Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Friday, July 25, 2008/ Weekend in California

Extreme Makeover house in Richland Center, WI

Picture Stacy and Dana with one of the stars, Paige

Family picture at the beach.

From Left to Right Cami, Austin, Ben, Kylie, and Ian
Cami loves to swim
Ben and Austin holding hands walking back from the park.

Last Friday, I had the opportunity to go to Richland Center, WI to volunteer with Extreme Makeover Home Edition. My friend, Stacy, and I headed out at 4 am to make the almost 2 hour drive there to board a bus to the home of the Wisconsin winners from Extreme Makeover. Upon arriving at the house, we were given instructions that we would be clearing out the house for the demolition which would take place on Saturday. 45 volunteers entered the house with garbage bags and garbage cans to start cleaning. To say that the house was filthy and falling apart is an understatement. This family was in desperate need of a newer home (read about the family at http://veridiangives.com/dream/family/). Since the furnace was out this winter, the mother used a small wood burning stove to keep warm. Everything in the house was covered in soot from it. It took us about 5 hours to clear out every inch of that house. There were about 2 dozen or more volunteers outside clearing out the garbage and also the boxes of stuff to be saved from the 45 plus volunteers from inside the house. It is amazing how much stuff one house can hold. Needless to say, I was more than ready to go home and clean out my own home after this experience! We left a little after one to ensure that we would be back to Eastside Lutheran to see Ben and Hank (Stacy's son) play their last game at soccer / VBS camp. We made it just in time to see them play and then enjoyed a nice cookout.
Things are never calm at our house, so after an extremely LONG day of activity, I hurried home with Ben to let our sitter, Rachel, go from watching Cami and Ian all day so I could volunteer. We finished packing, waited for Justin to come home and then piled in the car to head to Milwaukee to get on a plane to California to visit Mike, Allison, Austin, and Kylie for the weekend. We arrived in LA at 11pm local time or 1am for our body clock and headed to the hotel. We arrived at the hotel to find that they were sold out of 2 bed rooms for the night. Since we were on an airline employee discount, upgrades are not common. Thankfully the lady at the desk took mercy on us and offered us an upgrade to a suite. The room was HUGE. There was more than enough room for the king size bed, pull out couch, crib, table and chairs, desk, etc. Plus there was a ton of room for the kids to run and play! We were very thankful that God took care of us. We needed sleep and room to run after a long day.
We headed down to Irvine on Saturday morning and had a wonderful, relaxing time with everyone. I love seeing the kids play together. It is so awesome that they get to grow up together despite the distance. I pray that this can continue over the years!

A few pictures from the week

Here are a few pictures from the week that we thought you might enjoy...

Cami at her cooking class mixing up some chocolate.

Cami and Ben enjoying ice cream on one of the many hot days this week.

Ben playing soccer.

Cami playing at Vilas park at the Korean Adoption Group picnic.

Ian is proud of himself for climbing on the stoop and being able to sit by himself.

Stitches

We ended up with our first trip to the doctor this week for stitches. We were at bible study on Tuesday night at a friends house. The kids had their bible study time outside, while the adults were inside. Ben went head first into a pile of rocks from a 4 ft wall. We were able to rush him to Urgent Care where the doctors slowed the bleeding and eventually put in 2 stitches. They were hoping to glue his cut together, but due to the depth of the injury, they had to do the stitches. Ben handled it all so well. We are very proud of him for being so brave. He is excited to show everyone his stitches and tell them his story!!!

It's Official!

Ian is officially ours! As of 9:20 am on Wednesday, July 9, 2008, our youngest son is officially Ian Hank Marthaler, son of Justin and Dana Marthaler and brother of Ben and Cami Marthaler. We are grateful that some friends and family were there to support us as the adoption was made final. We had a terrific judge as well! We plan to have a big celebration Open House on August 2 from noon- 6pm. Please join us for this celebration! We will have pictures from the courthouse soon, so check back....

A Berry Good Day

Yum - strawberries!

Today Ian got his first taste of pick your own strawberries. I think he's a fan. I told the kids last night that as soon as everyone got up, we'd get dressed to go pick berries. We wouldn't have breakfast because we could eat berries in the field. They were pretty excited. Ian woke up first this morning a little before 6am, Cami was up a little while later. Ben was the last up a little after 7am. Shortly thereafter we were in the van and on our way to Berry Hill Farm on Old Sauk Road outside of Middleton.


We chose Berry Hill because it was the only one in the area that seemed to be open this weekend. Our normal stop, Carandale, is closed for ripening this weekend. Berry Hill is a smaller farm and only about 10 people were picking when we arrived. The kids were excited to get started. Ben and Cami were mildly helpful and Ian just started eating berries - which was perfect. (You can see Ian's handiwork in the picture above. I didn't have a camera in the patch, but I took this when we got home - notice the red on the shirt!) I was concerned he'd run all over the rows and get too busy to handle and we'd be leaving with a quart of berries.


We were doing fine until Cami annouced she had to go to the bathroom -- No. 2 at that. So we inquired about a bathroom and the attendant said he didn't know if one was available, but gestured toward the trees. I hope we didn't do any permanent damage to the trees.

After our bathroom break, we went back to our row and picked a little more. Cami was pretty much done, but Ben was still into it and Ian kept shoving berries into his little mouth. We ended up with a little over 8 lbs or 2/3 of a flat. I was satisfied considering I had three helpers with short attention spans.


All the picking wore out Ian and he was asleep shortly after we left the farm. On the way home, we stopped at the Farmer's Market on the square on the way home, got some snap peas and cheese curds, and went to the observation deck in the Capitol.


Cami passed out on the way home from the Farmer's Market. When we got home, Ben helped me make pancakes and that was our lunch - pancakes with berries. Later on we made a pie. The kids are excited to eat it tomorrow -- maybe even for breakfast. I just had a slice and it was delicious - a perfect end to a berry good day.

Court Date

Today in the mail we received our notice from Dane County Circuit Court regrading Ian's adoption. On Wednesday, July 9 at 9:20, we'll make everything official. Judge John Albert will be presiding. Anyone who would like to celebrate with us is welcome to join us at the Dane County Courthouse, Courtroom 4A, 215 S Hamilton St, Madison, WI 53703.

This means Dana's last day of work until the snow flies is sometime before July 9th. She'll start her five months of adoption leave on the day the adoption is official. That means she'll have Thanksgiving off, but we don't know what Christmas will bring. Who know what the airline industry will look like in five months. But for now, we'll enjoy the time off.

Rain Rain Go Away!!

Cami playing basketball with Ben.

Ian helping mommy plant flowers.

The kids having a picnic on Friday. Ben is worried that there might be more rain.

I think we have had enough rain to last us a while. Roads are shut down, basements are flooding (not ours thankfully), and there are large puddles and ponds everywhere. The rain has been coming down for several days now and it is time for it to stop. Thankfully we had a nice, yet muggy, day here today. The kids were getting a little stir crazy being in doors for so many days. They understand the seriousness of the heavy rains as the news showed houses in the Wisconsin Dells area being washed away whole and sinking and another house being split in two by the floods. They were a little scared, but Ben stated that he was thankful that God kept the people from being washed away with the houses. What a smart and thoughtful little boy.

This weekend we had a garage sale with our friends Stacy. Her son Hank and our kids enjoyed playing while we sat and waited for people to come. Despite the downpours on Friday, we actually had quite a few people come in between the rain storms. We all enjoyed having a picnic lunch with free food from Potbelly Sandwiches (free food on Thursday with donations given to Habitat for Humanity).

Ian made his way down the steps today crawling and pushing his way down on his tummy. It is the first time he has made it all the way down. He is really growing up! He has 4 teeth coming in all at the same time, climbing on everything. Babbling all the time, trying so hard to communicate his wants and needs, and learning so many new things. I LOVE this stage and dislike this stage all at the same time. I mostly love it because it is fun to watch your child learn so many new things and see the excitement in their eyes and on their face from the most simple things, like bending over and seeing someone upside down (Ian got a HUGE kick out of that). The part I dislike is the frustration they get when they are trying to communicate throught whining and grunting and me having to try to figure out what the need or want is before a major meltdown occurs. I often reflect on the amazing changes that occur everyday with my kids and thank God that I have the opportunity to see them grow everyday. I feel blessed to be home with my kids running around playing tag and having picnics during the day. I know this time will go fast and soon they will be in school and our carefree days will be lost to school and activities.

Speaking of activities, Ben has just started soccer and will have his first game this coming Monday. He is enjoying it so far. Ben and Cami both are finishing up their swim classes. Cami had her last one on Wednesday and Ben's had to be rescheduled due to the rain, hail, and tornados on Thursday. He will finish up next week. They love swimming, but are looking forward to taking a break this summer and starting back up in the fall. We look forward to a limited scheduled summer, leaving most days for playtime and play dates and zoo trips with friends.

We hope to hear about Ian's official adoption court date soon. We are expecting a July court date right now. We can't wait until everything is official! We are so excited!