A Crazy 5 Months!

It's been a crazy 5 months!  I'm going to have to update my blog in increments so bear with me.  When most couples are expecting a baby they are given an approximate due date and around that time wait for contractions, or for their water to break.  Signs of labor.  When you are waiting to adopt you are waiting for the phone to ring.  Lets just say in the past 3 years we have had a lot of "false alarms"!  I hated it every time the phone rang and no matter how I tried to not let it bother me it just did.  On Tuesday July 3rd work called me around 1pm to see if I wanted the day off, due to a slow surgery schedule.  I never turn down an extra day off!   Around 3pm  we received a call from our case worker at LDS Family Services.  I knew it was the call we had been waiting so long for.  We had been selected by a birth mom in West Virginia!  She was about 21 weeks along and expecting a baby girl that she wanted us to adopt!  I wandered back to the bedroom so that I could hear her and write down as much information that I could.  Keith and Kaleb both followed me and Kaleb kept saying, "Are we getting our baby"?  He was so excited, and Keith and I were in shock.  She gave us the birthmom's phone number and said she was expecting a phone call from us soon.
That evening I called the number.  I was so nervous, but just tried to be myself.  I think she was nervous too.  We awkwardly introduced ourselves, and tried to tell each other as much as we could about each other.  She sent us pictures of her boys.  She already had pictures of us, so we sent her pictures of our house.  A couple days later she invited us down to WV to go to her usltrasound with her.  It was an amazing experience.  Keith sat in the waiting room with her 6 year old, and I went back with her and held her 19 month old (who screamed the entire time) while she had her ultrasound.  It wasn't like those you see in the movies or on tv, but I was so happy we could be there.  We all went out to lunch and then she invited us to come to her house.  We spent the day with her and her kids and then headed home that evening with ultrasound pictures of a tiny little girl. 

Kaleb and his cousin were sleeping on the couches tonight, their normal sleepover routine.  I was unloading groceries and Kaleb, who I thought was sleeping, got up to help.  He grabbed a bag of baked doritos and I figured he went to eat them.  A few minutes later I found him asleep with the bag unopened.  He told Keith that he just wanted to sleep with them.  He must have been thinking ahead to breakfast in bed!

Missin Some Friends

Kaleb, Race, & Addison

Eating candy canes in July!

We have had a fun, relaxing summer.  Recently though, Kaleb has really been missing his friends.  His best friend from church moved to another state, and he cried last week because he wanted to play tag with his friends from school.  Nothing a little play date couldn't fix.  Kaleb, Race, and Addison played so well together, I could hardly tell there were 3 boys in my house!  Hopefully this will help Kaleb get through the rest of the summer until he's back with his buddies at school.

I love this video so much.  It has to be the most beautiful video about adoption that I have ever seen.  I wish that everyone could see it, so I thought I would put it on my blog.  Enjoy!





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lTnZXeSli0&feature=youtu.be

A boy, his dog and a bucket

I was just telling someone the other day how lucky we have been this winter.  Kaleb has been very healthy and has not had any of the "bugs" going around.  On the way home from church he said, "mom my stomach hurts", and then proceeded to fall asleep in the car.  I have a kid who only ever sleeps in his bed, and has not napped since he was 4, so I knew he was getting sick.  After we got home he laid around for a couple of hours looking pale and pathetic and then puked all over the place.  He said, "Oh, that's why my stomach hurt!"  
 My older dog, Sam prefers not to be too close to kids, but he's a big softy when someone is sick.  He stayed by his side for quite sometime.  It's been about 2 years since Kaleb had a stomach bug, but he quickly learned that having a puke bucket nearby was a smart thing to do!  It left just about as quickly as it came.  By the next morning he was feeling pretty decent.  Of course mom let him stay home from school, made him mashed potatoes, and let him play Wii.  All that puking ought to get you some sort of award, right??

Be my Valentine!

This was the first year at school Kaleb had to make a valentine's box at home.  We had a lot of fun creating a robot box for him.  It was a big hit at school!  A little spray paint and some odds and ends from Dad's tool box was all it took.  Who wouldn't want to be his valentine???

Pizza Pie

Pizza Pie

Another view of Pizza Pie!

Due to the amount of time I spend at work mixed with the lack of motivation I often experience, we still have a lot of "builder's white" in our house.  I have picked out colors for the house and really wanted to paint this wall with one of my accent colors, pizza pie.  I love it.   It will look nicer when I paint the surrounding walls with sandstone.  I might be a little slow, but I will get it done!

Snow Ice Cream

I found a recipe in a magazine for snow ice cream.  I was skeptical, but kept it so we could try it on a snowy day.  I was surprised how easy and good it was.  Here's the recipe.  Give it a try, and don't worry, you don't actually eat the snow!   Next time I want chocolate!


1 cup milk or cream (we used skim)
3 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
SNOW
1/4 cup salt


Mix milk, sugar and vanilla in a small ziplock bag, seal bag.  Fill a gallon size ziplock bag halfway with clean snow and add salt.  Put smaller bag inside bigger bag, squeezing out the air.  Knead bags until milk mixture solidifies, 5-10 minutes.  (You might want to wear gloves:)  Open bigger bag and remove smaller bag.  Rinse outside of smaller bag in cold water then open and squeeze ice cream in to a bowl.  Grab a spoon, or if you are like Kaleb skip that step and just start licking!  

Old Dogs

Sam & Sasha

smaller collar bones

I was attacked by a neighbor's dog when I was 5 years old, my dad had to strangle the dog to get it to let go of me, and I was left with scars (beauty marks:) on my face and head.  Needless to say I did not grow up being very fond of dogs.  I wanted to get married and have babies, and these are the babies that I got!  I love these guys like crazy, but have noticed after being blessed with a real human child, that they now live more like "dogs".  Not enough walks, home alone, nothing to do.  They bark, shed, and puke on the carpet, but I still love them!  I don't think there will be any more pets in our future, so we will cherish these two for as long as possible.    This Christmas we wanted to do something special for them, so I dug out my dog bone cookbook, and we made them a frugal present, smaller collar dog bones.  Maybe next time we'll do bark-b-q!

Let Earth Receive Her King

Rose and Kaleb

marshmallow baby Jesus!

I would have to say that Christmas Eve was the best day we had this holiday season.  We spent the afternoon in Kirtland Ohio.  We saw nativity sets from all over the world.  Big ones, tiny ones, beautiful ones, silly ones (marshmallow baby Jesus).  It was a nice way to remind us what Christmas is all about.  This room was just for kids, and it was great!

Number Eight

Welcome
Alonzo Christopher Guerrero
Born 12-21-11
5 lbs 15 oz
19 inches 

Keith and I now have 8 nieces and nephews as we welcome my little sister Kristen's newest little one.  Kristen's birthday is in December, and her daughter, Layla was born last December.  My sister will always be extra busy during this month with birthdays and holidays!  My sisters are keeping Kory Harward busy as he will deliver a baby boy for my sister Kelly in the spring.  We are looking forward to our trip to Utah in April to see all of these little ones!  

Naughty List

Christopher comes every year on Thanksgiving day

He really helps Kaleb stay off of the "naughty list".

He "pops" in every morning in a different spot.

Looking for him is so much fun!

He made an appearance at the museum downtown,  The kids can touch this one.

A real reindeer, cool!

We found him upside down on this particular day.

We found a lot of upside down things that morning.  Kaleb said, "don't worry mom, I'll help you clean it up", and he did!  What a good kid.

I wonder if Santa's elves ever get on the naughty list?

 's

I'll bet "Christopher" was nervous when he did this, worried that Kaleb might wake up.  I'll bet Kaleb stirred right as "Christopher" finished, "Christopher" probably made a run for it and it reminded him of being in high school, doing the same thing in "his" neighborhood, getting caught, and then getting picked up at the police station by "his" dad at 2am:)  

Christopher Pop in Kins is one of Santa's elves who really wanted to see real boys and girls.  Santa gave him a special job of popping into children's homes to keep an eye on them until Christmas Eve, when he reports back to Santa.  He cannot be touched and everyday he is in a different spot.  This year he brought Kaleb a mailbox which is sometimes filled with notes, candy, coins or small toys.  Kaleb really loves this little guy, and it really helps him focus on good behavior.  Kaleb has quite the imagination, but mom is running out of ideas:)  We never know what he is going to do next!  It's been a long time since I have t-p'd anything, and yes it was me who was picked up at the police station.  My dad was really mad that I got caught!

Breakfast with Santa

Breakfast with Santa up at Akron Children's Hopspital has become a tradtion for us.  What a great way to kick off the holiday season.  They always have the neatest trees and the funnest displays.  You wouldn't believe the hours people put into decorating and then donating their work to charity.  We all loved the manger scene tree.  I didn't get as many pictures as I would like to, but dad's favorite was an Ohio State themed tree, my favorite was a tree that came with $500 in Giant Eagle gift cards, and Kaleb's favorite was a blue WalMart tree with Wii games of course!

Hannah, Ryan and Kaleb

Real bacon!  (mom always buys turkey)  What a treat.

Giving the big guy his wish list

One of our favorites.

Happy Holidays!

Keith Beth & Kaleb

They always have the cutest trees.

A great day!

Pillow Pets

Marissa and Sasha

 We have had our dogs for about 13 years so my nieces have practically grown up with them and they are very close.  They have a lot of fun playing with them when they come over.  Sasha is always with one of the girls, getting dressed up, in a blanket or curled up asleep right next to one of them.  Sometimes I find her in the most interesting places doing the most interesting things.  Sam loves the girls, but doesn't get into it like Sasha.  Maybe it's a girl thing.  They put on shows, do "experiments", and just love to play.  So sweet!  

Victoria and Sasha

Sasha loves the attention

I find her in the most interesting places

The girls were pretending Sasha had surgery and they were taking care of her. 

dressing her up

Sam usually hides from the kids and I found him here, trying to blend in.

Ugly

It was cold

moist

dark

dingy

boring

and then

panels went up

insulation

hide the sump pump

a storage room

drop ceiling

walls that are replaced if damaged and never need painted

walls can be removed if needed

lighting

carpet

4 days later

lighter

brighter

not boring at all!

I was looking through some old pictures and came across these pictures of our basement.  I had forgotten how ugly it was and how much I hated it before we finished it.  The process that the Owens Corning company does it truly amazing.  Our basement was finished in 4 days!  It was the fastest anything has ever been done in this house.  We have enjoyed it for the past few years and it was worth every penny.  If only they could come back and add a deck, a fence, a shed, a little excavating, a little more landscaping and a lot of painting, we'd be in good shape!  Oh well, just gonna sit in my basement and forget about the rest for now!