Sunday Best

I love "church clothes". It's so much fun having everyone get dressed up special for the Lord's day. Don't get me wrong, it's nice going to a church that doesn't require anyone to wear dresses or ties, but it's also nice to have one day of the week that's special. Like most stay at home mom's I don't get that many opportunities to dress up. It used to be that we only bought one especially nice dress a year for the girls that had to be neutral enough to wear for their Christmas choir performance, Mother and Father's Days, and maybe as Easter dresses, too.

In the past couple of years, though, I've been acquiring some nicer things from yard sales, store clearances, and a few hand-me-downs from friends with older kids. The shirt that Kevin is wearing in this picture we took on Sunday was part of two large sacks of clothing passed down to us this past week from another homeschooling family at church. Kevin's nicer clothes that he has outgrown have been passed along to several foster sons we've had this past year who arrived with nothing. It's been great, too, that Danya and Gloria have been able to share so many of their clothes with the older girls we've had as well. "Brother" also fit into some of the things we've gotten for Kevin that are a bit too big for him.

19 Weeks - Halfway there

This little one is getting frisky. The baby surprises me by moving at moments that catch me off guard and make me laugh with the strange sensation that it's trying to cheer me up. At moments when I'm especially tired or frustrated this tiny person chooses to roll, kick, or push and it's such a happy little feeling that I can't help but smile. Sometimes it happens when I'm leaning over tying my shoes (awkwardly) and I wonder if I'm squishing him or her in there. We should be able to find out the gender at my next appointment here pretty soon.

In the "not so fun" category, I was sitting on stage this weekend at church during announcements before the next set of songs when the pastor's wife walked off stage and smiled at me quietly saying, "You're getting quite a little paunch there!" as she passed by. It was so unexpected that I turned, speechless, to my trombonist friend, Ron, who sits on my left. He said, "Don't worry. I'm sure she meant me."

Snow White and her Brother

This morning we met our new little ones. The big sister will be turning 6 in less than two months. I'm going to call her Snow White as her blog nickname because when the girls were playing dress up downstairs Daniel came up to tell me that in the Snow White costume she looked exactly like the real Snow White from the movie (just with longer hair). Her little brother looks exactly like my little brother, Ricky. I'm going to call him Brother on this blog because that's what his sister calls him. She doesn't use his name at all. He is four, exactly two years older than Kevin.

The two things that immediately surprised me about Brother is that he has stud earings and he barely speaks. He uses a few words, but mostly points and makes sounds. Both of them will be in speech therapy soon. I'm supposed to enroll them both in school next week. The caseworker told us that Brother will have to be in a half day pre-K program so that he can get the speech help he needs. Personally I think he'd do better here with less kids and Daniel and I to help him. Daniel says we should do it their way until Christmas break and then we'll be able to say whether the pre-K class is helping any. In his last foster home he was the only child there and I don't think he was required to speak much. He seems to be bright and able to understand us, so it may just be that he needs lots of encouragement to use words.

All the kids have been getting along well. I told Kevin it was almost his nap time and he patted Brother and said, "I play cars with him. Let's go! Run, run!" They've been playing together all afternoon. Brother and Snow White are so happy to be back together again. They hadn't seen each other in almost a month since they were in separate foster homes. They hold hands, hug, and kiss each other a lot. I'm glad we were able to help them be together.

Music and Games

Danya, in the pink dress in this photo, and Gloria had their King's Kids choir concert at AWANA Wednesday night. I hadn't found my camera yet, so all I have is this picture taken later in the evening. Danya and the other "Chums" girls were playing one of the games the youth group kids play. The idea is to get the fifth and sixth grade girls prepared to join the youth group soon.

The game was fun. Everyone had a milk jug with the bottom cut off and taped up for safety. There were four balls in play and each team tried to get them down to the other side to hit the goal. The difficulty is that you can only take three steps after catching the ball in your milk jug. It was interesting to say the least. I even scored a goal when we played kids against leaders.

They're Coming Tomorrow!!!

Yippee! I've got lots of good news. Our two new kids are coming tomorrow! It's a 4 year old boy and his 5 1/2 year old sister. I just got off the phone with the caseworker who has let me know that they are placing these kids with us with the strong opinion that this will end up as a case of foster-to-adopt. They've been in and out of the system for two years now and it looks like we may end up being their final home.

In other good news, I found my camera last night. I'd accidentally left it at church. They also officially declared me the leader of the Blue Group for Chums at AWANA last night. Chums is the name for 3rd and 4th grade girls. My group has 6 girls in it, including Danya, and we had a couple of guests, too, that may come back.

Well, tonight is also my first night back with the Thornton Community Band. I'm thinking about only playing with them for the first concert which will be at the very end of October. That way I won't be almost 8 months pregnant in December trying to handle Sunday worship music plus music for both the church and TCB Christmas concerts. I've realized that I'm already having trouble maintaining air flow due to my expanding midsection. We'll learn the baby's gender in two more weeks! Meanwhile, Kevin had his 2 year old check up today and impressed the doctor who said he seemed to be more like a 3 year old.

Photos to come soon!

Regarding Foster Care

We've had an interesting week regarding foster care. The two sisters we got on Monday went to a new home in a different county on Wednesday. They were such a joy to have. It was like one long sleepover party with all four girls having such a good time together. I wish they could have stayed longer. I've misplaced my camera again, so I can't upload all the great photos we took yet. I'm attributing it to "pregnancy brain".

Thursday night was the day of the big foster parenting information meeting that we put together at our church. We hoped for a larger turn out, but were happy to have a few families that seemed very interested and took home application packets. Our county is in dire need of more foster families, especially those that are willing to take in babies.

Friday we went shopping at the Broomfield mall to get some maternity clothes. I accidentally left my cell phone at home. While we were out we got a call from the county placement person saying they had a sibling group, currently living in separate foster homes, who they are hoping to place together in our home. Unfortunately, I didn't get the message until business hours were over. They are supposed to call us again on Monday and set up a transition to our home, which will be a nice change from all the middle of the night emergency placements that give you an hour's notice if you're lucky. The kids are a 4 year old boy and a 5 year old girl. The boy shares a name with a couple of my close family members, which is fun (and if you know me well, that gives it away). This would be a longer term placement theoretically. We're also waiting to hear if the sibling group we were hoping to be chosen as an adoptive family for ends up with us or not. The decision will be made by the end of this month.

Finally, in non-foster related news, the first night of AWANA went well. I got a promotion. I'm going to be the leader in charge of Danya's group because they were short one. That will end at the Christmas break as they'll have another leader available to take over in the Spring. Good thing, since I plan to be busy having a baby in February. I've got about 3 more weeks until I find out the gender. I'm still open to name suggestions!

Early Morning Delivery!

This morning I was woken up to a 4 am phone call from our county asking if we'd take two sisters ages 8 and 9! Of course I agreed and then rushed around to get clean sheets on the beds and everything straightened up. Then I suddenly remembered it might be a good idea to call Daniel at work and let him know that there'd be extra girls in the house when he got off work at six.

They'll only be here a short time since they're from a different county, but we're happy to have them. So far they've been excellent little guests and all four girls feel like it's a big sleepover party with friends. They may even get to be here for the first night of AWANA at our church this Wednesday. I'll try to get a photo taken soon!

Because it's Fun

The girls and I found matching footie pajamas at Target this weekend. We were really only supposed to be there looking for some maternity slacks that I could wear on stage on Sunday mornings, but we ended up stocking up on jeans for the girls, too. Currently Target has girls' jeans on sale for 7 bucks! We saw these p.j.'s and couldn't resist. We haven't had matching sleepwear in years. I just barely squeezed my pregnant self into the XL size, but hey, anytime a 30 year old pregnant mom of four can fit into something in the girls' department it's cause for rejoicing, right? We can't all look like the new Republican VP candidate, lol.

Celebrating a Dozen!

Daniel and I recently celebrated our 12 year anniversary. Since it's been a dozen years I created egg shaped anniversary party announcements and passed them out at church. We had the party at IHOP since they serve breakfast all day long there. It was so much fun getting together to eat, laugh, and share stories with friends. We'll have to do that again sometimes soon. We had originally thought about having a skating party, but I think that sometimes I get a wee bit overambitious and don't really take into account that I'm four months pregnant and don't have the kind of stamina I used to.

A few weeks ago I lost my camera. Daniel set it in a spot that I don't normally look after he came back from the camping trip and so there is a huge gap of time where we don't have any photos. It also got me out of the habit of bringing my camera everywhere, so I forgot to take it with me to our party. We had our babysitter, Sarah, take this photo of us after we got home that night. Some other things I did not get photos of that we did recently were the CPR recertification training we took, the wonderful job that the new twice a month cleaning service we hired did, the girls end of the year Kings' Kids choir party, our baking day when the kids' made apple and sweet potato pies, foster parent food bank pickup day, delivering a shipment of food in the rain to a friend's daughter, and the gifts we gave each other for our anniversary.

I bought a new LEGO PS2 game for Daniel through Amazon that got lost in the mail. The post office blames it on the Democratic convention overwhelming the mail system in Denver. Since it will take 3 weeks before the seller can even claim it through postal shipping insurance I got him a different one instead, LEGO Indiana Jones. For my gift, Daniel gave me a collection of computer games including the Diner Dash series, Cake Mania 2, and BookWorm Adventures.

Impromptu Vacation: Rifle Gap, CO

Daniel and I had been toying with the idea for quite some time of sending me off to a hotel somewhere for a few days as a scrapbook getaway. Daniel was planning it for an anniversary gift to me. The girls and I decided to surprise Daniel by changing the plans a bit.

Instead, I stayed home and we found an area of Colorado that would not be raining for a few days and sent him and the kids (and Digger, too!) on their first camping trip. They went tent camping at Rifle Gap in western Colorado. It's a beautiful reservoir area within a couple minutes' drive of Rifle Falls which has hiking trails, water falls, and caves to explore. While they were there they went hiking, enjoyed a guided nature tour about the local beavers, climbed through caves, swam in the reservoir, and generally had a blast. The weather was perfect for them and Digger learned to sleep in his crate and to use the bathroom outside, two things that we'd been working to get him to do at home.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch... I invited Sarah over for a sleepover and to help me get the house in good shape for our annual foster parent recertification inspection. My friend Dawn also joined us the first night for a girls' scrapbooking mini-party. I went to a crop at my local scrapbook store on Friday night and just barely got all the housework done before Daniel and the kids arrived back home on Saturday. They rushed in just in time for us to give our newest babysitter Amy instructions for the kids' dinner and Daniel and I to rush out the door. We had a training meeting in Commerce City for the Republican party so we could learn how to legally register people to vote.

The next day, Sunday, we went to the Colorado Rockies' "Faith Day at the Rockies" game and walked around the entire stadium trying to find the voter registration booth. There was some sort of mixup and the people in charge from the McCain campaign never showed up. We went home frustrated and exhausted. The following Saturday we walked neighborhoods knocking on doors of unregistered voters. We ended up getting rained out, but it was still fun.

Date Night at Cinzetti's

After the third day spent continuously at the IABC conference Daniel and I were really missing each other's company. So we called our babysitter, Sarah, and tried out a restaurant we've never been to before called Cinzetti's. It's an Italian buffet. The food was delicious, but my delicate stomach due to pregnancy kept me from trying some of the more interesting looking dishes. The desserts were the best!

IABC Conference

Here are some photos, finally from the IABC conference. These past few weeks life just sort of steam-rolled over us and I just didn't have the time or energy to update my blog.

The conference was really good, but maybe a bit too much for me at that stage of my pregnancy. I went home and crashed every night from exhaustion. On the second day I actually drove 20 minutes home to sleep for 45 minutes and then turn around and drive 20 minutes back. Trust me, it was worth it.

Some of the classes I took at the conference were "Developing Biblical Friendships", "Raising Children with Discernment", and "ADD/ADHD: A Biblical Response" all three of which were excellent. The main speaker each night led us through the bible from Genesis to Revelation to show how sin corrupted relationships and God's plan for restoration. I've included a photo of my trombone up on stage since that was my main purpose in being at the conference, to play during worship services.

POD: Victory for Homeschooling in CA

Well, it's a post of the day, not a photo of the day tonight. I've been at the IABC conference all day and am pretty beat. I just had to share the great news for homeschoolers in California. The court of appeals reversed their ruling that had declared homeschooling illegal in CA. It had basically said that homeschools aren't private schools and parents cannot teach their children without being certified teachers. This affects about 166,000 homeschooling kids in CA. Today they completely did an about face and declared the opposite. Here's a link to the good news: HSLDA update

POD: Muffins for IABC

This morning we worked fast to get a few batches of muffins made up for the IABC conference at our church this week. People are traveling in from all over and the church is offering a continental breakfast Friday and Saturday mornings. The letters stand for "International Association of Biblical Councilors" and the conference this year is called "God's Handbook for Relationships" teaching how to handle all the relationships in your life in a scripturally based way.

Today will be a busy day. We have to finish up the muffins and deliver them to the church. Then we are going to my friend Tiffany's house for a girls' scrapbooking time with her daughter and mine. Tonight I'll be playing with the band for the conference and then attending the opening lecture. Good thing it's Daniel's day off! Luckily, he'll get to take a nap when Kevin does while we're gone.

POD: Kit Kittredge

Today I took the girls to see the new American Girl movie for some "girl time" together. It was really good. Although I really like Chris O'Donnell from lots of movies like The Three Musketeers, Batman (as Robin), and in Grey's Anatomy
as the adorable veterinarian, I didn't think he seemed old enough for the part of the dad in this movie. They mentioned that he had a grown son in college, and he just seems too young for that. He's only 38. Julia Ormond who played the mom was wonderful. I've loved her as an actress ever since she played Sabrina in the movie with Harrison Ford.

Anyway, this is a good family friendly movie that is definitely worth taking your kids to see! Danya just had to see it because she just finished reading her first ever Kit Kittredge mystery story. Since it gives a good glimpse of the Great Depression era, maybe I can count it as homeschooling.

POD: Crunch!

Danya had an accident tonight as she was taking her dog out. She was trying to shut the back sliding glass door when she suddenly slipped off the edge of the back step. She ended up slamming the door into her hand, smashing and cutting open her ring finger. We treated it with antibiotic spray and wrapped it to immobilize it. It was pretty painful, but she's handling it well now that the immediacy of it is past. She's a tough kid.

POD: "I Be a Pain?"

This is Kevin's new favorite question for his dad, "I be a pain?" It doesn't mean what you'd think. He's actually asking if he can be an airplane and have Daniel fly him around the house.

As for me, however, I think I'm doing a pretty good job of being quite a pain for my family right now. When we come home I have to stand outside and holler at the girls to hurry and clean up all the dog poop in the kitchen because I can't stand the smell but I desperately have to pee. You know, it's a myth that women only get the non-stop urge to pee when the baby gets so big that it presses on their bladder. It really starts from the beginning of pregnancy and never lets up.

Poor Daniel is also suffering. I kicked him out of the house the other night long after the kids were all in bed because I desperately needed sweet tea and Little Caesar's Crazy Bread. Today it was an uncontrollable urge for strawberries and whipped cream. Yesterday I begged for Little Caesar's pizza again, but when he proudly left the cave and dragged home the dinner I'd been dying for...I got sick at the smell of it and couldn't eat it. My poor poor family. It turns out the answer to Kevin's question is, "No, not you. Mommy be a pain."

POD: McHoops

Danya showing off her skills today after church at McDonald's.

POD: Visiting Snoopy

We were able to visit Snoopy at his new foster home this morning. He's doing so well! He's gained weight and seems to be completely settled in and happy with his new family. His foster mom says that his bio mom is doing better, but I have a feeling that this is a case that won't end well in that regard.

It was fun watching Snoopy and Kevin play together again. After we'd been there about half an hour Kevin followed Snoopy up the stairs and said, "Love you, ____!" Snoopy is still dealing with inexplicable outbreaks of hives, but his foster parents are doing everything they can to identify the cause. At least they don't seem to itch him at all. It was just so good to see how well he's doing. We don't often get to see our foster children again after they leave. The not knowing is hard.

POD: Adams County Fair

Here's us at the ADCO fair. We got discount tickets and free food coupons through our caseworker. I'll add more later when I'm not so wiped out.

It looks like I missed my POD for yesterday again. That's twice in ten days. I've got to get better at this. Yesterday was crazy with some good and some bad. The bad was when the placement person called with a sibling group for us that could turn into a fost/adopt situation. They sounded close to perfect, but I messed it up by asking if we could avoid enrolling the Kindergartner in school since she wasn't 6 yet, which is the mandatory school age in Colorado. They said they'd look into it, and decided to just place them with another family. That was disappointing, but I know God has a certain group of kids planned for us, so that must not have been them.

The good was that Daniel and I got to go out to the movies for a date. (More bad was getting horrendously sick on the way home.) We saw the new Batman movie because Rush Limbaugh talked about it on his show and said that there were some really great themes in it. We also had seen a video skit of a guy asking people on the streets to listen to a quote and guess who said it, George Bush or Batman. Nobody but an 8 year old girl seemed to get any right! The underlying idea seems to be that, like Batman, our President is learning the hard way that making the tough choices, the right decisions, to protect your people doesn't make you popular or a hero, and sometimes you even end up being vilified for it.