At the beginning of the month, Jimmy and I took my dad and Grandpa Jack to the Niners game in the new Levi's Stadium. It was really cool to see, and we all had an awesome time!
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| A quick bit of tailgating before heading inside... |
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| We found our Fiori Family brick in front of the main entrance :) |
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| View from our seats is great! |
And then talk about lucky guy - while we were at the Niners game that day Jimmy got an invitation from his brother to go to the Giants game (with incredible seats) the next night! Needless to say, he quickly accepted the invitation and took the day off work to go. He was SO excited! Thanks Poppy!
This month I was blessed to be able to attend our church's (now annual) Mexico Trip for the second time. This is the trip to Tecate where we are gradually working, along with many other churches throughout California, to construct an orphanage that is planned to include 6 houses, each to be occupied by a husband and wife, and up to 12 orphans, with the idea being that the children will grow up knowing what it is like to have a family structure and 'siblings'. The various church groups come down when they can and work on whatever project(s) need to be done next, and slowly the houses come into being. The hope is that in the Spring or Summer of 2015 they will start to have children living there.
Last year we were working on the third house, and spent much of our trip hanging drywall, taping and mudding the walls, stuccoing (?), and painting. This year the work to be done was putting a roof on house #4, as well as much interior reinforcement to support the new roof, putting in doors, windows, and hanging tar paper (?) to prep house for the exterior stucco. The work went well, and the time getting to know people from church as well as non-Remedy team members was great. Its always cool to see the mix of people God brings along on these trips for various reasons, some believers and some not, and how he speaks to people's hearts while there.
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| House #3 that we worked in last year (right). House #4 (left) how it looked when we arrived. |
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| I think this stuff is called tar paper... I wasn't a part of that team so I'm not sure. They completed about half of the house. |
April Nathan, jazzercise instructor extrordinaire, led a class after the first day's work and a few of the girls joined in (I'm in pink in the back). Haven't done jazzercise before but it was a lot of fun!
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Hannah and I measuring for window frame reinforcement
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| Our Team |
Last year children from a sister orphanage in Tijuana came to the ranch where we were working and spent half of a day with us, playing, having lunch, and just loving on them. This year we went to them and drove the hour to T.J. to where their orphanage. It was cool to get to see the kids in their own environment and check out where they live, and I loved getting to see some of the same orphans that I met last year again.
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| Their playground, complete with some stray two-inch nails (one of which went through my flip flop!) |
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| Playing baseball (note the bat being used - its a metal pole) |
This is Leslye (pronounced "les-lee-yay"). She was one of the girls I met last year, and she hung out with me the whole time we were at the orphanage this year. She is a sweet twelve year old girl :)
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| Leslye posing her friend for a picture... |
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| All posed and ready |
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Playing a game where the leader yells out left (izquierda) or right (derecha) and if you jump to the wrong side, you're eliminated.
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LOTS of jump-roping was done at the orphanage that day! Its been forever since I've done it, especially for as long as Leslye can do it (her record was 110 times around!)
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Amazing time, and praying I will get to return again next year! We are always looking for more people to join - no Spanish language skills, building experience, or church attendance required! Maybe you or someone you know would like to come along...?? :)
Funny statements by Caleb:
- Thirsty at bedtime one night, Caleb tells me, "Mommy I'm 81% dehydrated, I need some water."
- In the middle of the night Caleb wants me to come put his blanket on him (*Sigh*)... I am of course asleep and don't answer right away, and he says in a very awake voice, "Mommy, I know you can hear me! Why aren't you answering me?" (the same thing I have be known to say to him a few times when he thinks he is playing hide and seek, and I think he is just ignoring me. :-/
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| Practicing making the letter "A" |
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| Dancing Fox date with Caleb |
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| Go Giants! Game 1 of the Series |
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| October 2013 |
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| October 2014 |
... And what has probably turned out to be the biggest event this month is that Landon no longer has his two front baby teeth! This was a (very belated) result of when he slipped in the tub
last December and chipped one of the front ones. We had the chip repaired, and the pediatric dentist told us to just keep an eye out for any blistering on his gums. I didn't even pay attention at the time to what she said that would be a sign of.
Fast forward 10 months... The morning after I returned from Mexico I was trying to brush Landon's teeth, and he covered his mouth. Earlier this year that would have be routine teeth-brushing resistance, but now-a-days he usually lets me brush them with no problem. His hesitation caught my attention, and something made me think I should look inside his mouth. Sure enough, two big blisters on his gums above the front teeth (I'll spare you the picture).
Called the dentist, x-rays taken, roots still in decent condition but blisters are signs of the teeth beginning to abscess, or basically die. One round of antibiotics to keep the infection from causing harm in rest of his body, and as the alternative to the triple-the-price, non-guaranteed option of baby root canals, we opted to have the teeth removed. As unideal as this is at his young age, we have come to terms with the fact that it is cosmetic, and his dentist says it won't affect his speech or the spacing of his teeth. We are thankful that they are the baby teeth, and thankful for the anesthesiologist, Dr. Tom, who did an awesome job of being silly and playful to distract Landon, sedate him (the medicine for this leaves him without any recollection of the procedure), and help make it an overall 'good' experience since Landon is already not keen on seeing the dentist. He recovered quickly, with only one grouchy afternoon, but virtually no pain and he doesn't even seem to mind that they are gone. Kind of a crazy thing to us adults, but he just goes along with life as usual. Thank you Lord for that. We are hoping that he doesn't follow the norm of late-to-get-first-teeth translating to late-to-get-adult-teeth!
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| (Look closely... This was the day he had them removed. In great spirits, and blowing bubbles like it was any normal day) |
HALLOWEEN:
The boys had their costumes early this year (end of September) since Caleb was already certain of what he wanted to be. They got to wear them on a few different occasion, but here are a few from Halloween night. We went to Tameem and Deanna Mardini's annual little Halloween party, did a lap around their small block for some trick-or-treating, and then let Caleb (with a little help from Landon) answer the door the rest of the night to hand out candy. Every time the bell would ring he would fly off the couch and run to the door to hand out candy and sometimes compliment kids on costumes he liked.
Caleb actually told me before heading to the Mardini's that he just wanted to hand out candy, he didn't want to trick or treat. He did do some trick or treating and did enjoy it, but he loved handing out the candy FAR more. My favorite part of taking them trick or treating this year was that he said "Happy Halloween!!" to each house as he left. The very first house they went to was a couple sitting in their garage, and they said it to him, which set the tone and he said it to all the other houses. Its a detail, but I thought it was sweet, amidst the wide variety you get - from kids not saying trick or treat, not saying thank you, or even the ones who show up costumeless with a hoodie and a pillowcase that they hold out for candy.
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| Fun with Silly String |
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| Not strong enough to press the button on the can, but he had a blast picking it up and playing with it! |
Our beautiful Oak tree has grown quite a bit in the six years we have lived in our house...
... and with that also comes a great increase in the number of acorns that fall from it each year! Our neighborhood squirrels are busy little guys, and if I don't sweep them all up daily, you would think I hadn't done it in a week! So far we have picked up 4 five-gallon buckets worth, and there seem to still be plenty falling. Hoping an arborist can suggest something to give the tree to reduce the number of acorns it produces!
Having fun at (what's left of) the Philips' Farms / Michael David Pumpkin Patch, since it has been significantly downsized with the (beautiful) changes they have made to their property recently.
Our neighbor Mary invited us to join them at Vinewood Elementary School's Fall/Halloween Festival (not sure of exact name) the week before Halloween. She did such a great job with his Minion costume, and the boys had fun playing different games and winning candy with their friend Jacob!
