pancake day?" I just looked at Pat and I could see him change his mind. On Friday, Pat took a couple hours off work and took Aidan to school, had pancakes with him and then went around the room playing a bit. Aidan loved it!

Yesterday was a long and tiring day for me. I had the day off to get the carpets cleaned. Shouldn't be too bad: we're only talking about two sets of stairs, a hallway, a bedroom, and the Family room. . .they are big areas though. I told the guy from Sears we weren't planning on keeping these carpets more than another year but we just wanted them clean enough to live with that long: The bedroom, hallway and upper stairs capet is 11 years old and the Family room and basement stairs carpet is 6 years old. The guy told me that I would see such a difference in how they looked that I might change my mind. . .we'll see. . .

They were supposed to be here between 10-12 but didn't show up until 2:30. Not a good start. But, with the time on my hands, I scrubbed our house, top to bottom, like it hasn't been scrubbed in a long time. By the time the Carpets were done, my house was practically sparkling, it was so clean!! And, yes, I have to say I will be reevaluating how long to keep these carpets. . .the Family Room, both sets of stairs and the upper hall look really fantastic. The bedroom looks better, but there is still an area, where the dogs lay--instead of on their beds--, that still looks not so great. By the end of the day, I had a raging headache, but still made a nice homemade Spaghetti dinner and we all enjoyed a little down time.

Daddy is back to working both days on the weekend--it was a nice one weekend off--so, Aidan and I are going to hang out at the pool today and probably most of tomorrow (very hot days now) and tomorrow night we're going to celebrate Father's Day with Grandma and Grandpa by going out to dinner. Looking forward to that!

That leads me to a funny conversation we had at dinner last night:
Daddy, who's your Daddy? Grandpa. Oh! Grandpa is Daddy's Daddy. Okay. So, who is your Mommy? Grandma. . .oh! Okay. And Grandpa Dave is Mommy's daddy? Yes, that's right! So, what about Nana???? Well, that's Mommy's Mommy. Oh!! Who's Tyler's Mommy??? Aunty Amy. Okay. . . It was really funny to watch him make the connections in his head. You could almost see it all happening on his face!!

And so, on to a busy weekend. Maybe next week will be calmer??? Right. Sure.

The 2010 157th Upperville Jumper Classic!!!

Today we went to the 157th Annual Jumper Classic in Upperville, Virginia. We've been going for several years and it is a lot of fun. This is a special event that has a lot of local celebrities. . .it is hosted by the Johnson family: aka Johnson and Johnson; it is a neighbor of the Firestone family; the DuPont's frequent the area; the Kennedy's, including Jacquelyn, have ridden in the ring; that is just to name a few personalities, and not to name drop (never met any of them, that I know of!!). Here are a few pictures of our day today:


This Cowboy's ready to go!!!


We're here!


Lovin' Life with Catherine!!


Pony Rides on Creamsickle!!







Moonbounce type slides!!! Woo Hoo. . .and over and over and over again!!!


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Me and Catherine went back to the Ponies. . .

And then, it was Snow Cone time!!



After changing into cooler clothes, we walked around the course. . .





And then the jumpers started!!!




One was even the Silver Medalist at the South Korea Olympic Games!!! They were sooo beautiful flying through the air. . .

Me and my Mama. . .


And then, because we were so hot, we went on home. . .This is where I could be found five minutes after that!


A fun time was had by all!!

Livin' the Good Life

We have a big weekend comng up, and I promise to post some pictures and tell stories about it afterward. But, I wanted to do a quick update about our past week: all the joys that we experienced.

As previously posted, I filed our Final Order to re-adopt on Monday. Yesterday when I got home, there was an envelope from the County in our mail. Could it be that quick??? Not so fast. I had forgotten to have Pat and I endorse the darned thing!! You'd think after all of the notarized signatures and apostilles we have done I wouldn't have slipped up on that one!! So, I reprinted it last night and this morning we will take it to the bank where we will sign the order and have it notarized. I will re-submit it on Monday during my lunch. Again. Good news on this is that the attached letter was dated June 8th--one day after I filed--and instructed me to have the Final Order re-submitted directly to the Judges Chambers when I re-filed the endorsed Final Order! Seriously. We actually MIGHT have this pretty qucik!

Thursday I had my bi-annual dentist appointment. My teeth didn't have anything scarier going on than what I already knew. Relief! So, now that the arm in back, mostly, I will get the work done on my teeth that I had been putting off this Winter and Spring.

Thursday evening I met with Aidan's teacher for a Parent-Teacher conference. Aidan is very smrt and doing very well in school. He is either on track or ahead in every category. I'm so proud of him! His teacher is really good. I wasn't too impressed with her at first--she was his fifth one, afterall!!--but, now that I've gotten to know her, I realize that she is really a good teacher and all about the kids! I wish she could move up with Aidan to Pre-K in September. I think she'd like to, too, and did say she was really going to miss Aidan when he moves up. I shared a little of Aidan's history with her and she told me I have nothing to worry about with his intelligence or his attention. He doesn't have the longest atention span, but he also doesn't have the shortest. And in fact he is really right on track for his age and for being a boy. She smiled toward the end and said Aidan is definitely all boy in that that is about his only issue during class--he gets a little rowdy as most little boys do! : ) But, she also added that he is a very loving, kind and empathetic child. That's my good baby!! I was so full of love and pride for him when I left the school!

That evening, I watched as he and Pat put the basket ball through the hoop several times in the back yard. . .that was a first. Daddy and son playing basketball together!

Friday I came home to a note from our cleaning lady saying the belt on the vaccuum was broken. . .she has always hated my vaccuum and has pretty much let me know it every chance she gets. . .Pat doesn't think it is broken, but I see a new vaccuum in my near future. . .I hate that!!! But, anyway, back to the cleaning lady: she apparantly used that excuse to not clean my kitchen floor! It's not a good floor and definitely does need to be replaced, but really!! I did pay her to clean it! My broom still works fine. . .things like this come up every so often with her. I would get someone new, or even go with a big company, but do actually like my cleaning lady. And she is an individual--not guarenteed her income like someone who works for a big company. So, I'll steam and stew on this for a while and then I'll buy a new vaccuum and then I'll let it go.

Today we're off to the pool with a picnic lunch, then some errands (I need some books for my summer reading stash which is empty! And possibly a new vaccuum.) and then dinner with Grandma and Grandpa. Tomorrow is the Colt and Horse show in Upperville! Can't wait for it all!

Oh, and I should mention sports: Now that the Blackhawks have won the Stanley Cup and Hockey is over, we are casting about for something to watch. Preseason football doesn't get going for another couple of months and Hockey won't come back for a couple of months after that. We're not really into soccer, and we've never really gotten into Baseball. . .in fact, we usually say in a small voice "we got the nats." But, wait! Now we can say, "HEY!! We got the NATS!" We have a new pitching phenom! And, here's a little proof we have always tried to encourage the Nats with Aidan. : )



He's going to love this picture someday, dontcha think?? ; >

No Balloons??? No Confetti??? No Ta Da Music???

Today I used my lunch break to go to the Loudoun County Court House to file our Final Order for the re-adoption of Aidan.

I drove into Leesburg, found excellent parking, walked over to the Court House, went through Security (after storing my cell phone in the little cell phone locker) and proceeded up the steps to the Clerk of the Court. . .where I was instructed to go to the File/Archives room in the basement--the stairs down could be found at the end of the room. . .two flights later, I arrived at this innocuous door which led into the File/Archives room. I proceeded over to the desk where a young man asked if he could help me. Proudly, I presented our Final Order documents and the Petition to receive the Virginia Certificate of Foreign Birth and identified that that was what I was presenting him. . .He gave my documents a cursory glance, stamped them in and said, "Okay. You're all done. You'll get the signed Order from the Judge in as little as 2 weeks."

Okay!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

And that was it! There were no balloons. . .there was no confetti. . .there was no Ta Da music. . .I was free to go. . .hmmmm. . .

Deflated, I left the File/Archive room, found my way back to the front of the Court House--through a convoluted outdoor route--retrieved my cell phone, walked back to the car and went back to work, where I arrived 40 minutes after I had left.

Well, I'll be celebrating BIG when the signed order is received!!!! : )

Down by the Cool of the Pool. . .

We had a playdate with a little girl who brought over a trike to ride that used to belong to Aidan. . .I guess he wanted to try it out again. . .he couldn't ride it at all two years ago because he was too small. Now he's too big! : )


So, it's that time of year when I break out my List Of Things To Do and update it with several items that need to be done during the summer. Here's a sneak peak of what we'll be doing:

* Deck Power Washed--Awesome! This is done! And it looks fantastic!
* Clean the windows, inside and out--some, including my kitchen window, still have a film on them from when the snow piled up on them last winter! Yikes!
* Have the Carpets cleaned. I keep putting this one off thinking what we have left will be replaced soon by wood floor. But, that doesn't look to be happening this year, so they MUST be cleaned this summer.
* Clean out closets and have a huge garage/yard sale. . .Definitely will do this in August!
* Take Aidan to Luray Caverns. . .definitely an August thing to do!
That's it. Not so bad, considering what my List usually looks like! : ) I might be able to get started on the windows next weekend. At least get the front windows done. . .

Our Social Worker sent in the final Response to the Order for our re-adoption. We got a copy in the mail yesterday. So, I will finish our Final Order paperwork, get it notarized, and then send it in this week. I'm hoping to have this all final with Aidan's new Virginia Certificate of Foreign birth later this summer. That would be a HUGE check off on the List Of Things To Do!

Meanwhile, we have had no relief on Pat's work schedule. He is currently on the midnight shift, which is mostly just difficult on the weekends. But, added to that, he has worked a couple of double shifts. So, needless to say, he has been exhausted. And I've had to keep Aidan quiet and occupied throughout the day. Yesterday was especially difficult because it was my weekend to clean the house. Aidan was good and stayed in the basement. But, a couple of his friends came over, rang the doorbell which got the dogs barking, and woke up Pat. So, today I will put a note over the doorbell asking that they call first. I meant to tell them that yesterday when they went home, but forgot. They were all good once they were in and safely downstairs though and really helped keep Aidan occupied.

Sadly, this morning when Pat came home, the dogs barked when they heard the garage door open, which woke me and Aidan up, and Aidan immediately wanted to get dressed and go play quietly down in the basement. . .poor kiddo!!! I so hope today is nice enough to go to the pool!!! Where Aidan can say "Wheee!!! Can you dance like me???? Down by the Cool of the Pool."

Next Sunday we're headed over to Upperville where the 160th Colt and Horse show will be wrapping up. I love going to this. We arrive early and walk around looking at all of the colts and horses, which are really beautiful. Then, Aidan can go on a moon bounce and take a pony ride. All of this is wrapped up with a nice picnic lunch on blankets and lawn chairs while we watch the jumping portion of the show. It is an awesome sight to see these beautiful animals fly through the air!

In a couple of weeks we're going to take Aidan to his first movie at a theatre. Toy Story 3 opens on June 18th and I got a free ticket for him. We already have movie tickets for me and Pat, so this should be really fun! I can't wait to see his reaction to going to a movie in a theatre. I think he'll love it!

In six weeks we leave for the beach! Woo Hoo!!! I need to make a list for that. . . : )

There was talk of going to Moe's for dinner tonight. However, I think we'll stay home, as a family and grill steaks out with corn on the cob and salad on the side. That sounds soooo much nicer, don't you think?