DONE!!

With classes that is :)

Call me a nerd, but I did actually enjoy going back to school and taking classes over the past almost 2 years.   It is, however, also a relief to know that I am done!  Hopefully, I will be getting to spend some more time on here sharing our world with all of you and in the meantime, there is a lot to do in my actual world over the next several weeks too!  It will be great to be able to solely focus on the people and things in my own home knowing that there are no classes hovering in the the near future...at this point too though, it does feel a bit weird to not have a class waiting in the wings! :)

Enjoy the rest of your summers-I will be enjoying mine!!!

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! :)

An "F" for creativity...

is what grade this post would receive :)

The summer grind begins with my last class officially starting today.  I shall do my best to check in here as often as I can and to even post something worthwhile maybe ;)

Creativity can be hard to come by with five research article reviews plus a research paper to write over the next 3-4 weeks (along with a few other assignments)...a little creativity would make those research articles so much nicer to read too.  Alas, that is not meant to be!

I will do my best to suck some creativity from life to share with you here over the next few weeks.  I will try not to sink to the level of posting research information just for the sake of "having something to post" :)  If creativity eludes me, then I will try to at least come up with a few nice rants to share along the way...even better, I know! ;)

So, even if this post would fail miserably, at least I feel confident in the fact that my research reviews and paper will probably fair much better if past performance can be counted on as an indicator of future performance...even though they are terrible suckers of creativity!

We Be Jammin'

On Memorial Day Monday, Luke and I went strawberry picking.  Keep in mind that this was something I despised doing as a kid.  Early morning, picking and sweating, bugs, then coming home to clean and prepare them.  A common argument heard in our house was "We don't even like strawberries!  Why do we have to help with this?"  Mom would always respond with (keep in mind too that she knew that we knew that she also did not like strawberries) "Your dad likes them and he has to work.  Sometimes when you're an adult you do things you don't like for someone else."  or "You'll understand when you grow up."  Another often heard expression was, "Sometimes when you're an adult, your tastes change and you like things that you did not like as a kid."

At the time, all of these logics seemed quite illogical, but DANG-I hope I'm the mom that was always right someday! ;)

I honestly admit that I had yet to go strawberry picking as an adult until Monday.  I obviously did not know what I was doing at first either...

*We got all the way to our row with our metal trays and the guy says..."You're going to need baskets to put the berries in..."  I obviously misunderstood the people at the front-I thought it was either one or the other, not both the basket and the metal tray.

*As we get settled back into our row with BOTH items, the lady at the front starts yelling..."WE NEED THE PERSON IN THE BLUE VAN TO MOVE IT!  YOU CAN'T PARK IT HERE!" Repeat (5 dozen times-well, maybe it was only 4 or 5 times, but geez...she didn't give anyone much of a chance to claim it!)

Finally, after moving my car and walking back to our row, we got the chance to actually pick some strawberries.  Luke stuck with it fairly well for about 1/2 a tray and then he got tired so he chose to keep the conversation going while I finished the picking.  I wondered quite often if everyone gets to have such a diverse coversation when picking strawberries.  Some of our topics included:  people in Mexico speaking Spanish; people in France speaking French; people in both countries probably also speaking English; dolphins; orcas aka "killer whales;  traveling for a family wedding next summer; hotels; and why there was straw in the strawberry patch.

I worked up the strawberries a couple nights later.  The following day Luke and Big Sis helped me to make our first ever batch of strawberry freezer jam.  They were wonderful helpers and the jam has turned out quite well.  I'm looking forward to the upcoming blueberry and peach seasons to try our hands at some other jams, but I think I may have to study up before I take Luke fruit picking again!  I barely survived being able to answer all of his strawberry picking questions! :)

She Will Survive...

but maybe not when left to her own devices :)

She just turned 21 months and loves to try new things...foods & non-foods that is.

Many things go to Little Sis's mouth throughout the course of a typical day, but today the list also included the following outside items:

*cat food
*dandelions
*a random "daisy like" weed flower (that was immediately taken away because I had no idea if it was "safe" or not-I need a reference books for which weeds are okay to eat and which ones are not I think ;)
*a stick
*attempt to drink from the cat bowl

It's definitely going to be a tiring summer trying to keep my eyes on all three of them, especially with the next one wearing me out from the inside too :)

I wouldn't have it any other way though...unless maybe I could chase them around on a Hoveround with my feet propped up along the way! ;)

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.

My, my...

How easily 3 months can slip by without a post!

I have missed the ole blog and have good intentions of keeping it better updated over the summer.  Now there may be a sporaticness/unintentional hiatus through the end of June while I finish up my last class, but as for the rest of summer and the rest of the year...I have the best of intentions to get back in gear! :)

Quick updates:

Me-one more class to go and I will have my Reading Endorsement for grades K-8 completed!  28 weeks into this pregnancy and trying to comprehend that in about 12 weeks there will be another little body in this family!  Have I been doing any preparing yet...me? the procrastinator...no, but am starting to think about what needs to be done ;)

Luke-made it through kindergarten and currently likes to call himself a first grader :)  He also discovered a LOVE of math towards the end of the year too!  He will be attending a different class/school in the fall...we're all anxious to see how the transition goes and are hopeful that it will be a good fit for him.

Big Sis-broke her arm about 4 1/2 weeks ago.  The cast came off last week and one would think from how she treats it that the arm is worse off than it was when it was broken.  She definitely needs to be stretching it :)  This incident (with its three weekday trips to St. Louis during the last three weeks of school) also just convinces me even more that these children are conspiring ways to make us have to use up all of our sick days too! ;) She also finished up her first couple months of preschool since turning 3.

Little Sis-is just as big and can do anything the older two can do...if it were up to her!  She definitely has a mind of her own and is giving us a taste of what two will be like for her...opinionated and stubborn! :)  She has watched and learned some of the best habits of both of the older ones and is gearing up to use them all...watch out mom & dad-3 more months until she's officially two until then she is practicing up plenty! ;)

Scott-is on the verge of the summer work schedule attack!  It has already been mentioned that there is a possibility he may have to take a turn being out-of-state for at least a week.  Not sure how that would go from my viewpoint, especially considering we'd be 8 months into this pregnancy at that point...maybe some "troops" would be willing to be called in or to take the rest of us in if this happens :)

Looking forward to getting the creative juices flowing again...I have missed writing here on regular basis and am hopeful that I can get back into the groove of it once again.  Hopefully, writing all of those research papers and reading all of those research articles over the past year and a half have not sucked all of the creativity out of me! :)
Enjoy the new look of the blog too!