So, awesome

I just love it when at 1 a.m. I get woken by a sweet, precious sound.... some crazy drunk lady pounding on my door and windows of my house.  It really is so adorable, when I get woken from sleep to this craziness.  I get to call my best friends, the police and they get to come and arrest the crazy lady.  It is such a special time for us, we love it.

For reals, we want to move.  Last night solidified that feeling for me. I do NOT want this to be Gus' neighborhood while he grows up.  I do not want any more "funny" stories about the wild things that happen in my neighborhood.  I want to complain about peoples overgrown lawns, not about how their drug deals are keeping me up at night.  I need some ideas, any real estate gems out there?  How can we get out of our completely upside down house, I'm serious, share your wisdom with me.... please.

Back talk

James was having a talk with Gus because he was being a stinker.  James held him on his lap.  "Gus what you're doing is back talk, and it's not appropriate." Gus replies " No dad this isn't back talk, it's front talk."  Opening his eyes large so that James could clearly see his front.  It was so hilarious, I could not control my laughter. 

What would you do??

So lets maybe start a little debate, I'm just curious about peoples point of view on this:


Lets say you are injured at a friends house, random accident... what are your thoughts about going after the home owners insurance??  What do you think?

Chi Chi

Our foster care experience was far different then I had imagined it would be.  To be honest, I don't think I really knew what to expect.  When we agreed on fostering, I was very plain about ensuring that we only took children that were ready to be adopted.  I expressed that in every way possible to the people who trained us, but they want you to foster... they push it.  They want you to adopt to, but they all say you foster to adopt.  So we agreed to foster and hoped and prayed we would be able to adopt.  The calls started coming, so many kids needing a safe home to go to.  We would pray, and nothing felt right.  Then we got the call for Chi, it felt good.  Four hours later he was in our home.  It was bizarre, we weren't prepared for a 10 month old baby.  I ran to the store, set up the crib, tried to think of everything, and my dear friends helped fill in the gaps with bags full of necessities.  It took Chi about two minutes to get comfortable, he just wanted to be held and loved.  He was an amazingly sweet boy, he adapted to our schedule like a champ.  The more information I got about Chi the more I started to care.  His history, his life... it had been hard.  I wanted to invest all my love and attention into him, but I was also very guarded.  I did not want to care so much and then have to send him back to that life.  My emotions were torn, I opted for babysitter mode.  It was all I could do to protect my emotions from getting to attached and having my heart ache for him.  The onslaught of extra "help" in my life was daunting as well.  I have never felt more on display and judged in my whole life.  People were calling and dropping in to check, assess, drive Chi to appointments, and check on my emotional state.  The ball dropped on a day when I was having a crap mom moment.  Gus had been in time out about 5 times by 10:00am, he didn't enjoy Chi, he didn't like sharing mom with him  (standard kid procedure.)  I started to resent the whole situation, my son wasn't happy, Chi was having to deal with that unhappiness and I was so worn out trying to make sure everyone had their needs met.  I was visited by a case worker... awesome timing.  I broke down, I told her I was really struggling.  James and I had long talks and days of back and forth.  Why had we felt so inspired to do this, and had we gotten it wrong?  I prayed to understand what I needed to do, suck it up and tough it out, learn some lesson and make life changes...what?  Even though Chi wasn't "ours" it was one of the hardest things I had to do to call and tell them we needed to move him to another home.  I was heartbroken and felt like such a failure, like I had failed that sweet boy who needed so much love.  We learned so much from the experience, so many things we need to improve and change.  I think it was such a blessing to our family, and hopefully we made some small impression on Chi.  I still miss him, and oddly Gus still talks about baby Chi.  It's interesting the way our Heavenly Father teaches us things, he made some of my greatest weaknesses known to me so that I can work on making them strengths.  So, although it didn't work out we are grateful for the experience and pray that we grow from all that we learned.

The world as Gus sees it

I gave Gus rights to my old camera, he will walk around and take pictures of this and that.  It is awesome to see all the funny things he sees.  Apparently James and I are on the couch a lot :)

A trip of firsts

Our trip to Oregon was awesome.  It was so great to be able to spend time with the Websters in that beautiful Oregon weather.  I sure miss my Lenor, but it makes me happy she went to such a great place to visit.  I took so many pictures, but I just wanted to post a few to show the highlights of our visit.

Gus' first plane flight, he loved every minute of it. 

Lake of the woods, the boys spent hours throwing rocks into the lake and we successfully prevented any of them from falling in headfirst.

Our Harry and David tour was so delicious, the smell of the popcorn and candy was impossible to resist.  Good thing the tour ended at the store and with some samples.

Our trip to Crater lake ended with no view of the lake, but a fun time in snow.  Gus has never seen snow fall from the sky, and he was fascinated.  It gives us a good reason to head back to Oregon, we definitely want to see that lake, we heard it's beautiful.

We went on a jet boat tour of the Rogue river.  It was really cool, we saw bald eagles, osprey and blue herring.  The boat captain did some spin outs, and I was amazed Lenor didn't lose any of her kids over the edge. 

We stopped at this random farm/ bakery on the way home and had the most delicious cookies.  It was the cutest little place.

I went to the Redwoods as a kid, but I don't really remember it that well.  It proved to be as spectacular as everyone says.  It's just crazy to imagine trees that big and pictures don't really do it justice.  Again, one of those things you just have to see.

We drove up the Oregon coast and I felt like I was in the movie Goonies (which was in fact filmed in northern Oregon.)  It was misty and the random rock outcroppings were so cool.  We headed to the beach and spent enough time for Gus to get bowled over by the waves.  The sand was so fine and soft, almost like dust. We had such a great time.  In all fairness if I was to show the real highlights I would have more pictures of Lenor's meals.  She is the best cook, and all her dinners were so delicious.  We love the Websters and we will certainly be going back soon.

I got my MOTY award in the mail.  Imagine my surprise when the committee actually took note of my motherly awesomeness and felt I deserved the award!!

*I got a hilarious personalized MOTY award in the mail from my aunt and her girls... You guys are the best, thanks for making me laugh.