SHHH! The cow is sleeping!

I came home from work on my last day of employment a little sad, a little relieved.  I walked into the house only to hear "Shhhhh.  The cow is sleeping!"  Huh?!?!  My girls had found the "dress up" drawer, played all afternoon, and fallen asleep still in costume.  I've never been so happy to see a cow and a samurai warrior before.  They make me laugh.  What a good ending to a meloncholy day!

Over the moon

We have a pool and I'm over the moon about it!  This seems to me a feat of unusual proportions.  To make a long story short, we had to install it ourselves.  What an overwhelming task!  Dustin says it is the first and last pool he will ever put up.  However, we have a WONDERFUL group of friends who pitched in to help us have a way to escape the heat (or increase our chance of skin cancer...you choose) and we are now swimming daily.  The icing on the cake was the other night when our foster daughter, R, said to Dustin "Thank you for building us a pool!"  They love it...and so do I.



Dustin dug and leveled the ground for the base



Jayme spreading sand



Noah helping put up the wall

Adam pitched in too

Lesson learned while installing the liner:  A beaded liner is prettier, but harder to install

The girls LOVE it!



Many, many thanks to the following guys:  Trent Regier, Jeremy Stieglitz, Jayme Schwartz, Ed Schwartz, Noah Bontrager, Adam Zern, Jerry Fessenden, and Shane Stieglitz.  I'm sorry I did not think to pull out my camera to get a picture of each of you in action.  Please know your efforts were appreciated.

And, of course, a huge thank you to my hubby for the HOURS he spent working on this the past few weeks! 

**If I forgot someone here, please forgive me!  I promise it was not intentional.** 

The Blog Slacker returns

I just realized this morning that quite a bit of time has passed since I last posted on my blog.  Surprise!  (I meant that in the most sarcastic way!) 

While I have a moment to catch my breath before chaos ensues, let me do a quick summary of what has taken place here at the Donovan house since I last posted:

*We had 3 foster boys placed in our home.  Two were special needs, one INCREDIBLY special needs!  WAAAAAYYY beyond my skill/patience level.  They were with us for 2 weeks and then moved to a home with a greater special needs license. 

*  Multiple camping trips

*  Trip to the Indiana Dunes with the Stieglitz family

*  We welcomed two foster girls into our home about three weeks ago now.  A and R.  They are ages 12 and soon to be 11.  One is autistic, which brings its own challenges, but they are fantastic girls and we are having so much fun with them.  They love to do crafts, swim, and play dress up.

*  I quit my job.....with a LOT of reservations about doing so.  We will see how this works out.  I'm trusting God will provide. 

*  Dustin has been working on crew since Feb so works 4 days on (12 hour shifts) and 4 days off and its swing shift that rotates every week.  When he works, he is gone from 7:45 (AM or PM, depending on the week) and returns around 10 (again, AM or PM, depending).  Its a tough schedule but 4 days off every week is nice!  I miss him when he's gone and I'm excited that, now that I do not have to get up at 3 AM every day for work, I can stay up to see him when he gets home from working the day shift.

*  We are preparing for our family vacation to Hilton Head in a few weeks.  The girls have a count down to the day we are leaving! 

*  We celebrated my Dads birthday, along with A's birthday this month.  R's birthday is also this month so we will celebrate that soon.

I hope everyone is having a great summer so far!