New Wheels

Day 171 (Wednesday 9-11):

This is the day we bought a new (to us) vehicle. It's a mini van, I'm officially THAT mom, and I'm okay with it!

We had been driving my parents car up to this point, so I took everything out and cleaned it for them. The carseats sat on the porch for a couple days. The kids love the carseats when they aren't in the car. :)

VAN, we named him/her Boomer

Day 172 (Thursday 9-12):

The Ravans came to visit, that's my sister Kristee, her husband, Jason, and their daughter, Deanna.  They adopted Deanna while I was out of the country, but I was actually able to surprise them on the day the adoption finalized. We were coming back to America to have Kora (hadn't planned on that originally), and decided to surprise our family. We showed up at the court house and were there the day they announced that she was officially "Deanna Grace Ravan"! I still tear up when I think about it, such a special memory.  Kristee was so shocked to see me and then she told me later that she had been crying the night before wishing I was close by!  Isn't God good?  Crazy how he works things together.

Before they arrived, Grampa was working on building a stand for the new projector at church.  Kees and Kora attempted to help.  Kora was kind of getting in the way, so I devised a plan to have her wash the little people we brought back with us from Thailand. She ended up in the bucket, but who's surprised by this...

Spreading the wood glue with their fingers.

He loved hammering! Deanna got to hammer when she got here later, but I didn't get any pictures. :(

Yep, that's Kora undoing something...that's when I went for a distraction for her.

Little People! We were given these little loves by our co-workers in Thailand, the Os.  They have sentimental value because they were a special gift and I used them during my language study time as well. Sweet memories. (Does anyone have a tissue...not that I need one...)

She rejected the action heroes.

Filling in the tiny holes with putty.

Reading with Gramee and re-discovering some of our "babies" that we had in Thailand.

She loves these babies.

Kees hammering.

I guess she wasn't thrilled that I went in without her, but she was wet, so I had to get a towel and bring it out.

Anyway, so the Ravans were coming for a quick day visit.  And when they showed up they had quite a surprise for us, they had heard from DHS that they would be getting a little boy and girl through the foster to adopt program. Not only were they coming, but they were coming the very next day.  We quick figured out how Gramee and I could make it out there for the big day. Gramee travelled back with them. Doug headed to OKC to get our van worked on (air conditioning) and I drove my parent's car to the Ravan's place the next day to meet the kiddos and give my mom a ride back to her place.  In the meantime we enjoyed our visit and brainstormed about what needed to be done to get ready for the new kiddos.

I also, shamefully spent entirely too long detail cleaning the inside of the new (to us) van. Remember I have a slight case of ADHD and tend to hyper focus.  I went a little crazy in the van, but Kristee was good natured and sat out there with me while I cleaned. We also recruited the kids to help a little. P.S. Dear sister, I apologize for being a jerk during your visit and spending an exorbitant amount of time cleaning the van.

A lot of Q-tips and cheapy Thai baby wipes were destroyed in the cleaning process...dear Environment, I'm sorry.

Digging

I had a shop vac and a air compressor I used.

More digging

A Crazy Beetle Bug

Day 169 (Monday 9-9):

I seriously only took one photo this day, of a weird beetle bug that got on my dad's neck while he was BBQing.  So, I know we barbecued, but I've forgotten everything else...so sad.

Forgot about this one, I saw it on Pi Eiw's facebook page, hilarious!

Crazy beetle!

Day 170 (Tuesday 9-10):

A very special day in history! We got boxes from GoodSeed!  All kinds of fabulous materials, we've already been visiting people and passing some stuff out. So exciting to be able to share about these awesome materials.  And, if you didn't realize, a lot of their stuff is downloadable for free on their website! (You can check it out here.)  You can also read about how the book "By This Name", the one we shared with our church in Thailand, is being used to reach 10,000 people!  Praying for God's name to be glorified through the materials that were handed out. Read more about it here.

On to the pictures...

BOXES!

This was better than Christmas, birthday, New Year's and Halloween combined!  I was literally jumping up and down, Doug was a smidge miffed that I spread all this stuff out, but I was just too excited to contain myself. I smoothed things over by neatly re-packing the box (and have since organized all these goodies in our van, so we're always prepared!)

Kees spent at least an hour using Grampa's "pinchie" to clean under the microwave stand.  He was excited about every. single. discovery. And insisted on showing Gramee every item!

She's a laundry helper.

Reading

Getting dirty, waiting on Jim, Grampa's buddy to stop by.

The most beautiful mess I've ever seen.

He's a monster.

Kora's new best friend: Jim!  He was in attendance at our wedding. There's a famous story related to this. Doug's groom's cake had a homemade Sooner Schooner on top of it, hand made by a dear friend, Joy Bennett. One of my relatives from Texas wore a University of Texas shirt to the reception. Jim took the cake topper and gave it to her and we never saw it again. He denied doing this, but I have audio evidence from the wedding video.  It's a great joke in our family!  I sincerely hope she didn't take it home and burn it. We got married on OU/TX weekend, and watched the game in the airport on the way to our honeymoon, OU won that year!

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies, football, and fun

Day 167 (Saturday 9-7):

Game day!  We enjoyed a nice Saturday with my parents watching football!  OU beat West Virginia (this time) thankfully! I also made some Pumpkin Whoopie pies.  They were okay, a little too cakey for my liking, but I'm not really sure what a whoopie pie is supposed to taste like because I've never had one.  Also, Doug made some fabulous coffee that Kristy gave us when we were visiting in Idaho, it was bestowed upon a very grateful recipient! Without further ado, the pictures....

Eating real pizza and pretend pizza, that's just how we roll.

He's a master chef.

Pumpkin whoopie pies.  I made my own frosting because I'm not in love with the canned stuff probably because I ate a life time's supply of the stuff when I was a kid...not sure if my parents were aware of that fact, but back in the day I hoarded the stuff.  Anyway, now I am a fan of homemade stuff, either buttercream or cream cheese frosting.  Someday, I will have a home of my own, and a kitchen again, when that day comes I will expand my frosting making repertoire, just you wait.

Sidewalk chalk

Before you ask, yes Kora wrote all of that, she's a genius.

See how proud she is.

Mmmm, coffee.

Day 168 (Sunday 9-8):

Church in America is always such a blessing.  Church in Thailand was always such a blessing as well, but for different reasons.  I am particularly enjoying the music, the sermons, and teaching Kees about normal church things.  Kees got to read lots of books with Gramee this day, he never gets tired of that!  And Kora got to have a mini shake from Sonic because they are half price after 8 pm!

Reading the music.

Books!

Love how he has his hands folded!

Dinner picnic

Ice cream!

A Magical Blanket

Day 165 (Thursday 9-5):

We left around 9 pm Wednesday night Idaho time, then drove for 27 1/2 hours to get back to Oklahoma. I took VERY few pictures, but I at least remember one stop that was longer than Doug intended.  I made the mistake of giving Kora some markers, we had stopped about 30 minutes earlier, but the mess she made overwhelmed me.  My OCD would not let it stand and I insisted we stop.  I gave her a bath in the bathroom sink of a gas station, then I spent at least 20 minutes re-organizing the car. At one point Doug came out to see if I was ready to leave, but I wasn't quite finished.  Poor guy, he really does put up with a lot, but after that "episode", I felt much better and we were able to travel normally from then on.  We arrived in Oklahoma around 2 am, but Kora wouldn't go back to sleep until 4. There was crying and we woke my mom up.  I felt TERRIBLE!  We're the worst house guests, sorry Gramee.

Morning!

Waking up, I think they slept until around 9, if I remember correctly...

Those silly markers. They're the washable dry erase markers, and I bought them these Sesame Street dry erase books at Dollar Tree. I will say, the marker came off easily enough when I bathed her, just wouldn't advise marker use in the car if you have any OCD tendencies.  Live and learn.

Kees and a white board.

Arby's salted caramel shake, this girl loves ice cream just as much if not more than her daddy, and she doesn't want to share if it can be avoided.

Are we there yet?

Yum, yum, yum!

Day 166 (Friday 9-6):

After our middle of the night return to Oklahoma, we slept quite a bit on Friday, but we were up in time for Grampa's return. He had been on a trip for pastors to Branson.  When he got back the kids ran out to meet him, then Kees came into the house with a blanket that he claimed Grampa gave him.  He was quite possibly the most excited I've ever seen him.  So I was hoping my dad had actually given it to him and it wasn't a misunderstanding on Kees's part. Thankfully it was indeed intended for Kees.  He was ecstatic and they almost immediately remembered that Grampa had made a sled out of blanket before we left on our trip and started demanding rides.  Love those babies and that Grampa!

Grampa may have had an opportunity to golf on his trip.

The blanket!

He's so excited!!!

This picture was insanely difficult to load, it was not cooperating, after 20 minutes, I finally showed it who's boss!  And now for my funny caption: "Kees gets as much air on his jumps as you'd expect from a white kid!"

Convincing Grampa to take them for a ride.

Kora got a snack...can't remember what, but it seems like she's enjoying it.