Now A Family of *gulp* Six.

See some pictures from our Christmas adventures at Yahoo. Click on the link to the right of the page titled "Pictures of Our Adventures."

Received a letter from Frank Adoption Center in the mail upon our return from holiday travels: "Roman's post placement report will be due in our office by March 18, 2007. Due to a November 2006 change in the Russian Ministry of Education's post-placement requirements, we have been alerted that post-placement report visits should not occur more than one month prior to your child's adoption anniversary date. Your documented date of adoption is March 25, 2004. Therefore, we are asking that your social worker not conduct her home visit prior to February 25, 2007...... Please remember that your post-placement report needs to be apostilled in your state... and must be accompanied by at least six different photographs of your child. Please choose your photographs carefully, as they will be viewed by the officials in your child's region. Do not submit photographs of your children taking a bath or in their bathing suits." Oh, golly. Last year, Russia called FAC becaus...

The smell of poop and garbage in the air. The house at 48 degrees. Sorting laundry to find your cream-colored sweater stained by your new red shirt. Watering the plant to have the water overrun and spill on the hardwood floor. Welcome home, Van Eeuwen family... welcome home. Well, it's not that bad. An hour later and the poop was cleaned up (thanks, kitties... we'll be calling the vet tomorrow). The furnace was reset, the sweater was Oxi-Cleaned, and the water sopped up. The boy is in bed, and Doug and I are going to unpack & shuffle everything around tomorrow. We had a good holiday, Roman received a lot of great gifts, and we made it home safe. I have until Jan. 8th off, which is great. Looking forward to organizing pictures, other files on the computer, scanning some stuff in, and just relaxing.

We busted our "bootums" all weekend. All evening Friday, 4-5 hours on Saturday, all Saturday evening, and 5 hours on Sunday... cleaning, painting, packing, painting, grouting. We headed out to Toys R Us on Sunday around 12:30, and Doug thought to swing back by the house to make sure the "guest realtor" showed up. 10 after 1pm, and no one was there. We called our own realtor, who tried to contact the guest realtor - couldn't get ahold of him! So strangely, the agent had volunteered to show our house, then couldn't be gotten ahold of. Our agent said he'd check to see if it was advertised anywhere and if it was, he'd head right over (he was watching his kids while his wife worked). When we returned around 5pm, it didn't look like anyone had been there. So... ....the silver lining is, of course, that practically everything in the house has been done. Nothing else to pack. Nothing else to fix. A couple things to paint, but no big deal. So now, we ...

Our realtor called Doug today and announced that he had found someone to staff an Open House for us this Sunday, 1-4pm. "Holy crap!" I said, a few times, when Doug told me. There was so much we were going to do over Xmas break, that is being done today and tomorrow. So... after Roman went to bed tonight (second night in a row of being the sweetest boy ever), I grabbed the paint and touched up the kitchen and spots in the living and hallway where Doug had plugged up holes. Also took down the stereo in the dining room. Doug stripped and re-caulked the tub tonight, so no baths or showers tomorrow! Luckily, Roman can go play at church from noon-4pm tomorrow, so we'll have time to do other things. Still lots of touch-up painting in the basement, at least 2 trips to the storage unit, and more fun in the bathroom. In other news, I am progressing through whatever illness has hit me this week. Losing my voice, which was fun at school today. We found a small flashlight and checked...

The great movie "A Christmas Story" is taking place in our home this season. Roman is a true boy, getting very fascinated with guns. He makes up guns - popcorn guns, bow and arrow guns (I think a crossbow, although how he knows what that is I'm not sure). His friend Jake at preschool informed me that Santa doesn't make guns, which I was relieved to hear. I told Roman this, and his reply was, "but my Santa does." Yesterday we were shopping at Meijer and went down the toy weapon aisle (not deliberately). Roman's eyes latched onto one particular package and he grew very excited. "I want THAT for my birthday!" was the cry. Behold! A toy M-16 rifle, nicknamed "The Peacemaker." When you pull the trigger, it shakes and makes great popping sounds. But not so great for a 3-year-old. I just said "We'll put it on the list" and rolled along. I suggested to Doug that just like the commercials, one day we're going to have an 1...

While it is easy for Doug to let go, I cannot. I was falling in love with that house. I felt we had a future together. It was available and ready to start a relationship - it stood there with open rooms, waiting for memories to be made together. It had moved beyond its past affair with color and was ready to start anew... maybe with taupe? It practically asked for me to come into its life, improve its bathrooms, swap its electric stove for gas, and put a gas log in its fireplace. But it was not meant to be. That house wanted a commitment. It wanted us immediately; in fact, was moving way too fast. December 31, it said. You have to be living with me, or else. We tried to reason with it. We tried to explain that we had to let our current house down gently... we couldn't just toss it into the marketplace, settle for less than its value. Our current house deserves more from us. And we couldn't play the field, start a relationship with a new house before breaking up with our current...

We think Roman must have been sick for the past couple weeks, because he's been in a great mood the last three days... which makes us realize just how grumpy he was. Our sweet child is back. Some whining, of course, no napping at preschool - but is playing well and is much more patient. Maybe a "switch" turned on, who knows. As Christmas is just 20 days away, it's been great having Roman understand and enjoy the holiday. He "gets" Santa, but also gets that we're celebrating Jesus' birthday. He's in love with Frosty and Rudolph, as any good three-year-old should be. But most of all, he knows that no Christmas tree is complete without a train going around the base. And ours, according to Roman, is a Golden Train. If you can believe it, I bought it when I worked at K-B Toys back in the good ol' days (1993, I believe). Good employee discount. It's been out some years, packed away some years, but we knew that Roman would love it. Not only do...

At best, we've been given lukewarm support for our seemingly out-of-the-blue bid on a house. So I thought it best, to reassure those who now think we're certifiable, to express what's been discussed in our household for not only the past few weeks, but in some instances, four years - and some since before we got married. Why we want to move to Plymouth: 1. We can’t take Roman to the nearby park because of the druggies who get into fights in the parking lot and swear a lot. 2. Neighbors who tear up the street and take the corners fast that I fear for Roman crossing the street when he’s older. 3. The neighborhood we are in is clearly beginning to turn over; we have little in common with the newcomers from Redford, Detroit, etc. 4. To participate in a neighborhood-like activity I drive 25 minutes to Plymouth (band concerts, Santa, school events, eating ice cream on a park bench). These activities are what I grew up doing in a small town, ...

AKA: “Make all our dreams come true…” If you are a short-story kind of person, here it is: we put an offer on a house in Plymouth today and are awaiting the results. If you’d like to know the background, read on. Doug and I have been restless for some time. At turns irritated with each other, at turns irritated with Roman, at other turns irritated with the house, the neighborhood, local construction, or the way people drive around here. But, always the underlying feeling that something wasn’t “right.” I was more verbal, of course – I’m just not content. Our pastor preached on the 10th commandment, Do Not Covet, and I got the message… but still. So when I went on my scrapbooking retreat a few weeks ago, I had time in the car (6 hours round trip!) to reflect. When I got home Sunday night, we settled in for The Talk. What came out of it is what I like to call Operation: Laverne and Shirley. We have made short (6-8 months) and mid (2-3 years) term goals, and acknowledged long (5+ years) t...

Oh, the things you can do. For example: Sleep in until 9:30am. Eat a leisurely breakfast while reading the paper. Go to the bathroom as long as you want. Take a shower... or not. Go to Home Depot and wander around, even though you're there to pick up a handful of moving boxes. Eat a hot dog for lunch at Home Depot - just because. Hold numerous conversations without interruption. In the afternoon, it just gets better. If you're me, you can "declutter" the house. Clean out the hutch... its drawers & cabinets... four shelves in the living room... the burgundy room... and a couple shelves in the kitchen. Oh, and did I mention three whole closets?! Pack some items away to see if you'll miss them. Move some items so they're not in the way anymore. Rearrange your child's bedroom (because he never lets me when he's here). And move 6 boxes of " stuff," plus a small chair & a large wastebasket, to the door to be taken to the storage unit tomo...

There were Pilgrims. They were on a boat called the Mayflower. I made a Mayflower at school, can we play with it in the water? The Pilgrims landed at downtown Plymouth Rock. The Indians grew corn. The Pilgrims had a big feast with turkeys. The Indians ate with them. That is why we have a big family dinner. I am going to have pizza for Thanksgiving, not turkey. It would be pretend turkey.

Today is considered "comp time" for the 6-1/2 hours of conferences teachers held, so I get the day off. A good thing, too, because my throat is really sore. Can't decide if it's drainage, or dry weather, or something else. I just got off antibiotics less than a week ago, so this should be fun. I am trying "Airborne" which everyone at work swears by. Take it when you begin to have symptoms and it's either going to prevent your illness from getting worse, or cut your sick time in half. We'll see how it goes. Another blessing about having today off is that I can do shopping. I have a list of 5 places to go today to shop for Christmas - mainly Roman, but a couple other people can be "knocked off" the list too. I do enjoy shopping, and it's pretty exciting to have the money to do it. School district paid early this week! Roman is at preschool today. He is on, what we call in our middle school, a "504 plan." This is typically a ...

Driving in the car: Roman, what are you thinking about? "Going to the Island of Sodor. We will take a Thomas plane there." Honey, I don't know how to get to the Island of Sodor. "I know how to get to the Island of Sodor. (long pause) It's past Disney World... over the market... and then you're there!" "Thanksgiving is when the Indians stole corn." Stole? Do you mean the Indians grow corn? "Umm... yeah. And the Pilgrims had a big dinner and ate with the Indians. That's why we have a family dinner." Roman is just so smart - and so funny! He's got an incredible play imagination now. Tonight we played "Red Bell" (where we traded the roles of Roman, Miss Marcie, and Mama), and we also played "take a bath" where Roman gave me a bath. Of course when it came to the real bath, Roman cried the whole time. I think just because he's exhausted. Speaking of exhausted... Scooter Club at church has been suspended until...

One day's documentation : "That's not fair!" "I am not your friend anymore." "Tomorrow, I will stick my tongue out at you." "Na-na-na-boo-boo!" "You cannot do anything with me. Only Mama." "Mama, you have to go to your room." "Pleeeeeeaase???" "You have made bad choices." "Daddy, you're not cool." To which Daddy replied, "I know Roman, that's been the story of my life." I couldn't stop laughing!

On our way to school every morning, there is a lawnmower repair shop that has a big sign stating "Thomas 20% off." I've often been curious about his selection - honestly, what kind of train selection could a lawnmower repair shop have? - but I've never stopped in. Until today. Roman saw that grinning, cheery Thomas face on a window sign and began pleading to stop there this morning. I decided to go in on our way home. As we approached the door of the one-room shop I could see the telltale blue box that shouted "Thomas!" As Roman and I crossed the threshold we entered it... Thomas Nirvana . This man, this lawnmower repair guy, has the largest selection of Thomas items I have ever seen. More than Toys R Us! He had every engine I could think of, including cars & coaches. He has "destinations" I've never seen in stores - Down by the Docks, the Chocolate Factory, even the Ice Cream Factory! The hospital! The fire station! The new Timber Yard...

I wore my costume all day at preschool. I was the only one to wear it, even though the sign said we all could. Mama said that's because the other parents wouldn't let their kids wear their costumes, and that made me feel better about being the only one. We ate dinner around 5:30. I kept asking if it was time to go trick-or-treating but Mama said the big hand had to be on the 6. I watched and watched the clock but it didn't seem to move! I asked Mama and Daddy a couple times if it was broken, because the clock just never moved. Finally Daddy said I could go put my new snow boots on - tonight they were my pretend pirate boots! Mama got her pirate costume on and Daddy stayed at home to hand out candy. I went to lots & LOTS of houses and kept getting candy until it was all full up! My bag was very heavy. We trick-or-treated for about 45 minutes, then came back to help Daddy pass out candy. That was as much fun as getting candy! I got to see all the people coming to our hou...

Since Saturday, Roman can now get the full experience of sleeping in his Dora sheets. Behold: the big, BIG boy bed! He has been very cozy in his new bed and all his sheets fit, too. We do have a frame with head & footboards but thought if he falls, better fall from this height first. In true Roman fashion, he changed his mind about his Halloween costume today. He has been okay with being a pirate Captain Feathersword for months. But at preschool today a firefighter came to talk with the kids, and now Roman wants to be a fireman. I told him all the costumes everywhere were sold out and he just had to be a pirate one more year. He's sad about it, but has agreed. The good news is he gets to wear his costume to school tomorrow for their morning party. Roman also did not want to carve pumpkins tonight. Well, he wanted to carve them - he just wanted nothing to do with cleaning it out. So I suggested that we draw on our pumpkins instead and make faces on them. He thought that was a g...

Settling back into normal, whatever normal is. Decided to skip Scooter Club yesterday as Roman has just been exhausted from playing with my parents, and playing with his friend Max, and playing at Red Bell… playing is a full time job, you know! Speaking of my parents, they came for the weekend and were a Godsend. They babysat Roman, did the grocery shopping, planned the meals, helped with laundry, and general small maintenance around the house. We’re practically caught up now! My grad class is almost finished – just one paper left to write. I gathered all the info I needed today, school improvement plan, demographics, MEAP subscores, etc. Blech. Checked the university’s registration to doublecheck if the class was available for next semester that I need – and it turns out it is! So I’m signed up for “Curriculum Leadership” on Thursday nights from 7-10pm. The last class is on or near my birthday. I only conflict with swimming on 2 nights in March – I thought that was pretty good. Posted...

Trip to DC was fantastic. I find that I dislike flying more and more. I can't tell if it's motion sickness rearing up, or the simple paranoia of my plane crashing (which I'm sure it will on takeoff), but I truly have begun to dread getting on a plane. Perhaps the 4 flights to Russia and back have something to do with it? Instead of posting a summary of the trip, I will post just a few pictures. (note: I tried to attach 4 - only 2 will actually show up). I also will admit when I cried - at the Sept. 11 memorial within the Pentagon, and at the Vietnam Memorial. The Pentagon itself was very, very interesting. The memorial was well done, and it was on the floor/side that the plane crashed into. I mean, I was standing on ground that the plane slammed into. I held it together until I saw the flag that draped the coffin with the remains of all 184 people that died at the Pentagon that day. One coffin. 184 people. Me, crying. But I was also moved by the little things I saw on the...

It's been a busy, hectic last few weeks. Again, we've planned it that way, what with a football game last weekend at WMU and all kinds of stuff in between. I'm flying out on Thursday night to go to Washington, D.C. for the weekend. That means everything has to be done on Wednesday, which is hard for me to fathom. I have a paper due in my grad class next Thursday, so I've written the rough draft and put 4 "references to the literature" in it, as requested. I leave straight for the airport after conferences, which isn't fun either. But, I have a good roommate and fresh batteries for the camera, so it should be good. Oh yeah, and prepping the sub plans. Doug is going to have fun this weekend too, actually. He and Paul are going to a U-M game, which Doug hasn't attended since we got the boy 2 years ago. My parents are coming over to babysit Roman, and then staying a couple extra days to save us from drowning in house chores. Namely, my Dad has a new power...

We made one of our infamous rounds of the west side cities this weekend. Saturday we visited Plainwell, where my nephew Eli celebrated his 2nd birthday. Homemade pizza, chocolate cake, and mint-chocolate-chip ice cream made for the perfect party. Roman loved playing with Iris' & Eli's toys, and picked tomatoes and a strawberry from Aunt Bonnie's garden. After that party, we journeyed to Grand Rapids where we spent the night at Paul & Nicole 's. This morning we celebrated their son Perrin's baptism at church, and then a cookout of their family & friends afterward. Roman enjoyed that party too, because there were older kids who played with him - and Legos that Paul allowed Roman to take apart. We were honored to be asked previously to be Perrin's godparents. We didn't have to do anything for the actual baptism - just take lots of pictures - but we take the implied responsibility pretty seriously. Perrin did what he was supposed to do - smile du...

The comments, Qs, and As of a 3-and-a-quarter year old. At "Scooter Club" tonight, when talking about caring: Q: "How does your mama show you she loves you?" A: "She plays trains for one (hold up finger) minute." Q: "How does your daddy show you he loves you?" A: "He plays trains for TWO (hold up fingers) minutes." (teacher whispers an aside to me - "I know how it is. I play Star Wars.") While reading a book last night: Q: "Mama, did I come from your tummy, like Baby Perrin?" A: "No, honey. There is a special lady in Russia and you were in her tummy, and when she went to the hospital and you were born, they called me and Daddy to tell us to come get you." Q: "What was her name?" A: I tell him. Comment: "Oh, I see." and a long pause as he takes it in. Then: Q: "Did you and Daddy swim at the hotel in Russia?" (I try hard not to laugh.)

There's little energy when I say... "give me a break, give me a break, break me off a piece of that..." You know what I'm saying. I'm not at "stop the world, I want to get off" mode yet - but close. I had forgotten how busy a graduate class can make a person be. The last time I took one was 3 years ago, the semester before we got Roman. Now I have spent the last two evenings writing a "brief" paper (only 3-4 pages) which is 20% of my grade, not having received a rubric until last week. And another paper due in two weeks, with a presentation based on that paper. And then another paper (final) due two weeks after that. Throw in a 3-year-old, a husband, visiting family members and friends, and oh yeah - work - I'm getting a little overwhelmed. Newspaper? Haven't read one in two weeks. TV? I watch 3 hours a WEEK (but that's another complaint for another day). Papers to correct? I have about 90 in my bookbag that won't get touched to...

Thursday evening we were met with what we knew was coming, but still dreaded it anyway... the flipping of construction on Seven Mile, meaning the road will be torn up on our side. It's a good 4-foot steep ramp we have to make it up to go from the newly paved road onto the old paved road (they've dropped the height considerably). Our own street is blocked off, so we have to navigate through the neighborhood - not bad, but when everyone else is funneled into 2 streets it gets hectic. Anyhoo... it's the last of the inconvenience. Roman is becoming more and more like his Mama every day. His temper... he sealed it for me this evening when he threw an absolute temper tantrum when we ended his bath early (even though he knew why - he dumped a cupful of water onto the floor). He was thrashing around, screaming, kicking, just carrying on. I dumped him in his room to let him calm down. After it got quiet, I opened the door - and he was in a fantastic mood, putting his pirate eyepatc...

Roman has known Maxwell from his previous daycare; Max has just turned three. Max loves trains too, and we have run into him and his Mom at Barnes & Noble a few times (both there to play with the train table!). We saw them again last Wednesday and Max's mom asked why we weren't at daycare anymore, and we talked... she apparently is having the same reservations we did about the bigger room. We finally exchanged numbers and we talked tonight. We have a play & pizza date Tuesday from 5-6:30. I'm probably as excited as Roman will be. Dara is the mom's name... she's working part time as a teacher (little ones, that's all I know - maybe preschool?) and really likes time to herself too. In fact, the reason we met is because she was taking Max to daycare 1-1/2 days a week even when she wasn't working, just so she'd have "downtime." Now that's a woman after my own heart! We even have the same bedtimes for the boys, which we laughed because...

"All sunshine and roses... no rain came my way..." Well, that's Larry Cucumber's version of the blues. Me, it's more like - "all sniffy and achey... no Puffs coming my way..." Been down and out for 3 days now. Been getting to bed by 8:30 the last two nights, asleep by 9:15. Heading that way again in a few minutes. Hoping to return to my regularly scheduled life tomorrow. Roman has been suffering the same thing, just a day or so "ahead" in symptoms. He appears to have energy, just stuffiness now. One can only hope.

Today is Constitution Day . Or was, since I'm writing this at 7:50pm. In 1787 our Constitution was approved; flexible, yet strict; changeable, but unchanging in its goal to be the light for the great experiment of democracy. Tomorrow is International Talk Like a Pirate Day . No more explanation needed. Roman was able to recognize his own illness today. He asked me in the car if I was "kind of tired." I said I was, and he agreed - "yeah, I'm kind of tired too." Then later, as we watched a video, both lying on the couch, he kept wanting me to put pressure on his temples. I asked him how he felt, and he said "Good." I asked again, "you feel good?" And his reply was, "Actually, I don't." Poor guy. He is in bed (note the time above) with nary a complaint. I'm going in just a few minutes. Both of us are suffering the "postnasal drip" from allergies/weather changes.

Roman threw up for the first time today. He had gone out with me for "juice" at the Box Bar with some coworkers, and we shared fries with "the silly guy" (Mr. Wooster) and a couple onion rings from Ms. J. 1-1/2 hours later we were trying to get him to taste the Cowboy Stew for dinner (he was chowing on the chips) and he kept refusing. Finally, he said okay and took a bite. Now, Roman is classic for faking a gag reflex to try to demonstrate how much he hates our dinnertime food. This time, it got out of control... and he gagged so much he actually did throw up, right at the table. Poor thing, it scared him so much! Down his shirt, in his lap, on the floor, on his hand... Daddy wiped his face and then I carried him to the bathtub, where I helped him out of his clothes, we rinsed off, and we changed into our dinosaur loungewear (jammies, but don't tell him that at 6:30 at night!). He's good now, we rested and had some water & crackers before bed. But ...

A double meaning, today's title. Or applies to two different things. First and most obvious, is the sadness over today's date. Mitch Albom had a great article in Sunday's paper about this impending 5th anniversary, "Remembering the Day before the Day." And last night on CBS was Jules and Gedeon Naudet's accidental documentary on 9/11, with extra interviews with firefighter survivors at the end. I like it a lot - it's my second time watching. Had my good cry for the month, although I'm sure there's more in store tonight. It is not hard for me to remember the thoughts and emotions of that day - probably because I was alone without Doug at the time, as he was driving home from Tennessee that day. I came home from school (after a couple drinks at the Box with coworkers) and sat in front of the tv all afternoon, evening, and night - Doug didn't come home until 11:30pm or so. I remember every large moment that day, almost hour-by-hour. And I especial...

I'm pretty excited about this. Long story short, through the Teaching American History Grant, about 18 of us are going to DC for a weekend in October. Got my airline tickets yesterday evening! The Grant is covering airline and hotel. We are responsible for everything else, which basically only means food as most monuments/places are free. And try to resist buying all kinds of cool souvenirs, history dork that I am. The mornings will be an organized tour of someplace, the afternoons & evenings we have to ourselves. Four teachers are going from my school so we're all flying together - we actually have conferences the night we fly out! Leaving Thursday night the 19th, returning Sunday morning the 22nd. Saturday morning's tour is being specially arranged - an inside tour of the Pentagon! October can't come soon enough, I'm so darn thrilled! I haven't been to DC since my freshman year Government trip.

*The following is what Roman reported to us after his first day, scattered among playing trains and dinner. I got up so early this morning! We left our house and I rode with Daddy, and Mama led the way to Red Bell. I was kind of nervous walking in the place so I held both Daddy's and Mama's hands. We went to the Yellow Room but there was no one there! I did see a bunny rabbit in a cage, though! Mama remembered that everybody meets in the Green Room before 8am so Daddy held my hand as we walked upstairs. There were kids and teachers everywhere! Even Mama was shy about where to go and who to talk to. I met my teacher, Miss Marie. She took my bag of naptime stuff and told us to play. I was a little overwhelmed and wanted Daddy to stay with me. The big boys in the corner were so loud! I did agree to look for some toys, and Mama and Daddy left. (I hear that Mama got teary when she left!) I went to the Yellow Room with my class. There are lots of kids but I don't know any names. ...

Because Roman has been on the computer at his previous daycare, he kept asking to get on ours and "help" us on the Internet. So we went out to Costco last week and bought a 4-pack of computer games for ages 3-5 ($16.95!). Only one of them is a little above his age - surprisingly, the Pooh & Tigger one. His favorite so far is the "Reader Rabbit" where you have to play different "carnival" games to restore the carnival that used to be in the town. He plays Body Builders and Hide & Seek (like a "Where's Waldo" thing). On his Arthur one, though, he has really impressed us. He is so awesome at finding the right size shapes to fit into a "shadow" on the wall. Like they'll have a triangle as part of a truck, and give you two blocks of differing size, color, or angle. Roman is probably 95% accurate at choosing the right ones. The most frustrating is that he doesn't have the patience to listen to directions - he just wan...

We actually got Roman to take a nap this afternoon - he was THAT tired. Stinker has to be woken up during the week, but comes bouncing into our room at 6:35am this morning ready to have breakfast. I don't think so! Because he napped until 4pm (yup - from 2:30!) we realized he would stay up later. This called for a Family Movie Night! Seeing as Roman was not so impressed with "Pooh's Heffalump Movie" from NetFlix, we sent it back and relied on an already-owned movie. So popcorn popped and jammies on, we all curled up for a showing of "Cinderella." Neither Roman nor Doug had seen it before. I don't remember it being so s..l..o..w... but always good in the end. It ended around 8:30pm and Roman was in a daze. It might have been a popcorn-induced coma, because he ate almost an entire bag. The rest of our plans for the weekend are simply relax... relax... do a little something... and relax. Church tomorrow for the first time since end of July. We have di...

Roman has had to be woken up 3 out of 4 mornings this week to get rolling. We have to leave the house around 7:10 for me to make it to school by 7:40ish, which is the latest I would want to arrive once school starts. This is not going to be a pleasant year. I volunteered to be "on hand" for students who can have access to our building tomorrow for 2 hours, so at least Roman can sleep in a little. He was Sybil again tonight, sweet and cheery and then wham! spittin' nails at us. He threw a cat toy at me, scratched his daddy, kicked and fought. All this because it was bedtime. School is a mess. We were rehabbed this year as part of a bond issue passed a couple years ago. Brand new floors in all classrooms, fresh coats of paint on every wall (glorious white!), and new lighting. Air conditioning, too, and new windows. It's so bright and airy, and cool (within our 4-degree window of 68-72 degrees). On the other hand... we were told they wouldn't be truly done unt...

Day One of meetings. I giggle every time I remember that commercial for office supplies from some store, with the parents doing a coordinated happy dance-with-shopping-carts number to the song "Most Wonderful Time of the Year." Kids, of course, were dragging their heels after them. I feel that way about school supplies. Both Doug and I could spend hours in an office supply store just wandering the aisles and collecting stuff for our desks. It's wonderful. Today was back to school day for me, heralded by 6 hours of meetings. Followed by tomorrow's 6 hours of meetings. Our district is trying to get collaborative, and the buzz-letters are PLCs - professional learning communities. Or in other words, as Doug says, "starting to do what the business world has been doing for years now." The problem is, we're still talking. They aren't giving us time to DO what we need to do. We don't need 2 days of meetings about this, when we've heard it all last...

Roman is very proud of the fact that he's potty trained. He informed his Daddy of this tonight, while pointing to himself. Of course, we did have a half-accident; he "leaked" a little bit before running to us to say he had to go. He also did #2 on his own tonight with no help. We gave official notice to daycare this afternoon that Roman would be withdrawn. We talked to the director, who was very supportive. She actually admitted her own son went to the preschool we're transferring to! She said we'd be very pleased with it. Daddy and I want to do something nice for Miss Katie (we gave Miss Elaine a gift when we transitioned out of the Toddler room). I asked Roman what he thought she'd like. "A new necklace," he said, "... or a new train." How sweet and thoughtful. He says it like this - "neck-a-liss." I asked if he'd like to make one for her, like our cousin Sadie made a bracelet for him once. "Oh, yes... but I don...

It can be done! And Roman has proved it! We have gone all day, six days in a ROW, with only one accident - and that was during quiet time when he was told he couldn't get up. Oops. :) On Thursday afternoon, after Roman had 2 accidents at daycare, Daddy told Roman very frankly, "no more accidents. They are not allowed." Friday afternoon Roman and I happened to go to the new daycare, which we're now calling preschool, to pay the fee. The director spoke a lot to Roman about how he has to be in underwear and no accidents, etc. I think these two things combined put a fire under him. Consider the wonderful evidence: 1. Roman stayed dry the entire 2-1/2 hour trip to my parents', including informing us that he wanted to "stop at a gas station so I can use the potty." 2. Roman stayed dry the entire day Saturday at the youth fair, even when sidetracked by animals, rides, and his cousins Iris & Eli. 3. Roman rode a train home from my parents' and stayed dry...

Worn out. It's been a dramatic week work-wise, not even counting the 5-day inter-disciplinary unit myself and five others have thrown together in 6 hours - plus some typing time at home. On top of all the brain-busting (The New Deal: Relief, Recovery, Rhetoric, or Revolution? Discuss.) and networking, our principal jumped into the action by rearranging mine and a few other coworker's schedules for the school year. A lot. Not only my subjects, but hours have been shifted - most unhappily. And we have officially lost my mentee, who has been displaced to an elementary school. The drama in detail: Tuesday night was a board meeting, where final "counts" were taken of each school and the board decides if a school can hire any last-minute people. This is all done on per-hour basis, stupidly. West was given 0.4 FTE, or translated into 2 classes. We needed 1.0 to keep my mentee. So he's gone. Now my principal had to decide - add classes to part-timers, or hire some...

My alma mater has fired the president of the university, 8 months after extending her contract. I don't know what could have changed in 8 months when the official position is "enrollment has declined 15% in the three years of her tenure." They offered quite a nice little package to get her out but she refused, so they fired her. Apparently she's thinking about fighting the "wrongful" termination. I guess the only bright spot is that my beloved President, Diether Haenicke, has been named interim. Diether was prez when I attended and what I remember about him is what I think universities lack these days - I saw him walking on campus, he held open office hours a few times a month where kids could walk in and talk about anything that was on their mind, and I guess mainly that people KNEW him. Who he was, about his family, his love of Western. A good choice for the trustees to make. My thought about why enrollment is declining at WMU? The only news I receive is a...

Today's day of the History Grant was, as usual, mind-melting. Headache began about 1:30 and I had to take 3 Advil to get it under control. My brain has been laying wasted all summer, and what a jerk back to reality today was! Today's deep thoughts: Democracy, being an experiment, needs to be constantly tested. The Founding Fathers, knowing their history, knew that a republic will eventually decay; see Rome, et.al. Time is the enemy of a democracy. The way to analyze a democracy - whether it is "good" or "bad" - is to study what kind of culture it produces. What does it do for an individual person? Does it develop or prevent the full potential of a person? Finally, some discussion on character (under the auspices of Hawthorne's "Scarlet Letter"). In today's society, one professor argued, we are more interested in personality than character; that is, we build ourselves from the outside in, instead of the inside out. To fight the decay of a d...

I like doing these. Thought it was interesting - and not at all surprising. Your Political Profile: Overall : 60% Conservative, 40% Liberal Social Issues : 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal Personal Responsibility : 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal Fiscal Issues : 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal Ethics : 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal Defense and Crime : 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal How Liberal Or Conservative Are You?

We have returned from two whirlwind weekends of camping. Last weekend we were at Yogi Bear's house in Frankenmuth with Grandma and Papa Van Eeuwen. We visited "the Christmas Store" (Bronner's) and the Cheese Haus downtown, played around the campsite, and went swimming a lot. Doug and I played a lot of Hand & Foot cards and are determined to practice at home to get better (and for me to learn how to add up the points!). This weekend we camped for the first time with our friends Mark & Jen and their 3 kids aged 3, 5, and almost-9. Roman hit it off best with the 5-year-old. We were at Sleeper State Park in Caseville, Michigan - in "the thumb." We had a great time... went to the beach, rode bikes, Roman got great at pedaling his Tigger bike. But the thing that took us by surprise was The Celebration. More specifically, the Cheeseburger in Caseville festival. It "celebrates the lifestyle and music made popular by Jimmy Buffett" according to t...

We are gearing up for Roman's return to full-time daycare. Most people don't understand why we take Roman to daycare during the summer, surprised that I wouldn't want to spend all day every day with him. To be honest, it's boring! Do other women find playing trains for 2 hours a day exciting? My mind melts after about 10 minutes, especially because Roman doesn't really want me to play with him... he wants me to do the voices for a few minutes, move a train around, and then just sit and be next to him. Or he tells me exactly how I should play. But woe to the person who decides to multitask while Roman does something, be it reading, coloring, Playdoh, trains, even a video. He pesters and whines, sometimes gets physical (launching himself onto your lap, or playing doggy). And when I am "game" for playing with him, he changes his mind every 5 to 10 minutes, never satisfied. It is annoying. I have noticed that at this age, it would be good to have a sibling in...

The scrapbooking world is slowly leaking onto "things" with the help of decoupage. A couple years ago at the scrap convention I attended, there was a store from Plainwell selling wood block "puzzle" kind of things that they decoupaged pretty papers & photos onto. Since then, I've seen more and more scrapbooking on everyday items - coasters, storage boxes, photo albums, all kinds of things which people want to personalize. Well, I finally did it. I picked up a couple cheap plastic binders that I'll need for the American History Grant & grad school, and thought I'd prettify the one for the grant. I had some Mod Podge, which works as both glue and sealer, grabbed some old 4th-of-July style paper that I hadn't used in a scrapbook lately, and had some fun. It turned out nice for a first project. A couple bubbles I should have smoothed out but not noticeable. Our house better watch out - I've got a ton of scrapbook paper and an almost-full bo...

Just wanted to post the link if you care to see the scrapbook pages I've done this summer. Three of them are 2-page spreads so I put them next to each other, so you can get an idea. Plus, you can get a glimpse of the infamous Miss Katie!

I completed requirements for my professional teaching certificate about a year ago, but why get it early when my provisional didn't expire until June? And so, upon completion of "18 semester hours in a planned course of study after the issuance of the Provisional certificate, completion of Michigan's reading requirement (6 semester hours of teaching reading for elementary teachers or 3 semester hours for secondary teachers) and 3 years of successful teaching experience" (according to the State of Michigan's website), oh, and a $125 processing fee, I received my professional education certificate in the mail yesterday. I am qualified to teach History and Social Science in grades 7-12. (Social Science includes specialized classes in Economics, Geography, Civics, & Psychology). It's really just a paperwork thing, but it did make me pretty happy to accomplish it. I am "Highly Qualified" in Michigan as well, having taken both certification tests when ...

For the first time since his arrival, Roman chose to read the book "Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born." It was written by JL Curtis about her experience adopting a daughter. I have read the book myself a few times but never out loud, to Roman. I explained to him what it was about, and as we read I compared the story to our own journey to adopt Roman. He asked all kinds of questions, also for the first time. "What's a baby home?" "Was I a baby or a little boy?" At one point he pointed to a picture of the exhausted parents on the first night of having a baby and asked, "are those my parents?" I explained that we did not have any pictures of his Russian parents but told him a little about each one. Between tears, of course. Tears of happiness because he's ours, regret that we can't connect him to his homeland very well, melancholy because I can't fill in all the holes for him yet and make him understand. Not sure I want t...

There is a couple at church, Kelly and Frank, who attended the same "new member potluck class" that we did, and subsequently joined the church the same time we did. They have an, oh, maybe 6-year-old girl. Soon after Christmas Kelly approached us to announce that she and Frank had decided to adopt from Guatemala and they knew we'd be especially pleased for them. We kept up-to-date with them, and Kelly told me two weeks ago that they were fifth on the list for a girl, and they hoped to get a referral at the end of August or start of September. Today in church Frank got up to make the wonderful announcement - while they had been fifth on the list, a woman in Guat. approached their adoption agency and wanted to choose a family for her newborn daughter. She reviewed the first four families available, but picked Frank and Kelly when she read their information. They will be traveling next week to meet their new daughter, and hope to have her home by the end of the year. The ...

Family camp was successful again this year; most notable was the arrival of my brother and niece, who we hoped would show but didn't really believe would. We arrived right before lunch on Friday and settled in. Roman immediately got to playing with Megan (6 years) and Justin (hmm.. 9, I think). Gradually people continued to arrive throughout dinnertime. Roman did not want to sleep Friday night and eventually, with much high-pitched yelping to get attention, fell asleep on my dad's lap in front of the fire around 10:15pm. Not to be outdone, my niece had a nightmare around 1am and woke a good portion of us with her screaming and sobs. Saturday was spent at the beach. Family VE and S headed down around 10am. Roman refused to go in the lake, and preferred to play with his big plastic train, bucket, and shovel along the water's edge. Niece, brother, and husband dove right in! All the kids received kites to fly at the beach and Doug enjoyed doing that. The afternoon brought some ...

When Mama picked me up from daycare today, she asked what I ate for lunch. I told her, "applesauce... and beans." She asked if that was it. I explained to her that there was chicken on my plate but I did not eat it. She asked why I didn't eat chicken. I told her the following: "Real chickens are from farms. They are for looking and petting... looking and petting only. Real chickens have... um... uh... mama chickens and baby chickens, on the farm. That's why, you can't eat real chickens. They are on farms."

Among the many things that frustrate me, recently traffic and construction is at the top of my list. It's not the amount of traffic in Metro Detroit that bothers me, although sometimes that gets bad. It's the speed limits. For some reason, generally Detroiters drive 5-7 miles SLOWER than the speed limit. For those of us who go the speed limit (or 4 miles above it, as I do) this is beyond frustrating. The main roads around my home are 45 mph. Consistently, since spring, I have noticed I do no faster than 40; usually closer to 38. And today I noticed that the higher the limit is, the slower people drive. I was on a road whose limit was 50; cars were doing - no joke - 35 mph. 35! This is, partly, due to traffic lights - my next complaint. Why do people slow down for green lights? You slow down for yellow lights, you maintain your speed for green lights. Wasn't this taught in driver's training? Gads, there's nothing more irritating then clicking along at my 38 mph to...

We've been busy doing nothing, which is the way I like my summers. Traipsing here and there... art fair in my hometown for a weekend, local pools, and getting ready for camping. Trying to find lots of air conditioning this week! What's been going on... Roman finished his swim class on Monday - Daddy even got to go to watch. Roman was in a strange mood, and didn't really want to cooperate with class. He told me later that he didn't want to do practice by himself anymore, but he'd gladly do it again with Mama in the water. So I did sign him up for the next round of classes. On this last class, I began to chat with a woman who had a little boy about Roman's age. Turns out their son is just 2 weeks younger than Roman. And - of all things - the woman is originally from Russia! We both marveled at that connection, when she told me she'd been in country for 12 years and I explained that Roman was from Russia. We did exchange phone numbers but I think we're...