I've been tagged!

I was tagged by the hilarious Kelly This is her blog www.skyliesmiles.blogspot.com

~The rules are to link the person who sent this and leave a comment on their blog so their readers can visit yours
~Post the rules on your blog
~Share 7 strange/weird facts about yourself
~Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and link their blog
~Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

#1 I find it disgusting when people clip their fingernails or toenails and I am in the same room. I even find it disgusting when I have to clip my own. Jenny waits for me to leave the room before she does hers. I also find it even more disgusting when people cut them too short and there is no white showing or they talk about how their nails hurt because they are too short. Or when people bite their nails and there is no white showing. All of these things make my stomach hurt and really gross me out. Actually I am starting to make my stomach hurt now just talking about it. (can you tell this is a big phobia of mine? :)

#2 I have road rage. I will admit it. I am the best driver EVER and everyone else is the worst ever. I hate it when people go too slow, too fast, get in my way, don't use their turn signal, ride my ass, and are dumb drivers. Sometimes I say things under my breath sometimes I yell things. I am trying to work on this because I have a baby in the car now, but I still have road rage.

#3 We have 7 cats. Yes 7. I know that is a lot, but I am a sucker for a kitty who needs a home. My house doesn't smell like a litter box and my cats all live inside.

#4 I don't like hunting. Sorry if I offend anyone, but I don't. I think it is mean and I don't like it. I was actually a vegetarian for 10 years, but now I am not, because I am too lazy and it is hard.

#5 I was married (to a boy) for 4 months and Jenny was a brides maid in the wedding. A long story and one I may blog about, but for now I will just be mysterious.

#6 I am going to be 28 at the end of February, but I still think I am 17. I still am amazed when I don't get carded, because I am 17 of course.

#7 Jenny and I quit smoking about 2 mo after Mia came home (we didn't smoke in the house and never smoked around her) I love smoking and wish I could still do it. I know it stinks and is disgusting, but if you have never smoked you don't understand. After a stressful day it is heaven.


I don't "know" 7 people to tag so I am only tagging one : (

Donna

A New Baby boy

So I have some news. We heard from Benjamin, who called Maria for us, and Maria still has Jose Juan! She said we need to call Guierillmo and talk to him so we can adopt Jose Juan. She has wanted us to adopt him since we met her on our visit trip. The only problem is that adoptions are closed right now. Well, we have decided (or Jenny has agreed) that when/if adoptions open and if the new system that is in place will allow then we are going to start the process to adopt Jose Juan. If that doesn't happen or if for some reason we can't adopt him then we are going to help Maria to adopt him. We haven't talked to her about it, but I am sure that is what she would want too. So right now we are hoping and praying that we have the opportunity to become this sweet little boys parents. I will likely be calling Guierillmo this week sometime to let him know and see what he has to say.

I thought I would post a pic of our hopefully soon to be son! So here he is! We think he is adorable!

Purchases, Pretzels, and Puke

Today we went to the mall to find us outfits to wear to the Addy awards. The theme is red carpet...great! So we first went to Macy's and I found this really cute dress it was black with white polka dots and $89, which I didn't think was too bad, but I wasn't totally sold on spending $89. So we went to some other stores and we ended up at JcPenny. Just when we were about to leave the dress section I spotted the EXACT same dress that was at Macy's! It was $70! Not too bad, but then it was 30% off so it was $50!!! So I bought it I saved $49 for the EXACT same dress.

We decide that we are going to go to one more store and then head home, but first we were going to go to Auntie Anne's and get a pretzel and a lemonade. So we get our pretzels and lemonade for $10 - when did pretzels and lemonades start costing $10? Anyway, we went to sit down at a bench in the middle of the mall to eat our pretzels. Jenny breaks off a piece of hers and feeds it to Mia and Mia spits it out, which is unusual, because it is crap food and Mia loves crap food! Then Mia gets this really weird look on her face and then it happens....she throws up. It is just coming and coming. Jenny cups her hand under Mia's mouth and I run back to Auntie Annes' to get some napkins. Mia is crying and still throwing up when I get back. Jenny has it all over her and so does Mia. It was SO horrible. Luckily Mia was wearing a onesie and sweater (the sweater was in the stroller not on the puking baby) so we took her shirt off and cleaned her face off and scooped her up and started a mad dash to the car. I carried my pukey smelling crying baby girl to the car. If you know me you know I CANNOT stand puke. We get to the car and race home at top speed to be sure the same doesn't happen in the car. It doesn't. We get home and Mia is SO sick she threw up 5 more times and was so sad and she had a fever. She just wanted me to hold her. After she was done throwing up she started smiling and wanted to get down to play and "seemed" fine. She hasn't thrown up since and she acts like she feels ok, but she still has a fever.

This was our first experience with this type of sick and it was an experience!

FFF

This is my first FFF so here it is.

These pictures are of Jenny's Aunt Bonnie. She is Jenny's mom sister and one of the sweetest women I have ever met. She totally adores Mia and she is great aunt. These pictures were taken Christmas Eve.

the green monster

I'm jealous I will admit it. I am jealous of many people for many reasons, but the thing that I am most jealous about is that my precious little daughter will never know the love of a Grandma and Grandpa who adore her. You may ask why? Why? Because my parent's are both passed away and Jenny's mom has passed away. Well, what about her dad you may ask? He remarried (6 months after Jenny's mom passed away) and they could care less about their newest grandchild. Ok, that is an exgarration, but the are indifferent towards her. They have 19 grandchildren between the two of them and Mia is just one of the 19. In reality Jenny's dad has 6 and step mom has 13, but who's counting. During the winter they are in Florida and when they are in Michigan during the summer we may see them 2 or 3 times. Mia has no idea who they are and they haven't called once since October to see how she (or us) is doing. It is a sad reality, because they are indifferent. I grew up with the BEST grandma EVER and I want nothing more than that for Mia, but she will never have it and it makes me jealous and sad that other people do. Don't get me wrong I wouldn't take it away from anyone, but I just wish I had it too. Being a mom makes you want your mom, but mine has been gone for a little over 5 years and Jenny's has been gone for 12 years.

As I sit here teary eyed I know our mom's are somehow somewhere watching over us loving Mia, but we can't see it, feel it, hear it, and we can tell her, but without the love, kisses, hugs, praise, and the joy of going to Grandma's because she will let you get away with anything she is really missing out. Like eating cookies and ice cream for breakfast. Sleeping in the bed with her while she scratches your back and never wanting to leave, because you have the best Grandma ever who of course lets you get away with anything.

This is my green monster.

Addy who?

It has been a rough week around our house. Mia has been cutting some teeth adn she goes from happy to throwing fits in 2.1 seconds. She's also not been sleeping great, which really stinks. I am used to the kid who sleeps through the night. That is the whole point of co sleeping right? Well, the point of co sleeping to to bond, but also to get sleep too!

We heard from Benjamin, who works at the Grand Tikal (a hotel in Guatemala) and we periodically talk via email. He emailed us today to say that Maria (Mia's foster mom) had brought a picture of Mia and Benjamin to him. It was a picture taken on our pick up trip and we sent down to Maria sometime in October. He seemed very happy to get the photo and we were very happy to hear from him. We emailed him back, because we have been trying to find out what happened to Jose Juan, Mia's foster brother and where he is with everything that has recently happened with Guatemalan adoptions. I fear that he is in a state run orphanage. I hope to hear that he has a family that is in process to adopt him or that Maria gets to keep him. I wanted nothing more than to adopt him too, but we didn't have the money. Now every time we send pictures we send clothes and toys for Jose Juan. If he doesn't know we may ask if he will call Maria for us.

We made some great friends with some of the people in Guatemala on I am hoping we get to go back this year to visit with Maria and Benjamin.

I would also like to say CONGRATULATIONS to Jenny. She won an Addy award. An Addy award is an award for design and advertising. Jenny won. We get to go to a fancy dinner and awards ceremony! Our first night out without a baby. I don't know how long I will be able to stay out, but we are going to give it a try. I am so proud of her!

Here are some pictures I found today they are old pictures I came across.

This was taken on her 1st birthday. I love her in this dress, but it was the only time she ever wore it!



This photo was taken by the professional photographer . Her cute little toes! She has tiny feet, but they are thick (fat) and she has really long toes. her pinkie toes are longer than mine or maybe I have really short pinkie toes.



This is another professional photo. This was taken in august and she was just starting to be able to stand with us holding her hands. She was almost a year old.



Another tootsie picture.



I just found this photo. It was taken in 2005 when we went to Chicago to visit our friends. I just like it so I thought I would share.

Nothing new...

We went to lunch with Kristen today and Mia was so good. It is always a crap shoot when we go out to eat . Is she going to be content to sit there and eat french fries or will all the french fries end up on the floor and she will scream? Yes, even my precious Mia can be a bear. Today she was PERFECT! She laughed and flirted with the people around us. She has come such a long way since she has been home. I remember shortly after we got home and we went to eat with some people that Jenny used to work with , Mia was in her highchair and the waitress came over and tried talking to her and she was afraid that the waitress was going to pick her up and she started crying. It was so sad. It was like she was afraid that she was going to take her away from us, like we took her way from Maria. Today, though she smiled at the waitress, tried to hand her her fake credit cards, tried pull the waitress' pens out of her smock and she did her I'm shy and I'm so cute smile to her.

On a side note I thought everyone would love to know that my precious daughter is "playing" in the toilet now. UGH If she sees a toilet she will crawl, or shall I say turbo crawl, over to the toilet and quickly sticks her hand in and splash around. She has even mastered lifting the toliet seat. I guess we will have to go and get some of those toilet locks. Another new thing that she doing is climbing the stairs and she climbs to top in 3 minutes(yes somtimes she gets to the top) and then closes the gate. She then stands at the top of the stairs and yells, almost like"hey I am up here all by myself." Jenny freaks out I let her get all the way up, but she quick!

Also today Mia was playing in her toy tub and she let go, but you know how some kids do it and then don't realize and then grab back on...well not Mia she would let go and look at me like did you see what I just did and get a big smile on her face. She did this like 10 times, but I couldn't get it on camera, but I will try again. She will be walking soon! Watch out world!

Here are some pics from today!

Classic Mia she crinkles her nose when she smiles really big and if she's happy.



She was a dancing queen in this pic thats why it is blurry.


Another crinkle of the nose.



Isn't she beautiful! or maybe I am a little biased...no she is beautiful.



What a beautiful face. Somtimes I can't even stand how beautiful she is!

One year ago this week

It is hard to believe that one year ago this week is the first time we met Mia! She was almost 4 months old and still remember that moment when I first saw her and her big brown eyes. She was wrapped in a yellow blanket and she was wearing a white bonnet. Maria was holding her and she was sleeping. She looked so sweet, like an angel. I remember feeling scared, happy, and I wasn't sure Jenny and I could take care of a baby for a whole week. We thought she was the most beautiful thing we had ever seen and she was! I didn't want the week to end , but when it did we were both very sad. I would do it all over again! here are some pics of then and now.

I love this close up of her face.

Me loving my precious chunky monkey!

Mamma Jenny and Mia

Couldn't resist posting this one! Isn't she SO cute!

She is looking at me like, "SERIOUSLY mom are you taking a picture of me NOW?"

Smiling at Mamma Gwen

Getting smooches from Mamma Gwen.

Here are some pics from tonight. I thought I would get the black sheet out and take some pics of Mia. I always think she looks SO pretty when she gets out of the bath and she only has on her white onesie. It didn't go over so well, because she wouldn't sit still.

Isn't she a beautiful girl!

A close up!

Where did the snow go?

The snow melted a few days ago and hasn't returned, which revealed the leaves in our yard. So today we spent the afternoon getting the massive amounts of leaves picked up out of our yard. I have NEVER had leaves in my yard during January. Without getting into a rant...oh, who am I kidding this will turn into a rant : ) Before Mia came home we hired a lawn service company the same company who does most of the houses around us. They started in June and were suppose to service our lawn until fall including picking up our leaves, but they did everyone else's leaves and didn't touch ours. Then they billed us an extra $60 for "fall clean up" I called and they said it was because they, "got their leaf blowers out" I didn't argue with them, but Jenny and I decided to pick the leaves up today. Mia was sleeping for part of it, but she woke up and I brought her outside with us. She at sticks, grass and leaves, which she thought was GREAT!

We brought the snow shovel out to help us scoop up the mulch and Mia thought that she should take a ride on the shovel!

Hanging on while I drag her around.



Off the shovel.



Back on the shovel.



Then I pulled her around like this!



Jenny had to take the leaves to the back so Mia tagged along.



Don't worry she doesn't usually ride in garbage cans.

A note to the Social Security Lady

To you Mrs. Social Security Lady,

First let me say that it was great meeting you at 9:00 am with a cranky 15 month old who should be nappng. It was great to wait for 15 minutes in the cold (Jenny did) , because we live in a town where NOBODY wants to work and EVERYONE wants to claim they are disabled to receive a free paycheck from the government. So there is a line of capable workers standing outside at 15 minutes to 9 . None of these people are capable of working, but hey are capable of standing outside in the cold to see about their benefits. thanks for letting me state this first before I get to your short comings.

Ok now to your short comings...when we give you ALL the necessary paperwork to get a social security card and you look at us with a baffled look and say, "I think I am missing something." Then you proceed to ask another genius employee what you need and they say ID. You then say I can't use her passport....to us, but you ask your genius coworker, who says, "yes we use it for adults why not children." You then study her passport to tell us that it is expired. When I point out that it is good for a year...read this line if stamped passport is good for 1 year from issue date, which is June 26 2008 and ours was stamped. Because you can't read or that line or it is somehow invisible to you, you insist that it expired, because another line reads expires on December 26 2007. However, that line means that the Visa expires if it was NEVER stamped. You insist though that it is expired and of course I am not the genius you are and apparently I have special X-ray glasses to read that special line (that you cannot read) on the visa so we are back to square one.

You then ask us if my 15 month old has ID or better yet state issued ID. Yes, Mrs. Social Security Lady I forgot her driver's license at home. So back to square one. Then Jenny asks, "well can you use her adoption paperwork?" OH YES like the answer just came out of the sky and like you didn't know that the HUGE pack of adoption paperwork sitting on your desk wasn't always sitting in front of you. You then read (or pretend to) read the paperwork and then you say, "I need to have someone who speaks Spanish translate it." Even though the English translation is behind the Spanish paperwork and is authenticated by notary you take 15 minutes to do that while my now VERY cranky 15 month old yells in the waiting area and everyone is staring at me and shooting daggers at me to shut my kid up. Oh and lets not forget your ever so friendly "security guard" who just looks at me with disgust while my child yells. During this 15 minutes though I got the joy of playing peek a boo with a 4 year old girl who was dressed in clothes that were too small for her, smelled like cigarette smoke, had dark pink circles under her eyes, and was starving for adult attention. Well, we played peek boo until her dad yelled, "GET OVER HERE." She then scurried away.
Then you appeared back at your window. To tell me we had everything and after our birth certificate was verified we "should" have her social security card back in 4 weeks.

Thank you Mrs. Social Security Lady for living up to my standards of how you as a government employees cannot do your job.
Gwen

Oh God, Oh God

Oh God. I think I said that 100 times today. No I didn't win the lottery, but something did happen!

So I was making Mia some eggs and cooking some cinnamon rolls for for me. Mia was crawling around on the floor and all of a sudden she got really quiet, which every parent knows is NOT a good thing. So I went to see what she was into thinking that maybe she just got into the drawers that are in the bench in our hallway. I was hoping that she was emptying the contents onto the floor and not getting into something else. One could have only hoped for that scenario. SoI stepped out around the wall to see my baby girl with cat vomit on her hands, pants, shirt, and YES you guessed it her FACE. Not just her face, but smeared around her mouth. Yes, like she ate it!!! She had eaten the cat vomit! The cat vomit was in her mouth and she put it there! So that is when the Oh God's began. My first instinct was to grab the camera and take a picture, but I didn't know where the camera was so I didn't. Is that bad of me? Anyway, I quickly picked her up and brought her to the sink and tried to wash it off her hands and face. Then I grabbed 10 wash clothes and started cleaning her face and hands with those, but it still wasn't coming off enough. All the while saying Oh god over and over. Jenny was upstairs trying to sleep , but I think all my commotion woke her up. I decided that wash clothes and the sink weren't going to do. I needed to go all the way and put in the bath tub. So I rushed her upstairs, undressed her, and put her in the tub. I washed her and she was finally clean. Thankfully she loves to suck on the wash clothes in the bath tub so she cleaned the inside of her mouth. Jenny finally yelled from the bedroom, "what is the problem?" I told her that HER daughter just ate cat vomit. She said, "I wondered why you said Oh God SO many times" then we both decided that vomit was better than poop!

Sorry there are no pictures this time : )

Sleeping Beauty, Snow bunny, and CRAZY girl

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!!!

It is hard to believe that it is 2008. Where did 2007 go? All in all it was a great year. Our baby girl came home to us. Jenny and I were trying to think of another reason that 2007 was a great year, but we couldn't come up with anything that even compares to Mia coming home. Maybe in 2008 we will start another adoption! That is if the money falls out of the sky!

On December 30th Mia has been home for 6 months! It seems like she has always been here with us.

Now onto some more Mia cuteness!

Mia and I sleeping. Well, I was sleeping until I heard the camera dinging.
This is how we sleep. How can anyone not want to cuddle with her?

'

I think cosleeping is just the best thing ever. I don't know why some people don't like it.



Mia's favorite thing to do is romp around on our beds. She just laughs and crawls around.



Still playing on our beds. For those of you who don't know we have 2 queen sized matresses on the floor. Mia and I (Gwen) sleep on one mattress while Jenny the dog and cat sleep on the other. So she has a lot of room to play on the beds!



She is still having fun. Can you see me in the background? Can you tell I just woke up from a nap? See the difference in children and adults. I wake up groggy and Mia wakes up happy and energetic!



Mia stopping from her fun to pose and look beautiful for the camera. I think it worked!



We woke up to 8+ inches of snow on New Year's day so we bundled Mia up and she "played" outside for a whole 5 minutes. She really just sat there and then decided that she wanted to eat the snow so she just fell over



Mia feeling the snow.



I don't think she is too happy with the cold weather and snow Doesn't she look like she is saying, "HELLO I am from Guatemala. You know the land of eternal spring. Why am I out in this white stuff?"