Introducing...

Rubin!

The messiest eater...

east...

of the Mississippi River!

I almost forgot... Wordless Wednesday

Let the truth be told, on Tuesday.

The truth is:

I would much rather be sitting down right now to a loooong blog post, sipping a cozy cup of cocoa, than what I am up to:

Measuring and mixing and baking.

And not because I want to.

But because I have to.

For an actual bake sale.

A last ditch attempt at keeping a very special program that I have been blessed to be a part of at work afloat.

It makes me sick to think that it has come down to this.

A bake sale.

And, don't get me wrong, I would shovel poop for pennies if pennies were what we needed to keep on keeping on...

I just wish we were valued at more than $1 for a pair of cookies.

Um... hold on just one second! Who stole my weekend?

Seriously. It's already Sunday night? Where in the world did my weekend go?!

I guess what they say is true... Time certainly flies when you are having fun. And it's easy to have fun when it's over 70 degrees in November. In Wisconsin. Beat that!

Our Weekend Stats

Fresh air: Over 10 hours worth!

Parks visited: 3

Family walks: 2

Bike rides: 1

Dogs scratched: 2

Photos taken: I can't count that high.

Miles run: 12

Brownies eaten: 3

Boys I had to share said brownies with: 3

Leaves raked: See "Photos taken."

Household chores completed: none!!

Bring on Monday...

Less Wordy Wednesday, Kelly-style.

It is almost unfathomable that 6 months have already passed since the first time I met my baby boy, in his foster parents' apartment in Nowon-gu, Seoul, Korea. (Read my original post about our meeting here.)

(May 4th, 2009)

(now.)

I can't remember not having you.

I love you like there's no tomorrow.

Let the truth be told, on Tuesday.

Gray hair, people.

On. My. Head.

And not just one or two.

Many.

So many that, last night, Dave and I spent about 15 minutes in front of the mirror yanking them out. My husband, 7 years my senior, rejoiced a little bit each time he found a new one. I wanted to punch him. Hard.

I wish I could write that I am the kind of girl who can "grow old gracefully," not only accepting but embracing the gray hair, the laugh lines, the breasts deflated and flappy-in-the-wind thanks to breast feeding and gravity...

But I'm so not.

Rather, I'm fairly freaked out.

I'm considering some color, some botox, a tummy tuck and a lift...

Truth be told? I'm feeling pretty unattractive, on Tuesday.

That's a wrap!

Bidding another weekend ado...

This Sunday evening the task feels especially daunting, as we've been on break from work and school since Wednesday evening. We are not looking forward to getting back into the swing of things tomorrow morning.

Happily, I can write that we took full advantage of our time off. Since Dave had to work through Halloween, I packed the boys up and traveled north to spend the weekend with my family; my parents and all of my seven siblings. All of the boys did so well away from home. The rockiest part was the actual trip to and from my mom and dad's house. Emmett is not much for road trips, and quite vocal in his displeasure. Besides the 200+ miles of misery, our weekend went perfectly.

We squeezed in a visit (full of squeezes itself) with my good friend Lora who I have not seen in over a year (hard to believe...) I got to see, for the first time, Lora's beautiful new home.

And Lora got to meet our Rubin.

Of course, she's seen him plenty of times in photos and even heard him here and there in the background of our telephone conversations. But this was their first meeting. And her reaction to Rubin, live, was remarkably similar to the first time that I saw my son in Seoul... Lora couldn't believe that he is still just a baby. How small. Not grown up yet, at all.

Rubin made himself right at home. Digging right into Z's toys and rummaging through Lora's kitchen cabinets. Squealing, delightfully, over her little dog.

Our visit wasn't long enough, and I'm already looking forward to our next time.

Upon our return to Gramma's house we found Emmett with a much needed haircut (thank you, Mom!)

and cousins fresh from M with their mama, waiting to play.

I loved spending the afternoon at my mom's house with my sister Jessica and all of our kids. We spent as much time as we could outdoors: swinging, playing in the sandbox, tossing and kicking the football, playing "Simons says", and racing.

I can't help but include this following set of photos:

Yes, that is my 34 year old sister engaged in a foot race with our children and my parents' little neighbor girl.

Yes, that is the same said sister one-handedly wrangling and tossing her 7 year old son, who was quite clearly whooping her butt, to the ground.

Can you say, "competitive?"

__________________________________________________

Saturday was, of course, Halloween!

The boys and I got to Trick-or-Treat this year with all of our (little) P family cousins. Jonah and Ethan, Macy and Ellie, Gabe, Lucy, and Nora. We had a great time, and I do believe that we were the cutest bunch out and about.

After about an hour hitting the streets for loot, we all snuggled in to Aunt Meggan's house for soup (homemade chili, chicken noodle, and country mushroom... yum!) and sandwiches, wine and (of course) some candy. We did our best to tire them all out anticipating that, with the time change, everyone would be up and ready to go again at 5:30am. Success this morning was sweet when 1.) all of the kids slept until nearly 7am and 2.) my big sister allowed me to crawl back into bed and catch a few more zzzzzzzz. (Thank you, Aunt Sica!)

____________________________________________

Brunch this morning was an excellent ending to our long weekend at home. I was thrilled to be able to get a photo of all of my brothers and sisters, together in one place.

We gathered to send my youngest brother off, as he and his boyfriend are relocating to California.

Get ready, Uncle Eli and Damon, because with highs of 40 degrees in our forecast, we might be visiting sooner rather than later!