Week Off

 We had one week off for break this year so there was lots of fun, family time.

Silly times with friends at the creek.

Painting pumpkins

Some of those look like there's more paint than pumpkin.

So pretty

And this is the line to pick up our registration packets for the Thanksgiving Turkey Trot!

Back to Celebrate

 I got a bit behind in blogging and had some trouble with Blogger telling me I had maxed out on my photo uploading, but I think I'm back and ready to catch up.

We were so glad to have My Man back home after his short trip to Haiti.  His pictures and stories were full of adventure.  After hearing and seeing the poverty and hopelessness in Haiti, we now have a newfound desire to pray for that country.  Join us!

And although our family is trying to eat "real foods" this month, a birthday just isn't a birthday in our house without Oreo Ice Cream cake, so we put all healthy goals aside and just celebrated!!

In Thanksgiving

I know lots of great bloggers are writing things they are thankful for daily.  It's a great idea and I would love to join them if I were consistent enough with my blogging, but today I will do one.

Today I am thankful for white boards to communicate with my Fish Sticks when I still can't talk AND hard working Fish Sticks who helped me clean the house so we can have a proper welcome home for My Man.

I am also thankful for a wonderful mother-in-law who knows that my kitchen sink is detached and so she not only hosted us for supper last night but invited us to head over for breakfast in our p.j.s for a delicious breakfast and coffee.

And in advance, I'm thankful for my father-in-law who is going to connect my sink in just a bit so that My Man won't have that burden when he walks in the door.

And last for this post, I'm thankful for cousins who want to spend their birthdays celebrating with their special Fish Stick cousin.  These Giggle Girls are crazy about one another and I'm sure are having a super time.

Silence & Sinks

I'm washing dishes tonight in the bath tub.  I shouldn't complain.  My Man is in Haiti surrounded by people who have no sinks OR bathtubs to wash their dishes. 

My sink broke again and was glued today.  I have 24 hours until I can use it.  Last time I broke it because I stood on it (that's what short people have to do to reach things sometimes).  This time I was baffled as to how it fell down.  The fix-it man said I get too much water on the seal which weakens it and it breaks down.  Guess I'll be toweling down my kitchen area more from now on.  Who would have thought?  Not me, obviously.

So My Man's coming back tomorrow night and I can't wait.  We are rarely apart and never apart internationally when we don't really have free communication between us.  He spent his birthday in Haiti.  Balloons, cake and presents await him here.  He called today as we were heading to pick up AB from basketball, but we couldn't talk.  We couldn't talk because I have no voice.  I lost it sometime yesterday and as my eldest comedian says, I haven't been able to find it anywhere.  It started out raspy in the a.m. and by 5:00 at the wrestling match, it was long gone.

It's been rough parenting and homeschooling 6 kids with no form of communication.  We did worksheets in homeschool today.  The story books of Pilgrims were left untouched.  I've had to get creative with my need to talk.  My kids don't seem to remember all the sign language I taught them when they were 12 months old.  Thankfully the dogs have come when I clap.  I brought my pom pom to the wrestling match and between stomping my feet, clapping my hands and flapping my pom pom, I felt somewhat secure that my son knew I was rooting for him.  I settled some bickering in the van by blasting the radio for 1 split second until it hurt our ears.  That seemed to work.  Surprisingly it's been more quiet around here the last 48 hours.  Funny how folks respond to your whisper with their own whisper...as if a baby is asleep.  The repair man had trouble finding the house because I couldn't tell him our address over the phone and what they thought I said was wrong.  One little numeric digit and an "er" on the street name can make a big difference, we found out.

Just another unusually quiet day in the Fish house with no working kitchen sink.  I doubt there will ever be another one.

Ring Pops, Rebellion & Wrestling

 We have entered the world of wrestling.  It's all new to us and we had no clue what to expect at the first tournament on Saturday after one week of practicing.  Weigh in at 7:30 a.m..  Mama & Fish Sticks arrived at 8:00.  Tournament started at 9:30.  Family left after Caleb's 2 matches and got home about 1:00.  My Man and Caleb stayed until the end to see several team mates win first place.  Tournament ends at 5:30 p.m.  That is one long day!!!  Did I bring snacks, lunch, drinks?  Nope!  After Fish Sticks were begging me for concession money because they were SO HUNGRY, I gave them each $1 and told them to spend it wisely.  They all came back with a Ring Pop!  A Ring Pop?  Are you kidding me?  Just when I thought I had trained my children well in good nutrition and food density, I had humble pie for snack.  I know better now.

Before I even talk about the new found passion for wrestling that has entered our home, I must preface it with a story since this must go down in the Fish History book and reread in years to come.  My eldest is classic Sam-I-Am.  If you don't know what I'm referring to, it's the Dr. Seuss Book, Green Eggs and Ham.  He is initially pessimistic about most new situations, so when his football coach mentioned wrestling to him, it was an emphatic, "NO THANKS!"  No amount of coaxing or suggesting or encouraging on our part could change his mind.  He's never been to a wrestling match.  He doesn't know anything about the rules of wrestling.  He has never tried it himself.  He just KNEW that he was not going to do it, wouldn't like it, and wouldn't be good at it.  (I will not wrestle in with a fox.  I will not wrestle in a box.  I will not wrestle here or there. I will not wrestle anywhere.)  Now this character trait of my son drives My Man and I CRAZY!!!!  I am the eternal optimist in our family and My Man is the guy who NEVER says never.  Where did this child get the "not gonna try" character is a mystery to us.  It honestly became a hot button for him.  He got real feisty with us whenever we even mentioned it, almost like he was picking a fight with us.  Finally his football coach told him he was going to make him attend the day-long workshop before making a decision.  We backed up this decision and sent him off, grumbling and complaining the entire time.

Eight hours later the boy came home and couldn't hold back his grin as he tried so hard to be nonchalant about the day's events.  HE LOVED IT!  And more, he's good at it.  So did I get in his face and make him say, "I was wrong.  You were right.  I should have listened to you."?  Nope, but his coach did in front of his friends and that was good enough for me. (Now I will wrestle in a house.  I will wrestle with a mouse.  I will wrestle in a car.  I will wrestle near or far.)

After just one week of practice, our brand-spankin'-new wrestling team had our first big tournament.  I should have read the google post of "wrestling rules for dummy parents" because I was pretty much confused.  My son dominated his opponent for 7 solid minutes and then lost the match due to  locking his hands in a grip.  The 2nd match was similar except after 8 minutes of domination, he got flipped on his back, shoulders pinned and lost.  So I have some homework to do (or maybe just make sure I sit next to someone smart, since I hate reading directions).

The match reminded me of the karate competition in Karate Kid.  Anyone see the resemblance in the first photo?  I videoed the match but this next one, I'll bring my telephoto camera lense so you can see better.  He's the guy in the red.

And remember my blog post about our family wrestling match?  Well, I had kicked his rear, in my opinion.  He asked for a rematch, "just to practice" he said, the night before his tournament.  I rolled my eyes, got my workout clothes on, took off my jewelry and tied my hair in a pony tail.  He was back for another beatin' from his Mama, I figured.  Remember Bam Bam in The Flintstones flipping his dad over and over on the floor?  That's what my boy did to his Mama.  Whacked me on the side of the ear.  I got rug burns on my elbows and knees and honestly, I whined quite a bit after.  Not gonna do that again.  One week of practice was enough for me.  This Mama has retired as a wrestler, but she sure is proud to see her firstborn wearing his leotard singlet and whoopin' up on someone else!  I'm ready for that big win - toting snacks and all!

Raising $700 with "Magic" Shoes

I love how God blesses us in small ways.  It is a constant reminder to me that the God of universe cares about the small needs of His children.  He knew that we had to raise $700, and He also knows that we have been trying to raise funds to offset the cost of our double adoption too. 

I felt hesitant asking friends and family to support our school because I feel like I've already been asking folks to support our adoption through our fund raisers.  This year the school donated Sonic cards for us to sell.  They sell for $10 and contain $20 of food coupons.  You might think these would be easy to sell, but they were not.  We had 40 to sell and went to our doctor's offices, neighborhoods, family, friends, church, garage sales and even Sonic, and we only sold 18 of the 40.

Two days before the kids' money was to be collected at school, the girls had a friend come over to play.

I asked her if she had raised her money and she said yes.  I asked her how, and she said she sold shoes and candy.  I asked if these were her shoes.  She said no, that they were shoes with candy in them.  This was something I had to find out about, so I shot her mom a text asking about the magic candy-filled shoes that raised $175.  Her mom told me that her neighbor was a shoe salesman and had a bunch of cool-patterned Converse high tops that were for display - not pairs.  He donated them to our friend, and she made a candy bouquet out of them.  In 2 blocks of her neighborhood, just asking for donations, they sold enough shoes to meet the quota from school.  She offered to give me her remaining supplies and help me make some too.

So the day before our $700 was due, we had made almost $300, and my friend and I got busy making these really cute candy bouquets.  I picked the Fish Sticks up at school and we hit the closest neighborhood to our country home and spent 3 hours going from door to door selling Sonic cards and asking for donations for the candy-filled shoes.  Three hours later as the sun was setting with only 3 shoes in our wagon and no more Sonic cards, I told the kids we had done our best and I just hoped it was good enough.  We estimated that we were about $75 short of our goal.  Tired and hungry, we came home and counted our money.

$703 is what we earned!

It makes me smile to think of how God orchestrated us to have a friend come play for the first time 2 days before the money was due, for her mom to share her "secret," supplies and time with us to make the shoes, and the day before that we would make exactly what we needed to meet our goal. 

I hope the Fish Sticks never forget this and that it ingrains in their hearts that our heavenly Father loves us and cares about even the smallest things that matter to us.

Rollin' Roar

Leah in the middle, revving up the engines.

 For the annual school fundraiser, GCA does a Rollin' Roar.  The kids raise money for the school and to top off the fundraising efforts, they ride bikes, jump in inflatables, have face painting, games, food, etc.  Just a big day of fun.  Each child is encouraged to raise $175.  Times that by 4 and the Fish Sticks had $700 to raise.  That's a lot of cash in my opinion.  I have a great story to tell you about how we went about raising that money that I will share in another post.

I volunteered to help out with the 3rd grade this year but got to catch a glimpse of my other 2 girls and grabbed a snapshot.  My son was having a blast on the other side of the campus competing in team races.

Ruth heading out with 2nd grade.

Coming around the bend, seeing Mom and turning her head the other directions.  SIGH!

AB and Sofia waiting for the go for 6th grade

Colorful pirates?  Interesting choice of face painting, in my opinion, but it seemed to be the hit of the day.

Our good friend, Dan, shared his talent with the kids.

ARGGG

AB's teacher got this one of a group of 6th grade girls.  What a sweet bunch of girls!  AB is the 3rd from right.

Call Me Crazy....or Maybe

Ahh the influences of Alvin and the Chipmunks station on Pandora.
(and yes, those are olives on her thumbs)

Costumes with No Creativity

 When it comes to Halloween, I am at the bottom of the creativity pit.  The woman who was once given the nick name "Crafty Cassie" has become the mom who only pins crafts on Pinterest and rarely creates.  My juices have run dry and here's what Halloween looks like at our house.

"Kids, Halloween is tomorrow.  Go rummage through the dress up bench and grab your outfit.  If you can't find something in there, then you better start coming up with something!"

Yea, it's sad, I know.

That's how we came up with a black ninja who had his face mask mess up at the last minute, so with black face paint he turned quickly into a bandit;  the housewife for the 2nd year in a row worn by the girl who is driven by comfort; the cross country runner because she was 1 day late turning in her cross country uniform; the ballerina for the 4th year, Spiderman for the 3rd year and the famous Jack-o-lantern outfit that has been worn by almost all Fish Sticks before her.

What's even sadder is that my big sis, who would tell you herself that she doesn't have a crafty bone in her body, totally outdid me this Halloween for the last 15 years of Halloween costumes combined.  And she sewed!  Did you read that?  She sewed...like with a needle and thread!!  Sis, you amazed me this fall season and I'm so impressed.

Getting treats at Grandma's

 We had a nice trick-or-treat night starting with yummy chili at our friends house and heading to the same neighborhood that we have gone to with our friends the last 3 years.

 I did do something cute for the kids' library story hour party.  See, I have some craftiness left.

And since you're probably curious to see what my sister made, I'll include a photo of her kids....

And her tailgate Candy Land display.  Isn't that adorable??  Happy Fall!

The Only Way

There's only one way to dress on Sports Day...

Regardless of how the season is going.

We are not fair-weather fans.

WE ARE DALLAS COWBOY FANS!

Small Request Granted

"Mom, take a picture of me and my droid."

Hat Day and So Much More

 This week is Spirit Week at school.  I forgot to photograph the Fish Sticks on Hillbilly Day.  Tuesday was Hat Day.  The other Fish Sticks just had normal hats on, but when Ruth walked out the door like this, I had to grab my camera.

I wish I had the words to describe Ruth.  She's a nutty little girl.  She's fun and silly and loves to laugh, but passionate in every way.  She loves to stack clothing - adding more pretties to her outfit and coming up with totally original things.  She will walk out the door wearing this outfit and not think twice about it, but will panic if I make her ponytail slightly crooked.  Go figure.

So for hat day, she wore a golden hat, with her fuzzy, sparkly scarf her cousins gave her from Turkey, ear muffs with black cat heads on them (more cousin gifts) and pink gloves.

When I told her to "strike a pose" for me, this is what she did.  Totally hilarious!!!  Gotta love that nutty Ruth!!

Close of the Season

 I am sad to post our last football game of our first season.  It really was a phenominal season and one which we all enjoyed so much. 

To start each game, the team walks through a line of parents, siblings, students and fans to start the game onto the field.  We scream, cheer, pat and do all we can to pump up the team and let them know of our support.

 This last game started when cross country ended and they were at the same location.  So many students and families showed up for the game, so who was surprised when all the siblings and kids started making pyramids to cheer on our team?

 That would be Roofy Poofy on the top there.

 Poor Little Guy was one of the few little boys there.  I kept hearing him say to the big girls, "Can I get on top?  Can I get on top?"  Finally he was heard and was put on the top, but my camera wasn't fast enough to snap him topping the pyramid.

I love this photo of our coach praying with his hand on Caleb (kneeling).

 At the close of every game, we pray with the other team before we break off into our own school huddle and listen to feedback from each coach.  In my humble opinion, our team is like no other.  Our coaches are out to win the game of football and raise young warriors for Christ, all at the same time.  Throughout each and every practice, these coaches are training our young boys to be strong, stay the coarse and sweat like never before but also to build character as a man of God.  What more could a parent ask for than to have our son under the leadership of these Godly men who are purposeful in building Godly character and teaching him, along with us, what Biblical manhood looks like.  What a season!!!  We were sad to say goodbye to 2012 football!

Wrapping Up XC

 Cross Country 2012 came to a close last week.  This is AB and Leah at the start off of the last race.  Leah continued to run with the middle schoolers for 1.5 miles and continued to place well.  I don't have their final race times, but their best that I have recorded was 11 minutes 43 seconds for Leah and 10 minutes 47 seconds for AB.

 Here they both are booking it at the finish line.  We are so proud of both of them.  During the award ceremony our small school placed 3rd out of all the schools involved.  AB got 20th out of all the girls.  Way to go girls!!