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Today, as I struggle with other things…I got 2 amazing compliments about my boys  that lifted my soul.

First was a mom at school who found a note written from Carlos to her daughter that said “You have a very kind heart.  Carlos”  She’s going to put it in her forever memory box.  This is a little girl he just adores and tells us daily how much he “loves her as a friend”  So sweet and nice to see that side of our tough guy.

Second was an email from Levi’s teacher (to us and another family) that read: 

"Just wanted to let you two know that both of your children write the
loveliest, most heartfelt birthday letters to their classmates.  I realize
that those are letters you never see, so I wanted to tell you!"
I know Levi is a sensitive, sweet guy but to hear that he can express that to friends 
on their birthday card was very special. 
 
In all the chaos and daily life I always wonder if we're raising them right and today
I'm feeling really good about who our boys are on the inside.  No, they aren't perfect 
they are good, cool kids.

Carlos' Story

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Here’s a little something Carlos has been asking me to type for days…we finally had time to sit down and have him dictate it to me.  I’m not reading too deep into this one!

<!–[if !mso]>st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } <![endif]–>

The Dumb Bean
By Carlos Field-Bennett
April 17, 2012
One day the bean woke up and he hit his head on the door 100 times.  Finally, he broke the door.
He fainted for two seconds and then he hit his head with a pan 1,000 times.  Then he finally broke the pan.
The next thing he did was cook himself.  He turned on the oven to 300 degrees and climbed inside.  He stayed there until he was a cooked bean.
He said, “What’s this?  I’m feeling sweaty?  I’m going to get out.”  And he did.
He was kind of blackish and he went outside and he hit his head on a tree.  Then the tree broke.  The bean got smashed.  While the tree was falling, the bean said, “Wooooo.”
He was broken.  He had to go to the hospital.  He got his leg stitched up.
Then he jumped on the trampoline.  He went so high and he went up to the moon.
Then he fell down.  He was falling so fast he caught on fire.
He finally slammed down on the ground so hard he went through the Earth ended up on the ocean on the opposite side.
He swam for a long time and finally reached an island where he drank coconut milk.  Then he got back in the ocean and swam.
He swam all the way back around the Earth to his home.  Then a pinecone dropped out of a tree and hit his head.  He fainted.  He was so tired, his eyes dropped to his mouth.  Finally, his eyes went back into place. 
He woke up and he smacked his face down on the ground.  He went into bed.  Then he woke up and the silliest thing on Earth happened, he put his face on the stove.  His face turned blacker.
He went outside to cool his face off with the rain.  The rain did not come down so he put his face in the ocean.  When he did this, his arm got bit by a shark.  It hurt a lot.
He swam back to his home with the shark on his arm.  He had to go to the doctor and the shark had to die.  It was sad but he had to get his arm back.
The surgery took a long time.  He finally woke up and then he felt better with his arm back in place.  It felt kind of strange, but he didn’t care.  He went back home.  He had a big headache and he went to sleep.
The End

Go Pirates!

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Pretty sure I have the cutest Pirates players of all time….they played their first game yesterday morning and each boy had a couple of hits.  Carlos made a great play at 2nd base and Levi held his own at shortstop.
They were actually playing, and by this I mean there were plays and hits at a level far better than they played last year.  It’s an older team, so it was fun to see how much they had improved.
They are excited to go out in the yard and play catch with us and we LOVE that, we’ve been waiting since they day they came into our lives for them to ask!

Our 2 seconds

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Our friend, David, was chosen to be a CNN Hero and he asked us to be a part of it all.  As a lesbian couple, we received guidance from Families Like Ours (David’s company) when we were going through the process of becoming foster parents and throughout our journey.
Thank you David and Conrad for all that you do to bring families together and help LGBT youth in care.
Here’s the link to the CNN Hero video – we have about 2 seconds on screen, pretty cool!

Trip To Seattle

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We were lucky to get a beautiful Pacific Northwest day on Saturday when our plans included meeting up with friends on the Seattle waterfront.  Blue skies, good friends, what a treat.  Only had one melting down and that was cured by a bite to eat.
We ate lunch at Red Robin, rode the carousel and made a visit to our favorite pirate store.  Got a new bumper sticker for the van (To Err is Human, To Arrrr is Pirate), the boys each bought themselves a locking pirate journal and I bought a pack of play mustaches for the ferry ride home.  The boys got so many smiles and “nice mustache” comments that they want to wear them every day.

Staycation

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 I don’t know how it happened, but we were blessed with a gift of a 2 night stay at the Bainbridge Best Western Hotel (here, 2 miles down the road, on Bainbridge).  I thought it would be cool for me to have some special time with the boys and Dee had to make a trip down to get some lumber from her sister’s place so it worked out well.  Levi LOVES to go down to visit the farm, so he did that.  Erin went to stay with Godma Maymay (and even got to tour Pike Place!) and Carlos, Trey and I checked into the hotel for our staycation.  There is just something special about staying in a hotel, no matter how far it is from home. 
The boys were fun, 
we watched a bunch of dvds, ate junk food,
basically just hung out.
Thank you kind stranger!!!!!!

We're Gonna Do This

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I am sick and tired of being “big”.  I have tried Weight Watchers (which worked until we stopped and then it came right back on), Atkins (which worked until we couldn’t look at another piece of cheese or hard boiled egg and caved and went out for a stack of pancakes soaked in syrup…after that there was no turning back).  For the most part, we do eat healthy.  Lots of veggies and fruit and whole grains but also pasta and too big portion sizes and certainly not enough exercise.  Good food tastes good and is comforting and we are exhausted by the end of the day to exercise.
Anyhow, Mary found a diet that I think is going to work.  It will be really hard for the first 5 days, the Attack Phase, where we will only be allowed protein.  Yup, only protein.  With Dee, Mary and I all doing it together, though I think we can do it and jump start this new phase of our lives.
The recipes look tasty, we like protein and after the Attack Phase we will be adding vegetables and alternating veggies/protein and pure protein days for the next 5 months.  The cool part is, you can eat as much as you want of whatever (protein and most vegetables) you want so you can’t really complain about being being hungry.  I can have my latte as long as it’s fat free milk and sugar free sweetener (did it this morning and didn’t die!).  The hardest part for me is going to be drinking enough water each day.  I hate water.  But on this diet your body is burning weight quickly so you really have to drink it.  We also have to eat some oat bran, but I think this will be helpful is staying full.
Wish us luck, give us support and please be kind if we are cranky in the carb-detox phase.  If you want to join us and look fabulous, too….follow this link:  Dukan Diet. Also, we’ve checked in with our PCP and she thinks it sounds like a healthy plan.
Let us know, we’re starting on Monday!  The more the merrier, we can all reach our goal weights together and the way this is set up, it teaches your body that that’s the weight it really should be.