The Gingerbread House That Jack Built

Who's Jack?  I dunno, but apparently he built a house once in a lengthy poem...

Our family night in December is often centered around decorating Gingerbread houses that were cooked and assembled by Grandma Marlene.

This year was no different.

In attendance were Aunt Doris, Aunt Dianne, Grandma Schmitz, cousins Zoe, Jonah and Samuel as well as Caleb, Robby, Mom and dear ol' Dad.

Dad cooked supper (poorly, I might add) and took pictures while the teams assembled and laid out their respective plans of attack for accomplishing their task.

The teams were Dianne/Robby, Doris/Caleb, Mom/Jonah, Samuel/G'ma Schmitz.  Zoe was a "floater" and dad was picture taker/judge at the end.

Not only did I do a poor job of cooking supper on this fine evening, but I did a poor job of taking photos as well.  The winning house is not even represented and neither is Jonah save for the back of his head!

What can I say?

The brood doing there thing. 

Happy Sam and G'ma Schmitz pausing for a photo op.

Zoe is just making sure that her brother Jonah didn't eat too much candy this year, as in the past!

Doris and Calebber McCheese doing the same.

That's a whole lot of sweet on that table.  This is, I believe, the only picture I had where Zoe is helping with the decorating.

One of the finished houses.

Dianne and Robby carefully planning their next move.

G'ma Schmitz and Samuel with their finished house.  Can you find Sam's "hidden" green M & M on the roof of his house?  He was proud of that.  :-)

Captain Zoe in her mask and reverse cape comes to help the judging, in case there's any trouble from one of the non-winning teams.  There nearly was too, as Robby is crazy competitive and was demanding to know why Dad would dare to pick team Mom/Jonah's crazy looking house. 

And that about does it.  I was going to finish with a clever little poem, but I'm feeling about as creative as an un-sharpened pencil...

An Apple A Day...

Well, after about 30 different tries to get the silly blog service to upload pictures correctly, it worked!

Hallelujah!

So what's been going on?  Not much. We had one of my work buddies from a former assignment offer me some apples as it seems his tree had produced a bumper crop.

I accepted thinking that we would simply compost whatever apples weren't good enough for "processing" into either applesauce, frozen apples or juicing.

So after he dropped off nearly 40 gallons of apples,  we decided that we would begin Saturday morning with the processing of some applesauce.  We peeled, cored, carved and whatever else about as many apples as we could with us still remaining healthy at the end of the process.

We did one of the two tubs he brought to us.

Our backs are still aching from the processing of the silly things...

Here's China boy Caleb, using the thingy-ma-bob that has a special name that nobody knows.  He washed about the first 15 gallons of apples before becoming disenchanted and watching Peppa The Pig on the internet.

Mom and Master C working together. 

What do we do with the rest of the apples?  Who's to say?  Perhaps juice them or whatever but I don't have enough back left in me to carve chop n' cook another 18 gallon container!

A Special Day!

December 5th!  What a day in the annals of history!  A few historical moments:

1301 - Pope Boniface VIII's degree Ausculta fili (only nominee)  
1349 - 500 Jews of Nuremberg massacre during Black Death riots  
1492 - Columbus discovers Hispaniola (El Espanola/Haiti)
1590 - Niccolo Sfondrati chosen as Pope Gregory XIV
1766 - London auctioneers Christie's hold their first sale
1775 - At Fort Ticonderoga, Henry Knox begins his historic transport of artillery to Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1776 - Christopher Columbus Explorer of the New World forms 1st US fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa
1792 - George Washington re-elected as US president
1804 - Thomas Jefferson re-elected US pres/George Clinton vice-pres  
1831 - Former US President John Q Adams takes his seat as a member of House of Representatives
1832 - Andrew Jackson re-elected President of US
1847 - Jefferson Davis is elected to the US senate, his first political post. 1848 - Pres Polk triggers Gold Rush of 1849, confirms California gold discovery 1876 - Daniel Stillson (Mass) patents 1st practical pipe wrench  
1893 - 1st electric car (built in Toronto) could go 15 miles between charges 1908 - 1st US football uniform numerals used (University of Pittsburgh)
1920 - Pro football playoff game Akron & Buffalo 0-0 tie, title undecided
1932 - Theoretical Physicist Albert Einstein granted visa to enter America 1933 - 21st Am ratified, 18th Amendment (Prohibition) repealed 
1943 - NFL Phila Eagle-Pitts Steeler merger disolves
1946 - 33rd US Pres Harry Truman creates Committee on Civil Rights by Exec Order #9808  
1947 - Joe Louis beats Jersey Joe Walcott in 15 for heavyweight boxing title 1948 - NY Giant Charley Conerly sets NFL record of 36 pass completions  
1951 - "Dragnet" premieres
1955 - Historic bus boycott begins in Montgomery Alabama by Rosa Parks 1958 - The Preston bypass, the UK's first stretch of motorway, opens to traffic for the first time. It is now part of the M6 and M55 motorways.  
1967 - Beatles clothing store "Apple" on 94 Baker Street, London, opens  
1968 - Rolling Stones release "Beggar's Banquet" LP
1970 - LA Rams Willie Ellison sets NFL record of 247 yards rushing  
1973 - Paul McCartney releases album "Band on the Run" album  
1974 - Monty Python's Flying Circus final episode airs on BBC  
1974 - NFL's Seattle Seahawks forms  
1975 - NASA launches space vehicle S-196, it failed
1976 - Buffalo Bill OJ Simpson rushes 203 yards
1981 - 47th Heisman Trophy Award: Marcus Allen, Southern Cal (RB)
1981 - France performs nuclear test
1985 - Dow Jones Industrial Average rose above 1,500 level for 1st time
1985 - Great Britain performs nuclear test
2005 - The Lake Tanganyika earthquake causes significant damage, mostly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

2011 - Chang Rong Bo is adopted by his forever family and meets them for the very first time!!!!

That's our Caleb Rongbo Schmitz, 2 years ago today.  Nervous and scared out of his mind about what is to happen.  He's holding the book we had sent him some months earlier and the picture he's looking at is the bedroom that he and his brother Robby share to this day.

Our adoption group in Changchun!  What fun and what a memorable day!! 

One of the greatest photos of that day was the new brothers dancing in the lobby of the federal building in Changchun China!  The dancing has since been replaced with brotherly love, otherwise known as "fighting".  :-)

And 1 year ago today?  You may recall, if you frequent this corner of the web, that we had our domestic adoption finalized here in Des Moines!  There's no denying it rrrrRRRONGbo!  You are our boy!!!

LOVE YOU BUDDY!!!!

Stuff...

So, much time has passed since I've last posted anything about anything.  What can I say?  I've been busy... okay, not really THAT busy, but a little busy and that sounds better than saying, "I've been lazy!".

Caleb is doing good despite Dear ol' Dad thinking he had a bit of skin hanging off of his surgical sight one evening while brushing his teeth, and therefore, trying to remove the skin by gently pulling on it only to realize a few moments later that it was HIS STITCHES!!!

What an idiot I am.  That has caused Calebber some "ouchies" and made Daddy feel bad about it every day since.

He appears to be healing well. Especially his hip.  Yesterday saw him get scolded a few times for bouncing on the couch while on his knees only to bounce off onto the floor, landing on his feet and taking off running.  So, I'm quite convinced that the hip is doing okay!

What else has been going on?  Well, I got to play my new double neck guitar in church a weekend ago as my buddy Bob Castelline is filling in as music director (I'm not sure of the official title) currently and invited me to play.  We did the old hymn, The Wonderful Cross, where I got to utilize the new axe in the exact method that I had intended it.  Good fun.

Then, we had Thanksgiving. Grandma and Grandpa Bushman came down to witness Robby's swim meet last Monday.  He did awesome!  Three Blue ribbons in individual races and a Red ribbon in their relay.

We played a lot of pool and then Thanksgiving day happened.

Happily, we went from hosting for Aunt Molly, G'ma and G'pa to hosting those three folks as well as my mama, G'ma Schmitz, my two sisters and their families as well!

I like cooking a big meal so the more the merrier!  Weight gain be d@mned!!!

Friday night, we (including Aunt Molly) took the boys to Jolly Holiday Lights at the Waterworks park in Des Moines as we do every year.  Photo's below...

On Saturday, Mama's birthday, we went to the brunch buffett at Americana in downtown Des Moines and consumed a ridiculous amount of kibble there.

Sunday saw church, Sunday school, groceries and much, MUCH football, including the mighty, once high-octane, once loaded with weapons St. Louis Rams crashing and burning in San Francisco.  Disgusting...

That brings us current so here's a few photos of the cuties.

Love this picture!  Robby looks like he's on the campaign trail!

Here he looks like he's in trouble and about to pull it off...

And here?  BUSTED!

I'm not sure what Caleb thinks of all of this, but he was definitely excited!

That's about all from Pleasant Hill.

Another Caleb Update

So how is China Boy doing?

We thank you for asking!

He's starting to get what is commonly referred to as "cabin fever".  He's hyper, practically bouncing off of the walls and anything else that is in his way!

I always tease him that he's a wild donkey of a man and I think he's upped the ante tenfold in the past two days!  Last night we went to church and then the grocery store. While Caleb and Robby were getting back in the vehicle, Caleb grabs the "Oh p00p!" handle above the door on the interior and is swinging from it.  Not exactly what we're looking for during his 12 weeks of recovery...

To that end, he's a great worker around the house so we try to find him some jobs that he likes to do.  As I type, he's sorting and putting away the boy's laundry. He just swept/mopped the kitchen and dining room floors prior to that.

The other night, his speech teacher visited him and brought him homework and a gift as well as cards from his classmates.  He vaccuumed the floor prior to her arrival. 

You get the picture.

Here are the cards from Caleb's classmates...

So anyway, he says that his hip hurts, "maybe, a lil' bit".  That's about all we ever get from him even though when it gets hurting really bad, he walks like 101 year old man.  We did over hear him telling Robby this morning that it hurt really bad.  Of course, he's telling Robby because Robby does not administer his drugs!  Crafty boy.

This morning he helped Daddy make breakfast for everybody.  Bacon and eggs.  Here he is obviously doing the eggs.  I have him break the eggs into a small bowl, and once he's sure there's no shells in it, he adds it to the bigger bowl.  In the photo, you can see that the right cheek is still just a bit swollen, but not too bad.  The first two days, his face really looked different from the swelling but he's pretty much back to being "Caleb".

Here the boy is unenthusiastically eating his "bacon & eggs".  It wasn't quite as desirable as he was hoping, and I don't blame him...  I tried it and while you could tell it was bacon and eggs, it just ain't right to drink it.  We'll keep trying and occasionally finding things he likes.

And just so you know what I mean when I say it "just ain't right", here's his bacon and eggs.  Get you some!!

Quick Caleb Update

We are back home from Iowa City as of noon on Wednesday. 

Caleb's surgery went well and was about an hour shorter than the time estimated to us.  His hip is sore where they took the bone from, and his face is mildly swollen as well.  

He was up walking around and off his machines last night already so Mom & Dad walked him down to the toy/book room where he did some puzzles and played with a few things.  We took the Phineas & Ferb Christmas movie "A Very Perry Christmas" back to our room and watched that last night after playing.

He did awesome.  High tolerance for pain, which I suppose could be a blessing and a curse.  A blessing as he isn't always whining and crying every time he's in a bit of pain, but a curse because sometimes you know he has to be hurting but just won't admit it.  No matter, I think Mom & Dad are getting him figured out pretty good at this point.

He was scared out of wits a few times on this trip and there's not really a good medicine for that, so there was a lot of hand holding and snuggling going on.

So now we have a long 12 weeks of healing with liquid diets, no overall craziness, no outside activities and so on...  you get the picture.

He seems to understand that if he jacks it up, we have to do it all over again, and that is something that NONE of us want!

Thanks to Grandma Elaine for watching Robby and Aunt Molly for entertaining the wily beast! Thanks to all for the prayers and get well wishes! 

It's that time again...

Greetings and salutations.

Thought I would write a quick update about happenings here.  Crazy thing is, right outside of the window as I type this, it's blowing and snowing like mid-January!!  Not sticking much on the ground at this point, but fun none the less.

Tomorrow is the big day for Mr. Caleb.  He has his bone graft surgery and we will again be on a liquid diet for the boy for a good 10-12 weeks afterwards.

He's nervous/anxious/whatever you would care to call it about this medical procedure as he still remembers 1.5 years ago with the palette repair surgery.  We've been trying to give him details about it a little at a time and then finally yesterday, mom was able to get thru the whole procedure with him without him getting to agitated. 

He asked if it was going to "ow-ey".  Mom explained that it was and that it's important for him to tell mom and dad if it does so we can get him medicine.  He seemed to agree.

Robby will be going over to Grandma Schmitzs house tonight after his first of the season swim meet, and will be "taking care of Grandma".

On Saturday night, the boys stayed over at Aunt Mollys house as mom and dad were going out on a date to eat dinner at a favorite resturant (prior to our groupon expiring!) and then off to see my friend Jareds band play.  We didn't make it to se the band as I got sick and just wanted to crash after we had done some post-supper shopping.

Mom had recently finished up Caleb's 100 wishes adoption quilt so she put that on his bed so that when we came home from worship service on Sunday morning, it would be there for him.  

He liked it! 

The front...

...and back!

So that's about it from here.  

The next 72 hours should be a whirlwind!