Silver Dollar City and Long Lost Friends

I've been looking forward to this weekend since we got that nasty phone call that told us we were going to be lost in the woods for two years.  I'll back up and tell you about Becky and Denise.  I "met" Denise on-line about ten years ago on Hannah's Prayer, an online infertility ministry.  We walked through primary infertility together and eventually adopted from the same region and orphanage in Russia.  I was so blessed to get to meet Denise right before our adoption, but I haven't seen her since.  I can't really tell you when I "met" Becky.  I know it was sometime between the adoption of her two children; so maybe seven or eight years.  I "know" a lot of women online through HP and Becky has been on my top ten to meet for a long time.  Both Denise and Becky are awesome Christian women who ooze God out of their pores.  They are fun and outgoing.  It was just what I needed.

We met them in Branson at Silver Dollar City on Saturday morning.  It was so amazing to see Denise standing there looking for us.  It's awesome that through technology, I have built such good friendships.  We know each other inside and out, yet we hardly ever, if ever, get to see each other.  I was helping Allie get seconds at the buffet for lunch, when I met Becky over the pudding.  I heard "Hi Kelly."  Fun.  Even though it's the first time I've met Becky in person and the second for Denise, it was like we'd known each other forever, because we have.  We've walked the last decade together through so much junk.  There was none of that weird akwardness of meeting someone for the first time.

Our kids all got along fabulously.  Between our infertile families, we have seven children ages six to nine, six of which are adopted.  We took the kids on just about every ride in the park and only left on Saturday because the park was closing.  That night, the kids swam at the hotel pool while we waited for pizza.  We let the kids eat in one room (adjoining) and the adults got to eat and catch up in another.  Denise's husband, Heath, came, but Becky's was drilling (Active National Guard).  I'm hoping we can meet Becky's family to camp in the spring.  Becky had to go home early on Sunday, but the rest of us headed to the park again for another day of rides.  Going home was hard.   There might have been tears, but we have season passes now so we can meet our friends again anytime we want!!!

Ok, pictures...there are lots.  Deal with it.

Becky, Denise and Kelly

Will, Kaden, Abby, Allie, Jaelyn, Elaina, and Caden

The giant swings were so much fun.

Who doesn't love the teacups?  Well, Dan!  I got in trouble for taking pictures during the ride, but it was worth it to capture those smiles.

That Dumbo is one scary ride!

It was so much fun, we almost couldn't stand it.

Our favorite ride.  Abby calls it the sombrero, but that's not it's really name.  I bet we rode it 8 times.

The girls of Toliatti - Abby was a couple months old when we were there adopting the girls.  Abby's brother Will was in another orphanage in the same region.

Love this picture!

Jaelyn ran into a tree, don't ask, and got tree burn on her forehead.

Abby and Allie getting ready to ride the Powder Keg - our favorite-ist roller coaster at the park!



What's a day at a park without a funnel cake!!!

Caden and Will loved shooting targets in the flooded mine.

So, did we have fun or what????

Bread

I've always thought it would be neat to make my own bread.  I've never done it though.  Well, this summer, I sort of bought/swapped a Kitchen Aid mixer - my first ever stand mixer.  I've been using it for cookie and pizza dough.  I saw bread flour at the store yesterday morning and got inspired.  As soon as I got home, I got out the old standard checkered cookbook and found a recipe for honey wheat bread.  I had it timed perfectly so I'd pull the bread out of the oven right before I had to leave to pick up the kids from school.  Unfornately, the first rise took longer than planned so by the time the second rise was done, I didn't have time to bake it before I had to leave.  I just let it keep rising while I got the kids.  We came home to bread dough over-flowing the pans.  Allie helped me punch it back down and get it in the oven after the third rise.

Here it is baking...it smelled soooo good.

It was yummy.  The kids kept commenting how it tasted just like Longhorn's bread.  I paired it with steaks, sweet potatoes and a salad.  It was better for us then eating out at Longhorn, but I had to wash all the dishes.  They do it for you at Longhorn!  We ate almost an entire loaf.  I sliced the second loaf to use for sandwiches.  I made the kids' lunch sandwiches on it.  I can't wait to hear their reactions this afternoon.

Saturday Scavenger

A Red Traffic Light

not very creative...sorry

 Something Symmetrical

Zac's sweet face

A Fast Car

so fast that it took about 20 shots to get one with the car in the frame

A Preview to our Weekend

This weekend by far has been the highlight of our move to Missouri. 

Meet Becky and Denise:  two women I met online during one of the hardest times of our lives.  They've become real life wonderful friends and I'm so thankful to get to live near them.

We spent the weekend with these beautiful ladies and their families in Branson and had the most amazing time.  I'll tell you all about...tomorrow.  For today, I have laundry and shopping and cleaning that I have to get done.

Doodle Update

Here's our weekly picture.  Our breeder says that the puppies are so active that it's getting hard to photograph them.  She had trouble with her flash and the color is not accurate.  They are washed out and much redder then the photo.  Don't you love the fluff??

Don't Look at the Food

Well, okay you can look at the food as it's a bowl of yummy Southwest Chicken Soup.  My friend, Denise, gave me the recipe eight years ago which was the last time I saw her.  I'm very excited that I'm going to get to see her again THIS weekend.  I'll write more about that later.

For now, back on topic...

Don't look at the food.

Look at the bowl and the spoon.

Our dishes were wedding presents 15 years ago and are really showing their age.  I've wanted new dishes for a couple of years, but kept putting it off.  With the help of a sale, a 30% off coupon and Kohl's cash, I bought new dishes.  They came yesterday and I LOVE them.  I wanted plain white with just a small detail so they wouldn't be too plain.  I bought Mikasa which is what I had before in the hopes it'll wear as well.  Dan and I laughed when we opened the boxes because "ultima+ super strong" is stamped across the bottom.  Time will tell.

As for the silverware, either my children are eating it or throwing it away.  Do your kids do that?  I replaced half my spoons a few years ago at an outrageous price on ebay since our pattern has been discontinued so this isn't a new problem.  I'd been noticing that we were running out of spoons and kids' forks (dessert forks) again and counted.  My kids have thrown away 6 forks, 5 spoons and 2 knives (I knew I shouldn't let them practice cutting food).  Seriously???  When I priced replacements, I could buy all new for less than those few pieces; so that's what I did. (on sale and with the same Kohl's coupon...here's a good tangent - someone told me they are currently building a Kohl's in Rolla, the town 30 miles away.  That makes me happy happy happy)   I'm keeping my old salad plates and silverware for the kids to use.  As soon as they prove they can manage those, they can use the new stuff :).

Volunteering

Our last elementary school would not let parents work in the classroom.  There was a parent work area and I'd help copy, cut, staple and collate there, but what I really wanted to do was work with the kids in the classroom.  I spent 5 years getting my elementary education degree.  While I NEVER want to be a teacher again, I do love working with the kids in more of a tutoring type capacity.  They actually LET parents in the classroom here.  How awesome is that?  I started working in Jaelyn's class last week.  Mrs. M divided her class up and they are having "book club" meetings a couple times a week.  My book club is reading Strider and I'm really enjoying.  Jaelyn has some fun kids in her class.  Next week, I'll start in Allie's class and hopefully in Caden's class if his teacher will ever email me back.

I've already met a few volunteering moms.  I don't need best friends here.  I have those already that move with me online.  I just need social interaction.  Maybe someone to go to lunch with occasionally.

In other news, I found the exercise group that I was so sad about losing.  I ran into the trainer at the kids' Walk-a-thon.  They changed locations and I'm in on the secret now.  Yea.

Look What We Found

A Sonic...be still my heart!

New Doodle Pictures

You probably aren't as excited to see these pictures as I am.  And honestly, I can't believe how excited I am about it.  I want our Gracie Mae home...N-O-W...which is so funny from the "cats rule dogs drool" kind of person that I am.

The puppies are two weeks old and becoming toddlers as you can see from the one that got up and  toddled right out of the photographs.

I love the wavy hair.  Don't you just want to snuggle them and breathe in their puppy scent?

The Bell

I love this bell.  It belonged to Mary Adeline.  She was my Grandma Molly's Mother.  I was told it is a school bell, but I don't know if that's true or not.  I do know it's large and loud so it's possible.  It's only purpose in my home has been to be pretty.  It's been in a curio or on a shelf or most recently packed away in a box in the basement. I've found it's purpose.  Have I mentioned how long our house is?  It was originally built as a duplex and the army did a surprisingly good job of sound proofing between the two units.  Noise does not travel between the two halves of the house very well.  When you are in the bedrooms, you can't hear what's going on in the rest of the house.  It was getting very frustrating at mealtime.  I'd have to walk the eighty two feet to tell everyone it was time to eat.  No one ever heard me when I yelled.  I unpacked my bell and have been using it as a dinner bell.  It's working great.  The kids come running when they hear it.  Pavlov knew what he was talking about.  I bet Addie would be glad to know her bell is being used and loved again.

It's Your Birthday

Happy Birthday to my amazing husband.  I love you and I hope you've had a great day.

We have an unwritten rule in our house.  On your birthday, we do what you want to do.  If you want to have a party, we have a party, if you want to go to Wolf Lodge, we go to Wolf Lodge.  Dan wanted to go Geocaching today; so geocaching we went.  We found 4 together in Mark Twain National Forest and hit trails.

{Too many pictures, I know, but I love all of them.  Just be glad I weeded them down from my 35 favorites}

A train bridge we had to drive under on a tiny gravel road.  I've never seen a wooden bridge like this before.

On our way to the first cache.

We found 4 out of 5 today.  The "I tank you can" cache stumped Dan for the 3rd time.  Caden actually told me I couldn't find that one because "I don't have the skills."  After I found the second and third caches of the day, he changed his tune.  "Mommy has skills," he said!

Jaelyn and her creatures...I felt sorry for this poor toad that she caught.

We hiked to the ruins of the Bussman Fuse Company Retreat Lodge.  All that's left are two chimneys, some stone walls and a bridge.  I plan to do some googling to learn more about it.

We might have to call these woods "snakey woods" because we saw two black snakes.  This one had creapy, white eyes.

The stone bridge was really pretty.

After the lodge, we hiked up to the top of the hill and were rewarded with an amazing view.  I want to go back in a few weeks when the leaves are a fire of reds, oranges and yellows.

Beware if you ever come to visit our house because there seems to be an endless Nerf war being waged.  I thought Dan should have a little more serious fire power.  Unfortunately, the gun we chose has a clip and only uses small darts so we'll be exchanging it for of equal fire power.

In honor of our Alaskan friends, we had chocolate "moose" cake for dessert.  Jaelyn wanted to know what moose tasted like and I told her probably venison or caribou.  She told me I was wrong. It tasted an awful lot like chocolate :).

I realized that Dan and I have known each other for 20 years this fall.  Oh what a journey it has been.  I wouldn't change it for anything...okay, well, he would have learned to wash dishes and clean the toilet, but those are the only things I would change.  I love you, Dan. Happy Birthday!

Caden's Poetry Recitation - On a Dark Dark Night

Dan recited this last night at dinner and Caden loved it.  He's had Dan repeat it a few times and now he has it memorized (almost).

And as an added bonus...a face only a Mommy could love.

Scavenger Hunt Saturday

One of my friends is hosting a photo scavenger hunt on her blog.  Feel free to play along. 

This week's clues are:

Something green

My Favorite Plant

Something that opens and closes

Nesting Dolls

 The number 5

Toys for Our New Puppy

 

Zac and the Tooth Fairy

I don't think that I've mentioned that we are loose tooth central.  Seriously, teeth are literally falling out of the kids' mouths.  Two weeks ago, Jaelyn pulled out one of her cuspids.  A few nights later, Allie yelled that she'd pulled a tooth long after bedtime.  Currently, Caden has four loose teeth, Jaelyn has four, and Allie has one loose tooth.  Tuesday, Jaelyn came home from school with a one year molar in a tooth box.  She left it for the tooth fairy and woke up Wednesday to...her tooth.  We wondered what was up with the tooth fairy and decided to leave the tooth another night.  She woke up Thursday and her tooth was still there.  We speculated over breakfast what could be wrong. 

Maybe the tooth fairy had forgotten. 

Maybe there were a lot of teeth lost and she couldn't get to everyone. 

Maybe she ran out of money. 

Maybe she didn't take old, yellowed molars. 

Maybe she didn't like Jaelyn anymore. 

Maybe Allie chased her away in the night with Caden's bug net. 

Maybe Zac chased her away.  He has been sleeping in the girls' room lately. 

We decided to try during the day encase she was over-worked at night and to try closing Jaelyn's door encase Zac was the culprit.  I volunteered in Jaelyn's class that morning and ran errands in the afternoon.  When she came home from school, she found this...

Later that day, Jaelyn came to me and asked if I was the tooth fairy.  I am not going to lie, but I definitely won't be telling the truth if I can help it.  I asked her what she thought and she said she thought I was.  I told her "if you don't believe, the tooth fairy will stop coming."  She hasn't said anything else to me.  I'm sad that my big 9 year old is getting too smart for her own britches...next up might be Santa Claus.

A Contest

Dan sent me a flyer for a photo contest a few weeks ago.  I love to take pictures, but they aren't professional by any stretch of the imagination.  He wanted me to enter and has continued to pester me about it.  He even registered me so all I had to do was pick photos for the different categories and upload them.  I finally sat down last night and did it.  Dan thinks I have a good chance of winning, but I think I've already won.  Just the fact that he thinks my pictures are good enough to win is enough for me :).

Jaelyn's going through her pictures now because she wants to enter as well.  I think she has several good ones.

Introducing...

On September 11, 2011, the newest member of our family was born.

Mommy, Waffles, had three baby girls and four baby boys.  One of those three baby girls is ours.  Aren't they adorable???

At about six weeks, a trainer will do temperment testing on the puppies and we'll get first pick of the litter.  Our puppy's name is going to be Gracie Mae.

We had quite the complicated voting procedure, but Jaelyn read it was very important for every member of the family to agree on the name.  We contributed three names each to a master list and then got the right to veto one name.  From there, we ranked the names from favorite to least favorite.  We added up the scores and the name with the lowest score won.  I told you it was complicated.  I thought Gracie needed a middle name so I chose Mae after a great grandmother.  We are so excited.  We will get to bring her home on November 5th.  The breeder is in Kansas so unfortunately we won't get to meet her ahead of time.

We spent an hour at Petsmart yesterday picking out things for her.  Everyone picked out a toy and we bought her a collar and leash.  She's only a week old and she's already getting spoiled.

What a Day

Yesterday was the best day!  Dan let me sleep till 9:30 and had just put cinnamon rolls in the oven when I got up.  After breakfast, we quickly got ready and loaded up for a day trip to Springfield.  Want to see where we went???

After a quick stop for take-out...

we took the kids to lunch.

Next up was SHOPPING!!!

There were also stops at Sears, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Dillards before we headed to our planned dinner destination.

Can you imagine our disappointment??? 

After much whining, we settled on Chili's as second choice.  It was loved by all, especially Allie who had a rib basket and ate both my and Dan's ears of corn.

We made one more stop at Pier One Imports and then finished the night in the red light district...well, the red light of the Krispy Kreme "HOT' sign.

Now if only we hadn't had to drive 80 miles home with whining over tired children, it would be been truly perfect.