1st day of school

Grayson had a good 1st day of 1st grade! He has his own desk this year which is exciting (instead of tables). I didn't get much else from him. He wasn't in the mood to talk. I think he was exhausted! He said PE was boring because the teacher talked about rules that he already knew and they didn't get to play. :-)

OH.. one other thing - he didn't like wearing his "fancy pants" to school. He just wanted to wear jean shorts "like all the other kids." He never wants to wear "fancy pants" again!!! LOL

China update.... :(

Well, August is not a good month for China adoption referrals.. thanks to the olympics. They only matched 2 days in Aug - the average has been 6-7 days a month. They are now up to to LIDs on Jan 27th, 2006. We need China to get through a little over three weeks before they get to our LID of 2/20/06. It sounds so close.... but then so very far away... seeing they are taking a whole month to get through 2-6 days of referrals. Maybe I'll have better news next month.

Spa day!

We celebrated Stacey's birthday with a girls day at the spa today! We had lunch at Moe's Grill and then headed to the spa for facials, pedicures and/or manicures all afternoon. After the spa, we hung out at Stacey's house and ate more food! It was a good day!!!! :)

2nd Annual picnic and more Johnny pictures!

We had rainy weather Saturday morning, so we cancelled the picnic at State Farm Park and had the picnic at home instead. It stopped raining so after lunch, we went to the park to swim until it started raining again at 4! The kids had a great time all day.

Three of Jeff's brothers and their families were here as well as Jeff's mom. Amy and Brian were able to come with Maisy and Trixie and Stacey was able to bring two of her kids- Eden and Beckett. It was great to have everyone together! :)

Then on Sunday, we went to my mom's house for the "Johnny Open House." All of our aunts and cousins came over to meet Johnny. Grayson also helped entertain Johnny and feed him too!

Did I mention that my Mom broke her foot on Friday?!? Surgery on Friday and no getting up for 6 weeks!!!

Another adoption update...

China is now through Log In Dates of 1/26/06.. so that means China has less than 4 weeks to get through before our LID of 2/20/06. They have not picked up the pace at all though. Now the Olympics will be there next month so I doubt that we'll see in increase in activity with referrals.

My fingerprint sworn statement went ok - I guess. I just have to wait for a few weeks before I receive a letter saying that I'm not a felon. :) Babysitting Johnny went very well. He slept quite a bit and was a very good baby.

We've been very busy at our house painting rooms, hanging pictures, cleaning etc. for the past week or two. We're hosting our 2nd Annual State Farm Park family/friends picnic and then Open House at our place after that on Saturday.

Grayson is still continuing swimming lessons and is doing very well. He has improved so much since he started. He did the backstroke all by himself for the length of the pool last night! I was so proud. :)

Fingerprint update

I have to appear in the Immigration Office in downtown Chicago on Monday morning because my fingerprints were rejected this time. I have to sign a sworned statement about my background check before they will update our I-600 form that is required for our adoption. I always have problems with taking fingerprints... something about my fingertips being too smooth so they can't read the lines on them. ???

The only good news about this trip is that I get to babysit Johnny on Sunday night while mommy and daddy go out with some friends. :-) More pictures to follow after my babysitting gig on Sunday.....

busy weekend!

I had Thursday and Friday off last week. I was able to visit Shana and Paul and Johnny! Shana and I took Johnny to Picture People for his 1st photo shoot! They turned out great. He was 12 days old on Thursday when we took him.

I was also able to babysit Johnny all by myself while Paul and Shana went to dinner for the 1st time since Johnny was born! I took this picture of us.

This picture shows how tiny he is! I think this is his favorite position to sleep...

This is Johnny on his Mommy's tummy... he's sooooo cute!

Then on Friday, I was able to see Grayson and his two cousins, Calvin and Caitlin, in their Vacation Bible School program.

On Saturday, Grayson and I visited Gma and Gpa Schofield. Elizebeth and Nate were there too. They all had a great time swimming.

After visiting the Great Grandma's in the nursing home, we went to Trixie's 4th birthday party. The kids had a great time!






On the adoption front, referrals have been received for LID's (log in dates) up to 1/20/06. Our LID date is 2/20/06. If we were to guess at this point, we may have a referral in Oct or Nov this year. This is a complete GUESS though. :-)