Early Christmas

Mom: "Callie, would it be fun to have Christmas early and open up presents tomorrow?"

Callie: "Um, I don't want to."

Well, there you have it. A child who is not excited about opening gifts.

Family Update

Well, now that we're all settling into a better routine with a new member of the family, hopefully some time will be available to keep up with the blog on a more regular basis. Of course, you shouldn't hold your breath...

Here's a quick overview of everyone in our household:

Since the weather's been so nice (no permanent snow yet), Jason's had lots of time to get the house ready for winter. All the leaves are out of the yard, the lawnmower and the snowblower have changed positions in the garage, and the downstairs windows have a little extra insulation around them. Today, he even got the garage cleaned up so that when it does become time to crank the snowblower, he's got plenty of room to maneuver it out into the driveway. Hopefully, it's a few more weeks (months?) until we get to that point, but at least things are already set to go. Jason also watched some football this weekend - real football (SEC) - so he enjoyed that.

Kelli has spent lots of time putting up Christmas decorations. Because we're cheap, our budget for new decorations is zero. However, that doesn't mean we don't have some snazzy new stuff this year. Back during Fargo's cleanup week (last May), we found a lot of garland, lights, and wreaths that someone had put on the curb as trash. After sorting through it, Kelli discovered it was actually in good shape. Really good shape. (Still haven't figured out why it was being tossed, other than the owner just got tired of it.) The result is that now we've got "new" garland around our door (with lights!), a couple of new wreaths (with bows and balls) on the door and fence, and a small lighted tree (tasteful - not tacky) on the front porch. Cheap? Yes. But seriously - it really looks nice.

Wyatt enjoyed his time off school for Thanksgiving. With the nice weather, he and Jason spent quite a bit of time playing football in the yard. Well, it probably wasn't actually football that was being played - at least not in the sense that anyone else would understand the rules - but it was played with a football, so maybe that counts. Wyatt's at the age where it's fun to make up new rules or change the rules as the game progresses to increase his odds of winning. If you're a Calvin and Hobbes fan, you could think of it as Calvin Ball. Regardless, it was good exercise for father and son, and a good bonding experience. And the nice weather made it all the more enjoyable.

Callie asks each day (several times) if it's Christmas. Nope, it isn't Christmas. We've still got a month or so. How about now? Is it Christmas now? Nope. Hasn't changed from ten minutes ago. Is tomorrow Christmas? Nope. It's in a month. Is Christmas next week? No. A month. When is Christmas? December. Is it December? No. Not yet. When will it be December? In a few days. Then will it be Christmas? Not until the end of December. Will it be Christmas tonight? You get the picture...

Sadie has greatly improved her climbing skills, though her parents do not necessarily approve. Just the other day, when Jason was alone with all four children while Kelli ran some errands, he walked into the kitchen to find Sadie sitting cross legged in the middle of the kitchen table (stark naked, no less), helping herself to a beverage left from supper. Just because food appears to be out of her reach on the counter doesn't mean that it's actually in a space she cannot get to. She's quite resourceful, and if food's involved, can climb to great lengths to get it. We discovered she's able to access the apple bowl. We also discovered she prefers to take only a bite or two from one apple before moving on to the next.

Watson has begun to smile. They're still pretty few and far between, but at least we're beginning to see some. He really is adjusting well, and he's usually very content. He gets a little testy if he asks for food and doesn't get it in approximately half a second, but other than that, he's pretty mild mannered. It's fun to watch him be a bit more interactive now as he gets older. He's still tiny, of course, but that makes for some great snuggle time. We sure do love that little guy!

So that's the world of the Medders family.

A Quick Update

It has been a while since our last update, but life is very busy as we try to find our new normal with four kids.

Here are some pictures from what has happened in the last month.

Jason and Callie celebrated birthdays. We had a combined party on Halloween.

This little girl has come a long way in four years. She had a really great time opening presents and being sung to.

Before the birthday celebrations, we took the kids trick or treating. Sadie thought it was great fun. She couldn't eat the candy fast enough. I love this picture of Sadie and Grandpops.

Wyatt adores his baby brother. He was very excited that Watson received an outfit that matched one of his shirts. When Wyatt wears his shirt, he always asks me to dress Watson in his outfit so they will look alike. Oh, and Wyatt lost his first tooth!

Watson was being serious before bedtime.

We went on our yearly hunting trip - with all four kids and two grandparents in tow. We had a great time. I was able to shoot this beautiful buck.

Miss Sadie loves the outdoors. We have had some wonderful fall days where the kids can still play outside. I love that it was mid-November before we had our first snowfall.

So there is a super-speedy overview of the last few weeks. I want to have time to post more about each of the kids but I just need to figure out a time to do that. We are all doing well though and Watson seems to be settling right in as a "Medders."

We are home and in the process of learning our new normal. I have not yet figured out how to have 4 children. My biggest accomplishment of the day was walking to school. Wyatt walked, Callie and Sadie rode in the wagon and Watson was in the sling attached to me. It worked nicely. It probably will continue to work nicely until there is ice on the ground. Then I will have to rethink my plan.

I have come to realize I am intimidated by having four kids. I don't know when I will get the nerve to go anywhere (besides walking to school) with all of them. Me versus 4 children. Oh my, I would be incredibly outnumbered. Miss Sadiebug is my wild card right now. She is learning that she now has to walk more because I can't carry her as much. That is giving her more freedom to explore her surroundings and ignore her mother. She is fiesty and I am trying to figure out how to reign that in while also understanding she has had to give up her "baby" status to become a "big sister." Most of the time she loves doting on Watson but if I think she is being a little too helpful, an earsplitting tantrum is soon to follow, thus my fears about taking her out in public.

We have been back in Fargo for a week now and are working on new routines. Jason was off all last week so it was incredibly convenient to have an extra set of hands. Now that I am solo during the day, I am finding it little more difficult. To help with bonding, we try to hold Watson as much as possible. I haven't quite figured out how to multitask while doing that. I am also a little under the weather so that is not helping my ability to be topnotch. Hopefully with each passing day I will start to feel better and I will learn how to be a more proficient mother of four.

We think Watson is adjusting to our family wonderfully. I had expected a fussy, unsettled baby but he is neither of those. He loves to snuggle and be held and sleeps wonderfully well during daylight hours or when he is sleeping right next to us. We are still working on the sleeping at night part, though. He also likes to eat. Every three hours. Around the clock. No matter how much we try to feed the little guy, it will only tide him over for three hours.

Watson had his first pediatrician visit here in Fargo and it went wonderfully. She thought he looked and sounded great and he is growing nicely. Must be the 3 hour feedings. He is fighting a cold right now thanks to the helpfulness of his younger sisters. We all got sick on our way back and Callie and Sadie just can't stay away from him so they passed their cold on to him. I will be glad when we are all healthy again.

Bathtime.

Hanging out in Mommy's lap.

Welcome to Our Family

On Tuesday we were able to welcome the newest member of our family, Watson Howard Medders. He is a beautiful baby and we are loving every minute with him. Wyatt, Callie and Sadie are doing amazingly well. We have not been cleared to come home with him yet(waiting on paperwork to clear) but hopefully that will happen soon. We are excited to get back to Fargo to our new normal.

Adoption Day

Tuesday, October 11 at 9 AM is the big day when we will be meeting our new little guy and filling out the necessary papers to bring him home with us. Please pray it will be a wonderful, joyful day as we meet our new guy we will continue to have a peace that he is to be the newest member of our family.

The kids are very excited about the new brother they get to meet tomorrow, and Jason's parents have joined us for support and to help with the three oldest children.

My nerves and emotions are all over the place but I do feel a peace and believe this decision for us to be the parents was reached with a lot of thought and prayer.

Thank you for your continued love, support, encouragement and prayers.

Adoption Update

We have a boy!!!!!! It has been a whirlwind few days, since receiving the call late Wednesday afternoon. Now it is Saturday afternoon and we are getting ready to drive across the country to pick up Baby Boy Medders. It has been amazing how God has worked out the smallest of details for this trip.

The entire family is thrilled. Wyatt is so used to having sisters, he keeps referring to the baby as a "her." Callie doesn't see any sense in packing and getting everything ready - she thinks we should have left yesterday! Sadie, of course, isn't old enough to know what's going on. It'll probably be a bit of a shock to her when a new baby is part of the family, but we think she will come around though.

Please pray for safe travels and for everything to go smoothly. We are planning to meet our new fella Tuesday morning.

Update

We found out that we were not chosen as the "forever family" for the little boy we have been praying about. We were really hoping that it was the child God had for us. We are very thankful, though, that he has a forever home and we can pray that he grows up in a loving, Christ-centered home. So for now, we continue to pray and wait, excited to see what God his in store.

Adoption Update 2

We did not hear news from the placement meeting that took place yesterday. So we keep waiting and praying.

Adoption Update

Over the past few months, Jason and I have had the opportunity to pray about and for babies and children needing "forever homes." Some were children we didn't feel we could successfully parent. Others have been children we felt we could parent, but who were chosen for different homes. I don't know how anyone could go through adoption without knowing that God is in control. We know without a doubt that we are following God's will for our family in pursuing adoption. As we have waited for the child for our family, we have received sign after sign that we are being obedient to God's calling. It has been a very exciting few months.

Right now there is one little fella, in particular, that we are being considered for. Some of the circumstances surrounding this case are what we had in mind and some are not. In the overall scheme of things, the factors that are different are not a big deal. Without going into any detail, because I don't feel that it is appropriate at this time, there will be a meeting on Friday, September 23, where a family will hopefully be chosen for this child. Jason and I have a peace about the situation and would be thrilled if we are chosen as the forever parents. And if not, we will know that it is not God's will and our child is still out there.

We would love prayers for the committee that will be making the decision. I would like for it to be a unanimous decision where everyone involved believes the correct choice is made. Thanks so much for thinking of us, and for praying for this child and the committee.

Sleep Study Update

Callie's sleep study appointments went really well. We first met with a doctor specializing in pediatric sleep disorders. I really liked him. He listened and he understood. We didn't get many answers but we did learn that Callie's nighttime headbutting is not really that uncommon. According to the doctor, children typically awaken between 6-10 times at night and most roll over and go back to sleep. Then there are some, like Callie, who start headbutting. It has nothing to do with her prematurity. Premature children do as well as those who are born full term. Researchers have not been able to figure out why some children do it. It is very annoying to the rest of the family but it is not annoying to Callie. It is just how she puts herself back to sleep. He told us to keep our box fan on so the rest of the family can sleep and as quickly as it all started, she will one day grow out of it and stop. It may be two years from now and it may be 10 years. That's not exactly what we wanted to hear but we will take it. He did mention medication that might could help her sleep, but Jason and I don't want to go that route.

Given Callie's complex medical history he did think it was worth completing the sleep study just to make sure there were no more issues surrounding her difficulty sleeping. Jason had the privilege of staying with Callie overnight at the sleep clinic, and they had a pretty good night. Callie had so many electrodes and stickers and straps stuck to her that she had trouble hitting her head but the doctor said they captured a few good episodes. Like he suspected, all of her vitals were great through the night and the headbutting mainly occurs during her transitional sleep. There is nothing we can do about but it was nice to hear that there is nothing concerning about it.

Prayer Request

We will be traveling to St. Paul tomorrow to meet with a behavioral sleep specialist and to have a sleep study done on Callie. Please pray that we 1. have a safe trip and 2. find out either what is keeping Callie from sleeping or be given some resources to help her with her headbutting and grunting.

Jason will be staying in town with Sadie and I will be at the hospital with Callie. For once I am hoping she has a really crummy night of sleep so they can observe it is she does all night long besides sleeping.

First Day of First Grade

Today was Wyatt's first day of school. He said he was a little nervous, but we couldn't tell. It is amazing how much he has changed from kindergarten to first grade.

This was his first day of kindergarten.

And this is his first day of first grade. He went from little boy to young man in the blink of an eye.

Last year he got teary as soon as he sat down but not this year. He couldn't wait for us to leave so he could get to coloring.

Wyatt was all smiles at the end of the day. He loves his teacher and loved everything about his day, especially playing outside. I suppose some things will never change. He is thrilled that he will have science this year and thinks it will be his favorite subject. His teacher read books today and he got to read a book on his own. He didn't get to eat much of his lunch because "the kindergarteners took too long." He is ready to go back tomorrow. I hope this year is as wonderful as K-5 was.

Retro Vintage

While rummaging through my old belongings at my parent's house, I came across a little treasure. I found the most fantastic outfit that my grandmother, Snook, made for me a very long time ago. I wore it and then my dolls wore it. It now fits my little life-sized doll, so she had to wear it, polyester and all. To make it even more hip, I dressed Sadie in the shoes I made and the matching hairband that I tried my hand at. I thought she pulled off the look stunningly.

Just don't mind that it came unsnapped while I was trying to get some pictures. Or that Callie is playing with the cell phone in the bottom of the picture. Or that there is a really huge box fan in the background. If those things bother you, then please let my husband know that I need a camera that is capable of blurring all those things out!

Not What I Had in Mind

A couple of weeks ago I packed up our inflatable pool. We played with it for a while but then the kids seemed to lose interest and we had to change the water every few days, so I was tired of fooling with it. The past couple of days have been kind of toasty, and Wyatt really wanted to play in the pool again. Today, trying to be a "fun mom," I re-inflated the pool. Then on my hands and knees with towels and cleaner, I cleaned the dried-on gunk off the bottom of sides of the pool. Once filled with water, the pool looked so shiny and inviting.

I should have known the kids would have a completely different idea of fun. My first sign of trouble should have been when they threw the bucket in the water. Wyatt, the brainchild of the day's events, then oversaw the making of clay. Oh joy.

Here they are at work. Wyatt was in charge of procuring the dirt. Callie's task was filling the purple bucket with fresh, clean, crisp, cool pool water, so she is running off to get said water. Sadie was in charge of guarding the mixing station.

Once there was water and dirt, the mixing began. In the back of Callie's tricycle.

Sadie took a break long enough to pose for a picture. This was prior to tasting the clay.

Wyatt was busy but he generously let me take a picture. Callie, on the other hand, got bored and started playing on the swing and wouldn't cooperate for a picture.

The clay turned into a wonderful mud pie that Wyatt was very proud of.

Wyatt even let Sadie work on it with her stick.

It wasn't what I had in mind but they had fun. And no, I did not let them rinse off in the pool. They had to be clean before getting in the pool. Maybe I didn't earn the maximum number of "cool mom" points today. Oh well.

Just Because

Just because purple doesn't go with everything, I decided the little miss needed some pink shoes as well. And as a bonus, they match the shirt I previously decorated.

I really need to stop sewing and start cleaning my house. Cleaning just isn't quite as much fun, though.

Crafting

Crafting is fun. The problem is, I don't seem to have much time to sit down and craft. The past few days I have been on a sewing kick, so I have gotten quite a bit done. My not-so-fun projects were tightening the elastic on four pairs of Wyatt's school shorts and one pair of Callie's pants. To balance out the much needed clothes repairs, I tried out some new ideas and am quite pleased with the results.

First off, I made Callie a new bow for her hair. I originally pictured the flower as part of a headband, but I am not successful at keeping those in Callie's hair. So I thought I would try it on a barrette. It looks cute but I am not sure how practical it is going to be. When I snap the barrette, I keep losing beads. Oh well. It didn't take much time and was fun to try. I am sure I can find another way to decorate with it.

Secondly, I had a cute shirt for Miss Sadie but it had two holes right in the front. Using an idea I saw at a crafting fair, I embellished the shirt with scraps of material and successfully covered the holes. I am really excited about Sadie being able to wear it soon.

The shirt before

The shirt after

My biggest project came from Sadie's need for shoes. Jason and I aren't huge fans of shoes for our children, especially before they start walking. Sadie has spent most of her life barefoot. She is finally starting to walk a little, mainly while pushing toys. Two times last week she cut open her big toe while playing outside. So I decided she might need the protection of shoes. My most favorite shoe for little kids is Robeez. Wyatt had a few pairs but Callie was never able to wear them due to her braces so I don't have any girl shoes. I also don't particularly care for the price of the shoes. So I used my Googling skills and found a pattern to make shoes. And once again, using material scraps, I made Sadie some shoes. I am quite excited about them and am already thinking of some different material combinations to try. Sadie might go from not owning any shoes to owning a pair for each day of the month!

Sadie Rose

Sadie, our little Norwegian. Jason and I are still trying to figure out her blond hair and blue eyes. I guess if you live in the Midwest long enough, you start having Midwestern babies.

Sadie is 98% pure sweetness and 2% pure rotten. She loves to be entertained by Wyatt, and she loves to push all of Callie's buttons. My hope is that one day they will get along. Callie is taller but Sadie almost weighs as much as her older sister. Sadie enjoys wrestling with Callie and if Callie makes her mad, she doesn't hesitate to retaliate.

Sadie is generally happy from the time she wakes up to the time she goes to bed. She loves to eat. She loves to scream. She is, by far, the loudest of my children, and quite possibly, the loudest child I have ever heard. I really think she could shatter a glass. Screaming is her way of letting us know she is not happy with her current situation and I still am not sure how to deal with that. Sadie is stubborn when it comes to walking. She will take a few steps but then drops to crawling. She talks up a storm but in her own language. She has an infectious laugh. She adores animals. She gets so excited when she sees a cat or dog or even a picture of animals.

Sadie waiting for breakfast with her baby doll.

We had a friend take some pictures of us yesterday, and I love the ones of Sadie. She was a lot of fun to photograph.

Thanks for Praying

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for Callie. She is doing much better. On Friday we were extremely close to taking Callie to the hospital to be admitted, but after a long nap she seemed to be perking up a little. She has continued to improve and seems to be doing quite well now. So far she is tolerating her feedings really well. We have stepped back a little in regards to her feedings. We were blending her formula from "real food" but for the past month she had really been struggling with keeping her food down. We have gone back to store bought formula but it seems to be working for her. She is wearing her feeding pump in a backpack and is getting small feedings all throughout the day. Our goal is to keep the food down and see if we can get her weight back up. In the few days she was sick, she lost one pound. That's not much for the average person but it is a lot if you only weigh 23 pounds to begin with.

So thanks for praying. The little girl is on the mend.

Almost Finished!

We are (finally) almost finished with our wood floor refinishing project. It hasn't been particularly difficult, but we have had a hard time finding time to work on it. Once I was ready for the last step of sealing the wood, the weather turned ridiculously southern. We have had 90 degree weather with unusually high humidity levels and heat indexes in the 110's. I figured the drying time might be a little too long with that kind of work conditions. So last night it finally started cooling down and drying off, so Jason and I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning to seal the floor. I am thrilled with how it looks. I still have to wait to replace furniture and replace the baseboards, but I thought I could give you a look at some before and after pictures.

This is the surprise I found under the carpet. I had already sanded off the stenciled red rocking horses. Jason just knew I needed to sand it as best as I could and seal it with the rest of the floor. I was stubborn, and with the help of my dad, pulled up the boards while Jason was at work.

I found another surprise when the white board came up, there was no subflooring in that one area. I got to create my own. Yippee!
And because I had plenty of flooring leftover, I thought I should tackled this eyesore as well. Who doesn't like a cracked piece of plywood patched with plaster for a floor? Jason was equally irritated that I removed this board.
Here is my patchwork. I really had fun doing it and was quite pleased with how it turned out.

This it the other hole I tackled. I think it is more aesthetically pleasing.

And here are pictures mid-sealing the floor. I am still happy with my choice to replace the boards.

I think the flooring looks better here.

And finally... the (almost) finished product.

A floor I am completely thrilled with. And would you believe, the husband now understands why I wanted the carpet gone and now sees what I saw all along!

And now for my two other random thoughts for the night.

1. I really thought I had blogged about Miss Sadie on my last post. I had an entire write up about her but, unfortunately, as a few people pointed about, the words must have just stayed in my head. Oops. I am trying to get a few more pictures together of my little Norwegian beauty and then I will write about her.

2. It is a good thing we finished the floor early this morning because my day was consumed with Callie.

She came down with a GI bug and is one sick little girl. We were able to see her GI doctor today (I called yesterday. If we didn't take this appointment, he could see her the end of August. I do believe God was involved in that). Jason and I believe she was very close to needing to be hospitalized for dehydration but this afternoon she finally started keeping fluids in. Between the fluids and sleeping all day, she was a totally different little girl this evening, which was a huge relief. Thanks to my mom for keeping the kids for a while, Jason and I were even able to go on a date tonight just to have a bit of a break. Callie's GI issues have become very time-consuming and frustrating. Add a virus to "normal" vomiting, and a mommy can very easily be worn out. So please pray for Callie to quickly rebound so we can move ahead with plans to figure out how to help her keep food down and grow.

I might win the award most inconsistent blogger ever.

Summer is in full swing. Wyatt is handling his time at home relatively well. He would much rather be at school than home with his mom. We are trying to work on some schoolwork this summer, so he will be ready when school is back in session. We can both only handle it in small amounts, though. The poor boy has a mental block when it comes to numbers and it is driving this mother crazy. I didn't know the "teens" could be so hard. Wyatt is playing t-ball this summer and loves it. It is my first experience with any kind of organized sport, so it is new for me as well. Wyatt most enjoys batting and is working on being more proficient with catching the ball.

Callie is still...Callie. We have started running into more issues with feeding and sleeping so we had an appointment to talk it over with the doctor. Callie is getting taller - she is now in the 5th percentile for her age! Her weight is still lagging behind. She is stuck at 23 pounds. Rather than using formula, we are blending "real" food to put in her tube. She gets over 335 calories per cup (that's a lot) but we are having a difficult time keeping all of her food down. She is back to only tolerating small feedings which is very frustrating.

She had an upper GI last week just to make sure that everything is functioning as it should. I don't know the results from that yet. In addition to not keeping all of her food down, Callie is not sleeping well. This is a problem because when she doesn't sleep well, she is highly emotional. When she is highly emotional, she doesn't keep her food down. For her, crying usually involves vomiting. So it is a cyclical pattern we get into that stinks. Right now we don't have any answers so we keep working on sleep and cleaning up puke.

Speaking of cleaning up puke, I was tired of having carpet in our preschool room/office. Between three kids, a dog, lots of puke and french doors that lead to a backyard filled with jet black dirt, it was next to impossible to keep white carpet clean. So while Jason was at work, I pulled it up. I had done a little research to know that there was hardwood underneath so I just helped expose the old floor. I should have figured there would be a surprise underneath.

It wasn't too terrible, but a section 5" x 92" that had plywood (part of it stenciled with rocking horses) rather than oak slats like the rest of the room, was not exactly what I had in mind for my hardwood floor. So in all my free time (when I am not blogging, ha!) I have been sanding the floor (with the help of my dad and father-in-law) and now I am working on replacing the offending boards. I'm having fun doing it but I am getting to the point where I am ready for it to be over so I can put my house back together. Since my husband thinks I am crazy for tackling this project (and a few more I have not mentioned), I am just playing the "nesting" card. I figure since all we can do in regards to the adoption is wait and pray, I might as well start nesting. And since in my previous nesting experiences, I was quite large, I could not accomplish such large tasks.

So that's about all I have time for tonight. I need to go sand a floor!

Last Day of School and Garage Sale

May 26 was Wyatt's last day of kindergarten. He LOVED everything about school this year - his classroom, his classmates, his teacher - everything. He was actually sad that it was over. With no prompting from us, he made his teacher a thank you note. On cardboard. With a magic marker. It's cute because it's heartfelt.

Here he is with Mrs. Pederson, his teacher this year, on his last day.
On Saturday of last week, we had a garage sale as a fundraiser for our upcoming adoption. (And no, right now there are no big updates about the adoption process. We have finished our home study and have our family profile books out at several locations. For now, we're just waiting to be matched with a child.)

To say that God had his hand in the garage sale would be an understatement. I have NEVER experienced anything like it!

Due to the generosity of several friends and coworkers, we had a plethora of quality items to offer. (A sincere thanks to Bill, Rian, Karla, Shirley, Becky, Casey, Gretchen, and Mary) We also cleaned out a lot of items from our own home, and had collected a large number of items curbside during Fargo's recent Clean Up Week. We put a LOT of work into organizing, pricing appropriately, setting up, etc. We worked several hours at night for several days in preparation.

On Saturday, we were scheduled to start at 8:00 AM. Our first customers started coming just before 7:00. Until after 1:30, there was never a time that we were without visitors, and even late in the afternoon, we still had a steady stream. Early on in the day, I even had people waiting in line to check out.

There's a lot of "testimony" that could be shared, and lots of great stories about those who stopped by, but allow me to sum it up this way:

We set a low-end profit goal that we thought would be great to meet.

We set a high-end goal that we would've been quite happy to meet.

We set a "hallelujah" goal that would have only been possible with divine intervention.

When we tallied at the end of the day, our hallelujah goal was exceeded by 20%.

God is good!

Thank you SO MUCH for those of you who supported us in our garage sale! We still have a LONG way to go to secure all the funding needed for adoption, but Saturday's sale DEFINITELY helped us get closer.

Below is a photo taken partway into the morning, when several things had already been paid for and carried off. We had planned to take several photos throughout the day, but were so busy that we didn't have much time to take snapshots. It was a good problem to have, for sure.

Park Rapids and Fargo Marathon

A few weekends ago, we went with Papa and Granna to Park Rapids. They were going for the whole week (time share), but we just went to hang out for the weekend. Park Rapids is a lakes region community a few miles east of Fargo/Moorhead. They have a quaint little historic downtown area, where we had milkshakes at the local soda fountain. It was Sadie's first chocolate shake, and as you can see, she thought it was fantastic.

We spent an afternoon in Itasca State Park. Itasca is home to the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Behind us in the picture below is Lake Itasca, from which the mighty Mississippi begins its flow toward the Gulf of Mexico.

No trip to the lakes would be complete without a stop at Zorbaz. A pizza and Mexican place, Zorbaz has a few locations throughout the region. We stopped at Zhateau Zorbaz for some fried pickles and macho nachos. The sign outside this one makes it look as though it's a bit upscale, but anyone who has ever eaten at Zorbaz can assure you it's anything but.

The next weekend was the Fargo Marathon. On Thursday night, Wyatt and I ran the one mile kids run. One mile is a long way for a newly-turned six year old. He got a shirt and a medal for participating, and overall did a good job. Unlike many of his peers, he did a pretty good job pacing himself. There were a lot of six years olds who took off like jackrabbits for the first two hundred yards, only to crash and burn after the first half mile or so.
On Friday night was the 5K, which was pretty fun, too. I ran (jogged) that one alone. Kelli was going to do it with me, but the race filled up before we got her registered. Maybe next year.

Saturday was the marathon. By no means did I set any land speed records, but it sure was fun. More like a 26.2 mile fun run than a competition, I ate brownies and other treats along the way, stopped to visit with folks, and even carried Callie with me for a short jaunt. It made for a good time.