What was our post one year ago today?

This time last year our papers were submitted to court and we were waiting on pins and needles for The Call.

Here is what we posted on March 30th of last year.

Spring is here!

This is the effect the time change has had on the Overstreet family!

Tonight Justin and Madison had a daddy daughter night out.  Madison met her goal of reading 112 books and for her reward she chose dinner and a movie with dad.  The both were so excited!

Blake asked us to take his jeep he got at Christmas outside for him today.  We are thankful for warmer weather!  And Blake loves his dragon rain boots!

Check this out!

 THE OVERSTREET JOURNEY CONTINUED...

Spring Break 2010

This week is spring break for Macomb schools. This is the first year since I left teaching that I too get to have spring break off with them. We were invited to go to the Wisconsin Dells with a group of families for a couple of nights. We stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge which has a great indoor water park. Of course I wish I would have gotten better pictures to capture how much fun we all had.  And I noticed that I have way more pictures of Blake than Brady and Madison.  Brady was off with his friend Tanner most of the time, and Madison was busy with her friends Emily and Reagan.  It is hard for me to get used to the idea that they are big enough to be running around without being in our site ALL of the time!

Here are a few highlights…

You can almost see how purple Blake's lips were.  He is so skinny - he just shivered the whole time!  But of course he was not interested in getting out of the water and warming up for a few minutes.

In the evening they have a pajama story hour in the lobby.  The kids go down in their jammies and hear a story.  They then got their picture taken with the animal below (I actually am not 100% sure what animal it is!)  Brady was a good sport and got in the picture for me!

Just across the parking lot was a restaurant called Buffalo Phil's.  We had 23 in our party for dinner.  Here are 7 of the 23!  It was hard to get a good picture, but the kids ate at a little bar that had a railroad track attached.  Their drinks and food were delivered to them by the train.  It was adorable!

The kids were excited to see Mr. Squiggles when we got home!

Baby….Grand

Seems like we are very busy as usual. I always wish I can blog more. I have grown to really enjoy it, but by the time the kids are in bed and the basic mess from the day is picked up I am soooo ready for bed!

I have been trying to take more pictures to help me remember all of the ‘little’ stuff that is filling our time. Last Thursday we were able to watch Madison’s ballet class. This is her first year doing ballet and she is learning a lot. Her favorite move is to spin and spin and spin.

On Saturday, Justin’s parents, Aunt and Uncle, and cousin came over for the afternoon. We always enjoy playing cards when we get together. After everyone left, Brady thought that we needed to play Texas Hold ‘em. Blake of course wanted to play so Brady and Madison gave him his first poker lesson. Please note that there was no money that exchanged hands while they were playing!

We have had an ongoing battle with Blake sucking his first two fingers on his right hand when he is asleep. He does not suck on them to go to sleep. He only sucks once he is in a very deep sleep. We purchased a finger guard that is supposed to break him of the habit, but each time we think we are set and go a night or two without the guard his fingers are soggy and sore again. The past week or so we think that maybe he was attempting to suck with the guard on and saliva was sitting under it. This has caused his skin to peel. So now we are trying this new technique -pinning a glove to his jammies. We have put triple antibiotic on his fingers before putting glove on and his skin is almost completely heeled. So for now we will go with this plan.

Tonight was an exciting night in our house. For a few years a gentleman has been trying to get us to buy his piano. He purchased it for his daughters when they were at home and now they are in college. He is now a bachelor and really wanted to get rid of it. I think he wanted it to go to a home where there would be children playing it for many years. Brady has been taking lessons for about 2 years and he was using an electric keyboard. He is playing songs that require all of the notes on the piano and so we knew we needed to do something. So basically we were given a deal of the century and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to have this gergeous piano sitting in our great room. Of course now we have told Brady, Blake, and Madison that they will all be taking lessons and practing piano for the rest of their lives! We are very thankful to the guys that helped move this massive thing. Thankfully noone threw our their back…. at least as far as we know. There will probablly be some very sore muscles tomorrow!

You can see on the far right side of this photo one of the drywall repairs that is taking place in the house. As you can imagine it drives me batty having these litte mud spots all over the house! Hopefully they won’t remain there for the next two years!

Adopted: the Comic

I saw a magazine article about two Vietnamese adoptees that do a weekly cartoon strip on their website adoptedcomic.com and thought this one has to have some truth to it.  Ohhh the teenage years have to be difficult for all parents (and kids for that matter)!  They take a serious topic and give people the ability to laugh about it. 

If you click on the picture you will be able to enlarge it to read it better.  :o)

No fun Needles

Sooo many times last week I intended to get an update done and just could not find the time to do it. So instead of sharing all my ‘deeper’ thoughts about various events, I am back to random updates as usual. On Sunday, February 21 our church had a child dedication that we participated in. This is not a baptism. We were in front of the congregation and our minister prayed for the children, for our families, for the church to play a role in raising them, etc…

Last Thursday, Blake had a doctor’s appointment scheduled to get his checkup for the post placement report. We were thankful it was scheduled because earlier in the week he got a repeat ear infection and broke out in a rash. The rash is from a viral infection so they say and it just has to go away on its own, but we did get another round of antibiotics for his ears. He also had to get his second Hep A vaccine. Last May when he got the first shot he barely flinched. Everyone commented on how awesome he did. This time was quite different. He saw the needle and freaked! Tears started rolling and his little body tensed up. Thankfully the nurse was super fast and as soon as I scooped him up, he stopped crying and all was well. BUT I then learned that our homestudy agency recommends a follow up HIV and Hepatitis B screening. For those that don’t know, this involves more than one vial of blood and we had to have it drawn at the hospital. So off we went next door and Blake was less than thrilled about the experience. It didn’t help that his little arms are so tiny and the lab technician had a hard time getting the needle in the vein. When we got back to the car, Blake looked at me wide eyed and said “No More!” I felt bad for him. Thankfully (as far as I know) we are done with the blood work for a long time.

I haven’t taken too many pictures lately. Here is Brady in the George Washington wig he wore for a reader’s theater at school.

Justin and Brady went skiing for the first time with Bill and Tanner Buchanan – well first time for Brady and like the third time for Justin. They had a blast and continue to talk about it a week later.

Brady then gained a new interest in skiing and I found him watching the Olympic skiers on television while wearing his ski goggles!

This week is parent watch week at the dance and tumbling studio the kids go to. Tonight we watched Blake attempt to do somersaults in his pre-tumbling class while Madison was working on her running round off double flip flop – or something like that! And we watched her hip-hop dance class.  I am sad I didn't grab our good camera because none of Madison's pictures turned out.