"But you already have two kids..."

Woo Hoo! We finished our final PRIDE class on Tuesday. We have a CPR/First Aid and Medication Handling class on Saturday, but that is a separate thing. We are turning in all of our final paperwork and PRIDE homework on Saturday so that will finish up our file and we can schedule our homestudy. I am a bit worried about that. I don't really know what to expect. I am sure it will be fine, we don't live in a slum and our house should be up to code since its only 2 years old, but still, anytime you have someone going through all of your personal information and belongings it tends to make you feel violated. I hear that there really isn't any question they won't/can't ask so that should make this interesting!

Its weird, as we go through this process, the things we have learned and the way things have changed. We had originally wanted to foster with eventually adopting, but now we want to adopt as soon as we can. Its weird, thinking about it, but I feel like someone else it out there raising my children. Which they are, and I feel like there are specific children that are out there that are meant for me, and that right now someone else is caring for them... or not caring for them. Being that I am typically a parinod and controlling person when it comes to my children, it makes me fear for them about whatever is going to happen or has happened to them that will land them into foster care.

Now to explain the title. It seems that the typical response we are getting when talking about adoption is "but you already have two kids...." or some variety of that. Its like President Obama put a limit on how many kids we can all have and I didn't get the memo. If I was having another baby I don't think people would react like that. Or maybe not as many.

Another thing that is already striking me as odd are peoples expressions when I tell them HOW we are adopting. We were at my kid's peds office and my doctors office getting our TB tests done (part of the process) when I said we were adopting, both offices' nurses/doctors asked from where (meaning a country) when I told them the foster care system they looked perplexed. It is kind of disheartening. I wish more people were aware of the amount of homeless and foster children there are in most places. Now, I applaud those who adopt abroad, that is fantastic, any form of adoption is, however I feel that there are so many children here in our own area that need a home too and people just don't know or don't care! I know the children I will adopt (yes children, we want to adopt two) will come with their own type of baggage and that baggage isn't as obvious when you adopt a newborn (but it IS still there) but does that make these kids any less deserving of a good, warm, loving home?

These are just a few of the things that we have encountered already in our journey. I can't wait to see what happens when we actually have placements :)

My dream...

It may surprise some that living in suburbia isn't my preference. While I am typically mainstream, my dream of living in a small town on a large plot of land is something that I am holding on to. While I don't want to be off the grid by any means (what would I do without a CVS or Walgreens, LOL) but I do want to live somewhere where there is a sense of community. I don't feel that at all here. There are so many different neighborhoods, no clear definition from one city to the next and most people seem to not have any sense of pride of where they are from.

It bums me out that I haven't taken my kids to a homecoming parade or taken them to a high school football game since we moved here. School and community pride and unity is something that I always felt living in Michigan, but here not so much.

We knew that Texas was just going to be a pit stop on our quest to our forever home, so now we are starting to plan and get ideas on where our next place will be. Dave's job can take us just about anywhere, so we are really open to the possibilities. Some places that we have tossed around have been North Carolina, Colorado and Chicago particularly smaller towns surrounding the major cities in these areas. We miss having 4 season so that is a MUST. We want somewhere where our children have room to run around and where we can have a couple of big dogs and maybe some other animals, where we can ride ATVs and that has room for Dave to store his tools and other "toys". LOL

We aren't packing our bags just yet, we have at least a couple more years here as Dave needs to finish his MBA and we want to find and adopt our future children, but it is something that is being discussed often.

So, any suggestions on locations would be helpful! If there is anywhere you know of that sounds like what we are looking for, bring it on!! :)

My baby is a BIG BOY!!!

So Dave has been pestering me forever about getting Bobo's hair cut. He is just my little baby and I wasn't ready. Well this weekend we decided it was time, its so long it started curling up around his ears and stuff. So we headed out to one of the kids hair cut places! He wasn't very happy, but he was a pretty good customer. And does he look SOOO handsome!!

Before... yeah it was long :)

All done!!! :)

Menu Planning Monday!

I just did a bunch of grocery shopping this weekend so I have more options :) Now to put them into action :)

If you are coming to visit from orgjunkie, please stay and look around! I would love feedback!!

Alright, on to the menu!!

Monday- Leftovers

Tuesday- Potluck at PRIDE class (making pasta salad)

Wednesday- Pork, maybe kabobs on the grill? yummo!

Thursday- Spaghetti with meat sauce, green beans and garlic bread

Friday- Homemade Pizza, yummmmyyy its been a while!

Saturday- All day pride class, probably going out to eat afterward with the kids

Sunday- Meatloaf...man I love meatloaf :) With corn and mashed potatoes!

Scrapbooking...

I love scrapbooking... I love looking at scrapbooks. I have a horrible memory so I love looking and having the memorabilia to take me back and remind me of those milestones.

Its incredible to compare the pictures of my daughter and my son from when she was his age. They look like twins! When Little Miss was born, and before that, I was big into paper scrapbooking. I had a whole room dedicated to it. But as my life changed, so did my time for scrapbooking, or rather lack there of. So I turned to digital scrapbooking, I really enjoyed it but after a computer crash and loosing all of the elements I had downloaded, I got discouraged.

Today I decided that I just can't keep not documenting the important things in my family's lives. I read about an idea where the mom scrapbooks each month for their child. "2 Months" then "3 Months" each a two page layout. I can handle that! I could probably get caught up with Bobo in a weekend or two. If there is more to scrapbook and I feel like it, fine, but if not I won't let myself become overwhelmed.

Little Miss has 3 scrapbooks a few inches thick that only goes up to when she was 9 months old. I felt the need to photograph EVERYTHING (I still do!) but then to scrapbook EVERYTHING. It just isn't practical, I don't have the time to do a layout for each set of cute pictures I take.

Anyway...lots of rambling, but expect some layouts soon! If I don't post them, gently remind me :)

Here are that I did about a year ago of Little Miss :)

Diaper Cakes and Turning One

My neighbor and friend, Marcie had a baby shower 2 weeks ago for her little baby boy Diego who will be arriving very soon! I decided to try to make a diaper cake. I watched a few youtube videos and I think it turned out great! I didn't take a picture of it with the bottom, I forgot. Dh cut a circle out of cardboard and wrapped it in shiny silver wrapping paper (thanks babe!)


But all in all I think these make a great gift! Its practical and cute. Her nursery for the baby is jungle themed so I tied everything into that. Everyone liked it :)


Now... Turning One...


Turning one typically means lots of changes. In our family this includes ditching the bottle. With Little Miss we did this right at one... for Bobo we were a little afraid that he wasn't ready, but I thought that if I didn't just do it, it would be much harder to get rid of later. So, Sunday morning he had his LAST bottle. WOO HOO! With Little Miss, turning One meant being able to turn her car seat to face forward...well once she hit 20 lbs. We won't be doing this with Bobo. His car seat can hold a rearfacing child until 35 lbs (which is typical for convertible car seats) so we will be keeping him backwards until then, or at least until he is close to that weight. For more on my thoughts of car seat safety, go here.

My little baby is becoming my little man. I swear he has grown since his birthday. Something else that came was two new teeth! We thought he might be teething because of the amount of drool he has had, but I didn't see any. (Drool is typically the ONLY sign my kids show when they get new teeth) Yesterday I noticed them though, in the back! One on each side of the top. Big boy!

The Mystery Bag

Well it appears as if my wonderful husband is a bit blog shy. I had left these few things for him to blog about but he hasn't done it. LOL So here I go....

I learned to recycle gift bags from my mom. Why throw away a perfectly fine bag when you will have to buy another one soon anyway. When we lived in Michigan my parents and I passed this orange iridescent gift bag back and forth a dozen times. It became quite the joke. So, its no surprise that almost all of the gift bags I use were given to me at some point.

I was getting ready for Bobo's birthday and I noticed this gift bag sitting on my dresser. I had just been digging through the bags trying to find one for my friend's baby shower, so I figured I pulled it out then. I put a few of Bobo's gifts in this bag and the tag caught my eye, "5/25/09 Happy Birthday with lots of hugs and kisses! From Moca and Aita" (see picture below). Now this was weird for a few reasons... first of all, it had been written only about a week before and the fact that we don't know anyone named Moca or Aita! I have NO idea where this bag came from. I don't remember getting it in a freecycle batch since we have been doing that alot lately, and we definitely didn't receive it from anyone. Bobo's tonka truck was sitting there, I thought maybe it had been returned or something and a gift bag was stuck to the bottom of it, but we bought that before the 25th. So... anyone know someone named Moca or Aita??? Help us solve the mystery!!! :)

Dave's Other Lost Post

Texas is hot, like you didn't know. Our neighborhood promised a pool and rec center when we bought our house over 2 years ago... there is nothing to show that it was no more than bait to get people to move in. I don't think we will see a pool here as long as we live here anyway. Luckily, we have access to the pools where I do my summer camps, but sometimes driving out there isn't an option when I am by myself with both kids. So DH headed to Academy and got the kids a little pool for the back yard. We have a little slide that is too small for Little Miss and still a bit too big for Bobo so she uses it to slide into the pool. It is helping us beat this hot weather and keep in good spirits when we play outside!

Our Fun/Insane/Great WEEK!

This week was one that I was excited for, but dreading at the same time. We had ALOT going on and it seemed to all fall on this week. First, it was my first week of summer camps that I am teaching. I am teaching 4 this summer so this was the first. On top of that, it was our second week of pride classes, one of which was a 4 hour class, instead of 3. Little Miss had her dance recital on Saturday which included two rehearsals, one on Friday and one Saturday morning, and then, of course, Bobo's first birthday. And to top that off, Bobo had a cold all week! So yes, very very busy week in our household! It did leave us with some fantastic pictures though :)

First, Bobo's Birthday... My baby is one. I just can't believe it was a year ago that I was terrified because he was in the NICU, now I'm terrified that he will eat me out of house and home!

Lets start with the cake fiasco! I ordered a cake from Randalls, I went to pick it up and it was HORRIBLE I should have taken a picture... it looked like Little Miss made it... more like Little Miss could have done a better job. She offered me a lower price and I told her I just didn't want it. This put me in a bit of a panic. Dave reminded me of a cute cake we saw at Walmart so I drove all the way back over by our house to see if they had it....they didn't. They had this one below but it was mostly yellow and white. The bakery lady offered to add some blue to make it more boy-ish...well... she didn't lie. She definitely added blue... I felt obligated to buy this mess of a cake simply because I thought that I was out of options. I called Dave and he suggest that I go to Marble Slab and get an ice cream cake... I should have just done this in the beginning. That cake was beautiful! So yeah, the kids ate the mess cake and the adults ate the yummy ice cream cake :)

We were singing Happy Birthday to Bobo and I was trying to keep his hands away from the fire... yeah that didn't last very long. A second after this picture was taken he reached up with his other hand and...

Screaming baby.... I wasn't sure if it was more of the pain or because we all gasped and stopped singing. Either way he was happy once he got his cup cake...

He loved his presents :)

Yes we ate first, the pictures are just in the wrong order :)

Our Birthday Balloon Release. We started this with Little Miss's first birthday as something fun to do. We haven't had anyone email us if they found it, but its still fun :)

Little Miss's Dance Recital...

What a beautiful little mermaid :) They danced to "Under the Sea" from the movie The Little Mermaid. We weren't able to video tape the actual performance, but I taped the dress rehearsal.

Little Miss and her friend

Little Miss and her friends!

Mommy and Little Miss afterwards

Daddy and Little Miss

PRIDE Classes

I think I am acutally going to come out of these classes learning quite a bit! One of our assigments was to do a "genogram" I hadn't ever heard of it, but apparently its a real thing! Here is a sample of one. Mine of course has names, and then birth and death dates and places.

We have another class tomorrow, I am acutally looking forward to it :) Just not the drive downtown in rush hour traffic :)

Its interesting the things you find out. I had no idea my grandfather was born in North Dakota. I just figured he was from Michigan like the rest of my family on that side. My mathernal Grandmother was a huge help :) She gave me all the information I needed on my mom and dad's side and I called my step-dad for the info on his side.

On a side note - my dad died when I was 12, so when I write refering to my "dad" most likely I am talking about my step-dad who has been in my life since I was 9... but around here he is mostly refered to as PaPa :)