What a wonderful day for the zoo!

This week has flown by for us. I have anticipated the arrival of a fellow blogger friend and Russian adoption Momma to the area for a short vacation. We decided to head to the zoo with Anna and her children Hope, Connor, and Parker. Right away Anna gave gave Parker a new nickname so he will forever be known to me as Big Guy. Anna LOVES to be with other children playing and fooling around. Hope and Anna ran through the zoo stopping to call the other over to see what animal was close by.

I loved how Big Guy and Connor would lift up Hope and Anna up to see over the rail. Big Guy and Connor are two of the nicest young men I have met in a long time. So sweet and caring toward their sister. Kellie and I were talking about our travels to Russia and I was quite impressed how Connor asked questions about the process. What I loved the most was how Kellie handled his questions with good honest answers. Kellie is so natural with her children with the right balance of caring, joking and structure. Because Anna is my one and only I am not ususally faced with the type of questions he asked about traveling. Believe me every question he asked was because he loves his sister unconditionally.

Everytime I meet up with a fellow adoptive mom I feel an instant connection. I guess it is the same as when a woman gives birth and tells of their birth story. I find it so easy to talk and share with those who have gone down the same path as I have.
The kids played so well at the zoo and Sonic. I hope that we can get together again very soon.
Now for the pictures....

Summer time fun

So this past week I have been off from school. I have only 7 more weeks of this class but really only 5 more weeks of projects. The last week is to complete the final and the one before that is to study for the final. Unfortunately, I did not plan better because i had 3 days scheduled this week...or maybe that was a good thing.

I love being active. Anna loves to be active too. Finding that balance between doing something and relaxing is a struggle for both of us. So today is a rest and play at home day. We stopped watching  TV about a year ago. We do let Anna watch a movie to two at night but we stopped just having it on in the background. I am so glad that we did because now I am able to listen to her play. The conversations that she is having with the "guys." Today she was calling "Momma, Momma look at this!" When I answered "Okay here I come. " She looked at me like I was crazy and said "No Momma the horse Momma."

This past week Anna, Hans, Me-Me and I made some stepping stones that did not turn out quite right so we have decided we will do them again in the next couple of weeks. Yesterday Anna and I met up with a friend from her preschool class at the bay beach. We had such a great time. The past two days have really felt like summer around here with the temperature hitting close to 100 degrees. The water was refreshing. We had a regular crowd at the bay beach, Gerard's parents, sister, Me-Me, Greg and Hans. 

I have figured out that it is much easier to have another child for Anna to play with and Nathan is such a nice boy. The bigger bonus is I like his Mother too so it made it easy to sit on the beach and talk.

I can not believe how big Hans is getting.

That is the back of JoanMarie's head and Grammy. Check out that beautiful hair on JM.

Anna does not like to be sticky so she does not like to actually hold the ice cream.

So this is what we have been up too. Tomorrow I plan on running is The Survival Race with my friend Sarah. Yup, I am really going to do it. Sarah is a good partner for me for this race. We have strict rules. We must finish but just not last and to have fun while doing it.

Mama Why?

Anna is a very inquisitive child. She has always loved to see and know how things work. I love it because I am very much the same way. Perhaps that is the reason why I am really enjoying my current class about advance pathophysiology but that is a whole other story.

Today Anna was lucky because she joined Gerard while he ran around town making all his weekly stops then ended up at Papa and Grammy's house. Auntie AM sent down a beach towel with a unicorn on it that Anna is completely attached to already. When Anna woke up she asked if we could go to the zoo. I knew that it would be impossible because of our work schedule but I was considering it for Sunday afternoon. About an hour later Auntie AM asked if I wanted to go to the zoo...hmm I guess the zoo was on every one's mind this morning. I declined but told her that if Grammy and Papa were going to that they could take Anna.

I know it sounds crazy but this is a big deal for me. Usually Anna is with Gerard or myself on outings or Me-Me and La-La and that is pretty much it. I know my nieces are able to run after her if she bolts on them. I am so glad that I we let her go because she really enjoyed the zoo. Because I was scheduled to work (I got put on call) I asked if Grammy and Papa could drop Anna off to my Mother's house so she could spend the night there which they did. I do love the convenience of all of us living within 4 miles of each other.

So I started on homework this morning around 10 am. I was happy to get the extra time to work on my project. Basically I have to describe disease processes at a cellular level and how it affects each organ system. No really it is pretty neat and I do love it. I know it makes me sound really strange. Because I got called off I was able to completely finish my homework so tomorrow all I have to do is play with Gerard and Anna.

I decided to go to my Mother's house and surprise Anna. It just does not feel right for her to not be home if I am home which this effectively puts my Mother on call as well until Gerard gets home. For me Anna chooses to regress to a baby like state at times. She wants me to hold her, she does a fake cry like a baby, and at times I have even swaddled her like a baby. Usually this only lasts for a couple of minutes and then she is off playing. So tonight I packed her up and was buckling her car seat when she asked me "Why do I keep growing?" After 10 hours of explaining things at a cellular level for my advanced pathophysiology class I could have told her in very technical terms why she continues to grow but that was not what she was looking for from me.

I think this comment is so interesting because last night when Gerard got home he peaked in on her and we were whispering about how tall she has gotten. From a sound sleep she told us "Quiet! Go to sleep now."

I told her "All children grow, even baby JoanMarie is getting bigger. However you will always be my baby." I could see that she liked the thought of JoanMarie growing too. I think it is so amazing how her little brain works. She knows that when she was JoanMarie's age that she was not with me but there are times that she tried her best to recreate that time again in her life. We came home, I fed her a bottle and rocked her a bit then she fell asleep.

I think will pick up my text book for a little light reading about pulmonary disease processes...Night, night.

Last day of preschool

At least for this year. Gerard and I discussed it at length and Anna being promoted to kindergarten and we have decided to place her into preschool for one more year. In this past year we have seen Anna grow in terms of her learning but we feel that being a 4 year old in a class full of 5 and 6 year olds is not in Anna's best interest.
I will say that Anna is really starting to try to read and write. The walls in my home happen to be one of her favorite practice spots for her penmanship. This past year her school had a reading program where I committed to reading her 100 books and logging them into her register. I logged in 86 but read even more than that to her. How is it that I still feel like a failure?
I have decided that I will log in 100 new books this summer. So this being the last week of school and I was off I decided a trip to the library was in order. We gathered a number of books that looked interesting. Some I knew, some she knew and some I picked because of the cover. I know you can not judge a book by its cover and I fell victim to that last night. We came home sat down to read one of the books. By about the second page I could tell where it was going. It was a book about LICE! Yikes, my worst fear. I plan on looking at the books a little closer next time.
Today I dropped Anna off at school. It was a show and tell day. Big surprise Anna bought in a horse. Not just any horse, a horse costume from Halloween that I got a number of years ago. His name is Spirit the horse, named after the movie Spirit the horse. I have really started to lay the plan out for Anna so that she knows what to expect and what is next. I find that she really thrives when I do this.

Step One: Get in the car
Step Two: Drive to school
Step Three: Get your picture by the tree
Step Four: Get your gear and go into school

She loves counting out the steps. I discovered this when I was making mac n cheese one day for her. She calls out which step is next and which one we have completed.

Now I am off to do my homework before I have to pick Anna up from school. Hopefully I will get the bulk of it done. Wish me luck.

Here are Anna's pictures from her last day of school for 2011-2012. Yes she is wearing the same outfit. She is holding a picture of herself from the first day of school.

Summer has officially begun!



Lost my camera!

Or at least I thought I lost it. Let me give you a bit of the back story so that it makes a bit more sense. Friday I was off. My Mother came over because I was going to make burgers on the grill. We were sitting outside enjoying the warm weather with no humidity. For  my Mother enjoying the warm weather is very hard. It can not be too hot and if there is a drop of humidity that is it she has to stay in the air conditioning. So Friday was a big treat for her. Anna was playing at her sand table and I was taking her picture. These pictures in fact.

That is when my Mother reminded me that the last time she was at our beach was right after Anna came home from Russia. This made me think of these pictures.

I suggested that we go to the beach. It was about 6pm so I knew that it was not going to get hotter in fact the conditions would probably only get better for my Mother. We loaded up the car and were off to the beach. Where I took these pictures.



So Saturday morning I decided that I needed to go to Target to print this picture (Anna's first day of preschool 2011) for a project I have planned on Tuesday.

This where the story gets a little crazy. The lady behind the counter at the photolab was a bit nervous about my prints. I think it is because she does not usually work in that area so I think some of her anxiety transferred over to me. Anna's swim mate walked in and her parents started up a conversation with me as well. All innocent stuff but things that caused me to become distracted. I was trying to hurry up to get done and back home to pick up Gerard so we could go to the seaport in town to see a little show. My one only concern when I am in public is Anna's safety. I collected and paid for my prints, grabbed Anna's hand and we hurried out the door.

It was not until I went to grab my camera for the seaport show that I realized that I did not have it. I looked at Gerard with a heavy heart and said "I lost my camera." I do carry it pretty much every where. In the past couple of months I have not taken as many pictures but I miss not having those memories. One day it might be very important for Anna to see pictures of her with Gerard and I and other family members. I was so thankful that I had downloaded my pictures from Friday so all that would have been lost was the camera but replacing the camera was not in the budget...sigh.

After the show we dropped Gerard off at his truck and he left for work. I tracked back up to Target in the hopes that someone had turned in my camera. As I walked in I spotted my camera bag immediately. What a relief. I picked it up thanked God that some good person turned it in and we went home.

But that is not the end. Once we were home I took a few more pictures.

Anna has been begging for red toe nails

These are what we refer to as happy face and mad face respectively.

This picture reminded me of the next picture taken in April 2010.

All of these pictures may seem very random but they are all snap shoots in my mind of things I never want to forget.









Budget time

I think the single most stressful thing that I have ever had to deal with as an adult is finances. Now before I start and sound like I am complaining which I guess I am please know that I have always felt blessed to be able to pay what I owe. With that being said, I think I became an adult much faster than most. I bought my first house at 20 years old. I remember being a bit shocked by my first mortgage payment because no one told me I had to pay taxes, insurance and PMI.
Before  Anna's adoption expenses I was able to pay all of my bills with one two week paycheck. Like so many who have adopted the expenses of travel, fees and so on can get out of hand pretty fast. It did for me anyway. I was lucky that I had so much money saved. That first year home with Anna was a financial blur. I depleted my saving and made a number of mistakes. A little over a year and a half ago I stopped and committed to making my life easier. My goal is to work part-time but a year and a half ago I not only needed to work full time but I needed to pick up extra time. I did not like working that much so I made the decision to change. Last week I decided I will no longer be working my extra job. I no longer have to work my extra job and that feels really great. This was a difficult decision and required a lot of preparation. So what has changed?
In the past year and a half I have made some very radical changes to pay off everything that I could pay off. I read a book by Dave Ramsey called the Total Money Makeover. This book is written in a way that I was able to read and understand the concept quickly. Next week I will have everything with the exception of about 2000 dollars on my car paid off. Once my car is paid off I will be in the phase of building my emergency fund of 3-6 months. My goal is to be part time in the next two years. I might even pick a date on the calendar and circle it.
I can feel the stress of my finances lift away as I get closer to living free and clear. I still have a long way to go in learning to budget for my day to day expenses but I am a work in progress and not perfect. If you are struggling you might want to consider reading this book.

Living in a small town

Some times I cross the path of the nicest people and it just amazes me. Today is the last full day of school for Anna. Monday and Tuesday she has half days so I really wanted to get a few things done. Like usual if you dangle a shiny ball in front of my face I am instantly distracted. I had planned on finishing up my homework for this week, taking a quiz and starting on next weeks reading. The shiny ball today was an uncashed pay check. I dropped Anna at school and decided to cash my paycheck.
I drove to the next town over about 3 miles from my house to the back...insert next shiny ball...Michael's craft store. I wanted to drop in for a few minutes to pick up a few note cards for Anna's teacher's gifts than walk to the movie theater for movie tickets for the teachers. I am always at a loss for what to get the teachers and I thought I like the movies and never seem to go because it is too darn expensive. In order to get the the movie theater I have to pass TJ Maxx and Five Below. Oh course I stopped at both. Now I marched off to my car noting the time and I thought to myself I can at least get my homework done in time.
Well...as I was driving home stuffing Turkish Delights candy into my mouth I hit the curb and took out my front tire. Sigh! I will say that Gerard and I just had a conversation about my tires this past weekend. He told me I needed to put new tires into the budget for the end of the summer. The last time I bought tires they were very expensive like 800 dollars. Gerard always prefers that I change all four at the same time. As I got out of the car I thanked God for AAA because I knew Gerard was not around to change the tire. A very nice tow truck man came changed the tire and said he thought he had a good used one at his shop. With my spare on the car I drove the mile over to his shop where indeed he did have the tire. I dropped off my rim and old tire and he said I could drive home and he would put the new tire on in my driveway.
Here is the slightly weird part...I told him "You don't know where I live." Which he answered "Sure I do."  Darn if he did not know where I lived. I admit I live in a very small town but this is always a touch weird to me and not even the first time it has happened to me. Today I am just thankful that I live where I live even though apparently everyone in town knows who I am and where I live.

нулевой Yup that is how many I have left!

For those of you who are not fluent in Russian (neither and I thank you Google translate) I have ZERO Post Placement Reports left to complete. I can not believe that we are done with the post placement reports how can that be? Yesterday, Christine arrived as usual to visit with Anna, Gerard and I. It was a little bitter sweet because this is the last time she will be at our home for the purposes of checking on Anna.

We talked about how Anna was progressing in school, speech, eating and just general attachment to both of us. We talked about my finances which I will save for another post (I have some big news there too!). We talked about traveling with Anna, places we have been and places I would like to take her. What I am doing to save for her college education. The visit was wonderful. We did discuss a few hard things that I will save for next week.

You all know how much Anna loves horses...right? If we are playing she wants to be the horse and I have to be the princess or Gerard has to be the prince. I think one of the funniest things that she has ever said to me was "Hmmmm that flower smells like a horse!" Which by the way is a good thing. During most the entire visit Anna decided that she was Diamond the horse from a chapter book I am reading to her. Prior to Christine's arrival Anna NEEDED a diamond on her forehead like the horse. She wanted me to use a sharpie marker but I opted for a piece of post-it paper cut into a square. So she wore her diamond on her head the entire visit. I explained the reason for its presence and Christine laughed.

On a different note the agency has approached me with an opportunity that I had never thought about before. They asked me if I would be willing to give pre-adoptive parents a class on baby care. When she mentioned it I jumped at the chance. They are looking for someone with adoption and nursing experience and they thought of me. I think I will put a little something together for them and see what they think.

I have also made up my mind that I have had it with Gerard's photography. I need a real set of pictures of us. No more fooling around. These are the two best pictures from the 100, yes you read that right 100 pictures that Gerard took of us yesterday.

Now that the post placement reports are done I will pack up a bunch of Anna's paperwork for storage. When she wants to see it I will pull it out and we will talk about it. It feels so nice to almost be done. I will have to make 2 trips to Trenton for the appostiles, send out 10 pictures and then mail everything to Michigan. After that we are done!

One of our struggles

I know this may sound just like a silly complaint but one of our biggest struggles since Anna has come home has been with food. I thank God everyday that I was able to find Kefir and that Anna will drink it. This is pretty much the only protein she will take on most days. I make light of the situation when I can but there is pretty much never a minute that goes by where I am not thinking "What was the last thing Anna has eaten." She is small and I think she always will be small. Anna is so active that she burns the calories up as soon as she takes them in.
I am very proud of her weight gains and I am always on the look out for a new way to add calories to her diet. This all goes back to the class party a couple of weeks ago. I asked to bring in my snow cone maker but the only problem was I did not own one. Off to the store to purchase one and much to my surprise I love it and use it pretty much everyday.

What I really wanted was an ice cream maker. I wanted one that did not require ice and that was not a million dollars. Imagine my surprise when I found one sitting next to the snow cone maker. I put both in my cart and proceeded with my internal dialogue of why I needed it. As crazy as it sounds I bought it anyway even though I know going into this that I might not use it all the time. I put the core into the freezer to freeze and left it there.

Fast forward now to the other day. I was at the grocery store and Anna asked for ice cream. Now this is something that I can pretty much always get her to eat. When I think of ice cream as most people do I think of it as a treat. But if she asks for a type of food I never deny her so I told her we were going to make ice cream instead. Anna is a bit like me and enjoys a nice project especially if there are steps involved more about that another day. She requested mint chocolate chip, so I picked up the cream, mint extract and the chips than we proceeded to head home.
I unloaded the bags on to the counter and it hit me. What if I added protein powder to the ice cream. Gerard drinks it and honestly it smells  really good. I decided that if it tasted yucky nothing was lost but a little cream and a little time. So I added the powder to the mixture. By my simple calculation each 1/2 cup of ice cream would now have an added 13 grams of protein which by the way is more than in a serving of chicken nuggets. We put the mixture into the maker and in 30 short minutes we had ice cream.

Here is to moment of truth did Anna eat it or did she turn up her nose with her classic "I can't like it!" Anna ate a little over 1/2 cup of ice cream. Each day she has asked for some more and today she finished off the batch of ice cream I made the other day. I feel a small victory in our struggle to get more protein into Anna. The addition of a protein shake is something that Anna's pediatrician has asked us to try but in the past Anna just would flat out refuse. Tomorrow I am planning on making another batch to have on hand. The other good thing is I am able to control the amount of sugar that is added to the ice cream. I wanted to blog about this just in case anyone out there is struggling with this as well.