The Pirkle Home

The fight to make it known.

2010-03-02T06:32:00.000-08:00

If we keep working like we are, then it should be less than 2 months before we are debt free!!! (other than our house of course) Which translates to me that I can start adoption paperwork again soon. I am very excited and have been working like crazy. Aaron went to AR for 2 weeks and made overtime and he is going again for 2 weeks soon. I hate for him to be gone so much, but we have prayed for God to give us money or to give us a way to make money, so we figure we better take it while we can get it. Whenever I think that I need to work less next week, I look at our debt snowball and sign up for more. It is so close I can almost taste it. I have been sending off money to the debt even between when payments are due. Every time I get paid, I take out a little for babysitter and extra, then immediatly mail the rest so it is unavailable.

The more I research on orphans, the more I realize that God's family is not stepping up. There are estimated to be 147,000,000 orphans in this world. God speaks of helping the fatherless so many times in the Bible, yet almost every church I have been involved in never speaks of it.
Confession time... I have really struggled with bitterness about this. Bitterness that to all appearances, of course I may be misunderstanding, but unless I bring it up, only one person we attend church with asks us how the adoption is going. Bitter that we have had two countries close on us. Bitter that we lost over $15,000. Bitter that we tried to do a good thing and not only did it not work, but we have spent the last 1 1/2 trying to pay off something that didn't work. Bitter that when I try to do the right thing, it backfires. Bitter that the church/our church doesnt seem to give a flip about orphans. Bitterness has filled my heart and attitude and has made my smart alec self that lives in me come out to fight. Bitter that when I have tried to teach a little about orphans that I can't even seem to get that done.

About a month ago, my best friend at church pointed out to me my bitterness and rightly said that if I go about teaching people bitterly it will turn them off and perhaps the church's nonaction is not that they don't care, but that they just don't know. So I took my bitterness to God, confessed it and prayed that he would take it away. And the last 3 weeks I have done so much better, actually been excited and optimistic. About a week or two before that, I had asked the Ladies Class teacher if I could have 2-3 classes to talk (I didn't even tell her what about) and she said we'll see. The ladies class hasn't met for a few quarters, but I knew it would be starting up soon. So, I waited to hear her answer and decided that instead of being pessimistic, I would be optimistic and go ahead and prepare a lesson and assume that she might let me teach. Well, I am glad I did because last Sunday she told me that I could have the first 3 Wed nights. I was so glad I prepared. Then here comes my pessimistic self saying that something would happen to keep me from teaching, I was thinking I would get sick, lose my voice, etc. Silliness, but still always looking for the worst.
So, Sunday morning, the preacher comes up to me and tells me that with all the other classes offered on Wed. nights, he just doesn't see that there would be a place for the ladies class this quarter. Wow, and here I thought I would be sick on Wed., this caught me totally by surprise. Good one, whomever you are trying to keep the plight of orphans from being known. Wasn't expecting that. I made the suggestion of perhaps the teen girls meeting in this classroom that half was being used for storage. Plenty of room for less than 10 people, but he didn't seem real keen on it.
I am so close to just saying forget it and may have to since I am not the decision maker. All day Sunday I went back and forth between should I fight for it and try to think of a solution or should I just accept defeat.? What would you do? Am I cocky in thinking that my lessons would affect anyone? But I am not even cocky in myself, I was planning on using 90% Bible for my lessons. Let the Bible preach it, not me. You can't argue with the Bible when it is so clear on God's love for the orphan. Perhaps this whole ordeal has nothing to do with the Church. Perhaps, and I am beginning to think this may be it as it always is. It is between me and God.
Our homeschooling is between me and God.
Me being Aaron's helper is between me and God.
Maybe God knows I won't be successful in that I get to teach at church, but perhaps the success is more in the effort. That alone is what keeps me from giving up.
I thought I had a great solution Sunday night. There are two classrooms downstairs at church hardly ever used. I didn't figure the ladies would want to meet down there since it is pretty steep and a lot of the ladies are older., but no problem for teens. I mentioned that to the preacher and he said we would have to talk to the youth leader when he gets back from a trip with the youth he was on. Perhaps it was my bitterness coming back but it almost seemed like my ideas weren't welcome.
I still have a few more things to do to get ready for the class. I am in a quandry. Do I keep preparing, blindly thinking that I will get to teach. Do I quit preparing because it sounds as if I don't have a chance and then show up Wed, with a class to teach and not be prepared? Or do I just bite the bullet and call and find out. The last one is probably the best solution. I will need to do a lot of prayer before calling, so I don't let the bitterness come.

My Adoption Sermon

2009-10-26T20:43:00.000-07:00

On Friday, one of the Mom's at our Friday Coop has foster children off and on and she had a 10 day old little girl. So sweet. Anyway, it got me thinking about our adoption and how long it has been and how far away we still are. Aaron was with me that day and he got to see her and the rest of the weekend was filled with my thoughts on our adoption.
All day Friday and esp Satur. my mind was flowing with certain Bible verses. First of all James 1:27 "Religion that our God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." But in the midst of that verse, and meditating on what steps God was wanting us to take next, He kept putting to mind the parable of the talents in Matthew 25.
What kept coming to me was that the Master (God) gave the servants (us) talents. But nowhere in the story do you get the impression that the master gave the servants money to spend on themselves, elevating their status. When the master came back, they were still servants. When the master came back, he held the servants accountable with the money he gave them. At no time was it the servant's money. Even while in the hands of the servants it was always the master's money.
I prayed and read about this, thinking on it and how it applies to me and our lack of adoption funds situation and the abundance of cash flowing through many Christians and how sick and sad it makes me that the ONLY thing standing between starting our adoption again is money. Silly, important money. Money that we don't have. Money that will take forever to make. Money that is keeping our child in the orphanage that much longer.
Fast forward to Sunday morning worship and what does Bill talk about, but Matthew 25 and the parable of the talents. Thank you God for preparing me for his lesson. However, Bill put a slightly different spin on it, that enhanced what I was thinking. He talked about a postage stamp and kind of showed how they compare to people. Each postage stamp looks different, each one has a value on it, they serve a purpose, etc. I can't remember all, but what I do remember is when he talked about when the price of mail goes up, and you have old 40c stamps and the price is now 43c, neither can serve the purpose of sending that mail on it's own. It takes both stamps to accomplish the goal. And it was then that I realized that Aaron and I were the 3c stamp and we need a 40c stamp and together we can accomplish the goal of giving a child or two a home.
So of course I thought on this all afternoon Sunday, ready to talk to Bill about his lesson and how it helped me realize that perhaps Aaron and I can't do it alone, that we will need help from the church, and then Duane preached.
He preached on the Year of Jubilee and how a lot of it was about money, captives, the oppressed,etc. Then he skipped to the new testament and spoke of denying ourselves, taking up our crosses and following Jesus, that now that He has come, we are in a forever year of Jubilee, We can all be set free.
So many times when I hear people talk about adoption they say stuff like well, we would, but we are past the baby stage and don't want to start over (deny yourself), we don't have the money (deny yourself),I am happy with just __ children (deny yourself) what if it turns out bad? (deny yourself) Perhaps adoption doesn't have to be about you, you, you. Perhaps it should be about them, them, them. Jesus says to deny ourselves.
If you read Matthew 25: 14-30 about the talents, don't stop there, because Jesus immediatly goes into another parable. I don't think it is coincidence that right after he talks about being responsible with the master's money he talks about helping the helpless. In Matthew 25 31-46 Jesus talks about separating the sheep and the goats. He will give the sheep on his right their inheritance "for I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."
To the goats on the left he tells the opposite and they are sent to eternal punishment.
I so wish our church would have an adoption fund and see adoption as a mission and not just for people who can't have kids or as a last resort.
And I know I am being judgemental, but these are some questions in my mind... How can you justifiy buying that 2nd house on the lake that gets visited twice a year, just so you will be cool? How can you see children in need, children without a mommy or daddy to hug them and kiss them goodnight and still think God gave you that ability to earn that money to spend on yourself. Did you ever think that God gave you the ability to make that money so you could use it in His kingdom?
I am all against giving the lazy money. I am so against all these govt. programs for so many people who don't want to get off their rears and work. I also think money to help others should be given freely and not taken from the rich.
On Friday a lady from church joked about her Mom (also a member) driving an expensive "midlife crisis" car. Perhaps it makes her feel better to have a nice, status symbol car, but as a Christian, wouldn't she have felt much better helping a child.?
What is the only thing that can get into heaven? Souls. That is it. You can't take your lake house, your new car, your jewelry, whatever, but the souls you touch can go. Souls of children without hope can have hope with you. You can be a missionary in your own home. I always wanted to be a missionary growing up> I know now that God is not planning that for me. But wait, my home is a mission field. And when you go to another country, or even to this country, you are not going there to preach, but you can bring that child to the mission field of your house. You can live Jesus for them, when they had no hope before.
God knitted the orphans in their birthmother's wombs with as much care as he knitted my biological children in my womb. They are His creation too and He has a plan for them. If only they had parents to show them the Lord.
Lastly, when praying last night, I kept going over with the Lord how I don't want other's money, I don't want to have to depend on others' money for this adoption. How I so don't want to have people just give us money for the adoption. Then I jokingly thought, I want your money Lord, why can't you just give us your money. I would gladly take your money. Then God gently whispered to me "It is my money" And He took me full circle to my meditation/obsession on Saturday with the parable of the talents. And what He kept impressing on me all day Saturday...that the money the master gives to his servants is ALWAYS the masters money. It is His. No matter where the money comes from, no matter if I work extra to earn it, if Aaron works extra to earn it, if our church starts an adoption fund or if some generous person writes us a check...it is God's money...It is His, it is from Him because it never was that other person's in the first place. And if Aaron and I have to swallow our pride and accept help from others to fulfill this adoption, I guess I can live with that now.

School is on...

2009-08-06T20:23:00.000-07:00

I think the public schools around here started today, but we are well into day 9 of Kindergarten, 2nd and 3rd grades. After much whining about how it was too hot to play outside this summer, I decided the week before the girls went to camp that we were starting when they got back. That way, when we are stuck inside because of the heat, we can be productive, then when it is fall and spring, we can take some days off to play in the awesome weather. We are doing the Prairie Primer this year and are liking it so far.
We finished our schooling today around lunchtime. I had been working on a huge grocerly list complete with about 20 coupons. I wanted to go today, but was signed up to work 3-11. I went to Mom's at 1 in order to take a shower and lie down a few minutes before going in, and they called about 1:15 to let me know they didn't need me from 3-7. So instead of napping we all took off to the grocery store 25 min. away. It took 2 carts, lots of threatening and forever to complete this grocery trip. UGH!
Mom came with us to help unload and eat supper. Aaron got home the same time I did, saying they told him to pack his bags for a fire. So he will probably be leaving in the next few days for California? Never 100% sure until he gets there. I hate for him to be gone, but the money is a blessing.
I called work at 5 to see if they still needed me at 7 and if they were going to cancel anyone, please cancel me! She said she would call me within the hour. She called while the next paragraph was going on and cancelled me and I was very grateful.
While we were packing and Mom and the girls were eating we got the bad news that Hannah had thrown up all over the kitchen floor. That was a mess, but she hasn't done it since, so I am hoping it was a fluke thing and NOT the stomach virus. A girl can dream can't she?
Still trying to pay off debt so we can continue our adoption goals. I am sooo ready. We started this March 2007. Anyway, we applied for an adoption grant and an interest free adoption loan. Please pray that we get one or both.
Time to head for bed. Slept terrible last night and then Hannah woke me early.

Fort Morgan

2009-06-07T20:28:00.000-07:00

I thought I would add some more pictures tonight while I was working in the kitchen.

A picture of the kitchen in the Fort

This picture was taken from the top of the fort, which was a little nervewracking up there with 3 kids, but looking in the opposite direction, there was a great view of the ocean.

This is Hannah posing with Josh, the tour guide.

This is Hannah posing on top of an old cistern.

Vacation

2009-06-06T19:37:00.000-07:00

In this picture, you can see Natalie about to be drenched by the upturned bucket of water.

It has been so long since I have blogged. I thought about giving up blogging when I started to go on Facebook. But this last week, I have not been able to figure out how to post pictures onto Facebook anymore. What I used to do doesn't work anymore on my computer or on Mom's. Very frustrating.

Let's see...

We just got back Thursday night from Gulf Shores.

Sunday

We left Sunday morning and around lunchtime got to the Montgomery Zoo. We had never been and got in half price with our Birmingham passes. We ended up staying for almost 3 hours. It was better than I expected. The funniest part was this monkey. Hopefully, I will be able to post a picture.

Sunday we spent the night in Daphne.

Monday

We got up the next morning and thought we'd go for a walk down Gator Alley, which was a big disappointment. We did see 2 gators from the boardwalk, but it was pretty much a boardwalk under the interstate where people did grafitti. Natalie wanted to go to the Bass Pro Shop we saw, so we ended up walking around there for about an hour.

Then we drove on to Gulf Shores. We couldn't check into the hotel until 4pm, so we had some time to kill. We ended up going to the beach and swimming, then went to Pizza Hut, almost dripping wet for a late lunch, walked around a couple of souvinour shops then checked into the hotel. Later, we went back to the beach until almost bedtime.

Tuesday, we got to Waterville USA at opening time. So expensive, but so much fun. It was worth it. We were there about 2 hours and then decided to get some lunch. We drove through the drivethrough, came back and ate in the parking lot. The food would have cost us an arm and a leg in the park. Then we swam and went down water slides until around 4 when we went to the car for a quick snack, then back to play again until closing time at 6pm. I am so glad we went that day, because it cooled off some after that. The girls went right to sleep that night.

Wednesday

It was only supposed to get up into the low 80s this day with clouds. So we went to Fort Morgan this morning and toured the fort. It was interesting and the girls enjoyed going up and down the stairs and the place had a lot of hidden places.

We drove back to Gulf Shores and ate our only seafood lunch at the Original Oyster House, which was delicious. Then we decided to go to the beach in clothes to find shells, wade in the water, and build sand castles. We stayed there until around 7pm and even in the clothes, we all got pretty soaking wet. I was so tired of sand.

Thursday

Since it still wasn't supposed to be real warm, we decided to just swim in the hotel pool before checkout. Afterward, we packed our things and headed home.

Mom fed the pets and checked on the garden while we were gone. She had already picked 6 yellow squash and I picked 2 more since coming home. I have a spaghetti squash the size of a lemon, tons of skinny green beans, lots of cucumbers on their way to getting ripe and probably 20+ green tomatoes. So exciting. We have weeded off and on yesterday and today. Watered half of it today and will probably water the rest tomorrow, with water Aaron has caught in rain barrels.

2009-04-16T06:13:00.000-07:00

Top is a picture of Madelyn, Hannah, and Lexi. Middle is Hannah and bottom is the kids getting ready to go for a ride.

Lonely and Quiet

2009-04-16T05:36:00.000-07:00

The girls left Sunday with the granparents to go on a trip. They went to the grandparent's house Sunday and Monday night. Then left Tuesday for Gatlinburg to go to the Aquarium on Wednesday. Last night, they were close to Chattanooga, planning to see their Great Granny today and then going back to the grandparents tonight, then coming home tomorrow afternoon.

I would like to say that I got a ton of stuff done while they were gone, but I didn't. I worked 8 hours Monday. Then 5 horrible hours on Tuesday. It was a bad evening. So bad, that I had planned to call and see if I could work Wednesday, but decided to take the day off instead.

Yesterday, Mom and I went out to lunch. I got some paint at Walmart for the girls' bathroom (haven't started painting yet). Aaron left work after lunch. We ran a few errands, then came home. He sprayed weeds while I planted our puny tomato plants. I am hoping that being in the sun with room to spread will make them grow. I think they have been the same size for 3 weeks. If they die, I will just buy plants to plant and give up growing tomatoes from seeds. I never seem to get them to grow right.

Our garden is about 1/2 way full and we still have green beans, snap peas, and cucumbers, zuccini and more corn to plant. The peaches that were on the trees before it got real cold last week are bigger this week, so I assume that means that the frost didn't kill them.

Today I plan to plant my green beans and some cucumber seeds outside. Clean the living room and kitchen, balance the checkbook, start painting the bathroom and work 3-7. Guess I should get off the computer soon.

One more note... We had Natalie's party on Saturday. I hate planning for a party and then no one calls to say if they are coming or not. Most of the time no one calls, but we have a good crowd. This time, we heard one yes and one no. Out of 10+ invitations. Sadly, only 2 kids showed up. But thankfully, one of them was her best friend, so she was happy. Aaron and I were disappointed that we bought enough food for 30+ (since most parents stay and bring siblings). Oh well, hot dogs will freeze.
We had a great time. We hiked through the forest. Then cooked our hotdogs and marshmallows over an open fire. After that Aaron drove us down the road for a great hayride, right at sunset. it was beautiful. Then we came back, Aaron took them on another hike and everyone went home. Aaron's parents spent the night, so we all stayed around the campfire until about 9:30.

Fingerprints

2009-04-07T19:43:00.000-07:00

Aaron and I dropped the girls off early at Mom's on Sunday morning before church and drove 25 miles to have our fingerprints done. We didn't want to have to take the girls into the jail. We have now been to 3 different jails and I think this is our favorite. The first, in our town, only has actual ink fingerprinting. So, if you mess up then there is no fixing it. Our fingerprints from that jail were rejected. Then we redid them at a jail about 30 miles from here in a tiny closet of a room with visitors to the prisoners constantly going in and out, where the police officer would stop and chat because everyone knows everyone and that was a little uncomfortable. But it was the new machine where your finger never touches ink. You put it on a screen and it scans it, shows if it is good enough right then, then at the end, they print the whole card. So, our fingerprints for our homestudy were mailed off today. When the social worker gets them back, she will officially complete our homestudy (for the 3rd time -patient woman) and then send it to us. Once completed, I can mail it off, plus a ton of other stuff to Citizens and Immigration to have our status changed from Vietnam to Russia and get a date to drive at least 1 1/2 hours to have our fingerprints done again for them.
While doing our fingerprints, the young woman told us that she was adopted - by a distant family member. Of how she is all for adoption and how she met her birth mom when she was 18 and immediatly called her adoptive mom to tell her thank you. It was just nice to have some encouragement from someone who has been there.
Don't have time to post a picture tonight. I am going to bed before 10pm.

Princess

2009-04-03T04:57:00.000-07:00

Here is our dog Princess who we rescued from the animal shelter last fall. She is a good dog. Probably around 8 months old now. She is so big though and still a puppy, which is not good for the girls sometimes, since she plays a little rough.

2009-04-01T21:53:00.000-07:00

We went to the Botanical Gardens today. It just took over 15 minutes to load this one picture, so needless to say, it will be the last one for tonight. They have a BIG BUG thing going on right now as you can see. We had a great day, although pale idiot that I am, I didn't put any sunscreen on and am very burnt. Oh well, I will be pale again soon enough. Heaven forbid I ever have a nice tan.
We got there around 10 and went around once with the homeschool group, but there were trails going in different directions that we couldn't see while trying to stay together, so we stopped and ate a picnic lunch, then went back in for another hour or two. Natalie's birthday is tomorrow, so afterward, Aaron's parents took us to McDonald's for ice cream. We then drove home, and I was able to get a nap in during the drive before going to work tonight 7-11. I am working tomorrow 11a-7p. I am glad to get hours in and may actually have overtime this week.
We still haven't gotten our fngerprints done for our homestudy renewal. I hate that and really don't know when I will fit it in. We have to go to the jai l to do it and I don't want to go alone, I don't want to go alone with 3 kids, we really don't want to take the kids at all. Maybe early Friday morning before coop, but then I will have the kids with me. Normally, parents aren't allowed to leave their kids at coop, but maybe if I give the director my cell phone to call in case of emergency, I could do it kid-free. Aaron could go Saturday, I am working then.

Blooming

2009-03-29T21:43:00.000-07:00

Well, I am finally putting at least one picture on the blog. We will see how many I will get on here, since it takes FOREVER on our dialup. I actually waited about 10 min the other day and it finally loaded, I hit the wrong button and whoosh, gone. So, I gave up. I will probably end up taking the camera over to Mom' s, loading the pictures onto her computer and adding them there.

We took lots of pictures of the pretty blooming trees on the land. The first picture I am loading is of Madelyn sitting the the "bridge" Aaron made over our "creek". It is really just overflow from our pond. When it gets to a certain level, it goes into the culvert under our driveway and down, down into the forest. Madelyn and Natalie have loved playing in the creek, but I have to remind them ... "that pretty clear looking water in the creek, just came out of the nasty, algae covered pond 10 feet away" It is actually springfed when there is a ton of rain. About 100 feet uphill from the pond is a little area where water bubbles out of the ground. Pretty neat.

I am caught in the cycle of work, work and more work. I am very torn between Dave Ramsey's Gazelle Intensity and spending time at home and my guilt over working so much. Madelyn is really giving me the worst guilt trip. I feel bad, but I see the end of our debt in site and it is hard not to just sign up and work whenever they ask. And they have been asking a lot. There are at least 2 day shifters on Medical leave, so that leaves a lot of openings.

I worked 7-3 yesterday, then agreed to come in 1-7 today for a pregnant lady, so she didn't have to work 12 hours (On a side note, can you imagine working 12 hours while pregnant? I refuse to work 12 hour shifts now, I put in my share of them)

Anyway, I called right after church and she said they didn't need me, so I stayed and ate the potluck dinner with Mom and the girls (Aaron had a funeral to attend and left early). Then went to Mom's to await the time for a wedding shower, and they called me at 1 saying they did need me after all. So I went in 3-7.

Once this picture loads, I am off to bed, so I can get up, have school in the morning and then go back to work from 3-11. If this picture would ever load. It has been about 10 min. now. I actually have a library book to read while waiting it takes so long.

Field Trip - Cancelled

2009-03-25T19:06:00.000-07:00

I signed us up for a field trip a few weeks ago and paid ahead of time so we could go to this Botanical Gardens about an hour away. It was with our Friday homeschool group. I was the first to sign up, so I am not sure how many other people had signed up after us. It was supposed to rain all day, so I emailed the coordinator to make sure that we were still on for today. Since Aaron took off work, and I invited his parents who were driving 3 hours to come.
I guess I wrongly assumed that we would be notified if the tour was cancelled, but when we arrived there at 10am, we found out that it had been postponed until next week. Very irritating.
Thankfully there are 3 musuems in that town that we have season tickets to. So we decided to go there.
First we went to a place called Constitution Village, with large houses built like they did in 1820s around the time the city was founded. I didn't realize that we would get our own tour guide -dressed in period clothing, talking in first person. At one point while she was demonstrating how to use the carpentry tools, she stopped to tell us that one of their apprentices had run away and that they were offering a 1c reward if we found him. And sure enough, throughout the tour there were posters everywhere offering a reward for his finding. It was funny. Halfway through the tour, we got another tour guide who led us through the rest of it. That took about an hour.
We had a quick lunch at Burger King and then dropped off the kids with Aaron's parents at the Children's Museum while Aaron and I went to find a camera. Aaron is not a big fan of the children's museum. Not a lot to do, but the kids LOVE it! They spent about 1 1/2 hours there.
Then we went straight to the Depot Train museum. Where we got another free personal tour guide. You learn so much more when you take the tour. At one time, on the 3rd floor, they housed civil war prisoners. Pretty neat.
By the time we were done with all of this, it was 4pm and they were closing, so we said our goodbyes to the grandparents and they headed to their house. Aaron wanted to look for some new hiking boots, so we stopped at a store for while looking, then headed to Cracker Barrel where we ate supper and headed home. We got home about 7:30. What a long day, but a lot of fun. And not totally ruined by the rude person who never called to tell me about the cancellation.
PICTURES TO COME SOON!!!!! I am so excited to finally have a camera. We got the kind that you plug in to charge like a cell phone, instead of the kind that sucks up the batterys. I hope it works better. Once it is charged, I will be clicking away and loading some up on the old blog.

Sinus infection

2009-03-19T21:22:00.000-07:00

Well, I went to the doctor on Tuesday and he didn't do a strep test, but said he thought it was a sinus infection. Which is strange because I have never had a sinus infection without having any kind of nasal stuffiness. Oh well, I did have the drainage on my tonsils and the headache. It has gradually gotten better thankfully. I also had fluid on my Left ear. I know I am getting better, since normally, I sleep 7-8 hours a night at the most and this week, I have been going to bed between 9 and 10 and getting up around 8. I never sleep that long at one time. But tonight I tried to go to bed early and it is 11:30pm and I am still wide awake.
I signed up for 36 hours next week. The plans were for Aaron and I to drive the girls to TN on Saturday, so they could stay with the grandparents. They were planning on taking them to the Aquarium in Gatlinburg and then bringing them home and meeting us at their field trip Wednesday morning. However, his parents called tonight to let us know that Aaron's granny who has gradually gotten worse over the last few years, is now not eating or moving at all. So, the trip is on hold.
And I signed up for a bunch of days, thinking I wouldn't have to worry about babysitting. Thankfully , Mom is here and can watch them.
I had to take the dog back to the vet today. It is day 9 after the "fixing" and all of a sudden, she has these little bubbles about the size of small marbles coming out of the wound. Now I know I am a nurse but this is a new one on me. Post op procedures on animals are not quite as clean as on people. The bubbles looked to be filled with fluid and it didn't bother her for me to touch them. Anyway, the vet said that was normal and that the fluid collected in the stitching area was just making it's way out. Would have been nice to have been warned, since that was normal and all. I was all worried, thinking perhaps her intestines were working their way out and she would have to go back to surgery and then there would be 10 more days of keeping a 40lb energetic puppy on a leash all the time and up. Tomorrow!!! She can run free tomorrow!!!!! Yipee!!!!
We have found the videos of the girls when the were babies. They love watching them. Makes me want another one. We need a baby! Maybe next year. Although since the one we get from Russia will be at least 12 months old, it won't be quite as small.

Spring is Coming

2009-03-16T07:02:00.000-07:00

It was sooo nice last week. So hard to do schoolwork while it was 70 something outside. I think it is supposed to rain more this week, but maybe we will have a pretty day today.
I only worked 8 hours last week. So hard to go into work when you can walk around outside. I was hoping to work this past weekend, but I didn't.
Friday we had normal coop. Aaron took us and dropped us off, then went directly to his doctor for a checkup. We had to get paperwork filled out for our homestudy update from our doctor's, so that is what he was doing. I am mailing it today, along with our financial statement and then our social worker can finish the homestudy. Still paying off debt so we can start again. But once we have the homestudy done, I can apply for some adoption grants.
After coop, one of Natalie's classes had a field trip to this Cooks Pest Museum. It is really a nice place, free. So we didn't get home until around 3:30 on Friday afternoon. The girls spent the night with Mom so that Aaron and I could get up early Saturday morning and go to an auction at a tractor place here in town. Aaron and I rented a couple of movies.
My headache started then, so that put a little bit of a damper on the weekend.
We went to the auction in the rain. I had bought some waterproof hiking boots the day before, thankfully. The mud was ankle deep in some places. We stayed about 3 hours, but didn't feel comfortable bidding on anything, so we still need a disc and a plow for the tractor.
I ended up not working the whole weekend, which was nice to not have anywhere to be other than church.
We went to church yesterday morning, then came home and worked on the house. Aaron has pulled down a ton of old rusted fence. Thankfully, we had kept it, so we used the bolt cutters and cut it into sections, the folded it into a circle and used pliers to wrap the ends around and now we have about 10 things to put around our tomato plants to support them in the garden. There is plenty more fence, so we will probably end up making more. I have almost 18 tomato plants growing in the house.
After we ate a quick supper, right before church services in the evening, my headache started up again. I almost didn't go. Our drive down the gravel road, adds motion sickness to my headaches which is almost too much. I took some medicine on the way which made it tolerable enough during services that I didn't have to leave early, but we left pretty soon afterward. I couldn't even sing or move my head normal speed from side to side. Aaron dropped me and the girls off at mom's apartment in town and went to get me some sudafed. Unfortunately, due to all the losers who use sudafed for something other than sinuses, it is locked up in the actually pharmacy part of the store and it was closed, so he had to get me the sinus medicine that is not sudafed. It worked ok. I took some and laid on the couch at mom's for about an hour until it got better enough that I could look from side to side without regretting it.
We drove home and went to bed pretty early. And that was our weekend.
I still have a little headache today, but have already taken a sinus pill. Hopefully that will stop it before it gets too bad.

Little Artists

2009-03-04T22:09:00.000-08:00

Monday evening we went to the Art Fair at our coop. There were probably 30 entries. Mom rode with me and we dropped off the 3 pictures at 4pm. Judging wasn't until 5:30pm and Aaron was meeting us there at 5pm, so we went to Aldi. I came prepared with a cooler with some ice. I was barely able to fit all of my refridgerated stuff in it, but it was less than 40 outside, so it stayed good.
Got back to the Art Fair. When it was time for judging, they sent all the adults out in the hallway and let the kids stand by their art if they wanted to so the judges could ask them questions. I thought the judging would take around 15 min. Well, an hour or so later, they finally had placed the ribbons and were ready to hand out the results.
In Prek/K , Hannah came in first place with her drawing of Natalie holding an apple in each hand, standing next to a flower. (she was the only entry in this age group)
In 1st and 2nd grade Madelyn came in 1st with her picture of two people looking at a princess. and Natalie came in 2nd with her picture of Hannah and her picking apples on top of a flower covered hill.
There were 6 entries in Madelyn and Natalie's age group. I was proud of them and they were excited to get their ribbons. I felt sorry for the kids that came and stayed there for sooo long waiting and didn't win.
We went shopping for cameras on Friday and the one we picked out was out of stock. So we left and I will probably go again soon to find one. I hate not having a camera!
Our tractor made it here safe and sound on Monday night. Aaron had time to come by the house, pull it into the barn before coming to the art fair. I know he is dying to try it out, but it will probably be Saturday before he gets a chance. It barely fits in the barn.
I worked3-7 pm last night. I probably would have stayed if they had asked me, but they didn't so I assumed that everything was under control. Then the supervisor called at 9:30 as I was crawling into bed, to see if I wanted to come in. I told her I had just left at 7( which she didn't realize), so I went on to bed.
Worked 7-11 tonight and am fixing to go to bed now.

SNOW

2009-03-02T09:05:00.000-08:00

Saturday, they were predicting 2-4 inches of snow for our area overnight.
We woke up Sunday morning to about 1 inch, but it continued to snow for a few more hours. The girls were playing outside by 7:30 that morning. We had a great morning. Church was cancelled, although I am not sure we would have tried to make it if it wasn't. We have 3 miles of downhill curves to get to town.
Aaron found a makeshift sled and we all sledded for a while. Then we made a snowman that was taller than the kids. After warming up for few minutes, we went on a walk through the woods, where the snow was deep enough that it covered my feet. Then we drove down the road about 1/10 of a mile until we got to the turnabout where you can see the whole town below us.
It was a good snow day.
I went to work 3-11.
Today we have an Art Fair at our coop. The girls each drew a picture they are submitting.

ER Visit

2009-02-28T19:48:00.000-08:00

Thursday evening around 4pm, the girls and I were walking to the trashcans at the end of the driveway. Hannah starts running to beat us all. She was probably about 40ft in front of us when the dog sees her way up ahead.
Not ever wanting anyone to beat her, Princess takes off at a full gallop towards Hannah. Normally, when she does this, I guess she just wants to prove that she is faster than the kids, she stops about 2 ft ahead of them.
Well, about the same time Princess shifts to the side to tear around Hannah, Hannah stops and turns around right into Princess running full speed.
Princess took her feet right out from under her and she fell on her chin. So I go running to a screaming, bleeding lip Hannah, while Princess is jumping around all over her and all around her, thinking Hannah got on the ground to play.
By the time I got to her and carried her back into the house, her chin had really swollen a lot in the soft tissue underneath. It looked like she had a double chin. The small amount of bleeding was from her lip and her skin is almost completely scraped off her chin.
I was scared that her chin would swell into her throat, so I loaded up the kids real quick, grabbed an icepack and tried to convince Hannah to hold it to her chin the whole way there.
Thankfully, none of her teeth were loose, and the doctor said since she was able to talk and move her chin without extreme pain, then it isn't broken.
Our flirt of a 4 year old lit up when the young nice looking doctor walked in. Kind of funny. Kind of scary. Anyway, she had fallen asleep in the ER while waiting. I was able to get ahold of Aaron while he was on his way home and he came straight there to get the other two. He took them on home and we were done probably 30 min. later. We were probably there about an hour.
That night and the next day , she had a little trouble opening her mouth all the way and she talked kind of funny, but other than that, she is healing well.
Today, we went and bought a tractor. We looked at it yesterday and then went back to pay for it today. He is delivering it on Monday. Aaron is very excited. It comes with a bushhog. We will need a plow for the garden.
Supposed to snow tonight. We'll see. I worked 3-7 today. I was supposed to stay until 11, but they didn't need me and gave me the choice of going home, or they would call another girl off that wasn't there yet. Since, they have talked up this huge snow coming tonight, I decided to just get home before it started. 3-11 tomorrow.

USED! and angry about it in a surprisingly calm way

2009-02-25T06:24:00.000-08:00

Here's the story. I can rant on here because I think I only gave this blog to one person here in town and that was a long time ago.
There is a little girl (I'll call her J) at that comes to church sometimes with her mom and the girls just love her. J is a year or two older than Madelyn. She is really sweet and I do enjoy having her over. She is also in Brownies with the girls. Every other week lately with Brownies, the girls want J to come home with us. We did that a few times last year and last fall, but since I am normally working those nights lately, she can't come over.
Last Saturday, the girls were going to be on the Cookie Booth from 3-4:30, so I told them that I would call J's mom to see if she would drop her off at the Cookie Booth and I would take her home with us when I picked up our girls. She said she would do it. She has told me numerous times to keep her as long as I want, come get her whenever I want.
Well, to the girls' disappointment, she didn't show on Saturday.
When I dropped the girls off at Brownies yesterday, the leader came out and said that "J's" Mom had called her today and told her that I was picking "J" up and I was going to take her home and feed her supper.
I said, "no, that agreement was for Saturday, not today, I am working tonight" So, in the interest of her child, seeing how I care more about her whereabouts than she does, I told the leader I would take her but I would have to get ahold of her Mom before 6:30 when I left for work. I was not leaving her with Aaron and the kids all night.
Leader gave me J's mom's cell and home phone. When I came back an hour late to pick all the kids up, I sat in the parking lot first and tried to call the cell - no answer and the mailbox was full.
When I tried to call the home phone, I was able to leave her a message telling her that our agreement was for Saturday and that I had to work tonight, to please call me at this number and that I had to have her somewhere by 6:30 when I left for work.
I ended up calling into work, because I wasn't feeling well, thank goodness, because I never heard from good ole mom.
Giving her the benefit of the doubt, I waited. Finally, I called the home phone (where I left the message before) and immediately got an answer.
Here is how the phone conversation went.
Them "hello"
Me "hi, can I speak to _______?"
Them "who is calling?"
Me "Karen Pirkle"
Them" Mom, Ms. Pirkle is on the phone"
What I hear in the background...
J's Mom "why did you answer the phone? "
J's Sister "I don't know, I didn't let it ring long enough for the ID to show up"
I sweetly talked to the smooth as honey voice on the other line, trying to process what I just heard. She told me they were home now (like they had just walked in the door) and that I could bring her home whenever, but feel free to keep her for as long as I want.
In other words, she had long gotten my message saying I needed to leave for work at 6:30. Not only did she expect me to take care of her daughter for her, but could care less about my job, and I had to drive the 10 miles there and 10 miles back to take her home.
It was 6:30 when I called and she wasn't planning on answering the phone for a long time apparently, if at all. I wouldn't be surprised if she would have never answered the phone and let J spend the night.
I told Aaron that I hated to even take her home to a house that didn't want her around. When we dropped her off there were about 5 cars in the driveway, a man outside leaning on a car smoking, so we waited until the door was open and she disappeared inside before we left.
I think there will be a confrontation at some point. I will keep the blog updated whenever it happens. Just had to vent now though.
Any suggestions?

Planting

2009-02-24T10:16:00.000-08:00

I got a lot of my seeds that I ordered in the mail the other day. I haven't been able to get to Walmart until today to buy the soil and planting cups.
Some of the seeds that we got that weren't on backorder are...
cherry tomatoes, tomatoes, okra, banana peppers, squash, watermelon, corn and snap peas.
I hope we have a good crop.
We picked Mom up and went to Walmart around 10:30 and got home a few minutes ago. I let the girls play outside for a few minutes, but they are now back in doing the school work that we put off from this morning.
Brownies is from 3-4 today. I ordered a ton of cookies yesterday and will be able to pick them up later in the week, and hopefully, fingers crossed, I will be able to sell them all at work. I took 14 boxes the other night and with just 7- 8 people, I sold 12 boxes in just a few minutes. That was evening shift, when there are a lot less people there.
Nursing staff #9 down with the stomach virus. I am still being very careful and have sanitized my hands so much at work that they turn red and start to tingle a little. I asked them to call me off tonight if there was an extra nurse, but I don't see it happening. But just in case the census does go down, maybe I won't have to go in.
There is a Wild Game supper at church tonight. They have one every year. We missed the first one while we were here on our househunting trip. Last year we had the stomach virus, and this year I have to work. I am off Wed. and Thur.

2009-02-24T10:12:00.000-08:00

36 hours!

2009-02-21T18:51:00.000-08:00

I have worked 8 out of the last 9 days, and if I miraculously manage to avoid the stomach virus going around at work until Wed, I will have worked 11 out of 12 days. No wonder I feel out of the loop at home.
Housework is behind bigtime. But I feel the powerful urge to make as much money as possible while they are calling me every day begging for some hours.
There has been a bad stomach bug floating around the nurses at work. I know of 6 that have had it in the last week or so. So, combine a high census, almost full hospital with nurses calling out 1- 3 days in a row due to being sick and I get to work a lot. At the risk of the dreaded stomach bug.
I worked 7-3 today and came in right behind a nurse dragging down the hall on her way in. Within about 30 minutes she was vomiting, which was pretty annoying, since her kid was sick with the same thing. She knew before coming in she felt awful - put 2 and 2 together and don't come infect us all! After she left, I went to the bathroom and cleaned it down with these antibacterial wipes we clean with at work. The supervisor cleaned all the phones and desk area at the nurses' station, and one nurse went and bought some lysol to spray. But we're not paranoid.
Aaron had to work today too, so Mom came over early to watch the girls. She took them to her apartment around lunchtime. Madelyn and Natalie were signed up to sell Girl Scout Cookies at 3pm until 4:30 at Walmart, I Mom dropped them off for me. I came to Mom's, took a bath, then took Hannah with me to Walmart to pick the girls up. I had promised them that their friend from GS/ Church could come over afterwards today. So, I called her Mom last night to see if she would drop her off at Walmart at 3 too. Then I would pick all 3 of them up. Well, she said she would, but she didn't show. I am glad that this time, I wasn't the "bad guy".
I better get to bed. It is only 9pm, but I have been up since 5am and we have a lot to do tomorrow.
They asked me to work Sunday day shift. I told them I could work 1pm-7pm, so I wouldn't miss church, so they took that. We will be getting up, going to church early, trying to collect as much money as possible before church for the cookies we sold, then as soon as services are over, we will probably go eat at Mom's for lunch, rather than drive all the way back home for 15 min. before having to be back at work.

working extra

2009-02-18T22:10:00.000-08:00

I have been very negligent in blogging.
I have been able to work extra these last few weeks. I was trying to average around 20 hours this week. However, I have been called in a few times, for instance, tonight and will have 33 hours on this week alone - if I am able to work the last 12 I have signed up for.
I got 3 messages within about 3o min. begging me to come in tonight and some for tomorrow. I went to church tonight for the first half, then went to work at 7:30 and stayed until 11:30. I am working 3-7 tomorrow, but they have already said they may call and ask me to come in early.
I hope with all this working, we can pay off the debt asap and start on the next adoption.
Still waiting for the partial refund check from our old adoption agency to come in the mail> I emailed on the 9th and they said it was either processing or on it's way.
We also filed our taxes on the 9th and we were supposed to get our refund back on the 13th. Well, it didn't come, so Aaron looked it up and the date was changed to the 17th. Still didn't come, so I called today and the lady said that they don't deposit checks on any other day than Friday. (Why they said the 17th on the website, we will never know) Supposedly, it will be here this Friday.

Searching

2009-02-10T09:45:00.000-08:00

Does it seem like you spend half your day searching for stuff when you have kids? No matter how many pencils I buy, seems like they disappear within days. I make the girls do school work in pencil, so they can correct. It is a chore to find a pencil for each of us every day. We even have a big bucket we keep crayons, pencils, and pens in, but even then, pencils elude us. And if we do happen to find a pencil, I really hope it is sharpened, because finding the elusive sharpeners are even harder.
We have a library movie due back yesterday. Can't find the case anywhere. I know it has to be in this house or in the car. We spent about 20 min. already this morning looking for it with no luck. I am sure it will turn up, but probably not before I have enough fines on it to buy the movie.
Don't even get me started on shoes.
We are getting ready to leave the house in a few minutes. We are going over to Mom's before Brownies. Natalie and Hannah both have Fifths disease, but now that they have the rash, we know they aren't contagious. Hannah looks awful. Her rash actually was almost gone, but got worse Sunday and still looks bad. I looked it up on the internet and one website said it could last 1-3 weeks and actually look worse off and on, especially if you are in sunlight. Well, being 60-70 degrees the last 3 days, we have been in the sunlight.
I am so ready to get a digital camera, so I can take pictures again and post them on the website.
For example, Aaron burned a bunch of our land the other day and as I was watching, I kept thinking how cool it would have been to have a picture of Aaron, walking through fire and smoke with his driptorch. Anyway, it was cool and I love that a lot of the underbrush is gone. We also are in the market for a tractor. I am praying for a good deal.
I bought some onions the other day to plant. The girls and I found a bunch of big rocks to line the small onion garden with and I used a shovel and a rake to get the grass and weeds off the top of the soil.
You would think that with a 4 year degree, I would be smart enough to take the number of onion bulbs and the space between and make a good plot that would hold them all at correct spacing. WRONG!!! Not smart enough for that. I still have a ton of bulbs left. I think I will ask for help when we do the big garden. Aaron is really good with spacing and stuff like that.
I worked 7-11 last night and 7-3 on Sunday. They were desparate for help Sunday and I really don't like to work on Sundays, but I was able to go to church Sunday night.

Nice Weekend

2009-02-02T05:59:00.000-08:00

We had a great weekend and some nice family time yesterday, since there has been little with me working most evenings and Aaron working most days.
I got in around 20 hours last week. I worked one 7-3 day that turned out to be so hectic that I was still at work at 5pm. I hardly ever have to stay after to catch up.
Sometimes during the 3rd hour of coop, where I have nothing to do, I will go and sit in the car and read if weather permits. I had left my cell phone out there, and while sitting there, a girl called from work to see if I could come in at 5pm instead of 7pm to relieve her so she could pick up her kids. I said yes.
I got there at 5pm on Friday night only to be told that they didn't need me after 7pm. The census had gone down again. So, I worked a whopping 2 hours Friday. They changed my schedule Saturday to 11a - 7p, which in my opinion, is a great shift to work. You don't have to get up early, you don't have to stay up late.
I had sent out invitations to 3 couples at church to come and eat lunch with us after the morning service. I made the main dish and dessert and listed stuff for them to bring. They all came and it turned out great. I think the last couple left at 3pm and since it was a beautiful day, Aaron and I and the girls went on our trail through our woods. A friend from Aaron's work let him borrow a leaf blower, so Aaron had blown off the trail while we were at coop on Friday. It is approx 1/2 mile long and doesn't run the whole property, but we are not sure about part of our boundry lines in the forest and don't want to mess up someone else's property by digging a trail through it. Then we walked around our cleared acreage.
The sermons lately have been so encouraging to our plight to adopt. I feel less crazy for giving up stuff for this adoption. Even if no one around understands, I know that God is behind us. And after complaining that no one cares about the adoption, I bet in the last 1-2 weeks, 7-8 people at church have asked how it was going. I did mention it in class a few weeks ago, so I don't know if that reminded people of it. I just wish we could start with Russia now. But I know that God's timing is the right timing. I would rather wait for God's plan than rush in with my plan and adopt a child God didn't intend in our family and therefore missing the child He did intend for us. I tis just hard to wait. Next month it will be 2 years since we started. What a journey.

early night

2009-01-24T17:44:00.000-08:00

I just got off work at 7pm. I came home from work last night, took a benedryl, so would be sleepy and went to bed around 12:30am. I did go to sleep easier than normal and slept pretty well. Until 6:45am when they called me from work to see if I would come in to work at 11am instead of 3. I told her I would come in early if she would let me leave at 7pm instead of staying until 11 making a 12 hour shift. I haven't done 12 hour shifts since before Hannah. So, I am off early. They wanted me to work tomorrow, but I will probably pass.
I am thankful that the hospital is finally filling up and they need me.

Why can't I sleep?!!!

2009-01-23T15:00:00.000-08:00

You would think that the more tired you are, the better you would sleep. Apparently not.
Working evening shift while your family is living in day shift has it's rewards and it's downsides.
Reward #1 When I go in at 7, I only miss about 1 hour of family time, and when I go in at 3, I only miss 5 hours, rather than 9 hours if I work day shift.
Reward #2 I get paid a few dollars more an hour.
Reward #3 We don't have to pay a babysitter since Aaron is usually home while I work. (sometimes I might pay Mom for a few hours until Aaron gets home.
Downside #1 I get home between 11:30pm and 12am, have to wind down and somehow go to sleep.
Downside #2 Even though I don't go to sleep until around 1am, I still have to get up with the kids who have been in bed since 8 or 9. (Usually around 7:45am at the latest)
Downside #3 If I work one night, then have to go back the next, that requires me lying down to take a nap since I hardly got any sleep the night before. Thereby taking away some family time.
Downside #4 I MISS AARON. We hardly see each other when I am on a working binge.

I think I am running on adrenalin. I worked a total of 35 hours the two weeks before this one and got a whopping big check today, which then helps to make you not so tired. Of course after writing all the checks, it is very quickly dwindling.
I worked 4 hours Tuesday, then I called yesterday afternoon to see if they would let me work 3-11 last pm and they did let me, then I got home around 11:30, took a bath, prepared for our coop classes, went to bed around 12:30 and didn't get to sleep until around 2am.
Then I woke up with Aaron's alarm at 6am and again at 7:15. Went to coop, went to Aldi to get milk while we were close (milk is only 2:69 a gallon there) then got to Mom's around 1, ate lunch and laid down for about an hour while she watched the girls.
We came home around 3:30 and work had called to see if I wanted to come in at 3 again. I decided to pass since I am still pretty tired. Aaron is getting home 2 hours late, so he will be here about 45 min. before I have to go back to work 7-11. I am working 3-11 tomorrow, then I have Sunday off. Yipee!!!!
That is a total of 24 hours this week and I am signed up for 20 next week, which will make an even bigger check in two weeks. I just try to tell myself that every shift I work gets us closer to being able to start our adoption from Russia.

Cool Story

2009-01-21T19:52:00.000-08:00

Recently, I found the blog of an author who I really like. I haven't read any books of his lately, but I love his book Seeing the Unseen. I love to read, so authors are like my celebrities. Back to the story. I don't have much to write about, and seeing his blog brought this back to mind. I will try to make it short and interesting.
Back in 2002 we lived in SC. I was working at the hospital mostly on weekends. Aaron worked 4 -10hour days a week and was off every Fri-Sun. We were trying to save up enough money for our down payment on our first house. We already had a closing date. I had a lot of days where I had signed up to work and we were going to cut it close for having enough money for the down payment we had promised.
When Aaron got a fulltime job with insurance, I decided that I would stop working Sundays unless an absolute emergency.
We had $17 in the bank. It was almost Christmas. I debated over and over again as to whether or not to work this particular Sunday. It would mean extra money, but I remembered my resolution to not work Sundays.
I didn't go to work and found out when I got to church that morning that Joe Beam was preaching. He had family connections there and I was so excited. I literally would have cried if I had missed that service. Of course he was a great speaker.
Towards the end of the service, I was sitting there with the kids (Madelyn 2, Natalie 9months) Aaron was serving in the service somehow, I don't know what, but I know he was not sitting with me.
Joe Beam's family member came up, right before service was over and tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to come back to the foyer. I didn't know what in the world I had done, but went with the girls. Back there waiting for me was Joe Beam's wife.
Joe's family introduced me to her and then she told me.. (not the exact words, this was 6+ years ago)
Before coming into town, someone had handed her a $100 bill and told her to give it to someone who needed it. She had that bill for a while and had prayed that God lead her to the person who that $100 was meant for. She said when she saw me sitting there with the girls, she knew that I was the one and she handed me the bill.
Yes, the $100 was less than what I would have made that day, but not by much. Even more important, what a blessing I would have missed if I had went to work that day.
I told her that we were closing on a house in about 2 months and had only $17 in the bank, and how I almost went to work that day. It was just an awesome experience.
Here is his blog address if you are interested. www.joebeam.com/blog

adding to the last post

2009-01-13T22:18:00.000-08:00

After rereading the last post, I realize I need to clarify. Those who I refered to as not being real encouraging were from this town. I don't want to include my friends that email and encourage me here on the internet.

Encouragement

2009-01-13T09:19:00.000-08:00

I have been in a pity party lately with myself.
Sad that it seemed for a long, long time that no one really cared about our adoption.
I would go months without anyone asking what was going on, where we were in the process, etc. And truthfully, it has kind of hurt that no one seemed to care. We have been on our own.
I don't want to bring it up because I felt like if they didn't care enough about it to ask me, then they surely didn't care enough to want me to bring it up.
But then it struck me at church on Sunday evening, while listening to the sermon. Probably the last month, the sermons that have been preached, and the classes that I have been to have all been about getting off your rear, getting uncomfortable, sacrificing something for God.
God doesn't call us to a life of comfort, a life of sitting back and enjoying what "WE" have accomplished.
Are you rich and can buy any toy you want and have a big house and you think of all you accomplished- perhaps God blessed you with the ability to make that money so you would give some back to Him. Perhaps you thought you were buying your big house so you could have sooo much space, but perhaps God led you to that house so you could fit a few more children in it. Children with no hope. Children that could have a bright future with you.
Yes, it costs a ton of money to adopt, and yes the child may have a lot to get over, and yes, you may have to start all over again with small children even though you are out of that stage with your other children. But look how God has blessed you. Bless others with it!
This life is not about getting ahead. It is about taking what God has given you and using it for Him. Don't be so cocky as to think that you did it all on your own.
Anyway, I got off track. Back to the sermons and lessons lately.
They have been so encouraging for Aaron and my journey. For us losing so much money on the first two countries. Now we are working extra to pay off the failed adoption so we can start again and probably go into debt again. Why do we do it?
I am sure others are probably thinking the same thing. Some have said it to me. Some with so much more than us, question our sanity as to why we give up what little we have for this, when we could use the money on ourselves.
I have thought the same thing. When I am down, I think the same thing. But then God doesn't let me stay there long...
He brings us lessons like we have had lately. When we left church Sunday night, I told Aaron... "you know, this whole adoption, I feel like we have been on our own. No one cares. I have prayed to God that he would send people to encourage us. Why is there no encouragement?!! But then tonight and lately, I realized that God is not going through our friends to encourage us, but coming directly to us through the preachers. I don't need other people to encourage me, when God Himself is doing it! " What a blessing!
If we quit now, there will be at least one more little girl who doesn't have a home. Who grows up without a Daddy and Mommy. Yes, if we quit now, we can pay off our debt, and move on. Make some money and buy some toys and say "we tried" . It was too hard. Guess since it was hard and expensive, we should just forget about it. No one would blame us. Actually, most people blame us for starting in the first place.
But if we quit, Sa tan wins. And that little girl who almost made it to a permanent home loses. And we lose. We lose a blessing.
"Blessed is the man who perserveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the cown of likfe that God has promised to those who love him" James 1:12

2009-01-10T22:10:00.000-08:00

Lots and lots of rain here. Our pond beside our house that was empty when we moved in has been full for a while now. When it reaches a certain level, it goes through a culvert under our driveway and down down into the forest. That is where the girls love to play. Aaron made a bridge out of a piece of wood and they cross their tiny river and he also worked on a 1ft water fall for them also.
Yesterday was so nice and spring like. We got up and went to our Friday classes for the first time since before Thanksgiving. The girls were real excited to see their friends again. We got pizza on the way home and ate at Mom's, then I came on home with the girls. It was so pretty, I told them on the way home that they could either play outside or come in and clean. So they played outside. We have been stuck inside so much because of all the rain.
This morning, raining again, and I took the girls down to the church building where the Brownie troop was meeting to go 40 min. away to a cookie selling party to start off cookie time. We came back home with Hannah and cleaned a while, then I went to the store for a few things and picked up the girls.
They spent most of the afternoon at mom's.
I worked 12 of the 16 hours I was scheduled for this week. I called last night around 6 (15 min. before I needed to leave) to see what the census was. It was 12. I couldn't believe they hadn't called me to tell me not to come in. So I called the supervisor to see if I was scheduled. First she said no. Then she looked again and apparently they had spelled my name wrong and anyway, they didn't need me and I had to stay home. Glad I called and didn't drive 10 miles into town to get sent home.
Worked 7-11 tonight.
Found another couple in town that are adopting internationally. I am excited to possibly have a friend in person that can relate to an extent to what we are going through.

toes in my back

2009-01-07T10:18:00.000-08:00

Aaron is fully recovered- pretty much. Just a little bruising and soreness left. He did much better than we thought and didn't even fill his prescription for the strong pain meds.
I worked 7-11 the last two nights and it has been busy. They want all the RNs to have ACLS which is Advanced Cardiac Life Support. I have never been certified in it and they offer a few classes a year.
I went to sleep around 12:30 am this morning after working 7-11.
I set the alarm for 6:30am and was planning on getting up, taking a shower, dressing the kids, dropping them off at Mom's and making it to work by 8am.
Aaron has a cold and slept on the couch last night where he could prop up.
Somehow, Hannah can sense when there is an empty spot in our bed, and shows up.
At 2:30am this morning. Normally, Hannah is not bad to sleep with, she moves minimally and doesn't dig under or kick like the other two. Except for all this morning, where she would not keep her little toes out of my back. Constantly, I would push them over, she slept through it all, and pretty soon, I would have toes digging in my back again.
I woke up hearing Aaron's alarm clear in the living room at 5:20am. So did Hannah and Aaron sent her back to her bed.
Before he left at 6:45, she was back in our bed asleep, digging her toes in. Somehow sleeping, her body in a 90degree angle bent at the waist.
Needless to say, I decided not to go to the pre-ACLS class that started at 8am. I hadn't signed up anyway. But then I awoke at 7:10, slightly more refreshed, called Mom to see if she could make it to the house by 7:45.
She came over and I barely got out of here in time to make it to work by 8am. Dreading 6 hours of classes that I didn't want to take, after sleeping a very broken 6 hours, I found the teacher.
Who promptly said that if I was the only one who showed up, she wasn't going to waste her time teaching it to one person.
No one else showed up and she rescheduled. Don't know if Mom will be working then and I won't have a babysitter. Oh well, I tried and that is all I can do, right?
So, I came back home. Did a little school before lunch. We just ate lunch and the girls are playing. I think that I may not make it much longer before I have to lie down. Hannah could probably use a nap too.

Falling Ladders

2009-01-03T06:24:00.000-08:00

Aaron needed a new ladder for Christmas. He got one. Now he needs a new ladder for his birthday.
We have a small wooden, shaky ladder that isn't very tall and has 4 legs. His parents bought him an aluminum ladder that I think will stretch out to 20ft. When it rains here, our porch fills up with water, especially right in front of our front door. So, we decided to put up gutters, just on the front porch for now. Last weekend, we got most of it finished. We needed a few more parts from Lowes to finish, so he went New Years day with the girls to go get those parts.
I was working New Year's day and I get a phone call from Aaron. Now he never calls me at work, so I knew something was wrong.
Here's the story. He was working on the last seam. He said he had been on the ladder in the same position for about 10 minutes with no problem. All of a sudden, the ladder is falling out from under him. The ladder stopped when it got under the porch and hit the concrete on the porch about 3 ft above the ground. Aaron was working on the gutters, probably 10ft up. His L leg slipped a little through some rungs and got scraped up pretty bad, when the ladder hit the concrete and he was thrown off onto his R hip. I think his leg getting caught, if just for a split second, probably helped slow him down.
Of course, all the girls were outside and Natalie was watching. Apparently, he was rolling around a little in pain, and Natalie doesn't do well with people in pain, so she went running in the house. Madelyn and Hannah came to watch Aaron, and Princess came to waller on him, probably thinking that finally someone decided to roll around on the ground and play with her.
Since he could feel all his limbs and move them all, he sent Madelyn inside to make sure that Natalie wasn't calling 911. (She has been taking a Safety for Kids class on Fridays at our Coop) She wasn't.
After lying on the ground for a few minutes and having Madelyn hold the dog off, he was finally able to painfully walk into the house, where he was able to call me at work.
The other nurses heard me asking nursy questions, so they were concerned when I got off the phone. My supervisor was standing there and there was an extra nurse that was going to take over for me when I left at 3pm (it was 1pm). So she told me to go on home and check on him.
I still had to give report and chart a few things, so I called Mom to see if she would at least go over there and watch the girls, because I knew she could get there before me. Plus, if I needed to take him to the ER, I didn't want to take the kids.
We did eventually go to the ER, since he had a small abrasion over his hip and he fell on rock. He didn't hit the padded part, but hit on a bony part. Thankfully, he didn't fracture anything.
The ER doctor was very impressed. He kept saying how good Aaron's bones must be for him not to have broken something falling from that height. We are thankful.
But he does need a new ladder. His is bent. We don't know if it bent during the fall, or if it bent and caused the fall.
He did fix the last seam that night, after going to the ER, by putting our old rickety ladder on top of the jeep and having me hold the ladder still while he climbed up to finish. If he had fallen off a 2nd time, I think I would have taken him all the way to another hospital, instead of the one where I work. But the gutters are done, now we wait for rain to see how well done they are.
I was able to work 10 of my scheduled 20 hours this week. They called me Tues. and told me to stay home. Then they called me on Wed. morning trying to get me to stay home, but the supervisor said he would call some of the other nurses to see if they wanted the day off. One did and he called me back and let me work.
Today, Aaron left to go hiking with some of the men from church. Apparently, there is a BIG TREE somewhere in the forest. It is probably a 2 mile hike to the tree. A hard hike. So he is armed with ibuprofen. The hike would normally be a breeze for him, since he does that every day, we were just a little worried about his hip. Don't know what the girls and I will do today.

2008-12-30T06:19:00.000-08:00

Mom is coming over today around 2, to watch the girls while I go to work from 3-7. I called and talked to the secretary last night and she sounded pretty overwhelmed, and said that the census is up so hopefully they won't cancel me this week. Right now I am just signed up for 20 hours. I was planning on Mom just staying the night, since she is watching them while I work 7-3 tomorrow. That would keep her from having to wake up real early and get here by 6am or me having to get the girls up and tote them to Mom's. When I signed up for work today, I didn't realize that our church was changing the Wed. night service to Tuesday because of the holiday tomorrow, so looks like I will miss again.
I am trying to do a little schoolwork this week, Like catching up with the books the girls are reading. Aaron came home yesterday and went straight to work after supper on the gutters. He worked up until around 8pm or later. He started around 5:30. It was cold out. I went out periodically to help hold something or hand him something. Madelyn and Natalie ran around in the dark with flashlights for a long time. Hannah was running a 102+fever, so she stayed inside with me. I don't know what is going on with her. She complained of a headache yesterday and was so irritable. I finally put her in my bed and she slept a couple of hours. Then ran a fever last night. So far, no fever or irritablility this morning.
Maybe it is a 24 hour headache virus. I had a horrible headache Sunday morning. So bad, that after class, I sat down for church services and felt a little sick to my stomach, so I took Mom's car back to her apartment and stayed there during services. The headache lasted all day, but was a little better to where I went Sunday night. Then Aaron complainded of a headache Sunday night, and Madelyn was sick with a headache then. Strange.

Oh wise 4 year old

2008-12-28T19:42:00.000-08:00

Last night, Aaron had been working outside and he was sitting at the table with Hannah. He had his baseball cap on backward. She said matter of factly "you know, some people wear their hats like that because they are trying to be cool, but some turn them around, so that they look like daddys." So, Aaron promptly turned it back around the "daddy" way.
Another funny... the other night Madelyn had been asleep about 45 min. when she woke up and came into the living room. I was still up. She just stood there staring at me.
I said "what?"
She says. "you know they slide when you move them"
I said "what slides when you move them?" thinking that her sleep induced answer will be pretty funny.
She says' "brooms, they slide when you use them"
I said "go to the bathroom and back to bed" She had no memory of that the next morning, but I thought it was pretty funny.
Can't think of any funny or embarassing stories about Natalie right now,but I am sure they will happen soon enough.
Before going to TN for Christmas, we took the rattlesnake out of the freezer and Aaron disected it for us. Pretty interesting, and we were hoping to see some babies, since we killed it in September, and they give birth soon after. But it was either male or not pregnant and we couldn't tell the difference.
So, afterwards, Aaron put it, guts side down, down by the peach trees out our side window, so we can look out there and watch the buzzards eat it. I know, we are a little weird, but we like wildlife. It was still there, apparently untouched, the whole 5 days we were gone.
Aaron flips it, hoping that guts side up will stink more and draw something to come eat it. The next morning, the girls saw 3 buzzards eating it, but by the time I got to the window they had been scared away.
Now Princess has gotten ahold of it. She was eating on it yesterday, still under the peach tree, which was gross enough, but when we got home from church this morning, it was on our bedroom porch.
She carried it around all day, here and there, nibbling on it. Gag! I wish we had buried it now.
Aaron and I went yesterday to Lowes to get gutters for the front of the house. The whole house needs them, but we are going to do a little at a time. Whenever it rains, our porch made of concrete, holds a ton of water and we have to walk through a big puddle to get in. We bought the supplies yesterday and Aaron put most of it up this afternoon. My help was minimal, but I did have to climb up a scary ladder balance on the ground and a rock to hold the chalk line for him. I hate ladders, but it was his new one he got for Christmas, and it didn't rock like his old one does, so it wasn't as scary as I thought. It looks good so far, there are a few more supplies that we need, so he will probably be finishing that project 1/1 when he is off work, since it is dark when he gets home.
Madelyn was complaining of a headache before church, right across her forehead, but then ate supper and said she felt better. So we went on and she didn't complain again until about 1 hour after church. We were invited to a friends house and she was walking around smiling, but then I could tell she wanted to cry, so we left and she was crying by the time we got home. Of course a headache, 3 miles of curvy road, plus 2 miles of gravel road, and what do you get???
Vomiting! She didn't get sick until we had been home about 1 hour and about 45 min. after her tylenol. I am really hoping that it was all motion sickness and not something contagious. She says her stomachache and headache are gone now, but we will probably be sleeping on the couches tonight, just so I will be close if she needs me.

8 measly hours

2008-12-20T19:04:00.000-08:00

Well, I had hoped to get in 40 hrs this week with Aaron being off work, but unfortunately, even though I was scheduled 7-3 M-W, I only got to work Tuesday. Only 8 hours this week. They called me off M and W and I tried to work yesterday- no luck, but the census was up from the last time I had worked. So, I called this morning and the census had gone down 10 since yesterday, which may not seem like a lot, but when you work at a hospital with one floor, it is. I went ahead and emailed the Nursing Director my schedule for Jan. and Feb, hoping that if I am already on the schedule to work, I would be more likely to be able to work. I signed up for 80 hours in Jan. and 68 hrs in Feb. That is way more than usually. (Sometimes I barely get in my 32 hours a month). Well see how many hours I actually get to work.
I think I have all my Christmas shopping done except for the girls' stuff. I will probably either leave the girls with Aaron tomorrow and go to Walmart with Mom, or go with Aaron and leave the girls with Mom.
Since I didn't work today, Aaron and I decided to tackle the garage. I am embarassed to admit, but it was NASTY. We have 3 cats and even though there is always a litter box out there, at least one of them has taken to pooping and peeing anywhere but the litter box. So, the cats are on their own outside. One of them sleeps in the doghouse with the dog anyway and the other one is welcome on the porch, but no more cats in the garage. Our smallest cat always uses the litterbox, so he is allowed inside. We also had lots of boxes half empty from the move and still a lot of boxes full. We put a lot of stuff in the unfinished room above the garage, like baby beds, baby clothes, etc. and we probably got at least 5-6 trashbags of stuff. I have a box of books that I am going to take to our homeschool coop to give away. I can't stand the thought of throwing them out, but we really have no more room. It looks sooo much better. I cleaned the floor with water and soap and an old broom we have designated for outside and it looks and smells much better. I might even take someone out there on a tour of our house too. Instead of pretending like the garage doesn't exist.

I know I am cheap...

2008-12-14T19:32:00.000-08:00

We went out to eat tonight. We hadn't even had anything other than food from the house for over two weeks, I am proud to say. Not one stop through a drive through, and we hardly ever sit down in the restaurant. When we do sit down at a restaurant, there is no wasting of food. We all get water, and we share. For instance, tonight, Aaron and I both got a hamburger and fries, and I ordered the girls ONE kids' chicken and FF which they all shared. We all ate for $23 at Ruby Tuesday's and left full. However, Madelyn did make a joke at our cheap expense. Since there was only one kids' meal, the waiter only brought one dip and one ketchup cup. So, I had to ask for more dip and ketchup. After he left our dips on the table, Natalie says "Do we have to pay for these dips?" To which Madelyn replied dryly "no, because if we did, we wouldn't be eating any."
Aaron and I found that amusing, but someday, when she is raising her family, she will look back and be impressed by her parents miserly ways, or be embarassed by the fact that she had to share a kid's meal with her sisters and overcompensate with her kids and always buy them their own meal AND a drink other than water.
We went to this thing called Santa's Village about an hour away from us. It is an extension of the museums we bought a yearly pass to. We got a small discount for being members of the musuem and thought we would check it out. I worked the last 4 nights, and it is supposed to rain the next few days, so we wanted to go while we had a chance. It was a flop. There were a few activities, and the girls enjoyed it ok, but there were about 3 times as many people meandering around than there was room for. Add to that rude, rude children, running, pushing, yelling and cutting line and their parents chuckling along behind them, that Aaron and I were about ready to leave once we got there. We stayed about an hour and then left for the restaurant.
I am signed up to work 7-3 the next 3 days. I don't know if they will need me or not. The hospital wasn't full when I left last night and they have a tendency to call me off on the days I sign up for 7-3, so we will see if I go in or not. Aaron is off until Jan 4 I think. I would love to get in 40 hours this week before we go out of town. I may have to switch my days to 3-11 though. They hardly ever cancel me when I work evening shift.

Much better now

2008-12-10T21:58:00.000-08:00

Thankfully, no one else got sick other than Natalie and I. I thought Madelyn was going to come down with it, but she didn't. I went ahead and signed up for 44 hours to work over 8 days, which is a lot for me. I am working Wed-Fri this week 7-11, Sat. 3-11, then M-W 7-3. I don't know if I will be able to work all of them or not, often, I get cancelled, but I will take what I can get. I just got home from my first 4 hour shift a few minutes ago.
It has rained so much here the past two days. Since we are at the highest point around, and all the trees, add to that our tin roof and thunderstorms sound about 10x louder at this new house than they did at the old place. Plus, the wind really whistles as it is whipping through the trees. When we first looked at this house, there was a small, small pond close to the house. That was almost 1 1/2 years ago. I wouldn't have believed there was a pond there at all if we hadn't seen it for ourselves that first summer, it has been dried up ever since. Well, now it is full. When it reaches a certain point, it goes through the culvert under our driveway and down into a ditch that goes into the forest.
Today Madelyn said "Mom, can I play outside?" I said "are you crazy, it is raining and cold" and she says "I'll put on shoes" Well, duh, it is December.

To feed Natalie or not to feed Natalie..that is the question

2008-12-06T12:44:00.000-08:00

This bug has lingered for 5 days now, and only 2 of us have had it. I am feeling much better, actually made a trip to the store and the video store today and ate 2 meals, but I am still not back to normal.
Poor Natalie who got it 4 days ago has been feeling bad off and on, only to get worse in the last 24 hours. She threw up once Wed. night. Then has been lying around off and on since. I thought she was getting better.
Our original plans for last night was for Hannah and I to watch the parade, and for Madelyn and Natalie to ride with Aaron (as Smokey the Bear) on the float. However, Natalie hardly got off the couch yesterday afternoon and complained of vague stomach problems. So, we decided it best for her not to be stuck on a float from set up time 6:30pm to 9pm. I can just imagine the bad memories that would come for her, Aaron, and the parade watchers if she decided to be sick from either end.
We are so lucky that the last leg of the parade route goes right by our church parking lot. Last year, Hannah and I watched it from there, instead of the festive square, along with about 5 other people, too far away to recognize. I had mono at the time, and was barely able to carry the chairs from the van to the sidewalk. The parade route is so long that it started at 7pm and didn't get to the church's road until about 7:50.
So, we got there about 7:10, Hannah was asleep and Natalie felt horrible, and I wondered why I got out in 27 degrees anyway? Being next to our church and being that I have a key, I opened the teen building, carried Hannah in and she slept on the couch, while Natalie watched the Disney channel, and I watched out the window, waiting for the parade to finally make it to us. When it did, I ran to the car, got out the chairs, 2 blankets, 3 pairs of socks(for our hands) and my cape, woke up Hannah, and we set up on the sidewalk to watch the parade.
Hannah didn't want to move because she was cold and I had her covered up. Natalie didn't want to move because she felt horrible, so it was up to me, who looks like a cow in a cape to swoop down and pick up all the candy that the people keep throwing at us. We were the ONLY people on the block watching the parade, so it was like they did it all for us. We stayed until the end, b/c the end is so exciting. Horses galore. I remember last year, they just kept on coming, so this year I decided to count, and I am sure I missed a few since, most were trotting by, it was the end of a very cold parade, but I got 124. 124 horses. WoW!
We left and my gas light was on, and even though it is not even 9pm, I knew the two gas stations we pass on the way home would be closed, so I drove into town further to get gas. We get there and Natalie says "are we here to go to the bathroom?" I say no, why didn't you go during the 2 hours we were at the church building?
Something made me stop filling up at $10 and head home. Maybe the sound of Natalie's voice, I don't know. We got home probably 15 min. later, and I thought Natalie was asleep, but she got out of the car and another blessing... the door was locked and it took me a minute to get Hannah out. Because Natalie ended up vomiting right outside the door. I am so glad she didn't make it in. And there you go. Another Christmas parade memory in the books. Mono 2007, Stomach Virus 2008
Night #4 on the couch. I slept out there again with Natalie and while I was sick. Now before you think Aaron is bad for banishing me to the couch... If I asked him to, he would go, and I sleep so good on the couch and he sleeps terrible on it. When you have kids, you realize even more that it is a very smart thing to try to keep at least one adult well.
Back to the title of the post. She is hungry, but she got sick again around lunchtime and 30 min. later wanted food. It is so hard to look at your already skinny minny daughter who hasn't eaten much in 3 days and deny her food. So, we are taking it slow and hopefully she got rid of the last of it today.
Aaron is over at Mom's apartment. (she is out of town) We have lots of sick sheets that need to be washed and there is a football game on, so I he decided to go do the laundry since all he can watch here is kid's movies. I hope, hope, hope that no one else gets this, because it lasts so long.

Oh, for the stomach virus resistant days again

2008-12-04T06:40:00.000-08:00

Warning...This post is not for those who get grossed out easily.
Way back when I was growing up, I hardly ever got sick to my stomach. I mean, I kept up with it, and I once went 7 years without vomiting. Hard to believe. Then after that one time, it was another 5 years and I got sick while pregnant with Madelyn, and it has gone downhill from there. I think that since, my body has been trying to catch up with all the times I managed to not get the stomach virus growing up. When all the people around me would be vomiting, I might have gotten a stomach ache and diarrhea.
I woke up in the middle of the night Tuesday night and was sick all night long. Aaron took off most of the day yesterday, but had to go in that afternoon because there was something that had to be done that day. By then I was feeling a tiny bit better. I called Mom that morning and asked if she could go to the store and get me the stomach virus staples - crackers, sprite, popscicles, etc. Plus we had some movies to take back to town, so she did that.
Some bad judgement on my part - Mom had come back out around 4 and about an hour before she got there, Natalie complained of her stomach hurting, but she and Madelyn had been running around wild, and I had Madelyn make her a bed on the couch and she gave her a glass of water, and she laid there about an hour. She didn't want to, but I made her and she kept saying she was hungry and felt better. Thinking it was from running around crazy, I let her get up. Then Mom came and offered to take the girls to her house for a while. Natalie still acting better, I let them all go. Mom took our van and left her car. She calls about 15 min. later, saying she took the movies back, but Natalie wants to come home, her stomach is hurting again. Well, thankfully, Mom had a bag to give her. Mom calls back about 10 min. later, saying she is almost there, can Aaron come out to the car and help Natalie in, she had gotten sick. So, poor Aaron had to go out there and clean out the car, while I gave Natalie a bath. Thankfully the sack helped a lot. Mom ended up taking Madelyn home with her to spend the night, and I am fixing to call and see if she stayed well through the night.
Natalie only got sick that one time. I hope it is over, she has already eaten 2 big pretzels this morning. I am feeling about 75% better, at least the constant nausea is gone. I am holding my breath that the rest of us don't get it. I HATE THE STOMACH VIRUS.

Holiday Update

2008-12-01T05:51:00.000-08:00

Aaron, the girls and I drove to TN Thursday morning to my brother Michael's house for Thanksgiving dinner. It was such a nice day, probably got up to around 65 degrees and sunny. The kids played outside almost the whole time. There are 8 grandchildren 3 boys, and 5 girls. I made individual cheese balls and an apple pie cheesecake the night before.
That night, we made our way to Aaron's parents which are 30 min. away. We spent the night there, then got up the next morning and ate breakfast.
After breakfast, Aaron cleaned out the van of all the seats except the front, we told the kids goodbye and drove back to where my dad and other brother live. They each had part of the whole of the bunkbeds my dad was giving us, that used to be my brothers. We got the bunkbeds, then drove home.
After driving 3 hours home, we realized we needed special mattresses, so we drove back to the bigger town (30 min. ) and got some bunky bed mattresses and finally came home.
Saturday we were able to get quite a bit done. Aaron fixed the roof on the barn, hung up Christmas lights on the barn, and another job outside. I was able to clean half the house.
It is very quiet in our house without the kids. I miss them.
Sunday, after church services, I was able to get the bunkbeds ready for sleeping, and rearranged Natalie and Hannah's room and got rid of more clothes. Last night, we went over to Moms and unloaded something for her, then came home.
As soon as I get off of here, I am going to dress and go pick up Mom and we are driving to TN to pick up the kids.
Meanwhile, while we were home, the girls had a great time. Friday, they went to Nashville to the free, wonderful museum and then to Aaron's brother's house for supper. Saturday, they went back to Nashville and got to ride in a horse carriage around town. And last night they went to the Opryland Hotel and walked around, took a boat ride around the conservatory. They had a great time.

Decisions about adoption

2008-11-20T08:58:00.000-08:00

I guess I got stressed for nothing yesterday, and I feel calmer today, and a little more peaceful.
Our contract with our agency was going to run out on Dec. 1 since it looks like Vietnam is not going to have an agreement with the US by then. So, that is why we were looking into Russia.
Our agency emailed yesterday, saying that they would extend our contracts with them for Vietnam until June 1. At first I was all upset, wondering what to do. Do we stay with Vietnam for another 10 months, only to be told they are still not done with negotiations? This could drag on for years! Or do we change to Russia now and then in June or before, find out that we should have stayed the course in Vietnam? I was flipping out, hating that I had a choice again, when as always the voice of calmness and reason (AKA Aaron) spoke up and reminded me that we weren't ready to start in Russia now anyway.
Since we can't financially start a new adoption yet, I think we will stay on the Vietnam list. If we had the money for a new adoption, we would probably get off the Vietnam list and go ahead with Russia. Since we can't act on Russia now anyway and our agency is giving us a chance to wait out Vietnam a while longer, I think we are going to stay on the waiting list. What's it going to hurt? If we get financially able to start another adoption before June 1 and if Vietnam is no closer to a decision, we will reevaluate what to do next and I can not worry about that decision until then. Or if a wonderful thing happens and Vietnam does open back up to the US, then we will probably be close to the top of the waiting list by that time.
On a different note, Aaron took off yesterday and we went to an American Heritage event. It was great. We went last year and it had Native American dancing etc. plus a lot of other stuff. It was outside. This year, due to the cold, they moved it inside and had a lot less stuff to look at, but I actually liked it better this year. The American Indian that led it was very interesting and catered his talks towards the children. The dancing was the best of any festival that we have gone to. (seems we average about 3 a year) It was a lot of fun. Afterwards, since we were so close, we went to the Children's Museum that we have yearly passes to and spent about 1 1/2 hours. Then came home.

House Warming and other things

2008-11-13T19:45:00.000-08:00

Our housewarming went great on Sunday and it was very nice. Aaron and I were very overwhelmed by the generosity of those that came. Aaron stayed home with Hannah during church Sunday morning since she was still in the midst of her respiratory virus, then he met us in the parking lot at the church building. We got fast food for lunch and ate it at Mom's apartment, so that we wouldn't get our house dirty, then headed to the house, leaving Hannah with Mom so we wouldn't spread her germs. We didn't tell her that we were having people over to our house. The older girls kept mum about it and we played it up that Sunday afternoon was her special day with Grandma alone.
Anita, the lady that planned it all, arrived early to help me set up and some of the other planners and food bringers arrived early also. I think Aaron counted about 40 people that came, not including children. We had a good time. There were almost as many men as women, and the announcement in the bulletin did specify that men were invited. We had the Titans game on mute in the living room and everyone seemed to have a great time. The housewarming was from 2-3:30, but a few friends came and stayed until a little after 4pm. We had a lot of fun, and I am so thankful for our church family. If you have never moved away from your hometown or your parents, I think it is hard to understand how genius it was that God gives us a family here on earth, whether we are related to them by blood or not. When you don't have family around, and even if you do, the church family becomes your family.
Unless something happens in the next few weeks with Vietnam, Aaron and I will be changing countries...again. Lately, I have been pretty down about the adoption. But, God has given me hope and excitement again, and I can't wait to get financially able to start again. It will be worth it. All this excitement, then disappointment, then excitement, then disappointment, it is leading us to our child. The child God has chosen our family for. Yipee!
I guess I will go ahead and tell what country we are looking at now. Russia. Now this is subject to change, but it has some things going for it.
I started surfing the net again, reading about other countries, giving the info to Aaron and keeping quiet, letting him decide what to do. Trying to put my opinion in , only if he asks. Anyway, I emailed a few agencies wanting info, and one that I liked(on the internet) sent me a bunch of stuff by email, but also called me yesterday and we talked for a while. A side note...for some reason, our computer will not open links that people send us, arrghhh, which is what most people send from agencies. These last few days, I have had to go to Mom's and use her internet to open the documents sent to us. Unfortunately, Mom doesn't have a printer, so last night, Aaron unhooked our printer, took it to Mom's and hooked it up to her computer, so we could print off some of the information. What a pain.
With their agency and Russia, she said the wait for a girl was usually 10-12 months. I thought she meant 10-12 months after turning in the dossier you got a referral, then you waited months before actually bringing your child home. But no, she meant 10-12 months from the application to their agency to bringing the child home. WOW! Even better than that, we already have most of the dossier paperwork done. I mean, this will be the 3rd dossier I have done in less than 2 years. Since our homestudy is done, we have passports, we have registered with CIS, etc. it shouldn't take much to update and have it turned in. So having that stuff done will probably take 2-3 months off of her projected waiting time. I hope to be ready to start with this next adoption in less than 6 months. I would love to start sooner, but we'll see how many hours I can get in at work.
We have to take 2 trips to Russia. The first will be approx 5 days where we meet the child, accept the referral, and fill out paperwork. Then we go home for 1-2 months, the get invited back to Russia. That trip is 10-21 days long and you go to court, get the child, finish the process and bring her home. It is exciting and terr

Aaron's parents are coming this weekend. Trying to go cheaper by cooking all the meals here at the house, I was so proud of myself today that I made a menu for the weekend and bought all the food, now it is just a matter of cooking it. Not counting breakfasts, I have 2 lunches and 2 suppers, 3 of which are going to cook in the crock pot. I love the crock pot. Speaking of which, I was planning on getting it all ready in the crockpot inside pot, don't know what you call that part, and putting it in the fridge, so I can pull it out in the morning and start it cooking before we head out to coop classes. Better get to browning my cube steak.

ifying at the same time.

2008-11-08T22:15:00.000-08:00

I probably shouldn't be posting this late at night. Or maybe this early in the morning, since it is 12:17 am and I have a big day tomorrow. A friend from church wanted to throw us a house warming party. I am very grateful that people want to do this for us, but a little nervous about how it will go. Our house is only 1200 sq. ft.. Small by most people's standards. I don't decorate. I actually went out this week and bought some hand towels with leaves on them, to hang in the bathroom, bathroom mats for each of the bathrooms, and pretty soap dispenser/toothbrush holder matching sets. Stuff we "needed" anyway. That is the extent of it. When I look at things, I see the big picture. I don't see details. I might look at our living room and see that everything is put up and in it's place, but never notice the cobwebs in the corner, dust on the tv, or dirty floorboards. Unless I am actively making myself look for them. Then when people come into my house that I know are detail people, then I get a little selfconcious. Wondering what they are seeing that I am sure I have overlooked. I hope it is a fun time.
I am trying to convince Aaron to have a little fire going in our firepit in the back yard, for people to roast marshmallows on and to get some people outside. I think the planners have greatly overestimated the size of our house. Plus, even though they invited whole families, I don't think that many men will come, and that can get Aaron out of a house full of women. If you know Aaron, you know he will not be looking forward to that part of it.
Madelyn and Natalie are still getting over their respiratory virus with the ever present cough, that seems to be lasting forever. I am taking them to church in the morning though, it has been days since they have had a fever.
Hannah went to bed Thursday night and woke up an hour later with the barking cough and stridor. I figured it was a matter of time before she succombed to it too. I got up early Friday morning, and made arrangements to meet someone about 5 miles from here that could take the videos and paperwork to my class at the coop, since none of the kids were well enough to go. I was so glad I caught the lady before she left. It was cold and pouring down rain, and I didn't want to go 30 miles to the school just to drop something off.
I worked 7-11 last night and tonight. We spent all day cleaning. I will be glad that we have a clean house, but it is tiring. Aaron is staying home with Hannah in the morning, then I think he is going to go to Mom's apartment about the time church should be over. We will eat there, so we don't have to clean up lunch at our house, then we will leave Hannah with Mom, and the rest of us can come back and wait for the company.

2008-11-02T12:56:00.000-08:00

This morning I stayed home from church with Natalie because she has a horrible cough and a fever. She says her throat hurts, but I think it is more from the cough. Hannah has complained of a sore throat all afternoon, but no fever yet. I am sure I will be making the trip to the doctor for Natalie in the morning.
Yesterday, we had a ton planned. Work called around 8:30 wanting me to work 11am to 7pm. We decided I would go in and that left Aaron to do the running with the girls. Madelyn's soccer party was at the skating rink at one and we had some free passes for the other two, so he took them there. Unfortunately, Natalie was starting to feel bad and he didn't realize it until he was already there. He said she laid on his lap almost the whole time.
There was a birthday party at the church building at 6, so took Madelyn and Hannah and dropped Natalie off at Mom's since by then she was running a fever. I got off work about 7:10pm and went straight to the church building to relieve Aaron. We stayed at the party long enough for me to eat some pizza for supper, then we left and dropped Madelyn off at a Halloween party that all the kids were invited to, but I decided to just leave Madelyn. I asked what time to come back and pick her up and the mom said that she would meet me in town around 9-10, she would call. Hannah, Natalie and I stayed at Mom's apartment the whole time waiting, and finally at 10:45 I called to let her know I would just come get her. I was so tired. But she was fixing to leave, so she met me in town and we got home and went to bed.
Natalie had a tiny cough and a fever of 100.4 for about 2 hours on Thursday, so I went ahead and scheduled an appt for her and Madelyn at 8am Friday morning. Madelyn has poison ivy pretty bad on her legs and on her face. Well, Natalie didn't run a fever at all that morning so I just had the doctor look at Madelyn and they all got the flumist nasal spray, and since Natalie wasn't sick we all went to Friday coop a little late.
Princess the dog is doing so good. She did poop a few times in her cage, but I wonder if it wasn't from the antibiotic the vet put her on that gave her the diarrhea. We have a tiny porch off of our kitchen that has walls around that are around 2-3 ft tall. There was a nice big doghouse left by the previous owner, so we cleaned it out, put it on the porch and at night, we put the kiddie gate across the steps into the yard and that keeps her safe from coyotes, neighbors dogs, and whatever else might show up at night. When she gets full grown we won't worry about gating her in so much. I feared she would yelp all night, but so far she doesn't. I put her out there at night, lock the gate, and she will stay out there and sometimes when she hears us in the kitchen in the mornings, she will whine in excitement and I will open the gate for her. I am so glad that we have a sweet dog.
I stopped having the Ladies' lunches at church in May I think. Where we would eat once every other week for lunch on Tuesdays. Well, I had planned on continuing that through the summer, but stuff would come out, then we closed on the house and I had so much packing and stress with the well. So, I finally scheduled it for Tuesday and now I have 1, possibly 2 sick kids, and I don't know if it is just from thinking about it, but my throat is a little sore. I hope I get to go.

Princess Ariel

2008-10-22T09:23:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know you will think I have gone crazy with the pets, but I am not planning on getting anymore pets for a while. Yes, someday I would like some goats. Our property is covered with barbed wire fencing, yet nothing is closed in where you can keep an animal contained...very strange. Anyway, fencing is expensive and time consuming, and so is the upkeep of animals that need fences and I don't want any pet that is small enough for the cats to attack and eat. I don't mind gerbils, rats, etc, but I think for now I will stick with the normal pets.
I was going to post a picture of our new puppy, but it appears that our camera has died. Never was that great of a camera in the first place, sucks down batteries faster than I can buy them, but it did take pictures and I could post them on the internet, and now I can't. Maybe I can put camera on the Christmas list. At least I have a picture of the scrawny thing on the memory card that I could print out at Walmart.
Back to the dog, I have been wanting one for a while. While the girls were at a play date last week, my Mom and I went to the animal sheltor/ zoo in our county.
Funny story... The first summer here, a retired teacher from church told us about a zoo in our county that she used to go on field trips. So, I followed the signs into the country to this family owned zoo. It was closed.. and closed to the public, but on the same property was the animal shelter for the county. That is the day we got Duchess. Someone was dropping her off, let us see her, and we took her home instead. All you could see from the road was a few emus. Big deal.
Later, Aaron and I were driving in that area with the girls, and we see someone working there in a cage, so we drive up to ask the guy if they give tours of the zoo anymore. When we got closer we realized the guy didn't have his original arms, but has mechanical arms. Have you seen Dumb and Dumber? Well, he looks like Jeff Daniels in that movie. Wild, crazy, thinning hair. That isn't the funny part. I would never make fun because someone doesn't have arms. Anyway, Aaron asked about tours and he says "No, we couldn't afford to keep up the liability insurance to let people come to the zoo" Maybe it wasn't so funny, but we both laughed later, wondering if his lack of arms had anything to do with no more liability insurance.
So, back to the story, Mom and I went looking at dogs without kids (my kids, not dogs that have never had children-although I do prefer females that haven't had puppies, I feel like the ones that have had puppies should invest in a good bra or thick shirt) , so I could actually think straight.
I said "how long do you keep your dogs here, will these same dogs be here next week?" He says "do you want reality or fantasy land?" I wanted reality and he said 7 days, but the puppies I was looking at would be around for a while. Well, I went back 2 days later and all but one was gone. And it was a pitt bull mix. So, we got this cute yellow lab/hound dog mix instead. He said she was probably 4-5 months old. The vet guessed 8-10 weeks, so she is going to be a little bigger than we expected. She was very shy, shaking, tail tucked under her legs, wouldn't look us in the eye. Aaron was trying to look her in the eye and she kept turning her head pretending he wasn't there. She was very emaciated and didn't eat at first. I thought I had gotten a dying dog. We put her in a cage in the living room and she has gradually perked up since we got her Saturday. We have wormed her and she had a little bit of fever, so the vet gave her some antibiotics, and she is eating good. I am almost afraid to say it, lest I break the wonderful spell, but the dog has barked twice. She is so good. Thank you Dog Whisperer. Within 24 hours, she walked well on a lease for all of us but Hannah. And even then, she is better than some dogs. Hannah is a little erratic with the walking, and Princess tends to want to lead her. She is learning though. Not one accident in the house or her cage yet. I take her out every few hours during the day in case she needs to go. Put her in the cage at night and don't hear a peep out of her until she sees us come in the room in the mornings. Then she gets excited, but still doesn't bark. She has played with the kittens. They don't play with her, and hiss a little, but I think Princess thinks they are little puppies. She doesn't seem to dislike them, only curious about them and she does pounce a little on our tiniest kitten. But the kitten just ignores her and keeps on with whatever she was doing.
One funny story, the dog was in the cage a few days ago, with the door open. I was sitting there and all of a sudden the dog starts growling low at something. I didn't think it was me, so Aaron and I looked all around the cage trying to find a cat perhaps that the dog sensed that we couldn't see. Couldn't find anything. I look back in the cage and on the other side of the dog was the oblivious tiny black kitten, in there sitting next to the dog, lucky to be alive. I got onto the dog and pulled the kitten out and she I have only heard her growl at her one more time.
Oh, back to the zoo. While picking out a puppy, we got to see 3 wolves, fox, racoon, 2 full grown male lions, and a black bear. I didn't even notice the lions about 10 feet away behind 2 fences at first. Just looking at puppies and notice a movement to the side and there stood a full grown lion.

Aaron impresses me again!

2008-10-17T21:26:00.002-07:00

Problem: There is a very large Chestnut Oak right in front of our house that is dead/dying and dropping limbs on our roof whenever the big winds blow through our property.

Here is Aaron standing on a wobbly chair with a 20+ inch chainsaw, trying to avoid hitting barb wire fencing that may have grown into the tree. Seems like half the trees here have some kind of fencing in them. It would tear up a chainsaw blade.

How do you cut down a tree that would put a huge hole in your house without putting a huge hole in your house? Aaron knows. (Thankfully) If I tried to do it, I would no doubt have it fall right where it would do the most damage. Just like when I try to avoid pot holes, I always hit them.

Free cats -fulfilling my childhood dream

2008-10-13T14:18:00.000-07:00

My parents hated pets. So, growing up, they conceded a few times and got me a dog, only to get rid of it a month or two later. Whenever we would go to stores and people would be giving out free kittens or puppies, I would always want one and wish that my parents would let me get one, but that never happened. If I was lucky, I got to pet them before we left the store, and that was seldom. So, yesterday, when we went to the grocery and there was a man there giving out free kittens, I couldn't resist. Now that we have the space for animals, and kittens are so easy, I let the girls pick out one. Now we are back up to 3 cats, since Duchess apparently is not coming home. Madelyn has carried the thing around all day (when it is her turn) and wrapped it in blankets, "burped it on her shoulder", and anything else you might do for a human baby.

Here is the update from Joint Counsil about Vietnam adoptions

October 13, 2008
Joint Council is pleased to report that within the past 10 days significant progress has been achieved in resolving the issues surrounding I-600A renewals. While we can not announce a specific time frame, we remain confident that a positive resolution is within reach.

Please pray that an agreement is reached before we have to change countries again. Our deadline with our agency is Dec. 1. I think that if they are close to an agreement around that time, our agency will let us continue. As of last week, 3 couples have dropped off the girls' list, either changing countries or quitting, and we are now number 8. So, if things are settled, then we will be closer to the top of the list. Yippee!

I also put in a picture of Natalie in her uniform. The public schools are in fall break right now, so they didn't schedule any soccer games this week. This week off will be nice.

Painting in the Rain!

2008-10-07T20:03:00.000-07:00

Aaron mentioned last night that he really needed to paint the well-house before Wednesday because it was supposed to storm and he wanted the well-house sealed with the paint before the rain came. He was thinking he would come home from work Tuesday and paint like a madman between supper and soccer. Being the wonderful wife I am, I put it on my to do list for today and decided that not only would have have the paint ready for him, I would have it painted.
Hannah woke me up about 7:15 this morning, and I noticed a strong breeze coming in the open windows and cloudy skies. So, I took a shower real quick, got the kids dressed and ready and drove the 10 miles to Walmart with very wet hair and sleepy, hungry kids. We took a quick trip of the store, got the paint, paintbrushes, water, milk, donuts and colas. It was barely sprinkling on the way.

As soon as we got home, we changed into old clothes in record time and went up to the well-house. I was excited because it was a painting project where I could hand the kids a brush and let them go at it. I had the 4in wide brush and got one side almost painted. Natalie was busy on her side painting pictures and writing her name. Hannah was also painting pictures, and Madelyn was doing well and keeping on task. They kept saying "come look at my side" I kept saying "there will be time for me to look at your side later, see those clouds?" We got about 1/3 of it painted before the sprinkling started. Thankfully, I put stuff up and was in the house with the girls before the down pour came

Aaron was impressed that we got any of it painted. We were painting by 9am.

After painting, we came in and started school. Madelyn I fear is coming down with something. I am thinking sinus infection or cold. She has complained of a mild headache off and on today and yesterday. She fell asleep on the couch this morning before I had a chance to get our schoolbooks prepared. She was running a fever by lunchtime. Much to her disappointment, she had to miss Brownies. I called her soccer coach to let him know she wouldn't be there either. I am hoping her game got cancelled because of rain and she didn't miss anything.

We dropped Natalie off at Brownies at 3pm, went and got the oil changed, stopped by the post office and got stamps. (our post office got rid of their stamp machine, so if you want stamps, you have to go during open hours<>

We came home and ate supper with Aaron. The night seemed to drag by since there was nowhere for us to go tonight. Between soccer, work and church, we have had something almost every night for over a month. It was nice.

Our cat Duchess who is huge with babies has been nowhere to be found for 3 days now. I figured her giving birth in a little over a week. I don't know what has happened to her. I can't imagine she would have gone off to have babies, but not come back to eat or anything. I fear the worst, and when the girls realize she may be gone forever, it will be hard on them, especially Madelyn who had a special attachment to her and was really looking forward to the kittens.

I have heard people talk about their cats disappearing for days or weeks, then coming back. Is that common? I don't have a lot of experience with cats.

Quoted

2008-10-01T13:42:00.000-07:00

Hanah to Me "What will happen if all of your blood comes out and you die?"

Me "Well, you would go to Heaven."

Hannah "Does God have it?" (talking about the blood.)

4 days off

2008-09-30T06:16:00.000-07:00

I finished my 4th 7-11 in 6 days last night. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but I am ready for a few evenings off. Each time I work 7-11 or even 3-11, I feel like it involves a lot of planning... Sleep planning. I am supposed to get off work by 11:15, but I think last night was the only night I got home before midnight. Which means, to be alert at that time, I really need a small nap in the afternoon, unless I happened to sleep in until 9am that morning, which NEVER happens. "Will I get a nap in? Will the phone ring?", or "Will the kids wake me up?"
It is the best time for me to work in that Aaron is home, I don't have to worry about a babysitter, and I am only missing a few hours of time with the family since they are all in bed by 9pm. But then it means, going to bed late, and getting up early with the kids.
Aaron's parents came into town on Friday morning. Aaron is building his well house to keep the well from freezing this winter, and his dad came down to help. They were here when we got home from coop classes on Friday. Aaron and Tommy worked all day on that, then I worked that evening. On Saturday, we went to an Archeofest at Aaron's work. Then Aaron and his dad worked some more. We at supper and then roasted some marshmallows behind the house where Aaron made us a fire pit.
Aaron's parents left that night since they had Homecoming the next morning at their church.
I missed one of Madelyn's soccer games while working last night. The last day of practice, Natalie's coach handed me a schedule and Madelyn's coach handed Aaron a schedule. We assumed that since we got the schedules within 30 min. of each other they were the same. And the first few days of games were. But on the schedule that I had, there were no soccer games for either girl last night, so I signed up to work. But on Aaron's schedule, Madelyn was playing. Strange.
Oh well.
I have too much to do and too little time to do it.
Today, I need to go to the laundrymat, which will probably take about 2 hours. Not counting carrying all the baskets in and out. We have storytime at the library. 2 soccer games tonight and I really need to go to the store, which probably won't happen. All this and fit in a day's worth of school. We just take our papers and books with us and work at the laundrymat and the library.
It is so pretty here at night. The last two nights, I have come home after 11pm. There have been no clouds and so many stars.
Bad thing about here though - creepy crawlies come out after dark. And I mean big spiders. wolf spiders that span about 3 inches from tip of toe to tip of toe. mini -tarantula looking spiders with fat bottoms and hairy legs. 1in long scorpions that are really fast. This is the stuff of nightmares. Unless you want to sit in the total darkness, they come.
I was going to read to the girls one night while Mom was here, on the front porch with the kids. So Mom and Aaron stayed inside and we all went out. Not 2 minutes into it, here comes a huge wolf spider bebopping along, come to the light. We all ran inside and that was the last of our sitting on the porch after dark.
Aaron can't even leave the porch light on for me while I work in the evenings because if he does, there will be at least one huge spider that has made a web spanning the porch, and a few wolf spiders hiding halfway under our door to our bedroom waiting to spring on their prey (me) or waiting to run into our house as soon as we open the door and hide waiting to attack someone (me). Because when you have a phobia of something, like I do of spiders, you think they are all out to get you instead of just trying to live their lives parallel to mine.

Birthday parties!

2008-09-24T09:55:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, we had the skating parties for both Madelyn and Hannah. It was so nice. When we had Natalie's party back in April, the skating rink was so crowded and a little scary with the little kids out there skating with the big kids. But this time, I think that the only people there were the kids that we invited to our 2 parties and the kids for one other party ( A girl who happens to be on Madelyn's soccer team). So pretty much, the whole rink was full of girls the age of my girls. Plus a few stragglers. It was like the kids had the whole skating rink to themselves.

Madelyn has been planning her cake for the last 6 months. She saw some premade flowers at Lucky's and has had her eye on them the whole time. It was real pretty, and she was very excited about doing it herself. I just helped spread the icing.

I went ahead and made a cake for Hannah. Normally, I let all the girls pick out a character cake at the grocery. I didn't give her a choice, just asked what she wanted on her cake and what color icing. Of course she wanted pink icing and wanted a butterfly on it. I wasn't too proud of my results, but she liked it and that is all that matters. She picked out some chocolate chips with white sprinkles on them as her candy to decorate with. I can't remember what they are called.

We have been very busy with soccer lately. Both Madelyn and Natalie practiced on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights for the last 2 weeks, but this week, the games have started and until the end of October, they both play at least 2 games a week. They are doing great and are a lot of fun to watch. Surprisingly, there is only one night where their games overlap and they overlap by 30 min. so Aaron and I will have to split up for that one.

I am not leaving the house until I have to go to work tonight at 6:15. I hope at least. Yesterday, we drove to town for storytime at the library and to get more water and cokes from the store. Then we came home for a few hours, then had to go back for Brownies at 2:45, where I left the older two and took Hannah with me to run some errands. Came home at 4:45, then Aaron and I drove separate to Madelyn's soccer game @ 6:30 because I was planning on going to a meeting as soon as it was over, but no one showed, so we could have gone together. So, I am glad to stay here and hopefully get some housework and schoolwork done. I take some schoolwork with us when we run errands, if I know we will have a chance for them to read to me or something, but it does take longer when you aren't at home.

Hannah is turning me into a frog in her new princess outfit she got for her birthday.

Birthday week

2008-09-18T09:23:00.000-07:00

Today is Madelyn's 8th birthday, and Tuesday was Hannah's 4th. Since Aaron had stuff he had to do at work today, he took off Tuesday so we could have a family celebration. We ended up going to Huntsville to a few of the museums there. We got a yearly family membership. We spent the morning at the Children's museum, which was pretty small, but they had a lot of fun. And, we practically had the place to ourselves. Then we drove all over Huntsville looking for an O'Charleys since Aaron had a leftover birthday gift certificate there.
Ate lunch there, then went to the railroad museum. I figured the girls wouldn't be too interested, but they ended up having a lot of fun there also. They had a bunch of train cars that you could go into climb all around inside which is so different from other railroad places where you stare at an engine. We toured the 3 story museum, where one story used to be a prison in the civil war. It was neat and by the time we got done there, it was time to come home and get ready for soccer practice.
Yesterday, the youth group watched K-6th graders from 2:30 until 7 when church began. So, I was able to go to the store alone and I took advantage of it.
This morning, I decided we'd do our reading out on the front porch. Our outside chair is one of those camping chairs and it was collapsed. I carefully opened it up to make sure there were no critters inside, and sure enough, there was about 1inch long scorpion in it. I killed it, turned it over, looking around, etc. Didn't see anything, so I sat down and started to read. About 10 min. later, Madelyn starts pointed and gasping, which always scares me, so I jumped up and asked what it was. Under my chair, crawling away was a big black spider, she said let itself down from the bottom of my chair. There is a fold at the back of the chair where the back of the chair and the seat of the chair meet. I guess it was in there. So I killed it and turned it over - Black widow.
So, we came inside. I don't know how I sleep at night.

2008-09-15T09:34:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to update.
Last Tuesday, the well driller came and after 2 hours or more of working on the well, finally got it to work. He thinks that perhaps a new stream of underground water broke through some rock to meet up with our stream we were using and that force of water coming in, might have caused sediment to cling to the filter, not letting water come through the pump. He moved the pump up 25 ft, which still keeps it lower than 200ft and somehow in that moving, the sediment came off and the pump is now working. When he first put the pump in, he guestimated that there was 1 gallon per min coming into the well, but when he fixed the pump, he measured it at 3 gallons/ per minute, which is awesome! That is where his theory of another stream coming in comes from.
I had the water tested before it broke and it came back clear of bacteria, but the water still has a gray appearance when you put it in a glass, so once it "appears" clear, I am going to see if they can test it for ores and other stuff. We are still drinking bottled/galloned water to be on the safe side. It seems to be getting clearer every day.
If you tried to call us the past two days, our phone has not been working. All day yesterday, it sounded that screeching sound like when you are trying to get on the internet, then this morning there was no sound at all, and just a few minutes ago - dialtone, yeah! So that is why I got on the internet real quick while it is working.
Here is something you don't hear everyday. On Friday, Aaron went to call his parents, and the phone service played a message that all the long distance phone lines of the company were being used and to try later. So, if you call and it just rings and rings and our answering machine never picks up - apparently, our phone company is booked and try again later.
Kids can make you feel so good about yourselves...
The other day, the whole family was in line at Taco Bell. Hannah thinks everyone is either beautiful or handsome. So, the lady hands us our food and as we are driving off, Hannah says "she is beautiful, I wish she was my Mom" Ouch. Thankfully, I was able to laugh it off and tease her about it all week. -Like "I bet your Taco Bell Mom would let you do it" She felt a little bad, when Aaron, Madelyn, and Natalie got onto her for how insensitive that comment was. So she made up for it. She asked if both of us could be her mom. She didn't let the idea of having 2 moms go for about 3-4 days. I guess time dimmed the beauty of the Taco Bell girl and she was able to settle for me alone after that. HA!
Adoption News
There has been no agreement made between Vietnam and the US concerning adoptions. We had 3 choices with our agency. 1. Drop out of Vietnam and forget about adopting -Quit. 2. Drop out of Vietnam and start over with another country. or 3. Stay where we are, give it another 90 days and see. If they are no closer to an agreement in 90 days, then we will have to drop out of the Vietnam program and start another country.
So, we have decided, since we don't have any money to start a new country right now anyway, we are going to stick with Vietnam until December 1 and hope and pray that they come to an agreement and we will be able to proceed up the waiting list.

pictures

2008-09-08T07:03:00.000-07:00

Water water in the well, and not a drop to drink

2008-09-08T05:38:00.000-07:00

Someday our well will work, I keep on holding on to that thought.
When our well water level gets down to a certain level, the pump will kick off and we have to reset it. That happened a few times last week, but we did have an extra person here.
Friday, it wouldn't reset.
And there hasn't been water through our pipes since. We called the well digger and he just blamed it on too little water.
Then we went and bought a 65 gallon tank, filled it up with water at a friends, put it in the well, Aaron measured down to the waterlevel, and it was 30ft from the top, meaning there was already quite a bit of water in it before Aaron added the other water. The well is sealed off, but there is a small hole you can add stuff to it.
Called the well digger again and he said that he wasn't coming out to check on the pump until we had an electrician come out to make sure the right kind of wiring was put out there. (the electrician is coming this morning)
Our well digger is a nice man and I think he probably brings to mind our 3 little girls waterless and feels guilty, so he calls us for the 4th time last night to say he was coming Tuesday morning to check.
I am really hoping that maybe the electrician will see the problem and be able to fix it today. We have a 1 year warrenty on our pump, but I really don't want to wait for a new one.
In the meantime, we have lived like the pioneers. To an extent at least.
Aaron had a genius idea a few weeks ago, before our days of rain, to put out these huge barrels to collect rain water just in case. So, that has saved us. We have lugged that water in gallon by gallon, boiling it to wash dishes in, boiling it and putting a little bleach in to rinse dishes. Trying to live off of paper plates as much as possible.
Pouring it in the back of the toilets so we can flush.
Boiling it and then putting it in the big pot in the tub to take "baths" in. More like washing, then rinsing with the water.
Last night, after church, I drove back into town with the jeep and filled up the 65 gallon tank at a friends house, since our barrels are almost empty. Thankfully, our driveway goes up a little at the end. We had to hook the hose onto the big tank of water, turn on the spigot, and walk to the bottom of the hill with the pot, so that gravity will take the water down to your pot.
But you know what... In all of this, our needs have been met. We haven't had it as easy as we usually do. But we have done just fine. Yes, I am still going to pursue getting water from the well to the house.
I'll add pictures later.

She was wrong!

2008-09-04T18:57:00.000-07:00

I am very happy to say that I am at my house right now typing this. The lady at the phone company was wrong, and apparently, you can get on the internet from our landline phone. I wish I had asked Aaron to hook up the computer days ago, seeing how I have made 3-4 trips to the library over the last week. Oh well, live and learn.
I have been trying to last minute prepare for the class I am teaching at our coop tomorrow. It is the first day and the girls are real excited. It will be hectic tomorrow, since everyone will be scrambling to figure out where they are supposed to go. I have 3 that I have to find their class, and squeeze down the narrow hallways among many many other people there. Thankfully, Hannah stays in the same classroom the whole time and Madelyn and Natalie go to the same first class, after that chaos, because I will be trying to help them find their 2nd classes, and still try to make it to the class I am supposed to teach on time.
We found the copperhead again. We have been looking in this corner in the barn stall almost daily, hoping to see it. Hoping to try and kill it. Aaron tried the other day, but it slithered away, it is hard to kill a snake in a corner with a big shovel. So, she happened to be sitting there tonight, curled up, therefore, Aaron couldn't get a good shot at the head to cut it off. He was able to cut the middle of the body in half and then we saw the babies. We only saw two, because she slithered back in this hole that we can't get to her. The babies were slightly squirmy, but not fully developed, although you could see the faint pattern of a copperhead on the back. We showed the girls, especially Natalie, who loves to catch creepy crawlys, how much they looked like earthworms and to be extra careful.
Now it's got me wondering if perhaps the bulge that we saw in the rattlesnake might have been some babies too. Is it snake baby time of year? Someday, we will find out, b/c it is in our freezer. Yes, I thought maybe we could cook it up for our annual wild game supper at church next February. Don't worry, it doesn't have a head. I have been asking around at church and think I may have a taker. At least someone that will help us prepare it, like the skinning and gutting. Stuff I know nothing about.
More later, I need to go to bed.

Moved In

2008-09-02T07:55:00.000-07:00

We finally got all of our stuff moved out of the old rental house on Friday. I worked from7-11 that morning. Apparently, I was not even on the schedule for Friday or Saturday, so when they called asking me to help on Friday morning, I was able to leave at 11. Aaron did a good job getting the last of the stuff out of the last two rooms.
We have not run out of our well water yet!! that is exciting. We still haven't gotten it tested. I think I will stop by the health dept. today to pick up our jug. At first, we had lots of tiny rock sediment. Once, while washing my hair, the water turned almost black with sediment, and the tub was always grayish black after the showers, but today, it was clear.
Yesterday, Aaron and I went to Lowes to find some items to fix minor things. I really didn't want to go, but since Aaron was very stopped up and lethargic with his cold, I figured it was safer if I drove him. It is 29miles away. While we were there, Mom called -she was home with the kids, and said the washer was overflowing. So, I told her how to turn off the well, and when we finally got the mess cleaned up, and Aaron got the washer taken apart, the tube in the back was full of rock sediment. I guess we used our washer too soon. So that meant a trip to the laundrymat to wash 3 loads of towels. At least the dryer works.
Our landline phone is supposed to be turned on today, so right now I am at the library on the internet. Hannah is in preschool storytime.
We are planning a trip to the town 30 miles away where we have our Friday coop. That will be 3 trips there this week if we count Friday. I still haven't went to pick up my curriculum to teach on Friday, so that is priority today.

I have hired the kids

2008-08-28T12:25:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I had the kids help me pack for a while. They did all of my dishes that were in the dishwasher and the plates and bowls left in the cabinets. It was a great help. Then today, since it is down to the last minute, I have really employed them. We have worked our way out through the house and now all I have left is the living room, dining room, and kitchen. Which is quite a bit. We have packed most stuff from each room, but it is the little stuff that takes so much time. Today has been so busy and I am so ready for a nap. But I must press on...

We have taken 3 loads to the house today already. Went to the grocery store for a few things, ate out for breakfast, and went to Sonic after lunch> I surprised the girls with Sonic in thanks for helping me. Really, they have been an asset. Aaron called as I was buckling the girls for our latest trip to the house and he was at the office eating out, so we went out to his office an visited him for a few minutes. And it is only 2:30.

Madelyn is not in dance, but the other night at the local dance studio, they had a back to school Brownie party for those that were Brownies last year, coming back. They let Natalie stay too, even though she was a Daisy last year. They had tons of outfits to dance around in, and they painted nails, spray colored hair on them, fixed their hair. I got some cute pictures, but since the dance outfits aren't very modest, I am not posting them. But I thought this one of Madelyn was pretty.

SNAKES GALORE

2008-08-27T13:32:00.000-07:00

I was just at the new house a few minutes ago. I walked two bags of trash out to the trash cans by the mailbox, and decided to take a stroll through the barn to see if I could find a snake. Boy, did I.
The barn is full of junk that needs to be cleaned out this winter when the snakes aren't so plentiful. I walked through the middle and looked over the side of the one stall, and there about 3-4 ft away was a coiled up rattlesnake. I don't know how long it was since it was coiled up, but I would guess a 2-3 ft. It wasn't rattling. I had my phone in my pocket, so I called Aaron and he said I could either try to kill it with a shovel or shoot it with a gun, or hope it was still there when he got home and he would try to kill it. I chose to wait for him since I didn't like the thought of a possible ricochet from shooting the gun and I for sure didn't want to get close enough to it to kill it with a shovel. That would mean being trapped in a stall with it.
So I did the next best thing and went and got my 3 kids to come see it.
But, by the time I walked back to the house and made it back with the kids, it was gone. There is not much worse than being in a barn, knowing there is a rattlesnake nearby and not knowing where it is. (The kids never got closer than 15 ft from the barn, I wasn't going to bring them in until I found it.) But, while I was looking for the rattlesnake, standing at the edge of the stall, peering over the wooden planks, I look down, and about 6in from my feet (on the other side of the stall), was a coiled up copperhead. There was a plank in between me and the snake, so don't freak out too bad. It would have had to strike me between the stall planks, and it wasn't looking in my direction.
Apparently the snakes did the ole switcheroo while I was going for the kids. I chose not to bring the kids into the barn to see the copperhead, since the rattler was probably watching me. I also saw a 6 inch long lizard and a spider in a huge web, probably 3" in diameter- the spider, not the web. Although not poisonous like the snakes, the spider, by far is my biggest foe. And they grow them big in the country. I can handle snakes, and I would welcome them if they weren't poisonous, but the spiders, oh, I just can't handle that very well at all. Ugh! Any suggestions on a type of dog that will go after snakes and keep them away from your house?
By the way, Pump is in the well and pumping water to the surface, yes!!! I ran it for about 45 min. today through a hose into the yard, like the well man said. Said to run the water until the water runs clear. At first it was like watered down milk - getting out all the rock and sediment they drilled up while drilling. Once it is clear, we can get our sample to be tested. We can go ahead and have water in the house once it is clear, but we won't be drinking it until it gets cleared by the health dept.

You know you live in the boonies when...

2008-08-25T09:05:00.000-07:00

AT&T doesn't service your area.
I called last week wanting to switch our service to our new address, and they don't go there. Apparently we are in another tiny area, and the AT&T worker actually gave me the name and city of the service that does go to our house. I couldn't find it on the internet. I looked in our phone book and couldn't find it either. A friend from church stopped by this morning and she was able to find the little area in the phone book.
There was one page. So, we will be listed on one page.
Good news is... there is a company that we can have a landline phone through.
Bad news is... they don't have the ability in that area yet to support internet. I was under the assumption that as long as you have a landline phone you can get dialup. But according to the phone company lady, that is not true. She said that they are trying to get it to every area eventually.
For now we won't have internet at our house. I guess I will go to the library once a week or so to check emails and post on the blog. Sigh..
Even in town, I have heard people talking about a waiting list to get DSL. I don't think I will be able to post pictures on the blog anymore, since I will be using the library computer. Maybe I can find a friend that will let me use it at their house.
Although an inconvenience, this is a problem I can live with.
Did I mention there is no cable there either?
She said we could get satelite, and get internet through that, but if we do get satelite tv, it will be a long time from now. We have other priorities to spend our money on. Like fresh water...
Our electrician is supposed to be finishing up running power and water lines to the well today and once he is done, we are free to call the well driller to come and set the pump up and hopefully at that point we will have water. I can't wait. We will be moving out of this house by Friday.
Right now, we are taking a lunch break from packing and cleaning. I had a lady offer to babysit the girls this afternoon, and I think I may take her up on it.
This weekend, while Aaron's brother and sister in law were here, he helped us move the last dresser. I will finish moving the drawers today and we are just going to wear whatever clothes happen to be in the laundry. The girls and I got their room cleaned of everything except their 3 mattresses, their baskets of clothes for the week and a toy box. That still sounds like a lot of stuff, but trust me, it looks empty compared to what was in there.
I don't know what room to do next. I am in that limbo of...if I clean it now, will it get dirty before Friday and I will have to clean it again. Then laziness rears it's ugly head and I think "I'll just wait until later" then reality sets in and says "you only have 4 more days of later, you can't put it off forever".
I am signed up to work 7-3 on Friday and Saturday. Why would I sign up to work on moving day? Well, I didn't realize at the time that it would be moving day. For once, I actually signed up 6 weeks in advance, before our closing was postponed.

Well!!!

2008-08-21T22:11:00.000-07:00

It may not be pretty, but it sure is a blessing. 1st picture is well with the top on. 2nd picture is the well with the top off and the beautiful shimmering water way down deep. Can you believe that it goes 240ft into the ground? When I took the picture yesterday, you could see the water without a mirror. When you had to use a mirror, it was 52 ft from the ground, so now it is even closer. Today, our electrician and his brother from church dug a trench from the well to our house. They should finish hooking up electricity and pipe and once they are done, the well driller will come back out and hook up our pump and then we will have water. Hopefully, by the end of the month when we have to be out of our rental.

It is 12:20am right now. I am getting pretty sleepy. I worked 5-11 last night and before I went to bed around 12, I checked on Natalie, who had awoken and she had a fever of 102.9. She has a sinus infection/tonsillitis/possibly strep. I brought her mattress into the living room so she could watch tv while waiting for her medicine to kick in so she could go back to sleep, and I laid out there with her until she cooled off. (our couches are already moved). She is already getting better today. I worked 7-11:45 tonight and already signed up to work 7-11 tomorrow night. Aaron's brother and sister in law are coming on Saturday, so I probably won't be working then.

We have gotten a slow start to school this week. What with some of my curriculum on backorder, and Natalie running a fever all day on days 1 and 2, the move that never ends, finding supplies buried in multiple boxes, and me working 3 evenings in a row. I am liking the curriculum so far, and I really liked this company last year too.

Water!!!!

2008-08-19T18:28:00.000-07:00

The girls and I went to the house this morning and stayed about 5 hours today. I got some more of my curriculum for school and had enough where I could start school today. I actually went to the store and got some snack food to take there too. Somehow, when we have been there for a few minutes, they are suddenly starving.
Now for the miracle and answered prayer from God...
I went and looked in the well this morning and I saw WATER. And although it was hard to tell the depth, it was much much easier to see than last night when we weren't sure if we were seeing water or not. Yipeee!!!!
Tonight, we took Aaron with us and were able to measure it. It was 52ft from the top. That means we have approx. 190 ft of water. After the well driller giving us a 1% chance of getting a tiny bit of water by today, we surpassed even his measly chances. The lime rock starts at 70ft deep and went down to the 240ft. He felt like the highest the water might fill would be up to the 70ft mark and I guess at that point, it would seep into the soil 70ft and above. But instead, it surpassed that by 18 ft. Not only did we get water, but we got more than he thought was possible!
He was really surprised when Aaron called him tonight and could hardly believe there was so much. He was excited and said he worried about it and felt bad about it all night last night.
Next step is to get an electrician to come out and run electricity to the well. Then the well driller will come out and put the pump on, then we will have to get a plumber to come out and dig a line to our house plumbing. Hopefully before the end of the month. Thanks for your prayers!

Well Water

2008-08-19T06:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a bad day. The well driller called around lunchtime to let me know that he hadn't seen any water yet and he was around 180ft. He said that he would go a little deeper, but not to expect much. So, long story short, they dug 240 ft and found no water.
He called a fellow well driller that had done a well on our road and they had dug 780 ft with no water. So we stopped at 240.
When he left, he said that our only hope for that well is if it is slowly seeping into the hole from the rocks around it and it is so slow that he can not detect it while he is drilling. It is hard to tell since they shoot water into the hole the entire time. He really thinks our chances are nil, he kept saying he wished he had better news.
He told us to go out there with a mirror after waiting all night and reflect the sunlight into the hole and if we see water, to call him and he can come back and put a pump in.
We went over there last night a few hours after he stopped drilling to look. Aaron thought he saw a little shimmer of water, but it was hard to see with the setting sun and the fact it is 240 ft down. However, we did hear water trickling and we heard "glub, glubs" We don't know if the water we heard was leftover water that the driller shot in there or if it was new water seeping from the rocks. So, maybe we will have some water. I was going to wait for Aaron to come home and look tonight, but I might not be able to wait that long. If I can get the lid off the well...
No matter, the well costs the same to drill whether we get water or not.

Praying for water

2008-08-17T20:13:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, finally, our well driller is coming. We are praying hard that they find water. Let me recap the week.

Wednesday, Aaron's parents came down. The well driller was supposed to come last week, but postponed until tomorrow. Over the next 4 days, we packed and moved, with the help of his parents, most of our furniture. I was supposed to work 7-3 on Friday and Saturday, but they cancelled me both days. I don't know about Friday, but Saturday, there were only 8 patients in the hospital.

We still are in the old house pending well water.

We have heard rumors that water is hard to find.

Tomorrow, I am going to try to get to the house in time for the girls and I to watch the well driller go water witching. I guess that is how you spell it, that is how it sounds. It will be an education, that's for sure.

Aaron's parents went home this afternoon. We spent the afternoon at the house. It is so beautiful out there. I love it! Even with the stress. I pray that we get water before Aaron gets called out west on a forest fire. That way we can go ahead and move it all and I won't have to find some strong backs to help me move the rest of the heavy stuff.

If you look close enough at the pictures below, you will see that the cat in the picture is wearing a jacket.

Relieving Stress

2008-08-17T20:02:00.000-07:00

Got Natalie out of bed to come get me something out of the box. She never questioned why I would get her out of bed to get something from a box only feet away from me. He had already scared Hannah. If you get stressed enough, apparently you get a little silly.

Room pictures and new additions

2008-08-12T14:04:00.001-07:00

I am going to try to get the captions to match the pictures.

Here is the picture of Madelyn's purple room.

Next is a picture of the pink that Hannah picked out. We will have to wait until it dries completly before we add Natalie's blue to the other walls. I took the girls to a lady's house who was giving away free kittens. She had a whole bunch, a lot of different ages. I let the girls pick out two new kittens. The gray one's name is Smokey, and the other's name is Stripey.

I emptied 2 boxes of kids' books, and 3 boxes of kitchen stuff while Aaron was painting the pink trim today. I have a meeting tonight at 7 for the coop teachers at our school that we go to on Friday. I am teaching a high school class from Dave Ramsey. I really don't want to drive 25 min. there tonight, but don't really have an excuse not to go, so I guess I will.

Madelyn is complaining a lot less today. I don't think the antibiotic has had time to work, but I think knowing what was wrong with her has taken a big weight off her mind. She apparently was really worried over the weekend, wondering what was wrong.

I'm Giving Myself an Award

2008-08-12T06:34:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am awarding myself with the "NEGLECTFUL MOTHER OF THE WEEK AWARD"
I think I have earned it.
Let me give you background. I know I could have kept all this to myself and none of you would know what has happened, but sometimes I just have to confess my shortcomings.
Let me go back over the last week or two. It has been very busy around here with buying the house, watering plants at someone else's house, and all the other errands that we have been running this summer. Seems like we are always getting in the car and I am always yelling "go potty before we leave" Madelyn will go, then as we are walking out the door, she says she has to go again. In my hurried state, I have just thought the going a lot was her worrying that she wouldn't have to go while we were out.
I guess I was flashing back to my childhood where while having to go potty while we weren't at home wasn't a crime, it was at least something to feel guilty for. I even wondered how she could pick up on that.
Then on Thursday, she was complaining that her stomach hurt, but she couldn't give me more than vague symptoms. She was even dry heaving some and asked for medicine. So from Thursday until yesterday she was off and on complaining, lying around. I was getting frustrated because I couldn't get much info out of her. Everything was so vague. The first 2 days, I figured she either had the touch of stomach virus or ate something bad. By Saturday night, I was planning on a doctor's visit on Monday. Sunday night, it finally hit me. DUH!
Peeing all the time.
Lethargy
lower abdominal pain
nausea
She has a UTI and although I knew her symptoms, I didn't take the time to sit down and think about the last few weeks and put it all together possibly getting her to the doctor sooner.
We went yesterday morning and sure enough, the doctor comes in after checking the sample and says "Big Time Bladder Infection"
I apologized to her on the way home.

Busy

2008-08-11T06:33:00.000-07:00

Busily trying to get the house ready to move into.
Over the weekend, we have moved most of the boxes that we had already packed. On Friday, when I was considering filling up the bookshelf in Madelyn's room with books, I decided that while most of our stuff was still at the rental, it would be best to go ahead and at least paint the kids' rooms. So, we decided to let the girls pick the colors. Friday evening and part of Saturday morning, Aaron and I finished painting Madelyn's room PURPLE.
Aaron is heading over there right now to start working on Natalie and Hannah's room. Natalie picked BLUE, while Hannah picked PINK, so we will see how it blends together. I will try to remember to take the camera over there with me today to post the after pictures. The whole house needs to be painted. The entire house inside was the same color - a bland off white, with a vague hint of green? I don't know how to describe it, but I think the rest of the house will have to wait though.
Aaron is working a weird shift today. He will be going in at 1:30 and getting off at 2:30 in the morning. Something to do with bats. So, he is off this morning, hopefully going to get a nap before going in this afternoon.
My mom has been here all weekend, and has enabled Aaron and I to run errands and paint without the kids helping.
Madelyn has a doctor's appointment today, and I will probably go help Aaron paint after that, but I have to get shoes on now. Thankfully, Mom is still here and so I only have to take Madelyn with me to the doctor.

The Wait for the House is Over!

2008-08-06T19:32:00.000-07:00

Closing went very smooth today. We had to take the girls, I couldn't find a babysitter, but they did real well. I took them some new coloring books and they were very quiet. Thank you all for thinking and praying for us. I think once it hits us, we will be thrilled.

I think that it hasn't registered that the house is ours. We went over there today after closing and spent a while. It was great to be there without a realtor following us around the house. We walked through the orchard area and I took a basket to pick some fruit. That part was a little disappointing because all the beautiful plums that were there a few weeks ago had dried up or fell off. We did find another apple tree with sweet, little yellow apples. We found the fig tree which had a lot of ripe figs on it. There were two peach trees that had a ton of tiny unripe peaches, so hopefully they won't dry out like the plums before they mature, and we also found 2 black cherry trees.

We hiked around all of the property that was cleared (although needs to be bushhogged badly) and down the road area that goes into the woods. We were walking down the middle of the driveway and I felt what I thought was weeds tickling my leg, looked down screamed. The creature flew off and I thought it was a grasshopper, but Madelyn said, "no, it was a spider" Sure enough, there sat the huge wolf spider, bigger than a half dollar. I am terrified of spiders, I had to mentally calm myself down. Right before we left, Aaron said "look at that spider that crawled into the garage. So, I got out and looked. Wow, it must have been the other one's great granddad. It was about the size of a tarantula, but skinny, not fat and hairy.

We ended up missing church tonight. We got in the car and Madelyn saw a few ticks on her. These are the tiny kind that are about the size of a pinhead. Very hard to see and pick up. They all ended up complaining of the ticks the 5 mile drive home and when we got home, we probably spent 30 min. in the bathroom, combing over the kids entire body looking for these tiny ticks. Aaron counted the ones he pulled off Natalie. Grand total from Natalie? 32 I don't think Hannah was far behind. It took forever to get the things off. I probably had about 10 from my knees down on each leg. Gonna have to do something about the tick problem here.

I have posted pictures of Natalie and Hannah making biscuits for breakfast yesterday morning. I measured the stuff, Natalie stirred it together, then I kneaded it a few times and they took it from there. I did all the oven work, but they rolled them out and cut them and rerolled. They were real good.

Tomorrow is the Closing Day!

2008-08-05T20:56:00.000-07:00

We should be closing tomorrow at 3:30pm. Think about us, and pray it goes through ok! I am excited, yet still leary. I think once the papers are signed, I will be more relieved.

One of Those Days

2008-08-04T15:35:00.000-07:00

Awwww! Isn't she so cute?! She probably never gets into any trouble. DO NOT be deceived by the sweet, innocent face. I think I will call her "the Instigator" . In my family growing up, it was my older brother Michael. Oh the misery that one person put into my life. I don't know if he terrorized Eric, the oldest, but his mission in life was to make me insane, all the while feigning innocence with my parents.

Back to Hannah. I grew up with a brother who thrived on picking at me to the point of me taking and taking and taking, then I would finally explode in anger. That would get me in trouble, all the while my brother laughing that it worked once again. My parents used the useless phrase "just ignore him, he only wants a reaction from you" Well, that may be true with someone you don't have to live with, but when you have to be around a person 24/7 who loves to make you cry, it is hard to ignore.

That being said, I am very sensitive to siblings who pick at each other. I know how it is to be helpless, to know that you can't win either way. Either you are a tattler when you tell on that sibling, or you take and take, then you explode and since your parents didn't know, or didn't care how much you took, they think you are overreacting to a minor irritation.

On the opposite side of the coin, I cannot stand to hear the whine "Hannnnnaaaahhhhh, Stttttopppppp!" So, I have had to give the older two a way to deal with it, rather than put them in a no win situation. I told them, tell Hannah once, in a non whiny voice, to stop whatever she is doing. If she doesn't stop, come tell me, in a nonwhiny voice that you have tried to deal with it on your own. If you whine or don't come to me, then you both get into trouble. I think that has been a insanity saver for Natalie. The first few weeks after this announcement by me, she came to me all the time, and Madelyn, just a few times. I guess Hannah is tired of not getting away with her tormenting ways.

Now I will say to negate some of this negativity, she is a very sweet girl and I love her very much. Does that one sentence make up for the paragraphs before it? It will have to do today, maybe tomorrow after I have slept off some of my annoyance.

Here is a picture of Hannah sitting like a bird in the "nest" that she made out of pillows and chairs.

We had to go to the larger town about 25 miles from here today to register for Friday classes. I got the ads out of the Sunday paper yesterday and decided since we were going to be in that town, we should hit all the deals.

This morning, we started by going to CVS here in town and getting the colas that they had cheap. I was out of conditioner, and we go through a lot with 4 people with long hair, so they had some on sale, then more money off for 75c. So, I got about 5 and when I checked out, they came up 99c. Somehow, in the 10 min I spent shopping, from the time I got the conditioner to the time I made it to checkout someone came around and took off the 75c stickers. (I checked).

Then we drove out to the animal shelter to check on prices and just check it out. They ended up having an emergency call about a injured dog and had to close up, sending us away.

We came home and I gave the girls showers, ate a snack and got them ready to have their pictures made.

We drove to this larger town and first went to Walmart to get the pictures done. I thought I was going to have to sit through all the expensive package choices, even though I always just take the $7.99 package. Thankfully, someone came up and so she sped me through.

Then we went to Staples and spent a while finding the cheap deals in the ads, and then they didn't ring up as cheap as they were supposed to, but they were still really cheap, so I got them. I was in line and the people in front had a problem. So, there ended up being about 6-8 people in each line. They finally opened up another line and she says "I'll take the first few people in that line" I bent over to pick up my basket and before I even stood back up one lady just tore over to the other line. It was almost comical how rude she was. Then everyone else went over there. I tried a few more minutes in my line, but then gave up and ended up checking out behind everyone that was behind me.

Off to Walgreens where I had cut out about 8 coupons of really cheap stuff. Of course, I only found 1/2 of what was advertised. Apparently, they had run out of the other things.

After that we got lunch and went to the school to register. We were there about 45 min. until they called our names. They had one room open with toys, so the kids got to play while we waited. The girls got the classes they had wanted. Madelyn will be taking Science, Art, and Reading to Remember. Natalie will be taking Science, Safety for Kids, and The Story of the World. Hannah will be in the preschool class.

Our last stop was Aldi's which had milk on sale for $1.99 a gallon. We got 4 gallons, plus a few other things, then headed home. Whew! What a day!

We got home about 15 min before Aaron, so I boiled some water and started the spaghetti while the girls cleaned the dining room, and I cleaned the kitchen.

And then there were 2 kittens.

2008-08-03T19:51:00.000-07:00

Sadly, our sweet Chocolate Chip has disappeared. We left the house Friday morning and she was here, and when we came back 6 hours later, there has been no trace of her. She was a good kitten and we will miss her. I suppose we will never know what her fate was, but we like to think that perhaps someone took her and is going to give her a good home.

We are planning to close on Wednesday. It is starting to get a little more exciting! I will breathe a sigh of relief when the papers are signed however. I have ordered our homeschool curriculum for the year. I am starting to get excited. Truth be told, at the end of last school year in May/June, I was about sick of it. Ready for a break and hoping that the desire to start school again would return this fall. I felt guilty about dreading schoolwork, but then realized that it was the same way for me when I was in grade school, and high school. Sick of it by the end of each semester, but excited about starting back again. We are using Winter Promise again. Last year we did their program Children Around the World, and this year we are doing the American Story I. I am looking forward to learning about our country's history. Something that I didn't learn a lot of while in school. I hated history.

Not much news to report right now. Oh exciting news! I don't think I mention that he was gone, but Aaron was gone all last week from Wed. to Thur. He got home Thur. night and we were all very happy to see him. It was a stressful week without him here, but he was on a fire making extra money, which will help us in our move, I am sure. I miss him when he is gone, but am so proud of how hard he works for us.

Hannah's goldfish adventure

2008-07-28T10:19:00.000-07:00

We went over to water our veges in my friend's garden this morning. I was hoeing away some of the weeds around the plants, when I hear Hannah screaming. I figured that perhaps she had been stung or bit by something. She was clear on the other side of the yard. So, I start running over there and realize she was soaking wet. From her hair all the way to her shoes. Apparently, she got too interested in the goldfish in my friends goldfish pond and fell in. All the way under. Thank God she got out or didn't bump her head. She HATES to get wet, other than in the bath or a pool. She won't play in the sprinkler, she won't play with water balloons, she does not like to get wet in her clothes. So, I had to listen to her scream and lament while I finished watering and hoeing, b/c I wasn't going to go home, change her and come back. Thankfully, I had a towel in the car, I could wrap her up in on the drive home.

2008-07-28T09:54:00.000-07:00

I have been tagged by www.hyperactivelu.com

6 Random Things about me...
1. I can't stand to have pruny fingers from staying in water too long. When I take a bath, I get in, then dry my hands off and keep them out of the water. If I have so many dishes to wash that my fingers start to wrinkle up, I have to stop, give them time to recover their normal shape, and then wash the rest.
2. I can't stand a messy kitchen. I have to have clean counter space in order to cook.
3. I don't like to decorate and it doesn't even bother me at all when my house doesn't match - other than the fact that it probably bothers other people who come and visit. But hey, I guess I am doing a service in making them feel better about their house!
4. I love historical Christian fiction novels and when we get to the library weekly, I probably read 2-4 a week. I would rather read than watch tv and sometimes when Aaron is watching shows I don't like, we can still be together. Reading novels is like watching a movie in your head...I love it!
5. I have always wanted to live on a farm. I love the smell of the animals. (except the smell of chicken farms - a new smell that I have been exposed to since moving here. It ranks right up there with the smell of paper factorys - which I always thought smelled like creamed corn)
6. I also love to listen to Conservative Talk Radio. I love our current President!
Here are the rules.
Link to the person who tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog.
Write six random things about yourself.
Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
Let your tagger know when your blog entry is up.
I will tag....
Ashley at www.griner6.blogspot.com
7. I can't think of anyone else to tag that actually knows me that has a blog.
8. I apparently need more blogging buddies.

VBS #5 and Old Friends

2008-07-26T20:11:00.000-07:00

Girls went to their 5th VBS for the summer today. It was only a one day deal, but they had a lot of fun. Took a friend from church with them and talked me into letting her stay the night. In spite of it being WILD today, the house is actually looking better. Kittens are so much fun for little girls to play with.

I spent this morning cleaning our dining room. It was so messy. In anticipation for this weekend, which I thought would be moving weekend, I have neglected cleaning and spent more time packing. But now that I know we have at least another week or two here, I couldn't stand the mess anymore. We can actually eat at the kitchen table again!

Since the girls had a friend over, I was also able to clean the bathroom and kitchen, and fold and put away 2 loads of laundry with minimal interruptions. Most of the time, the girls would have been helping more, but it was nice to do it alone and more thoroughly.

One of my best friends from SC has a grown daughter that moved an hour from us last year. She had called saying that they were coming this weekend and wanted to see us. They stopped by and followed us out to the new house and since we haven't closed, we couldn't go in, but they at least saw the land. They bought 70+ acres in SC and let us plant 500 Christmas trees on their land to grow and sell. Then a month later, we found out we were moving out of state. But that is another story. I told them next time the come to visit, we will drive to come meet them for supper or something. We were too good of friends to be so close when she visits her daughter without meeting up. I was so happy to see them, it brings back so many memories. Makes me miss having good friends so close. Moving to a new state is an adventure, but it has some drawbacks too. Like having to start all over getting to know people and find new friends.

The kittens like to sleep in the stroller. Yesterday, I found two of them curled up together. Hannah took one out and pushed the other.

Encouraged

2008-07-25T15:56:00.000-07:00

5 As you do not know the path of the wind,
or how the body is formed [a] in a mother's womb,
so you cannot understand the work of God,
the Maker of all things.
6 Sow your seed in the morning,
and at evening let not your hands be idle,
for you do not know which will succeed,
whether this or that,
or whether both will do equally well.
I found these verses in Ecclesiastes 11 last night and felt they were appropriate. Being in limbo with things (adoption and buying the house) I feel like I should be able to control, but it is obvious I have no control of, at least I know that God knows what is going on and is orchestrating it. Rather than waste my time throwing pity parties I should be keeping busy with what God has given me. Just like these verses say... I do my part, and stay busy while waiting for God to bring the results.
I had my important phone call from the adoption agency that was due at 3pm. I kept telling the girls all day. DO NOT talk to me or come into the room during this phone call. Then right at 3, I happened to look at the phone I was carrying around and it said "line in use" We have 3 phones and I quickly found one other, but one was missing and apparently was off the hook. Since I have been on the verge of tears this week anyway, the missing one was about to send me over the edge. I finally found it in the couch and sure enough it was turned on. While I discovered that, the agency called me on my cell phone. I was able to call him back on the landline and we had a good talk. It is very sad to probably have to change countries again, and in no way do I blame the agency. I don't want our struggles to discourage anyone from adopting. As I told our agency worker, I know God called us to adopt, we thought our child as in Guatemala, but apparently we were wrong, so we thought she was in Vietnam, and we are probably going to be wrong again. But I know God has a plan, and He knows what "distractions" we needed to get us to the right country at the exact time when that child He picked our family for is timed to be matched with us. And I know that when that happens, and we bring her home, that we will be so thankful God led us down this sad, frustrating path. It is hard to keep the big picture in mind and not get angry. I will not give up! People may see our "bad luck" of paying money into not one, but two countries that happened to close right after we get on waiting lists, and say "why don't you give up?" "maybe it's not meant to be", or what I heard yesterday "at what point do you think God may be telling you no?"
Think of any Bible examples. Since when did God tell someone to do something and it all go so smoothly without any effort or perserverance of the person obeying?
By the way, we will pretty much be starting from scratch with the money thing when we change countries. It will not transfer. Also, he said that he will be travelling to a few countries next month in hopes that they can start adoption programs there. I asked if they would be ready by September, and he said hopefully they might be able to take applications by that point. I hope that they are countries that we qualify for and that will give us more options as to where to go next. They are still encouraging everyone to stay in the program until September 1 when the final decision will be made as to whether the program will close and as to whether they will be grandfathering everyone in.

Closing Postponed

2008-07-24T10:39:00.000-07:00

Well, I probably shouldn't be blogging right now. You know how if you don't have something good to say, then don't say it. I will try to be objective.
Our closing has been postponed. Until at least August 1st or August 4th. Apparently, the seller's mortgage company won't have things ready until then.
What does that mean for us?
*$600 more in rent since we won't be moving out before the first of next month. (yes, we probably will ask if we can pay by the week).
*Another week or two of living in a 3/4 packed house.
*Makes it more likely that Aaron will be gone on a fire when we close or move, since he has almost always gone on fires during August.
*I know I am being whiny, but it drags this process on another week or two or who knows.
*I have to try to plan a well drilling around an unknown date.
*There is more to be said, but there may be some blog readers that may know both me and the seller, and in this town, Aaron and I are the outsiders since we have lived here only a year, and yes, everyone in this town knows everyone else.
For instance, I went to look at refrigerators today and told the lady that I was just browsing for a house we were supposed to be buying. She asked whose, and since I couldn't think of a fake name (just kidding), I told her and of course, she knew her plus a few other things.
The problems with the house closing, added to the adoption problems, has me just about in tears.
Here is my earlier lament to Aaron "You know, I stay home and take care of the kids like God wants me to, and it seems like everything we do costs more money than most people because something always goes wrong. I feel like I am doing what God wants and giving up a lot of money, but then it seems like we just get tested with this over and over"
We lost over $5000 that was nonrefundable when Guatemala closed and we had to change to Vietnam. I took that in stride. Got over it, trusted, etc. If Guatemala hadn't closed, we would probably be about to bring home a baby right now. Now Vietnam is about to close and tomorrow, I have a phone appointment with someone from our agency to talk about options and money and how much we are going to lose..again if it closes and we drop out or switch countries.
Alright, enough of my pity party. I am going to count my blessings and perhaps get out of this bad mood, so the kids don't get the fallout of stuff that doesn't have anything to do with them.

To close or not to close...

2008-07-23T19:48:00.000-07:00

It just wouldn't be us if everything went smoothly in any kind of endeavor we go on.
We are supposed to close at 10am on Friday morning. The seller of the other house brought up a problem she has with her own mortgage company on Monday or Tuesday. Our realtor called to tell us that it may be a problem, but then called later to say that the other realtor said it wouldn't be a problem.... But I learned today that apparently it is a problem that has to be fixed before closing.
Then the well water had to be tested, even though we were planning on digging our own well as soon as we move. So that was sent on Tuesday, and when I had called on Monday to ask the Health Dept. for our own well, how long testing took, she said 4-5 days. But perhaps, they will fax the results back, since they know we are waiting for it to close.
So the verdict right now is no verdict at all. I don't know what the mortgage company will do if the water comes back contaminated.
So, even though we are supposed to close in 36 hours, it still may not happen. Actually, it probably won't happen unless the well water comes back exceptionally fast and she fixes the problems she has with her mortgage company really fast, as in tomorrow.
Now I am still in the last days of packing delimma...
Do I have to have it in the next 2days-2weeks or should I stick it in the box. I don't know how many times the girls have asked for something and I say "it is packed already" and they say "which box?" and I say "we aren't unpacking anything until we move"
The youth group at church kept the K-6th grade from 11-4pm today. They ate lunch, watched movies, and walked to the elementary school to play kickball and water balloons. I had 5 hours to myself. AHHHHHH!!
I was able to get half the kitchen packed and clean off the counter completely. Also, the many phone calls back and forth with our realtor. I relaxed a little and had a good afternoon.

Case worker email

2008-07-22T18:48:00.000-07:00

Last night I emailed our case worker to see if she knew what number we were in the 1700+. She emailed me back and said there was no way of knowing, and although she was encouraged, there is someone from the agency going to call is this week to talk about our options. So, now I am discouraged again. Perhaps they are calling everyone. I didn't think they would talk to us about our options (unless we initiated it) until Sept. 1. But now I wonder if they think we don't have a chance.
If we do have to change countries - please pray that God steers us in the direction that He wants us to go.

Adoption news - Praying for a number less than 780

2008-07-21T20:26:00.000-07:00

The following I got from a link to, I think it was the joint counsil, from our adoption agency today. I have no idea where we are in the 1,728 dossiers filed in Vietnam, but our dossier was finally translated and registered in Vietnam back around the first part of March. That means we have been registered almost 5 months! Although our agency stopped taking dossiers for Vietnam back in April, apparently other agencies were actually allowed to file up until July 1st. Oh how I hope we will be in the top 780. And if we do get a referral in the next few months it will be about 6-12 months sooner than predicted. I am ready mentally, although financially, well, I will have to depend on God to take care of the worry about that as it comes. I spared you the whole article, which reads "blah blah blah blah" but later on in the article, it did state that they're trying to process in 2 months, what usually is processed over a years' time, will probably cause some snags and backloggs, which probably means that travel time may be farther off than it normally is. Who knows, when they told us travel time from referral to going to pick up the baby, it was 1-7 months, depending on the orphanage.

"It is also our understanding that as of July 1, 2008, approximately 1,728 dossiers were filed by American prospective adoptive parents with the DIA. The DIA estimates that approximately 780 of the 1,728 dossiers will receive formal referrals by September 1, 2008. The approximately 950 dossiers that are not processed and matched by September 1, 2008, will be returned to the appropriate adoption service provider.
The 780 prospective adoptive parents who may receive a referral prior to September 1, 2008, represent virtually the same number of referrals issued and processed in Vietnam across all of calendar year 2007. Joint Council extends it appreciation to the Vietnamese DIA for its commitment to finding families for the orphans of Vietnam and its intention to issue close to 800 referrals in a 2-month period. This effort on the part of the DIA will certainly benefit these children who are in need of permanent, safe and loving families."

So much laundry...so little desire to deal with it

2008-07-21T08:30:00.000-07:00

I think the girls and I have folded and put away at least 6 baskets of laundry in the last 12 hours...and there is more in the washer and dryer. That doesn't count the 2-3 baskets of clothes in my bedroom that I need to sort through before the move. I hate sorting! Today, my goal is to get everything in my bedroom that is not in a dressor or hung up in the closet sorted and packed.
Oh, an update to the last post - there has been no more vomiting! Yippee!
Yesterday was a nice day. Although I was pretty tired the whole day. I had attempted to sleep on Madelyn's mattress on the floor of the living room Saturday night. In case she got sick again, I wanted to be close to her. But she was breathing so loud and making so much noise (which has always been a problem for her), that finally after falling asleep at 2am then waking at 3:30, I went to my bed and asked Aaron if he would sleep out there with her, since he sleeps sounder than me. Also, I reasoned in my very tired state, that since he has been unable to hear well lately, esp in his right ear, he could just sleep on his left side and it would be like wearing earplugs.
We went to Church services in the morning and then over to some friends' house for lunch with their family. I took the girls' swimsuits, so after lunch they all got to swim, while we sat on the porch and watched. These friends live on a huge farm, and all you see from the back of their porch is a lot of acres with some cows and the distant hills far off. Very pretty and peacefull. We got home about 3:30, and I finally laid down around 4:30 for about 45 min before evening services. Hannah didn't take a nap, and therefore fell asleep before the first song was over, but not after having a typical Hannah arguement with me.
Hannah hasn't done this in a while, but she brought it back last night in a moment of no-nap sleepiness. She had wanted gum, so I gave her a 1/2 piece. She was upset that she only got a 1/2 piece. We are whispering this whole time, since services have started. She asks why she got a small piece. I tell her to hush. She asks why again. I tell her to quit talking, that is all she is getting. I look ahead, letting her know the conversation is over. She taps me on the shoulder, not letting it drop.
I look at her and say "be quiet"
She taps me on the shoulder and says" I have to tell you something"
I warn her "it better not have anything to do with the gum"
So what does she have to say "why didn't you give me a bigger piece of gum?"
So after a swat, she crawled in my lap and went to sleep(after I made her spit out her gum). She just can't let things go.
We are still waiting to hear back about the appraisal of the house we are buying. Hope it appraises at what she is asking for it, or the deal is off. I hate waiting until the last minute for things. I don't want to set up home insurance, etc. to start on Friday, if there is going to be a snag in the process. Only 3 more whole days until closing. Aaron and I were trying to think of what to do with the girls and there is good news for this Saturday. I called a church that they attended VBS at last year to see if they were having one this year, and she said it was going to be Saturday from 8:30- 1. Hopefully Aaron and I can get a lot done that morning without 3 kids underfoot.
Yesterday afternoon, the supervisor at work called to see if I could come in and finish someone's shift for them. The message went something like "Karen, wanted to see if you could finish ________'s 3-11 shift for her... she's got the diarrhea" After hearing it, Aaron said "If you ever have to call in sick, don't tell them what's wrong with you or they'll tell everyone they call to replace you" I didn't think anything about it until he pointed it out. I guess as nurses, we are so used to talking matter of fact about some thing, it just comes out, no need to sugar coat it.

A picture says it all

2008-07-19T22:17:00.001-07:00

I came home from work tonight at 11:30pm. Aaron was still awake, which is not totally unusual for a weekend. But the above is what I saw when walking into the living room.

I looked at Aaron with a "say it isn't so" look, and he just sighed and said "I know."

"When did it start?" I wanted to know.

"About 10:30, I was fixing to go to bed, when I heard her moaning, then she went to the bathroom and I heard her. It was bad."

I know it is too soon to diagnose as the stomach virus, but it wouldn't suprise me a bit. That is Madelyn on the couch, by the way. I have been fighting this nagging fear since we sold our last house that I would get the stomach virus every time we close when selling or buying a house.

Let me go back to Feb. 2003. We bought our first house in SC, and the day we were closing, I was soooo sick at the lawyer's office. I kept thinking to myself that perhaps it was just nerves. I didn't feel nervous, but maybe subconciously, I did. That was Friday morning. I spent all the rest of that day very dizzy, trying to watch Madelyn age 2 and Natalie 10 months while trying not to move off the bed. Aaron was trying to take care of our moving. Poor guy had to do it all alone. Our first night in the house was a Saturday, Aaron had to leave Sunday for a week of training and what I had on Friday was a precursor to a bad case of stomach virus a few days later while home alone for a week with the kids.

Go forward to Feb 2007. The day we closed selling that house was the same day that we drove 6 hours to our new home. I felt bad that morning, waiting for the movers to finally finish packing everything in the semi. I drove the car with the the girls in it b/c it had the air conditioning, while Aaron drove the unairconditioned jeep. Do I drive the hot car without constant talking, or do I drive the car with cold air and constant talking. By the time we were halfway to our new home, I was siiiickkk with a bad headache, hoping that I wouldn't be sick in the car. I came very close to begging Aaron to just let me get a hotel. What an awful day. And for the next two days I was extremely nauseated. Aaron ended up getting that one also.

And now, we are scheduled to close this Friday, and someone has started throwing up. Maybe, just maybe, it is a coincedence. I can only hope what she has isn't contagious.

We did have a good morning. The girls have been wanting to go to "Daddy's work" and hike. So we went and walked around and had a little picnic. It was nice to get into the woods, it has been a while since the girls and I have gotten to go.

I will end with a picture of Duchess, our mother cat who is so scrawny, I took her to the vet last week. She is still nursing the 3 kittens some, but they are eating food too. They are old enough to wean if we could separate them from her. I hope she weans them soon. Although the sweetest cat we have had, she was not the prettiest in the first place. Now that she is skin and bones, well, it doesn't help her appearance. She has very strange color patterns, and her hair is different lengths in different places. Probably hard to see in the picture, but she is a short haired cat except she has approx 1 1/2 inch long hair that hangs down on both side of her spine like a horse's mane. And her tail looks like a squirrel. Anyway, the vet thought that a combination of the heat causing her to not eat as much, nursing the kittens, and probable worms, has contributed to her skinniness. She got a worm shot, and he sent me home with some vitamin paste to give her ever day and some liquid wormer for the kittens.

Still Packing

2008-07-18T19:43:00.000-07:00

Aaron was off today, so I planned to go to work 7-3 today. Unfortunately, after getting up at 5:30 and calling into work after showering, they didn't need me. That was around 6:15. No sense in going back to sleep, so when Madelyn woke up around 6:30, I told her to get her shoes on, we were running errands. Madelyn is always up for anything that gets her out of the house, especially if she can go with me alone.
I try to let Aaron sleep in when he can, so I wrote him a note telling him where we went and that I had Madelyn with me. I knew he would freak out if he woke up and I was gone (which he was expecting, since I thought I was going to work) and if he couldn't find Madelyn. We got home and Aaron was still asleep, Natalie and Hannah were up watching cartoons. They ran to me, going on and on about how they couldn't find me, etc. I said "did you wake Daddy up?" They said "no" I guess they weren't too upset. Aaron blissfully slept through it all. He did wake up about 8:30, running out to the living room to get the girls dressed real quick to go to VBS. But he saw me in the kitchen, the kids were already ready, so he could relax.
There is a widow at church who offered to let us plant some stuff in her garden. We planted about 5 tomato plants, 3 pepper plants, 3 watermelon plants, and some okra. No veges yet, but I try to go every other day to water since it is not raining here. Madelyn and I watered the plants, then we went to Walmart, which is really empty around 7:15 in the morning - nice.
Aaron and I drove the kids to VBS, came home and I fell asleep on the couch while he cleaned under the other couch. I was so tired from getting up early. We went back to get the girls, dropped off one of their friends from VBS that was on our way home and came home to laze around the house. I cleaned almost all of the fridge, and it looks so nice. I am trying to get as much stuff cleaned, so that when we do move out, we don't spend a whole other day having to clean this one.
Now Aaron and I are stressing a little on our schedule for the next few weeks. On Thursday afternoon, the "well driller' followed me out to the property to look around. He is so laid back, I am a little worried. He seems to think he will be able to do it the last week of this month, but still didn't give me a definate date. He did ask if that was what we were waiting for to move in. I said "other than closing next week, YES!" Maybe he got the hint. We close next Friday, but we won't drill a well before we close, so we don't want to move in without the well. I am sure it will fall together as we get closer.
I am scheduled to work 3-11 tomorrow. Maybe I can find a babysitter some next week so I can work. Life is fixing to get more hectic over the next two weeks.

Waiting

2008-07-16T04:59:00.000-07:00

I am starting to get baby fever, but I know that we are on God's timing now. Even with getting pregnant, it is God's timing, but when getting pregnant, at least you feel like you are in charge to an extent. This adoption is depressing to wait for, but I keep reminding myself that Abraham and Sarah had to wait about 10 years for their promised child.
I still don't regret not having any more biological even though sometimes I think "did we do the right thing? we could have 2 more kids by now" but then God reminds me that it wasn't his plan and to just wait. I know if I had 2 more biological, then we probably wouldn't adopt. I just hate waiting and keep thinking that if they close Vietnam, where do we go next. Am I up for another dossier? Do I have a choice? What about all the money we spent so far, did we start this process earlier than God wanted us to and now He is throwing up roadblocks so we will match up with perfect timing to the child He wants in our family?
Or were we correct in starting last March and the "distraction" of Guatemala closing, then changing to Vietnam, then it possibly closing, was that all of God's plan in His timing?
I told myself before we started all this that if we have setbacks, etc. that I would not get upset, I would realize that a setback such as paperwork getting lost, etc. was God's way of getting us on the waiting list at just the right number. While doing the Guatemalan dossier, there were a few little setbacks, and I didn't get upset at all. But when promising myself not to get upset, I didn't realize that it would include 1 country closing, doing a whole new dossier, the another country threatening to close and the thought of figuring out which country to go to next if we have to.
Then to start a whole new dossier. Our agency now has 3 countries that we qualify for that we could choose from if Vietnam closes - Ethiopia, Bulgaria, and India. I know that it will all be worth it. When I think that Hannah will be 4 in Sept. Hannah will probably be at least 5 before we bring another child home. That is such a large age difference. I know it may not seem like much, but in my plan, our kids would have been closer in age. But it isn't my plan that matters.
I start thinking crazy stuff like
-I bet my extended relatives that I told last summer that we were adopting probably think I was making the whole thing up.
-People at church and work are probably wondering "where is this child she was so excited about last year?"
And why do I care? I don't know, I suppose I shouldn't. I guess I could drag our dossier to church or up north and show everyone "see, I really did do all this paperwork. Here is a letter from our agency verifying that we really are on a waiting list. Guatemala really did close, and yes we are just that "unlucky" that we got on the waiting list for one country, it closed, we did paperwork for another country, and now it is probably closing too"
Before you become a parent, you have an idea of how much you will love your child, but until you have a child, you really don't understand how wonderful it is. So, I have the perspective that I know it will be worth it, I know when we get that child (I refuse to give up!) I will be so thankful for all the closings and delays. So very thankful that God was in control instead of me, and that is what gets me through the waiting. I can remember being pregnant with Madelyn. Finding out was so exciting, then the excitement at 4 weeks pregnant turned into misery at 6 weeks pregnant when for 6 weeks, I felt like vomiting all day every day. I can remember thinking "I can't believe I wanted this" I feel a little guilty for that now, but she was so worth it. Because now I have perspective. I know what the outcome of bringing a child home is. And it is worth the wait, or the nausea!

Packing

2008-07-12T20:07:00.000-07:00

This past week has seemed so busy to me. I worked 3 nights 7-11, with one of those nights not getting off until 1am. I was so sleepy this week. I will probably do it again next week, at least that much if not more hopefully. I am trying to get in as much work as possible before we move. I am a terrible sorter and packer. Give me books, tapes, etc. then I can pack it up easy, but give me a room full of misc. items, and I am terrible at it. Aaron told me today "channel your inner skinny man" At first I thought he was making a jab at my weight, but he was quick to explain that he was talking about the man who moved us here. Wow, was he amazing. He was a small, skinny man - not one you would think would work for a moving company, but boy could he pack. The company told us that someone would be at our house on a Monday to move. One man showed up. But he packed our entire house in less than 8 hours. Our entire house and only left the wrapping of the furniture until day 2. On day 2 he did bring a helper to help lift.

I proudly told Aaron before I left for camp that he could throw out and sort anything in the house while I was gone. He was very excited about that prospect. I did give him a list of 5-6 things I wanted to keep, but everything else is fair game. He said he took 3 loads to the dump in the jeep, and guess what?! I don't even know what he took, but the closets looked a lot better and if I don't ask him what he threw out, then I will never know what I am "missing" I started packing up the classroom last week and as you can see from the pictures, it is so nice and clean and only boxes. Aaron spent all morning cleaning out the girls room. He went ahead and took apart their beds, and now they are sleeping just on mattresses. Which is a lot of fun for them. I felt bad for Aaron doing all of the girls' room alone, even though I did go and clean the kitchen while he worked and made breakfast. So, I went out this afternoon and got half the garage clean. What a nasty mess that was with 1 cat who likes to kill birds and 3 kittens. I swept up a ton of bird feathers.

We are hoping to close in July instead of August. The well driller is supposed to meet me next week at the house. I felt a little worried when he told me yesterday that if he didn't call me by Tuesday or Wednesday next week, to give him a call. He says it will be 2-3 weeks before he can come out to drill, but if we can get it done in July and have drinkable water, then we could move in before August and avoid paying a month's rent for a few more days in this house.

Finally a House !!

2008-07-08T21:56:00.001-07:00

I am going to post some pictures of the house we are, Lord willing, closing on, on August 15. We have come full circle in a year. Kind of like when you try on wedding dresses, and you try on 25, but always come back to the first one. Well, we actually made an offer on this house last summer and couldn't come to an agreement on the price. We decided we would look elsewhere, but haven't come up with anything we have liked as much over the last year. We both regretted not buying it last year, so here we go again. Our house inspection was today and Aaron and I went out to meet the man towards the end of the inspection. Pretty much the only things wrong are a few wires that need to be fixed. This is a scary thought, now looking back, on the front porch and on the porch off the kitchen, there are wires sticking our of the wall I didn't notice. The girls and I were all on those porches a few weeks ago. Well, the guy tested them today, and they were live wires, just sticking out. So, that will have to be fixed before the girls go back. I couldn't believe it, the lady who lives there has 2 small children.

We are excited and I am trying to work as much as possible to have as much money as possible to pay for the well we will have to put in. We are also hoping that Aaron gets to go out West at least once this summer, if not twice. I worked 7-11 Sunday night and tonight, and tomorrow night. I will probably work Thur. Frid, and Sat, if I can and Aaron doesn't have to work OT>

The pictures are of the 3 porches on the house, one across the front, one off the kitchen, and one out of the master bedroom. There are also pictures of the land from the house and as I drove out of the driveway. There are 14+ acres.

Camp, Kittens, and 13,000 chickens

2008-07-06T21:34:00.000-07:00

I will start with Camp. The girls and I spent last Sunday through Friday at Camp and we had a great time. I like being a counselor more than being the nurse. I was real proud of the girls and they had a great time. Hannah kept up with the big kids. I had taken the wagon thinking I would have to pull her around everywhere, but thankfully, she wanted to walk with everyone else. The camp is on an old golf course, so it is very hilly. Madelyn is already making plans for next year.

Here are some new pictures of our kittens who are between 4-5 weeks old. They are so cute and really grew up a lot in the week we were gone. The went from practically dragging around their back halves, to hopping and walking on all fours. When the girls go into the garage, they come out of their hiding place to play. They spend a lot of time chewing on each other's tails. It is real cute. The girls named them right after they were born and I think they did a great job. The one with black fur and an orange nose is Chocolate Chip. I think the coolest looking one is StormCloud with the white face, grey fur and black ears, tail and back legs. Then there is Cotton(there are 2 pictures of her) the fluffball who is all white except for the faint hint of orange strips on her ears and tail.

Now for the Chickens. There is a couple at church who raise chickens and have two chicken houses. She told me that she would call and have us over the next time they got a load of baby ones. So, she invited us over this afternoon. The chickens were a few months old and out of the fluffy yellow stage, but they were still not full grown. Wow, were there a lot of chickens in that house. approx. 13000 to be exact. We were able to catch some and all the girls held them. Unfotunately I didn't take the camera, but we are going to go back again in a few months when they get the new ones. I learned a ton about chickens that I didn't know during the 20 min. we spent in the chicken house. You can learn so much from people just asking about things that are every day to them.

Girl Scout Day -Hellen Keller Festival

2008-06-28T06:15:00.001-07:00

Thursday was the 1st annual Girl Scout Day at the Hellen Keller Festival. Hellen Keller's birthplace is less than an hour from here. I read the girls a book about Hellen Keller and Annie Sullivan this Spring. I thought we might go tour her house, and I looked it up on the internet and saw that they host a whole week of festival every summer. That was exciting, so I decided to wait until then to go, then I got something from Girl Scouts about a day just for Girl Scouts. I signed myself and Madelyn and Natalie up, they didn't allow "tag-a-longs". Which is what they call siblings, other parents, friends, etc. that are sometimes allowed to come to an activity. I had to get a babysitter for Hannah, and she got lucky in that her family was going to the lake on their boat that day, so she got to spend the day boating and having her own adventure.

Back at the Girl Scout Festival. We started out the day in a large Church's gym, in nice air conditioning, listening to the great great grand neice of Hellen Keller tell her story. She is the great great granddaughter of Hellen Keller's little sister whom she dumped out of the crib when she was a baby. Very interesting. Then the split us into 3 groups and our group first toured the Tennessee Valley Arts Museum. There were two speakers that talked to us there and led us around. After that, we got to take trolley rides around the town of Tuscumbia. It was a pretty long ride where we stopped off at the cemetary and saw the Keller family plot. Hellen and Annie S. are buried in Washington, but the rest of her family is buried where we toured.

After the trolley, we got some water and finally toured the house and grounds where Hellen was born. We got another tour guide for that. 85% of the memorabilia in the house is actually the original and authentic. The house was a lot smaller than I had imagined.I knew there was a den, dining room, etc. I guess I was expecting a huge house with more rooms. Another suprise was that the cottage that Annie to Helen to was probably about 25 feet from the big house. I knew it was on the same property and they drove 2 1/2 hours around their 650 acre plantation to make Hellen think that they were far away, but I still thought the cottage was more than a few yards from the house.

After touring the house we walked back to the huge Church gym and had another talk from a lady who taught us how to sign a song. Then we had a catered dinner. Dinner was good, but when we went to get into line, we saw the chicken which was leg, thigh, breas.t and wing all attached. Natalie almost didn't take it, I had to force her to just get her plate and go, and we would worry about the meat later. They did eat some of the chicken, but I thought it an odd choice for a bunch of girls. I heard other people talking about their scouts reactions too, which were close to Natalie's.

After supper, there was the annual parade that the girls all got to march in. They wanted the girls to go in pairs and Madelyn was picked to hold a sign, and Natalie didn't want to be my partner, I was able to find another troop that had and odd number, so Natalie got a girl partner, and I got to sit in the shade and watch the parade instead of walking in it. That was the last activity of the day and we got to go home. By then Aaron was had been home a few hours with Hannah. It was a fun and tiring day.

Friday I worked 7-11 in the morning, using the same babysitter I had the day before. We are still waiting to hear about the new offer we made on the house. We won't hear anything at least until Monday since her realtor is out of town. I am leaving for camp tomorrow with the girls. I will be gone at least until Friday, maybe Saturday.

Mortgage Headaches

2008-06-25T17:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I knew that we were going to look at the house that we almost bought a year ago. I also knew that we wanted to make an offer on it last night. So, I called about 5-6 mortgage places/banks to get the preapproval before even one talked to me or called me back. I spent much time on the phone with him, giving him all the info he needed. I still hadn't heard back late yesterday afternoon, so I call and it was supposed to be finished last night. They never called. So I called this morning and it is supposed to be finished by tonight. And guess what... they never called. So.... irritated that I needed this approval letter, I called a few more, only to get voicemails, then finally filled out the info online for the one that Dave Ramsey endorses and waited until this afternoon to hear from him. He never called, so I called him and he hadn't received the info yet, but was able to look it up. He needed some documents faxed to him, so I tried on our handy dandy (crappy, trashy, worth 1c fax machine/printer) I wasted our money on last year. Of course, after 30 min. trying to find the documentation he needed, I finally tried to fax, only to be denied twice and to be told their was a paper jam, when there was no paper in the fax. Meanwhile while all this is going on, don't forget that I have 3 kids that want to be "fed and watered" constantly, interrupting. Sad to say, I finally got to the point where I told the kids, each kid about 3 times, "if you don't want to be yelled at, then don't talk to me" I had something that I had to drop off at the realtor's office anyway, so I packed up the kids and took them with me, with strict instructions for their behavior in the office, and had the paperwork faxed from there. And the kids were good too.
I had called Aaron just to lament the way things were not working out. At that point, I realized the only thing I had to make for supper was meat loaf that would require an hour to cook or I could take care of the mortgage business, and Whaaaaa, what to do?!!. He said he wasn't that hungry anyway. How sweet. So, we stopped and did a quick runthrough of the grocery store on the way home from the realtors. And now, I am counting the minutes until 8pm when the first of the kids will go to bed and the noise level decreases by 1/3. The stress has given me a headache.
We did make an offer last night and now are waiting to see if it was accepted. I hope this doesn't draw out forever. The girls and I are leaving for camp on Sunday. Maybe we will know something before then.
About the property. Just a little since I don't want to spend a ton of time describing if we don't get it. It is a white siding house on 14 acres. Up on top of the "mountains" they have here. It backs up to the national forest. I was able to walk the few acres that were cleared last night with the girls while Aaron walked the uncleared acres with the realtor. There are peach, fig, pear, and apple trees, a barn and a spring fed pond. I will post pictures and more if we get it. Hope we do.

Abraham, Sarah, and Issac

2008-06-18T19:58:00.000-07:00

While getting ready for VBS tonight, I made some simple outfits for the kids, b/c I was going to have the children in the class act out the story. So, my girls got to be the testers for the outfits. They enjoyed walking around acting silly. We had the 3rd and 4th grade tonight, and only 9 kids. That was a break from the huge amounts the last two nights. There were 5 speaking parts in the little "play" we did and it didn't last long at all, but they had fun and we even changed costumes and did it twice so all the kids would get a chance.

Disrespect - AARRRRRGGGHHH

2008-06-16T20:32:00.000-07:00

Tonight was our first night of VBS. Aaron and I are doing the story of Abraham and Sarah. I greatly underestimated the number of children I thought we would have. I made 10 copies of our papers, and at the last minute, decided to make 10 more, didn't have time to finish cutting out the other 10 and still didn't even have enough. And that was just the 4year olds and kindergarten. It was wild. There was barely enough room in our room for them all to sit. Plus the fact that about 1/3 of them wouldn't stop talking the whole time, I almost lost my voice trying to read.
I would never attempt to be a teacher. I know, that technically, I am since I homeschool, but to have to take charge of others' children. Yet to not be able to discipline. That is a bad combination. There were a few tonight, that while I was trying to be the character of Sarah, I kept on having to stop to tell them to hush. Therefore, because of the obnoxious, rudeness of a few of the students, the rest probably have no idea what Aaron and I talked about. And that was proven when they got them into the auditorium, they asked the 4/5 year olds who they learned about and who did they shout out? Moses. Finally, someone came up with Abraham and the leader asked what Abraham did and the answer the kids came up with? "sat by the tent"
I was observing a few boys, who were in ages 5-8 or so, just running full speed in the church building while adults were telling them to stop. The kids would say "ok" and never slow down a bit. Not one ounce of respect for authority. One 5 year old came around the corner full speed and plowed over Hannah, got up and ran off, never apologizing while she sat there crying. Makes me so glad that there are only 3 nights left, that I am getting an older age group to teach each night, and that I am not a teacher full time. How can any adult think it is ok to not teach their kid to listen when an adult is talking? I think much of it is pure laziness coupled with busy-ness on the parents part.
Truthfully, in a classroom setting, I have no idea how to deal with it. I know how to deal with it with my own kids, and my own kids respect authority. I watch them when they don't know I am watching. When at VBS or in class and the teacher is trying to talk, 99% of the time, they are sitting there at attention - some of the few that are. But that respect starts in our home. And if you don't know how to get your kids to respect you, then go to the website that I have "advertised" on my blog. www.nogreaterjoy.org. And you know what, even though we are strict with our kids - they are happy, well adjusted, outgoing, get along well with adults and with kids their own age, and enjoyable to be around. And I know I am biased, but still, after a night like tonight, with 3 more to go, I have come to appreciate the harvest of respect and obedience that we started sowing in our children when they were very young.

Perhaps there is hope! Number 10

2008-06-16T20:21:00.000-07:00

After a depressing talk with our caseworker last week about the adoption status, I was pretty much saddened thinking that we were going to have to wait until September 1 to even know if we even had a chance. I guess I didn't realize that the date of decision as to whether to continue adoptions with the US was that day. I thought that the decision was being made right now as to whether to let adoptions continue after September 1. Anyway, I was not expecting, after that phone call, to even move up on the waiting list before September 1, but good news today... they had a girl referral, which means our number should be down to 10. There hadn't been a girl referral since April, when there were 3. There were 2 boy referrals last month. Maybe, there will be more soon. I sure hope so.

Brunch

2008-06-15T06:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we had brunch at our house for those in our class on Wed. night. We had 3 other couples, plus 6 kids, including our 3. We ate, then had our badminton tournament, which I am happy to say that Aaron and I won. Of course, we are probably the only ones that have actually played over the last few months, since we put up our net. As you can see, the girls had a great time playing with the kittens. The other pictures are of some of our friends playing their game.

Hannah got in bed this morning with me. Aaron came out of the bathroom after his shower with a towel around his waist. He came out and started talking to me and Hannah said "don't talk to me with your pretty skirt on" It was so funny, and I never thought about a towel around the waist being a skirt, but it does look like one, especially to a 3 year old who is apparently uncomfortable seeing her dad in a "skirt" We got a good laugh about that one, and Aaron immediately turned and went back in the bathroom to put come clothes on.

VBS

2008-06-11T08:49:00.000-07:00

We have had a busy week so far. The girls are actually attending 2 VBSs this week. One runs Sunday through Wednesday from 7-8:30 at night and the other runs Monday through Friday from 8:30 -12:00. Which is where the girls are right now. It has been a little hectic, but that is what I love about summer, you can find all sorts of activities to keep you busy.
Sadly, the kitten I was syringe feeding died on Monday morning. It is now buried in our backyard. #1 Even though I was feeding it, it wasn't growing at all. #2 Sunday, it wouldn't even swallow the formula, it just ran out of it's mouth. So I had the girls tell it good bye Sunday night, knowing that it would be soon. They were sad, but that is life.
Still house hunting after living here 16 months. We are very picky, but we know that we will be there for a long time wherever we buy. We really liked a house with 6 acres a few weeks ago. It was for sale by owner and had a real pretty yard, etc. Bad thing was, it was about 15 -20 min. farther from Aaron's work. Well, Aaron called to make an offer, and Aaron understood the guy to say that someone was coming already that afternoon to make an offer. So the decision on that house was made for us. Kind of frustrating. There was a house that we looked at when we first moved that we really wanted to buy. It is on a beautiful road with an overlook. 14 acres. A house that has a 2 car garage with a room above that could be finished. Backs up to the National Forest. Actually a little closer to the forest than we live now. We didn't buy for specific reasons, but I have kind of regretted not buying it the last year. So has Aaron. But we couldn't come to an agreement on price. It still hasn't sold but it isn't listed either. I called a realty company I happened to find a few weeks ago and he spoke of a house with 14 acres he was going to be listing soon. He didn't know the location, but when describing what he knew, it will be a strange coincidence if it isn't the same house. He is supposed to call me back this week about it. So, Aaron and I are kind of torn about whether or not to try to buy that house we loved since it is still for sale and the realtor is supposed to call me first (I told him we were VERY interested).
Then last night, I get a call from the people from the house with 6 acres that we were going to make an offer on a few weeks ago, and they didn't sell the house. So, now Aaron and I have a choice and we don't know which way to go. Of course I know where my heart is - I hope we get the one near the forest. But I am really trying not to get my hopes up. We have been burned many times this year in our search for a house.

Frequent feedings

2008-06-06T22:04:00.000-07:00

I started to notice over the first 24-36 hours after the birth of the kittens that the orange one never seemed to be eating at the same time as the others. When born, there were two big ones and two smaller ones. The orange one was one of the bigger ones. However, I finally realized that the kitten just wasn't nursing. Since it was Madelyn's favorite and she has wanted an orange cat for so long, I have been syringe feeding it. Although it seems to have perked up slightly and fights me and squirms a little more when I feed it, it still doesn't seem to have grown. I hope I can save it. It won't even drink from the tiny bottle I got it. Oh well, maybe next week. In the meantime, here are some cute pictures of the girls. Hannah is holding "Simba" the one that we are hand feeding. Of course nothing could be more fun for the girls than carrying around a real live pet like a baby.

I had a Tastefully Simple party tonight. We had a total of 6 people. I wish there could have been more and there were 4 people who said they would come, but didn't and a few that were maybes that didn't. Oh well, we had a good time and the food was great.

Air Freshener

2008-06-04T08:24:00.000-07:00

Here is a cool recipe that the girls and I made a few weeks ago. If you like those air fresheners that are gelled and slowly evaporate, then you will enjoy making these yourself. I bought my liquid potpourri at Walmart. It probably comes out a little cheaper than buying the air fresheners already made. I put mine in jars, so that upped my cost. I plan on making these with the girls for Christmas presents.

Ingredients:

2 cups liquid potpourri

4 packages Knox gelatin (one whole box comes with 4 little packages inside)

food coloring

1. Heat 1 cup liquid potpourri almost to a boil.

2. Stir in 4 packages of gelatin until dissolved.

3. Remove from heat.

4. Stir in 1 cup cool potpourri liquid.

5. Pour mixture into container.

6. Let it set at room temperature overnight or until it becomes solid.

It took mine about 24 hours to turn into a solid. I have one in our bathroom that has been there for almost 2 weeks and it is only about 1/3 gone.

Kittens!!!

2008-06-03T18:33:00.000-07:00

Our cat Duchess, finally gave birth last night. I was disappointed that the girls were not here to see it after waiting so long for them. But, they are at Aaron's parents for a few days. Anyway, I had marked on my calender for her to give birth on the 3rd, so I was only 1 day off. Madelyn has been wanting a orange cat forever and one of them is orange, but of all the kittens, it is the one I worry about. I hardly ever see it eating unlike the others. I hope it makes it for her sake. So, if you want a kitten in a few months let me know.

We took the girls up to Aaron's parents Saturday night, getting there after 9pm. We got up the next morning and went to church. Aaron and his dad came home and started working on cutting down 3 trees in his parents yard. It ended up taking until about 4pm. I had been hoping to get home in time to attend our church at 6 pm, but didn't get home until after 8. I worked 7-4 on Monday, then Aaron got home about 4:30. We went and got Taco Bell for supper, then mowed the yard. By the time we were done, we realized the cat was in labor. I moved her into the laundry room, so I wouldn't have to watch in the garage and it was pretty exciting for me to get to watch. Aaron wasn't quite as thrilled. Needless to say, I got nothing done that evening on the house. I had these grand plans to work and clean like crazy while I had no kids around to distract me or to mess up one room while I am cleaning another.

On a sad note, last Friday a wreck was all over the news, where there was a police chase ending in one person getting killed. They hadn't released a name and since it was an hour away from here, I didn't think anything about it. Well, we got home Sunday night and had a message from a friend from college and the innocent person killed in the wreck was a guy Aaron and I had gone to college with. He was in his car when it was hit by the druggies getting chased by the police. He and his wife were on the same mission trip that Aaron and I started dating on, when we went to Mexico in '96. They started dating that same week. They have 2 little boys ages 3 and 6. We went to his funeral this afternoon. It was very sad. We were able to see some people that we hadn't seen since graduation 11 years ago. It was like a reunion of the Christian Student Center. We left at 1100 this morning and didn't get home until 5 or so, so were were gone most of the day. I have the kitchen clean and that is it. I have had a killer headache all day - a combination of sinus and stress from a funeral- and with the pain medicine, it is still not going away enough where I feel like cleaning away. So much for a clean house when the kids get home - Aaron's parents are bringing them home tomorrow, I don't know what time. I miss them, the house is not the same without them. So quiet.

sick kids

2008-05-28T05:50:00.000-07:00

We had a good weekend. I don't have any new pictures. The batteries on our camera go dead all the time. That is one thing I have to buy before the adoption is a new camera that actually doesn't need new batteries every other day. So annoying.
Aaron's parents were here over the weekend. I worked 7-3 Friday, but actually didn't get done charting until 5pm. Which is very unusual for me. Normally, if I have a bad morning and don't chart as I do it, at least I can chart in the afternoon, but rarely am I there late. Needless to say, I was questioning my abilities by the time I left that day. It was bad. Aaron's parents were here When I got home and knowing they were coming and I might be working all weekend, I went ahead and bought a bunch of easily prepared food for Aaron to cook. I have ended up not working since Friday, although they have called me twice since.
Natalie woke up with a sore throat/fever Sunday morning. Her good friend at church had strep throat, so I assumed that is what it was. I was going to take her to a walkin on Monday, but couldn't find one open, so I decided to just take her to her doctor yesterday> Well, he and his wife (the other doctor) are on vacation until the 9th. We drove to the nearest walk -in about 25 min. away. It was so full, I had to park around back, so I called from my car to make sure the crowd was for the actual walkin instead of the doctor's office next door. They were already full, so I drove to the other one on the other side of this town and we went there. I left the house at 8:40 and didn't get home until 12:00. What a morning! She didn't have strep, but her lymph nodes were swollen and he gave her some antibiotics, saying she had pharyngitis. She woke me up about 5:30am burning up with fever again, so maybe in the next 36 hours, the antibiotics will kick in. Madelyn started complaining of a headache and sore throat last night. Still no fever this morning, but this is how Natalie's started. Aaron's parents were considering taking the girls home with them for a few days, but Natalie's sickness changed their minds.
I sent me and the girls' applications in for camp yesterday. The girls don't want to go unless I do, and since it is 5 hours away, I don't feel comfortably leaving them for a week. So I applied for a counselor job for the 1st and 2nd grade week. It is the last week in July. I have 4-5 weeks to get in shape. It is 5 hours straight south from here and sooooo hot and humid. And if I am a counselor instead of the nurse like I was last year, I won't have air conditioning. But I really don't want to be the nurse for that age. I didn't even mention it to the director of the week that I was a nurse. I suppose if that is my last choice I might do it. If they already have enough counselors and a nurse, I told them to not sign up the girls either. We already have 2 VBSs planned to go to, and that doesn't include 2 of the churches we went to last year.
Our cat is about to pop with kittens. Yesterday I made her a bed that is partly covered, that I am hoping that she will have the kittens in. We'll see. She checked it out. She has been a homebody the last few weeks. She used to go on walks with us, but now she just watches us walk away. It rained all day yesterday, so she sat in the garage looking out, and it has already started today. Anyone have any way of telling that delivery is imminent? I really want to watch. If she will let us. I never had cats growing up. I will be sure and post the pictures when it happens. Got to get some more batteries.

Snakes

2008-05-19T13:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the girls came running in saying there was a snake in the back yard. Aaron had just left for Walmart, so I yelled for the girls to bring me the shovel. I thought it was a copperhead, and was too scared it would come back to just let it go. I wacked it a few times with the shovel, but I guess because it was on top of a tiny pile of leaves, it didn't hurt it. It was just biting the shovel like crazy and finally slipped down into our window well. I stood there waiting forever for Aaron to come back home. And when he did, he correctly identified it as a corn snake. I felt bad for trying to kill it. So we took it out and turned it loose in the field behind our house. He seemed to recover well from the wacks with the shovel.

No word from the adoption agency last week, other than they are supposed to be having another conference this week to discuss the closing/keeping open of the program. Keep praying that they let us have a referral. There have been two boy referrals this month, of course that has nothing to do with our number on the list which is still 11.

Last Friday was our last coop classes for this year. The girls have really enjoyed them. Madelyn was in a play "Peter Rabbit" that she had started working on in January. She had a speaking part and did really well. She loves performing and even though she gets a little nervous, it doesn't keep her from doing it. I don't think they are going to offer a drama class next year, and I am sure she will be disappointed. She was Flopsy. She wanted Aaron's parents to come watch, so they drove down early Friday morning, watched the play and then drove back after we went out to eat for lunch. They had some old friends in town that they had to get back to.

Saturday, there was an Indian Festival about 15 min. from here, so we went to it for about 3 hours. There was a lot of Indian Dancing. Hannah wanted to dance with them from the time they started. We went to a different Indian Festival back in the fall and she got to go out there and dance with them then. So, finally, the last song they did, they invited people to come out there with them. Madelyn and Natalie refused to go, but Hannah ran. She went up to the "scariest" looking Indian who was dressed in a Warrior outfit and apparently wasn't scared at all. It was cute.

After watching them dance, we went to the tiny ampitheater where there was a little girl singing song after song. Thankfully, I had brought our cooler full of drinks, because we had only brought $6. We used $5 to buy 2 hotdogs and 2 chips that the girls split. I had also brought a box of granola bars which we all snacked on earlier. Aaron noticed that they were starting the Civil War reenactment where we had just been, so the girls and I stayed and watched another girl sing song after song after song, while Aaron went over to watch the reenacters alone. The girls were fine with that I think, because they kept shooting cannons off and it was so loud, even across the pond, that you couldn't help but jump every time they did it. While waiting for Aaron, Hannah began to get very whiny, and therefore causing me to have a meltdown. Just kidding! -Although I was very ready to leave by the time that Aaron got back. We went home and spent the rest of the afternoon being lazy, then the evening we played outside with the girls. Mostly badminton and frisbee (or crispy as Madelyn used to call it)

Sunday was church and I actually cooked a roast in the crockpot starting Saturday night. Sundays are so hard to plan lunch because we are usually starving when we get home from church. Even with cooking the roast, I still had to cook side dishes to go with it after we got home. Many Sundays we succomb to the pressure and just go get fast food. I actually soaked some beans this morning and have them cooking. Cooked some cubed steak and have that cooking in the crock pot. I am fixing to make some cornbread, and some mashed potatoes. Won't Aaron be surprised? When we lived in SC, I cooked all the time. I was always trying new recipes and I actually made lunches and desserts and sold them to people that worked in this doctor's office. But for some reason, since we moved, I have lost my heart for cooking and poor Aaron, who people used to be jealous of because he got to eat so good all the time, is now yearning for the old days. I don't know what is wrong with me, but I just can't get into it. I am trying I miss Krogers. Here, we have two "family" owned grocery stores. and a Super Walmart. Aaron brought up a good point about it. That I have to go to 2 different stores to get a full fridge. I don't know if I have ever bought ground beef at Walmar that didn't have some kind of hard peice in it. Gag! So, I buy nonground meat there, but usually end up going to one of the family stores for most of my meat, but everything else is so much cheaper at Walmart. I even had a dream the other night that I happened down a road that I hadn't been on yet since living here and found a Kroger. I was so excited to tell Aaron when he got home. Pretty sad when you dream about an old grocery store that you used to love.

Weekend in Review

2008-05-12T21:00:00.000-07:00

Took the girls to their weekly coop classes on Friday. It lasts from 9-12 and usually, I sit in the gym on the bleachers the whole time. I normally take a book to read, or write letters, make a grocery list, anything to pass the time. Sometimes, there are other moms there who are talkative and that really passes the time if there is someone to talk to. Since it is getting towards the end of the year people have been putting curriculum and books out to either sell or give away. I got a free book on homeschooling since I forgot a book this time. Thankfully, I grabbed it early b/c I was asked to go sit in on the chess class. Talk about excitement. It was 7th 8th grade boys and there were only 4 of them. They were very well behaved and nice. The rule is that there has to be at least 2 adults in every class. I told them that I didn't know how to play chess and had probably played twice in my lifetime. They said the adult in their class didn't know how to play either, she had to read a book. I thought that was funny.
I decided since I had been extra lazy with my work last month(I only worked 12 hours) That I needed to get on the ball this month. So, I worked 7-3 Saturday. It is a change to go from evening shift to day shift, but nice. Nice to get up early and be home by 4, instead of when I work 3-11, I get up at normal time, try to get a nap in, and then leave for work after being awake half the day. Then not get home until after 11:30. I like day shift b/c it helps to stay on a better sleep schedule, but when I work evenings, I feel like I miss less family time. I leave for work at 6:30 at night and the kids start going to bed at 8.
They begged me to work at least 4 hours on Sunday, so I agreed to work 3-7. It was a tiring weekend b/c we were up untl about 1am Sunday morning. After getting up at 5:30 am Saturday morning. There were terrible storms coming through and I was wanting to stay up at least long enough to watch the major danger blow over. We put the girls to sleep in the hallway in sleeping bags, which they found exciting. Whenever the weather radio alarms, Hannah says "are they going to save us?" She asked where Aaron and I were going to sleep since the hallway was full. I told her our bed, and she was like "but what if a tornado comes and gets you and then we won't have any parents any more" It was sweet and sad at the same time.
After Aaron got home tonight, he challenged me to a game of badminton after supper. So, after warming up with the girls on our team, where Madelyn does pretty well as long as she doesn't have to move her feet, and Natalie has the same underhanded swing no matter how the birdie comes over the net and I just know that someday, I will get it on the chin from her wild swing. (we are normally on the same team, they fight over who gets to be on Aaron's team. I don't know why). We have got to get another racket for Hannah to carry around. Oh, Aaron beat me 15-5. We really don't know how to score badminton since we left the directions that came with it out in the rain, so we just scored like we were playing volleyball. I'll beat him next time.
Only 1 person signed up for our biweekly ladies' lunch tomorrow. Now, normally about 3-4 people sign up, and last time< I think only two people signed up, so on Monday, I spent a bunch of time calling around and sure enough, we had about 8-9 people. But I had already spoke to a few regulars on Sunday that couldn't come and with only one person signing up and me calling the other regulars who can't come, I decided to cancel. I hope no one shows up tomorrow, but SIGN UP already. Of course if people can come at the last minute and didn't sign up, I want them to come, but it is so hard to plan if I have no idea how many are coming.
I scheduled a Tastefully Simple party at my house for June 6th. I hope to have a good group for that. I am supposed to meet the consultant in a few weeks to get the invitations to send out. I went to a party at my sister's in law Cathy a few years ago and loved the product. It was a nice little party too.