Pearl the kitty

Here are a couple of pictures of our new cat. We (Jackson and I) decided to name her Pearl. It was better than any of his other suggestions. Such as Princess, Cutie, Herol, Whiskers.....
Anyway, we had a pretty good night with her. We never heard a peep out of her and I think she slept in our room. She seems to be a pretty good little cat so far.

About Christmas

Well, today is the day after Christmas. I thought I would take a few minutes and post a few pictures and stories.

On Christmas Eve day Mikey and I spent five hours in Urgent Care because Mikey was pretty sick. The antibiotic he was on for a week and a half really didn't help a whole lot. He has bronchitis and both ears are still infected and he's beginning to get gunk in his lungs. The doc put him on a stronger antibiotic and a steroid to help with the tightness in his chest. He slept until 10:00 Christmas morning so we did the Christmas morning thing without him. He began to feel better yesterday as the day went on. This morning he seemed to be doing better but then he threw up all in his high chair. So I don't know what that was about. We were exposed to everything under the sun at the Urgent Care place so there's no telling what we'll come down with.

I woke up feeling like I have the beginnings of some kind of bug. My throat was pretty sore when I woke up but it feels better now. If it was strep throat it would be getting worse with every passing moment so hopefully I dodged that bullet. I'm supposed to sing with the church band this weekend and I really don't want to miss out on that.

We had a good day yesterday in spite of having a sick child. The boys got loads and loads of presents that we have no place to put. Jackson was so excited about every present he got. Lots of "YESSS!" stuff going on with him Christmas day. Jackson wore his Christmas p.j.s all day until we made him take them off to go to bed again. But atleast he wore clothes. If you know Jackson at all, you will know that his underwear is his usual attire. Jackson got a My Little Pony from his mean uncle and his not-so-mean wife. The look on his face was priceless. I hope someone gives me a picture of that. I want Jack to pass the pony along to my brother's boys but Jackson does not see the humor in giving girly toys to little boys. He will see the humor in it someday.

Phillip, Jackson, and Josh are on the way to The Apple Store at First Colony to pick Phillip up his long awaited lap top. Now I suppose he can start obsessing about something else. Maybe that will keep him happy for a little while anyway.

We're getting a kitty today. I picked her out on Thursday of last week at the SPCA. She's at the vet today getting her (internal) girl parts removed. We had to get that done before we could bring her home. Jackson has no idea so he'll probably be pretty surprised. Maybe this cat will stick around for a while. I really hope she's not obnoxious. The plan is for her to be an inside/outside cat. If she doesn't participate in that arrangement, then she'll be strictly outside. I'm not dealing with the littler box thing once her girl part surgery scar is healed up.

We're supposed to be getting together with my mom, my brother, and his wife and boys Friday evening. Jackson hasn't seen his cousins in a while and he's very excited to see them again. I hope that Mikey and I will be well enough to go.

I'll post some pictures of the little cat after she gets to her new home. Merry Christmas!

Notice the under bite. He gets that from his daddy.

This is Phillip holding sick Mikey very early Christmas morning. He went back to sleep after that and slept through the opening of presents.

attacking Uncle Josh - he probably deserved it

Jackson likes Chapstick so Santa put some in his stocking.

This is one of the presents Jackson found before Christmas. He had to hunt for them on Christmas morning.

Jackson rode his scooter (sort of) outside in his pajamas. I rode it too. It's really fun.

New Photo Blog

I started a photo blog a little while ago. I'm hoping it will help with getting some more traffic to my main photography site. We'll see. The photography thing has been going pretty well so far. I've been learning a ton of stuff and I've still got lots more to learn. But I'm having fun and so far my "clients" are happy with their pictures. So guess, so far, so good. BTW, I will no longer be working at my church job after the end of this year. That will be a relief.

Mikey Meets Santa

We went to a little party today at The Arrow Project in Angleton. They have a little party and give gifts to their foster families. Santa was there and Mikey was pretty afraid as most kids are. Here's one of him considering walking to Santa. He changed his mind shortly after this was taken.

On a side note, there was a little tiny baby there that I held and it really made me want another one. But Phillip says no.

Christmas is ruined!

Jackson found a couple of his poorly hidden Christmas presents yesterday. He just told me about it this evening. I really can't believe he managed to keep that secret for that long. One of the presents was supposed to be from Santa, so now I'm going to have to figure something else out. Jackson thinks that Phillip and I are considering taking them back since he saw them. So I think on Christmas morning we may keep those presents hidden until the end and see if he says anything about them. Then if he does we'll just tell him we took them back to the store. Maybe toy with him a little, perhaps make him cry on Christmas morning. That could be fun, right? We'll see. I guess it just depends on how cute he looks in his striped Christmas p.j.s that morning.

ConJUNKtivitis

Jackson ended up with pink eye earlier this week and missed school on Monday. Now Mikey has it.....YEAHHH! Man, this totally stinks! I tried my hardest to keep them away from each other, but it's pretty difficult. And I think pink eye is contagious before you even know you have it. Mikey has some other sickness issues going on so I'm going to try to get him to the doctor today.

Some of the little kids in Jackson kindergarten class play girls chase boys or boys chase girls or whatever. I think they actually call the game "Princesses" for some reason. Anyway, when Jackson was getting ready for school on Tuesday, he told me that when he is chasing the girls he is going to say, "You better run 'cause I have pink eye!!" I told him that was probably not a good idea.

I'm sure Phillip and myself, and our parents, and some family friends are going to get this mess too. I'm sorry, but that's what you get for loving our kids so much.

My eyes feel weird today, but I think it's my imagination.

Termination...Complete

We had court today for Mikey. His parental rights were officially terminated! YEAHHH! If everything goes like we're expecting, he'll be a Hintze in March. We are pretty relieved and excited.

the boys

I haven't posted in a while. And I haven't posted any pictures of my kids in quite a while. So, here are some recent ones. I took these of Jackson while he was helping to decorate the Christmas tree. My favorite one is the top one. I told him to smile because this one is for Nana.....and that's what I got. I've gotten some really cute pictures of Mikey lately, but I'll just post a few of the cute "non-identifying" ones. Enjoy!

An Awwww moment

A couple of days ago I was playing with Mikey in the living room. I was putting some toy on my head and then putting it on his head. Anyway, Jackson came and started to play the silly game with us. After a couple of minutes Jackson said, "Mom, I think you're going to be a good mommy for Mikey." I thought it was pretty funny and cute. I think I said something snide to ruin the moment like, "Well, I might as well be. I'm the only mommy he's got." He's really a pretty sweet kid...most of the time.

First Love

It seems that Jackson has developed a little crush on one of the girls in his class. In fact, it might be more than a crush because he has decided he wants to marry this girl. Her name is Emma. Phillip met the bride-to-be on Monday when he ate lunch with Jackson. He said she talks a lot. Jackson has made his "feelings" known to Emma and I don't think she's very flattered. He drew a picture today of two stick figures holding hands and wrote "Jackson" above one and "Emma" above the other. Jackson and I were talking about this stuff on the way home from school and he asked me how old a boy has to be before he leaves his mommy. I told him 20. I really hope he's not totally harassing this little girl. I told him he needs to give her some space.

Lazy

We talked about being a disciple tonight in small group. Not just being a "Christian" but a true disciple of Jesus. About living a life that is reflective of who God actually wants us to be and living out a life that is representative of that. (That's kind of redundant....anyway.)

I feel the tug almost every day to break open the Bible or read something that will teach me something about the Bible or church or Christianity or whatever. But I've been finding myself far too lazy lately to read or write anything significant. I am pretty busy most of the day, but there are frequent windows of opportunity that I blow off. I need to stop doing that. It's like I read stuff in spurts. I'll read a lot really quickly for a couple of weeks or so and then I won't read anything for a month or more. I'm kind of in a funk about what to read. I want to become more acquainted and familiar with the stories of the New Testament. But my mind begins to wander when I sit down and try to actually read parts of the Bible. Maybe I need to read The Message translation or something. I read the book of Acts a couple of months or so ago and that was cool. I started Matthew and I just got bored. And I know there's more to being a disciple than reading the Bible. But that's something that I know I need to be doing more of and I just can't seem to find the desire to do it. Anyway, does anyone have any suggestions to get me out of this lazy funk? Are there any good books out there that might intrigue me?

I'm looking for serious suggestions here. Don't fill my comments full of useless crap.

Park pictures

First Steps

Mikey took two steps yesterday. It wasn't very graceful, but he did it. And Phillip, Jackson, and I all saw it. The kid will be walking for real very soon. That's all the time I have to write right now.

We finally have a termination date

I just found out that Mikey's parental termination hearing is scheduled for December 11th. Even though mom relinquished, the state still has to have a termination hearing for mom and "unknown father." I'm glad they finally set a date, but I was hoping it would be sooner than this. So after that date, we have to wait 90 days to adopt. That puts us adopting in March. So we went from everyone telling us it would be November to them telling us end of January or early February to March. Needless to say, I'll believe it when I see it. I don't mean to sound negative about the whole thing. It is good that we have a real date in mind. Things with Mikey have gone about as good as you can hope for with a newborn baby. It's just been a slow process.

Mikey's boo boo

Mikey got a pretty good little "owie" today. He's gotten little bumps and bruises before but this is the worst so far. He lost his balance and hit his eyebrow on the corner of the coffee table. It bled a lot! It was pretty scary because I couldn't really tell where the blood was coming from at first. A nurse at the pediatrician's office took a look at it. She said it could possibly use a stitch or two, but she didn't really think it was necessary. She just told me to cut strips from the sticky part of a band aid and put it over the cut to keep it together. Poor little guy. When it happened he screamed for about 20 seconds and then he was ready to keep playing. This kid is crazy so I know it's just a matter of time before something like this or worse happens again. Jackson made it to almost 5 before he had to get stitches. And Mikey almost had to get them at 9 months. Anyway, hopefully it heals up and he doesn't have a noticeable scar.

Jackson's loot

We decided to just do the neighborhood trick-or-treat thing this year. I think Jackson really enjoyed himself. He did pretty good on the whole candy thing. Too bad we only let him have about 5 pieces a day....maybe....if he eats his meals. Phillip and I don't really eat much candy. Between Halloween and all the other holidays where Jackson gets candy, we always end up throwing candy away after we've had it for a while. Anyway, here are some pics.

What to be for Halloween.....

Jackson has lots of costumes. He has red and black Spiderman, Raphael (The Ninja Turtle), Batman, Darth Vader, doctor, SWAT team officer. I think that's it, but I could be missing something. He has been planning on being Raphael but now he says he's going to be Darth Vader. I need to try to throw some kind of costume together for myself. I have a clown wig and clown makeup (thanks to Rachel). I'm not sure where the nose is and I don't really have any clown clothes. Maybe I'll wear one of Jackson's Spiderman masks with the clown wig. So anyway, I'll probably be posting some ridiculous pictures later.

Worst School Picture Ever

Ok, maybe it's not the worst school picture ever, but it's certainly Jackson's worst school picture ever.

Here is Jackson's kindergarten picture. Lame. I'm glad I didn't order some big package deal. I just bought the "Photo Adventure CD" which was not real cheap. The CD came with a bunk of games and junk on it, but I'm not thinking it works on a Mac. I don't know. Anyway, I don't think we'll be getting any of these printed.

Kroger tour tomorrow morning

Mikey is on WIC because he is a "foster child." I hate calling him that, but unfortunately he still is. Anyway, I have to go to silly little training classes every two or three months to learn about proper nutrition and infant care and that kind of garbage. Tomorrow I will be joining the Brazoria County WIC folks and other women and children who are on WIC at Kroger for a tour. We will be learning about how to choose healthy foods for our families. In particular, we will be learning about saturated fats. Sweet! I am just so excited and cannot wait! I would much rather just go to one of their silly little training classes at the office, but they do training at 5:00 p.m. and Phillip is not home from work at that time. And I would rather not have to take both kids. So anyway, that's what I'll be doing tomorrow. Everyday there is something to look forward to.

Cute little Jackson

I paid Jackson $3.00 yesterday to let me take some pictures of him. It was really too sunny and the sun was way too reflective off of his little white face. But a few of them turned out kind of cute. He really doesn't like to pose for pictures and he was ready to leave after about 5 minutes. I like the mud all over his shoes in the first picture.

White balance mishap

Jackson put some stickers on his face and I wanted to take a picture of it. I did not color correct either of these pictures. I upped the contrast a little, but that's it. In the first picture I had the white balance on my camera set to the fluorescent light setting and I got this really cool blue effect....totally by accident. The second picture the white balance was just on auto. Everything else is exactly the same except for the white balance. I was really surprised at the difference. I think the first one is way cool and kinda freaky.

Jackson Chalk Collage

It is after midnight. And for the last hour I've been taking several not terribly interesting pictures of Jackson and turning them into something cool. At least I think it's cool. I think he'll think it's cool.

New haircut

I decided to get my hair cut today. And I got it pretty short. I like it.

Tina Fey Visits Sesame Street

Tina Fey from 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live helps Elmo get excited about reading on Sesame Street. Mikey and I are watching it right now. Here is a TV Guide Interview with Fey about her appearance on Sesame Street in case you care.

Napkin Predicament Revisited

On Thursday evening last week, Jackson and I took an hour or so and worked on several napkins together. I decided if the kid wants colored on napkins then he can color them his own dang self. I used the last one today and so we need to sit down and do some more. Here is a sample of Jackson's napkin art. It's kind of blurry, but you get the picture. He drew all four Ninja Turtles with the first letter of their names above their heads. And also a tree. Isn't that nice? By the way, Cyndi, the sticker thing is a great idea.

Halloween Babies

I took this picture the other day of some friends' babies. Let's not talk about the identities of any of these babies. Because it's possible there might be one who is not supposed to be posted on-line. But, they're all in disguise, right? Aren't they cute?

The Napkin Predicament

The first or second week of school I started writing and drawing stuff on Jackson's napkins for his lunch. I just stared doing it to make him feel a little more at home while he was at school. Well, now he has come to expect it and looks forward to what surprise will be on his napkin every day. But I'm tired of writing and drawing on his napkins. We're one month into his first school year and I've gotten myself into a situation I don't want to be in. Every morning I spend entirely too much time contemplating and carrying out my lunch napkin plan. And what makes it worse is that he's so appreciative of the whole thing. And he tells me that I'm "the best drawer" in the world. I don't feel like I can quit doing it now because he'll be disappointed. I told him this morning that I really didn't have time to draw on his napkin and that I didn't have any good ideas. And he said something like, "I don't care what you draw. Just draw anything and I'll like it." UHHHH!! How do you argue with that? I think next Tuesday evening (date night) Phillip and I need to have a napkin drawing party and draw pictures and stuff on about 100 napkins so I can just grab a pre-drawn napkin and stuff it in his lunch box. Like it's not enough that the kid is so picky that I have to make him the same exact lunch every day, but now I'm stuck drawing on his dang napkin. I do realize, of course, that I created this situation. And just in case you've never tried it, it's not all that easy to color a picture on a napkin. And what makes it worse is that the last napkins I bought were cheapo crappy napkins that tear really easily. Man, I don't know what I'm going to do.

Pumpkin Patch 2007 Attempt #1

We went to the Pumpkin Patch this evening to get a few pictures and let Jackson run around like a fool. It was 7:00 when we got around to getting over there so the pictures turned out less than great. But that's okay, we've got several more weeks to get some better ones. Anyway, I thought I would post a few here anyway. I got some pretty cute ones of Mikey, but I can only post one where you can't see his face. So dumb, I'll be glad when I don't have to worry about that anymore. Can you even imagine my frustration with not being able to post pictures of my kid online?? Anyway, here are some pictures.






We tried to get some of the boys together, but Jackson was not being very cooperative. Neither was Mikey, but that goes without saying. Jackson's idea of cooperating is sitting still and staring off into space. Here are some Jackson faces that I cropped out of some pictures so you can see how goofy he is. Maybe we'll have better luck next time.

Things that make me feel happy

I saw a woman on a t.v. show recommending that you take note of the things every day that bring happiness to your life. I don't really see myself starting a "happiness journal" and jotting something down every day. But just because, I thought I would list some things that regularly bring me happiness. A lot of times I'm too busy or distracted to take notice of these things. Maybe writing some things down will help me to pay more attention.

• The smell of my kids' hair, whether clean or dirty
  
• Our old creaky wood floors
• Snuggling up with a fleece blanket when my feet are cold...and my feet are always cold
• How Phillip's hands are somehow always warm regardless of the temperature in the room
  
• Watching my kids sleep
• My bed (daily statement: "I love Bed.")
• Reading a book while dirty dishes are in the sink (and not feeling guilty about it)
  
• Coffee, anytime, anywhere, hot, cold, frozen, just not black
  
• Watching Phillip play with the kids
• Honest conversation
• Getting a new haircut, which I really need to do by the way
• Singing in the car and not caring who sees me
• Trying to take a cute picture of a baby who never stops moving
  

Reading Acts

This week I started reading the book of Acts. There's some crazy stuff in there. I honestly don't know if I've ever read much of that book before. Most of it so far sounds vaguely familiar but that's about it. Really, I haven't ever taken the time to read much of the New Testament. I've read lots of bits and pieces here and there, but never in such a way to get "the big picture." The Old Testament has always interested me more. Anyway, it just kind of occurred to me lately that I need to educate myself more on Jesus' life. I know the main stuff about his life and what he did. But I don't know much about the people he entrusted his ministry to. And I don't have a decent grasp of the chronology of all that stuff. So, that's my plan for the next few months or whatever. To really read and hopefully remember some of that stuff. You just never know when an opportunity might arise to impress someone with your Biblical knowledge. For those few readers who don't get jokes, that was a joke.

A Chill-Out Day

Jackson has been begging to stay home from school ever since it started. Today he got his wish thanks to a fever during the night. This morning he seems to be feeling absolutely fine but I sure don't want to get any kids in his class sick. So today will be a day of snacking on gold fish, watching lame kid shows, and just taking it easy. I really hope he doesn't get any sicker because the folks are supposed to be taking him camping this weekend.

Elementary School Lunch

I took Jackson lunch today and ate with him at school. There's this traffic light thing in the cafeteria. If the kids are getting too loud, the light goes to red and an alarm sounds. Then they're supposed to be quiet until the light goes back to green or yellow. That dang alarm must have gone off five or six times in the thirty minutes we were there. And I didn't even think things were that loud when it went off in the first place. You would think that lunch and recess would be the two places where they can just relax and socialize with their friends. Whatever, I guess they need to learn some kind of self-control. I got to meet a few of the kiddos in Jackson's class. And I got to see one little dude mix his applesauce and his catchup and eat it. He added a few green beans too, just for an added bonus. It's kind of cool to be able to put some faces with the names that he talks about all the time. There's one little girl named Chloe and she is such a cutie. She's got a couple of loose teeth and was having a heck of a time trying to eat her apple. I was really surprised at how many kids eat the school lunch. I would think that most kindergarteners would bring their lunches. I guess Jackson's just kind of high maintenance. Oh well, his lunch probably costs less than a buck a day, about half of what the school lunch costs.

I'm ready for this day to be over!

It's 11:20 a.m. and I've already had it with this day! Between work (church) stuff, my husband being tied with up with church band responsibilities, an unhappy baby, and my children pooping at inconvenient times and places I am already completely stressed out, ticked off, and exhausted. And this day is not even close to being over yet. I still have to do lots more work (church) stuff, figure out what my family is eating for lunch and dinner, and go to small group. I don't want to do any of it. I want to go check into a hotel and not have to see or speak to anyone until tomorrow at the earliest. But I can't do that, so instead I'll just share a little of my frustration with those of you reading this. I have decided that I will not do anymore work stuff on Sundays anymore. They simply do not pay me enough. The message today was about His Needs/Her Needs in marriage. I didn't get to hear it because I had to go get my screaming child. So Phillip, I'm afraid you're outta luck, pal.

The rug just got yanked

I wrote in my last post that I still feel like someone's going to yank the rug out from underneath me. Well, that happened today. Things are really still fine. Mikey is not going anywhere. But we will not be adopting in November. There was some serious miscommunication going on. Basically, bio. mom did relinquish her rights, but the official court termination order has not been done yet. We were told that it had been done already. It is not scheduled to be done until the end of October. And as of September 1, there is a 90 waiting period after termination for adoption (That used to be 45 days). So, we're probably looking at February at the earliest. If we had been told this a month ago we would have been totally cool with it. But now, given the inaccurate information we've been given, we're really ticked (to put it nicely).

National Adoption Day...not really National

I met with our attorney on Friday and she seems pretty nice. Things seem to be moving along well. I found out that National Adoption Day is different from one county to the next. Brazoria County's National Adoption Day is on Thursday, November 15 instead of Saturday, the 17th like I thought. Why call it National Adoption Day if it's not the same day throughout the Nation??? So, everyone who will be going with us is either going to have to take off work or school so that stinks. I'm sure we will have a lot less people there since it will be during the week. Oh well, that's just the way it is. It was weird to sit down with the attorney and talk through the adoption stuff. It is beginning to seem more real. It was strange to tell her what Mikey's new name will be. The whole thing is just so official or something. I'm still a little afraid someone is going to come along and pull the rug out from under me. I guess that's understandable.

Some Jackson Faces

I haven't put any pictures of Jackson on here in a little while. Here are some from today. He's quite a character.

Oops!

I had kind of a "bad mommy" moment yesterday evening. I was trying to get some stuff cleaned up around the house and I accidentally on purpose threw away some of Jackson's school work. On purpose because I meant to do it, accidentally because I did not mean for him to see it in the trash can. When he saw it he said something like, "Hey, you should not have thrown my school work away! I worked really hard on that!" I was caught off guard and kind of laughed a little, which I should not have done. Anyway, I told him that it was an accident and I was meaning to throw away some other stuff and I accidentally grabbed that too. I don't really know if he believed me or not. But I dug some of it out of the trash can (it was on top so it wasn't too gross yet.)

He comes home with four or five papers everyday. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with this stuff. I have a drawer already full of his work from pre-school and now kindergarten. I want to keep a few cute things, and distribute some stuff to the grandparents. I guess next time I decide to purge some his work, I'll need to put it in a separate bag and put that in the trash. Poor guy! They make him do all this junk at school so he can take it home and his mommy can throw it in the garbage. Oh well, he'll survive I guess.

Mikey Goes to the Shrink

I had to take Mikey to a psychologist today. Is a psychologist considered a shrink or just a psychiatrist? Anyway, he needed a developmental assessment before he's adopted. I think the whole thing is so silly. I understand why it's necessary, but it's still a waste of time.

Phillip and I had to go last week to meet with her and tell her all about Mikey and his personality, what he likes, what he doesn't, what makes him mad, how he acts when he's angry, how he does socially, etc. We said that he doesn't like carrots. I think she was looking for something deeper. We sat on "the couch."

So, anyway, she thinks Mikey is right on track but she thinks he may have some language delays. Language delays??!! He's 8 months old for crying out loud. What language is he supposed to have? He babbles just fine. She said that he should be saying a few words like momma, dadda, bye-bye, and stuff like that. That's ridiculous. She apparently doesn't know anything about babies. He says momma and dadda, but I think it's just meaningless babble at this point. Jackson didn't start saying actual words until he was about 10 or 11 months old and he was talking very early and developed a large vocabulary very quickly. By the way, all this stuff reminds me that Jackson asked last night if Mikey speaks Spanish. Silly kid.

Anyway, we can check this off the list of things we have to do to adopt this kiddo. I am meeting with the attorney on Friday afternoon so that should be fun. Meeting with shrinks and attorneys is new ground for me. Hopefully, once this adoption thing is over I won't be seeing anymore shrinks or attorneys for a very long time.

The Whole Kindergarten Thing

Jackson is beginning to have kind of a hard time with going to kindergarten. I think when the day gets started, he's probably fine. But he's been crying a little before school and trying really hard not to cry while he's there. This morning he said that every day of kindergarten is longer than the one before it. I think if it were just until noon, he would be absolutely fine. It's just too long for him. I kind of wish now that I'd looked more seriously into the local Christian school. They have half day kindergarten. But it's very expensive and there's just no way we could afford that right now. And their teachers aren't certified anyway, not that that means anything, I guess. This morning Jackson was trying so hard to be brave and keep himself from crying. And it took everything in me not to cry right along with him. This whole kindergarten thing is just really hard on all of us. The mommy in me wants to just say, "You know what? Forget it. This kindergarten thing is for the birds. You can just stay home with me and Mikey and run around in your underwear and play all day." But that's not realistic. We've thought about homeschooling, but I think I would kind of stink at it and Jack really needs to be around other kids. I'm really hoping he gets used to his new life. He just seems to be getting more upset about the whole thing rather than accustom to it.

Adoption Day Stuff

As most of you know, we're shooting for November 17th to adopt Mikey. That is National Adoption Day. I'll be meeting with our attorney soon to start on filing the appropriate paperwork.

I spoke with a Brazoria County judge and Chair"woman" of Brazoria County National Adoption Day. She goes to our church....how convenient is that?? Anyway, I had a chance to speak with her for a few minutes today at church. She told me there is no limit to the number of people we can have there with us. She said the most they've had is about 30 people for one family...I totally think we can top that! She said they do anywhere from 15-30 (ish) adoptions on that day every year. And she said that it moves pretty quickly and there's a reception going on the whole time so once you're done, you can go hang out at the party.

So, if you're interested in adopting Mikey with us, mark your calendars for November 17. You don't have to get a shirt. That's optional. I'll have more details as the date gets closer. I don't anticipate any hold ups that would keep us from adopting him on that day. But until I have a chance to speak with our attorney, I don't want to make too many plans....or get too many shirts.

Mikey t-shirt, modified

I worked on the Mikey t-shirt a little more and I think this is what we're going to go with. I can get this shirt in kid sizes so that will be cool. Also, I can get this same sort of thing printed on a onesie for Mikey to wear also. Now I just need to find out how many people can be with us that day.

mikey! t-shirt

I thought it might be fun if I had matching t-shirts made for the people who will be at Mikey's adoption. But I don't know if anyone would actually want to wear it or not. I'm usually not a fan of matching shirts, but for this occasion, it could be cool. What do you think? Would you wear a Mikey shirt? Is it worth $12?? Is this a totally lame and cheesy idea?

Cleaning Jackson's Room

I'm kind of in the middle of sorting through Jackson's junk in his room and trying to get it organized. For the most part, we make him clean his own room. But every now and then I grab a garbage bag and go in there when he's not home and get rid of stuff. Stuff like junky toys from various fast food restaurants that he never plays with and just broken stuff. Anyway, here are just a few non-toy items I found in his toys box in addition to his 6 guns, 5 swords, 11 Zoo Pal paper plates...
- 2 rocks
- 3 pencils
- an empty yogurt container (clean, I hope)
- an Oriental trading magazine
- a toothbrush
- 2 cds

If he were home he would have a reasonable good excuse for keeping everything I'm getting rid of. That's why I do it when he's not here. I just need to make sure I empty the kitchen trash before he gets home or he'll try to start retrieving stuff.

Introducing....My photography web site

Hey, I'm proud to announce the beginning of J.Hintze Photography. I finally decided that if I'm going to be taking so many pictures, I should probably try to make a little money doing it. I hope to acquire more experience, equipment, and clients as time goes by. I'm hoping this can be a fun and somewhat profitable little part time endeavor.

Horace

Phillip and I were in the "Coasters" and the Jazz Band out at Brazosport College when we were younger. That's where we kind of met....again. Anyway, there was this really cool middle aged guy in those groups with us named Horace. He kind of watched out for us little kids. Anyway, Phillip and I both really like this guy. There was one time when we were dating that we decided to play the basketball game, H.O.R.S.E., but instead we decided to play H.O.R.A.C.E. We were just talking about that the other day and thinking that it was pretty funny. I'm pretty sure Phillip kicked my butt at H.O.R.A.C.E.

Checker at Kroger

There's this checker at Kroger I try to avoid if possible. She was our neighbor when I was a little kid and she feels the need to talk to me about her family and my family ever time I see her. Not that I mind a little friendly chit-chat, but the annoying thing is that she doesn't seem to remember anything I told her the last time we talked. Every time I go through her line she asks how my mom is doing. I tell her that she's fine. She always asks me if my mom is still living in Angleton. I tell her that she lives in West Columbia. My mom has never lived in Angleton as far as I know. I just saw this woman about two or three weeks ago and Mikey was with me. I told her a little about him at that time, just that he was a foster placement right now and that we're hoping to adopt him in a few months. I went trough her line today and she said, "Oh, you got a new one. I haven't seen you in such a long time. I didn't know you had another baby." I just smiled and said, "yep." Like what's the point of retelling the same story every time I see her. Is she just getting old? Has she had brain trauma? Does she just really not care enough to remember anything I told her last time? If that's the case, why does she always ask the same questions? Just annoying.

Great News!!

My Arrow Project worker called today to let me know that Mikey's biological mom relinquished her rights. So now, it looks like we'll be shooting for some time in November to make this kiddo a Hintze. There just aren't words to describe how excited and relived I am. Here's non-identifying picture of the little dude. Check out his Spiderman PJs. Soon we'll be able to post pictures of his pretty little face.