Congratulations Marleah and Mike!

My friend and faithful local blog reader had her first baby a few days ago. Welcome Alexander William, I can't wait to meet you!

What a week....

Here are some clues as to how my week has been....

Thank goodness I am starting to feel better, I have been sick sick sick since Easter. Tried to go to work on Wednesday, was sent home. Finally, today I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Note to self: Do not skip getting flu shot next year.

You have got to be kidding me.

March 21st, North Idaho

Trip to Arizona cont.

So, we made it to Arizona. Jackson was sooooo excited to see his Grandma and Grandpa (we were too) and we all enjoyed the warm weather. My Mom and Mike live in a 55+ park home community. Needless to say there wasn't much of a shortage by way of grandparents and boy did the nephews get a lot of loving attention! The first morning, we lounged around in our pj's drank coffee, ate breakfast, and when we peeked out the window, we saw this....

Little Thomas was outside in his p.j.'s and stopped the morning walking traffic. It was so cute! One minute he was alone with grandpa outside, the next minute there were 15 or so "walkers" ooogling over the tot.

We spent most of our time lounging around the compound reading, relaxing, sitting in the sun, chasing after kids, cruising the golf cart, eating, and reading...I read 2 books while I was there! I haven't read a "fun" book in sooooo long. It was great!

Here are a couple more pics...captions below.

Grandpa teaches Jackson magic tricks, here they are "doing some magic!"

Here's what I think is so cute about this photo, Grandpa had a toothpick, Jackson then needed a toothpick, do you see that he has it stuck between his two front teeth. It was sooooo funny! Oh man, he loves his grandpa sooooo much.

Riding bikes with Grandpa. This nearly gave safety Sara a stroke...don't worry, they didn't go far.

The digs for the weekend, M&M's park home...my sister and I love it and can't wait to retire!

"Look Sara, I can swim across the pool ALL BY MYSELF with a nooooooodle!"

All worn out and ready for a snack.

At some point during the day, I plopped myself in a lounge chair in the back yard to "sun myself". I had a book, a diet coke, and 76 degree weather. I believe Jackson was at the pool with Mike and my mom and sister were chasing Thomas around inside the house. Lexi saw me in the backyard, stuck her head out the back door and whispered "bitch" as in you are lucky you aren't chasing after a kiddo right now and can relax and enjoy the sun....

I looked up and said "It's not my time yet, remember...it's all part of God's plan." and you better believe I went right back to my book and diet coke.

To be continued...

This may offend you....

but I think it's FUNNY!

For all those men (or women) who say, Why buy a cow when you can get milk for free?

Here's an update for you: Now days, 80% of women are against marriage, WHY? Because women realize it's not worth buying an entire pig just to get a little sausage.

Trip to Arizona - Take 2

I was finally able to upload photos last night, with that...here comes the trip to Arizona posts!

First up, the flight. Now, you will remember this was our first flight with little ones. My sister and I were so nervous! Jackson was so excited to ride on an the "errrrplane", he could hardly contain himself. We walked into the airport and he looked up at me and said "Are we in Arizona?". Ummmm, no.

Overall the kids did great, and I think Lexi and I managed pretty well too. A couple of funnies...

• The first time I took Jackson to the bathroom in the airport, he skipped in, slammed the door stall shut, locked it, and then couldn't figure out how unlock the door, so he crawled under to get out, and left me standing there going uhhhh....and you know I wasn't about to crawl under the stall to unlock it.
• While in the airplane, we hit a some turbulence. I said to Jackson "did you feel that in your tummy?" He replied, "no, I felt it in my ding ding". I nearly choked on my peanuts.
• During our first decent, Jackson's ears were starting to plug up and hurt. I was afraid this would happen as I remember my ears hurting BAD when I was a kid on an airplane, but since his ears were plugged, he couldn't really hear all that well and shouted "OH NO, MY EARS HURT!" Two seconds later, auntie Sara had unwrapped a dum dum for him and gave him the water bottle with the hopes that swallowing and sucking would help unplug his ears.

And now for the pics, captions are beneath the photos.

GEG airport parking lot, getting ready to go! How cute is Jackson with his little wheelie carry-on...which he never once wheeled or carried inside the airport. Guess who did?

Jackson was a bit nervous during the first take-off and needed to hold aunt Lexi's hand. On the second take-off, he decided he was a pro and didn't need to hold Lexi's hand.

Chaos

Activity time

Messing around, keeping everyone occupied.

Ahhhh, during the last leg the kiddos fell asleep on Lexi for an hour. I read a magazine and she glared at me. :-)

We made it! My mom snapped this just as Jackson saw "GRANDMA AND GRANDPA!!!!" and took off full speed ahead. Lexi and I are behind him, lugging the other kiddo and all the crap.

Decisions

Today I finalized my decision and opened my mind and my heart to the possibility of a SN child.

Trip to AZ - the flight

Blogger is giving me hell and I am not able to upload photos....I'll keep trying...grrrrrr.

15 months

My adoption paperwork has been registered in China for 15 months. Am I halfway there? According to my agency, the answer is no. Speculation on the internet is all over the board with regards to the "wait". I just don't know what to think anymore.

And here is my boohoo moment for the day. There are, let's count them, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 people in my life who are pregnant right now. I am so happy for each and everyone of them, but last night upon finding the news of the latest pregger friend I broke down and cried. It caught me by surprise, I just felt bad. My sadness didn't last too long and I suppose it was the fact that I have been pretty shaken up the past couple of weeks with regards to the adoption and things are so uncertain at this point. Many people ask me, "why don't you just quit and have a baby?"

Because I'm not ready to give up yet.

So, 15 months waiting....

I'm back!

We survived traveling with two toddlers for the first time via airplane and had a great time in Arizona. I am swamped with work/school this week, so I'll post and upload photos of the trip sometime this weekend.

Homestudy update and more

Even though I have no idea what is going to happen with my adoption moving forward, I still went through the process of updating my paperwork. I'm not ready to give up yet, so for now things will just stay on course.

I met with my Idaho social worker yesterday, she is very nice and very down to earth. She has been great this past week, responding very quickly to my panic/melt down after I received "the email" from my agency on Thursday. She called my agency, called her agency, and tried to get information for me. Nothing new came of it, but at least she tried! She is also helping me explore another option, reviewing documents with me, offering up her hubby who is an ER doc for advice at any time, etc. So, very soon my homestudy update will be off in the mail and I will have one thing less worry about for the next 15 months (which is when it will all expire again).

In other news...finally, something fun to blog about!

My sister and I are off to Phoenix with the nephews tomorrow morning with Grandma and Grandpa greeting us on the other end! We are so excited and yet we are both freaking out as we have never flown with kiddos. Let me repeat that...I have never traveled in an airplane with children. It's always been me, myself, and I. Gone are the days of reading a book quietly in my seat while sipping a beverage and rolling my eyes at the crying babies on board.

My usual carry-on items (book, ipod, magazine, computer, m&m's, and cash for an adult beverage) have been replaced with a new po*wer ranger, deck of cards, pad of paper, the new Cray*ola markers that only show up on paper...what are they called?, travel size doodle pad thingy, DVD player, wet wipes, an extra size 4T shirt, snacks, sugarless gum, and more snacks. Can you tell I'll be in charge of keeping the 3 1/2 year old entertained?

So far, I'm only worried about whether or not Jackson will decide he has to pee while the seat belt sign is on. Oh, and how we are going to get all our junk to the check-in counter. Lexi, on the other hand, is pretty freaked out. She is worried that Thomas will freak out and cry the whole time (I highly doubt it...) and we'll be "the family" on the airplane, you know "the family" we, without children, roll our eyes at when their kids are banging on the back of the seats and crying! hehehe...

Sweet lord, let's hope we make it all in one piece.

I'll be back with a full report from sunny Arizona!! Whooohooo! I'm mortified, yet very excited to lay my winter pale, beached whale looking body, by the pool in 80 degree weather!

Thank you

I just want to thank those that have left comments and/or sent an email. I will respond, just need to finish my freaky cleaning as I meet with my Idaho social worker tomorrow morning for my homestudy update interview. I'll let you know what happens. :-)