Snow

Today is day #3 of the biggest snowfall that Tennessee has seen in a few years. And we are savoring every minute of it.
It hit late Friday morning. The schools closed knowing it was coming, and BOY did it come! We measured 3 inches of snow on the back porch. Then came the sleet, putting a layer of ice on top of the inches of snow. Then to top it all off, we got another layer of snow yesterday. I tried taking another picture after this one to show the progression, but I can't get my ruler through the ice!

Jake's been taking the kids about a mile up the street (sure glad for the Suburban!) to the Spring Hill "hill" again like he did the last snow a couple of weeks ago. The difference is that last time they were sledding on grass that happened to have some white dusted over it. This time it was a sheet of glass. Jake's mom came over yesterday so to stay with the little ones so I could venture out with him and Ashley and Emily. Hannah and Jackson came along and Grandpa (Jake's dad) was there too. Our good friend Sean and his kids came out too. I didn't sled myself, but I packed up two big carafe's of hot water and a ton of hot chocolate packets and manned the hot chocolate and the picture taking. It was surprising to me, but Ashley has ended up being our fearless sledder. Usually Ashley is the more timid one and Emily is the bold one. But Emily is NOT a big fan of the cold. I had called Jake yesterday to see how much longer they were going to be there and he said, "Everyone is gone, its just me and Ashley now. She is a machine!!" lol About 2:30am yesterday, we woke up to a huge crash... a pine tree limb had fallen on the house, weighted by all the ice. Thankfully it didn't damage anything, but boy it scared us to death! lolChurch was canceled today too (so you KNOW this is a big deal, lol!) and another big sledding trip is planned for this afternoon. We aren't sure how long until it all melts, so they're getting in as much of it as they can. You know me, I'm already working on a montage, so I'll have that posted soon!

You're lookin' at it

Warning: Random post ahead


Sometimes people ask me what I do for *me*. You're lookin' at it. I love blogging. I love talking about my kids. What mom doesn't? And I love raising awareness for adoption and for Down Syndrome. (And in a lot of cases, both.) These are the things I'm passionate about.

I tell my husband all the time what at odd creature I am (like he didn't already know that) because most people are either organized neat freaks OR artsy and kinda everywhere. Ya know what I mean? Well somehow I ended up being both of those things warring within the same person. I love to decorate and create. But I've also got a little touch of OCD. And being organized actually makes me feel healthier (figure that one out). I think that's why I love weddings and showers so much... creativity and planning. Decorative and orderly.

Anyway blogging fulfills each of those for me. Not only do I get to talk as much as I want about whatever I want but I get to create and design. :) I can organize my posts and sidebar gadgets. I love it. It makes me REALLY happy. HTML is so much fun. Symbols and letters all have to be in just the right place and perfectly lined up. And when you're done? Viola! Something beautiful. It doesn't get any better than that! :)

AND I can do this at my leisure. Its not something I have to do, its something I get to do. For Amy time.

I hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoy sharing.

Micah- School, Health and Post Adoption stuff

Lets see, where to start?...

First thing is first, Micah's second stool testing came back negative, YAAAYY!!! (Abbys did as well!) So no parasite anymore, we're in the clear. So now we head to the GI clinic at Vandy to figure out what else might be wrong. I'll keep you updated there. In the mean time, we've become sanitation EXPERTS around here. AAAAAANNDD... Micah has learned the sign for potty and is doing awesome potty training!! Another big YAAAYY!! :) He still doesn't go #2 but one thing at a time. I'm thankful for the progress he's made and I'm so proud of him!

Second, I had my last meeting with the school on Friday (his IEP meeting), and it went great. But to my surprise, they've decided he would do better in the 3 year old class (special-ed PreK) rather than the 4/5 year old class. Which I went along with for several reasons: 1) His speech delay is so significant... I believe he is a really intelligent kid, given his circumstances, but still so far behind learning anything in English- colors, shapes, everyday objects, etc. So I think keeping him back will give him a better start. 2) He's such a tiny kid, I'm afraid he'd be in a land of giants in his age-appropriate class 3) He's still not fully potty trained, although I'm assuming many of the children in the 4/5 yr old class aren't either given that its special-ed. 4) He'll be with Abby!!! I think that will make an easier transition for him, I don't think it will have a positive or negative effect on Abby either way, and it means he gets to see the other kids on his days off (4/5 class would have been on opposite week days from Emily and Abby... which leads to the last reason.... I'M A FREE WOMAN ON TUE AND THU!!!! :D It means that twice a week from 8-2 its just me and Mabry! What a little gift from the Lord that is.

So today was his first day!!! After much picture taking from his emotional mommy, he walked straight in, took his coat off and started playing with the toys! He's gonna do great.

And on a different note all together:
I had heard before that you can turn your blog into a book, but never looked into it much. But this past weekend I finally found out how to do it and I'm having so much fun with it! I'm turning our whole "Bringing Home Boys" site into a hard-copy book! What a fun way to keep all of those precious memories for Micah to have. I love it. I encourage ALL of my fellow adoptive blogging families to do this! The program to edit the book is a free download, and then the cost of the book is determined by what size you choose, what kind of cover and how "big" it is. Its all on Blurb.com. Go check it out! And when I'm done (it might be a while), I'll post the link here so you can see mine as well. FUN!!!

Ok, now I'm off to go pick up FOUR of the kids from school! Crazy!

Bloggers Block

Or is it writters block? Hm.

Well, whatever it is, I've got it. I've been feeling the need to "go update my blog" but every time I TRY to sneak away to blog... nothin. There's really not a lot *new* going on around here.

We are still recovering from holiday madness. Ashley's getting back into the swing of school. I'm working away on painting the house, decluttering, getting it ready to sell. My kids are still pooping machines Micah and Abby’s intestinal issues remain unresolved. Mabry is the most smilin'est baby I've ever seen. Jake has been busy getting the new year rolling in the youth ministry of Grace Chapel. Emily is... still Emily. :)

Although I guess there have been a few highlights from the last couple of weeks...
~I got about 14 inches cut of of my hair... and it still touches my shoulders, believe it or not!
~Jake, Ashley and Emily got their picture in the newspaper when they went sledding down the Spring Hill "hill" :)
~Micah saw his first Tennessee snow and loved it
~My husband preached some pretty awesome messages at church
~Mabry had her first out loud giggle :)

And actually we might be coming to some medical conclusions for Micah and Abby here pretty soon, so I'll keep you updated.

And there you have it! :P

Getting there

Now that the holidays are over, its full force finishing the house mode for us. Typically we leave up our Christmas tree until the first week of January, but this year it came down days after Christmas. :) It was just too tempting for all of the little hands around here and they were getting more and more comfortable grabbing an ornament off as they walked by. And of course I had to chase them around the couch a few times to get back. What was I thinking putting up a full tree this year? I guess I'm more concerned with sentimentality than baby proofing.

So the things left on the list are painting the bedrooms, painting my bathroom, painting the hall bathroom cabinet, putting some sort of gravel in the driveway and putting in a little landscaping (right now there is none). Landscaping was one of those things we said we'd do when we moved in back in 2003, but I was pregnant. Then I couldn't do it because I had a new baby. Then I couldn't do it because I was pregnant again... and so on and so forth. :) Anyway, we also plan to touch up the paint on the gutters, shutters, and porch as well. Lastly, we need to finish clearing out any clutter from the house, pack up the pod for good and have them move it to the storage facility. And hopefully this will all be done in the next couple of weeks.

Its fun seeing the house so pretty. Its really gonna look great when we're done. Part of me is sad that we're leaving now that it looks so nice, but isn't that always the way it goes? But we're not leaving because we don't LIKE the house, because we've LOVED this house... we're leaving because it needs another bedroom, a playroom and like 10 more closets. :)

Please pray with us that our house sells quickly. Not just because we're anxious, but because its going to be really difficult "showing" a house for us. Having to keep it picked up and clean for last minute showings, keeping the new carpet and newly painted walls looking fresh with little ones running around, and having all of our belongings that aren't every day necessities out in storage. We fully know that the market it terrible right now for selling, but I really am just trusting that Lord knows our situation. And knows that we need to get out of here as soon as possible. For sanity's sake. :)