My "little" brothers

Many of you already know I have three younger brothers. I use to always say "little" brothers, but if you haven't seen them lately they are anything but "little". They are tall good looking young men now. Two of them are at college down in Southern California. It's lots of fun looking at pictures of them having fun with all their friends. It seems like yesterday when that was Julie and me. My best friend Kait and I often talk about how much fun those times were. Do you remember having that care free fun? There's no fun like when you are young. "Fun" becomes something different the older I get. There are still lots of fun times, but it's definitely not the same from ten years ago. Here is a recent picture of my cute brothers!

Madison

Madison has been one busy girl! She went to Honduras last week and then came home and started kindergarten this week. Last night she was busy playing on the floor and I realized it got quiet on the other side of the couch where she was. She had completely fallen asleep in this position! It was so cute!

Melissa

We've had a really fun week with Melissa! On Monday Julie and I took Melissa shopping and to register her at Target. We couldn't wait to see what she thought of our America malls and also what kind of clothes she would try on. We found out that her love for pink includes clothing and her taste is definitely girly and dressy. She did throw us a couple of surprises every now and then and pick out something completely different. Like the belt she wanted was a black one with silver spikes on it. Or this sweater that had a fur hood on it. The things Julie bought her are SO cute on her.

We have had lots of laughs making our way through the little Spanish I know and the stuff Julie knows. Melisa smiles or laughs at us trying, but then we make her say the English word. The other day when they dropped me off at my house, I gave her a hug she told me she loved me in English! It melted my heart.

Yesterday was her first Doctor's appointment. Thankfully the family doctor speaks Spanish so she was able to communicate and find out what she needed to know. Melissa did great, even with the shots and blood drawn that had to be done. We had a hilarous time when we were waiting for the doctor and we were trying to translate the stuff that was going to happen.

Last night she actually watched America's Next Top Model with Julie and me. We aren't sure how much she understands, but we think she understands more than people realize.

On to my other niece - Madison. She is adapting okay. Chad said she is acting out more than she ever has, but I guess that is to be expected since she was an only child and that is all she knows. I think it's cute how she is trying to boss Melissa around. Julie has tried to explain to Melissa that she is the boss and Madison needs to obey Melissa. :) I don't think Madison got that memo.

When the family arrived at the church with Melissa, Madison saw all her little friends outside in the backyard and when she ran out to them with her arms opened wide yelling "my friends" the kids all came running towards her, but then went right around her realizing Melissa must be here. It was pretty funny. Someone yelled out "Someone give Madison a hug!", so little Parker gave her a hug.

She is here!!!

After two and a half years of waiting my adopted niece Melissa from Honduras has finally come home! Chad, Julie and Madison went down there a week ago to pick her up. They arrived in Monroe just after church today where she was met by her new family and church family. There were lots of tears and hugs.

Melissa is turning 15 years old this month and she is the perfect addition to our family. She is the sweetest girl you have ever met and we love her so much. She is also a very pretty young lady. It doesn't seem real that she is finally here. That was a long wait and there were many times when we doubted if we would ever have her home with us.

She does not speak English, but they have decided to hire a tutor this year to help her learn English and prepare for High School next year. There will be many exciting firsts for Melissa. There are many changes, but mostly good changes. Just having her own bedroom with pink painted walls (She LOVES pink - sound like another niece of mine?), beautiful furniture and carpet is amazing. Tomorrow Julie and I are taking her shopping. It's going to be so much fun!

Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray for her as she adapts to everything. She is excited to meet my family hopefully in the next few months. I'm sure she is feeling a bit overwhelmed by everything, but she seems happy to be here.

Our Vehicle was gone...

On Saturday Joe and I decided to go fishing again in our "lucky" spot. We packed up our stuff and headed to the beautiful river. We got there about 12pm, parked our truck with the ten other vehicles there, I put my purse under the seat, locked up the truck and headed through the woods to the river. After a couple of hours most everyone had left and we found ourselves fishing alone until this nice gentleman who was fishing with us earlier came back. When he saw us still here he asked where we parked our vehicle and mentioned that there was no truck there, but some broken glass. We of course quickly left to check out what he was talking about. Surely this was not possible! As we got up the hill, he was right! Our vehicle was gone! No Yukon! We were in complete shock! We called 9-1-1 and started making all the appropriate phone calls. Praise God I had my cell phone and Joe had his wallet. Sadly, his cell phone and my wallet/purse was in the truck. The irony.

The next couple of hours were extremely stressful. I couldn't believe this had happened, but we were told this town had been getting hit hard lately with car theft. In fact the funny part was that the cops had chased a black 2003 Yukon for speeding, but they couldn't catch up so they let him go. Hmmmmm.....

More to come later....

Summer Time Fishing

I love Monroe! It took a while for this town to grow on me, but it is truly beautiful here. We are surrounded by beautiful green trees and gorgeous view of the mountains. Monroe is a small enough town that people know you when you're out doing errands, but growing so you still have modern facilities and a growing economy (well sort of). Joe and I love being only about 40 minutes from the mountains (Stephens Pass) and an hour from Leavenworth. One of our favorite weekend get away places. The other thing that is truly beautiful that Joe loves taking advantage of is our rivers. For a fisherman or someone with the passion of fishing, this is the perfect place to live - there are five rivers 20 miles of us.

Tonight Joe and I went fishing. The season opened last week. I don't have my fishing license yet so I took a chair and a good book and had fun being in the beautiful outdoors with my sweetie, while he tried to "bring home the fish".

Right now it's Steelhead fishing and if you have never had fresh Steelhead before, you don't know what you're missing! Or just let me know and we will have you over for dinner. :) My baby is good about keeping my freezer full of all types of fish and we really enjoy cooking it up several different ways. We have salmon about two to three times a month. Our favorite way is grilling it with Caribbean spices we found on our honeymoon in St. Martin. Yummy!

As you can see from the picture, we had a successful try today. Joe caught a shiny large Steelhead! She was a beauty! Good job baby!

We're Guardians!!!

Joe and I were asked by our dear friend Deanna to be her 16 year old daughter Brittany's guardian. We feel so honored by the request and after talking and praying about it, we have accepted. Britt is already a little sister/niece to us so this just feels right. We of course hope nothing ever happens to Deanna, but if something were, we would want to be there for Britt anyway.

Thanksgiving

I'm so excited because I just booked our flight to Pensacola for Thanksgiving!!! We are going to celebrate Thanksgiving with Joe's Aunt and Uncle and Mom. I'm so exited because Joe's Aunt and I have developed a close friendship via email and we have been waiting to meet. It also will be fun meeting more of Joe's family. I can't wait!!! I can't believe I actually found a flight using air miles. :)

He bit me!

I told Joe he was going to have to kill someone for me. It's black and has eight legs and it had the nerve to crawl on my face and bite me while I was sleeping! I woke up with a huge spider bite on my chin. Does that creep you out like it does me? I'm actually not one to freak out by spiders. I can kill them myself when they come in my house, but to think about one crawling on my face while sleeping is very creapy to me.

Friends Wedding

On July 5 we went to our friend's Greg and Heidi's wedding. It was a lot of fun watching them become husband and wife, especially after their 17 month engagement. I think they were ready for their big day!

My best friend Kait was in the wedding and I loved this picture of us. The other picture is of her little man - baby Caden. Isn't he precious?

Camping

We went camping this weekend with my best friend Kaitlin and her family. It was a lot of fun! We went to Conconully because we love the campgrounds there. It's lots of flat grass with nice large trees shading different areas. The trick is figuring out where the shade is going to be at what time of the day. We ended up moving our tent after the first night. We hit the morning sun and couldn't sleep.

Conconully has two lakes, lots of mountains and a cute little town that has a general store. There is also a nice clean bathroom (nice for camping anyway) which is a bonus when camping.

Another one of the highlights of this place is the deer! They are so friendly and come through the campgrounds throughout the day. You can even hand feed them. We had a Mom and her fawn settle down for the night a few feet from our campground.

We love to camp! It's relaxing just catching up on our reading, playing games, exploring the hills or making smores around the campfire. The other thing Joe and I do while camping, is eat well! I love to cook while camping. I made homemade blueberry pancakes and bacon one morning. For the other breakfast I made egg omelette burritos and potatoes. For dinner I made shish kabobs and baked potatoe and marinaded chicken burgers.

Conconully is where we went hunting last year. Yes, I went hunting, but not in the way you think. I don't actually go up in the mountain sit for hours in the freezing cold waiting to spot a buck. I went for the peace and relaxation. I had an awesome time - one of the most relaxing times in my life. I went with my husband (of course) and he had two buddies come with. While they woke up at 4AM to go hunt, I slept in and then bundled up, started a fire, put a blanket over me and sat by the fire and read! It was awesome! My other responsibility is feeding the boys so I cooked a big dinner for them and then packed my sweetie's lunch for the next day. It was great! The most funny thing is while they boys were up in the mountains hiding out to spot the deer, the deer would come through the campgrounds and it seemed like their tongues were sticking out! Ha, ha!

Sex in the City

I love chick flicks. Especially the kind that make you feel fabulous to be a woman! I just came from seeing the movie Sex in the City. I had planned a great night out with the girls to see it, but due to being needed by a friend for an "emergency", the plans got cancelled. So I went and saw it by myself tonight. This was one movie I didn't want to ask Joe to come with me on. There are the "chick flicks" that I like for Joe to come with me on and then there are "chick flicks" that I would feel bad asking him to come along to. This was one of those. Two and a half hours of all girl stuff did not seem very nice to make him sit through. And it's a good thing......

I LOVED the movie minus the sex and nudity. I don't know why I didn't think there would be nudity...it is after all called Sex in the City. I just didn't think that was Sarah Jessica Parker' style, which she did not "show" herself at all in the movie.

Why are they ruining the BEST movies these days with all the nudity and sex? There are lots of movies Joe and I have seen in the past year to two years that have been ruined with the nudity and sex. Can't a person catch a break and watch a movie without having to advert the eyes?

The best part about the movie is the passion between the girlfriends. I love Charlotte's character when, well I don't want to ruin it for you if you have not seen it, let's just say when she is there for Carrie at a crucial time.

The other fabulous part is of course the clothes and shoes! Wouldn't a girl love to have these women's closets! Oh well, we can dream can't we?

Hiya

Well, I finally decided to try my hand at this blog thing. I really enjoy reading all of my friends blogs. Every few weeks I will sign on and enjoy reading about the latest with your families. So, right now I just want to say hi! More to hopefully come...