Tuesday, October 16, 2007

More FL pictures








Dragon Pics



Jeff was really pleased with this guy's work--you can still see the scar if you look REALLY closely--but he incorporated the scar into the curve of the dragon's body.

The rest of Florida (in a nutshell)

I've given up giving a day by day account of our FL vacation, but we spent lots of time at the beach--swam in the hotel pool and took long evening walks in the sand. We also cooked out by the pool several evenings--those were great nights. We went to Sea World one day (yes, it really WAS free for military!) and it was pretty neat--except Tajir was running a serious fever and we left after the first show and chocolate ice cream (which Taj hurled into a bag in the back seat. YUCK!) Taj wasn't really feeling well for the rest of the trip--he spent a LOT of time in the air conditioned room playing Playstation II. We found a great all-you-can-eat Oriental buffet--went there twice. We went through a Timeshare and VERY seriously considered investing--until we crunched the numbers. We spent a lot of time talking about "moving to the beach". I found the local Unity church and went both Sundays with Sascha and Zadina. Jeff found an artist to do the dragon tatoo on his chest that we've been discussing for over 10 years--he got it done the day before we left Daytona. Our last day in Florida we went to Universal Studios--Jeff and I liked that better than the Magic Kingdom, but the kids voted for MK. I was disappointed that it was only open until 6:00. That night we went to a Golden Griddle and celebrated Sascha's birthday a week early. We dropped Aria and Jeff off early Thursday morning for their Omaha flight and I drove back with Taj and Zadina and Sascha. We made good time and were back in Omaha Saturday afternoon. After church Sunday we drove home.

Busy Days...

We are fostering a little boy right now--"J". He is four days younger than Sascha and very sweet. I don't know how long he'll be with us--but I'm 99% sure he's going home in the next few months.

We're getting back into the groove of things--homeschool, dinners with friends, putting summer clothes away and pulling out fall things. I've been making some of our Christmas gifts and we picked up a few things yesterday and wrapped them. My goal is to be done Christmas shopping by the end of October this year. Plus, we are going home for Thanksgiving but not Christmas so I need to have all the gifts ready to drop off then.

Jeff is doing well--missing us and ready to come home, but he's safe and well. He is completely bald now--he's decided to shave his head bald since so much had fallen out. They are going out for 9 days at a time and getting about 2 1/2 days off. Still no word on when he'll be home--sometime between February and August, I suppose....

Still no word on a sibling group to adopt--the "permanancy meeting" has STILL not been held for the three boys in Topeka--and we are looking into a sib group of FOUR who are also in Topeka right now. I told Jeff about them and he said, "Lisa, I can't handle nine...." So, I guess, if we add these four we are really and truly DONE.... I hope to be able to meet them soon and see if they are a "maybe" for our family. (They are 5 1/2(girl), almost 3(boy), almost 2(girl), and 5 months(boy).)

Monday, October 1, 2007

Home AGAIN!!!!

We just got home from our Arizona vacation (and I hadn't even caught up with blogging our Florida one yet!!!!) We are all well and TIRED and safe. It was great to see my cousins and their kids and my aunts and uncles--and even better to be HOME. (And as I write this, I know my parents still have another hour of driving ahead of them!)

I'll try to start catching up tomorrow, but the highlights of this trip were: Sonoma (GORGEOUS!!), daydreaming about moving to the desert and / or the mountains, and my three adorable second cousins--Keon, Will, and Jacey. Jillian and Renee are both such good mommies--and Jace is growing up to be such a sweet girl!!