Monday, August 30, 2010

Rally Time

Go Angels!
Derek, Joseph, and I met up with Mack, Angela, and Little Mack and Mack's friend David and his daughter for a fun afternoon in the sun at Angel Stadium
We had a great time and my stomach still hurts from eating so much. Unfortunately the Angels didn't win this game - but everyone had fun so we didn't mind.


Thursday, August 26, 2010

Mexican Dancing

I think we might be seeing a little more range of emotion from Joseph as he settles in -- the last couple of nights I've seen him be a little more negative, pessimistic and frustrated -- I'm going to take this as the "honeymoon" coming to an end. It seems like he can be particularly hard on himself as he expects to color perfectly and always do well on Wii sports. He gets frustrated when he doesn't win -- and Dad & Launa, I'm sorry for all the times I cried at losing a game at this age!!!! I'm sure it doesn't help that it happens at night after the meds wear off. Still, while honeymoons are great - "real" life adds dimension. :)

Another theme I'm seeing more of is reference to culture -- Joseph will often point out others, like on TV, that are "Mexican" like he is. Last night, he demonstrated "Mexican dancing" for me!!!! It kind of reminded me of my days several years back when I took Salsa dancing lessons -- maybe he can show me some good moves so I won't look so stiff on the dance floor!!!!!!!

Monday, August 23, 2010

Mountain Festival 2010

Yay for the annual Mountain Festival!!!!!
Saturday started off with a local parade - followed by visiting the arts & crafts booths

Festival food is always a plus - alas, there was no funnel cake :( and I had been looking forward to that!!!! Don't worry though, the root beer float made things better :)

Here's Joseph watching them cook meat!


And Joseph is somewhere in there! Watch out Kong, Joseph will give you a run for it!



There were some fun carnival rides too......


And then Sunday morning, we went to church at the park followed by the Thunder on the Mountain Car Show - Joseph loved this one! We took many pictures of cars that he's going to find a way to do an album or something with. Here were some of my favs:





Here's a 1930's hearse in the "specialty" category











Wednesday, August 18, 2010

School Begins!!!

Joseph and Derek started back to school today -- I kind of feel left out because I'm the only one in the house not going to Golden Hills elementary school each day!!!

Joseph had a great day - got a good score from his new teacher, Mrs. Kostal -- and I got to fill out more parent paperwork :) I think tomorrow starts homework -- keeping fingers crossed :)

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Finding a New Groove

Many people know that Derek and I have been wanting to be foster parents - it's been about a year since starting on the paperwork/training journey. This last week or so, we met a wonderful young man, Joseph (age 9), who as of last Friday is living with us! So we're all getting to know each other in all different ways and with that is the three of us trying to find that new groove! Old habits of course die hard, and change (even the best of kinds) can be overwhelming and exciting... so for now we are all on the learning curve together and looking to see what the future brings :)