Three Months!!

I knew it had been a while since I had posted, but THREE MONTHS!! Since my last post we have moved. I have been really busy fixing this place up and still have a lot to do so I may not post again anytime soon. I also still have apples and pears to can.
The children love being in the country. We got both Rae and Shane their own dogs two days after we moved.
Well my mom and dad just got here so I've got to go!

And Then They Were Five

We have now been home for one week! We seem to have worked our way into a new schedule and everyone is sleeping through the night. I must say though this is the most scheduled I ever remember being. I decided to go ahead a use a schedule though until Lexi gets adjusted to her new life here. I am not really the type of person who likes so much structure on my time, but for now it is working out beautifully. I'm starting to feel rested!
I have removed the password from our adoption journal now. I feel like since we are now Lexi's legal parents and we are safely back in the US that there is not really a need for the password.
Our days this week have pretty much all gone something like this: wake up around 7-8, Breakfast around 8:30, 2.5-3 hour morning nap starting between 10:30 and 11:00, lunch as soon as Lexi wakes up, play time, afternoon nap starting around 5:00, supper at 7:30, and bedtime is between 9:30 and 10:30. Lexi is a very content and happy baby in the mornings. She crawls around happily entertaining herself and I love it! Afternoons not so much! I have no idea why, but after lunch Lexi is not able to entertain herself. If I sit and hold her or if the children get down on the floor and play with her she's ok, but otherwise she is very fussy in the afternoons. Rae and Shane have so much more to do than just play with baby toys all afternoon. I bought them an 18 inch snap set pool on Tuesday (my first outing with 3 children) and they love it. I can hardly make them come in and entertain Lexi all afternoon and I don't really feel like just sitting all afternoon either. So far we have worked it out where I hold her part of the time, the children play with her part of the time and she crawls around fussing part of the time. Hopefully given time she learns to be as happy in the afternoon as she is in the morning, but that would be perfect and no one is perfect!
Jeremy's parents have a move day set up for the second weekend in July. I'm thinking it will only take us 2-3 weeks to have the old place repainted and re carpeted so that we can move in, so sometime early August we just might actually move into our new place. My plan is to put the girls in one room and Shane in another. That means that my only child who actually knows how to and enjoys sleeping in will get woke up every morning by her baby sister. How unfair! I mean it's summer and she has to go back to school way too soon anyhow! The whole, no more sleeping in again, has me in a tizzy and I want to defend my daughters rights to sleep in too! I may just allow her to sleep with Shane until school starts back up this fall. Or should I say late summer.
Tomorrow we will finally get to go to church again! We only missed three Sundays, but it seems like so much more.
I still haven't touched the pile of mail from while we were gone except to add to it each day! I think between that and the laundry today we may have an extra fussy afternoon here, because I really need to get some things done here and little Missy is just going to have to entertain herself for a little while. Maybe I'll be speedy and get most of it done during her 3 hour morning nap. LOL

Videos

Tuesday Morning in Hanoi

Tuesday Afternoon in Hanoi

Wednasday in Hanoi

Bath Time Saturday

News!!

A few weeks ago I posted about "No News". Now I have so much going on I hardly have time to think. We made a trip to Kansas a couple weeks ago. I spent a little over a week there. Shane stayed with me, but Jeremy and Rae came home after just a few days. Jeremy had to get back to work and Rae needed to be back in school. We have very good friends who were willing to help out with Rae in the afternoons and took care of her until Jeremy got off work.

I'm now back in full swing making bean (technically corn) bags for Corn Hole games. It is something I can do here at home so I don't need child care for the children, but I'm still able to bring in a little extra income. Last week about half way through the stack of bags I was sewing up for the week my machine quit working! I ended up having to get my old one out and use it. It works ok, but I'm spoiled. I like all the extra features on my new one and the old one takes me so much longer. The sewing center that works on sewing machines here in Greenville was closed last week. They opened up again today and I took the machine by there. Unfortunately it is not the brand they sell, so they can't order parts for it if something is broken. They are just going to clean and service it. Hopefully that fixes it.

Rae only has 6 more days of Kindergarten left. She is so excited. She wants to stay up late and sleep in every day. She definitely takes after Jeremy and I. I could easily stay up until 1:00 or 2:00 every night. The thing is I want to be able to sleep in until 10:00 the next morning. That doesn't work to well with school. This past fall was a huge adjustment for us. Jeremy is the same way. He likes to stay up late, and if he doesn't need to be up at any particular time the next day can sleep until noon! I usually can't sleep much past 10:30 or 11:00. Shane, poor little bugger , is not like that at all. He is tired by 9:00 and ready to be awake at 8:00 the next morning. He drives the rest of crazy with abundance of morning energy.

Today we finally got the call about our travel to Vietnam to finalize the adoption of our little girl. To read more about that visit our adoption site. You will need a password, so leave a comment with your email address and if/when I find the time I will send it to you.

Life is in full swing and we are loving every minute of it!

I Want My OWN Ice Cream Cone

I don't like to hold babies. For those of you whose jaws just dropped let me clarify. I don't like to hold other people's babies. This odd quirk goes way back. As a young girl after church on Sunday's when all the other girls my age would make a mad dash for the mothers with babies as soon as church was dismissed I was left wondering what all the excitement was about. Three-fourths of the babies who were snatched out of their mothers arms would start crying. The others were either drooling or smelled like spit-up. And as soon as the baby you were holding started to cry three or four old lady's around you would turn toward you and say "What'd you do? Did you pinch that baby?" Even the first time someone used this little joke on me I didn't find it funny. The day my first daughter was born this changed. I couldn't hold her enough. She was so sweet and soft and she fit in my arms so perfect and naturally. This was a relief for me considering my past experience with babies. I had babysit quit a bit and knew HOW to hold a baby, but still it was my job. I didn't really bond. I bonded instantly with both of my children. And now I'm impatiently waiting to be able to hold my third child, and yes this time I want desperately to hold her.

Now on to the ice cream cone from my title. I've been trying in my mind to find an analogy as to why this odd quirk of mine has gotten so much worse ever since we started our adoption. You would think that longing to fill my arms with my daughter would make me want to hold any baby I could get a hold of, but actually just the opposite has happened. Today after listening to my children argue in the back seat of the van about "Hold my ice cream cone for me while I get situated." it came to me. I have been standing in line waiting on a chocolate ice cream cone for 20 minutes. I can see behind the counter that it has been made, but they are checking over the recipe to make sure no important ingredients have been left out. Meanwhile someone else walks up to the counter and orders a vanilla ice cream cone. Within the very normal amount of time, 2 minutes (aka 9 months), they are handed their beautiful vanilla ice cream cone. I now look back behind the counter again and notice my ice cream cone is starting to melt. I feel desperate to have permission to go get it, but they still need to check just one more thing. At this point while I'm still so focused on my chocolate ice cream cone the lady with the vanilla cone turns to me and asks if I would like to hold her vanilla ice cream cone. Now do you think I really want to hold her vanilla ice cream cone?! I want my OWN chocolate ice cream cone!!

"Pop" Party

I know I write mostly about my children, but between laundry, cleaning, balancing the check book, cooking and sewing there isn't much entertaining here besides them.

The other day Rae asked me about "pop" party's. I explained that as far as I know there is no such thing as a "pop" party.
Rae- "Well then what do you call the party after someone dies?"
Me- " A funeral."
Rae- "Uh, I know about funerals MOM. What is the party called?"(lots of girl attitude)
Me- "There is no party, just a funeral."
Rae- "Well when someone dies they go to heaven, so why is there no party?"
Me-" umm, I don't know?" I use this answer a lot. No wonder they think they're smarter than me so much of the time.
Later Shane explained why it should be called a "pop" party. Because you die and "POP" you're in heaven. I would be inclined to agree with them if it were not for the fact that those of us left behind are going to miss the person who has "popped", and don't usually feel much like a party. Amazingly at the ages of 6 and 4 they have not yet experienced someone close to them "popping".

According to the dictionary- pop: to go, come, enter, or issue forth suddenly or quickly.

Spring!!

What a week! We could not have asked for nicer weather. It has been sunny and warm all week long. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, but if everything is going to stay this beautiful green color then we will have to endure a few rainy days. The grass has just turned the most beautiful shade of green in the past couple of weeks. It almost needs mowed.

We have a small fish pond in our backyard that Jeremy dug and lined and stocked himself. It has three or four different kinds of plants and several fish. They pretty much have followed God's command to be fruitful and multiply. We put three ordinary goldfish in there a few years ago, and now they are many. They have gotten quite large for goldfish.

Shane absolutely CANNOT stay away from the pond. It's only around two feet deep so I'm not really worried about him drowning, but the water is disgusting. Especially this time of year. It needs emptied and refilled. Earlier this week the children discovered the frog (he's pretty big!) that lives in our pond. They have tried and tried to catch him to no avail. They are constantly scooping buckets full of water out of the pond and making huge mud lakes to play in. All of this behavior is a big no-no, but Shane just can't stop himself. They also love to throw rocks in, the bigger the rock the bigger the splash. The problem with this is that the pond is lined with a rubber mat that can get holes in it if a large enough rock smashes into it, so after 100 (I really don't think I'm exaggerating here) times of telling the kids to stay away from the pond I finally punished Shane yesterday for once again playing in the water. I know, I know that should have happened after the second time of telling him to stay out of the pond, but as a parent that is my biggest fault. I wait until the 100th time and then, " Aahh! I've told you a hundred times to not do that!!" He's probably going to end up with worms or something from playing in it. This morning guess what I found him doing. You guessed it: playing in the pond. This time though he had found a new way to play in the pond. He got out one of the fishing poles (it even had a hook and weight on it) and was fishing very patiently out of the little decorative fish pond we have in our back yard. As soon as I had composed myself from a fit of laughter I called trough the window to him "Shane, I thought I told you NO PLAYING IN THE POND." He turns around and answers "Well Mom, that was yesterday. Today's a different day"

No News

I haven't updated this blog for a while. I feel like I need to have something to write about before I start, so I'll write about no news. Our proposed move to the country........No News. Our adoption........No News. Our updated home study........ well, we almost have that done, but not quite. So I guess........No News. More corn bags to sew.............No News.


One smidgen of news. I still haven't filed my taxes!!!!! I'm waiting on one more form from Jeremy's employer. We should be getting it soon. This is probably boring you all even more than it is me. I'm going to go read my book.

Nine Years Ago Today

I married Jeremy. I grew up in Kansas and lived there until I got married. My first cousin, Ryan, was also born in KS, but had live in Ohio for a couple of years. Then he moved back to Kansas. While he was living in Ohio he became very good friends with Joel (Jeremy’s brother) and because of Joel he also became good friends with Jeremy. When I was 18 (the spring of ’97) Jeremy came to visit Ryan in Kansas. That’s when I first met him. The truth is I was smitten from the first time I met him. We started dating in August of ’97. Long distance relationships are good for getting to know someone. We would spend hours on the phone. And hours on the phone = talking about things that would probably be left unsaid otherwise. He proposed in November of ’98, and we were married in March of ’99.
Marriage is not always a bed of roses, but I am so glad that we choose this path. I love living with my best friend. There is no one on this earth that knows me and understands me the way he does. The person who can make you the most frustrated can also make you the happiest. When I first started this blog Jeremy read my profile. It said that I had been married to the love of my life for almost nine years (now the almost is missing). He chuckled about the term “love of my life” and said that I need to be honest. I asked if he knew of any other loves in my life. No, he didn’t. So, that just leaves Jeremy, “the love of my life”.

Benedict Vacation

We just got home this evening from a trip to Tennessee. We spent the weekend with Jeremy's family. We rented an eight bedroom cabin in Pigeon Forge. It was a lot of fun, but I didn't have Internet access so I wasn't able to check e-mail. I felt like I was going through withdrawal. I've become far to addicted to e-mail. Hoping to hear that we finally have approval to travel to Vietnam to pick up baby Benedict.

Jeremy has three brothers and one sister. All of them are married with children except for his youngest brother. The cousins had a ball playing together this weekend. They range in age from 16 years to 2 years. with most of them between 4 and 8.

Tori and Rae in their matching outfits

Our family photo (minus one). I wish I knew how to get the date off of Jeremy's face!

The Cutest Piggies

We got new pictures of our baby girl today. If you want to see more of them you'll have to visit our Adoption site. But for this blog I'm going to post a picture of "The Cutest Piggies"

How to Make a Tar Monster

My four year old son told me in great detail today how to make a tar monster. The conversation started out on a completely different topic. But for any of you who have ever carried on a conversation with a four year old boy you know it goes something like a dream. You can be in one place one second and the next second you are in a completely different place. It's so hard to keep up sometimes that I end up just nodding and mumbling "um-hum". I have to be a little bit careful though or I end up agreeing to things that are not acceptable.
Like:
Shane- "I'll just finish off this one pound bag of candy."
Me- "Ya"
Shane- "I'm not eating any vegetables ever again."
Me- "Sure"
Shane- "I'm gonna spread a layer of mud all over the porch."
Me- "um-hum" "What?!"
Very dangerous territory. Anyhow I was going to share with you how to make a tar monster. This particular conversation started out with how to play a new game Shane had made up. I unfortunately forget the name of the game, and asking Shane about it would only get me blank stares and a long "whaaat??". Because even though it is in depth at the time it vanishes quickly. For this game he was telling me about we needed dirt, sand, water, and grass. I was paying enough attention this morning to ask, "and then what do you do with the dirt, sand, water and grass?" His response was to start adding items needed in order to play the game. We would also need wood, glass, (not sharp glass. I asked) leaves, glue, rope, play dough, one eye ball. Now he had my attention. "What do you need an eyeball for, it's a game?" His answer "Just one eye ball. Not two" See he doesn't listen to me either. So you mix everything together and put the eyeball on top then pour tar over all of it and that makes a tar monster. And that's it he was done ready to go on with something else. I was left to wonder what other weird things are buzzing through his head everyday. It is starting to make so much sense why we women don't understand men!

I've Been Tagged

Four things you may not know about me.

A) 4 jobs I have had in my life:
1) nanny
2) house cleaning
3) clerk
4) sewing

B) 4 movies I watch over and over:
1) Tommy Boy
2) Jeremiah Johnson
3) The Lord of the Rings series
4) The Passion of the Christ

C) 4 places I have lived:
1) Lawrence, Kansas
2) Greenville, OH
3) yet to be determined
4) "

D) 4 TV shows I watch:
1) 24
2) CSI
3) Lost
4) Little House on the Prairie

E) 4 places I have been:
1) Washington D.C.
2) Williamsburg, VA
3) Pigeon Forge, TN
4) California

F) 4 people who e-mail me regularly:
1) my mother
2) Amy Sparks
3) my adoption agency
4) Kelly Paulus

G) 4 of my favorite foods:
1) microwave popcorn
2) mint and chip ice cream
3) cookies
4) Bob Evans hotcakes

H) 4 places I'd rather be right now:
1) Vietnam
2) Kansas
3) getting a massage
4) in an airplane on the way to Vietnam

I) 4 friends I think will respond:
1) ?
2) ?
3) ?
4) ?

J) 4 things I'm looking forward to this coming year:
1) a trip to Vietnam
2) a trip or 2 to Kansas
3) Vacation w/ Benedict family in Tennessee
4) Vacation w/ Markley family somewhere

Now I tag Charity, Jodi and Lyndie.

The First Week of March

On Monday we had 65 degree weather. It was great. The kids played outside for about two hours. Then it started to rain in the afternoon, and they were forced to retreat to the house. It dropped about 20 to 30 degrees by nightfall.

Tuesday it continued to rain. When we get a lot of rain the water eventually starts to leak into our basement. The perimeter drain cannot keep up with the amount of water and the result is a wet floor in our basement. All of the kids toys are in the basement so we really try to keep the flood at bay. We build a dam on the floor around the crack where the water leaks in. And then wring out the towels as they become saturated. The perimeter drain flows into the sump pump pit. On Tuesday I was doing laundry, also in the basement. The washer drains into the sump pump pit also. As I started my second load I noticed soap suds starting to rise out of the pit! But alas the sump pump was not kicking on. And it was pouring rain out side. I checked the breaker. It was not thrown. I went ahead and switched it on and off thinking maybe it would restart it. Didn't work. I got a flash light and made sure that the float wasn't sticking. It wasn't. The sump pump was simply not working. By now the pit was completely full. I called Jeremy at work and he called his cousin Wayne. Wayne is a plumber and agreed to come by and either fix it or replace it for us once he got off work. Jeremy asked if I had checked the breaker, and tried unplugging it and plugging it back in. I told him I hadn't tried unplugging it and plugging it back in, but that I figured flipping the breaker would have the same results. He agreed. After he hung up I decided to try the unplugging and replugging anyhow just so I could say I tried everything before Wayne had to come all the way over and work on the completely water submerged sump pump. I got the stool, set it up, climbed up on it and behold the thing wasn't even plugged in!! I was sweeping cob webs from the rafters and pipes last week and must have bumped it loose without even knowing it. Once it was plugged back in it ran just fine. For about a solid 20 minutes! Then I had to call Jeremy back and explain "Um, it wasn't even plugged in, and it's my fault. " Fun Fun. By then the temperature had dropped to below freezing and there was ice everywhere. Especially on power lines. In an attempt to keep up with the water now coming in the crack in the basement I didn't have supper ready by 7:45 when the power went out. So we ate cold cereal for supper. Jeremy then spent the next couple of hours hauling water (drawn out of the sump pump pit) up the stairs, out the door and to the street. Seven gallons at a time. We have one 5 gallon bucket and one 2 gallon bucket. He did this until the power came back on around 11:00. No toys were drowned on Tuesday in the Benedict basement. I also finished my 500 beanbags in the afternoon.

On Wednesday, due to weather and power outages Rae did not have school. There goes the last day of spring break. Greenville schools are going to be making up snow days for the entire week of spring break.

Thursday I babysat for my cousin Kyrston's children. Rae also had a friend come home from school with her. I didn't get a whole lot done that day. The ice melted out of the trees. It was to fun watch. I sure wouldn't have wanted to walk under any of them though. The ground around every tree was white with chunks of melted ice.

Friday Rae (actually all kindergartners) didn't have school again because the weather forecast was predicting lots of snow. I rolled my eyes at that one, until it started to snow about 9:30 a.m. and hasn't stopped yet. It is now 3:00 on Saturday and we have a lot of snow. Friday the 7th of March there was a bank robbery in the little ole town of Greenville. All the other grades of school were in session when this happened, and the High School went into lock down. I was glad to have Rae home with me at that point!

My Favorite Day of the Week

Sunday's are my favorite. First I get to sleep in. Second we go to church. Third we get the entire day free of work. And fourth at 8:00 Sunday evening the US Consulate in HCMC begins their work day which means I can start watching my e-mail for an acknowledgement from USCIS.
Fridays used to be my favorite day of the week. Now they mean two days of no possibility of an e-mail from Vietnam.

This past Tuesday Jeremy left for a Paver Convention in Tennessee. He got back home late last night. I didn't used to like it very well when he was gone for several days. Anymore I don't really mind so much. Don't get me wrong, I love my husband. I just enjoy evenings that I don't feel a need to fix a meal. The kids are very lite eaters. In fact Shane can go several meals and only eat 2-4 bites at each meal. They personify the "eating like a bird" phrase. Amazingly though, if I put something like waffles dripping with syrup in front of Shane, he can eat more than me! So while Jeremy was gone we had leftovers one night, yogurt and popcorn another (I only ate the popcorn since I don't like yogurt), and ate Chinese another. No meals fixed! Well, except for breakfast and lunch which I don't really go to a lot of bother for anyhow.
Another thing I like is the fact that the kids don't judge how clean the house is. Jeremy doesn't judge either, but I always feel a responsibility to try and have it picked up a little before he comes home. This of course doesn't happen every night, but I try. This week I was busy with bean bags and didn't clean until Saturday. And guess what, nobody cared!

BTW Jeremy says that as for describing the kids I can declare that they personify "drive dad crazy" too. After five days without their favorite person in the whole wide world (now you know how I rate) they CANNOT stay off of him. Poor Jeremy, so much for the Sunday afternoon nap. I actually almost took the favorite person in the whole wide world title from him this past week. He wasn't here so as runner-up I almost had a chance, and then he shows back up and guess were I am. Slightly above chopped liver again. Shane would not even let me help him with his snap this morning. He actually manually held his pants up the whole time Jeremy was in the shower, because he preferred Jeremy to me for help in the pants-snapping department.

The Aquarium

We spent Saturday at the Newport Aquarium in Cincinnati. The kids both got in free. It's a good thing, because the price for two adults was expensive enough. We spend about the same on the zoo and there is lots more to see at the zoo. We did get to see a lot of water life that is not common to zoos though. I enjoyed the jelly fish the most. They are really quite amazing creatures. I wonder how they keep from getting their tentacles tangled.







Shane's favorites were the Sharks and the Stingrays. Lucky for him they even had Shark Rays. when he got to pick out a stuffed animal at the gift shop he didn't hesitate. He picked the Shark Ray.

Rae's favorite was that she got to spend the day with Macy. One of her best and dearest friends. Fun days are made even better when you can share them with someone you love.

Thank goodness we are not outnumbered by our children yet. We had quite a time keeping track of both of them. There were a lot of people there so it was easy for them to get away from us while we were looking at the exhibits. It was a good feeling to finally get them strapped into their car seats at the end of the day and know we wouldn't need to chase them down any more tunnels or halls. It was easier when they were in strollers.

The Gap and More

I had a cup of coffee this morning. I usually only have coffee when I have a lot to do and want to rush around like a squirrel on caffeine for a few hours. I'm not sure the effect actually gets me anywhere. You know "haste makes waste" and that sort of thing.

I quickly took some pictures of Rae's triumphant smile this morning before she left for school. The one picture is kind of scary. Looks like that squirrel on caffeine I mentioned earlier. I explained she need to smile while showing her teeth and the next one turned out better.
Shane missed telling Rae good-by this morning. Which always makes him kinda sad. So he went and curled up in her bed. And whoops! he just fell back asleep. I doubt that was his intention. He probably thought he could put in a little secret thumb-sucking time. He has become very self-conscious of that little habit. We almost never catch him at it anymore.

And Shane in the laundry basket a couple weeks ago. He made himself a cozy little (squirrel like) nest and fell asleep watching a movie in the basement. My! aren't we just the little family of squirrels.

Well I gotta go work off some of this caffeine. 500 little bean bags waiting to be sewn up are calling to me.

First Post

4 going on 5. We are 4. Jeremy, Michelle, Rae Lynn and Shane. We will be 5. All the aforementioned plus Alexia. I have a blog specifically for adoption news, but I think a blog about every day life looks like fun.

Tonight our 6 year old daughter just lost her first tooth. After the initial shock of seeing BLOOD!!! She decided that the new gap in her mouth is pretty cool. She had bitten down on a stuffed animal (why?? I don't know) and Shane decided to take it from her. The result-her tooth gave way. It was ready to come out anyhow. Shane just helped it along a little.

I have 500 little bean bags to sew up in the next two weeks. That equals $250. Is 500 bags worth $250. Well, with a left over Christmas balance on our credit card I guess it has to be. I have been taking it easy for the past couple of months and enjoying every minute of it. Now it's time to get started on the not so enjoyable things in life. At least I don't despise sewing bean bags. I could be cleaning houses for other people. That is work I would despise.

Jeremy's parents new house is weeks away from being finished. As soon as they move out of the old place I'm going to start fixing it up for us. I'm hoping we can get moved into it before we travel to get Lexi. I want to do a lot of painting, replace some windows, add a shower/tub to the main bathroom and replace all the carpets. The main bathroom has only a stall shower, and the master bath has a stall shower and a jacuzzi tub. I definitely want a regular tub for bathing the children in.

Lexi's paperwork made it all the way back to the International Adoption Department in Vietnam. Now we need for them to approve it all and send it back to her province. Vietnam is getting things done a lot faster than USA. We are still waiting on United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to acknowledge that we sent them a form asking for visa approval. It was sent a month ago. As of today they still have not even started processing our request. Good Grief! I don't even let my junk mail set around that long, let alone the mail that matters!