Thursday, January 1, 2009

Life at Home with our Little Guy

Having fun with Mama B

Someone likes Mama B's red shoes


Molly, T, and his bear from Grandma Marsha

Opening up his presents on Christmas morning


Fun with Papa B


Looking smart in Papa B's glasses

Wearing Mama B's snow boots


T and his buddy Jack from church


T enjoying bathtime!


We sure are enjoying having little T around! He brings so much energy to our home and we love how he says "hiya" everytime he sees us, how much fun he has playing with his toys, wearing our big clunky shoes around the house, chasing kitties, and of course, taking baths. And he sure has been soaking up all of the love and attention his five foster grandparents have been pouring on! His caseworker came by the other day and told us that his mom went into a drug treatment facility and that as soon as she has had a chance to settle in and get a little better they are hoping to have T join her there where she will receive training on how to be a good mommy to her son in a supervised environment. So, if all goes as planned, our time may be short with T so we're trying to enjoy each day with him and fill his little life with as much love and security as possible. We know God has a plan for his life, and whether that includes us or not, he's touched our lives forever and we'll always keep him in our prayers.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Meet T




Yesterday our second foster child joined our family. He turned two in November and is quite a ball of energy! About two minutes after we got home he was running laps around the house, climbing up the back of the couch like a little rock climber and then jumping from it with abandon. This little tyke climbed up to the top of the bunk bed (without the ladder) and today we found him perched atop of the cat tree - he's so little and yet seems to have more arm strength than Robert and me combined!

He loves drinking his "baba" with milk, loves petting Kai and chasing the kitties, and his two favorite words are "no" and "mine" - hmm, sounds quite a bit like all of the other 2 year olds I know! He also seems to really enjoy bathtime. I was wondering how I was going to get him clean, but as soon as I mentioned the word bath he was taking off his clothes and jumping into the waterless tub. He loves playing with his bath toys and dumping cups of water on his head. He also really likes to play hide and seek and give hugs to Papa B (Robert) and he's currently sitting on my lap "helping" me write this blog!

T's case is a little unusual - mom is being very cooperative and really wants to turn her life around to get him back so DHS thought it would be good if we all met and got to know each other so yesterday when we picked our little guy up we also met "mom". It was, of course, a very emotional day for her, but she was friendly and tried to make the transition as smooth as possible for T.

Robert met with T's mom, the caseworkers, and the judge today, and the first hearing is set for January, so we are pretty sure we will have T through Christmas.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

A $5 Christmas Tree, Hot Cider, and Dolly!

Beautiful Mt. Bachelor (taken from the passenger seat)


Ready to find our Christmas tree


Kai helping us look for the perfect tree


She's the one


Got her!


Our lovely tree


Last year Robert and I purchased a beautiful live potted white fir to use as our Christmas tree and then we planted it in our front yard. This year, we decided to spend $5, get a tree permit, and hike through the woods to cut down our own tree! Although it hasn't really snowed yet in Bend, as we drove towards Mt. Bachelor, (about 15 minutes from our house) there began to be patches of white on the side of the road and an awesome view of the great white mountain. After driving around for awhile trying to find a forest road to turn onto, we decide to just pull over to the side of the road and trek our way in. We didn't have to go to far before we found quite a few good-looking Christmas trees. Granted, these aren't the big, round, symmetrical variety you find at your local tree farm, but a real life Charlie Brown tree is exactly what we were looking for! Kai had a blast running around in the snow while we picked the perfect (well, perfectly imperfect) tree, Robert sawed it down, and we headed home with our lovely Christmas shrub.

Later that night we put on the Bennington Christmas CD of choice (Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton), drank hot cider, and decorated our lovely 9' tree - which looks a lot bigger in our house than it did in the forest!
Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Thanksgiving 2008

My Thanksgiving pies


My mom and cousin Mike waiting patiently for food.
(And there's me taking the picture and Robert in the kitchen!)


Russ, Terri, and Mike's tattooed arms


Dad and me in the party room - their garage!


Robert and cousin Mike being silly


How many men does it take to carve a turkey?
Apparently it takes my two step-brothers: Russ and Mike


Frank and Marlene all the way from Maui


Sewing!


My lovely tree skirt



Well, it was another very busy Thanksgiving for us! Robert's cousin Mike came up from Corvallis to spend the holiday weekend with us (for the second year in a row... it's a tradition now!). We had my mom over for brunch Thanksgiving morning, and then headed over to my Dad and Terri's for a big family reunion - with family members coming from as far as Minnesota and Hawaii! After a full day and a delicious meal there, we headed over to Gene and Penny's for some late night pumpkin pie:) On Friday Penny got out her sewing machine and helped me make a lovely tree skirt! My mom came over and we all went for a walk around Sunriver. On Saturday morning I headed back over to my Dad and Terri's (Robert was sick), for breakfast. Marlene made exquisite french toast for Terri's birthday and I had a chance to say goodbye to everyone. It was a whirlwind but it was so good to see everyone. I think from now on we'll be hosting all holidays at our house... I don't think I have the energy to do that again! :)

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

A Winter Boat Ride

Our poor little injured patient

Mr. Cone Head

Rob-ert the sailor man -toot toot!


A little chilly at Friday Harbor

Me stuffing a doughnut in my face and trying to look innocent.

Two weekends ago we took a quick trip up to the San Juans to spend a few nights on the boat with Robert's parents. Robert is going to be taking sailing classes this Spring, and is getting really excited about it, so he's been anxious to be on the water. We had a really fun time and nice weather, but we did have one rather significant mishap the first morning...

Robert woke up around 7 and since I wanted to keep sleeping he decided to take Kai for a nice long walk around the point (we were still docked at the harbor and hadn't left Anacortes yet). I had drifted back to sleep but was violently awakened some time later by Robert flinging the cabin door open and yelling "We've got to go; Kai's been hurt". Now I'm not usually one to jump out of bed, but hearing those words made me panic so I flew out of bed, threw on my shoes, and went running down the docks after Robert in my pajamas. Unfortunately for me (not a runner), our boat was moored at the farthest end possible, so I had to run farther than I've ran in years and man were my lungs burning (time to get in shape maybe?!) Robert had put Kai in the back of my car and the only reason he had run back to the boat was to get his cell phone so he could call and try to find an animal hospital (how come we never have our cell phones when in an actual emergency?)

We drove to the first clinic and when we got there I saw poor Kai's wound for the first time. He had been so excited on his walk that he was jumping around and got tangled in a bush with pointy branches and somehow completely ripped a huge portion of skin from his leg. The skin had flapped open to reveal a nearly perfect 6 inch by 4 inch square of his thigh. It was like peering into a window of muscle and veins. The lady who greeted us was not very friendly and seemed rather unmoved by Kai's injury. She said the doctor would probably see all of his other patients first and then get to Kai. As if we would let our poor little bloody doggie sit in a kennel all day waiting to see the doctor! I thanked her rather curtly and we headed to the Animal Emergency Clinic. When we arrived there, they put us in a room right away and said they would have to knock Kai out and sew him up. We left him there trembling and whining and headed back to the boat to wait for their call.

At about 1:00 that afternoon they said his surgery had gone well and that we could come get our big guy. He got quite a few stitches and they had to stick a big drain in his leg. The worst part, however, was the huge plastic cone he had to wear around his head for 2 weeks. You would think he would have eventually figured out to allow for more space when moving around, but he kept crashing into things and ramming through things for the entire 14 days. He wasn't supposed to move around very much either, so getting him down the very long dock and onto the boat was quite a chore. We decided to stick him in one of the luggage carts and wheel him back to the boat, and although normally he probably wouldn't have stayed put, he was so sore and drugged that he just layed their and enjoyed the ride.

He has since got his stitches out and is doing much better, but it will probably take awhile for all of his fur to grow back! And aside from that little (costly) episode... the rest of the trip was a blast:)