Clean-A-Thon

Karissa and Katie Aunna look so much a like!!!!

The Who's Who of the Gartner girls.

John absolutely loves to swim!!!!

Annie swimming on Father's Day
Casey's sweet smile!!! He is getting so big and way too fast!!!
DeeDee wearing the dinosaur towel. What a hoot;-)

Just wanted to write a post to the blog and say that all is well with the family. We are on a cleaning binge at our house. I have had just about enough of this clutter. Needless to say....the house was quite a mess when we returned from our one month stay in Russia!!! It was such a stressful adoption process. I feel I am just now beginning to recover from the travel, adoption stress, and financial difficulties of extended time away from home. The financial aspect seems to be bigger than we initially thought. I am thinking we will need at least a year to recoup financially as we have a lot more medical expense to deal with now, too.

John does not want to share the bench with little Mary....ha ha!!! Don't think this will stop her though.

I knew Mary would get her place on the bench.

All in all....I don't think I have ever seen a happier child than Katie Aunna. It is so sweet as she loves her new family so dearly and just can not say "I love You" enough times in a day. Katie's English amazes me every single day. Today she said "What is this?" and pointed to a picture of a wolf in one of our home school library books of fairy tales. She can tell me anything in Russian.....but, she wants to know English!!! This morning I said back to Katie Aunna "What is this?" in response to her question. She surprised me with "I don't know what is this!" I said in a growling voice "The big bad wolf" and she said "OH NO...not that!".

I am bragging again, but, she really is so smart that it amuses us all!!! The kids cracked up laughing when she said "OH NO...not that!" and she said it with such loud expression. It was hilarious. Well...back to the cleaning project. I have so many clothes that it is over whelming to me!!! So we are making it our project to take out all the clothes that are a 2T or under for girls and a 2T or under for boys!!!!

Lots of cute Gymboree clothes for baby girls. I just don't know how long this will take us to clean all this out and get some order to the closets. Their drawers were also scrambled in my absence;-). Lots to do over the summer. We also went through all of our homeschooling materials and organized them all into nice plastic tubs. We have some of our Fall 2008 materials purchased, but, must make a trip to Lubbock to the Christian Home School Supplies to complete our curriculum for the next grade.

Also, I am hoping to save up a little cash to buy a twin bed and switch furniture around. Although Katie Aunna was initially happy to room with Annie, she and Karissa have chummed up pretty nicely and are best of friends. Now they want to room together and so I guess I will move them around toward the end of summer. Poor little Christian is crushed at Karissa's attention to Katie Aunna as he has been the "cat's meow" in Karissa's life since birth. Now this new "SISTER" steps into the picture. I notice he is a little impatient with the girls in general and pouts more often!!! But, he is getting more "special" attention from Mom and Dad!!!
Father's Day was great!!! We fired up the smoker and smoked sausage, ribs, and prime rib roast....YUMMY!!!! Duane enjoyed his special day so very much. All the kids came over (grown ones and grands, too) for a Father's Day swim party. It was such a relaxing day for him and he has few of those type days!!! Now that the heat of summer is roaring he is in full swing with his business his cell phone rings constantly. I just had to set my foot down and say "NO PHONE and NO SERVICE CALLS". It was hard for him, but, he remained with us for the entire day last Sunday.

Cutie Pie Karissa!!!!

Duane has been working about 80 hours per week!!! So I am a single mom;-). By the time he gets home, everyone is fed, bathed, and ready for bed within a few hours. I have been putting everyone to bed at around 9:00pm now and trying to get up earlier so we can swim before the afternoon heat. Duane laid on the patio couch under the fans and swam some in the pool as well. Then I took him for a surprise pedicure for which he was totally against.

Duane relaxing on the patio;-)

I could not even get him in the chair. I talked him into going over to Wal-Mart to shop for some groceries. During our shopping I kept talking to him about his "horse hoofs" and getting his toenails trimmed. FINALLY.....that worked and he said he would do it. Guess what??? That's right...he loved it immensely and promises to not give me any trouble when I say it's time to return for another...ha ha!!! Sorry...he would not let me take his picture in the BIG chair. Maybe on the next visit he will allow some photos to be taken of his indulgence of decadence!!! I did get a few shots of my cousins husband in the chair. He was fully cooperating when I arrived with Duane.