¿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!!

Our First Meeting

We were FINALLY able to meet Derrick. What a cutie! The kids love him already. He is super smart and practically had the entire scrapbook that we made for him memorized! He knew everyone's name....even Toby!! We only spent a couple hours with him at a park (his case worker and foster parents were there also). And then he went back to his foster parents home. But, just in that couple of hours, both Amanda a Nathan love him to death! When we first got to the park, Derrick hid in the bathroom and didn't want to come out. He was really overwhelmed and kind of scared....but he slowly warmed up to Amanda and Nathan. And at the end, they were chasing ducks, playing with the light sabers and riding scooters all over the place. He's still a little concerned when it comes to me and Bob though.

My 3 Cuties!

Who is the master Jedi here??

The boys and their scooters.

I love this picture of Amanda...she is smiling away having a great time pushing Derrick. He really is a blast.

And here's my buddy!

Jenna's perfect timing

Bob's cousin, Jenna, visited us!!! The visit was perfect timing. With all the hectic and emotional events happening lately, it was so nice to put it all on the back burner and relax....talking, laughing, and driving around to see the sights of Oregon. We can't see Derrick until his case worker has visited with him and told him about the adoption and he's been allowed some time to think and talk about it. Soooo....here we sit on pins and needles....anxious to squeeze our little guy. I needed a break!! Funny how this visit was planned months ago....then we thought....oh no....terrible timing....but then....it's just EXACTLY PERFECT timing!!! It always amazes me how simple little mercies flow from heaven. I seriously LOVED the quick day visit. And, looking on her blog....her hubby has done a dang good job holding things together....even while being sick!! Way to go Robert!!

Toured the Intel Museum....all 1's and 0's

Drove out to the Columbia Gorge (East of Portland)

Drove out to the Coast (West of Portland)

Absolutely gorgeous and PEACEFUL!!

We have a new little buddy!!!

Yes, Yes, YES!!!! We got a call letting us know that we were chosen as the family for Derrick!! He is a fun little boy that does well in school, loves to help around the house, tells you all day that he loves you, loves sports and cherishes everything that is given to him. This feels soooo RIGHT!! We won't be able to meet him until next week though because the case worker needs time to talk to him, he needs time to process it as well and get ready for us. He has NO CLUE that anyone was even interested in him....this will be a shocker! I hope he's happy!! Here's a picture of our cutie as part of the FLAT FAMILY....LOVE this kid's smile!! (his hair is a little green because he was standing in front of a green wall in the picture on his bulletin and it reflected onto his hair...we couldn't get it to go normal....oh well, he's still cute!)

Flat Family

Sorry that I seemed to just drop off the face of the earth....in a "mental" way I guess I did!! Hmmm...I wonder!

All my mental abilities went toward this scrapbook that we needed to have finished today for the upcoming committee meeting. The scrapbook is for the kids to get to know us...but...it also serves as a way for the committee to see if we relate to the kids, have the necessary things going on in our lives to meet their needs, etc. Soooo....I HAD to come up with a creative and nice thing...which sent my mind into "block" mode....nothing happening!

Finally... in the middle of the night ....the "IDEA" came!! The shout out goes to my nephew Dallin for the idea!! Thanks Dallin!!! You see, a few months ago his school class read the book "Flat Stanley"....so, as a project after the book...he made a "Flat Dallin" and mailed himself to my parents in Utah. They took "Flat Dallin" to all sorts of different places and mailed pictures and info back to my cute nephew. Then Dallin gave a report to his school about all the places he went because he was flat and could be mailed....totally cute!!! Well.....we decided to do a "Flat Family".

Here's some of the beginning pictures that CRACK ME UP!! I'll put the little story we made up with the pictures. (But, unless you've read "Flat Stanley" it may not make any sense...hmmm)

Page 1: Once upon a time, there was a Fantastic Family called the Tomlinson's. They had a.....

Dad (Bob)

Mom (Julie)

Daughter (Amanda)

Son (Nathan)

Page 2: One day the family became very sad because they were missing a member of their family. They looked all over. Finally they found him!! The only problem was that he was stuck in a picture.. . He was FLAT!! How were they suppose to get together now? The Tomlinson's were REALLY sad! (Here's us being sad...of course Bob can't frown no he just looks like he's mad or maybe just pondering the universe- ha!)

Page 3: As they were thinking of what to do, a bulletin board fell off the wall and landed on them!! But, don't worry, they were OK —- phew! The board made them FLAT -- HURRAY!!
They were very happy because now they could be together as a FLAT FAMILY!!

(K-so serious....This picture cracks me up EVERY time I see it....it's a total laugh out loud for me! Nate's face and Bob's face popping up in the back. I look like some horror flick character...forgot which movie..Scream or something...and Amanda really look worried!! ha,ha,ha!!)

On same page...Under this picture.... is another picture of just the bulletin board that lifted up....and underneath that, we had a laminated picture of us ANDthe kids (Amanda did her photoshop magic to put them in....right there in the empty spot in the picture of us being sad....but this time we were happy in the picture instead of sad. It was amazing how she did it and totally fun!) The kids can then pick that picture up...we laminated it and have it on velcroe.

Page 4- end: As they continue through the book they can place our new "flat family" at various places....like in front of our house, the school, church...etc. At the end we breath in lots of breaths and become round again so we can actually get together and play, hug, run.....blah, blah, blah. I wanted to make it interactive for the kids and kind of interesting...hmmmm....I hope the kids like it....and I hope the committee likes it!

I TOTALLY admire all you who scrapbook!! I have just been reminded why it is that I don't do it!! My kitchen table was literally piled with a foot of papers, embellisments, etc...plus it consumed about 1/2 of my countertops. My poor family kept asking when I was going to be done...they were getting tired of standing to eat! I also wasted soooooo much money from my mistakes!! Oh my goodness...I think I'll just stick with my digital stuff and this blog....that's my limit :)

WE HAVE A COMMITTEE DATE!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have 2 committee Dates.!! OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS!!!!!!

On August 20th we have the sibling group of 3....2 girls and a boy
On August 21st we have Kristopher (the boy in the video)
We still have not received word about the 3rd boy.

So, On August 20, I will be needing a sedative!! I will be going crazy!!! NO ONE call me on that day because every time the phone rings I will most likely be on the verge of a heart attack! If we don't get the sibling group then I'll be in the same condition on the 21st for Kristopher!! And, if we don't get Kristopher then I'll just go out school shopping or something :)

If we do get the sibling group on the 20th then we'll be automatically dropped from Kristopher's committee. Our lives will then come to an abrupt stop as we will be heading out of town to meet our new kids and make arrangements to bring them home. Oh...how do I handle this????

OK...now I'm off to chaperone a youth conference today...guess that's one good way to keep my mind off of it! :)