Infant Swim Resource - Katie

Katie is taking ISR swim classes. ISR is Infant Swim Resource. Not your typical swimming lessons. These teach young children how to survive if they were to fall into a pool or other body of water. Watch the video below and
see what she is learning how to do.

This video is not associated with our particular instructor but shows what skills are learned if they were to fall into a pool. It is agonizing to watch but I would so much rather see a child like this than the alternative. It is amazing to watch them as they are learning this and how instinct takes over to help them survive. The absolutely worst thing you can have a young child do is wear floaties in the pool. This conditions them to hold their heads at angles that will cause them more harm should they fall into a pool. We didn't know this and had Katie wearing them. You could instantly tell the difference and the problems the floaties causes.

If you are in the East Orlando area and are interested in this program, please call my friend Heidi Burnett or visit her website at: http://www.teachnkids2swim.com/ or visit www.infantswim.com to find an instructor in your State or area.

My First Pedicure!

My! What cute toes you have! Today Taylor wanted her fingernails and toes painted and guess what? So did Katie. She still sucks on her fingers so no manicure for her but she LOVED getting her toes painted.

When we went to Sanibel, Taylor and I both got anklets and Katie noticing that started to wear her ponytail holder around her ankle - too funny. So being the great sister that she is Taylor went and bought Katie an anklet at the beach - with her own money even! Katie loves it.

Sanibel Island

A New Friend

Meet my new friend Adalyn! She is from Chongqing just like me. We had a great dinner date with our parents in KY...

17 Year Cicada

While in KY visiting this week we were "excited" to see and hear (VERY loudly) the 17 year cicada! They crawl out of the ground (you can see the holes in the last pic), molt and leave their old shell behind then develop into what you see in the top pic. They will lay their eggs then die and the eggs will burrow back down into the ground to emerge in another 17 years when Katie is around 19 years old.

Click on the Pic to get a close up view...

Profound Lesson

Today at church our pastor gave a sermon in a series called Faith That Works. He told a story about President Jimmy Carter and a question that was asked that affected him profoundly. As a young man he was asked in a bible study,

"If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?"

Wow. This has really got me thinking... they probably would let me go for lack of evidence. I've spent way too much time on the computer, shopping, watching tv, things of little consequence and not enough time doing anything else. I'm going to put the blog on hiatus for a while. Pics will still be posted here and there but I am not going to worry about it for now.

Have a wonderful summer!

Flower Power

We just finished completely redoing our front yard. Most of the plants were diseased from when the builder put them in a couple of years ago and they looked awful. I'll post before and after shots later. I LOVE flowers and convinced Jim to plant 2 hibiscus shrubs. One of them has absolutely gorgeous flowers right now. It just rained and I took this shot this afternoon of one of the flowers. Sooo pretty! I would have flowering things all over if Jim would let me but it can't be tooo fufu!

毕

毕

If I am right this is the Mandarin word for FINISHED/COMPLETE and that is what we are!

Today our last official adoption requirement was finished - the 12 month post placement report. I can say that after years of filling out paperwork - sometimes in triplicate- for everything regarding the adoption I am glad we are done. We have her CoC, Readoption, Passport, SSCard, Foreign Birth Certificate and her placement reports. What a journey it has been!

My heart goes out to all who are still waiting the agonizing wait for their referrals. I just can't believe how much things have slowed and that agencies are still signing up clients without telling them the real story about the wait. Our hope is that the process will speed up soon for all those still waiting.

America's Next Top Model!

I was SO excited to get a package in the mail today from here. My blogger friend Robin is sewing up a storm to raise money to adopt beautiful Mia Hope from China. She is one talented lady and has several items for sale on her site that are completely hand made by her. I'm sure she has worn out more than one sewing machine as she has gotten tons of orders. Can you see why?! Just look how cute these are! We got the Kimberley dress in the Carnival Bloom fabric and the Swing Top Jean Set in Chinese Kids fabric. Excellent quality and workmanship. We are thrilled and can't wait for Katie to wear these out! Katie did a good job of modeling. We sent her head shots to Tyra this week...(just kidding):)

A Year In THE Life

Can it really be that exactly one whole year has flown by? Looking back at the hundreds of photos from our China trip it just seems surreal. Here is a look back at each month beginning with Katie's photo just seconds after she was placed in our arms to the current day. Our gotcha day post is here. Oh how she has changed and blossomed! We could never imagine life without her...

Birthdays are SWEET! (pun intended)

 

 

 

Birthday Finale

And finally the birthday box from Granny. Too cute!

 

 

 

 

Birthday Part Deux

Katie got an Elmo laptop from Dad,Mom, Cody and Taylor. She LOVES Elmo. You can't tell but the shirt she is wearing has Elmo on it. The other gifts here are from Grandma Rop.

 

 

 

 

Katiebug is 2!

Katie is two years old today - I just can't believe it! We just missed her birthday last year when we traveled to China. Our family day was March 27th. These are pics from her birthday celebration at my preschool at our church. Needless to say she did not know what to think about everyone singing to her - that was when she was making the "not liking this" face in the first photo, even though we as a family sang to her in the morning and she loved it! The mini brownie cupcakes made it all a little better as chocolate and frosting have a way of doing :)

 

 

 

Planning The Egg Hunt Strategy

It's a hot and balmy 87 degrees for our Easter Egg Hunt today. Dad and Katie were planning their strategy...

 

 

 

God Made The Flowers

This week in the mini preschool I run in our church the kids are learning about all the things God made. Katie's very talented teachers made this cute craft today and Katie is loving it although she isn't sure which is the "right" side to peek through!

 

 

 

Shuttle Launch at Night

Watch how the shuttle lights up the sky when it launches. This past week's launch was at 2:30 in the morning so it was pitch black outside. It truly is amazing! We are 40 miles from Cocoa Beach and the amount of light it puts out is awesome!

Installing Husband 1.0 Program

Installing Husband 1.0

Dear Tech Support,
Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance -- particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0 In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as NFL 5.0, NBA 3.0. and Golf Clubs 4.1. Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail. What can I do?
Signed,
Desperate
* * *
Dear Desperate:
First keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an Operating System. Please enter the command: "http: I Thought You Loved Me.htm" and try to download Tears 6.2, and don't forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5. But remember, overuse of the above applications can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0, or Beer 6.1. Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Snoring Loudly Beta.
Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-in-law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources). Also, do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0. In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly.
You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Hot Food 3.0 and Lingerie 7.7.
Good Luck,
Tech Support

Best Friends

 

 

Skating party for Taylor's birthday and just a cute shot of Taylor and Katie.

The other pic is Taylor's best friend Lani at her skating party

Happy Birthday Taylor!!

I can't believe that Taylor turned 8 years old on the 17th. She is such a great big sister to Katie and little sister to Cody. She got lots of great gifts from family. Her favorite things are Webkinz and she even got a new tennis racket with all of the cool stuff that goes with it, like head bands and wrist bands - too funny. We'll see if that helps her game. You can see that Katie also enjoyed the cake!

Happy Birthday Taylor - We love you!!