We Love Homewood Day

We Love Homewood!  May 5, 2012

Just the 6 of us! My beautiful family!

Here are some pictures from our We Love Homewood Day celebration.  I love this community.  I love that so many of the people we run into here grew up here as children, moved away, and returned here to raise their children here.  I think it speaks volumes to have left the nest and then to have such a conviction about the community and schools to come back to raise your family here.  I love this place.

Homewood High School Band performance

Chris Loves Capt. America

Avengers opening weekend; appropriate art!

May the 4th be with you

So that's my dork card for the day - May the 4th be with you!

With two girls, two boys, a hubby, a house, and a job I never get to blog anymore.  Here's a quick update on what's happening.

We were able to attend Art Connection last Sunday in Linn Park.  It's an annual event that I just LOVE!  I wait for it every year!  Hubby and I took the girls in our newly acquired double stroller.  It was a really beautiful day and we enjoyed the time we had looking at artwork and enjoying live performances.  Our boys weren't with us that weekend so we got them each a little prize.  Our oldest got a bookmark made from woven cloth that has a durable painted finish.  The younger got a T-shirt with a dancing skeleton money on it; a replica of a 3D art piece we saw in that artist's booth.

We attempted to get Baby J's 1mth checkup on Monday 4/30, but due to some paperwork issues we were turned away and rescheduled for Wednesday 5/2.  All turned out well because the Dr. Buckingham is AWESOME!  She really seems to care about her patients and even went so far as to give a follow-up call to me yesterday checking on Baby J's reaction to the new formula we're trying.  The new formula smells terrible... Baby J has gained a couple of pounds and is up to 8lb 12 oz.  She hasn't grown any in length and is holding at 19".  She's very sweet but is still having some issues.  She is sleeping a little longer at night and that is always a blessing.

We had our worker visits for May on Tuesday. Baby Girl's worker surprised me when she told me she was going to file the TPR paperwork! She said that there are still a couple of hurdles, but that she believes they are more formality than not. She's filing TPR concurrently just so we can expedite as much as possible. Her last words of course were, "but nothing's final til it's final." Every step closer to making Baby Girl ours makes me breathe a little easier.  She is our daughter and we love her so very much! I just want the paperwork done!  I know it's all moving VERY fast for what's typical of the system, but I want it done now :)

Tonight we're having a BBQ with friends.  I'm so excited!  It's the first BBQ of the season and we're sharing it with some of our closest friends.  We are so thankful for the love and support we have from these folks!

 Tomorrow is We Love Homewood Day!!  This is another event I wait all year for!  This year our boys are IN the parade with their karate group!  I'm very excited about it.  It's an all day affair in the community with like a carnival in the park in the morning, the parade in the evening, and it culminates with a dance in the street!  This is my "1950's date" with my husband each year.  I love it.  I love that we'll get to have all of our children with us this year.  I love that we're able to do this for the first time with our girls this year.  How a year can change our lives.



I love my life.  I love my husband.  I love my boys. I love these girls.  I am so very blessed.

Honesty

I hate having to temper what I really want to say with what is socially acceptable. That seems to be a continuing dialogue between hubby and I. I, at times unfortunately, see things in black and white. I know there are many shades of gray, but alas black and white are easier to deal with most of the time.
I wish we were both able to tell the people in our lives the truth instead of candy- coated garbage to make it more digestible.
Maybe I'll make a varied list of things I don't say and want to say?

Karate and two girls

The boys had karate belt testing last week. Unfortunately I missed the testing, but I was able to see the boys get their belts yesterday! The oldest got his yellow belt black stripe and the younger got his yellow belt. I'm very happy for them and proud of their continued progress.

Baby Girl just turned 4mths old! How time flies! Her checkup revealed she is now 15lbs and 25" tall!! She's come a long way from the tiny preemie that arrived here. In fact, she's grown so much we're able to change formula to regular not preemie! I love this Baby Girl so very much. I never get tired of hearing the MD tell me she's perfect.

Baby J went for a hearing screen this morning. She had failed in the hospital. Thank the Lord, this child passed. She can hear in both ears!! She's scheduled to have a visit with her birth mom tomorrow. I'm praying it goes well.

Love all my children. Love that wonderful man who lives and provides for us all.

Family of 6 - Our Second Foster Placement

Our family of five became a family of six last Saturday.  I picked up our second foster placement from the hospital on Saturday afternoon.  It's interesting having two girls within 4 months of each other.  It's not like having twins.  They're in two very different development stages.  Baby Girl is learning to roll over and has just begun sleeping through the night with some consistency (praise God).  Baby J is a newborn, just 3 weeks old today.  While it has it's moments of hectic, I'm actually loving it.  They're schedules are just a little off so it makes feeding/changing time a little easier.  Baby J is on a pretty good schedule so the nights are easy to predict.

My boys have opened their hearts to our new Baby J.  There seemed concern that we wanted to adopt Baby J too.  After we shared Baby J's story with them and that at this time we expect this to be a reunification, the boys were more at ease.  They're such great little men and have huge hearts, they want to help take care of these girls that need us all.  My boys are incredible and I am so proud of them.  I love them so much.  

I had expected this to be a very short placement based on the information the hospital shared with us about the situation.  As it turns out some of their information wasn't correct.  Court proceedings have Baby J with us through the summer at a minimum.  She's a sweet little thing and we're gonna do our best to help her thrive.

We have been blessed with these two precious girls in our care.  I just hope we're strong enough for all that comes with it. We have also been blessed with so many amazing friends who have volunteered their time for babysitting or their clothes and equipment for baby care.  We are so blessed by each of you.  Thank you all so much.

Easter 2012 aka My Birthday

I have to admit, Easter is my least favorite holiday.  It has been since I was a little girl.  I think in part it has to do with the fact that every few years my birthday falls on Easter.  In general I don't ever "celebrate" my birthday, but I was excited this year to celebrate with my family since we'd all be gathered for Easter anyways.  I always host Easter at our house.  Much like Thanksgiving it's great to be able to have both my parents over to see all our kids at one time.  Anyways,  I normally do a big dinner, much like I do in the fall, but this year I delegated and I chose an easy entree.

For Easter/Birthday dinner, I made Paula Deen's Company Pasta, only with chicken since I'm allergic to shrimp.  It's very easy and is delicious!  I had made it once before just for our family to try it out, but it's always more complicated when you start enlarging a recipe. Anyways, here's the link if you'd like to try it at home.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/company-shrimp-and-mushroom-pasta-recipe/index.html

We were blessed to have so much of our family and friends to celebrate the day with us.  Here are some pictures.

Baby Girl's First Tea Party

Baby Girl and I hosted our first Tea Party this Saturday.  I know she's too little, but I have waited for my little girl for a very long time! Our menu was only the finest for our little guests:  pb&j's cut out with no crust, pretzel sticks, cheese biscuits with honey butter, cookies, cupcakes with sprinkles, and fruits cut into shapes for fun, easy eating.  We also had some chicken salad for the grown-ups.  Oh, and of course, "Tea" - aka Raspberry Lemonade!  We had SO much fun!