Picture overload!

Okay, so I changed my blog background. What do you think? Is it a keeper or is it too busy? I've looked at so many options and I can't decide. I really want to have it professionally designed, but that costs $$ that I can't let myself spend right now. Key words: right now. I'll do it eventually! But let me know if you like it or if the dots make it too difficult to read. I'm sure I have lots of things to say, but can't think of any of it, so here are a few pics for ya--enjoy!

Sleeping beauty

My sleepyhead prince (everytime I would take a picture he would wake up a little and make this face!)

My big sis came over last weekend and brought my great-niece Kyleigh.

Kyleigh looks just like her mama, my big sis's stepdaughter. What a doll!

My sneaky princesa LOVES to pull all the bibs and burp rags out of the drawer.

Once all the bibs are out, she starts dumping the books off the shelf. A bit irritating at times, but so adorable. I just keep folding and re-shelving over and over and over . . .

See--here she goes again. Just look at the mischief on that face!

Isn't this the cutest little tushie ever??!!

She's got the whole world in her hands!

One guess where these people are going--you got it--Guatemala!

Not the greatest pic ever, but I LOVE this feature of our new camera. Too bad I don't know how to use it myself--gotta have hubby teach me ASAP! And, by the way, this isn't the last you'll ever see of the bicycle helmet/baseball helmet/hockey helmet. It's been on that sweet little head alot lately!

Yes, we're at McDonalds. Again. Yes, she's eating fries. Of course, she loved them. Who doesn't?

Wait, you mean caffeine free doesn't mean sugar free?? Why didn't someone tell me sooner??!! The worst part is that he had asked me for milk and in my frantic state of ordering while making sure he doesn't run back outside and holding the princesa, etc., I ordered him Sprite. I know. I'm a great mom. Oh yeah, he also had the free kids ice cream cone at Mickey D's and even a cupcake when we got home. Hey, he ate all his McNuggets . . .

9 months old!

I can't believe our baby girl is 9 months old. The big day was actually yesterday, but there was no time to get around to writing a post. To be honest, we really didn't think she would be home by now, let alone home for 2.5 months. I'm reminded again how blessed we are! I love this girl so much I can't stand it!

Here's what she's doing at 9 months old: crawling like a crazy girl, pulling up (yikes! already!), eating everything in sight (except baby food--still!), and being a lovey dovey velcro baby. She still doesn't have any teeth, nor is there any sign of one coming soon. It hasn't slowed her down at all though--she even ate some chicken today! She's pretty much outgrown all of her 6 month clothes, with the exception of a few pairs of shorts that are sized really weird. There aren't words to describe how much life has changed in the past few months. We're so thankful to have her in our family and can't imagine life without her.

Today I've got both kiddos home with me. We went to visit some of my co-workers this morning. I let the critterboy deposit a whopping $65 in his savings account (sadly, it's official--he has more money in savings than mommy and daddy!), eat popcorn, candy, etc (they were having a customer appreciation day), and run around disrupting everyone's work. After that we went to Chick-fil-A for lunch and some play time. Not a good idea. I think it must be the hot spot for moms with preschool age kids to let their kids be completely crazy in a contained environment. First, the little man dumped about 1/2 of a salt shaker worth of salt on his chicken strips while I wasn't looking. Seriously, my head was turned for a split second to put a bottle into a hungry baby's mouth. I couldn't salvage much of the chicken strips, but I did make him eat as much as I could scrape the salt off of. Then, of course, he wanted my sandwich. All in all, the eating part wasn't so bad. Then it was on to the madness of the play place thing. We walked in and it was loud, as it always is. But I promise you I'm not exaggerating when I say that all of a sudden all of the kids started screeching and shrieking in those echoey tube things as soon as the critterboy had a chance to climb up in it the first time. Holy moly it was horrible. There were no parents of the shrieking, screeching kids to be found. Only moms of the kids who were now completely sobbing from the noise and the lost chance to play nicely. It was awful. Those of us with sobbing kids left that place so fast that I doubt we even took a breath. It took about 15 minutes to get my terrified wild man to stop crying. We came straight home. So sad. All I wanted was for him to have a fun day. Oh well--maybe next time.

We've been watching lots of the Olympics lately. Our wild man has decided that he is an "Olympic guy" and pretends to dive and flip, etc. His best moves are a jump off of his slide and a back flip off the couch. When he lands he puts his arms over his head like the gymnasts do. So cute! He's quite the little show off. And hey, if his Olympic dreams don't come true, he can always resort to being a princess . . .

A much needed shout out

I want to give a special shout out to my front loading washer, namely it's awesome sanitary cycle. I'm home today with a still sick princesa. Yesterday alone we did two loads on the sanitary cycle of our beloved machine. That thing gets water so hot that you don't even have to rinse off the poop and/or vomit (in our case yesterday, both--could we be any luckier??!!). It just breaks it down so you don't have to subject your nasal passages to the horrors that are bodily fluids.

I know it's gross, but I would have had a bunch more messes on my hands if it weren't for that high tech piece of machinery. A man in this house would say that I balked at getting it in the first place. He's right. I was wrong. That machine saved me yesterday. My dear husband was also a trooper, rinsing, scrubbing, etc.. I know that it's very hard for him to help clean up either issue that was going on here yesterday--he has a weak stomach when it comes to that--but he was right in there in the trenches with me and I appreciate it more than I could ever say. Thanks honey, I love you.

Since I had to go out yesterday to get soy formula and a probiotic to attempt a slowing/stopping of the virus, I decided to check out the CVS ad before I left. I learned a few tricks about how to work the CVS extra bucks thing on this site and I must say it's wonderful! A few weeks ago I needed to refill a Rx, and CVS had their "transfer a prescription, get a $30 gift card" deal going, so I took advantage. (Not my first rodeo with this promotion--one time we had $110 worth of CVS gift card from doing this!) So yesterday, since we're nearing the big zero in the checking account, I decided to work my new found magic and see what happened. What happened was this--if you want to know:

First, we needed diapers for daycare. One page in the ad said "buy $25 of merchandise on this page and get $5 extra bucks". The extra bucks print at the end of your receipt. So since we're doing about 10-12 diapers a day lately with this yucky tummy bug, that also means a box of wipes every other day, so I got 2 packages of diapers, one box of wipes, and 2 bottles of baby shampoo which totalled exactly $25. I'm not done though! I had two $1.50 off diaper coupons and a $1.50 off shampoo coupon. This made my total $20.50 + tax. Then the cashier messed up and took off an extra $7.00 coupon, which the manager said to not mess with correcting. My lucky day--the transaction was $16 dollars total. Swipe $30 gift card, get $5 extra bucks. Enter the next transaction. Candy was also an extra bucks promo, so if you spent $10 in candy, you got another $5 extra bucks. We keep M&M's etc., around for bribes/treats for the little man, so that was easy. After using my first $5 extra bucks coupon my total was just over $5. Swipe gift card again, get another $5 coupon. Here's the best part. These great little pasta bowls that I love to have for lunch were on sale buy one get one free. That's a steal--only a dollar a bowl--my kind of lunch budget! I got 10 of them, used my second $5.00 coupon, making this total just over $5 as well. Swiped gift card again. All in all, I didn't pay a dime. If I hadn't had the gift card, I would have only spent about $27.00 anyway, about the cost of the diapers and wipes alone. My receipts say I saved almost $60 all together. Can you tell I'm giddy about saving so much dough??!! I really didn't buy anything we didn't need, because we all know that it's not saving money if you buy stuff just to get a good deal, then never use it. Thanks Jana for sharing that website. I love it!

I hope this will inspire just one person to 1) buy a front loading washer with a sanitary cycle if you have young pukey kids, and 2) start clipping coupons and watching sale ads. A little bit of time saves a ton of cash! Now if only there were a website/washer/magic potion to fix my poor couch cushion which took the brunt of the yuck yesterday . . . .

I've been tagged!

Okay, I've been tagged by Steph as a brilliant blogger! I'm not sure brilliant is exactly the right word, but hey, it's better than other names I could be called! :) Thanks Steph for thinking I'm brilliant, or for me being one of the last people to be tagged. I thought I'd sneak out without being caught, but I'm always game for some fun so here it goes. I'll tag a few blogger buddies who I haven't seen tagged yet at the end so they can copy this on their own blog and tag more pals!

A. Attached or single? Attached!

B. Best Friend? I have 3 that I consider BFF's: Mark, Krista, and Stephenie G

C. Cake or Pie? Both, but if I have to choose, lately it's pie. Big tall apple pie, preferably homemade, and I'm partial to my own. No ice cream--just pie. Yum!

D. Day of choice? These days it has to be Friday since it's the first day of my weekends for a few weeks. I live for the weekend!

E. Essential item? Debit card. You don't want to see the stack of receipts that need to be written down and subtracted from our ever decreasing balance . . .

F. Favorite color? hmmm, tough one. I have lots of black clothes, but black seems grim. How about purple?

G. Gummy bears or worms? Bears--only the good ones though!

H. Hometown? a small suburb of Oklahoma City

I. Indulgence? A few quiet minutes alone. It doesn't happen often enough!

J. January or July? July

K. Kids? 2 amazing kiddos--a three year old wild man and an almost 9 month old cutie patootie princesa

L. Life isn't complete without? My family, and a close second, my computer. Ha ha!

M. Marriage date? July 27, 1996 - That's right-- 12 years of wedded bliss. I'm not old, but that always makes me feel like I am! Most people my age are just hitting the 5 year mark . . .

N. Number of brothers/sisters? 1 older sister

O. Oranges or apples? Apples. Preferably with caramel dip or in pie!

P. Phobias? Bugs. I hate them, and can't even get close enough to kill them without wincing. I hate that crunch . . .

Q. Quote? "To whom much has been given, much is to be expected." Not sure of the original source, but I remember it most from my high school history teacher, Mr. Spurgeon. I wasn't "applying myself", and unfortunately he knew I was smarter than my test scores were showing, so he would always pull me aside to say that to me. Why can't those of us to whom much have been given ever be allowed to just be average??

R. Reason to smile? Watching my kids playing together. It makes me smile inside and out.

S. Season of choice? I really like the crisp breeze of fall.

T. Tag seven peeps (See below)

U. Unknown fact about me? Don't judge me. In the early years of high school I was a rebel and listened to gangster rap. The bad stuff--Easy E, Snoop Dogg, you name it. Bad bad bad. I still know every word to "Posse on Broadway" by Sir Mix A Lot and someday I might quit being shy and do it for a crowd. Maybe. Again, don't judge me--I can't stand the stuff now!

V. Vegetable? EEEEWWWW no way! Seriously, the only veggies I eat are corn and lettuce and I'm not sure either really count. I just started eating the chunks in salsa a few years ago!

W. Worst habits? I nag. A lot. And I want to run the show, and if I can't win a game I don't want to play. And I can't do anything fun until all the work is done. I'm your regular run of the mill party pooper!

X. X-ray or ultrasound? Well, I've had good luck with my several ultrasounds and have the pictures and the real kid to prove it!

Y. Your favorite food? Pizza, fried chicken, you name it--if it's bad for you (ie. no veggies involved), I probably love it.

Z. Zodiac sign? Libra, but I don't really follow that stuff too closely.

Okay, just about everyone has been tagged so I'll just do a few. If you haven't been and I didn't get you, go ahead and do it--it's fun! I'm tagging:

Erica
Claudia
"the other" Susie
Krista
Hollie

Oh, wait, those last two STILL don't have blogs. Come on girls--join the revolution! See all the fun facts about you that the world is missing out on??!! (this is a testament to my bad habit of nagging--I'm relentless!)

Happy Birthday to a woman I'll likely never meet

Even though I'm quite sure she'll never see this, I want to say Happy Birthday to my sweet baby girl's birth mom. She's been on my mind alot today, as always. I hope she is finding happiness, is healthy, and knows God. I want her to know how much we love this beautiful angel that she helped bring into this world. I want her to know that our baby girl is thriving. She's more beautiful every time I look at her!

While we don't know much about her, what we do know will be shared with our ladybug as she grows up. She is a very important part of our family, even though we will most likely never meet her. I love her for this gift she has given us and will think of her always.

Happy Birthday Maria! We love you.

Another week in review

Yep, lucky you! Two posts tonight. What a week it’s been! Work was the same as before I left. Nothing eventful. Just 536 emails, 34 hang-up voicemails, same old same old but oh so much fun! Both kids are sick, which is not really a surprise. Daddy-o took the little man to the doctor on Wednesday. Both kids are now on anti-biotics (sissy priss doesn’t take hers very well—we’re working on it!) and the little man also has a cough medicine to take every day. In the past few days I’ve been puked on numerous times by a little guatemonster who has so much mucus in her little tummy that it has no where else to go but out. She’s had the “big D” since Thursday to add to the fun, but she seems to feel fine. She’s doing great at daycare, or I guess better than I had expected, so that’s a great thing. Sleeping and eating well and all that good stuff. I had the awful bug yesterday, daddy-o has it today, leaving only the critterboy un-sick at this point. The biggest drawback to the sickies this weekend was missing out on seeing our friends, the Gilliam's, for the first time in way too long, and missing the Garcia’s get-together that we had been so looking forward to going to. We just like them too much to chance getting their family and our new friends sick.

Something has been on my mind for a couple of days and I need to get on my soapbox to get it off my chest. Why does it seem like a person can never escape the cattiness, cliquishness, and snottiness of high school? A couple of blog pals recently decided to plan a big event for adoptive families who have blogs (a year in advance) to be held in Oklahoma. What’s wrong with that, you ask? Well, nothing to me and many others. It’s a great idea! Some people, however, had to rain on the parade and make very hateful high school like comments about it. The event was cancelled, then re-named and thankfully back on as scheduled. One blog pal has decided to make her blog private because of the tackiness of these people who act like they are still in high school. Maybe even junior high, or is it college . . . come to think of it, it never really changes does it?

When I was in school and would come home complaining to my mom about some hateful girl and her snotty friends she would always say “Just wait. Once high school is over, you won’t have to deal with people like that anymore.” My mom was right about a lot of things, but missed this one by a mile. In my experience, and apparently that of others as well, you can never really escape people who want to control everything, think they are better than you, etc. I have my own philosophy about those people though, and that is that they are missing something in their lives and are trying desperately to fill a void. Maybe not true in all cases, but many. I’ve been out of school for several years and almost daily I encounter someone who is either sizing me up, judging my clothing/shoes/jewelry, making me feel about “this tall” about something silly, bullying someone, treating someone unfairly, etc. Come on already people. Grow up. Then you have kids and the moms of their friends become your friends, and so on. All is good until you come across a close-knit group that you want to be part of and they are less than welcoming. (Fortunately for me, I’ve had the opposite experience so far in this area. The moms I know are very friendly, non-judgemental, and all around awesome!) The thing I struggle with the most is teaching my kids how to deal with it. Since I know my mom’s saying wasn’t true, I can’t knowingly lie to them and tell them that once they reach some milestone in life that those types of people go away and you don’t have to worry about it anymore. On the other hand, what I want to say to them is “Sorry kids. Life is really hard and people are always going to be mean. Deal with it.”, and that’s not a good thing to teach them either. I need to pray for wisdom in this area so that I will be able to correctly coach and lead my children to a life of self confidence, self control, manners, and realistic views of themselves and others. It’s gonna be rough . . .

On a happy note, since I'm all about finding stuff "on the cheap", I used my Kohl's cash that I got last weekend when I was shopping for a few new things for work today. I got 3 tops and 2 bottoms for the little lady in my life and 2 shirts for the wild man for a grand total of $6.29! I love it! Also, I've been shopping for some inexpensive hair bows for my baby girl. Ebay is the place to be! Etsy is great too, but lately the great buys are on Ebay. In the past 2 weeks I've gotten a total of 24 bows for only $16.00 including shipping. If you have bought hair bows lately, you'll know that this was a STEAL!!! I can't wait for fall to use some of the new colors I bought in that beautiful hair on that beautiful little head. I think we're up to 70 bows or more--I've lost count! I'm going to be making a new bow holder soon to "un-crowd" them a bit. When I do, I'll post a pic so you can laugh at my obsession with me. Hey, as long as I'm not breaking the bank, don't judge me!

Lastly, I'm so happy and blessed to have good friends who seem to get me most of the time. I may not have a huge quantity of friends, but the one's I have are top notch! I have lots of great work friends, too, who claim that they missed me terribly while I was gone. Seriously, at least 30 people have called or told me in person that they are so glad I'm back. That makes it a little easier to go to work everyday. Thanks guys! You're the reason I do what I do, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart. I was born to help people, or was it something else? . . .

We have a busy few weeks ahead of us. Lots of time on the road is in store for our family, along with lots of hilarious (if they aren't funny, they would be really sad . . .) tales of our adventures. I'll keep you posted!

Hi ho, hi ho, it's back to work I go

So tomorrow I go back to work. I never thought I’d say this, but it’s going to be hard to go back. The first week at home I thought I’d never survive, but I did, and have fallen in love with my life all over again. I’ve had an incredible summer and I’m so thankful that it was possible for me to be home.

I’ve learned a lot about myself these fast several weeks. I’ve learned that I’m capable of taking care of two kids by myself, even, gasp, taking them to public places alone. I’ve learned that I would not, indeed, go crazy as a stay at home mom, but it’s not a realistic possibility to be one at this point. I’ve set new goals and adjusted my expectations for me and for my family. I’ve planned my work, now I have to work my plan, as they say. I’ve reminded myself that my family means more to me than anything else. I don’t know how that keeps slipping my mind, but sometimes it does, and this summer I’ve decided to never take my husband and kids for granted again. Ever. I like myself for the first time in a long time, although I’m not really liking how down I am these past few days as the new normal routine of my life is about to start. I like myself as a mom, as a wife, and everything else. I’ve been exercising some (not enough), eating a bit better, keeping my house relatively clean, even with the two (three!) critters who live here doing their best to trash it, getting things done that needed to be done for a long time, and most of all, I’ve been easier on myself about not being perfect all the time. That was a tough one for me. I’ve learned to make time to thank God for all of the blessings he has provided for me and my family. It’s sometimes easy to skip a quiet moment when there is so much else going on, but really, for all He’s done for us, a few minutes is not too much to ask. I’ve learned to step out of my comfort zone and make new friends. Friends that I hope our family will continue to grow with and get to know. I’ve learned to take time and really listen to my hilarious critterboy son. Seriously, somehow I always knew he was a hoot of a sweetie pie, but lately he brings me to my knees with his maturity and his view on life. At three years old he’s quite the wise old owl! I’ve watched our beautiful princesa grow and change and bond with us so much in such a short time. She even started crawling on Friday. Real, bona fide crawling. There’s no stopping her now! I will never get these months back and I hope I have soaked up every moment, good and bad, and will look back with no regrets.

Do I like my job? Yes, of course. Am I ready to go back tomorrow? Of course not. But I will, and I’ll try to be the happy go-lucky person that I was when I was there 10 weeks ago. That’s how they know me there, and I think many people came to depend on me for a pick me up when they needed it. I’m glad I can be there for the 250+ employees that I’m so blessed to work with. I’m going to be sad though. I will constantly think about my babies, knowing they’re fine at “school”, but still wanting them with me instead. I’m sure there will also be the days that I’ll be soooo glad I can go to work to get a break from the hectic life at home. Tomorrow might be one of those days actually! I’m still not sure how it’s all going to get done, but it did before, and it will again.

Thanks for “listening” to my reflections about the very end of our adoption journey. There are just a few loose ends to tie up, but for all practical purposes, when I go back to work we’ll simply be a family of four. No more, no less. How perfect is that? Thank you again, Lord, for this time with my family. I will cherish it always.

Swimming, two piggies, and a new baby!

No, not a new baby for us silly! A new baby brother for AJ! Brogan Levi Covey was born Thursday night. Congratulations Covey's! What an amazing blessing for your ABCDE family! Love the name, by the way. Great choice indeed. I can't wait to meet your new little guy!

You might remember how proud I was a while back to finally put one little pig tail/pony tail on top of my ladybug's sweet head. Check this out--I finally got brave enough to do TWO! Don't mind the pink camo bows--they were the only matching set I have that remotely matched her outfit at the time! Yay me! And yay ladybug for your incredible patience and tough head as I tried again and again to get it to work and be straight!

I've said a few times that we've been swimming quite a bit, but since I'm weird about taking pics in the pool, there really hasn't been alot of cold hard proof. Now you have it! Please note that I conveniently declined to swim this time so I could play photographer. One smart mama if you ask me! I so wish the little man could swim like his new friend Jenna, who at 2.5 years old can jump off the diving board (no floaties!) and swim to the side all by herself. What an accomplishment sweet Jenna! Check her out here.

Anyway, here is my crew splish splashing in our pool a few days ago. They're a good lookin' bunch aren't they?