She Can Spell...D-A-R-N

We checked High School Musical out from the library this weekend. Everyone around us is so enthralled with it, I decided it was time to find out what the fuss was about. It's a really cute movie - the parts I watched anyway. My kids loved the singing and dancing. Dan came to sit with us while we watched and I said "It's a cute show and I've only heard one not so good word." I spelled the not so good word: D-A-R-N. Jaelyn looks at me, smiles a very mischievous grin and says "Darn." She can spell! Darn. How are we going to talk without her knowing what we are saying? I think Dan and I are going to have to learn sign language now.

The Clowns in My Three Ring Circus

I've always said I'm the ringmaster in my own personal three ring circus. Spend any amount of time with us and you'll understand. So anyway, today Jaelyn was being silly and we called her a "clown." The conversation continued and then ended with me making her picture into a clown. I also transformed a picture of all three. Gotta love photoshop.

Gold Medalists

Our last night of gymnastics was last week. I wish I'd taken my camera, but I didn't know they'd be having a ceremony. Sorry. At the end of the class, the teacher put up a little platform and had the kids one at a time stand on the platform. They gave them each a medal and had them raise their hands over their heads while the parents clapped. It was a lot of fun and the kids loved it. Jaelyn, Allie and Caden are all very proud of their medals. They've worn them constantly and shown them to anyone who looked at them. While I've enjoyed gymnastics and I've loved that they could all participate, I'm kind of glad our Monday night commitment is over.

And Off to Crazy I Went

I had no plans to share this. It wasn't feeling very funny yesterday, but today I'm able to laugh about it. Yesterday was a bad morning. You know those mornings, the kind that you crawl right back into bed and hide from. That's not really possible with three kids. So anyway, it was just bad. I yelled all morning. At one point, I actually told the kids they couldn't use the word "mommy" or any form of it the rest of the day. If they want to talk to me, just talk, no need to scream mommy 10 times at me while coming up the stairs. I was horrible, I tell you and I had no control.

Not only is it the stress of getting everything ready to go off and the stress of actually going off so far away and leaving the kids, but I got my hair cut 2 nights ago. I wasn't crazy about it that night, but decided it would be better when I fixed it. Wrong. I took the same picture I always take. She left the layers really long in the front and then thinned the bottom (more on 1 side) so it just looked like straw with spiky ends. With bad hair day motivation and parenting frustration, I got out my scissors and took out what I hadn't taken out on my kids on my hair. You should have seen the hair in my trash can. I mean, I've trimmed my banges before, but this was totally different. I had a small rabbit worth of hair in my trash can. I cut a LOT. Anyone ever done that? I did manage to get it together yesterday and apologized to all the kids and let them call me Mommy again.

I've made a list and started working down it. Somehow having my house in order always calms the chaos in my brain; so that was the goal for yesterday. House picked up, check. Mother's Day presents in the mail, check. Allie and Caden's bloodwork drawn for their physicals, check, check. Yard cut, check. I've got most done except cleaning my bathroom and the spare bedroom.

The most important thing though is I went to Great Clips today and spent $12 to fix my $40 bad haircut. It was horrible to go and admit what I had done - I've never been so out of control in my life, literally. The funny part is the sections that I cut didn't require much trimming. It was the rest that was really out of wack. I am in love with my cute, sassy haircut this afternoon. It was very easy to fix and didn't require tears or snipping from the scissors. Why didn't I think of that yesterday???

Can't Wait for Monday

I just talked with the coordinator for Cecil County's Pride class. We got a slot so we will start Monday night. My parents will be here to help with the kids for two classes and then Anna will babysit for the others. We'll miss 1 class while we are in St. Lucia that we'll make up in September. If everything goes according to plans, we'll be licensed by late fall or early winter. I feel like jumping up and down. We are going to get that 4th little person...

Fabulous Five - Not so Fabulous Check-up

Poor Allie. She had her 5 year old well child check up today. The appt started off badly by having to sit for 30 minutes while we watched child after child go in ahead of us. I finally asked the receptionist and she said there was one person in front of us...lie. We got called back immediately and in the course of our conversation, Dr. Falcon told me she'd been sitting at her desk waiting for us. She thought we were late. The receptionist messed up and then lied about it - arggh. I LOVE Dr. Falcon so I'll deal with that. Allie is 42 inches and 40 lbs. We found 2 new issues: a very slight scoliosis that'll require a referral to a orthopedist and then Allie failed part of her vision exam. We aren't too concerned about the eyes and will retest in 6 months. I haven't noticed any issues with her eyes and they did the exam AFTER they gave her 4 shots. I felt so horrible. Allie does not like shots and she got so upset that she had Caden practically in tears. She was petrified and screamed and screamed, begging me to take her home. I have orders for bloodwork but skipped it for today so I could pick up a prescription for numbing cream so maybe that won't be so traumatic. At least the good news is she won't need any new shots until she is 11. Boy, am I glad that's over!

For Those Around Our Children

We've talked more with the kids this weekend about becoming a foster family. I'm writing this mainly for the people who are around or talk to our kids on a regular basis. We have not mentioned adoption to the kids and we don't plan on it until a placement becomes an adoption placement. We want to protect them as much as we can. We've explained all the reason why a grown-up cannot take care of a child and why the state might have to help. It's actually been good because I've had some good discussions with Allie and Jaelyn about their birthmothers. As far as our children know, we will be giving a safe, loving home to a child that needs one for as long as he needs it. We keep emphasizing that it's temporary and that the child will go back to his regular home. I think Jaelyn gets it as much as she can. She keeps asking me "when are we going to get our baby to love on?" If/when a placement because an adoptive placement, we'll talk to the kids about it then. I just want Jaelyn and Allie to know that they are permanent. Adoption is permanent and they aren't going anywhere. So anyway, if you see/talk with the kids, we would prefer you not mention adopting a baby, but instead use the term "fostering." Thank you.

Fun Banana-Pops

My friend, Denise, gave me this idea and it's been swirling around in my head for several summers. I finally decided to try it and it was a hit. We cut bananas into thirds and put them on popsicle sticks. Then we dipped them in melted chocolate. You could probably also use yogurt and you could sprinkle with sprinkles, chopped nuts, coconut, etc, but we didn't. We froze them overnight and I let Allie and Caden have one as a mid-morning snack. They were really good. No more sugary popsicles for us!

Our 12th Anniversary

Dan and I have been married 12 years today. I can't believe it's been that long. We will be celebrating in ten days when we leave for a 5 day trip to St. Lucia. I can't wait.

I've spent a few hours this weekend shopping. I've bought, returned and shopped some more for a bathing suit. I have 2 fun new dresses and some cute summery shirts. My new really cool, super girly suitcase is on it's way. I still need to buy a waterproof camera and get my hair cut. I need a cute sassy cut to go with those cute new clothes :p! Then all we need is to pick up Grandpa and Baba from the airport to watch the kids and we'll be all set. (I'm sure they'd appreciate prayers while we are gone.)

So, anyway, back to my original topic. Happy Anniversary to us! I love you, Danny!

Sorry, the quality is bad, but I scanned a tiny wallet sized print.

My Latest Knitting Projects

I thought you might like to see pictures of my latest knitting projects. I finished Jaelyn's scarf (which took FOREVER) and moved on to a pair of slippers for Allie. I was really impressed with how they turned out. There's one mistake in the 2nd one I made, but you wouldn't know it unless I showed it to you. I wasn't quite sure how what I was knitting was going to turn into slippers, but they did. Allie loves them and makes sure they are by her bed every night so she can put them on when she wakes up.

My next project after the slippers was head scarves for two very sweet little girls. I had to learn how to decrease and change knitting needle sizes with this pattern. Here's Jaelyn modeling one for me.

Pretzel Making Fun

I love making pretzels with the kids. We made them last night - well, I actually made them because we had a friend over and they were having too much fun playing. Here's my recipe from Highlights...

Highlight's Easy Pretzel Recipe

Prehead over to 400F.
Spray a cookie sheet with vegetable oil.

1. Sprinkle a package of yeast into 3/4 c of WARM water. Add a tbsp of sugar and stir. Let stand until mixture foams.
2. Put 2 C of flour and 1/2 tsp of coarse salt into a bowl. Add the yeast mixture and stir.
3. Sprinkle flour on the counter and knead the dough until it's smooth.
4. Roll pieces of dough into ropes and make fun shapes.
5. Beat an egg with a fork.
6. Brush pretzels with the egg and sprinkle with coarse salt.
7. Ask an adult to put the pretzels in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes or until light brown.

I normally put salt on half and put cinnamon sugar on the other half. I can't decide which I like the best so I eat way too many of both!

Ready for Kindergarten

I took Allie to Emmorton this morning and she's now registered for Kindergarten. How in the world did she get this old? She's really excited about going. Everytime she told Jaelyn she was going to "her school" this morning, Jaelyn growled at her. I guess Jaelyn's not too thrilled about the idea, but she did promise to be nice to Allie and help her.

Scheduled Our Classes

In the state of Maryland, you have to take 27 training hours to become foster parents. Our county's next class doesn't start until September, but Cecil County is starting a class in 2 weeks. The September class here should be licensed by January and we don't want to wait that long. I still have to confirm with the coordinator there, but our coordinator here put our name on the list. We start May 12th. We'll be missing one class while we are in St. Lucia that will have to be made up in September, but that's okay. We can't complete our home study or be licensed until we complete the hours, which means we will hopefully be licensed by the end of September or beginning of October. I talked to our new baby sitter (yea, still love her) today and her mom is going to let her baby sit for us the hours that we need; so we are all set!

I'm actually getting very excited about this. I know it's not a sure thing, but I feel very hopeful about having another little boy. I guess I feel kind of like I did when we decided to pursue the girls' adoption. When we first started, I was excited, but very apprehensive about it, but within a few weeks, I was so sure it was what we were supposed to be doing. This feels the same way.

We talked with the kids tonight and explained as best we could on their levels about being a foster family. We have decided not to mention adoption to them until we get to that point. At dinner, Jaelyn counted us and said "There are 3 girls and 2 boys. When we got our little boy, there'll be 3 girls and 3 boys. Six!" Sounds like someone else likes the idea too.

A is for Awesome, B is for Babysitter, S is for Success

I picked up A at about 6:15 last night after having hyped the kids all day long about their new friend. They were so excited to meet her and jumped right at her. As a matter of fact, as Dan and I were readying to leave, Caden wouldn't leave A's side to give me a hug or kiss good bye. I had to go to him...the little stinker. I had given A the cliffnote's version of everyone's personalities and quirks so I was pretty confidant A would be okay. I actually didn't worry about the kids a single time while we were gone. We returned home at 9:15 to a quiet house. Amazing! A was on the couch reading a book and the kids were fast asleep in bed. I think I'm in love! She said that Caden was so sweet to her. Allie was good and didn't get into any trouble. Jaelyn was being silly when we left and A described her as a silly monkey. I didn't ask her to elaborate. I don't want to know. :p All the kids woke up asking for A this morning. We've asked A to come back and babysit for us while we take the 27 hours of foster care training that's required.

Why oh why wasn't I brave enough to find a babysitter sooner???

Exciting Announcement

For a very long time, I've felt like we were meant to have a fourth child. Three is just such an odd number. I think I'm more of an even kind of girl :). I know I haven't shared much about our infertility journey and I'm not planning on sharing now. I'll just say that a biological child is not in the picture for us. I don't even really desire a pregnancy or a newborn or a genetic connection to a child. I just want to find that fourth little person who's missing from our family. A few weeks ago, I asked Dan if he would consider adopting again. I didn't think he would as he's seemed pretty happy with our little family, but he said he'd be open to it. I've felt drawn to foster care and foster to adopt for a little while now so I started researching that. Dan and I attended an informational meeting last night through the county. We both left feeling positive and a tad bit excited about taking this huge leap of faith. Soooo....we are going to become licensed foster parents in the hope of finding a healthy, little boy under the age of two to adopt (how's that for a specific prayer you can pray for us?!). I have no idea what God has in store for us. Only He knows that and we might be opening ourselves and our children up to loss and pain because there are no guarantees in fostering, but I think we will also find great joy in being able to give a child a safe, happy home for as long as he is with us. And if it's God's will, we'll find that fourth little person I've been dreaming about for so long.

I ask that you'll join us in praying for the process of getting licensed (which looks like a piece of cake compared to our 4 inch thick Russian Dossier) and then praying for a placement. Please also pray for us as we prepare the kids for the exciting journey ahead! Thank You!

Jaelyn's Stories

Jaelyn has started writing stories in class and for homework. Here are two of the stories she wrote yesterday. She is learning about space.

In class:

We are in space. The moon is in space. The sun is in space. Pluto is in space. The Earth is in space. The comets are in space. Neptune is in space. Jupiter is in space. Mars is in space. The miky way is in space. We live on Earth.

For Homework after I talked with her about story structure and helped her brainstorm ideas:

I went to Pluto. I falnd (found) a alein. My alein is ornge. He has 9 srkcl eres (circle ears). We were frinds. I falnd (found) a dog and a cat. My cat falnd (found) a rok. My dog falnd (found) a botl. I like Pluto. The end.

Jerusalum Mills

We took a picnic to Jerusalum Mills this morning. It was the third time we've done this trail and I am happy to report that the kids have gotten stronger since last year. I didn't hear any whining that it was too far or crying to get carried. After our walk, we stopped to throw rocks in the creek before having our lunch. It was a fun morning. It's so nice to get outside again. I've missed warm weather.

Oops Eeps

I have truly meant to take a copy of our key to our friends that live in the next neighborhood. It's just one of those things I've kept putting off. Not anymore...they now have a key - 1 hour too late.

Yesterday was a beautiful day so when Jaelyn got home at 1 (early release day), we all stayed in the front yard. Caden and I had gone on the great hula hoop hunt earlier in the day so I was prepared for our afternoon with hula hoops, sidewalk chalk, bubbles and bikes. We played with neighbors for a little while and Caden got comfortable on his new bike ($1 at a garage sale - a deal). I decided to let the kids ride around the block; so I went in to lock up the house. I had a cell phone in one pocket and keys in the other. At the last second, I decided I didn't need the cell so I reach into my pocket, threw something out and closed the door. The second after I closed the door, my brain dinged and I realized I had thrown my keys on the floor instead of the cell. Oops eeps. Thankfully my cell phone was in my pocket because I have no numbers in my head anymore. I called Dan at work and even though he was tremendously busy, he came home and unlocked the door for us. Thank you, Dan! After we got into the house and Caden went to the bathroom (he was jumping around like crazy trying to hold it until Daddy got home), I found a spare key and we drove straight to our friend's house. I feel safer now, but oh, how I miss our garage with the keypad to raise the door!

Our First Babysitter

Next Monday night is going to be monumental in our house. Dan and I have a class to go to so we need a babysitter. In the past, we've only ever left the kids with grandparents or a handful of adult friends. We've never used a teenager. My friend, Kelley, gave me the number of her babysitter. I've met A's mom at MOPS so that's helping, but I'm still apprehensive. I was baby sitting at 13, but now that I'm a parent, I'm convinced I wasn't old enough to be left in charge of young children (especially those 2 monsters - remember them Mom, across the street?). A is 15 and Kelley says she's wonderful so I really shouldn't be worrying, it's just the over-protective mommy in me. Please pray. I'll let you know how it goes.

If it goes well, I see date nights in our future :p!

Progress on Jae's Scarf

It's finally long enough to take a picture. I'm probably 3/4 of the way through. The scarf is filled with mistakes if you look closely, but Jaelyn keeps telling me it's okay if I make a mistake. I should finish it tonight, almost. I still don't know how to cast off (take it off the needles) but I'll learn that tomorrow night. What do you think?