wonders….

Hello World.. hows it been?
I have been feeling like I have been stuck in my house for weeks and weeks. I had surgery in January and I wasn’t allowed to lift over a certain amount, or drive. So since hubby works for 4 12 hour days, the little miss and I didn’t get out much. But I got medically cleared Monday.. and we have been out every day since. I enjoy going out with the baby. She likes her car seat and the car and we like visiting our friends. Its been a wonderful week of freedom.
So besides the freedom its been a week of the non stop wheels turning. We have some decisions to make regarding me returning to work or not. And as simple as that sounds there are a lot of factors at play. We have had to weigh out all the options. Today when I felt my head was going to explode lots of things just started to fall into place. It was one of those days where things happen and you start to think they might be a sign as to what you should do. Or at least they help make the decision a little easier. We are still working on what we are going to do but things are starting to make sense. Things would be very easy if I could earn a few extra dollars while staying home. So if know of a way, please let me know. And I don’t want to do your home party based business. I have tried. Seriously I am not cut out for that. I am not pushy, I don’t cold call and I don’t harass you to host a party. So I don’t tend to do very well. And I find that what ever the company, you can throw a rock in any direction and find someone or someone who knows someone who sells. I find it getting a little silly.
Here is the question of the week that has me confused. When I worked, my house was pretty clean and organized. Now that I am home all the time its like a bomb went off. I just can’t keep it up. And my to do list!!! Its getting a little silly. It doesn’t make any sense. Its not like little Miss is a hard baby to look after.. shes pretty content. But I just don’t seem to get anything done.. ever!! So all you stay at home moms.. whats the secret??? What am I missing??

oops….

Ok so I may or may not have forgotten about my blog. Its been a busy few months. Let’s update….
E is growing like a weed.. she is 20 weeks old today. She laughs, tells stories, smiles a ton, stands. She still a very happy baby, and we are so very much in love. Still fostering to adopt… things are kind of still just… there. We are just going day by day and giving her the best and all our love.

E is currently dealing with a cold, shes had a stuffy nose for a week. Like snotty everywhere, watery eyes cold. Poor little snuggle bug. We steam, have a humidifier going in her room and we clean out her nose. Not much we can do at this age.. just power through it! Shes been good during it, still happy. But any tips to deal are appreciated!

Here E is at 19 weeks loving one of her stuffed animals.

What else is new?  I had surgery to repair 2 hernias I had from a previous surgery. Healing well, just going stir crazy… can’t drive for a bit and really can’t carry E and her car seat. So home bound when Chris is at work. Feel free to visit..

I have taken up contesting.. my good friend (who won’t be named) has a serious contest entering problem. Like really she should seek some help. Anyway she sends me links.. so now I am hooked. I have the usual ones I enter daily,  still haven’t won anything, and I am sure shes doing this so shes not alone in the needing help. We can enter contest rehab together. But I keep saying if I don’t win something soon I quit… then proceed to spend an hour entering contests. So if you want me to send you links when they ask to share send me a message.

Now this same friend has gotten me on pinterest. I can see hours and hours wasted there.. the recipes excite me. Especially the desserts, I am always looking for something new to make! Anyone else on pinterest? seriously does it take hours out of your life?

Anyway I better contest before E wakes up.. oops too late, she has the shortest naps in history.

Any thing you want me to write about… just ask.. cause I don’t seem to have any creative juices left…

A whole new world….

Sorry its been awhile… I have been crazy busy. About 1 month ago we had a 20 day old baby placed with us to foster to adopt. So yeah.. we have a foster baby. So I have been busy. This stay at home mom stuff is harder then I thought. lol
So baby we will call E. She is 7 weeks old and 8 lbs. Yes, shes tiny.

This picture was taken at 5.5 weeks by my talented sister. (shameless plug here…) Check out her website at www.througherinseyes.net

 

Anyway things are good. Totally different but good. Well great. We are very much in love with E. She is perfect. She is calm (most of the time) and she is so happy. And we are convinced she is a genius..no serious this isn’t a new parent thing. This kid is gonna do everything early. Hubby thinks she will start crawling before 6 months. Thats a scary thought.
Anyway I thought I would write a quick update, as I sit here at 11 pm waiting for E to wake for a bottle. Shes been asleep for almost 4 hours which is huge. But I am still up cause:
A) you know she will wake as soon as my head hits the pillow
B) Shes asleep in the swing and I am not moving her. funny part? the swing isn’t moving.. I took the batteries out to charge like over an hour ago.
Will try to post more later… like adventures in baby “stuff”. Anything else you would like to hear my thoughts on about being a new parent please let me know!!! (exhaustion has eaten all my creative juices for new blog post ideas)

well there you go….

So our journey to start being parents is finally closer to the end then the beginning.
We were licensed to be foster to adopt parents. So pretty much we are just waiting for a call now. I mean our journey is far from over, there is still lots to come.
We will get a call, and foster a child for awhile then wait for all the legal mumbo jumbo and eventually (and hopefully) we adopt.
So I guess this means we should get around to getting that crib mattress? A kids gotta sleep somewhere!!
Anyway I will blog more as the process keeps rolling, but at least we are in the door!!

Finally Someone Approves!!

So finally someone approves of us! Its about time, its taken long enough!!!
We got the word that we are approved for foster to adopt with the government. We even have the name of our support worker! We should hear from her in the next 2 weeks for her to meet us and licence us. Yeah us.
So I have done pretty good on getting stuff for a child this summer. We bought a 4 in 1 crib off kijiji. We have a ton of kids books and toys we got for free. A vibrating chair for free, some crib bedding, a high chair for next to nothing, free rocking chair, 2 playpens, 2 strollers,  and a few basic clothes. I think for a room full of furniture, toys, books and movies we have spent maybe $150-$200. I think thats pretty good. And if we don’t need something that we have we have lots of friends and family that either have just had a baby or are going to have a baby soon. I have done well on kijiji, free cycle (thanks Allison for the addiction) and friends cleaning out their basements!
We still need to get a crib matttress (just haven’t gotten around to it) and a car seat. But really thats going to be a last minute thing. We can’t get that ahead of time if our age we want is 0-4. I know there is other things we need once we know what age we are getting, diapers, bottles, clothes, food etc.
So all my mommy readers is there something you just can’t or couldn’t live with out when you had kids under 4? I am making a list of things we still need!!!

What’s that? A light at the end of the tunnel? Almost…

So today all our paper work goes in to the Alberta Children and Youth Services. Our application, our 22 page report on us by the social worker, and references. So its out of our hands now.  Into the governments… ok that sounds scary. I was told it could take up to 20 days for approval, and thats if no one is on holidays. Um its the start of August… wanna bet someone is on holidays? I mean this is the government right? They wouldn’t make this waiting easy. Then once we are approved we have to get licensed to be a foster to adopt home. Thats when they come in a pick your house to pieces. But we have been working on getting it up to licencing standards for a few months now. So it shouldn’t be to bad. Kind of annoying all the hoops we are going through to get a child and our home has to be perfectly child proofed. Yet there are people that have kids out there that would never pass all this.

So we bought a crib yesterday. I know we were going to wait till we get approved but it was the kind of crib we wanted and it was a great price on kijiji. We just need a crib mattress… any suggestions on where or what? Does it matter if its firm or what?  All you moms that follow please give me advice on crib mattresses.

And no just because we bought a crib doesn’t mean we will get a baby. We bought one that works as a toddler bed or a double bed too. It should work for a child 0-4. The toys we have are organized in the closet, the few clothes we have are hung up. Anything not kid related has been moved out of the room. I think we are ready. I mean there are things we can’t get till we know more, like a car seat. And more clothes. But I am a kijiji queen so we will get clothes for next to nothing.  We have 2 strollers and a playpen. We could get started….

Anyway.. share any advice on crib mattress shopping or whatelse you think we need before we get a child 0-4 years old!!

 

Wanna diagnose my dog?

So Daisy our bagle (yes that is right, its beagle/basset) needs a diagnosis. She is truly stuck in routine. We could write a schedule based on her. Here are few of her quirks.

She goes to bed at 10. Even weekends. See hubby and I usually go to bed around 10 during the week and I guess she got into the routine. So now, at 10, she will get up from where ever in the house she is hanging out and go to bed. Literally. Our bed. If we can’t find Daisy one of us usually comments with “oh it must be 10!”

And her bedtime routine!! its insane…. We get into bed and both dogs usually come with us. We have some playtime and snuggles. Daisy gets all grouchy and barks cause Dillinger is in the bed. Then she leaves, checks the crate, checks under the bed and back on the bed on the top of my pillows. Lays there for a bit. Then she leaves gets a drink of water and checks the house. Then shes back. She then has to get under the covers, even if there isn’t room cause Dillinger is on them, she will wiggle in just under. And then she has to curl up against me. Same spot every night. THEN she might fall asleep. Shes as bad as a kid getting ready for bed.

What else? Oh she won’t eat her food till we put water on it. She will sit there and give you the most pathetic stare then look at her food. You can practically her her saying, “You know and I know that there is not water on this, even if we just watched you do it, you better do it again. Cause I am not eating until its perfect.” Or if we don’t feed her on time she pushes both food dishes around the living room pausing dramatically to look at us before continuing.

Oh and the stupid ball!! If she is outside playing with the ball and wants to come in, she has to leave the ball in a specific spot. No serious, she will drop it and if it doesn’t really roll off the deck and fall in the right spot she will go get it and try again. I have stood at the door for 10 mins while she goes through this routine over and over and over. Seriously drives me insane.

but in the end how do I stay frustrated or mad at this face? I love my daisy girl!

Don’t you hate when?

So months ago when I was buying paint for the living room and kitchen I found a little can of blue paint for $1. I thought.. wow that will match one of the blues in the shower curtain and I could paint just the one wall. Then I put it in the cupboard. So yesterday in my attempt to avoid the yard work and the mosquitoes I decided to paint. I just about had enough for 2 coats.. had to go buy another little sample jar to finish. So I finished painting this morning, but while on the ladder I noticed the light fixture was filthy. (what? I am short and I am never ever up near the light fixture… how would I see how bad it is?) So I thought I would just wipe it down, except that didn’t work, so I took it all apart to soak the glass things. While those soaked I decided to clean the mirror. Which turned into why don’t I just clean the bathroom, I was going to do it tomorrow anyway. So much for just painting.

 

 

This is the blue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also bought a new hand held shower head as ours had no pressure. It was on sale.. relax hunny.  So I installed that… getting a tad wet in the process… but I did it.  So currently the bathroom is a total mess. But I intend to have it cleaned up before I go to work… no really.

Ok about work, so I am done working at the school for the summer. I had gotten a summer job at a local golf course. It was awesome but I had to quit as I got offered a job being a nanny. So I start that nanny job on Monday and I am pretty excited. We will see how it goes.

So Friday is our first session for the Home Assessment Report for the foster to adopt application. Pretty much a social worker comes to our house she says 3-5 times for 2-4 hours each time. She has to have the report in by August 1st so I guess we will be seeing a lot of her in the next few weeks. I am trying to not stress about this… but it seems soooo scary! I guess its pretty invasive and she asks tons of questions about everything from our house to our backgrounds to everything. So I will being doing what I can to get the house prepared tomorrow. Not sure what we can do to prepare. Any friends or readers who have gone through the HAR please message me advice!!

Anyway I guess I better finish puttering before I have to get ready for my last day at the course.

Next topic… ?? any suggestions??

Ok Enough Already….

So its been raining.. and raining.. and raining. I know, I know we need it.. the forest fires need it, the flowers need it but really? Isn’t this enough already? I just feel like everything is damp… even me. yuck. This is the road outside my husbands work.

And my yard!!! oh how my yard needs tending to. But its sooo wet its not going to happen this week. I hoped that we could get it done before Wednesday, but probably not.
We have our social worker coming to visit our house for the first time as part of our application process on Wednesday. So there has been lots of prep. Plug covers, cupboards latched, items put away etc. and just cleaning.
We bought a new to us couch from my friend, but we need to pick it up from the southside. But the stupid rain won’t let us. grrr. So currently our living room has the tv stand, a coffee table and the dog bed in it. Looks kinda sad actually. Not sure if we are just going to explain that one or move something from the basement up. Guess we better decide soon.

Oh never mind, since starting this post we picked up the couch. ha. It looks good.

Dillinger approves!

What else? Oh the jeep. It broke down on the way to work yesterday. Just died. Couldn’t even turn on my hazards. So had to have it towed to the shop. Was really dreading that call today. But ends up it was just the battery… ffwww. that was close. lol It still wasn’t cheap.  But not that bad. I have 2 theories as to why this happened. 1. we paid off the jeep a few months ago.. its ours. 2. I was bragging to a friend about how we haven’t had to do anything but regular oil changes. Serves me right. I really should know better.. hahaha.
Anyway I better get some house work done. I will post after our visit on Wednesday.

Hello World… again

Sorry folks… I kinda fell off the blog wagon. Got busy, decided I had nothing to write about. you know.. just busy. So lets go back. Whats new? We did paint the living room and kitchen. Here are pics.

Living room old color.

this is the new color.

This is the kitchen/hall. The dark green is the old color and the light green is the new.

New color in the kitchen. Its amazing how it opens up and freshens up the room. Amazing.

So yeah thats done. Cleaned out the office too… 2 bags of shredding. I needed to do that clean. So why all the house work and cleaning you ask?? We are in the process of adopting.

Yup, we are working on getting a family started. We have tried the regular way and all the medical ways and decided that this is what we need to do. We are adopting through the government and wow does that take a lot patience. I suppose that any way we adopt, it would take patience but still. We have done most of our paper work.. tons of paper work, and we did 24 hours of training. So now we are onto the next step.. the home assessment. Pretty sure thats going to happen in the next few weeks so we need to get our house in order. Get working towards child proofing it (shouldn’t be too hard, its already dog proofed) and organizing it.

One of the draw backs to adopting through foster to adopt, you don’t really get to know ahead of time what your getting. At least when your pregnant you have 9 months to prep for a new born. Once we are accepted and on the list or whatever it is, we can get called anytime. To get a child anywhere from 0-4 years old. Hard to pre buy stuff for that age range. Thank god we have a huge support system and good friends that understand if we call asking to borrow their infant or toddler car seat for a day!! The only thing we have started to get is kids books.. but those are the easy things.

So I will try to keep you all posted about the process and how things are going. Who knows.. next time you see us we could have a new family member!! Sorry again for the lack of blogs, as you can see there has been a lot on the go…