Not Snow, nor sleet.........

Mom came through surgery just fine after one plate and a few screws/bolts later. For falling down three steps, she sure did mess that ankle up!
On a lighter note, my husband goes to the gym 6 days a week. He's weird like that. This picture shows just how dedicated he is. Look closely. He is still wearing his dress shoes with his black dress socks. Not snow, nor sleet, nor forgetting gym shoes will keep him from the gym. I get a chuckle every time I picture him lifting the big weights in his dress shoes!

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Surgery For Mom

My mom fell down the stairs in her home before Christmas and broke her ankle. After more xrays were done, the doctor determined that she tore a ligament and would need it surgically repaired. So today, she is having surgery. Frankly, it is weird being the one who will wait instead of the one having the surgery. Please pray all goes well and that she gets a wonderful anesthetist!

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Match Dot Com

Yes, I noticed Eric's sock drawer looking rather empty. I also noticed that the "looking for a partner" sock drawer was looking rather full especially when I tried squooshing the drawer shut with my foot. It was time....insert "dun dun DUN!" here. I emptied the "missing my partner" drawer.

Honestly, this isn't even all of it.

BTW, not sure if I've mentioned how much of a Scrooge I am. I can't stand the Christmas clutter so the tree often comes down the day after Christmas. This year, we had an artificial tree which we borrowed from my mother. Go ahead and call Jeff Foxworthy now. You know you're a redneck when you borrow your Christmas tree! Anyway, I held off until yesterday. I took the decorations down and boxed them up......with one hand and two small helpers. I know what you're thinking: "She can let the socks go, but can't keep the Christmas decorations?" People, you should know by now that there is no method to the madness.
(Speaking of matches: Who knows what is going to come up on my google ad sidebar after this post! Heehee)

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Why?

Why did my son feel the need to color his ummmm.......areola area PINK on one side? Good grief, I think he is bleeding every time I see it!

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WINTER WONDERLAND

I thought I would post pics of our winter wonderland the kids have enjoyed so much.

We have huge mounds all over the place!

The kids thought the swing set was pretty cool to play on. Kind of like falling into a foam pit!

It rained so much in the last 12 hours that the snow is gone! We are back to being muddy!

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MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

I've discovered something. I need some lessons on how to use my fancy schmancy camera that I got for Christmas. Eric got me a Nikon P90. These are some of my practice shots.

Need to get this on a card!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM MY HOUSE TO YOURS

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Ho Ho Ho! Merry Christmas!

My agency emailed and my dossier specialist stayed until she received my fedex'd LOA letter and sent out my I-800. Talk about service! Loving them right now!


MERRY CHRISTMAS, BLOGLAND! THANKS FOR READING!

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Remembering My Miracle On December 23rd

Funny thing how we get kids as Christmas presents. Ten years ago today, I found out I was expecting Allyson. I had a routine visit at my fertility specialist expecting nothing. It never occurred to me that I could be pregnant despite the fact that I was so tired I laid down on a bench at the mall while Christmas shopping. I had a routine ultrasound that day. For those of you that have been through fertility issues know what I'm talking about. The room got very quiet, my nurse had tears in her eyes, and my doctor's eyes were as big as saucers as she was picking her jaw off the floor. My first thought: "Great! Now I'm dying. We've fooled with my hormones too much." My doctor told me to look at the dot on the screen. Yes, I saw the dot. It was definitely a new dot. Now I KNEW I was dying since I had a tumor!

My doc said that I knew what that was......a baby! No fertility treatments! Nothing short of a miracle for Christmas! I took the ultrasound picture to show mom as Eric was working and I really was in quite a daze. We wrapped a small box , put the picture in it, and headed down to his office.
Eric totally wondered why I wasn't at work and what was wrong. I gave him his early Christmas present. He opened it and turned completely white, ashen! He quickly sat down! We were both so astonished as we had recently decided that we were done with the treatments. We had decided to try one more that coming January, and then we would just let it go. I really think we had just settled in our minds that it wasn't going to happen. Going through fertility treatments, you never expect the surprise pregnancy!
So you see, we love getting kiddos for Christmas! Very Special!

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FINALLY!

Here is the stork who plopped my package on my doorstep and darted away into her truck. I ran after her yelling, "Wait! Wait! I need your picture! This is very important!". I know, I know, right now you're thinking, "Caaa---rAAAZZZYY Woman!". I assure you, the stork woman was thinking the same thing.

Okay, we don't always look this uhhhh....frumpy. Waiting for the stork to arrive is tiring! Eric had just gotten home from work and was getting comfy. Yes, folks, I'm in jammies. Wish I could live in jammies!

THE INFAMOUS LOA!

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It's 4:53 and Fedex is Torturing me! UPDATED

Seriously? My LOA delivery has been delayed due to "treacherous roads". My kids went to school yesterday and today so the roads aren't that bad! The letter is "still on the truck". I know because I called the main Fedex office and gave him a desperate shout out. After I told him what I was expecting, he said, "I don't even know what to say, ma'am". Oh my! I'm no longer being patient!

UPDATE:
5:15 PM The stork came. The letta' is in da' house!
Pics to follow

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Ohhh Yeah! The Stork is Coming!

~~~~~LOA~~~~~

My agency called me first thing this morning and told me that we are parents again! Oh my, the relief! The stork (the fedex man) should be delivering my referral papers tomorrow. We have two feet of snow and huge stacks of the pillowy, white stuff due to the plows. You may find me sitting at the end of my slushy driveway! Hope the snow doesn't deter the stork! Looks like travel will be in early March!

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Priceless

Just caught Grant jumping off the deck railing and landing spread eagle in the snow. He is his father's son!

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MADE BY MADELINE

Notice anything different on my blog? I had the pleasure of having Madeline from Made by Madeline make my blog header for me. Let me tell you, she is a patient woman! Even when I changed my mind and couldn't make up my mind, she simply did whatever I asked. I shopped around and can assure you that she is very reasonably priced. She also fixed some of my HTML code from when I changed my blog from a 2 column to a 3 column. Please check out her services as she is a pleasure to work with. Thank you Madeline! I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas!

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The Upside, the Downside, & The Funnyside

The upside: It's snowing.....a lot! Definitely will still be white (or brown) for Christmas. Kids are loving it!

The downside: A lot of lucky people got their LOAs yesterday. I wasn't one of them. People that sent in dossiers at the same time or later than me received them. Ugh! My only hope is that maybe, just maybe, my dossier specialist was out on Friday, and maybe my call will come Monday. Not all that likely, but still worth hoping for.

The funnyside: I had so much fun watching the kids' Christmas play last night. Allyson was a star and hated her costume. The pictures are kind of lousy and don't do justice to the miserable look she had on her face! Too funny

Here's my angel in the school Christmas play. Adorable, right?

The very miserable star. Although she has always been a star as far as I'm concerned!



Ah, yes....these kids love the snow.


Grant loves to sing and took his performance very seriously!

One more!

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While I'm Waiting

Boy, I wish that LOA was on it's way. I guess the phone call from my agency telling me to send in my I800 was truly just to have things prepared. Honestly, I was not even expecting it until January anyway. I feel like I've done well with the wait so far....meaning I haven't gone crazy. But, now that I know others are getting their LOA around the 60 day mark, I am anxious and those possibilities of what could go wrong are slipping into my mind.

Have to say, that with our last adoption, I had such a huge urgency to get to Kazakhstan that I was miserable, anxious, and distracted. I was only focused on the adoption and worried over things that were out of my control. I think I am in a different place this time. Yes, I'm anxious at times and mildly distracted, but not enough to miss the bigger picture. At least, not yet. I still have my guard up. I have emotionally and physically invested effort, but still, I am holding back. For example, I've learned some phrases in Chinese, but not nearly enough. I didn't pick up that pack of underwear and socks for Saner at the store the other day either. At the same time, I have started to gather the pieces of the 100 Good Wishes quilt, and bought the flat, individually wrapped hand sanitizers for travel. Ummm, yeah, I know that it makes no sense!

So I'm trying hard to remember that God's timing has always proven to be best. I'll continue to wait without being overly distracted or miserable. I said in my very first blog post that we had taken another leap of faith. Just wondering why that leap had to be so big!

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Don't Look if You Get Queasy!

I've got a new splint that stays on 24/7. No therapy at this point as we are waiting for the transferred tendon to heal and a joint to fuse. I only take it off to clean the area. My skilled nurse (i.e. the cute baker in the post below) does a great job cleaning it for me. DON'T LOOK AT THE PICTURE AFTER THIS ONE IF YOU GET QUEASY......IT ISN'T PRETTY!

Now that's just plain ugly! It looks like a club!

I think it feels better today than it did yesterday. I'm still not at a point where I can turn my wrist besides a palm up position. That took awhile the last time. The good news is I can do my hair a little better and my make up my not be so crooked!

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Christmas Cookies!

The cookies looked great until Grant walked over with his in his hands. He bumped into me and they all fell onto the floor! He cried so hard. I didn't have the heart to throw them out so we packed them in tupperware for Santa. He won't care that his cookies were all over the floor, right?

Wow, that's a good lookin' baker in the kitchen!

Here's a video of Grant reading to me. Love it! Check it out. He gets pretty carried away with his voices!

I had a post op visit today and got a new splint on. Right now, I'm regretting my decision for surgery! My wrist feels like a wobbly mess. I remember feeling this way when I had the same thing done to my left wrist and thumb. We'll see!

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THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG REVIEW

We piled in the car last minute to catch the last matinee of The Princess and the Frog. The kids were excited....okay, Grant was really excited. It had a cute storyline and made the kids laugh. Actually, it made Eric and I laugh. BUT why have so much voodoo stuff going on? It is set in New Orleans and has great jazz numbers and adorable characters. It's just seriously heavy on the Black Magic crap. Just thought I would throw my two cents in. I think I'd give it 2 stars.

We did see a preview of Toy Story 3 though. We seriously love the Toy Story movies and will be heading out to see this when it comes out this summer. Hilarious!

I've been so lame on the blogosphere. Sorry! My back, hands, and arm have been so sore. I am so slow at everything too. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

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O CHRISTMAS TREE!

So here is my hand. I feel like I am lugging around a small child everywhere I go, and my back is so very sore! The cast goes up past my elbow. I actually think that the rest of my body is hurting worse than the wrist/hand itself.

Omi, Eric's mom, came up to help out. She cleaned bathrooms, watched kids, drove us to the doctors office, and helped decorate the Christmas tree! Thanks, Omi!

Yikes! That looks like it was about to be an "America's Funniest Videos" moment.

Grant was a big help this year. We have always bought a real tree. However, this year, we borrowed my parents artificial tree since they weren't putting it up. Love not having to vacuum up pine needles every day!
Oh! The bad news is that my mom had the swine flu.....really awful. The good news is that we didn't catch it!

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Ally's Anecdote

I have pictures and a post to write, but my joints on my left arm (non-surgical arm) are very swollen and painful. I think they are angry that they have doing all the work and my right arm is resting! So I thought Id leave you with one funny anecdote from today.

Allyson went to a birthday party that had horseback riding. On her way home, she told Eric that she had a lot of fun. She learned how to ride, made her horse gallop, and stop. Then she said that she couldn't remember how to get her horse to "start" again!

Hmmm....where is that ignition on that horse!

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SANER'S NEW PICTURE

HERE IS A PICTURE OF OUR HAPPY BOY!
HE IS 2 YRS. AND 2 MONTHS IN THIS PICTURE. NOT EXACTLY THE "UPDATED" PICTURE I ASKED FOR, CONSIDERING HE IS 3 YRS AND 9 MONTHS NOW. HOWEVER, NICE TO HAVE A "BABY" PICTURE OF HIM, RIGHT?
HE IS SOOO CUTE!

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The Land of the Living

I'm back to the land of the living. Sorry, no pictures; I'm not a pretty sight! I'm still taking pain meds every 4 hrs., but this is only post-op day 2. When I had this surgery done on my other wrist, I had a great block. This time, it was a rotten one. I could feel my fingers in the O.R. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper. I told them that I would like a refund on my anesthesia. Hmmm, I wonder why they didn't go for that. So, I think I cried all the way back home (2 hrs.). My hubby, who doesn't baby me too much, wanted to know how bad could it be. He said that since I had a knee replacement, wrist and hand pain couldn't be that bad! Yeah, I wasn't laughing either.

I got a new picture of Saner, but it wasn't really new. He looks so adorable in it. He is younger than the referral pic. I can't post it yet because it needs a little tweeking. You know the Chinese split pants? Well, he is wearing them and...well, his boy stuff is visible! Certainly can't post that on the internet! Trust me, though, he has an adorable smile!

Now, if only the stork would arrive with my LOA! I'd be so happy!

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