Nine More Teaching Days!!!!!

 The weather was perfect today so we took advantage of it and swam in a lake. This was just a small taste of summer. I am looking forward to June 13th!!!! Nine more teaching days!!

Shoe problem

 My house is generally clean. I'm not a messy person. However, if you judged me by the state of our shoes, you would think otherwise. We have a nice cupboard-thingy to hide shoes in by the front door, but we tend to leave them in front of the cupboard instead of in the cupboard. The backpacks and coats are supposed to be hanging from the hooks. At least they are in the generally vicinity.

 We had a nice place for shoes here, yet more of them seem to be on the floor.

 The garage is definitely the biggest problem.

No wonder we often have trouble finding our shoes....

Erin's Field Trip

 I couldn't go with Erin Joy on her class field trip to Rosario Beach so I sent her with a camera. I had fun looking at her pictures and seeing what she felt was important. Here are a few of her pictures....

 This picture was from Golden Corral....her favorite place to eat because she can eat lots of cotton candy and dip things in chocolate. This was her place of choice on her adoption day.

Happy Family Forever Day, Erin Joy!!

Nine years ago, I met Erin Joy. She was a terrified toddler and I was pretty terrified myself. It took a few months, but as we slowly bonded and grew to love each other, she has become the joy of my life. Erin Joy....the perfect name for such a sweet, joyful child. I am so blessed to be her mother. I love you more than chips and salsa, my compassionate, friendly, artistic, kind, and delightful daughter.

Every year on her special day, she receives an "ornament" that I purchased in China when I adopted her. She also gets a small memento from that special trip. This year she got a little "goodie bag" from China Southern airlines...a toothbrush, toothpaste, lotion, and other small toiletries. She was excited about the Chinese writing on the items.

I LOVE YOU ERIN JOY!!!

Spencer Island

We spent part of Memorial Day exploring Spencer Island. The girls had fun picking cattails. I had fun bird-watching.

 The boots made a great place to keep cattails.

 Just a little rainy....we were glad we didn't camp this weekend.

Erin's Poem

At her class poetry night, Erin Joy recited a poem written by her Great-great grandma. She did a great job!

Mother's Day Report

I am so blessed to be a mother to three wonderful girls. I am so fortunate to be a mother. I used to detest Mother's Day and often skipped church on this dreaded holiday (I am a faithful church attender so this is unusual for me.) Before I adopted my girls, I wanted to be a mother so badly that listening to talks about mothers, just hurt too badly so I often stayed home and read a book or something to take my mind off of Mother's Day. I now really enjoy Mother's Day, but I am very mindful of others who might experience a lot of pain on this holiday.

Anyway, today was a perfect day for me. After church, we enjoyed a yummy lunch, had FHE (family home evening...typically done Monday nights, but we always have ours Sunday afternoon because Monday nights are busy with ice skating), then I had what I really wanted...a nap!! After a nice nap, we went for a walk to a little waterfall near our house. It was a beautiful sunny day. Nothing is nicer than a walk through the woods in Western Washington on a beautiful day. We came home and enjoyed our first picnic dinner of the season and ended with ice cream cones. It doesn't get much better than this. Oh, I can't wait until summer officially arrives! We are camping the weekend after school is over. YIPPEE!!! I love summer!

Here are a few pictures from our adventures of the day:

 Rachel was so excited to find an "Arizona" rock. She had so much fun there and talks a lot about returning.

 We went to the falls with our neighbor friends so they are in our pictures. The girls had a fun time scrambling over rocks and exploring.

 Rachel pretended this was a balance beam and made me slightly nervous.

 This was my attempt to get a picture of my two girls together....Erin Joy cooperated...Rachel not so much.

 This is a good picture of Rachel and the neighbor girls. Too bad Erin Joy isn't in it...

Tree huggers...

 I definitely live in a rural area...not often you see a sign for a lost goat wearing a collar:)

 My girls had fun making dandelion curls for me as Mother Day gifts.

 Our picnic shared with neighbors...notice the girls still wearing bicycle helmets:)

 I love the notes from my sweet girls.

 My "mommy corner" is getting very full. I added a shovel from my youngest foster daughter.

 All three girls made special shovels for me (they bought a bunch of shovels in bulk years ago...).

I love to see their personalities coming through in their shovels.

People who know my girls will easily guess which shovel was made by which girl...

 Here is the cute Mother's Day gift from my youngest. (Her favorite color happens to be purple).

(We don't have a TV....she is right...my favorite TV show is "nun!") I definitely love to take naps too:) So precious!

It was a fabulous Mother's Day for sure!