Ruby Falls

We are attending ICRS next week in St. Louis. Yesterday we stopped at Chattanooga and visted Ruby Falls.

We are going a bit crazy with stuff between the twins and Jasmine. We've had several time outs already. But we've also had fun.


Before the cave tour.

Inside the cave waiting for the rest of our group.

Standing in front of the falls.

Writing to Adam.

It seems like we've spent a zillion hours drivng. Well, we have!! But we are now in St. Louis. We have a few free days before the convention.

So Far this Week

We went to the bay on Father's Day. There were a couple of dolphin families when we first got there but they moved on once all the boats got on the water.

All of the kids tried the airhead tube including the twins. They rode one at a time with the older two. Tyler is still in Indiana.

Adam went on the kneeboard.

Father's day



Jessica and Adam had some friends over Monday noon for pizza and to watch The Spy Next Door. It stormed during the movie. We've had rain every day this week.

Then they played Wii outdoor adventure.

Adam and Davina

Jessica and Anthony. They were at at police camp together last week.

Adam ran a 10K at 6:30 this morning.

Happy Father's Day

and Happy Birthday tomorrow to my best friend and the father of my eight rascals!



1990




1990




1991

1991

1991




1995





1998


2000 (that's Deshele--would have loved to have kept her)



2000 Deshele, Jessica, Terah, Tyler, Jeff, Adam

2010

Jeff

While Jeff was home for Jessica's graduation, I took him to have his picture taken. We hope this is his senior year. It all comes down to whether or not he complete his math in time.

Jeff is our first child adopted from Haiti. He came home in 1998 when the adoptions only took six months start to finish.

Gainesville, Chuck E Cheese and Mean Mommy!

Yesterday we drove five hours for a ten minutes surgery consult for Jasmine, and then drove five hours back home. We stopped at Chuck E. Cheese on the way home to break it up. We don't have one in our town, so this one which is two hours from us is the closest.

This was the twins' first trip to Chuck E. Cheese

Only four children are home right now so that's who went.

This one sat time out. Don't let those sad eyes get to you. They were for dramatic effect.

He would not obey in the car so I told him he'd have to start with a few minutes time out. He went into one of his super stubborn moods. He does this a lot. Once the pizza came and was eaten and the others went back to play, I sat down next to Kaleb to talk to him. I said something like, "You are sitting here because you would not listen to me in the car." He gave me a nasty look, folded his arms over his chest and turned his back to me. So I said, "I see you are not ready to talk about it so you can sit here until you want to talk about it." Every time I came over to talk to him, he did the same thing. All that accomplished was that he got to sit while everyone else played. But he got pizza and soda. Still, not the way I'd pictured his first trip to CEC. We only visit one once or twice a year so his loss.

Kayla did well but then when I said it was time to go she hid. We called her and couldn't find her anywhere. I sent the other two to redeem their tickets while I looked for Kayla. Then they joined me looking for her. It was pretty empty so I was starting to think she'd left with a group that had left a few minutes earlier. Jasmine finally found her hiding at the bottom of a race car game. I just told her, "That's too bad. You missed getting any prizes." She was very unhappy when she saw that Jasmine had candy and little toys, but she understood it was because she didn't come when called but thought it would be funny to hide. That was probably the most effective consequences for the situation.

Jasmine will have two minor surgeries later this summer if we can get them approved by insurance. She needs a more complicated one but it would requires 2-3 separate surgeries, therapy and several trips to the hospital. She would miss lots of school so we are going to start it at the beginning of next summer.

Beach and Beyond

It's pretty quiet here now. Jeff has gone back to his group home, Tyler is with my mom and sister in Indiana and Jessica is at Police Explorer Camp. She gets to get up at 4 a.m. for PT every day. No caffeine--no coffee,tea or soda; no sguar, no desserts. Today was her first full day and she's probably in shock from the early morning and no caffeine : ) I wanted to post a picture but every picture has our location in it on the shirts or van.

Yesterday I took the three little ones to the beach in the afternoon.

I am the only non watermelon eater in the family other than Jeff, and he's not here.

Adoption Update

We have adoption decrees for both twins now and already have them translated. They were dated January 11, 2010 so the twins were legally ours the day before the earthquake. It would have been nice to have those papers so we could have put our last name on everything--insurance, school registration etc. I wonder where the papers were all this time? Oh well, they are here now. Next step is to figure out what the next step is!!