We All Scream for Ice Cream!

Adrian and Bella taking an Ice Cream Break

As noted on earlier posts, I love to try to help my kids make healthy choices with "sometimes" food once and a while. Well since Sunday I need to say that they have had an ice cream cone every day with TWO on Tuesday. Needless to say they are loving "almost summertime!" Sunday the Schafers were here and that was the kid's dessert. Monday I let them finish the ice cream after dinner. Tuesday we went to McDonald's to get cones. They had received coupons in Sunday School as an object lesson of God's free gift to us. I loved the concept and wanted to use them while the idea was fresh in their mind. Then we went to Francesville and met Grandma at the drive-in. What kind of mom would (or could)say no to a great- aunt and great- grandma offering to buy them a treat? Today our neighbor asked us to walk to the ice cream store down the street-- we're trying to walk more places and get to know our neighbors better soo.... we went.

Tomorrow is Kaitlin's last day of 2nd grade. We praise God for the great transition from homechooling to a Christian School! She loves it so much she is a little sad to be out for the summer. If we are already having this much fun (and eating that many treats) I can't imagine what the summer has in store!

laura

A Monsterocity!

Hallie with Sweet little Macy

Well we broke down a few weeks ago and purchased a big, bright blue padded trampoline. These things are not pretty! After thinking and thinking about how to disguise it we gave in and just put it up down in the meadow. I can see it pretty well from the house but it is not right out of the back window. Luckily my sister Hallie and her little girl Macy were visiting for a few days and Hallie helped Kevin put it up while I got to watch Macy. A great trade off if you ask me! Anyway this is to report that 2 weeks later the thing has already paid for itself in entertainment! The kids are out there everyday jumping and playing on it (along with a bunch of other kids). Seeing them have so much fun on it and the fact that they haven't been getting out all the other toys for me to clean up has been great!

Adoption update-- 2 weeks ago was our fingerprinting appt so we probably have a couple more weeks to wait for the form we need from CIS. In the meantime there I received a couple more forms to do and we really need to finish our training video and online tests. Sometimes it seems so distant but this week our agency gave out 7 referrals! We have friend who have recently brought a little girl home from Ethiopia-- seeing the end of all this makes it so worth it! This morning we were having brunch on the deck (a Schieber family Memorial Day tradition that is being carried on in Lafayette). Looking around at our children all sitting in regular chairs feeding themselves was so fun. They had been able to play while Kevin and I took turns going for a run and getting a few things done. When I thought about it, I know that I would not be enjoying this stage with our children nearly as much if I didn't know that we were going to be getting another baby to love!
laura

A Beautiful Bride

Kevin with his sister Betsy (don't you think that they look a lot alike?!)

Brecken, Marlee, and Bella (they had to wait to play until after the ceremony!)

Kevin and Brecken playing croquet while waiting for the family pics

Betsy's dress was gorgeous!

Kevin's sister Betsy got married to Ryan Riley and Saturday! Sorry for all the pictures but the wedding was so fun! The cool thing is that, as you can see, the kids had a great time too! What a great couple!

As I was getting ready to post these pictures, I was checking some other sites and came across this article that really struck me in its contrast to our lives. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/beautiful/hamlin.html I don't want to detract from the joy of the wedding but I can't help thinking about the stark differences that these Ethiopian girls face. They are beautiful, maybe excited to be married, looking forward to having a family but have such hardships. The article tell about a PBS special that was on last week but is still great for raising awareness.

God Bless!

laura

Oh the French...

My Grandma listening to Bella "read" her a story on Mother's Day

I went to a great cooking class tonight-- Celebration of the French Empire. The girl teaching the class is from France and here while her husband is doing his post- doc work at Purdue. We were having a great conversation about how in general our culture in America is to rush and not celebrate food and conversation as much. I was thinking again about how thankful I am that Kevin and I both come from families where our moms made great food and it was fun to eat dinner together and talk with our families (well most of the time:)) I know that was what they saw modeled to them from their moms.

It is so easy for me to rush through everything. Always thinking about the next chore that I need to do. Even though I really enjoy most aspects of my day (none of our kids wear diapers), I sometimes don't take time to really enjoy any of the things that I am doing. That seems like a pathetic way to live. I'm not exactly sure how to solve this? Schedule fewer things? Lower expectations? Write "Enjoy yourself" on my "to-do" list? I don't know but I pray that I can be willing to make the necessary choices to pass on to our children a high value on time spent with people we love!

Happy Mothers to our Moms and all those great moms out there that are such an encouragement to me!

laura

Kait's Dance Recital

Bella, Kaitlin, Maddie, and Brecken

Saturday was Kaitlin's 6th dance recital. It was her 1st year to dance at the YWCA and we loved it, the recital was great. I tried to post a video clip that I took during her rehearsal the day before. We were really proud of how hard she worked this year-- a huge change from previous years! She practiced almost every day even when she was tired or not feeling the greatest. Kait turned 8 on Monday. Wow!

Side note-- Last week a friend and I had a garage sale at her house. I ran out to check some other sales while we were waiting for people to buy our junk and scored these like-new Converse shoes for Brecken for $2. He is wearing them in the picture. Fun stuff!

laura

The Highlights and Lowlights

The most amazing man in the world

Kait and Ash at the PYG dinner

my new bed :)

Nope, this post is not about hair!:) I did use to undergo that process for my hair but even though I liked the look, I HATED sitting there for that long and I didn't really enjoy paying for it either. Anyway, that is another topic(unless anyone has a great suggestion for cheap, fast highlights that look awesome).

This week was one that had some ups and downs. A couple of the highlights are pictured, my wonderful husband threw me an amazing 30th birthday!!!(Apr 16th) One of my presents was a bed that I have been wanting. It arrived this week and he put together all 14 pieces! Luckily the delivery men were the ones who both spent 1/2 hour taking off all the packaging.

The group of college girls that I meet with came over for dinner and we made watches. I think everyone had fun and that made me really happy. I love these girls and want them to know how much we care about them! College is really great but not always the easiest time in life (I don't wish I was back!) and we totally want to encourage and support them!

Our fingerprinting appt came in the mail and so we will go to Indy on Mon. May 12th for that ! Yeah!

Today, when we were at Great Harvest Bread after the soccer game (a great Sat. tradition) I finally found the bread that I am going to get from now on. The search all started when a friend mentioned that high fructose corn syrup could be a bad thing. After looking into it I have tried to make sure that the foods we eat on a regular basis do not have it in them. Two things that we consume very regularly are wheat bread and pb. We currently have 3 different brands of natural pb in our cupboard and no one is impressed so we will continue to work on that. However, this morning when talking to my new friend Jane at the bread store, she told me that they only use 5 ingredients in their wheat bread and do not use HFCS. Yeah-- this is great! She gave me the scoop on how to best store it and all that so no more reading labels in vain at the grocery store!

On a sad note, my great uncle Harvey died this week. Since my grandfather died when I was 3 and Harvey and Fannie lived within walking distance from us, we were very close to them! My brother actually had Uncle Harvey(in his 90's) as his best man in their wedding 2 years ago. These relationships are such a stabilizing part of our life. People who have known us since we were babies, know our strengths and weaknesses, and usually know just what we need to hear (often-- don't stay away too long!). We will miss him and it is a great reminder to treasure the time we do have with those that may not be here much longer!

laura