5 years old

I like to take Cael out to take pictures around his birthday. I took these last weekend after church at Stuhr Museum.

Scarecrow Patch

We went out to the Scarecrow Patch by St. Libory today. Always one of our favorite times of the year! Cael and Dad each picked out a pumpkin. Zipline! This is the first year that Cael went on the big one. The big slide. The corn wagon.

MEPS

Well, Allen passed MEPS, which is where he had to have his physical and mental exam. He's sworn in and the contract is signed. No turning back now! Allen brought home a backpack (courtesy of Sgt. Christiansen) for Cael, who absolutely loves it. He had to transfer everything from his super hero bag to the cammo one as soon as he could! I'll try to get pics up.

Career Change

Our family knows, but not a lot of our friends do. Allen is embarking upon a career change. He will be working with Satalite Communications for the US Army. He's wanted to be in the military since he was 17, and almost went into the Guard when we were 23. I, of course, was stupid, scared, and selfish, so I let his brother talk him out of it. We are on board with this decision as a family, though, and I am very happy that Allen has made a career choice that he's excited about. I've never seen him so happy, upbeat, and motivated. He's been pretty miserable in his jobs for the past 9 years, so it's about time that he choose something for himself that will be good for the whole family. Cael is excited about this adventure, as am I ("Daddy's going to be a soldier!"). Allen goes to MEPS on Thursday for his physical, swearing in, and signing of his contract. His ship-out date is Feb. 23rd (which, for Allen, can't come soon enough!:) He will finish Basic around the end of May in Fort Leonard Wood, MO, then head off for 27 weeks of Sat. Comm. training at Fort Gordon, GA. He'll get done with that around Thanksgiving. Cael and I will have plenty of "quality time" together if we survive each other that long. :) We'll find out where we will be stationed toward the end of Basic. That's what I'm excited about. Hopefully, we'll get somewhere really cool, so everyone will use us as their vacation destination! We'll keep you updated as things progress.

First day of school

Cael's long-awaited first day of school finally came in August. He's in the Monday-Thursday class, and loves it. With the look on his face, his teacher should have her hands pretty full! Some of you know that our wrestling program was cut at HLHS. Unfortunate as that is, Allen has had the offer of taking over the Centura Wrestling Team. This is pretty cool, since his dad was the head coach of that team when he was principal there in the 80's. I was looking forward to seeing Allen more this winter with no wrestling, but you can't take wrestling away from the Blake boys. It doesn't work!

Start of another school year

A couple weeks before school started, Allen and I took a 2 month old little boy into foster care. We fell in love with him, then 6 days later, he was placed at a relative's house. Devastated was a good word for our household. School started, and things seemed back to normal. This last Monday we got the call that our foster son needed to be placed again and would we take him back? ABSOLUTELY!! We now have a 3month old in our house. It's a big change, but everyone is happy to have him back. Cael does so well with him and is a big helper! WE'll keep you updated.

Special Delivery

Allen and I have been working with Nebraska Children's Home in hopes of adopting. We still have our fostering license, but kind of forgot about it...until last Friday. We took a 2month old little boy for the weekend as a crisis respite. We find out today if we get to keep him longer. I can't say much more, other than he fits in perfectly with our family (Cael's in love), and would appreciate any and all prayers!