Monday, March 29, 2010

Dancing Divas!

You know it's Spring when the dance costumes come out! My little dancing divas gave everyone a recital preview at a local business exposition as they do every year. Here are my beauties modeling this year's costumes! Adorable as always! (And the costumes are pretty cute, too!)

Once there, they mingled with hordes of other little girls from the dance studio. Here, they pose with little Brynn. Dean used to work with her father and they've remained friends through the years. When we arrived home from China with Drew, they came to the house to meet her and the seed was planted in their hearts to do the same! She's the teeniest little thing...her mom and I compare her to Drew. You can see the height difference between Luci and Brynn and there is only a year and 3 month difference between them! Yep, she's 4! What a little doll, she is SOOO beautiful!
Here's Brynn on stage with her group.
Max has the best seat in the house!
I'm sure glad I got pictures of Luci before she started dancing...her hair fell all over the place and Daddy didn't know enough to fix it! (I could not be there as I was preparing for my chorus' annual show that evening!)
Speaking of height differences...there's only a year difference between Drew and Hannah who is standing right behind Drew! Hannah's Daddy (Jim) is really TALL!
Every year, the school district holds an art show. They renovated a drafting lab into a beautiful world class art gallery several years ago and began holding art shows featuring the artwork of the district's K-12 students. This year, one of Drew's works was chosen to be included! She's SO proud of herself and we are, too! Here she poses in front of her beautiful masterpiece! Way to go, our little artiste!
Luci, as Mona Lisa!

In other news, Drew has FINALLY popped through her first adult tooth!!! This may not seem like such an extraordinary thing until you realize that she never even got her first baby tooth until she was 16 months old and in just 2 months she'll be 8! Unfortunately, the baby tooth this adult tooth is meant to replace is still intact in its original position! It is a bit wiggly and you can see how it is being pushed out of place by the emerging adult tooth, so it shouldn't be too long before that sucker pops out. We've told her to work on making it extra wiggly so she doesn't have to go back to the dentist to have him remove it! I keep forgetting to snap a picture of it, but when I do, I'll be sure to post it here!

As mentioned above, my Sweet Adeline chorus held our annual show this past Saturday and it was a rousing success! When I get a few photos of our entire chorus (taken by one of our directors who also happens to be a photographer) I'll post more about this. Now that the show is over, we'll concentrate on our regional competition coming up next month in Syracuse! This is the highlight of my Sweet Adeline year whether we win or not, but our tiny little chorus always does exceedingly well for our chorus size! I'll keep you posted!

Still loving life sans glasses! Things are going very well in this area!

Yesterday, we drove up to a plot of wooded land owned by Dan and Tina (Dean's brother and his wife). The object was to cut up some dead wood and clear a few standing trees in preparation for making campsites and roads. They already have a small cabin in a clearing and while Tina and I chatted about everything under the sun, (politics, religion, weather, psycho's we know, etc.) the kids played together and we watched as the boys got to work. We spent several hours up there. At one point, we heard Dean say something and when we looked over at him, we saw a large "rip" in his chainsaw-chaps on his upper thigh. Chainsaw-chaps are Kevlar lined chaps worn specifically when using chainsaws to protect the wearer's legs from bounceback from the chainsaw. They did their job perfectly this day and Dean, I am happy to say, has perfectly intact legs!! (Though he now needs a new pair of chainsaw-chaps!) I'm so glad he takes these precautions, because the day could have turned out much differently if he hadn't!

Today's quote:

These two truths are the same in weight and importance. Accept and love WHO and WHERE you are now, and all good things shall find you there. ~Unknown (to me)

Thursday, March 25, 2010

My crazy girlies!

Spirit Week at school! The girls love this week! Not only are there lots of activities going on there, but they get to dress differently every day! Monday, they got to wear their jammies to school. Tuesday was twin day...we do twin day often as they have a lot of similar clothes anyway! The picture below is what they wore for Wacky Wednesday!


Close-up of the lovely hair-do's! Ha ha!!
This morning, they walked out the door in these get-ups for Beach Day!

Tomorrow isn't really a named day, but they get to wear hats. Luci is on Team Blue, so she'll wear something blue and Drew is on Team red, and will wear red. I'll find out tomorrow which team "won" Spirit Week and let you know! Also happening tomorrow, my brother's 40th birthday! Happy birthday you old fart! On Saturday, is my chorus' annual show! I'll be sure to post some shots if I can find time to take any pics!

The eye stuff is going well. Had my week follow-up yesterday and both eyes are 20/15! Yay! I LOVE not having glasses glued to my face! Next on the list is trying to lose some weight! I've lost about 20 pounds since August (mostly stress weight loss, unfortunately) and now I'm getting serious! I joined a twice weekly Zumba class and I.LOVE.IT!!! Wow! SOOOO much fun! Just what I need to keep me motivated and to stick with it! If I can find another class somewhere near-by, I'll bump it up to 3 times a week! It's that fun! Anyway, if you don't know what Zumba is, look it up online! Or better yet...find a class and try it yourself! You'll get hooked!

Today's quote:

Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending. ~Maria Robinson

Monday, March 15, 2010

March Musings

Last week, Drew's class put on a couple of plays. The 1st graders performed their rendition of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. It was very cute. The 2nd graders presented The Gingerbread Man! Drew auditioned for the part of one of the two narrators and was chosen! Here she is next to Regan, narrating her part of the story.



The little old man and little old woman baking their gingerbread man...
Drew's classmate Anton was the perfect gingerbread man! What a little actor!
Look out for that crafty old fox!
All the 2nd graders take their bows. If you're looking for Drew, she is, of course, the shortest one!
After the play, Drew gets a cuddle-bug shot with Daddy!
This past Friday, I went under the knife! Or rather, the laser!! I had LASIK eye surgery. Here I am in my stylish cap! Sorry about the blurriness of the photo! This is the very last time I had my glasses on!!
The next day, I had glasses of a different kind on! I have to sleep several nights with these puppies on, thankfully, they're pretty comfortable. I'm not smiling yet because this was the very next day and my eyes felt like they were full of sand! It was rather annoying, but the very next day they felt a whole lot better! So much so that I attended my first Zumba class and LOVED it!! Thursday is class #2! Can't wait! Anyway, I now have 20/20 vision in my right eye and BETTER than 20/20 in my left! I just love not having to wear glasses! How liberating!
Saturday, Drew's brownie troop along with several other troops in our neighborhood held an in-gathering at a local pool.

The Hannah Squared! Hannah S. and Hannah R.
Sometimes it's really cool to have a waterproof camera!

Today's quote:

When darkness is all around you and it prevails and all hope has fled away, remember and draw strength in the fact that the sun shall rise again and the light will shine through the dark and with the beginning of a new day you can stand once again. ~M. O. January South African, born 09/02/1987

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Happier days!

Life is brightening around here...and I think it has something to do with the warmer weather that has been teasing us as of late. Recently, Drew received a package in the mail. It was from her friend Lin-Ley who lives in Maryland. Lin-Ley is one of the girls from our first travel group to China when we adopted Drew. Drew and Lin-Ley have seen one another at least once a year since we brought them home in 2003. Anyway, in this package among other things, was a beautiful Chinese jacket that Lin-Ley loved, but had outgrown. Since Drew is the smallest girl in our group, Lin-Ley's mom thought Drew would be just the person to give it to! And she was right! Here Drew models the jacket (which she wears ALL the time) to show us just how perfectly it fits! (To find out more about Lin-Ley and her wonderful family, please click on the link in my sidebar "The Herpins"!) Drew wants to say a big THANK YOU to Lin-Ley for thinking of her! As soon as we can get it together, we plan on sending something to you, too!!! Keep an eye on your mailbox!



It's only early March, and in the North Country, that still means winter, but Mother Nature has been giving us a sneak-peek of what is to come by letting it warm up ever so slightly during the day! After our last snowfall, Dean took Drew outside and made this snowman. It was more rotund than this when they built it, but the warmer temps during the day have turned it into a Gibson Girl! Note the corsetted shaped figure, the slender neck and larger head!
Speaking of large head...how on Earth does it stay up on such a teeny little neck????? I snapped this pic because I knew it wouldn't last long. After the girls got home from school, I looked out the window and saw that it had finally fallen. I told my mom the story and she told me that she had noticed it, too, but when she lifted Luci up to get a closer look at it, she reached out and knocked it to the ground! Luci put the biggest pout on her face and said, "I'm sorry, Mommy!!" I couldn't help but laugh! She thought she was in trouble! Little stinker!
Dean celebrated his 41st birthday on the 5th! Happy birthday to the best Daddy and husband anyone could ever ask for! (And aren't I the lucky one who gets to keep him!) Anyway, he's been begging me for a picture for his office at work, and I refused to let him take any of my beloved canvases! So I finally decided to give him something...here's a shot of the finished product below. I ended up taking it back out of the frame and letting both girls write a personal message in the spaces next to the lower picture, but I took this shot before that happened, so you'll just have to use your imaginations!
And here are the pictures I used for his gift. If you look closely, you'll see a hint of pink in their cheeks and lips.


Needless to say, he loved it! On the other hand, I didn't have to wait until my upcoming birthday to get my present! I got a 32GB iPod Touch! It's pretty awesome! Happy early birthday to me!

Today's quotes:

"One joy scatters a hundred griefs." ~Chinese proverb

"In order to have great happiness you have to have great pain and unhappiness - otherwise how would you know when you're happy?" ~Leslie Caron

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Happy Gotcha Day, Drew!!

Seven years ago this very day, a beautiful baby girl was placed in our arms, forever more to be called Drew YaWan. And we, chosen forever more to be her lucky, lucky parents! Life turned bright and wonderful that day! We love you SOOO very much, our beautiful, smart and talented daughter! XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO Love, Mommy and Daddy!!