John Mayer Concert

This past week Susie and I went to see John Mayer and Ben Folds with some friends. We are starting a tradition of seeing one concert per summer and making a big production out of it. We rented a limo last summer to see Dave Mathews Band. We had so much fun that we wanted to do it again. So we rented the same limo as last year and got some people together. Altogether we had 5 couples and last year I remember it being a little cramped in the limo with 10 people, but we managed to have a good time anyway. Well as the limo pulled up to our friends' house to pick us up, it was quite a bit different than the limo we had rented last year. It was a Ford Excursion stretch limo. Apparently the limo service had left the sun roof open overnight on the limo we were supposed to get. Well, we had a decent rain that night and the car was flooded. Lucky for us we got upgraded to this gorgeous vehicle. We had a great time and the concert was really good. We couldn't hear Ben Folds very well, but he was still good. Too bad the "five" isn't with him anymore, as I think I would have recognized more songs that way. John Mayer was great and he played his most popular songs. He is one person who almost sounds better live than he does on the CD. Here are some pictures of their performances. Ben Folds in on top (as you can see we had great seats...okay not really, but we were there for the sound, not the sight!).

No other big events around here. A is scheduled to get his cast off this Wednesday, so hopefully that works out. I am having fears that they will tell us he needs to keep it on for 3 more weeks. I don't no about him, but I am ready for it to be off. I am excited for him to get into swimming lessons this summer. Not to mention that there will be so much more for Susie to do with the kids during the day once water activities are allowed again! Keep your fingers crossed for him.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful Dad's of the world. Susie gave me a card today wishing me a restful and relaxing day. I found this quite funny considering she was working and I was with the kids all day, but it did end up being pretty relaxing. We ran a couple of errands this morning and then lounged around this afternoon and watched the Empire Strikes Back. This evening we went over to my aunt and uncle's house for dinner. It was really nice to see my family. It was a smaller than usual gather as some people are out of town, but it was kind of nice have less people around. We had a really great dinner and they live a good distance from our house, so the kids were all zonked out by the time we got home. That makes it easy getting everyone into bed when they are already asleep! I hope everyone had a great weekend.

Summer colds

There is nothing worse than when it is 90+ degrees outside, humid and muggy and you have a fever and cold. Well that is what F and C are dealing with this past week. F started the week with fevers and it has turned into a runny nose nightmare. We are just not used to dealing with this during the summer time. Yesterday C started running a fever and we thought he would follow the pattern of F, but it is a bit different. He started getting sick this morning and just feels awful. Aside from being irritable, F wasn't too bad off. C on-the-other-hand is miserable. Poor guy is just wretching every 30-45 minutes or so. Hopefully this will soon pass.

A has a t-ball game this morning, so Susie is going to take him there. I am going to stay home with C. When they get home we have some odds and ends things to get accomplished today. It will be much more difficult with one of us stuck at home with a sick boy, but oh well.

Deanna Rose

Today we took the kids to Deanna Rose Children's Farm. This is an amazing farm for kids to interact with animals, ride tractors, play in barns, go fishing, explore Native American teepee's and so much more. (I sound like a commercial) I really is a great place and even better is the fact that it is free!! We got there around 10 this morning, packed a picnic lunch and stayed until a little after 2. Though it is pretty crowded everytime I go, it is never so bad that you can'd do everything you want to do. This time in the barn there was a fake cow that had a "milking simulator" and the kids really enjoyed that! Here are some pics from the day.

You can see A's neon green cast in these pictures. Unfortunately we were unable to get him a waterproof cast, so no luck with swimming lessons. The good news is that he only has to where it for three weeks and we are one week into it! June 27th is the planned removal date. Hopefully he can pick up on swimming for the last 3 weeks of the lessons. I think it bothers Susie and I more than it bothers him. He is not slowing down one bit. He even played T-ball this past weekend and was able to hit with the cast on!

We're Logged-In!

We have received our Log In Date (LID) from the Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA). Our dossier was sent over on 5/25/07 and we were logged in on 5/29/07....only four days after it was sent. Our agency told us to expect a 4 week delay between when our dossier was sent and when it would be logged in. Then it could take 4 more weeks until the agency was notified. As of May 1, 2007 new rules went into effect regarding who is now allowed to adopt from China. The new rules on top of the fact that the program is taking so long to complete has clearly decreased the number of people applying to adopt. China was getting so many dossiers each month that they couldn't keep up and it was taking 4 weeks just to log one into their system. Obviously this has slowed tremendously since it took them about 1 day to log us in.

So now we have a date to stick with. As referrals are handed out each month, they are given by date the adoptive families were logged into the system. So this month China gave out referrals to all families who were logged in between November 1 and November 7, 2005. (They are very behind!) As they continue to give out referrals they will creep slowly towards our date of May 29, 2007. Then we will have a new baby!

Ouch!

While we were out galavanting around town, A was at home breaking his arm!! He fell off a rocking zebra we have and landed on his elbow. Fortunately it is not a bad break, but enough to disrupt his summer plans (all of which involve water!). The funny (odd) part of the whole story is that he did it just a few minutes after we left. We met the trolley at a neighborhood bar and then drove it back to our house to pick up all the food and coolers for the night. When we got home, A was out front crying. We all assumed he was upset because he wanted to go on the trolley. When I ran up to him and asked what was wrong, he told me he had hurt his arm. Since it was not grossly deformed, I gave him a soft pat to the head and told him it would be okay. Well, it wasn't okay and Susie had to take him to the ER early the next morning. If you are medical then I will tell you he has a hairline fracture of his right distal humerus. If you are not then I will say he broke his right upper arm. We meet with the orthopedic doctor on Wednesday to get his arm casted and find out how long he will be in the cast. Pray for a short term cast!!

Trolley Crawl

On Friday night we officially rang in my thirties with a trolley bar crawl. We had a really great time visiting some of my favorite bars around the city with some of my favorite people. Thankfully everyone was safe and we all made it home in one piece (unfortunately our kids at home did not fare as well...see next post!). A big thanks to my parents, Max and Eileen for sponsoring the Trolley! The night would not have happened without them! Here are some pictures from the night. I have heard that some not so flattering pictures of me were taken as the night progressed, but we will not acknowledge the paparrazzi in the blog!!