Anna's hair cut

This past August Anna was watching the same movie over and over. This is something that she will do every once in a while. The movie that she was watching was Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. In all I actually like this movie so I did not mind that she watches it. After about the 80th time I realized that one of the horses that I had bought Anna at the thrift store was who we refer to as Girl Horse or Spirit's girlfriend. So that is neat.

Well in the story Spirit the main character is forced to have his hair cut. I was in my office listening to her and the movie (Yes my house is that small) then I heard what sounded like scissors. My first reaction was to jump up and check out the situation. Yup, Anna cut her hair. Just a little off the side. The funny or not so funny thing is she cried when I took the scissors away because she wanted all of her hair cut off. This made me a little sad because I was remembering her hair cut from the orphanage. Of course I was over thinking it all and then I realized that the movie was to the point where Spirit gets his hair all cut off. She was crying to be like the Spirit the horse.

Prior to this event I had bought Anna scissors that are made for children specifically so that they do not cut hair. I looked down and saw that she had tried them first. When they did not work she set out to find my scissors that will cut pretty much anything. Through her tears she said "Those ones are broken" meaning her special safety scissors. It was hard not to laugh. The poor dear cried for over 30 minutes. Anyone who is a FB friend knows that this story is old but I wanted to make sure that I did not forget it so that is why is coming to the blog so late.

 

We did go and get her hair cut. We chatted with the hair dresser prior to the hair cut. We talked about how she had to go to school to learn to cut hair and that it was illegal to cut hair without a license.  I am hoping that we do not have any more illegal hair cuts around these parts.

Anna and I talked more about this the other day when I heard her and Nicole mention that they wanted to give each other hair cuts. As a result of this Anna is only allowed to cut her horses hair and only when I am there to help with scissors that are way less sharp.

A Fever

I am so blessed that Anna is usually a very healthy little girl. However with that being said going back to school has been difficult for her. This past summer not a single runny nose, cough or ache. This past week she started with a runny nose that progressed to a bit of a cough and last night a fever. I was lucky because I was called off which I was ever so thankful for because I just knew she was not feeling well.

In the middle of the night she rolled over and I could feel the heat coming off her little body. I took her temperature and was shocked that it was 103.1. The little dear was sleeping so nicely too. I woke her up and gave her Tylenol for the fever. It came down nicely but I was glad that I was off because I am not sure Gerard would have realized until he checked in on her in the morning. I did wake him up just so he could feel how hot she was. This way he will know the difference in the future.

I am sure it is just a virus because she bounced back this morning with her usual spunky self. My Mother came over this afternoon because I needed to work at the book fair. I signed up before Anna got sick and I really did not want to back out. Anna was crushed when I left for the 2 hours but according to my Mother she came around about 30 minutes after I left. I both love and hate that she misses me so much when I leave.

Thank goodness my Mother is good at entertaining her. When I got home my living room was covered in white yarn. Anna wanted to make a spider web so that is what they worked on for over an hour. Anna made me promise not to touch it until her Daddy gets to see it. She has such a large imagination for such a small package.

On a side note Gerard has interviewed for a new job and he is one of the top two picks. I am both excited and cautious about this change. He is not in love with his current job and fears another lay-off is in sight that is the reason why he was looking. I am putting it in God's hands. If this is the right job for our family then that is what I want. I know he is missing Anna like crazy...me probably not as much since I have been a bit crabby.

I have a lot of soul searching to do. I am not perfect but I could make a few changes in myself that could be positive for us all. Mostly so I am less crabby.

A Family for Eve...A book review

This past March when I went to the Created for Care conference in Atlanta I purchased a book about adoption for Anna titled A Family for Eve written by Kristen Keefe Struck. I read it over myself and knew it was perfect for Anna. What I love about it most is how Eve came to be placed with a family. This is an extremely sweet story. The family consists of many different types of animals so I do think that it would be good for a multi-racial family as well. It is not specific to any country but in my opinion it could translate into pretty much any adoption situation.

So why has it taken me so long to mention this book? Well first off was lazy. I feel like on some level lately I have dropped the ball on a few things but I now feel more on track. But really the reason why I am mentioning this book is because of a conversation that Anna had in school. For lunch and snack time the children all sit together eating and talking about foods and stuff like that. Anna told the children "I was a baby in Russia, I slept in a crib and a lady fed me." The teacher was a bit taken back. She and I have talked about Anna's adoption but this is the first time that Anna has mentioned it to her or in class.

Mrs. M. wrote me a note to tell me about the conversation which sounds pretty innocent but I am so thankful that she did. I have heard Anna say this before and we talk about it. I never want her to feel bad because she came to us through adoption but I think it is a hard concept for children to grasp. Gerard worries that she will be made fun of later on in school so it is not a big topic of conversation with the parents. Anna is our daughter and that is just the facts.

In the past I have given the teacher gifts of books for the classroom mostly because I Anna loves books and because I am sure that she gets tired of reading the same stories over and over. I plan on purchasing this book for the classroom. I highly recommend this book.

The fourth and final!

Birthday celebration for Anna is now complete. I am sure that we went over board and I know we went about 50 dollars over budget but in all I think it was worth every penny. Anna truly had a wonderful time. I am glad that Gerard pushed for the parties. Yup, it was him and not me.

I have been struggling a bit lately with anxiety. It seems the only places that I feel safe or anxiety free are at home and work. It all started on my trip to Myrtle Beach. I am hoping that it will resolve soon. In the past I have had this happen to me before and I have been able to over come it but it takes some time.

We had her second party at a small amusement park about 25 minutes from our house. The amusement park has a pirate theme working so we went with it. I would love to post pictures but other children are in them so I will need to refrain. In all the day was beautiful. The weather was perfect, cool but not cold. The sun was shining. Anna was tickled that so many of her friends were able to come to celebrate. I know some of these children from last year and some are new. It was nice to get to meet some of the parents too. Thank goodness Gerard was off because he did most of the talking mostly which is a BIG switch up for us.

I have at least two more things I want to write about this week while they are still fresh in my mind. For now I have homework to complete. Off to read a million pages about pharmacology.

Happy Birthday

I am the proud parent of a 5 year old! How did that happen? Today has been somewhat low key. Gerard, Anna and I just hung out around the house this morning until he left for work.

My friend Sarah and her sister Katie invited us to go apple picking at a near by farm. When they mentioned which farm I realized this was the first farm that we bought Anna to three years ago. So now I am super excited and glad I grabbed my camera. We are waiting, Anna is sleeping so I thought this was a good time to blog a little.

When I get home I will upload the pictures from today. As I drove here I thought of my dad. I always think of him more when Jenny is close by. The two of them are so much alike. As we drove along there is a particular hill (Okay really just a big bump in the road) that reminds me of him. I stopped and took a picture. Yes, I stopped in the middle of the road. Not much traffic after all.

I just did not want this experience to pass without blogging about it. I still have to write about Anna's hair cut from August.  

Housework is a blessing

So for the past month I have been following the FlyLady. My house got out of control over the summer. We do so much better when it is organized and clean. One of the things that she talks about is that housework is a blessing. Yes, I have been repeating this over and over. Gerard usually just laughs at me and we kid and joke about it. The truth is that it is a blessing. I have (in my opinion) a beautiful house. It is structurally sound. I am cool in the summer and warm in the winter. I can easily cook and bath. Having my home is a blessing therefore keeping it neat, and clean is a blessing too.

I my habits have a way of influencing Anna's habits. As I clean I smile now. I tell her that housework is a blessing. Which brings us to last Thursday evening. I was cleaning out the beach stuff from my car and the 40 lbs of sand that accumulated over the summer. Anna was riding Lucky (her bike) in the driveway. She rode over to me and asked to go to the park. I stopped and thought for a minute...everything else (except my homework) was done! No wash to fold, bathrooms were clean and everything else pretty much straightened up. I told her "Yes, Anna lets go!"

She was so excited to walk over to the park. By keeping my house together I was able to do something I really wanted to do with Anna. No guilt. I did not have to rush. I grabbed my camera and we were off to the park.

Sometimes two is twice as nice and more than enough

Jenny will be having twins! Her due date is April 19, 2013. She will be making an appointment to be seen by a specialist for a couple of reasons. The first being her age which is no big deal in our opinion. The second being because the doctor did not see a membrane separating the twins. This means that they could potentially be sharing the same amniotic sac making them monochorionic monoamniotic twins.

So what does this mean? This means that the babies share a placenta and the same amniotic sac. If this is the case her pregnancy is EXTREMELY high risk. The chances of both twins surviving is less than 50% because they can become entangled in each others umbilical cord. Jenny is aware that I am concerned but I told her to pray every minute that this is not the case. If this is the case she will be delivered early I am guessing between 28-34 weeks gestation which is very premature. Please pray for her. I am specifically praying for a membrane to separate the twins in the amniotic sac because that will fix the problem completely. I am encouraging her to start a blog and I think she will. If she does I will post a link. As much as we are alike we are extremely different so it will be a much different blog then mine.

When I went to Denmark a number of years ago My Great Aunt Johanna gave me these pictures. I feel so lucky to have them now.

 

Jenny, Rex our dog, & Me

 

Jenny, My Dad & Me at the beach in Florida

 

This is my Mother pregnant with Jenny. My Grandfather and Dad were in the background

I should probably be doing...

My homework! This is the start of week # 4 and I have to get busy on some of the bigger projects. For the past week I have been busy cleaning, organizing and getting ready for a certain little someone's birthday party. Holy cow how did she grow so fast? For the past couple of months Anna has talked non-stop about her birthday party. We have never had one for her with her friends so instead of going to Disney this year we decided that we would have a party.

This is where my craziness starts to show. I wanted a party at home with a pony, all decked out in pink insert the but here. We do not have a crazy big house anymore so having 60 or 70 people here is hard then add in a pony and a big sprinkling of children and it becomes a big mess. Sigh! Gerard came up with the idea of having 2 parties one for family and one for the children at school. I have to admit that this made the most sense to me too. So this weekend we had just the immediate family over for Anna's birthday party which topped out at 40 people. A small little gathering for a big family.

I got to decorate the backyard with all the pink that I wanted. I think it turned out pretty cute. I am trying to stay to a certain budget and I do think I am a touch over but we will see next week after her second kids party. Gerard grilled, Jenny made pasta salad and homemade Reese's cups, and I made bean dip. I compromised on the cake to try and cut the budget back but it was still very tasty. So next Sunday we will have a pirate party at the amusement park which I think will be pretty fun and actually less stressful.

One thing that we did was we hung a picture frame from a tree and called it our photo booth. It was pretty fun and will become a staple at all our parties.

Nanny

Aunt Cassie

Jennica and Cole

Jillian and Joy

Jillian, Jaime, Joy and Julie

Sloan, Sir Barks A Lot, and Anna

Derrick, Jennica and Jessica

Oh did I forget to mention we even had a cotton candy machine (My personal favorite)

These are all my sisters with my Mom

Oh how she loves cake

Greg, Hans and Jaime

Papa and JoanMarie (She loved the frame the best.)

 

 

A bunch of them did a triatholon in the morning so this was a perfect day to have the party. This is the first time the my five sisters have all been together in a couple of years so the day was pretty special.

Russian cookies

Every time Gerard and I go to the Russian store we search (not that hard) to find these cookies. I really have been trying to stick to my budget so in addition to making brewed ice tea I am trying to find out alternative ways to save on snacks. Gerard is a BIG cookie eater. I have always had a hard time keeping cookies in the house because he will eat half in one sitting. The stink never gains an ounce.

Which brings us to today. No more money in the grocery budget until tomorrow but I knew he would be searching through the house for cookies tonight. That is when this popped into my mind...I would make these cookies. How hard could it be? Well not hard at all is the answer.

Basically it is 2 egg whites beaten to stiff peaks, a couple of teaspoon of sugar, and a teaspoon of vanilla. Then piped onto a cookie sheet. I have a weird liner that I use but I have no clue what the name of it is. You can also use parchment paper. Bake at 210 degrees for 1.5 hours. They separate easily from my weird liner. They are quite sweet but the ones I have tasted from the Russian store are always very sweet. 

Very easy and worth trying. Like I said they are very sweet but I bet good with tea.

A wedding and a baby

When I say the last two weeks of the summer were busy I meant it. About 3 weeks ago my older sister decided that she and her boyfriend should get married. Now my older sister is extremely shy and honestly is not so comfortable in a crowd so a big wedding is out of the question for her. She very calmly told us one afternoon that she was going to get married at the court house the following Thursday if we wanted to go. Well...Yes...I want to go!

My new brother in law (Reggie) was actually one of the random people who showed up for Thanksgiving the year that Anna came home. Yes, we usually have random people at our home for thanksgiving pretty much every year. We are very happy to add him to the family tree. I really like him a lot. He is good to my sister and good for her too. The combination of the two can be hard to find.

Of course I decided that you can not get married without flowers and a cake at least. So I ordered a small cake and made her a flower arrangement for a combination of flowers from Shop Rite and my garden all wrapped up in a piece of lace.

Pictures please...here they are!

My Mother, Michael (Joanie's son), Joanie & Reggie

Anna, Me, Jenny (my younger sister) Nanny & Jessica (my older sister)

This is one of my favorite pictures of my sister because she looks so happy.

 Hans kept asking for a knife and no one could figure out why. After I investigated into why he needed a knife it was because he was ready for cake of course.

 

 

And now for the baby! Who is excited? Well I am! So a few weeks back I talked about not being ready to have another baby and for us that is still the case...but...our family is growing!

 

No Gerard and I are not having a baby or adopting but my little sister Jenny is having a baby or 2 or perhaps 3! Yes, you read that right. We found out that Jenny was going to have a baby. Jenny is a year younger than I am and having a baby was never on her radar. I think that with the addition Hans, Sloan and Anna she started to feel a little sad that she never had a child.

 

Jenny drives an 18 wheel truck. Yup, she is an over the road trucker. the lease on her truck was coming due so she had started the search for a new truck. She found the style that she wanted in Phoenix, Arizona. She was about to start the trip out to purchase this truck for close to 175,000 dollars. Yes, you read that right (I think it is a ton of money). She decided to take a pregnancy test prior to leaving and bing, bang, boom she was pregnant!

 

We made an appointment about 3 weeks ago mostly because I thought she looked a little, well how do I say this nicely...big! We went to the doctors appointment as a group and they did an ultrasound that told us that she was pregnant but that the pregnancy was very early. I only saw one baby but than again I am not an expert at ultrasounds. We all left the office and my sister turned to me and said "See I am just fat!" Okay I did feel a little bad but really I was mostly concerned that we was very far along and worried for her.

 

Well she needed to be scheduled for another ultrasound appointment to find the heart beat. I wanted her to be able to have that moment when she first hears her baby's heart beat privately. So after the appointment she calls us at my house where we are waiting to hear from her. To hear her tell the story is very funny so I hope it comes across that way as I write it.

 

She tells us that the ultrasound took forever and that the doctor was pretty quiet so she started to think the worst so she said "Hey dude is everything okay?" The doctor replies with "Oh yes it is just harder to get the separate heart beats in a multiple pregnancy." Jenny replies with "Say WHAT? What does that mean?" The doctor states "Well I see at least two babies and possibly a third. You will have to come back for another ultrasound."

 

So I feel better that I was not actually calling her fat and we are all still in shock and amazed! 



 

Time out!

Well someone was put into time out today. Any guess? Me! For the past two days I have had a burst of cleaning energy. I think when summer hit I let my house go to pot mostly because I did not want my summer with Anna to be focused on keeping a clean, neat and orderly home but instead I wanted it to be packed with fun.

This summer we did a ton of stuff. I lined up so many activities that well cleaning was the last thing on the list. My house started to really bug me about 2 weeks ago. I kept telling myself in two weeks I will miss my clean and neat living room.

So like I said I spent most of Friday deep cleaning my kitchen. I mean REALLY cleaning it. This of course flowed into me deep cleaning the dining room. I stopped at about 8 pm when I realized it was cozy time. A touch of panic set in because I still had not finished my homework for this week. Gerard is convinced I will do just about anything to get out of doing my homework (insert the image of me cleaning the vents with a tooth brush). Gerard's plan for Saturday was to clean up the drain, clean and store the pool. I added in draining the hot tub mostly because I like the water to be changed regularly.

We were both up when he got back from the gym this morning and I was up cleaning again. I had the entire hall bathroom torn apart. I am driving Gerard crazy because I have switched to cleaning with vinegar which by the way I love (yes even the smell). Anna foiled his plans very early in the day with "Daddy you be the horse and I be the goat." Yes he played with Anna's plastic animals with her for over an hour therefore he got very little done before work.

Then Anna released him for a couple of minutes because she wanted to read a few books. I was cleaning across the hall and listening to her read. Gosh I love that. I heard her hop off the bed and run into the kitchen. She returned and said "You are in time out! You have to read to me now until the timer goes off." Time out is not something that we use in our home but she has seen Hans be given a time out so I am guessing this is where she got it from. How sweet my punishment was. We read books, laughed and giggled. The timer went off and I was released from my time out.

Anna hopped off the bed to find Gerard. I over heard her same to him "It is your turn to hold me." Yes that is just what he did. I am so blessed to have had this weekend off. I know going back to school for her was hard this year because of the separation so being home with her this weekend was so wonderful.

Tomorrow morning I have to figure out a craft for Grandparent's day.

Back to school

Well Anna and I have now officially both started back to school. My first day was way less exciting for our family than Anna's first day. Seriously, it takes me a whole week to figure out how to organize my school trimester before I feel comfortable. I have now finished my first week so I am good now.

The last weeks of  summer have been crazy. The weather has not been great mostly overcast and rainy but that did not stop us from going to the beach one last time this summer. The water was perfect and the tide was perfect too. We met up with my sisters on the beach so Anna got a little extra time after I had to leave for work. This past week we have spent a bunch of time with family. I have so much to write but I will leave that for another post. My news is quite exciting so stay tuned.

Today I want to write about Anna's first day of school. These are memories that I never want to forget. Yesterday, I was feeling a bit stressed because as I am sure most deal with toward the end of summer my house was a hot mess, I had grocery shopping to do, and was fighting the feeling of getting in every last free minute with Anna before she starts back to school. Yesterday at 2 pm I realized that I was not even close to being ready for Anna to go back to school and a little stressed that I was due to go to work at 6pm.

I am so blessed that my family lives so close by and love being with Anna too. I dropped her off at my Mother's house with instructions about going to bed early at our home. With Anna enjoying one more afternoon with Hans and my sisters I was able to pick up the house, go grocery shopping (the abbreviated version), set out her closes, set up her lunch& back pack than finally get ready for work.

The one good thing about Gerard's shift is that he is able to be home in the morning. Bright and early I got a text that Anna was already awake and waiting for me. I hurried out of work to find Anna fast asleep on the sofa wrapped in my house coat. It was only 8 am so I jumped into bed while Gerard was in the shower (he did not even know that I was home) and fell fast asleep for 30 minutes. My alarm rang I got dressed to find Anna and Gerard giggling on the floor in the living room playing horse. We had breakfast, brushed our hair & teeth, and got dressed. The first year that Anna went to pre-school getting ready was so difficult. I remember the process taking close to 1.5 hours with lot of tears from both of us. This year is seemed so easy and effortless. We were ready in 20 minutes. I guess this is a subtle sign that she is growing up.

We took pictures at the front door (which only the ones from my camera turned out good) like last year than the three of us loaded up into Daddy's truck for the 2 minute drive to school. We pulled in like normal but quickly realized that something had changed. Yup, the pre-school was moved to the new building. We took the opportunity to take a few more quick pictures.

We found the new drop off point and unloaded one more time. Anna was prepared for her day that was until the child in front of her started to cry. I handed Anna off to one of the teacher assistance and as she walked next to the little boy who was freaking out I heard her say ever so quietly "I need my Momma."  It broke our hearts. The first two years that Anna started school I do not remember her saying this. Keeping her home with me this summer was the best choice I have made in a long time. It was much harder and easier than sending her to camp but I think spending this time together was wonderful for Anna.

I came to pick her and was greeted with a huge hug and kiss. As I buckled her into the car seat she told me that she missed me at nap time, she did not miss her friends she only missed me. Does this kid know how to make me feel special or what? We walked outside where she requested a picture for Daddy because he was working. I know he felt bad not being able to pick her up. This is one thing that he has always enjoyed so I am sure the picture helped him feel better.

 

 

For tonight I was given the gift of being put on call which everyone knows I love so I will start getting things together for tomorrow shortly. Hopefully I will be able to get all my homework done tonight so that the weekend is free. I am really trying to keep the weekends free for family so wish me luck.

 

 

How did she grow up so fast?