Sunday, November 11, 2007

For better or for worse....

Hubby was cleaning up the yard this weekend with the leaf blower. I came out to get pictures and this is what I found....












































































So I thought I'd give it a try. You can see from the pictures I did not enjoy it nearly as much as he did and apparently my face doesn't have near the excess skin that he is equipped with.













































We did actually get some work done and maybe 1/3 of the yard actually raked. Little Man loved playing in the leaves.































































































Thursday, November 08, 2007

Trip down memory lane...

I was talking to my little (by little I mean 25 years old) brother tonight on the phone b/c it was his birthday. Happy B'day Lips! Anyway, so he's the sibling born after me (#6). Since we are close in age we have lots of fun memories together and some not so fun ones. We were laughing on the phone rehashing our childhood. The good times playing board games, fun out in the snow, staying up late playing hide n seek and lots of other good stuff. And then we had to remember the more dysfunctional side of us; the fist fights, locking my crazy little sister Cujo in the bedroom, the horrible, horrible belt game (yes it required my dads belts out of his closet), hiding from my brother Lee who loved to punish us, babysitting, and soooo much more. But it was all worth it. Being one of eleven children is one of the best things that ever happened to me. And as much as things made you crazy there was nothing better than having them around. We couldn't stay mad at each other long b/c we would need someone for a game. So the fights ended quick and we were back together playing games and getting into trouble. And most of all, I now have ten of the bestest friends in the world. This is as cheesy as I'm gonna get guys. Sorry :)

So for any of my siblings that actually check out this nonsense blog, THANKs for the laughs! Can't wait to see all of you at Christmas!!
love, Chatter

p.s. Samuel, for your b'day I wanted to post the picture of us when we were little with our arms around each other and I farted so we are both laughing BUT Amber has that picture for some strange reason. So I posted this one of you instead; enjoy!

Monday, November 05, 2007

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.


















































Sunday, November 04, 2007

Go Colts!!


Beat the Patriots!!

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Saturday, October 27, 2007

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






Wednesday, October 24, 2007

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

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

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?

Sunday, October 21, 2007

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, October 15, 2007

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

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

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".





















Tuesday, October 09, 2007

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

Monday, October 08, 2007

Yummy yums...

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

mmm mmm good.

Thursday, October 04, 2007

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


Wednesday, October 03, 2007

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.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

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.