FHE...not for the faint of heart (or ears!)

Not the best picture...but...through the blurr.....it tells the story. Derrick has developed a LOVE (obsession) for the song "Called to Serve". He marches around the house singing it and even enlisted Nathan to play the trumpet for him while he marches. For Family Home Evening he was in charge of choosing the opening song.....guess what he chose....ohhh yeahhh....CALLED TO SERVE! We gave him a quick lesson on leading music and then we all sang (quite angelically...NOT!) to the accompaniment of Nathan's trumpet. It was an endearing experience and one that could ONLY happen within the walls of our home. (Or else they'd probably haul us off to jail for disturbing the peace!!). Toby the dog was a trooper and just kept tilting his head back and forth as he tried to figure out if he should head for the hills or not. I LOVE Family Home Evening!!

Welcome HOME!

Derrick officially came home on Friday. He is now with us every day forever! No more running back and forth to Gresham......phew! (That was really wearing me out) Everything went better than expected. Derrick was happy to come and said goodbye to his foster family with no problems at all. I totally feel that there has been an extra endowment of the spirit. I truly thank all of you for your prayers and words of encouragement....they have been such an amazing blessing! Simple prayers are more powerful than we give credit to sometimes! We love you all!!!!

(Amanda and Nathan made the sign....cute isn't it!)

Your church is really LONG!

Ok...so, isn't this just one of the cutest picture EVER!?? Sunday was Derrick's first day of going to church. He was such a trooper. Welcome to Mormonville.....Poor kid....started off the day with not being able to do anything! :\..... couldn't play video games or watch TV, couldn't jump on the trampoline, and the worst...couldn't listen to any music except church music! What's a kid to do? Then....he had to suffer through the white shirt buttoned up to the neck and a tie! Plus, uncomfortable shoes and his shirt tucked in (just not a cool look). With all of this.....He seriously was soooo amazingly positive about it all and SUPER happy that he could have a tie like McKay (yep...Holly and Dan...Derrick LOVES McKay). We also gave him a set of scriptures and a case to carry them in....He was soooo happy and asked, "Can I really keep these?" He carried them around with him for the rest of the day!

Here's some of the fun things Derrick said throughout the day....you have to imagine a cute and sweet high-pitched voice.

Eating lunch in his "straight-jacket style" shirt...."Boy, I'm kind-of getting HOT in this!"

During church while people were being released and called.....he kept raising his hand and the finally quietly asked, "Why are we raising our hands?"

After church...."Can I take my scriptures back to Jennifer's with me? I want to read them EVERY DAY!"

On the drive back to Gresham (Ha...this is the ultimate classic for me, I still laugh thinking about it...sooo cute and innocent!)...."Boy your church is REALLY long"....we agreed and he continued with......"Why did you CHOOSE a church that was SOOO long!?!" (Ha-ha....kind of like...hey people, don't you know there are shorter ones out there?)

We seriously had a wonderful weekend. It was so hard taking him back!! But, the good thing is that it is this coming Friday that he is completely moving in with us. We can hardly stand the wait!

Our first Sunday together. Don't we look sharp! Finally a "real" family picture....much better than the "flat family" picture :)

A random picture..(I know)....this is a picture of a cinnamon roll that Amanda and Derrick made on Sunday. They were sooooo delicious and HUGE!!!!!

Wrinkled is the new look!

Quick...before I forget....even a 12 year old boy has some funny sayings every once in a while. Here's the conversation this morning:

Me: Nate, quick give me that shirt so I can iron it really fast.
Nate: wa..wa...why?
Me: Because it is REALLY wrinkled.
Nate: But, it doesn't look good wrinkled?

Nice try Nate!
(On a side note....this shirt was REALLY wrinkled...I'm usually not an ironing type of woman and trend on the "wrinkles look good " side too --maybe that's were he gets it from--hee-hee....welll....good luck to his future wife!)

¿Habla usted español?

I almost forgot to post that Amanda fishished her summer college Spanish course. Boy was it INTENSE!! We were pretty worried after the 2nd day of class when she came home and told us that the instructor was not going to speak English any more in class.....only Spanish. Oh my...what did we get our daughter into??!! She worked really hard and stayed up late into the night sometimes with her dad (her mom is just a dork with "speakin de language")....in the end....she earned an "A"!!! Hooray for Amazing Amanda! This semster she's taking a High School Spanish 2 class...I think it will be a little easier...ummm...just my guess. :)

And then there's MORE....A LOT MORE!!!

I checked the mirror this morning and...YES!!....my head is still there!!! It hurts a bit...but it's still there.....hooray!!!! We've had a whirlwind of a weekend! After meeting Derrick on Sunday, we went back to Gresham on Monday to bring him back to his new house for a day to check things out. He was really excited to come. We were soooo happy and we had a WONDERFUL day together. He has the cutest voice, is so kind and thoughtful, and is super smart. It was really hard to drive him back that night!!

Now enter Tuesday -Wednesday.....1st day of school!!!!

Derrick: By some miracle I managed to convince Derrick's case worker to let Derrick come to his new school for the 1st day.....even though he won't be able to actually come back to school for another 3 weeks! That's the transition period that his case worker had worked out. Bob and I don't feel it's in Derrick's best interest....but....what do we know...right?? Anyway...at 6:00am, Bob and Amanda drove out to Gresham AGAIN to pick him up. Derrick was up and ready to go. He told Bob that he was soooo nervous and didn't sleep very much that night. He couldn't even eat any breakfast because he felt sick. Awww...what a sweetie. When they home, he did manage to eat a little cereal. We made him a lunch, put his school supplies in his back pack, took some pictures and then off we went to school....he was EXTREMELY excited to ride his new scooter. The day went great and after school he told me that he made some friends and one (turns out to be my friend Candace's son) wanted him to come over and play. Way to go Derrick!!

Nathan: Through all the the chaos....my little buddy Nathan was getting ready for his first day of Middle School!!!!. When he came down the stairs...he seriously took my breath away. He looked so grown up and handsome. What happened over night??? I swear he was even taller too!! At the end of school, Nate said the day was BORING....unfortunately he doesn't seem to know any other descriptive words....I'm learning that to Nathan "boring" equates to....it was just a good ole normal day. And, I'm happy that he's ALIVE!!!

Amanda: Lucky for me, Amanda didn't start school until Wednesday. We went out to lunch with her and had a great "last non-peanut butter and jelly lunch". At 3:00pm, I drove Amanda over to the highschool so she could board the bus for her 1st soccer game of the season. Soccer is her true love! Her team lost....bummer way to start off the season. Amanda had double bad luck when she had a ball kicked right in her face....made a 1/2 inch gash in her lip...and then, before she could do anything....the ball was kicked again...this time it hit her smack in the throat. It left the outline of soccer ball and a couple of letter from the name on the ball. She had a momentary "I can't breath"......the trainer helped her off the field and Bob looked through his camera's telephoto lens to see what was happening. It was hard not to rush out onto the field. I spent the next 15 minutes watching Amanda instead of the game....then... I was actually amazed when she got up and went back into the game for the last 10 minutes. We went over to the sidelines after the game and she had a huge lip and could hardly talk. The first thing she said was, "I can't believe that I have to go to my first day of school looking like this"......ha....ok....she's still a girl. Her lip went down in size and she had a great 1st day.

Julie: On Wednesday, I headed to the high school to teach my first seminary lesson of the year. I was up past midnight cramming it all together. Along with the cramming was continual praying, asking for forgiveness because I was so un-prepared and pleading for HELP!!!!! Amanda ended up in my class (poor thing). It turned out OK and I am really excited to continue teaching. If I can get through this first month....I'll be flying!!!

Bob: Just enjoying the chaos and working hard to pay for all of the gas we're using this month.

Derrick and Nathan on their first day of school

Amanda on her first day of being a sophomore.

Panda Bear's 1st soccer game....the trainer is the lady sitting in the background unknowingly ready to treat Amanda in a little while.

Derrick and Bob playing "don't touch the balls" on the trampoline

MY Boys!

Derrick had a blast playing with the kids on Labor Day

The many faces of Amanda.

Land Ho!!

Well...don't know if this is the safest thing to do....but it sure was fun!

Watch out when you make cookies with Derrick....he makes them just right and he LOVES to eat the dough!! You just may end up with no dough to put in the oven!!