Library Card

It was an historic day.  A big day for this 6-year-old.

Signing his name in cursive on the back of the card and getting The Talk from the Librarian.

Ta-da!

His very own Library Card.

This was something that he wanted to do.  When he spoke to me about it he was very calm, used a low voice, and was almost solemn about it.  A rare form of Peter.

Helping the Librarian look up a book for him.

He's a reader.  Loves  to read.

Currently at-this-moment reading Mission to the Arctic.

It's a Lego story.

Brilliant Lego.

Thanks for encouraging our son's devourment of books.

SOLD

There were only 2 bidders and it sold for the price of a car!  Can you believe it?  Who's wishing they'd flown out here for the auction of the purple house?  Ends up some friends of ours bought it, so we'll get to spend some time in it in the future.  They said the kitchen and bathrooms need gutting and redoing, but everything else is 'pristine,' she said.

We are off to get the boys' adoption physicals this morning.  While we're "in town", Paul and I will get new passport photos taken.  Then, this evening we have our first of two meetings with our Adoption Specialist (aka social worker) to get our homestudy underway.  She met with us and wrote our last homestudy and we're looking forward to working with her again.  Wow, we did this 5 years ago.  Doesn't seem that long ago, but we started in spring 2005 and Reuben joined us Feb 2007.  Oh, let's reminisce...

Ah, he's so cute!

8 months old here, been with us for 3 months.

Have a great day!

Walking Accessory

The boys and I walked to the Post Office to get the mail.  The postman only delivers to some of the houses in town and it's a mystery to me who gets that service.  So as we're leaving our yard he decides he needs to bring...

the wheelbarrow.

This is in our side alley and fortunately a truck had been through and Rube was able to walk in the ruts.

Reuben's mission is complete:  Candy from the Post Master.

We call him Mark.

He knows everyone's address or box number.

Here we have a sad, abandoned wheelbarrow in too-deep snow.

This is when Mom takes over and gets to carry it home.

He changed his focus to icicle hunting.

That's not a cigarette.

 Do we look like we're advertising for U-Haul?

I like the bright orange so I can find the boys easier.

And they're comfy.

And we have several of them.

Need a truck?

Rent U-Haul.

Support the fam.

House For Sale

This very antique house is going to be auctioned tomorrow.

Can houses be antiques?

This one was built in the early 1900s and is displayed prominently on our Main Street.

Can you tell it's 3 stories with a wrap-around porch?  Some friends of ours walked through it and said it's lovely - beautiful inside.  Can you picture the grand staircase?

Carly, the outside is purple!  Just thought I'd mention it.  Chase, think Anniversary present.

Rumor is the current owners bought it for $80,000.

California family:  $80,000 for a 3 story historic treasure. 

This is your chance.

Who's moving?

Paper. Work.

She said I would feel overwhelmed.  She said to read and reread it and call with any questions.

OH.  MY.

Overwhelmed.

Tense.

How is this ever going to get put together?

The Dossier.  Have you ever had one?  Me neither. 
Now I do.

According to the Costco dictionary my mom bought me in 1994 right before I wooshed off to college, a dossier is "a file of documents containing detailed information about a person."  Detailed, yes.  Seriously.  Wow. 

As a kid I often thought I'd love the job of a secretary.  I thought filling out paperwork all day would be so much fun.  Well, here's my big chance.  45 pages, plus a supplement for our particular state.  The hard part is that it's not just me filling out the forms.  We have to get people from all over the country to cooperate EXACTLY how the particular paperwork requires.  And it all has to be notarized, most State-Sealed.  We have to take a notary to the doctor's office.  How does one do that?

We've already adopted once, we should have expected this, right?  Uh-uh.  No dossier last time. Wasn't required for that country.  Can you feel my stress?  Paul thinks it's no big deal.  "You'll do a great job, dear."  But ask him if he's read the dossier packet yet.  He hasn't.  I need a full time assistant.  Anyone?  Bueller?

Just to clarify.  I'm not complaining.  Really.  This is all very exciting, especially as I remember the end goal.  Just full of temporary overwhelmedness.  Oo, temporary.  That's a good word.

Resemblance

I thought I'd seen that face before...

Peter the Mummy-Fighter looks a lot like Pete the Pirate.

This was January 2009, when pirates came ashore.

Peter was 5 and Reuben 2.

Mummies

A little known fact about our small town of a thousand...  It's teeming with mummies.  It's true.  Peter and Reuben have been fighting them for weeks.  Great progress has been made in the last 3 days, since their new mummy-fighting equipment arrived.

Headlights!

Granny and Granpa must have heard about our mummy problem because they sent the boys these headlights.  Now they can fight the mummies without having to hold a flashlight!

Apparently the mummies come out when it's dark.  So all the curtains get closed and the lights turned off.  Then the flashlights come on and the weapon of choice is chosen.  Peter likes to use Bruce, the stick horse.  And Reuben is using a dowel here.  The required darkness makes it hard to photograph, thus the grainy pictures.

Getting the mummies behind the couch.

This is all the mummies see.  Streaks of light.  So you can imagine they're terrified.

Just another night of mummy-hunting.

Thanks, boys, for protecting our home.

And thanks, Granny and Granpa, for the 'equipment'.