Thursday | August 21, 2008

Now the FUN stuff!!!

We have had a lot of fun this summer.  Some of the highlights were a trip to Canon Beach for a couple of days while Steve was in St. Louis for business.  The kids had a blast on the beach and were impressed by mommy's fire building skills  :)    On the way home we went to Tillamook for the all important tour of the cheese factory complete with ice cream cones -Yummmy (love us that Tillamook cream).

Lauren, Caleb and I went to horse camp and I was the camp cook.  It was exhausting but so much fun!!!  Speaking of horses, Lauren and Tonto won Grand Champion in the Novice Western walk trot class at the Skamania fair and Sade/CJ are alternates to state fair.  These are hugs accomplishments for the girls and thier guys (Tonto and CJ).  It's so fun to see all of thier hard work pay off. 

We have had several day trips around the area that have been fun and Marshall had a blast at the Clark County fair with his friend Megan and her uncle Richard who majorly spoiled them. 

This Friday Steve is taking Marshall, Kade, Caleb and Aliah camping with his side of the family for the weekend.  Lauren and I are going to hold down the fort here and sit on Joshy.  The following weekend all of the kids and I are heading to Silver Lake with dad and Kathy.  Steve is going to stay home to move all the garage stuff and get his work benches set up. 

Somewhere in the midst of all this I have to shop for and organize everybody for back to school  :)

MOMX6
Posted by Shougmom at 12:11:36 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |

Not so cheery update

Now that Summer is winding down it's time for me to get back to this blog.  We were super busy the last couple of months but that is not the only reason I stopped blogging.  There were some things happening in our lives these past weeks that were just too big to digest all at once and too sensitive to share.  It has been a summer of incredible growth for me personally and us as a family. Steve and I have always had a strong relationship but are now even closer than ever as we came together to deal with incredible hurt and anger at others outside of our immediate little family and to make sure that our children were safe and came out of this situation whole and healthy.  I have learned that it is possible to forgive even when the hurt went deep into your soul.  I have also learned that no person/relationship will ever come before my husband or children.

More recently we made the huge decision to leave our current home and move to a rental house in a different neighborhood.  There are negative consequences with this decision, but it really was what was best for our family for a number of reasons.  We have been very blessed to have moved into a house that  feels like home and is a place where we can grow and thrive.  FYI/our phone number has remained the same.

Steve just experienced a huge dissapointment  with his career.  A position that he has been working toward for six years and was without a doubt the best candidate was give to someone else who didn't even have the credentials needed for the job.  The truth came out that this happened because of union politics and even some yucky self serving stuff with one of the hiring managers.  Lets just say that the Good Old Boys club is alive and well at Boeing.  The sad part is that the employees represented by this position are the ones that are the real losers here.  I am so proud of Steve as he has taken the high road and has made himself available to continue assisting with the program.  Again, our theme for the summer has come into play, "Grace and forgiveness". 

Even though I have written about these negative things, the majority of our summer has been wonderful.  I will share that in my next post  :)  I just had to get this stuff off my chest so I can move forward.

Jen
Posted by Shougmom at 10:58:05 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |

Thursday | August 07, 2008

Almost Famous/local politics

For our family and friends a quick explanation about this post:

Our Washougal City Council/Mayor did away with our current ambulance contract with the city of camas and contracted with a private co.  This is a huge deal for many reasons, and not a good deal I might add.  I have been asking questions and have been vocal in my opposition (in a repectful manner of course).  Anyhow I posted on a local blog-  CW Watch. Someone on there who in trying to discredit my questions etc posted a link to this blog.  Sooo, I thought since I may have some new fans I should do an intro (wink-wink).  For those of you on the home team, I will be sharing more about the C/W EMS issue (time is tight right now because we are headed to fair with Tonto in a couple of days)  There are so many yucky things with this EMS issue (I know eloquent with my words as always).

Ok, for those of you poor unsuspecting souls who have stumbled upon this site  here ya go.....

I am Jennifer Graham, AKA Shougmom.  I live here in Washougal and was Jennifer Begier before marrying my best friend Steve.  We are the proud parents of six awesome kids.  Two came into our family biologically and four through adoption.  We have four sons and two daughters.  Three of our sons were born in South Korea and our daughter was adopted here in the states at birth.  Our youngest child (age 2), Joshua just arrived home from Korea in March.  Read back in the blog to follow his adoption process including my travels in Korea to bring him home.  We are a wild and crazy bunch!  Steve works for Boeing in Portland and I am at home trying to keep the inmates from taking over the asylum. 

After my family one of my passions are horses.  This is a bug I caught as an adult so never rode until a couple years ago.  I'm still lousy at it but love doing all of the care and ground work for our family horses at my mom's place.  I especially love watching my children interact with them.  Our oldest daughter Lauren is starting to ride formally, involved in 4H etc. 

We attend St. John's Presbyterian church in Camas where I was director of Christian Ed for six years before becoming a stay at home mom.  We are incredibly blessed with the best family and friends anyone could ever hope for.  

Before becoming a public activist two days ago (hee hee) I could often be found chasing a child or two or six around the playground, at home attempting to match the mountain of holey socks that have overtaken us, gardening in the weeds, entering My Coke Rewards points online ( I have a serious adiction), or running errands in my huge gas guzzeling family truckster with the "Obama 08" bumper sticker on the back.

Alright so that's me in a nutshell (uh oh I guess that really does make me the nut).   

Jen/MOMX6
Posted by Shougmom at 00:21:52 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Sunday | July 13, 2008

Twelve Years Ago

Twelve years ago today I looked into the eyes of our first child.  Marshall was the answer to our prayers.  All of our hopes and dreams were wrapped around his brand new life.  After being told we wouldn't have children and then proceeding with infertility treatments we were blessed with life's most precious gift, a child.

Marshall John Curtis Graham made us parents that day in July.  I remember looking into his eyes for the first time and crying tears of joy as he snuggled in  my arms and blinked his eyes in the bright light.  I also remember how incredible it was to see Steve as a daddy for the first time (little did we know that was just the beginning-LOL)

Happy Birthday Marshall.  We are so proud of you!  You are an amazing boy and we love you to the moon and back!  You are smart, funny, compassionant and have an incredible love for life.  We know it's not always easy being part of such a big family, but we so appreciate the way that you have taken on the challenge of being the big brother and looking out for all of your minions (oops, I mean siblings)  :)

Life has great things waiting for you son.  We pray that you will embrace the coming years with the same joy and excitement that you have with the first twelve.

I Love you Forever and Always, As Long as I'm living my baby you'll be..
(from my favorite children's book)

Love, Mommy

Posted by Shougmom at 23:25:51 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |

Thursday | June 26, 2008

I Love This Smile

I haven't posted in a while because we have had a lot going on here.  I am so happy to say that everyone is thriving and our summer is off to a great start.  Yesterday I took the kids to the zoo.  I'll post more pictures later, but for now will leave you with this beautiful smile.




BTW/ Mr. Joshua is awesome!  It's like he has always been a part of us.  I am so so in love with this little man.  Yesterday I took Steve aside and told him Thankyou for believing in "us" and the plans God had for our family to bring Joshy home. 

Jen
Posted by Shougmom at 16:33:26 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |

Saturday | June 07, 2008

If you should run into Horton...

Please oh please send him my way.  Today I am wishing I was mayzie the bird and that Horton would come mind my nest while I fly away for some fun  :)  (  In the words of Dr. Seuss)  In the book, "Horton Hatches an Egg" Mayzie the bird has had enough of sitting on her nest and yearns for adventure and fun.  At one point in the story she says, "It's Work!  How I hate it!  I'd much rather play!  I'd take a vacation, fly off for a rest, if I could find someone to stay on my nest!"  If only I was more like Maizy.  There is a part of me that wants to high five here and yell, "Way to go sister.  you ditch that egg and run  off to do whatever you want without guilt or worry."  Then there is the other part of me, the realistic mommy part that thinks she is a horrible, selfish wretch and thank goodness Horton is there to care for that poor defenseless egg.  Wouldn't it be grand to be able to leave your kiddos with some poor unsuspecting Horton and be off without a care in the world.  Well that might work in Dr. Seuss time but not in my world.  It can be difficult to balance the demands of parenthood and the need for rest.   This is especially true when there is a new child in the home.  Mr. Joshua is not ready to be away from Steve and I yet, so for now we are content to take turns "resting" while the other cares for him.  I have to say though, we are dreaming of a time, hopefully in the not so distant future when Joshy will be ready for us to run away to enjoy a quite meal together or sleep through the night  :)   For now, I challenge the rest of you to find yourselves a Horton and take a rest even if it's just for an hour.

MomX6
Posted by Shougmom at 19:56:10 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Thursday | June 05, 2008

In the Quite

Today was a weird day.  I woke not feeling well at all.  Superdaddy took pitty on me and came home early.  I felt somewhat better after a four hour nap.  Yep, you heard right.. four hour nap.

The kids were all really cranky as I prepared dinner and then throughout the rest of the evening.  They must have been totally exhausted because everyone (except Caleb) fell asleep as soon as thier heads hit the pillows. 

Here, I sit in the dark and it it Quite.  Almost completely quite.  So many times I am so caught up in the chaos that is my life that I forget to just sit and take in the quite and really listen.   As I type this I hear the soft snoar of our little Joshua,  Aliah breathes quitely near him.  In the next room I hear the sound of the pump that it filling Kaden full of nutrients so that he can continue to grow and thrive.   Marshall's metal bunk squeeks as he turns over in his sleep.  Lauren is perfectly quite in her room.  She never makes any sound when she sleeps.  I just know that she is having some fantastic adventure in her sleep.  She has really creative dreams.  Downstairs, I hear Caleb and Steve talking softly as daddy pays bills and Blubby talks to him about all the things that are on the mind of a six year old boy.

I am sitting hear taking these sounds in as I know someday sooner than I am ready for they will all be grown and our home will be completely quite.

MomX6 
Posted by Shougmom at 22:59:15 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Monday | June 02, 2008

Family Therapy

Tonight at dinner Lauren all of a sudden came up with the notion that each of us needed to attend therpay and that she was going to be our family therapist.  I asked her how she knew what a therapist was and she told  me that on Veggie Tales, Larry the cucumber went to a therapist- LOL

She made up an appointment book and turned her room into an office.  Steve had the first appointment.  When asked about his problem he told her that it was a lack of sleep.  Lauren came up with the perfect solution  :)   She told him to go to bed earlier, ignore all screaming children and if that didn't work to go to his happy place- LOL!  I believe that she has Kaden and Caleb in her office now  :)

Lord have mercy, this girl keeps us hopping  :)

Posted by Shougmom at 20:19:43 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Totem O' Boys

Posted by Shougmom at 19:46:27 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |

Tuesday | May 27, 2008

Kaden is Seven

This weekend our Kaden Soo Man turned seven years old.  We are actually celebrating with a Chuck E Cheese trip next Sunday because he and Caleb were camping with Gramp/Gram Graham this weekend.  Grandma made him a cake like last year and they had a great time celebrating together. 

Kaden and Caleb are so excited that for six months they don't have to be the same age  :)   Last night Caleb told Steve that Kaden needed new undies because the ones I have been buying them have 6 on the tag- LOL  I think that our seven year old Kaden would be wearing the undies with 7 on the tag around his ankles  :)

It's hard to believe that the tiny, sickly, delayed little guy that came home to us five years ago is now this amazing big boy!  Kaden is just an awesome little guy!  everyone who knows him loves him dearly.  He has had an awesome year in Kindergarten and has really excelled alongside his peers.  He has grown so much and is even about ready to pass Caleb up in size.  He loves to ride his bike and play with his best friend Nick. 

Kaden, Daddy and I love you so much!  We are so proud of you and feel so blessed that God chose you to be our son.  

I Love You Buddy!

Mommy 

Posted by Shougmom at 23:09:13 | Permanent Link | Comments (2) |