I'm Proud to be an American

It is official!!! Timothy received his Certificate of Citizenship today, along with a personal letter from George W. Bush. He is the only one of our three from China with this oh so important document. Now it is time to hustle to get them for the girls! We have the forms filled out, pictures taken and all we need to do is write a big check and mail them off. Maybe tonight?!?

I am sorry for the delay in updates. The hate mail and calls have started again. One of my friends actually told me the date and contents of my last blog and laid on the guilt. So here is the update, Dena.

Timothy went for his kidney ultrasound and praise the Lord everything is absolutely normal! He is scheduled for his surgery on Monday, November 13. Poor guy!

I also had my appointment with my favorite orthopedic surgeon. Again, praise the Lord. The ACL is in great shape. Evidently, I managed to grow a little cartilage after the surgery in 2001 and then somehow tore a bit of it. It appears that no surgery will be necessary, but I go back in late November for a recheck. Meanwhile, I am taking a lot of glucosamine and chondroitin to lubricate the knee as much as possible. Old age is not for sissies!

Emily's class went to the Pumpkin Patch today, so Timothy, Bethany and I went along. It was muddy, but lots of fun. Here is a picture of the three kids out in the patch. It is not the best, as both two year olds have decided that they don't like having their pictures taken.

We had the grandparents over last Saturday to spend some time with Timothy (and the rest of the grandkids). It was wonderful and the kids were so happy to see Grandpa, Grandma, Mamaw, Linda (Mamaw's friend) and cousin Fiona. Other friends came as well and we all enjoyed barbeque and the fixings. Here is the one good photo of Timothy I got that day.

We have a weekend with pretty much nothing planned, so we will be hanging out around the house and taking care of laundry and other essentials. More later.

I Went to the Animal Fair

On Saturday, we took everyone to the Virginia State Fair. Charlie always puts up a fuss about going, but I absolutely love the fair. I don't necessarily want to ride the rides or play the games, but it amuses me to no end to just people watch and to see the animals. We got to see some really cool baby animals, including a newborn calf weighing in at a whopping 90 pounds. I liked the giant pumpkin and the quilt show. Timothy got to ride his first carousel. Speaking of which, I can't help but be reminded of my mother asking me what we were going to name our son who became Brodie. He was adopted as a newborn and we met the mother when she was about 4 months along. We lived in Hawaii and my folks were in Virginia so this conversation took place by phone. I told her in all seriousness that if we got a girl we would be naming her Cara. I left it at that and my mother expressed that it was a cute name. SIX weeks later I get a phone call with my mother yelling at me. "You can't possibly be serious about naming my granddaughter Cara Sell!!!" She threatened to spank her 29 year old daughter the next time she saw her. I am still chuckling. Oh, and I told her after her threat that we had chosen a boy's name too. Dura.

Meanwhile, back at the fair, Brodie chose his one thing he really wanted to do. He rode the mechanical bull. It was fun to watch. We all ate corn dogs and French fries and cotton candy and funnelcake and had a soda to wash it down. Yum! We were fortunate. I heard today that a school group went to the same fair and 24 out of 25 came down with food poisoning. Thank you Lord!

We have started on our rounds of doctors' appointments. Emily was first with a trip to the pediatric neurologist. They cannot tell if her facial tic is just a "transient tic of childhood" or possibly the start of Tourettes Syndrome. We will watch and see what happens. Timothy went to the urologist. He is concerned about Timothy's kidneys, so we will have an ultrasound next week. That way if anything is going on with them, he can work on it while circumcising our poor boy. I then had to go to the doctor for my knee which seems to not want to hold me up very well. This is the same knee I have had 3 operations on and two other procedures. I will be seeing the orthopedic surgeon next week. Now we are up to 16 appointments in one month! And, Brodie came home from school with a 102 fever and Daddy has another cold. It is never ending around here.

Well, I think that is all the news for now. I will post pictures separately. One of the pictures will be of a plumeria flower. Our trees are finally blooming. I am glad they managed to before it got really cold. We will probably move them inside the sun room this weekend to try to get all the flowering we can.

Ciao!