Happy Birthday Jordis Li Meng!!

She was pretty sure that this day would never come.    However, it did and then she was mad because her sisters woke her up at noon screaming at her.   Yes, I don't know why they were screaming.  They said they were going to go sing Happy Birthday to her!!   Go figure and I am still trying too!

Of course she has been asking us for weeks what she was getting for her birthday.   And she was giving us no hints of what she wanted other than "Please no clothes!"   Her Dad and I finally decided what we thought would be a great gift.   And we wanted her to pick her own.

So the choice for eating tonight was easy.   She wanted "Texas Roadhouse".   It was nice we walk in and was seated immediately!   The girls love the hot rolls and peanuts.  Of course, they are always full by the time the food arrives at our table.

We girls were getting a little giddy by the time the food arrived :)

So after eating we decided to check out Dick's sporting goods store.   Jordis was 20 questions wanting to know what was she getting.   It still didn't soak in by the time we were walking through the bicycles. So I told her, "Jordis, we thought you might like a new bike."  She didn't get all that excited.   She says, "But I can still ride Zora's."

Okay so what else would you like for your birthday?   She finally decided that she wanted a new DS.   So off to Best Buy we headed.   She is now the proud owner of a blue DSXL.   One just never knows!!

Coming along..slowly

So two of our "handy" men who and this is just my opinion.   Were slower than mud, over paid and really not so interested in working but really liked the income.     Quit after being told that they did something wrong and were going to have to redo it.   That slowed the process down as our contractor, who is retired and doing this kind of on the side of his other part-time jobs, was the only person working on the deck.    Then the rain came.   Boy did we need the rain so come back any day now!   Then there needed to be more than one person doing some of the work.   We were lucky that Jim knows some people who do this for a living!   Then Kansas weather did what it is notorious for, it decided that since school started that summer should be here.  

One day my hubby says, "Jim and his helper are here."   I was somewhat confused as I knew the helper that was helping was busy with something else. He says,  "Oh Madeline is helping him."   WTF?  Like I said, Jim is retired, most people know what that means, he is over the age of 65.   I would guess he is over 70.   So is his little, tiny wife!   It was over 90 degrees outside.  I felt like mud!!   So here I sit in the house with my bald head shining wanting to go outside and help part of the time and the rest of the time worrying myself sick that one of them was going to stoke out or fall off the deck!   Ack!

Things are moving along.   The deck is completely done and walking on it is So. Much. Fun!   The stairs are done!   They are such a blessing!   And now the pergola is started.   They are putting up the railing and I love how it is going to look!   I don't see us having a deck party soon, I know some of you are saying WHAT?, but look at it this way peeps....It will be cooler in October!!

Busy day!

Today was the first day of school, Tessa Day and Taekwondo testing!   The girls were up early and all in great moods for the first day of school.   I was super proud of them!   RaeAnne is my graphic artist!

 
The girls had testing for their blue belts tonight at Taekwondo.    They did the testing and then did something a little different, they went ahead and gave them their new belts tonight after the testing was complete.    So we have five girls with blue belts!

Then we headed over to Olive Garden for Tessa Day after testing.    It just doesn't seem possible, but three years ago our adoption of Tessa was completed in Guangzhou.   So her choice was all you can eat pasta!  

Good thing that we don't have school tomorrow.   We had some pretty tired girls and Mom and Dad too!

Meet the teachers!

So last night was fun running from Scranton to Carbondale to meet the girls' new teachers.   Only two that we didn't know from last year.   Mrs. Ullery will be Zora's home room teacher and Mr McDaniels will be Jordis' home room teacher.   Both are very nice and we have a well rounded bunch of teachers for the girls this year.   Sadly, we no longer have any students at Overbrook :(    I told Mark we could remedy that!!   He really didn't think that was a good idea.

Kendalan and Tessa are at Scranton this year.   Both with very familiar teachers!   We warned Mrs. Huizenga about motor mouth!!

The rest of the bunch will hold down the fort at Carbondale.   We were worried that RaeAnne would not be tall enough to reach her 8th grade locker, but she can!

Friday morning will come very early for our night owls.   Good thing that they only have to get up early on Friday and then they can catch back up on their sleep for the weekend!!

Last day in Branson

I am a few days late on this post.   After arriving home and unpacking I went to bed before 10pm and didn't get up until 10am!  Guess I was a little tired!

We were up pretty early again on Monday.   We packed, had breakfast and was at SDC before they opened the gates to the rides.   The girls wanted to ride Thunderation first and then down to the boat rides.  

Zora decided that she was going to ride Fire in the Hole again so we were there before a line had even formed.     We all rode this time and I think Rae liked it too.    Jordis and Kendalan wanted to ride the lift ride.    I noticed the clouds forming to the north and I parked my scooter under a roof and sent them to ride.   It was only a few minutes and the rain hit us!!   It was just sprinkling at first and then it started to pour along with thunder and lightning.    People were running to find cover.    We stayed under the roof until the rain stopped.    The girls decided they wanted to ride Thunderation again.   We arrived there to find that the ride was closed.   They said that as long as there is lightning within a 10 mile radius of the park they can not open the rides.   The only two rides that can operate then are Fire in the Hole and the Mine ride.   Fire in the Hole had a line so long that it looked like an hour wait for sure.   So we went back to the Mine and everyone except Zora and I went on it.  

We then decided to get a snack.   Tessa and Jordis wanted sweet potatoes while the rest of us like regular potatoes!    Then it started to sprinkle again.   We headed for the door!   We goofed off in the Hospitality House for a while waiting for it to stop raining.   Unfortunately it was not going to stop raining this time.    So we headed for the car.

So long Silver Dollar City for this trip.   We had fun and we'll be back!!   We did stop at Lamberts on the way home.

Branson Day 2

Well, we woke up this morning to fog and rain!   You know, it was the perfect day to sleep in for me.   So I went back to sleep until around 11am.  A couple of the girls went down to the continental breakfast and the rest of us slept.  Ahhhhhh.  Just what the doctor ordered!  Rest!

So it was still overcast when I crawled out of bed, but it wasn't raining anymore.   So we loaded up and back off to Silver Dollar City.   We arrived about 1pm and it was beautiful.   We started our having cinnamon rolls for brunch and then off we went.  The sun came out and we had a great time.   Checked out a new roller coaster that we have never tried before.   Fire in the Hole!  It was a riot!   RaeAnne was the only one who decided to wait and see if we lived.   Zora wasn't too excited about it at first because it was dark inside, but she has decided that she will ride it again...as long as I go with her.   It is a wet one!

We were all over the place riding rides and Tessa wanted to "go fishing" so she could win a penguin.   She did so good she actually won two penguins, one big and one small.   She was in penguin heaven!

I have been wanting to have an old fashioned photo taken of the girls.   We happened to go by one of those places and spur of the minute I now have a photo of the girls dressed in Victorian dress and hats.   I must say that they came out really nice.   I will have to scan one of them and post them another time.

After supper at Olive Garden, Zora's choice, we were back to the hotel about 7;30pm.   Jordis, Tessa and Kendalan wanted to swim again tonight so we tried out the outside pool.   They had it all to themselves for almost 40 minutes and then two other younger kids arrived with parents in tow.  at 8:30 it was time for us to head back to the room as I wanted to see who won the "Next Network Food Star."

We are planning on heading out to SDC in the morning.   It opens at 10am and we will stay until about 2pm and then head home.   Dad has been having a very relaxing time without all his girls there, but it is time for us to get home.

Summer Vaca chapter two

Had a little time before I started my next chemo (19th) and the girls start school (23rd) so we decided to take a spur of the moment trip to Branson!   One thing missing is Daddy.   He had an outpatient procedure at the hospital on Thursday.   A new ICD inserted Thursday morning and he was pretty sore that afternoon.   So he decided to stay home, rest and recover while us girls headed to Missouri to have a good time.

Now I remember why we don't usually come down here on a weekend.   We rolled into town last night about 10:15pm and the streets were wall to wall cars!   It was 11:30 before we reached our hotel.   But it was a beautiful night, 76 degrees and people were sitting out everywhere along the strip watching the cars drive by.  

This morning we were up and at Silver Dollar City by 8:30am.   With a chance of rain in the forecast, I came prepared with an umbrella, but we never needed it!   It looked kind of overcast about noon and then the clouds burned off and what a wonderful day it was.   Once again, I can
see why we don't usually come down on a weekend.   The place was packed but most of the lines moved along really quickly.   The girls had a great time and I even heard complaints of "my feet hurt" by 5:30pm.

We came back to the hotel at 6:30 rested for about an hour and then headed out to eat.   Then it was back so three of the girls could go swimming for about an hour.   During the time they were swimming I had the opportunity to visit with a very nice gal who was adopted from Korea as an infant.   She told me a lot of things that she thought about and wondered about as she was growing up in Arkansas.   She also has a sister and brother who were adopted from Korea and then her mother became pregnant and had a biological child after adopting three!   She said that they used to give her a real hard time that their Mom and Dad "chose them" and they only had her and didn't get to pick her.   She said her younger sister always took the joking really well.

We are getting ready to go to sleep so we can get up early again and either go back to the City of Silver Dollars or do a little back to school shopping.   Depends on the weather in the morning.