Luke's 5th Birthday

Luke had a great time celebrating his 5th birthday yesterday. We had a day full of fun! It began with Luke waking up to his decorated door.

Next, he went to school and we had a party for him and his class. He picked out a Wall-E cupcake cake from Walmart.

Everyone enjoyed the yummy icing.

For dinner, we went to Fudruckers with Grammy, Grandad, Grandma, Grandpa, Great Grandma Prosser, Aunt Penny, Uncle Mark and our family. Luke enjoyed his giant hotdog

and then he got his HUGE ice cream sundae (Fudruckers gives these to people on their birthday - but, this was an adult size sundae!).

He also got a free cookie from Fudruckers, so he was nice and sugary as we headed for home.

When we got home, Luke opened his gifts. He got lots of great things - lots of new Legos,

a new bike,

a puzzle, some movies, and some books.

He was so excited about each thing he opened.

We then had a little more sugar as we dove into the Lego cake that I made.

He was happy all day and is so excited to be 5! I can't believe it's been five years since that snowy, snowy day that Luke was born. Happy Birthday to the sweet boy who made me a Mom!

Planet Wednesday

Chill the Laundry

Here's one easy way to clean green: turn the dial to cold water.

With most clothes, you really don't need hot water to get a good cleaning. Ninety percent of the energy used by washing machines goes into heating the water. The higher the temperature of the water, the more electricity you're running and the higher the cost in terms of both energy use and money.

Add in one of the earth-friendly laundry detergents available everywhere these days and chill out about any harm to your clothes or the environment.

A thought for the week

But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you.

Luke 6: 27-28

Sure is hard to do, sometimes. I know I struggle with remembering to live these words. This week, I plan to read this passage and try to live and do what the words are saying.

Luke Reading

Check out this video of Luke reading a book that he brought home from school. He's doing so well learning to read - we are kind of shocked and excited at the same time!

Children don't know how to lie

I opened up Luke's folder from school yesterday afternoon and saw a green smiley face, which means that he had a good day and stayed on "green." If you get a green smiley face, it means you had a good day, a yellow smiley means that you had a warning about some problem behavior, and a red means that you had a hard day listening or following directions.

So, yesterday, it was green. Luke saw it and said, "Oh good! She forgot! I was really on red!" He was so excited that his teacher had apparently forgotten that he was on red for the day. But, what he didn't realize is that he just gave himself up! I know that one day (probably too soon) he'll realize that he needs to keep his mouth shut about things like this!

I told him that even if she forgot, that doesn't change the fact that he had a hard day at school. I asked why he was on red, and he told me that he "just couldn't stop talking." Big surprise. That is Luke's only "behavior" problem. I guess he gets it naturally. Sorry, buddy. That one is all my fault.

Planet Wednesday

Every moment you spend idling your car's engine means time spent needlessly wasting gas, as well as rougher wear on your vehicle. So give it a rest, and avoid idling through your days.

One of the ways the much-praised Toyota Prius is able to achieve such impressive fuel economy is by having a computer cut out idling automatically: when you aren’t making headway, the gas engine shuts off. For regular cars, it doesn’t make sense to shut off the engine at every stop sign. (Even though Environmental Defense found that idling for more than 10 seconds wastes more gas than is required for startup.) But, you should certainly kill it when you are waiting for your date to finish getting ready. Or when your honey has to run into the bank to cash a check.

Overall, idling Americans burn 2.9 billion gallons of gas a year, worth around $78.2 billion, according to a recent report from Texas A&M. That doesn’t count the damage done to idling engines by incompletely burned fuel.

Many communities have organized “no idling zones” around schools, churches and other locations. At least 15 states, and many counties, have laws that restrict idling for large diesel engines. New York City and New Jersey have laws limiting idle times of passenger vehicles, but enforcement is lax.

Closer...

Our agency has our rough draft of our homestudy in their hands. FINALLY!

What does this mean? Not a whole lot, yet. They have a committee who will review the homestudy to be sure that it meets all of Korea's requirements. Then, they will send it back to our social worker (ugh!) for changes or additions that need to be made. (We've been told that most people have to have at least a few minor changes made.) The nice thing was that I got an e-mail today from Meg, at WACAP, saying that they had the homestudy and would be in touch later in the week to let us know the status of our process. THAT is all I want! Just keep me informed!

Ok, so I REALLY want it to be done and approved, but if that isn't happening yet, at least let me know when to expect something!

I'm so patient, I know. :)

Finished Dinos

These are Luke's completed dinosaurs. He is quite proud of them and will be sure to tell you that the orange one is the "oldest" because that is the first one he excavated, the green was is next oldest, and the brown one is the youngest. They had to be lined up in order for the pictures to be taken.

Dino Dig

Luke has been getting into dinosaurs lately. He was recently given a gift called the "Dino Nest." There are 3 "dinosaur eggs" in the kit, and it comes with two chisels and safety glasses. Luke was super excited about the glasses and tools.

Please note the shirt he has on for the excavation.


He quickly got to work hacking away at the first "egg."

A halfway excavated dinosaur.

He "excavated" all three of his dinos and today he got to paint them. They are drying this evening, but we'll be sure to get a picture and post it so that everyone can see just how creative our mini paleontologist has been.

Another week

Another week has gone by and still no completed homestudy. After I e-mailed our social worker on Wednesday to ask for a status update, she sent us back four MORE questions that she didn't have the answers for (I should say, questions she couldn't find the answers for, because I know we've answered some of them before). She had sent it to her supervisor in Raleigh, so hopefully on Monday, she gets it to our agency. I'm pretty sure they'll have some things to add or change, so maybe next week we'll get it all finished.

Planet Wednesday

Recycle Your Electronics
Americans tossed out a whopping 5.5 billion pounds of electronics -- TVs, stereos, cell phones, and computers -- in 2005, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The result? Millions of pounds of chemicals and heavy metals ended up in the ground even though it's easier than ever to recycle electronics. The Consumer Electronics Association created mygreenelectronics.org to help people find a recycling resource in their area. The site also provides a list of electronics, from laptops to baby monitors, that are easier on the environment and your energy bill.
Good for You: The average American household has three cell phones stashed in a drawer. Sell unused cell phones to greenphone.com. You'll receive about $35, and the phones will be refurbished and resold. If 1 million people recycled one cathode-ray tube TV this year, we'd keep 4 million pounds of lead out of the ground

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ET Phone Home

Luke was watching ET over the weekend. When it was over, he came over to me with tears welling up in his eyes. I asked what was wrong and he promptly burst into tears and sobbed while sitting on my lap. When he was able to talk, he finally he told me that the movie made him cry at the end because it was sad. (To refresh your memory, everyone in the family was sad and crying when ET flew away because they had come to love him so dearly. It is quite a sad moment.) He cried for several minutes about it. It was cute and heartbreaking at the same time to see him so affected by watching other people's saddness.

Bathtub Talk

Evan has a lot to say lately. Here he is telling us a long story while taking a bath last night.

A Mommy and Her Boys

Sweetheart Dance

Last night, Luke and I went on a date. He had a Sweetheart Dance at his school. It was a lot of fun! He was the first one to get out on the dance floor and boogie down! He is quite a "freestyle" dancer and really feels the beat! Check out the pictures and video below to see him in action!

Luke and Mommy pose for a picture.

Luke and his "dude" Grant get down and boogie!


Luke and Grant showing off for the camera.

A little video of Luke dancing by himself at the beginning of the dance. Note how everyone else was sitting and watching. It did get much busier and the whole dance floor was packed most of the night!

Adoption Story on GMA

This was a neat story from Good Morning America today. Click HERE and then play the video to see the whole story.

We have a copy!

We got a draft copy of the homestudy today! We have read it and sent our social worker our revisions (nothing major). She will make our changes and forward it to her supervisor in Raleigh who will then make any format changes that are needed. THEN, we send it to WACAP for their review.

We are getting closer!!!

Progress?

Any little bit of information is progress at this point.

Our social worker sent an e-mail today that her supervisor is reviewing the draft of the homestudy. That's a good sign. There are several people (including us) that have to review it before it can be sent to our agency for final approval. It's good to know that the chain of reviewers has begun. After her supervisor comes us, I think.

Cross fingers that it will come to us this week!

Planet Wednesday

Unplug Things That Glow

Anything that has an LED (light emitting diode) that glows even after you turn it off continues to draw power (that you pay for). Your TV, cell phone charger, and printer are likely culprits.

Unplug the offenders from wall sockets and plug them into power strips instead. When you leave a room, flip the strip switch to cut the flow of electricity.

Good for You: Unplug appliances and electronics that glow and you could save $200 a year.

The Circus

We took Luke to the circus on Saturday night. It was fun to have Luke all by himself. We ate dinner and realized just how EASY it was to only have one child! And, that child was able to feed himself! It was quite relaxing.

After dinner, we caught the light rail train and headed downtown to see the show. Luke loved the train and thought that the night couldn't get any better... but, it did!

Luke said his favorite part of the circus was, "ALL of it!" However, I know that this part was one of his true favorites. There were 7 motorcycles in this steel ball. Scared Mommy to death! I kept thinking that one little mistake and they would all crash and I'd have to cover Luke's eyes so he wouldn't see the destruction. Don't worry - everyone made it out alive!

Video of the 7 crazy motorcycles.

We also loved the elephants. The "little" elephant at the end of the line kicked her back legs into the air in time to the music. It made it look like she was dancing. We got a kick out of watching the dancing elephant!