blurps from the past month

**the beginning of July we were officially approved and became a waiting family.  Yea for us.  Since then we have been working on grant applications, which I am pretty sure we have spent more time on those than the adoption paperwork itself.

**Last week we mailed off 4 grants and have 1 more to fill out and are debating on another (that's an interest free loan).  Knowing from last time, it takes awhile for these to get reviewed and decisions made and I don't expect to hear from them for 2-3 months.  Will you pray for us to receive some financial help on this journey?  We have been blessed by people already as Sarah has been training for the marathon in September and some funds have come in for that fundraiser.

**Our final fees are due on placement day.

**Do we know a timeline?  Nope.  It's all in the Lord's hands and we're not putting little mental notes in our minds saying that we hope to have the baby by such and such time.  That's just too difficult to deal with when it doesn't happen.


**We have been able to buy some baby things every now and then and that's exciting :)  I've got almost everything we need for the first couple days with baby.  I just need to get that new diaper bag packed that I got a steal of a deal on!  And wash a few things so they are ready too.

**Jacob has become quiet the little fish this summer.  We have spent a lot of time at the pool and he would jump in like crazy in the 5 ft area with & without his floaty on and we would catch him.  He then learned that he could move himself by kicking legs and moving arms.  So then he figured out that he could jump in without us catching him, floaty on, and he could swim to the ladder, get out and do it all over again.  He seriously did this about 50 times one evening at the pool.  Then a friend showed him how she could go underwater, and he figured he could do it too, eyes open and everything!  It was within that week that he then put it all together and wa-la, we have a beginning swimmer on our hands.  It has been really cool to watch him learn to swim this summer.  I think we'll have to visit the indoor pool every once in a while so he doesn't forget!

**Our house had a face lift.

The old - gray house, white trim, those peaks are white

 The new - sage ("Herbal Wash") green with white trim, painted the peaks green

We also have new doors to install - anybody, anybody?!  We're very happy with the face lift and look forward to having the final product done.

**Our pool in town closes a week from tomorrow, the 15th will be is last open day...the 10 day forecast...tomorrow 82, every other day is below 80.  Generally my rule for the pool is at least 80.  We'll see if it gets up to 82 tomorrow, seems like perhaps it will be our last pool day of the summer.  Bummer.

**Nate and I have hit the links up a little bit, not as near as much as we would have liked, but there's till plenty of time to be had, so I'm not giving up yet!

**A certain little boy turns 3 in 3 weeks and that's crazy!  3 has become the magic age...he gets to go to Sunday School and Nursery School (preschool for 3 year olds) and Story Hour at the library!  It's going to be fun watching him grow and develop more and it's fun to think about when he was such a tiny baby and how much kids grow in 3 years!

**Enjoy summer!  My goals for the week:  eat an ice cream cone, take a walk, go to the pool, go to a park we haven't visited this summer and enjoy a picnic, go to school some mornings (maybe 3-4), eat a BLT sandwich with a tomato from my garden, harvest my first batch of beans, pull some weeds....more focus on summer, less focus on school work (that's been the past couple weeks a little too much, but I'm sitting in a good position and don't feel overwhelmed with getting ready for school, and that's worth a lot!)

waiting (July 6)

This past week we have become an official "waiting family"!  I don't really feel like we're any different now other than the fact that at any given moment we could become a family of four.  We have been done with all of our paperwork for the adoption side of things for quite a while now.  However, now that we have our official documentation that we are an approved family we can now begin the tedious work of filling out grant paperwork.  I honestly don't know what is more time consuming and more work, but I think I know the answer...the grant stuff.  It's tiring and exhausting.

A day at the lake

 This past Saturday we headed to the Okoboji area to hang out with our neighbors for the day.  It was a glorious day.  So beautiful!  We got some sun, but not fried, some wind to cool us off a bit, but didn't blow away, and a not very busy lake.  It's July people...but we're glad it wasn't busy!  Jacob got out on the tube with Nate as we floated around and then Nate got his wild ride.  Jacob took a snooze and then took a dip in the lake too!  Jacob enjoyed it all, just not at first.  By the time we were done on the boat that kid was warmed up to it!  The most memorable moment for him, that he talks about numerous times a day...peeing in the lake!  He's so funny about talking about it too.  We ate a delicious meal over looking the lake and then did some amusement rides...which some how Nate got his tickets for free (we were only going to do one ride for Jacob since they're kind of spendy there anyway.)  So, with his free tickets to ride one ride, Jacob choose the train.  Well, the guy wouldn't take their tickets, so they got a double free ride!  So the carousel ate up Jacobs tickets.  It was fun and memorable, especially because something was lost and found at the amusement park. 

4th of July at the zoo

The forecast was for 90, hot and humid.  Now I like heat and summer and sun, but I was a bit worried with the forecast.  The zoo is a workout.  By the end, we were saying that it really didn't seem as hot or feel as bad as what we were expecting.  With a lot of indoor exhibits and tree covered pathways we didn't have an overwhelming amount of sun exposure.  It was a glorious day and Jacob got up close and personal with a lot of animals!

 I have heard of several stories where gorillas are strong enough to break glass.  I was hoping this guy wouldn't get mad and bust the glass in on my boys!  How fun that he was right there though!

Lions and tigers are one of Jacob's favorite animals.  He could not wait to get to the cats!  On our way into one of the buildings they had a lion and tiger fur to feel.  That was pretty cool, and Jacob still talks about it.

From a distance I thought this hippo was a water fountain and made the mistake of asking Jacob if he wanted to drink from the hippo.  Instead, he just got to sit in his mouth!

Trying to sit on the elephant, but it was a little warm.

Another favorite was the giraffes!  He was calling for them to bring their big necks over here!

 Jacob liked playing in this little waterfall and we were able to prop the camera up for a timed family photo.

The aquarium was the hit of course, and we saved it for last.  He loved "playing" with the animals.  This sea turtle "crush" was right up to the glass and it was fun to see Jacob interact with it.

 Then we named him the fish whisperer as he was doing tricks with Dory, he would move his hand up and the fish would swim up, he would wave his hand down and the fish would swim down.

Even though check out was 11:00 at the hotel, our bands for the water park were good through closing.  We knew we'd be hot after the zoo and planned to meet Sarah for some swimming.  Jacob had a lot of fun playing in the water some more.  

 

Then we decided to hit up of all places the Pizza Ranch in Council Bluffs on our way home.  It was so tasty after a long day.  It was fun to see family and we were glad it worked out on such short notice! 

Some fun

 We decided to take a random, spontaneous trip to Omaha on the eve of 4th of July.  We made the decision and within an hour or so we were on the road, packed!  The trip was a little longer due to the current flooding of the Missouri River, but it wasn't too bad.  We took advantage of the water park at our hotel right away.  Jacob really enjoyed it, except when he slipped, fell and bumped his head - minor.

After we got cleaned up and ate supper after the water we headed to my brothers house to enjoy some fireworks they and the rest of their neighborhood were shooting off.  Completely different from Iowa where they don't sell fireworks and people don't shoot them off all evening long.  Jacob got his love of monster trucks from his cousins there, so of course those had to come out!

A little sparkler action going on.

1st of July

Our community happens to have 4th of July celebrations traditionally on the Friday of the weekend of the 4th.  We had some family over for supper before heading to some celebrations.  We had a tasty meal of grilled steak and chicken with cheesy potatoes, corn on the cob with some strawberry shortcake for dessert.  It was super tasty!  We have a small kitchen and a small table, so the kids had their first ever "kids" table!  They had a lot of fun not eating most of their food and talking to each other and being silly.  It was fun to see them interact together...can only imagine what it will be like a couple years from now! 

 At the festivities they had various kids activities, a petting zoo, train, bouncy house, and more!

We opted for a spot further away from the festivities to watch the fireworks.  The boy cousins had fun playing around with each other.

The fireworks were pretty and Jacob liked them.  

I like this picture for the red, white and blue combinations but also for the red one just bursting!

 

We had the rest of the weekend to relax and do whatever we wanted.  It was so nice!  On Saturday we worked around the house after deciding that we wanted to go pick out paint colors for our house and go golfing, we got a babysitter lined up - we were pretty excited since we called the day of and got a sitter for like 4 or 5 hours later!  

So, I think we kind of have our paint colors picked out! Ha!  It's so hard and I wish I knew someone super talented in this area that could just tell me, you need da ta da ta da colors, and they make a good combination and will look good on your house.  I'm so nervous that it's going to be UGLY!  After we did that we stopped at the Blue Bunny Ice Cream Shoppe....delicious!  Yummy!  I loved it!  We decided to eat it in the car on the way to the golf course.  We played 18 holes and then enjoyed a delicious meal together.  It was the perfect evening to golf and had we been at home we would have been saying to ourselves...man, why aren't we at the golf course, it's a perfect night to golf!  The best thing is that we were home at a good time and could still put Jacob to bed ourselves. 

picnic & beach day

I can't believe it was already a week ago that Jacob and I went to a park about 20 minutes away for a picnic and some time on a small beach.  The weeks are truly flying by this summer.  It's kind of crazy packing stuff up to go away when a little boy keeps unpacking what you did or creating other disasters that put off the packing.  We eventually made it out the door and arrived, only to realize that I had not put shoes on my kid.  What parent hasn't left leaves the house without shoes on their kid?  

But in all fairness, the story goes like this...Jacob is dressed and ready to go - including shoes on his feet, so am I.  I finish packing one more thing and as I am walking through the house to find Jacob I am saying, "okay Jacob, time to go potty, it's time to leave".....at the same time he is running towards me saying "mommy, I went pee...I had an accident."  Sure enough little puddles oozed from every footstep.  I carry him to the bathroom and get things under control...thankfully he had his rubber sandals on that can quick rinse off and no big deal, right?!  So I do that in the bathtub, set them on the edge to dry off a little - didn't want to put them back on right away as they would probably cause a blister or create more little puddles, which I did not want to wipe up.  So, I left the bathroom light on as a reminder to get his shoes....evidently I did not go back to that part of the house as the bathroom light was still on when we returned home later that afternoon!

Thankfully, we couldn't have been going to a better place to be shoeless.  Other than the fact that I wouldn't let him play on the playground and we couldn't take a hike.  We'll go back again this summer, he liked it!  He couldn't quite understand why there was sand in the water, but he seemed okay with it.  Next time we go we need some sort of big truck or loader.  Maybe the dollar store has a cheap plastic truck.

 The self-timer on the camera.  We enjoyed our lunch, but Jacob was a little anxious to go to the beach and didn't eat as well.  But it was hot too and who eats well when it's hot?

Having fun in the water.

I got one shot at a pose looking at me, everything else, action shot...

 Some boys that go to my school were also at the beach and they had this loader and they let Jacob borrow it.  It was so nice of them, he wanted to buy it from them when it was time to leave so he could bring it home!  It was cute.