Birthday & Busyness

Wow! What a weekend I had. On Saturday my cousin Tammy and I spent all of the morning and some of the early afternoon at the huge Portland Bridal Fair. It was well worth it in terms of getting referrals and resources for my business. We had a blast! She pretended to be renewing her wedding vows and I was her wedding planner.

I then raced home to host Drew's afternoon birthday party. How can my little boy be 5 already??? He invited 2 friends from school, along with one of their little brothers who is Nick's age. Of course Jordan (my cousin's son) was invited too! We also had Tammy, Amanda, my parents and Michael. Oh, and one parent of Drew's best friend (here next to him in this photo).






I think the party was a great success. Drew and all the boys had a lot of fun. We kept it very simple... Pin the Tail on the Donkey, the "drop the clothespins in the jar" game (which Nick won!), and a homemade birthday cake. See, you can have a great party without going overboard! Although I was very blessed to have help from Matt and my family in providing many of the birthday necessities.


Drew had an awesome time and that made me so happy.


On Sunday Michael & I played hookie from church out of necessity. We spent the entire day cleaning/organizing his shop and his property in anticipation of the appraiser coming this week. (We planned to do his home upstairs too, but pooped out after tackling the kitchen.)




Here's just a pic of my man. He's been a tremendous blessing from God in my life.










His side of the shop is 2000 sf (not all of which is pictured here), so it took us quite a while to get it all done. Good thing we didn't have to do his dad's side as well!

We tackled the outside storage also. OK, mostly that was Michael while I played "fire girl"... taking things over to be burned. I had a rip-roarin' bonfire going! All we needed were some hot dogs and marshmallows.



After lunch at a cute little, old-fashioned diner, we tackled the outside until it got dark.

I will admit that there were times when I took a break and simply took pictures of the beauty on the hill.

As darkness approached and we went inside, all of my muscles were screaming. I cleaned the kitchen and then Michael had me sit on the couch with a blanket and a book while he made us dinner. I tried not to feel guilty. We then ended the evening with a little dip in Craig & Vickie's hot tub. I think that was a lifesaver for me in terms of not feeling as much of the pain today.

It was a great weekend, from start to finish.

Two Days in a Nutshell

Let me tell you, my Thursday was a whirlwind.

I started out by spending my entire morning at a dental appointment. This time they only had to use 4 shots of Novacaine instead of 8!

Then it was off to get the boys at my mom's. Left there and went straight to the grocery store to find the cake mix for Drew's strawberry birthday cake (his cake of choice every year). Literally ran through the store with both boys in the cart.

Next it was off to the Ear, Nose & Throat specialist for Drew. We arrived 15 minutes early and they called us in 15 minutes late. As if it isn't bad enough to have 2 antsy boys in a waiting room, Nick also decided to grace us with a poopy diaper during that time. Since I had just changed him at my mom's house, I had left the diaper backpack down in the car... 4 stories down. Couldn't go get it because they could call our name at any minute. So there's Nick stinking up the place and I just have to pretend to ignore it. I'm sure at least one person in that waiting room was cursing me. Drew's name was finally called. First it was the hearing test... which he passed with flying colors (translation: he hears just fine which means that the times he "doesn't hear" me, he is simply choosing not to listen). Next it was off to the room to wait for the doctor. And wait. And wait. By now Nick is REALLY odorous and trying to remove his own diaper. Doctor comes in and wants to put numbing spray up Drew's nose so he can stick a telescope up both nostrils. Drew freaks out. Doctor leaves us alone, telling me that I can either talk Drew into allowing the spray or we can do the same procedure under general anesthesia. It doesn't take long for me to convince Drew to do the spray. However, the doctor's "couple of minutes" turned into closer to 30 minutes. By this time the poopy diaper is burning Nick's bottom and he's hurting bad. Also he and Drew are bored out of their minds and going a little crazy. Let's just say that some punishment happened in that room. Finally the doctor returns. Does the spray. Leaves for "5 minutes" to allow the spray to do its job. The five minutes turns into 20 minutes. Nick is now going out of his mind, as am I. Drew's starting to not listen. Doctor finally returns. Does the telescope. Checks the ears. Tells me that Drew has to have his adenoids removed. They are too large. No surprise to me. By now Nick is in tears. I think we're done. Nope. Have to wait for the nurse to come in to check Drew's heart & lungs and schedule surgery (Wednesday, January 30th). We FINALLY get to leave and I race the boys down to the car, throw Nick in the back, and remove his diaper as quickly as possible. His poor little bottom is bright red.

Less than two hours later I'm on my way to meet Michael so we can go to his sister Tami's b-day party. I'm dressed as Pinky Tuscadero (Fonzi's girlfriend). Michael, not wanting to go as Fonzi, is dressed as one of the Men in Black. Turns out Tami was too. Funny! The costumes at the party were HILARIOUS!! Very fun evening.

This morning Drew went back to preschool. It's been all he could talk about ever since I opened my mouth on Wednesday. My mom convinced me yesterday to send him back and we would find a way to figure out how to pay for it next month. He took cupcakes since tomorrow's his birthday. He was on Cloud 9. When I asked him at lunch what his favorite thing was at school today, he answered, "Everything!"

Nick took a very, very long nap today. Great for me! However, I still didn't get everything done. (How does that happen?) When he woke up, we drove to the UPS Store so I could fax another application. I do have two different interviews scheduled for Wednesday.

Then it was off to Little Caesar's for our $5 pizza for Pizza & a Movie night. Michael joined us. We watched a movie that was given to us last night. No more Blockbuster for now.

Today I called to cancel our tv service.... can't afford it (and rabbit ears won't work on our tv). Got the NICEST Customer Service rep. She credited all charges for this month (I got a free month of service!). And, assuming I can pay and don't have to cancel next month, she's giving me $10 off of what was already the very lowest, most basic package they offer. And that's for 6 months! Who knew that was possible??

Tomorrow morning my cousin Tammy is going with me to the huge Portland Bridal Show. We're dropping the boys off at Matt's on the way. He'll bring them back for Drew's birthday party at 3:00. I can't believe my little boy's turning five!! He has 3 school friends coming to his party, in addition to his cousin Jordan and all the rest of our family.

And I still have to clean the house.....

Have you ever done something really stupid as a parent that you could kick yourself for later? That was me today. Listen to this...

Drew's teacher and I were finally able to touch base this afternoon. She knows our situation well and reminded me that she has always told me that she would help us in any way she could. She has already been giving us almost 50% off the tuition, so it never occurred to me that she would do anything in addition to that. With that thought in mind, she caught me off guard when she insisted that I bring Drew back to school on Friday and just catch up on my payments in February. She said that she misses Drew and that his best friend Ben has been lost without him this week. I was so wowed and brought to tears by her offer that I accepted without thinking about it. To make matters worse, Drew was standing there and got so excited at hearing that he was returning to school on Friday. It was then that it hit me... how in the world would I make two payments in February when I still don't have any money??

I could have kicked myself for opening my mouth....

So now it's back to praying today and tomorrow for clear direction from God. Perhaps He has plans for me to book weddings at the Bridal Show on the 19th and He knows that I have nothing to worry about.

Perhaps not.

And so it's back to prayer, and back to completing another two applications tonight.

P.S.

I do realize that I have a picture of Nick on a post that is essentially about Drew; I just thought it was his turn for a photo op.

Difficult Decision

As a parent, my heart is killing me tonight. I had to make the difficult decision to pull Drew out of preschool. I kept him home on Monday just to buy myself two extra days to pray about it. What it comes down to is that the money just isn't there.

When he learned on Monday that this was a possibility, he cried many tears. Then he went down to the playroom for about 30 minutes. He came back up with a box loaded with toys and said that they were for a garage sale so that we could have money for him to go to school. I had to turn away so he wouldn't see me cry.

He has been very focused the last two days on this garage sale he wants to have, and on praying about our situation at most meals and at bedtime. Telling him tomorrow is going to be very difficult. However, I am going to enlist him to pray with me that God will provide me with a job so that I can put him right back in school again. (Thankfully the preschool is open-ended on registration and, assuming other children don't take his spot, he can return at any time.)

Sometimes it's very hard to be a parent, especially when you want to provide the best for your children. But I do know that God can use this to teach him about God's faithfulness as we pray together.

Good Start to New Year

I have something that I am very excited about! Last week I noticed advertisements in the newspaper about a local Bridal Show here in town. At the urging of Michael, I called to see if there were any vendor spaces left. Indeed there were... and because my space was very generously paid for, I now get to be represented in the Show! Not only that, but Michael's aunt, Valerie (the florist), is going to be sharing a table with me. What fun! She's got some pretty awesome ideas for decorating, and the host of the show has put us in a very prime location. I can't wait! We do need to have a drawing of some kind at our table. For Valerie that will be easy. For me, not so much. Anyone have any bright ideas? The best I can come up with is to give away a coupon for 25% off my services. But that doesn't seem like much of a drawing.

I really needed this boost since no other interviews I was counting on last week have materialized as of yet. Have I been out of the work force so long that my past experience counts as nothing? I have no idea what's going on! I am trying to stay in contact with the Christian adoption agency about my application; however, there is a strong possibility that they are now looking for someone who is bilingual.

The boys were delivered home 3 days early last week. That was okay with me. It changed all of my plans though, so I am running behind on everything.

This past weekend the boys and I spent much of our time with Michael, and with his parents. This was the first time the boys have been to his church (I've been before). In spite of being in a new situation, they both said they had a lot of fun. That was wonderful. We had a pretty awesome weekend together. Lots of kick-back, fun family time.

This Thursday Michael and I are invited to his sister Tami's birthday party. Everyone is supposed to come dressed as a character from a movie or tv show. Something simple, not elaborate, so that people can ask you questions to try to figure out who you are. We are just clueless as to ideas! Actually we've come up with many ideas that have made us crack up, but nothing at this point that is actually do-able. (Is that a word?... I'm too lazy to get up and look it up in the dictionary.) Anyone have any great ideas??....

Christmas Week

We made it through Christmas week with flying colors! The boys and I had an amazing Christmas!

As you can see, they are all smiles in their new Christmas pajamas (every year "Santa", a.k.a. Grandma, buys every person in the entire family a new pair of pj's that are opened on Christmas Eve).

Gary, Khonda, Makenna, Brock, Joelle & Dawson were able to come stay with us for Christmas. I had all four boys in Drew's room, the girls in Nick's room, and G&K in the office. It was cozy and lots of fun. My boys were in heaven having all of their cousins here to play with.

The only thing hard on all of us was missing Deb and Bren and their families. That was the one big hole in Christmas this year.

Marilyn, who was "adopted" by our family, joined us for all of the Christmas festivities as well. My mom calls her her best friend. I'm glad they have each other!

My dad, of course, was never without his grin... sometimes mischievious (something Nick inherited!), sometimes just there because he was happy to have his family around him.

Don, who was "adopted" into our family long, long ago on Maui, is now living with my parents temporarily and so was of course included in all of our Christmas activities. It was like deja vu from high school having him here.

And look, even Grandma has a smile on her face. The two of them were funny though. We open gifts one person, one present at a time. Neither of them could wait their turn and so they both just tore into their presents at once. They were worse than kids!

Michael was also here for all of our Christmas festivities and that made it even more special for me. The boys and I also joined his family's Christmas fesitivities on Christmas Eve Day. We love his family and felt very special being included.

Every year our family has a birthday cake for Jesus and all of the grandkids get to blow out the candles. This year Khonda and Makenna made the cake. We all sang Happy Birthday and then the kids all blew.

On Christmas Eve the kids also left out milk & cookies for Santa, along with a note. Santa, of course, loved the cookies and left a reply for them that they found in the morning.

It was an awesome Christmas for all of us.

The boys are with Matt all this week and it is a little strange having an empty house. But I am using the time to clean and to write. I am also anticipating two or three different calls for job interviews. AND I was contacted by an engaged couple who want me to coordinate their wedding this summer!! We are setting up a time to meet and sign contracts this week. Woo hoo!

Michael and I were able to celebrate the New Year together. After stuffing ourselves with a big roast dinner, we did some visits back and forth between my parents' house and his parents' best friends' house where there was a party. Then he and I sat and made lists of our own "Life Goals", things we want to do and accomplish before we die. And we prayed together yesterday to start our new year.

God is good. So, so good.

Three Days til Christmas!

Last night Michael & I went to see "National Treasure" at the old Cameo Theater in Newberg. It was fun; it's such a mom & pop theater. Instead of watching those trivia questions most theaters play prior to starting the movie, we watced old, silent home movies of when the Drive-In was being built in Newberg. It was back in the 50's or so and you had to guess what you were watching. Pretty funny. Then the ads they played for asking you to stay quiet, encouraging you to go to the snack bar, etc., were very, very old ads. I thought it was kinda cool. There was even an ad encouraging you to go to church on Sunday.

Yesterday Drew had his preschool Christmas performance. It was very short (two songs... one they sang to, one they danced to), but so incredibly cute! And my mom, my grandma and I were so proud of Drew. He sang loud, was the only one doing the motions, and then... and here's my proudest moment... my boy who had to inherit my non-rhythmic genes was dancing his little heart out! He kept his eyes on his teacher the whole time and was the only child doing all of the moves. Way to go!! The teacher had the whole thing videotaped and is posting it on something similar to YouTube. As soon as she sends us parents the link, I will post it on here in case you want to watch.

The boys are at Matt's this weekend, so I have had a chance to get a lot done. I also got to just hang out with my cousin Tammy, her daughter Amanda and her mom Arlene and watch a movie. And no, it wasn't even a chick flick yesterday. Believe it or not, we watched "Blades of Glory".

One of the most exciting things I was able to do yesterday was to turn in an application for a position as Birth Parent Counselor with a local Christian adoption agency. Finally something I can get excited about! I will hear about an interview after the 1st. I was also notified of an opening in Mac for a state Case Manager position, handling TANF (welfare) cases. That is one of those social work jobs I DO NOT want to do; however, I am going to go ahead and follow it through. It has to be up to God to open and close doors, not me.

On that note, it is time for me to frantically finish cleaning the house before Gary & Khonda and the kids arrive!