BLACK FRIDAY!

Some of us decided that we would be a part of the madness on Black Friday. There were a few finds that I researched and we thought it would be worth it to go to Best Buy at 2AM. We were about to set off when we were informed that it was raining outside. We had to bundle up. The crazy part about that is in the daytime it was in the 80s. It got down to 29 degrees before we got into the store. We just about froze our tushes off but we made it.



The brave ones that ventured out in the cold so early in the morning. Sarah Beth, Eric, Micah, and me. Notice the heavy amount of clothes. We really should've had a few more layers.

Below are some of the deals that we got.

We have been thinking of getting a nice camera for a little while now and haven't known exactly what to get. Thanks to the blogger of http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com for the suggestion of getting a Canon Rebel XS and Best Buys Black Friday deal, we decided to get this camera. The camera was hard to get. After waiting in line for 3 hours in the cold, Micah had to follow the employees of Best Buy around for a long while before we were told that they couldn't find them and then finally they found them on a top shelf in a box used for shipping with about 6 other cameras, only two of them were this camera. I have a wonderful husband! We also got the new ipod nano. We were looking into something so that I could have music while I was running and this was on sale so we went for it.


Another steal was an HP laptop. This one wasn't for us but for one of our friends. And then Eric got a new phone, the Samsung Fascinate. It was FREE! That was probably the biggest deal to be had.

There were a few other deals that we got on jackets, and a coat, and a pair of jeans, and some movies. I will only do Black Friday again if there's something I really want like this year. It was interesting, fun, COLD, and spontanious.

Thanksgiving Play

While we were inside making lunch/dinner (since there's brunch i'm going to say linner) Brent took the girls outside to play with them to get out some of their energy.


Syssa swinging

Brent was chasing the girls around so this is a picture of Samara running away from him.

Nattie was attached to Brent just about the whole day.

THANKSGIVING

On Thanksgiving day our friends Eric, Brent, Sarah Beth, and my sister in law, Erin, came to our house. We had a good time of games, cooking, talking, crafts, and so much other fun. I am so glad that they were able to come down and see us! They helped to make this Thanksgiving a wonderful one.


Eric helping to cut up onions. I made a cucumber salad and it didn't turn out very well at all. Oh well, I won't be making that next year.


Erin made deviled eggs. She is excellent at it. Thanks Auntie Erin!!!


Sarah Beth was painting the girl's nails and Brent thought it might be fun to paint his nails too. He didn't actually do it but he thought about it.

Beautiful Sarah Beth painting the girl's nails.

The turkey is done! I'm basting the turkey to keep it moist.

So this year the turkey turned out AMAZING. I got just a turkey breast because I didn't think anybody would be coming over for Thanksgiving and it would just be our family of 5. Then I found out that all the others would be coming, which makes me super happy, so I went and bought this bird because there were no other "just" turkey breasts.

I didn't do much special except cut up a whole onion and a whole clove of garlic and stuffed the turkey with it. (We love onion and garlic at our house so this is a WINNER.) Then I poured some olive oil over the top and sprinkled it with garlic powder. Then I cooked it for about 4 1/2 hours. I took the turkey breasts out before I took out the whole turkey because it gone done about 30 minutes faster. It was soooooo good. We even ate some of the onions and especially some of the garlic. It was yummy!

The girls eating. They loved it. My three are definitely good eaters!

The crew at the table.

We had the canned cranberry sauce and Samara made the shape of Texas. This is an upside down Texas. If you turn your head you'll be able to see Texas... at least Samara thought so.

Thanksgiving Pumpkins

I posted the "recipe" to this on my homeschool blog at http://jonesfamhomeschool.blogspot.com/
Check it out. These are just pictures of friends having fun.


Brent and his pumpkin


Erin, my sister in law, eating her pumpkin.


Eric

The girls LOVED their pumpkins.

A week filled with fun

The girls have this week off of school so we have been having a week (two days so far) filled with fun! We have done a couple crafts and done a lot of catching up on writing letters for Mara. Well, when she went into school at the beginning of the year she knew how to write every letter and place it perfectly on the line. (One of the things we worked on over the summer.) Now she has a hard time remembering where they go. I should've been working with her while she was going to school but I thought she'd be fine because she was in school right? WRONG! Well, all that means is that she will have a few sentences to write when she gets home from school. She has no other homework so I know she'll be able to do this with no problems. Usually she wants to do her Comprehensive Curriculum workbook because Alyssa has homework anyways. Well, hopefully when she gets back to school next week her handwriting will be better than ever... and then next year she will be ready to write stories instead of work on her handwriting.

Anyways, Micah's sister and a couple friends are coming down for Thanksgiving so I'm pretty sure I won't be blogging Wed-Fri... although I haven't blogged for a LOT longer than that before. I'm just starting to get back into this, even if it is just random thoughts. Well, I'll probably post any crafts or things that we do, with pictures, on my homeschooling site... http://jonesfamhomeschool.blogspot.com If I don't get back on here and post before Thanksgiving... HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! (It should really be ThanksLIVING!)

Astro Boy

So along with my new blog I decided that I was going to post movie reviews (which are just my opinions and don't really mean a whole lot). But I thought it would be fun to do.

We watched Astro Boy tonight and at the beginning of the movie I wasn't too sure I was going to like it. It starts of really sad. But it was a pretty good movie all in all. A little suspensful for my girls. Alyssa always has huge eyes and stands up and jumps around when she gets nervous in a movie and there was a lot of that. At the end of the movie though we related it to God. How do you relate ASTRO BOY to GOD you might ask. Well, I'm not! In the movie it talked about the blue energy and the red energy. I asked Alyssa (my 7 year old) what the blue energy in Astro Boy was like, and she immediately said like God. So I asked her what the red energy (the negative energy) was like and she immediately said dark power or Satan. I was quite impressed with her that she made that distinction. The blue energy was only used for good and the red energy was only used for evil. We talked about that almost at the end of the movie. At the very end of the movie the robot gets brought back to life with the blue energy. This was really cool because Alyssa starts lauging and giggling and says just like God brings people back to life. We are going to try and find parallels like that in every movie from now on because she really thought it was cool.

I say it's a good movie. (Samara said it was a boy movie) but I think it was good for all. Although my three year old didn't understand it at all!

Homeschooling

Hey I'm starting a homeschooling blog. We are homeschooling next year and I'd like to do a "yearbook" for the kids and I've heard that you can print out your blog so I'm going to do a homeschooling blog so that I can just print out the blog as their yearbook. The blog site is going to be www.jonesfamhomeschool.blogspot.com This blog will be for family stuff and the other blog will be all about our days homeschooling and what we are doing in that area. It should be quite fun. Check it out!

Ballet

The girls started ballet in September. There are three sisters at a church close to our house that do it as a ministry for free. The girls really love it. Alyssa, Samara, and Nattie were all in different classes to start with until Samara and Alyssa begged me to let them be in the same class so I eventually let them. Nattie is still in the little kid class though.

I have a ton of pictures of Nattie because I stayed in with her the first day for almost the whole time so she wouldn't be nervous. Now I go back and forth half and half between Alyssa and Samara and Nattie's classes.

Nattie doing some sort of pose.








Nattie doing bunny hops.










Nattie kept posing so I kept clicking. I thought she was so cute!

Here's Samara waiting for her turn to do frog jumps I think.

Outside they love to climb on these rocks. (Thanks to Grandpa Ozzie!!) They decided to try and do ballet on the rocks too. They almost fell off a million times but stayed up long enough for me to get a picture and then I told them they needed to get down.

Mara doing a curtsy.

I think Nattie was trying to do a curtsy too. She couldn't quite get it but she's really cute anyway.

Syssa's elegant curtsy.

Nattie trying to do another curtsy.

I think this is positon one. I don't know for sure since I never took ballet. It looks good though.

Mara's so cute!

Nattie's been really into posing lately. I think it's adorable but at those moments I just want a straight up and down picture or even a candid shot she always poses instead. Oh well. She's such a doll I can't complain.

Chosen Marathon for Adoption

Chosen Marathon For Adoption
I finished my first half marathon on October 23, 2010!!! I'm so excited that I finished the whole thing. This was a fundraiser to help get our girls home.
This picture is of me before I started running. I was about 18 minutes late starting because I had to go to the bathroom before I started running and the line to the women's restroom was, of course, super long. It didn't matter though. There was a chip on our bib number that would start our own personal time when we crossed the starting line. It took a total of 2 hours and 8 minutes to run, I did end up running the whole thing although I didn't think I was going to be able to when I started. I give all the glory to God for that though because when I would start to get tired I would pray or a praise song would come on and I would just somehow keep going.




The three girls waiting for Mommy to get done running. After I fiinished Alyssa said, "that doesn't look so hard!" The funny thing is that Alyssa is the one in the family that is probably the least athletic. It was hilarious!










This is me just about to go over the finish line. I was so disoriented when I was done! I finally found Micah and asked him where he was at while I was crossing the finish line. I didn't know he was right there taking my picture as I finished. He even said good job and everything but I didn't hear any of it. I was fine until I stopped running.







Stretching is very important after you get done running. Nattie thought that it was important that she stretched with me. Sitting and waiting for Mommy for 2 hours and 8 minutes was a lot of work. Micah actually went to the van and had the laptop play a movie and Micah did his homework while they waited. I had my cell phone while I was running (no I didn't think I was going to need it to call for HELP) because my music is on it and so about two miles out I called him and let him know so he'd be at the finish line. I'm glad I did because he would've waited 3 hours because I told him it would take me at least that to finish. Boy was I wrong!


Well, I'm thinking of doing the same run next year (hills and all!). I'm actually really excited about it already for next year. Prayerfully next year we will have our girls with us so they can come up and wait for Mommy too! Thanks for everyone's prayers and support!!!

Update On Adoption

I haven't given an update on the progress of our adoption in a little while so I thought I'd share the wonderful things that God is doing. Our first portion of money has been raised and our dossier, along with that money, is in Haiti right now being worked on. The pastor that heads up the orphanage told one of the people in our group that he thought it would be 6 months to a year before we could get them home. I don't know if this means from the time the dossier was turned in or if that was from now to 6 months to 1 year. We know that God will brin our sweet girls to us in His timing so we wait on Him knowing that He has a will for our family's lives.

We have been praying about how we are going to be able to raise the 2nd $6000 orphanage fee. We have felt God saying be patient and wait on me. So we've been trying to rely on the Lord and not stress about the money portion. I got an email 2 weeks ago stating that we were awarded a grant from Show Hope! This is just amazing. We were told by MANY different people that it would probably be a waste of time to fill out the applications (the apps took about 3 hours to fill out) because we aren't going through an adoption agency so they wouldn't be able to award us anything. We kept praying about it and Micah and I decided to fill out the paperwork to three different organizations offering grants, Lifesong, Show Hope, and Abba Fund. Abba Fund sent us a letter almost immediately and said that we did not qualify for a grant from them so we figured we'd probably get letters from each of the others saying the same thing. Well, this grant from Show Hope is a good portion of that $6000. All in all, we probably only have another $3600 to raise! This is amazing!!! We need $1200 more for care fees (we pay $200 a month for 12 months). Then, there are fees for what's called readoption, when they get to the states they will need birth certificates. And then we'll need some of the second portion of the orphanage fees! We'll also need to travel either to Miami or to Haiti to pick up the girls which that can vary from about 600-1500 dollars depending on if we have to travel to Haiti or to Miami and how long we'd have to stay at either place. (Travel fees are not included in the $3600.)

God is so good! Just remember if God told you to do it, He will provide a way for the finances, the energy, the paperwork, all of the resources necessary to accomplish what He's told you to do. We are all called to help the orphan and the widow (James 1:27). This will look different for every person. Ask God what He wants you to do and He will show you! Thanks again to everyone who is supporting us monetarily and by prayer. They both help out so much!

Riding Bikes

This week was a big week for Alyssa. She practiced and practiced until she is now finally able to ride her bike all by herself. After all of the "I can't"s over and over again, she finally said that she'd do it. She wasn't scared anymore after she figured out that she could do it if she practiced and now can start and stop and balance on her bike without any help! She's so proud of herself. Two years ago, though, when she was first trying to learn how to ride Micah had told her that if she didn't know how to ride a bike then she would never be able to ride a motorcycle. She loves motorcycles and wants one someday so that motivated her big time. Well, now that she knows how to ride her bike she asked when she was going to get her motorcycle. We had to explain to her that Daddy didn't mean that she'd get a motorcycle whenever she learned how to ride but that when we do get a motorcycle she'd be able to ride. Oy! How do you explain these things to a 7 year old. Anyways she's so happy about learning how to ride she wants to do it ALL the time. Good motivation for Samara because she wants to be right alongside Alyssa. It shouldn't be too much longer before she knows how to ride her bike as well... and then there's Nattie. I'm not worried about her learning. She will take her cue from her sisters probably like she always does. I haven't taken pictures of her on her bike yet but when I get them I will post them.

Fun at the Creek and Geocaching

Yesterday Auntie Erin showed up to hang out for the weekend. We love Auntie Erin and wanted to do something fun with her so Geocaching is like an adult scavenger hunt. You can go online to geocaching.com and then punch in coordinates in a GPS to where the "treasure" is. When you find the treasure you get to look at it take one thing out if you want to, but if you take one thing out you have to put something in of equal or greater value. It's a lot of fun to do these treasure hunts but we didn't find any today. I don't think our GPS is good enough for the coordinates. Anyways here's a picture of us in the car trying to find our first set of coordinates.




After we geocached and found nothin we decided to go to the creek. We brought the girl's swimming suits and water shoes and two boogy boards that they could float on. So we started pulling the girls on the boogy boards and wading in the water just a bit. It felt good on a hot day like today. Especially after geocaching, searching for treasure in the hot hot sun! We then got a little deeper and a little deeper. Before we knew it we were swimming (literally) in the creek. We had gotten to a part that even the three adults couldn't reach in parts. Thank goodness we had those boogy boards to keep the girls on! We found a rope that was tied to a tree so Micah swung on it into the creek, then Erin, then Alyssa, followed by Samara, then of course Nattie had to try it. Okay then it was my turn. I got ahold of the rope and stood on the tree roots that everybody else was standing on, and then I got scared. I hadn't planned on being scared. It was just a rope tied to a branch on a tree that you swung out into a creek with. My (almost) three year old had just done it. Wow. Anyways I got up the guts to do it and there was absolutely nothing to be afraid of. It was so much fun. The girls had a blast too! We will be adding that to our list of Saturday adventrues for sure!

Micah and Erin trying to build a dam to make a place that the kids could ride their boogy boards down on. They loved it.

Nattie got tired of being in the water so Mommy got out with her. She wanted to sing for the camera and take pictures with the camera. She's so cute! I'll post some videos later of the songs that she sang for me. Well, I'll try to remember and try to find enough time to do that.

Samara going down the "water slide".

Syssa going down the "water slide".

So all in all it turned out to be a great day! Even though we weren't able to find anything while geocaching. Better luck next time I suppose.

Feeding the ducks and...

I watch two beautiful girls during the week and so I decided to take all five of the girls to feed the ducks. Well, it turned out that there was more than just ducks to feed. The fish ate the bread, and so did the turtles. I didn't even know there were turtles in the river! It was so much fun to see the girls faces as the turtles swam up to eat the bread. Here are some pictures of our adventure.

To Homeschool or Not to Homeschool... That is the question

Micah and I have talked about whether or not we should homeschool for a long time now. It's what I really want to do. I want to teach my kids Biblical principles, which we feel are the most important things that they will learn anyway. I tried last year while Alyssa was going to school to try and teach her the Bible when she got home from school. This did not work out well at all. She was so tired when she got home from school that she wouldn't pay much attention, which would frustrate me and in turn frustrate her. We are looking into a school that they would go two days a week and be home the other days for homeschooling. I REALLY like this idea. It would be awesome to get them into this school. We are looking into it more and hopefully can get them in it. I will most definitely homeschool Guerline and Fafane when they come. I don't want to put them in school without knowing much English. Although we got to Skype with them last night and they are learning English! I'm so excited. Maybe by the time they get here they'll know how to communicate, at least a little. In the meantime I'm trying to learn as much Creole as I can before they get here too. Any suggestions would be EXTREMELY helpful!

LOVE

Today love is on my mind. The very being of God is love! If we are striving to do the will of our father then we must also BE love. Not just show love to people that we like but be love to ALL! The other day I was driving, oh the pleasures of driving, and a lady got on the shoulder of the road to get two cars ahead and tried to cut in front of me. Well, I wasn't going to have any of that so I tailed the person in front of me so that she couldn't get in. She persisted for a while but I was NOT going to budge! I was there first, and besides she needed to be taught that she shouldn't break the law by going on the shoulder of the road to get in the front of the line. (Wasn't she taught anything in Kindergarten about how important it is to stand in line and not get out of line!) I was so convicted that night. I knew that if my kids understood what I had just done they would know that it wasn't very loving. Even though she was in the wrong with what she was doing I still was not right. So I'm awful at quoting the Bible but I know it says this in there, I just don't remember the passage. If you know the passage please leave a comment so I remember. This is also kind of a Kim paraphrase because I don't remember it exactly. It says in the Bible to know what you are supposed to do and not do it that is sin! WOW! Sin isn't just doing bad things, it's knowing that we are supposed to LOVE and being unloving, sometimes on purpose and sometimes without thinking about it because it's been sort of engrained in us. My goal for the rest of this year... and the rest of my life for that matter, is to be loving especially when I know somebody has done the "wrong" thing... like go on the shoulder of the road to cut me off.

By the way, I may get to Skype with my precious princesses tonight! I'm so excited!!! My heart aches for them! Please continue to pray for them and for the adoption process! Pray for my heart! My MOMMY'S Heart. Blessings to ALL!

Third of July FIREWORKS

We went to Six Flags and watched fireworks there on the third of July to beat the crowd out for the 4th. We saw some fireworks from our house on the 4th but loved being able to get in and out of Six Flags with relatively no problems. Except on the way out they only opened one exit gate when there were four that could've been opened. The person in charge that day probably got an ear full of unhappy, sweaty, crowded people! Oh well, it's just another way that we can learn patience I guess. They did end up opening all four gates... eventually.


Waiting for fireworks to begin.


The girls were getting antsy so we pulled up a youtube Dora video to keep them occupied while we waited.

Alyssa waiting.

Samara waiting.

Nattie waiting

Still waiting!

The fireworks were awesome just like last year! But unlike last year we had Alyssa with us to share in the excitement. I have THOROUGHLY enjoyed having my sweet girls at home with me this summer! I have been teaching Samara how to read and Natalie has joined in a bit. Samara is reading easy books and Natalie is learning her letters and their sounds. Alyssa is learning all types of things. They all LOVE doing schoolwork and they especially LOVE starfall.com. I do too because they know how to navigate it very well. Even Natalie knows how to go to what she wants and then click on it. Sometimes she right clicks instead of left clicking and comes and gets met to click off it, but usually she does wonderfully. They are the lights of my life!!