Homeade Applesauce

Wow! Have a been a slacker with my blog, lately! Here are some photos of Caleb and Emma helping make homeade applesauce. Emma had so much fun cutting the apples all by herself. Our house smelled wonderful as the apples cooked away in my big slow cooker and after peeling and cutting two big bags of apples...we have only three containers of applesauce in the freezer. I can't believe how much the apples cook down!

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I am never in photos....and finally, this vacation, I ended up in some. I have way too many photos from our vacation to post this way. So, I wanted to post some photos of me with my family. I will post more vacation photos when I get a chance to put them into a slideshow.
Emma zonked out on our long bike ride in Marquette.

Emma and Mommy just a swingin'!

Me and my first baby Fiddlebug!

What a handsome young man!

Emma and Mommy.

Me and my man! ;)

Mommy and her Fiddlebugs!

Me and my sister, Becky.

Me and Caleb...ain't he cute?

Me, my little sissy and our dad!

Help Bring a Child Home

My friend, Terri, has a good friend who has an immediate need to raise money to bring home their daughter from Taiwan. Please consider donating to their adoption fund or check out Terri's raffle on her blog. All raffle money will be donated to the Johnson family's adoption. Also, please keep this family in your prayers.

Moving Along...

Here is the latest update on our Ethiopia adoption...straight from our agency:

Hello!
Just an update for you. Your dossier has been sent from our office to Washington D.C. yesterday, August 4, 2009. There it will be authenticated and then sent to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Once in Addis, the documents will need to be authenticated then translated into Amharic and then authenticated again before it reaches our office in Ethiopia. Please allow 2-3 weeks for this process. When your dossier is received in our office in Ethiopia, you will then be “officially waiting”. If you have any further questions feel free to contact us at any time. We hope you have a wonderful week!

Molly

Great news! We are praying for the health and safety of our daughter and her caretakers. We can't wait to get a referral with photos, soon, to see God's perfect match for us! Please continue to pray for our daughter.

Paperwork is off to MN and then to Ethiopia!

Paperwork has been collected and the things that needed to be notarized have been notarized. Passport sized photos were ready at Walgreens today. Wrote out two checks and got one money order and I think we're good to go....off to MN to be all checked over. Then the dossier documents will be authenticated and forwarded to Ethiopia for processing and approval. Hopefully we'll get a referral by early next year and travel next spring. Hang on baby girl....we're coming to get you soon!

Day in Milwaukee

Spent the last day of our four day weekend in Milwaukee. Milwaukee County Zoo, fingerprint appointment, Lakefront (got to see the Cicus train cars, too) and finally, our first taste of Ethiopian food.

It must have been our lucky day (notice the lucky ladybugs we found)....our fingerprint appointment was at 3:00, we got there about 15 minutes early and ended up walking out the doors at 3:03! Quick and painless!

Visted Alem Ethiopian Village for dinner. We ate in traditional Ethiopian style, sitting around a woven table "thingy" (not sure what it's called). Aparantly, these large tables are woven with very tall grasses, by the Ethiopian people. Traditionally, the food is all cooked and served right on the table. We tried one of the Ethiopian samplers. It was a combination of vegetables along with beef, lamb and chicken. The food is served "family style" on a large piece of flat bread called "Injeera". The different foods are placed on top of the injeera and then there are rolled up pieces of ingeera around the platter that you unroll and use to scoop up the food with. Silverware is not used at all.

I really liked the Doro Wat (chicken stew)as it had a really good, spicy flavor. The food is all in a really heavy, thick, spicy sauce...it reminds me of gravy sort of. The injeera will have to become an aquired taste for me...if I ever really enjoy it at all. It reminded me of a cold crepe. It's like a flat, cold, rubbery pancake. The texture and temperature of it is what got to me the most. I prefer really hot and "non-rubbery" foods!

I am sure that authentic Ethiopian food, in Ethiopa, will taste different than the American version, anyway. Chinese food in China, was definatly different than it is here in the states....spicier and tastier!

Enjoy the photos!

Fun at Bay Beach

Spent a whoppin' $15 for four hours of fun on the rides at Bay Beach. It was a perfect day for it...not too hot and not too busy. We even found a "Grandpa Look Alike"...can you guess which Grandpa he looks like??

The UW-W Gang

We had my UW-Whitewater roomates and their families up for a cook out and get toghether last weekend. I can't believe how fast 17 years flew by. Seems like just yesterday that we were locked out of our apartment and the guys next door came and showed us how they could get into our apartment by using their credit card. (SCAREY)

We had a fun time together and it's always fun to see everyone's kids, too. Notice that three of the six kids are Fiddlebug kids. All of the other girls have only one child. Are we crazy or what? I wouldn't have it any other way! :)