Dizzy Winding Road

Valentine Pintrest Party

2012-01-18T21:15:00.002-06:00

Had my first official Pintrest Craft Party this past MLK holiday with 3 of my teacher friends - Kathie, Liz & Lacey. I'd say it was a success! My apologies to Kathie for getting burned by my mega hot glue gun more than once! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my wreath though!

However, I couldn't have my party until I organized my craft room. I had tons of ribbon piled in a basket. I saw some cool ideas on Pintrest but came up with a free version instead! Extra pant hanger and 17 gauge wire I had laying around.

My 2nd project using my eCraft cutter from Craftwell. I have wasted a lot of paper learning how to use it, but I think I finally figured it out!

I really wanted a kissing ball in the kitchen and made this one out of a 5" Styrofoam ball, 36 carnations with about 2" of stem left on them, silver ribbon, hot glue with 3 push pins to hold ribbon in place, and fishing string to tie to pull-chain on ceiling fan.

I took all of my black, white and pink ribbons (plus a few more) to make this adorable wreath! Thanks, She's {Kinda} Crafty, for the idea!

Bulletin Board

2011-12-27T23:40:00.002-06:00

Had to share the bulletin board I made for my niece for Christmas. I used a 24x36 bulletin board from w.mart for $9, 2 6ft boas from h.lobby for $7 each and glitter paint from the tie-dye section of h.lobby for $3.50. I painted the board with liquitex basic acrylic tube paints and finished with a layer of the glitter paint on the designs. A layer of varnish could probably be used but I didn't think it was necessary. It really liked the way it turned out and can't wait to make one for Khloe!

DIY Snowman Wreath

2011-11-13T10:04:00.000-06:00

PINTREST INSPIRATION

This project cost me less than $10!

Supplies

Wally-World
White spray paint $0.97
20" wreath $3.49

Dollar.Tree
15" wreath
18" wreath
wreath hanger

From my stash
17 gauge wire - sticks from yard would probably work too
floral wire
wire cutters
buttons
fishing string
scrap material

Steps
1. Spray paint all wreaths
2. Use floral wire to twist tie each wreath from smallest to biggest
3. Use 17 guage wire to shape into desired snowman arm (or use sticks and floral wire) and use the extra hanging wire from arm shape to attach to desired place on center snowman
4. Repeat step 3 for 2nd arm
5. Use fishing string and buttons to create a row for eyes, a column for the nose and a row for the mouth. (HINT: I wrapped the mouth row of buttons one time around the nose column to create the arch in the smile.)
6. Add cute scrap material around neck for scarf and VIOLA!

He needs a hat of some sort but at least I have now completed 2 of my 3 Christmas projects!

Totally Free DIY toy box

2011-11-12T13:23:00.001-06:00

Once again I got my inspiration from Pintrest! I kept seeing all the projects that use scrapbook paper and mod podge and got to thinking...what if I used my scrapbook paper and gel medium to cover the hideous diaper box I use for toy storage?? Genius!!

MY PINTREST INSPIRATION


BEFORE

AFTER!

Supplies
Sponge brush
Golden's Gel Medium (mod podge would work too)
Ugly Box
6 pieces of 12x12 Scrapbook Paper (more if your box is bigger, less if box is smaller)
Scissors (I used heavy duty kitchen scissors)
Optional: Tape, quilt rolly cutter thing, metal ruler, and cutting mat (exacto knife would work too)

Steps

Empty box and cut off lid flaps

Select 6 pages of 12x12 scrapbooking paper. Fold in 1/2 and use metal ruler, rolly cutter and mat to cut a few at a time to cut quickly. I do not recommend laying all 6 pieces down and cutting at once :-) You do what you want though. Using scissors is totally fine too. The lazy way (which is how I made this box the first time) is to not cut the paper at all until you put the trim on and just use each whole page.)

Set 1 whole page aside for the trim at the end. Make a plan using the 10 remaining halves. Be sure the 1st and last page are not the same print! All 10 halves will be used for this size of box!

Put a layer of glue on box and smooth out desired paper lining the paper up with the bottom of the box. I didn't want the paper to start on a flat side thus why I glued the first piece around the corner. (I did not coat the top of the paper with glue until I was finished putting all the paper down.)

Each piece thereafter should overlap the previous piece just a bit.

When you get to the handle, go ahead and glue like before. Then use scissors or exacto to cut the handle off from the inside of the box. I then cut through the middle of the handle hole as seen here.

Using fingers and the glue, wipe glue on box and paper and continue smoothing paper with glue until it dries and sticks to box. You may have to hold it a few seconds.

Take the 2 halves of paper that you saved for the trim and fold each in half. Open the fold and fold each half in half again to end up with 4 equal strips. Only 5 1/2 of the 8 are needed. Cut 5 1/2 strips and tape end to end. Trim ends as needed to look even.

Put glue down and smooth paper over all the way around the top. You may end up with parts of the top showing. You can cut it even when everything is dry.

Use glue and brush to "paint" glue on top of all paper! Don't miss any spots especially around the bottom edge. The paper will get tiny tears if you do miss any spots! (Not that I know from experience or anything ;-)

Let it dry then it's ready for use! Easy peezy lemon-squeesy! This does take about an hour from start to finish and without interruption! The box below was my 1st go-'round. I like it way better with paper halves instead of whole sheets. Whole sheets are way faster though!

Addicted to Pintrest

2011-11-11T23:49:00.004-06:00

Pintrest is my new addiction. I can't get enough. I can't even go to bed at night (unless I'm super exhausted) without browsing to see what's been posted for the day for fear of missing something super amazing!

After creating a Christmas board and posting lots of Christmas crafts, I was inspired (along with my bestie Kathie) to have a PINTREST PARTY to help each other create a wreath for our homes. We went shopping at the Dollar Tree and Hobby Lobby. I spent about $17 to make the fantabulous wreath you see below for my front door! I love it! The only things I didn't have to buy for this project were the 3 green ornaments.

SUPPLIES:

already had: glue gun and 3 green ornaments

Hobby.Lobby
1 - $6 wreath (used 40% off coupon)
2 sets - large pearls on wire
1 - roll of floral wire
1 - large green glitter circles on a stick from Christmas floral section

Wal.Mart
2 - green and white candy cane ornaments
1 set - 2 red and white wrapped candy ornaments

Dollar.Tree
3 - sets of 4 red and silver mixed mini ornaments on sticks
1 - silver, wood and pine cone thingy cut in half
2 - types of ribbon with wire
1 - glittery bow
1 bunch - white poinsettias

This was the original layout and realized that the bow was WAY too small for all the cuteness on the other side!

My Awesome Christmas Wreath

Halloween 2011

2011-11-11T23:06:00.000-06:00

Khloe was the most adorable ladybug for Halloween. We didn't take her trick-or treating but we did take her to the community festival near our house. She had a blast going down the slide and running around. She tried walking off with several kids' jack-o-lanterns. I wish I would have known she would carry one around cause I totally would have bought her one! Apparently the weekend before, my mom practiced carrying a jack-o-lanterns with her but no one bothered to inform me ;0) Next year Khloe will definitely have her own jack-o-lantern!

Awesome little bows!

2011-10-01T19:45:00.002-05:00

I made the cutest bows this morning for Khloe before we left for my hometown's Annual Arts and Crafts Show! Thank you so much Ashley from Make It and Love It!!

Just in case you are wondering what's with the sticks...Khloe collected sticks all afternoon at the Arts and Crafts Show :-) Such a silly girl. We also had her caricature done. Too cute!

1 Year Old

2011-09-28T21:34:00.000-05:00

It's so hard to believe Khloe turned 1 over a month ago! We had a great visit with Khloe's birthmom and birthgrandparents the weekend after her birthday. Khloe's birthday party was so much fun. All of our close friends and relatives came to our house to celebrate. She had the pink and green Mod Monkey party that I wanted!

Here are the photos mama took while dada was the photo assistant :-)

The birthday girl on her birthday!

with granddad and nana

our good friends josh and amber


with pop-pop and mammy

A few pics from the party!

Almost 1

2011-08-05T07:50:00.000-05:00

Where did the time go??? Can't believe my little baby is becoming a toddler!!! Khloe will be 1 on August 18. We did go with the mod monkey theme from b-day express. It's adorable!

Khloe is walking really good. She can take about 10-12 steps without stopping (sometimes) but most of the time she just takes four and falls down to crawl. She claps all the time! It's so cute! Khloe LOVES bath time and playing with her bath toys. She even likes it when I scrub her gums and the 5-6 teeth she has with her Baby Oragel tooth and gum cleaner. Khloe has always been a great baby. She rarely gets fussy unless she has a crowd. She will let anybody who's standing up hold her. She climbs up and onto everything. As I was typing that sentence, she used my leg and the couch to climb onto the couch! Crazy little monkey-girl!

I had to leave for one week for a teacher conference at the end of June. I'm going to take over the AP Studio Drawing and PreAP Drawing/Painting class - eeek! Khloe was so excited to see me when I got home. She crawled into my suitcase and was quite proud of herself!

Khloe loves playing the kitchen when we are in there cooking or cleaning. Banging cabinet doors is her favorite thing to do! She has 2 drawers and 1 door that she knows are hers. We have plastic stuff, mini pink frying pan, wood spoon, etc in them :-)

Recently Khloe and I took a trip to Denton, Tx to see her Granddad and Nana (B's parents) while
he went on his annual fishing trip to the coast with the guys. We had so much fun with them, and Khloe made new friends too! I took her to meet her daddy's best friend's family. They just loved each other!! It was great!!

In Denton visiting Granddad and Nana!

In Denton visiting the Ventrca kids!

10 months

2011-06-24T10:49:00.000-05:00

I laugh at the fact that I thought Khloe's 9 month milestone picture was difficult. Well 10 months was even more difficult! I probably should not have waited until 30 minutes before nap time to do them - my bad!

Khloe is not walking yet but she's starting to let go of things to stand on her own. She's not very successful. I think she stands for about 1 second before sitting down because she gets scared. Her crawling abilities are amazing! She's super fast!!

Khloe's new loves - being nosy-rosy inside the refrigerator (she's fast and usually inside it before we can close the door), trying to climb on top of the dishwasher lid when it's down (she's been successful twice), and playing peek-a-boo with us, instead of the other way around. She will bend down in front of the couch, and we say, "Were's Khloe?" She pops up and laughs and does it one hundred more times :-) j/k

I'm thinking of doing a hot pink and lime girl monkey theme party for her 1st birthday. I've seen cute stuff in kid party magazines. I'm hoping Card and Party Factory will have something I can work with! Ordering that stuff online is sooooo expensive but oh so cute!!

8 month and 9 month photos!

2011-05-26T21:17:00.001-05:00

Forgot to add these to my post yesterday!
Khloe used to be so easy to photograph. Now all she wants to do is roll around, stand up and just be silly during her monthly milestone pics. I usually get 1 great one and 10 goofy ones. Such a silly, silly girl!

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So many changes

2011-05-25T20:55:00.001-05:00

Where to start...Khloe has been crawling since April 1st weekend! It was the army crawl, and it was so cute to watch her use her grip to drag herself across the floor. She started crawling "for real" just a couple of weeks later. Shortly after that she realized she could pull herself up on anything and was even letting go! (She no longer tries to let go, and she taught herself how to sit from standing.)

Khloe has now outgrown her baby bathtub: -( She's not a baby any more *SNIFF SNIFF* but of course she will always be my baby no matter what size she is.

She thinks her play table is meant to be crawled under- no idea where she learned that from? Maybe some toy at the sitter's? ? But it's so cute to watch. There isn't much Khloe does that isn't freakin' adorable! Just sayin' ;-)

Can't believe our first annual visit with "K" is just around the corner. Man, how time flies!!

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7 months old

2011-03-20T15:59:00.001-05:00

Where is the time going? Spring break has now come and gone. I was able to spend my whole break with the Khloe Girl, except the one day I spent painting. Can't wait to spend my summer teaching KJ lots of new stuff. Potty training is at the top of my list!

Can't remember if I said in my last post that Khloe has 2bottom teeth! They r the cutest things!! We r pretty sure she's working on her third. Mommy and daddy r not getting much sleep, just as we were getting used to her sleeping 9 hrs straight!

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7 months old

2011-03-20T15:56:00.001-05:00

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Another month has come and gone

2011-03-12T23:48:00.001-06:00

It seems another month has come and gone before my eyes!! Khloe is almost 7 months old! She just got her first tooth on March 1st! She's been in some pain but still manages to smile and laugh through it. She finally rolled over from her back to her stomach the weekend before she turned 6th months. We were so excited!

Khloe's adoption finalization was Friday, February 25th. What an exciting day for all of the families in court with us finalizing all of our adoptions. Almost all the families there had girls too! Only 1 baby boy, 1 middle school-aged boy and about 9 baby girls!!

Tutu that I made just for Khloe's 6 mo. pics

Adorable bloomers from Aunt KayKay! Geaux Saints!

4 months and 5 months

2011-01-22T10:57:00.001-06:00

So I suck at keeping up with my blog now that I'm back to being a full-time art teacher and full-time mommy :-) I wouldn't have it any other way, but I am SOOOO looking forward to summer with the Baby Girl! Here are her 4 month and 5 month milestone pics that I took along with a few others! :-)

Khloe had her first Christmas in New Orleans with B's family. They were thrilled to death to finally meet KJ!! She got so many great toys and clothes! She did really good with Santa too!

Some other pics of the Khloe Girl

So behind on posting!

2010-11-28T10:51:00.000-06:00

Sorry blogger world! I have no time for reading or writing these days!! I just wanted to post KJ's best monthly milestone pic so far!!

Khloe is such a happy baby. I'm glad I was FINALLY able to capture it!!

Adorable leg warmers from Tar.get for like $2! Too cute!

Baby's First Halloween

2010-10-31T21:34:00.000-05:00

Khloe had a pretty uneventful Happy Halloween at Grandma-ma's. Cousin Kenley, Aunt Amy, Uncle KC and Great Granny Rose came to see us! Khloe decided to wait until we got home and for daddy to leave for work to have a melt-down. It only lasted about 30-45 minutes. Either way, Khloe was super-adorable in her bumble bee costume! Too bad it was too hot to wear it for more than just a few minutes :-(

My Baby Bumble Bee

Khloe & her Grandma-ma

Khloe, Mommy & Daddy

Khloe & Aunt Amy

Khloe & Great-Granny Rose

Khloe rolls over

2010-10-29T12:40:00.000-05:00

Khloe is sorta holding her head up on her own - for like 5 seconds. Her doctor was really impressed by her strength at her last appointment!

15 in 15

2010-10-23T22:24:00.000-05:00

So my new school has an annual Art Survivor event called 15 in 15. It entails completing a drawing a day for 15 school days. Last week was week 1, and the theme was "things that start with 'a'." I did an apple still life, an apron, an angel, amethyst jewelry, and an asymmetrical shirt. My apple still life was the first drawing I turned it. I only spent about 15 minutes on it b/c that's all I had. As I was going to put it up, I see the quality of the other art teachers. It makes my apple still life very inadequate. I went back to room and added some color to make it better. I slowly turned in better and better drawings as the week went along. It's been so long since I've drawn anything b/c I spent most of the summer sewing and painting.

Week two's theme is "things that start with 'r'." I've done a ring, ruffled dress and ruffled top. I really like drapery if you couldn't tell. Even though this commitment is super-hard, I'm really enjoying getting back to my art roots of drawing all the time. I like the fact that this event teaches the kids that if you want to be good and get better at drawing, you HAVE to constantly practice! Here are some of my "r" drawings!

Khloe is 2 months!

2010-10-23T22:06:00.000-05:00

Can't believe our baby girl was 2 months old Monday!

She's finally smiling :-) I love it!! She's cooing like crazy and loves her gym. She had her 2 month shots Tuesday. We found out that she weighs 11 lbs 12 oz and is 22 in. She's in the 75th percentile for weight, 30th for height (she's a shorty apparently :-) and 90th!! for head circumference. We always knew she was smart! The doctor was very impressed by the length of time and distance from the ground that she could hold her head up. She's very strong!

I had to do a 2 month photo shoot with her :-) Enjoy!!

1 Month Old

2010-09-18T23:35:00.000-05:00

Khloe was 1 month old today! She's growing up so fast!!

Khloe and her cousin Kenley

Khloe update

2010-09-10T15:44:00.000-05:00

Sorry I've been MIA!! Being a mommy takes up so much time. I'm lucky to shower every other day :-) We've gotten so much help from our moms who take turns coming to stay with us. Thank you!!!

My SIL and other family members are throwing me a diaper and formula shower - yay! Seriously - I do not need any onesies!!! I need diapers!!! My besties from RJH (the school I used to teach at) are giving me a shower too. I can't wait for them to meet Khloe. Seriously, y'all - no onesies allowed!!

For those of you who don't know, my college degree is in photography. I waited until Khloe was 2 weeks old to give her the experience of a photo shoot :-) She would NOT go to sleep until late afternoon, and I started taking pics around 11:30am!

I'm a Mommy!

2010-08-21T13:32:00.001-05:00

I'm a mommy, and B is a daddy. We have the most beautiful and precious baby girl. Khloe is everything I hoped she would be. Yesterday placement ceremony had tears of joy and tears of sadness. It was an overwhelming and surreal experience for all.

Baby is doing great sleeping, eating, burping and going through a lotta poopy diapers!!!

My niece was so cute with Khloe and definitely stole the spotlight :-)

Our immediate family and two close friends came to share our special moment. K had a huge support group at the ceremony as well. It was all very sweet.

Almost a Mommy

2010-08-18T20:33:00.001-05:00

I didn't sleep well last night. I was so anxious for Khloe to get here and worried I wouldn't hear the phone ring if K's water broke in the middle of the night. At 8:39am I was in the middle of writing a text to K when J (K's mom) texted me to say the doc/nurse just broke K's water. J also said the nurse would be back in 2 hours to check her progress. At 9:40ish I got another text from J to say K was at 6 centimeters!! Crazy!! I wrote back to say we would be on our way in 30 min!! At some point before we arrived, K got an epidural. At 11am she was a 9! About 11:20am, we kicked everybody out and had us a baby!! K only had to push for 30 min!! She was incredible. J and I were trying to be the best coaches we could be. What a beautiful experience that I will never forget. I will never be able to say thank you enough times to show how much it meant to be there.

08/18/10 11:51am 7lbs10oz 21.25"

I got to meet lots of special people in K's life that I've been hearing about for months now. B & I got to hold her right away - after K and J of course! I got to see Khloe get weighed, measured and dance :-) B & I got to watch the nurse give Khloe her first bath.

We are so very blessed and so very lucky to have such amazing people like K and J in our lives.

Placement is scheduled for Friday evening.

No progress and lots of drama!

2010-08-18T09:55:00.000-05:00

K is at the hospital. She was admitted Tuesday afternoon about 3:45/4. They gave her the cervadel around 5:30pm (I think) to begin softening her cervix. Since her didn't make much progress overnight, the doc started her on pitocin @4am. Then the doc broke her water @8:30am today (Wednesday). She's supposed to get checked again at 10:30.

We are waiting patiently in our hotel room for now :-) OMG We had such a freakin' fiasco last night trying to get a room at the LaQuinta near K's hospital. First, the girl gives us room 400. We spend 10 minutes trying to get the AC to work which never happened. We haul our crap back down to the lobby, and she gives us room 315. Guess what??? Room 315 was ocupado by other guests!! Are you serious, dumb front desk girl??? If she hadn't been flirting with the nasty greaser guest, maybe she wouldn't have put us in an occupied room!!! Anywho, we all our $h*t once again back down to the lobby after yelling "Sorry!" to the current occupant of 315. She decides to upgrade us to a suite for the inconvenience. OK. Not bad, right? WRONG!! I woke up and saw the bill under the door. Guess what dumb front desk girl did??? She did not upgrade us for free!!! We were charged full price for the suite!!! OMG I was H-O-T!!! Luckily my amazing husband worked it out, and we paid the state rate that we were supposed to get for a regular room! Shew!!

Going to spend the rest of the day with K and her mom J at the hospital. Please pray for K and Miss Khloe!!!

Still waiting...

2010-08-14T09:04:00.000-05:00

Sorry to my avid readers who having been patiently waiting to hear about Khloe. Sadly, there is not much to report. K's due date (Thur, Aug 11th) came and went and still no Khloe. K goes to the hospital Tue night (Aug 16th) and gets induced at 4am Wed. We don't plan on being at the hospital till later and closer to delivery. It could be HOURS! till she is ready to push - at least with my experiences with my SIL and BFF that's how it was. I started in-services with my new teaching job. I have so much still to learn about it. I don't have anything typed up for the new year b/c I had to wait till I met with the other art teachers. We are supposed to be teaching the same thing at about the same time. I didn't know their sequence of events etc. I'm finally up to speed with what needs to be done for school and will be working non-stop to be prepared.

Since Khloe will be arriving Wed or Thur, K will be released Fri or Sat, and she wants a week worth of nursery visits. I have no idea when placement will be b/c K also has to move back home and get her stuff packed for college. She moves into her dorm the following Thur (Aug 25th). Everything is up in the air. I hate when things are up in the air. I need concrete answers!! :-) I just hate not being in control of the situation which I'm sure many of you can relate to. Hopefully, I'll have some pics to post by next Fri or Sat - if I'm not too busy! ;-)

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers as our adoption journey winds down.

Recycledness

2010-07-23T03:50:00.000-05:00

I've had MANY friends on FB comment on my outfits that I've revamped! I hope you gals were serious about me needing to sell my stuff. I'm putting on my blog for now. I don't really want to deal w/Etsy at the moment w/their never ending fees! We'll see if anybody really wants me to make them something. I'm using recycled garments if possible b/c there are so many gently used clothes out that - why not?? It makes the costs less than brand new, and it sorta helps the planet. Right?

You can check out what I've made so far on the RECYCLEDNESS - Images page. Prices can be found on the PRICING GUIDE page.

Even if you don't want to buy anything, nice comments always give me warm fuzzies!

Adoption Training, Adoption Book List and other stuff

2010-07-18T09:26:00.005-05:00

So B and I are required to turn in a log every three months about the adoption training stuff we are doing to prepare for the baby. Since we bought a house, painted a house, moved into a house, fixed up a house, got chosen by a birthmom, met our birthmom, went to a sonogram, met our birthmom's mom, and set up a nursery, we sorta forgot about our training log till the other day :-) Ooops! We just have to do one thing every 3 months to show how we are preparing for placement- read a book about adoption, do a training video (8 required videos @$15 a pop!), take a class, etc. I ordered our last 4 videos and am waiting for them to come in. After we finish a video, we have to take a quiz on them. The quizzes are so stupid. True or False: The instructor in the video was a man. Like I said, the quizzes are LAME-O! We aren't required to have the videos completed before placement. We'll have them done before that anyway.

My blogger friend Maru of Adoption Journey said her agency/case worker did not give her and her husband a book list, which upsets and baffles me. Here's the one our agency gave us!

BOOK LIST - Gladney Center for Adoption recommended readings, presented to us in Nov 2009
(Never buy a book brand new! Buy them at half.com (by eBay). I've been buying books there since college. Gently used books for way less than 1/2 the price usually!)

Dealing with infertility
Adopting After Infertility: The Decision, The Commitment, The Experience by Patricia Johnston
Resolving Infertility by the Staff of Resolve with Diane Aronson
Understanding Infertility: Insights for Family and Friends by Patricia Johnston
Surviving Infertility: Linda P. Salzer

Before Adopting
The Adoption Resource Book: Everything you Ought to Know about Creating an Adoptive Family by Lois Gilman
The Complete Adoption Book: Laura Beauvais-Godwin, Raymond Godwin
The Family of Adoption: Joyce Maguire Pavao
The Unofficial Guide to Adopting a Child by Andrea Della Vecchio
Adoption is a Family Affair: Patricia Johnston: Suggested and a recommended read by Maru from Adoption Journey

Adoptive Parenting
Parenting Your Adopted Child: Stephanie E. Siegel
Raising Adopted Children: Lois Ruskai Melina
Secret Thoughts of an Adoptive Mother by Jana Wolff - Highly recommended by Tiffany from All Aboard the IF Train!
Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew by Sherrie Eldridge

DISCLAIMER - At the moment, I can't personally recommend any of them b/c I haven't read them! I plan to buy the 1st or 2nd and 4th (for sure) book under the Adoptive Parenting section.

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Kristi B's suggested books about adoption
DISCLAIMER - I have only read the 1st book on my list and plan to buy several of the others after sampling them at books stores. Then I'll go to half.com and buy them! I already have the books I want on my wishlist. Half sends me an email once a week or so letting me know they have more copies available and how much!

The Tummy Mummy: Michelle Madrid-Branch - Such an amazing book!!! We will be referring to our birth mom as Khloe's tummy mummy.
A Is for Adopted: Eileen Tucker Cosby, Norma S. Strange
Angels of Love: Lynda Arnold - Interracial adoption - didn't get a rave review, but don't think there are that many interracial adoption books out there.
Over the Moon: Karen Katz - International adoption (Guatemala in particular - but when reading to your baby you just substitute the location to which you traveled) - rave review
How I Was Adopted: Samantha's Story: Joanna Cole - Looks really cute, rave reviews, Samantha "Sam" tells the reader to story of being adopted.
My New Family: A First Look at Adoption Pat Thomas (Good Reviews on Amazon)
The Open Adoption Experience: Lois Ruskai Melina,
The Open Adoption Book: Bruce M. Rappaport Ph.D.
Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born: Jamie Lee Curtis - Recommended by Maru and my MIL
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I have to go to the doctor to get a paper signed (since the one I turned in last year is expiring Aug 18) saying that I'm healthy and physically able to take care of Khloe. If placement happens after Aug 18, the one on file will be no good, and we will not be able to bring Khloe home :-( I moved to a place with TONS of doctors - too many doctors actually! When I find a new doctor to go to, they aren't going to know me like my old doctor's place :-( I have to fill out all that paper work and remember my life's and family's medical history -Booo! Speaking of doctors, I have to find Khloe a doctor too! I've got hers narrowed down to two. I have to find childcare for a few days a week. So much to do!

1st attemp at the pillowcase dress

2010-07-17T00:10:00.001-05:00

It's ok. You can laugh. I'm laughing myself :0) Even though it turned out not-so-good. I learned so much! Bias tape always get sewn to the correct side of the fabric :-) Make sure the fabric is straight before cutting. I can't sew bias tape to frayed fabric. Use bias tape that matches unless you want the contrast. I had to start somewhere. I have no where to go but UP!!

The good top hem.

The bad inside hem :-) LOL and horrible sewing job on bias tape - b/c of frayed fabric not because I didn't know what I was doing :-P

Descent hem job at the bottom!

Whitley's finished artwork!

2010-07-16T16:56:00.002-05:00

I just finished the artwork I made for Kim V's baby!! The hardest part was prepping the paper and putting down the pattern! The easy and fun part was painting it!! I hope she likes it!!

I love this painting so much! Wish it was for my house!

Getting Crafty!

2010-07-16T10:33:00.001-05:00

So I asked for a sewing machine a few Christmases ago. I'm made a few things, but I want to make dresses for Khloe so bad! I've found awesome sewing and craft blogs which are very inspirational. I have very good intentions of making cute dresses but will I ever actually make this stuff? Oh yeah, my nurse friend Amber has taken me to Canton (a crafter's dream!) a few times. The website doesn't do it justice at all. It's kinda like Etsy in person. I spend more time taking pictures of everybody's stuff than buying them! I have a hard time buying stuff that I know I can make myself.

I got the idea for this painting in Canton by an amazing artist. Don't know her name though.

This is in my kitchen :-)

New artwork for friend Kimberly V's daughter Whitley. I'm going to paint a cross w/heart on top.

Something else I've made that I'm really proud of is my Love shorts inspired by a very expensive pair that Amber bought at a fashion party. Amber is great shopping buddy, if you couldn't tell. She came over yesterday to hang out. I wasn't supposed to buy anything b/c I went shopping the day before. I didn't spend THAT much ;-) No really. I didn't. Tell them, Amber!! Anywho, one of our stops was the fabric store. I'm going to finish a dress that Amber bought at Old N. using the same technique as the Love shorts. It's an idea we got in Canton of course!

I told her NOT to buy that $50 dress b/c I could SOOOO make that for her if she just bought the fabric! Her fabric only cost a few dollars!! Now, I just need to find a template of a cross (which won't be hard at all), and we'll be in business! Before I can actually sew her design on her dress, I need to practice some more. Since the Love shorts were my first experiment w/that technique, I made a few errors :-)

I'm making a patch for myself. It's not as complicated as the Canton dress, just has the same concept :-) Not sure where I'm going to put it. Hopefully my craft friends can give me some suggestions!! That is, if it turns out descent :-)

Future Projects!

The Long Thread: Ellen shares lots of sewing and craft ideas. I especially love her Summer Dress idea! Looks easy enough! We'll see :-)

Fave Crafts Twirl Dress (very advanced - may be a few years before I try it :-) They have tutorials of everything-under-the-sun regarding crafts!

Prudent Baby: Jacinda and Jaime have TONS of stuff on their site! Crafts, sewing projects, recipes, etc! So glad I found them on The Long Thread! I especially love Prudent Baby's Pillowcase Dress idea!! I plan to make this one very soon. I even bought several colors of ribbon just for it!

Betz White: Shoe bag tutorial!! Had a friend that paid $10 or more for these @ a shoe store. No thanks! I'll make my own! I know I'll actually do this one b/c it looks so easy, and they make great gifts!!

Hope Studios: Jennifer Juniper has lots of great sewing projects! Love her ideas, especially the Scrunchy Gathered Scarfs!!

Nursery Update!

2010-07-12T18:18:00.000-05:00

So I decided to get a little crafty these last few days :-) I see wooden letters all the time on Etsy, but I knew I could make them myself for WAY less! Here's how they turned out!

Since I did the letters chocolate brown and a lime color, I decided to change the bedding. I decided I no longer liked the original bedding I picked out. I used a gift card from family friend Carol R. to buy the new set I wanted! It came with really cute lime sheets with white polka dots. I also bought a choc brown sheet as well. Now I just have to find the matching dust ruffle! I have one other nearby store to check before I ask MIL to check in the Denton for it!! :-)

Wow! Wow! Wow!

2010-07-07T11:48:00.001-05:00

Wow! Have I said wow yet??

Dinner was great. B and I had K and her mom laughing the whole time. Thank goodness I'm a talker b/c we would have had a silent dinner otherwise. I felt like Barbara Walters giving a Dateline interview! Thank goodness the CW gave us the background info for K's family, so I could come up with questions to get conversations started. B felt like the dinner was awkward with Mom there, but I didn't feel that way at all. He felt it was awkward b/c she wasn't starting any conversations or asking us questions. Also, the adoption is like the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. No one brought up the name we picked out. I really wanted to talk about placement and how all of that would work. I did finally say, "We told our families about the reception, and they are really excited to be there and meet you (K) and your family." That conversation pretty much ended there.

Anywho, on the the wow!

We are standing at the restaurant entrance after taking pictures. I finally mentioned "the hospital." I've talked to my CW, but I don't know how soon the info get passed on to K. I just said, "I don't know if your (K's) CW told you, but we want you (K) to know that we feel your time in the hospital is for you and your family to be with the baby. Don't feel like you need to invite us." K gave her mom a look, and I was like what's going on? K said she gets to have two people in the delivery room with her. She asked me to be one of the two along with her mom. I was floored! I couldn't believe out of all the people she knows that she would pick me to be the second person. I was getting misty-eyed, but I wanted to wait till I got to the car to cry. I let Mom know that the invite was very unexpected and not necessary b/c that was their family's time. Mom said that it was my time to be with the baby as well. I couldn't say thank you enough or give enough hugs. K is such a special girl. She is such a sweetheart and definitely knows how to put others first. Now the only problem is, will I be able to make it to the delivery b/c I live 2 hrs away, and I might be in orientation or in-service. I'm not going to worry about it. God will work it out if I'm meant to be there.

Dinner Date/Reception/New Job

2010-07-05T11:03:00.000-05:00

B and I are having dinner with K and Mom this week. On our very first phone call, we ended by saying that we would really like to meet K and K's mom. We are keeping our word and driving to Fort Worth tomorrow!

After the sonogram I was worried we wouldn't be seeing K again until placement (2 months later). She reminded me about having dinner with her and her mom. I was glad to be reminded that we would get to see each other again. I think it's very important for K to know that we want to see her and that we care about her. Even if this situation does not work out for whatever reason, K knows she has a friend in us. We have told her over and over again that she will always be in our hearts no matter what. I feel that our lives have been crossed for one reason or another.

K has begun making plans to have a reception at the agency for Khloe's placement. We are going to have immediate family only (Granny that includes you too), and K is bringing some immediate family and 2 close friends. K wants placement to be more of a celebration than a parting. K and her family/friends have a few gifts for us for Khloe. They want the reception to be like a baby shower for us. I think it's so sweet that K wants to give us a baby shower type reception. She's so very selfless. She's already told me she's made 2 blankets and scrapbook for Khloe. We will have a special gift for K as well. Will share all on Wed.

I need to get to my classroom to clean it out cause it ain't my classroom anymore :-( Gonna miss you RJH! I got a new job closer to home and with quite a bit more money. It's going to be sad to leave the only teaching job I've ever known - 6th, 7th and 8th grade art at a junior high/middle school. Now, I'm going to a high school and will be teaching 5 sections of art 1. The material will be exactly the same - I challenge my JH kids :-) I've been searching and found some great projects for my soon-to-be HS kids. Khloe's timing couldn't be worse though! I'm starting this new job with new orientations and new in-services and brand new kids. I'm required to be at school on the first day (duh!). I don't know how it's all going to work out. I know God will find a way to make it work. B/c I'm a brand new employee, the handbook doesn't make it seem like I qualify for FMLA to take nonpunishable leave for the adoption. I don't want 12 weeks like FMLA allows. I want like 4-5! I'm going to be talking to the principal when he comes back from vay-cay to see what we can work out. Keep your fingers crossed for me and Khloe!

What's in a name?

2010-07-01T14:17:00.000-05:00

I would have posted this earlier, but I was waiting to hear back from K to make sure she liked the baby name before posting. She said she loved it! Yay! I was so scared she would hate it. You'll see why...

At our face-to-face lunch, our case worker CW brings up the question to us if we have any names picked out. I was really hoping CW or K would not bring up this topic b/c I felt like it was too soon. I told her that my favorite name was Blakely but that B hated it b/c he says it sounds like some snobby parents' kid's name. Told her we also liked the name Brinley but sounded too much like my niece's name Kenley. We told her we also liked the name Khloe. K commented back that she really liked Khloe and had thought about using it to give the baby a name. K also said something happened in her life (we assume a death of a family member) which led her to calling the baby June. I made the comment about how cute Khloe June was and that I really liked the initials K.J. I told K we would try to incorporate/consider using June in the name but that I also really wanted to use my middle name (Lynn) too.

Later that night, we decided that Khloe was our favorite name. My name starts with K, and our BM's name starts with K. It just made since to me to go with Khloe. Deciding on a middle name would take a whole 'nother night.

The next night B and I were sitting at our dining room table for dinner (for the first time) when I mentioned that I really liked the initials KJ b/c B's dad loves to call kids by their initials. Not many letters go with K. I didn't want KD or KT b/c I don't want ppl to think her name is Katie - not that there's anything wrong with Katie b/c there's not. It's just not the name I want :-) Anywho, coming up with a J name to go with Khloe was a bit of a challenge. My cousin Mac's middle name is Jae, and I love that name. B wanted to spell it Jaye - don't ask b/c I have no idea. So, I was fine with the interesting spelling Then, I got the idea to combine the J from June and my middle name. I came up with J-Lynn but needed a way to spell it. Mommy Dearest's name is Janet Lynn, so J-Lynn would have a double meaning. We decided on Jaelyn b/c Jaelynn seemed too long. We are pronouncing it j-len b/c saying jae-lynn just didn't sound right. There you go: Khloe Jaelyn.

Due date and Sonogram

2010-06-30T09:15:00.001-05:00

DUE DATE

Since we found out about K, we've always known that there could be two possible birth fathers BF. We've always been told, one is going to sign and one refuses. When a BF refuses to sign relinquishment papers, the baby is placed in the agency's transitional care program for 31 days to give the BF the chance to claim the baby (or something like that). Because of the situation, we've always thought we would have one extra month after Baby is born to prepare. K is due Aug 14. That means, I will have the chance to start school (which could be a new school if I get something closer to our new house) and have a chance to establish the school year before taking care of the little one. Yesterday (Tue, June 15) we found out that BF "D" the one who refused to sign, actually SIGNED the papers. HOLY CRAP!!! This means, we would be getting the baby shortly after birth and no time to start the school year b/c I would be on maternity leave. EEEEK! That ruins everything we had planned!!! On our way to lunch, case worker CW called to say BF "A" just signed his papers as well! OMG!!!!! This is nearly a done deal!!! Oh yes, to top things off, K tells us her doc says she's due Aug 11 not the 14th. The 14th was the date K and Mom came up with. Have I said HOLY CRAP yet???

SONOGRAM

I didn't get a picture to bring home, but K says she will get me copies. I thought I was going to miss the appointment b/c I got caught in two areas of horrendous traffic! I usually never get caught in traffic, but it seemed like everything was stacked against me to get to the appointment on-time! Luckily K was running a little behind too. Shew! As I was walking into one entrance, since I had no clue as to where was I was going, I happen to look around and saw K walking into another entrance! I caught up with her and her group. Since she lives in the dorm at the agency, the child birth coordinator CBC was with her as well as another dorm girl R. They both had sonogram appointments. The doctor's office was running 45 minutes behind, so K, R, R's boyfriend, the CBC and me sat in the lobby chit- chatting.

When it was finally K's turn to go back, we were only back there for about 5 minutes! Tops! It went by way too fast. The guy doing the sonograms didn't seem to enjoy his job very much. He made it seem more like a chore - very insensitive and not very personable :-( He measured the brain, said it was normal. Showed us the baby's thigh bone, said it was normal. Showed us the heartbeat and played it out loud - that was the most awesome part! 133 bpm - normal. Showed us the baby's privates to reassure us it was still a girl! Yay! Still a girl!! I'm pretty married to the idea of us having a girl.

Our group walked out together, and I gave a K a big warm hug. I thanked her again for the invite and how much it meant to me to be able to share this moment with her. We made plans to meet again soon b/c Mom still wants to meet us. We want to meet her as well.

After I got home and cooked dinner, I got B to sit with me at our new dining room table for the first time where we finally decided on a middle name!! We aren't ready to share our baby name just yet. I will share it soon enough! However, I will say her initials are K. J. B.

Face-2-Face

2010-06-29T09:15:00.001-05:00

We had our face-to-face meeting today (Wed, June 16) in Ft. Worth @Johnny Carino's @2:30pm. I wasn't nervous all day until the clock hit 2:00. We stopped at a store to pick up a card to go with our gift. We thought we knew where the restaurant was, but we felt like we were getting lost. Called case worker CW, and she told us we were heading in the right direction. I grabbed a few tissues before getting outta the truck b/c I could feel the tears welling in my eyes knowing that I was about to meet the young woman who thinks we are worthy of having and raising her child. It's an indescribable and incredible feeling. We've talked to her twice on the phone and many times through text, but this was face-to-face! I didn't actually know what she looked like or who I was expecting. Does she have blonde hair? brown hair? black hair? red hair? blue eyes? brown eyes? green eyes? I don't know!! She finally walked in, and I was like, "Is that her?!" I gave her the biggest hug ever and started crying immediately. Words will never be able to tell K how thankful we are for her coming into our lives. She has given us hope that we will one day fulfill our dream of having a family.

K very cute and petite with long blonde hair and blue eyes. She's funny, sweet and very ambitious. She had some sarcastic moments too, which I loved! After we sat down we gave her our small gift. Nothing fancy, just a sweet card with a note and a photo cube for all the photos we're going to send her. She really liked it or said she did anyway. She's very polite.

Conversation flowed the whole time. Our CWs were there to help facilitate conversation. Our CW did way more facilitating that hers. I did ask K if there was one dream she had for her daughter that we could fulfill what would it be. She said taking her to dance lessons. CHECK! I think we can handle sending our daughter (it's so cool to say that) to dance lessons.

We took a picture together, but for privacy reasons, I will not be posting it. K is making a scrapbook for us to give our daughter about K. I'm really looking forward to seeing it. K also said she's crocheting 2 blankets. I'm exciting about those as well.

The best part about lunch, I almost forgot!! She invited us to her next sonogram!! Really bad timing though. It's tomorrow (Thursday, June 17). B can't make it, but I wouldn't miss it for the world even though it means turning around tomorrow and driving right back to Ft. Worth. She's asking me to share this amazing moment with her that I will never be able to experience for myself. Why on Earth would I say no?? If K's baby truly ends up as our baby, then I want to share that moment with her. Can't wait to post about it!!!

1st call with K!

2010-06-28T00:07:00.000-05:00

Here's more of a breakdown of the awkward phone call with K and her mom. It was actually Mom that called us instead of K. It wasn't until our conversation was over that we realized K did try to call, but she didn't let the phone ring long enough for us to hear it. I tested the 800# as soon as we got it. I realized it would ring at a fake place before forwarding to my cell. It rings FOREVER to the person trying to call. K didn't know it would take forever for the call to actually come through my cell.

I started out the conversation by saying how thankful we are for her choosing us and how happy she has made us. I asked her what it was like living in the dorms (at the agency). Her response made us laugh. She said, "It's OK. It's just a bunch of pregnant girls living together." I don't remember much else except for the hard questions she started asking us. She asked me if I planned to be a SAHM. I let her know that I would love to, but financially that was not a possibility. We did let her know that Brandt would be a part-time SAHD, and we hoped to find a neighbor or trusted person to keep the baby on the other days. We let K know that B's mom has offered to come down two-three days a week if needed to keep the baby until we could find someone. We assured her we were not sending the baby to daycare until the baby was as least two - to begin learning social skills.

Her next toughie was, "How do you plan to introduce me at our annual visits?" I already had my answer thank goodness b/c that is a hard question for an adoptive family to answer if one doesn't already know! She was concerned b/c some adoptive families of the other girls in the dorms were going to call their birth moms Aunt X or CousinX or family friend. When we were at the agency in Oct, I found a book on an end table called The Tummy Mummy. I read it and was in tears by the end. I knew that's what I wanted to call our birth mom - Tummy Mummy. I told K and Mom about the book and how we wanted to call K - Miss K. They both really liked that. It seemed like everyone was getting teary-eyed on the phone. Maybe that's when K felt a connection with us. I did too, but I didn't know if one little ~~HUGE~~ answer would be the deciding point.

Mom was trying to ask B about his birth parents, but she didn't really know how to ask or what to ask. Basically, she wanted to know how B felt towards his birth parents. He told her it was 30 years ago and a different kind of adoption. He said he doesn't hate his birth parents but doesn't feel the need to go and find them either. He told her his real parents were his (adoptive) parents. He doesn't see is adoptive parents as adoptive parents. They are his real family and real parents. I thought K and Mom might have been turned off by his answer, but we weren't going to sugar-coat anything. K either accepts us or she doesn't. Luckily, it wasn't an issue. Mom was just curious or maybe she was asking for K. Who knows?

I ended the conversation by letting K know again how much joy and love she has brought into our hearts and how thankful we were again. I let K know we wanted to talk to her again soon as well as meet in person. Everyone agreed that was a great idea.

We have been chosen!

2010-06-27T14:21:00.001-05:00

I've been dying to share this since May!! We have been chosen by birth mom K!!! We learned about K at the same time we learned about the Indiana birth mom with all the issues (May 10th). I felt different about K, so B and I decided not to share any knowledge about her to ANYONE! - except Danielle. Danielle lives in Mass., and I had to share the info with someone. She was sworn to secrecy b/c Danielle's hubby and B have a few common relatives. We weren't ready to get our parents excited for no reason if K decided not to choose us. It was so hard not to tell anyone at work or to write about it either.

We found out she chose us on Monday, May 24th. I was driving home when our case worker CW called. I didn't start crying till I got off the phone. Then, I cried for 2 days. On my way to the new house, I was scheming a way to tell Brandt, so it would be a surprise. I only had 30 min in the car. I found a note pad in the car and scribbled something in it. I was using a pen with a metal clip to hold the place of where I wrote. Of course, when I got to the house, ~~everybody and their dog was there~~ three other people were there. I was just dying to tell B ~~alone~~!! Luckily everyone left or stepped outside after about 10 min. I called him to the back room where I was working on the crib. I didn't think he'd ever get there, and he finally walked in!

Me handing him the note pad with the page marked, nervous as hell and in my stern teacher voice: Did you write this?

B scared to death about what it could be: What is it?

Me: Read it.

B reading "SHE CHOSE US!" and smiling: Are you serious?

Me (I don't really remember what I said, but we'll pretend I said): Yep!
Then we had a sweet moment of crying and hugging. It seemed like that moment would never get here for us. It was so wonderful to share.

After finding out, we still did not share with ANYONE! - except my BTF (best teacher friend) Amy. I think I told her on Tue or Wed. I was about to BURST!!! I'm not the best at keeping secrets if you haven't noticed :-) I finally told my parents (B was working) on Friday, May 28th at our usual Friday night dinner place. I wanted to tell them in person and not in an email or by phone - same for B's parents. We told B's parents the following Monday - moving day. Everyone was so excited when we told them. MIL sang "We're getting a baaaaby! We're getting a baaaaby!" and danced around all morning. It was really cute. They all vowed not to tell anyone either (although it was too hard for me not to share with just a few ppl :0)

Before we even told our parents, Thursday (27th) after we found out we were chosen, we actually got the chance to talk to K on the phone. It was pretty awkward b/c she wanted her mom on the phone. I had planned the conversation in my head a million times, but it just didn't go according to plan at all. We had no prior knowledge of her wanting Mom on the call. That seems like a really important thing that the CW should have called me about! I saw the email the next morning! ~~She NEVER emails!!! WTH?~~ I left the conversation doubting the whole thing. B said it went fine. ~~Men!~~ Our CW mentioned that K would be making a final decision about us after the conversation to see if we had a connection. To me there was no connection (~~freaking out and replaying whole conversation in my head over and over)~~ b/c K wouldn't open up to us b/c her mom was on the other end. We had to wait till ~~freakin'~~ Monday to find out if K felt we were a match. CW said K liked us and agreed having her mom on the phone was not the best idea. At this point, we were still NOT an official match b/c K wants a face-to-face meeting first. We were eager to talk to K again and meet her in person. Oh yeah, we had to get an 800# for K to call us on, since we are not supposed to give out our personal #'s. If she's going to be in our lives for the next 18 years+, what does it matter if she has our #?

Sunday, June 6 I decided to text K to tell her we would call around 6 or 6:30 to see how she was doing. I thought I blocked my # like we were instructed to do when I got a response back from her saying she had to work and wouldn't be able to! I was like ~~oh $h*t~~ oops! I went with it and had a text conversation and made plans to call the next day before she was to go into work at 6.

I guess I haven't said what she's having, have I?

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It's a GIRL!!!!!! K is due Aug 11th!!!!! We are so excited and cannot wait to start our family. More info of our journey to come each day! I've got several posts already written out, but had to wait to post them!

Beginnings of a Nursery

2010-06-14T18:21:00.001-05:00

Mommy Dearest came over this weekend to help me move the crib and set up the nursery. It never even occurred to me that I wouldn't be able to get it through the door of the room in which it was assembled. Grrrr! I spend 2 days putting that thing together! Anywho, we got it put back together no problem except I kinda nicked the crap out of a changing table drawer - oops! - while swinging an end to the crib around. Mommy Dearest was freaking out, but I was like, "Whatever. It's fine." Now if Mommy Dearest had nicked the crap outta my changing table, then I would be upset. She didn't. I did. Oh well! What can be done about it besides nothing? No need to cry or worry about it. (Cute monkey is from Mommy and Daddy (me and B). We bought it at MGM in Vegas on our last trip for a while ;-)

Then we spent 30 minutes trying to figure out where the best location of the changing table b/c we both agreed the crib should be on the left side of the room. For some reason the crib being on the left felt like better feng shui than being on the right. I get OCD about things that don't feel right. The crib possibly needing to go on the right did not feel right! We worked it out though. I really wanted the changing table under the window, but the rocker/ottoman did not allow that :-( It was way bigger than we though!

We put the rocker/ottoman together (gift from Mommy Dearest). It's so comfy. I look forward to rocking my baby in it!! We put the playpen together last (gift from MIL and FIL along with Diaper Genie and soothing sounds thingy in the corner of crib). The directions were horrible, but luckily Mommy Dearest figured out where everything went. It even came with little puppies that hang from the canopy of the bassinet! I had no idea it had puppies! I think I was more excited about the puppies than the actual playpen. I love little details (I guess that's the Tori Spelling in me ;-) like that. The playpen also has an attached changing table. Should come in handy!!

Danielle sent me the fab basket of stuff on the ottoman and the froggy and soft blankie on the crib. Thanks again Danielle! You are so sweet!!! I made the little box with the "B" on it in the windowsill. My kids (students) were very impressed by my box, but all I saw were the imperfections of course. There's the giraffe I bought a while back. The first gift I bought for our baby. The book on the rocker is our profile book that the BMs get to look at. This is our copy for the baby.

Enjoy the pics! Still deciding where to put the 3 animal paintings...

Field Trip 2010 RJH 6th Grade

2010-06-10T16:25:00.000-05:00

Normally, I go with the 8th grader on their field trip since my homeroom class is 8th grade. This year I really wanted to go skating and to the zoo. I ~~sucked up to secretary Lori ;-)~~ pulled a few strings to switch. Also, our closing date ending up being the same date at the 8th grade trip, so I couldn't have gone on that one anyway. Anywho...we got to pick our own groups. I had the best group ever!!

My group was crackin' me up! I had a lot more kids than this, but these were the brave soldiers that would agree to take a picture with me :-) We had so much fun. At one point, we decided to see what the Nature Trail was all about. The ~~damn~~ thing brought us back to the beginning of the zoo!! We had to go all the way back through the nature trail. The NT didn't even have anything interesting to see! ~~What a freakin' waste of time!!~~ When we got out of the NT, we ran into another group from our school. We were telling them how much fun and how cool the NT was, and they should definitely go down it. LOL. They didn't listen, but it was funny.

This poor tortoise was having bad rumors spread about him by some ~~know-it-all~~ kid from our school. The kid said turtles don't lay with their heads out unless they are dead. Mrs. B to the rescue to prove the kid wrong! I pointed how to him that the tortoise was blinking and perfectly fine. :-P

No pictures from the skating rink, but I busted the place up! ;-) I have been skating for over 23 years. I blew the kids' minds by skating fast and BACKWARDS! A lot of them were calling me a showoff. Ha ha! It was so much fun though. Good times...good times.

Puppies

2010-06-08T08:53:00.000-05:00

I call my dogs puppies even though they are not. Here's a pic of my sweet Maxipooh asleep in the clothes basket at the old house and sleeping on my chest while we didn't have furniture in the old house.

The puppies are really enjoying their new house! This was while the painting was still happening.

This was after the painting was over. Shhh! Don't tell their daddy they were temporarily in the bedroom!! ;-)

This was was taken while we were waiting on B to come out of Home Depot. I have the best puppies ever! They are doing a good job of keeping me thin b/c we don't have a fence yet. I have to put their leashes on and walk them around the neighborhood ever 4 hours ~~or whenever I get around to it~~ for potty breaks!!

Saying no is hard to do

2010-05-15T20:40:00.000-05:00

I received a call from the SW Tuesday afternoon. I figured it was a "just checking on you" call, but she called me to talk about birth mom "M." SW told me some things about "M" that were not very good. I don't really want to go into her issues. We wanted to say yes b/c it seems wrong to say no to a baby that needs a home. I knew in my heart it was not our baby. It was hard to write the SW an email saying we did not feel comfortable sending our book to "M." The good thing about the situation is that the SW picked us instead of "M" having to find us online herself. That made me and B feel really good that the SW is FINALLY advocating for us! Just wanted to give everyone an update...

Painting party anyone?

2010-05-10T20:34:00.000-05:00

I'm excited to say we are FINALLY closing next Monday! I've already bought new bedding and accessories for the master and guest room. We FINALLY purchased our baby crib with a matching changing table. The crib came with a free matress - woohoo! Go Wal-Mart! I'm ready to put them together and set up the nursery in the new house.

So we thought we were going to have the handy man paint the house b/c the seller did a shotty job. After seeing it was going to cost $3000 f-ing dollars, we changed our minds! Ridonculous!!! We are now doing it ourselves one room at a time. Anyone want to come to a painting party? LOL

Nothing to update on the adoption. Haven't heard from SW since mid April. We should be getting an update call soon, but I'll gladly take a call from SW about a birth mom! *Keeping fingers crossed and praying constantly!

I'm Impressed

2010-04-28T18:56:00.000-05:00

I rarely write about my classroom or my students, but my 7th period 6th grade art students deserve a little shout out...

I was running late to 7th period (21 - 6th graders). I just knew they were going to be running around the room and going hog wild b/c I was late. I WAS SO WRONG!!! They were sitting quietly. They had their work on their desks ready to go. I was SOOOO impressed! I couldn't believe it. Not much shocks me these days, and I was SHOCKED! I told them how proud I was of them and what a great class they were. I feel like a proud mamma!

Closing May 17

2010-04-25T22:01:00.000-05:00

The seller finally agreed to fixing all the AC problems by putting the money in escrow. She thinks we might "play" with the money instead of using it to fix the problem. Whatever lady! Like we would go through the trouble of asking her to fix it just to jack around with the money. Some people! We close on Monday, May 17th. I am sad to say that I was not super-excited when I heard we FINALLY got the house. By the time the seller finally stopped "dragging her feet" about the whole ordeal, I was over it and had moved on to bigger and better things. I ended up falling in love with two other houses while the seller was see-sawing on what she wanted to do. I got over it by the next day. Saturday we went shopping and bought new bedding for our room and guest room. I still need curtains for all rooms, dining room table w/chairs, and tv stand. I've been selling our old stuff on Craig's List. It's been working out OK. Could be better if we lived in a more metropolitan area. I've tried to pack, but there's nothing to pack b/c we use everything! Hmmm...

My besties from college are coming to visit and help me organize stuff. Can't wait!

No adoption new to update on. Could this week be the week we hear about our birth mom?

More house stuff

2010-04-18T21:04:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow will probably be the deciding day of whether or not the AC and duct work is an issue. If it is an issue, then we have to deal with the seller again and get her to do her part of getting it fixed or helping us get it fixed. If only finalizing this deal were as easy as us picking the place!!! If the AC/duct work is not a major issue, we are moving forward with the contract!! Please keep your fingers crossed that it's not a big deal b/c we really want this house!

House new and Adoption News

2010-04-16T21:46:00.000-05:00

THEY ACCEPTED OUR OFFER!! Now we just have to work out some inspection issues with the AC, and it'll be all ours on May 28!!!! I'm so ready to start painting and decorating - finally!!

I would have posted this a few days ago but the house stuff has us quit busy.

We were one in four couples that "M" was looking at to place her baby with. She already had the baby (Apr 8) and named her. We were told up front there was only a 50% chance of her placing. We were super-excited Thursday about possibly being instant parents. For some reason today, my feelings of excitement and being overwhelmed were gone. My students were SOOOO eager to find out if we were getting the baby. They were so adorable about it. CW finally called at 4:25 to say "M" got her baby from the foster family late Thursday night and went back to Florida. "M" had us answering some TOUGH questions. We plowed through them and emailed them back to CW. CW said she really liked/connected with our answers - I think that's what she gets paid to say, so we don't feel bad for not being selected. At least some adoption stuff happened in April b/c I was getting pretty down about not having any action since beginning of March. My spirits are up again and with the house stuff distracting me I'm doing much better. Don't be sad for us. We know it was not meant to be :-)

Putting in an offer

2010-04-14T23:18:00.001-05:00

B and I spent most of Sunday and part of Monday looking for a home to buy. We've been wanting to be home owners since we were married almost 5 years ago! Our dreams are finally becoming a reality!! We put in an offer, the seller countered, we countered and now we are waiting to hear back. The waiting is so painful!!! At least it has taken my mind off the adoption stuff for a short while...

I know you are probably wondering why the walkway stops half-way out into the yard...the answer actually came to me at 2am Monday morning. I think it is b/c the owners were going to put in a circle drive (14 years ago) and never did. It makes sense to me anyway :-)

Thanks to MIL and FIL for helping us!

Need help with blogger please!

2010-04-06T21:39:00.000-05:00

I don't understand why people can't see my "Links" when they click on my picture from someone else's blog?? I have everything set to public. Some people I follow, I can see their "About me" info, their links and the blogs they follow. Why won't my info show up?? Anybody have a clue???

PLEASE HELP!!

slippery when wet!

2010-04-02T21:47:00.000-05:00

i got to finish my infant care class today with Baby A instead of Baby B. Baby A is only 4 weeks old instead of 3 mo like Baby B. Baby A was such a good baby to practice on. i got to bathe her, feed her, and snuggle with her. it was the best day ever! the bath was soooo hard! i don't know how you moms do it! i'm sure you get used to it and figure out what works but geez! that was one of the hardest things i've ever done. amber pretty much had to hold her up for me while i did the bathing. when i was trying to hold her myself and bathe her, she just keeping slipping. the funnies part was when her mom told me to hold her up, shake her off and be careful b/c she would be slippery like a wet turkey. i was so scared she was going to just slip through my hands. luckily everyone make it through ok :-) i made it through the bath, and then it was on to powdering and lotioning. i pretty much got baby powder everywhere except the baby. lol just kidding but it did seem to go into more places than just the diaper area. Baby A does not like to have lotion on her upper body. i started with her feet and legs, and when i got to her shoulders and chest, she got pretty ticked at me. then i couldn't figure out how to get her onesie over her head. amber had to help me with that too. then Baby A's mom gave us a lesson in swaddling. the hubs actually practiced that one! he did a good job! i can't believe how fast Baby A stopped crying after being swaddled. it's like a miracle worker! then on to feeding! thank goodness i was a pro at feeding and burping! and she was so easy to put to sleep. i just had her up by my neck, and she was snuggling me. it was heaven. i can't wait to have precious moments like that with Baby Bernstein.

Infant Care Class update

2010-03-28T19:58:00.000-05:00

So today was our infant care class put on by lovely friend Amber. She did a great job giving us the basic info we will need when we first become parents. Unfortunately, the baby we were practicing with was having a very unhappy day. I got to hold her for about 5 seconds at first before she started screaming. We decided to let the baby nap while B and I went to lunch. When we came back Baby B was doing much better and needed a diaper changed. Guess who had to do it?? Me! Luckily it wasn't a nasty one! If I had been by myself, I'm sure I would have been fine. I felt like I was under a microscope with Amber, her mom, and her sister all watching me. I felt like I'd never changed a diaper before. I guess I did good b/c no body said anything - just felt weird being watched by so many people who do this task way more than I do! When I was in junior high babysitting all the time, I was a pro at changing diapers! But golly jeepers that was 14 years ago!!! We didn't get to practice swaddling or the bath, so Amber's mom is going to let us come over Friday (when she gets Baby B again) to learn how.

Parenting is so much like being a teacher. No amount of preparation will truly get you ready until you are there doing it for yourself and figuring things out on your own and in your own way. We are grateful for the practice though!

Infant Care Class

2010-03-25T20:47:00.000-05:00

So, like, we can't be placed with a baby until we are CPR/First Aid certified and have taken an infant care class. No one in the Central Texas area offers this class anymore!! One hospital offers it 4 times a year! Of course, we missed the Feb class, and next one isn't till Aug!!! I started thinking which isn't always a good thing. I tend to have Lucy and Ethel type moments when I start thinking. I thought I'd give the CW a buzz and ask if a nurse (aka - BFF Amber) could just go over what we need to know. She basically said - whatever you need to do to get the information - they aren't picky. Hip hip hooray!!! BFF Amber is a labor and delivery nurse who's at home doing nothing at the moment due to an incidental home injury ;-)!!! Amber is now working on getting some info together for our impromptu infant care class to be held Saturday evening at her residence. She's even going so far as to have a live baby there for us to practice. (Thanks Amber's cousin who doesn't know!!) :-) Love you, Amber!!

...and still waiting for Uncle Spanky to see what's going on with our CPR/First Aid cards that should have been here weeks ago!!

The long wait is finally over...

2010-03-22T19:58:00.000-05:00

You thought I meant for a baby? No, I'm talking about the nearly 3 weeks we've been waiting to find out if "J" was going to pick us or not. We'll for all my avid readers who are dying to find out...She did not. I think we were a close 2nd though! 2nd place=1st loser ;-) j/k

My heart completely hit the floor when CW told me on the phone this afternoon. I faked the emotions of what I was really feeling inside to keep from crying. I have not actually cried about us not getting picked b/c I don't really have anything to cry about. I was not attached to "J" or her baby - just the thought of being a mom so soon was really exciting.

Everything happens for a reason. B and I plan to begin house hunting as soon as we find out if we can transfer or not. Therefore, God probably knows that it would be nice for us to be moved into our new house where we plan to set up a baby's room (since we have yet to do that in this house since we think we are moving in a few months). It just wasn't meant to be for various reasons. No sad tears in our house tonight *sniff sniff ;-)

Thank you to everyone who's been praying for us to have a family. Keep your prayers coming b/c God is so very close to answering them!!

Waiting and waiting and waiting

2010-03-19T22:07:00.000-05:00

Before I get to what's not happening in the baby process, I just wanted to write a quick paragraph about Vegas. B and I had sooo much fun. Our hotel was great (Flamingo) and soooo glad we decided to upgrade to the nicer room!! We had a gorgous view of the Bellagio and Paris! The Cirque de Sole show - Mystere was AMAZING!!!! The Hoover Dam and Red Rock Canyon were good day trips. Overall, we had the ultimate Vegas experience!! Thank you priceline.com!!

OK. On to non-baby news...It's been over two weeks that we found out "J" wanted to see our profile book. We haven't heard a lick!!! While we were gone to Vegas, B and I talked about it and how excited we were to finally get our book out. We were distracted with vacationing. We got home and knew there hadn't been enough time for a decision to be made, and I was still chill about the situation.

Spring Break came and went, and I went back to work. I was driving myself bonkers on Monday and Tuesday!! I was checking my phone about ever 10 minutes when normally I don't even keep my phone out. I was checking my email everytime I checked my phone. I was beyond obsessed with hoping for an answer from "J."

I've said from the beginning that I don't really care if she doesn't pick us b/c our book will go out again. Our baby will be out there eventually. By today (Friday), I only checked my phone and email about 5 times. Thank goodness our CW will be back from vacation on Monday. I don't really feel comfortable contacting a CW I don't know. I did email the temporary CW one day to make sure she knew that we wanted to know either way. She assured me she would notify me as soon as she found anything out.

The more I think about it I realize that "J" probably didn't get the profile books until 4-7 days after we were contacted. It's possible she's only had the books for a week which is not really that long for her to have them without a decision. It just seems so long to me b/c we've known since Thursday two weeks ago!

I'm trying not to worry about it b/c this may not be our baby. I keep daydreaming about the phone call I'll get from the CW to say we've been chosen. Then I remind myself to chill out and to not get my hopes up. Of course, I have hope, lots of hope, but I'm not keep all of my eggs in one basket.

Baby Registry Drama!!

2010-03-14T22:16:00.000-05:00

My goodness there is WAY too much baby stuff out there!!! Even though we still have no idea if we are going to be chosen by "J," I figured we better go ahead and put some things on a registry. If "J" chooses us, she'll be due May 15 which would not leave us much time to get things together. I put the due date as July 1 b/c I don't want to assume she's picking us and b/c I can change it with the click of a few buttons! I was doing fine while we were in Vegas and not really dwelling on if we were gonna get picked or not. Now, I'm driving myself nuts b/c we are almost going on two weeks! OK back to baby registry stuff...

My in-laws told me a while back that they had a lot of American Express points and wanted us to use them to get baby stuff. I emailed MIL to let her know I finally decided on the Graco Snugride 32 in Zurich. Then, MIL wrote back to say there were still lots of points left and to pick out something else. I was torn b/t the matching stroller or matching pack 'n play. I decided on the pack 'n play. Then MIL wrote back again to say there were still points left b/c apparently AmEx was giving discounts on the points required to purchase rewards. Yah for us! I also asked for the Fisher Price Soothing Rainforest something-or-other and Diaper Genie II Elite. I didn't plan to register for the DG b/c it seemed like such a luxury item and not a necessity. I'm glad she suggested it. Wal-Mart's website shows a demo video of the DG which made me really excited about it.

Friday afternoon I decided to venture to Target on my own with a list of suggested registry stuff. I spent an hour there and got the basics - bottles, pacifiers, spoons, bowls. Nothing eventful happened, but I was concerned about registering there b/c of friend comments on Facebook. Apparently, Target has a very strict and limited return policy. Several people were discouraging me from registering there, but I don't have a Babies 'R Us nearby. I know, I know. I can register online. However, not EVERYBODY likes to shop online or register solely online. I really wanted to register for things that were at the store and not just available online.

Anywho...Now for the DRAMA!!

Saturday I talked my mom into coming with me to Wal-Mart to register for other stuff. First of all, the bee-otch at the jewelry counter was so wretched and hateful!!! Here's the conversation:

Me:Hi! I am needing to update my registry with you guys.
The Bee-otch: We only have 1 scanner, and it's already out.
Me: OK. What do I need to do when it becomes available?
The B: You need to go to the machine and type in your name and (mumble...mumble) [I have no idea what she said. I just tried to guess.]
Me: OK. Thanks.

A few minutes later...

Me: So, can you call me when the other person returns the scanner?
The B: She just took it. I don't know when it's gonna be returned.
Me: OK. So like can you put my name on a piece of paper and call me over the intercom b/c I have other stuff I need to do here at Wal-Mart. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon.
The B: If that's what you want to do.
Me: Yes. That's what I want to do (wretched woman)!!!!

About 45-50 min later, mom and I end up in the baby section and spot the girl with the one and only scanner! I stalk her back to the jewelry counter as she turns in it. They call my name, and I approach the wretched woman.

(in her normal rude voice) The B: Yes??
Me: Uh, I'm Kristi.
The B: Oh yeah. I forgot. Scan the actual item not the barcode on the front. Scan the actual item. If you want more than one of something, scan it again.
Me: (Whatever lady.) OK. Thanks.

You do NOT have to scan the actual item and there is a + and - by the quantity for a reason!! DUH!! I wanted to give her a lesson in how to register. I finally registered for everything else I needed and headed back to the unfortunate presence of the jewelry county lady. I went ahead and hit the QUIT button b/c that's what you do at Target when you are finished.

Me: I hit the Quit button. Is that right?
The B: Uh, no! But I guess it's OK.
Me: Well...OK. Thanks.

Ugh!! Thank God that experience was over!!!!!!! That lady should not be dealing with customers. My mom had to deal with the SAME woman back in October when my mom was just trying to get a watch battery changed. That's a whole different post!! She was a total B then, and she's still a total B today!! Any of you had horrible experiences with rude workers??

One great thing did come of the Wal-Mart registry. My mommy bought me a glider and matching ottoman!! Can't wait to put it together!!

Paintings all done!

2010-03-11T13:34:00.000-06:00

My mom claims that she never got an email from me about this blog. I have proof in my Sent box that shows I did include her back in JUNE to let everyone know about my blog.

Anywho, she has only seen the giraffe painting I did. I wanted her to see the other two. I'm posting all 3 just for you Mommy Dearest!

Me and my mom have this running joke about that movie Mommy Dearest. We used to watch it all the time when I was little. When I went to college (1999-2004), we would email each other as Mommy Dearest or Kristina Darling. We still do, which is really funny. We make the emails really formal as if we were the characters from the movie. It's silly, but we enjoy it :-)

Adoption Update!!!

2010-03-10T21:08:00.000-06:00

I got a call from the CW last Thursday. She let me know that "J" saw our on-line profile and was interested in seeing our profile book!! "J" also wanted to see another couple's book as well. CW also let me know the agency would be sending other profile books of families that had been waiting the longest. Hearing that the agency was sending other books besides the ones "J" asked for made my heart sink immediately :-( However, we are SOOOOO excited to have been hand-selected by "J" from the website!! Did I mention "J" is due May 15????? EEEEEEEEK! CW did tell us "J" is really wanting a stay-at-home mom. We are a very young couple and looking to buy a home in a few months, so being a SAHM is not much of an option. I am a teacher with long holidays and summers off!! It's the next best thing, and B is off two days during the week. He will be a part-time SAHD :-) Hopefully "J" is not basing her decision on that factor alone. Pray that "J" will make the right decision for her baby whether it is us or not. (Keep your fingers crossed for us though!)

Day for Women Review

2010-02-26T17:54:00.000-06:00

So last Saturday Temple Daily Telegram (TDT) hosted their annual Day for Women at the Mayborn Center in Temple, Texas. I met up with my mom, Granny, sister-in-law, and family friend Karen. What a disappointment compared to last year (except Kayne)!!! There were only about 1/2 the amount of vendors and 1/2 the amount of patrons! The luncheon food (extra $10 on top of the $10 entrance fee) was really good but the portions were sample size!! I left starving!! My mom wrote TDT a not-so-nice email to let them know how disappointed we were with the event compared to previous years.

Not everything was disappointing-thank goodness! Project Runway's Johnathan Kayne spoke at the fashion show and showed some of his formal wear line. He was fabulous!! He has a great story, and his collection is beautiful and affordable! I'm so glad I got to meet him and ask him questions.

TDT did very little advertising for the Day for Women. They could have had a HUGE turn out if they had marketed themselves - Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc. The only place I ever saw it advertised was on the back of the Arts and Leisure pull-out of the Sunday paper. They had Kayne from Season 3 of Project Runway there!! Project Runway gets tons of viewers. There should have been tons of people there waiting to meet him and see his collection. Kayne was my favorite designer from his season. I guess I'm a little partial to him.

Unless the event has a big-name person next year, I don't plan on going. What an overall disappointment!

Free stuff give-away

2010-02-24T17:13:00.000-06:00

Her Womb, Our Hearts is having a Give-Away for Picky-Snicky's iron-ons. They are great for new moms and great on onesies or t-shirts. They make a great photo opp! I'm trying to win them. By posting about them I get more chances of winning. Keep your fingers crossed for me :-)

Las Vegas here we come!

2010-02-13T23:34:00.000-06:00

Brandt and I have been wanting to take a big trip for spring break for a while. We really wanted to go skiing with friends, but it was just too expensive. Although, by the time we get back from Vegas, I think we will have spent the same amount of money. Our skiing friends decided to book a trip to Cancun. We didn't want to go there b/c we want to go to Cabo this summer for our five year wedding anniversary. One of my whole reasons for wanting to go to Vegas is to see the shows! Today I finally booked our shows to Cirque du Soleil's Mystere and V: The Ultimate Variety Show. We also have plans to visit the History Channel's Pawn Stars pawn shop. Brandt thinks he might want to do a Hoover Dam tour so now I'm looking into that. We are really looking forward to it but wish we were going with other couple. I did find out that my teacher friend and her husband will be coming into Vegas the day before we leave. Hopefully they will come to the V show with us. We are taking this Vegas trip just in case we don't get to take our Cabo trip b/c of baby - which would not be a terrible reason to skip the anniversary trip.

Adoption friends Lauren and Travis are really enjoying their new baby. They were able to pick up Caroline on Tuesday in the DFW area and take her home to Louisiana. She's precious! Congrats to them again!!

So jealous but so glad

2010-01-30T10:50:00.000-06:00

First of all, let me say congratulations to the couple we met at adoption orientation Travis and Lauren! They received word a few weeks ago that our agency had a baby for them. They flew to Dallas and met the birth mom. Turns out birth dad is in jail and doesn't approve. They have to wait 32 days before being able to bring Caroline home. I hope and pray for the best for them, but I am SOOO jealous. We were approved about a month before them and have yet to be shown to a single birth parent. I blame the case worker. On the other hand, I'm glad to know B and I will have our baby one day and to know this process will bring us our baby. I know God has picked out a little one for us and maybe that little one has not even been conceived yet but maybe he has. I say he b/c B and I both think the birth mom who picks us will be carrying a boy. We are not decorating for a boy, but we just have this feeling. Unless the mom is a tomboy and happens to be carrying a girl, then we'll get a girl. We are both adventurous, outdoorsy, and messy - somewhat better suited for a boy. Believe me, I would be head over heels if we got a girl. Pink! Pink! Pink! I love pink! However, my heart tells me we will be getting a boy. I feel better after writing this post, but I am still just a teeny-weeny bit jealous and envious.

The Sunday Review

2010-01-24T09:23:00.000-06:00

As promised in my last post, I will be reviewing the recipe Cookie Dough Hummus and facial product Olay Daily Facial Cleansing Cloths. I am also going to review the movie Coraline.

Cookie Dough Hummus

The only ingredient I did not use was the ground flax seed. I didn't know what it was nor could I find it. It was very easy to make and tasted REALLY good. If you like oatmeal or to dip your apples in something good, you will love this recipe. I used a 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce b/c 1/4 did not seem like enough. I used two prepackaged applesauce cups. It makes a lot and nearly lasted through 2 packages of the presliced Granny Smith apples. It's very healthy too! I will definitely be making this again.

Yields 2 1/2 cups or 20 servings and is 33 calories per serving
Ingredients
* 1 cup hot water
* 1 tablespoon raisins
* 1 pinch ground cinnamon
* 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
* 1 1/2 tablespoons peanut butter
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 teaspoon maple syrup
* 1/2 teaspoon canola oil
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 tablespoon ground flax seed
* 1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained
* 1 tablespoon instant oatmeal (I used maple and brown sugar.)
* 1 tablespoon shredded coconut

Directions

1. Pour the hot water over the raisins and cinnamon. Let stand for 10 minutes, then drain, and set aside.
2. Place the applesauce, peanut butter, vanilla extract, maple syrup, canola oil, and ground flax seed in the bowl of a food processor; process until smooth. With the motor running, slowly add the garbanzo beans, drained raisins, instant oatmeal, and coconut. Process until the mixture is smooth or to your desired consistency.

Easy to make *****
Taste ****1/2

Olay Daily Facial Cleansing Cloths

I was using Equates Daily Facial Cleansing Cloths, but they felt more like baby wipes. I didn't like the idea of using baby wipes on my face. I'm pretty lazy when it comes to washing my face before bed. I like the already-wet cloths that allow you to just wipe off makeup and go to bed. The Olay cloths do not allow this. They are dry! I had to add water, scrub, rinse the cloth, scrub some more, etc. It was not a quick process. The product comes with 60 cloths!! They can be cut in half b/c a whole cloth is really to much. I'm set for several months, but they are NOT convenient :-( I have to say they clean exceptionally well. My face feels great after using them, but the process stinks! I might as well just use my regular cleanser. Lesson learned - read all the info first!! I know Fructis makes a wet facial cloth that my friend Tanja uses and loves. I guess I'll be trying that one when I FINALLY run out of the Olays!

Ease of use **1/2
Cleanliness of skin *****

Coraline

Coraline is a Tim Burton film. He's the same creator of Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride. I REALLY liked this movie. I showed it in my classroom for our 3rd 6-weeks reward movie. They really liked it. Most of the kids had not seen it. I guess because Tim Burton's movies are kinda out there and only appeal to a certain crowd. I would not recommend this movie for kids under 9 or 10. I had 13 year-olds that were cringing and jumping at different parts. I would say it's not for the young'ens. It was funny, scary, unpredictable and non-fairytale. Loved it!

Kid friendly **1/2
Funny and Kid Scary *****

Review Time

2010-01-17T18:02:00.000-06:00

I am not very happy with our case worker for failing to make her once a month "check in" call to us. Instead of dwelling on that, I decided to start writing product, movie, recipe, and whatever-else-I-come-up-with reviews.

Covergirl Lashblast Length Mascara (yellow tube)
I love, love, love this mascara. I have NEVER loved a mascara this much. It doen't flake. It doesn't come off until you wash it off. It comes in waterproof, but I just wear the regular. It doesn't make my lashes clump together. Did I say that I love, love, love this mascara?? ***** stars

Julie and Julia
Watched with movie with my mommy last weekend. We liked it. It was not the best movie I've ever seen, and I will probably not buy it on DVD. However, it was pretty funny and would be a great movie to watch with a group of girls. *** stars

Upcoming "Review Time" - Cookie Dough Hummus recipe and Olay Daily Facial Cleansing Cloths

What the New Year may bring...

2010-01-03T10:40:00.000-06:00

I am keeping my fingers crossed so tightly in hopes that God will answer my prayer to bring us a baby this year. It has to be this year. It just has to be! Everything is done on our end. We are waiting for our caseworker to show our profile book to prospective birth parents. Since we were just added to the waiting pool, I don't know if our book will be shown right away. The agency has so many waiting families right now (80-100).

I did some sketching last night for my next two baby room paintings. I like what I finally came up with. I'm pretty sure I'm giving the monkey a green background to represent the jungle, and the elephant is getting a red background with yellow stripes to represent a circus tent.

Please keep my family in your thoughts and prayers that this year will be our year...

Painting and cute baby decor!

2009-12-23T20:51:00.000-06:00

I recently started giving painting lessons to a friend of a friend named Laura. Laura introduced me to Etsy.com. I had heard of it before (through BFF Elysa), but I had never explored it. I found so many cute baby decor ideas that I can make myself!! I posted a few of the ideas on my tumblr site.

Since I'm giving painting lessons to Laura, I am inspired to do my own painting as well. Other BFF Tanja gave me lots and lots of oil paints!! In return, I have to make her a painting. I finally started the painting the other day. I must say...I wish I were making it for me :-) I hope she likes it! I'm only half-way finished though.

Profile books sent to agency

2009-12-10T20:27:00.000-06:00

I finally got one of those Priority boxes with a flat rate for the profile books. Last week when our caseworker called to see how things were going, I told her I would be mailing the profile books soon. Her response was, "Oh, there's no rush." No rush?? Really?? Absolutely there's a rush!! I was completely irritated by her response. How rude!

Christmas break is almost here. I'm looking forward to the break, but I'm also going to miss my students. My one problem child was removed, and now that class is a totally different class. It's quiet pleasant and wonderful to not have all the drama anymore. I love teaching again! Crazy how one student can turn a person into a such a meanie.\

I also have a link now on the Dizzy Winding Road blog to subscribe to my posts via email :-) I would hate for you to miss a single post!! ;-)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, y'all!!!

xoxo

Profile Books are Here!!

2009-11-30T22:48:00.000-06:00

Our profile books came in Saturday morning. They look great, and we cannot wait to send them to our agency to be shown to potential birth parent(s). Also, our email is now set up to receive emails from prospective birth parents. However, our profile page on the agency website is not quite ready yet.

Profile books ordered and Birth Parent Letter

2009-11-23T21:05:00.000-06:00

It took me a while to finally decide the book is as close to perfect as I can get it. Luckily my friend Kristi M. looked at it and found a few double spaces b/t words and extra spaces b/t sentences. I'm really happy with it. My MIL helped me tweak our birth parent letter. I actually cried when I went back and read it. My friend Amber did too. It was sweet to see Amber being so touched by our letter. I was going to wait and post the letter in a separate post, but I don't want to keep anyone in suspense!

Thank you Tonnette for all of your help!!! Thank you Kristi M. and Nell-Bell for taking the time to read my book to check for errors one more time for me!

Dear Birth Parent,

We cannot thank you enough for taking the time to get to know us. You are making a very difficult and admirable decision. We have the utmost respect for the courage you have shown. You will be an angel to a very lucky couple.

We are Kristi and Brandt. We have been together for ten years and married for four. We were college sweethearts and have known from the beginning of our relationship that we wanted children. We are committed to parenting and would love the opportunity to share our love and life with a child.

We are choosing to adopt after getting the upsetting news that we would not be able to have children of our own. We know we are meant to be parents, and we feel our hearts have been called to adoption. The decision to adopt was a very easy one because Brandt is an adoptee from Gladney. He would truly be able to relate, to understand, and to offer guidance to a child that not many adoptive parents would be able to do.

We feel we have much to offer your child. We both believe in strong values such as a strong work ethic, honesty, and open mindedness. Good morals and ethics are priorities in our house. Education is also very important to us, and we really look forward to many nights of reading bedtime stories and working on homework and projects. We are eager to provide a loving and stable environment for your child. We would consider it a privilege to help your child's hopes and dreams come true.

Please know that you will always have a special place in our hearts and in your child's should you choose us. Your baby will be raised in the best and most caring way. He or she will always be surrounded by lots of family, love, and support. We are thrilled at the thought of beginning a new journey as parents.

Sincerely,
Kristi and Brandt

Ordering Profile Books

2009-11-16T22:17:00.000-06:00

I have my profile book all ready to go. I have it ready to be ordered anyway. However, I just can't hit the submit button. My MIL has checked it. I've checked it. B checked it. My case worker (CW) is viewing it tomorrow. I just don't want the book to have a single mistake. I don't want to buy 7 copies of the book to find out they all have a stupid mistake in them. It's starting to feel VERY real that we ARE adopting. Luckily we still have about 12 months until we actually get our baby!!

Pregnant on Paper

2009-11-09T18:09:00.001-06:00

We received paper work today that says we are officially approved to adopt!! In the adoption world, that means we are now pregnant on paper. What a relief!! We are really excited to turn our profile book in and to get our profile online!

Baby Bernstein, we are waiting for you! Love, Mom and Dad

Updating for the sake of updating...

2009-10-29T21:37:00.000-05:00

Well, I have no update at the moment. It's only been almost 3 weeks. They told us it would be about a month wait. I try to forget that we are waiting and that it just takes a long time. Yet, I keep replaying our office interview and questioning if I said something the agency is questioning. I know I'm just being paranoid. What else am I supposed to think of right now?? I have a friend who has a friend who's selling her baby furniture. I'm gonna look at it just to see if I like it or not. Brandt thinks it's way too early. Why not start crossing some things off our list?? I'm ready to post some news already!!! Keep your fingers crossed for us!

1st Baby Item

2009-10-19T18:20:00.000-05:00

I finally purchased my first baby item for us. I just wanted something to have to remind us of the baby we will be getting. I have it sitting in the windowsill in our bedroom. I see it when I wake up, and I see it when I go to bed. It's just a nice little symbol of the all joy and memories that are to come!

1 month till approved!

2009-10-13T21:18:00.000-05:00

Application - check
FBI fingerprinting - check
25% of app fee paid - check
Home study - check
Office interview - check
100% approved - pending!

The office interview was not that scary. My in-laws had prepared us for the kinds of questions they would ask. The agency also provided a short list of questions to study. They did separate us for part of the interview. That was slightly nerve wracking. We showed Jennifer (our case worker) our profile book. She LOVED!!! it! Yah!! I spent about 7-8 hours total working on it.

The profile book is a book about us as a couple and as individuals. It has pictures of our wedding, home, friends, family, vacations, and activities we enjoy. It also includes a letter to a potential birth parent about why we want to adopt and why we feel we will be great parents. (Basically, we have to sell ourselves to birth parents through this book.)

I'm glad to say all the hard work is behind us. However, the emotional roller coaster is only just beginning. So many ifs...Thank you again for your support through this process. I just don't feel like I can say it enough times!! We love all of you!!!

Homestudy complete, office interview here we come!

2009-10-08T11:43:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Kristin from Gladney came to our house to meet with us. We spent most of Sunday cleaning. She told us the meeting would last about an hour. I think it took 40 minutes. She just wanted to know things like where the closest fire department is located, closest police department (we laughed and said - uh, right here), closest schools, and closest hospital. We took her on a 40 second tour of our house. Showed her our fire extinguisher. Then she asked if we had any firearms in the house. We both looked at each other and laughed. Then we had to name of each one. That was about a half a page. Of all of our guns, we only have 1 that comes with a locking mechanism. Hmmmm.... We have to get a safe, which we were already in the market for one. Our neighbors are selling us one for a steal! Yeah! She taught us how to baby proof the house. She also told us the wait will be 12 to 15 months once we are 100% approved which will be in about a month. I'm praying and keeping my fingers crossed that we get our baby by Christmas 2010!

Monday is our office interview were we will get down to the nitty gritty of making hard decisions about what we are willing to accept in a birthmother, who will be our baby's guardian if something should happen to us, how we plan to raise the baby, etc. I'm not too nervous. Our plan is to just be ourselves and be honest.

Thank you so much to all of you that read my blog and are supporting us through this journey!!

Surprise party for MIL!

2009-10-03T14:59:00.001-05:00

B and I few to New Orleans Friday morning b/c B's dad was throwing B's mom a surprise b-day party. My MIL (mother-in-law) and I have been talking on the phone almost everyday for the last 2 weeks b/c of all the adoption and family updates. It's been so hard not to accidentally spill the beans. Everyone kept the party a surprise, even Grandpa! MIL came in the restaurant thinking she was walking in on a party for someone else. Her sister had to tell her the party was in her honor. B and I were hiding in the back, so she was extra surprised we stepped out. She couldn't quit crying and was in shock most of the night b/c FIL had NEVER kept a secret from her before. We had a blast and enjoyed hearing stories from each family member about MIL. We have to fly back home this evening. Normally we only get to come to NO, LA at X-mas. It was great to eat some great seafood, visit Grandpa, and see the family on our whirlwind trip.

More Application Update Info!!

2009-09-29T20:04:00.000-05:00

Jennifer is our office interview lady. We meet with her Oct 12 at 9am - early afternoon. What a long interview!!

Kristin is the case worker that will be with us until we get our baby. She's probably coming to our house for the homestudy Oct 7!!! EEEEEEE We have major cleaning to do!!!

Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Best email ever!

2009-09-28T11:09:00.000-05:00

Just received this email from our application processor!!

"I wanted to let you know that your home study has been assigned. You will be hearing from one of our caseworkers, Kristin, within the next couple of weeks or so to schedule your home visit. Your caseworker here at Gladney, Jennifer, will also contact you within that same time frame to schedule your office interviews. Just send the few remaining items for your file to my attention.
Thanks so much!" - Vicki

Office Visit and Homestudy request is in!

2009-09-26T09:42:00.000-05:00

I heard from our application processor. She said she is submitting a request on our behalf for our agency office visit and homestudy!! I feel like the ball is really starting to roll now!! What great news for the weekend!

More application papers sent and big fat check!

2009-09-22T21:09:00.000-05:00

I sent every piece of paper I could possible send right now to the agency. Oh yeah, I had to include the first 25% too + 2000 for the homestudy/post-placement visits. Ridiculousness!!! Hopefully the homestudy will take place in October!! We are on our way, slowly but surely!!

Application incomplete

2009-09-14T21:18:00.000-05:00

I got an email from the agency letting me know all the things we still need to submit - GRRRRR! It wasn't a horrible list, but it was long enough. I'm giving us two more weeks to get it all done. I don't want to put off completing the app any longer!

School is finally getting better for those of you know what's going on. I had a really great day today. Yah!

Application submitted

2009-09-09T21:59:00.000-05:00

Brandt put our application in the mail today! Yay! Now, we just sit and wait for them to say, "You ppl seem OK. Give us a lot of money and wait another year." No. I'm just kidding, but there is some truth in it! We are waiting for the agency to let us know when we need to come back for our interview and at that time we will put down 25% + 1500 for the homestudy. Then they will come to our house to interview us to get to know us better, make sure we love each other, and talk about how we plan to raise our kids and stuff. Hopefully our homestudy will happen in October or definitely by November!

My adoption bloggers get matched!

2009-09-05T08:32:00.000-05:00

Maru and Fico from Adoption Journey received a call one day from their social worker saying a baby had been born and to come and get her!!! They waited one year and one month. Luckily for them they got the room ready this summer. It's so cute and sassy! - I'm so excited for you guys!!!

Wendy and Steve from Our Story: Our Journey to Adoption received "the call" that they had been link with a birthmom this past August (I believe). She's due in September. They had 5 weeks notice!! Their baby should be on its way very soon!!

Congrats to you both!

B and I are sending our application Tuesday - as soon as I finish typing my autobiography!

Brief update and a moment to vent

2009-08-31T21:36:00.000-05:00

We have not submitted our application yet, but it's mostly done. I hope to have it mailed by the end of the week. That's the goal anyway! After that, we have to go back to the agency for an interview. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Just have to get out my frustrations really quick...

I'm SOOO sick of everybody giving me their two cents about where their friend's cousin adopted his/her baby and why we should look into it. I don't care!!! I tell people up-front that we are going with the agency my husband was adopted from, and yet they still ask if we have looked into their friend's cousin's agency. Hello??? WE ARE GOING WITH THE AGENCY FROM WHICH MY HUSBAND WAS ADOPTED!! I thought this was a no brainer, but I guess I was wrong.

Reality Check

2009-08-16T09:59:00.000-05:00

We finally had our adoption orientation at the Gladney Center for Adoption. It's such a beautiful facility. There were about twenty other couples there with us from many different states. The majority were from Houston and Dallas, but three couples were from New York! There were also couples from Louisiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Colorado. The couple from Louisiana was at our table, and we became very close with them before the day was over. We had quite a bit in common with them with the main thing being she and Brandt are both Gladney adoptees. We thought that was really cool. We have their contact information to stay in touch throughout the adoption process.

Reality check...

I guess I thought the whole process was not going to take that long, since we were preliminary accepted so quickly. Not the case. It seems to take 3-4 months to apply, be approved and complete the homestudy. After that, it's a waiting game and no one can give us an estimated time. It seems the average wait time after approval is at least one year. They did not sugar-coat anything. They were upfront and honest, which we appreciated but frustrated us at the same time. They currently have 99 waiting parents +21 at orientation and had about 119 adoptions last year. They will have more orientations before the year is over. Competition is stiff. We did get to meet 3 birthmoms who gave each us some advice. The best advice was to make your profile book stand out by showing who you really are and don't make your profile book generic to appeal to everyone. If it's generic, it's going to get overlooked. The girls were very sweet, and the one who had already given birth was really funny. The application book is not too long. We have most of it done. We have 30 days to turn it in if we want the $300 fee to apply towards our agency fees. We are trying to stay on the ball. After applying, the next step is the homestudy!

New Paintings

2009-08-09T00:31:00.001-05:00

Now that my summer off is drawing to a close, I figured I'd better get on the ball to create some personal artwork. I began and finished these two paintings today. They are 11x14. I totally copied the idea from somebody else. It was so cute! How could I not be inspired to create my own? I'm actually putting these in my classroom with the hopes to spark some interesting conversations.

Orientation is almost here!

2009-08-05T17:30:00.001-05:00

I've been patiently waiting for over a month now to attend our adoption orientation. Just one more week, and it will be here! We've been tossing some baby names around. I'm not ready to say just yet. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. I've been looking into baby room decor. Since I will want to decorate before we know if we are getting a girl or boy (and a birthmom can change her mind at any point before giving birth and up to 48 hrs after giving birth), I've narrowed the room decor down to jungle/animals or colorful unisex prints. I created a Tumblr blog to house all the baby pics of things I (we) like until we decide. Check it out when you get a chance. I haven't looked at much furniture-can't decide on white or light wood. Any thoughts??

Final Version of Painting

2009-07-28T16:25:00.001-05:00

Thought you guys might be interested in the final version of the painting that my chiropractor has commissioned me to do!!

Our House

2009-07-28T00:09:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to plan ahead by taking some pictures of the outside of our house for the scrapbook we will have to turn in to the agency. I waited for a day that the harvested corn husks (from the field behind our house) were not making our yard look completely trashy. If you click on the pics to enlarge, the trash looking stuff is actually shredded corn husks :-) I was also waiting for a day that the clouds were looking really awesome! As a photographer, I could not just take any ordinary pictures on any ordinary day. The sun and the clouds had to be just right! I can't do anything to enhance the house, so I'll just enhance the pic with cool and pretty clouds!

Our house is 3bed/2bath and already too small for the two of us! My husband's job requires us to live in this specific county. We hope to be transferred by next Feb-May to a more metropolitan area (where we will buy a house and have restaurants and grocery stores out the wazoo). If we don't get to transfer in 2010, we will have to stay put and try again for a transfer in 2011 :-(

Featured here is the front of our house, our front yard and fenced-in back yard area. We also have a big side yard area that can sort of been seen in the first pic.

Being Productive

2009-07-24T14:23:00.000-05:00

My chiropractor has commissioned me to do a piece for his office. I was eager to accept (two months ago). I put it off all summer thinking it would only take me a couple of days. I'm now seven hours into the project and about half way done. I told him I would have it finished by the end of July. Thank goodness I started this week!!

Wednesday - spent 1 hr drawing the outline
Thursday - spent 3 hrs painting and realized I have not painted in about 4 or 5 years!! It was way harder than I remember!
Friday - have spent 3 1/2 hrs painting thus far...still plan to paint a few more hours

I feel very productive, since I haven't done crap all summer. My hubby gets frustrated b/c I lay on the couch all day. I can't help it I have the best job in the world that allows me to have 2 1/2 months off!!

Let me know what you guys think so far (remember-it's not finished yet)!!

Cheer Camp and Baseball Playoffs

2009-07-19T11:29:00.000-05:00

Since we don't have children of our own, Brandt and I coach youth teams in our favorite sports. I am the 7th grade cheer coach at my school, and Brandt coaches baseball team of 13-14 year-olds. We haven't seen each other in almost a week! My cheer camp and his baseball playoffs fell on the same days. My camp was in the mornings and afternoons while his playoffs were in the late evening. Cheer camp was a great success. The girls learned so many new cheers, sidelines, and dances. The parents were very impressed. Brandt's team got 4th in the playoffs! Back to reality sitting and waiting for orientation August 14th.

Bone Scan RESULTS & Agency Update

2009-07-10T12:04:00.000-05:00

I was told by x-ray tech that the Dr.'s office would call me. Of course that didn't happen. I called and left a message this morning. The nurse just called and said everything is perfectly normal!!! Yah!!! No new meds to take. I'm so relieved. Now, I just need to go to the store and get some Calcium+Vitamin D! Shew!!

Agency Update - They are supposed to be sending an information packet about orientation and some other things. Been patiently waiting since last week for it. If I don't get anything by Saturday, I'm emailing them my questions!

Out of all the info packets I've received from other agencies, it looks like we have to take pictures of the outside of our house. I hate this, because this is a house we are just renting until we decide where we want to live permanently. The house looks really small, and the fenced-in yard area is very small. Don't want to be judged by a birthmom that our house is too small. A silly worry I know, but it's still in the back of my mind.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Bone Scan

2009-07-08T18:23:00.000-05:00

I finally went in for a bone scan today. I was supposed to have it done in April but completely forgot about the appointment till three days later. The clinic didn't call to remind me, and it wasn't at a place I usually see a doctor. A bone scan is a high tech x-ray machine that can see the density of one's bones. Because I'm going through early menopause, there's a chance I may have suffered some bone loss. I was able to peek at the image results, and they looked fine to me. What do I know :-) The doc should call me tomorrow to let me know the results. Before I went in for the scan, I had to fill out a sheet of paperwork. Only old ladies are supposed to get bone scans, I had to answer questions about osteoporosis and when did I start menopause. It wasn't too painful to answer, but I had put it past me already. It did burst my bubble a little...

Inspirational Adoption Blogs

2009-07-06T11:18:00.000-05:00

My new addiction is adoption blogs. There are tons out there, but these are the three I'm following. Each blog has tons more adoption blogs. Enjoy!

1. Grace Comes by Hearing - Tracey is truly and inspiration. She's a teacher too :-)

2. Waiting...our adoption journey - Jennifer has a really cute story too

3. Adoption Journey - Maru and Fico are in the middle of their journey. I'll get to read about "The Call" when it happens - very exciting!!

4. Production, Not Reproduction - A mother's blog about her two domestic adoptions as well as other good adoption info.

Texas Adoption Agencies

2009-07-04T01:27:00.000-05:00

For any woman/man/couple who may come across my blog in the future:

Here is a list of other adoption agencies we were considering.

Gladney Center for Adoption (our #1 choice) - Ft. Worth, TX

Adoption Advocates, Inc. - Austin, TX

Adoption Angels, Inc. - San Antonio, TX

Adoption Covenant - Lubbock, TX

BEST NEWS EVER!!!

2009-07-02T15:17:00.000-05:00

I just got the most amazing news from our #1 choice in adoption agencies!! They accepted our preliminary application!!! This means WE ARE IN!!!! There is a very small chance that it could be rejected but only if they find out we lied on the prelim app (which we didn't). I was crying when I got off the phone, and my hope and dream of being a mom was restored. Brandt was like, "What's wrong?" I told him our great news, and we hugged for a long time. It really was one of the happiest moments of my life. I'd say it was equivalent to getting a + on a pregnancy test!! Oh my gosh! I'm so excited and giddy and just relieved.

Thank you so much to all of you who have been praying for us!! It helped!

Next step: Orientation - Friday, August 14th (That seems so far away!!)

I'm sitting on cloud nine right now.

Family Photo Time

2009-06-30T21:43:00.000-05:00

Brandt and I had our serious discussion this weekend. After I told him about the painful and thick progesterone shots, he felt adoption was also the best choice for us. I reminded him that from the beginning we said that we didn't want me on hormone shots.

The hard part now is finding a good agency. We are definitely going with the Edna Gladney Center in the DFW area. It's the same place my in-laws adopted Brandt. There's an agency in Houston we are looking into as well as in San Antonio.

Most agencies need you to supply a recent family photo. I realized we didn't have a good picture of just us (where we aren't being silly or wearing sunglasses). I got us all dressed up and put us in the front yard. I'd say the results were not too shabby!

The adoption process is pretty lengthy. Most agencies have you do a preliminary application. If you pass that step, then you get the real application which is probably about 30 pages and requires a lot of references and letters of recommendation. We will also have to have a Home Study completed by a social worker. After all of that, you sit and wait to find out if your application is accepted. If you are accepted, then you are guaranteed a baby. Then you sit and wait some more till they match you with a baby. We are looking at a two-year process here!! :-( I guess it's a good thing we are starting now! Maybe I'll get a baby for my 30th birthday!! Gosh that seems so far away. Don't go anywhere, folks! Sit back and enjoy the ride. It's going to be a dizzy winding road to get our baby!!

Enlightenment

2009-06-26T14:26:00.000-05:00

I've been struggling now for two weeks on which decision is the right decision for us. Since Brandt and I are split on which path to take, everyone keeps saying pray about it. I've been praying and praying with no clarity.

I got the opportunity to spend some time with my in-laws on Monday and Tuesday. Brandt and I have always been pretty close with them. I've known them almost as long as I've known Brandt. I got to meet them when Brandt and I were "just friends" and not exclusively dating. We go way back. I had talked with them about Brandt's adoption right after we were married, since Brandt never cared to share about it (and I never asked). I figured if he wanted to talk about it he would. My impression was that he never even thought about his adoption. The boy thinks he's Cajun b/c his parents are from New Orleans :-) His parents think the same thing as me - he just forgets he's adopted. Gilbert and Tonnette are his parents as far as he is concerned. Anywho, back to Monday...we played catch-up on a few things, and I finally brought up the big pink elephant in the room. I told them that I just had no idea what we were going to do about making a decision b/c we are split. My in-laws started telling me more in depth info about the place they adopted Brandt from - Edna Gladney. They had told me a few things several years back, but now they were telling me more important and specific information. Right away I knew that's the route I wanted to go for sure. The Gladney Center for Adoption in Fort Worth, TX is a home for unwed mothers. I had no idea! They take care of the moms, provide schooling/take them to school (not sure which), make sure they are taking care of prenatal things, etc. That really warmed my heart and made the decision so clear. The application process is pretty lengthy, but once you are in - you're in! I have not been able to share my excitement with Brandt, b/c he's still out of town. I tried bringing it up in a phone conversation, but he said he wanted to wait. I'm anxiously awaiting his arrival today!!

I also found a woman's blog called My POF Journey about her IVF w/egg donor experience. The progesterone shots she had to take were painful and thick like peanut butter - gross! She said her butt was all lumpy from them - NO THANKS! The one thing Brandt and I don't want me to have to do is take all the hormone shots. That was the icing on the cake that adoption is the right choice for me. Her IVF ended in success (barely), but it's not a guarantee at all. I have to see what Brandt's reasons are for wanting to do the IVF. Hopefully by next week we will take the first step in which ever route is our final decision. Keep your fingers crossed and pray, pray, pray for us!