handsful

We packed a lot into this one!

Marley’s started early, on Friday.  She was invited by her friend Kylie’s family to go skiing at Beech Mountain for one of their homeschool days.  It’s crazy affordable and you even get a lesson.  She LOVED it.  We weren’t sure she would, since she’s our least adventurous kid with most things.  She said she only fell twice, and hit some pretty big slopes.  Impressive!

I think she definitely looks like a pro!

The rest of us took Friday off school…hey, if Marley could play so could we right?  I got a couple of projects off my to-do list, which was NICE.  Oh, how I love checking things off a list.  I digress.

Saturday, Abbey and Randy got up way too early as usual for volleyball practice.  She has it EVERY Saturday, no breaks.  8am-12pm. She’s usually sore the next day, they work so hard.  It’s good for her, and she’s learning a ton.  Randy helps with coaching, too.  This league is serious about teaching these girls, with the goal of having them make travel teams.

A little while after they returned and we had lunch, and it was time to get ready for our Chinese New Year celebration with the FCC-CLT (Families with Children from China – Charlotte).  We didn’t know a soul, but we all got dressed up in our best silks and went.  Little did we know that most of the adults went casual, very few wore Chinese clothing but most of the kids did.  We didn’t care…if you’re going to celebrate CNY, you should dress up!  I took very few pictures, but there was a photographer there who took a family picture and individuals of Lainey and Dylan.  I’ll try and post those when we get them.

We had a nice Chinese dinner, browsed the tables (and bought an antique rice measure!), made crafts, and watched a wonderful show put on by the kids from Living Hope International (www.livinghopeintl.org).  Please check them out and consider sponsoring an orphan that has aged out of the China adoption program!  We’re going to.

After the show, the children lined up for the Hong Bao distribution…it’s tradition that children receive treats or money in red envelopes on CNY.  This 87 year old Chinese man did the honors.

We left the party a little early, because Abbey had a Valentine’s dance to attend.  Her first real dance.  It was planned by a couple of homeschool moms, and very well attended as we could tell when we dropped her off.  She had a GREAT time, just ask her!  Here she is, after the party.  See the glow on her face?  (or is that sweat?)

Sunday was the usual…church for all, and then 2 friends over to hang out.

Our weekends are usually full, and I guess that’s why they seem to fly by.  One of these days, we’ll have NOTHING planned for the weekend.  Yeah, right.

I sound like every other mother, I’m sure, when I say…WHERE did the time go?  Abbey turned 15 yesterday.  Wow!  I look back at pictures of her and wonder “where is THAT little girl?”  Not that I’d turn the clock back.  Yes, she can be a TEEN sometimes (ha), but I love her to pieces.

This was her actual birthday…we might do a cake this weekend, but her birthday landed on youth night at church which she was THRILLED about (built-in party, seeing your friends, can’t beat it).  On the way home, we stopped to get her a special doughnut.

Backing up to the night before her birthday, she chose a good ‘ole steak dinner for her birthday outing.

Awwww…she’s always been a daddy’s girl.

sisters, fooling around.

brothers being mysterious.

L and D being cute, as usual.

A great b-day dinner, followed by a great…

birthday dessert.  She shared with the rest of us…ain’t she sweet?

Now, back to the birthday night.

Present time! Present time!  Open a present and see what’s inside!  Abbey used to heart Blues Clues.  Abbey’s camera died a while back, so here’s the replacement.

The necklace she hinted about.  A sterling silver key that says “TLW” (true love waits).

A beautiful young lady…with an edgy side.  She’s proud of that last part.

Okay, bear with me as we go back even further to last Sunday…the big game.  Yes, I know we LOST.  I’m over it now and looking forward to next season.  Anyway…  Abbey wanted me to post these pics of her and her best buds who came to “enjoy” the game with us.

We had our own half-time show complete with group dancing.

She had a blast….despite the final score.

The littles love all the big kids in the house…more people to play with (and more buttons on more phones).

Happy 15, Abbey.  At this rate, she’ll turn 16 next week!

To those who read our blog, I’d like to ask that you hop over to my husband’s brother’s blog on our sidebar under “Love to Read”…

It’s called 8 Clarks.  If I knew how to make that a link, I would!

My sister in law, Dee Dee, has carcinoid tumors in her stomach and goes to the Mayo clinic in Minnesota for yearly testing to check on their status.  Tony and Dee Dee left today for testing that will last through Thursday.

Tony has a couple of posts up now, and will update during the week.  We’d appreciate prayers for her, as you feel led.  Thanks so much!

Donna

Coming soon to a theater near you.

This won’t be the sort of post with a focused topic and nice, clean ending.  I think I’ll ramble a bit.  This season of my life feels like it’s all over the place, so why not my post?  I’m glad you agree.

Randy was out of town this week from Monday afternoon through (hopefully) about an hour from now.  Yes, he comes home tonight.  Whenever he’s out of town, I always think of single moms, who rarely get a break.  Or those moms with husbands who travel A LOT, or have husbands serving overseas.  I know for sure that God must give those women a special helping of strength and patience.

We managed to get through another school week with most everything done, Abbey finished her class portion of Drivers Ed (drive time sometime in the summer), we bought some supplies for our “Steelers win another super bowl” party, and I marked a few things off of my ever-growing to-do list.  Progress is progress.

Oh, I finished “Choosing to See” by Mary Beth Chapman.  Cried, held back tears, and sat in awe at her honest account of the grieving that her family has been through.  If you’ve not read it yet, run to the bookstore and get it.

I’ve started 2 other books.  “Organized Simplicity” by Tsh Oxenreider is giving me the urge to purge everything in my house that I don’t find purposeful or absolutely love.  I told Randy he fits both categories so he’s happy.  I truly want to live more simply, and this book promises to show me how to do that.  I’m hopeful.  I also started “Radical” by David Platt.   I’m only in the 2nd chapter and it’s already mind blowing.  Thanks to my handy dandy new e-reader, I’m flipping back and forth with these two…gotta love that.

Dylan is eating much better these days, but he’s still not a great eater.  We realized tonight he LOVES pickles.  Oh, great.  Just the smell of pickles makes me wretch.  And, he’s sucking on the thing like it’s a candy.

Only my husband would spend his evening throwing fish crackers at everyone, aiming for mouths.  Ending in me being pelted by a barrage of crackers.

The littles, as I’ve come to lazily call them, showing off their new NCSU shirts.  Our wonderful friend, Donna Judd, sent these to Lainey and Dylan this week.  Our family and Donna go WAY back.  I met her at church, right before becoming pregnant with the triplets.  Soon after they were born, she told me she wanted to help me out once a week.  She came each week, usually carrying a grocery bag full of cereals and other stuff the kids loved.  Then, she told me to go nap or run errands…whatever I wanted to do.  It was absolutely magical.  She did this for THREE years.  A true blessing!

Anyway, she saw that Dylan loved his squeaky shoes from China and told me about her friends from church that have their own squeaky shoe company.  I browsed the shoes and was considering buying a pair, when Donna told me her friend wanted to send Dylan a pair free of charge.  Wow!  We chose the NCSU ones, of course :)

See the emblem on the top?  He loves them!  The website is www.squeakmeshoes.com  Go check them out!

Anyone ever try the new almond snickers?  I have one in my purse.  Think I might try it tonight.

I’m sitting here blogging when I should be putting Dylan and Lainey to bed.  He’s beside me whining right now…gotta run :)

Dylan – look closely, you can see his holding his little foot.

Yesterday, we took our first step in the journey to help Dylan WALK.  Our appointment at Shriner’s was at 9am…not too early, unless you factor in that we live more than 2 hours away from Greenville, SC.  Getting up before the sun does is just wrong!  I guess I’m spoiled.

So the big kids could focus on their school assignments, we brought both Dylan and Lainey.  I had to drive, following Randy in his company car, since he had a meeting scheduled in Columbia right after our appointment and then he was driving on to meetings in Atlanta for the next few days.

Our day was spent registering as new patients and seeing different doctors, radiologists, nurses, and others.  During our visit, we learned that the SC Shriner’s sees about 300 limb difference patients each year.  And, at no cost to the patients.  Amazing, and a blessing.

Every time we entered a new room, Dylan would shed new tears.  We’ve come to expect this when we’re in any type of “doctor” environment.  Usually, he’s fairly easily consoled when we can convince him there are no “owies” coming.

The x-ray showed that he does not have a working knee – only cartilage.  We weren’t expecting anything more, honestly.  Their plan is to amputate through the “knee” and fit him with a prosthesis.  Surgery should be sometime in the spring – maybe April.  We did learn that, with children this age, they cast the leg post-surgery for about 3-4 weeks to protect the leg as it heals.  Oh joy.  Another cast EXACTLY like the one he just got out of.

We’re waiting to hear from the surgery coordinator regarding an actual surgery date.  It’s hard to look that far ahead – Lainey has her next surgery February 23rd.  We told Shriner’s that we wanted the month of March off!

Our challenge now is to somehow communicate to Dylan what’s coming…he loves his little leg.  And, it makes me very sad to think of him losing it.  Thankfully, we have friends here with a daughter that went through the exact same thing.  We plan on taking our cues from them on preparing Dylan, not to mention tons of prayer.