August 2023

 Highlights from August:

• Finished our time at the Vineyard National Conference in Black Mountain, NC, and stayed an extra day and a half.
• The twins brought home a "cold" from the Vineyard conference which they were nice enough to share with Ben and I - turned out to be Covid.  (This is the second or third time we had it.  It only lasted 3-4 days, but this was probably the "worst" case of Covid we had - very stuffy and achy with chills.)
• Trailblazers cross-country practice officially started.  Homecoming race at the Wheeler's house and the Metrolina race (Ben, Micah, Caleb, all had to leave the house at 6 am for that one... Abby, the twins, and I stayed home.)  A race at Westminster got rained out from the remnants of a hurricane coming through.
• Micah finally went to the doctor and had lab work done to see why he would feel so sick in the mornings when he ran.  Nothing super conclusive, but it seems like a combination of dehydration and low glucose. He discovered drinking Gatorade before bed helps. 
• CC began again! Challenge classes (Micah and Caleb) began August 16, and Abby and I went back a week later on August 23.
• Marvel and Marvens started K4 at the Applied Technology Center about 5 minutes from here.  They go from 11:15-1:35 everyday. We switched their Occupational/Speech Therapy to Tuesdays from 2:30-3:30, which now means we go there straight after school and the only nap they get is a quick catnap in the car on the way home. 😬
• Micah started USCL classes August 24.  He has an in-person class (PreCalc) Monday-Thursday at 8 am, and online Chemistry.  He discovered two friends were in his math class (Matthew Husta and Caleb Thompson), AND several other friends are at USCL during the day for other classes, so he usually stays and studies most of the day in the library after his math class, usually with other people.  The only other time Micah has done in-person classes at USCL was during summer session when very few people were on campus, so he said it's cool to see it's actually a busy place during the school year and really feels like college.  
• We had our next-to-last post-adoption social worker visit.  We will have one more in about a year, and after that, we have to submit yearly reports ourselves every year for 6 years (up until the boys have been home 8 years, when they are 11 1/2 years old.)

They loved the sunglasses they got in their class at the Vineyard conference

Markers and stickers back at the cabin. It was not easy to keep the twins occupied in that cabin!  There were a lot of "Do Not Touch This" things.

Ice cream at the conference center in the evening

When you are trying to get a cute picture and your older brother is a pain in the butt :)

Funny memory... this night, Ben wanted to meet up with some other pastors at a campfire area.  Abby and I ended up playing with the twins in the nearby yard most of the time.  Abby would help the twins catch fireflies and then tell them to make a wish and let them go.  Then she told them the fireflies could carry messages to people.  So they whispered something for the firefly to tell Grandma and then let it go fly away.  The next firefly, Abby said, "Who do you want to send a message to?"  Marvens said, "Jesus!"  Abby said, "What do you want to tell him?"  Marvens said, "Be nice!"😂

Daddy and the older kids got in the lunch line that wrapped all the way around the building.  I waited with the twins on these rockers until Ben got close and we could jump in line with him.

Once we found the game room on the third day, it became the popular spot for our family to go. One evening, we also went to a sand volleyball court and "played" volleyball and cornhole.

Family worship night.  We didn't make it very long before the twins had a meltdown, but it was fun while it lasted.  On another night, they showed the Jesus Revolution movie.  I stayed in the hallway with the twins where they could play and be on their tablets (while I watched Jesus Revolution on my phone.)

Marvel woke up before Marvens so got some quality tablet time in the sunroom/porch. :)

The conference ended Thursday night.  On Friday, we drove about 45 minutes to go to Linville Caverns.  It wasn't super big and the tour was only half an hour at the most, but it was still really cool.

This line is actually where two tectonic plates meet

Enjoying the crazy loud music at Dunkin Donuts on the way home:

A beautiful sunset on our last night in the mountains

Trying out panoramic mode

Goofy kids

Caleb doing the classic Micah pose when I take a picture

Micah joining in. I missed Ben's flex

Helping me make dinner

Working on pre-writing skills.  They both LOVE anything that has to do with letters and writing or coloring.

They also love "matching," and they always want to pose for pictures when they wear the same shirts.

We discovered they like salad with ranch dressing. They asked for it for snack one night.

I told Caleb to tickle Micah and make him smile. :)

For the first two CCs, Micah drove himself and Caleb.  By the third Wednesday, though, Micah's USCL classes had started, so he went to USCL while I took Caleb to CC.  Micah just came late once his math class was done.  (He misses doing the Chemistry strand at CC, which is perfect since he is taking that at USCL.)

Challenge B (8th grade)

Challenge III (always fun for taking pictures)

Poor Evelyn - the only girl this year!

Orientation at school - we met one of the teachers and saw the classroom

The sunflowers at Grandma's house make a perfect photo opportunity!

First day of school! They had been a little "off" for several days, maybe more so since orientation.  Dropping them off at school on the first day went well, but when I picked them up, the teacher (Mrs. Smith) said they had been screeching at the top of their lungs, and throwing things, and laughing at the teachers when they told them to stop.  😟😧  Right back to orphanage behavior!  As the teacher was telling me these things, I could see on their faces that they were like, "Uh oh, we didn't realize Mom would find this out!" They struggle with a "transfer of authority" from Mom and Dad to anyone else.  So they had a time-out when they got home and we talked about it a lot.  We decided that if they don't listen at school, they get time outs, but if they do a good job obeying the teachers, they could have a piece of candy when they got home.  The next day was much better! They went to school Monday, Tuesday, and Friday of that first week (they had half the kids come Monday/Tuesday; the other half Wednesday/Thursday; everyone came Friday.)  20 kids and only 2 teachers.  Yikes!  So they did good Tuesday and Friday.  But the next Monday, Marvel got in trouble for spitting because he didn't want to put away the playdough. (And spitting his water at lunch for fun.)  The adjustment period and regressive behavior is a real thing!  The good news is that they really seemed to like school quickly.

Watching Abby practice drawing maps

Praying at church... :)

...but not for long. :)

Trying sour raspberry slushie...

Marvens had a love-hate relationship with it 😆

The wagon is really popular lately.... they take turns pulling each other and racing around the corners.

Falling asleep as soon as we left Occupational/Speech therapy.  This is all the nap they got that first Tuesday!

Going to the playground one morning that FINALLY didn't feel super hot.  They spent the whole time watching the construction on the road.

The Trailblazers at the Homecoming Race.  Some were missing - there's something like 112 or 116 racers this year! 😲  Caleb in the black shirt, second row, in the middle.  Micah is behind him two rows and to the left.  It looks like Micah has a big curly mop of hair because of the kids behind him. 😆

This kid needs to work harder 😂

Washing dishes at Grandma's house

When you're awake, but just not ready to get up yet!

Micah's time at Metrolina - 21.26.  It was so early, and he still wasn't feeling real good, so he went into it knowing he wouldn't push himself.  He had a great perspective on it!  Caleb got a 20.30 on his 3k.