Bound For China

Check out the Wild Olive Tee's

2009-05-28T10:01:00.000-04:00

I would like to promote some really cool T-Shirts. I think these shirts are awesome looking and I think the woman that started this business is pretty cool too (Stephanie is in the process of adopting her 5th Chinese doll and has 4 bio kids too!).

Anyway hop on over to Wild Olive and check out these cool t-shirts that come with their very own verses on the back. They come in classic and fitted.

Tennessee Vacation

2009-05-27T17:38:00.012-04:00

Over Memorial Day weekend we took a mini vacation to Pigeon Forge, TN. We only got to spend a couple days but it was a great get-away. We started out by going horse back riding. Olivia was so excited because it was the first time she has ridden a horse and she got to ride it all by herself (the guide did have a tow rope to help guide her). Thankfully she was in the front with the guide cause after 9 hours in the car with that jabberbox we were happy that someone else got to listen to her chatter for an hour. I told Mike to give the guide a good tip because she earned her money on that ride.

Next we went to Cirque de Chine (basically a Chinese Acrobat show). That was really neat. Olivia sat for two hours mesmorized. We weren't allowed to take our camera's in but at the end I got a shot of Olivia with a couple of the performers with my cell phone.

The girls got to do some swimming in our hotel. We got to meet up with some relatives that live just a few miles from where we were at. We got to eat lunch with Ken and Bev and get some pointers on things to do while we were there.

We also took a drive through some of the Smokey Mountains. Going someplace like this reminds me that I am so small in this world. God's handiwork just amazes me.

On our way home we took a detour to Bloomington and stopped in to see Katie. We took her out to supper and got to visit for a little bit before heading home to get a little relaxation in before bed.

ENGAGED!

2009-05-25T22:49:00.004-04:00

My Baby Boy is Engaged!!!! Evan proposed to his girlfriend tonight while walking on the beach in Florida (they are on vacation with her family). I am so excited. Lexie is an absolute doll and we can't wait to add her to our family!

Olivia's 5th Birthday!

2009-05-22T10:20:00.018-04:00

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

2009-05-20T10:04:00.002-04:00

Today is my baby girl's 5th birthday!!! Yeah. She is having so much fun. I wished her a happy birthday this morning and she hugged me as if she had won the lottery. Grandma Fetter and big sis Katie called her and sang happy birthday and her eyes lit up and the smile on her face is undescribeable. We had barbeque chicken, wild rice, corn and a plate full of apple slices, oranges and strawberries (the birthday meal she requested). Then cupcakes for dessert. She felt like a princess all day.

We had a family/friend birthday party for her this last weekend and I will post some pictures as soon as I get them downloaded.

Fundraiser

2009-05-19T15:35:00.006-04:00

I have launched a new fundraiser...click here to reach the site.

Last year my mom and step dad had a wonderful girl stay with them as an exchange student. Her name is Juliene and she is from the Philipines. She was able to come to the US because of a scholarship that was offered to her. This Spring my mom was able to travel to the Philipines to see Juliene again and got a chance to see her living conditions. We knew she came from a poor family but we never realized how poor they were. While there my mom and step father committed to build Juliene's family a new home (their current home has three rooms, dirt floors and rusty countertops. They have pigs living practically in the next room, which helps to supply some income). They are also trying to help Juliene's mother take her test to become a nurse and want to put Juliene through college. There are 4 children in the family plus their parents. Juliene is an excellent student and a bright and energetic girl. I am kicking off this fundraiser to try to help raise the funds for the above items plus to help provide money for milk, fruit and dental care for the kids.

The fundraiser is an easy and great one. We all have magazines subscriptions. At this site you can renew or order new magazines. The prices are as good if not better than the prices directly from the publisher. We will then get 40% of the price added to our fund. Please check it out. Help out Juliene and her family.

If you would rather donate directly to the fund leave me a message with your email and I will get my address to you.

Below are some pictures of Juliene and her family.... (Juliene is in the purple in the last picture.)

Chicago

2009-05-14T08:39:00.008-04:00

Katie came home on Monday for a couple days. Yeah! This will be the first summer that she won't be home. She is now living down in Bloomington year round. She finished up finals last week (straight A's again!) and came to see us for a little break. On Tuesday I took all three girls to Chicago for a girls day out. We went to Chinatown and the Lincoln Park Zoo. It was a beautiful day and a nice day to get out and walk and just hang out.

Update #2

2009-05-07T10:00:00.003-04:00

Okay I promised I would also talk about the positives of apartment living.....

About the middle of July I would say I am happy to not be doing yard and landscaping work. I am missing it right now, but I know when it is hot out I will be happy to not have to do it. (Apparently they don't do it here either since the grass is not about 14 inches long.) The utility bills are small. Our highest was about $100 and I think our lowest should be under $50. That is really nice. Even running two woodburners our bills were higher than that in our big house. Smaller living space = faster cleaning time. Can't complain about that. I am getting some exercise using the stairs. I love the location. I am 7 miles from ANY store or restaurant you can think of. We are learning to live with less. When something needs to be fixed I don't have to put it on Mike's to do list, I just call the office. (Unfortunatley Mike does a better job fixing things than these yahoo's).

We have Olivia all signed up for kindergarten. Oh man is this girl ready. All she talks about is going to school. She had an assessment test a month ago and the results came back yesterday. She is ready. The one bad thing about kindergarten round up being early in the Spring is that she has to wait 6 months for school to start. It is almost more than she can bare.

Morgan gets out of school on June 10th. The summer I am sure will be full of things and activities. I know she is going to want to go back to Middlebury a bunch for things going on there. She is really doing well here though too. She made the honor roll again, she has a best friend, Courtney, that lives across the street from us so they are always hanging out together. Yesterday they walked to the park to play tennis. She loves her youth group pastor. She seems to like most of her teachers too. I am really proud of her and how fast she was able to adjust. She is such a great kid. She is growing up so fast and she is the spitting image of her older sister. UGH! Boys beware. Dad is gonna be on the warpath.

Katie is finishing up her finals this week. She is coming to stay with us next week before she starts her summer classes. She is doing great too. She should make the Dean's list again this semester, has her internship set up for next year and this summer will start applying to the Physical Therapy schools for her graduate school. She broke up with her boyfriend of almost 3 years last month and has been struggling some with that.

Evan is busy working! Lots of hours. He is planning something big for this month, but I can't tell yet.

Mike is stressed out at work, but glad to be working. He won't be working the hours this year that he has in the past, but with the economy the way it is, we are just glad to be getting a paycheck.

Thanks for checking in. I will try to do better.

Update #1 and negatives

2009-05-06T09:33:00.001-04:00

Okay Okay I know I am really lagging here on the blogging agenda. A whole month! I skipped a whole month. Now I am sure a few of you are thinking...wow she must be really busy...she hasn't had time to blog. LOL!!! I know the majority know the truth. I am a slacker! I am on the computer everyday. Sometimes several hours a day. I faithfully read all my favorite blogs but to sit down and write something here....I guess you could say I have writers block. I feel like my life is so boring I can't think of anything to write about. (How many times have I already said all of this?)

Sometimes I feel like I can't blog if I don't have some good pictures to post. Sadly my pictures are HORRIBLE compared to my bloggy friends. I really want a new camera. I looked at mine the other day and realized I have such a bad outdated camera (it has only 3.1 mega pixels) that my cell phone has a better camera in it. No wonder my pictures are always so crappy. I gotta save up for a new camera.

We are doing well. STILL waiting for our house to sell. We are getting very few showings at this time, so I am not counting on much happening there. We have been in our little apartment now for 6 months and it is okay. There are many things that I don't like. The girls share a bedroom so Olivia is up every morning at 6:30 cause that is when Morgan gets up. We have so much of our stuff packed away that I can't find anything I need (see next story). I can't paint my stark white apartment so I feel like I am living in a hospital. The parking is terrible here. If you come home any time after 8:00PM you have to park a couple buildings over. We have no handicap people in our apartment building so everyone uses the handicap spaces. (Yes, it is sad and yes even we do). Well yesterday Mike went out and had a parking ticket. UGH! We have been parking like this for 6 months along with everyone else. In fact the handicap spaces are normally filled too. They are just like other spaces for us. (Besides our apartment building is not handicap accessible anyway. To get to any apartment you have to use stairs!) Crap!!! There goes $50. They haven't mowed the yard yet this spring. (Evidently the mowers are being worked on.) Well at this time when I put Annie out to go potty, you just see the grass moving where she is walking. The poor dog probably feels like she is in a jungle. Thankfully the apartments are pretty quiet. The only noise that really gets to me is the upstairs apartment. The first 4 months they were quiet. These last two months I think there is a family of elephants living up there. I am sure of it.

(Okay here is your story). A couple weeks ago I realized I didn't have Mike's summer clothes tub out. Didn't know where it was. I dug around for a couple hours and finally found the dumb thing. It was under our patio table in the back of the storage garage. In fact it was wedged under there. The support bars from the table were holding the lid down. I had cleared a path to the table, the table was piled high with stuff and I was hot sweaty and mad. I contemplated just going and buying Mike a new summer wardrobe, but knew that was not possible. I cleaned the table off a little so that it could be lifted about 2 inches. Problem now was that I couldn't lift the table and get the lid off the tub at the same time. So, I waited until Mike got home and we went out together. He lifted the table while I laid on my back, on the pallets lining the floor, wedged between his legs cause there was barely enough room for both of us in that little corner. When he lifted the table I worked quickly to unsnap and slide the lid off the tub. Mike then put the table down and I continued to lay on my back and hand him clothes from the tub 1 or 2 pieces at a time until it was empty. So now we have an empty tub in the back of the garage...but at least we have his clothes. (I am glad I have a crappy camera...those would not have been good pics.)

Well, I will post again on the positives so that you all don't think I have a real negative outlook on life. :)

Our Mini Reunion

2009-03-24T10:00:00.013-04:00

This weekend Morgan, Olivia and I made a trip down to Kentucky. We were part of a little reunion with our adoption group. When we went to China there were several families that traveled together. We got several of those families together to celebrate our "Gotcha Day" in China three years ago. It was so much fun. I have not seen any of these little "babies" for three years and they are getting so grown up. Olivia is the oldest of the group by almost a year (and still the littlest!).

Sophie, Makana, Gianna, Emily, Ava and Olivia

Sophie eating pizza!

Beautiful Emily.

The hostess...MakanaFunny Gianna.

Hilarious Ava. What a doll. A little Chinese girl with a southern accent. TOO CUTE!

Olivia and her buddy Ava.

Olivia and Ava putting on tattoos.

Before and After

2009-03-19T13:35:00.001-04:00

Chester got his summer cut...

Gotcha Day Anniversary

2009-03-13T23:16:00.002-04:00

Three years ago today Little Miss Olivia Guan was placed in our arms in China and we became a family of 6.

Olivia March 2009

New Family Members....temporarily!

2009-03-02T11:05:00.005-05:00

Okay so here is the scoop. For Christmas we bought Evan a couple Bearded Dragons. As a kid he always wanted a lizard. There was no way I was gonna have any reptiles living in my house so we always said no. Well, he is on his own now...living in his own apartment. So, mom gets this great idea to surprise him with a couple easy to care for pets. I think he really liked them. The biggest problem is that there is something he wants/likes more than his pets......his girlfriend (soon to be fiance'). He is an EMT so he is at work a lot (24-48 hour shifts) so he said he was having a hard time taking care of them and getting them fed etc. I hated the thought of these little creatures dying so I said I would take them back. He said "That would be great, Lexie will be happy." Ah-ha! The girlfriend has all the pull. :) So this weekend we picked them up. The plan is to try to sell one of them right away. I will feed the other one for a while and either sell it or Katie might take it. They are currently about 8 inches long but will grow to 18-24". They are pretty fun to watch and feed. I have not touched them yet. Mike will hold them and Olivia likes to pet them. I don't touch them and Morgan stands on the couch when they are out in case one "gets loose". HAHA! So meet Sherman and Willie....

The picure above is at night. For some reason Willie likes to sleep standing up. Last night when I went to bed this was his position. Standing up hanging on to the little tree. This was still his position when I got up this morning.

The night before this was his position all night. Propped in the corner in what I call the "You are under arrest" pose. He was like this all night. I don't get it, but if he is comfy... I guess all is good.

They love crickets and little mealworms. They will also be getting a diet of greens and veggies. I have discovered that crickets are VERY expensive. (About 12 cents each and they can eat 15 each a day...you do the math). I have found a place to get them wholesale. I gotta buy 250 minimum. That means I will have a tub of crickets in my little apartment. Most people don't know that crickets STINK! I can't wait for nice weather so they can sit outside on the patio.

Anyone in the market for a bearded dragon????

Happy 23rd Birthday Evan!

2009-02-22T21:33:00.003-05:00

Day in Chicago

2009-02-21T21:24:00.011-05:00

So today we spent the afternoon in Chicago. Tomorrow is Evan's birthday and his girlfriend decided to surprise him with a trip to Chicago. We made arrangements to meet them in Chi-town and then take them out to eat (all a surprise to Evan). We went to town early and hung out at the Children's museum. Here are a few pics from our outing.

Ramblings...

2009-01-31T23:05:00.003-05:00

I love facebook! I have been on it for a year or so but haven't really done much with it. The last couple of months I have been on it several times a day. Slightly addicted actually. I have been connecting with so many people. Many of them from my high school days. Many are just my friends and church family back home that I don't get to see anymore. There are even a few from our adoption group that I haven't seen in almost three years. It is great.

I keep saying it but I really mean it. I want Spring to come. I like having a white Christmas. But other than that one week of Christmas, I would be fine with temps above 50 the rest of the winter. I guess the writing is on the wall....once retirement age hits I will be a snowbird and fly south for the winter.

We are all adjusting to our move. Morgan has had the hardest time, but sheis actually coming around even faster than I thought. Thirteen is such a tough age to deal with change. Especially when you have to leave everything/everyone you love behind. She is making friends at her new school. She even had a friend come and spend the night last night. She is getting there. It isn't home yet, but I think her major fear of not fitting in is past.

I am enjoying being unemployed more than I thought. I don't know how much longer that will last though. I have inquired about bus driving here, but the pay is about $6.50 less an hour. That is hard to take. Doing the same work (maybe even tougher work because of the area) and making that much less....I don't know it just doesn't excite me much.

What I have been doing some checking into is going back to school. Nothing fancy or too long of a commitment. I am looking at becoming an MA (Medical Assistant). Less schooling than a nurse but about the same type of work. I would be most interested in working in a doctors office or a clinic. Don't really want hospital hours. The main thing I have to get worked out is finding child care for Olivia. Part of the problem is that she is suppose to start Kindergarten next fall so I need to decide if I put her into a daycare with a Kindergarten program or find out if there is a daycare that she can go to after school. I wish they had all day Kindergarten like back home. That would make it easier.

We are really settling in to our new church. Each week we feel a little less like strangers. Tomorrow we are having a Super Bowl party at the Pastor's house. We are in a small group with him and his wife. We normally have the Super Bowl party, but since we are in this dinky apartment right now it will be a while before we are hosting any parties.

Well, I better sign off...I feel like I have been on the computer all day. :)

I wil leave you with one of my favorite pics...

Happy Anniversary Sweetheart

2009-01-25T15:34:00.002-05:00

Today Mike and I have been married for 23 years!!! I can't believe how fast the last 23 years have gone by. I can't believe how young we were too!!! Just kids!

Winter Wonderland

2009-01-20T17:10:00.004-05:00

UGH! It just keeps snowing and is cold. I am ready for Spring. The temps are a little better here, but we got a few more inches of snow today. Being here at the apartment has made winter seem harder this year. #1 I am missing my woodburners. I don't miss lugging in the wood and getting up at night to add more wood, but I do miss the bone warming heat. The "It is so cozy in here" feeling that you don't even care that it is 15 below outside. #2 I am really missing my garage. Having to go out every morning to either chip ice off of my car or scrape off the snow is a real pain. At first I didn't even want to start it to warm it since it is in a parking lot and once it is started, I can't lock it. Well, after the first week of freezing temps I didn't give a flying rip if someone took my car. It needed to be preheated.

Last Thursday was Morgan's last day of the Semester at her old school. Today was suppose to be the first day at her new school. Even though there was no school on Friday for the middle school the high school had a snow day because of dangerous temps. That messed up the middle school schedule so their semester doesn't end now until tomorrow. UGH! They could have told us that before we got up at 6 AM today and got to the school by 7! So, we went back today after lunch (they only have half days today and tomorrow) and Morgan got her schedule, locker assignment and got to walk around the school. She doesn't have to start until Thursday now.

This is really dragging things out. I am getting really frustrated with all her moodiness. I do feel bad for her. I know she is nervous to start a new school and sad to leave the old, but her ups and downs are leading me to insanity.

Here is a picture of my little guy Chester just cause he is cute. ;)

Morgan's Music Video

2009-01-16T16:07:00.001-05:00

Morgan had to make a music video for her music class. She picked on of her favorite songs and put pictures to it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZUmiJv8Bew

China, baby!

2009-01-14T11:08:00.002-05:00

My friend Rebecca & her hubby Andy are in China right now getting her little boy. Little Owen is such a cutie. You can see him on their blog. http://www.ourfamilyjournal.com/

Olivia's dance and tumble

2009-01-14T09:46:00.006-05:00

*Sorry for the blurry pics. I have a crappy camera and my zoom doesn't really work.

Christmas at Evan's Apartment

2009-01-02T16:25:00.013-05:00

What a crazy 10 days!

2008-12-30T23:24:00.002-05:00

Last Sunday (the 21st) we woke up to no electricity. That wouldn't be a real big deal but we had the night before picked up two bearded dragons (lizards) for Evan for Christmas. These particular lizards need 100 degree heat lamps on them. Since we didn't know how long we would be without electricity we decided to pack up a day early and head back to Middlebury. We were staying with my brother and his family. They don't have Internet so I was going through some major withdrawal.

We had Christmas with Mike's family on Monday night and Morgan still had school on Tuesday. We basically just hung around Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday night we spent the night at Evan's apartment. We got up Christmas morning and had a wonderful Christmas with all the kids. I made lunch for us and we spent most of the afternoon just hanging out. THat evening it was back to my brother's for Christmas with my dad and his new wife, my mom and step dad and my brother and his family. That night we went to my dad's to spend the night because my mom was staying with my brother. Friday we got iced in most of the day. We finally made it back to my brother's to spend more time with mom. Saturday we just hung around and that evening we got to Evan came over with his girlfriend and we got to meet her for the first time. We enjoyed the evening with all our kids.

The next morning dark and early Mike took Morgan and I to church to board a bus. The two of us were on our way to Grand Rapids Michigan for a three day youth conference (I was one of the chaperones). It was a great and very tiring three days. When Mike picked us up this afternoon at church we made a beeline for home. I am so tired of living out of suitcases. I am tired of sleeping in different beds. I am tired of not being able to cook in my own kitchen. It is so nice to be home.

I hope to be posting some pictures in the next couple of days. My camera is dead so I will get to it soon.

Tomorrow Katie is coming along with one of her college friends and Sunny her boyfriend. They are spending the night in OUR apartment and then on New Year's Day taking the train to Chicago for the day. MORE CRAZINESS! :)

2008-12-13T09:18:00.005-05:00

Olivia's new best friend....

2008-12-11T09:22:00.000-05:00

Olivia has a new best friend here in our new town. We had her over

for a play date the other day.

Happy Birthday Mike!

2008-12-01T09:10:00.000-05:00

Morgan made daddy's cake for him.

Thanksgiving Happiness

2008-11-30T23:22:00.002-05:00

Thanksgiving was really nice this year. We got to see Michael's family for dinner. Then headed to my brother's to visit with them and my mom and stepdad who were here from Iowa. Then we went to my dad's to spend the night so we got to see him and my stepmom. Evan came over when he got off of work to visit with us too. The following day (after I braved the 4:00am rush of shoppers-yes I am one of those idiots that goes out uber early) we headed back here to Crown Point. My mom and stepdad followed and we got to show them around and take them out for supper. The next day Katie and Sunny came over to see the apartment for the first time. We put up the tree and other decorations. Then we went shopping-yeah baby! We went out to eat to celebrate Mike's birthday and then after homemade cake Katie and Sunny headed home and took Morgan with them so I wouldn't have to drive her back today. Today was just a slow relaxing day. I wrapped some presents, cleaned and pretty much chilled out. Mike has been sick for the last week so I told him he wasn't allowed to do anything but lay around and watch westerns and try to recouperate.

All in all it was a pretty nice weekend. It was hard not having Katie home with us (she wanted to stay in Middlebury cause that is where Sunny is). Evan worked most of the weekend but we got to spend a couple hours with him. Being out of the area for the first holiday was a little strange. Mike was really sad last night when the girls left. Things just seemed empty. He said "I am going to bed to sulk." We got to see pretty much all of our family though so that was nice.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.

Apartment Living Part III - Movin storage

2008-11-29T22:38:00.004-05:00

We have a 10 X 20 storage unit that is full. (This picture doesn't show how far back all the stuff goes). We have decided to move everything to a storage unit at our apartment complex. It is the same size, $20/mo cheaper and if I need anything all I have to do is walk across the parking lot instead of driving 8 miles. As of today we have moved 8 loads and are not even half way. This is gonna be a long weekend.

Apartment Living Part 2

2008-11-25T20:33:00.000-05:00

Well a couple nights ago while watching TV we hear some sirens and see the flash of lights out our window. I run out the door to see what is going on. There is an ambulance and an emergency vehicle. Then a firetruck comes down the highway. Wait a minute. They are all stopping in our parking lot. Wait another minute they are running to the second entrance to our building! Uh oh- here comes the ladder truck next. Well, I was freezing so I ran in to get a blanket. It must not have been too serious because they never evacuated our building. When I came back out a few minutes later one of the firemen rolled a fan on wheels out of the building. I am assuming someone had a cooking mishap and caught something on fire. (At least it wasn't the schmucks...you know....the idiots who let their horn blow for 40 minutes at 4:00 am.)

Apartment Living Part 1

2008-11-23T00:11:00.000-05:00

So the other morning about 3:45 or so I wake up to a very annoying sound. It is a car horn. Long, continious and irritating. I roll over and ask Mike "What in the heck is that?" He says it is someone's car alarm going off. We lay there for 35 minutes listening to this. At one point I ask him if it is one of his trucks. He says "No, I don't have an alarm on either one of them." By now we are getting very irritated. I cannot believe the schmuck that owns this car is not turning it off. Finally we get up (cause Mike had to get up in 20 minutes anyway and we weren't getting any sleep). It is really bugging me that this horn is still blaring. I suggest that he go out and check things out. He agrees to appease me.......he is gone for 5 minutes or so. The blaring stops. He comes back in and says sheepishly...."It was my truck." UGH! When he got out there, there was a cop standing by his truck and he asks him if it is his. They pop the hood and find the fuse to stop the horn. They both get a chuckle out of it. Mike tells the cop "My wife was in there complaining about the schmuck that wouldn't turn his alarm off-and she even wondered if it was our truck." The cop laughs at him and says "At least you didn't call it in...and then find out it was yours."

I am suprised there wasn't a lynch mob in the parking lot waiting for him. We haven't even seen any damage done to the truck. Go figure.

Settled!

2008-11-12T09:47:00.002-05:00

Well we are all moved into our little apartment. We were unpacked the same night we moved in. HAHA! That is just the way I am. I kept thinking I have all week to unpack but I just kept emptying one box after another. Mike worked on our bedroom and closet. My big job was the kitchen. The apartment really isn't too bad. Better than living in a camper for sure. Two big adjustments I had to make was drawer space in the kitchen. I went from 10 drawers in my "house" kitchen to 2 drawers in my apartment kitchen. WHAT??? Only two drawers??? Heck I had 4 junk drawers at the house. Where was I going to put everything? The bathroom was another issue. My bathroom at the house had 4 drawers and a linen cabinet. Here I have no drawers. Just the vanity. Yesterday I had to go buy one of those cabinet things that sit over the toilet. I think that will help alot.

Today I think Olivia and I are going to venture out to the library. See if we can get signed up. I am hoping they have some kids computers there so we can kill some time there and maybe get a few books and computer games.

We are also trying to find a day/twin bed with a trundle under it for the girls room.

Morgan is doing good at home with Adam and Esther. I miss her a bunch though. I can't wait to see her on Friday when I go get her. We are going to celebrate her birthday this weekend and shop for the trundle bed.

Well, time for a shower! Bye for now.

Twas the night before moving....

2008-11-07T22:19:00.008-05:00

and I am a glutton for punishment.

Morgan's birthday is next weekend. So, I decide we should have her birthday party this weekend...the last weekend at our home. I say "Have as many friends as you want. Make it a great bash!" DUMMY!!!

We have 9 teeny boppers running around. DANG are they loud! We played Truth or Dare balloon style. We ate pizza, we ate puppy chow, we ate cake, we ate oreos and popcorn and went through five 2 liter bottles of pop! Talk about a sugar high. Plus in the middle of this I am trying to do last minute packing and washing of clothes and bedding. I have to get up in the morning and make french toast for all the girls and get them packed up to leave before the trailer comes at 11:00 to start loading our stuff.

I am really glad to give this party for Morgan but now I need a sleeping pill and my earplugs.

My house is a MESS!

2008-11-06T13:22:00.002-05:00

BIG NEWS...We are moving!

2008-10-27T18:25:00.002-04:00

In case you caught the "Tagged" entry and the line about the apartment (good catch Steph) we are moving. No, our house has not sold yet. (SUCKS!) Mike and I decided about a week ago that he needed his own place. Living with his brother is not working out. Mike wanted to get a 2 BR apartment so the girls and I could just move over there with him. I didn't want to leave our house empty or rent to strangers. Mike mentioned it to our youth pastor and his new wife. They said they would love to "rent" our house and finally not be living with other people. They are going to keep our home occupied and clean it for showings. They have even offered to let Morgan stay with them until Semester break in January.

This last weekend I went apartment shopping and found one. A small one. Dang...apartments are tiny and not so cheap. We filled out an application.

I gave my two weeks notice at work today and started the dubious task of sorting out what goes to the apartment, what goes to the storage unit and what stays here at the house.

Mike is relieved that he won't have to live with Greg anymore, Olivia is excited to move and be with daddy, Morgan is stressed about changing schools and I...well...I am still a little numb cause this is all happening so fast.

Pumpkin Carvin'

2008-10-26T16:23:00.008-04:00

Help Bring Sweet Owen Home

2008-10-25T17:48:00.002-04:00

Rebecca and her family are so close to bringing sweet little Owen home! They still need to come up with some major funds though for their trip. Here is your chance to hop over to her site and enter into a drawing and win great stuff while helping them to collect some big bucks for their trip! Use the box to the right to get there.

Tagged!

2008-10-25T17:15:00.002-04:00

I have been tagged by my good friend Lee-Anne from Australia

Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you and post the rules.
2. Share 7 random or weird facts about yourself.
3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and link to them.
4. Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I am a tightwad. My husband used to tease me that I was so tight you could hear my buttcheeks squeak when I walked down the isle of the grocery store. I buy Sunday papers just for the coupons.

2. I love crime shows. CSI, NCIS, Law & Order SVU, Law & Order NY, Bones, Criminal Minds etc. The gorier the better.

3. I HATE haunted houses and horror movies. You wouldn't catch me in or watching either one.

4. I love Spongebob. I think he is a cool little character.

5. I hate having painted nails because I hate nails with chipped paint on them. I don't like taking the time to paint my nails either. Katie will do her nails 3x a week and it seems like such a waste of time to me.

6. I have never lived in an apartment before. At the age of 40 I am about to live in an apartment for the first time in my life.

7. Have had MANY pets. Dogs (can't even list all the breeds), parakeets, cockatiels, hampsters, gerbils, guniea pigs, ferrets, cats, horses, pony, goats. A few other animals that I wouldn't call pets: pigs, chickens, ducks, calves and sheep.

Now, to tag the seven people I am suppose to tag:

Melissa at An Invisible Thread
Julia at Trawick Family Antics
Regina at No Greater Joys
Rhonda at Worth the Wait

That is all I can come up with at the time. Many of the blogs I read are either password protected or they have already been tagged.

Trunk or Treating at church

2008-10-23T11:59:00.006-04:00

New Motto

2008-10-09T09:59:00.003-04:00

This last week I watched an Oprah show. I used to love Oprah. Now I watch her cautiously. I am not too excited about her values and her beliefs. I believe the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ. I do not believe this is something I can do myself or even using the power within to get there.

That being said, I do like some of her shows. This last week she had a show on etiquette. At first I thought "boring!" I am nice person with a courteous attitude. Well, I started to realize I have some work to do. A couple of the items that struck me was a convience store clerk being interviewed. She talked about how she gets blamed for things that are not in her control. She also said that people will come into the store talking on their cell phone, conduct their business and never even acknowledge her. I thought ""Oh my goodness-I am sure I do that." Not so much so that the person behind the counter means nothing to me but I am just too wrapped up in my own busyness to acknowledge other people sometimes. So, I am vowing to not use my cell phone and when conducting business with any clerk I will look them in the eye, ask them how they are doing, smile and say "Have a nice day." Hopefully someone who might be having a bad day will come away feeling a little better that I have noticed them.

One other thing that I need to work on is conversations with waitresses/waiters. I am not real comfortable striking up a conversation with strangers but I have realized that a little bit of small talk and kindness will go a long way. I really want to work on being more aware of the people around me and making sure everywhere I go I am leaving some kindness behind.

Christened

2008-10-09T09:59:00.002-04:00

Well we have decided on a name for our new little guy. He is now known as Sir Chester Kolby Stahley. Affectionately known as Chester. (Kolby was his daddy's name.) He is a little imp. He started out very shy and skittish. That lasted about one day. He now romps, chews pounces and begs for food. He looks much bigger than he really is. Full grown he will be 7-8 pounds. I would guess right now he is a 3-4 pound fluff ball. Miss Annabelle (our Yorkie) is still not too sure about him.

Two days until my dad's wedding. Today Morgan gets to leave school early and go have a manicure date with Grandma Susie. A chance to spend some special time together. Tomorrow night is the rehearsal dinner. I am in charge of the meal. (God help us all!)

Katie is coming home for the wedding. It will be her first trip home since leaving for school two months ago. I know she is more than ready to get away and see us. School is going great but she is having some difficulties with her housemates. She needs her mama to take care of her for a couple days. :) She is bringing a friend home and her friend's one year old. We are pretty excited. It should be a busy weekend.

REMINDER! Today is the last day to go over to Rebecca's blog and sign up for her really cool Raffleaway.

Newest Stahley

2008-10-05T21:22:00.002-04:00

Haven't decided on a name yet. He is a 10 week old Maltese. Soft as cotton.

CASA

2008-09-30T21:44:00.004-04:00

So, I have decided instead of sitting around and sulking about our house not selling, I am going to go out and do some volunteering (You see driving a school bus, homeschooling a preschooler, driving a middle schooler to her activities and keeping up the house and yard while hubby lives two hours away is not enough).

I have signed up to be a CASA volunteer. If you don't know what that is I am going to be a Court Appointed Special Advocate. I am going to be the voice for a child in the court system. Children who are either removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect or in the court system for the same reason need someone to speak for them on their behalf. I will be assigned a child(ren) and my job is to get to know them, talk to their teachers, foster parents, doctors, therapists, case workers, biological parents and anyone else involved with them or their case. I gather information and spend time getting to know the child(ren) then I go to court and give my opinion on how their situation should be handled and also tell the judge what the child wants.

I am on my second week of a nine week training session. I am amazed at what kind of power the CASA's have. We can ask for ANY documentation that has to do with the case and medical or psychological records etc. The judge looks to the CASA just as much as they do the caseworker. If I don't agree with the caseworker I can actually take a stand against them because my job is to express what the best interest is of the child(ren).

Mike and I were foster parents a few years back. I would love to do that again, but Mike is not going for it. We had some pretty wild situations that came our way and he is not interested in getting involved it that again. (He knows his wife has a really hard time saying "no" and would take any child that needed a home.) I figured this was my way of being involved and helping out children that are in need without dragging my family into the middle of it. Hopefully I can keep it together and not get to emotionally involved......

Raffleway-CHECK IT OUT!!!

2008-09-28T21:33:00.004-04:00

Some friends of ours are getting ready to go to China to adopt a beautiful little boy. They are trying to come up with the funds for their upcoming trip.

Rebecca is having a raffleway for a beautiful jewelry set that is made by Lana and very talented young lady who was adopted at the age of 12 from China. You need to head on over to Rebecca's blog and check out this set and get your name in on the drawing. I personally believe this is a cute set for an adult or a younger girl. I had to get Morgan's name in on it.

No matter what, I would love for any of you who can to chip in and help Rebecca and her family bring little Owen home so he can know the love of a family!

The Flowergirl

2008-09-25T11:48:00.004-04:00

My dad is getting married on October 11th. Olivia is going to be a flowergirl. Here is the dress we picked out.

Our Little Ballerina

2008-09-23T12:28:00.003-04:00

Olivia started Pre-Ballet classes last night. She was so very excited. She can't wait until next week to go back.

* Note her ballet shoes were too small so we should be getting her new pair this week.

The end of summer.....

2008-09-21T16:54:00.002-04:00

Well today marks the end of summer. We closed the pool today. I hate closing the pool. For that matter I hate opening the pool, I hate cleaning the pool, I hate spending money on the pool...do ya get the picture. I remember last year when we closed the pool we said "Yeah! The last time we will ever have to close the pool." Little did we know that we would still be here and would have to once again do all the above to the pool including another closing. I won't say it again....for fear of a jinxing and another round of pool care next summer.

We did get an offer Friday on our house. It was a sucky offer though. Mike wanted to throw it away and not even respond he was so insulted. Luckily he was two hours away so yesterday I talked to our Realtor and we made a counter offer but we are soooo far apart I really don't see anything happening. They offered us less than what we paid for the place 6 years ago. In that six years we have added a two car garage, a pole barn, finished the basement (with 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, laundry room and rec room-pretty much doubling our living space). It was just ridiculous. It is such a frustrating process.

A family needs our prayers

2008-09-18T10:53:00.001-04:00

There is a family in China right now to get their little girl. When it was time to pick her up they found out she was in the hospital and may be dying. They are desperately trying to get things on the fast track so they can get her home to the US and better medical care. They are also praying for a miracle so she improves enough to make the trip home. Please pray for this family!

http://roomforatleastonemore.blogspot.com/

I'm Baaaaack!

2008-09-14T14:16:00.010-04:00

Well, back in July I did try to post a "I am taking a hiatus message" but it evidently didn't go through. I decided that I just needed to take a break for a while. I had been going through a depression and just needed to take some time to get myself back together.

So, to do some back tracking and updating....

The end of July was fair time for us. It wasn't as much fun as usual because we didn't camp out at the fair. We let someone else use our spot. If we are still here next year I will borrow someone's camper because I want a camper to go back to in the evenings!

We didn't have a goat this year but Morgan helped another family out that had three younger kids and they had brought about 20 goats. She got to show more this year than when she had her own goats.

She also was in dog club this year. Annie didn't cooperate so much for the obedience class, but did great in the showmanship class. Morgan got Champion! That was very exciting for her first year.

Last year we couldn't keep Olivia off of the rides. This year she begged and begged and when I finally picked a day to buy tickets she cried and cried and wanted nothing to do with them. I am not sure I understand this child.

Sometime at the end of July I also came to terms so to speak about our house being for sale. The area we live in is considered the RV capital of the world. That translates into "when the economy takes a hit our area takes a major nose dive." There has been company after company that is either laying lots of people off or closing their doors all together. That doesn't do well for the housing market around here. So, I decided we were just gonna have to ride it out. We had pretty much no showings this summer. I came home one day and put all the important school dates on our calendar and decided that when it happens it happens and I am not going to stress about it. It has been a huge relief. I quit shopping for houses and don't clean now unless we get a showing appointment. (We have now how three in the last week). Maybe that is where God wanted me to be all along. Out of control and just letting things be.

We had a long summer this year. Our community is building a new high school so they delayed the start of school three weeks. Three very long weeks. Even Morgan was more than ready to go back.

This year I am homeschooling Olivia for her preschool. We didn't sign her up this last winter for this year because we thought we would be moved. I bought a preschool curriculum and decided to do it myself.

I am still driving a school bus. This year started out as a nightmare though. They had redistricted the school and all 50 drivers got new routes. The first couple of days was complete and utter chaos. I was almost wishing I could quit! Things have seemed to calm down now this second week and we should be on a regular schedule.

This is a picture of Livi and Nolan (my nephew). They are great buddies...mostly because Olivia is about 1 1/2 years older and can boss him around....and he allows it.

Today we are on our third day of rain. I think today we are getting what is left over of Hurricane Ike. We have had about 10 inches of rain. Our lower garage/shop has standing water in it....and we have a showing this afternoon. Great timing. It isn't suppose to quit until tomorrow. The whole community is flooding. UGH. And we live in Indiana!!!

Well, I think I am about caught up now. I will try to be better, but there are no guarantees. :)

It is that time of year again.

2008-07-15T17:04:00.002-04:00

Time for the fair! It seems that our summer revolves around the fair. Normally Morgan takes a few goats to show. This year we did not get any goats because we never knew if we would get an offer on the house and still be here. She is still in goat club though and did her project book. She will also be able to help others show their goats so she is looking forward to that. I am too. There is no pressure this year...trying to get the goat ready, finding buyers for the auction, coming in twice a day to feed and water goats and clean out the pens. BUT we aren't done with showing yet.....she also joined dog club so she will be showing Annie. She has been working on getting her trained for the last 6 months.

We have been actively involved in 4-H for years. I was in 4-H for 8 years showing sheep and working on local projects like foods, sewing and child development. Mike took pigs and his horse to the fair. Mike and I met 24 years ago at the fair so it has special meaning to me. Evan and Katie were very active in 4-H. They both showed sheep and Evan also showed dairy feeder calves. Katie was also in Rabbit Club. Morgan has been our goat girl because once we moved off the farm we didn't have room for sheep.

I will be doing lots of volunteer work all week. Working in booths and checking in goats etc. Yesterday I spent 8 hours helping to check in 4-H projects and they want me to come back a couple more days this week for judging. Morgan helped me for a while yesterday and she kept asking why we were doing it. I told her it is called "volunteering" and you do it to be helpful and not expect anything in return. She wasn't sold on it and only lasted 3 hours before she called Katie to come and get her. :)

Summer Flies

2008-06-26T18:26:00.002-04:00

I couldn't believe it when I saw it has been almost a month since I posted last.

So far I am totally enjoying just sleeping in every morning. It has been pure heaven. No 6 AM alarm clock just relaxing and snoozing. Which of course means I can stay up until midnight watching The Tonight Show if I want too.

On the house front the people who had an offer on our home pulled out of the first right. I think they are still trying to sell their house, but they want more bargaining power. They had a house inspection done on our house. They want us to put in a new furnace because they think ours is too small. We have lived here for 6 years and have never had any problem with the furnace. We said we would have it inspected, but to replace it I think would be stupid. They also want to trade us lawn mowers and we said no until we know what we are going to be able to buy. We have done several other things the inspection suggested (new water heater, gutters on the garage, new electrical breakers etc.). No showings though for this month. Things are just so slow.

One good thing is that Mike is working only an hour from home so for the next three weeks he gets to come home every night. It has been really nice having him home this week. Even though it is just to shower, eat and spend an hour with us before he goes to bed it is still nice.

We have the pool open and it is now warm enough to swim in. We have had some pretty cool evenings this month so it took longer to get the pool up to decent temps.

Yesterday our little Annie got spayed. Yep, no more puppies from our little girl. She is a little ouchy today but doing quite well. Better than I would be doing. :)

Adam, our youth pastor and "adopted son" got married last week so I am less one kid in my house. He has moved out to live with his lovely wife and they are honeymooning in Tahiti. Ah, the life!

II will try to do better on updates. Later!

Update

2008-06-02T08:42:00.003-04:00

Wow! I can't believe it is June already. Only two days of school left. YEAH!

Well, we are now under contract on our house. The buyers will have their home listed today....so now I not only get to pray that my house will sell, I get to pray that the people who want to buy our house can get theirs sold quickly so everything can get moving.

The home we want over in Lowell though disappeard off of the MLS today. I don't know if it sold, expired or they just pulled it off the market. Our Realtor is going to try to find out for us today. That would be a real bummer if it was no longer available.

*Update to the update....the home in Lowell is still available. It had expired but was put right back on. The buyers for our house still do not have theirs listed. It may be the end of the week. I am frustrated.

Happy Memorial Day!

2008-05-26T16:34:00.001-04:00

Happy Memorial Day and beginning of summer to all (except my buddy in Austrailia-LOL!)

It has been a fairly eventful weekend here. First of all, Mike got a three day weekend as opposed to his normal one day weekend. It has been really nice spending the extra time with him.

Second of all we sold our camper. Yeah! I listed it on Craigslist about 2 1/2 weeks ago and a family from Ohio came and got it on Saturday. Mike was shocked. He kept telling me that we weren't going to be able to sell it. To many available and with the high gas prices no one would be buying them. Well, we did and got what we wanted for it too!

Third, my dad has announced his engagement. This was a shocker. He and my mom have been divorced for about 13 years now. He has dated a few women in the last ten years or so, but was in no hurry to settle down. Well, his current girlfriend has been his girlfriend for about THREE months. My kids and husband got to meet her for the first time today and I just met her a week ago! They are planning a fall wedding. It is all very sweet....including Susie.

Fourth, we got an offer on our house. I did not list this one first because it is not a great offer. They low balled us and asked for a bunch of stuff including my living room couch. PLUS they have to sell their house first. Mike wanted to just throw the offer in the trash, but we did counter it today. I am not expecting too much to come of it because we are so far apart and there is no way we would come anywhere close to where they started.

Fifth, I bought a new vehicle. Out with the 2000 Montana mini-van and in with the 2008 Hyundai Santa Fe. This is one sweet drive. I was planning on getting an SE which is the middle of the road with a third row seat and a DVD player. They instead offered me a demo which was the Limited with all the bells and whistles....heated leather seats, powered moon roof, GPS, XM radio, 6 CD player, DVD player, heated mirrors, dual climate control temps, hyperlink mirror and towing package. OMG the list goes on and on. I would never have bought one with all this stuff, but they offered it to me at about $2,000 more than the SE I wanted. Mine is in slate blue with a gray interior. I have not owned a new vehicle since 1988 and that was a little Ford Escort hatchback.

Sad, Sad news for the adoption and Christian communities

2008-05-22T09:28:00.006-04:00

Last night Steven Curtis Chapman and his family lost the youngest child in their family. Little Maria Sue, age 5 and adopted from China, was accidentally run over by her older brother in their driveway. I cannot even imagine what this poor family is going through. What her brother is going through. It is just incomprehensible.

Thankfully God is in control!!!! Maria is now in his loving arms. Stay strong Chapman family. God is with you and he will persevere.

http://

She is 4 now

2008-05-20T08:14:00.007-04:00

Today is Olivia's 4th birthday!!! Thank goodness! For the last two months that is all we have heard about. In fact she has talked sooo much about turning 4 that she now thinks she is 5. We celebrated on Sunday and she told me that evening, "Mom this was the best birthday I ever had."
You will notice in her pictures her latest haircut. This is the "fixed" version of her own handy work. Yep, she cut her own hair again. We got pretty much everything fixed except for the bangs. They are still a little sparse looking.

A friend of ours made her cake for her for FREE! It was the best tasting cake. Chris rocks!

School Program Drama

2008-05-18T08:25:00.000-04:00

Last week Olivia had her first school program. The pics are a little blurry because my camera sucks when I use the telephoto. She lasted for about 3 songs and then the boy next to her (he is somewhat autistic and VERY enthusiastic) bumped into her while doing his version of a hoedown clap. Well that was it, she was done. Off the stage she came and she spent the rest of the program scowling at the boy and avoiding looking at me because she knew I was giving her the evil eye myself. Once the program was over she was ready to GO HOME. No cookies, no stopping in the classroom, just home.

Ahhhh.... the joys of an over emotional 4 year old!

The House is filling up....

2008-05-02T13:27:00.003-04:00

Katie is home from college for the summer. This also means that Sunny (her BF) will spend almost every waking minute here when he is not at work. Adam, our youth pastor is still living here (I think it is 49 days until his wedding) which means his fiance' is here alot too. That is 7 of us hanging around and Mike isn't even here! Geesh!

Not much new on the house selling. We lowered the price by a big chunk this week. We are still having about a showing a week. No takers yet.

Mike is doing great at his job. He really likes the people and seems to be thriving. It is pretty stressful, but he seems so much happier than his old job. He did get "unintentional" revenge on his old bosses though. One of his good friends that still worked for the "other" company just gave his two weeks notice and will be joining Mike at Dyer. Yippee! Mike is really excited for him and is looking forward to showing him the ropes.

Only 21 days of school left. Yeah! I am ready to sleep in. :)

Silly Girl

2008-04-19T17:42:00.006-04:00

Spring Break

2008-04-06T11:08:00.002-04:00

Nothing new on the house front, except my attitude. I am trying to be more laid back about the whole thing. Everytime I find myself getting wound up I just tell myself to cut it out, nothing really matters. (All I need is a rubber band around my wrist to snap at the appropriate times!)

This week is our Spring Break. We have decided to go camping.....sort of. We are taking the camper over to the area where Mike is working and we are going to live for a week out of the camper as a family. Mike going to work during the day and the girls and I just hanging out. It was a good way to get me away from the house and the whole selling thing. Adam, our church's youth pastor, who has been living with us since the beginning of the year, will keep an eye on things here at home. Hopefully he will keep it clean too in case we get some showings. LOL!

The temps are suppose to be nice this week but they are calling for a chance of rain everyday. That should make for some fun camping. The girls and I may spend more time at the mall than in the camper. :)

Talk to ya all in a week.

Prayers for another

2008-04-03T08:15:00.003-04:00

I have been following a blog http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/ for the last month or so. It is a husband, Nate, that is married to Tricia. She has cystic Fibrosis. In January she gave birth (very prematurely) to Gwyneth Rose. They have both been in the hospital ever since. Just last night Tricia was given a new pair of lungs. PRAISE THE LORD! Hers were in very bad condition. Nate is a riot and does a wonderful job of blogging about their situation. It is very easy to get caught up in what this family is going through. They both have very strong faith and it is amazing how positive they are with all they are going through. Please pray for them as I am sure the next few weeks will be tough for Tricia but also very exciting and pain free with her new disease free lungs!

I am still here

2008-03-28T16:50:00.003-04:00

I have been having a rough few weeks. I keep meaning to post but my heart is just not in it. I am really going through a depression. It all revolves around our house being for sale.

We have been having about one showing a week. We had one yesterday and it was looking I thought fairly good-but alas they have decided against it. One showing the people love the property but the house is not fancy enough for them and the next they like the house but the property isn't what they are looking for.

I have had a pretty rough day today. Ever since I got the email that they have ruled our home out (yesterday's showing) I have been sitting and crying. I am really mad at myself for being so emotional over all of this, but darn it- for 7 stinking months I have been on a stupid roller coaster. This whole moving thing has consumed my whole life and I am so sick of being depressed. You'd think I had been diagnosed with a disease for as messed up as I have become. I am even losing faith in God because I feel like he is not answering my prayers. I know this is all ridiculous, but I can't figure out how to shake it. Showings are the only thing keeping me going, but after each one I just crash down again. I am also stressed knowing that in two weeks our contract expires on the home we want to buy. I have been watching other listings and Mike has been driving by a bunch of them, but we don't like any others. I keep trying to be logical about it all and tell myself "all in God's timing" but my heart just isn't buying it. I am normally such an up and positive person, that this depression has really wore me down.

In the last couple of weeks we have celebrated our two year anniversary of our "gotcha day". We all went out for Chinese to celebrate. Katie turned 20 last week. So, for about 6 months I have no teenagers in the house. Mike is back to work after having about a month off. He is in charge of rebuilding a new road through a town. It sounds like this particular project will last all year.

Well, that about wraps up my update. I will try to be more positive next time. :)

Human Sandwich

2008-03-14T08:58:00.001-04:00

Reading Time

2008-03-09T15:38:00.003-04:00

No Jenny Craig needed....

2008-02-26T21:39:00.002-05:00

Okay, okay but I can't make her gain weight or grow a butt!

2008-02-22T06:47:00.001-05:00

Happy 22nd to my baby boy!

Workin' and Workin'

2008-02-15T22:11:00.002-05:00

Well, this week Mike got laid off. This is not a bad thing. They just ran out of equipment to work on in the shop so they said take some time off. He came home Tuesday night and by Wednesday morning I had given him the dreaded "honey-do" list. He was less than thrilled, but he knew it was coming.

I have added two more rooms on the list that need to be painted. Morgan's room is a custom painted room. When she got her new bedspread last year we had paint matched to the vibrant pink. It is pretty wild, unfortunately it is not a great color when you are trying to sell. So, I told her we were going to paint at least three of the walls a neutral color and keep the pink for an accent wall. Our dining room really needs some updated fresh paint to it. The problem is we had some cracking in the ceiling corners. That was Mike's first project. The has removed all the old drywall tape and is in the process of re-taping. Our biggest problem will now be trying to match the texture on the ceiling and walls.

I have also been watching lots of designing shows and shows on selling your house, so I am going through and re staging and cleaning out more of our stuff.

The good thing is that Olivia is gone for at least four days down to see her sister in Bloomington. I will actually get to sleep in tomorrow morning and won't wake up to a pair of eyes staring at me at my bedside at 7:00 AM. :)

2008-02-14T08:20:00.001-05:00

Happy Valentines Day

to all my faithful readers!

YIPPPEEE!

2008-02-10T23:02:00.000-05:00

Katie made it on the Dean's List at IU!! Here is part of the email she received....

Congratulations! Because of your outstanding academic performance, you have been placed on the School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation Dean's List for the Fall Semester 2007. Eligibility for the Dean's List is reserved for those students who complete at least 12 graded credit hours in a single semester, earning at least a 3.50 GPA. You can be proud of this honor.

Students often include information about their Dean's List semesters on their resumes. If you wish to have this achievement published in your local newspaper, you can print this message and send it to the editor of your local newspaper. We cannot provide individual information to hometown newspapers, so we encourage you to make available to them as much information about yourself and your studies as possible.

I am one proud mama!

Chinese New Year

2008-02-07T12:23:00.000-05:00

Today is the first day of the Chinese New Year. This year is the year of the Rat! The actual years go from about the end of January or first of February to the end of the following year. With that in mind I am the year of the Sheep instead of the Monkey (January 7, 1968).
Mike is a Horse
Evan is a Tiger
Katie is a Dragon
Morgan is a Pig
Olivia is a Monkey

The Year of the Rat 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008
A person born in the Year of the Rat is said to be clever and intelligent. They are self-confident and have an optimistic outlook on life. They work hard to reach their goals and are considered perfectionists. When it comes to money matters they are rather careful even stingy and usually don't lend money.
Ambitious
Sincere
You can be generous with your financial resources
You are compatible with the Monkey, Ox and Dragon
You are not compatible with the Horse

The Year of the Ox 1913, 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009
The Year of the Ox Persons born in the Year of the Ox are diligent, patient and rather remain silent. They are consequent and reliable as friends. But they are easy to irritate and tend to be stubborn and obstinate.
A leader
Bright
Cheerful
You are compatible with the Snake , Rat and Rooster
You are not compatible with the Sheep

Year of the Tiger 1914, 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010
Tigers are sensitive, emotional and thoughtful persons. But they also tend to be impatient. Others pay them respect but they sometimes get into conflicts of authority with elder people. They sometimes delay important decisions which leads to the result that they often have to decide in a rash and hasty way.
But they also have the guts take risks and are very success- oriented. Tigers are distrustful but also stand for courage and fortitude. They are born leaders.
Forthright
Sensitive
Posess great courage
You are compatible with the Horse, Dragon and Dog
You are not compatible with the Monkey

Year of the Hare 1915, 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011
Persons born in the Year of the Hare are talented and ambitious. They are popular with anybody and good entertainers which often makes them the centre of attention. Even though they are liked they are rather pessimistic, insecure and are afraid of changes. They almost never lose their temper and are very good-natured. In the business world however they are smart and make the right decisions according to instinct. Nevertheless they are no gamblers. Hares are known for their sense of art and for that reason often have beautiful homes.
Talented
Affectionate
You are a seeker of tranquility
You are compatible with the Sheep, Dog and Boar
You are not compatible with the Monkey

Year of the Dragon 1916, 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012
The dragon used to be the symbol of the Chinese emperor. The emperors throne was called the "Dragon throne" and according to the Confucian ideal the whole earth should be influenced in a positive way by the shining example of the emperors life. People born in the Year of the Dragon are in good health, bursting with energy, long-living, easy to irritate, impatient and obstinate.
On the other hand they are dependable, honest, brave and beam with self- confidence. They are perfectionist and demand the same from others. They always make an effort to let their positive features show through but sometimes overdo their role as the shining examples. In life Dragons are strong- minded and successful whatever they do. Among the twelve signs of the zodiac they are considered the most eccentric personages.
Robust
Passionate
Your life is filled with complexity
You are compatible with the Monkey, Rat, Cock (Rooster) and Snake
You are not compatible with the Dog

Year of the Snake 1917, 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013
People born in the Year of the Snake are considered profound and wise. Problems are solved by means of brain and logic instead of deciding according to one's instinct. They are fortunate in money matters but are also penurious and don't lend money.
They tend to be egoistic while feeling sympathy for others and helping the less fortunate. They don't have much confidence in others and take matters into their own hands anticipating that they will be solved.
Strong willed
Intense
Displays great wisdom
You are compatible with the Rooster, Hare and Ox
You are not compatible with the Boar

Year of the Horse 1918, 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014
Persons born in the Year of the Horse are liked in general. They are always good-humoured, handle money well and make long term plans for their lives.
They are wise an have an artistic disposition. Even though they have an enormous sex appeal they' re weak when it comes to dealing with the other sex. They tend to be impatient and passionate when it comes to things disturbing their daily routine.
Physically attractive
Popular
You like the company of others
You are compatible with the Tiger, Dog and Sheep
You are not compatible with the Rat

Year of the Sheep ( goat, ram) 1919, 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015
People born in the Year of the Sheep are characterized by their kindness and good nature. They have talents in the field of art and are elegant. They are thoughtful, shy and pessimistic.
Even though they are not eloquent they get behind their position with emphasis and passion.
Aesthetic
Stylish
You enjoy being a private person
You are compatible with the Boar, Hare or the Horse
You are not compatible with the Ox

Year of the Monkey 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016
Persons born in the Year of the Monkey are said to be intelligent, clever and flexible. They're very inventive and therefore solve problems easily. Monkeys have sanity and reason and are eager for knowledge.
They don't put tasks into cold storage but tackle a problem right away which makes them successful. That also leads to them looking down on others and makes them tend to be overweening.
Persuasive
Intelligent
Strives to excel
You are compatible with the Dragon, Monkey and Rat
You are not compatible with the Tiger

Year of the Rooster 1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017
Those born in the Year of the Cock are thoughtful and very able people. They tend to take too many tasks at once and therefore are often stressed and disappointed when they fail a task.
Most of the times they are eccentric and have problems to get along with others because they are too aggressive. Very often they are mavericks and though they are said to be adventurous they are rather fearful.
Seeking wisdom
Seeking truth
You have a pioneering spirit
You are compatible with the Snake, Dragon and Ox
You are not compatible with the Rabbit

Year of the Dog 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, 2018
Persons born in the Year of the Dog have a lot of characteristics considered positive in China e.g. loyalty, honesty, friendliness, reliability and discretion. They're not into experimenting and are rather conservative. On the other hand they are eccentric, headstrong and even egoistic.
They don't care about wealth and money but are always generous. They have high moral demands and often criticise others for their mistakes.
Generous
Loyal
You have the ability to work well with others
You are compatible with the Horse, Hare and Tiger
You are not compatible with the Dragon

Year of the Pig 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019
Persons born in the Year of the Pig are chivalrous and born sqiures. They put their whole energy in everything they do. They pursue their goals without wasting a thought of giving up. They often are fortunate in their ventures and reach their goals. When it comes to friendship they are quite choosy but once they made friends the friendship is everlasting and they are loyal friends.
They are eager for knowledge and usually well informed. They are not very talkative though and avoid discussions and arguments.
Gallant
Noble
Your friends will remain at your side
You are compatible with the Rabbit, Rat and Sheep
You are not compatible with the Snake

There is a new show in town

2008-02-07T11:44:00.000-05:00

There is a new show that started on Nickelodeon toda (coincendently also the first day of Chinese New Year). It is called Ni-Hao Kai Lan. And let me tell you Olivia has been waiting for this day. She is a big Dora fan, so we are hoping Kai Lan sticks around for a while. It was funny though today...on the way home from pre-school she asked if Kai-Lan was on yet. Then she asked if Kai-Lan's mom got her in China when she was a baby too. Hmmmm.....maybe she really has been paying attention when we talk about our trip to China.

Pint-Size Peacemaker With a Lot to Teach
('Nickelodeon can only hope Kai-lan, the bouncy star of its new weekday morning cartoon “Ni Hao, Kai-lan,” will demonstrate the earning power of "Dora the Explorer" while teaching children Mandarin.');
}

They’re both assertive young heroines with dark eyes and dark hair, brightly colored animal friends, theme songs that feature much chanting of their names and a habit of slipping non-English words into their conversations. Oh, and they both work for the same division of Viacom.

Nick Jr.
Kai-lan and Yeye, her grandfather, in “Ni Hao, Kai-Lan.”
One major difference: Dora the Explorer has made more than $1 billion over the last eight years while exposing children to Spanish. Nickelodeon can only hope Kai-lan, the bouncy star of its new weekday morning cartoon “Ni Hao, Kai-lan,” will demonstrate that kind of earning power while teaching them Mandarin.
“Ni Hao, Kai-lan” (it means “Hello, Kai-lan”) was scheduled to make its debut in the fall. The delay has allowed it to make its arrival on Thursday, the first day of the Chinese New Year. Even more auspicious than the timing, of course, are the successful example of “Dora the Explorer” and reports of how eager American parents are for their children to learn Chinese.
Will the show appeal to a “Dora”-size audience? Only a preschooler could say for sure. To this adult there are positive signs: a charming animation style that triangulates Hello Kitty, the Powerpuff Girls and SpongeBob, and a vibrant performance by the young voice actress Jade-Lianna Peters as Kai-lan.
But here’s that comparison again. Dora, the geography nut, is a problem solver — she needs to get to her cousin’s quinceañera, or return a beached crab to its ocean home — who operates without adult supervision. Kai-lan is a peacemaker and amateur therapist whose smiling YeYe (paternal grandfather) is always lurking. The first two episodes of “Ni Hao, Kai-lan” revolve around her instructing the selfish, competitive tiger Rintoo in the value of teamwork and self-sacrifice.
Nickelodeon has announced that it wants this show to have a strong cultural-awareness component (i.e. dragon boat races, New Year traditions, dumplings), and it also seems likely that the two shows are being tuned for slightly different age groups. (Dora is 7 years old, Kai-lan 5.) Still, why does the Hispanic girl get to have adventures while the Asian girl giggles and teaches the boys about good manners and collectivism? I suspect that 5-year-old Nielsen viewers may have the same question.
As for the language instruction, a surprising number of Mandarin words and phrases are worked into the dialogue, often without translation. Presumably the preschool brain will apprehend and remember them. Given the multifarious nature of the Chinese language, choices have to be made, and some Chinese-Americans might be disappointed to know that millions of children are about to be told to call red packets — the envelopes used for gifts of money at new year — ya sui qian rather than hong bao or ang pao. They’ll also be taught to wish their family and friends “Xin nian kuai le” (“Happy New Year”) but not “Gong xi fa cai,” the traditional congratulation and wish for prosperity. (And definitely not “Gung hay fat choy”; the show is a Cantonese-free zone.)
In the meantime, xie xie and zai jian. Ask your children — they’ll be able to translate by the second episode.
NIA HAO, KAI-LAN
Nickelodeon, Thursday morning at 11, Eastern and Pacific times; 10, Central time.
Created by Karen Chau; Mary Harrington, executive producer; produced and written by Sascha Paladino; directed by Dave Marshall; music by Matt Mahaffey; Kay Wilson Stallings, executive in charge of production. Produced by Nick Jr. Productions.
WITH THE VOICES OF: Jade-Lianna Peters (Kai-lan), Clem Cheung and Ben Wang (YeYe), Jack Samson (Rintoo), Khamani Griffin (Tolee/Howard), Angie Wu (Hoho), Beverly Duan (Lulu) and Frank Welker (Mr. Dragon).

Buried under snow.....again

2008-02-02T12:48:00.000-05:00

Well we were hit with another snow storm yesterday. We got about 10 inches of snow. No school for the second time this week. This has been one of the hardest winter's I remember. Snow, ice, flooding, and thunderstorms. Yep on Tuesday night we had a thunderstorm. Right after the storm there was a flash freeze. The temperature dropped 30 degrees in just a couple hours. It is just crazy.

For the last two weeks I have been stripping wallpaper and borders and painting my bathroom and bedroom. It has been a good cold weather project. I am trying to do anything cheap that I can to improve our house so if we ever get a showing again, it might sell. :)

Expensive Week

2008-01-25T09:32:00.000-05:00

So this last weekend Mike was "surfing on the net" and showed me a picture of a gun. (He is a hunter and also loves to target practice with his guns). He said, "If you need an idea for Father's Day you can get me this." I told him if he really wanted it to just buy it. (He hardly ever buys things for himself that is not a neccessity.) Well he ordered it. Hmmm, didn't think he was THAT serious about wanting to get it, but oh well. So, come Tuesday and my computer is REALLY acting up. It had been infected with spyware for about 3 weeks and just kept getting worse. It also had an overheating problem. I called my computer guys and they said for $50-$75 they could take off the spyware, but they have worked on the overheating problem and there was nothing more they could do. I called Mike and asked him "Since you are getting a new gun and my computer is 5 1/2 years old, can I get a new computer? The computer guys will build me one for $500." He gave me the go ahead to get a new computer....I am so glad I told him he could buy his gun. :) Well I ordered my computer and about a half hour later I look at the TV to see what was on and low and behold it is black. There is sound coming out, but no picture. Now this dumb TV is ONLY 3 years old. About 6 months ago we had an isssue. When I turned it on it was black, there was a loud pop sound and then slowly the picture came back on. I knew we were probably on borrowed time, but was holding out hope we would get moved before we had to invest in a new TV. SO, I made another call to Mike and started crying that we had just gotten another $$$ hit and that I would not have ordered my new computer if I knew the TV was going to go out. Needless to say he told me to go TV shopping and gave me a budget to stick within. So, that night I went shopping and got a new 37" LCD HD TV. I even only spent $800 and stayed below our budget. The new TV comes tonight, I got my computer yesterday, the gun comes next week.

*Happy Anniversary Honey! Let's take a cruise next time!!!

*Today is our 22nd anniversary.

Preschool Fun

2008-01-15T11:41:00.000-05:00

I was the "helper mom" today at Olivia's preschool. I decided to take along my camera and try to catch some school action.

I really need to get a new camera. Mine takes some really crappy pictures. But here they are no less.

She headed right to the reading loft.

Then it was on to the "Snow pit"

Don't forget snack time.

I can't post the circle time pics because I don't know how to blur out the other faces.

She loves preschool. We are very lucky. We live near a really small town. There are 3 preschool's available. We take her to our old church. There are 18 kids in her class and three teachers. In her class their is one other Chinese girl (adopted also) and also a hispanic girl, a black/asian girl and a bi-racial boy (also adopted). I love the fact that there is some diversity in her class. She is still the smallest kid in her class (I think she comes up to the bottom of the chin of most of the kids) but she doesn't care because she is mighty. She has learned colors, shapes, how to write (trace) her name and this month they are learning their numbers. I hope once we move we can find another program similar to this one. She is going to miss all her "fweinds" very much.

Two years ago today......

2008-01-05T20:42:00.000-05:00

Two years ago we got the call about our precious little Yang Guo Guan. I cannot believe how long ago it seems but yet I can remember it like it was yesterday.

Go here to a look back.

To all of my fellow "waiting and totally frustrated" adoptive moms..... I can't even imagine the anguish you are going through during this looooong wait. Our log in date was 4/19/05. It is unfathomable to me that the CCAA has still not gotten through the year of 2005. I can guarantee you that every stinkin' day you have to wait will be worth it when you set your eyes on the newest addition to your family, but I also know that piece of information does not help while waiting. I heard it many times and it meant nothing to me until I was living it. I just pray that your time of waiting will soon be over.

And to my precious Olivia.....you were worth every frustrating minute that we waited and I love you sweetheart.

Our first look at Yang Guo Guan

Little Miss Olivia Guan today.

Livi and her buddy Emmy

2007-12-16T21:56:00.000-05:00

Christmas Love and Borderline Insanity

2007-12-14T11:52:00.001-05:00

Well I can sit back now and sigh with relief. I am done with my Christmas shopping and even have everything wrapped. I love the spirit and meaning of Christmas. I tend to go overboard because I just love the magic of it all. This year I am even spending much more time thinking about the reason that we celebrate this season. We are all so blessed to have the gift of Jesus. Even though it is His birthday that we celebrate we are the ones that receive the biggest gift of all. I cannot fathom how I am even worthy of His gift to me, but because God says I am worthy I must believe it and be so grateful that we have such a wonderful, loving and merciful Father.

We have found a home. We have made an offer and all the details have been ironed out. Only one little catch is that our offer is basically a first right of refusal...meaning the house is not really ours until we get ours sold. This is where I have been bordering on the fine line of faithfulness and the insanity of depression and despair. In 100 days we have had 7 showings. Two of those showings it was reported that "this is our favorite property that we have seen so far". But alas nothing has happened beyond that. I could live with that if it wasn't for the fact that nothing *NOTHING* in our whole county has sold in the last 2 1/2 months that is over $250,000. AND only 4 houses in our school district have sold between $200,000-$250,0o0. (Ours is currently listed for $287,000-which a year ago would have been considered a steal in this area.) So, now we have to decide if we need to lower the price again and maybe take a hit on it, or stick with it and hope that once the holidays are over things will pick up a little bit. It is so hard to know what to do. I am a worrier. You know the kind that worries about things that I cannot control. The other day I gave it all over to God like I know I am suppose to do. The only problem with that is that I keep taking it back and then remind myself to give it back to him again. I really feel like I am lacking in the faith department big time. I HATE waiting. I hated the waiting when we were waiting for our referral of Olivia and I hate this waiting on our house selling so we can all be a family again.

Well I will leave you with a picture of our new house......maybe. :)

Merry Christmas from the Stahley's

2007-12-10T17:30:00.001-05:00

Here is my Christmas greeting to you.

Merry Christmas from the Stahley's

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1287314064

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1288064155

In the air at last....

2007-11-28T06:45:00.000-05:00

WOW! What a special brother Morgan has. Morgan has had one big complaint for the last several years. She has never been on a plane before. The rest of the family has flown before at one time or another. Even Olivia has been on a plane! Now this is not a big deal. I mean I had never flown before I was in my 20's but it has really bothered Morgan.

This year for her birthday her big brother called to wish her a happy birthday. Then he told her that her present from him this year would be a plane ride! I am not sure if she really believed him. One of Evan's best friends is a pilot and had offered to take her up when he found out that she had never flown before.

So, Evan rented a little four seater and she got to pick a friend to take with her. They were up for about a half hour. They flew over our house (Evan called us right before they flew over so we could go out and watch them). They flew over her school and some other points of interest that she would recognize. She even got to fly the plane for a little bit. She was so excited! When she came home she told us that she wasn't scared at all. They only got a couple pictures but I don't have them yet.

Coming Home.....

2007-11-19T18:03:00.000-05:00

This story made me cry!

Lock the house we have a 12 year old....

2007-11-17T15:16:00.000-05:00

Morgan turned 12 yesterday. Oh what a tough age. Not a little kid anymore, but not yet a teenager. She is so grown up though. She decided to forgo the big birthday party and just a few friends over for a slumber party. She also requested that instead of birthday gifts that her friends bring dog and cat food to donate to the humane shelter. We then made a trip to the humane shelter so they girls could be part of the donating.

Mike and I did get Morgan a Nintendo DS and a couple games for her birthday.

Olivia enjoying cake.

Morgan and her best friends...the twins.

Morgan and Lexi in a serious chess game.

The whole gang.......Lexi...............Morgan.....Janelle.......Kelsey and Sarah

Our little lambie...

2007-10-30T08:46:00.000-04:00

I am still here....

2007-10-29T08:10:00.000-04:00

Sorry it has been so long between posts. Things have been very uneventful here lately. House is still up for sale. Not much going on there. Just a lot of day to day activities. One exciting thing that happened this weekend is Morgan got baptized. She also got to decide if she wanted someone in the baptismal with her and she asked her dad to be there with her. It was so cool. Mike got to help baptize his daughter. He prayed for her right before and he was all choked up and could hardly speak. Everyone in the audience got choked up too. It was so neat.

Cool Song

2007-10-01T11:30:00.000-04:00

Here is a song that all moms should learn. I mean heck, we already know the words, we just have to get it to the music....

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ati3k32-NXI

Please Vote!

2007-09-30T18:24:00.000-04:00

Hi all-
I have gotten a request from Jenny Bowen. She is the founder of Half the Sky Foundation. This wonderful organization was in Olivia's orphanage and I give them most of the credit for how well adjusted and on target that Olivia was when she joined our family. Now they have an amazing opportunity. Below you can read the letter that she sent. Please vote for Jenny and Half the Sky!
Rachel

Hello again-Our volunteers in Wuhan had a great idea. It may be possible for some ofour Half the Sky children to carry the Olympic torch next year. I'veentered a contest sponsored by the China Daily Newspaper and, if I can getenough votes from netizens all over the world, I may be able to have thathonor. If it happens, I will run with 8 children from 8 orphanages inChina. Believe me, I am no runner. But I would dearly love to give thechildren a place at the party.Please take a moment and vote for me right now: I think this will take you straight to me:http://pub1.chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/torch/members.shtml?mid=212We need a LOT of votes. Please pass this on to your friends and family.Thanks and love,JennyJenny BowenExecutive DirectorHalf the Sky Foundationwww.halfthesky.orgHalf the Sky was created in order to enrich the lives and enhance the prospects for orphaned children in China. We establish and operate infant nurture and preschool programs, provide personalized learning for older children and establish loving permanent family care and guidance for children with disabilities. It is our goal to ensure that every orphaned child has a caring adult in her life and a chance at a bright future.

UGH!

2007-09-20T09:09:00.000-04:00

I HATE SELLING OUR HOUSE! I am already tired of having to keep the house clean and being prepared at all times. Plus, I think there is a really good chance that we are going to lose the house we were hoping to get. The price came down quite a bit yesterday so I really doubt it will be around much longer. I am so sad....

Mike is really liking his new job. He really hasn't missed being at home too much because he is so busy at work. They set him up with a company truck and cell phone plus all the tools he could think of needing. He seems to really like the guys he is working with too. The job is the same as what he was doing but also very different. He has a lot more paperwork to do but less operating equipment than before. Also, the equipment he said is HUGE! It makes the stuff he was running before look like toys.

Olivia is loving school more and more all the time. She is so matter of fact about it too. Her attitude is "Of course I am in school. I am big."

Katie got a tattoo this week. It is a small asian character for family. I can't believe she actually laid there while they did it. She is so needle phobic it isn't funny. She said it only took about 2-3 minutes but it hurt like crazy.

Well that is it on the update. Things are fairly boring here. ;)

Changes and hopes and dreams

2007-09-11T20:53:00.001-04:00

Well on Saturday we put our house on the market. Now we just sit back and wait and see if we get an offer. We had our first showing today. I am really crossing my fingers and throwing lots of prayers God's way that if it is his will, that we will sell the house quickly so we can get an offer in on the house we are interested in buying. We still have several things that we need to get done around here......but that may be tough.....

Mike got a phone call tonight and an offer to work for Dyer. This is the company he was hoping for back when he lost his job in July. They told him they want him over there on Saturday. It will be tough having him away from home during the week but he will be making quite a bit more money and they want him to start as a foreman. He is pretty nervous about a new company and all, but he is going to give it a shot.

Olivia's first day of school

2007-09-04T21:52:00.001-04:00

Today Olivia started preschool. THANK GOODNESS! It is all she has talked about for the last month. She couldn't wait for school to start. She was up and dressed in record time. I could hardly get her to sit still in her carseat. When it was time to unload she never even looked back to the van to say goodbye. Two hours later I went back to pick her up and as the teacher put her in the van Olivia turned around and said "I will come back, okay?" Then it was jabber...jabber...jabber about what she did and her new friends. I think I am more disappointed that it is only two days a week than she is, cause I know what it will be like tomorrow when I have to tell her she has to wait another day to go again. :)

Best Friend....New Business Updated

2007-08-28T23:10:00.000-04:00

One of my very best friends has started up a business. Actually she has been practicing for quite a while now, but has decided to make it legit and advertise. She is a news reporter/photographer and is starting her own photography business. She takes awesome pics. I should know because she did both Evan and Katie's senior pictures. What is so great, is that you get a disc with all the pictures on them (since my kids were her guinea pigs a couple years ago, I think she had taken over 400 pictures of Kate!) and you can pick and choose your favorite shots and then have them developed. She is MUCH cheaper than her competitors.

Unfortunately this blog is only for you locals (sorry Lee-Anne unless you want to pay for her trip to Australia-LOL!)

*UPDATED*: Oops, I forgot to add the link. ;)

http://blacksheepstudio.weebly.com/

Rain, Rain go away! And other ramblings.

2007-08-25T11:55:00.000-04:00

It has rained and rained here for the last week. We had almost 7 inches of rain in 4 days with another 3 1/2 in the two days that followed. It is still raining today! We should get a break tomorrow and for the next three days after.

Mike is enjoying his new job, except for the fact that he is not getting many hours in. At this time we are afraid his income will be about half of what it was last year. I really enjoy driving school bus and the hourly pay is terrific, but since it is only part time, I don't make a whole lot. I have been seriously considering going back to work someplace full time. I just don't know what I can do and make close to the same per hour as what I am making driving bus.

Mike and I looked at some houses last night. They are repo's and we really liked two of them. The problem is that we would need to sell ours first, and I am afraid these homes would be long gone before ours would sell. It is just so hard to know what to do.

Olivia starts pre-school in a week. She is so excited it is all she talks about. Tomorrow we go to a get-to-know your teacher meeting and she has been practicing trying to say her teacher's name. Katie headed back down to Bloomington this week to start her sophmore year at IU. Morgan has been back to school for 7 days now and is starting to fit in to the big JR High. She was pretty stressed the first couple of days. I think she is feeling much more relaxed now that she hasn't been late to close or gotten lost.

Another really cute video...

2007-08-23T10:06:00.000-04:00

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fBQnqf4ejQM

This is too good...

2007-08-18T21:50:00.000-04:00

Check out this really cute video clip...

http://kerux4oaks.blogspot.com/2007/08/pachelbel-bedtime.html

Job update

2007-08-18T21:48:00.000-04:00

Well, Mike started a new job this week. It is not for the company he was hoping to get in with, but at least he is able to be home every night. He seems to really like it, but he was placed with this company by the union so we don't know how it will all work out. We are just trying to have faith in God right now that He will get us where we need to go.

Jewelry

2007-08-01T22:53:00.001-04:00

There is a blog I have been following for a while. It is a couple from Montana that while waiting to adopt a little one from China was drawn to a beautiful 11 year old that was waiting for a family. They brought Lana home last year. Now Lana is trying to be an entrapeneur and make and sell jewelry. It is very reasonably priced. Check out her creations and maybe buy something from her to help her get started.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5236125

Bad news....is an understatement

2007-08-01T19:53:00.000-04:00

Last week Michael was "Let go" from his job. He had been with the company for 17 years and they let him go with no explanation, no warnings, nothing. How can they do this? Well they technically laid him off with no recall date. They are in the middle of their busy season so there is no way they needed to lay him off. We know it was their way of firing him from the back door, so to speak. We are speculating but we think that they didn't like his attitude. He has expressed his feelings about a couple subjects lately but nothing major and nothing that they could legally fire him for, so hence the lay off.

SO, right now we are sitting around waiting for the union to call him with a job. He has gotten a couple calls, but they were too far away or one was with a company that has a reputation of being a "hornet's nest" atmosphere. He called his brother and found out the company he works for is looking for more people. The owner of said company called Mike and said he would like him to come work for them. Problem is, Mike has to wait for the union to dispatch him out and if there are other guys ahead of him he has to wait his turn. The other issue we have is that this company is two hours away (almost to Chicago) and so Mike would have to live with his brother during the week and then come home on weekends. The good thing is that the pay is better than his old job and the atmosphere is hopefully better than his previous company.

Mike's ego and self esteem are really taking a hit right now as is our savings account, so the last week and a half we have been doing alot of praying in our house.

Home from the fair

2007-07-29T17:01:00.000-04:00

We had a very productive week at the fair this year. Morgan showed her two goats that she raised from birth and she placed second and fourth in her classes. She was pretty excited.

Olivia also had a blast riding the rides at the fair.....as usual. :)

We camped at the fairgrounds which was really nice since we didn't have to fight traffic or get up early to drive in to do our chores. We sold all of Morgan's goats so she gets to take a little break from barn chores until next spring.

OWWWIEE!

2007-07-10T15:20:00.001-04:00

I have been having problems with my feet for about a year now. Lots of pain first thing in the morning and by afternoon I am limping around the house. I can't be out walking around for more than an hour and a half and I can barely put my feet down. It started out mild but by late spring until now it is almost unbearable. Well, today I finally took the bull by the horns and went to a podiatrist. I have Plantar Fasciitis w/ mild heel spurs. It is a fairly common ailment but I have a pretty bad case of it. (Basically the ligament that goes from the heel of my foot to the balls of my foot is in bad shape. It is torn and not able to heel because I have to walk.)

Treatment: Well I started out by getting cortisone shots in my feet (OW!) and then they wrapped my feet. I got anti-inflamatory meds. and I have to wrap my feet in heating pads for 20 minutes two times a day. I also have to stay off my feet as much as possible for the next 3 days while the cortisone starts working. He also gave me heel pads to put in my shoes and next week I go in to have cast molds made of my feet to have special inserts made. We are crossing our fingers that this will all work and I won't have to have surgery.

Hodge Podge

2007-07-07T23:46:00.000-04:00

Busy, busy summer. Here are a couple of our latest activities.

Painting inside the playhouse...

Those involved include...Rachel (mom), Katie (big sis), Morgan (playhouse owner) and Alex (friend of Morgan's).

New and fun things to do with the inflatable bouncer Olivia got for Christmas. (not originally intended for the pool.)

Target practice with Katie's boyfriend Sunny (who has never held a gun before this day let alone shot one.) I think Mike is just making sure that Sunny knows he is not afraid to use his guns and is a pretty good shot.

Finding a "mate" for our sweet little Annie who should be due in August.

And Evan....well just being Evan.....

Morgan and Olivia's new playhouse

2007-06-29T18:04:00.000-04:00

Today we got a playhouse from a friend. This is how we brought it home (9 miles down the road going 12 MPH). It was crazy. The driver (our friend) could not see over it so he had to be guided down the road and he kept standing up to look through the windows.

Here we are setting it in place.

Now all we need is a coat of paint, the deck and steps put on and the electric run to it.

New Website

2007-06-22T12:18:00.000-04:00

For those that know me, I have been selling Mary Kay for almost 12 years. I now have my own website at www.marykay.com/rstahley

so anyone who wants to order Mary Kay through me can do it easily.

Soooo busy...

2007-06-18T09:47:00.000-04:00

We just got home from two weekends in a row camping. Man, it just seems like time is flying by! To catch up from the last couple weeks....

We have gone camping two weekends in a row.

Olivia started Bible School today at a little church just down the road from us (not our church, but it is so close I couldn't resist signing her up).

Morgan has started her summer job babysitting twin 14 month olds for the summer. (More work thatn she thought it would be.)

Walking goats several times a week to get them ready for fair at the end of July.

Trying to keep our swimming pool looking good this summer. (That is a part time job in itself!)

Took Olivia to her first "Chinese playgroup". There are a group of moms and dad that get together once a week and let their little ones play-they are about 45 minutes away. I decided to finally go and meet everyone and their adorable kids.

Going to graduation open houses. (still have one more to attend at this time)

Just hanging out and enjoying the summer. :)

Then and Now DVD

2007-06-05T12:25:00.000-04:00

Someone in my DTC group put together a DVD for our group of our little girls "then and now". It is our referral pictures of our girls and then pictures of the girls one year later. You can see it on You Tube. Click the link below. (Olivia is in the Guangxi daughters group)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljJmrCbEIsk