Ace or Base?

No Kidding!

In the last two weeks, three people whom I know personally have had babies.  This is really not that shocking in the grand scheme of things nor has it never happened before, but...

Baby #1 (my cousin's) was named Jase

Baby #2 (my friend/coworker's) was named Case

Baby #3 (friend of the family) was named Jace

My wonderful friend, Lora, who is an aunt to that last baby suggested (after I told her this phenomenon) that maybe we should name this baby Ace!  I also suggested that maybe we should just pick a random consonant and add it to the front of Ace or Ase to make a name that sticks with the trend (e.g. Mace, Base, Dace, Lace, etc.)  We laughed about it, but later that evening as I was perusing some celebrity news, I learned that someone else has already beat us to the punch!

Jessica Simpson :)

At the end of June (I know I'm always a bit behind with news of any kind), she named her baby, you guessed it, ACE!

Sorry Lora...guess we'll have to stick with some random consonant or NOT! :)

10 Years!

Happy Anniversary to my husband Scott today!

We've reached the 10 year milestone, but I think there are good odds that we would both probably call this past year, the craziest of all of them thus far.  Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought a year ago at this time that our family would double in size in just one year...family of 3 to a family of 6 (coming this August!)

One year ago, I was starting to believe that we would probably never have a foster care placement and even if we did, we were only certified for one child at that time.  How quickly things can change in just a matter of days.  One year ago today, I was feeling disappointed by these thoughts because I KNEW pregnancy was not an option for us as far as building our family.

Sometimes, I really get the feeling that God is looking down on me laughing and saying, "Oh, my dear child, you have NO IDEA the things I have in store for you! hehe"

That is the magic of one year I suppose :)

So, in honor of our 10 years, here is a little list I've made to share with all of you...

1:  Sweet & challenging boy we get to call our son
2:  Sweet & sassy girls whom we've been blessed to share our lives with for the past year
3:  Couches we have gone through thus far (in our defense the first two were already several years old when they came into our possession)
4:  Years of infertility that haunted us in the beginning of our marriage
5:  Semesters of college courses and late night homework
6:  Years of parenthood-we had no idea what I wild ride it would be either
7:  Months of pregnancy now under our belt
8:  Cats & kittens (at the moment anyway) with whom the kids love to play
9:  Equals the combined ages of all of our kids at this point in time (I had to stretch to come up with something for this one ;)
10:  Years of marriage and (hopefully) many more to come!

Thanks for sticking with us through all of the crazy! :)

Mrs. Obama vs. Great-Grandma

Conversation you could have overheard when we did our Mother's Day visiting a few weeks back...

Setting:  Great-Grandma's back porch
Time:  Early Afternoon

Great-Grandma:  Anita, why don't you get your kids some sodee...I bet they are thirsty.

Kids:  YEAH! ME...I AM!

Me:  Ok, any thirsty kids need to come help pick out their drinks.

Great-Grandma:  I bet their hungry too.  I will go get a plate of cookies for them.

A few minutes go by...Anita and kids return with cans of lemonade and soda.  Grandpa is sitting on the porch.  Meanwhile, Luke slips away to the kitchen where Great-Grandma is and so is her ever present stash of M&M's.

Grandpa:  (with a smirk ever present) You're not a very good mother giving your kids all of that sugar.  Mrs. Obama would not be happy with you.

Me:  (insert sarcastic voice) Well, Mrs. Obama will just have to not be happy with me then.  I do my best most of the time, but Great-Grandma's house is a different story.

Overheard from the kitchen...

Luke:  Can I have some more M&M's great-grandma?

Great-Grandma:  You can have all you want.  That's what they are there for.

Me: LUKE...one more handful is plenty then come out here.

Great-Grandma arrives back to the porch with a plateful of chewy chocolate chip cookies.  The kids proceed to chow down.  When Big Sis goes back for cookie number 4...

Me:  Big Sis, I think you have had plenty.  No more cookies.

Great-Grandma:  Oh she can have all she wants.  That's what they are there for.

Me:  (looking at my Dad and speaking sarcastically)  How am I supposed to be a "good" mother when your mother says they can have all that they want.  I would like to see Mrs. Obama go head-to-head with Great-Grandma!

Grandpa shrugs his shoulders and smiles.

In 4 weeks...

*Volleyball will have been over for at least 2 weeks already...

*It will "officially" have been spring for several weeks & hopefully, will feel like it too...

*I will be in St. Louis preparing to finally participate in that 1/2 marathon that several of us have been training for...

*Scott & I will, hopefully, be towards the end of the beginning stages of a new journey that we have decided to embark on with our family (more on this in future posts)...

It all leaves me thinking...what will I be doing with all of my "free" time 5 weeks from now?! :)

Happy Birthday to You!

Happy Birthday today to my niece, Rachel!!!

All I can say is that you are most definitely one little miracle & we all feel so blessed to have you as part of our lives, especially your mom & dad! :)

You've already had more than your fair share of struggles just to make it to age 2, but your sweet smiles (which you share so generously) would make people think otherwise.

Enjoy your special day & don't let those sisters of yours get all the cake! :)

Love,

Aunt Anita

P.S. Please watch this to learn more about Rachel's start in life-there are at least 2 very special faces for us here at Faith, Hope & Poop? in this video, Rachel's & our friends' little boy too. It's great to see them both doing so well these days!

Happy Birthday to You!

Happy Birthday today to my Dad!!!

(aka "Pops" or "Grandpa")

We hope that your birthday is very special & we can't wait to celebrate with you later tonight!

Love,

Anita, Scott & Luke

P.S. We're also very pleased to hear that your electricity (after being out for several days after the recent ice storm) was restored just in time too! :)

Happy Birthday to You!

Happy Birthday to my 1st little sister~Emily!!! :)

It's a "golden" one-29 on the 29th!

Enjoy the end of your twenties-next year you can be 'old' with me ;)
(Just kidding!)

Hope it is one very special day!!!

Love,
Your big sis~Anita

Sugar Sprinkles

I thought that title sounded more fun than "tidbits" or "updates" or whatever other regular/kinda dull title I usually come up with :) plus 'tis the season for sugar cookies & of course sugar sprinkles so it works! ;)

*WHOOPS!!! Dec 1st came & I thought "this date seems important somehow, but why?" Alas, it was a Wednesday though (which is my busiest of the week usually) & between going to work, staying an hour later to tutor, picking up Luke then immediately dropping him off at Gram & Gramp's so that I could eat supper/prepare my lesson/then head up to church to teach PSR, then picking Luke back up since Scott (who usually does this on these nights) had chosen to work late on this particular evening, putting Luke to bed & finally just putting my own feet up for a bit & heading off to bed-(I'm going to pause here just to admire this super great run-on sentence that isn't quite done yet ;)-& then vaguely acknowledging Scott as he came home/to bed somewhere around 10:30, somehow just due to life, basically, I managed to forget that this was an important date! Sometime during a shopping day/date together this past Friday (the 3rd), my brain finally caught up with the rest of me & I remembered that Dec 1st is the anniversary of when Scott & I had our very first date...10 YEARS AGO! A whole decade. Longer than some marriages. Crazy. I can't believe it's been this long already (I know, how cliche, right?) We have had our share of many,many good times & of course, bad times too, but here's hoping that the next 10 years will bring plenty more good times than bad & that we're still smiling on the other end of it ;) hehe

*We have been celebrating Advent here by doing a little "Christmas" each day. Thus far it's mostly been decorating something each day with just a bit of baking tossed in recently. It's been nice not having to do it all at once. Next up...Christmas cards, baking & making candy, holiday parties, reading more of our Christmas books, etc.

*A batch of sugar cookies was made this past weekend. I had picked Luke up his own little rolling pin & he did such a good job rolling out his little ball of dough & then using the cookie cutters to cut out the cookies. He is one smart "cookie" though & quickly realized that one could eat the dough at the edges of what was rolled out without messing up his cookies.

*He ate so much dough-I kept thinking...this is going to be bad if we have to take him to an E-room ;) (He also reported that the dough tasted sooo much better than the actual cookies once they were all made!)

*There are only 9 more days of school until Christmas break begins! Usually this is means for rejoicing, but somehow this year it seems like it is going to be difficult to "fit" everything in before vacation arrives.

*Happy "Immaculate Conception" Day to all of my fellow Catholics out there! I'm not even sure if that is appropriate to say, but there it is. We went to church last night & Luke was really excited to be going to "Aunt Janet's" (not our regular parish) church. Luckily, she was there to say hello to afterwards & my apologies to all sitting within a 100 yard radius of us after the 'Sign of Peace'-if you were there, you know why :)

*Speaking of church, Luke does not like to wear his shoes in church. They are the first thing that comes off & yes, I am that mother. I have chosen my battle & this is not it...I just let him leave them off until church is done. I could force the issue, but I figure that I am happier knowing that he actually "pays attention" (even though it may not look like it to bystanders) & knows what is going on during the Mass. He loves watching Father & watching "what happens next" so I don't fight him on the shoes. Maybe if he is 8 & still not wearing them-then I'll pick this battle, but he's 3 & I'm not.

*Our priest is convinced that Luke will either be a wine presser or a Franciscan because neither of these jobs requires shoes. Either one sounds good to me-extra wine or extra prayers-both are needed to make it through life at times, right?! ;)

Hope you have enjoyed these "sugar sprinkles" & there should be several more posts coming up in the near future between Christmasish posts & finally wrapping up my "30" themed posts!

Welcome to the World...

Rosella "Rose" Agnes

My sister & her husband welcomed another bundle of joy into the world today (#4!) & I'm excited to have another little niece to get to know, watch grow up & spoil! (For those of you keeping track this makes niece #7!)

Poor Luke! Looks like he's still sentenced to a life of Barbies & "babies" on my side of the family being he's the only boy in the bunch...at least he still has our (1!) nephew on Scott's side of the family to get some boy time in with because even the majority of our closest friends have only girls too! ;)

We love you & can't wait to meet you Rose!!!

3-0!!!

It just sounds sooo "grown-up"!

I'm not usually too bothered by age & I don't really 'feel' any different than I did yesterday, but I can say that this birthday was just a bit different because...

it just sounds so grown-up!

Of course, I have had to be an adult/grownup for quite awhile now so that shouldn't really matter, but now that there is officially a 3 in front of my age...well you get the jist!

To cope/celebrate, [now channel your inner Prince & "Party like its 1999" voice] "last night I partied because I was still 29!" :)

Drinking beer from a bucket (literally)-keep in mind we were at an Okctoberfest like festivity & hanging out with some of my cousins followed by being serenaded at midnight as I became 30 was all very fun, but today because I am a 30 year old "grown-up" (who frankly can't do that 2 nights in a row anymore like I might have once upon a time during my college days), well today, I celebrated like a grown-up with cake & my families-both were good days & will be fondly remembered!

And now, I'm off to be a grown-up, I guess ;)

For my dad...

who is always dutifully checking here for new information & has recently (yesterday) commented on the lack of blogging.

This will just have to do for now, but at least it will be something different to look at for the moment :)

He can also recently be quoted as having said, [insert sarcasm now] "You won't ever have to worry about anyone kidnapping Luke...they'd bring him back!" [it's okay to laugh now-I found this statement quite humorous! :)]

Hmmm....you think Luke kept him & my mom busy on his recent overnight stay! ;)
Luke is definitely, busy, that's for sure! But, boy, did I enjoy the break-even if it was only for a day!
Thanks mom & dad!

(And you all wonder why I'm tired all the the time & not blogging enough this summer?) hehe

Happy Blogoversary to Me! :)

Last year at this time, I could not believe that I had been doing this for a whole year already & now here it has become TWO years! If you'd like to take a look back, here is my very first post & here is last year's post.

The last two years have been full of many ups & downs & when I look back it is so hard to believe just how much life has changed over the past two years & just how much it has stayed the same as well. It has been an amazing journey & experience! It has definitely not always been the easiest journey, but even during the roughest times over these past two years-I have always been glad to have had this blog to turn to-to pour my heart/words out onto the screen. I have also been blessed to have had several of you kind enough to leave us words of encouragement, kindness, laughter, joy, sadness, etc based on whatever I may have written on any given day. This blog has been a wonderful experience & I am looking forward to seeing what this next year has in store for us!

Thank you for joining me on this blogging journey! :)

Wait a second...What?

Besides that title being one of Luke's favorite things to say right now, it is also something that I have been saying to myself recently in regards to some things that have been said around here...

Overheard:

Luke: "Ho where are you?"

Explanation: We were working on weeding my flower bed when I decided that I needed a hoe. I said "Let's go find a hoe" and the the question above started being repeated over & over again. Quite loudly too I might add.

Overheard:

My Mom: "I need to take my clothes off and mow the grass."

Explanation: She said this to my sister, Beth, yesterday on the phone while I was visiting. Beth hung up the phone & started laughing & repeated what mom had said~the important words she failed to mention were "off the line" as in "take my clothes off the clothesline" :) Knowing our mother, we found her actual statement to be quite hilarious ;)

Read:

"Warning: This establishment prepares food that has come in contact with fish and/or shellfish products. Food may contain fish and/or shellfish products." That's not exactly it, but it was something close to that.

Explanation: We were at Long John Silver's! If you have fish/shellfish allergies, I would hope that this would be the LAST place you would even think about entering and/or eating anything that was made there! It's a fish place for goodness sake...I realize that it is only an attempt at trying to keep themselves from being sued, but come on people, if you try to eat there & you're allergic, you should not be able to be rewarded by suing them-you should be reprimanded for not using your own common sense!

How is my year going thus far?...

Since I'm low on blog ideas at the moment (or I should say-they all flee my head as soon as I sit to type ;), I thought I'd update on my resolutions for the year, since we are now almost 1/4 of the way through it. Here are my resolutions for 2010.

1: Lose 20 lbs-I have 'officially' lost 5 lbs & have been weighing every Friday, so I am hoping that it will be a bit more than that by the end of the week (& before the Easter candy arrives ;)
I am okay with this amount, since it means that I am right on target for my end of the year goal & I know it is better to lose it slower & it makes it much more likely to stay off once it is gone! (I hope!)

2: Read 40 books-I am going to have A LOT of reading to do this summer if I even hope to make it to this goal. I'm not even sure what my current total is right now, but my guess is that it is only 3-5 books for the year. SAD!

3: Run 3 miles/5K-I was doing so well with this one last Jan & then the flu it me & took me down for a whole week. Then the next week volleyball started, meaning many late evenings & very little down time...all of these are excuses, yes I know, but I am not ashamed to use them :) I have recently started walking again & am hoping that the 3/4-1 mile I was running before the flu hit will come back to me easily!

4: Set good routines for household-Scott & I sat down & had a good talk about this one right after I set it. We discussed what things we could EACH do every morning/afternoon/evening that would make each of our days/routines go more smoothly. We started working on setting new habits, but unfortunately that flu hit me (yes I AM using that again ;) followed on its heels by volleyball (which meant a super crazy schedule for awhile) & I kind of fell away/forgot some of the ones I was doing. Bless his heart though, Scott has remembered each & almost every morning to sort & start a load of laundry like we planned & has picked up the slack with the drying (which I was going to do when I got home from work each day) & folding (which we were both going to do). He is a good husband! :) Over the past week & a half, I have been trying to find my way back into a "normal" routine & am starting to get there-now if only my house looked/felt the same! ;)

Well, that is it for now, but here is to (hopefully) improved results arriving just in time for the next update!

Out with the old & in with the new

The Old:

Last night was the end of our volleyball season...the 8th grade girls played there hearts out, but just couldn't quite pull out a victory in their regional game. It made for an exciting game though!
I am so proud of my 6th graders (whose season ended last Thursday)! They made so much progress this year & even learned some things that hopefully put them at a better starting point than where the 7th graders had to start from this year. If they continue to improve this much each year, they could be very good someday (& much better than our district's vball teams have been in the past. :)
I will miss it, but it's end does leave room now for...

The New:

Tonight, I (Scott & Luke too) got to go see my brand new niece, Lucy Ann! She was born early this morning, but due to work & travel distance, we didn't get to see her until just a few hours ago. She is beautiful (as are all of my nieces & let me tell you~that is getting to be quite a few these days! ;) I am so happy for my sis & her husband & can't wait to spend more time with their beautiful little girl. Luke was quite smitten as well & kept saying "HOLD LUCY! Lukey HOLD HER!"

Don't be such a 'baby hog' son! ;)
(Not sure where he gets that from...please don't look too closely at his mother or most definitely his grandmother!)

Actually, he did a great job with her & even smiled/posed for the camera :)

We are so happy to have you as part of our family, Lucy Ann, & wish all the best to Beth & Neil as they embark on this journey called parenthood!
Good Luck! ;) [insert evil laughter here~just kidding!]

Thinking of them...

My experiences over the past year have taught me many things, but one of the most important of these is a greater sense of empathy for anyone dealing with loss (adoption or otherwise).

So when I read about these families whose plans have been so drastically interrupted by the recent events in Haiti, I could identify with them.

My heart & prayers go out to them. I hope that all of their families can be brought together safely & soon!

"Auf Wiederschauen"...

is the answer that I got when I searched for how to say goodbye in Austria & these are the words that I am using in this post for someone whom we had to say goodbye to today...


Fr. David, our priest.

He was a generous, sweet, gentle man & a great priest.
From the moment I first became a member of our parish, he had always made me feel welcome & as if I had always been a member of the parish.
He was relatable-he let us know his shortcomings, which in return helped us to better understand our own.
He was unique for a priest in the fact that he too was an adoptive parent (to a son via foster care who is now Scott's age) which gave him insight into the world of parenting & left him with some great stories to tell.
By the way, have I mentioned that he was also a great storyteller/writer & one VERY proud grandpa :)
He was an awesome example of carrying one's burdens without complaint-he had the terrible duo of Parkinson's & cancer, but he very rarely complained about either.
He loved music & no matter how awful our parish sang-he always held out hope that he could make us better :)
And as you can probably guess, he was well-loved by his family, friends & parishioners & he will be greatly missed!

He also liked to travel & especially liked Austria where he was hoping to be able to visit again one more time...
So after the funeral, I came home & played the piano for a little bit (maybe he heard it :) & I searched the internet for how to say goodbye in Austria & the answer I was given is written in the title of this post, but what I failed to mention is that the actual definition I got for these words was...


"until we see each other again" & once I saw that-I knew it fit perfectly!


So, Fr. David, "Auf Wiederschauen" :)

Logic from 2 year olds...

Episode 1:
On New Year's Day, while celebrating Christmas with my family, my sister Emily reported that her 2 year old, Megan (who is only 2 days older than Luke & who's mom is also attempting to potty train her) said while sitting on the potty a few days earlier...

"I didn't fall in mom, I just touched the water." :)


Episode 2:
This morning as I was pouring my cup of coffee, Luke says...

"Two year olds drink coffee"

To which I replied...

"No, two year olds don't drink coffee"

He came right back with...

"Two year olds see the coffee"

I couldn't argue with that, I guess.

Resolution Time!

I believe that I was a miserable failure with last year resolutions, but that's OK-this is the reason we get a 'new' year every year, right? :)

My resolutions for this year are as follows...

1. Lose at least 20 lbs. (But I hope I can make it much, much more!)

2. Read 40 books this year, including some "classics". This is the same number as last year, but I only made it to 34 so I still have room to improve! I am also planning on trying to make more of them 'thinking' books, thus adding in a few more classics this year.

3. Run 3 miles/5K. I think this is totally doable-I just need to keep working on building my stamina-the most I've worked up to thus far is about .5-.6 miles at a time so I still have a ways to go.

4. Set & follow good routines to help our household run more smoothly. I had many good routines in place back in 2008, but it was mostly all me doing them. After Scott's job loss-he took on many of these tasks since he was home & then after getting the new job-I never really took them back up again & he didn't have the time initially to keep doing them either. We have been floundering quite a bit around here in recent months & we've realized that we BOTH need to take part in some of these chores that had previously mostly fallen on me to do, if we are going to get things back in order & KEEP them that way.

So, there you have it, the 2010 list & I think that they are all VERY achievable! Best of luck to all of you with whatever your resolutions may be! :)

Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010!!!

This is a modified version of the letter that we sent out for Christmas this year...I thought it seemed like a good fit for wrapping up the blog for this year too.

Thanks for continuing to read along with us on our journey through life! :)

Wishing you a Happy 2010!!!

We hope that this finds you all doing well! I think it is safe to say that all of us here are just a little bit glad to be saying goodbye to the year 2009…it’s definitely been a bit rough on us-starting the year out with Scott’s job loss followed by two failed adoptions (one in June & one in November)-let’s just say that a “fresh start” is something that sounds just a little appealing at this point!
So in order to send this year out in style (& to get away from all of that negativity in the first part of this post), here are the…

Top 5 Things That Were
“Fine in 2009!”

5. Teaching! I love working with all of the kids at school & up at church for religion classes. They make my days fun & they give me many great stories to share when the day is done.

4. Scott found a job! He has been employed with a company since the end of June. He works on computers/networks for school districts & is stationed at 3 different schools. He is really enjoying this job & the change of pace. It was quite a blessing that he not only found a job, but also one that he enjoys!

3. Kitties, puppies, trains/cars, balls & BOOKS! Luke has discovered quite a LOVE for all of these things over this last year & if you listen close, you might catch him ‘quoting’ some of his favorite lines from books. He also really likes talking about his cats-Sassy, Bert & Esther!

2. Friends & Family! In many ways, this year has been a tough one, but it has also shown us just how blessed we are to have friends & family like all of you in our lives! The support & love we have been given means more to us than words could ever express & we love each & every one of you very much!

1. Faith! We still have lots of it & we plan on using lots of it in the new year!

We’re looking forward to the New Year and hope that you are too!

Love,
The Faith, Hope & Poop Household