An Update... Finally :-)

Well, we have had a full summer. Here is a short explanation of all the pictures below: It started with Freedom Fest on the 4th of July. Our church puts on an event that ends with a fireworks show. Then we went to Colorado in July after my sister got engaged so I could dress shop with her. Rob & kids went and did other things with Gramma while Anne and I shopped. We did finish off the trip with a great 15 MILE hike!! Are we crazy or what?! Then evidently nothing picture worthy happened the whole month of August, just a lot of swimming to beat the heat. In Sept I went to Colorado to give Anne a bridal shower, came home for a few days, then we all went back up there for the wedding. We did fit in 2 drives up to the mountains to see the beautiful golden aspens, my FAVORITE!!! We had the rehearsal and dinner; where Julia, as usual, was making new friends. Anne and Wallace had a wonderful wedding. Julia was the flower girl, Ryan played guitar, and I was also in the wedding. It was such a happy time. We ended the trip with the 2nd drive up to 2 different mountain passes. And now we are back home to real life. Oh yeah... Julia started Kindergarten after Labor Day. She is doing very well and enjoying it immensely. She also decided to stop sucking her thumb, just in time as she lost her first tooth. :-) That's it for now. :-)

Summer 2008 Slide Show

Goings on

Not much new. We are just tyring to beat the heat by going to the pool a lot. Some friends invited us out on their boat last night, oh what a fun relaxing time. :-) How we miss our boat...
Kids are doing good, Julia is doing so well learning how to swim. I think by the end of the summer she will be a little fish like brother. Ryan is keeping up with school and getting a lot done.
That's about it.

General updates...

Wow!! It has been almost a month since I posted! Let me see if I can being you up to speed. Ryan's soccer team played in a tournament in Lubbock and won second place. Now soccer is over for the summer. MDO is taking a little break before their summer session. Julia doesn't quite understand it; she keeps asking when it will be Thursday so she can go to school. We have signed her up for school in the fall. She will be going to a private school because we only want her to go half days and that is the only way to get that. It starts in September. Ryan is working very hard to get his school work done before the summer is over. He is doing a great job. We got a pool pass for the base pools and are spending time out there cooling off and getting tan.
Hope you are all well. That's about all the news I have for now.

Preschool Choir

This past Sunday Julia sang in the preschool choir at both of our morning church services. She really enjoyed doing it, and she was so cute!! :-)

Choir Pictures

Choir Video

Soccer...

Well Ryan has been playing soccer this spring. His team is first place in their division. We went to a tournament in Ft. Worth and a lot of family were able to come out and see him play. His team played so well!!
Next weekend we are going to Lubbock to play in another tournament; then soccer is over for the season.
Whew! We can take a breath until the fall when sports begin again. :-)

A little change in plans...

Whew!!! After waiting, and waiting, and nearly going crazy with anticipation, we have received the results of the physicians assistant board.
Rob has been selected and will begin school to be a PA in April of next year. This gives us almost a year to get it together before we move, what a relief! We just weren't really ready to move yet.

So, let me see if I can answer some common questions:
-This is something Rob has been working toward for quite a few years. He almost applied 2 years ago, then just felt wrong about it. We didn't understand it then, but trusted God that it was not the right thing at the time. (if Rob had done it then, we would not have been able to go to adopt Julia due to his being in the school) While we were in Ukraine he started thinking about it again and decided to go ahead and apply this time around.
-This is a military school through University of Nebraska.
-There will be one year of classroom work in San Antonio at Ft. Sam Houston, then one year of clinical work at an Air Force hospital somewhere around the country, we will find out where later.
-He will graduate with a bachelors and a masters degree from this program.
-After the 2 years of school Rob will become an officer in the Air Force and we will owe them 4 years of service for the schooling. He would have to serve a total of 10 years as an officer to retire as an officer, we will look at our options when the time comes... :-)

I can't think of anything else, but if you have questions, just ask. :-)

Reenlistment...

Well, Robby has signed up for 6 more years! That will bring us up to about 19 years in the military, so I guess that means he will go for the full retirement from the AF. :-)
He figured that since this may be the last time he reenlists, he would do something really cool to do it. So, they lit up the burn room and he and his commander went in and did the ceremony with blazing flames all around. It was pretty cool, this is who Robby is, a fireman, so it was cool to make his commitment this way. They had all the block 4 classes out there to watch and then they hosed him down after it was over. Fireman, always getting each other with one joke or another. ;-)
I love my husband and I am proud to be his wife, proud that he chooses to serve others and his country, proud that he is so good at his job. I am excited to see where the next 6 years will take us.

Reenlistment pictures

Goings on pictures

Goings on

Well, we made a trip last weekend to visit family. We have a new niece, Kynli (pronounced kenlee) and all of the siblings (Rob's mom's side) were there! What fun! It has been about 2 years since we were all in one place at the same time. We took several pictures, here are some of the best ones.
While in the area we visited with my family too, but I don't think we took any pictures!!
We also went to see Rob's dad & that side of the family and had a great visit. Great Granny & Aunt Katie and Uncle Jeff finally got to meet Julia. We did take pictures, but I can't find where I put my camera to download them... Never mind, I found it :-)
We also stopped to take pictures in the bluebonnets. Every Texas kid has to do this at least once in their life. :-)

Ryan had a soccer tournament this weekend and his team won FIRST PLACE!! Way to go Ryan! :-) (again no pictures... I am such a slacker!)

WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!

I TOOK A SHOWER IN MY OWN BATHROOM LAST NIGHT!!!! We still have few finishing touches, but it is usable and I do not have to wait in line anymore! :-) It is so much nicer that I had envisioned and so relaxing. Maybe tonight I will soak in my sloped back tub...

We survived 2 soccer games on Saturday, that always makes for a busy day. And we bought Ryan some new sandals, but they are MEN'S size sandals!!! Crazy! who would have thought that kids grow up?!
That's about it for now.

April 1st

Well, today Rob is promoted to Master Sergeant. There was a base wide ceremony yesterday where we "tacked" on his stripes. It was pretty cool, and Julia was very good and still through most of it. She did get a little restless at the end, but was still quiet and well behaved.
One thing that got to me, I really am very patriotic in my own way. When they played the national anthem I showed her to put her hand over her heart and it struck me that she is an American citizen, by the plan and grace of God, she is ours and a citizen in a country where she has freedoms she never would have otherwise had. Rather touching the first time she hears the national anthem and stands for her new country, even if she has no clue. :-)
The word on the PA school is that the board results will be released 24 April. So, we wait...
Bathroom is almost finished!!!! HOORAY!!!!!!!

Easter

Well, at first Julia thought Easter was about candy and chocolate... So we talked and now she says it is because Jesus loves her and she can go to heaven and play the drums. :-)
Saturday we went to an egg hunt. They drop candy from a helicopter onto the field, then when we have the go ahead it is a mad dash to grab as much candy as you can. It was more funny to watch and listen to some of the parents cheering their kids to "go get it" and "over there is a lot more" For myself, I am glad Julia took her time, picked up a few eggs, and watched others around her.
Ryan did it too. He had spent the night at a friend's house and went up there with them; then we met up after the hunt. I think they both had a lot of fun, and got WAY TOO MUCH candy!
Here are a few pictures:

Music

Well, I put some of Julia's favorite songs on my mp3 player and let her use it. She has never been so quiet for so long!! She really loves music!
She got a duplicate present for her birthday so we exchanged it, used some birthday $$, and got a toy guitar for her. (Thanks Clems and Todds!) You can see her jamming out with brother to David Crowder's "Glorious" in the slide show below. It's funny how she wants to play along with the music just like Ryan does. :-)

Birthday Week!!!

Well, we survived Birthday week for the kids. Julia's was last Wednesday, Ryan's was Saturday. We celebrated Julia's on Wednesday at home, she took cupcakes to church that night and to MDO on Thursday. Friday night Ryan had 3 friends over for a sleepover and they had a great time hanging out and playing Wii. They did play outside until it was too dark, so it was not all gaming ;-)Saturday was taken up with 2 soccer games. That made for a very busy and tiring day. Then we went to McDonald's in the evening and met up with friends (our San Angelo "family") and had a little party for Julia. Here's some pictures for you to see.We have definitely had enough cake for a LONG time. :-)

HOORAY!! On with life.

Praise God that Rob's Corporate Finance course is OVER!!! This has been one of the most difficult courses he has EVER taken and we are ALL so glad to have it over. Now the bathroom can take priority and hopefully be finished by the end of the week.

Julia is sleeping in and I am so glad. She did not get enough sleep all weekend due to a lot of different factors and it was beginning to be a problem. She just gets more wound up and crazy the more tired she is and it turns into not listening, or obeying, and we all just generally have it rough when that happens.

Two birthdays this week, can I handle it?! Two equally delicious cakes being planned, and Two parties within two days of each other!!! AHHHH!!!! SUGAR ALL WEEKEND!!!! I think I'll get me and Robby a hotel room and just let the kids finish the cake and crazies without us... Ha Ha!! Just kidding. :-)

Cold and Cloudy...

Today it is cold and sleeting. It makes me want to be a lazy bum all day and just lie around doing nothing. So, I am just sitting here answering e-mails and I thought I'd blog too.
Not much is new. We had to take down one of the walls we had pout up in the bathroom last night so we could get the tub in. A little frustrating, but at least it wasn't more than that. I can't wait for this project to be finished!!!!!
Rob has to finish all the work for his finance class and take his final by Sunday night. Pray that he does not get too stressed out. We will just be so relieved when it is over and we can spend more time doing all the little projects around the house that need doing.
Don't you just LOVE the verse of the day!? God is awesome.

Pictures. Ummm, I realized I need to take more

Why I am moving the blog...

Well, quite simply because this address will be easier to give out to people. :-) I am not cancelling the other blog. I will leave it there for you if you ever want to read through our adoption journey again. There is a subscribe feature at the bottom of the page. I may add a different one later.
I have not blogged in quite a while. Life has been a bit crazy. Just when I thought life would have a new normal, I got sick with the dreaded flu. Four days in bed with a fever... From then on, well, when it rains it pours.
But we are all well, Julia was the only one that didn't get sick. My master bathroom has sheet rock again (long story).
And now we must get ready for birthdays... Both kids in the same week.
I called around today for Ryan's present. ALL he wanted was a Nintendo Wii. After spending quite a large amount of time on the phone and internet we found one (of the only 3 in the store) in town!!! Hooray!!!! So he got his present today. Thanks to those of you family who sent him money. He has been saving since Christmas for this. Unfortunately he didn't even get to play it tonight as he is working on a book report for school. Such is life.
I am going to work on some new pictures to put on here now. This blog site is so much easier to work with, maybe you will hear from me more often now. :-)