so many things.

i am officially done with the 4th qtr rally. some companies do quarterly meetings. mine does "rallies." at my job, well..they're my job. yesterday, we did ours. and it was pretty good. i will try to post pictures tomorrow. but it's the reason why i've been unable to blog for a bit.

things are good at the merryman household. jon is the happiest i've seen him with his job in a year or so. he's got some good new challenges and he (as always) will be amazing at it.

dennis won second place at an art competition. good news: he won second place. bad news: because i've been working so much lately, i saw his entry this morning...and i thought about using a post-it-note to write, "great job!" this is not OK. and i was sure to talk about his good job tonight at dinner.

on that note..we decided to use a dinner a'fare this month for our dinners. and it has changed. my. life. we've used them before, but i think they've upped their game. every meal is yummy. and we saved on our budget. it is such a weird thing for 3 adults to eat. if you make a full recipe there are leftovers...but if you half a meal for 6, one of you (namely the teenager) feels hungry afterwards. so tough are my life-choices.

got word from my momma today that my dad goes in for an alternate treatment next week. after his second round of chemo, his tumor has (slightly) grown. his chemo embolation is next thursday. i totally guessed at what that means...funny thing is, my mom believed me. have you ever wished that everyone believed you like your mom believes you? that was a side-note. please pray that the treatment shrinks his tumor unbelievably. that's what i'm praying.

tonight, i'm just thankful to be watching the cma's and glee and then the crazy triple CSI series alternately. how great is it to have a family?

it starts.

jessica and i used to have a nintendo 64 that we LOVED. no really - spent hours playing it. one of our favorite games was the lion king. and at the beginning of it, simba's dad would say "it starts." anyway. random fact.

this morning, dennis drove to school all by himself. i was a nervous wreck. i woke up at the crack of dawn and made a sausage lentil soup to go in the crock pot because i knew i wouldn't be able to sleep.

dennis came downstairs and i gave him the "your cellphone must be off when you drive" speech. the rule is that he has to call us before he leaves, turn it off, drive to the destination, turn it on and call us.

well, he just called. i am worry-free until 3 p.m. when he calls to let us know he's on his way home.

i am not ready for this.

October in Paris

Hopefully you love a good Dennis story as much as I do, cause this one made me smile.

So Dennis has been in Disney World since last Thursday with his Mass Media class from his arts magnet. I realize this is way cooler than anything my high school every did and I'm pretty sure that goes for you, too. :)

When I left for Dallas last Sunday to tell childrens ministers about orphans, Dennis reminded me this would be the longest we have been apart since he came home from Moldova. I didn't think much about it, but I miss him... And I love that this is home for me and for him.

So I called him today, because I miss him, and wanted to make sure he wasn't doing drugs in Disney World with those hooligans he goes to school with. I know if my dad would have called on a school trip I would have been mortified - no news is good news, right?

Here's what transpired.

"Hello?" He says in a muffled, slurred voice. "Jon?"

"Yes - it's me."

"Jon, is that you?"

"Yes! It's me!" I say loudly to my foreign child. "Where are you?"

"I'm in Paris!" He says... (I giggle to myself)

"In Paris, huh - you must be in Epcot?"

"Yes, I loooove Dis-uh-ney Whirrrled!" (I'm positive that is how you phonetically say how he says Disney World.) "It is so amazing - everything they do visually is amazing - I'm watching painters paint on the street! Like in Paris! And today I went to Ireland and heard Irish music and they have a CD of all the music from all the countries and I will buy that one for sure!" (He's had this crazy obsession with celtic music - I think I mentioned that before. He calls is - Sell-tic and I make him say Kel-tic.) He listens to it as I teach him to drive... Kind of makes me crazy... :)

My next question, since his speech is fast and slurred is, "You haven't been doing any drugs, have you?"

He says: "No, that part of the park is closed." :) (He gets that sarcasm from me - it's hereditary.) :)

"Oh - for renovations, right?" I jest - and he agrees. :)

I hear kids in the background... "So, what are you doing now?"

"We are walking to the pastry! It is amazing!" he says.

I don't correct him with patisserie -- because I picture him walking towards a huge pastry and it makes me laugh. I ask, "So are you overwhelmed?"

"Yes." He says. "But in a good way. I love Dis-uh-ney Whirrrled. But I miss you. How are you? How is home? How is Emily? How is Max?"

After answering his questions, I let him go - to enjoy his last night in Disney World with his friends because, as he told me, he'll be home tomorrow, well not really tomorrow, but he leaves tomorrow and then he will see me. (He gets home Thursday afternoon.) :)

I can't wait to hear the stories, see the pictures, and hear about his trip. It's almost his birthday and in these past almost 2 years he's seen more and done more than I know he could have ever imagined. The memories that would have been heartache and struggle are instead memories of mickey mouse shaped ice cream bars and october in paris - in Dis-uh-hey Whirrled.

Parenting an adopted teenager is a wild ride but one I recommend. It can't be any worse that the Tower of Terror - and when it resembles that, I need to remind myself that if it wasn't for us, for God calling us to adopt Dennis, and for this sweet boy that came into our lives - we'd never have Paris.