EXTRA, EXTRA!!! ADOPTION UPDATE!!!

Got a call tonight from the girls attorney and found out that the appeal on their case was heard today and was denied (that is good news for us).  However, one pice of paperwork was out of order and it needs to be taken care of by DCFS before a final adoption hearing can be set.  So this is GREAT NEWS but we will have to wait until after April 17th which is when the judge will check to see if the paperwork as been complete.  After that we can schedule the final hearing!!  Thanks for all of your prayers but please continue to pray for patience as we wait the last few months until things are finished.

Wow...school...blahhh!!

Yikes! It is the third week of the new semester and I am buried already. I just spent the entire day (8:00 AM to 4:00 PM) reading, and that was just to catch up to yesterday. I haven't even started on my next reading assignment. Needless to say, this will be brief today. My class is on Biblical theology and Exegesis. It sounds big and fancy but what it means is, "Seth has a lot of reading to do and one of the books is a dictionary!" Yep, the picture on this post is my book and it has, like a bagillion pages to it. Mind you I don't have to read every word but so far it reads like a dictionary...not fun. The class is very interesting and I am enjoying it but I am a bit fried right now. Off to get the girls from preschool and just be daddy for the rest of the night. I will be content to watch preschool programs, dress up like a princess, have some tea, and even paint fingernails just no more big words.... please....!

"I gonna huff and woof and blow you away!"

Those are the words that came out of my youngest's mouth tonight at dinner.  She is a little confused and is mixing up a few stories but they are all great.  A few moments later she even said, "I gonna cough and huff and blow you away!"  You see this morning on Sesame Street was a story about the Three Little Pigs and since then the girls have been trying to blow things down.  This is not the exact scene from Sesame Street but it was quite similar: 

This comes right on the heels of one of the funniest few minutes of the past week.  Our youngest got her jammies on all by herself the other night and Jill tells her, "Honey, you blow me away", which was followed by our little one blowing on mommy.  Jill was a bit confused and then she did it again and said, "Go away mommy!  I blow you away...good-bye!!  It was the darn funniest thing I have seen in quite some time.  Our life is just a barrel of laughs these days. 

On another note.  My oldest did blow me away on Sunday when she proceeded to parade around the house carrying her little girl broom up in the air and singing a song about church and Jesus.  I asked her what she was doing and she said, "I'm carrying the cross like at church!"  It was awesome, she was doing her own procession and opening hymn.  It is amazing what God can teach a three year old.  Until next week....

Razor Scooters

Jill and I have been wanting to get the girls some scooters ever since the preschool got some new ones a month back or so and our girls just love them.  Our little daredevils are still in three wheel territory in scooterland but the razor scooters are not to far off.  Now a new razor will set you back at least $30 minimum and can go for much more.  That being said, razors would have to wait for at least the girls birthdays (both in March) or even next Christmas.  But last Saturday my youngest and I were headed to Trader Joe's for some one on one time when I spotted a garage sale.  It was still early in the day (8:30 AM) so I though we should swing by and see if there was still anything good.  As we got out I spotted three well loved razor scooters and a mini skateboard.  I asked for prices and was told $3 for the skateboard and $15 for each of the scooters.  Now I never have cash so this would pose a problem since my wallet had a total of $4 in it.  I called Jill and told her of the find and she said to go back home and pick up some cash.  Back in the car we went to get some cash and then back to the garage sale.  I walked up to the money guy and told him I would give him $20 for all three scooters and the skateboard.  He countered with $25 and I pulled out all my cash and said, "All I got is $24, will you take it?"  He nodded and I gathered up my new found treasures and put them in the back of the minivan.  I was stoked to say the least.  On Sunday the girls tried them out without much luck but their older cousin was pretty good on it.  That evening we had a few people over to watch football and for dinner and we had a blast (Go Chargers!!!!)  Later that night, I realized that we were out of coffee.  This is not an acceptable state of affairs in our house!  Jill promptly dug out some Starbuck's cards and directed me to get some beans.  I asked a few of our guests if anyone wanted to walk to get some coffee.  My pal Ingrid agreed and then we were followed by my brother Josh, and our friends JT and Ben all on the scooters!  It was a hoot.  Three grown men racing around the streets of Long Beach on razor scooters.  You would have laughed if you would have seen them but they did not care, they were loving it.  Well to wrap it up the boys had one final race down Pavo street and we were all safe and sound back home.  It was a great weekend and I can't wait until the girls are able to zip up and down the sidewalk on their scooters.  

Pictures from Mammoth

Thanks to my friend JT here are some pictures from the weekend. Scroll down for the regular Tuesday post.

My minivan is under there somewhere!

Digging out the Subaru.

Ben and I stuck in a snowdrift.

The Tuesday Tease...

Not much time tonight to write a full post so here is a tease of what is bouncing around my head tonight:

#1- Spent the weekend in Mammoth with the college ministry of the district and witnessed about 5 feet of snow in three days.  I had to dig the van out twice.  Pictures may be coming if I can get them from JT.

#2- School starts next week and I am not quite ready for it to begin.

#3- The other night we forgot to put a sippy cup in the fridge for my youngest and she was found at 3 AM sitting on the floor staring into the open fridge moaning, "Where's my Miiiiiiilk?????"

#4- The Chargers won a playoff game!!!

#5-  My sister is selling Shaklee.  Don't know what that is?  If you want to go green in your house in 2008 check out her site by clicking here. (More to come on this topic, I promise!!)

#6-  I stumbled across some great music the other day.  Do yourself a favor and check out Cary Brothers on iTunes or just pick up his CD titled "Who You Are"  you won't be disappointed.  You might know him from the movie Garden State.  Here is a sample:

Well that is just a tease, more to come later...or next week.  Until then....

French Toast and Fire Trucks...Happy New Year

With the drop of the new million dollar, energy efficient, crystal clad ball in times square 2008 is officially here and let me say to all of you HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!  New Year's Eve around our house was not to eventful (New Year's Day is another story but that will come later).  Jill's sister and family came over as well as my brother and some other good friends.  We ordered a bunch of pizza and had some "adult style beverages" and tried to survive five loud cousins having a great time with each other.  There were some screams and some misunderstandings (mostly from the kids) but for the most part all were well behaved.  The kiddos and a few grown-ups that will remain nameless turned in early and there were five of us who watched the ball descend from its lofty perch above Times Square for the 100th time.  We popped the corks of a few bottles of bubbly and toasted to the new year.  Then by about 12:45 I was dozing off on the couch.  I guess I can't party like I used to.  

The one thing about having five short ones in the house who all got to bed at a decent hour is that they woke up with the sun.  Needless to say the late night revelers were a bit groggy and not too excited with the pitter-patter of little feet at the crack of dawn.  Eventually I shook the sleep from my eyes and started creating a breakfast feast which included bacon, sausage, french toast, OJ (mimosa style for those needing a bit of the hair of the dog), and fresh fruit.  Soon after starting, the house smelled of coffee and bacon.  It doesn't get much better than that.  After breakfast the cousins watched the rose parade and my oldest loved it!  She loved to see all the princesses and I think she might have watched it twice (got to love KTLA channel 5 for all day coverage).  

The rest of the morning was spent playing, having lunch and resting on the couch.  The grown-ups had appetizers for lunch / dinner while the Rose Bowl was on.  And my wife cut up her wedding dress to make dresses for the girls (but that is another post all together).  Soon after that the real fun began.  While cooking said appetizers our smoke detector went off.  Now this is not anything new.  Let me give you some history.  As a child there were times where things got a little too done in the kitchen back in Garden Grove and our smoke detector was close to the source of the smoke.  Now when it would go off we would all jump into action.  Not to get out mind you but to quickly make the ear piercing sound stop.  We all had jobs, it was like the military.  One of us would grab a Time magazine to wave in front of the offending  nine volt air-horn, another would open the back door and still another would open the front.  It all worked like clockwork.  Fast forward to 2003 and with the addition to our house we received brand new smoke detectors.  Our first big meal cooked with the new addition finished we were greeted with the most haneous noise of all five smoke detectors working in concert to make our ears bleed.  I of course jumped up in great Pavlovian style and grabbed the nearest magazine and began furiously fanning to stop the noise before I went deaf.  I soon had trained friends and family and when the horn would sound we would be at battle stations in a matter of moments.  Every time we cooked we had to be ready.  Today was no different.  Soon after the first blast we all had our duties completed and the sound was abated.  Abut five minutes later it started again and would not quit.  I went to the garage and got out the big guns and brought back the box fan to do the fanning job.  We seemed to be in the clear when the smoke detector started to beep, telling us of a low battery.  I feverishly tried to determine which of the five was the culprit but in the end I just changed all of the batteries.  In the midst of this the chirp became a full fledged alarm again.  This time the cooking was done and the children were starting to get annoyed.  Ten minutes later, with all the batteries changed, golden silence was heard once again.  Just as I grabbed another drink and settled in to the couch for the second half of the game the real fun started.  The smoke alarms started up again and this time there was no stopping them.  I dashed around and checked the batteries again with no luck and eventually I gave up and called the fire department.  Thanks to my good friend Josh T. I had the number for the Long Beach Fire Department in my cell phone so no need to tie up 911 on New Year's Day.  In about 10 minutes the fire truck arrived and we were busy feeding children oranges and cheese on the porch in the glow of the Christmas lights that are still on the house.  The firemen combed through the breaker box and crawled in the attic, they checked all the offending little white beasts and eventually identified the culprit.  In their estimation the detector in the hall was somehow faulty and when they unplugged it, silence was most graciously greeted once again.  So my thanks go out to the brave men of station 18 from the LBFD for helping us out tonight.  

Looking back it makes sense that this one smoke detector was the one that would not allow us to open the oven on Thanksgiving and would force us to keep our windows open even in the chilly winter evenings while we were cooking.  Since about 6:30 tonight we have had peace in the land.  We didn't want to risk it and the kids all had cereal and milk for dinner tonight.  So lets review:

Late night and and early morning...check.

Fabulous French Toast and a mountain of breakfast meat...check

My wife cutting up her wedding dress...check

The Fire Department at my house.. check.  

Cereal for dinner...double check with milk on top!

Well that was my day I don't even have time to tell you about my nephew Logan and how he shows his muscles.  Lets just say, Legend........(wait for it)...........dary!   I hope your day was as memorable as mine and I pray that this was a good sign of things to come for 2008.  Until next week...

P.S. Sorry for no pictures today, my internet connections is really slow.