From a kid's point of view...

Last Sunday morning Anastasia walked into the kitchen and saw James. She made a face and said "There's James - he's the mean one." I reminded her gently that we are only supposed to say positive things about people. To that she replied, "Well, I'm positive - he's the mean one!"

Later that day she was telling me about her mini golf outing with some family friends. I asked her if she got a "hole in one". She looked at me and said, "I got a hole in ALL of them!"

Birthday Boy

Tomorrow is William's 17th birthday. I was thoughtful enough to give birth to him on his Grandma Tippery's 75th birthday. That makes us both pretty special! She was delighted to hear we had a boy - after 3 girls. William was also the first Tippery grandson - someone to carry on the name and all that. He's a great kid. He was born smiling I think. When he was little and in swimming lessons the teacher kept telling him to stop smiling and close his mouth. Even when he did naughty stuff - he had a little grin on his face. I'm pretty proud of my son. He's hard working, honest, thoughtful, tender hearted, tall, handsome and loves his Mama. Couldn't ask for much more.

Families Are Forever

Grr. If I hear about one more family who adopts a kid from overseas and then decides to "unadopt" him because they are all having difficulty adjusting - I will scream!!! I believe firmly that adoption makes a child YOURS - just like giving birth makes a child yours. I haven't heard of too many families getting rid of one of their birthed children when they went through a difficult phase. If people aren't willing to stick it out - then they should think long and hard about bringing a child home. They should understand the risks and uncertainties that go along with adoption. They should understand that the child has likely been through some pretty traumatic stuff. GRR That's all I have to say about that right now.

A Cat With Nine Lives

Victoria (the resident animal lover) brought home a cute orange cat a couple of months ago. Just until she could find a home for him. Uh huh. Sure. Well, Fritz moved in - pretty permanently. We all actually fell in love with him - except Socks - Ally's somewhat senile feline. She wants to beat him up. Night before last, we got a phone call from a neighbor who hit Fritz with his car (by accident). Bruce and Victoria spotted him in the yard but then he disappeared into the bushes. We called and called and looked and looked. Finally, we decided that he must have had severe internal injuries and crawled off to die. Anastasia was very heartbroken. Yesterday, she was sitting at the computer, and had made a little slide show of Fritz pictures, set to lovely music. (How she figured out how to do that I will never know.) Anyhow, last night - there was a little noise at the front door -and low and behold it was Fritz! He has a cut on one leg and some grease stains on his back - but seems his old happy lovable self. Since he was a scrawny stray when a friend of Victoria's first took him in, we figure he's used up more than one of his nine lives. Hope he's around for a while though. He's a keeper.

Changes

Fall is in the air...feels like change. Maybe its some old instinct we have to squirrel away food and hunker down for the winter. For some reason I feel compelled to do something with every growing thing that our lush property produces! Right now its apples. Before that - blackberries. I have however, learned to ignore the crabapples. They are just like decorations on the tree. So - apple pies, apple sauce, sliced frozen apples, dehydrated apple rings have been keeping me and a couple of the girls busy for the past few days. There are changes in our family too. Elizabeth and Daniel are an old married couple of one year! Victoria is getting married in 3 months!! Alexandra is living in Oregon and going to college. I miss my big girls. The boys are going to high school full time - and involved in some extra activities that keep them out longer. Some days it's just me and my two "little" girls. Who aren't so little anymore - 12 and 8. It doesn't seem very long ago at all that my days were a whirlwind of diaper changes, couting the hours til naptime, and Barney videos. Back in the day - buying the giant box of diapers at Costco seemed like a big expense! Boy - kids are expensive I'd think. HA. Now, kid expenses include private school, college, weddings and car insurance - to name only a few. But, you know - its all good. We are rich!! Rich in family, love, a home, good friends - those are the riches that matter to me.

The Rest of the Story

Okay - the ring is on the finger!! It's officially official and the big day is New Year's Eve. We are all very excited and happy for the giddy in love young couple. Her ring is beautiful - I'll get some pictures soon - as soon as someone can tell me how to do it! So - back to the night they met earlier this summer. When he dropped her back at my friend Karen's house they chatted a little about the good time hey had and then Victoria said "last time you asked me I said 'no' but I changed my mind -can I have a kiss on the lips?" And apparently he didn't have to think about it for an hour. Then she sent an email to a girlfriend that said something about how flustered she was but she knew if she didn't do it (ask him) she would regret it for the rest of her life. (She really didn't think she would see him again - he does live in Tennessee after all.) But somehow - the text got sent to Zachariah instead!! Anyhow...that was the beginning. So now they are engaged!! It is so awesome how God has blessed us all and answered our prayers above and beyond our wildest dreams.

Toilet Paper Boy

When Victoria was 9, a family from Tennessee stayed with us for a couple of days. Their youngest son was 11 and the kids seemed to have a good time playing together. Well, many years later I found out that he wrote on a piece of toilet paper "can I have a kiss on the lips?" Apparently, Victoria had to think about it for a whole hour before she told him "no". Why anyone would want to kiss her on the lips when she was 9 is beyond me! Fast forward......11 years. Victoria is now 20. A couple of months ago she was telling me that she wished she had a house of her own, a yard for dogs and gardens. I told her that she wasn't going to have that kind of life anytime soon - she needed a good man first. And then.....a thought came to me! I contacted the family in Tennessee to see if their son was still single and what he was doing with his life. I hadn't heard from them for about 6 years. They would have a lot of common I thought. Both are from families with 7 kids, their dads are in the newsletter business, they have grown up with animals and were home schooled. So, I made plans to go visit another friend in Nashville, and asked Victoria if she wanted to come along. She said yes - so the plan was in motion. (She didn't know I had talked to the family) They ended up seeing each other when we were out there - 3 times. It was pretty much love at first sight!! They even talked about the toilet paper incident! A month of 3 hour long phone calls. Another trip out there for her in August. Another trip in September - and now he is here for 4 days. He wants to talk to Bruce about something. I wonder what that's all about??