Announcing.....

Jonah Benjamin Schanding!!!!!

That's right! The adoption was final Thursday, July 27. Here are all us Schandings in front of the court house in downtown Lexington.
We met with the judge for about 15 minutes. He asked us all some questions, including Jonah. The judge asked him what his favorite subject in school is to which Jonah replied recess. The judge signed the papers, and the adoption was final!

Here's a photo of Jonah with his attorney. Thank goodness he approved of David and I as parents even though Jonah told him of all the dog bites he's had to endure from Chase and Flash, whithin the first five minutes of meeting him no less.
Jonah's been practicing writing his new name before school starts.

NEW PHOTOS!

I finally got the photos developed from the waterproof disposable camera that we had in Colorado. Yes, from January. It's the camera we used when we visited the natural hot springs while we were there. The water was amazingly warm in the pool. Then they had a smaller pool that had hotter water like a hot tub. It was amazing to be swimming with piles of snow all around us.
There was even an enclosed water slide you can sort of see in the background. We would get out of the pool and then run as fast as we could dripping wet in our swim suits to the top of the slide in the freezing cold.

Jonah had a ball.

Have you ever seen a lifeguard in a winter coat?
Really cute photo of Jonah that was in the mix.

Come on summer!

Summer is my favorite season. Bring on the warm weather and the sunshine! I love it. The weather lately has been less than desirable with lots of rain and chilly temperatures. I think this weekend may be the beginning of the end of all that. It's been absolutely beautiful.

Perfect baseball weather for Jonah's game yesterday. Although it didn't seem to help their playing unfortunately. Perhaps the sunshine got in their eyes. Jonah's been having a pretty good season though. He's already been given two game balls. His team, the Nationals, however are 1-9. Not doing too well.
We also got out and played some putt putt with our friend Phil. Phil won by one stroke. That's right. David did NOT win. He said he was going to go practice on his time off.
Congratulations Phil!
I'm looking forward to many more summer adventures. Maybe King's Island, camping, Fourth of July, cook outs, the pool. The possibilities are endless.

What the.....?!

A bird pooped on my head yesterday. For real. I'm not joking. Often on my lunch breaks and especially if the weather is nice I will take a little stroll through the nearby neighborhoods in the historic districts. I love those old houses, and it gives me a chance to kind of escape the daily grind. Yesterday I was walking down Short St about a block past Jefferson when I felt something hit me right on top of the head. And it felt considerably large. Naturally I was rather startled and for a second wasn't quite sure what to do. Nothing had ever hit me in the head while I was walking before. Also I wasn't quite sure if it was bird poop or perhaps a very big bug. My mind raced. Do I reach up and touch to feel what had hit me? I certainly didn't want to touch bird poop but what if it was the very big bug. I didn't want a bug in my hair and what if it could sting? After several seconds of standing frozen in the street, my eyes wide with fear, I decided to reach up and see what the heck had happened. I was kind of hoping for the bug. When I reached up and felt my head I felt something wet. Immediately I knew.

I'm not sure why now, but I had used both hands. I brought them both back down to see black and white bird poo. There was even a berry. It was disgusting. I felt disgusting. I think it must have been a pretty big bird. I looked around to see if any one had witnessed this catastrophe. There wasn't a single soul around me. For several seconds I stared at the bird poo on my hands. I think I was kind of in shock. Now what do I do? I happened to have my jacket with me. The weather has been pretty yucky lately so I had brought it just in case, but it was such a nice day I had tied it around my waist. Nice day? I used the sleeve of the jacket to clean up as much as the bird poo as I could off my head and hands until I could get to a bathroom. I balled the jacket up around the used sleeve and put it under my arm. I then proceeded back to work walking a little like Frankenstein with my contaminated hands outstretched before me but my elbows bent.

I had to walk back down Short St to Broadway and then to Main to reach my building. I really didn't want to walk right through downtown but was trying to reach the bathroom as quickly as possible. I don't think anyone saw the bird poo on my head. I didn't hear any snickering behind me. Using my elbows to open doors and press the elevator buttons I finally got to the bathroom and began trying to clean up the mess. One of my coworkers came into the bathroom, and I explained to her what had happened. She was was so incredibly sweet and helped me to clean it up. We both had a good laugh about it. I really, really wanted to go home but I just balled my hair up using a rubber band until I could wash it. I only had a couple of hours left. I could make it. My scalp was crawling by the time I got home.

At home I googled "birds pooping on head" and "wives tales." My mother's side of the family is fairly superstitious. We're always knocking on wood and interpreting dreams. I found some websites that do say a year of good luck will follow being pooped on the head by a bird. That would be nice, but I have a hunch that that is just something people who have been pooped on the head by a bird tell themselves to make themselves feel better. I think I'm going to go wash my hair again.

ps I'm sorry I don't have any photos for this blog, but I think you get the idea.

Him, mom, HIM!

"Who is Mobey?" Megan once asked. Mobey is our lesser known cat who lives upstairs. She was terrified of Flash when we first moved in and made the upstairs her permanent residence. She's more or less used to Flash now, but rarely makes an appearance on the first floor. I can't say for sure why. Her food, water, and litter box are all upstairs so I guess that's all she needs. .... and Jonah.When Jonah was a wee toddler, I had promised him a pet if he would start going to the potty. Not that my promise motivated him at all but when he finally started using the potty at 3 and a 1/2, I kept my promise and got him Mobey. From the day I brought her home, Jonah has insisted Mobey is a boy. I just played along. Yet even after all this time, I can never remember and always refer to Mobey as her or she. I know Jonah has told me no less than a hundered times, "Him, mom, HIM. Movey is a boy!" Someday I'll get it. Also, Jonah calls Mobey Movey. David's corrected him several times but Jonah always goes back to Movey. So we decided to just call her, uh, I mean him Movey.At any rate Jonah and Movey are as close as a boy and cat could be. Movey sleeps in Jonah's bed every night, right by his side. That might explain Jonah's allergies. Oh well. I would never have the heart to break them up. David tried to persuade me a couple of times to find Movey a new home in Florida, before we moved to KY, but there was absolutely no way. So we brought the poor little guy in his carrier for the entire 14 hour trip on the Uhaul's floor board. He's here to stay.Movey has huge eyes. I have never been able to take his picture without him having red eyes. I know it makes him look evil, but he's a very sweet kitty. I can't do it. She's a very sweet kitty!

Let It Snow!Let It Snow!Let It Snow!

Not really. I'm just as ready for spring to come as everyone else. But when I moved up here from Florida with Jonah, I was so excited for Jonah to experience real snowy weather. Well, guess what. Last year, there was none. Just some ice. I was bummed. This year however we've had some pretty snow falls. Of course this would be the same year we went to Colorado. Oh well. I love, love, love summer but newly fallen snow can be so beautiful.

Here's some photos from the front of our house...

...and from the back.

Jonah still hasn't experienced a real snow day. Of course winter isn't over yet!

Happy Birthday Katherine!

Well, I meant to post this yesterday, but you all know how I am. Yesterday was our niece Katherine's birthday. She turned a monumental 10. I try to think back to my tenth year. It seemed growing up as a kid that I could never grow up fast enough. Childhood seemed to take an eternity! It's amazing to me now what a distant fading memory my childhood now is. I had a heck of time picking out a birthday present for Katherine. I walked into Limited Too, Katherine's favorite store, took a look around, and left quickly bewildered. I felt like such a grown up dork. I did manage to find something just in time for her big birthday party. Oh yes! A bowling party held by Katherine's family and attended by about 15 of her closest friends. It was pretty entertaining to see all those tween girls in action. I kind of felt like a National Geographic explorer studying the natives.
This picture doesn't really show it, but Jonah had an awesome time bowling with his younger cousins, Emily and Anna. Anna refused to be in the photo. I'll get her next time.

Even though the Munzers don't believe me, we had a great afternoon helping to celebrate Katherine's big day. Happy Birthday Katherine!

p.s. David had to work and missed all the fun.

Basketball Season

I know no one really wants to hear about basketball after our beloved Cat's game today, but I have a few pics from Jonah's first season playing basketball that I'd like to share. I was going to get more photos during his last game, but I locked ourselves out of the house and Jonah missed the game. I felt pretty awful about it, but Jonah handled it like a trooper.


Jonah absolutely loved basketball. I was somewhat surprised. He really got into playing defense, so much so that I always kind of felt bad for the other kid.


The YMCA gave all the kids headbands. Jonah thought it was the coolest thing ever.


Have you ever noticed that it's almost impossible to get action shots with a digital camera? Maybe next year...

Sky High

It's hard to believe it's been almost a year since our skydiving adventure. What a busy year at that! David and I were married, and I'm pregnant! Wow! I really had no idea how amazing it was that David even went skydiving until we were in Colorado and he would start whimpering everytime we had get on a ski lift. While we were getting ready to skydive, he didn't act especially freaked out. Unfortunately, we had to take separate planes, so I didn't get to see his fear climax. I did witness him being sick to his stomach for a good hour afterwards. Since we did take separate planes, the pictures I have don't really reflect his true terror that day.

A nice family photo before I got on the plane. I jumped first. When David saw me do it first, he knew he had no choice. Jonah seemed pretty unimpressed by the whole event. There was a nice puppy there that he found more interesting.
Here's one of the little planes we went up on. That was an experience in itself.

David before he got on the plane. I must say, he looks pretty cute in his purple jumpsuit.

David on his way down!
In his defense, he did spin around and around all the way down. Luckily, I didn't have any spinning or I would have been sick to my stomach too. If anyone would like to go skydiving, David did say he would like to go again someday. Just give him a call.

Thanksgiving!!!!

...and yes! This will bring me up to date.

Jonah's class had a Thanksgiving program instead of a Christmas program this year. Jonah and all the kids were really cute! ...except the little boy who wouldn't stop picking his nose (no, not Jonah!).

We spent Thanksgiving day in Radcliff at the Schandings. We always have a great time with David's parents, siblings and spouses, and all the little nieces. Jonah calls them "the girls." "Are the girls going to be there?!" he always asks.

I can't decide what's funniest about this picture: David sneaking into the photo, the goofy expression on Jonah's face, or the ultra serious look on Bella like she's practicing her super model pose.
David's brother Greg brought all the cousins traditional costumes back from Afghanistan where he was stationed with the Air Force. They put on a lovely parade.

Of course Jonah had to strike his warrior pose.

The weekend following Thanksgiving we drove out to my aunt's house in North Carolina to eat even more turkey. Here's a photo of Jonah with some more cousins. I don't take very many pictures of adults I've noticed.
I'm so happy to now be caught up! Now maybe people will stop harrassing me.

Next up by request... Our skydiving experience!

Who's That Man?!

I'm almost caught up! I only have that glorious holiday Thanksgiving left. It will be a long blog, so I'm going to take a little break. On any typical night here at the Schanding household we have some light hearted entertainment to pass the time. Most of the time, Jonah is at the center of this whimsical fun. Tonight he decided to play mail carrier dress up in David's honor. As you can see...

Safari Man!!!!

and Kung Fu Mail Carrier!!!!

I hope you enjoyed our silly family fun!

A Christmas Story

Jonah and David have many things in common including their love of sports, board games, dogs, and that little holiday known as Christmas. I'm not sure which one gets more excited. They sort of build each other up into a little ball of frenzied holiday cheer. Both of them are already conspiring to catch Santa in the act next year. David reminds me of Clark Griswald in his joy of putting up the Christmas lights. He went all out this year...

We continued our traditions of visiting Santa at the local mall, driving around to see the Christmas lights, and also added a Christmas song dance competition that was a blast. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of the dance competition.

We actually woke up before Jonah this year which was quite astonishing.

Is this from Halloween? No, Jonah got the Darth Vader voice changer from Santa and he
loves it!
We couldn't have had such a great Christmas without all of our wonderful family and friends!

New Year's Eve Celebration Kiddie Style

We had a pretty wild and crazy New Year's Eve celebration here at the Schanding household. ...at 7pm. David wanted Jonah to be included in the festivities, so we had a mock countdown to 7 o'clock that night. Then we acted loud and crazy, banging on pots and pans and shooting toy guns. We even had some bubbly apple cider on hand to complete the festivities. May seem to some as pretty lame, but we had a great time. Happy New Year!

Way Out West

Boy! I'm like super behind on this thing. I don't think the once a month thing is going to work. I can't remember when it's been a month. Maybe I'll update it every weekend. First I've got to get up to date. I think I'll start with the more recent past and work back through the holidays. I hope that sounds good to everyone.

In the most recent past, we were able to take an unbelievable ski trip vacation in Steamboat Springs, Colorado during the first week of January, thanks to the kindness and generosity of my mom and her husband. I don't think David and I really believed we were going until we actually stepped off the plane (which we had to catch 7am New Year's Day but that's another story in itself) in Colorado. This is the view from the condo where we stayed with my mom Sandi and her husband Lewis and my 2 brothers, Jason and Jon.
We were also able to spend some great quality time with my Aunt Deb, Uncle Brian and cousins Shannon and Stephanie, all of whom live in Colorado. (David fact: His family lived in Colorado for several years. They moved to KY when David was 5 or 6) I kept waiting for all of us to be together to get a group shot but then we were never all together at the same time. Darn!

Here's David and I hitting the slopes.

While David and I would ski, Jonah would go to snowboarding school. He was really excited to learn. The first day in CO, my brothers and Lewis rented snowboards but turned them back in after about 30 minutes, saying how incredibly difficult it was. David and I totally expected to pick up Jonah from the snowboard school ready to throw in the towel. But no, he couldn't wait to go back the next day!

Jonah's mastered the ski lift.
Oh oh! Is he going to fall?
He's got it!

What a cutie!
There you have it! Thanks for sharing our most excellent Colorado adventure. (We also visited some Colorado hot springs which were amazing. Hopefully, I'll photos soon to blog.)


***I have to give a great big Schanding thank you to Amber and Phil for being so awsome to babysit the pups while we were gone. We can't thank you enough!! ***