Olivia

I am sorry that you had look at my tail of woe so long. I am very tired of seeing it every time I log on but I have been trying to post for several days and have been having trouble.

Today I met Olivia's new adoptive parents. We had a meeting to discuss her transition into their home. She will start having visits over the next few weeks and then move in with them for good on March 21st.

I really liked her new family. I know that they will be good to her and they are VERY excited to adopt her, but the next few weeks are still going to be hard.

Pray for us and they kids as we prepare our hearts to say good-bye.

My "Fun" Weekend

My fun weekend, referred to in my last post, was supposed to start out Friday night with a night away with my wonderful husband, spend the day Saturday "dragging" him shopping and then Saturday night go to a Jeff Allen show. Jeff Allen is a very funny Christian Comedian, and one of our favorites. My sitter plans for Friday night fell through, but we still planned on having Saturday together and going t0 see Jeff Allen in the evening. We already had the tickets. We were really looking forward to this weekend because our trip for our 15th anniversary in September fell through.
My weekend turned into being sick and staying home with a sick family. Tim got sick on Thursday, Charlie got sick on Friday, Chris and I got sick on Saturday, the baby got sick on Sunday and Brittany got sick today. Walter is the only one that has not gotten sick. He is not showing any signs of sickness yet so maybe he will ecscape it.
We were pretty disappointed but ended up having a nice relaxing weekend as family. Sunday for me is usually a very tiring day, and Olivia is at the age that I usually spend more time in the nursery than in service. Yesterday I got into more church then I have in a while. I heard GBS sing at Frankfort Bible Holliness. Listened to my brother teach his sunday school class at Franklin Pilgrim Holiness Church, went to two services at Hobe Sound Camp, AND got to stay in my PJ's all day!
I have always said that half of the fun of a trip is the planning and looking forward to it. So since we WILL get to take that trip someday, I still have something to look forward to!!!

Introducing...

.... Two new bloggers. My brother Keith and my niece Joya.
Keith's blog is a really cool site where he post notes and audio of his Sunday School class. I have been in his class several times, and he is a really great and interesting Sunday School teacher. He also has some really cool links to online Bibles and Commentaries.
So check out these two new sites and welcome them to the blogging world.

Happy Valentines Day!

Every year I try to do a special meal for the family for Valentines Day. This has become something the kids really look forward to. Usually it is a dinner but this year, since Tim has to judge a competition tonight, I decided to do a special breakfest. We had Heart Shaped Biscuts, Bacon, Scrambled Eggs, and Fruit and Yogurt Smoothies.
I did not want to spend alot of money on trinkets and stuffed animals for Valintines gifts so the kids got some candy and the first season of Little House on the Priarie on DVD.

Olivia enjoying her heart sucker.

Visiting Valentines Past~

This is one of the kids favorite Valentine meals ever. It was in 05 and they still talk about it. We had Stuffed Chicken, Scallopped Potaoes, Green Beans, Yeast Rolls, and Chocolate Mousse in a Chocolate Ball w/ Strawberries.

Boy time flies~I can't believe how they are growing up!

To make the Chocolate Bowls just blow up small balloons and dip them into melted chocolate. Let the chocolate harden and then pop the balloon.

Fill with Chocolate Mousse(I just used a store bought mix) and Strawberries. You could also use ice cream if you did not want to mess with the Mousse.

So if you don't have anything special planned for your family tonight, give this a try~they will love it!

Tim and I have a fun weekend planned~can't wait!

My 100th Post.

In honor of my 100th post I am posting 100 things about myself. So if you don't have anything better to do, sit back and enjoy!

1. My name is Patricia.
2. People call me Patty.
3. When I was young people called me Pat Sue.
4. I was born in Africa.
5. When I was about a week old, my brother tried to clip my nails and clipped off the end of my finger.
6. I was 2 ½ before I ever stepped foot in the good old USA.
7. I have 2 brothers.
8. And one sister.
9. I lost a brother when I was 7 and he was 11.
10. I still miss him.
11. I was raised in a Christian family.
12. I had three grandpas that were preachers.
13. I am a PK (preacher’s kid) and a MK (missionary’s kid).
14. I am right handed.
15. I got in trouble a lot in grade school.
16. I loved high school.
17. I went to college for 2 years.
18. I started working at McDonalds when I was 16.
19. I saved my money and went to Alaska that summer to visit my cousin for 6 weeks.
20. I flew by myself.
21. I had a crush on my husband before we started dating.
22. We dated for 3 ½ years.
23. I thought he would never ask.
24. He is my best friend.
25. He is the only man I have kissed.
26. We have been married for 15 years.
27. We are more in love now than ever.
28. He spoils me.
29. I get along with my In-laws.
30. We have been foster parents for 9 years.
31. We have had 12 foster kids.
32. We have adopted 4 kids.
33. 2 boys
34. 2 girls.
35. I used to think that I wanted 6 kids.
36. Now I am very happy with 4.
37. I love to foster babies.
38. I am THANKFUL that we could not have biological kids because God has given us the greatest kids in the world.
39. I always said I would NEVER be a teacher.
40. Now I home school my four kids.
41. I like talk radio.
42. I like politics.
43. I like to shop.
44. I love, love, love to shop if there is a Clearance.
45. I don’t like to “window “shop if I don’t have any money to spend.
46. I like to buy clothes,
47. But couldn’t care less about shoes.
48. I love to scrapbook.
49. I am way behind on my scrapbooking.
50. I do better at making scrapbooks for others.
51. I like to make handmade cards.
52. I like to cook.
53. I took piano lessons for years,
54. But I cannot play the piano.
55. I volunteered for 5 years at Crisis Pregnancy Center.
56. I hope to volunteer again when my family gets older.
57. I love my Church.
58. I love to travel.
59. My favorite vacation was to Outer Banks.
60. My second favorite was to Colorado Springs.
61. My best friend’s name is Lisa.
62. I like to go bare footed.
63. I have been stopped by a policeman 3 times.
64. I have gotten 3 tickets.
65. I have a reoccurring dream about calling 911 and no one answers.
66. Fall used to be my favorite season.
67. Now I love spring.
68. I don’t like to clean house.
69. I like being my age,
70. But this is the first birthday-37-that kind of bothered me.
71. I am a procrastinator.
72. I work better under the pressure of a deadline.
73. My husband thinks I am addicted to blogging.
74. I am not very patient.
75. I am too sarcastic at times.
76. I am sentimental.
77. I like common sense thinking.
78. I have trouble with people who do not do their jobs properly.
79. I am a pack-rat but am getting better about it.
80. I am doing better this year with exercising.
81. I am actually starting to like it!
82. I love any kind of organizing containers.
83. I just got an IPOD.
84. I love to read.
85. I LOVE coffee.
86. Big Starbucks fan.
87. Love Chocolate.
88. I wanted to be a nurse when I was young.
89. I may go back to school when Tim gets out.
90. I have had 8 jobs.
91. I haven’t “worked” in 7 years.
92. I have never had a broken bone.
93. I have never been hospitalized.
94. I like to dream about all the things I would do with a million dollars.
95. I am blessed with great family and friends,
96. And love to spend time with them.
97. I love flowers in my yard,
98. But I hate to garden.
99. I am happy with my life.
100. And finally, I am thankful to my Lord and Savior for his many blessings.

Dad's 70th Birthday Party

Saturday we had a 70th birthday party for my Dad. This has been in the works for several months and we were trying to keep it a surprise. Since Dad decided to take an out of town business trip my brother had to tell him to be back by Friday night. Since it was the week of his birthday he knew something was up, he just didn't know what.
We decorated with an African theme since Dad was a missionary to Africa for 10 years. my sis-in-law did a great job with the decorations, but I forgot to take very many pictures of them!
Dad has a lot of slides from his college day and from Africa. They have been in his attic for years. We took them out of his attic and I went through about 1500 slides! We had some of them put unto a CD and Tim made a slide show that we had playing at the party.(Sam's will put slides on a CD for .18 cents)
For his gift we ask people to send in letters and scrapbook pages telling what Dad meant to them. We compiled this into a scrapbook and it turned out really nice.

We had a great time and are so blessed to have a such a wonderful father. Dad with all his grand kids
The Whole Russell Gang
Friends from his college days.
Dad modeling one of his gifts. It says Caution- Frequent Senior Moments

Click in the picture below for more pictures of the party.

Dad's Birthday Party

More Christmas

After much delay and being very busy, I am finally getting around to posting the rest of my Christmas pictures. Christmas day was spent at home. The kids got us up about 7:30 and we had a leisurely fun time opening presents. We ate a late breakfast of egg casserole and coffee cake. Since I was behind the camera most of the day I did not get pictures of my gifts. Tim got me a really nice set of pots and pans. He does not like to get me gifts that have to do with "work", but I told him I really wanted them. I am really enjoying using them.
Tim's parents came over for dinner and the evening, we had a nice time and a great day! Click on the picture below for more pics of the day

Christmas Day

New years was spent with my family at my sister's house in Ohio. We had a wonderful time being together. There were a lot of games, lots of goodies, many laughs, and "few" theological discussions. They live next to their church which has a gym. It was a great place for the kids to play. Click on the picture below to see more.

New Years-Christmas with the Russell side

The next week is going to be very busy so you may not here from me for a while:-}

Birthday Updates

Here are some pictures from Walter's birthday. He always lucks out because I shop for his birthday after Christmas and get things on clearance. Since we try to spend the same for each child on their birthdays, he usually gets more for his "buck". We were able to get him a Remote Control video spy car that would have been more than we spend if it had not be 50% off. He also got Adventures in Odyssey cds.
The Birthday Child usually picks where They want to go out to eat f0r their birthday, but Walter wanted me to cook a "Sunday" dinner. He loves fruit and requested an "All fruit birthday". I made Fried Apples for breakfast and Fruit Salad along with our dinner, and he chose Blackberry Cobbler instead of cake. Click on the picture below for more pictures of Walter's birthday.

Walter's Birthday

Brittany's birthday was 3 weeks ago but I never got pictures of her birthday posted. She wanted to go Applebee's for their All You Can Eat Soup and Salad lunch. She thoroughly enjoys birthdays and made the best of her day from dawn to dark:-) Click on the picture to view more.

Brittany's Birthday

Happy Birthday Walter

Happy 11th Birthday Walter!! You are becoming a very talented young man. I am so thankful that you have a heart for God. I hope you always use your talents for him. We love you. Hope you have a great birthday.

What??

Last night we were listening to the radio in the car. The song that was playing had a phrase that said "When I walk into heaven with my white robe on". Chris pipped up and said are they saying "Wife's robe?" He thought that the song said "When I walk into Heaven with my wife's robe on".