Adoption Day

Today is a great day! K and I finalized the adoption of the athlete today. He's been a part of our family for almost three years. He was the first foster child we ever had. He came to us barely three years old with few language skills and loads of energy. Now almost six years old, he talks up a storm and still has loads of energy!

What he is most excited about is that now he can go on overnight sleepovers with friends. He's seen the techie do this several times and always felt left out. Foster care rules prohibited the athlete from being able to go. After the adoption, one of the first things he said was, "Can I spend the night with B tonight?". While tonight wasn't an option, I assured him that his chance would come soon.

The judge was very kind to our family and allowed the boys to come behind his throne. It was no time at all when the athlete asked about the gavel. The judge allowed him to hammer it. Laughter rang throughout the courtroom. Yep, that's our boy!

Chase

Our family loves animals. For as long as K and I have been married we have had animals to bless our lives. Our first dog was a dalmation named Zach. He was probably the best trained of any of our pets. He would sit, lay down and come on command. Of course, with no children, we had plenty of time to work with him.

Many, many pets later we now have Chase. He is a small black dog of unknown heritage...a mutt. The vet said he look like he is part papillon so we'll go with that. He is...not the best trained dog we've ever had. While he is house trained ( a must in our house), he pretty much does whatever he wants otherwise. He loves to rough house with the boys. He loves to chase (thus the name) the athlete through the house. What keeps him a family member in good standing is that he will also snuggle with me on the couch during quiet times.

Perhaps the funniest thing Chase does is try to bury his bones. He will take any new bone we give him and run to the couch. If there is a pillow, he will push the bone under it and use his nose to scoot imaginary dirt on top of it. But the most hilarious time he did this was when there was not a pillow. So, he tried to bury his 4 inch bone behind a tennis ball. As always he scooped imaginary dirt up with his nose, followed by some whining. Then finally satisfied, he went off to play. All we could do was laugh. "Sure Chase, we'll never find that bone".

While I'm sure there will be more pets in our future, Chase will always hold a special spot in our hearts, and his bones will always have a place on our couch.

Whee...Wii

Our family gift has without a doubt been worth every penny. We have had hours of family fun on our Wii. Twice now we've had friends come over and play the Wii with us for the whole evening.

No this isn't a paid advertisement.

My favorite part of the Wii is that we aren't sitting on the couch watching a little cartoon on the screen. We are jumping, walking, running, balancing...exercising?

The funny part is watching the people who aren't playing. You can't sit still. We are leaning, motioning, and acting out what we want the player to do.

This morning voices echo throughout the house, "jump, turn, right, left, walk, run....". Okay, it isn't exactly serene....but it is happy!