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.