Weekend Photos

1st Family photo since the airport
Me and my girls

We ate at an Ethiopian restaurant (Fasika...same name as the one we ate at in Ethiopia...it means Easter). Molly ate so much I thought she would explode. This photo shows a coffee ceremony they were having...everybody got served coffee...so tasty. Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee...so they know what they are doing.

Walked to the park...the wagon was Hannah's princess carriage Dad and his girls

How funny!!!! Hannah and Bodi tongues and all

Molly demonstrated hair wrapping with a scarf we bought in ET for one of her Aunts.

Fun Weekend

We are having a fun weekend in the Twin Cities. We celebrated my BIL's 60th birthday last night with family. Molly met her Aunt Becky and Uncle Pat. We had a great time. Today we went to lunch with a fellow AWAA friend who is one deck to get a referral for an infant girl. We went to an Ethiopian restaurant (Fasika...same name as the restaurant we went to in ET) and Molly was so happy. She ate like crazy. I don't know where it all went. The staff were all Ethiopian and talked to Molly in Amharic. They had a coffee ceremony (ET tradition) and served popcorn and we all got coffee...so good. I forgot my camera but Sue took pictures hopefully she can e-mail them to me and I will share soon.
Blessings,
Bliss

OUCH!!!

I'm pretty banged up after my scooter accident last evening. We were taking a kids scooter that Hannah kind of stole from the neighbor's a few weeks ago. The said she could keep it as long as she wanted. I was messing around on it in their driveway and hit a twig and nearly killed myself. Note to self we are not getting one of these for the girls. I have a huge bruise on my elbow, hip and knee. My arm really hurts today and I think I may have a little fracture. I was in so much pain by the time we got home (about 2 block walk) I was in tears. Molly was so sweet she went and got dad who was doing yard work to let him know I was hurt. He came in can checked me over and didn't think anything was broken. Molly helped me ice all my wounds and was very protective when Hannah just seemed to want to hurt me more by pressing on my bruises. I think Molly will become a nurse...she is so very compassionate and caring.

Molly has her last ESL class for the summer tomorrow. She was so sweet this morning and wanted me to write her teachers name for her. She then wrote out a thank you note for her. I was so proud of her. I didn't even ask her to do this. She is such a sweet girl. I think I will take her to pick out a little flower arrangement to give to her teacher. Molly has really done well in her class and has improved so much. She is a perfectionist and her teacher said she would keep repeating things until she got 100%. That is good.

We are just waiting for dad to get home so we can have a spaghetti supper. Molly's favorite. I think she would eat it for every meal if I let her.

Hannah is busy constructing a log cabin out of Lincoln Logs. I am so impressed at her skills with the Lincoln Logs. She looks at the directions and is able to duplicate what she sees. I find that amazing at the age of 4. I am 10+ X her age and struggle with it.

Gotta go text the girl's friend/babysitter. She has been in DC all week. She has diabetes and won an essay contest and the prize was a trip to Washington where the is senate is having hearings on the disease. She was extremely excited yesterday as she got to meet the love of her life Nick Jonas and Pres. Obama. I'm pretty sure Nick gets top billing in her book.

Blessings,
Bliss

The girls wanted to go play at the neighbors last night so off we went...it was kind of funny because Molly still can't ride her bike and chose to just push it...why bother?
The girls with Danielle their best friend and babysitter

Fun on the trampoline

Silly girls

Hannah caught a toad and it totally freaked Molly out...I mean she was in tears

Hannah is not afraid of a thing...Molly is a big frady cat

What a day. Hannah was up early (she's my early riser) so I got her fed, dressed and hair done threw her in the burly and hit the road for a 15 mile bike ride. We were on the road at 7:30AM...can you believe that on a Saturday morning? I was in heaven...I love to ride my bike and have not been able to because weather, Molly, Ron's always on call so I can't just take off and leave him with the girls...so many reasons. It was absolutely beautiful this morning...perfect temp...and no wind. Yes NO WIND...this is so unusual in Aberdeen where the wind is such a pest...always blowing like crazy. I got quite the workout...15 miles pulling a 4 1/2 year old behind me. The funny thing is she was so quiet...I almost forgot she was there except when I would hit an incline (I say incline because our city has no hills...flat as flat can be) and feel the tug of the burly behind me. I was shocked at her quietness because this kid never quits talking...I bet she even talks in her sleep.

So where were Ron and Molly at while we were biking...SLEEPING. Molly is like her dad and loves to sleep. By the time I got home Ron was up and ready to go for a bike. He has never pulled Hannah once in the burly...he got home from his 10 mile ride and complained that his legs were tired after 4 miles. What a wimp. You should see the size of his legs compared to my weeny little legs. I have always been able to out bike him (he actually doesn't like to ride with me even if I am pulling Hannah because I go to fast...maybe if I pulled Molly it would work.LOL).

I took the girls to the water park again today. It was so crowded because there was a swim meet. The girls have so much fun playing with each other in the water. I think I got a couple shades darker today. I love it....love being tan.

We all got colds this past week...I now don't have any voice. I can't get laryngitis at least once a year. So frustrating especially when you have kids.

Blessings,

Bliss

Fun Friday

I just wanted to share this photo of the girls yesterday...they were such sleepy heads (slept till almost 9AM). Not unusual for Molly but Hannah is usually up at 6AM. For Hannah it must have been running around like a crazy girl for 2 hrs. at Kindermusik, then swimming her tail off at the water park, and then gymnastics. Molly had class, swam like crazy at the water park and played Wii all night with dad. I just like their hand positions...it looks like they are reaching out to hold hands.

As for today...we visited dad at his office, went to the grocery store and Shopko to get Father's day cards. I rushed home to sign my dad's card and get it in the mail so he would receive it tomorrow and realized just after I dropped it in the box I put the wrong zip code on it. Our zip code is 57401 my dad's 57301...I have made this stupid mistake so many times but was able to catch it...today I was in a rush to get to the water park that I didn't catch it. Sorry dad...unless the post office is very forgiving you won't get your card on time...somehow I don't think you will notice or care.

We did get to the water park and the girls had a blast. They love playing together in the water. Molly put on a brief peep show as the top of suit got pulled down revealing her little boobies...she didn't notice or didn't care. She reminds me of National Geographic photos...she would probably walk around topless if she was allowed. The funny thing is her panties are another story. It was like pulling teeth to get them off while bathing/showering or wearing her swimming suit. We have since gotten this issue resolved. OK gotta go...

Blessings,
Bliss

Braids

My friend braided Molly's hair today. Merleen is originally from Barbados and has been braiding hair since she was 5 yrs. old

Molly couldn't even take a break from Wii to get her hair braided

The finished product

Merleen told Molly she liked her bracelet (the one on her right wrist in the previous photo) and Molly took it off and gave it to her. Merleen didn't want to take it because it was a given to Molly from a friend in ET. Molly insisted she take it.

I took the girls to the water park after supper. Molly didn't want to swim because she didn't want to get her hair wet. Hannah swam her little tail off.

Tomorrow is my busy day. Hannah has Kindermusik at 12:30 and Molly has ESL class at the same time across town, hopefully the water park in the afternoon, and then Hannah has gymnastics in the evening.

Blessings,

Bliss

Rainy Day

Molly finally got brave and had her ears pierced last night. We tried to do this a few weeks ago and she got in the chair and chickened out.
It rained all day so Molly played Wii a lot. It is hilarious to watch her play. I hear a lot of "Oh COME ON!!!!"

OK back to the rain. We got so much rain a lot of the streets in town were flooded. I had to take an alternate route when I took Molly to ESL class. It was also a bummer because my friend who is originally from Barbados was going to come over and braid Molly's hair today. She sent a text that the streets were too flooded and we rescheduled for tomorrow. Molly can braid her own hair but she doesn't like how it looks. She was really excited that my friend was going to be doing her hair but she will have to wait one more day.

Last night we took the girls bowling. If that wasn't a hoot. We all discovered that we are way better Wii bowlers than the real thing. We used a bumper lane
because of Hannah but honestly I don't think we needed it for her (but the rest of us needed it) she did pretty good and I think she actually got the highest score once. Molly was shocked at how heavy the balls were and couldn't or wouldn't hold by her fingers. She just held it in both arms and kind of flung it down the lane...it was funny. Hannah would just push the ball and it took like forever to actually reach the pins but each time she would get this incredible pin action. I think I will try her version next time...it seems to work.

Just want to share a bit about Molly's progress. Yesterday marked 2 months since "Gotcha Day" in Ethiopia. She has done so well in the transition and I am truly amazed at her progress. Yes she went through a period of grieving so many losses she would just hold me tight in her bed at night and cry. I would pray and then let her pray in Amharic and she would quit crying and go to sleep peacefully. This went on most nights for the first month. She still will not sleep in her room without her sister but that is OK. It actually works to my advantage because if they are rough housing (as much as girls do that) I can threaten that if they don't settle down and go to sleep Hannah will have to go sleep in her room...instant quiet and they go to sleep. Her English is really coming along. Her ESL teacher is awesome and Molly loves to go to class. She has a hard time pronouncing some sounds but I totally understand that as I have tried to learn Mandarin and Amharic and my mouth/tongue just don't work the right way sometimes....it's like Yoga for the mouth.

There are a couple of problems we are having with Molly and I think one might be a misunderstanding in translation and the other a 10 yr. old not getting her way. The first involves friends she has made with our neighbors down the street...she loves playing with their kids and when they are not home she has a major melt down...cry cry cry. Solution...ignore her behavior, let it go and soon she is her happy self and ready to join the family.

Gotta Go...Awesome husband has been off for 2 days and just called me to supper (isn't that what you do to kids?). Yummy Halibut he caught in Alaska.

Blessings,

Bliss

VBS

Both of the girls performed their VBS songs at church this morning. Hannah at the contemporary service at 9:30 and Molly at 10:00 AM traditional service. It was a crazy morning getting the girls here and there and trying to get some kind of churchin in. So proud of Molly...she did so good this week. Hannah...did better than last year...Focus girl Focus...

What a Week

Molly helped Danielle with the Yellow group at VBS

Mom with her VBS girls

Gross...mom is holding a turtle

a bit blurry but the best I could get of the girls

Look at the stupid turkey chasing the peacock

Turkey all fanned out for his woman

Molly and Hannah with the Oz gang

Molly's funny face when the ride started

What a Day

Molly got to where her Ethiopian soccer jersey to VBS...you were supposed to wear something that tells something about you

Practicing her moves during music time

Each grade got to perform a song on stage...Go Molly

I am proud at how well she did at VBS. She learned all the words and all the actions.

Sisters...God is good

Trust me my day was busy...VBS in the morning VBS at night, Kindermusik, gymnastics...and a lot of other stuff that is just part of being a mom and wife.

Molly had her last night of VBS. She has had the best time this week. I am so thankful. Her English has improved so much this past week and she is making friends. Got to get to bed...

Blessings,

Bliss