Ferris Bests G-Prep In 4A Loser-Out Game

Ferris Bests G-Prep In 4A Loser-Out Game

It's About Time....

After a five year hiatus, I looked at the blog I used to write.  It wasn't going to win any Pulitzers (or even any ads) but it was a wonderful journal of my life and I loved reading over it.  So, I'm going to start posting again.  Not so much for you, but for me!  

So, without further ado, today was Ferris's first playoff game.  They lost 2-1 to the #1 team, but played a great game.  It was a fun game to watch!  

Christmas Play 2010

The only way I can post this is if I post it in smaller clips. :-) Enjoy!!!

TWINS?!?!?!

OK, so God has a great sense of humor! All along Danny has been joking about having twin boys (the future core of his soccer team, of course). And, so when he got the call from home-finders asking if we wanted twin boys we were both a bit stunned. It has been a whirlwind of a month. We got the call, spent a week in Mexico, came home and picked up Luke (not his given name, but I'm using that for privacy). Levi is still in the hospital and will probably be released tomorrow. He has quite a few more health issues and will require several specialists and lots of appointments.

Luke is the sweetest little thing; he sleeps and eats well (every three hours). I can hardly believe that we are actually doing this. We don't know yet how long this whole process will take, or even if we will end up being able to adopt them in the end, but we are just taking it one day at a time. I've just been amazed at how God has gone before us, leading us every step of the way. People have been wonderful in lending us just about everything we need.

Annsley and Seth have been so great and helpful and they are pretty crazy about the little guy!! Seth really is ready to play with him and his toys!

I have been woefully ignoring my blog, but I'll try and keep you updated with a few pictures and stories.

Perhaps one of the sweetest things I've ever seen...

Every year the five cousins put on a Christmas play retelling the Christmas story in a creative way. Over the years the play has taken on a life of its own. The kids start writing the script and practicing in the summer and planning with a fury. Every year it gets better, with the addition of new costumes, props and sets. The laughter of the audience has changed from laughing at how cute the funny little kids are to how funny and talented their growing senses of humor are.

This year we added the twins to our family, (Danny's sister's family adopted deaf twin 3 year olds from the Philippines this summer) which added a new dimension to the play. They don't know a lot of sign language yet, although they are learning like crazy so the kids didn't want to sign the whole play but they wanted to find a way to include the twins in the play somehow. So, they added them briefly to a couple of scenes (they were slaves sold in the marketplace) and they signed a couple of songs in the play.

During the signing (and yes, I spelled that correctly) of the song O Holy Night (my favorite Christmas song) the twins watched with great attention and then Emily started joining in, copying all the signs that the big kids were doing. There was not a dry eye in the audience (which consisted of us, LaNae & Roland, my parents and Danny's parents). It was such a sweet thing and the big kids loved watching them from the "stage" even though the twins totally stole the attention. I included a short video of this part because it was so cute. The best part is when Emily tries to get Ashley to join in too.

Watching a little girl signing the Christmas story (a story she may never have heard if not for adoption) for the first time in a language she might never have learned if she hadn't been adopted by a family that knows sign language just reaffirmed my excitement in the process we are going through right now. I'm praying that next Christmas there are two more new little people watching that play and seeing the story of Jesus' birth played out in front of them.

We are licenced....

We got our OFFICIAL foster-care licence in the mail yesterday. So, now we wait.

For God to send the right kids to our home.
For changing diapers and giving baths.
For the cries of babies.
For the laughs of toddlers.
For potential pain and loss.
For the blessings of following on faith alone into uncharted and unknown territories.
For our lives to be changed in ways we never imagined.

Hey Chuck, it's Christmas

The kids were in a play (adaptation/parody) of A Charlie Brown Christmas called, "Hey Chuck, it's Christmas." It was very cute, and here are a couple of scenes that feature....(of course) my kids. Annsley was Frieda, the girl with the naturally curly hair. Seth was an unnamed Peanut, which bothered him to no end and so he decided to be Franklin, the little black boy (who technically doesn't appear in the Christmas special, but in later specials). I didn't have the heart to tell Seth that he isn't black, so he was Franklin.

This video is the classic dance scene. Seth is the boy near the front with the blue striped shirt and very long hair doing his moves that he got from watching the cartoon. You can't see the other kids in the back but they are all doing moves like the ones on the special too. Very cute.

This next view is Annsley doing he dance routine while Peppermint Patty sings her song. (Obviously this scene was added for our play and is NOT in the original!) :-)

Christmas Concert

The kids are in a marimba band this year which has been so fun! Here is one video from their concert.

Here is Annsley singing her first solo in Feliz Navidad. (I had to set down the camera to clap for my girl! :-))

Guitar recital

The kids have only been taking lessons for 2 months, but I thought they did a great job. And, the best part. The recital was blissfully short. Only 12 kids and each song was about a minute long!! Now, that is my kind of recital!! :-)

And the new journey begins....

I wonder if anyone still checks this blog. The big news around this neck of the woods is that we have finished the process to get licenced for foster-adopt. One thing we had to do in order to get licenced was to have two cribs set up in our house! It felt VERY strange buying a crib on Craigslist. I told Danny that if the woman asks how far along I am or if this is for our grandchild, I'm going to have to kick her. She didn't.

There is something that seems odd about having your 11 year old son setting up a crib! But, Danny had Seth follow the directions and put the thing together!

I guess I just didn't think I would EVER see one of these in my home again!!

Cannon Beach

This is our family's favorite week of the year! Here are a few highlights in picture.

Day 11

Well we are home now, but I'm going to go back and blog about the days we were gone. I think it will be easier if I break it into different days.

We started out Day 11 with the Hoosier bat factory, which we did not document with pictures for some reason. It was a small but interesting little factory and it was fun to see how they made bats.

Next Danny's Aunt Marvella took us blueberry picking. We thought we were going to miss out, but this place opened today in perfect timing for us to get to pick in the same area that Danny did when he was a kid! We got our first taste of Midwest humidity!

Next we went to a great tour of a huge dairy! Every hour there is a live calf born and a viewing room, so we got to see a calf being born. (I went back later and saw another one.) This mom needed a little assistance!

We also got a tour of the place, including the milking room.

We enjoyed a nice dinner with Aunt Marvella and Uncle Bill!!

Day9-10

Yesterday we spent most of the day in the Cleveland Science Center, which was one of the best science museums we have seen. We took a tour of a giant lake boat as a part of the museum. We also got to see some of the interesting buildings in Cleveland, like the Browns stadium and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

We made it to our 49th state!!!!!!!

We spent the night at our college friend's house. It was fun to see Gina after 18 years! (How can that be?!?!)

Today we went to an Amish craft mall and I saw the coolest fabric/quilting store I have ever seen in my life!! (We wondered why the Amish woman was working at Subway-but...whatever!) Then, we toured around University of Notre Dame for a bit.

We also hung out at Indiana Dunes National Lake Shore for an hour. I snuck a little nap to make up for staying up late talking.

Day 7-8

Hello from Niagara Falls. This morning we left Detroit and drove here. We stopped at a chocolate factory along the way (no golden tickets or Willy Wonka). It wasn't very big (think Tillamook Cheese Factory in the earlier years) but we got a sample of chocolate and they had $1 scoops of ice cream so the kids (and Danny) were happy. We also put our feet into Lake Ontario.

We decided to stay on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, which has the better view. It was a gorgeous day, so we decided to take the boat tour this evening rather than waiting for tomorrow. We started out with the Maid of the Mist boat tour which takes you to the bottom of the falls and into the horseshoe part so you are basically surrounded on three sides with falls. Although, the mist is so extensive it is hard to see it. They give everyone on the tour rain ponchos and you soon see why.

At night they shine lights onto the Falls and it was beautiful! We stayed for the 10:00 fireworks show over the falls.

Day 8-

It turned out it was a good thing we took the tour yesterday because it was POURING down rain this morning at Niagara. We were going to explore the falls from the American side a bit, but it was just too miserable. So, we set off for Cleavland. The two highlights of the day were the Kazoo factory (and factory is a bit of an overstatement) and putting out feet in Lake Erie. This completed the goal of putting our feet in all five of the Great Lakes. The Kazoo place was a cute little place that was fun to see. The kids got to build their own Kazoo.

We also made it to state number 48!

Day 6

Today we set off for Detroit. We started out by taking a tour of a Ford truck factory. It was very interesting.

Next we went to the Harry Ford Museum. There were quite a few interesting things at the museum including the bus where Rosa Parks sat in the front, the car where President Kennedy was assassinated and the chair where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.

We got to work on an assembly line.

Here is a picture of me going all "Rosa Parks" at the front of the bus.

We are spending the night in Detroit.

Day 5

This morning we really slept in! (7:30 is REALLY sleeping in in the Danny Buller travel handbook. If I had a dollar for every time he said, "We didn't come on vacation to sleep!") Then we went to the lochs and saw a couple huge boats go through. The engineer in Danny LOVES lochs!! :-) It was actually pretty cool.

We touched our 3rd Great Lake. Here we are putting our toes into Lake Huron.

We climbed to the top of a lighthouse.

And, we did quite a bit of driving in the rain. But, we got to our hotel in Saginaw, MI early enough for a good swim! Not a ton to report today, but we seem to enjoy our days even when we are in the car for a good part of them. Annsley even said, "I like just driving."

Day 4-The U.P.

This morning we drove to Lambeau Field for a quick visit. We (well, really I) wanted to take the tour, but they didn't start until 10:00 and we really needed to get on our way. But, we did go inside the building and walk around a bit. Very cool!! It is right in the middle of a residential neighborhood. (Shhhhhh.....don't tell anyone, but Favre made a mistake leaving this place!!)

Next highlight of the day, was collecting the 48th state!

Today we touched two of the five Great Lakes

Lake Michigan....

and Lake Superior.....

We went to a spring called Big Springs, where you take a little boat and look down and you can see the water coming into the spring. It was pretty cool. Here is a picture of the boat and a picture taken from the boat into the very deep, clear water. The spots you see are where the water is coming into the spring.

We also saw the Tahquamenon Falls, which look polluted, but are just colored by the tannins from the trees in the water.

Day 1-3

Day 1-We flew into Chicago on a fairly uneventful flight, rented a car and drove out to our great friends, John and Betsey!!! It was so great to be at their home and see their life in Chicago. We just hung out with them all evening and caught up.

Day 2- We went to the church where John preaches and really, really LOVED their church! (Danny snuck this picture from our front row seats.)

We drove to the Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium, which was a wonderful museum with aquarium tanks and great displays about the steamboats and some of the history of life on the Mississippi River.

Next, we went to the Effigy Burial Mounds National Park, which were literally just mounds of grass. The mounds were unimpressive, but the hike took us to some gorgeous look-out spots at dusk.

We got to the hotel late, but not too late for a little swim in the hotel pool! :-)

Day 3

Most of today was driving, and stopping at little places along the way. Our first loop was an Amish loop, which we enjoyed. We tried to do it without gawking, but it is pretty fascinating!

Next we hit the famous Midwest highlight, The Cranberry Discovery Center, where we learned about how cranberries are grown and harvested. It was actually interesting. We decided we would start eating a lot more cranberries in the future. Tonight we got to the hotel in Green Bay early enough for a swim and some catching up with our journals.

Of course the biggest highlight for me was the fulfillment of one of my trip goals. I ate squeaky cheese (in Wisconsin, nonetheless) for the first time!!! Yummy!!!!!

And, we have added four more states to the collection, bringing us to 46 total.

No Illinois picture yet since we flew in, but we'll pick it up on the way back in! As always, when we take these vacations, I am amazed at the vast and beautiful country we live in. So many different types of beauty!