Why I Can't Have Another Baby...

...according to one of our smaller boys, the reason I can't have babies is because I don't have anymore milk! See once you nurse 3 boys your milk is all gone - they drank it all, and therefore I can no longer become pregnant. Really, if you don't have milk how can you feed your baby?

I have to say I cherish this naive innocence.

Ballet Recital...

Ella Grace will have her 1st ballet recital tomorrow. She was a bit behind when she began ballet, but she has practiced hard and Mrs. Amanda has worked with her a few extra times to help her catch up. In the video below we arrived at 1130 and it was cloudy and cool. By the time of the recital at 1230 it was COLD, WINDY and beginning to RAIN. Ella was freezing!

Enjoy the show.

Cooking 1, 2, 3...

I really enjoy cooking and making new things to keep the meals exciting, and my family...they like to eat... and Ella LOVES to watch me cook. She has "her" chair in the kitchen and watches me as she asks about a thousand questions (which is great cause she is absorbing it all)! While I like to cook, I really don't like to go to the grocery store (I think that is handed down from my mom) to shop - you would understand if you were feeding 3 growing boys, a husband, and LaLa who eats like a growing boy! My bill for 2 weeks usually hovers around $450.00 -OUCH!

On this particular day I had leafy spinach greens to use and a couple of apples so I thought I would create a salad using them, and toss in some walnuts - sounds good, right? Once I had the salad prepared I realized I didn't have a good dressing to go with it - no problem, we will just "whip one up" as Carson likes to say. We did and LaLa is shaken it up!

We had tortilla crusted tilapia, saffron yellow rice with almond slivers, pine nuts, and pecan pieces, spinach/apple salad with walnuts and our special dressing. Yummy!

We had a busy week!

Sunday night, we took our "old" van to the dealership and lined it up behind 9 other vehicles for some diagnostic test on Monday. After Bernie ran the car through the test we found out that "hiccup" in shifting was a result of a valve issue in the transmission. Yes, anytime one hears "transmission" you know it comes with a hefty price tag - just under $900.00. After hearing the prognosis we decided it was best to have it repaired now versus doing more damage and ultimately a much more costly job later.


Monday was filled with another visit from Buck to sign more insurance papers, rugby practice, and soccer practice.

Tuesday began with the neighborhood breakfast. We have one every month. It's nice to venture out (especially now that I home school) and catch up with the ladies on the block. I missed the last 2 gatherings, but this month I will be hosting - guess I won't miss it! After the breakfast, it was off to the west side of town to walk through our home (rental property) with a contractor to begin some much needed repairs. I will say is difficult to walk through 'your home' and see damages. I could go on and on here, but since it is a sensitive subject I will just move on to lunch. The kids and I met with Auntie Zenia and her daughter Astryd for lunch at Applebees in the T.V. room. The kids love it there. We had a nice lunch then scurried home for piano lessons. Ella Grace went first so I could dress her for ballet and scurry out for one more errand to El Paso City Lights to attempt to find replacement crystal "drip dishes" for the broken ones on the chandelier in our home - the one we won't discuss because it is a sensitive subject. Of course, the original dishes are no longer available so we had to search for the most comparative both in size, similarity, and cost. Ana was a huge help and she successfully found some which are compatible. Now we are running behind for ballet, so we zoomed back over to base and were just about to get out of the car when Amanda called to cancel ballet. Whew....that came in handy for today as I have bunco and I need to rush home to make a dish to share or as Carson calls it 'whip something up' Momma. No winning tonight at bunco, but we had a blast!


Wednesday, thankfully, was a light 'to do' list today and the kids and I focused on school and quiet time. We did not study yesterday (the beauty of home schooling) so today we made up for lost time. The boys' knocked out several math lessons, literature, history, spelling, and science. Ella Grace did a beautiful job working on the letter "E" in both capital and lower case and worked on her colors. It was great to have all of them jump right in without any belly aching!


Thursday was another packed day starting off early with Ella Grace's trip to the speech/language pathologist. I have to say the appointment was insightful. She noticed almost immediately Ella has some fine motor issues and some balance issues - both correctable. She was impressed with Ella's sentence structure capabilities and knowledge/comprehension of the English language. We are ALWAYS working on her vocabulary/word usage/knowledge/sentence structures/vowel sounds/etc., she is doing remarkably well. She will work with Ella using a couple of different programs to assist her in progressing forward. After her appointment, we headed home to check in on the boys' and their classwork status, pick Patrick up from school and head back out for his oral surgery consult. I must say I didn't know wisdom teeth extraction could be so expensive! It's a good thing those teeth don't fall out for the tooth fairy at at $1000.00 per tooth! Patrick does need his lower 2 wisdom teeth extracted, however we will not be doing this through the oral surgeon we saw....creepy guy. We headed back home since Patrick has piano lessons in the late afternoon and I needed to get dinner going before we headed out to soccer. As life would have it, there was no time to cook dinner and just enough time to ready up for soccer and head over to the field - we won! Ben, our neighbor is an awesome soccer player and he scored BIG for our team. Way to to to all the Longhorns!


Friday was a nice slow day all the way around. We typically only work on language, reading and spelling in the morning and in the afternoon the boys' have art and gym class. We wrapped class up at noon then headed over to meet daddy for lunch before I dropped them off for their afternoon classes. Ella and I use this time to run a few errands...groceries, bank, gas for the car, etc., or sometimes (like today) we sneak off for some girl time and a little ice cream. After we picked the boys' up from class we had to head over to the vet to have Izzy's leg looked at. She is limping terribly and has been for about 4 days. The vet feels it is most likely a soft tissue injury (perhaps wrestling with Oreo - her buddy from next door) and she cannot play for a week. She is on some dogie Motrin and should be good by Friday of next week. Jim attended West Point Founder's Day here at Fort Bliss - I stayed back with the kids. Patrick had some friends over, we ordered pizza, and the little people and I disappeared upstairs.


Saturday, the kids had riding lessons and afterwards we came home worked in the yard picking up trash/dogie poo/sticks/planting flowers/and planted Jim's beloved garden.

The weather is warming up here, and the trees/flowers are blooming beautifully. Have a great week!

Our Uncle....Uncle Sam....

This was posted on another adoptive family's blog, and it is something we all need to respond to in order to have this credit renewed.

We are using our credit this year since our adoption was finalized in 2008 - it is a huge help to our family, and I am sure to many others who have monies invested in adoption.

If you need more information if you can take this credit click http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc607.html

Spring break is over and we are back to the daily routine. I love routine and those days when everything just seems to fall into place.

Tomorrow we are having our 6 month post placement visit. Hard to believe it has been a little over six months since our Ella Grace came home. She has accomplished so much and has seen and done so much in her first six months home - we are so proud of her.

Thank you to all of you who have been our support (knowingly or not) with your comments, suggestions, thoughts, and sometimes just listening to me (Family, Tammy H., Christine, Heather, Dee, Adriana, Michelle, Antonio y Amparo, Mamaporuski, Conethia & Jim Bob, Kathleen, Kristina, Lori, Tammy, Sue, Tracy, Julie, Beth, Melissa, Sabrina, Rachel, Schrie...the list goes on and on. Thank you all!

Happy Spring!

Today was the first day of SPRING!

I love the season. It's a season of starting over....a rebirth

Nature wakes up with the chirping of birds, green grass, blossoming flowers and trees, the sky is blue and the rain smells different. It's time to clean and pack away the winter wear and bring out the shorts and dresses; it's a time to enjoy the warmth of the sun and the cool evening breeze.

What does spring mean to you?

St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17, his religious feast day and the anniversary of his death in the fifth century. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for over a thousand years.

On St. Patrick's Day, which falls during the Christian season of Lent, Irish families would traditionally attend church in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon. Lenten prohibitions against the consumption of meat were waived and people would dance, drink, and feast—on the traditional meal of Irish bacon and cabbage.

No words, just pictures...

Daddy's Home...

Daddy arrive home earlier than expected from his business trip (TDY) in Hawaii.

Welcome home DADDY we missed you!

T.G.I.F.

I had Christian, Carson & Ella ready to go out the door at 0820 (10 minutes ahead of my estimated time) and into the car. We drove to the other side of town and traffic wasn't too bad; we actually arrived at our tenant's house 10 minutes early (we were there to meet the carpet installers) and waited until 0910 before I called the company with a cheerful, "I'm here where are they?" As it turns out, the time was not 0900 but "sometime" between 0900 and 1000. Okay, I think I have lived outside of the country too long....since when do you get an estimated appointment time instead of an actual appointment time? Why does any company think a consumer has that kind of flexibility in their schedule to sit and wait for them to show up? Crazy!

With the "window of opportunity" before me I took it to grab the kids a really healthy breakfast at the local Diamond Shamrock - coke and chips! Please don't leave me notes about what a bad parent I am. I am a faithful hot breakfast cooker Monday through Saturday. We then extended our window with a trip to the post for stamps and drop some letters off (long overdue "change my address" letters). Just as we arrived back (0945) the carpenters arrived.

They quickly moved about the house moving what was necessary to install the carpet and were finished by 1130!

I promised the kids lunch out today so we headed over to Olive Garden for some soup and salad - yummy! We finished with lunch and headed back home so the boys' could make gym class and Ella had a play date today. I dropped the boys' off and hurried home so Ella could make her play date. Then, I was kid-less What do I do now? I haven't been kid-less since (I'm thinking here.....) Adriana and I went to Africa! Has it really been that long?

I promptly scanned my "to do list" and found SEVERAL things I could knock off while the house was quiet - phone calls! I called the life insurance company, the appointment line, the TriWest office, & Verizon wireless - talk about productive! I did have to ask the Verizon guy to call me back since it was time to pick up Christian and Carson and soon Ella.

With everyone back home we readied ourselves for soccer and headed back out the door....

.....later back in the door and snuggling in for the night.

These are the latest treasures from the Antoshka Child House of Ella Grace

Ella pretending to be a stylist

Ella is in the lime green dress eating a cookie

Ella is far left in the white dress with red trim and white bow

One of THOSE Days...

Have you ever had ONE OF THOSE DAYS?

It began early...

The dog (Izzy) puked in Christan's bed...

Christian & Izzy ended up in my bed...

I woke up late...

No early morning walk...

No "me time" with coffee and news...

Late getting started on our home schooling...

The boys' took FOREVER to teach today....

Their test didn't go so well...

Ella was defiant today (again)...

I had a MOUNTAIN of laundry (again)

Chores were a struggle for the boys'...

Ella busted her chin open (again)...

Since we were struggling with school today, Ella was late to ballet...

I ordered take out thinking I would end it all easily tonight, but they were out of chicken and I had to wait for it to be dropped...

AND

I realized it is 8:00 P.M. and I didn't get a shower today!

I think I am going to bed and try this tomorrow (after I shower).

One last question...how was your day?

Feeling Better

Finally we are all feeling better and back on our feet and into our routine.

Ella had her eye appointment yesterday and she was/is on the edge of not needing glasses. The opthamologist would not have prescribed them for her IF she didn't have stigmatism in her right eye. Today, we went to pick out her frames and she will wear her new glasses for 6 weeks. She will then revisit the opthamologist for a reevaluation.

We are back into a full day of school with much success! The boys jumped right in and didn't complain one bit.

Ella still doesn't like to sit and trace her name, letter, numbers or colors. She cries as if I am punishing her. I have tried to give her a treat if she completes it and I have tried multiple ways of helping her learn to write without much success. She does well with repeat learning but writing/tracing is a struggle.

I hope to post some pictures in the next couple of days.

And another one...

Ella Grace and Patrick have now gotten the bug.

Pray for our speedy recoveries as 4 out of 6 of us are sick.

Bugged...

No, not the creepy crawling kind. The sick bug is making its' way through our house. Carson woke up sick and now Christian isn't feeling so well. I hope this bug is exterminated soon! I still feel yucky myself, Jim and Patrick are feeling "tender" in the tummy. Ella Grace has no signs yet of being sick, and hopefully she will not.

More posting later.

Don't forget to change your clocks and if you did - you're late for church!

A Mom is a Mom and therefore....

...she must mother even when she is sick.

I am dozing off in bed and I hear, " Mom! Mom!"

Ella Grace fell at the pool and is dripping blood from her chin! It didn't look good; she need a couple of stitches. I ran upstairs, tossed my hair in a ponytail, changed my clothes, brushed my teeth and off we went to the hospital.

Three hours later we had 3 stitches and walked out of the hospital.

Now, I am back in bed and still trying to recover. Hopefully, no more emergencies until tomorrow.

**pictures another day**

Sick and Feeling Yucky...

I have so much to post! I will try to post in a couple of days...I am a bit sick right now and just not up to the task. I spent the day seeing the doctor and stocking piling all the antibiotics, tissues, and tea I will need to spend a couple of days in bed.

Thank you to my wonderful boys who just served me soup, strawberries & blackberries, a tall glass of water and some steaming hot tea in bed. Thank you for tucking Ella Grace into bed tonight and saying her prayers with her. You always amaze me with your thoughtfulness and gentle side.

Catching up...

I know I have been slacking on our blog posting. Time just seems to get away from me and before I know it an entire week or two has passed since my last post. So grab your cuppa coffee or tea and park your self here for a moment so you can catch up!

Monday, we had a bit of a surprise. After several days of warm weather (upper 60's and low 70's) we were blessed with snow flurries! It flurried for a few hours on our side of town and the kids were in heaven. They begged to go outside, so we took a little recess and they ran around in the flurries for awhile like crazy kids as kids do. They had fun even though they couldn't make a snow man or shovel the sidewalk (yeah, right).

We had a long weekend in conjunction with President's Day, and conveniently Valentine's Day fell over the long weekend. Friday we just enjoyed some down time and relaxed around the house - we read, napped, cleaned up the yard and Jim made a couple of lattice dividers to put along the wall so Izzy (our boxer) would quit jumping the wall. That evening, we went to a movie. Patrick took Carson to see Pink Panther and Jim and I saw Gran Torino (Ella Grace was with us and per usual she slept through the movie). Christian stayed at home for some "quiet time" as he calls it. He is just so much like his Grandpa Payne in that respect.

Saturday morning, we were up early for riding lessons at Rio Valley Grande Ranch. We left the house early, made a pit stop to Duncan Donuts and then picked up Grandma Balk before we headed over the mountain. The kids had a great lesson with Heather teaching them (Christian and Carson) how to stand while trotting and then sent them out on a trail ride on their own. Claire was with Ella Grace during her lesson and she has progressed from being led around to trotting on her own with Claire riding beside her. It is amazing to see how far the kids have come in their lessons and how much joy it brings them. After lessons we took a few pictures at the ranch and then we headed out to La Posta in Old Mesilla for lunch. Normally, it is about a 30 minute ride out however, with Jim driving and sightseeing at the same time it took a bit longer. It's okay honey, we loved all the U turns and new roads we found . Once we arrived, it was 'up to an hour wait' for a table. As luck would have it, we were seated in about 20 minutes! We had a delicious meal and then enjoyed some sightseeing walking around the town and popping in and out of each of the quaint little stores. As we headed back home, we stopped at the Stahlman Farms for a quick look at the pecan farms and to see if anything would tease our taste buds at the Stahlman Store. Unfortunately, last year they stopped selling the chile covered pistachios and are sticking strictly to pecans and pecan products now (bummer!) so without a purchase we continued our journey home; but not before we stopped at Chope's (just for Adriana and Roo). Once we arrived back across the mountain, we stopped at Grandma Balk's so she could pick up the heart cake she made before we headed back to our house to share chocolates, cake, and ice cream. Translation....an additional 5 pounds to each hip. That evening, we decided that while we all smelled like we lived in the stables at the ranch, we had a great day together.

The rest of the holiday weekend was quiet and uneventful. Jim and I took in another movie, Bride Wars (thank you honey for watching the chick movie) and we all just spent some time catching up on things we were behind on. We spent time talking, playing games, and planning what we would like to do on spring break. While it will not be sightseeing somewhere in Europe this year we are considering the Grand Canyon, Florida to see family/friends and of course Disneyland or possibly Hawaii.

On Tuesday, we had piano in the early afternoon for C & C and LaLa (Ella Grace). Then in the late afternoon LaLa had a medical appointment. Now, if you remember we did see the doctor when we arrived back in the United States. I was not satisfied with the "physical" he gave to LaLa and he wasn't a pediatrician. So, after much instance and staying on hold for quite awhile the "system" gave in and scheduled us with a pediatric doctor. There is just such a gentleness with doctors who care for children and LaLa needed this. For some reason she just doesn't like going to see the doctor as she kept saying, "No doctor mommy, no doctor. LaLa fine no doctor." I explained to her it was mommy's doctor and mommy's friend and everything was going to be okay. She was still nervous (she picks at her fingers and knuckles when she is nervous) about the visit. Once we arrived, Lisa our nurse, made Ella Grace feel safe and comfortable. She checked her height, weight, and temperature - all was good at 109 cm tall (3' 6.91") and 38 pounds. Not much weight gain for 5 months home but she has grown taller and is very active. She took a bit of history and then we went right in to see Dr. Um. After a complete head to toe check up and tests for an issue Ella Grace has, she was given the green light to enroll in sports, daycare and school. Dr. Um sent consults out for EG to see the optometrist, speech pathologist, and a hearing specialist - we will wait for those appointments to roll in.

Now, back in December we had our 3 month post placement completed. During the visit, it was suggested that in the spring we enroll EG in some type of daycare/mother's day out so she can begin to socialize and begin to share/learn with other children. We have been preparing EG by asking her if she wants to go to school and if she wants to go play with the other kids. She consistently says yes and becomes very excited when we talk about it. So on Thursday, I planned a small trip to the Child Development Center (CDC) on base. I thought a small visit to allow EG to see the inside, see the kids playing, laughing, and meet the care givers of the "hourly" room would be good - for both of us. It did not turn out as I had anticipated. I held her hand as we walked up to the front of the building as I talked to her about school....playing with kids.....this is her school and she would have great fun playing and exploring here. As we signed into the front desk all was well. Then, as we took a guided tour to "her room" we entered the court yard and before we got to the "hourly" room door she began crying BIG crocodile tears. She kept saying she didn't want to go here, didn't want mommy to leave, she loves family and we go home. It broke my heart. She didn't see this as a fun place to spend a couple of hours a week playing. I am hoping with several visits, me staying with her, and time she will come to enjoy a couple of hours a week alone with other children.

Thursday, we took the day of from schooling and took a field trip to the Lynx Exhibit of Robots. We had so much fun playing with the hands on experiences and we were present when the contract was signed for the next exhibit - but it is a secret, for now!

Christian and Carson had their first soccer game tonight (Thursday) and it was cold, crisp and fun! We watched them running from one end of field to the other at full speed. In the end, we lost the game but we won in the fun category. We celebrated with a trip out to Applebee's for dinner.

The youth center experience was much different than that of the CDC for Ella Grace. My goal today was to enroll Ella Grace is some type of activity. We are too late for soccer season and baseball/T-Ball enrollment has not started. So after reviewing the list of options and crossing off about 80% of them we decided on ballet twice a week. She was absolutely thrilled. She was clapping, smiling and jumping up and down. She loves music and dancing. Maybe this is her niche. Next week I am going to venture over to the indoor pool for possible swimming lessons for her. She loves the water and has no fear, but she cannot swim. Not a good mix for summer time pool adventures.

This was also then end of another 6 weeks of schooling. Patrick studied for multiple exams and prepared for his debate competition on Friday. He won! He will head back on Saturday (today) for another competition and if he wins he will move on to nationals.

Well, that about wraps up our time lapse. Now that you have read this long post, click on comments and leave us a note so we have some reading to do. Come back soon!



Melissa teaching Christian piano



Ella with Dr. Um



Robotic arms at work



Snowing in El Paso, Texas



Soccer action with the boys



Patrick horsing around

Beautiful at 40...

In our family when daddy goes on a business trip the kids LOVE to occupy his spot in the bed. They go so far as to plan the sleeping nights based on who is or is not sleeping with Izzy - since Izzy isn't allowed in our bed (another story). Anyway, last week Jim was away so they planned it all out, and the day he departed the tradition began. On one of those nights, Christian was in the bed and I was watching miscellaneous T.V. (more for the background noise), and this program came on about all the beautiful women who were turning 40 this year...Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Marie Presley, Molly Ringwald, Céline Dion, Ashely Judd and so on and so on. At the perfect moment, Christian turns to me and says, "Mom, you're over 40 and still beautiful."

Ahhh, from the mouths of babes!

Thank you Christian for the best compliment!

The Search...

Our search for Ella Grace's biological mother, father, and extended family hasn't been as successful as we had hoped for. However we are hopeful new information will come in and the situation will change.

Gene, our searcher, has tried his best to find Ella Grace's biological mother, father, and extended family without success. Without going into too much detail, Irina, the biological mother is still a wander and has no permanent address, thus making it difficult to locate her. Gene was able to make contact with several people within her circle who have seen her in the past few months. Contact information was left with these individuals and they have promised as soon as they see Irina they push the information forward. Until then we have a picture of her and some of Ella Grace from earlier years...

Irina (biological mother)

Ella Grace (about 12-18 months before adoption)

Ella Grace is 3rd from left (green dress/age unknown)