I hate my vacuum!

I hate my vacuum and I'm getting rid of it!
This time I mean it.
Jeff and I made the mistake of buying this STUPID vacuum from one of those door to door salesmen early in our marriage. It was one of those situations where the salesmen gets your information from the newspaper right after you get home with your precious newborn baby, the time when you're feeling most postpartumish and maternal.
The salesmen invites himself in, you don't have the kahuunas to say no, he vacuums your nasty carpet, pulls out a filter to show you how dirty your house is, and generally makes you feel like a neglectful parent if you DON'T buy his product.
So Jeff and I paid A LOT for this piece of crap - 4 digits! I have tried everything to get rid of it... do you see the lime green duct tape holding it together? Jeff can do anything with a little duct tape - any color, any surface. And the new plug in my clever husband was smart enough to replace... well now the son of a gun keeps turning itself off and on. I think it's possessed. I am over it. I am going to put it out with the trash before Jeff finds it and figures out what's wrong with it. This is its last life!

I want this Dyson... what do you think?

My idol pick this week...

A few questions for my readers!

OK, What was David Cook thinking?

Why does Carly have to show her tat everyday? Carly - go for something with sleeves!

Kristy - you're going home!

OK enough of that!

I'm an Aunt again! (among other things)

Well I became an aunt again this week. And a sister and a sister-in-law. We met the family who adopted our kids cousins. Susan and I had been talking and emailing for a few weeks. I have to tell you, I felt an immediate connection with her.

Josh and Jameson's cousins Kalkidon and Hoptommo now live in Louisville. We drove to St. Louis to meet them on Sunday at the zoo. While we were waiting for them to get there, we watched the front gate with much anticipation. Jaiden asked me, "How will we know who they are?" I replied, "Well, they will be a family with light skinned parents and some dark skinned kids." And her reply is what makes me love her so much..."Mom, I've seen a million of those."

Waiting for our new family members to get to the zoo....


Hoptommo wouldn't let go of Josh's hand for the first several hours. Hoptommo said, "Josh. I like that name. That's a good name. You can call me Tommy."
This was news to his parents. He hadn't wanted to change his name up to that point...unless they changed it to Mickey Mouse.

Jameson and Kalkidon giggled and giggled, and giggled some more.
A picture of all 4 of the kids to send to grandma. Don't they look so happy? We were so worried about what would happen when they had to say goodbye. We made a plan to just say it and then go our separate ways. They totally did fine with it. There were no tears, no whining, no pouting at all. We had a great time, and we can't wait to see them again.
I feel like we've gained 7 new family members, and we look forward to getting to know them even better.

Why do they call it URGENT care anyway?

Well, Josh won the record for the first "injury" since arriving home with us, not quite 2 months ago.

I'm not even sure how he did it. He was playing around at the gym and did a cartwheel. He's done hundreds of uneventful cartwheels over the past two months. Not to mention the front handspring on his first day of gymnastics, the running, diving, jumping, and absolute craziness at the gym.

But something about this cartwheel was different. Different because he came up grabbing his arm saying "Oh, oh, oh." When I looked at his arm, there was a bulge on the inner aspect, just below the elbow. ( I was afraid it was a bone...eewww) He could move it, but could not stand to push or pull with it.

When I told him we would have to go get an Xray. He said, "No, I have another one." (Another arm...)

Justine was quite worried about him. Some of the cuter things she had to say were,

"We'd better get him a wheelchair."

"Oh man, he's falling apart."

"I don't think he's going to make it."

She had all of us laughing. Even Josh.

So here we are "Urgent Care" deciding that it should actually be called "Delay Care," or "Linger Care." What kind of mother would I be if I didn't take a picture of my boy's first Xray? (at least the first that we know of.)

We sat for 4 hours to get an xray and to find out that it was actually a pulled or torn flexor/extensor muscle that herniated through the fascia.

For you non-medical people, basically it means, he'll be fine with some ice, ibuprofen, a pressure wrap and some rest. He's feeling much better, and most of all he doesn't have to miss the soccer game on Saturday. That's what he was most worried about. His soccer coach was calling us at Urgent Care to find out whether he was OK or not. Can you say "Ringer?"

The Ellerbee Boys kick Butt at Soccer Game

This could be a headline in the Springfield Newsleader. Well I doubt they print profanity, but if they did, it would definitely be a headline. (Is butt a profane word? I mean I know it is at our house, but what about the publishing world? I digress.)

Our first soccer game was Saturday. We won 10 to 0 (zero, zip, nadda, nanno, nothing).
Josh scored 2 of those goals and Jack did an awesome job defending the goal.
From what I have heard, it is every Ethiopian boy's dream to get to play soccer in a real uniform, with a real team, on a real field. Ours did it and kicked butt.
We were so proud. Jack was so excited for Josh. It was absolutely awesome. My friend Julie had a hard time not crying through the whole thing. And we get to experience this every weekend for a really long time!

Names

"Merkeb" means "ship" in Amharic. We think her name is beautiful, but couldn't quite figure out why Eyob and Nebiet would have named their daughter "ship."

At the guesthouse, Helen said to me, "Do you know what Merkeb means?"

"Yes and we love it."Well last night, Josh tells us Merkeb's name is not really Merkeb.

"What?"

When they went to the orphanage, the people there either didn't understand what her name was because it was not an ethiopian word or changed it once she arrived.

Evidently, her given name is actually "Menkem." The name comes from their tribe - the Tigrin. The name actually means "like." Her name was intended to be "Menkem Eyob" or "like Eyob."Eyob - her father.

Wanted: House Elf

Needed immediately:

A friendly house elf who gladly cooks, cleans, does laundry, plays with the children, and can occasionally apparate a child to soccer, swimming, school, baseball or gymnastics.
Must be a self-starter, good under pressure, independent worker.
No pay or clothing, but room, board, and occasional vacation provided.
Inquire "in person" at our home in Springfield, Missouri U.S.A.
I need HELP with this:

And THIS:

And THIS:

And THESE:

Help me, I've fallen under a load of laundry and I can't get up! I would even take Kreature at this point!

My girls...

6:55 am
"It's time to get up."

7:05 am

"Girls, it's time to get up!"

7:15 am

"Get up Girls!"

They just keep cuddling up together and sleeping so soundly. It almost hurts to wake them up. That only lasts for a moment, then I'm a screaming maniac again.

"Get up, Get up, Get up!"