CASA

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!!!

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

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

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.....

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

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!

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.

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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....

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

Spring Break

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

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

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