Oh the places we will go.......

We have been on the go lately. We drove to Hays for a wedding a few weeks ago. I used to spend lots of time with the groom and his family. His Mom and I started 1st grade together and graduated from high school together. She married her sweetheart very soon after we graduated and they settled down to farm and raise a family. I was the single one, footloose and fancy free. However, I realize now that deep down inside, I wanted to be the one with a family and I made them my surrogate family of sorts. It was a beautiful wedding and a chance to see people I grew up with. The girls had a great time...what little girl doesn't love to see a bride walk down the aisle to get married. A fairy tale come true! Of course, blowing bubbles to help welcome the new couple to their reception is fun too!










This past weekend we were invited to a birthday party. Not just any birthday party, it was my stepdaughter's son's 2nd birthday. I guess that makes me the step grandmother. I should be excited..right? Well, my stepchildren have not had much to do with their Dad since we started adopting. Why? I really have no idea...I have multiple guesses. My stepdaughter went to China with us in 2000 when we adopted her baby sister. My stepdaughter was living with us when we traveled to China in 2003 to adopt her second little sister. Then she started dating a man who we were told "doesn't really like kids." So the relationship between us and the daughter became strained to say the least. We moved and distance didn't help. We moved back and adopted again. She married the boyfriend and asked her stepdad to walk her down the aisle. More distance grew. Her little sisters asked lots of questions, "Why don't we see her anymore?" "Why weren't we in her wedding?" "Why doesn't she come to see us?" Questions I didn't and still don't have the answers to. I see how this hurts my girls and I go into Mama Bear mode. Don't hurt my girls!!

Anyhow we went to the party. The girls had a great time. Maybe an olive branch has been extended? Don't know...guess time will tell.





The afternoon before the party we received a phone call that most parents never want to hear. My almost 20 year old stepson was being arrested for driving on a suspended license!! My husband had asked him if he had paid his ticket many times in the last few weeks. Evidently he didn't! He was on his way to Salina to watch his high school team, the Great Bend Panthers, play when he cruised around a cop on I-70 going 82 miles an hour in a 75 mile/hour zone. She pulls him over and during a routine check of his license and registration it pops up that they have been suspended! We hope that this has been a learning experience for him. Since it was a Friday evening his vehicle was impounded until Monday when we could clear up the fact that the state had suspended "his" tag in error. The Jeep is registered to us!! He will still probably have to go to court to get his license reinstated and in the mean time his Dad has to drive him to and from classes!





Photos from the county court house. The jail is on the fourth floor and only Dad was allowed in the building. We kind of wanted photos of him behind bars...to blow up and remind him that unpaid tickets can come back to bite you!!

Never a dull moment around here! Calgon...take me away!!

The fun things were the girls deciding what to be for Halloween. They dressed up differently for school than they did to actually go treat or treating.





Then on Halloween night there were sudden changes in costumes.



During all this running around...Jordis came home with a sore throat and sure enough..it is strep!! Now I have a wonderful sinus infection/bronchitis that I am dealing with!! Things have got to start getting better around here soon?! I hope!! What's a Mom to do???