The Book has arrived and more...

What's in the bag???

Its the book! yeah!

Finally getting to sit down and see what all the long days and nights produced. Quite an accomplishment...

Yep! Its real...

David will get 10 copies of the book, which are all already spoken for, to hand out to people. We're hoping that the shipment will arrive before he leaves for Toronto on Sunday. He'd like to take 2 of the books to deliver to some business acquaintances while he's there.

The temps are up (75*), looking out you see beautiful mountain peaks covered with snow, cloudless skies and then you hear the wind. The prediction is 40 - 60 mph winds (with gusts up to 75 mph) today appears to be coming true. I wonder if the storm they're forecasting for tomorrow is actually going to be nasty, also?

Hemlock II - another blanket. I did this pattern some time back. So... I still have lots of yarn just waiting for more non thinking patterns to be done.

My first crochet project in quite sometime. A bookmark. Really enjoyed doing this and it moved quickly.

Look what I got! A green star for good behavior while I helped during Olivia's 4th grade class the other day.

As promised....

"THE" transformation has begun.... after consulting the computer for picture and memories we finally came up with the solution to our delimma. I decided that I'd prefer the beds to be connected as they were when we first got the set. So off David, Ivan, Kristina and Kaitlyn went to find the pieces in the storage room. Fortunately all the pieces were located and quite frankly went together quickly!

So while the boys were kept in the basement for the unveiling of their "new" surprise everyone worked together to get it done quickly.
A couple of hours later all was done and the finishing touches were being added and completed.
Beds all made up...
So I took these pictures prior to the boys seeing their "new" room....
poor Jake... He just doesn't know what to think.


Excitement!





Ditto!





Then Contentment...

Jolie's enjoying the new room set up...






Lots of floor space for playing...

Ice cream's ready!

Yummmmmmmmm

Yep! Yummmmmmmmmm

Transformations, Icecream and more...

Transformations occur in different ways. Yesterday we had school cancelled due to a "white out" storm that I don't think the weather people even knew was coming. So by yesterday afternoon we were totally without snow and though the temps remained cool it wasn't uncomfortable and we even ate dinner with the door open. Sort of Al fresco....
Today as you can see by the pictures we have a white out occuring just up the road (See what appears to be a level of white clouds? Thats where Black Forest is supposed to be easily seen by us) and here I sit in the sun with the trees budding.

Here let me pull in the picture a bit so that the "white out" is easier to see. *remember you can click on a picture to enlarge it*

So for another transformation..... Well this is just Hunter showing off.

But! with my expertise in persuasion I was able to get promises from David to redo the boys bedroom. So we're changing both of their beds from one bunk into two bunks! They are going to be so excited and surprised. But with this change it also means having to re-look at the storage issue in that room. So I'm going to be making a bookcase, unless I can find one cheap. We'll see....its been a while since I made cases.

This is a great idea that the kids came up with to divide the drawers. (Always knew that one day the LEGO's would come in handy... in my own humble opinion!) We have two of these drawers that actually fit under the beds. Though now they are going to be out in the room for all to see once the transformation is complete. You'll see what I mean later....
"Ice cream, we're gonna get ice cream!" Do you remember the "Tonsils" story by Bill Cosby . Every time I think of it I smile. (Well anyway....No, no one else is having their tonsils removed. Though that particular episode was not fun for Kaitlyn, we sure did get a certain type of chuckle out of it.) No I finally found our ice cream maker. So this weekend we'll be making ice cream. The kids, and adults if the truth be known, are quite excited about home made ice cream. Nothing fancy, just plain 'ol vanilla. I can't wait to see the kids' faces while the maker does its thing.

check back soon for the finished ice cream and yum! pictures and new pictures of the boys grown up room.

Releases, weather and more

Well David's book is due to be released shortly (May 10th) and we're very excited. We learned yesterday that the first translation will be to Chinese! Now we're anxious to see if it will be translated into other languages.

I've already asked David when he'll be starting the next book in this series. I guess we'll have to wait and see.....

Your probably wondering, "What another book?" Well to make a very long story short, this book, "Silent Tears" is about a volunteer who worked in a orphanage in China. This book is a true account of feelings and experiences by Kay Bratt. Our son, Hunter, was in this particular orphanage before being placed with a foster family and Kay dealt with Hunter while he was there. As a result Hunter is named in the book under his Chinese name and with the re-release of the book we were contacted about doing an update, as were other families who adopted these children. So David wrote a letter to Kay with a little help from Hunter and it is included in this addition. So if your interested in reading about one's experiences working in one Chinese orphanage this is a good book to read.

Well the weather is definitely changing to Spring here. Today we have a 30% chance of Thunderstorms. We're all so excited. I know that sounds strange but as a family we love storms. Seeing rain fall on the roof and deck, the sound of thunder and the smell of the clean air. Of course who doesn't love the beautiful rainbows that follow each of our storms. In all the years of living in Texas I don't think I ever saw as many rainbows as I have here in Colorado. Just breath taking....

Olivia has her last choir concert this evening at 7 p.m. and then I get to head to DIA to get David at 11:30. I'm going to be tired tomorrow...

To Long, Facebook, painting, weather and kids...

Its been to long since I last blogged. I've been re-introduced to Facebook and though I have to admit to checking it multiple times daily for that last few days, I think I still like blogging better. I may not be on Facebook for very long. Facebook seems to have eliminated the personal aspect of communicating, for the speed of information. I thought that was why we have telephones, cell phones, etc. But don't get me going on cell phones, Iphones, etc. Just another way to eliminate communication when you have people right there with you.


Our weather is improving and we're experiencing high 60's and lower 70's temps. How nice to begin to see the end of winter and the promising signs of spring, finally. For some reason this year the winter feels to have been interminably long. That doesn't make for positive attitudes and happy faces. I guess our problem this year has been, not snow days, but extremely cold weather.

David leaving for DC on Wednesday and due back on Thursday. Not really enough time for a party, but I can still get lots done. Have been doing touch up painting around the upstairs and have snuck in a couple of walls in the process. David noticed one of the walls after I pointed it out and well the other I'll leave for a surprise. Amazing how for an individual who cringes at the thought of walls being any color other than off-white how he doesn't notice when I paint an entire wall. I have plans to re-paint the Master Bedroom (its been over 10 years) and the upstairs family room. But I will need to do that when I have more paint. So I'm keeping my eyes open for sales! Yep. sales.

All the kiddos are doing well. Last week we actually had a snow day and I ended up with 7 extra kiddos in the house. We had 1 fight and 1 almost fainting spell. (Don't ask.) Anyway... at the end I think everyone had a good time and we're looking forward to more play dates in the near future.

Well its time to take note of the paint in the house and see what else needs to be touched-up!