What I've been reading til the wee hours of the morning the past few nights...

Francine Rivers "The Last Sin Eater"

Once I pick it up I just...can't...put it...down

Christmas catch-up

Christmas Eve was spent with my wonderful in-laws. Unfortunately I didn't get many pictures and the ones I did manage to get didn't turn out at all. On Christmas Day, everyone gathered at my Brother's house for a big meal. We're so thankful to have him home safe.

Once again, this year, our family was sweet enough to remember the Daughter we wait for. We love the gifts they got her. I hope that, after 2 Christmases waiting, next year she will be here to open up her gifts herself =).

I think we've started a new tradition now that Jess is back in town. The day before Christmas Eve, my mom, my aunt Glenda, Jessica and Jamey came over and we baked homemade Christmas goodies. It was a lot of fun. I also caved in and gave Jamey his Christmas gift from me while they were here. It was a train set and was a huge hit. I knew it would be seeing as trains are one of his favorite things in the whole wide world...along with his mommy, monster trucks, popcorn, and anything related to Lightning McQueen or cars of any sort.

Class of 92 reunion =)

My long-time friend ,Christy, and I spent Saturday with lunch at Qd*ba, Christmas shopping, then back to my house to hang out and play Wii. She had never played before and I think she had a lot of fun (especially with the boxing)

Christy and I have been friends since middle school and we graduated together wayyyy back in 1992

We always have a lot of fun together =)










And now, for a little more Christmas around my house...



I just found this little Irish Pub the other night and had to get it because it reminded me of the trip we took in 2005. Doug and I spent 9 days driving literally from one side of Ireland to the other (landed in Shannon..left from Dublin) staying in bed and breakfast inns in small towns all along the way. It was the best trip ever..at least until China =).



Here's my little "coffee shop" in the kitchen



Speaking of trips, we got this ornament from our awesome trip to Savannah earlier this year....which was right after...






We lost my sweet boy Ozzie in May of this year. I still miss him like crazy.





I got this Angel last year. I thought she looked very "Irish" in her plaid dress, which is why I got her...of course.

I thought I needed to do something with the top of my tv armoire so I just used some evergreen garland with red berries and pine cones and clear faceted lights like the ones on my tree. I left my oil lamps where they were because I liked the way they looked mixed in with the greenery. Not the best photo but you get the picture (pardon the pun).










This little silver bell was my Grandmothers. It's been one of my favorite Christmas fixtures for as long as I can remember. It is probably 50 years old . She got it when my Grampa was stationed overseas with the Army...I'm guessing when they lived in Germany because it's musical and according to the label on the bottom it plays "Stille Nacht" instead of "Silent Night" ; ).





Even my bathroom got a touch of Christmas...

I got this cute Gingerbread house for my kitchen at H*llmark this year.
It plays "the Dance of the Sugarplum Faerie"

Jamey loves it. Everytime he comes over he pushes the button and bounces around to the music...recently we've been working on some ballet moves (his daddy loves this). You'll notice he manages to keep it masculine with a hockey themed outfit.


Make sure you scroll down and turn off the music player before
you view the video clip.=)

Special Needs

We had our home-study update last night and it went wonderfully. We love our social worker, Beth. The big news, as you may have already guessed from the link above, is that we are now pursuing special needs adoption. We went over the list of needs that we are open to with Beth, and by next week, it should be in the hands of our agency where they will start to look for a match for us. I've been thinking about doing this for a while and was just waiting for Doug to mention it on his own, without any prompting from me..and he did . After much prayer and consideration, I believe that this is where we need to be. We're pretty excited about this =)

Christmas Reunion

We had a small Christmas get-together with some looooong time friends who were in from Florida ( well, besides Jess who's moved back to Ky. permanently). It's hard to describe who these people are to me. I mean, they're friends, but they're much more than that. I've known these people since I was, maybe, ten years old. And somehow I've gotten lucky enough that they've just kind of adopted me as their own, so they're like Aunts and Uncles and Grandparents and Cousins...you get the picture. Anyway I love these folks, and we had a really great time tonight.

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas...

My Christmas cactus has bloomed (a little early)

The tree is up

I picked this little ornament up last year when H*llmark had it's "Christmas around the World" collection.

And I've gotten around to wrapping a few presents

Yep...it's that time,again

We have to update paperwork, and we've set up and appointment with our social worker to update our homestudy. We may be changing things up a bit, though. More on that later if things pan out ; ).

He's Home!

After one very long year, my brother is finally home from Iraq!!! It was so good to see him come home safe and sound. Thanks to all of the prayers that went up for them, not one of the 120+ men and women in his unit, the 438th Military Police Co., was injured during their tour through Ramadi, Taji?, and Baghdad. He got to work with , and spend time with, a lot of Iraqi people. Their mission was mainly to keep things safe while the people rebuild/ build things that were never there before. One man admitted to him that he fought against us during earlier conflicts. Under Sadaam's regime, he had no choice. He said that he and his family could have been killed had he refused. That's s good example of one of the better reasons why we're there folks. Now he and his family might get to enjoy a level of freedom that they've never had before. It's up to them as a people, I guess.

We made him a sign

And decorated my parent's van

My sweet Sister-in-Law , Stephanie, was so anxious to see him

And there he is!!

with Steph and Mom

with Steph and me

One very relieved and proud family

Those packs can weigh between 60-80 pounds. Can you imagine carrying all that in 110+ degree heat??

He wanted Cracker Barrel after all those months of Army food.

I saw this adorable little doll and could not pass it up. I know its probably the third doll I've bought but come on people....it's perfect...and so cute!

HALLOWEEN PARTY

Jess and I put together a little Halloween party for Jamey and my neighbors DJ and Ashley and a couple of their friends. Everyone ended up having a good time (even the teenagers)

On another note, today marks month 13 of our wait. There are days when it gets difficult to stay optimistic and patient in the face of this seemingly never ending wait. Today has been one of those days. Then I heard this song while on the short drive over to Jessica's apt. and it kinda helped me out of my pity party mood. I guess someone knew I needed to hear it =)

They're gone

They've moved out. It didn't work out with the house they were interested in so they decided to move into an apartment and try again in a few months. I will miss coming home from work to this little guy who was always so excited to see me. He gives the best hugs and has the cutest little voice. I will miss constant requests for me to spin around with him and the nightly "squeak test" after his bath to make sure he was really clean. I'm going to miss having Jess to just talk with and hang out with in the evenings after Doug was gone to work and Jamey was put to bed. Luckily they only moved, like, 5 minutes away so we'll still see lots of each other...but it's just too darn quiet around here, now.

Anyway, here's some random cuteness from the past few days

Painting ( this was a big hit with him)






Playing in the box our new tv came in

being silly in the laundry basket


Modeling the scarf his mommy made him

Scooters and Dancin' Shoes

Jamey got a new scooter from his Grandpa. It took him all of one day to learn how to use it. Not bad for 2 1/2 years old =0). He looks so small when you see him do this in person with all of his gear, its really cute. Be sure to check out the video clip at the bottom.

Jamey also found a pair of my dress shoes the other day. He put them on and called them his "dancing shoes" and started dancing around. I got a video clip but can't get it to load right. Jessica and I thought it was hilarious, but his daddy was only mildly amused ; ) .

I was "tagged" by Elissa here :http://theharrells.blogspot.com/ to take part in this little game. Apparently I have to list 7 random/wierd facts about myself. Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you and post the rules. Share 7 random or weird facts about yourself. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and link to them4. Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. I'm not sure if I have 7 people to tag, but anyway, here are 7 things you may or may not know about me.

# 1 I'm a night owl... not a morning person at all

# 2 I can hold the shredded edges of tissue and together while the doctor stitches up the calf of one of our young patients who cut her leg almost to the bone the other day, but the thought of touching a fish makes me squeamish

#3 I have a bit of a phobia about lightning...I do not like to be outdoors if its lightning, inside is fine , I actually really love a good storm from inside the house.

# 4 Even though I do love chocolate, I would choose a bag of chips over something sweet anyday, even as a child .

#5 I'm a Kentucky Colonel

#6 I'm a clutz...I get cuts and scrapes and bruises all the time...and half the time I don't remember how I got them.

#7 I'm a word puzzle geek. You name it...crosswords, word scrambles, cryptograms, Wheel of Fortune, I love them all.

And now....I tag Amanda at http://harlowfamilylife.blogspot.com/. Have fun Amanda!

While going through the pictures in my camera today I found some that I didn't remember taking.

A Montage

By: Jamey, age 2

"Close up of blue rug"

"Extreme- extreme close up of blue rug"

Part three of the "Blue Rug" study

"Running Shoes"

"Binky"...a retrospective

And my Favorite...

"Self Portrait of the Artist"