Halloween and all that...

Halloween has come and gone for another year.  It's 2012 and the Schmitz Mobile Chaos Unit did not even realize that they had not carved their pumpkins until the "official beggars night" when we were standing at my sister and brother in laws house, with kids coming to the door for candy, and one of them pointing out the jack-o-lanterns...  Jeez...

What can I say, but throw another couple of logs on the fire and everything will be what it will be...  which is to say, chaos piled on top of chaos.

Anyway, beggars night arrives.  Robby has swimming practice from 5:30 - 6:30 so Mom and Aunt Molly are off to see him thru that, although he'll only stay until 6pm on this fine evening, so they can leave early and meet Daddy Chaos and Calebber the Cow in Bondurant.

Daddy Chaos and Calebber the Cow were due at Grandma Schmitz's place at 5:45 to visit their community room where they had bags of candy (big bags, too!) prepared for the kiddos.  So we did that and then headed off to the metropolis known as Bondurant.

Momma Chaos and Robby arrived shortly after, and the nights activities ensued.

Calebber the Cow at home ready to fill his pumpkin...  oh sure, he had no clue as to why he was carrying the pumpkin or why people would put candy in it, but he was ready to go.

This is at Grandma Schmitz's Community room. Luigi (Sam), Mario (Jonah), Calebber the Cow are the boys down in front while Grandma is holding the lovely Zoe!  That's Daddy Chaos in the middle and my sister to my right.

All the varmints with their heads nearly exploding with anticipation!

A couple of spider...  men?  Uh, spider peoples.

The critters at their final stop of the evening, our neighbors house.

Unfortunately, Dad was not feeling well and went home for the evening early. The long nights sleep (I got 8 full hours!!!) served me well and I felt somewhat better on Wednesday.  Hopefully, I'll get another good night's sleep tonight and feel even better tomorrow.

How did Caleb do on his first Halloween?  I'm not sure...  What I am sure about is that I heard, "Why?", or "Why, daddy?" about 923 times.  That much I know!

...and now, a break from our regular programming

Greetings and salutations!

I just wanted to pass along a link to a fantastic blog post that was penned by my sister, Doris.  It deals with a certain little China boy and it's, well... fantastic!  

It made me laugh and cry, sometimes at the same time.

Please take a look here:
http://madebyabrunnette.wordpress.com/2012/10/23/100-wishes/

And since I don't like to post anything without a pic, here's one, albeit a bit grainy, still quite delightful!
 

The Great Pumpkin

Tis the season... well, for a pumpkin patch, anyway...

We went to Geisler Farms to the Northwest of Bondurant this year. Not for any specific reason other than it's close and we don't have much time with football and soccer games on top of swimming practice, so an hour plus drive to Uncle Bills & Carols by Grinnell or Howell's down in Cumming, IA. wasn't quite as appealing even though both of those are good fun.

Starting the corn maize... get it? Maze/maize?  Oh baby, I'm on tonight!  I like maps, a LOT, and this was a good way to polish some map reading skills and to teach the boys about it as well.  Good times and more fun than I was expecting!

My one and only hop on the inflatable horse.  If it looks like I have a pained look on my face it is because I am in pain.  This was not a good decision by dear ol' dad!

The boys on the other hand had a good time with the horseys,

Caleb on his racing trike.

And Robby on his.  Robby is at an awkward/unfortunate age/size where things are either too big or too small for him, but hardly ever, "just right".  This weekend was no exception.

The boys racing around on the pedal cars.  Again, hard to dial in the right size for the boy.  Caleb had a little better luck, but it was still quite the unwieldy machine for the lad.

Mama resting after getting SMOKED on a lap by Dad!!  I roasted everybody and for my efforts was exhausted and had a really sore back this morning when I attempted to get out of the van at worship.  Ouch, and dumb...

Robby cruising.

Caleb negotiating a sharp turn!

The critters chasing each other, and stirring up dust, in the corn pit.

Robby getting buried by mama and Caleb.

Big brother pulling little brother out to the pumpkins to make some very careful selections.

Caleb at the measuring post.

Robby at the measuring post.

Both of them acting goofy. That look on Calebber's face is G.O.L.D!!

Caleb had a blast in the pumpkins and I think he wanted to bring all of them home with us!

Robby has made his selection... Daddy is trying to figure out how to wrestle this monstrosity into the wagon to get it to the check-out and ultimately into the van.

Varmints in the pumpkin patch!

This was on the way to the check-out and shortly before Caleb mowed Robby down by pushing too fast.  Good times, indeed!

What can ya' say?

We had a good time and Caleb has asked me twice today if we can go back, so I will count that as a success with the boy.

The Holt Adoption Picnic

Adopting has been quite an experience. 

From the moment you start exploring the feelings/idea to adopt, to going to classes and meeting other couples, to the expressions/reactions of people as they learn what you're about to do, to the paperwork, to the moment you see pictures of your new loved one for the first time, the waiting (my GOD!! the waiting!!),  the doctors appointments, fingerprinting, more waiting, receiving travel dates, the day you fly out, the moment you realize that you're on the other side of the world and are really, really tired, to the moment you see the little guy (or girl as it may be) to the moment they first trust you enough to go to the bathroom with you (yes, it was a big deal!), to the moment the little critter melts into your arms for the first time, to the first time they kiss you, to the first time I heard, "Daddy, I love you!"...

Okay, got a little personal there and welled up a little bit even typing it.  But I think you get the idea.  It's a wild ride.

Then you settle into life.  Most of it's just as it was before, albeit a little more chaotic, but nothing crazy.  

Sometimes you meet people in the checkout line who ask you point blank questions like, "What province in China did he come from?", which catch you off guard until that person explains that they too, have a little one from China at home.  Then you talk with them briefly and almost dread the moment the conversation is over.

Sometimes you have people look at you with a look that can only say one thing and leaves you wondering what happened in their lives previously to create such a hole in their hearts.  Happily, that's only happened once that I can recall, but perhaps my meager recollections are because I'm usually beaming with pride and thinking, "you're just jealous that YOU didn't get him!".  :-)

Sometimes, like at Sunday school, you have one of your kiddos (Sunday school kiddos, that is) ask, "is he your son?", and I get to tell them a cliff's notes version of the story and introduce my boy.  And I may note here that a seed is planted in the kid that asks the question and I always pray that God waters it as he see's fit to do, according to his will.

Sometimes you get sweet stories like we did at conferences last week.  It seems that Caleb loves his big brother Robby and is proud of him. He'll see him in school and his teachers said that he'll tell them, "That's Robby! I love him!!", in a big, happy voice.  Or when I asked the ELL, speech and kindergarten teachers if he ever seems to get frustrated.  They all replied "no, not at all".  But then the speech teacher relayed this story.  She said sometimes she gets a little frustrated, not necassarily with Caleb, but rather with herself or her own methods because she didn't/doesn't recognize what the starting point should be with him.  She said, "I can always tell when I need to take a deep breath because Caleb will get out of his seat and come pat me softly on the shoulder, as if to tell me, 'It's okay'". 

Then there's the moments where you'll be walking up the steps from the basement, thinking about something and totally off in another world when you realize that there's giggling...  and it's coming closer to you... quickly... perhaps, too fast...  that's when you realize that the little China boy, who obviously trusts us with EVERYTHING at this point, has leaped from the top of the steps into what he hopes is your arms!!!!

I'll admit, I don't like that last one at all.

And then there's things like the Holt Picnic.  It's a once a year affair and we've attended it last year, while we didn't have Caleb yet, but knew we were traveling, and then again this year with our lad in tow.

In 2012, it was Sept. 22nd.  It's great to see all of the kids and talk to the parents and share experiences and stories and did I mention watching the kids?

Here's the scene of the crime.  LeGrand Iowa, a hop-skip-and-a-jump Southeast of Marshalltown Iowa, which probably doesn't help a lot of the readers...  suffice it to say, it's a small town and the picnic likely doubles the population for a few hours every September.

That's Caleb at the end of the blue slide but the real reason I included this picture is because the three kids just to the left of the yellow slide are attempting to catch a purple football.  That's notable because a football is in the air and Robby is nowhere to be seen!!!

AHA!!  That's Robby throwing the football to his buddy of the day, who brought his own Green Bay Packers football from Lansing, Iowa.

Momma Chaos and Calebber walking the PVC edging of the playground with Roberto playing football catch in the background.

Random kids and the kinds of games that will break out early in the picnic while kids from all kinds of different races are getting to know each other and size each other up.  That's some of the best times at the picnic for me.

The arts and crafts table That Robby hit immediately after our dinner.  That's his football buddy (in the red shirt), whose name escapes me now and his little adopted brother, Isaiah (in the blue).

The varmints with their craft projects.

This is one section of the community center where all of the eating is done.  Yes, that is a decent sized tv on the far wall showing whatever the most interesting college football game of the moment is.

Random groups of kids out playing.

Caleb, having a blast!

Most of the people present.  There were probably another 20 -  30 that are not in the photo. The Schmitz Mobile Chaos Unit is about 5 people in from the left of the photo... sans dad that is, because I'm obviously taking this photo.

Robby and his football buddies.  That tall lad is adopted and now hails from Bondurant.  He is awesome with the younger kids and makes sure that everybody touches the ball and everybody has fun!

Caleb taking a photo of his daddy "modeling" the craft project.

The little man struttin' his stuff!

Chalk drawing on the concrete.

Candy bags that they hand out to all of the kids. Yes, ALL of them!

The balloon-bender vendor. You'd be amazed at how popular this guy is!

That's Robby and his football buddy, Daniel (I had to ask Lesley...) on the top of the "rock wall" sword fighting with Caleb (on the left) and a couple of other random kiddos from various countries.

I can honestly say that of all of the stuff that takes up time in our schedule, I probably look forward to this event the most.  There's just something incredible about it.

So, until next year!

The Color Run

The Schmitz Mobile Chaos Unit took part in what I believe to be the Des Moines area's first (and perhaps, annual) Color Run.

I'm not sure what the concept is, or if there is a concept beyond simply having fun.  If you're curious about that, you can visit this web page for yourself and see if there's pertinent info for you to solve your query.

Let's see some pictures and let them tell most of the story.

This is the Mobile Chaos Unit on the way to the starting line.  Dear ol' Dad looks angry, doesn't he?!  As I am he, I can assure you that I was not...  If you're wondering if Mom has on pajama bottoms, the answer is, "Yes".  If you're wondering if she stood out, take note of some of the other people in the upcoming photos for your answer.

When I saw this mass of humanity, I started to wonder what the heck I had signed up for!!  This is a very small sampling...  Ugh.

Again...  mass...  humanity...   ugh...  Notice about the middle of the photo.  It's hard to tell at this size, but those are people all the way back to those red tents!  Word on the street is that approximately 27,000 people participated on Saturday.  I don't doubt that at all.  The crowd of people was huge and when we were leaving, cars were backed up for a mile down the interstate trying to get off on the appropriate exit to find parking.

Here we are shortly after passing the starting line!  Again, that's people all the way down the hill there!

We've obviously been thru the orange and green "color stations" at this point and you can sort of see the blue dust coming up.  The blue was on the westbound side of the bridge, then you looped around and came back on the eastbound lanes of the bridge for the pink station.

Happy momma with a happy little China boy who likely is wondering what the heck is wrong with Americans!!

Uhh... right.

Aunt Deaner with two critters immediately after the yellow color station.  Dianne took Robby thru and was telling all of the "decorators" that yellow was Robby's favorite color.  They blasted him with it even though it doesn't show up all that well in the photo.

The Mobile Chaos Unit in the same location just after the yellow color station.

That's our little posse.  From left to right, Aunt Dianne, her friend Nicole (sp??), Caleb, Momma Chaos, and Robby.

The all important finish line!

Well decorated critters!

After the finish line, every 15 minutes or so, the have a color throw.  This is sort of what it looks like but it's much more impressive in person.

Over all, a fantastic time with the exception of standing in elbow-to-elbow people for what seemed like eternity while waiting for the silly thing to start.

Will we do it again next year?  Dunno...  it was fun, so we'll maybe see if the boys remember it and want to do it again. 
Also, somewhat amazing, some of the route that we walked is my path to work.  There was not even the faintest sign that anything of this manner went on over the weekend.  That's some serious clean-up!