Send paperwork to immigration? Check!

Woo-Hoo! I am very happy to report that this morning I picked up the final copy of my approved, notarized home study from my social worker and took it straight to UPS to send it off to immigration! This is the step I have been really pushing to get to because it is likely the longest wait of the adoption. The approval will likely be two months in coming, but once I have it I am almost done! Whew! What a relief to have begun this step. Please pray that our application will continually rise to the top of whatever stack it is in and that it will move through the system quickly.

Play Ball!

We got the boys moved into their new room this past weekend! They really like it and tell us every day how much they love their new room! Jerry really did an excellent job. He designed it and painted it all himself - freehand! I am impressed and very glad I have a husband who can do these things. If it was up to me, the walls would just be plain one color... I took pictures before furniture and after since the furniture does cover up a bit of the baseballs. Didn't he do a great job?

What little boy wouldn't love this room? I am really happy with the way it turned out!

Three Things to Report

I am happy to report:

1) I had my first Braxton-Hicks contraction at 14 weeks.

2) I felt baby move at 14 weeks.

3) I finally got off my derriere today and made some pita.

Is it nap time yet...?

Finally

Today I finally got my wedding ring back. It only took the jeweler 10 weeks to get it done! I am happy with the way it turned out, but I think that some of my excitement over it is tempered by the fact that I am still so very frustrated with this particular jeweler for all they lies and missed deadlines...I am going to just have to get over it. One thing I am very happy about is that I never have to set foot in that store again! Woo-Hoo!

So the following pictures are not that great. I have no idea how to photograph a ring without it being blurry or with way too much flash or with no light at all. I did my best. And the picture of the old ring design is a picture of a picture out of my wedding album. I have the best wedding album in the world, by the way. I don't look at it nearly often enough! ::clears throat:: Okay, back to the subject at hand.

Here is the ring the way Jerry gave it to me 12 years ago:

For all of you who don't have the eyesight of superman, it is a design in which the engagement ring actually sits inside the wedding ring, which surrounds it. Does that make any sense? There has to be a name for that... It had baguette stones in the band and the center brilliant cut stone is surrounded by six smaller stones that go diagonal on either side. Here, I'll let the professionals show you. It looked remarkably similar to this. Except mine had a center stone in it. Anyway, the problem was that the setting did not use quality gold underneath the stones and I am allergic to a few metals. Long story short, I was allergic to my wedding ring. I quit wearing it except for special occasions a couple years ago, and I was tired of not looking married. And I thought, "While I'm having to have a new ring set, I may as well design it to look exactly like I want!" So I had them do this:

Again, bad picture, but now it is two separate bands. The center stone has the six smaller stones on either side - two up next to it and one next to the two on either side, forming a triangle. Does that make any sense at all? I don't feel like I'm explaining well. The wedding band has the baguette diamonds across the top. It is really pretty, and now I can look married again. Which is good, since I look more and more pregnant by the minute.

My Super Sweet and Thoughtful Son

My five-year old has always been sensitive to the feelings of others. He is very thoughtful and generous. Anyway, as I have mentioned here before, I have been without my wedding ring for ten weeks now! I am so discouraged about it and it makes me so frustrated. Anyway, we were at my husband's work this morning to fax some additional documents to the social worker that she needed and whenever we are there, the boys dig through Jerry's desk drawer to find keys, paperclips, and rubber bands to play with. While I was standing at the fax machine waiting to be sure that all 16 pages went through, Aaron came out to me and handed me this beautiful, one-of-a-kind, rubber wedding band. He said I could wear it until I get my other one back! Isn't it gorgeous?

Not only is it creative and actually attractive, doesn't your heart just melt with the sincere thoughtfulness of this gesture?

After we finished at Jerry's work, I called the jeweler since their shop is only a couple blocks away from Jerry's office. No surprise that when they told me yesterday morning that it would be done yesterday afternoon, this morning it still isn't done. They assure me it will be done this afternoon. I have only heard that 14 times so far. Still not holding my breath.

Adoption Update

The last time I updated you all, things were looking bleak yet God was obviously working. I am happy to tell you that all the requirements have now been fulfilled for the home study, thanks to some last minute scrambling last night and this morning to gather yet more supporting documents, and the final copy is at the adoption agency for approval. My social worker has said that once the final copy is submitted, she usually receives the approved, notarized copy with the certificate attached very quickly. When that happens, I will pick it up from the social worker and take it to immigration in person! It is hard to believe how much has changed in the nine days since things looked like they would be another full month. This afternoon, I will go ahead and schedule an appointment with immigration to drop off the application and paperwork to them. I don't know how long it takes to get in from the day you schedule the appointment. I am assuming that it isn't next day or anything, but if it is sooner than I think it will be, there is an option to reschedule. I'll post again once I have the home study in my hands ready to take it on to the next step! God has shown himself to be mighty in all of this. Please continue to pray that His timing will be perfect and that my heart would be filled with peace.

Who Knew?

I always thought I'd make a good 1950's wife, but who knew I could go back even farther?

99 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Superior Take the test!

It's the little things, really.

Every time I am at the grocery store, I check the "Reduced For Quick Sale" meat bin, because you never know. Look what I found today:

I just love the Hormel pre-marinated pork tenderloin, but I almost never buy it because they're $10 each! And the ones I like the most (the teryaki flavor) are always smaller, but still cost the same. Well, today I got 7 of them. That's right, 7. Because the "use or freeze by" date was today, they had them marked down to $1 each! I couldn't believe it! I bought every single one they had left! Guess what we're having for dinner tonight?

Even with that wonderful find, I learned today something Jerry has been telling me for a couple months now - I need a new method for grocery shopping! Because I shop the sale ads at three different stores and match the sales to coupons and stock up, I go to at least three stores every week, and often it is four or five. When I am by myself, I can get this done in a couple hours tops since I am only buying the things on sale at all but one store, then the last store I buy the sale items plus anything I need for the week. This saves me more money than I could ever have believed before I started shopping this way, so I am willing to continue to go to multiple stores. The problem is that children have way too much energy and not enough patience for this method, especially when it is 93 degrees out at 9:30 AM. I have to start going when I can go by myself. After today, this is a must.

Betrayal...in the Kitchen

As you know, I spend a good 10 weeks vomiting and/or trying not to vomit and laying around being nauseous when I am pregnant. I readily admit that during this time my home keeping skills get a bit...derailed. The laundry piles up, the ironing is desperately behind and cooking dinner is sporadic at best. Del is pretty good about pitching in and picking up the slack. He does all the grocery shopping for me, too. Isn't he a good husband?

Well, I found something in my freezer that is making me question his motives...or...something. Check it out. Do you see it? See that blue and white box in there. Do you see what it says??? It says FISH STICKS!!!!!

Oh, the betrayal! How many times have I told him to keep the stinking fish sticks out of my kitchen? Hundreds of times at least. How many times have I had to run to the bathroom as my stomach churned at the mere smell of those horrid frozen fish sticks? Oh, the humanity! How could he use my moment of weakness to advance his fish sticks cause?

An Impossible Craving

Turkey legs. Smoked turkey legs, like you get at the Renaissance Faire. Where do I get these??? AAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!

A Post in Which I Do Not Talk About Adoption

Even though I have only posted about adoption lately, we have actually had a lot of other stuff going on this week. So I thought I'd share. I'll start with last weekend. Because we are redoing the boys room - and by we, I mean Jerry - Jerry hasn't been able to spend as much time as normal just playin with the kids, so we thought we'd do something fun over the weekend. We got tickets to a minor league baseball game, which we thought was appropriate since we are giving the boys a baseball room. They loved it! It was just their speed as far as the size of the stadium and size of the crowd. And it was just our speed as far as the cost of the tickets! Aaron actaully watched a lot of the game and asked a lot of questions. Ethan was just happy to eat peanuts the whole game, which I was responsible for cracking out of their shells the whole game. Even so, it was really fun! The boys are old enough that we even got to stay for all nine innings - and our team, the Grand Prairie Air Hogs won!! Woo-Hoo!

Then each morning this week, Aaron was in a soccer camp. He signed up with a friend of his, which is really good becuase they were each other's courage when it came to going out on the field since they were the smallest two kids there! My friend said she got some really good pictures of the two of them actually playing, which I didn't get, but she will e-mail them to me soon. I got a couple of shots though.

I also made some really yummy dinner rolls. I love making home made rolls with dinner, but I always forget to get them started early enough for them to have enough time to rise properly. But I found a recipe that litterally took 90 minutes from start to finish and was so easy. It actually tasted good, too! I mean, I've had better rolls, but not that were this easy! Here is the recipe. I used the method I always see Alton Brown use for proofing them and it works sooo well!

After I rolled the dough into balls, I put it in the oven with a dish that had boiling water in it. The steam and heat from the water caused the rolls to rise perfectly and kept them moist. I highly recommend this method.

Finally, I went fabric shopping and got the fabrics for the baby's room yesterday. I wanted the quilt to be a really simple design and then choose bold graphic prints to shine instead of intricate cuts of fabric on the quilt. I chose an Amy Butler pattern for the quilt. As it turns out, I also chose Amy Butler fabrics for the crib pieces and the quilts from her Midwest Modern line. My mom went with me to the quilt shop, which was good because it was hard to pick exactly what would go with what. My mom makes the quilt, and has for each one of my kids, and since this baby will be sharing a room with our daughter when she comes, my mom wanted to go ahead and pick out her quilt fabrics too so that they would both look good together. (Did that just break the "not talking about adoption" part of this post?) Here are the fabrics:

For the bumper pads:

For the dust ruffle:

For the curtains (a valance):

An accent fabric to go on all three as a border or for the cording:

His quilt will have all four of these, plus this other one:

Her quilt will have all the same fabrics as his, plus pink, yellow, and orange fabrics that are the same print as his. Together, they all really go well, and I think that the quilt pattern we have lends itself to having vastly different colors thrown together. Here are her fabrics:

I'm really excited to see how it will all come together. As I make the crib set, I'll post pictures - but don't hold your breath - I'm not very fast at these types of projects. Another thing to not hold your breath about is my ring. That's right, I still don't have it. They are supposed to call me today when I can go and look at the ring without the stones to approve it before they set the stones in it. But I've heard that one before...

God is Amazing

I guess I could just stop at the title and you would have a full summary of what I am feeling right now, but since you all are nosy, I'll give you the details too! The form that I sent out yesterday that said it would take two weeks to come back also said that if the person being inquired about lived in that state prior to 1998, the local county office needed to be contacted rather than the central state office since the statewide, computerized system was not put into place until mid-year 1997. Since Jerry and I lived in that state prior to 1998, I looked up the phone number for the county office today and called. It turns out that they finish the process in about a day rather than two weeks!! We will not have to wait for the central offices report since we did not live there after 1998 at all! Praise God! He just shaved about 8 business days off my timeline for me. Anyway, I am going to fax the form to the county office just as soon as the kids wake up from their nap.

Furthermore, the other office that my social worker had just contacted already got back to her, so once we hear from the one I am faxing today, she will have all the information she needs. And she sent me and my adoption agency the first copy of the completed home study report today missing only the information I am faxing for this afternoon. Wow. Can I just say that again? Wow.

On top of all of that, my devotional this morning was based out of Proverbs 3. Many of you have already guessed where I am going with this, haven't you. I could not help but notice the brightly highlighted 5th and 6th verses when I turned to that chapter as I finished my devotional book,

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own
understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."

Do you think he could be speaking to me any more clearly right now if he was actually sitting on the couch next to me looking into my eyes?

Please Pray

We got some bad news about our adoption home study today. I finally heard back from the social worker. About a month ago, I gave her a form to approve her checking child abuse registries in the two states we have lived in other than Texas since we were 18 years of age. She let me know today that she still hadn't sent one of them and just sent the other. The one she hadn't sent, I got the remaining information on sending it for her today and sent it off myself. This will take about two weeks to get back, and her report cannot be complete without the information. We were also told that the new guidelines that immigration adopted in April require our adoption agency to review our home study report, then suggest revisions before reviewing the final copy. Once an acceptable final copy has been reviewed, they have to mail us a certificate stating that is correct before we can turn in our paperwork to immigration. This can also take about two weeks.

I asked our adoption agency today if my social worker can go ahead and submit her first draft without the child abuse registry information, knowing that it will have to be added before they can issue the certificate. They said that would be a good idea. I called my social worker and asked her to do that, and she said she would finish things up and send it tomorrow. This will shave off at least three days from the total four weeks of delays.

Unfortunately, we are now in a situation where we are looking at sending our paperwork in to immigration six weeks later than we originally anticipated. We are looking at getting it in mid-August at the earliest. If immigration takes the full three months they said they might, we are already to my due date and will be disqualified from submitting our dossier to China. The dossier has to be received in China before this baby is born per their qualifications. If we miss this deadline, we lose half the total cost of the adoption as well as all the work we have done so far. We would have to wait until this baby was about 7 months old to begin the entire process again and would be allowed to send in the dossier any time after our baby is 12 months old.

I cannot tell you how distraught I am about this. In my heart, I am already attached to this little girl who has not even been conceived yet. She is already my daughter in my heart, and the thought of losing her, even if it is only a delay, is difficult beyond words. Please pray that God works a miracle and causes our paperwork to move through the system faster than normal. I know that he told us clearly to proceed with the process when we first began. It is, and always has been, in his hands and he is more than capable of causing it to all be done before our baby is born. Please pray that he does just that!

Wonders Never Cease

On the same day I received two pieces of the adoption puzzle in the mail. Our police clearance reports that came a little over a week ago with errors on them have come again - this time error free! Also in the mail today, we got back Jerry's birth certificate from the Ohio Secretary of State with the letter of certification on it. Now it goes to the Chinese Consulate in New York. When that comes back, it is totally done and ready to be part of the official dossier! I am still waiting on my birth certificate (Illinois is not as efficient as Ohio apparently) and my home study report...nothing from the social worker yet. The good news is that today I wasn't filled with worry over it.

Another good thing - I was super frustrated with a jeweler that I took my wedding ring to so I could have it re-set. I developed an allergy to my ring under the setting since the gold didn't extend to the underside of the diamonds. I took it to the jeweler along with several other rings to melt down to use the gold that would be needed in addition to the gold already in my ring and redesigned the setting to something new - over 8 weeks ago! I was told it would take 4-6 weeks. I called at 5 weeks and was told it would take 2 more. I called at 7 weeks and was told it would be done the following day. I called the following day and was told again that it would be done the following day. I didn't really believe them any longer at that point and waited four additional days before going to the jeweler to get it. It wasn't done. I actually cried. I am chalking that up to pregnancy hormones. They told me they were casting the ring that day and that if I came Monday (today) it would be cast and I could look at it and approve it before they put the stones back in. I told them that was *exactly* what they had told me that week before! At that point, the sales lady got a look of semi-horror on her face and I wondered if they were finally getting my frustration. Anyway, I dragged the kids out this afternoon to go see it, and guess what? It wasn't done. I can tell that at this point you are beginning to wonder where the other good part comes in, aren't you? Here it is. The owner came out to talk to me and told me that they were casting it as we spoke and that it would be done tonight. I told him that I really wished I knew that before I had come out to the store. He must have realized how poor his customer service had been up to that point and told me that he was going to reduce the price because of the time it had taken. I was thrilled. I was thinking $25 or $35. Nope. One. Hundred. Dollars. Thank you very much. Finally some good in a very long, bad saga. I'll let you know tomorrow if it is really done or not. I probably wouldn't bet the farm or anything.

Worry vs. Faith

I am not normally one to worry. Sometimes, even when I should worry a bit, I don't. I don't worry about my kids, finances, relationships - nothing. Until now. I have also been a person for whom faith comes easily. I do not doubt God, but take him at his word. I have never struggled with a crisis of faith. I know that my easy and big faith is a gift, because many, many people I have talked to struggle with faith, but not me. Until now. The delay in getting our home study report has caused me to sink into a pit of worry. I am worried that we won't get it in time to get it through immigration. I am worried that immigration will take so long that we won't have time to do all the other steps of the adoption before this baby is born. I am worried that I will rush around at the last minute trying to finish, only to have the baby born days before the paperwork is logged in in China. I am worried that we will no longer qualify if that happens, and that we will lose all the money we have spent on it and have to start over when this baby is older. It has become consuming. Jerry and I have talked and talked about it this last week, and I see clearly that I am not trusting God in this. He told us to go forward and He is fully capable of seeing it through, no matter what delays may happen. I know this, but do I believe it? I am not walking in faith on this matter right now.

Have you ever noticed that when God wants to teach us something, he continually puts it in front of our faces until we get it? That happens to me. Little things happened throughout the week to confront me with my lack of patience and lack of faith. Then at church yesterday, the sermon was on Mark 9:14-24. I feel just like this man who knew Jesus could heal his son, but had begun to doubt and cried, "I believe! Help my unbelief!" This is where I am. The message really spoke to me and gave me lots to think about. Jerry and I talked on it for an hour last night and then I spent some time in prayer handing this whole situation over to God.

This morning I woke up feeling so much better and lighter and freer. I pulled out one of my favorite books, Beth Moore's Praying God's Word, and opened up to the section titled "Overcoming Unbelief." Again, she writes in the introduction about the same passage of scripture! Okay, I hear you, God! she also brings up Eph. 1: 18-20, "I pray also that hey eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead." Is getting my paperwork in before the baby comes more difficult than raising someone from the dead? I think not. Well, then, I think God is fully capable of doing that if I believe!

Another verse that spoke to me this morning was Isaiah 26:3-4, "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for in Yahweh, the Lord, is everlasting strength."

A Post From Out of Nowhere

I know this is really random, but I just really enjoyed this post that Amy put up today. It hits home with me a lot. Some people that Del works with think he's a slave driver since I'm always cooking dinner or pregnant or something awful like that. I really like her point about "isms." It's a long read, but it's worth it, if you haven't checked it out yet.

On another note, this week Marie will be working her last day at KPMG and then coming home to Caleb. I wish I could throw her a "WELCOME HOME" party or something like that. And I wish we all lived closer since being a Full-time Mom (phrase given to me by Marie) is a job that needs a lot of support and I wish I could be there to support her. It'd be really good for me, too. Let's pick a place in the middle and all move there. I sure do miss you guys. It's lonely here.

And hey, if you're new to homeschooling, thinking about homeschooling, or thinking of doing classical education with your kids, make sure you read Susan Wise-Bauer's blog. She has recently put up her notes of what her days were like 1998, 1999 and 2000 and will be putting up a fourth. She had three older kids and an infant in 2000. I re-read these on her website lots of times and they were such an encouragement to me. Homeschooling is not like public school. Make it YOUR school and don't let anyone tell you you're not doing a good enough job because you're not schooling every minute of the day between 8 AM and 4 PM. Go read and get encouraged!

Reorganization Frenzy

In order to make room for our new baby, we are moving the boys out of their room (which will become the nursery) and into a new room which was previously my sewing room, our office space, and a general miscellaneous dumping spot. You know, the junk room. A little while back, I got all of my sewing stuff out of that room and into our old nursery. It felt really good to move it all and reorganize it all, but it didn't really motivate me to tackle the rest of that junk room. Then more recently, Jerry expressed that he would really like it done so that he could get started on the painting since we are not just doing a simple wall color but huge full wall baseballs and what-not. Okay. So I went in to look at what was left and holy cow! There are two closets in there that were jam-packed with stuff and a built in desk with book shelf jam-packed with more stuff. Hmmmm, just where would it all go? We don't have a small house by any means, but somehow, no matter how big a house is, it seems to get filled. So I had to do some reorganization to get it moved. I have to tell you, reorganizing is addictive! I started by making some space in my closet for some things. Then I emptied both our hall closets and condensed the stuff into one closet to open the other one up to add shelves and make it our game storage, photo album storage, office supply/school supply storage, and misc. other stuff. It is a beautiful thing. Then I sorted through all of our books and CD's and pulled out what we could take to Half Price Books to sell and was able to get the books off of the six shelves in the junk room and into other shelves throughout the house. Whew! Are you tired yet? I am. But I'm not done. I also reorganized the cabinets under my china hutch and the deep storage shelves in the boy's bathroom and got bags and bags of stuff to give away. It is so exciting! I still have some drawers in the built in desk from the boys new room to do, then I am on to our bathroom, the kitchen, they playroom, the laundry room (I even bought a new utility shelf to go in there) and finally the boys current room. I am so excited at the purging that is happening that I want to go through every single cabinet, drawer, and shelf in the whole house. All the things that are coming out will be donated to the Wycliffe center which is only a few minutes from our house. They have a boutique that all the Wycliffe missionaries stationed here as well as all those in training or who are students at their linguistics school can shop at and take whatever they need for free. It feels good to get rid of what I no longer need and give it to people who can use it!

I am looking forward to posting pictures of the boys room once it is done. So far, Jerry has scraped off the popcorn ceiling and re-textured the ceiling, removed an old intercom system box and redid the drywall there, removed the old baseboards and added new ones, primed the walls and ceiling, painted the ceiling, painted the doors and baseboards, and painted the walls adding two gigantic baseballs. He still has some baseboard work to do, outlets and light switches to change (we live in an older home so all of them are yellowed beige color), cutting in to do on all the paint, a second coat to do on the main wall color, and he needs to add the red stitching to three of the four spots on the baseballs. He works so hard to make our house nice and updated. He has done all of this and more in almost all of the rooms in our house since we bought it less than four years ago. What a man!

What Do You Like To Do On Friday Nights?

I like to go to the E.R. and hang out with all the cool nurses and doctors. It's a blast.

That's a pretty good representation of what my face looks like currently but the hand picture doesn't do it justice. There are huge blisters growing and popping.

For the record, I will not be working with hot oil to make anything, even donuts for dessert, no matter how hard you beg me.

A Must See

Did you see this link over at Minnasota Mom? Ooooh, you really must watch!

The Other Half

This morning I finished the other bootie that I showed the other day. Now I actually have a pair. I don't think I'll scrap the first one after all, even though it isn't perfect. It is my first time to knit in the round and it will be a great memory of the first. I'll also have something to compare to as I *hopefully* get better!

Here is a picture in process of knitting in the round, followed by the finished pair:

Glitches

Any time you do something important, there are bound to be glitches along the way. Especially if that important something involves multiple government agencies from two different governments! I am experiencing that in the adoption process right now! Last week we took inventory of where we were with that and what still had to be done. We were missing three key pieces of information: our police clearance report (criminal record report) from the state of Texas, the agency licenses for our dossier, and our home study report. Of these, the home study report is the most urgent because it is all that is holding us back from sending in our paperwork to immigration. The other two we don't need until our immigration paperwork comes back, but the agency licenses are troubling because we mailed in a large check for them June 2! On Thursday, I called the company for the agency licenses and left a message and e-mailed our social worker about both the agency licenses and the report. Then Saturday the criminal record reports came back in the mail!!! The good news is that the report accurately shows that we have no criminal history. The bad news is that on the official notarized reports, my birth date is typed wrong and Jerry's social security number is typed wrong! For both of them, they are off by one number. Oh, the frustration! I called the Texas Department of Public Safety today to find out what to do about it and tomorrow I have to fax the incorrect report along with the original request to them and they will send out corrected copies. Thank goodness! I was a bit concerned that I would have to mail everything back and get back in the three week que to get it back!

I also got a response from my social worker. She was on vacation last week and is typing our report this week. I guess I was on vacation the week before that, so I really cannot complain! She also said it is unlike the licensing agency to be so long in getting out the licenses so she was going to contact them. This afternoon, when I called the licensing agency they had just gotten off the phone with the social worker! Score one for doing what you say you will do! The lady that sends out the licenses told me that her mother had a heart attack four weeks ago and she is just getting back in the office. Well, I guess you cannot control heart attacks either. Her mother is doing much better and she will send out the licenses this afternoon! Whew!

So tomorrow I will fax the information back to the Department of Public Safety and send my birth certificate via Express Mail to the Illinois Secretary of State for certification and Jerry's to the Ohio Secretary of State for the same reason. Once those come back, they go to the Chinese Consulate (mine to the one in Chicago and Jerry's to the one in New York) and then they are done until they go to China!

In non-glitch news, I knit my first sock. It is actually called a sockabootie because it is like a cross between a sock and a bootie. It is the first thing I have ever knit in the round (with the stitches divided onto 4 knitting needles). I will have to take a picture of how that looks when I knit the second one, because I forgot to do that. But the first one is done!

Isn't it just so cute? There are a couple things about it that I don't like and hope to improve upon with the second one. If the second one is much, much better, I might even trash this one and do it again. It will depend on how perfectionistic I am feeling when I finish number two, because you know this is just project three out of about 12 I want to do for the baby! For the other two, see my other blog. (I am dividing knitting posts so that people don't get sick of reading the same thing over and over and over...)

Saturday Snippets

So I always enjoy reading Granny's Sunday Snippets, and I have a bunch of little things to say, so I am copying. Hopefully she would see this as a "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" and not a "this lady stole my format" kind of gesture!

I got a coupon in the paper for a free iced coffee at Starbucks. I have never had iced coffee, but when I was out running errands this afternoon I popped in for one. I had them add a bit of vanilla syrup and I added a bit more than a bit of half-and-half, and it is really good! I may have a new habit forming if I am not careful!

Today is my 11 year wedding anniversary! It is hard for me to imagine that it has actually been that long... That must mean that I am getting old - time is moving so fast now! But I can tell in other ways that it is getting that long because the kitchen utensils that I got for our wedding as gifts are starting to break. And I having to replace kitchen towels, too. I would have done that a long time ago, but I got so many that I just packed half of them away and pulled them out about 2 years ago. What are we doing for our anniversary this year??? Well, we went to my parents house for lunch...that's it. We are so boring this year. Last year we went to Oregon for a long weekend by ourselves. That was great. This year, well, there's always next year.

I cannot believe how into yarn I am again all of the sudden! The ladies on Mother's of Invention are going to get sick of seeing all my knitting posts. Maybe I'll start posting half of them here and half of them there. I was making an exchange at Joann's this afternoon and found some balls of wool/cashmere blend on clearance for $.97! I had to have them. They'll make a great hat and bootie set for this as of yet unnamed baby boy!

Ethan has had us in stitches lately! He has always been funny, but since turning three, he has started to perfect the art of humor. The other day, we were at McDonald's (on our way back from Branson) and they got toys from the Kung Fu Panda movie. They asked if they could see the movie and I told them that I saw a preview and didn't like it so they would not be seeing it. Ethan has had an imaginary friend named Jin for almost a year now and he promptly said, "Well, Jin's mommy saw it and she loved it." He said this so matter of factly and with so much expression of the "loved" that we just laughed for about five minutes! Now I am competing with an imaginary mommy! Then Wednesday he was talking to my mom and told her, "My mommy's tummy is going to get bigger and bigger and bigger. Then - pop goes the weasel!" I think he really thinks that once my tummy gets too big it is just going to pop open at the belly button and the baby will just pop out!

We are about to start redoing the boys room into a nursery. We are moving them over to our other empty room which is bigger than the one they have now and making their room the new nursery. I cannot decide how to decorate it. I know that it will be used for a boy this time, then a couple years later for a girl, so I want something I don't have to redo. They will also be in there together for a bit, so it really needs to work for both. Any ideas? In a couple weeks, Aaron will be in a soccer camp each morning, so I think I will go to a lot of fabric stores those mornings and try to find some fabric that inspires me. I am thinking yellows. Who knows. I need some inspiration.

Branson

So I have been gone for a while - literally! Our family took our summer vacation this last week to Branson, Missouri. Jerry's parents chose the location and then we all (2 of his sisters with their families and us) met them there. It's funny, we wouldn't have chosen the location ourselves, but we really liked it. We would even go back again! We stayed at this resort. The resort is the reason that we had so much fun. We think that we could go back with the boys and not even leave the resort other than one or two times to go into town. There was fishing, swimming, a lake, paddle boats, a playground - plus other things the kids weren't really old enough to enjoy yet. Each condo had two bedrooms, a kitchen, laundry, a living area, and a patio. For the four families, we had two condos, and it was quite comfy.


We all went to several attractions together. We went to a Chinese Acrobat show that was fascinating. The things these people can do!! We went to a musical called "Noah" that was really neat. They had live animals and mechanical animals that looked so real, and they stuck to the true account from the Bible. They added some stuff that isn't stated, but it wasn't anything that seemed like it couldn't have been part of the actual story. We also went to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede. That was interesting. They do a rodeo type show while you eat your dinner. The only catch is that they don't give you any silverware for your food. They serve soup, Cornish hen, pork loin, potato, corn on the cob, and an apple turnover. To be eaten with your hands. It was a bit messy, but Ethan was totally in his element. He loved having permission for once to eat with his hands. Then as our family of four, we rode a train, took a cave tour, did some outlet shopping, went swimming and fishing, and did a lot of driving! It would normally take about 7 1/2 to 8 hours for us to drive to Branson, but for us (with two young boys and a pregnant lady) it actually took about 9. Yeah, we stopped for a lot of potty breaks!


Here are some pics of our fun:


These were taken inside Talking Rocks Cavern. Ethan thought it was really cool to be in a cave, but Aaron was scared for the first half of our time in there.

The boys also had fun playing with play dough on the patio. Aaron here is modeling his fish that he made out of dough.

Overall, our train ride was a bust - it was boring. But one of the workers let Ethan put on his ha for this cute picture. I think he still looks so babyish here...such cute chubby cheeks!

This is all four of us on one of the dining cars on the train. I hate to say it, but the pink milk and snickers bars we bought the boys were the only redeeming things of the whole ride for them. And all that for over $80! We could have just gotten them the milk and candy at the convenience store on the way to the train and saved a lot of green...

We had fun fishing too. Believe it or not, this was my very first time to go fishing. My parents weren't really the fishing sort...Ethan did not want to hold the pole at all, but he played with the worms the whole time and was as happy as could be. Aaron caught the first fish of the day. It totally freaked him out when the fish first started to pull the line though and he was about to throw the entire pole into the water when I took it from him and brought his fish in! He was disappointed that we threw it back though. He really wanted to take it back to our room and cook it for supper! Notice Ethan holding up half a worm to show. Yes, he tore it in half himself.

As it turns out, we should have had someone take a picture of all four of us with Aaron's fish because after he caught it, the fish swam off and told all of his friends to avoid the worms and we didn't catch anything for the longest time. Even I as bored. Finally Jerry caught the one shown here - yes, there is actually a fish in that photo with us. Look really hard! Did you see it???

Finally, I reached the halfway point of this pregnancy this past weekend. Suddenly, my belly popped too. I am half sick of people telling me I have suddenly "blossomed." Okay, so I know they are trying to come up with a nice way to say that my stomach is suddenly twice as big as it was last week, but I am not a flower. I feel like I have exploded. I guess it is appropriate considering it is almost the fourth of July. My baby thinks he is a firework and needs to explode in size all at once! Well, it was bound to happen...

It's Quiet

Mom took the older three kids with her to St. Augustine. It's just me and Lily. It's quite around here. It's weird to be mommy to only one kid. Lily keeps trekking to the girls' room and getting upset at them not being there. Apparently I'm not quite entertaining enough for her. She's very distressed.

Lily is now walking full time.