Ah...when life was simple..

Sandy and I were reminiscing about our Datsons and other things.
The Datsun 210 ran on regular gas, had a stick and got a lot of miles to the gallon.

Slip and slide with the Carlson's

Click on the title to view a slide show.
Wouldn't you just love to invite your friends over, dress them in large, black garbage bags and then douse them in Dawn liquid detergent? I guess that is what we did and it was a lot of fun.

I'm back

Wendy is so clever! Cars are the perfect learning tool and with a creative, artsy sister, you never know what we will come up with. Justin loved the fact that he got to be the last "L".

I visited with my Granny the past few days. We both enjoyed our time together. We went to church on Sunday and afterwards to Uncle Harold's to eat lasagna that Aunt Brenda had fixed. Uncle Mike comes over to give Granny a shot every day around 5:00 PM. It was haying time and hot. Granny and I ran some errands, ate a hot dog at the Dairy Queen and just hung out together. My grandmother is over 90. Now if you can imagine, Granny and I going snake hunting, that was one of the things we did together. Granny has cats that are her pets, but they are outside cats and as visitors we can only watch the cats because they don't like newcomers. Anyway we were watching one of the cats chase and stalk something, but it was in the high grass, so we could only see the cat's back end. All of a sudden the cat came out with a snake in her mouth. Well Granny went for shoes and a hoe. I thought I better get my shoes and take care of it before Granny does. I gave up quickly on my shoes, for all I had were flip flops. Well, we never got the snake, the cat wasn't parting with it. We just hoped the cat didn't go under the house and let it go.

When I told the family my snake story, right away Justin ask, "Is it just like 'At home in the Mountains'." And yes it is just like the story that I read to him. It is a fun read aloud book.

Olivia:
The referrals for June have been announced, China advanced 8 LID dates in the 30 or so days since the last ones. Also the earthquakes hit in China during this month, so we didn't know what would happen. The people that got their referrals will not travel till after the Olympics, so I don't know if there will be a back log of travel arrangements after the Olympics. So if China keeps going forward at 8 or 10 LID dates our referral would come in the fall. If the referrals slow or cease during the Olympics our referral would not arrive till winter/Christmastime. Again, this is all speculation. Last month one of the most encouraging words I heard was from Annette, when she said, "we love her already". (and of course my dad says this all the time.) Thanks that makes it seem real.

Ft. Lauderdale

Justin

Exercise program without machines...

Being silly in FL

Where's the Windex?

Jogging in FL

Justin moments...

The other day Justin put this Frisbee over the soccer ball and said, "Look Mom it's Saturn". He continually amazes us all, with what he comes up with. I know I've told about the time he stacked plastic cups up (several, one on top of the other) and then as they bent somewhat to the side, Justin said, "I've got the leaning tower of Pisa". What is so amazing is that he comes up with these things on his own. Oh, and one other thing, can I tell him Handel and Mozart are similar?

Olivia update for May

The referrals for May were received earlier this month. I'm not sure if you can follow this, but China only moved 3 LID dates for this past month. This means China has given referrals for LID dates up to and including 1-12-2006. Our LID date is 2-6-2006. Our adoption agency's next LID group is 1-17-2006, they are "HOPING" that they get referrals for this group by June or July!! :(
This doesn't look good for us.

Again, we started the process Sept., 2005, fully expecting (& not unreasonably either) that we'd have our daughter by the next fall (2006). So far the "due" date has been put off, guessed at, speculated at, and we've even tried to make educated estimates, but needless to say, we still wait and can't really even make a guess as to when. So that's the update, not very encouraging...yet we know it is all in God's hands. He knows our daughter and has her especially chosen for our family; and it is also in His time frame, so we wait and Hope only in our Lord.

Monday: Belk's and Thomas Edison's home

Our day started with a trip to Belk's. We had to drive to Ft. Meyers. Abbey had wanted a shirt like Wendy's, so we found the closest Belk and took off. We did our shopping and found the shirt.
The Belk's here in FL was nice, but not nearly as nice as the ones in MB, SC. The ones in MB have a special service that was missing here in FL. You see in MB there is a Grandma who pushes the littlest one around, spoiling him, talking with him, feeding him goodies and taking him potty. All the while this Grandma :) (we just call her MaMa), is offering suggestions or ideas, finding deals and offering her collection of coupons. Then at the end of the day, she just says, "Put it on my charge card". We missed your company MaMa (& not just because of the charge card part.)

We went on to the Thomas Edison/Henry Ford estates and spent most of the afternoon there.

House and garage

The wrap around porches were great.
Lighting, of course, we were in T. Edison's home. JFYI, T. Edison summited something for patent every year for 65 years, plus at times more.

Henry Ford's garage.

Henry Ford and audio

Model A and a "tin Lizzie" (Model T), modified to be a truck.


We could take a guided tour or opt for these audio's. Justin actually would listen and follow what was going on.

Finish up estates and museum on to the islands.

Of course Justin loved the old cars. He has and an old Ford pickup and a Ford Coupe that are favorites, after his visit to Mr. Ford's house. One of the fun things about Naples are the cars. There are so many fancy and ritzy cars down here in the Naples area. At one stop light you can be surrounded by many high end cars that you'd never see up north on a normal day. I've seen 2 Mazarati's in the week we've been here. Also, if the car mfr. makes a sporty 2 seater, it is here, Cadillac's, BMW's, Porche's, Honda's, and more; all cute little 2 seater sporty cars. I was behind an elderly lady at the grocery store and she was explaining to the bagger, that she must have paper, because she has a 2 seater and paper is the only thing that works. (Not sure about that, but that was what she was saying.)
On to Captiva. We stopped quickly on Sanibel then onto the beach at Captiva.

On the beach, Captiva

More beach