Another new blog!

The new blog replaces the other new blog I just started. LOL So if you want to go to my "OLD NEW" blog to find out why I started a "NEW NEW" blog, you can read my post at:

CoffeeBean's Corner

and then put my (final? it better be!) new blog in your Bloglines or whatever you use:

Eileen's Blog (I decided not to spend the time thinking of a catchy title, what can I say).

Hope to see you there! Please leave me a comment if you visit!

Changes brewing...

I have 4 blogs right now - this one, one for what I'm reading, one for knitting, and one for sewing. I can't keep up with any of them. LOL I'm sorry I haven't been posting here or commenting in other blogs much lately. Life has just been busy and as usual I am so behind on everything. I am still reading your blogs though!

Anyway....

In September I will start homeschooling Lindsey (Kindergarten), and I've been thinking about doing a blog with more of a homeschool focus - what we're learning, accomplishments, struggles, and misc. ramblings. But I still want to write about reading, knitting, and occasionally sewing so I've decided to combine everything into one blog. I've decided to start this blog at Homeschool Blogger. I haven't decided on a name yet so I don't have a specific URL to share with you. I would LOVE suggestions on what to call this new blog! I am so uncreative. I don't want the word homeschool in the title since the blog will be about more than that. The same goes for any one subject such as reading, knitting, etc.

I'm thinking I may lose some readers when I go to this new blog but I may gain some too. I would love to have you follow me there, but I understand if you're not interested.

I hope to have my new blog started in the next few weeks and when I get a URL I will let you know! Thanks to the faithful readers/commenters of my many blogs.

We interrupt this post to bring you this opinion: I think it's ridiculous that some people say they're no longer going to be Packer fans after all that happened with the Brett Favre saga. I think both sides made mistakes (although I blame Favre more, much more) but are you a PACKER fan or just a Favre fan? Don't let the door hit you..... GO PACKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay, had to get that off my chest. Back to your regularly scheduled post....

I will leave you with some misc. pictures from this summer. I will explain the first pic first. :-) This is my solution to letting Allison use scissors without cutting her hair. Like it? :-) I told her if she took the hat off she couldn't cut. She was pretty good about leaving it on. Notice her tongue sticking out. Every time she started to cut, out came the tongue.



And the rest....

Lifest and Misc. Ramblings

It's that time again – Lifest! It's a Christian music festival held every year at this time. This year is their 10th anniversary. I think I've gone the past 5 or 6 years with the exception of last year. I had only planned to go only one day, Saturday. It turned out to be the day after my mom's funeral and although 2 of my sisters went that day, and it might have been healing in some ways to go, Jay had done double and triple duty with the girls in the weeks before that since I was so busy with my mom, I didn't want to leave him with the girls all day again. I was also pretty well exhausted at that point. So I gave my ticket away. This year I bought a full event ticket as I usually do and Jay bought a one day ticket as he usually does. I went with just my sister last night, we're skipping today, we will all go on Friday, and just my sister and I will go again all day Saturday.

Highlights from last night:

*We parked our car and then I couldn't find my ticket. I knew I had brought it along because I remember looking at it in the car shortly after we left home. I had stuck it in the book I brought along to read but it wasn't there when I went to get it. I paged through the book at least 5 or 6 times, my sister paged through the book several times, we tore apart the car looking for it before finally finding it.....in my book! HOW did we both miss it so many times?

*We saw Natalie Grant (excellent!) and about ½ hour of the Newsboys. We left in the middle of their concert because a) we've both seen them before; b) we were both tired; and c) we were getting cold.

Friday night we will see Steven Curtis Chapman. It will be his first concert back since his daughter died. I can imagine how emotional it is going to be. We couldn't find a babysitter for the girls so we are taking them. It's going to be a long day!

We also plan to see Mandisa (formerly on American Idol) and Denver and the Mile High Orchestra (seen them a million times already but they're still fun to watch).

Saturday: Most years we are conflicted at least a few times about which concert to attend when there are several going on at the same time that we want to see. This year there are really only 2 people I wanted to see for sure during the whole festival - Natalie Grant (check) and SCC. But Casting Crowns is playing Saturday night so we will see them, and also Chris Sligh (another Idol contestant). Otherwise we will probably just walk around and decide on the fly who to watch. It's going to be fun no matter what!

In other news:

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of my mom's death. It's so hard to believe I haven't seen or talked to her for a year. It still feels so wrong sometimes to be going on with my life, doing normal things, when she's gone.

Lindsey got stung by a bee on her finger on Tuesday after her t-ball class. She screamed at the top of her lungs for about 5 minutes. I mean she SCREAMED! She held ice on it for about an hour and then she was fine. No bad reaction so now we know she's not allergic to bee stings anyway.

She asked me this morning if I love her and Allison "to the moon and back ninety hundred and five times". I said yes. :-)

She's in the middle of the second session of swimming lessons. It's the first time she's taken them. She took Level 1 in the first session, didn't pass and is back for another round of Level 1. We're not going to the last session. I want August to be a little more laid back with not so much running. She just finished a 4 week t-ball skills class. She's going to 2 days of Safety Town in August at the same place I went to Safety Town when I was her age. Oh she's also taking swimming lessons at the same pool I took them at as a kid. Then I took Ben to lessons at that same pool, and now here we are again. Sort of a surreal feeling. The last thing she's signed up for this summer is a one hour "Kids in the Kitchen" class. She's doing that with her 2 cousins Andrew and Thomas. They were all adopted within a few months of each other back in 2004. Lindsey from China, Andrew from Russia, and Thomas from Guatemala.



Allison has elevated whining to a new level. Heavy sigh. She can say almost 50 words now. She's still about a year behind in her speech but making really good progress.

Her taking off her diaper is going to send me to the looney bin. We've had over a month of this with no end in sight. We have to duct tape her diaper on at naps and bedtime otherwise she takes it off and pees on her bed or the floor. Yesterday she discovered a new trick - taking her diaper off from under her shorts, then wetting her shorts. Just lovely. Both my girls are quite challenging in their own ways, but that's another post for another day.

Ben will be 18 next month. EIGHTEEN! I can't believe soon he's going to be a legal adult and can vote for president in November.

That's it for now. It took me over an hour to write this post and now it's almost time to leave for swimming lessons and I've gotten nothing done except feed the girls breakfast and get them dressed. Slacker! Have a great day!

Ryan Cabrera!

Who's Ryan Cabrera anyway??? He came to our local civic celebration this past weekend called ChickenFest. :-) I had never heard of him before but apparently he is a somewhat? famous pop star. He played for an hour. He wasn't too bad.




Just a cute picture of the girls....

I love these!!!!

I was at the grocery store a few weeks ago with my girls and they were giving away free samples of a new Gerber product, along with a mail-in rebate form to get them free. If not for this I'm sure I never would have tried these. But I did and I am hooked! Yes I said *I* am hooked! The girls like them too but I love them. I even bought a second bag and hid them from Lindsey. LOL They are the Gerber Graduates Yogurt Melts. Yes they're for toddlers!

Two of my sisters tried them - one thought they were so-so and one thought they were gross! She even spit it out! Bad taste I guess. :-)

The only problem is that at almost $3 a bag they are too pricey to get very often. I could probably eat the whole bag at once. So they will be a special treat. YUM YUM!!!

Has anyone else tried these?

I really really really want to WIN!

The sports radio station I listen to is giving away a trip for 2 to see the Milwaukee Brewers play in San Francisco in July (airfare, hotel, game tickets, tour of the stadium). In order to win, first you have to be the 14th caller when you hear a certain sound clip. They've been taking qualifiers for 2 or 3 weeks now. I tried for 1-2 weeks to qualify, maybe 2-4 times per day but I could never even get through, it was always busy. Then late last week I finally got through! Caller number.....12. So close! I got through again the same day, caller number.....11. Got through again once the next day, caller number.....11.

I tried a few times yesterday morning but it was always busy again. Then about 4 p.m. I tried again....busy, busy, busy, ring ring! You're caller number.....14!!!!! Woo hoo!

So now I'm qualified with a bazillion other people to win the grand prize. I'm sure they have well over 100 people in the running, so my chances of winning are slim, but at least now I have a chance! Jay and I could really, really, REALLY use this trip! We rarely get time out just the two of us, and there's no way we could afford something like this either. You know I'm a football gal :-) but I do follow the Brewers and while I would rather do just about anything than watch a baseball game on TV, I do enjoy watching baseball live. I've never been to San Francisco, that would be awesome.

I know there are so many more important, serious things going on around the world, but if you want to say a small prayer that I would win this trip, I would sure appreciate it! I'm not holding out too much hope, I never win stuff. But someone has to win and it might as well be ME!

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This little girl will be 5 on Sunday!



Yesterday was the 4 year anniversary of the day we left for China to adopt Lindsey, and Saturday will be our 4 year Gotcha Day anniversary.

This and That

First of all, THANK YOU to all who left such nice comments on my last post. I'm so glad I opened up and shared about this. Since I wrote, Allison said her first 2 word sentence, a very simple one, but 2 words together nevertheless - "Bye, Bapa!" (Bapa is Grandpa) She also added a word or two to her vocabulary. Tracy, I do know about the apraxia website and email group - I am a part but lurking for now since I don't even know if Allison has this. When her therapists first mentioned the word, and I did some initial research, I thought it sounded a lot like her. But now as time goes on I'm not so sure. Allison always seems a step behind her peers, but she grows and develops on a typical timeline, just as though she is 6 months younger than she is, if that makes sense. So we keep the diagnosis in the back of our mind but time will tell on that. Kit, *I* have watched the Signing Time videos and have learned from them :-) but Allison is still really not interested in TV yet at this point. (Unlike her sister, who, ahem, loves watching TV.) Anyway, thanks again!

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This Saturday I am walking in a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society with my 3 sisters. As most of you probably know my mom died last July from pancreatic cancer, just 3 weeks after she was diagnosed. So this cause is very important to me. I hesitate to ask here, but I'm going to anyway. It's totally up to you if you want to help out. So far I only have 2 sponsors! If you or someone you know is affected by cancer, and you'd like to sponsor me, you can go HERE and donate. Thanks so much!

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If you read the comment on my Draft Day post, then you already read this, but it's so good I have to say it again here:

Did you hear that Brett moved to the 'Twin Cities'?

YUP...He wanted to get as far away from professional football as possible. :)

ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL

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We've been home from China for almost exactly a year and a half, and I still have not printed out the pics from our trip!!! I thought it was bad when it took me a year after our trip to Lindsey to print those out and get them in an album. Of course with her trip, Ben took over 1200 pictures! He didn't come on our second trip (his choice) so we don't have quite as many pictures. So what's my excuse, I don't know. But I am finally going through day by day and choosing pictures to print. I thought I would share one from each day of our trip, one per day or as I get a chance to post. As I said before, I am just so itching to be in China, so bear with me as I relive our trip to Allison. :-)

Here we are at our local airport waiting to fly to Chicago and then on to Beijing! (October 26, 2006)

Ornaments

We just put our tree up last night. Since Allison is the QUEEN of getting into things, we just didn't want to deal with her taking ornaments off the tree all the time, for too long a period of time. We weren't totally sure if she'd want to take them off, but sure enough, ornaments have already been strewn all over the place by the little tornado. Guess the tree will be coming down the day after Christmas unless things get better, then we'll leave it up until New Year's Day. I've never been one to want the tree up for weeks and weeks anyway.

So here are a few of the ornaments:

See a theme here? :-)

I have about 10 more favorites but here are just a few more:




This one is my absolute favorite. I made it in kindergarten and I remember making it. The ornament is 38 years old! It's the first one I hang every year:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Always behind

Story of my life these days - I have NEVER been SO behind on SO many things IN MY ENTIRE LIFE! I just can't seem to get anything done in a timely manner these days. I have a To Do list a mile long that I can never make any kind of dent in. This is just such a new feeling for me. I was wondering the other day WHY in the world I can't keep up anymore? I realized right away that I have never had 2 little ones at the same time before! Ben was almost 13 before Lindsey came along, then we had just one little one for 2 1/2 years before Allison came home. It doesn't help that I'm homeschooling Ben in his senior year which brings a lot of work and stress, Lindsey has a difficult personality (don't let that sweet face fool you! LOL) and Allison has delays (which I don't really want to discuss here, mostly for her privacy, but she has a major speech delay as well as a few other minor things). So I have just resigned myself to feeling disorganized, my house being a mess, and some things just not getting done, for a few more years yet.

A week ago today, October 30, was our one year anniversary of Gotcha Day for Allison. We did nothing to mark the day, other than to acknowledge that it was one year since Gotcha, and I looked at the pictures from that day in China. Unfortunately we didn't get many pictures on that day in China, none of the actual Gotcha moment, because my sister mostly took video (at my request) instead of pictures. But here is one of us that day. We were so shell shocked, things felt so different than they did when we got Lindsey.




For Halloween, Allison stayed home with me (she has no clue what the day was all about) and Jay took Lindsey out trick or treating. She went as a pink leopard. I didn't get very good pictures (story of my life again) but here's one:

(I really don't care for Halloween to tell you the truth. Lindsey had a blast and it was cute having her dress up. But I absolutely hate the gross and gory decorations that people put in their yards, I don't find it funny or cute. I think it mars the beauty of the fall season. And now Lindsey has a bucket full of candy - just what she needs! - NOT! We struggle the way it is with sweets and junk food. This doesn't help! So anyway, just my thoughts on the subject, I know I'm in the minority with my feelings about Halloween!)

To be honest I get pretty discouraged at my inability to get things together. Plenty of other moms have at least 2 little ones, some many more than that, and they still seem to have things in order. Big Gotcha Day celebrations, great pictures, clean houses, eloquent blog posts, etc. Oh well, I am who I am and I have to accept that.

Thursday is our 12 month post-placement visit, and is also the one year anniversary of the day we came home from China last year. We have our court date for Allison's readoption later this month. I will make sure I get some good pictures of that at least!

So this isn't a total downer post, here are a few other misc. pictures of the girls:

Ick!

Allison actually fell asleep one late morning on the kitchen floor,

Lindsey took the opportunity to pose next to her :-)

She loves to climb!

This was so cute, they were sitting there together, each looking
through piles of "stuff", so intent on what they were doing

Shameless Plug!

I started another blog, because I'm learning to knit! It's called N-E-W-Knitter. I also updated my sewing blog. Go have a look!

N-E-W-Knitter

Eileen's Sewing Journal