Children's Museum

We went to the Houston Children's Museum on Saturday. It was pretty cool and really cheap at only 5 bucks/person. Jackson had a good time. Man, you could stay in that place for three of four hours if you had the patience. We were there for an hour and a half. I'm just now getting around to posting some pictures.

Travis stuff

I tried to call the SPCA this morning but they don't open until Tuesday at noon. So, I'll try again tomorrow. I'm wondering if it is Travis, how much will I have to pay to get him back? I'm going to have to take Jackson with me, so I hope it's not some outrageous amount or they'll just have to keep him (not Jackson....Travis). We'll see what happens tomorrow. I know all of you are waiting in great anticipation.

Possible Travis sighting

I decided to check the Brazoria County SPCA website just to see if by some long shot Travis was there. And I found this picture of a cat named "Carter" who is an altered male. For those of you who know Travis well, what do you think? "Carter" is the brown striped cat. I e-mailed them and I plan on calling them first thing in the morning.



Below is a picture that we took of Travis in March. I really think it looks like the same cat. But I'd better not get my hopes up. I actually prayed for that cat last night. Just that if he is alive that we would be able to find him.

Hickin' up

I woke up with violent hick ups. Jack thinks it's pretty funny. A few years ago a little friend of ours (Reagan) was about Jack's age and when she had the hick ups she said that her mouth was hickin' up. We heard her say it one time and it has stuck. We use that phrase any time one of has the hick ups.

Somewhat along the same lines.....
It's funny how you kind of grasp onto little things that kids say and keep saying them long after the kid stops. We have many of those kinds of "sayings." Some are from Jackson, some are from my nieces who are now adults, some are from kids I babysat, or just various other kids we've known in our lives.

Lazy Week

I really don't have a whole lot to do this week. I don't have much going on at work. And that's good because I can't really be there anyway. Phillip is working and Jackson hasn't started pre-school yet so I need to be here to take care of him. I guess Jack and I will just be hanging out for the next two weeks.

Things went pretty good this weekend with the 14 months old kiddo. She's a good baby. Jack thought she was pretty funny but he didn't like her putting his toys in her mouth. Can't say I blame him. He got pretty insulted when I fixed her milk before his on Sunday morning. We'll see how he does when there's another kid in the house on a regular basis.

So unless we get a placement call this week or next, I'm just going to relax and enjoy not having much to do. Now that I saw a glimpse of how hard it will be to have two little kids, I'm not waiting by the phone for it to ring. We are just going to enjoy being the three of us until things change.

Have you seen Travis?

Our cat, Travis is gone. He faithfully never leaves the confines of our front yard or porch. But we haven't seen him since Wednesday or Thursday. I didn't really notice he wasn't around whining and driving me nuts until Thursday. I can't really imagine someone stealing him. And I don't know why anyone would hurt him because he doesn't bother anybody but us. Some squirrel has been eating the food that I put out for him on Thursday. I think the squirrel took him out so he could eat his food. I looked around the house a little bit tonight with a flashlight to see if I could find his dead body. I didn't see (or smell) anything. Maybe he just decided he didn't want to live with us anymore. That's fine. Whatever. I just hope he doesn't turn up in a few days hurt bad enough to go to the vet. I don't want to put out any money for that dang cat.

Ok, I'm a little concerned about him. I hope if he is dead, it was painless.

So far, so good

Things are going farily well with our temporary addition. She's doing amazingly well considering we are perfect strangers. She went to sleep last night about 9:00 and slept until 8:00 this morning. That's better than Jack has ever done in his life. And she uses a fork. I told Phillip this morning that I'm pretty sure Jack didn't use a fork this well when he was her age. And Phillip said, "He barely uses one now." Anyway, things are going good. She's fighting a nap right now so she's kind of hollering off and on. I know she wants me to go in there and pick her fanny up, but I'm trying to let her go to sleep on her own.

Having a one year old in the house has made us think about expanding our requested age for our placement. We could take a one year old. It's still pretty much a baby. And this is a really cool age. As of now we've requested 0-4 months. Anyway, we've got some thinking to do.

Baby for the weekend

Well, it looks like we might be getting our feet wet over the weekend. We got a call tonight asking if we would be willing to provide respite (relief) care for a one year old little girl for the weekend. I think we probably will. Jackson will be gone camping with the grandparents all weekend. So, it would be a good time to do it since he won't be here. Things have already been pretty confusing for him and he might not understand a baby coming just for a few days. So, anyway, those of you who go to our church, if you see us with another kiddo this weekend, she's not ours. She's just kind of a temp. It should be fun. We'll see.

Turtle

The other night Phillp and I were just talking about random stuff. We got to talking about Jackson and some of the things he does and we were both laughing so hard we were crying. Well, I was laughing so hard I was crying. Phillip doesn't really do that. Anyway, we were talking about how Jack likes to be a "turtle" sometimes. The way he becomes a turtle is by putting the toilet lid down on his back while he's taking a poop. It drives me crazy. It's so gross! Every time he does it, I gripe at him about how gross that is and that he needs to stop. And every time he just calmly says, "But I'm a turtle." Some of the funniest things he has ever done or said have been while perched upon the toilet.

Stuck

I feel stuck. I am stuck. I wish I could write all about it, but I don't feel I have the freedom to that. Even writing what I am going to write won't sit well with some people.

I am not where I'm supposed to be. I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I feel like I'm playing a game to keep people happy. I hate those kinds of games. And I'm pretty sure I'm not making anyone happy anyway. I know the things I am passionate about. I know my gifts. I know what burdens me. I know things about myself that many people live their whole lives and never figure out. But instead of doing those things, I am stuck doing things that I don't feel are valuable. That does not mean that those things are really unimportant. They just aren't important to me. I don't know where or what I am supposed to be doing that would fill this void. I want to be vital to something. Is that asking too much? I am vital to my family. I know they need me. And I'm afraid I'm giving them a fraction of myself because I'm being drained in other areas of my life. I have no one to blame but myself. I am allowing this to continue. I feel like I'm waiting for something. I feel like I'm waiting for someone to see something in me under the surface and tell me what I'm supposed to do with it. But that's not going to happen. Because others are too stuck in their own existance to help me release anything within myself just as I'm too stuck to be able to see others as they should be seen. There is something so blinding about going through the motions of life. Exhausting and blinding. I'm so tired and consumed with my unfulfilled life that I can't see through the fog. I am happy in so many areas. I have so much to look forward to. But at the core of who I am, I feel like I've missed the mark. Sometimes I feel like I'm waiting on God to move. But I think the truth is that He is waiting on me.

What if He waits on me my whole life? How long will He wait before He throws up His hands and stops wasting His time? When will all the things He's given me begin to atrophy in such a way that I don't even feel the void anymore? I'm almost hoping for that.

Almost Perfect

Jackson was watching Noggin this morning when this song, I'm not Perfect came on. When she got to the part that says, "You're not perfect...." Jack said, "I am perfect." I'm glad he's confident and all, but we might need to start teaching him a little humility.

Flash Back

I was looking through some of Jackson's baby pictures and I came across these. These are probably two of the funniest baby pictures on the planet!!

What's the deal with w00t?

I gotta know. What does w00t mean? I mean, I know that it means like "wow" or "cool" or something like that. But does it stand for something? I thought it was just some strange Maury thing so I just blew it off, but I've seen other people write it too so now I'm curious. Phillip said that it's just some nerdy internet thing. But to the people who often use the "word" w00t, do you say "woot" outloud in your "virtual" life? Is "woot" part of your regular daily vocabulary? I think I would like to be around someone that said that instead of "wow" or "cool." I think that person would be very easy to make fun of without feeling guilty.

Waiting......

We are still waiting for the phone call. This is the worst part of the whole thing. Ok, that's not true. CPR/1st Aid training was the worst part. But this is pretty rough too. Every time the phone rings, I get all hopeful...and then it usually ends up being my mother. I'm not sleeping well because I'm so anxious. I'm just ready to get that baby in this house. I thought last Friday would be my last full Friday at work, but it's Friday again and I'm gearing up to go in all day. Once the baby gets here, I'm dropping my hours to less than half of what I'm working now. And I am VERY ready for that part of it too. Anyway, I know that we'll survive this part of it. And very soon we'll get the phone call we've been waiting for. I think I've heard somewhere that the last mile or two in a marathon is the hardest. Even after we get her, the marathon won't be over. Not until she's legally ours. And then, we'll probably start this whole process over again.

Audio File??

How do you add an audio file to a post? I was going to put one of Jackson's favorite songs on here for eveyone's listening pleasure, but I don't know how to do it. We have the song in Itunes. Phillip isn't home to help me.

Jackson stuff

Here's a couple more pictures that I took at the park on Sunday. I think these are the only two out of over 100 where he is actually looking at me and smiling.





I just thought of a kind of amusing Jackson moment that took place on Saturday evening. Jack was wearing a t-shirt that says "Mr. Genius." Our pastor's wife asked him what his shirt said and he said, "I don't know what it says." So much for the genius thing.

Jackson started crying yesterday morning after he woke up when he found out that Phillip had started back to work. It was pretty pitiful. After he stopped crying a little, he asked me if I would learn to play the Lego Star Wars video game. So, later that morning we played it for 30 minutes. It was the longest 30 minutes of my life. Ok, maybe not, but it was up there. I am absolutely horrible at video games. He was telling me what to do and where to go. He kept getting frustrated with me because I didn't know what the heck was going on. He told me a few times that it was o.k. for me to stop playing. He wanted to call Phillip a couple of times. I think (hopefully) he has decided that he doesn't want to play that with me anymore.

The Homestudy is done

Well, we finished up with the homestudy around 7:30. She was here about 2 1/2 hours. Things went fine, I guess. We had to talk to her about our childhood and family dynamic growing up. My family dynamic was not ideal I guess you could say. We had to talk about each one of our siblings, where they lived, their kids, married or single, what kind of relationship we have with them, etc. And since I have two brothers and two sisters I had quite a bit to cover. Anyway, it took me quite a bit longer to get through the story of my life than Phillip took with his.

Jackson was pretty shy with her at first. He wouldn't even look at her. But finally he came out of his shell a little and started showing her all his dang light sabers.

We could get a placement any day. Every time the phone rings I get all antsy.

In case you're wondering about the soup, it turned out good but very spicy. She was just writing the entire time she was here so we didn't stop to eat anything.

"Biggest Puddle in the World"

We went to Shy Pond for a little while this afternoon. It was wet and muddy and Jack spent most of his time running in this puddle. When he first stepped in it he looked at me with a guilty look on his face. Once he saw that I didn't really care, he just ran through it over and over again. He was plenty gross by the time we left.

Home Study Tomorrow

Our home study is tomorrow at 4:30. I think we're ready. The house is cleaner than it has been in a long time. All except for Jack's room of course. The little creep can't keep his room clean for 20 minutes. I'm exhausted. I'll just have to do a few little things tomorrow so I'll be able to relax most of the day. I've decided to just throw some stuff in the crock pot in the morning and maybe by dinner time we'll have something resembling food. I'm hoping it will turn out to be tortilla soup. We shall see. Anyway, I'll update on how the home study goes.

Distraction

I'm looking at Tenor Saxes on e-bay to distract myself from feeling so anxious about getting another kiddo. Anyway, I found a couple that I would like to get. One of them ends in just a couple of hours and I thinnk it's going to go for a pretty good price. But Phillip is not here and we have not talked about spending a few hundred on a saxophone right now, so I won't be bidding on it...as much as I would like to. Here's a pic. of the one that is ending in a couple of hours. It's a Buescher made in the 1920's. It will probably go for $500.00 or so. I had an instructor that had one of these horns. I love the way it looks. I'm sure it would need some work, but it would be worth it.



This is another one that would be cool to get. They are going for quite a bit more if they're in good condition. This is a Conn "Naked Lady" tenor sax made in the 1940's. They are going for $1,000.00-2,000.00. Here are a couple of pics. You can kind of see the "naked lady." It's really just her upper body and face.





Or I could just drop 3-4K on a pro. model Selmer or Yamaha. But I'd really rather have an old beater to get fixed up.

A call about a placement

Well, we just got a call about a placement.

A boy.

I guess she forgot that we requested a agirl. I kindly reminded her and she said, "Ok, well, nevermind." Now is this something that's going to haunt me forever? Did I just unknowingly turn away the child that was supposed to be ours? As soon as she said "he" my mind began racing thinking of how quickly I could get rid of everything pink in that room. Not possible.

Hopefully she'll call back soon.....with a girl!

Baby stuff

I know all of my faithful readers have just been wondering and wondering what I decided to do about the valance. Well, I took the other one back and my mother-in -law made a valance out of the same material that the bedskirt it made of. Here are the two pictures side by side. I think the new one looks much better. Thanks, Debbie. Oh yeah, and we also added a celing fan to the room. The light fixture that was there was hideous.





By the way, we're having our home study on Sunday afternoon at 4:30. It will probably last three hours or so. Should I have dinner ready and ask her to eat with us?? Will she think I'm sucking up? What if she doesn't like my cooking? What should I do?

Texas Burrito Factory

There's a new restaurant in Freeport called The Texas Burrito Factory. I heard about it from a couple of people, so I thought we should try it. It's a really cute little place in the arm pit of Freeport and their food is really good. I think it's family owned and I think that maybe the family that owns it lives above it. There were like four little kids running around upstairs. The owner said it was racoons. Anyway, they're a lot like Chipotle, except the rice is not as "clean." That's just kind of an inside joke that about two people will get. Actually their rice is just fine. But it's just a pretty good little dive to get a huge burrito. I actully got a big ole quesadilla, aka "Texas Fold 'Em." You can expect to pay about $6.00 or so for an enormous burrito full of all kinds of stuff. They are located at 218 West Broad in Freeport incase any of you are interested in trying it. Their hours are 10:30-6:00 Monday-Friday and 10:30-3:00 on Saturdays, closed on Sundays. You should check it out.

Best Morning Ever

Phillip and I took our CPR/First Aid Training class today. The class was supposed the be NINE hours!! I thought it was supposed to be four. But we finished in just under six. Six hours of lame jokes, scattered cuss words, repeated information, stupid questions, hacking coughs, and ridiculously horrible videos. The "instructor" looked and sounded like she has been smoking about two packs a day since she was nine. Now this next comment is really mean and not very humble so just be warned. In this last month of training to become foster parents, we have been around more ignorant, uneducated people than ever before in our lives. And we have had a really hard time keeping it together sometimes. Just for example, in one of our classes, someone asked if you have to have a G.E.D. to become a foster parent. The answer, surprisingly enough, is NO. No, but you do have to take a G.E.D. equivalency test. Who knew?! So, there you go. There's a glimpse into our last month or so. I realize this is all very mean-spirited.

But the good news is WE ARE DONE!!! We'll have our home study this week coming up and then we'll be on our way to having a little crying, pooping, spitting up bundle of joy. And I have no doubt that this last month will end up being well worth it.

Season of blessing

For a long time now, I have been asking God to pour out a season of blessings in our lives. I have asked this with the knowledge that we are His kids and He loves us and desires to give us good things. Now, I know that just to breathe is a blessing, and our family and home are blessings. Food is a blessing. And I'm not trying to knock those things. But when you've been in a sea of pain, disappointment, and loss for so long, it's really hard to see the blessings sometimes. I mean, on one hand you're always looking for something to be thankful for, but on the other hand, it's hard to be thankful for things that you feel should be a "natural human right." I am finally starting to see God's hand begin to put things in place in our lives. That does not mean that He hasn't been doing that all along. I just couldn't see it. All I could do was believe the promise that He knows the plans He has for me (Jer. 29:11). I am so looking forward to our future now. And that's kind of a big deal. Of course, I know that nothing is certain. I know that things like Cancer, floods, and drunk drivers happen every day. But I am also beginning to see that trials do not have to take a person's soul. I'm finally starting to feel the fog being lifted. Regardless of how long this season is in our lives, I am so grateful to know that it came. And that I noticed.

A Little Update

We have one more class this Tuesday evening. And then we have CPR/First Aid training on Saturday. The director said she plans on doing our home study the last week in July and licensing could come within a couple of days after that if there are no problems. The agency we're using moves very fast. Since we are requesting a mixed race baby, we won't have to wait very long at all. Some people get a baby on the day they're licensed. So, long story short, we'll probably have a little one sometime in eary August, possibly the first week in August. We're pretty excited.

The Process: Foster to Adopt

Maury asked how this process works, so let me explain if I can.

I get to tell Maury something that he doesn't know!! Ok, this is a first, so let me just take a minute to bask in the glory of being able to impart my wealth of knowledge to one who is lacking in understanding.




Ok, so this is the way this thing works. Phillip and I are going through classes to become licensed foster parents. As licensed foster parents, we will be taking into our home "wards of the State." We could take any age, gender child we wanted to take. We could probably have as many as 4 other kids in the house if we wanted to...which we don't. We are specifically requesting an infant whose legal status is "termination" or "adoption." Some kids are put into foster care so their parents can get their acts together and be reunited with their kiddos. This means that the baby we get will either be on it's way to having the parental rights terminated or they will already be terminated. We have to have the baby in our home for 6 months before we can start the adoption proceedings. That time starts the minute the baby is placed with us even if rights are not already terminated. So, until the adoption is final, it is still possible that the baby could be reunited with birth family, not necessarily the parents, but extended family. But the relatives cannot have any history with C.P.S. whatsoever. And unfortunately, there aren't usually any people who qualify within the family. So, once we've had the baby for six months, we can move to consummate the adoption and the child will be legally ours.

Any questions? I gotta go to work!

Lots of Clothes

Man, this kiddo is set....atleast for the first 6 months of her life or so. We have bought a few things here and there in the last few weeks. Some friends of ours passed along a ton of little girl things that their baby has outgrown. That was such a blessing. They must have given us 20 hair bows! I guess their daughter doesn't like those things.

I really don't like to do laundry, but I have been having fun getting all these little clothes washed and put away....and taking them out and looking at them and putting them back.....and refolding them and putting them away some more. It's crazy, I know. Check out these little ruffled panties I bought today. Aren't they cute?!



F.Y.I., I asked about putting pictures on the internet...big fat NO, NO!
So, unfortunately, we will not be able to post any pictures of her on our blogs or flickr pages. But once she's adopted, we'll be posting them like crazy!

Not enough posts??

Ok, Aunt Gale, Phillip told me that you said we don't blog enough. I just want you to know that I have had 240 posts in about 16 months, which is an average of about 3.75 posts per week. I think that's pretty dang good. Now, if you want to say that Phillip doesn't post enough, that's fine, but leave me out of it.

Ladies, I need your advice.....Men, go find something else to do

I bought a valance today and I'm just not sure if I like it or not. At first I bought a different one and got it home and didn't like it at all so I took it back. Then I got home with this one and it was missing one of the rings. It's a balloon shade so it has all these plastic rings on the back or it so you can raise and lower it, but on the upper left it is missing the ring that the other ones connect to. Hard to explain, but anyway, it took me about 2 hours of messing with it to get it up there looking decent. But now I'm just not sure about the pattern. I know it's "in" now to have different patterns together. But I'm just not conviced. It's not in the picture but I have a laundry basket with a similar flower design. I wanted to have a valance to match the bed skirt, but I would have to order it on line and I'm just too impatient for all that jazz. Blah, blah, blah, I sound like my mother....

Anyway, honestly, what do you think? It's kind of hard to tell from the pictures.

I got a bunch of Jack's neutral baby clothes together and got them washed, folded, and put away last night. We finally got the July schedule for the agency we're using and it looks like we'll be done with our classes on July 18th. Old Codger Fire Inspector came yesterday to tell us we need three more smoke alarms in our tiny little house. That will bring us to five smoke alarms for 1300 sq. feet. Whatever, we'll do it. Whatever it takes.

The reality is slowly starting to sink in.

There are so many things I wonder about regarding the baby and this whole experience. How will we feel the first time we see her? Will she feel like our daughter? Should she feel like our daughter? She won't legally be ours until we've had her atleast six months. There's no guarantee she'll become ours at all. What will I refer to myself as with her? Mommy? Is that a smart thing to do? I just don't know the right answers to any of these questions.

Some friends and acquaintances are expecting babies right now. Some of them, their first. From the moment they hear that little heart beat or see that baby on ultrasound, they will be in love. With every bit of knowledge they have about that baby, they will fall deeper in love. I really think we love Jack more today than on the day he was born. We didn't really know him then. He was cute and totally dependent on us for everything. We would have laid down our lives for him in an instant if we had to. I think in the beginnng, the love we feel for our kids is more primal and instinctual.

It's like they (we) are woven together in the womb and as that's happening the love between parent and child is being woven together too. I think the weaving of that love never stops. Sometimes the weaving is repair work to mend parts where the threads have pulled away. Sometimes the parent or child may get stuck weaving in the same place until the fabric in that place becomes too thick or knotted and takes some effort to find our way out of it. Sometimes the bump in those places never goes away. Sometimes there is not enough attention given to certain areas and those areas become thin and worn and can't be trusted to keep things together. There are holes. Some are big enough for others to see and some you can just feel and you hope nobody, not even the child, knows about those. The fabric of love between parent and child is beautiful, flawed, always changing, always being worked upon in some way or another.

I think the way I will begin to love this child is just very delicately. Little by little. The weaving has already begun as we begin to prepare for her. As I touch the clothes that will be hers and think about what she may look like. As we think of a name.

I'm ready to see her face. I'm ready to start getting to know her.


John 10:14
I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me.

1 Corinthians 13:11-13
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Baby Purchases

I found these two items on ebay to hang in the nursery.







Probably once the kid has a permanent name, we'll get some wooden letters and spell her name somewhere on the wall. Just imagine....

S H A A K - T I

spelled out in pretty pink gingham letters hanging from ribbon over her crib. Won't that be cute?



Ok, maybe not.

I also bought some girlie clothes today. I found some great deals at JCPenney and Dillards. I could probably turn them around on ebay for a decent profit but then I'd have to go out all over again and buy more stuff. Girl clothes are so funny. Many of them come with these little built in panties.....so cute.

Jackson quote

"Maybe when I get to be like 48, I can defeat a gorilla."

Baby Names

We're trying to think of some baby girl names. Really, the truth is that I'm trying to think of some baby girl names. Phillip and Jackson are no help at all. Here are a couple of Phillip's suggestions:

-Shaak-Ti (from The Clone Wars)
-Symphony

And here are two that Jackson has suggested:
-Pippin
-Rock-Pa or Rock-Puff, I'm not sure which (I think his Granddad helped him with that one.)

Many more ridiculous names have been discussed but I can't seem to think of them right now. I'm thinking about maybe Claire or Olivia. I guess we'll have to see what name she comes with and see if it's something we can live with or not.

Nursery pics

OK, even though the baby won't actually be here for about a month and even though the bedding will need to be washed before the baby gets here, I couldn't resist putting it together in the crib to see what it will look like. I'm hoping to buy or get one of our moms to make a pink valance. I finally found the rug that we're going to get. It took me entirely too long to find one that will work. And where did I find it? Walmart.com of all places. I think it's big enough to cover most of the tattered wood floor. It still looks pretty boring in there, but I think it will come together.

Done Painting

Phillip and I just finished painting the nursery. We had to do quite a bit of detail touch up work to cover the remnants of the old paint job. We'll probably be getting the rest of the nursery together tomorrow excluding rug, pictures, etc. I still have to buy that kind of stuff.

I don't think the reality of having a new baby in the house has hit us yet. It still doesn't seem like it's really going to happen. I feel a little out of place looking at baby stuff at the store. I avoid eye contact. Like I don't belong there. Like someone's going to find me out and say, "Hey, what are you doing here?" It feels like a charade.

We won't believe it until that baby is in our house. A new baby. In our house. Cool.

Kilz = Nasty Stuff

I started priming the walls this evening. Kilz smells:

TERRIBLE!!!!

HORRIBLE!!!!

NO GOOD!!!!

VERY BAD!!!!

Erin came over to help me. Thanks, Erin.

As you can see in the pictures, I will need to do two coats to cover the insane paint job that was there. I told Phillip that once he got the room cleaned out that I would paint and he wouldn't have to help.

I have since changed my mind.

We're working out a deal. The details of the deal are not pertinent to this post.

Nursery Before

The room is almost ready to paint. I will probably tape it off this afternoon and start painting either tonight or tomorrow evening. This is the paint job from Jack's nursery. We had a really cute transportation border up where the red is now. But Jack began to peel off the border while he hung out in his crib. So I took it down and painted red where the border had been. It wasn't a very relaxing room as you can imagine. So, I'm hoping a coat of Kilz will get rid of this and then I plan to paint it "toasted almond." Which basically means I'm painting it a really light tan kind of color. Anyway, I'm hoping the room isn't too blah when it's finished. It looks good in my head but that doesn't necessarily mean anythinig. I may put up a border, but I'm not sure yet. Anyway, I'll be posting some pictures as we complete the room.

Nursery Stuff

I know that I haven't written in a while. There is really absolutely nothing going on to write about. I have no deep spiritual truths to share (not that I have many of those anyway). Jackson hasn't been doing anything terribly noteworthy except getting into trouble on a daily basis. Nothing catastrophic or amazing has happened in our lives at all that I know of.

I did order nursery bedding a couple of weeks ago though. We have gotten the room cleaned out that will be the nursery. So either today or tomorrow I'm going to begin to paint over the crazy paint job that is currently in that room. Here's a picture of the nursery stuff I ordered.



We're thinking of requesting a girl. Initially we weren't going to request a gender because you can't request a gender if you have a biological child. But almost nothing about this is left to chance anyway. We have to request an age and race, so we might as well request a gender too. We haven't decided yet exactly what we're going to do.....still time to think it over. But if we do get a girl, I'll be putting some pink stuff here and there like a pink crib skirt, pink valance, etc. Anyway, that's kind of where my brain is at lately. We've gone through a couple more classes since the orientation. We'll be going through about 7 classes during the first couple weeks of July. Fun stuff, let me tell you. Anyway, sorry that this blog has been almost as uniteresting as some of the other blogs I visit. Don't give up on it. Someday something amazing might happen and you don't want to miss it.

New Car...sort of

After driving back and forth to Pasadena twice, we have a new used truck. It's pretty cool. It has a V8 engine, not that I'll need that driving around Brazoria County, but hey, the more power the better. It's a '98 Ford Explorer with 58,600 miles on it. It's in really good shape considering it's 8 years old. Hopefully in a few months we'll be getting something else so we can ditch my falling apart, no air conditioning, no windshield wipers, hail damaged '96 Chevrolet Cavelier. We're thinking about a Honda Accord. The coupes look pretty dang cool. See.....

A two door is not real practical I guess. But we'll have the Explorer to drive kids around in. And half the time Jack gets in the front door and climbs into the backseat anyway.

We got a good deal on the Explorer. And the next car we buy will atleast 5 years old too. Well, anyway, that's what we did today. It was a really long day.

Stuff and Junk

I've had some things on my mind the last few days to write about but I just haven't taken the time to do it. We've had a lot going on.

The insurance co. declared our car totalled. So for the last couple of days Phillip and I have been looking at used cars on-line. We've narrowed it down to a couple that we're going to go look at tomorrow morning. We found what looks like a great deal on a '98 Ford Explorer. I know they don't get very good gas mileage, but we plan on just driving it around town. After Phillip's job situation is more secure, we plan on get something a little newer that gets better gas mileage.

We replaced the vanity, sink, faucet, mirror, and light fixture in our (only) bathroom. I say we because I picked the stuff out and watched as they actually put it in. We're hoping the sink doesn't leak tomorrow when we try it. It looks so much better than the junk we had in there. The wallpaper is still awful but we plan on doing something about that in the next couple of months.

Our dryer stopped working all of a sudden. It's fairly new so I have no idea what's going on there. We were already behind on laundry as it is.

Jackson has not been getting as much one on one attention lately with all this other stuff going on and it's starting to show in his behavior. Phillip's parents are out of town and they give him lots of undivided attention. And my mom used to see him about 10 hours a week and she hasn't seen him as much lately either. So, he's kind of stuck with us and we haven't been as attentive as we should be lately. I need to really make an effort to hang out with him more. Someone asked us recently if we would consider moving to Houston if Phillip got a job there. The answer: NO WAY! Jackson needs his grandparents. I'm not just writing this to kiss up to anyone. It is the truth. Phillip's parents and my mom are such a vital part of his life. It would take something completely outlandish for us to move.

Bounce U

Today was my brother's boys' birthday party. Garrett will be six in a couple of weeks and Kyle was four a couple of days ago. Anyway, they had their birthday party at this place called Bounce U. It's like this indoor bounce house place for kids and adults. It's pretty cool. Here are some pictures of my brother kicking my butt in the boxing ring.

But that's ok because I was laying the smack down on some little kids.

Nasal Pot

A friend of mine responded to my previous post saying that I needed to get a nasal pot to clean out my sinuses. Well, I decided to see what in the world a nasal pot looked like and this is what I got. Visit this website to get your own. Thanks for the suggestion, Lizanne, but I think I'll pass.



Just a thought: How in the world did they get this poor girl to pose for this picture. You couldn't pay me enough.

Sick again

I started feeling a little crummy Monday night. So Tuesday morning I started taking Zicam. Who knows if it really works or not but I figured it was worth a try. Maybe it has helped a little, but now it's Friday and my voice is pretty much gone and I'm fairly sure I have a sinus infection. I'm pretty sure about the sinus infection thing because of color and consistency.....would you like for me to go on? I could go on.....

Anyway, we were supposed to help with worship at a church in Pearland on Sunday morning and a church in Tomball on Sunday night. I don't think either of those things are going to happen. I hate to leave those churches in a lurch like this, but there's not much I can do about it. This will be the second and third time in the last couple of months I have had to bail because of being sick. Is it a sign? Maybe so.

First Class: complete

We went to our first class tonight with The Arrow Project. We watched a video that probably lasted like 45 minutes of the founder giving his life story. Phillip said it was all done in one take. I don't notice such things.

I have been reading up on this stuff for a while, so there weren't any real surprises. We will probably be done with our classes by the middle of July. We could be licenced as early as late July/early August. One thing I didn't realize though is that even if a baby is abandoned, CPS has to take every attempt to contact the biological family and terminate the rights. She made it sound like the quickest that can happen is about 90 days after birth. So, that's a little scary. And, then we can't start the adoption process until the child has been with us for six months.

We are just going to have to go into this knowing that we might not get to adopt. We will just love the baby to pieces whether we have him/her for 3 weeks or forever. Really, none of us are guaranteed that we'll have our kids tomorrow. The concept of being stewards of our children really hits home when it comes to foster to adopt.

Foster/Adopt Update

We have the first of about 10 classes tomorrow evening. Tomorrow is just orientation. We'll have 2 or 3 more classes in June and then 7 classes in July. We should be done with all of our classes by the end of July. In the meantime, we need to get our application finished and turned in, have our house inspected for fire safety, and take CPR/First Aid training. Once we have finished our classes, they will be do a home study and then we'll be licensed. July is going to be crazy and exciting getting the nursery ready and taking classes. So that's it for now.

Oh, yeah...

I forgot to mention that while we were standing out there in the rain waiting for the tow truck, we got attacked by killer ants. People who have been in a wreck standing out on the side of the road look stupid enough without frantically getting ants off their legs. I wish I'd had a bag to put over my head at that moment.

Wreck

Well, we were in a car CRASH!!! tonight. Ok, maybe it wasn't that bad, but it spun our car around and the impact hurt pretty good. Phillip pretty much summed up how I feel about it on his blog so I won't bother re-writing it.

Well.....I guess I'll write a little....

I really don't know how many glares, eye rollings, unpleasant groans, and WATCH OUT!!(s) I have to give him before he starts bothering to pay attention to what he's doing behind the wheel. Ok, enough said. I'm done. I'm glad we're o.k. It could have been much worse.

Isn't he cute?

I took this at the Sea Center a couple of weeks ago. I have no idea what kind of fish it is. Nor do I care. I think he was smiling at me.