Jujy fruits and a song

I'm so totally sitting here on New Years Eve eating Jujy Fruits... and before this, I had popcorn... yep. Livin' on the wild side, I tell ya!! :)

Before Lil M went to bed I sang her "our" song... the song I made up for her when she was a baby... which made me cry, because tomorrow is the new year...and the THIRD we've gotten to spend together. :D 2007-08, 2008-09 and now 2009-10. Very nice. :)

Things are OK here... though, I am still feeling a bit stressed. Hopefully, that feeling will go away soon.

I wish every one of my friends and family a very happy, healthy and blessed New Year!!!

Peace.

Christmas morn

Only a couple of pics for now. Little Miss M with her dora backpack and the stockings...

*T* and Lil M (in front) and Nephew and Sis (in back)

Mama and Lil M... she totally digs the mermaid dora. :)
Sis has my camera and card, so I only had a couple I could show for now. Hopefully, will have better pics in a couple of days.

Peace.

Little changes

I made some little changes to the blog... hopefully, it won't impact anyone I want here. So, I apologize for any inconvenience... (i'm changing the name and url a bit)... if for some reason you can't find me... I'm sorry. But, if for some reason I find that there are those who really should just go away and don't... well, I'll have to take more drastic measures. And, actually, there is only one person who needs to go away (J....).

We had a good Christmas, Lil M and I did. *T* seemed to have a good Christmas, too. She said it was the best she ever had, actually. Then she pushed the envelope of being late tonight (from her family visit) and we had to have a talk about that.

Otherwise, let's see. I talked to the social worker today and she said I might be able to have another week of respite care before taking full placement. I'll find out tomorrow or Monday, but that would really help me. It's not that I can't go ahead and take placement in a couple of days, but I would feel more comfortable waiting to see how it goes for a few more days.

Anyway, Lil M seems to like *T* so far. I think she already realizes she can get away with more with *T* than she can with me... so, I have to reign that in. Lil M got a ton of toys for Christmas and she's got stuff everywhere. Of course, she has had a blast.

I'm in a bit of a mood today... but will hopefully snap out of it soon.

I hope everyone has had a very nice Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

Peace.

Getting settled

So, I have my first foster placement as of today. We'll call her *T*, and she's 17. We're trying to get a little settled. We went to the store first thing, and then went to see my Dad and step-mom. We went to see Christmas lights, and *T* and Lil M seemed to like them. :) I took pics on my phone, but am not sure where I put that cord... so, not sure if I'll be able to get them off soon.

T is 5' 5.5" or so... way taller than me, lol, but who isn't!!! She is slim and seems pretty nice so far. We're trying this out to see if all of us think this will be a good placement for her or not, so she'll be here through Christmas, at least.

I just want to say a huge "thank you" to all of my friends and family... who are absolutely the best. I don't know if T will realize just how big your hearts are... but I hope she does. :)

Anyway, personally, I think it would completely suck to have to move around Christmas, so I'm trying to make this transition as smooth as I can for her. I also don't know what it is like to have a teenager in the house, so let's see how that goes!! LOL. Send up a little prayer for us all, if you want.

Peace.

3 mice and our ornaments...

I have a small box sitting on one of the branches on the Christmas tree... it has 3 mice in it - finger puppets... Mia asked me tonight - Mommy, why do you have a box on the Christmas tree??

....and then proceeded to take me over to see the mice and touch them (actually pet their little heads). haha.

Then I showed her "our" ornaments... two Candy Canes and two Snow Men globes with our names on them... she LOVED that. :D Then she called the red Christmas ornaments apples... I told her we can't eat those. ;-)

A few minutes later she took me back to the Christmas tree to show her "our" ornaments... God, I love that girl. :) (guess i should take a picture, huh?)

ps. i still have a cold (probably why i look so awful in this morning's pic). actually, it's gotten worse. bah. :( i was hanging onto the notion that it was just going to hover, nope. oh well... this too shall pass!! lol

Mommy's strawberry vest

This morning, I had Lil M try on my vest that my Mommaw made for me when I was a young child. It's a little big on her, but too cute. :) SO, I had to take some pics.

At daycare this morning they had Santa come... we didn't quite make it in time for Lil M to see him with her class, 'cause neither of us were feeling that great this morning. I think we're both just struggling to not get full-blown sick. :( But we'll be ok. Anyway, we went into the Pooh room to see him. Lil M wanted nothing to do with him. And she would only go near him with me. Now, I'm not sure if she would have had I not been there, but I was only there to get a couple of pics. And then she decided she'd rather have me. I'm not going to complain. Nor am I going to force her to sit with a stranger (even if it is santa).


Then we went to her room where they had snacks waiting for her and her classmate Audrey. So she had some yogurt, fruit and a donut. She shared a strawberry with me. :) She's so sweet.
Then Lil M and Audrey exchanged their books. Mia got a 123 dry-erase book that's cool. I didn't get a pic of that, though.


Overall, we were just plain late to the party. But I don't think she really cared. She still enjoyed what she got to do, and when I left they were making christmas trees... and what 3 year old doesn't like to use glue? ;-)

Peace.

It's beginning to...

look a lot like Christmas?? Nope, not around here... not just yet, anyway. I left all the Christmas paper Sis and I bought at her house on accident, so tonight I bought a couple of rolls so that I could at least get a few things wrapped before Christmas Eve. Of which, I cannot believe that is next week!!! Oh my.

Lil M told me today that the reason for Christmas was Santa. :( I realize that's what everyone talks about for Christmas, but really Santa is NOT the reason. THIS is why I used to say that I wouldn't do Santa at all... and then I've conceded. But now, I've got to figure out how to start explaining Jesus to my 3 year old... clearly, I haven't been doing my job on that.

And then, on that note... they will have Santa tomorrow at daycare. I was going to put her in a dress for a pic... but now, I'm not. I will be there with her, though.

Now, I don't need everyone to be worried that I am all upset this happened. I was just surprised. And, now I know. And I know that I need to fix it. Because, the Lord Jesus Christ is my savior and I want her to know Him too. I don't mind a bit of Santa... but he is NOT the reason for the season. Jesus is.

Peace.

Cold and a cold

I didn't mean to neglect the blog all week. I was busier than usual, I guess... on Wed. we had a power outage in my area and that sort of stunk. Work and and home the power was out, and man was it cold out! I got chilled and couldn't get warm... the power did come back on after a few hours, but it was a bit stressful, 'cause I got us locked out of the house on accident. (the screen door was locked and I don't have a key... how? not sure...) But it ended up fine. Auntie Ellen came over and checked on us to make sure we were ok, and, thankfully, when she showed up the power had come back on. Thank God. :) So, we all went to dinner... Chinese food. YUM. So, she didn't have to save us or anything, but it was good to have a friend around, that's for sure.

...and then toward the end of the week I ended up with a stupid cold. So, we've been house-bound since Thurs. Oh well. :( We were going to go see the new movie The Princess and the Frog, but I try to not go out when I'm sick. I don't like spreading cooties. Nor, do I really feel like going out when I feel bad. So, we've stayed in.

Lil M is good, but she's a little sniffly too. Hoping I'll feel better by tomorrow.... I imagine she will be, 'cause she's just a little sniffly.

She's been liking to read The Three Little Pigs... I'll puff and I'll puff... (instead of huff and puff), lol. And now she's playing a little spider in her spider suit. lol. I'm calling her my little miss spidey and she's singing the itsy bitsy spider song.

Peace.

Christmas party

We had a nice time at the Christmas party Friday night. A friend took some pics of Lil M trying to play this horn... (taken on an iphone)

Left to right, Andrew, me, Greg, Tanya, Mike, Kim and Mia in front. Andrew, Greg and Mike and I are co-workers. Tanya and Kim are spouses. For some reason, Andrew's wife didn't get in the pic! But Lil M did!! :)

Peace.

Find My Family - show

This article sums up how I feel about ABC's new show Find My Family.

Read the article here.

If you have adopted, you might feel like I do. This show is so sensationalized and makes it seem like the only thing that matters to an adoptee is finding their birth family. I'm not an adoptee, but people are more complex than that. Oi.

That being said, I do want Lil M to know it is OK for her to search if/when she ever wants to. It's just that I don't agree with the media perpetuating the idea that an adoptive family's relationship to their child isn't 'as good as'....

Peace.

TGIF

It's Friday... we made it to Friday. lol :) I shouldn't be so excited about that, huh?! Tonight is our work Christmas party. My no-longer-boss is having it at his (and wife's) house. It should be fun, and sad at the same time. I will be taking Lil M. Although, a few other folks said they aren't bringing their kids, so I wonder if it is a good idea. Oh well. I think it'll be fine. If not, we'll leave, I guess. The only question is what are Lil M and I going to wear. I haven't even had a chance to think about that all week.

Let's see, what else? I ran last night on the TM. 3.1 miles... it went alright. I need to get back into a routine, at least somewhat of one. IF I can get into routine soon, I can do at least a couple of half-marathons in the spring. Let's see how it goes... We're doing this walking pedometer thing at work, where from now until the middle of February everyone (who wanted to participate) is wearing a pedometer every day and counting our steps. I don't want to let my teammates down, so I felt like I should get on the TM. Maybe it'll get me into a routine.

Peace.

A bit bummed

Yesterday, we got bad news at work... my boss was leaving. And none of us wanted him to go, but we didn't get a say... of course. I am not a fan of big changes... let alone, having someone I actually like working for every day leave. So, I'm a bit bummed out. (actually, more than a bit right now) ...And, will likely be so for awhile. Oh well. What can you do, right?!

I still have a job. So, I'm thankful for that.

It's just that a job is better when you like who you are working for. Not to say I won't like the next person, but Greg and I just got along well. He's a good guy.

The other thing that has me a bit upset is the fact that our daycare is taking away a full weeks worth of vacation coupons next year. That's just BS. I mean, seriously. That's a whole $155 worth, for me... gone. :( Oh, and I wouldn't have even realized, except my friend MK read the email they sent and there was an additional attachment with the news. Ugh.

Other than that... Lil M and I are doing fine. She's still not doing as well with overnight potty training as I had hoped... but we'll get there. :)

Peace.