Twilight

Tonight is the night. I am going to see the movie Twilight.
I know that I have never posted anything about the fact that I love the Twilight series but I do. It is true. I was told by a many friends about the series and finally one friend loaned me all Four books to read. I read all Four in about a week. They are so interesting and great reads. So they made a movie and I am stoked to see it. So my friends and I invited our husbands on a date night and we are going to see Twilight. Needless to say I can not wait until tonight.

Climb High

So Trenton is a climber. He loves to get up high and see the world. He climbs up on tables, and boxes and even toilets. He carries around a step stool to help in his climbing adventures. It is funny to watch him carry this stool that is about as big as him, especially since he still walks like Frankenstein. He looks like he will fall over at any moment but then he carry's round a stool and you can not figure out how he stays upright. Well today was funny, I was downstairs briefly to put some laundry in the machine as Jennedy had flooded her diaper int the middle of the night (yes another sleepless night for me) and I was washing the sheets and blankets. When I came upstairs the house was quiet. I went to the bathroom, the door was closed so I opened it and here is how I found Trenton. In the sink...

Well at least he is brushing his teeth. When I went to pick him up He was soaked. He had been turning on the faucet as he sat there and getting his Jammies wet. He just loves to climb, I amazed that he got up there. He took his step stool and put it by the toilet, then climbed on that then from there onto the counter and into the sink. He often gets stuck at the end of his climbs and yells for mom to get him down. Which I do, Hey I am a awesome mom that way. Rescue mom, coming to the rescue.

Fourteen

Here is picture fourteen in folder fourteen....

Awe cute.
That is me in the middle.
My older brother is behind me and my little sister is in front. This is when our family was only 3 kids. Who knew that five more were on the way.

Look at those cute little sailor outfits. How cute are we.

Thirteen

Here is the thirteenth picture in the thirteenth folder....

This is me When I was in 6th grade. My mother made the dress, she made many of my clothes and is a sewing genius.

I was really into the Dorothy Hamill haircuts in those days. It was a major cool thing in the Early 80's. Dorothy Hamil was a famous figure skater in case you are too young to remember or were not even born when she was a popular ice skater.





Here is a picture of Dorothy. See how adorable she was. I also put in a clip of her doing her thing, she was a wonderful skater and She inspired many a young girl, Including myself.

I still cry.

I went out to my garage today to put some pictures away that I found of Emma, Tammys daughter. (Tammy, my little sis that passed away this summer.) I picked up one of her photo albums to put the pictures in and started looking though it briefly. It was a baby book that she had started for Emma, there were cute little comments and memories of her birth written, but the book was unfinished. I put the pictures in and closed it up and put it away.

It was then that I was struck by a great sadness. I knew that this book would never be finished for Emma, that her mother had tried to do it all, but her life was cut too short. She probably thought she had all the time in the world to do it for her daughter. Now she cant.

I cried breifly, pulled myself together and went inside.
I think that is one of the things that is so hard about her dying. She left so much unfinished and left her little 6 year old here. I am sad, It is just so sad. I worry about Emma and pray that she is doing ok. I think she, is but I want her to be doing super, have all the happiness in the world. I cry for her sadness and loss, for mine too. I am overwhelmed by these waves of grief and pain.

I have found that writing this blog has helped me in this process of grief. I get to lay my feelings and thoughts out and put words to all the emotions, this helps me heal, I cry as I write, ball my head off, tears fall on my hands as I type. It is good for me, so therapetutic to get it out there and start to heal. Thanks for reading and trying to understand the sadness I feel.

Mourning is hard.

I am so happy though, I really am, I love my life, my family, the way my world is going. This is just something I go through, it was makes me a stronger more appreciative mother.

This picture is of me, Tammy and my grandmother who passed away last year.
I bet they are hanging out in Heaven together.

Twelve

Here is picture twelve in folder twelve.... What will it be... the anticipation....

That is me!!! I spent some time a couple of years ago scanning all my baby pics and they are all in folder number 12.

Is that not the cutest crib? My daddy made if for me (right dad). It has cute heart shaped head and foot boards. So precious. Plus check out my adorable mobile. Did my mom make that for me? I can't remember, I was pretty young back then.

Back in those days they did not have the "back to sleep" rules as they did not know that it could have something to do with SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.) So here I am sleeping on my tummy which is how I always slept, good thing I did not suffocate.

Sometimes I wonder how anyone survived without all the rules we have as parents today to help keep our children safe. We never rode in car seats or for that matter, seat belts , in fact our mothers held us on their laps, as infants, while driving. We would cram all kids in the car and take off with not a worry about safety. I amazed that I am still alive.

My kids now have to be in car seats or boosters until they are 8 yrs old or 4 feet tall. I think that is one reason that people have smaller families these days. Loading my 5 kids in car seats anytime I go anywhere is not so fun.

Oh well, Safety first, I always say.

Slanted Sleeping

I sure got very little sleep last night. Why?

Well for several reasons,

#1 Tyler seems to be teething, he was crying at all different times last night. He does have a tooth coming in so that could be why he woke me up 4 times last night. Also, he now can turn over, as he is out of his bassinet, and he gets stuck there and I don't think he likes sleeping on his stomach, so when he cries I turn him over and give him his Binky. He then goes easily back to sleep, then he cries about 2 hours later and it is the same thing over again. Do you have any ideas about how to keep him on his back? I don't.

#2 Trenton seems to like to yelp whenever Tyler is crying. So last night he was up often as well. If we don't go in his room he will go back to sleep sooner than later. So we endured that as well last night too.




#3 Jerika is a sleep talker and walker. Last night as I was walking by her room during one of my Tyler turn overs, I looked in her room. She was sitting up in bed, rocking and bouncing. But she was sound asleep. Joe came and laid her down. (I am scared of sleepwalkers) later Jerika was screaming as she ran down the hall. It woke us up and Joe went out to help her, she needed to use the bathroom, was sleep walking in the wrong direction, once again I let Joe handle it. He is a sleep talker/walker too, so he does not have my fear of them.

#4 My bed broke. Not major or anything. But I was sleeping all slanted, I felt like I was going to roll out of bed all night. In the morning I inspected the bed and sure enough it was slanted. Joe and I had been goofing around the evening before and heard a weird sound, like breaking wood but thought nothing of it. Well, the box spring had been forced down on my the corner where my head is. It was off the frame and jammed down, making the corner lower. In the morning, I showed Joe and we fixed the problem.

So I am tired.
Its OK though cuz.....
I love my life and
all the craziness that comes with it.

Silly sleeper

So the other day I took a picture of Tyler sleeping. He sleeps with his face pushed up against the side of any bed he sleeps in. His dark skin and even hair rub off on the white bassinet it one spot that he really likes that has a bar across it. I guess he likes the bar across his upper head. I am sure it has something to do with being in the womb and having his faced pressed up against the inside of the Uterus. Maybe the bar represents a rib he had been pressing against. It is so funny. In the pic it actually looks like he is stretching and awake. But no, he is solidly sleeping. He also sleeps with his mouth and eyes halfway open. Such a silly thing to do.

I finally moved him out the bassinet yesterday because I came up to find him on his tummy griping on the top peering out. I guess he is too big now for that bassinet. So into the garage it went. I pulled out a port a crib and set him up. Later when I checked on him, he had found his way over to corner and his little face was jammed up to the side. I guess he found the sweet spot.

Eleven

Here is the 11th picture in folder 11...

So here is a bonsai I have been working on for a couple of years. All of folder 11 is filled with other folders one for each Bonsai. When I get a tree, or plant a seed, I name them all. Then I take pictures, and every time I do something major to them I take a picture and put it in their folder. This is a pic of "Hemi" he is a hemlock. This is when I first got him before I worked to make him a bonsai. I should put up a pic of him now. That might be interesting.



So here is a picture of him when I was done with pruning before wiring.







And here is a pic of him when he was done and in his pot. This was about 2 years ago so he looks a bit different now. I would go take a picture of him now but it is so stormy outside right now that I don't really want to go out, sorry.

Ten

Here is the tenth picture in my tenth folder...
This was a picture I saved that my dad sent me, that is what is in folder number 10, the ones people send me.
This of my cute nephew, with my niece in the background.

My dad was taking a picture because he is so skinny and little that he can fit his whole body including head through the banisters there.

You would think that they would be safe by looking at them, but apparently if you have small ones they are able to get through.

Nine

It is amazing how many folders I have with thousands of pictures. So today I will pick picture nine in folder number 9. Now I wait with anticipation to see what the pic will be....

Fun, this is a picture from my wedding. It is of my mom and my Nieces and Nephew. This was 7 years ago and they are all so small. They grew up so much. I miss having them close.

My parents are in China teaching English right now. They are having a great time and doing a blog, to read it click here. China Blog.

I miss talking on the phone to my mom (dad too) but my mom and I are so close and she has such great perspective on life and she has always been my best friend. We used to talk at least weekly and now I only get to email, it is not the same as hearing her voice. Oh well, we all have our trials and this is one of mine.

Still mom, when you get home I am going to talk your ear off.
I love my parents.

Eight

So here I go, grabbing the 8th picture in the eight folder.

I am waiting patiently for it to upload, what will it be this time, and what tangent will it send me on. The suspense is intense.

It just popped up.
Oh does this one have a story.

When our family grew we needed a new van to hold all the kids we were getting, so we went on Craigslist and found this van to buy.

We had been saving money because we dont like to have a car payment and found this one in our price range. We met the guy, or rather Jerk, his name was Jodi Patanjo. He scammed us. See he owed money on the van and said we should pay him the 10 grand and he would pay off his loan and give us the title when he got it from the bank. We never got the title.

Well months and months went by and he gave us so many excuses, never actually talking to us, just sending emails. Still not title. The tags expired and we started getting tickets for expired tags, usually when parked, he paid for those because they were in his name. He then met my husband at the DMV and registered it, in his name, so we stopped getting tickets.

Time passed, we really believed what he was telling us, that it was the banks fault, that they kept switching the person in charge of his case, that he would have it the very next month. After a year and a half he stopped communicating entirely with us and left the state.

Then one day we got a call from a private investigator for the bank, they had found him and he had not paid his loan off, or made the payments, they were coming to repossess the van. That is what that picture is from, Joe went out to take pictures for if we ever had to go to court. We sued and won of course, but he was impossible to find.

Still,the investigators talked to our Lawyer. Our lawyer knows where he works, the Jerk moved to Utah. So hopefully we will get some money someday. We got scammed big time. We learned our lesson and were able to go out the next day and buy our newer van with money that we had been saving (yeah! no car loan.)
We are still out the 10 grand we gave him. So if anyone knows him, Jodi Patanjo, or meet him, beware and also let me know. He still owes us.

Jerika Singing

Jerika was singing this song all Halloween and It cracks me up so I did a video. I thought you might want a good chuckle so here she is.

Picture 7 in folder 7

Funny picture with a terrible flash problem.

In this picture we took Joe bowling for his 28th birthday.
We had the bumpers up in one lane and the other one was bumper less. The kids and I played on one lane and used this metal thing that you see in the background. The metal thing is cool for kids, see you put your ball on it at the top, push it and it rolls down a ramp with enough speed to get down the lane. The kids could not help but hit pins with the bumpers up and the ramp. They had a great time and my score was way higher than Joes. His team was made up of people in his family who came with us to celebrate.

One time I took my Grandma, who had a stroke, bowling with me at this place. She was in a wheelchair and this place even had a little wheelchair elevator for her to get down to the lanes. She thought she was coming to watch, but when we showed her the ramp she was so excited to get to bowl. She would put her ball on her lap, wheel out there, stick her fingers in the hole and shove it down. She was very determined. My mother was there too and we were so happy to take Grandma Donna out bowling.

This picture was when Jerika was blessed It has four generations of first daughters. My grandma was a dear friend of mine and she died a couple of years ago, I miss her and am so happy that I made so many speical memories with her before she took her Journey to Heaven.

How we got our kids.

.
This was taken on March 28th 2006.
This was on a great trip we took to Canada when we only had one kid. It was actually on this trip where we noticed how much our only daughter, Jerika, needed a sibling. We had been trying unsuccessfully to get pregnant, had tired infertility treatments and 2 years had gone by with no success. We kept saying that she needed a sibling whenever she would come to us asking us to play dolls again and again and again, now we both love playing dolls but we knew she would have so much more fun with a sister or brother.

So when we got home we started the process to get foster kids. 2 months later on May 19th our first foster child came to our home. She arrived at 4 in the morning, her mother had been caught shoplifting at Walmart with her two children and was going to jail. The kids had no place to go. So B who was six came to our home and her 18th month old sister went somewhere else. It was a Friday night and we had her all weekend. Her mom had her hearing on Monday and the judge let her kids go back to her. We said good bye to B.

It was sad, she lived in a hotel with her mother and from what she told us they were homeless and it was scary there. On B's fist day with us she asked if she could call us Mom and Dad. We said she could call us what ever she felt comfortable with. So she started to call us Mom and Dad. She cried when she left, she did not want to go back to her family, she wanted to stay and be in our family. Joe was emotional when she left because he had gotten attached very quickly to her and felt so worried for her life and upset by her sadness.

We got our next foster child the very next day, she was 10 months old. The police brought her about 8 pm and said she only needed a place for about 24 hours and was being brought back to her grandmother. Her mom had run away with her and had just been captured. R was tired when she got to us and Joe was setting up a crib right after we got the call. I held this beautiful little girl in my arms, she could lay her head on me, then sit up and look right in my eyes, she would grin, then lay her head down on me again.

She was very dirty and smelled like cigarettes so she got a bath and went to sleep so happy to be in a crib. When I laid her in the crib all clean and cute, she smiled laid her head down on the soft sheet and promptly fell asleep. The next day Jerika and I played with her and she was delightful. We then drove her down to the workers in Salem where she was given back to her grandparents.

We did not have a placement for 3 weeks, then one day in the late morning I got a call saying would we be able to take a 2 and a half year old. Yes of course. When could they bring her? She was at the McDonald's with her case worker while DHS searched to find her a home. I said bring her on over.

When Jacqueline arrived I walked out the car to meet her. I kneeled down next to her and she said, "Jacqueline's mommy?" pointing to me. I said "Yes I am going to be your mommy." We showed her her room, she was only 5 months younger than Jerika and they hit it off, they have been best friends ever since.

We had set up a crib in the bedroom because we were supposed to get a 4 month old the day before but the judge had her go to her father. The case worker noticed the crib and said that Jacqueline's mom was pregnant and due in 3 months, she said perhaps we could take her baby too.

Three months later, August 12, we went to the hospital and picked up Jennedy. We now had three girls and thought we were done.

When Jennedy was 6 months old, I got Pregnant!!!!! Amazing but true. They say that often happens when you are adopting. Your body decides it can relax and you end up prego. So along came the first of two boys. See posts Trenton

When Trenton was just 8 months old the birth mother of our children had another baby and we got little baby Tyler. We are still waiting to adopt him, and are unsure if it will happen this time because the birth mother is doing well and some dumb caseworker might send him back even though he has been with us his whole life and it would be better for him to be with us. We are trying to have faith and keep our hope alive so keep us in your prayers.

Why not?

I thought It was fun to put the fourth picture in the fourth folder on my blog so I am going to do my fifth picture in my fifth folder and each day do the next folder until I run out of folders. Why not? So here it is.

I don't even look at what it might be and up it pops after the upload, it is like a little game

This was back when I only had one child. Jerika loved to dress up and still does. Here she is with her cute pink dress and purse. Wow she used to be so young, and she used to have more teeth. She is such a girly girl, with a grin to make even the most frustrated mommy melt.

I remember all those baby curls, now her hair is straight. Sometimes I wished she never wanted to cut that hair. She did though and well it is her hair after all, I did make her call dad and ask if it was ok with him too. He was fine with it so we cut all those precious curls off.

We also donated her hair to Locks of Love, I think I have a picture of that day, Hey I'll post those too. Why not?

A tag.

IVE BEEN TAGGED. This one I haven't seen before, It is super short and easy so I'm playing along. Go to your pictures folder, choose your fourth folder and the fourth picture and post it, then you tag four unsuspecting friends to do the same with their pictures. SO HERE IT IS.

This was taken in 2004 of Jerika when we took her fishing with grandpa Lowe in his new boat.

She is wearing a little fishing vest that her Uncle Steve, an avid fisher, gave her when she was born. (She only took off her life Jacket briefly for the pictures.) She had fun and we caught lots of fish. I think I will post another picture of us after fishing with all the fish we caught. In this one Jerika's hair is all wack-a-doo because she fell asleep and was all sweaty. Still cute though.

Ok, Now I tag you...Jay, April, Lisa, Leslie.

I will be watching for your 4th pics.

The Halloween Blog

So we had a great Halloween, we went to a party with a few of our friends and all our kids. We took them trick or treating in the neighborhood, then ate, did crafts, decorated cookies and overall had a lovely time.

We had two Snow Whites in our family this year. Jacqeuline and Jennedy make the cutest Snow Whites with their black bobbed hair.












Jacqueline had so much fun and kept saying "this is so much fun" while they were out begging for candy door to door.









Jerika loves the barbie movies and went as the Island Princess Ro. That is her name, see Ro was stuck on an island and a chest that washed up on the shore had a name on it but all that you could see was the Ro part, so her friends, the animals call her that, anyways turns out she was a ship wrecked princess who is rescued and brought back off the island by the prince, they fall in love, yada yada yada. So anyways Jerika was Ro for Halloween.






My friend Dawn and I were both cats, I took off my ears in the picture below because I was getting a big 'ol head ache and who wants a headache on Halloween. Our husbands did not dress up, we told everyone they came as party poopers.



Trenton and Tyler were both Frankenstein depending on who would wear the costume without crying. Grandma Sheila came over to give Halloween presents and we snapped this cute shot of some of our kids together. This is as close as we came to a group picture.

Carving pumpkins

For some reason we never ended up buying pumpkins this year due to the fact that we no longer shop together as a family. Having five kids cuts down on the family shopping excursions. But Jerika did get a pumpkin at the pumpkin patch on her school field trip. She asked us to carve it last night. Jacqueline wished she had a pumpkin to carve so we decided to let everyone help in the carving of this mini pumpkin. We let our kids use knifes (the ones that come with a carving kit) Because we are Awesome parents. All five year old's should get to use knives.

They loved it so much. They were so good at it and amazed me. I think it must have been easy to carve due to its thin skin, but still they did so great. Jerika and Jacqueline did not want any help from their parents, I did help a bit, because... hey, I like to carve too.

After the pumpkin was carved we put a candle in it and turned out all the lights. It was so cool. The whole pumpkin glowed ( due to the thin skin) the kids danced around singing all the cute Halloween songs they have learned at school. It was a super fun night before Halloween.
We also let the girls have the pumpkin in their room as a night light as they went to sleep. (Are we the most unsafe parents in the world?) They loved it, and it really was pretty safe. I did take the lid off because the candle was cooking the lid because of the heat, it smelled like cooking pumpkin. The candle went out very soon too, way before we went to bed, because it was a small tea light candle, that liquefies the wax and is really very safe. Don't worry.
Playing with Fire and Knives....are we not the most Awesomest parents ever? Our kids sure think we are!!!!

A tremendous fall day

On our walk yesterday we ran into an apartment complex that had a billions of leaves. So we stopped and played. I started taking pictures with my cell phone and then realized how cute they were and needed to run home and get my real camera. The kids had so much fun making huge leaf piles and jumping in them.