The Skinny on Flavored Milk

I know school is still a couple months away from starting up, but I get these emails from Jamie Oliver and his food revolution, and he just posted one on how some states and school districts are beginning to ban flavored milk for the coming school year. This is great news! Last year, we would let Isaac get cafeteria one day out of the week. And every single time his drink was chocolate milk. It was surprising to me to find out that flavored milk has the same sugar content as an 8 ounce can of soda. Look at these facts below:

Shocking, isn't it?! I have kept soda away from the kids except for the special occasions where Isaac gets to enjoy a small amount of Sprite or Ginger Ale. But when we would go to fast food resteraunts, his drink of choice is always chocolate milk. I was feeling good about myself saying atleast I don't allow him to order soda like all the other kids in line. Some food experts would say that kids do not drink enough milk, robbing their bodies of the necessary calcium and Vitamin D found in milk, therefor flavored milk is better than no milk at all. But why no milk at all? When did our children decide that they just don't like plain milk? They have been drinking it since they were toddlers. So why the change once they hit school age? Here is an article on why milk is important for children. Nutritionists say adding a little of your own flavoring is not a problem, the problem is with the packaged milks. My kids are served plain milk twice a day, but I somehow saw no harm in them choosing bottled flavored milk when we are out. Not anymore. Here is a great website to show how drinks stack up in the sugar department: www.sugarstacks.com/beverages. Check it out! Kids Health.org also has an article on what kids should drink. Of course if you want to know how you can help your child's schools in the movement to remove flavored milk (afterall many have already removed soda cans from schools) than you can go here: Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. I for one will be having a conversation with my son right before school starts about how we will no longer be drinking flavored milk. Even if this means I pack him a bottle of water on his cafeteria days.

Isaac is off to summer "camp"

At almost 6 years old, this is the longest we will have been away from our son!

Isaac headed off with his grandparents to spend the week in Houston.

His Nana has planned all kinds of adventures.

Tomorrow they will be taking their RV to the lake to camp for a couple of nights.

Here he is loading his luggage into their car.

They bought him a big bike, a fishing pole, and games to play on Nana's Nintendo DS (a big treat for him because he doesn't have video games at home), and they will be grilling hot dogs and marshmallows.

Sounds like a lot of fun!

We will see him again 4th of July weekend.

Have fun, Little Critter!! We love you!

Toy Story 3

Billy's parents came in town and we went to Studio Movie Grill last night.

We LOVED Toy Story 3. It was really, really well done. So touching too, which I didn't expect.

I cried at the end...I couldn't help it, it was just such a good movie for the whole family.

My mother-in-law and I said that it was entertaining from start to finish,

rare to find in a kid's movie.

Seeing it in 3D was a fun experience too.

The kids enjoyed Padre reading to them at bedtime.

Yogurt Story

We spent the night with Paige and Jarrett this week because our A/C went out in the house. We have had the worst summer of A/C problems...first the van (that drained our savings account) and now the house. But thankfully we are renting so it got fixed for free.

Anywho...Paige turned us on to the deliciousness that is Yogurt Story.

First you grab a huge cup (you pay by the ounce, so I could see where they were going with the cup sizes!) and then you chose any frozen yogurts you want. There were choices like Cake Batter (YUM), cookies & cream, cheesecake, coconut (yuck), peach, strawberry, chocolate, Peanut Butter (oh my!) and more.

Then you select amongst a huge array of toppings.
Gloria would LOVE this place!

Some of the more unique topping choices: watermelon chunks, kiwi, capn' crunch cereal, cheesecake and brownie chunks, craisins, and of course all of the yummy and classic candy varieties.

Vivi and her sweet tooth were in frozen yogurt heaven.

She got 3 flavors of yogurt and maybe 4 toppings.

Jarrett's was nothing short of, dare I say....gross.

The boy put so much in there, the color at the end was blue.

Good. Night.

I do have to say, I am a big fan of Yogurt Story.

That place is just plain fun!

Billy's Latest Published Article

He made it to the table of contents this time!

He is in the "Living with Diversity" Section of the latest Adoptive Families Magazine

on page 26, where he wrote about a group we have been involved with in the area called

Families Like Us.

Check it out at your local B & N bookstore, there is a nice big cute photo of him with the kids that we took at the post office right after we mailed our application to the adoption agency in May.

Rice and Beans

Time did a photo essay called, "What the World Eats."

Here are some of the families photographed,

and their groceries for just one week.

Kuwait-$221.45

Japan- $317.25
United States- $341.98

Germany- $500 a week

We spend exactly $125 a week on groceries for our family of 4.

I have always thought, that is pretty darn good.
I, and my buy-generic-use-coupons-otherwise-self was feeling like we are doing well in being good stewards of our grocery money. Especially in light of these other families around the world, we are below the curve, right?

But then...amongst the 12 families...this one stood out:

Chad-$1.24 a week
6 members in this family...
and they live in a tent.
They have a big sack of rice...
They have a big sack of beans.



We had On the Border today for lunch.
It was a special father's day treat for Billy.
The meal with tip cost us $32.
For one meal, on one day.
For four people.
Oh, we ate rice and beans...and a whole lot more.
The children had lemonade, meat, chips, vegetables, icecream.

Did you know that 18.4 million people in Africa are at starvation level.
That is one quarter of the total population, as reported on June 12th in this article:
Africa Famine.

Isn't it so easy to eat our chicken and pizzas, and drink our milk and juice and not have to think about those who go without every single day. I know it is all too easy for me to do.


I came across this blog post from another adoptive mom:
Rice and Beans-Blogger Challenge.

Please read it. I know it stirred something in me.
I admit, I too change the channel when the infomercials for Feed the Children come on. It is too much to look at, too much to bear in our land of plenty. And Billy and I stress about the rising cost of gasoline, where will I come up with the money to entertain my children this summer, how will we exactly pay for diapers and formula when this new baby arrives?

But people...so much of the world has so much less.

Did you know that World Vision uses $1 a day to provide food, health care, education, and clean water? I am not here to get you to find more money in an already tight budget, we all fall under that category, right? And this is not some kind of a guilt trip to get you to put the oreos back on the shelf. But what if there was a way for us to live on less and therefor give more?

And how could you use the extra money to help someone else?
What lessons would be taught to your children?
What values would God stir in your own heart?
Could you eat only rice and beans for just one meal once a day for a week?
For a month?

The question for me is, could we?

The Dog Days of Summer

Playgroup at the Pool

A cookout with my post college friends and their sweet kids,

can you tell we were having a hard time getting a group picture? :)

Vacation Bible School

Finding a Pumba ride at Walmart was a treat for Vivi!
Hakuna Matata!

Getting hosed down by dad in the backyard.

Waiting...*UPDATED...MANY!**

Doesn't life just feel like a perpetual WAIT.

Our home study visit went well this morning. We are waiting on my medical clearances and for our director to type it up to be able to approve us. **Update...my medical work came back all excellent and they are in the process of faxing everything to the agency. What a relief!

You can follow our ticker at the bottom of this blog...I moved it because it was creating some confusion. To clarify, it is showing how long we have been waiting since we officially starting tracking it June 1st. We now have only about 2 weeks to raise $5,000 to pay our approval fees, and we have only received $50 so far. BUT...I will not despair! My mother in law has been helping me think of some fundraisers and we may be on to something that we can roll out early July. **Update-just heard that we are approved for a $4,000 matching grant, more about that later!

The nursery is coming along. I still need many things like curtains, wall decor...and of course the ever needed car seat...which plagues me a bit because i will be ordering it and you never know once approved if we could get a call that says "baby has been born...come on to the hospital!" Take a look at the one we chose, it is called Lively Dots. I am planning on doing site to store off W.almart for it. Isn't it adorable?!! :)

We have drained our accounts as of late paying the agency and purchasing things needed for the homestudy and profiles, so the car seat will have to wait for awhile. I am still looking into getting some additional income, so far that has not gone anywhere. **Update, within an hour after writing this I got a call from a single dad who is going to court tomorrow to get visitation orders and needs nighttime childcare of his son because he works at a hospital. Can you believe how quickly God works sometimes? We will see if it pans out, but the call itself was encouraging!

OH! I changed the tulle on our profile book and put pretty ribbon there instead.

I like it so much better.

This went with the agency today. Once approved, we will be all set. Please pray for income, fundraising, and my medical stuff to come back fine and get faxed to the agency in a timely manner!

May Our Resources Go Into Building Our Family, Not Our Lifestyle

Two days until our home study! I am not nervous at all this time around as it will be our agency director who comes and we have had a wonderful relationship with her for the past three and a half years. But, there are still preparations to be done. That, however is not what this post is about. I read an amazingly refreshing blog post several months ago and I waited until just the right time to share it on here. I think amidst our support raising, this is a great time. The post is called "I Don't Want My Children To Be Happy." Click on the title to read it in full. The point this Mama makes is that she won't have money set aside for her children's college funds, or even all the many childhood pleasures that exist to tempt us, because their heart is for adoption. She says their goal is not to please their children, that they spend many a day not doing that, but for them to be content and holy, not necessarily happy.

Her post has received a lot of buzz among blogs, it honestly could have been my very words... but I do not write as eloquently as this lady! So go read it, what are you still doing here? ;)

Garage Sale

The kids had fun running their stand at the garage sale.
We think it went well, we only had one truck load of stuff to take to CCA afterward.

Isaac was cute as he would say,

"You want a muffin?"

to every kid that came up!

First Waterpark Day of the Summer!

Our first day at a waterpark always marks the beginning of summer for us.

Today it was very breezy so the water was COLD, but the kids had no problem!
Next time I will be tying her hair back.
It was in her face all day.

Girl....you gotta get in the water!

Oh there is a small glimpse of Isaac.

We didn't see much of him except for when he wanted food!

Finally! Once she was in, she was a fish.

Our Book

Our book came in from Shutterfly that I made for the agency.

I chose a blue satin cover and then I tied brown tulle over the front.
The book consist of 20 pages; here are some of the layouts...

I love this last page.

It turned out so nice, I am thankful to have that checked off my list!

We also had printed up 10 copies of our Profile.

The profile is a one page "dear birthmom" letter and on the back is a collage of photos of us.

This is what the agency gives to potential birthmothers, then they choose a family they would like to meet among the profile letters they view. I have found that some people think the agency chooses us and matches us with a birthmother, but that is not the way domestic infant adoption works anymore. In almost every case, the birthmother is the one who makes the full decision on which family will be best for her child. At the time where we meet the birthmother, we present her with this scrapbook that she can use to get to know us better, and keep once she has chosen us.

In the event of an out of state birthmother, or a baby that has already been born-I assume the agency will just mail this book to her after she chooses us from the profiles she is given.

Either way, when our agency director comes next Thursday to do our home study, we will give her our book and profiles. That way when she approves us, she will have everything ready to go to show when the need arises.