Favorite Photo Friday

Since no one else will pose for me - it's Chloe again!!!

Right Brain - Left Brain ?????

You Are 75% Left Brained, 25% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning. Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others. If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic. Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility. Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way. If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art. Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

Are You Right or Left Brained?

Yep - anyone who knows me at all wouldn't be surprised!!! Except that two years ago I was Left 100% and Right 0!!!! (It's the sports - I have NONE of that in me!!!) See - there is hope, I'm coming around!!!! Mellowing - my husband would say!!!!

THEY HAVE HER!!!

I checked our pastor's website and THEY HAVE CAELEIGH!!! Go here to see it up close and personal!!!! (Click on Public Journals and type in Caeleigh) She is just beautiful and I am so happy for them. What a wonderful blessing - and a day earlier than what their itinerary had said!!!

Gotcha Day

I've mentioned before that our pastor is in China!!!! (I'm a little excited over this - can you tell?!?!) So - they asked Joe to preach today. That guy amazes me - he works full time - more than full time - plays with his kids - helps me home school - AND can still put together a sermon that was wonderful. His sermon was on "Gotcha Day" and how the whole process of adoption relates, more importantly, to what our Heavenly Father has done for us. It was so appropriate to us as we're getting ready to celebrate Chloe's second Gotcha Day but appropriate, as well, since our pastor will celebrate Gotcha Day for the first time this Tuesday!!! My favorite part?? I loved the thought that each of us has our own "Gotcha Day" - the day that God chose us as His!! I checked our church website and it wasn't posted yet but I'll post the link and you can check off and on this week - it should be up soon (all of our sermons are available online). Just thought all of you -pro-adoption people would enjoy hearing him.

Favorite Photo Friday

Ok - it's a "Tricker" for Friday - (don't kid yourself, it's not THAT hard!!!)

It's a bit of nostalgia - and who could that spunky kid with an attitude be?!?!?

On Their Way!!

Our pastor and his wife are heading to China today!!!! I am bursting with excitement for them - almost feels like I am going myself - if you wish to follow their journey go here and click on PUBLIC JOURNALS and type in Caeleigh. They will be there for two weeks - I am sure they would welcome your prayers as well!!!

Don't Come In Here!!!

Yes, Chloe hears this often, "Don't come in here yet, Chloe." The boys are usually yelling this at her as she is trying to bust down the bathroom or bedroom door. "There is NO privacy with a two year old," I tell them. (Little do they know, there's no privacy with a 9, 10 or 11 year old either!!) So tonight - one of the boys runs to Chloe's room and goes in and I hear, "Don't Come In here!!!" "Why," yelled back one of the curious boys. "Cuz, I puttin' my slippers on!" was the reply from our two year old!!!

(Notice the Slippers!!!)

Hockey Finale

It's bittersweet, but it's over!! Hockey is now officially finished for this season. Aaron's last tournament was this past weekend. He got to play goalie - which he loves and then in the next game he played offense and scored a goal - what a weekend!!

My little goalie with a save!!!!

Piggies!!

This one was a photo challenge I could do - we had pictures of our feet over here!! Stop over and see more "feet" challenges!! (Double click on the picture to make it larger.)

Favorite Photo Friday

The ones that didn't make it (in the header, that is)- - - -

Our Song

Ok - this will be admitting our "rather strange side" over here but I have to do it. Sometimes we just make up songs and sing them all around the house. I know you are smiling - you've done it too - the ones you'd die if anyone actually heard you singing!! So - I am putting Chloe on the potty and singing, "Chloe goes pee pee on the potty...." I stop to hoist her up and hear her little voice say, "....And not on the ground!!" With a big smile!!! Yep, that was a great way to end my song!!!!!



(The funny part of this is that just the other day she told me she had to go potty so I told her just a minute - LESSON NUMBER ONE - Never say, "Just a minute" to a 2 year old that has to go potty - I went in to help her and before I could even get her pants all the way down - she was going all over me, the carpet, you get the picture!!! SO - I guess she learned something from that little episode!!)

NewSong in China

I have enjoyed this group since I was in High School -when I stumbled across this video I was thrilled to see they had visited China ~ it is powerful!!

Secret Pal

When we were adopting Chloe I joined a Yahoo Group with the same DTC date as ours - so of course, I have joined one this time as well - it is great to have people to chat with while you wait. I still keep in touch many with from Chloe's adoption. SO - in our new DTC Group, they have started a Secret Pal gift exchange - we got our first gift - with the theme of BEDTIME!!

We loved both of the gifts - they were so clever but have to say - we were so impressed with the "Double Happiness" night light - it is beautiful!! Chloe wanted it plugged right in!! The bummer - it's a secret pal - I can't even ask where they found it!! Thank you, Secret Pal!

Favorite Photo Friday

These are from the weekend we went to Minneapolis and got snowed in!!! But what better place to be snowed in?!?!?

Chloe's first carousel ride - she LOVED it!!! The smiley one is when she spotted the boys watching her!!

Chick Magnet

I am still laughing over this little episode today - I happened upon the boys discussing an earlier event where a teenager had driven her car up, parked and, Micah felt, couldn't take her eyes off of him!! He goes on to tell me, "Yeah, Mom, she just kept looking at me and then she'd look away, and then she'd look back. I could tell that chick was diggin' me!" I asked him how he knew this to which he responded, "It's the eyes, Mom - you can tell by their eyes!" Of course, during this whole conversation, our younger two boys are laughing their heads off - telling me how funny it was and how Micah was all embarrassed. (He didn't sound embarrassed to me!!!) And the funniest part of this, to me, is that my boys never even talk about girls - so where this came from is BEYOND me!! But our 11 year old now firmly believes he has teenage girls "diggin'" him!!! So here I am laughing my head off and my husband is ready to sit him down and have a chat about respecting women - Joe does not like it that they refer to women as "chicks". I love it - all we have to look forward to BUT most of all I love it that their Dad is so adamant that they respect women and treat them like they should be treated - not as the world so often treats them!!! Ok - it was worth a good laugh, but maybe makes me think too.....

Gimme A "U" Part Two

Well - here it is - THE "U" CHALLENGE PART TWO!!!
Ten "U" words I don't like with pictures!!!! (Hosted by Donna at Double Happiness)
Gimme A "U" -
Uniforms -Because they look horrible on me!!
Uno Attack - it purposefully shoots out 10 cards to me each time!!



Unibrows - thanks for the idea, Mr. Brian - and, to be honest, THE ONLY person it does look good on would be Bert!!!
Underweight - it's a pipe dream for me - I can't seem to attain it!!

Umbros - They are too see-through!! (Ok, maybe not all, but the orange was!!!)

Uncle - the game, not the people!!! The other guy never listens when you say it anyway!! The picture is a stretch, I know, it's all I could find!!!

U Turns - I'm not good at these!!

U Pick 'Em Farms - No Thanks!! U Pick 'Em for me!!!

Unicycles - Because I can barely stay up on two wheels - ask my boys about the Taco John's incident!!!

Ugly Name Calling - Because it's just plain mean and I don't like people being mean to each other!!

Silliness

Dad didn't come home for lunch today - big winner of fantasy football - couldn't miss that party!! SO - we were on our own - I thought - no big deal, we'll go to Taco John's - hmmmm, four kids, one parent, Taco John's at lunch - no wonder people were staring at me!! Then, Caleb thought it would be fun to give Chloe the sticker off of his taco - yep, she thought she was special all right - goodness gracious - she put on a show for the whole restaurant. The is goofiness at its best!!! Remind me the next time Joe is gone - stay home!!!!! :)

(Double click to see the collage larger!)

Broken Promise

I realize I promised NO MORE pics of the blizzard but I have no other "blog fodder" today and I built this so I may as well share it!!!! (As usual, double click on it to see it larger!) This will be THE LAST of the snow pics, I re-promise!!! :)

BLIZZARD #3

I promise - after this - I won't show any more!! But we went out today after being stuck (basically) since Wednesday (many of our roads are still blown shut around here and we saw some roads where people still can not get out) SO here's what we saw:
This drift was as tall as our car - they had to dig through to let cars through.

Outside Dad's work - This drift is the one you saw on a previous post outside Joe's window!!


Out front of our house - look at those drifts!!

Oh yes, our political commentary here - Joe wanted me to mention that Al Gore and his global warming theory is taking a hit right now - at least 10 inches of snow two weekends in a row (that's a record for us the weatherman said), the biggest blizzard since 1975, and below normal temps since January - Joe is smiling!!! :)

MORE BLIZZARD

Whew - it's still not done!! Here are my few tidbits to share - I always wanted to be a meteorologist!!!
*I called for pizza last night - BOTH our pizza places were CLOSED!
*No mail since yesterday and probably won't have any until MONDAY!
*Again, Joe's work is telling everyone to go home - their plows are giving up for the time being - as are the city's - they just can't keep up.
*Here's Joe's window at work - it's at least a 7 ft. drift

*Joe snowblowed this morning and an hour later we could not see our driveway.
*The snowblower is now totally ineffective as it can't throw the snow high enough to get over the drifts on either side of the driveway.
*My personal favorite - the drifts are taller than Joe!!!!!







*This picture was taken by Ladyl (she posts here sometimes) - she lives outside of town and has been stuck there now for a couple of days. Love that drift - and the snow blowing off of it - see what we're dealing with out here?!?! Yep, and I still love it!!! :)

(She didn't make the "!' on her window either - that's mother nature expressing herself!!)
*Here's a picture we got from a guy Joe works with - he's at least 6 foot tall - check out those drifts in his driveway - he didn't make it to work today!!

Favorite Photo Friday

This one has a story: Chloe came to me the other morning with a chocolate ring all over her mouth (ok, to be honest I was hoping it was chocolate and not potting soil or cat poop!!!) and so I asked her, "Chloe, did you eat some chocolate?" She answered, "No Mommy - I no eat chocolate." I said, "Oh, well what did you eat?" She stood there very quietly and looked at the carpet and that's when I saw itThe evidence - so I said, "Chloe, what is this?" And she so bravely replied, "That's the paper from my chocolate." Hmmmm, that's all I can say!!!! (Not really, I said more - we had a little talk about telling Mommy the truth!!!)

BLIZZARD

Just in case anyone is worried for me - you have good reason - I nearly died a million times this morning - ok, not a million but at least two!!! Yep, the weather man was correct AGAIN - this is the WORST storm we have seen in at least a decade. It started yesterday with freezing rain, turned to snow and snowed all night - is STILL snowing - and should continue through tomorrow evening. Now, the winds are picking up and they are claiming blizzard conditions. I'd say we have close to a foot of snow now already and another 6-7 inches are still to come. All of our major highways are closed, our whole downtown is closed (except the library - but it is to close in a couple of hours) - even our hospital is closed except for emergencies. SO - I have to go to work - I'm thinking - I'm in town, no sweat - in fact, Joe said it was even fine enough to get a coffee. So- I go to our local coffee shop - take the drive through - get my coffee - now the trick - the drive through is uphill - duh, why didn't I think of that BEFORE?!?!? So - I attempt the exit - twice - no way this van is going up that hill - I back out of the drive through - yes, for those of you who know how I back up, that was a feat!! Ok, out of that parking lot - I make it to the library - now the library has a slight incline to make it into their parking lot - I tried twice - ended up sliding back out into traffic both time - oh yes, traffic AND honking - give me a break, like I would purposefully back out into traffic!!! So - I tried TWO more times to get in - finally, the last time, I gave it all the van's got - I never let up on the gas and gunned my way into that lot - I MADE IT!!! Yeah, I made it all right - who knew if I'd get out though in four hours!!

Yep, four hours later - I go out to get into my van - which you can hardly see because of all the snow and blowing - but you also can't see the sidewalk - totally misjudged that one too and ended up on my butt sitting in the parking lot. Oh man, I was just waiting for candid camera! I did manage to get home - had to take two runs to get up my very small road and then FIVE runs to get into the driveway, which Joe had snowblowed just an hour before!!! I made it in, shut the garage door, and prayed that my family hadn't seen me. Whew - they were all eating and missed the whole show.

Needless to say, doubt I'll be going anywhere for a day or two!! The library IS closing, the groceries stores are locking up, they are calling all the plows in and where are my boys?????? Out in the snow of course, now mind you, I did warn them of the blizzard where many children died (I had to do it - I'm reading that book RIGHT NOW and I couldn't let them go out unaware!!!). So they are properly prepared and have strict instructions to STAY TOGETHER - they think I'm a nut!!! :)

Lest you think I'm complaining - not me - I LOVE this stuff - BRING IT ON!!! But just let me stay home now - that was enough adventure for one day!! (or for one WINTER!!!)