This is the digging up the garden project.

Gingerbread man song with Mrs Sarah

Recess time at preschool, he loves basketball

Thanksgiving came and went, it was a wonderful relaxing day spend with our family. The food was wonderful, altho Brayden didn't eat hardly anything. That is his way when the house is full, he would rather not eat. He even had soup for supper instead of left over warmups. Mostly he is too busy when there are lots of people here. There were a couple complaints of his tummy hurting, I didn't give it too much thought at the time. By the end of Friday he was still doing ok most of the time, but not really eating very well. Saturday Roger finished digging up the garden and removed 24" of dirt making a huge hole and then hauled back in 6 loads of new dirt for the garden next year. Yes, that should solve the SALT problem and we should have a good garden next year. Then at 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning he came upstairs and told me he was coughing. I got him a drink of warm water to sooth his throat and he crawled in bed with us. That lasted for 5 min and then he wanted to lay in his little bed on the floor. Got him settled in there and that worked for 10 min and he coughed one more time and then threw up all over. That was the first time since he has been home that he threw up. He sat there crying and looking so very confused. He was not sure why all that came back out of his mouth!! Well we figured out this is one more time that it definitely takes two parents to get through some situations. Daddy got up and took Brayden to the shower while I got the blankets hauled to the washer and began shampooing the carpet. After we got him all cleaned up and fresh blankets down he laid down again for a few minutes and then decided he wanted to be back in his dump truck bed. We had just decided that while the little bed on the floor wasn't the best place to throw up, it could have been our bed a few min before or it could have been a real mess to clean up in the truck bed. I wasn't sure it was smart, but off to his bed he went. Turned out to be ok, that was the only time he threw up. Sunday was a very quiet day at home with soup and toast for most meals. Aunt Am went home late sunday afternoon and we got back to just the three of us. Monday we returned the dump trailer we used for the garden project and ate breakfast in town. We had some other errands to attend to and got home here at 10:30, Will got here 4 min later. I forgot, he is coming every week day for Dec. So that is our current schedule, two boys every day. It works out great actually. Then guess what...well tues it was mama's turn to get sick. I spent tues late afternoon and evening in bed, oh and wed too. I had a fever tues night, but never threw up. Tues night after their shower they both came up and crawled in bed with me and after a couple of min Brayden went to get his snack. He came back up with two yogurts and two spoons. He came to my side of the bed and handed me a yogurt "here's your yogurt medicine mama, it will make you feel better!". Well I couldn't get it down, but it was a nice thought. He offered me more the next morning too. Thurs I spent the morning at preschool for the first time in a very long time. I got some neat video's and will post those here too. He did really good that day. Friday night we went to Thermopolis for the Bar J Wrangler's holiday concert. It was a really nice evening. Brayden was a little scared of them because we were a lot closer to the stage than we have ever been so their facial expressions were easier to see. When they tease each other and play jokes he wasn't sure how to feel. He did enjoy the music though. He did fall asleep pretty quickly in the car on the way home. Ok, adoption update, our documents are in official hands and we were notified we needed a note from our doctor on one of Roger's medications. Unfortunately the dr was out till today so we won't get that letter till tomorrow it will arrive in Cheyenne by thurs and head for Russia on Friday. It won't arrive there till the 22nd so we won't get our referral this month. And maybe not Jan either as their Christmas is Jan 14 and they typically take the month off. Have to see, it might be different than that, but for now we don't think we will hear anything more till end of Jan first of Feb. I was checking airfare last night though and it looks like it might be less than $1000 ea for our tickets. THAT will be different from last time!! Anyway, they are supposed to be looking for our referral right now, but until the Minister of Education clears our paperwork they won't send it. Depending on when she takes her vacation, it may or may not be soon. That is nothing new!! :-) Its cold and windy here today, the boys will have to play inside all day, good thing they are ok with that!!

Here is the real construction work underway

A quick update on our next adoption process, the mini dossier left Friday via Fedex for Russia. I don't know when it will arrive over there or anything, but I figured about a week for travel then a week for translation, then it should be transferred to offical hands. We still don't expect a referral for two to three months. On the home front, we got the letter to go have our fingerprints done for the I600A for immigration. We got those fingerprints done in Casper on Monday. There was some question about whether mine would all be accepted since I am apparently washing my prints off my fingers. There were some blank areas on a couple of my fingers so the computer couldn't get a good read, however she called this morning and said they accepted them all so no redo's are necessary. I also have the list of documents for the main dossier, most of them are all filled out on my computer, I am just waiting for time to pass by before we print and notorize. Some of them are time sensitive and they can't expire before the court hearing on the second trip. All I can do for them right now is to have them ready to print and then when the time comes it will be a quick finish them up. As a mom I am learning lots all the time, but this week I learned that I can let an ear infection clear itself up. Brayden came down with a fever on friday night and had been messing with his ears before the fever showed up. I read online that most ear infections clear themselves up in 3-4 days and the fever shouldn't last for more than 2-3 days. I could keep the fever under control with motrin and tylenol alternating and he acted good unless it spiked. Then I learned about garlic ear drops, they are a wonder I must say. Today, Brayden is doing very well. He still messes with his ears some, but the pressure can remain in that middle ear for a few days, so the oil drops help to reduce the pain and pressure. He isn't real thrilled with laying down on one side for 5-10 min for the drops to settle in, but he is learning that it sure helps. Under my normal behavior I would have run to the dr on sunday and paid a huge bill. Nice to know that I can still learn new tricks. :-) Brayden and Will are "working" today, they love to have lots to do and its not real cold outside, but you wouldn't know that by the way I have them bundled up. Will has a bit of a cold too, so its best to have their heads covered too. They are always so glad when tues comes around and they get to spend the day together. Both of them get lonely for "kid" time so its nice to have days when they can get together. I think most of Dec they will be together every week day, so they might even begin to get tired of each other. There may even be more disagreements. Its so good for them and it does give me time to get things done without Brayden calling "mama" every few minutes to see where I am at. Best get on with the day, getting the house ready for Thanksgiving takes some time and I have spent part of it here!! :-)

Today we said goodbye to a very special lady. We were so lucky to have Michelle in our lives even for a short time. We learned a lot in our time with her and will miss her so much. I don't know how parents tell their children when someone leaves this life. I have such admiration for a close friend of mine that lost her husband and had to explain it to her children. We have struggled with telling Brayden about Michelle and using the right words etc. His understanding is of course limited, and so simple is best. Today was difficult for all of us but he was a bit lost on what it all meant. In other news I now have the list of documents for the main dossier. Its time to get busy on paperwork again. I believe the mini dossier is headed for Russia either tomorrow or friday. The agency was waiting on one letter that says that social workers are not lisenced in Wyoming. That letter was to come through by today, so perhaps it will be headed out by the end of this week. Our lives have been abit topsy turvy the last few days, but perhaps now it will level out a bit. We have thanksgiving coming up at our house next week so that will be nice to have our family all around again. Time to be thankful that we are all together and we have time on this earth to work on our soul, getting it right before God. We have much to be thankful for, and I will be doing my best to not take it for granted.