One year ago!!!

One year ago I saw the face of my eighth grandchild on the computer. After a wait of five years, the phone call came. Eve said we had a baby girl and the photo was being emailed. Here is Adley at about three months. It would be winter and she was probably dressed in many layers do clothing, as is the Chinese way. The orphanage is probably quite cold. I immediately fell in love with this face. A bit different from seeing the baby when you hold it for the first time. This is the picture that was used for her placement to her forever family.








We requested an updated picture and have one when she was six months old.
Now we had a really beautiful baby. And she is smiling with clear skin.




And here she is today at eighteen months.
A pure joy to have. HAPPY all the time. She LOVES her family. She is Maya side kick and part of the girl friends. Loves music , all foods and thinks the Ipad belongs to her. She is right on schedule in development .

Mollie has a field trip called transportation day.

The class spent the day going to downtown on all types of transportation.
First they took a limousine into town.






Getting in the limo.


With her teacher.


They went to Station Square and took the incline to the top of Mount Washington. There they overlooked the city.
At Station Square eating pretzels an looking at city and river.









The entire class of eight.



With teachers.



On the top with view of the city. More pretzels.






The subway, over the river and I to downtown.





At the courthouse.



On the bus, back to school.




Tired kids after a very full morning of travels all in the city.



Adley is a musical with her new piano.

S K has a birthday. Nathan and karate.

S had a birthday. L and M made him a cake. It is good looking and tasted wonderful. Daughter E also had a birthday on the same day.



Nathan got his yellow belt this week in karate.



Posted by Ruth

Grandparents Day at the K school

We attended Grandparents Day at the school. Nathan had a special ceremony where they are given their prayer book. It was a lot of singing for over one half hour. He was very excited about this day and we are very proud of him.
The boys are having fun!





The first grade is about 40students.














Now that we are back in the burg, we have one more house to repair. It seems the roof had a bad winter. We lost about 28 shingles on our 26 years old roof. We have carpenters bees and ants outside the house. The bees have made some very nice big holes. The air conditioner was serviced. We had the electrician to fix a light and the plumber to look at a wet area. So we are busy seeing repair men.
We had a nice Memorial day picnic at Rosa's house. The pool is open and Mollie and Nathan are jumping off the diving board. Abe does not love the pool since he does not have any friends that belong.

Ad with her friend T. She came from the same area of China and is 4 months older. They live near each other and I hope they will be friends.

In Pittsburgh for two weeks.

We are back in the burg. Jack has gotten back in with his tennis and bridge games. I am back at the gym where the aerobic classes are very good and the ladies room is dirty. There was a grandparents day at the K school. Nathan had a special ceremony where he got his prayer book. Jack and I spent the morning in the classrooms. Abe is playing soccer. He is also getting good playing the guitar. Nathan plays softball and karate. Holden is a very good baseball player and is on a traveling team. Mollie and Sadie are dancing. Ad is busy eating ice cream. She has a favorite word, NO. She also is saying many other words-- Adley, Maya, nose,
eye , grandma, etc.



Mollie going down the blue slide at the Frick park



We brought Chinese dinner to the P new apartment with the W. Bernie is looking good and will have gall bladder surgery this week.

Adley is with her forever family 10 months

Barbara and Howard visit. more cleaning

Barbara and Howard came to visit on their way north after the winter in Boca Raton. They had 3 baby girls born in 27 days. Vivi, and twins Madison, and Zoey. I have seen the pictures of the girls and they are beautiful and healthy babies. A very lucky family.
We went to an art fair with friends, a movie, dinner. It was a very busy time.








We went to dinner with friends. Jack is sitting with his bridge partner, Dorothy and her husband, Gerry.




We went to an art show of our friend Sherrie. She is in the photo with husband Gordon. She does wonderful hand formed pottery.




A great picture of R & J




The bike group went to Beaufort ,SC for an afternoon ride. We rode throught the military cemetery. The rounded markers are the veterans. The ones with pointed markers are the confederate soldiers.








We saw a house that slid into the ocean. We thought it might be good to buy. Water on all four sides. Just a little fixer upper.




We then had one more week to clean and prepare the house for the rental season. We had the gutters repaired. Deck, dock and screened in porch stained. Windows cleaned, carpets. Gas grill repaired. Electrician to repairs two lights. We put all our personal things away. And we bought a new dishwasher. The motor burnt out. I only used the new one three times and is just OK. I liked the old one better.
We locked the door and drove north in two cars. Bernie P is in the hospital in Pgh. And we drove their car to Pgh. Since they will be there for a long while.
We stopped in Charlotte, NC to have a nice visit with Sara and Mike S. We were on the rode at 6:30 Sunday morning and got back to Pgh. At 3:30 pm. That did not include coffee as the Starbucks was not open yet. There was also not Dairy Queen Blizzard to stop at.
The house looked great. We have a little culture shock being back here. We ate dinner at Nancy and Joel's and went out to dinner with Lis and Donald L. They sold their house the day before, in 18 hours, and there was a lot of excitement. I have weeded the yard but there are many weeds in the grass. The bushes also need cut back.
We went to the Science Fair for Abe. He did an experiment about which battery lasts longer.




Emma ate a cupcake with red icing.




Emma is eating a Costco chocolate covered strawberry!




The G family