38 Candles

It is midnight and I can hear the clock chiming 12 times. That means I am a year older today. My goodness, time is sure flying! I can never go to bed before midnight on birthday eve, so I am off to bed now, I have a busy day ahead of me, Dayton's golf lessons in the morning and my own physical therapy appointment, then we can celebrate! I really don't like my own birthdays, I have a hard time deciding what to do, Mark always lets me plan my day and I get all jumbled up trying to figure out the best way to spend my day. Hopefully it will be low key and we can get caught up around here, being away on vacation is still catching up with me! Happy Birthday to my little buddy Nick too, we share the same date! I can't wait to eat some cake tomorrow!! P.S. I had to put my new favorite song on for today!

Happy Birthday Mom, a week late!

I missed my mom's birthday post last week because we were on vacation with the horrible internet service, so I wanted to wish her a happy belated birthday a week late! We love you mom and Grandma! Tomorrow is my birthday and I always feel like we share it as well, she did all of the work to bring me into this world! Hopefully we can celebrate both of our big days this weekend!

We're Baaaack!

In front of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown New York
The Hall of Fame full of bronze plaques of honorees like Babe Ruth, Cal Ripken, George Brett, and tomorrow Goose Gossage.

Hall of Famer George Shuba with Dayton

Goose Gossage patting Yogi Berra on the back, they were both signing autographs.
The Goose!
Dayton being called out on to the field during the Youth Hall of Fame ceremony.
Dayton with his Hall of Fame ring.

We just arrived late tonight and I cannot express how thankful I am to be home. We had a great time, the experience was something we will never forget. It poured rain for most of the time, we were miserable and had many rain delays. It finally cleared up yesterday and we were able to enjoy the area, closing ceremonies and fireworks. The 10 hour ride home was brutal but better than the trip out. For those of you wondering where we were, we were in Cooperstown New York, the birthplace of baseball. Each year 12 year olds from around the country are invited to attend a week long tournament, at the end of the tournament the boys are all inducted into the American Youth Baseball Hall of Fame. This happens every week for 13 weeks. Our week ended up being very special because it is the same week as the National Baseball Hall of Fame inducts its new honorees. So we were in town with many of the Hall of Famers. One of the highlights of our trip occured yesterday when we were able to get pictures of Yogi Berra and Goose Gossage. Goose is the only pro player being inducted this weekend. It was so cool! That little town got into my heart this week. I like baseball but this really made me fall in love with it. Cooperstown is adorable and we had a memorable time. Dayton played at a beautiful baseball facility in the mountains called the Cooperstown Dream Park. It is huge and family run. Each day we drove down our mountain to attend the games and then afterwards Dayton would go back with his team. It was kind of hard to not get to talk to him very much this week but the last few days he was able to stay with us so we could do some sightseeing. Their team didn't do too bad and actually won a few games. We beat the team from Hawaii the other day and their boys handed our boys necklaces that their mother's had made. It was very touching, our boys were exposed to so many different cultures and personalities this week.. Dayton said it best yesterday when he said he didn't want it to end. Our families and friends were able to watch a live web cam of a few of his games and that made it even more special. It was worth standing in the pouring rain, 5 hour rain delays, sleeping in a 2 room cabin on a mountain top, no tv for a week and living in a remote little town for a week.

It is getting late and I have more to post but I wanted to put up a few pictures at least tonight. Tomorrow is the Hall of Fame Inductions and Goose Gossage will be there so I thought it would be appropriate to honor both of our Hall of Famers!

Opening Ceremonies and First Game

There were 98 teams around the field

It is like Where's Waldo!

Our old team was cheering for Dayton as he walked by with our team

Dayton's team walking into the stadium.

Last night we attended the opening ceremonies for this tournament and it was a night I am sure none of us will ever forget. There are actually 98 teams here. The teams were all paraded in and I was so touched when our old team (from our hometown) cheered for Dayton as he walked by. It was such a neat experience for the kids. He is doing great in the dorms, even eating foods that he would never even try for me. My parents and friends were able watch on the internet his first game broadcasted live, you gotta love technology! His second game was called because of a bad storm and now will be made up at 8 am on Wednesday for those who are wondering. It is very strange having virtually no contact with him at all and only getting to visit with him during his game and while he is walking back to the dorms. He gave us a bit of good news when we saw him today, his one tooth finally poked through that was pulled over spring break, so that means no surgery to bring it down! Yeah! The orthodontist will be happy about that!

Here are a few pictures from the past day and a half, I hope you enjoy them! Little Myah is loving it here and won't take the baseball jersey off, she wore it again today! She is missing Dayton though! Tomorrow night we can check him out and he will stay with us. Did I tell you that we are staying in a campground on the top of a mountain. In a little cabin in the woods. When we came home tonight, there was no power due to the storm. Uh oh, we might have to rough it!!!!! Yikes!! It did eventually come on Thankfully!!!!

Well, it is getting late, just wanted to quickly post some pics for you all.

***this was yesterdays post, the internet is very slow up here on the mountain!

We Made It!

That's my "brudda" she says!
Dayton's home away from home for the week! There are several rows of these.
Pin trading with other teams.
Go Bulldogs!
Doesn't he look thrilled to have mom taking his picture! Everyone here is issued 2 uniforms, a red and a blue. It is hard to figure our who is who!

Oh my goodness what a drive! 10 hours in our new little car with all of our junk was no picnic! Especially through the mountains and hills. It is beautiful out here though! We are in the mountains and the place is pretty amazing. So quaint but it is all about baseball here! Dayton has gotten settled into his "dorms" and we are in our cozy cabin at the campground. It was funny when we pulled into the campground our friends from our old team (and schoolmates of Dayton) were all by the pool, it was like driving into home, so funny! Dayton has been trading pins and he has collected them from all over the US. There are 96 teams here this week! Such an experience for him. There are 3 teams just from Hawaii! The internet is really slow here so I am not sure how many pics will upload but I wanted our family and friends to see where we are. We leave in half an hour to watch opening ceremonies and the skills competitions. Myah had to have a matching jersey today, she actually begged for the baseball pants too, she said "mommy, I want the little tiny pants!" After this week full of baseball I pray that I can convince her to take dance class, I might not get my wish!

Gone on Vacation

We are leaving tomorrow for a week long baseball tournament for Dayton. I will have tons of pictures when we return, Mark bought me an early bday present, a nice new lens that can take awesome action shots! While it isn't a vacation in the tropics it will be nice to get away with my family and friends. I thought I would leave you with a few pictures that Mark's Aunt Bev sent us from a Chinese beach. Can you imagine? See you soon!

Craving 3 Peanuts

My dear friend Kim @ 3 Peanuts has been forced to shut down her blog due to harrassments. I cannot tell you what a loss this is to our blogging adoption world. I have learned so much from her and I am truly missing her. (She is always wearing pearls, that is why they are in the picture).I am very lucky to have her as my friend, I love chatting with her on the phone and am hoping that someday we can meet in person. I am so sad that she felt so threatened that it has come to this. I have often thought about making my blog private and this kind of solidifies my thoughts. Don't be surprised if someday mine will be too. I have a hard time putting personal things on here for the fear of not knowing who is "watching" us. I started my website with Baby Jelly Beans before we traveled to get Myah, it was password protected and I felt a bit more free to post personal things for my family and friends. I feel that my blog is accessable by just about anyone and sometimes that scares me. You all know that I am a police Lt's wife and I hear about the bad things all of the time. I really want to protect my family and I sometimes wonder if this blog is putting us in harms way. You just never know nowadays! For example, I have a huge trip planned this week and I would love to let everyone know where we are going and what it is for but I feel like I have to wait until it is over for fear of people knowing where I will be with my children. I am not being overly sensitive believe me, my sister in law's best friend has become a victim of a stalker, her son was located at his college dorm by a predator and was harrassed, because this man found out all of their personal information from her blog. Scary stuff. She has had a nightmare experience and one day looked at my blog and warned me about all of the information that I have out there that could potentially pose a risk to our family. I don't want to stop blogging, my parents and family and close friends live away from us and this has been such a joy for all of them to catch up on our lives. I know several of them who look forward to every post. I am so thankful for my blog, it allows me to keep in touch with them. At night when they are in bed (too late to call), I can post pictures, stories, etc. and they can feel like they were there with us. It is priceless to them. Besides that, I have started some wonderful friendships with fellow bloggers. We are a huge support system to each other in the International Adoption world, I have learned so much about my daughter's culture, health issues, personality etc. just by networking with all of them. We are a family, keeping all of the Mei Mei's (little sisters) together. That is priceless to me.

So I guess I am saying don't be surprised one day if I ask for those of you who like to read my blog to send me your email address so that I can go password protected. I have been thinking about doing this for a long time and after this has happened to Kim, I am seriously considering it. It takes one bad apple to spoil them all doesn't it. So sad.

Miss you and those 3 Peanuts Kim!

Myah Meets Matilda

Here she is Mrs. Matilda Jane, Denise DeMarchis with Myah ( who was trying to escape) and Sarah. I think Fed X owes me for free advertising!
Standing in the long line to pay.
I fell in love with this shirt to send out to my friend, Denise laughed when I purchased, it she said " I can't believe you found that shirt, I only made 2 of them!
There is Sheri picking out her favorite pieces for little Sarah.

I went to my favorite art festival this past weekend and got to have a quick chit chat with none other than the Matilda Jane designer/founder Denise. I have gone to her booth for quite a while and have talked to her before, she is such a nice person, so down to earth. I could not believe my eyes when I walked up to her booth this time. Wow, this girl has become famous! I am telling you, I have never seen anything like it. I have been to her booth in the past where I could actually look through the racks, it was always a popular booth but oh my goodness, this was insane. For starters, I went with my sister Melanie and Sheri and little Sarah and of course Myah. We got there roughly 15 minutes after the fair opened. I knew this year would be different when a girl walked up to me in the parking lot and asked if I knew where the MJC booth would be ( she noticed Myah's MJ shirt). She drove all the way from Indiana to get there. When we walked up there was a huge long line of people standing in line to pay with armfuls of clothes. You couldn't even get into the booth, it was so crowded. Us ladies took turns staying outside of the hornets nest with the little girls so that one of us could "go in". Crazy! Her shelves were very picked over, after 15 minutes! They were bringing out new stuff as fast as they could. We stood in line for about half an hour to pay. While we were paying there was a photo album being passed around of pictures that Denise put together. I was excited to see the picture of Myah with Chloe and Annabelle in it. Those clothes were just made to take pictures in! I did some shopping for a dear friend and did pick up a new dress for my little sweetheart. When it was our turn to pay Denise recognized us and commented about how adorable Myah and Sarah were. She is so cool, with her new sassy haircut. I gave her a small note with Myah's newest picture thanking her for making all of our little girls look so adorable and I gave her a hug and told her how proud I am of her. She has sure come a long ways! It was so nice to see her again, she has not done many art fairs since she started the trunk shows. I am so happy for her success and wish her the best, she is making her dreams come true, how awesome!

Fun Night!

Grandma and Lon with the kiddos and the game ball (look who claimed it for her own)We just love Grandma Lucy, she is a to Maw Maw of one of the players on Dayton's team but she just loves our little girl. She is from Alabama and I love her southern drawl, she is 80 something but is in great shape, her and Myah have really bonded this summer and it is just the sweetest little friendship. Raquel and Myah are the only little sisters on the team, but they find more dirt than all the little brothers put together!
Our little model, I took this before we left the house in one of Jenny's creations.
Myah and Aubrey posing together. So sweet!

Jean was so good with all of the girls! It was just like on Project Runway! We were dressing in the street!

Yesterday Dayton played his final home baseball game (whew)! We still have a tournament this weekend, an away game and Cooperstown for a week but to see the end in sight is kind of a relief! He had an awesome night, he played really well and was awarded the game ball after the game. His teammates were chanting MVP, MVP, it was cute. Dayton doesn NOT like to be the center of attention nor does he handle it very graciously (we are working on that). So it was cute to see him proud but a bit embarrassed at the same time. We were down by 1 and he hit 2 runs in plus he ended up scoring as well. He is getting the reputation for getting us out of a pinch. We were excited that Grandma and Lon were there to cheer him on as well. Myah and I were a bit late because we had to do a little "modeling session". My friend Jenny is starting her own clothing line and asked if Myah could model a few outfits for her website. She had a really cool photographer there and we went to a really cool location, I was eating it right up you can bet! I did take a few snapshots with the whimpy camera for Myah's scrapbook. I can't wait for you to see Jenny's items and will be sure to let you know when and where you can get the goods ( I think it will be up in a few weeks). I can't wait for tomorrow, when I take a few good buddies to meet the one and only Matilda Jane up close and personal. She sure has done well for herself. I remember her selling the cutest painted furniture and always dreaming of a little girl to buy them for. Now her clothing is extremely big and she has won awards for it! Hopefully our Jenny will be there someday as well!

Happy 4th of July

We love parades! The kids were ready to catch that candy!

Our own little Lady Liberty, actually there was a plumber handing these out during the parade, toilet paper and a plunger! So funny!
She had to bring her purse to put the candy in!
They were handing out copies of the Declaration of Independence to families.
Don carrying the flag high and proud, what an answer to many prayers!

You know it is a good day on the boat tubing when someone loses their swimming trunks!

We spent the 4th of July at home, Mark had to work all weekend. We went to the local parade on Friday morning. It was the best parade that I have been to in a long time. A very touching moment for me was when the local sherrif department honor guard carried the American flag at the beginning of the parade. I always get choked up when I see our flag flying and our Veterans marching. This moment was very special to me this year because when I looked at who was proudly carrying the American flag it was my friend's husband who has just recently overcome lung cancer. I was amazed to see him marching and to see him carrying the flag, it was so touching.

We also went out on the boat for a few hours. I can't wait for the day where we can spend more than just a few hours on the water. Although I won't complain, a few is better than none! I hope you all had a great 4th!

Visit from Sherry and the Kids

We were so excited to have our good friends stop for a visit on Thursday while there are in Michigan. They moved last year to Wisconsin and we miss them sooooo much! Nick was Dayton's first friend, little Abbie was just 3 months old when we met. Myah loved playing with Abbie, and Nick and Dayton always pick up where they left off. Sherry is my dearest friend and I miss her as soon as she pulls out of my driveway. This fall marks 10 years of our wonderful friendship. We love their family and can't wait until our next visit!

Way to go Bulldogs!

The Champs!
Dayton receiving his medal

Very proud of his hardware!

Who wouldn't buy something from this crew?
Annabelle and Uncle Mark cheering on the team
Myah, Annabelle and Chloe in their matching outfits, trying to stay cool!
Myah loves the younger brothers of Dayton's teammates, here she is wrestling with them.

Dayton's team won their tournament this past weekend! It was very exciting but also made for a very loooong weekend for Miss Myah. Especially when we kept winning, that meant that we needed to stick around for more games. We sat through steaming hot weather, Myah got a horrible heat rash, then we sat through the pouring rain on Saturday and Sunday, thank goodness I keep the Disney ponchos in the trunk! Dayton was so proud, he has never won a tournament before, he played very well and he was thrilled. We hosted this tournament and we had to work the concession stand, the boys loved this part. I think our boys bought more than anyone! We are gearing up for our trip to Cooperstown New York this month with the team, it should be a great time. Way to go Bulldogs!