I need a filler...

I'm not quite sure what this post will be about I just needed something to push my last entry further down. What to talk about????

It's a beautiful fall day and the weather is still going to be nice for one more day before we get a little colder. So little man and I are running errands after I pry my fingers away from my computer. The trees are a variety of colors and our lawn and porch are covered in colorful leaves. You walk to the sound of crunch, crunch, crunch. I actually enjoy it!

I am pretty sure anything else I have to tell you will bore you to tears so I'll leave you with some pictures of our pretty fall days. The first one is dad pushing little man on the swing. The other three are of the property.

Go Colts!!

Beat the Patriots!!

Happy Halloween

2.... already?

Little man turned 2 today!! Two wonderful years of excitement, learning, laughing and lots of love. You are speaking in sentences (when you want to), you are almost fully potty trained, you have almost mastered the art of manipulation (acting like you are pouting and then looking at me from the corner of your eye and grinning), and you are making us smile so much. I love to hear you laugh, I love to watch you run (and every time you fall you tell us you "run too fast"), I love your fascination with all automobiles, airplanes and trains, I love your blue eyes, I love waking up in the morning to the chatter coming from your room, I love watching you study everything; knowing you are taking it all in, I love that you've been wanting to hold mom and dad's hands while we eat dinner, I love your sweet smile and I love watching you grow up. But, please slow down, it's going too fast. You have brought more love and life into our lives then we could have ever imagined. Thanks for all the fun!!
love,
momma

Be inspired...

Please follow this link and click on 'watch video'. It's amazing what these women do every day. A woman on the CHSFS forums posted this after she started doing some research when she returned home from Ethiopia. She had seen several women in Ethiopia carrying the wood on their backs.










picture taken from http://www.globalcolors.org/fuelwoodcarriers.html

Kids say the darndest things....

Hubby and I like to tease our little man when taking him potty, getting him ready for bed or just for the hell of it by calling him "stinky britches" (just another reason to think of us as freaks). So anyway, sometimes he'll return the annoying tease by saying it back. Today I decided the phrase has got to go. While trying on clothes in the dressing room at Target, little man continued to chant "stinky britches mom", "mom's got stinky britches". What was I supposed to say.... oh you silly little guy, where did you ever hear such a thing?

What's wrong with us?

Who has a hot dog eating contest with their significant other just for the hell of it?? My sister was the poor sucker taking the photo's. Let me just say that I couldn't stop laughing when we started the race so hubby was up one whole hot dog. He was hard core about the whole thing (dipping the dogs in water - I tried it a couple times and nearly vomited). Anyway, he won, and while I was disappointed I'm thankful I stopped at four (which were wrapped in hearty wheat bread with ketchup and mustard). I'm so proud of you babe! My hot dog eating champ.

Monday Madness

What a crazy, crazy, day!
This post is for my dear hubby.

Thanks for standing by me every day and for loving my "aroundness".
You are the best!!

love, Chatter

Adoption Update and random photo's

For those of you wondering how long until our referral, we are hoping to hear some wonderful news in the next 4-8 weeks. I am just pulling this out of my butt since you actually have no idea how many referrals are going to be given. You can't try to follow historical patterns because it just varies so much. There is an "unofficial" list on our agencies forum for Ethiopia but to give you an idea only 3 referrals came through on the forums when there were actually 17 given. In saying that, we are no 19 on that list and no. 12 for an infant. So it could be 4 weeks and it could be 10. And once we receive our referral you typically travel in 8-12 weeks after that. I know some of you already know this but I wanted to let any new readers in on the scoop. We are getting soooo excited and little man keeps talking about his "baby brother". I'll keep you all posted about our spot on the "unofficial list".

In other news I am currently trying to figure out what kind of snake scared the *$#@ out of me while jogging today. It had red and black diamonds on it's back with tan colored running along the sides of it. I have NO IDEA what it was and the internet is not helping me. So if there are any snake lovers/experts out there let me know what you think!

And now for some photo's from the trip to Colorado, Texas and a recent trip to a nearby lake.
My sister is the one in the group photo with 2 kids on her lap (she has five). They are so adorable and so fun to visit! My cousin (on the left) made the trip with me. There is one of them all tickling their "aunt emma".

Eeekkk!!!

We received our 171h in the mail today!! What a glorious, happy day. The weird part was that it is never on my mind when I get the mail and today I was reading on the forums about 1600a's and realized we should be getting our approval soon. So I walked across the lawn to our mailbox, slowly opened it and KABOOM (firecrackers) it was right on top. My stomach was in knots as I slowly opened the envelope to read the glorious words "your application has been approved". I didn't know I was going to feel so emotional. Yeah!!

Sorry for speaking adoption language in the above paragraph. For those of you who may be wondering 'what the heck is she talking about' we have just received approval from the US Citizenship & Immigration Services to adopt a child from Ethiopia. It's the last hurdle (aside from passports) that we were waiting on. It feels good and all the sudden has made this even more real. Wow!

Have a happy day everyone :)
Time to make a couple phone calls.

love, Chatter

Yummy yums...

Nothing like a marshmallow cream and peanut butter sandwich just before bed.

mmm mmm good.

Tagged

I've been tagged by my buddy Julie from Journey to Family. Enjoy!

Four Things About ME

Jobs I've Had
1. Copied blueprints for a steel company on a machine that ran off ammonia. To this day it is still the worst job I ever had. You went home smelling like ammonia every night along with a headache.
2. Lifeguard - easiest job I ever had.
3. Waitress - enough said
4. Jimmy Johns - delivered subs via bike or car. Loved it!
there's more but these are the most interesting (aside from being a mom)

Places I've Lived
1. Born and raised in Garrett, IN
2. Lafayette, IN (Purdue University - Go Boilers)
3. Springfield, MO
4. Nixa, MO

Food I love
1. Candy!!!!
2. McD's french fries
3. Roast in the slow cooker
4. Smoothies (I have an awesome Spinach smoothie recipe for anyone interested).

Websites I visit
1. CHSFS Ethiopia forum
2. Blogs of course
3. Craigslist
4. REI outlet

Places I'd rather be
1. In Ethiopia picking up our baby (no we don't have a referral yet)
2. In New Zealand traveling cross country by camper w/my boys
3. On a beautiful lake by our house renting a boat
4. Snowboarding in Whistler (never been but always wanted to)

Movies I love
1. The Power of One
2. The Man In The Moon
3. Sound of Music
4. Cutting Edge

TV Shows I Watch
1. The Office
2. Brothers & Sisters
3. Grey's Anatomy
4. ER

Friends I'm tagging
1. Tarah
2. James
3. Julie
4. Christina

Enter at your own risk (scary lady inside)....

Okay Tarah, you asked for it. You'd rather cranky chatter than no chatter. She's back. I want my care free, bug free, maintenance free, simple life back. I'm sick of calling plumbers, drywallers, roofers, siding experts, insurance agents, the bank, credit card companies and many more. I can't believe how simple my life was before this. Our weekend and evenings were relaxing and stress free. I spent my days playing w/Conner, keeping the house fairly clean and researching adoption. We exercised when we wanted to, went out for a bite to eat when we wanted and worried about nothing. Then I had to go and ruin it. I came to look at this house mesmerized by the rare and beautiful snow, wearing my blinders as I walked through the house saying "we'll tear up the carpet, texture and paint over the wallpaper and it will be good as new". Ha ha ha haaa..... what was I thinking. And I was perfectly sober and sane when I thought all of this. Then I found out about the "deadly mold" and noticed how unsquare the walls were, the sagginess of the ceiling, plenty of water damage and the demolition began. I still did great. Trash can after trash can of plaster I stayed optimistic. Through all the sweat and dirt I felt good about this place. Then our cozy, warm, new house sold in less than a week. Began to sweat it a little but new we were going to be on our beautiful farm soon and was excited. (you feeling the love right). Well then 5 weeks in a Super Eight started to wear on me a little. A toddler that wasn't sleeping, a stinky hotel w/dog shit in the hallway (no joke) and I started slipping.

From there it's been a series of highs and lows and today is a low. I'm sick of worrying whether or not to fork over the cash and pay someone to side the house instead of spending a four + weekends doing it ourselves (and by ourselves I mean Nater) and I know he'll do it to save the money but what's more debt and why should he work so darn hard? But that means more phone calls to differ lenders. Do we do the home equity, do we refinance, do we open another credit card with 0% apr??? What do we do people....? What do we do? Hubby is working his little butt off (while mine is getting bigger), nine months of family time is lost, etc, etc.

And lastly; insurance. I have a local lady and she absolutely SUCKS and I'd love nothing more than to call tomorrow (when our policy would renew) and tell her to ....... I don't know..... something really witty and clever. She was supposed to come to our house Monday to go over all the improvements, lower our quote, yadda yadda yadda. She never showed up and never called. So more phone calls to other insurance companies. I just got off the phone with one company I think I will go with just because they have good reviews and I'm desperate at this point.

What's my problem? Just another day of my 21 day PMS and 7 day period.
Woe is me; somebody call the wambulance.

eyes....

Ya know how some people share toothbrushes (icky Jamie), soap, towels, (you get the picture) well my dear husband, on two occasions now has crossed the line. He has worn my contacts. That's right folks, he is swapping eye GUNK. Yuck. Sure, it sounds like an honest mistake but this is what you aren't aware of. His contact case is a different from mine, his contacts are tinted and they are bigger (I tell them he stretches mine out when he wears them) and more firm. How do you get confused with knowing all of that? Yet he does. And while it makes me incredibly crazy I just have to shake my head, mumble under my breath and go about my merry way.

I'm here...

and busy...

September has been a busy month of a trip to Colorado for a pig roast and to see siblings and family. A trip to Texas with my cous to see my sister and her family and my in-laws here for a visit and a camping trip. And of course work on the house when we can :)


I am alive and kicking and having a great day. Hope all is well w/my readers. I will write more soon and post some pictures.

love, Chatter

Thursday Thank You's

I love my boys...
here are some pics of little man trying out his Halloween costume and the gorgeous sunset the other night. Life is good. Too tired to write tonight but I'll update soon :)
C

Deep thoughts...by chatter

It's Sunday night, 9:30 and I'm in bed. I was about to call it a night and decided to post on my blog for my handful of readers. Well readers, guess what I did today?? I went for a jog! That's right. I jogged for 25 minutes, totaling 2 miles. If you do the math, you'll see that my jog was practically slower than a walk. But I don't care. My "excess skin" was shaking and it felt great. I took little man in the jogger stroller and he chatted the whole time about the birds, bugs, etc.. It was great. We didn't pass a single vehicle and I enjoyed the beautiful fields and countryside. Through all the mayhem I've not taken the time to enjoy the one thing that made us buy this place; the property! I sat outside for a bit chatting w/hubby today enjoying the view and breeze. It was very necessary and something I should do more frequently.

It's easy to lose focus on what's important when you are remodeling a home. There are many days that I do not like the person I've become. I used to be that gal that was always doing great. I didn't have anything to complain about and was well aware of how fortunate I was every day. But these last couple months that girl has gone missing. I'll think she's back, and then 3 crickets will skitter across my living room, and I'll kill 5 ants in my kitchen and I'll feel me slipping away. I try to keep my ground but slowly, slowly, she fades away. Which is why I'm on my computer right now. To tell you all how blessed I am. And to bring back the old Chatter and to not let her slip away. This stressed, overwhelmed, burnt out, whiny Chatter needs to hit the road FOR GOOD. So, with that, I'm going to try to keep all of you posted on all the good things in my life happening (with some occasional sarcasm of course).

Now, for the good stuff; little man. Little man will be 2 at the end of October. I can hardly believe it. He's such a joy to be around and sure makes it hard to discipline. As soon as my scolding comes out of my mouth all I have to do is look at that face and it breaks my heart. He of course responds typically with "I know mommy". As in, I know I'm not supposed to pee my underwear, I know I'm not supposed to spill water 10 x's/day, I know I shouldn't write on walls, I know mommy. I love him to pieces and I had so much fun hanging out with him and dad :)

Hubby cut out trim for several more windows today. I'll prime and paint them tomorrow and then we'll get them hung and then I'll actually post more pics of the house. I know I've been slacking but I've been so excited to show you "finished" photo's. I'm trying to be patient with the progress and unfinished-ness (no this isn't actually a word) of the house. Hubby has been relaxing with me a bit more and I think it's been good for us. And of course exercise. Today the feeling rushing through me was so peaceful. Yes, this was while jogging folks. Very crazy but so very wonderful!

Next is music. I finally dug my ipod out of the garage and I can't believe how much that does for me. It takes me to another place during times I feel myself getting frustrated and annoyed. It can be calming, energizing, or meditating depending on what I need. It makes me feel so relaxed most of the time!

And lastly, our precious little one waiting for us in Ethiopia that we will one day be paired with. I wish I could say he's on my mind constantly but we've had so many distractions that that isn't actually the case. But with each day that passes I know I am closer to finding out who "he" actually will be. I still think about his family. For any new readers, we've not been actually paired with a baby, I'm just thinking in general. I know when the day comes for the actual referral I will be so sad thinking about the loss of those who have loved him up until this point. I will mourn for them. I will question the adoption, if what we are doing is right? All of which is surely normal...

We still haven't received our 171h(adoption approval from the US) from the USCIS office yet so this will be hanging over me for the time being. And I need to mail in our passports for updates which I will be expediting (3 week processing times). I'm sure it will all work out but you know how it is....

So that's life in a nutshell. I promise to re-introduce you all to the REAL chatter who has been MIA for the past couple months. Have a happy Monday and wonderful week :)

love, C

I need an exTERMINATOR

While I am too cheap to fork out $30/month for unnecessary TV I am strongly considering calling the Orkin man to come kill our crickets and ants that are making themselves at home. And these are not the baby crickets I remember in Indiana, they are the big black (8lb according to hubby as he just killed one) nasty creatures. I am sick of killing them in the morning, during the day and at night. I'm pretty sure that between the two of us we kill anywhere from 5-10/day. Yes, some days there are only 2 but others there are plenty more. And there is one hiding out that we can't find that loves to chirp at night when everyone is in bed. And of course little man is always quick to point them out to me (while I'm using the bathroom and there is one on the floor behind the toilet). Or when I went to check on him while he was supposed to be sleeping and when I walked in he said "spider, icky". Sure enough, he was in scrunched up against the edge of the crib b/c a cricket had decided to keep him company. Yet, I try to remain positive and LOVE our house.

Then there are the ants that decided to raid one of our kitchen windowsills and along the sink while we were out of town this weekend. It was our "welcome home" present from our new roommates. Ants; and too many to bother counting". So everyday while I'm washing dishes, washing my hands, brushing my teeth (we don't have a bathroom sink) I kill ants. The layer of cinnamon I put on the window sill no longer smells good and apparently has not thrown off the trail either.

I love you house but I am not enjoying our new visitors. Hopefully they don't eat me in my sleep tonight.

Did you ever wonder....

how to remove crayons from your wall??? I'm guessing most of you have wondered it at one point in your life. And after learning that all it takes is a baking soda/water paste I'm cringing thinking back to childhood when we had to scrub it off with a washcloth and soap (it took FOREVER). So for those of you with children who have not scribbled on your wall and fridge with a crayon, make a note. Baking soda paste and a washcloth. It works AWESOME!

That's my tip for the day. Good night :)

Disclaimer: Thanks to a friendly tip it is my responsibility to inform you that it MAY remove your paint. It did not however, remove our Behr paint.

Grab your coffee...

Because it's gonna be a LONG one...

This past Friday I left my little man for the first time ever. I was able to say good bye just before his nap time and forced myself out the front door. Definitely the hardest part was pulling out of the driveway. Then my road trip began. 10 hours, 9 pee stops later, I was at my alma mater, Purdue University, W Lafayette, IN. My sister had to remind me where the liquor store was, picked up my beer (bottles of course since I'm so much more sophisticated now), and headed to meet the sisters (4 of them to be exact - missed you Amb & Keel). One of them was already plenty tipsy (to put it politely) so I knew I needed some alcohol in me if I was going to tolerate this drunken crowd :). We played some games, hung out and laid in bed talking until the wee hours of 6:30 a.m.. And of course I woke up by nine a.m. to face the day. Went to get some groceries and back to the house for some smoothies (and aspirin). Then off to my alumni bar, Harry's Chocolate Shop, for the 30 year anniversary of my old employer's owning the place. It was great to see old friends and co-workers and hang out with my sisters. We played some euchre, ate lots of yummy food and managed to drink from 2-midnight without stumbling home (errrr.... maybe not cujo). I hung with the college kids, played songs on the juke box and felt very old. I'm only 26 but wise beyond my years (heehee).






























I arrived home just over 50 hours later and was greeted by my little guy at 10:30 pm (way past his bedtime but dad got him up so I could see him). I was soooooo excited. I thought for sure he had changed drastically in the two days I was gone. Lots of hugs and kisses and a late night with mom and dad. It felt good to be home. And to top it off hubby had the house all clean and he had trimmed out 3 windows, two doors and some baseboard. He did awesome!! So much for convincing him I can't get anything done b/c little man keeps me busy. I guess I need to come up with some new excuses (suggestions welcome).



















It's been a busy week and more action this weekend. In adoption news, it looks like referrals should be starting back up very soon!! Hip hip hooray!!! We will be moving up the list again and we will soon be at the top. Can't wait to share the news of our new baby!