Scarborough Faire

I used Creative Victorian's Fairy Fantasia kit for these photos.

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Scrapbooks

I made up a scrapbook blog awhile back to share my scrapbooks with everyone. I just finished putting up my baby books of me that I did to preserve my baby pictures. I left the pics together in groups that my Mom had put them in my baby book as and put them into a scrapbook. My books are completed up to age 7...still working on the rest. These were the first books that I ever did and my scrapbook style is totally different now, but it's fun to see how I started scrapbooking. The link is http://hoffmanfamilyscraps.blogspot.com/ if you want to see. I'll be starting Deidra's scrapbooks shortly...that will take me awhile as she's got 5 or 6 so far and I'm really behind....I am just finishing up preschool and then I jumped to this year. I'll eventually go back when I have time to paper scrap some more and fill in where I left off. Eventually all the scrapbook pages I make will be up there. It'll just be a work in progress. :-)

Things to work on in 2008

These aren't New Year resolutions per se, but just some things I'd like to work on in 2008.

Eating more healthy things and losing 50 lbs. If I manage to lose more than that, that's a plus too. But, I'll be content this year if I can just lose 50.

Being able to take more family trips and so forth this year even if they're just day trips or a few long weekend get aways.

Paying off more debt and becoming debt-free. (We're paying Andy's car off today a few months early).

Staying more on top of the house so it's a lot more managable to clean. It really helps when I follow my house schedule that I made up rather than waiting to clean everything all at once.

Doing one scrapbook page a day so that I can stay on top of the kids books rather than staying behind.

Taking a few minutes at the start of each day to spend in prayer and Bible study. It really does make the day go easier if I remember to do that.

And continuing with unpacking and decorating and putting the house together the way we want it!

Oh No!

Deidra told us yesterday that one of her big girl teeth was loose. She came to show us. Yup, one of her top front teeth can be moved. She hasn't hit it on anything, but it's scaring me. She was just at the dentist 6 months ago and everything looked good. She has her next 6 month appt on Wednesday and our new insurance isn't effective until the 1st. Here I was concerned because she lost the tooth next to it and it didn't grow back in until a good 8-9 months later. That one finally came in and grew all the way in and now the tooth that was there all along is loose.

Abba, please don't let there be any issues with being able to save that tooth.

Went to the mall today...

Andy and I took the girls to the mall today to spend their Build-A-Bear gift cards and then we went to Teavana to pick out some more teas. We wound up sampling a few that we already liked but we already had picked out what we were going to get. $50 later we wound up with 3 air tight tins, 1 lb of german rock cane sugar, 4 oz of Gingerbread Cookie tea, and 4 oz of Vermont Maple tea to come home with. Then we headed over to get some gelato as a treat before heading home. We couldn't wait to get home and try them and boy were they good.


This one is the Vermont Maple. This herbal tisane tastes of crisp apples, toasted almonds, and cinnamon all sweetened with a rich natural maple syrup taste. It was very good!

The Gingerbread Cookie was really good too and the kids even liked it. It was a beautiful red color too! This tea is an herbal blend that consists of apple bits, candied pineapple, candied papaya, cinnamon sticks, beetroot bits, roasted almonds, popcorn, raisins, peanut bits and coconut chips.

Andy said we have become tea snobs and I have to agree! We're thinking of joining their tea of the month club since you get 3 teas sent you each month and for what we spent today I can definitely see it being worth it!

Blogging EveryDay in 2008

Well, in the month of November I participated in NaBloPoMo and wrote in my blog everyday in November. Well, they just extended a new challenge to write everyday in the year 2008. I think I'm going to do my best to try. :-)

Anyone joining in on the fun?

On the Road Again

I used the road signs from the On the Road kit that I found a long time ago online. Unfortunately, that was back when I didn't save who made the kits, so I don't know who made it.

Feeding the Hummingbirds

I used the Secret Garden kit and the filmstrip is from Scrapbook Flair.

El Encanto

This one I did with a Quick Page from Scrapbook with Suze' Spring Break kit.

The sickies again...

The sickies are going around our house again...man, we just went through all this at the beginning of December.

It all started on Sunday morning when Baby D woke up and ate his breakfast and proceeded to barf it all back up. The weird thing was that he barfed a few times and then he was fine for the rest of the day.

Christmas Eve, the girls had runny noses and had started coughing. Had many a talk with Little J about covering our hands when coughing and making sure we're washing our hands.

I have gotten maybe 4 hours of sleep this week. My blood sugars have been awfully high and I'm up every 1-2 hours to pee. I'm exhausted, but I can't sleep either as my mind has just been racing. Too much going on I guess.

I woke up this morning coughing with a tickle in my throat when all of a sudden it hits me...I'm going to puke. Make a run for the bathroom, Andy puts me back to bed with a barf pail. I fell asleep only to wake up at 8 feeling like a truck has hit me. So, I've got the Vicks in my nose (yes, I'm weird...I just put it on the inside of my nostrils) to try to breathe, drinking my tea, and I am just exhausted. I hope the kids are well-behaved today.

We have our case worker coming out tomorrow for our monthly home visit too. I so need to do laundry, but I'm really not going to sweat it. Now, if I can just get the kids from bringing me a box to open and fight with every 5 minutes, I'll be happy. Do they really need to strap down every Barbie appendage to deter shoplifters...it's making this mommy a little frustrated when it takes 1/2 an hour just to get a toy out of the box with the kid whining at me to hurry up every few minutes. All I want is a good nap and some peace and quiet right now...

Christmas went really well...I'll post about that a little later!

Andy and I had Christmas together...

Andy and I decided on Saturday night after finishing up our wrapping, that the kids had so many gifts and that we were going to make Christmas totally for them. So, we decided to exchange our gifts with one another. We decided that we'd sit in my huge walk-in closet and give each other our gifts and open the gifts that were to us. We received a 4-slice toaster and blender from Geoff and Mimi, a bed quilt and sheets and a bed ruffle from my FIL, and my MIL gave us $200 to go house shopping with, calendars, and a cool house journal where you can keep track of house repairs or things that you have to do on the house and when you did it all. We were totally spoiled and it was so exciting opening everything.

I gave Andy boxers, new pajamas, some tools, and I had gotten him some loose leaf teas from Teavana. He recently had his work fun night...their original plans got rained out so they were each given $40 to go shop at the mall with to find a gift for someone. He wound up picking some teas from Teavana, a really cool mug set, and some coffee from Starbucks to give as his gift. He was really disappointed when he picked his bag for his gift to find that he got all the gag gifts...blood pills, whoopy cushion that sort of thing...but he was trying to be a good sport about it. Anyway, when I heard how disappointed he was and that hewould have loved the gift that he had given, I decided to get him some stuff from Teavana, so I picked him out 3 bags of tea and gave him the perfect "tea" spoon.

He gave me a king sized new velour blanket since mine was getting holes in it and tearing, but I couldn't part with it. I love how warm and soft that it is. And then, my next gift was a tea kettle and a smile just came across my face. The next gift that he gave me was 2 cans of tea from Teavana and I just started to laugh. We had gotten each other the same things (different kinds, but from the same store and everything. He also gave me a glass tea pot to seep the teas in and when you get ready to poor it the top is a strainer so you only get the tea in your mug. I was so excited. We've tried most of our teas and they were so good. We can't wait to get more!

That's just more proof that we're soul mates and meant for one another! I love him so much!

The tea pictured is Peach Tranquility that Andy gave me. We drank some before bed and I was so relaxed after drinking it that I just went to sleep.

The Peach Tranquility tea is a delightfully harmonious blend of candied peach pieces, pineapple, lemon myrtle, Roman chamomile, sunflower petals and rosehips create a most peaceful blend.

And now I really want to go make up my bed with our new bed set....we were so tired after opening presents that we just went to bed.

What Gift Central Looks Like So Far...

I thought I'd share what Gift Central looks like so far...this doesn't take into account all that CPS brought over for Baby D, Little J, Big M, and their sister as that's all out in the garage...and it also doesn't show what I have left to wrap and what just got delivered today. I still have about 6 boxes worth of stuff and 3 bagfuls of stuff to wrap as well that isn't shown either. These kids are so blessed this Christmas!

Baby J's gifts from CPS...



This is just the presents that we got from our families, what we are giving to the kids, and the presents that we got from our agency.

Gift wrapping...

I fully intended to wrap gifts last night, but I told Andy that I was going to close my eyes and take a cat nap and the next thing I knew I woke up on the couch at 10:30 pm and Andy was asleep next to me. We headed to bed and since I am having some issues with blood sugars and was up every hour or two to pee, I just got up at 4 am to start wrapping. I wrapped a little over 20 presents and then woke Andy up play the Christmas Elf to carry them all the gifts I wrapped into the 4th bedroom (gift central) for me before the kids woke up. I'll take a picture later to share it with you. It's honestly nuts...Andy thinks that it's too excessive and that no child needs that many presents...but we're grateful and just in awe of everyone's generosity between CPS, our agency, the Christmas Wish people, CASA, our foster parents association, and the Angel Tree... and of course our families and us. I can't wait to see what all they got for Christmas and the looks on their faces on Christmas morning.

Man oh man...

Andy and I wrapped 20 gifts last night and we still didn't make a dent in anything. CPS is bringing the gifts over for Little J, Baby D, and Big M today after their visit and she said she had quite a few things.

I have gifts all over the place, 4th bedroom, my closet, and the garage...and so I told Andy that we needed to wrap the ones in the garage so that we could throw the gifts that the caseworker was bringing over in there and the kids wouldn't see what we got them in the meantime.

Baby J's caseworker brought him his Christmas gifts last week and I couldn't believe how much stuff he got...she brought in a huge gift bag and the hugest stocking I had ever seen and the gift bag was filled with clothes galore, tennis shoes, socks, and she had even thrown in a few things for Baby D. And then there were 4 toys. They already started playing with the alphabet drum and the mega blocks...but I saved 2 for him for later and I honestly didn't look to see what they were. The stocking was so big I just felt for them and knew they were there.

We're supposed to go to our agency tonight and pick up their gifts...I just can't believe how much the agencies do for these kids...I'm glad that I splurged on Deidra too as between the agency, CPS, the Christmas Wish people, and our families...these kids made out like bandits. I joked with Andy last night that we're going to have so many gifts piled under the tree that all you're going to be able to see is our tree topper sticking out. I'm joking obviously...but I just can't get over how much stuff they've got coming from here or there. These kids are very blessed this Christmas!

Deidra in her Christmas Dress

Here's my beautiful daughter in her beautiful Christmas dress!

Can't believe Christmas is next week....

I just can't believe that Christmas is right around the corner already. I finally started wrapping the kid's gifts last night. I was absolutely exhausted and Deidra didn't want to go to bed. Finally, we got all the kids to sleep and we pulled out a box of gifts that we had stored away and we wrapped those. Andy was a dear and helped me. So one box down...so many more to go. We'll have to do a little each night. I gotta wrap Little J's gifts that she got for her parents for her so she can take them to the visit tomorrow too.

Big M is coming over for Christmas Eve and spending the night so he can spend Christmas with us. Then next weekend, Big M, Little J, and Baby D's sister is coming to spend the weekend with us so they can all have some more time to visit one another since she lives so far away now. I guess we'll see what it's like to have 6 kids in the house. :-)

It looks like we may get to keep him...

Well, Baby J's caseworker just came out to drop off his Christmas gifts. I asked her if she had talked to his mom to find out how she was doing. She said "well, she wants to do the open adoption and I just sent her the papers to sign." It was either that or the state was going to take custody of him and we would have been given the chance to adopt him anyway. The only thing scaring me is that now her Mom and Uncle want to see him. But, I guess she said that we don't have to do that if we're not comfortable. It's our choice. She also told me too that we need to come up with strict rules on visitation after the adoption is completed.

I'm sitting here in tears...he's really going to be ours!

Well, it looks like we'll be transitioning Baby D into a big boy bed...

I put the boys down for their nap and they napped for a couple of hours. I heard them wake up while I was running to change laundry around. I heard them start laughing about something just as I was bringing another load downstairs. Threw the load of laundry in and went to get them up...Baby D is not in his crib and I see that the closet door is shut. Yeah, he climbed out at the end of his nap. Little stinker! I'm just glad that he didn't fall and get hurt. So, it looks like we'll be dragging the toddler bed out and putting it together. I just got him used to taking a nap during the day too. I guess that's going to be a no go for awhile.

Musical Monday: At the Movies

From Cory's blog: www.roosmom.com

Tell me one of your favorite soundtrack songs from a movie you love.

Here's mine:

A blessing that I've been blessed with lately...

I am so happy to be a stay-at-home mom again. I am so happy that God continues to bless us and that things are going very well for us. It's nice to spend family time or have some time doing things that I need to do on the weekends without me having to hurry up or miss the moment because I have to run off to work. Thank you, Abba, for our blessings and for allowing me to be at home again. This is where I truly feel that I belong! The kids enjoy having me home too! Even Andy has commented that it is nice having me home. I am one blessed wife and mommy.

A struggle I've been struggling with lately

I would say a big one for me is time and the fact that everyone asks everything of me and yet when I ask something of them they can never respect my time or tell me an answer at the time. I always have to wait and see if it's convenient for them...no matter if I've done something and dealt with being inconvenienced of them.

Where am I coming from? Well, my family always taught me that family came first and that you could definitely depend on your family. If you couldn't depend on your family, then who could you depend on?

Well, I feel taken advantage of and yet at the same time I struggle with the fact that we're supposed to serve others and do so with a loving heart and I'm supposed to want to do these things for my family.

Yet, I find my brother, Zach, only calling when he wants/needs something. I'm not good enough to talk to any other time.

My Mom comes around every so often and she thinks that she sees the big picture when little things happen here and there and they get all drawn out of proportion and it does nothing for me but create more stress. And yet, I try to be supportive of her decisions with her own life even though I really don't agree with the timing of everything or why she's choosing some things.

My Dad asked me if I'd drive my brother, Zach, out to GA to get my Dad's pick-up so that he could drive it home and have it to find a job until my Dad moved out at Christmas. He got mad at me because he suggested that Zach and I could take turns driving out there and I told him that Zach wasn't driving my car. He's sick of everyone being so down on Zach. Well, I think my Dad and partly my Mom too is living in laa-laa land about the bad choices my brother makes. But, I'm also mad that this is falling on me to bring him out there.

My Mom was in MI last weekend for my Grandma's funeral and I was asked to keep an eye on my brother's. Jimmie spent a lot of time with us last weekend and we had fun, but it's so obvious how spoiled my Mom has him. He is constantly wanting fast food and to be ran here and there.

This weekend was Mom's weekend to join the sisters down south to see about becoming an Oblate. She asked me to take care of her catechism class that she teaches and she asked me to keep an eye on Jimmie since Zach was going to Austin this weekend. I told her that I was going to run over and grab Jimmie and take him Christmas shopping so he could buy her gift. She left him money and we went out and did that yesterday. He wanted to go to a friend's house this weekend and she had asked me to give him a ride home after he was threw over there. I never really said yes or no. Anyway, Jimmie never bought her a gift while we were out and I had offered to let him spend the night and he could go to his friend's house from here (Jimmie lives a half an hour away and his friend is 5 minutes from me) and he said maybe. Well, he wanted to come out here and get Andy to help him with something on his PSP...so we came out here. I thought he was going to spend the night or I would have brought him home once we were done shopping. He was here for an hour and he decided that he didn't want Hamburger Helper for dinner and he wanted me to take him back to Chili's (I took him out for lunch earlier) and I said no. Well, then he wanted to go home so he could enjoy the peace and quiet while Mom and Zach were gone. So, while I was wanting to spend time with my own family, I had to cart him back home and while I was taking him home he wanted McDonalds. I told him that he was paying and that I was upset that he never bought anything for Mom when that was that money was supposed to be for. He wanted the money to spend at the game store where he was going with his friend. Well, I finally got back home and I was just upset. My Mom has not taught these boys to think of anyone but themselves.

I get up this morning and go to church and I was in much better spirits when I got home. I walk in the door and we got ready to go to the grocery store before Andy had to head out to Ft. Worth to get Baby J's Christmas present from the Christmas Wish people. The phone rings and it's my brother, Jimmie. He wants a ride to his friend's house. I asked him why his friend's parents couldn't come get him and he said they just couldn't. Andy and I got into a small argument because we had to rearrange our plans and he's tired that he can't spend time with me wihtout me having to run all over after my brother. He told me to tell him that he had the opportunity to spend the night and go from here and he chose not to stay, so he shouldn't be able to go to his friend's house. I called him back and Jimmie said "well, I thought Mom had talked to you about this on Friday night." I told him that she said you may need a ride back home, but she didn't say anything to me about having to go get you and bring you over there and then have to turn around and bring you back when his parents wanted you to go. His friend's parents are odd...one tim they're ok with him having company over and then the next minute they want the company gone. Well, finally I said that I'd go get him and bring him over there, but that they were going to bring him home. He was mad, but whatever. Andy is still a little mad at me over going to get him, but whatever. I just didn't want another hassle from my Mom and I was trying to remember that it was the Christmas season and I was trying to be in the right spirit.

I guess I just feel though that nobody understands how busy I am during the week and I'm mad that my brother's are both so spoiled that they don't think of anyone else but themselves. Jimmie could have at least offered gas money or something, but then again he's not driving yet so he has no concept of how quickly you go through gas or how much it even costs. And I'm mad at my Mom that she doesn't help us out or if we do ask for something, she never can commit to it until the last minute because she thinks she's too old to have a schedule to commit to and she just wants to do things when she wants to do them. Yet, she can go galavanting all over and I'm the one left taking care of my brothers...it leaves me feeling a little like I used to when I was younger. She could go and do whatever she wanted whenever she wanted to when they were younger too...I was always there to have to babysit them. Yet, I look at how busy my schedule is and all the stress of home visits, keeping my house clean, and the kids doctor/school/therapy stuff, and all the inspections we've had too and it would be nice to just have some time to spend with my own family rather than having to cater to everyone else. And my brother, Jimmie, says well....that was your choice to have all those kids. That's not even what I'm complaining about...it's the fact that nobody ever even asks if there's anything I need help with or what I have going on before I'm being told that I need to do this or that for my Mom or my brothers and now my Dad too. My Dad's problem I can understand though...he doesn't have a way to move his vehicles to TX if he's driving his semi from load to load and he can't afford to take the time off as he doesn't have any vacation or anything. But, it's still something I really don't want to have to deal with.

And yes, I realize that I sound horribly selfish. :-(

Baby J's 6 month therapy review

Well, we had his 6 month therapy review today. She said that she feels that he's getting much better with his fine motor skills. She noticed that he's been drooling an awful lot so she gave me a couple things to try to increase his sensitivity in that area to work on better control for him over those muscles. She also feels that he'd benefit from some speech therapy right now and working with us on some behaviors that I've been trying everything I can think of over and he's still continuing to do them. So, we'll see how he does. She's going to do a little more testing with him next week when she's out again too.

How's everyone coming along on their Christmas shopping?

I'm almost done. I just have part of Andy's left to do, Big M's (although I just need time to go in and order it), the stocking stuffers for the kids, taking the kids to go pick out gifts for each other, and then I have my Mom, Dad, and brothers to do. I plan on finishing up this weekend.

Not to mention, everyone sent stuff for the kids and since they didn't want to pay shipping twice...they left all the gift wrapping to me. I'm limited as to when I can do it obviously and I haven't even had the time to wrap our own gifts that we're giving them, so I'm really not looking forward to wrapping the 5 boxes of gifts that we just got for them and there's more coming. I can understand their point of view on not wanting to pay for shipping twice, but I really don't want to have to wrap it all.

Anyway, I'll try to check in later if I can. So much to do today...

Did I mention that my house is a mess and Andy informed me last night that he was out of socks and underwear? I threw them all into the washer and made him finish drying them all up. With as crazy as things have been, I just haven't had time to keep up with the house schedule this week. UGH!

Today's going to be crazy....

I have 3 therapy sessions today.

Baby J has physical therapy from 10:30-11:30
Baby D has speech therapy from 1:20-2:20
Little J has speech therapy from 3-4

I have a feeling we're about to start breathing, eating, and sleeping therapy.

Baby J has physical therapy every other week for an hour. Although, I'm still not thinking that she's really addressing what she should be and so I'm thinking about switching him to the company that we're going through with Baby D and Little J. He's got his 6 month review today, so I guess we'll see how he does and what she thinks.

Baby D has speech for an hour twice a week.

Little J has speech for an hour twice a week and since the school isn't concerned about getting her tested for a learning disability and for some occupational therapy, we're going to do it on our own, so my caseworker is going to talk to the therapy company about getting an assessment done on her and so if she does that too that will be for an hour twice a week too.

Glow in the Dark Cats?

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=071212210021.3u7d8gpx&show_article=1&image=large

It's NUTS, but I want one!

Hurtin Update and a Bonus

Well, I soaked my foot in ice water last night after I put the kids to bed. Then, I came down and laid on the couch and elevated my foot. Andy came home and woke me up to tell me to go to bed and so I hobbled upstairs. I had to sleep with my foot hanging off the bed so I wouldn't roll over and touch it on the bed or I wouldn't have a cat step on it. I woke up this morning with bad stomach cramps that were making me want to throw up, so I had to hobble to the bathroom. Andy decided to stay home today and work from home so that I wouldn't have to be throwing up and hobbling after the kids today. Thankfully, he can do some work from his laptop and if anything needs to be fixed that he can't walk someone through at work, he has the ability to access their computers and take control over their computers from his laptop here at home. It'll be nice to have him here too since Baby D has speech therapy today and we have an IEP meeting for Little J this afternoon as well.

Andy called me last night too to tell me some good news. He's getting a Christmas bonus this year! He asked me to guess how much it was going to be and I didn't even come close. I guessed very conservatively. We were both pleasantly surprised since this is the first year that they rolled this program out and gave out a Christmas bonus. His company takes such good care of their employees and he's very blessed to work there. Thank you, Abba, for your blessings!

Hurtin'

Deidra got to go to the Christmas gift shop at school and get gifts for everyone. She got too excited and wanted to give them out when she got home. She also got something for herself and so I let her get that out of the bag. When I was on the phone with our case manager she got a chair and gave Little J her gift. I went and got the bag from her to put it back up on the shelf out of reach, went to take her down from the chair and she fought me on it...the next thing I know is the chair fell right on top of my big toe. It hurt! It brought me to tears, it hurt so bad. I sat down and just cried. The girls were all being impatient about wanting this or that...the boys were up taking a nap...I asked the girls to give me a 2nd and finally Little J asked me if I was ok. I called Andy crying and he got mad at me because he was in the middle of something at work. Excuse me... The next thing I know is Deidra told me the boys were awake...no, they weren't they had never actually gone to sleep because the girls were making too much noise. Well, Deidra went up and opened their door despite me telling her not to and I couldn't hobble after her fast enough. So, I had to get them up. Happened to look down at my foot in the light...there's a nice big bruise under my toe nail, one further down my big toe, and one on the toe right next to it. 15 minutes after it happened, I knew something wasn't right as it was throbbing so badly it felt like the accidnet just happened. I called Andy back to tell him and just to have someone to vent to and once again I got an attitude about what did I want him to do. Well, I guess just listening is too hard. I hung up. He's going to his work's fun night tonight so I get to take care of 4 kids who aren't being on their best behavior and it honestly hurts so bad to walk. My big toe is so red and I know it's the swelling under my toe nail that is making it so painful right now. I plan on feeding them dinner, turning a movie on for them, and putting them to bed between 7 and 7:30. Then, I plan on soaking my foot and laying on the couch so I can put my foot up. I still just want to cry...this hurts so bad. Yeah, it happened close to 45 minutes ago and it still just throbs. Can I just scream and have a good cry? I have a high pain tolerance too and this just HURTS! The thing that makes me angry about it too is that it all could have been avoided had my daughter just listened to me in the first place. AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHH!

Playoffs

I used the football kit from Ms. Gini for this one. This is my brother's football team.

My new heaven...

I ran to HEB to get barbeque sauce and decided to go see if they had any holiday pepsi that we got last year. While I was browsing the pop aisle (Texans...please don't kill me for saying "pop" but that's what it will always be to me.) I stumbled upon this and had to try it. You could smell the chocolate while you were pouring it and you could see the cherry color in the fizz. It tasted awesome and we finished it all with dinner last night. I went back to get more today and the store was out. Gotta check back tomorrow. It's soooo good!

Easter at Grandma's

I used Laura Bavin's Easter kit for this one.

Let's Celebrate Easter!

I used the easter kit from Jamie Rouselle and the little Easter basket eyelet came from Laura Bavin.

Easter Baskets Galore

This one I just used a freebie from Jamie Rousselle on. :-)

Musical Monday

Taken from Cory's blog (www.roosmom.com). She wanted to know a song that brought back a fun memory and then tell everyone what that memory is.



When I lived in Wayland, MI, we were really close with our neighbors. We moved to Wayland when I was in 7th grade and lived there until close to the end of my junior yearThey had a daughter, Tonya, that was a couple years younger than me. We used to hang out together quite a bit and one of our favorite things was listening to music and just talking. We used to sit out in our backyard on our big wooden swing and talk and sing this song together all the time and it brings back happy memories and good times. She was a really good friend and although we only talk very occasionally now, I remember the times we spent together. She was a really great friend and this song just makes me think of our times on the swing singing our little hearts out and laughing.

And I also have a 2nd song entry....anytime I hear this song it always makes me think of our pep rally's and my time in pep band playing the french horn. I loved playing in the games and all that. Those were good times and some of the best friends that I have today are old high school friends that I was in band with...and of course Andy and I met in high school and were band friends too.

Well, I think we made up our minds...

it breaks my heart, but I think we made up our minds about taking Big M. We're going to leave him where he is. I just feel that with the way he dotes over Baby D and so forth and the way he comes to his parent's defense over anything and everything, I can't take a chance that he'd make any false allegations about anything. He was trying to tell me at the visit when I went to pick up Baby D and Little J that D could barely walk and that if you pushed on his stomach that it hurt. I can't for the life of me figure out why they were pushing on his stomach...of course he's going to say that hurts. But, he was also walking around just fine. I let my caseworker know that he was welcome down here anytime to visit...but that I think I'm just more comfortable leaving him where he's at. I also feel that he deserves the chance to be a kid and I think he needs to stay separate from his sibling to do that. He comes down here and all he does is carry D around and dote all over him. He tries to tell me when he needs his diapers changes and all that and I told my caseworker that I just don't feel that I should have to answer to an 11 year old or have to explain what I'm doing and why. It makes me sad, but I know he lives close enough to us so that he can come down whenever he wants.

I also let the intake coordinator know that I really wanted an infant after the first of the year. I'd love an itty bitty, but we'll see what happens. Andy thinks I'm crazy....but he said as long as I felt up to it he'd be ok with it. We had our foster parents association Christmas party today and I saw so many itty bitties. My heart broke from a wee little baby boy that was dressed in a Santa suit. He looked so little that I had to ask how old he was. He was only 3 weeks, but he looked so little. She said he was a coke baby and only weighed 3 lbs and 2 oz when he was born. He's having tremors from the withdrawals. My heart broke for him and I would love to give a baby like that a very good home.

Bowling

I used MMCs Bowling Fun kit for this one.

Well...we passed!

I was so nervous...but the lady was really nice. She was here for 2 1/2 hours just asking us questions and checking our logs and where we keep everything. But, things went well...the only thing we have to do is buy another fire extinguisher for our 2nd level. We had one before, but the fire dept said they only required one so we returned it. We never realized that minimum standards required one for each level. Oh well. Then, we just have to buy a bag with 2 zippers that we can lock together to keep any refrigerated medications inside.

Now, since I finally have some time to do stuff without having to worry about people coming over or anything, I'm going to go work on our Christmas cards.

Safe travels...

Abba, I'd like to lift up my Mom in prayer today and the rest of this weekend. She hates to fly. She has dreams of airline crashes and right after they happen, she'll find out that an aircraft went down somewhere. She had one last week and the very next day heard that one had crashed (I want to say it was a Turkish airline, but I can't really remember). Anyway, it takes a lot to get her on a plane. Last time she flew was for Deidra's baptism and she had a script from the doctor and had a couple of drinks before she got on the plane and she was still shaking to death when she boarded. This time, we're choosing to cover her in prayer. Andy took her to the airport this morning and her flight boards at 6:45 am. I pray for a safe flight for her as they head into MI with all the snow. I pray that she has a good visit with her family up there and enjoys being back among the place where she grew up. I pray that the funeral service for Grandma goes well and that it's not too unbearably cold. They're having a graveside service, so there's no funeral home service or anything. I am happy that she is talking with her sister again too. It's been at least 12 years since that all happened and she still doesn't know exactly what her and my Dad did...although I told Mom to chalk it up to something post-partum as her sister had just had a baby then. It's hard to tell, but all she can do is go forward and at least they're talking now. So, I hope she has a good visit with everyone. Part of me wishes I could have went with her, but at least I can be here to keep an eye on the boys for her too.

May you rest in peace, Grandma Meneghin. I know things ended badly when you were here for your visit, but I'm choosing to remember happier times and I'll always think of you as my Grandma. I know you must know things now that you didn't know when you were here about things...and I hope that you understand better why things are the way they are between Mom and Dad. And I hope that you can understand now too, that just because the divorce happened...I'll still always be Mom's daughter...it's what's in your heart that counts...not what is in your blood. And in my heart...you'll always be my Grandma. I'll see you again one day and I hope to be welcomed by you too when my family greets me at the eternal gates of Heaven.

Squaw Peak

I used USCs Arizona Sunset Kit for the embellishments and Creative Victorian's Arizona Fantasy Papers and stone.

The Desert Botanical Gardens

I used the contemporary kit at Scrapbook Flair and the cactus is from USC's Arizona Sunset kit.

The Praying Monk

I used Creative Victorian's Arizona Fantasy kit for this one.

Aubrey's First Smiles

I used a quick plopper that I found at DSP as well as the striped paper from Kim Liddiard's Cowgirl kit. The poem I found online.

Music Monday -- A Song that I Love

From Cory (www.roosmom.com)

Name a song that I love...

Mini Golf Paradise

Paper and bow is from Shabby Princess. THe golf ball and player is from Scrapbook Flair.

This was my layout for Saturday...however I never got around to posting it.

My week so far...

I get up yesterday and I wasn't feeling so hot. Baby D had been coughing all night long and Baby J woke up oozing green stuff from his eyes and nose. Baby D also felt a little warm so I took his temperature. 99.9. Great! He's also got a bad diaper rash that isn't going away with the medicine that I had for him and I wanted that looked at again. I took the girls to school and get back home to feed the boys. I go to call the doctor's office. They're no longer taking medicaid. They give me another phone number to another doctor...she's got a family emergency all her own and can't see them until Friday. Call a couple other numbers...they don't take medicaid or aren't taking new patients. Everyone refers me to the ER...I'm not attempting to take 2 sick babies by myself. So Andy comes home early. We get there shortly before 10 and wait and wait and wait. Around 12 we're told that they don't have a doctor to run the minor care clinic, but he'll be in around 1. So, we wait some more. We're told we're first in line when he gets there. Around 1:30, I go ask what's going on as we had to get the girls from school at 2:30 and then Little J and Baby D had their visit at 3:30...the doctor still wasn't there.

At 2, he wasn't there yet either and so we left. I took Andy and the boys home to get something to eat and I ran and got the girls from school. We got home and I go to grab the boys and Andy so we can bring them to the CPS office. The licensing worker had called to schedule our inspection. I'm nervous about that as it's very thorough and I've already realized that there was some stuff we were supposed to keep that I never did and so my caseworker is gathering all of that for me. It's a 1-2 hour inspection and I'm very nervous about it all. I just hope we have everything we need as I've never been trhough one before and I don't want to get cited for something we didn't know we had to do. Say a prayer for us that all goes well. Anyway, we go to walk out the door and Baby D poos, so we have to go change him. We leave and get the kids to the visit on time. Andy and I took Deidra and Baby J to Panda Express and then to Marble Slab for ice cream and then go back to the visit to get the kids.

The transporter tells me that the CPS worker had to leave, but she'll be calling me as she needs to schedule a sibling visit and Baby D has a bad diaper rash. I wasn't too concerned as she didn't know about the whole ER drama. I explain everything and tell her that I'll take him back to the ER after Little J's Christmas program and she said that would be fine. She just wanted me to have everything documented to cover myself.

We get home and I get Little J ready for her Christmas program. It was cute, but crowded and she was really excited that we took her. I spent most of the program worrying though...I didn't want us getting into any trouble.

After the program, we came home and I took Baby D back up to the ER around 8pm. We waited and waited and waited. Shortly after midnight they called us back...he wanted to get a chest x-ray just to rule out pneumonia and he looked at the diaper area and said that if we used some antibiotic ointment with each diaper change he thought it would go away. He was diagnosed with another ear infection and bronchitis. Gave us some samples of antibiotic ointment and the perscription for the amoxicillin. We left shortly before 2 am. Ran up to the pharmacy got his meds and then came home. Got him some medicine and put him down for bed. Had to get up at 6:30 am to get the girls up for school. I'm tired and stressed, but thankfully after talking to our agency and the CPS worker, they're really not concerned about anything...so I feel a lot better about everything. I so hate it when incidents like this come up. Anyway, I'm feeling better but will definitely err on the side of caution from now on until the parents get them back. I'll be documenting any little scrape or bruise or anything that they get just to protect my own little hide....not that we did anything wrong in the first place.

All Done!

Well, tonight was my last night working at the Depot. I had a good last weekend with everyone and it was good to know that I was going to be missed. I'll miss the people...not the company itself. Anyway, I wasn't really sad until I went to go clock out and everyone started giving me hugs good-bye. It was then that I started to get choked up and teary eyed. I'll still see them though...we're up there for one thing or another for the house and it's less than 5 minutes up the street. I can always go in to say hi whenever I want to. I've worked with some great people though and I will miss them.