Is this my legacy?????

A couple of weeks ago I attended a baby shower for a very dear friend. As I was enjoying my cake a stranger approached me and said "I know you!!". She acted slightly excited like I was a celebrity or something. I am sure I looked puzzled as I said "You do?" She immediately said "Yes, you are one of the bounce house girls!!!" I must admit it took me a few minutes to figure out what she was talking about but soon it all came back to me and before I knew it this stranger had summoned a friend over to exclaim that she had met a "bounce house girl". I then proceeded to spend the next few minutes explaining to these complete stranger that I had in fact tried to save my friend Valerie from being devoured from the bounce house several months ago. If you don't remember this story please revisit it here. And even if you do remember it, reread it to give yourself a laugh this Monday.

Thanks V, for making me forever known as one of the "bounce house girls". I was kind enough not to repost the pictures of you being swallowed up by the house, but remember Mollianne's birthday is only 7 months away and Erin promised a bounce house again this year!!!


Happy Monday everyone!!!

A numbers review.....

21 - Months our dossier has now been logged in at the CCAA.

90 - Days until we see our daughter's face. Can this really be true???? We expect our referral in Dec or Jan and that is not too far away!!!!

3 - Times I have gone into Avery's room this week just to tidy up. Don't know what has gotten into me all the sudden but I have this need to get her room ready.

4 - Families I have touched bases with this week that have the same LID as us and are using the same agency, making them our potential travel partners.

6 - Times in the last week I have reviewed the awesome packing list I got from Kelley.

For some reason beginning on Sunday my mind has constantly been occupied with the thoughts of receiving our referral, traveling, and getting Avery settled in her new home. I thought that I had kind of "numbed" myself to this whole process but evidentally I was wrong!!

Hope everyone is having a good week!!!

Catching up.......

There have been a whirlwind of things going on the last week and since I neglected to blog each event I am just combining for one long blog post. So here we go:


Are you ready for some football????
Football was always a major event in my house growing up and that has just rolled over to the next generation. Luckily Paul is also a football fan and that means our weekend television is usually limited to one game or another. Kelby and Kolin have both started their season's and that means 2 games a week for Aunt Robyn and Uncle Paul. Even though both boys lost their games this week we stilled cheered loud and were very proud of their efforts.

Kelby getting some sideline advice from his dad during half-time. Since Kelby is in 8th grade this year he plays for the school district and I think Chris has a hard time remembering that he is no longer Kelby's coach.

I just love this picture of Kolin. He is the smallest player on his team and this moment when he was running off the field with the largest member of the team was priceless!!


An exciting Saturday evening????

This may come as a surprise to you all (not!) but space is becoming a precious commodity in Avery's room. I will just have to blame it on the 2+ years I have had to shop and receive gifts from those awaiting her arrival. As I was looking in her closet this weekend I noticed the amount of space her Little People collection was taking so I decided that taking all those toys out of the boxes would free up alot of space. That was my project for Saturday evening (while Paul was watching football of course). I had him bring all the boxes into the living room and for the next 3 HOURS I proceeded to open, untie, untape, unwrap, and free each individual piece. When I was done I was able to condense the collection to 2 boxes and one storage tub. What are those toy manufacturer's thinking when they package this stuff??

The pictures aren't the best but I wanted to give you an idea of the amount of boxes this project entailed.
Not to mention the amount of garbage generated by unwrapping everything!!!!


Rowdy goes for a ride!!!!

Dad came over to return Paul's 4-wheeler and I guess he just felt sorry for poor Rowdy just eyeing that big machine with disbelief. Next thing you know dad picked up Rowdy and took him for a spin in the yard. The pictures were just too cute not to share:

So that's about all that has been happening here. I did get into Avery's room again this morning and clean out her closet, dresser, and storage area. Is this what they call "nesting"???

Happy Monday and hope everyone's week is starting out well!!

A wild Saturday.....

We had a fun-filled couple of days this past weekend. Saturday I attended a baby shower in the morning for a very dear friend and then that afternoon Paul and I volunteered to work a game booth at our church's end of summer bash. We joined this church just a few short months ago but have been looking at different ways to get involved. When we saw the announcement for the event we volunteered to be in charge of a game booth and then we recruited Erin&Bob, Chuck&Kelley, and Anton&Christie to help us. The church really went all out it to make it a great event for the kids. There were bounce houses, water slides, a petting zoo, snow cones, cotton candy, face painting, and many different carnival style games. Our little group was in charge of the football toss. It was actually two tires hanging on a contraption (never did figure out exactly what) and you got 3 tries to throw a Nerf football in the hole. You were supposed to get candy if you missed and a prize if you didn't. Well, never being one to stick to the rules we gave each child whatever they wanted regardless of their throwing skills.

The girls really had a great time. We were even excited to get our picture made with the Chic-Fil-A Cow!!! How many opportunities in life do you get to experience that??

Before you see the pics, I must tell that for some reason Mia was not to keen on getting her picture made that day. If she did actually look at the camera she covered her mouth so you could not see her smile. I think I managed to get some good shots anyway.

Enjoy the pics:

Now it is back to the work week!!!!

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas.....

Why?? You may ask. Well, this weekend "the storage container" officially came into use. Every year I get one of those large storage containers and place it in the guestroom. As I shop and find Christmas gifts for people all the gifts go into the container. That way I know where all the gifts are can keep a good tab on what I have purchased. I am proud to say I have officially finished shopping for 4 people!!! So the Christmas shopping is officially under way!!

Adventures in Fried Chicken.....

Okay so here's the story: I had a doctor's appt this afternoon and Paul and I decided to grab a late lunch after the appointment. Several girls at work had told me about this great restaurant that was all home-cookin' with the best fried chicken you could ever have (yes, we did think of you Valerie). Since the restaurant was only about 15 minutes away from the doctor's office we decided to try it out. The girls were right the food was awesome and since it was after the typical lunch time there were very few people in the place. In fact it was only me and Paul and one other table with 3 guys probably in their late teens. We enjoyed our meal and headed on our way. The other patrons (the guys) had exited about 5 minutes ahead of us. We had no sooner got into our car when we heard shouting coming from the area about 2 cars over. Next thing we knew one of the guys that we had previously seen dining was at a full run going past the front of out car. When we looked in the direction of the shouting we saw the police wrestling another one of the guys to the ground. The parking lot was very small and we were not sure what was going on so we were unsure of what to do. Do we burn rubber and get the heck out of there? Do we stay put as to not get in the way? Do we crawl in the floorboard to avoid the potential danger? After several minutes we decided to get the heck out of dodge. We exited the parking lot with no problem as all the movement was at a standstill. Being the nosy person that I am (and because I was driving) I told Paul that we must go around the block and see if we could decipher what was going on, when we reached the backside of the building we saw the guy who had ran in front of our car crouched down laying on the ground, halfway under a parked car. We were on a one-way street and as I looked up there were several police cars coming at me (the wrong way) so I stopped our car and started motioning them where the guys was hiding. The next thing you know we had two police cars beside us and a fight was beginning among the suspect and several police officers. We decided to cut our losses and get out of there. We never did find out what happened. All we know is that a few minutes earlier we were sitting right next to these guys eating and they appeared to have no worries, not enough time had transpired between the time they left the restaurant and all this drama happened for a crime to have occurred. So who knows???? I can't help but mention that we were in a very affluent neighborhood, I am talking million dollar homes. I would have not been nearly as shocked if we were in a different place but to see all this drama in that neighborhood was crazy.

Once we were back on the highway and headed home I told Paul "I am so blogging this!!!" He just rolled his eyes at me and sarcastically remarked "yea, too bad you didn't have your camera with you!" So let this be a lesson to all bloggers: always carry your camera!!!

Hope everyone is having a great week!!

I knew it was to good to be true...

The CCAA updated their website early this morning and the new cut-off is Nov 25. This means they only did 4 days this month. On the bright side supposedly the days that were done were huge. So hopefully that means with smaller LID batches ahead they can move faster. A girl can dream, can't she?? No matter what the bottom line is that we are 4 days worth of dossiers closer to seeing our sweet baby's face!!

On a separate note: Cliff went home from the hospital this morning. He is doing awesome and it is in huge part to all the prayers and well wishes from you. The entire family is grateful and appreciative!!

Happy Labor Day!!!