Crazy, crazy....

Well if I'm looking at things correctly we are No.5 on the unofficial list for an infant 0-12 months. 3 people ahead of me are waiting for girls and one is open to gender. There are also about three other families waiting for sibling groups. I honestly can't believe we've come this far. December 11th will be the day we hit the 7 month waiting mark. Will we have to wait that long? We shall see...

Oh happy day!! Have a wonderful weekend (especially you Emily - She is second on the list for an infant and lives 2 hours north of us).

Tis the season to be jolly....

Thanksgiving has come and gone and now I can start listening to Christmas music without hubby giving me a hard time. I love the Christmas season, as do most of you I'm sure. I love the colder weather, I will hope for snow, I love all the Christmas lights, the smell of pine needles (although we haven't bought our tree) and I love have the tree lit at night with the rest of the house dark. It's so peaceful. I love time spent with family and I love holiday food. My family doesn't do gifts but instead save our money for family vacations (currently every 18 months) so for the holiday we do the gift game. Everyone brings one gift of a set dollar amount and we draw numbers. No 1 goes first, the No 2 who can steal No 1's gift or draw from the pile, No. 3 and so on. A gift can only be stolen 3 times and then that person is the keeper. The higher the number you get the better off you are. So if any of you have some good gift ideas for guys in gals ranging from 17-32 years old let me know. The limit is $40 this year. However, please email me b/c my siblings will read the comments. I need some ideas for my hubby and I so start sending them my way. It would be greatly appreciated. Little man is sleeping so I'd better get some more work done. Happy Holidays!!

Chatter

Gobble, Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving to all my blog readers. We are back home for the holiday week visiting family, feeding my face, staying up way too late, getting up way too early and eating way too much. I'm loving every minute of it!

Enjoy the turkey.

Hmm... I'm surprised you didn't know that.

I've never done one of these post and since I'm running out of ideas I thought I'd share a list of stuff you may not know about me (except my siblings).

-I have four brothers
-and six sisters
-Licorice is my favorite candy
-my hubby picked me up on the side of the road once after I wrecked my scooter
-I was fourteen (he was sixteen)
-I wrecked it because I was reaching for candy (I think hot tamales) and hit gravel
-I was a cheerleader in Jr High (who'd a thunk?)
-I backpacked in Australia after I graduated college
-I hung out with the Queensland Rugby Team while over there
-and went scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef
-it took me and two other people to help get my wet suit on
-that was funny
-I've owned a dirt bike (Honda XR250)
-it was stolen :(
-I've owned a street bike (Honda Shadow)
-I snowboard
-I've had a homebirth
-I have a fear of buoy's (those anchored floating things in lakes, ponds, and oceans)
-I have no talents (unless you count talking as a talent)
-I once totaled two cars in the same week (neither accident was my fault)
-I prefer swimming laps to any other exercise
-I love to laugh
-I hate shopping for clothes
-we live on 36 acres
-I have a strong sense of smell (although I think I've been passing it to hubby - he smelt a poopy diaper through a closed bedroom door)
-my favorite pop is Cherry Coke
-I very rarely wear make-up (and definitely don't know how to apply it)
-I wash my hands a lot
-I love McD french fries
-my favorite ice cream is cookies n cream
-I'm missing a tooth (see all photo's) and people feel the need to say "did you know your missing a tooth". Really??
-it's not really missing so much as it refuses to descend into it's position
-I would like to get braces one day
-I drive a Subaru Forester
-I poop regularly


....and I'll save the rest of my little secrets for another time

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.

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!

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".