All Amercian Girl:)

It has been too long since my last entry but boy, have we been busy! We have gone to Pennsylvania twice by plane, and planted a good sized garden. Marina and Evan have lots of end of year programs, and getting ready to attend Kickin' Kids summer day camp where those folks have got every single activity in the whole of South Carolina on their calendar! These two kiddos are going to have a blast this summer! Easter was so neat, and Marina figured out to hunt for the colored eggs hidden in the grass...candy is a motivator for nearly everyone in my family and she is no exception to that rule! She had an open house day where we could visit during her art class and the teacher was so kind to even let Evan participate in the project. So that is why Evan is in Marina's class photo...he goes to school an hour after she does so we had that time slot open for him to be with me.
Tully and I celebrated our 11th year anniversary this past friday night and we all went to a baseball game in Lancaster PA with Gramma Sue. It was sure cold compared to our beautiful southern spring, so we could not stay for the whole game, but Marina and Evan had hot dogs and popcorn and lemonade and cheered each time anyone hit the ball ( no team affiliation necessary:). This particular ball park had an amazing playground as well, so we finished up the night with a round of that big fun. The next day we met with a few of Tully's old buddies who brought kids to gramma sue's house and the best fun of all began to unravel! The kids who came were so cool, Wyatt is 5 and his sister Cara is 6 (nearly 7). Evan and Wyatt played in the creek and caught toads and hoped to catch minnows in the trap that they checked 68 times, and Cara and Marina wandered around hand in hand, chasing a stray cat and generally just happy in the sunshine. Finished up the day with a camp fire and the sun went down on tired children worn out from the tree swing on the hill. Huck Finn surely never had such a great day!
Marina and Evan are wonderful travelers and I am so grateful for that!

Coming up we have a general medical check up, and a trip to the dentist with both kids...dreading that day! (may 11th). Marina is learning her version of English in leaps and bounds. Ice cream is now at the top of the list, followed by "stop it mommy!" That probably is from putting the ice cream back in the freezer before the half gallon is either melted or empty...
She always gets her point across and is a master signer, whether it is ASL correct or not, it is so applicable to the subject matter that one is never left guessing what her point is. She has stopped calling us mama and dada and now calls us mommy and daddy, which is really sweet. That was something she just did on her own, nothing we asked of her. Our goal this month is for Evan and Marina to work on manners towards each other, they have gotten too much like brother and sister, now we have to back it up a bit and see if we can be more cordial like friends. It is off to a much better start than I was anticipating, which goes to show, make the standards high!

Evan asked me the other day why we picked Marina instead of any other kid and honestly, I hope I give him the best answer there is....because we simply let God pick her for us. She is a perfect fit for this family, and I could never take any credit for that. Life is normal, like I had always dreamed it would be...of course our sort of Normal is all over the page and not within the lines, which is just how we like it. I am looking forward to planning a long weekend heading to the beach sometime soon, either the west coast or maybe Puerto Rico. (I love free airfare.) After that, I will have to buckle down and work like crazy through the summer on all those vacation bids that I am to cover. Lots of coworkers say I will lose weight, that is a real bonus:) But something tells me its' going to be hot out there! My parents already opened their pool this year so that might have to be my stop on the way home from work alot of days...

Happy spring, summer on the horizon. Life is great! Simply amazingly great...