Last Sunday of November

Sunday morning we awoke to more snow. We kicked Quinn and Alex outside to start shoveling.

Michael joined in for a few minutes before dashing off to his meetings.

Quinn has become my dishwasher. He says he's bored, and besides, the hot water feels good!

Later on after church, we shoveled again. Then again!! It just kept snowing.

Monday morning we awoke only to shovel once more. It's nippy outside, but at least the sun is shining.

Barbies

I came up from dowstairs a couple Sundays ago, after reading with Alex, and found Marissa and Emily playing with Barbies. Yes, Marissa had dragged out the Barbies and all the paraphernalia, and there the two of them sat on the floor dressing the Barbies, and even the Ken, in various outfits. Wow, I hadn't seen that stuff for MANY years. Now, remember that Marissa and Emily are 22 and 19 years of age. They must have sat there for over an hour, and I joined them for a while, reminiscing about my childhood and remembering playing with most of those very same Barbie clothes that have now been handed down to Marissa. My mom had the patience to do that kind of thing, make clothes for our Barbie dolls. Imagine the hours. I guess one day those clothes will be played with by Marissa's daughter.

Weather

We woke up to a frozen white world Sunday morning. Our trees were bent over in agony, but we were lucky to only lose three branches in our entire yard. Others had entire trees down or trees split down the middle. Our neighborhood looked like it had a mini tornado go through.

We went out and knocked snow off every branch we could reach before the trees gave way. So many of our trees still have their leaves on, which is why so much snow collected in them.

Apparently, however, this is only a preview of what's about to hit us. We're supposed to get a 100-year storm this afternoon/evening, meaning the worst winter storm Utah has been hit with in the last 100 years. I'm headed out to stock up on groceries. Let's hope the weather people are wrong. I'm feeling especially thankful today for a home, lots of food downstairs, and a family to hunker down with.

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

Here's another great reminder of everything we have to be grateful for.

Thanksgiving Daily

Save A Child Hosting Program 2010

This video was shown at the Save a Child benefit concert held a couple days ago. Alex was excited to see his face on the screen for one-tenth of a second. Yes, it was definitely because of Save a Child that we started down this path and brought Alex home, even though we hosted him in Arizona. We also saw a glimpse of Bogdan, the boy we hosted in 2008 and tried unsuccessfully to adopt. Seeing him makes my heart start to ache all over again.

Wow, I haven't blogged for a while. After our crazy, busy summer, things seem a little boring around here. It's amazing the boys are into their second quarter in 7th grade. The adjustment from grade school to junior high was a piece of cake. They both got excellent grades for first term. Quinn was a little bothered that Alex got almost as good of grades as he (Quinn) did. I had to remind him that he (Quinn) has honors classes that require more work and that the teachers are probably going a little easy on Alex, considering he's been in the USA for only ten months.



Halloween can't be over already. Boy, our neighborhood was kind of dead this year, and that is not a play on words. We had hardly any trick-or-treaters. Where are all the little kids? I guess they grew up along with my own children. Maybe it was the rain that scared everyone away. We have so much trick-or-treat candy left over, we'll be eating it for weeks. Well, maybe a week. Well, maybe a few days.



Marissa had to dress up for work. She was an Egyptian princess.

Going out for trick-or-treating. Marissa and Zack accompanied the boys. Zack was the umbrella-carrying cowboy/clown, Marissa was Marissa, Alex was a vampire, and Quinn was a nerd. (His trick-or-treat bag was a briefcase.) So the very first neighbor said, "Aren't you boys a little old for trick-or-treating?" Hello? Hello? Did she forget that this was Alex's first and probably last year for trick-or-treating? I mean seriously, folks. The kid has never been trick-or-treating in his life. Give us a break. Well, I took more pictures of the boys in their costumes. Somehow they have mysteriously disappeared from my camera.

Save a Child Foundation brought 43 orphans over from Ukraine this year for the hosting program. Alex has had a few opportunities to be an interpreter for the host families so they can communicate with their hosted children. It has been good for Alex and a quick refresher course in Ukrainian. Last night we attended the benefit concert, which was a huge success. The organizers need to give themselves a huge pat on the back. The work that goes into everything during the two and a half weeks is amazing. Alex got to see himself in the slide show as one of the previously adopted children, and Quinn loved, loved, loved watching Jon Schmidt perform. (See the clip below.)