Family Vacation!

We had a FANTASTIC vacation this year! Keith's parents are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this year and as a gift to themselves they took the whole family to Gulf Shores, Alabama for a week! Our condo, which slept 12 of us, was right on the gulf shore, just a few steps away from the beach! We spent a great time together, playing games, eating in, eating out, swimming in the pool and playing in the sand. Actually, the beach was probably the "least" exciting ... the jellyfish were out in force and we kept away! We visited the Bon Secour Wildlife Refuge and Fort Morgan. We drove along the Coastal Birding Trail and took a walk along some trail we just happened upon! Such beautiful country! Some of the family went to see the Brooks and Dunn concert, but we decided to hang out at the condo with "Pawpaw". Christopher really enjoyed the time with his grandpa. Come to think of it, Pawpaw enjoyed this time a lot too! We also had family portraits done by Renaissance Portraits! This is NOT one of their pictures, just one that a friend snapped while we posed for the professional photographer! But, you get to see what a lovely family we have! Note who gets to hold Christopher! : )

We learned that our little guy is quite the "water baby"! He LOVES the swimming pool and floating around in his little inflatable crab. He has since even shown signs of wanting to try to "swim" with me holding him flat and him kicking his legs and sometimes even waving his arms! His little face will go in the water just enough to get a mouthful and then come up laughing. Anything more and it's a little scary! Since he had such a blast in Alabama, we started looking around our area for a public pool and found a great little gem! The county parks and recreation, along with a local recreation center have build a small water park, called Alligator's Creek! It is SO much fun and just the perfect place to take kids of all ages! We've been twice this week and will probably go again on the weekend(s)! Now that school is starting up again, the pool will only be open on weekends and we will only be available during the daytime on the weekends!

Speaking of school, the downside of vacation is that it must come to an end. I had to laugh because my last blog entry was the last day of school and today is the last day of vacation! Christopher is excited to go back to the babysitter's house! I'm glad one of us is excited! Heaven knows neither of US is ready or excited. (OK, I have to admit, there is a little teeny part of me that is excited for the new school year; just wish I could take Christopher with me!)

Well, we took ALL kinds of pictures in Alabama, which I will post in a link on the right. No, I won't post ALL of them since I think I took about 1,000! Just a "few"! LOL

Hope that you enjoy the pics! Have a great day!
Gina <><

May 22 - Such a day!

Whew! Such a day as this! What can I tell you! Today is my sister-in-law's birthday, Gypsy Rose's "dedicated" birthday, since we don't know her real one, the second to last day of school and the day my parents got married in 1945. Right now, I have to admit, I am MOST excited that tomorrow is the last day of school! It has been a good year, but I am certainly ready for the summer! We also had our last meeting with the social worker last night to complete our homestudy. We have just a couple of paperwork things to do and then we're ready to roll!


Today is also a very sad day. I learned that Maria, the daughter of Steven Curtis Chapman, a Contemporary Christian Music singer, was killed last night in their driveway. Her brother was driving the family car out of the garage and did not see her. I am heartsick. I simply cannot imagine what pain the family must be going through. This is the family that adopted a little girl from China, started a foundation to help others adopt and to help orphans. Then, they were led to adopt two more little girls from China, the third being little Maria. I truly believe that the Lord has a plan and that every situation has a purpose to His glory. It is so difficult to see that plan and purpose in the tragic death of such a young child. I can only accept that through this, many people will be praying for the family and making contributions to Shaohannah's Hope, the family's organization to aid adoptions. In this way, He will be glorified through people's communion with Him and the future children who will be helped. Maybe others will even draw closer to Him, knowing that at a time like this, He is the only one to hold on to.

We spent our first Mother's Day with Christopher this month! It was very exciting and still a bit strange to hear people wishing me "Happy Mother's Day". Keith, I mean Christopher, got me the cutest card with BamBam and Dino (from the Flintstones), which is special because we've nicknamed Christopher BamBam for he moment! He slaps any flat surface with his hands or feet whenever he can!

Okay, well, I'm going to go to bed now. I hope to have some more blogs this summer ... more exciting and perhaps more interesting topics than just what's happening in my little corner of the world! Perhaps I'm being vain in thinking that anyone has read this, but ... if you ARE reading this ... thanks and have a great day!

Gina <><

School's Out ... Almost!

Hi! Well, there's just ONE MORE WEEK of school and then it is SUMMER vacation! I, for one, can not wait! It has been a great year, but I SO enjoy my time away from work! The dogs are dying to get out and do some fun stuff rather than just hang around the house! This is evidenced by the fact that Hunter found a loose plank in the fence, sneaked out and found a rabbit's nest! I was dismayed. He was quite proud!

Now that the weather is nicer, Keith and I go for more walks with Christopher and the dogs! The rain has put a damper on that this past week (please pardon the pun!) but I think we are about over the rainy season! I'm hoping to get Gypsy in an Agility class this summer too. She needs a little confidence building!

Keith has another week of school after I do (aw, poor guy)! I guess that's what he gets for having a fall break AND a spring break! He would rather get out earlier and not have that fall break though! I, of course, will give him a very hard time when he has to get up and I get to sleep in! :)

I hope that if you're reading this that you are enjoying a lovely day/evening as well! I'm sure that this is NOT the most interesting blog / post but I do thank you for reading! Maybe I"ll get better at this blogging thing as time goes on! LOL I guess you have to understand that in May, teachers don't have much of a life! :) Of course, I AM looking forward to some of the movies that are coming out. Prince Caspian (Chronicles of Narnia) just opened and I can't wait to see it. My sister and her daughter went to see it tonight, but they said that they would go again, if it is good! Of course it will be goo! And then, next week ... Indiana Jones! I have to admit, I have been an Indiana Jones fan (you can read into that a Harrison Ford fan) for many many years! As a matter of fact, I even considered naming a child Harrison. Keith didn't like that so much. I think he was jealous!! LOL
If you've seen either one of these two by the time you read this, feel free to let me know what you thought! BUT, please oh please do NOT spoil anything! : )

Have a great day!
Gina <><

Spring Has Sprung!

Wow! I can't believe how quickly May has arrived. Keith and I have been so busy getting our students ready for AP tests and for final exams that we slowed down on doing some of our adoption paperwork. THAT was a mistake! We're trying to play catch up now, faxing this and e-mailing that. Really, it's not so bad. We just keep plugging away, signing papers and collecting others!

Every time I see little kids playing with siblings I just get so excited, thinking of how Christopher will some day play with a little brother or sister. Sunday we all had lunch at Qdoba with my brother and his family. They have 5 kids, but 2 are in college so we only got to see 3 of them. It was nice just to sit and chat for a while. The kids can only take so much of that, so they decided to go sit in the car and listen to music!

The weather has been really nice lately too, so we've been going for walks. Christopher absolutely adores being outside, so we take advantage of the good weather whenever we can! We had a cold spell and a rainy spell back to back so this has been nice. Despite today's rain, the temperature was nice - very springy! Christopher seemed to think the rain was quite funny when it hit his feet! Of course, now he is just plumb tuckered out and sound asleep in his room. That would be the reason I can sit and post tonight!

Hope you are having a great day and thanks for visiting! Feel free to drop us a note or leave us a comment if you'd like! Remember, it's almost Friday and that means the WEEKEND! :)

G, K, C <><

Happy Easter!

Just a quick note to say Happy Easter! Keith and I thoroughly enjoyed our first Easter with Christopher! He didn't really understand, but he sure had fun knocking down the basket of goodies with plastic eggs filled with Cheerios! The dogs liked the cleanup duty too!

We hope that you had a great day too and feel as blessed as we do!

K, G & C <><