JUNE 2009

June 29th

We have arrived HOME!!!  It feels great to be back in the States. The trip had only a few snags, like leaving leaving late out of Santo Domingo and then hitting storms in Chicago where we circled around a bit, started to land and went back up rather quickly and not smoothly, then sat for a bit before they could take us up to the gate. We were only an hour late and everyone was still in good moods which after 15hrs of traveling is a good thing. We have been here 5 days in those 5 days we have been to the Mall, Wal-Mart, Target, Menards, a few yard sales. As well Matt helped with taking down 2 trees in our yard and a bunch of bushes. He also got the fun of taking off the storm windows and putting up screens to let in the nice fresh air.

June 16th

We are in the middle of pack out, boy is that a fun time. They were here last Friday and will be back tomorrow and the next day to finish up. They packed up the toy room on Friday and it was kind of sad when Atticus came in. He had been upstairs watching a movie and walked in to the room all packed up except for the train set. He just walked around and around saying in such a sad voice "I can't see my toys, I can't find my toys!" I felt bad for him and let him keep the train set out. He won't see most of his toys until August or September 2010. A few toys he will see if a few weeks in Wisconsin. Aiden didn't seem to care about it but then the last two nights he has woke up an came to my bed to sleep, he hasn't down that in forever it seems. I can't wait to get settled in Wisconsin and hopefully Atticus will stop whining so much and Aiden will make some neighborhood friends to burn off his energy with. After Aiden reveling some information to me the one boy he played with all the time here he is no longer allowed to play with so he has no friends to play with on a regular basis. I get to play with him or now that AJ is out of school he plays with him which is a great help to me.

Just to have it here even if it is a bit late. Two weeks before school was to end, Carol Morgan was shut down by the Ministry of Health for possible cases of the Swine Flu. There turned out to be 9 cases, I believe in Carol Morgan and so school was to be closed for a week. As well the school was thoroughly disinfected, carpets removed, a bottle of hand sanitizer was put in each room, still they didn't want to the school to reopen. There must have been some negations and school did reopen but only for 9-11th. They told anyone with sniffles, coughs, fevers to stay home, so AJ missed school Wed. which was the award ceremony. He received a citizenship award, which is one the teachers vote and choose a few kids for. He also received a  award for having a GPA in the top 5 of his class.  The off he went to school for the reminder of the time 2 days of classes and then 3 days of finals. They checked each student or person coming into the school for fevers and asked if they had any symptoms of the flu. That must have really slowed down entry into the school in the morning. The little boys and I went on campus to find AJ on the last day and all had to get our temps taken before going in.

Well I should have a little bit of time yet before Abraham wakes, guess I should use it wisely in hopes that we have everything ready for tomorrow.

May 2009

May 24th

Life is moving along and well at that. Abraham is doing great, such a happy baby and he sleeps through the night on occassion or just wakes once. He loves to have "converstations", which I find completely adorable. I think he still talks the most to Aiden, not sure what it is about Aiden but Abraham seems attracted to him.

Aiden is doing great, working on learning to read which is so tough for him. He knows all his sounds and can start the sounding out of words but when trying to put all the sounds together fast they jumble up due to the apraxia. He however doesn't get frustrated at all and just plugs along.  

AJ had a drama play last week, he and I were both pleasantly surprised at how well it turned out. They had no full run through until the day of the play. Since the kids each wrote there own part I would have thought that the run through would have been important to do before then. However there free time the week of the play was spent making the set. They started on Monday with the play starting on Thursday. The set did turn out nice and the kids did a good job. It is the only play his drama class did all year. AJ and I are both disappointed in this years drama class. He has done a few others here last year and in Manila  were there was more organization and things taught.  Hopefully next year he will get to do a couple of plays in Evansville.

Atticus hmmm what to say about him, he has said a few things that surprise me. Last night he was mad at Aiden over a movie I believe and he said "Your fired!!" Not sure where he heard that one. When he gets mad about things not going his way youoften here "I'm sick of it!!" "I'm sick of Aiden!" His "I don't love you!"  sometimes will be directected at me, but usually if I reply "I will love you forever!!" He will say " I love you too, but I don't love Aiden!!"  One more the other day he took me over to Matt and accussingly asked him if he had bought me the ring on my finger. When Matt said he did Atticus replied with "But I Love her and I was going to buy her a ring and marry her!!!" He was appeased with the fact that he could buy me a ring later. Gotta love them when they are so sweet.

One last thing to note one month left here.....we are getting ready for the pack out but thankfully have a couple of weeks yet.

May 1st

 Well today is the day that Abby leaves or I guess that should be left as she is on her way to Miami as I write. It was easy to make the plans for her to go but not so easy to let her go. I know she will be in good hands but I will miss her and I will worry today about her traveling all alone. We have just under 2 months and then we will join her.

In other news this week Matt and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary. We did not do much to celebrate it but we are happy to have each other and our family. He did get me a very pretty necklace. Atticus told me how pretty it was and how pretty I looked wearing it, so sweet.  Matt also had a birthday this week another year older and still kicking. He had to work on his birthday but it wasn't a typical work day. He had said they were going to clean up a park for leadership day. It was a bit more than that Dominican and American soldiers were there as well as local school kids. They did pick up trash, but they also planted trees, sanded and painted the play equipment. He also had hundreds of people sing Happy Birthday to him, as well as the Navy band from the Comfort ship play Happy Birthday to him. Now he is on a 5 day weekend between a couple of days he took and it is a local holiday on Monday. He took Abby to the airport EARLY this morning and he is getting to finally play some golf.

Abraham is doing well the last couple of nights he has only woken once to nurse now if I could just sleep and not worry about him sleeping. He has started smiling a bit, ever so cute. He will also have conversations with you a bit and usually likes to be sung to.  Aiden LOVES to sing to him, which is sweet and nice to see.