Monday, December 28, 2009

Weird Crazy Dream

Yesterday morning I woke up remembering a dream...

Me - very pregnant (with 5 babies) at a circus to have an ultrasound done!!!


Mike psycho analyzed this dream to mean...

Brooke, Lexy + three girls we are looking into adopting = one CRAZY circus :-)

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Word to live by

My friend Yaya has a wonderful idea...instead of a New Years Resolution she chooses a word to live by throughout the year. Yaya's word for 2010 is HOPE and I am HOPING right along with her that she and her husband Josh will be parents (possibly to many) by years end! Yaya asked us to leave a comment on what our word to live by for the year will be, this is what I wrote....

"My word for the New Year is Believe...believe that anything is possible, believe that things happen for a reason, believe that stepping out of our comfort zone will lead us to our next child(ren), believe that we can take on the responsibilities of our new child(ren) and will be given the resources we need!"

Over the past couple of weeks while doing family fun things like seeing Santa, looking at lights, opening presents, even eating dinner I've had an overwhelming feeling that someone (or more than one someone-maybe our three girls!) is missing. I believe that 2010 is the year that we will be shown who it is that has been missing and that they will be brought into our life and family! I'm SO excited!

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Snow Fun







Christmas Eve and Christmas Day pictures coming soon! I wanted to share these pics taken today of Lexy playing in the snow. We've been in the house since Thurs. afternoon and don't plan on getting out until some of this yuckiness is gone :-)

Wednesday, December 23, 2009



The Richards Family wishes each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!

Monday, December 21, 2009

Let's see how much we can cram in :)

I've taken my own advice and focused more on rest and family this week! My sickies are still hanging around but I'm getting more rest so it's all working out.

As promised, a pic of my new van...
(Unfortunately every time I think to take a picture it's dark but you get the idea)

Before I forget...

Lexy on her Kindergarten Music Program night...

(Lexy with her presents from Papa & Grammy and Mammaw & Grandpa)

(Lexy with her teacher Mrs. Woolsey and her friend Chance)


And Brooke from her play...
And at Brooke's Choir concert...


On Friday, Mike and I went to Lexy's Winter Party at school. I can't believe that I forgot my camera again but they were all so cute eating their goodies (LOTS), making crafts and playing reindeer games!


On Saturday, we loaded up in our new van for some Family Fun - Holiday Style. We went to Bass Pro Shop where we started off having a nice lunch at one of their restaurants and then we wrote letters to Santa, played games and decorated cookies while we waited FOREVER for our turn to see Santa. Afterwards we did some last minute Christmas shopping, ate a quick dinner and headed home.




Yesterday and this morning, Brooke and I have been working on cleaning the house for Christmas and making the fudge that we give as gifts to some of our family and friends. This year we made chocolate, butterscotch and peanut butter, YUM!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Crazy

I so need a vacation! This has been the craziest week!!!

Van Update:
The bank was able to come through for us :-) We picked up our new-to-us van today. I'll try to post a picture tomorrow.

Adoption Update:
Still haven't heard from the adoption worker. I figure with our crazy week and the holiday coming up the timing is just bad. I will continue to gather the things I need to and be patient.

Mommy Update:
Sinus Infection and swollen tonsils. On antibiotics, just need to rest! I've been up pretty much all night long coughing the past two nights :( and running around like a chicken with my head cut off all day trying to get things done!

So my plan beginning tomorrow is to slow down, rest and enjoy my family. I have fudge (peanut butter, butterscotch and chocolate) to make and few odds and ends to buy and wrap but basically we're ready for Christmas. I want to focus on making memories with my girls so they can remember those (instead of a crazy busy, tired and grumpy mommy!).

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

2 weeks

Mike went to the Orthopedic doctor this morning and we learned that he has a small tear in his gluteus minimus muscle. It is a small but very important muscle in your hip area...not the butt area like everyone has liked to joke Mike about. It evidently takes quite a while to heal if torn :(

Mike will be on crutches and at home for the next 2 WEEKS and then they will evaluate further! Good news...Mike will be home with the girls and I for the Christmas break. Bad news...Mike will be home with the girls and I for Christmas break...just kidding :0) Actually the only thing I'm worried about is that we know nothing about workman's comp so hopefully we'll get some answers on wages, etc. in the next couple of days.

Van Update:
Did not hear from the bank today, will call tomorrow. I SO hope they can do what we need so we can move on from this and get a van!

Adoption Update:
Have not heard from the adoption worker to go over the packet she sent. I'm going to start gathering the things I need to photocopy and have those ready to send in as soon as I talk with her.

Mommy Update:
I'm SICK! My throat, ears, sinuses, head, neck, chest all are in bad shape! I want to just lay down and sleep for about 6 days straight but there is cleaning, cooking, bathing, laundry, homework, taking care of a poor out-of-commission hubby that someone must do. So for now I will just push through :-)

Monday, December 14, 2009

OH GOOD GRIEF!! What else???? This has been a crazy, hectic, weird, exhausting week and Mike added to it by calling this afternoon to let me know he was at the HOSPITAL!!! Seems he thought it might be fun to hurt himself getting out of a dump truck at work.

After many hours at the ER it was determined that he must have done something to a muscle or tendon in his hip area. He got a lesson on how to use crutches, told to ice the area, given some pain pills and told that he would probably be home the rest of the week.

UGH!

Updates

I have pics from Lexy's Kindergarten music program and Brooke's play from the end of last week/weekend to get on here. I started feeling icky yesterday and all I want to do is sit around or sleep so I'll get to the pics eventually. I probably caught something from all the places we went/being outside in the cold looking for a new(er) van on Friday and Saturday.

My van made it's last trip to pick up the girls from school on Thursday. On Wednesday the oil light came on and we had the oil changed that day but it must not have been soon enough b/c it ran great Wed. evening and Thurs. morning but by the afternoon it was knocking. Unfortunately the van isn't worth what it would take to get a new engine put in (plus at this point we don't have extra money laying around the house). We spent all day Friday at the bank seeing what they could do for us and going from car lot to car lot looking at vans. On Saturday my brother CJ and I went back out looking at vans (in the freezing cold). We did find one that I really like, now we just have to wait until Tues. to find out if the bank can do what we need done. If they can then hopefully we'll have a new-to-us van by the end of the week!!

Adoption update:
I was worried that with my van going to crap that we would have to hold off on the adoption stuff but I think everything might just work out anyway. I got the papers in the mail at the end of last week from the agency and the worker should be calling to go over those with me any day.

A couple pictures to tide you over...



Thursday, December 10, 2009

busy busy

Yesterday we had the teeniest bit of snow left on the ground after school so Lexy HAD to play in it! I only let her play for a few minutes b/c the wind was so bone chilling but she had a great time!



Lexy's Kindergarten Christmas Music Program is tonight, it'll be SO cute! Tomorrow and Saturday night is Brooke's Middle School Play. The play will be performed this morning for the grade school students, Brooke was excited but nervous this morning!



Monday, December 7, 2009

Our Weekend

For our weekend family fun we went out to eat and then to see Old Dogs at the theatre on Friday night. We all enjoyed the movie and spending time together! Lexy loved these statues in the lobby of the theatre and just had to have her picture taken with them...


On Saturday we spent the morning wrapping presents...Brooke wrapped Lexy's and Lexy wrapped Brooke's (hopefully neither of them slip and say what they saw!). Then I had to work that afternoon/evening....but for the last time.

After getting yelled at by the person that does scheduling on Thursday when I called, I talked with the store manager after work on Sat. and was beyond disappointed in how he spoke to me. I won't put myself in the position to be verbally assaulted anymore so I called on Sunday to say that I wouldn't be returning. The human resource person I talked to had no better attitude or people skills than the other two...I'm just SO glad to be out of there. I don't need negativity and stress...everything will work out as it is supposed to!

Since I didn't have to work on Sunday we all stayed in our jammies all day and watched movies :-)

Friday, December 4, 2009

Adoption News!

I know, I need to change the background around here...I'll try to get around to it :-)


NOTE TO SELF:

Do not go shopping when you have had a bad day (my job UGH!) and a very good day (I finally talked with the adoption worker) on the same day...

Emotionally charged day = severe $$ spent on retail therapy!!!!!!

I woke up this morning thinking that I needed to get up to "the city" and get a few things I had left to get for Christmas. Then I talked with the lady in charge of scheduling at Target (she messed up again and started scheduling me for Sat. & Sun. again) and she was NOT polite. When I got off the phone I was so frustrated and mad that I was shaking. I took off intending to now do some retail therapy and on my way the adoption worker called my cell phone!!!! We talked for about 45 minutes and it looks like we are in the green to start the process!!! So of course then I was over-the-top happy....and....well lets just say I spent WAY MORE than I intended :-)

I did find out that the three girls we are interested in are not with the foster agency that is going to be doing our homestudy so until we get our homestudy done they can't inquire about the girls to find out more information but I'm hoping that maybe I can through the lady that e-mailed me when I inquired on the website.

So the process is looking something like this...

1.) Next week Angela (worker) is sending us an information packet and then calling to go over it with me when I get it.

2.) We need to watch a 6 min. video on their website.

3.) We'll fill out the paperwork that comes with the information packet and send back those, release forms (for them to talk with our former foster agencies), copies of our MAPP (adoption classes) certificate and a copy of our homestudy from when we adopted Lexy. Angela said that there is a possibility that they can use our old homestudy and just do an update (much cheaper!) if the homestudy is thorough enough.

4.) Angela will then request information from our old foster agencies and send our homestudy to be reviewed by another lady to see if we can just do an update or if we will need a new one. This process she said would take a couple of weeks.

5.) In the meantime we will be scheduling health assessments for everyone, finger printing and updating the cat/dog on shots.

6.) After we get all the paperwork stuff done and they decide if we need an updated or new homestudy then we will move forward with the pile of homestudy paperwork, budget, references, etc.

7.) Homestudy completed.

8.) Send homestudy to be considered for the three little girls (if they haven't decided to pick another family before that). If we don't get everything done in time to be considered for these girls at least this will have lit a fire under us to get things done...so that we CAN find our next kiddos :-)


Can you tell I'm excited???? Well except for all the paperwork to be done, juggling schedules (as if this time of year isn't hectic enough), people in and out of the house (best part of no longer fostering!), others judging us (based on house size, income, parenting skills, etc.) but I AM WILLING TO HAPPILY DO ALL OF THAT IF IT BRINGS US OUR NEXT CHILD/REN!!!!!

I'm sure the scared silly, way out of my comfort zone feelings will hit tomorrow :-)

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Traditions

No news so far on the three girls. I did get a message from the adoption worker I e-mailed with back in Sept. but she said she'd call back tomorrow.


As per tradition, Brooke & Lexy opened the first door on their Advent calendars this morning...


And Mrs. Claus and the Elves visited our house today while we were gone and left a note, candy and new ornaments for Brooke and Lexy to find when they got home from school...


A cheerleader ornament for Brooke and a soccer ornament for Lexy! After they saw what Mrs. Claus left Brooke said "thanks Mom" without even realizing what she was doing and Lexy corrected her that she needed to thank Mrs. Claus :-)