- The last weekend of September the kids and I went with my parents to a Carrell family reunion in Huntington. It was a 10 hour car trip one way so pretty tiring. It had been 4 years since I'd been to a reunion so it was wonderful to catch up with all of my Dad's family again. I was also proud to show off Valerie! She and Blaine had a wonderful time. Blaine got to meet and play with his cousins and caught a crawdad at Uncle Earl's house! Valerie got tons of attention and everyone let her eat off their plates!
- We've been to several volleyball games to watch Shelbi play. She is a middle hitter and is awesome! The Lady Lobo team is great and it looks like they will be District Champs. Can't wait to watch some playoff action! Valerie claps her hands and says lolo (lobo) and ay (yay).
- We conferenced with Blaine's teacher and he is doing great in 1st Grade. He made all A's on his first report card! He is reading better all the time and is starting to take Accelerated Reader tests on the computer. In Blaine's words, "Mrs. Coldewey is cool!" She lets them do the smarty pants dance when they do something good. I've got to get some video of this!
- Valerie has started going to Children's Day Out and loves it! She cried the first couple of days, now she runs ahead of me to get to her classroom. She is SO social! CDO has had visits from the fire truck, police officers, and EMT's this month. Most kids were afraid of the loud sirens. Not Valerie, she danced to it!
- We celebrated my brother, Bryan's 33rd birthday on October 6 and Todd's 36th Birthday on October 20!
- Todd's Aunt Martha passed away at the end of September. We really miss her and pray for Bruce during this time. She loved Blaine so much and was already crazy about Valerie in this short time we've had her. Martha was a special lady!
- We have had Valerie for 4 1/2 months including our time with her in Khabarovsk. Since June 2, she has grown 4 inches and gained 5 pounds!
- We have met twice with the Early Childhood Intervention team. They assessed Valerie last Friday and she does qualify for services with them. She will get Speech Therapy twice a month. This therapy is really training for us to learn how to work with her to improve her speech, especially her articulation. She is consistently saying more than 50 words but she is very difficult to understand. She seems to understand most of what we say. She is a bright little girl and we are so proud of her!
- We had a ball at the Heflin's Annual Pumpkin Carving Party. We made a jack 0' lantern with TONS of teeth! Blaine is big enough now that he can help carve. Valerie enjoyed sticking her hands in the slimy seeds! It's so fun to line everyone's lighted pumpkins up outside and admire the creativity.
- Todd is going to be changing jobs and we are really praying for direction and guidance. He is a super smart guy and a very hard worker so I know everything will work out fine but I don't like times of unknown. However, I do know Who holds the future!
- Valerie and I went to the Sandhills for a playdate with another group of moms and kiddos from church. After she learned to not eat the sand, she had a great time and even went down the dunes on a disc.
- Blaine is going to be Batman for Halloween if he doesn't wear out his costume before then.
- I'm not sure what I've been doing this month but always seem to be busy and tired! I think it has something to do with the 2 year old.
- We are also following our football team who is having a great season. Blaine's teacher's son, Kevin is on the team so Blaine has a new hero to look up to. I love to go to the games but usually feel a little beat up after holding Valerie through the whole thing.
- My friend, Donna, gave me a gift certificate for a massage way back before we went to Russia but I never was able to use it. I finally got my massage last week and it was WONDERFUL! I could do that once a week!
- I finally got Blaine and Valerie in to get some pictures made. Valerie doesn't yet know how to pose. I would get her situated, tell her to smile pretty, and she would say, "no", get up and walk over to me. I think we got one good one of her when we made her laugh and several of the two of them together. She doesn't understand smile, but if I say "show me your teeth" we get a little fake smile. They should be in tomorrow.
Like I said, random and abridged. Almost all of those bullets should have been a post of their own, complete with pictures and this was just the things I remembered off the top of my head. Here's a vow to do better. Hopefully.
