12 years ago today . . .

. . . I married my wonderful husband. It was a hot, sunny day just like it is today. We were young--I was 18 and he was 21--and in a way we've grown up together. It's hard to believe it's been 12 years. I'll never forget the craziness of that day! Sometime I'll have to share the story of the day we'll remember forever. But for now, 11 different cars between the two of us, 2 houses, 3 dogs, 2 cats, and 2 kids later, here we are, still as happy as we were that day. Honestly, it's been pretty easy, despite the minor bumps in the road along the way. I can't imagine my life any other way. I love you honey, and I look forward to the rest of the adventures heading our way!

Nicknames, schmicknames

I love to assign nicknames to my kiddos. The problem is that I can't stick with just one. Here are all the ones I can think of for each of the short people that call me mommy (or mamamamamama as la princesa calls me--okay, she doesn't really CALL me that, she just says it and I choose to believe she's asking for me!!):

First is the scrappy young kid I call my son: critterboy, wild man, little man, sweet potato (pronounced puh-TAYT-uh --come on, we're in Oklahoma, how else would we say it?), sweet potato pie, munchkin, love dove, wiggle worm, toot toot, monkey boy, bubba, and angel baby.

Next is the little beauty that has been stealing the show at our house lately: miss priss pants, sissy, sissy girl, sissy priss, long body (because her body seems really long sometimes!), la princesa, princess, mi amor, and lady bug.

If I could only decide on just one for each kid, life would be simpler.

Doesn't her body look really long to you?


Okay, now for more important matters. I had to go to the bank today to deposit the last dimes we could scrape together until I go back to work. With gas prices being what they are these days (I'm so sick of hearing about it--just lower the prices already!) it's important for me to make the most of my time out of the house. Help me rationalize my obsession of buying clothes for the short ones. Here's how I spin it to my dearest husband: "Oh my goodness honey! I just happened to go into Old Navy today (Umm, no, I went on purpose, totally premeditated. I got a $10 bucks back coupon on Monday and I only had until the end of the year to use it. I didn't want to take a chance on it expiring! hee hee) and they had TONS of stuff on clearance. I got 12 things (2 were gifts for my new friends the Covey's whose new baby is due any day--yes guys, I'm cheap, but it's super cute stuff and I'm including a gift receipt--fancy!) for less than $30." I mean, can he really argue with that? Sometimes a girls gotta spend money (okay, swipe that darn Old Navy card, which by the way, is also good at Baby Gap. Sigh.) to save money, right? I surprisingly haven't taken the time to add up the original prices, that I would NEVER pay by the way, to figure out just how much I saved, but I'm guessing it was in the neigborhood of $100. I got really good stuff for practically nothing! Is there a 12 step program for moms like me?

Now for the really fun stuff. The kids took their first real bath together tonight. I've had them in the tub at the same time before, but la princesa was always in her little baby tub inside the big tub. Tonight though, I had to bribe the little man to get in the tub and the only thing that worked was to put sissy priss in with him. It was so cute. Check them out! She did really good and even flipped over on her tummy/hands and knees a few times. All that time in the pool lately is proving to be handy!



I think that's all of the excitement for tonight. I'll have both kids home with me tomorrow, then a big weekend: our area Guatemalan adoption get together Saturday and our big anniversary celebration (sorry, you won't get all the details!) on Sunday, so I'm sure I'll have lots of stuff to share next week. Ta ta for now!

Random happenings

Today I did something I've never done before: went to a movie all by myself! I saw Mamma Mia. It was good, but a bit cheesy, like every good musical is. It was weirdly liberating to sit alone in the theater with no one to chat, laugh, and cry with. I might have to do it again sometime, but I'm not sure when I'll have another 2 hours to myself!

I took Miss Priss Pants to daycare for another trial run. I dropped her off, had lunch with my favorite guy again, paid the car payments (ugghh!), when to Kohl's, then the movie, then back to pick up my critters. She seemed to do alot better today. She was happy when I got there, but in a different outfit due to a major blow out. When she is stressed she has super yucky diapers. Hopefully she'll settle in soon, otherwise I'll have to start packing 1/2 her closet to get her through the week! I was much happier about todays visit than last weeks. I'm going to hopefully have lunch with my BFF Steph tomorrow so she can meet the princesa for the first time (that's really pitiful--we should make more effort to get together!), then take her in for a few hours and let daddy-o wrestle them both into the car to come home.

The latest on our neighbor, Bryan: He checked in to a hospital near here in the wee hours of the morning this morning, and surgery began around noon. Six hours or so later he is out of surgery with one leg/ankle repaired, but we haven't heard about the other leg. Please continue to pray for him and his wife Lauren.

I'm officially issuing a challenge to any readers who don't have blogs (ahem, Hollie & Krista!) to start one. It's super easy and not terribly time consuming. If it were hard or time consuming, I wouldn't do it, and you know that for a fact! It's only fair that I be kept up to date on your lives since you get to keep up with my monotony! Like Hollie, for instance--is there a bun in your oven yet? And Krista, what trouble, I mean fun, have you been getting into? Come on, you two (and anyone else who is selfishly reading blogs but not blogging--hee hee) do it, do it do it! If you're not going to, at least post a comment now and then so I'll know what's going on. I feel so out of the loop . . .

Lastly, since I've been sharing my blog more, many of you may have missed the slideshow I posted in early June. It takes you start to finish through our adoption journey. Click here to view it. I hope you enjoy it. Hopefully it will give hope to those in process, and open the hearts of those who might be considering adoption to get started on the bumpy but amazing road to bring their child(ren) home.

Love and Cinnamon twists! (thanks kdv--I'm gonna use that forever!)

Warning: long post ahead! **edited to add an injury update**

Seriously, this is gonna be a long one. I blog like I talk--all the details whether you want them or not! I'll sprinkle it with pictures since that's probably what you're here for anyway to hold your interest! I don't even know where to start. It's been a week full of activity as usual. Let's go back in time a week to last Saturday and start there!

It's really sad when your 3 year old has a better social calendar than his parents. We've gotta make some friends, and we're on our way to do just that! The little man had not one but TWO birthday parties to attend on Saturday. Just before we left, Krista and her mom called to tell us that their flight had been delayed by about 7 hours, so M went to the airport to pick them up so they could party with us. The poor girls had been up since 3:30am and needed some rest, but we drug them along with us anyway. The first party, for his daycare pal Caid (well, former daycare pal--her deadbeat mom moved her and her new baby sister to somewhere closer to home--just kidding Mandy--you're not a deadbeat--you're a good friend in the making. If only we could get you to stop spreading rumors about daycare teachers! hee hee) was at good old Mickey D's. All the cool kids from "school" have their parties there, and since Caid is the coolest of cool, it was the place to be. The party was great. Everything I dream for my little princesa someday--pink, purple, girly, frilly fun! The only downside was the horrid heat in the playplace. It must have been 90 degrees in there. We were dripping with sweat by the time it was over, but a good time was had by all! Here is a pic of sleep deprived Krista and her mom with my uber-sweaty princesa at the par-tay (sadly, it's the only pic I have on my camera of her with them--yo, kdv, if you get a chance, send me some of the oh, say, 100 pics you have so I'll have them too . . .):

After McD's, it was off to the equally popular party place for Seth's birthday bash: you guess it--Chuck E Cheese! Um, all I remember was that it wasn't hot, but holy moly there were kids everywhere. Apparently all the cool kids are born in July and have their parties at CEC's. Seth had a pile of gifts bigger than Christmas. He has lot's of people who love him, that's for sure. His dad, who works with my dearest hoosbond (husband in my language!), said that Seth did not in anyway deserve all of those gifts. I bet he does deserve them though. He's a cutie and has great parents and will surely share his loot with those who have less loot for their birthdays. What a great family. The critterboy went up to the mechanical Chuck E Cheese and kept patting him, hugging him, and looking up his shirt. When it came time for the birthday parade with the "real life Chuck E", he wanted no part of it. Sorry if I said this before, but he is one funny kid. Another great, but hectic party. After that we took BFF and BFF mom back to the airport. Krista, really dearest, you need to start your own blog to share the details of this trip. I can't possibly do it justice!

Oh yeah, I need to back up a minute. BFF Krista showed me a few video clips on youtube. Please understand that I am as anti-youtube as I was anti-video game, but something about that site can hook you! She shared this Spanish love song with me. Seriously, I can't get it out of my head! It helps if you understand what he's saying so you can get the full hilariousness of it, but the pictures that pop up pretty much tell you how stupid it is. I can't get enough of it. Is it stuck in your head yet?

Now onto the latest little man wildness. One day a week or so ago I asked him to pick up his toys that were out before he played with anything else. He gave me the most pitiful look and said "But mommy, I can't. My arms are breaked." Um, what? What? Did my little angel just say he couldn't help pick up because his arms were broken? Yep, that's what he said. I wonder which of his classmates I can thank for that one? Many days each week I ask him if he went to time out at school and he says yes. When I ask why, he says it's because he didn't help pick up. At least it's not just at home. I can take comfort in that while he takes comfort in time out! ha ha That little booger is so hard to discipline because he's so darn cute! Check him out:

He also has been calling freckles sprinkles and frickels. Hilarious! He really only has two "frickels". One one his tushie and one on his back. I have several and he points them out daily and asks if he has any. I tell him about his and he wants to see, but his head just won't spin around like that, so he has to take my word for it. He was playing in the living room a couple of days ago and fell down on his bottom trying to catch a ball. He looked up and said with a huge grin " I fell on my frickel!". I about died laughing. What a kid we've got. I wouldn't trade our wild man for anything in the whole world.

Now for the little ladybug. This has been a tough week for her. I don't think I've mentioned it yet, but we've had to start paying for daycare to hold her spot until I go back to work (in two weeks--don't get me started thinking about it). Since we're paying good money for it, I've decided to take her in for a couple of hours a day once or twice a week until she HAS to go. Tuesday was the first and only day so far. I took her in and gave her a bottle so she would know that it was okay to eat there. We played for a few minutes and she seemed happy, so I left. I had a childless lunch with my favorite guy, did a bit of shopping (didn't buy much at all since we're poor!), and went back to pick her up when big bubba would be up from his nap. It was 3 hours total. Her teacher said she did fine, even fell asleep, but when she woke up she was really confused about where she was and started crying. Hard. She wouldn't take her bottle and when I got there she was borderline hysterical. Not cool for this mama. I took her and she immediately calmed on the surface, but I could tell that she was stressed. So again, I fed her and calmed her the best I could and went to track down the critterboy on the playground. I planned to take her back the next day, but couldn't do it. Someone please tell me it'll be okay because I'm really stressing about it. Ever since then I can't even leave a room without her getting upset. No one else can console her. She's screaming in the living room right now and my dear husband is doing the best he can and is determined to show her that he loves her and protects her too, and give me a needed break from the barnicle baby. She's such a great, happy baby and I hate to see her stressed, but I'm not sure what else to do at this point. I love that little lady bug so much I can't stand to think how hard this is going to be on her. On a good note, she's just about to crawl. I have a video clip that I need to upload so you can check out her moves! Also, her hair is getting wilder as it grows. This picture is just after waking up and is like this most mornings:

We've been going outside alot both to swim and play in the sprinkler. When we got home from school early on Tuesday I got them both "sunscreamed" up (another matthewism) and took them out to play in the sprinkler. It always sounds better than it actually is. Here's how it usually goes down, so to speak. I buy a fun sprinkler that the critterboy chooses. We hook it up. He doesn't like it. He wants the plain old yard watering one instead. Mommy (or daddy) trudges back to the outdoor faucet to turn the water off, then back to the end of the hose to change the sprinkler, then back to the faucet to turn the water back on. The critterboy then decides he doesn't want the "sprink-u-lur" and picks it up and aims it at the sweet innocent girl sitting on the beach towel just outside the "wet zone". Sigh. Mommy (or daddy) trudges back yet again to the faucet to turn the water off for good. Seriously, this is how it goes almost everytime he wants the sprinkler. On this particular day, though, I wasn't ready to go back inside. We were gonna have a good time outside if it was the death of all of us! I went in, grabbed chocolate chip cookies, scooped up the baby girl and led the big boy to the shade of our one and only backyard tree for a picnic. We had a great time! He picked the little seed/berry things off the tree, brought them to me, I threw them, he retrieved them. It was so much fun! We were outside for almost an hour, totally worth the effort to "sunscream" and swimsuit up two squirmy worms. It was the best mommy/kid day we've had, well, in my recent memory. I love days like that. My heart smiles just thinking about it. Here are some sprinkler pics:

Are you still with me? I'm almost finished rambling, I promise. Besides, I warned you it would be long, so stop whining. We finally had our garage sale that we'd been planning to have many months ago. The plan was to have a huge sale before mi bebe came home to clear things out to make room for her. Well, we managed to make room and since she truly did come home a few months before we expected, the garage sale was low on the to do list. Holy moly we had a great garage sale. We made about $800, and when it was all said and done, we ended up with virtually nothing left. What is left will be donated to our local library and two local charities. I'm not, I repeat I am NOT putting anything back in that attic. Here are some pics from the beginning of the sale:

(If you're wondering, yes, I did have several people ask to buy this sweetie pie. I said, sweetly but firmly, "Sorry, she's too new. We're not tired of her yet." )

One of the big highlights of the sale was meeting Dan, Erica, and AJ, a fabulous family we crossed paths (well, online paths, but paths nonetheless) with in the very beginning of our adoption process. They live only about 15 minutes from us. AJ came home a week before Miss Priss Pants and has a baby brother due any day now. It was wonderful to meet them after a year and a half of emailing. We will definitely stay in touch. They are great family (did I say that already, no, I said fabulous. I think they're probably both, but we'll get to know them better before I label them permanently!). Then today, a friend from high school that I haven't seen since graduation stopped by. She didn't even know that we lived here and we've been here for 8 years. I stink at keeping up with old friends. She has two cutie pie girls and lives just about 10 miles or so from us, near our old stomping grounds. All in all, it was a great, albeit hot, weekend in the garage. We met many great people, one drunken man who may turn out to be a stalker if he somehow remembers where we live, a few odd ducks, and some normal old country folk. Ahh, gotta love a garage sale.

Okay, last thing, I promise. Please say a prayer for our neighbor, Bryan. He rides freestyle motorcross on a demo tour all across the country. He was in Salt Lake City for a demo this weekend. His wife rushed over to tell us that he has been hurt pretty badly in a bike crash today. From what I gathered he has several broken bones and was in the hospital. She was pretty frantic and obviously worried as she was leaving to catch the first plane she could get to go be with him. They are a cute young couple and I hate that this has happened. Please pray for a speedy recovery for him and calm for her. He is self-employed and any fractured limb can't be good when you depend on being all in one piece to make a living. ******Injury update: It's not good. From what we have heard, Bryan has compound fractures to both legs. Apparently both lower leg bones went through his heels, breaking both "ankle balls" (sorry, I don't know the actual name of that bone) and seemingly both legs. It sounds like it happened like this: The event didn't have the landing ramps positioned correctly. Most venues have specific premeasured marks where the ramps need to go for the safety of the riders, and the distances are fairly consistent anywhere they go. Before he did his first run, he told them that he wasn't really comfortable with the way it was laid out, but decided to go for it anyway. Basically he and his motorcycle landed, after being 60 feet in the air, on the flat ground. The bike bottomed out and when it did, it pushed his leg bones through his feet. My stomach hurts just thinking about it. His brother and some firefighter buddies are building ramps so he can get into his home. He and his wife will be coming back tomorrow, checking into the hospital, and surgery is tentatively scheduled for Thursday. Again, please pray for Bryan and his wife. They have a long road to recovery ahead of them. I'll update when we have more news. Thanks in advance for the prayers.

Okay, that's it. Sorry to bore you to death, but there was alot to share and since DH has heard/done it all at least once, it's your turn to suffer. :-) I'll try to update more often so I don't go on and on and on and on . . . . Enjoy your nachos grande and cinnamon twists (see the video clip above) until we meet again!

8 months old!

Just look how she's grown! La princesa has been home for almost 6 weeks and is 8 months old today! Feliz ocho meses cumpleanos mi amor! She's changing so fast. Just yesterday she perfected rolling both ways without getting stuck and is reallllly wanting to crawl. She flips onto her tummy and immediately pushes all the way up onto her knees. It makes her so mad that she can't get anywhere, but it's so cute to watch.

She has been eating cheerios, crackers, Gerber puffs, graham crackers, bits of our food, etc., but still HATES baby food. Sigh. I'm not giving up, but I'm tempted to just start putting frozen veggies in those little mesh baby feeder things for her to gnaw on. At least it's something, right? There still aren't any teeth poking through, but it won't be long. She's still chewing on everything in sight and gets pretty cranky at times. She's really pretty happy most of the time. She loved having her aunt Krista and Miss Myrna here. Those gals (hee hee) have a way with the kiddos, let me tell ya. I miss them so much already, and I know from talking to a teary sounding Krista last night that they miss us (probably just the little man and la princesa though, DH and I are pretty boring!) too.

Anyway, there's a lot to catch up on, but there's no time now. I'll update soon. In the mean time, here's another pic of my favorite munchkins to hold you over . . .

4th of July and other happenings

It's been another fun week! Last Friday, July 4th, we went to the baseball game in Bricktown. It started to rain just as we got close, but stopped soon after. It was hot and humid, just as Oklahoma always is this time of year! We stayed through the 7th inning. Both kids were getting tired and the critterboy wanted some ice cream for his throat (yeah, right--he just wanted some ice cream!). As luck would have it, there is a new McDonald's very near where we had parked. So at 9:45pm, both kiddos still going strong, we had ice cream and cokes at Mickey D's. We save those late night sugar rushes for special occasions like our nations birthday! :) As we were leaving McD's the fireworks began. The critterboy HATED it. Here's the problem. I love fireworks. Always have. For one reason or another we haven't been to a fireworks display since 2004, so I was super excited about it this year. We managed to sit on a curb near our car and watch for a few minutes before heading home. All the way home he kept saying "Mama, you like fireworks and I no like fireworks?" I replied, about 100 times, "Yes sweetie, mommy likes fireworks and you don't. It's okay for us to like different things . . ." Poor guy. He was still talking about how much he didn't like it the next day. Little lady bug wasn't bothered at all. Fireworks are very common on Guatemala. Honestly, pretty much every night we were there there were fireworks going off somewhere. They really know how to party in Central America! Back to 4th of July. Something about it had me all choked up this year. I think it has something to do with it being lady bug's first Independence Day and being such a new citizen. Even though it's far from perfect, it gives me such pride to live our country. I can't even make it through the Star Spangled Banner or God Bless America without crying. I'm such a sap!

I love being an American so much I'll just eat the flag!

Maybe I'll just pick some grass instead. My grandma made my dress! Isn't it so cute?!

A family pic before leaving for the baseball game. Little man was not too happy since he had just gotten up from his nap.

My BFF Krista and her mom have stayed a couple of nights with us so far. Have I said that I love having them here? I do! Monday we went to the zoo together, then had lunch and went to the mall. Again, hot and humid, but a great day. Tuesday was my mom AND my aunt's birthdays. They were born 15 years apart to the day--how neat! They wanted to go to Furr's for lunch, and since I'm off work for a few more weeks and my big sis is a teacher, it worked out perfectly. Another good day! I'm a real deadbeat and don't have any pics from either day of fun. :( Maybe BFF Krista will have some on her camera that I can post. Hint hint.

Yesterday la princesa and I stayed in. She's been all out of routine the past couple of weeks and I think we've gotten back on track. Little man is back in daycare this week and is back to his old self, but a new and improved version. He seems so happy and is an absolute hoot most of the time! Another bonus: we can no longer hear him breathing from down the hall with our box fan on while he sleeps. It's a bit strange after hearing him so clearly for 3 years. The kid was a very heavy breather and not a great sleeper. Now, viola! Fixed! It's so great to have him back at full strength.

It really has been a good week. There is just so much to be thankful for. God bless America!

Good things come in threes!

Three years ago today we brought our little man home from the hospital. It was so scary to finally be on our own with him after being under the watchful care of the wonderful nurses for his entire 6 week life. At the same time, though, it was so nice to be free from going back and forth to the hospital and only being able to hold him for short amounts of time. Now he was all ours and we could hold him all the time if we wanted!! He weighed a whopping 4 lbs 8 oz when we left that day. Check out the itty bitty critterboy on the way home 7/1/05:

The last picture was taken a couple of weeks after we came home with his tiny head and arm in daddy-o's hand. It really puts in perspective just how tiny he was. It makes me so happy to say that he is such a full of life, completely normal 3 year old now. Ahh, the memories. I love him so much and I'm so proud that he is such a little fighter, even after a day like today when I wished he would have stopped being so demanding! I can smell that darn soap . . .

Now for breaking news! My BFF Krista will be here in THREE short days! Yay!! She is like a sister to me and I miss her so much. Move back, move back! We'll meet in the middle at the Terry's ranch siiigggnnn! Maybe we could have do whatcha want day at my house? You can play with Gerber AND Sandy if you want. I'm just so glad that she and her mom are coming for a visit. Her mom battled breast cancer a couple of years ago and I'm so glad that she is able to come on the trip this time. I probably cried as much as Krista did when she was diagnosed and I still get all teared up just thinking about it. It stinks that we only see each other once a year, if that, and that it's always her having to come here for the visits. I promise we'll get north eventually, but I can't promise when. Needless to say, I'm super excited about her coming. Even though we're far apart, when we're together it's like we haven't missed a beat. We stay up late talking and laughing and catching up. Have I said I can't wait? Have a safe trip, mi amiga, and I'll see you soon!