Random things

In adoption news, our referral fee and our acceptance documents made it to our agency. Yay! They in turn, received a little more info about EasterStar and we passed that along to our doc. I really hope she is healthy as we are already falling in love with her little picture.

TinyDancer had her dance recital over the weekend. She was a little ham up on stage. During the first performance (Friday night) she spotted Stranger and FIL right as she was marching on stage. She waved to them during both of her performances - a few times each performance - and received many laughs from the audience. We were on the opposite side of the theater for the second performance (Saturday afternoon) and she didn't see us. Both performances were cute and she received lots of flowers from her Grandma and her Granny and even her cousin. Our house is so pretty right now with all of the fresh flowers. The recital, while a very loose interpretation of Beauty and the Beast, was very cute! (I bet you didn't know that there were dalmations in Beauty and the Beast - did ya?!)

Things I learned while volunteering at the Friday night performance:
1. Four little girls in tap shoes dressed like dalmations can make A LOT of noise if you take them all to the bathroom at once. Especially if you use the family bathroom.
2. It is very easy to spot four little girls in a cafeteria filled with 100 ballerinas running around if they are dressed the same. Note to self - remember this if we ever do have more than 1 child!
3. 9 little girls can fit around a tiny portable DVD player but only 5 of them will be able to hear the movie.
4. No matter how different snacks you send your child, she will still ask for the one snack that you didn't bring.
5. It is a VERY good idea to bring along a bottle of Tylenol to a ballet recital. 8 ). Especially after taking little girls to the bathroom. 8 )

It finally came!!!

We are excited to announce that we've accepted a referral!

We don't have a lot of information - just a birth month and year and a picture - so there is still the potential that she might have some medical issues that we can't handle and not be a good fit for us - but we've decided to accept her and travel to see her!
I'm headed to the bank today to wire our referral fee to our agency and mail off our acceptance documents.

When we showed TinyDancer her picture, she said "She has crazy hair! We are going to have to comb it *every* day!". hee hee hee

No word on a travel date yet - we've got to get the fee and the paperwork in so that the agency can work on a travel date.


Hold on EasternStar - we're coming to meet you and hopefully you will be home soon!!

Parenting Fun!

Have I mentioned lately how much fun it is to experience the world through TinyDancer's eyes? I think that this is one of the best things about parenting! Thinks overheard in our house lately:

- "Look! The sun is saying good morning with beautiful colors!"

- "Why is it called a dress rehearsal instead of practicing for the dance recital?
You can call it a dress rehearsal, but I am going to call it practice for the recital."

- All of the kids in her class at her school brought in their favorite recipe and they have been voting on which one to make next. "Today we are making the last recipe and I voted for it. It is Butternut Squash Soup. At group time the teacher asked what we thought was in it and I said butter. Because the name is Butter *pause* Nut *pause* Squash *pause* Soup. I bet the butter is mashed up. We all get to take a turn mashing up the butter! I can't wait!"

- "This music makes me happy in my tummy"

- "Why is the moon still out? Doesn't he know that he is supposed to be sleeping when the Sun is out? Maybe the Moon is friends with the Sun and he missed him so he is staying up late to play."

- When we go to the zoo, every set of animals is a mommy and her baby or a mommy and a daddy and their baby.

-

To our sweet baby in Heaven......

We love you and miss you! If you were here you'd be 18 months old today. Sleep well sweet angel.
Love,
Mom and Dad and TinyDancer

It's only 10 o'clock........

and I have already:
1. been overtaken by two overzealous dogs that tricked me into thinking they *really* had to go potty, only to bolt under and out of our fence like it was nothing

2. chased above mentioned dogs all over the neighborhood whilest listening to my four year old repeatedly ask "Where do you think the puppies are?" Apparently my answer of "I'm not sure" wasn't good enough because she kept asking. I finally responded "Sweetie, if I knew where the puppies were, I'd go straight there and get them." To which I got the response "I didn't ask *where* the puppies are, I asked where you *thought* they are." A response she has gotten from me a time or two about random things......nice!

3. been scolded at by an old woman for letting above mentioned dogs escape in the first place. Here's a thought, if you see a big black bear-looking dog with a big goofy grin on its face barreling towards you and your tiny-barely-10-pounds-when-wet-dog instead of shrieking "Don't bite my dog" (over and over) like a school girl, pick up your dog! And also, if a dog isn't barking, it isn't likely to just randomly bite you or your dog!

4. felt like mom of the year when four year old daughter, who is holding the leash for dog # 1 gets dragged across the street and knocked over (on the grass) when dog # 1 sees dog # 2 barreling towards the tiny-barely-10-pounds-when-wet-dog and wants to join in on the sniffing action instead of getting in the car like I told her too.

I have a headache, I haven't even showered yet, and I'm hungry.

I can't wait to see what the afternoon holds for us!

The Mommy Fix-It Shop

Do you ever keep all of your mending until you have a nice big stack and then fix everything at once? I've been doing this since .... well..... sometimes I can be lazy. 8 )

The Mommy Fix-It Shop has already fixed:

- 1 tattered blankie

- 2 skinned knees that required 2 band-aids each

Neither of which is available for photographs as said blankie is currently in use and those two knees had better be sleeping!

Still yet to be fixed are:

1. A brown skirt - aka -My Favorite Brown Skirt. This has been MIA for quite some time - even I forgot that it needed to be fixed. This was a hand me down, but it is, in fact priceless to TinyDancer.

2. A purple princess dress - aka - The Butterfly Princess Dress. This has also been out of commission for quite some time. So much so, that when TinyDancer asked about it a few days ago, I didn't want to confess that it *still* wasn't fixed. My "didn't we take that to Grandma's and leave it there?" excuse did not work. I was busted!

3. A Belle dress - no aka. This only need minor mending - we just have some torn tulle. I don't think that it will be missed if I just snip the torn part off!

4. A "Bubbles" dress - aka - the itchy ballet costume - needed for an upcoming dance recital. This is needed for the dress rehearsal on Monday. Perhaps I should do this one first.

5. A "Pet Shop" dress - aka - the itchy tap costume that is much more comfy than the blue one - also needed for Monday night.

Sorry that you have to turn your head......

I'd better get sewing and hot glueing!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

Here is a pic of our dessert from today. TinyDancer made this *herself*. She spent Good Friday with Grandma and Grandma set out all of the ingredients and did all of the measuring, but TinyDancer did the pouring and mixing and cutting and decorating. Didn't she do a good job? It was YUMMY!

We had a nice and relaxing day. TinyDancer was excited because the Easter Bunny filled her basket with lots of fun stuff - two magnetic fishing poles with an assortment of fish (one for her and one for her baby sister she exclaimed!), paint, two outfits for her babies, a new book, and two of her "very own" pens. Good stuff!

No news.....

Nothing exciting to report on the adoption front. We did speak with our coordinator about our the bill that we received for the first trip fee last week. The short answer (and probably the only answer we are allowed to say publicly) is that someone jumped the gun and we don't know anything yet.

However, check back next week or the week after, becauses we *might* have something exciting to report then.

Confused, us too. 8 )

But, we have been slowly (and I mean v e r y s l o w l y) checking off items from our "Things to do before the first trip" list.

Thunder, Thunder, Go Away!!

I am so tired. Why is it that things like this only happen when Stranger is on call? 8 )
Here is a timeline of my night last night:

8:00 - TinyDancer to bed - 30 minutes past bed time.
8:30 - TinyDancer - "I can't sleep. I'm hungry. I want to sleep with you."
8:31 - Me - too tired to argue - fine - move TinyDancer to my bed.
9:00 - Try to make a PB & J amongst the repeated requests for a snack and complaints of not being able to sleep, and dogs running underfoot as rain storm is approaching.
9:15 - Snack is over - lay down with TinyDancer
9:20 - It starts to thunder and lightening outside
9:21 - 10:20- Attempt to sleep amongst TinyDancer's repeated chants of "I'm scared. The thunder is going to get me. What is that light?" and the two dogs jumping up and down on the bed and running around the house whimpering Wonder to myself - Can I just go somewhere else to sleep while these three goof around?
10:30 - Thunder and lightening finally stop. TinyDancer finally falls alseep. An entire three hours past her bedtime!
10:30 - 11:15 - Finally get dogs calmed down. They are still pacing because of the rain but have finally stopped wimpering.
11:45 - Finally fall asleep.
12:15 - TinyDancer starts coughing. Darn you cold!!
12:30 - Get TinyDancer comfy and everyone goes back to sleep.
02:30 - Startled awake. Thud-thud. Thud-thud. Think to self - Shit! I'm having a heart attack! Wake up enough to realize that sound is not heart - sound is the neighbor across the street - their son is playing his rap music REALLY loud! It's not a heart attack - its just some really annoying bass. Think - "Why is a teenager coming home at 2:30 on a school night?" 8 )
02:50 - Music stops.
03:15 - Finally back to sleep.
04:15 - Woken up by one dog that needs to go to the bathroom. Consider cutting a hole in the back door so dogs can come and go by themselves. Dog refuses to go outside as it is *still* raining.
04:30 - Finally back in bed - but it is time to get up for Boot Camp.
04:31 - Decide to sleep in and do work out tomorrow morning instead.
06:30 - TinyDancer wakes up "It's wake up time Mommy!!!"
06:31 - 06:45 - Snuggle with TinyDancer and try to convince her that it is *not* wake up time yet.
06:45 - Set TinyDancer up with a movie and some cheerios.
07:15 - Woken to shouts of "I don't like cheerios, I want something else."
07:20 - Back in bed.
08:00 - Woken to "My movie is over! Can I have breakfast."
08:01 - Seriously?? Consider putting in another movie........get up and re-heat pancakes instead. Thank you once a month cooking!!

How much time until nap time? 8 )

Traveling soon??

We received an invoice from our agency today that is for 'international travel fee - first trip fee'. We called our agency to ask .... ummm.... does this mean we have a travel date??? Is there a child identified for us? Nope - but we should have a date "soon" and that is all of the information that they have. They want us to get our $ submitted so that everything is in place and there will be no hold ups when we do get our travel date. I've seen some people get five days notice - can you imagine getting that call - "You have five days to be in Moscow" - and some people get three weeks notice.

I, of course, have LOTS of questions, but our coordinator is on vacation until Monday.

Prayers for a quick travel date appreciated!

Remembering........

So, this month has been really hard emotionally. Stranger and I both felt it but didn't really talk about it. And then a few nights ago, as I was rocking TinyDancer to sleep, it hit me as to why. The first baby that we lost would have been 2 this month. My due date was March 24.

We've talked a lot in our grief support meetings how your body just knows - and even without you actually thinking about it with conscious thought, your body knows and grieves. And sometimes you don't realize why until a bit later. This is SO true! We still think about our two little angels that we didn't have the chance to get to know.

This is for my oldest angel in Heaven......we love you.....take care of your siblings until we get there....

Somewhere Over The Rainbow
Uploaded by filipegodinho

Once a month cooking!

A few weeks ago, while surfing for recipes on my lunch break, I discovered a website called http://www.onceamonthmom.com/ - and it is awesome! The concept is that you spend one day cooking and at the end of the day you have 10-15 breakfasts, 10 lunches, and 15 dinners - or about enough to last a month. Stranger is never home for lunch (and since we are headed into a few call months back to back, often won't be home for dinner), and TinyDancer gets breakfast and lunch at school, so I intend to have a few nights of "breakfast for dinner" and a few of the lunch items for dinner - so we'll probably stretch it out even further. They plan the menus, make the grocery list, and EVEN have instructions on the most efficient way to make all of that food. And it is my favorite ...... everything on their website is FREE! Stranger and I have tried this before - we've spent the day making some casseroles and spaghetti sauce - but this website offers a month of cooking that is more than just casseroles! This month we are going to eat minestrone soup, firecracker salmon, mandarin orange chicken, and more. Everything looks delicious! So, I decided that I had to try it out. Everything is set up to feed 2 families of about 4 people each - so I asked my good friend and neighbor if she wanted to try it out t0o. Oh - and one thing that it took me a minute to figure out - the "March" menu - they intend for you to shop for the ingredients and do the cooking in March and eat the food in April.... and so on..

We did our cooking on Saturday and it was a lot of work - but it was a blast!! I agree with Courtney and Tricia - you definitely have to pick a partner that you can laugh with! We did some of the shopping together, and you can't NOT laugh when you see a cart with 14 lbs of chicken, 9 lbs of salmon, and 5 lbs of beef! Or when you realize that when you calculated how much taco seasoning you need, you did the conversion of teaspoons to tablespoons wrong and now you have twice as much as you needed! Good thing Heather checked before dumping that into the pot or we'd have some interesting "un"stuffed shells! 8 )

Stranger helped me get everything together the night before - we put all of the groceries and kitchen tools out on the kitchen table as they suggested and that was a huge help. He also helped me cut up the veggies the night before - and that was a lifesaver! Stranger had some concerns about our project so, as we were chopping together, I fielded a few questions from him: Are you going to wear hair nets? Ummm.... No.
Are you going to set anything on fire? Ummm..... No.
Am I going to have to do the clean up? Of course not - we'll handle it. hee hee.

We got started around 8:30/9:00 on Saturday morning and finished around 5:00. With the cooking. The cleanup took another hour. Hee hee. We hit a few bumps along the way - we ran out of onions and soy sauce, and salmon - we miss counted the number of bags that we bought - hee hee - but we were able to laugh and recover. We did some of the dishes along the way ..... I mean that our AWESOME husbands did some of the dishes along the way..... and one of our husbands got to chop some extra onions... hee hee ....... after we were done, I commented to Stranger that we made a bigger mess than I thought we would. To my surprise, his response was "Really? You made exactly the size mess I thought you would!" ha ha.

Overall, it was fun and I'm glad to have a months worth of cooking out of the way. The April menu will be up soon and we might do it again next month.

Some tips for next time -
- go with the minced garlic. I love my garlic press, but it would be worth it to have one less thing to chop
- read the recipes AND the instructions before cooking. We each read the instructions, but there were a few steps that we wished that we were more familiar with.
- the labels that they made were awesome! I didn't have label paper, so I printed them on regular paper and we cut them out and taped them to the food.
- it was really really nice to have an extra pair of hands to do the dishes while we were cooking!

My partner took some photos - so check out her site for her recap and some photos - http://www.familyjourneyoffaith.blogspot.com/.

Has anyone seen my baby??

This is a photo of all of TinyDancer's babies. Do you think she has enough? She doesn't! Whenever I ask her if we have enough, she says, "No. I just need two more." It's hilarious. Some of these were mine when I was little, some were gifts, and some she purchased with Christmas or birthday money.

Although, she has agreed that we finally have enough strollers!

How many babies do you see? We have a prize for whoever can count all of the babies!

Don't strain yourselves - there isn't really a prize! 8 )

10 Honest Things

Remember my Honest Scrap award from a few weeks ago? Well, I finally have time to sit down and write my 10 honest things. Here goes.....

1. I hate to watch other people brush their teeth. Even TinyDancer and even on TV. Blah!

2. I am going to be an Aunt again in September and I could NOT be more excited! I think my sister is hoping for a girl as my nephew is very busy. I don't care either way - I just hope they are healthy. And have kidneys that work!

3. I sleep with the last nightgown that SleepingAngel wore. Everynight. Her scent has long ago faded but I can't bring myself to wash it or put it up in her room. And on the nights that I forget to grab it, I don't sleep as well and don't realize why until I wake up the next day.

4. I hate working. I absolutely love my job, my boss is awesome and I couldn't ask for better coworkers, but I would much rather be home playing with TinyDancer. I never thought that I would want to be a SAHM, but the minute that TinyDancer was placed in my arms I knew that there was so much more to life than working. Not because I'm lazy and I just don't want to work, but because being home with TinyDancer, even on the frustrating days, is so much better than spending the day apart from her. These years are precious and I see them slowly slipping away. Every month I crunch the numbers to see if we can survive on just Stranger's salary. Not yet but hopefully soon!

5. I only read "brain candy" books. I can never get into biographies or books that make you think. Nope. It is just brain rotting romance and mysteries for me!

6. Sometimes when I'm at church, I can't focus on what is going on around me. All I remember is how it felt to hold SleepingAngel that last time right before her casket was closed forever. And Stranger pulling me away so that we didn't have to see it, murmuring that that wasn't SleepingAngel anymore. And all I can see is a tiny white casket at the front of the church.

7. On the good days, I know that SleepingAngel is watching over us and knows that we love and miss her. I understand that God intended for her time here to be short.

8. On the bad days - and we still have lots and lots of them - the only reason that I get out of bed and stay out of it is because TinyDancer needs me. If it wasn't for her I don't know what I'd do.

9. I miss running and I'm trying to figure out how to fit running and boot camp into my schedule.

10. Sometimes when I pick out books or movies for TinyDancer at the library, I get them because I want to read them or see them.

Um....Mom, when are you leaving?

My daughter said this to me when we were at her grandma's house! We go there on Sunday afternoon's for family dinners and tonight she is spending the night there. Right before dinner, she came in from the backyard and asked me when I was going to leave. I asked her if I could stay for dinner and she said "No. You can eat at home." Nice!