Cooking in June and July discoveries

Its been a little bit since I last posted a blog entry so I thought I'd catch those following up on my escapades (teehee!).  Again, SUPER long, but I want to capture these moments and sound interesting....kidding! 

If I wanted to summarize the summer so far, its been H-O-T...brutal hot...with temps over 95 almost every day and high humidity (so my hair looks most days like Rosanne Rosannadanna).  Its definitely worn out its welcome and is so "over" that it needs to vacate...and soon!  Still, we did manage a few things:

Most of my early and mid June was taken up with serving, yet again, as the craft coordinator for VBS.  I originally took this job on after this one person flaked out and totally dropped the ball and it was ALOT at the time.  Still, I survived and got many compliments on my "creations" that I just continued to volunteer year after year.  But, with Case closing in on 10 and after having done it for over 7 year now, I was totally cool with another person taking over and as MacArthur said "simply fading away".  Alas, that was not to be, lol.  For whatever reason, everyone is terrified of crafts and doing it for almost 100 elementary school kids on average makes most people run for the hills.  So when they asked, I thought "ok, I'll do it one more year".  The theme this year was cooking and I have to say, although it was very challenging to integrate cooking with learning about God and Jesus, I think I was pretty successful.  And better yet, the children LOVED it!  My thing is to have crafts that make them use both gross and fine motor skills and a variety of different mediums and textures if possible, so I never order the kits from the VBS company (of course, Oriental Trading and I know each other well and communicate regularly- ie they send about 3000 unsolicited magazines to me each year, lol).   I also design the craft to relate to the bible verse or special message of the day.  I feel it makes it more salient for the kids.  Anyway, here are some of the crafts we did:

Of course, I had a wonderful time with the kids again and loved seeing their faces as they made the connection between our food theme and the Bible.   Ok, the fact I had pictures up of famous Disney chefs and songs from "Ratatouille", "Lady and the Tramp"(Bella Notte), "Beauty and the Beast" (Be Our Guest), "Finding Nemo (La Mer), and various other french accordion songs (yes, there are albums available on iTunes!  who woulda thunk it? lol) probably added to my enjoyment.  Still, I'll be doing it again next year and probably more after that once we return home with our son. 

Ah, you are wondering about our status- well, we have not heard anything solid yet, but it has only been just over 3 months.  I know others have waited wayyyy longer.   So we're patient and optimistic.  The one thing I was hoping for was to have our first trip before Case started school, but we can't plan everything, right?  We have filled the hours with boating, swim lessons, yard projects, and blueberry picking.  Here is our over-designed, over-engineered, over-everything firepit and rec area that we decided to complete when the temps spiked 97-99.  Nice timing, right?  lol  It is 45in in diameter and turned out great (and no, it isn't a kit):

Here we are picking blueberries- hard to see but the trees were dripping with them- and me and my boy.  Brian was busy filling his bucket in another row, "Ka plink, Ka plank, Ka plunk" (How many remember that one? teehee!) *see bottom for answer youngsters

In the meantime, I have been having fun finding out more and more information about our Polish ancestry- which come to find out is much more vast than we realized.  We knew Brian was 1/4 Polish on his dad's side and they have always celebrated all sorts of Polish traditions through his grandmother etc.  What he didn't know was where the family was originally from and how far back it went.  Anyway, we were talking about all this and Brian's dad remembered all kinds of new information nuggets.  My F-I-L is getting up there, but he's still as sharp as a tack and frankly didn't even think to tell us some stories, lol.  Guess he thought we knew by osmosis?  lol  But as a result of the new info, we've (I've) found some cool things! 

Now, his mom (Brian's babcia) was something of a scandal because she was the first one to not marry a Pole in many generations; instead she married (gasp) an Irishman!  At least he was Catholic too, which is probably what her very Polish Catholic parents and large family thought, lol!  I'm kidding, they loved her husband loads!  Anyway, one cool factoid in particular helped me to find a very distant cousin who had loads of information on Brian's great-great-, great-, and grandparents.  Including Brian's grandmother, they were all 100% Polish, but until recently we weren't exactly sure where the hometown was in the old country.  Most of the records we had stated Prussia or Poland as birthplaces, but no town.  It was pretty common back then and even names changed when they loaded boats because of language barriers, etc.  Still, I found this cousin and corresponded with him and lo and behold....I found it!  Turns out Brian's family from wayyy back comes from a little town by Gdansk called Kosciercyna.  Brian was absolutely thrilled when I told him!  We totally want to visit here, even if the adoption takes us elsewhere in country, because how cool is that??!   Better yet (wink wink) I scored major points with the father-in-law because he had not heard that name since he was a little boy.  lol!  Not that I had to, but he was really happy and that made me happy as well!  It almost felt like returning a lost heirloom, if you will.  Giving them the actual name of their ancestor's hometown was really special, like returning a piece of their history, and helped us to feel even more connected to this wonderful country.  Which is why we can't wait to experience it firsthand.   This was really the candle on the frosting on the cake  :)

And while we would love to see Poland ourselves, we have definitely been enjoying it secondhand, lol!  During the waiting period, I have definitely had my attention shifted by all the HAPPY NEWS so many of my fellow adoptive mommies have received!  Truly, these are all answers to our many individual and collective prayers.  Brooke, Heidi, Kara, Renee, Jennifer, Tracy....holy cow!  The pure numbers are nothing but God's hand at work!  I am absolutely thrilled for each and every one of you and know you will all be loving, fabulous mothers!  Someday we will all have to have massive reunions all around the country!  And I am overusing my exclamation point!!  lol lol  Anyway, I love following your journeys and for all the encouragement you give to us.  We are happily waiting because we know we can't rush God and He always knows the perfect time.  Plus we have our loving, energetic, wonderful son to keep us busy so although we too look forward to receiving our referral, we are happily basking in the beauty and love of your adoptive journeys.  Thanks for letting us come along :)

Well, that's it for this installment.  I find myself a little lonely right now since I dropped Case off at his first ever stay overnight soccer camp.  He's with all his buddies from his soccer club (I was politely dismissed and told I could leave almost as soon as we got him unpacked, lol!).  Now, I'm sure he'll have a blast, but its the first time he's been away for so long (3 nights) and I can't help but be a worry-wort.  He's smart and a great kid, but he's my baby....and he's growing up fast.  I love him to pieces and just don't want to miss a second.  :)  Oh geez, what will I do when he goes to college?? 

Until next time dear friends.... :)


*Blueberries for Sal!  One of my faves growing up  :)