The Zoster...

Zoe. She is supposed to have the umluad (sp? two dots over her "e"), but blogger won't let me add them.. what up?

Zoe's birthday weekend

We had a nice weekend. Zoe had her 7th birthday party (Kyle's daughter) She had a luau at her grandparents house.
Trip and I went to the Natasha Bedingfield concert on Friday night. She was fantastic. She has such a powerful voice. It was pretty funny though, that we felt like the oldest couple there.

The picture from my last post of Trip, Lee and I was the day our adoption was finalized here. It was a while ago, I just never posted the picture.

I am working on building a new template for our blog. This is something that requires time and energy to learn (at least for me) so hopefully I can figure something out in the next month or two. ,

I am currently reading the book The Creative Family, by Amanda Blake Soule. It is pretty easy to read and it has given me some great ideas for crafts for the kids. Ellis and Lee are more of the "crafters" in the family, but Eva just started and embroidery project last night she is excited about. I began doing embroidery when I was her age (9) and have always enjoyed it, but I can count on one hand how many projects I have ever done. My grandmother used to do quite a bit. Some she would just do on the edge of a hankie. I love her old hankies with her old handy work.

School will be out next week. The kids are getting antsy. I'm afraid Lee is going to have a very difficult time not being in school this summer. He loves to be kept busy, otherwise he just wants to sit and watch TV. It's a bad habit I notice he has developed in the past few months. He is doing three weeks of summer camp at his school, but aside from that I think that is it.

We just bought a family pass to our local science museum over the weekend, so I imagine we will be spending some time there.

My heart is still aching for my friend, Dianne and her husband, Jeff. I will always grieve the loss for them. I have learned a bit during all of this, most of all what an astounding friend and woman Dianne is. I have also been hit with the reality of how precious our children are...all of them, not just mine and Trip's. I also read the book The Berieved Parent, I highly recommend this for anyone who has been near someone in the midst of this type of tragedy. When I say that , I am saying it as a friend outside of the situation, it has helped me see their grief more clearly. I hope to never know the depths of their pain, I just want to be as good of a friend as I can to them.

I think that's it for now, Trip has the kids at the park and the house is quiet. An easy time for me to do this.

It's getting hot down here

Balloon Release for Delaney

Rest in Peace sweet Delaney

Sad day

I'm not sure what to do with my emotion this minute, so I thought I would just post. A good friend of mine from high school, Dianne, just lost he daughter today. She and her husband, Jeff and their son Ben are suffering through this loss. The death of a daughter is too much to bear, too much to even think about and now this family is faced with the passing of their 8 year old daughter, Delaney.
I have been at the hospital with them a few times in the past day and each time I feel so helpless just wanting to take the pain away from my dear friend. I can only be here for her as the time passes for support. I love you Dianne, I miss Delaney for you. God Bless your family.

The park

We spend a good amount of our time at the park. Lee was very happy for me to take a picture of him on the "Fireman Sam" pole.

This past weekend I took Eva on her first Girl Scout retreat. We had a great time. Hard to believe.........I forgot to take my camera. All weekend I kept thinking "Oh, that's a great picture!" No matter how advanced they get, the phone camera really doesn't cut it.

Hopefully I will be able to get some pictures from the other mothers that I can have or post.
It's late, once again, and my day starts early to get the kids out of the door for school on time.

A visit with my sister

My sister, Rachelle, came to town to visit my Dad in the hospital and celebrate her 40th birthday and his 69th birthday together. (They share the same birthday)
These are just a few of the pictures I took while they were at my house, Eva and Ellis especially loved having their cousin, Owen around to "baby" If you look closely at Eva on the slide you will see Owen's foot is sticking out behind her.

Photos

These photos are just some random favorites of mine I have taken in the past month. Since I don't have any recent pics of my kids to put up I am resorting to other people's children. ha.

Of course it is late now, this is my normal posting time. My house is quiet and I usually spend this time catching up on some work..my work goes beyond the camera. Somedays I just wish I could click and edit the pictures then let my magic elves take care of the rest.

My father's progress has been complicated. He developed an infection which they had to operate on today. Every day is up and down and very difficult for everyone involved, especially my Mom and Dad. A whole different kind of stress, but one I believe my age group begins to experience.

Sunday is my Dad's 69th birthday and my older sister, Rachelle's 40th. She came down so they could spend their birthday together.

I'm tired, so I am keeping it short.

Oh, and for anyone who watched American Idol, boo hoo, I know it was kind of Brooke's turn to go, but how likeable is that girl?! I just adore her and was so sad to see her go.