Well, there hasn't been a whole lot to report lately. Hubby's job is changing, as it often does with slope work. The contract he's been working under has been bought by a new company, but the company they are doing the work for insisted that the crew he's on stay. So he's in the process of changing companies, which will will mean needing to update paperwork and we're just waiting for everything to be official before we finish all of that up.
Meanwhile, I have spent the last several days doing one of the things I enjoy doing. Canning. Specifically, I've been making jams. I did pickles a while ago. Last year was the first time I'd done pickles in years and I got a bit carried away and pickled everything I could get my hands on. Cucumbers, peppers, asparagus, cauliflower, green beans, pea pods, carrots, etc. They were really good and the kids and their friends ate through most of them and demanded more. So I did a bunch more pickles this year. Jars and jars of them. Oldest step daughter took a dozen of them right off, as an early birthday present for the guy they are house sitting for. Hopefully I've got enough of them bottled downstairs to last though the year.
Anyway, this week I decided it was cold enough to do jams. I had a few bags of frozen fruit in the deep freezer that needed using up, and we had pureed and bagged up almost 2 watermelons this last summer, so I had all of that to do something with. I got 31 half pints of watermelon jelly done yesterday. That was a long day and I was very tired by the end of it, but it's good, and will be going into our Christmas gift bags this year for a nice little touch of summer in the middle of an Alaskan winter. That was from 10 batches of jam.. I have a big bowl of foam and left overs in the fridge from that as well, and am trying to think of something to use it for... maybe watermelon thumbprint cookies?
Today was a much easier day. Only two batches of jam needed doing. I did a batch of plain strawberry and a batch of mixed (strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, blueberry, peach and white grape). Both were very yummy. I got 8 half pints from each batch. I had done an earlier batch of watermelon and some blueberry jam and blueberry syrup this summer, so between it all, and the bottles I still have from last year's jamming, I may not need to make jam for another 2 or 3 years!
Tomorrow, may plan anyway, is to do a couple batches of butter which will then go into the freezer. I also need to do a small batch of cheese to see how well it freezes. I'm really just starting with cheeses and haven't been able to do anything more complex then a simple quesa blanca. I tried mozzarella once, it didn't work out too well, but my hubby thinks he killed my thermometer which may have been the problem. I need to try that again, but probably won't have time for it until after Thanksgiving.
Speaking of Thanksgiving, this is the year we have the girls for it instead of Christmas. This year, because of hubby's work schedule and the fact that the grand baby's birthday (she'll be 3) is on Saturday, we're having the big family dinner and party on Saturday instead of Thursday, and the oldest gal wants to host at the house they're at. Which is fine. It's her first year up here, everyone will be here (except her brother, as far as we know anyway..) and, hey, means I won't have to do the clean up! We've got the menu mostly nailed down and we're splitting it up so no one is doing everything. We'll both be doing turkeys though. She wants to brine one, but because of my blood pressure I am on a low sodium diet and brined turkey is not a good idea when I know there's going to be an abundance of salt in other things (though I'm working on that as much as I can...) so I'm doing a non-brined one, that will instead have a great herbed butter tucked under the skin. It has never failed me. :)
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Pre-Winter Storms
Well, winter will soon be arriving here in Alaska. How do I know this? The pre-winter storms have started. Thursday night the wind started. Friday we woke up to continued wind (according to reports, 50 mph with gusts of up to 100) and to find that half of one of the trees in the back yard had broken and fallen over. Not much of a surprise for this poor tree. We had tried to support it, but, years before we bought the place, someone had tied it and forgotten. Over the years the wire had cut in as the tree tried to grow around it. It has lost bits in the past, either through winds or though pruning we've done to try to save the tree. We don't know if it will survive the most recent damage. We will try to repair it for the winter and see how it does next year, but this might have been the last straw for it and we might have to cut it down.
As if the winds weren't enough fun, Friday also saw Tom heading back up to work, so no, he didn't have time to deal with the tree, so I will get to do that later this week. (hoping to get the son in law to do most of it, actually...) Then Saturday morning, at 4 AM, I got woken up by an earthquake. Felt pretty big, but, after listening to make sure it didn't wake up the grandbaby who was staying over, I, and everyone else in the state, rolled over and went back to sleep. Turns out it was a 5.4 centered about 89 miles north of here. I know, to those of you use to California quakes, that sounds huge. Up here, they are generally so deep that, while things get shaken up a bit, there's rarely much, if any damage, cept maybe to knickknacks.. I spent most of Saturday cleaning the last of the garden stuff off the back porch. One or two things still to take care of in the yard and things should be ready to go for the winter.
And today I discovered that my bell pepper plant that has been kept in the house with the tomatoes, is infested with spider mites... *sigh* So far it doesn't look like they've spread to any of the other plants and it is now in isolation in an attempt to save it. I've gotten 2 peppers off of it so far this year, and it has several more in development, and, darn it, I want those peppers! This is the first year I've gotten one to actually produce viable fruit and I want em!
Probably the hardest storm was today at Church though. I was running late and arrived just in time to hear someone talking about how important it is to have kids while you're young enough to keep up with them, not when you're older and tired. That kinda stung, but I could deal with it. I know that these people have no clue of the heartache I deal with because of infertility and I know I wasn't their intended audience even if I was in the audience. But then, class was all about the importance of teaching in the home and our roles as mothers. Ok, twist that knife a little more.. I was able to participate without too much problem, but by the end, I was really feeling that, although I know the role and have been granted a small, part time part, I still feel as if someone out there is saying that I'm not worthy enough for a full time gig. And it hurts, it hurts so badly. Tom always jokes and tells me that I didn't need the practice and that I'm one of nature's grandmothers, and I adore the grand daughter, but, darn it, I want to be Mommy! I'm tired of waiting, of finally getting started on adoption paperwork only to have something new pop up to put things on hold again. Why can't my body just work for once!?!
On the way home from Church today, there were tiny little snow flurries. They left no trace and were soon gone.
Yup, winter will be here soon.
As if the winds weren't enough fun, Friday also saw Tom heading back up to work, so no, he didn't have time to deal with the tree, so I will get to do that later this week. (hoping to get the son in law to do most of it, actually...) Then Saturday morning, at 4 AM, I got woken up by an earthquake. Felt pretty big, but, after listening to make sure it didn't wake up the grandbaby who was staying over, I, and everyone else in the state, rolled over and went back to sleep. Turns out it was a 5.4 centered about 89 miles north of here. I know, to those of you use to California quakes, that sounds huge. Up here, they are generally so deep that, while things get shaken up a bit, there's rarely much, if any damage, cept maybe to knickknacks.. I spent most of Saturday cleaning the last of the garden stuff off the back porch. One or two things still to take care of in the yard and things should be ready to go for the winter.
And today I discovered that my bell pepper plant that has been kept in the house with the tomatoes, is infested with spider mites... *sigh* So far it doesn't look like they've spread to any of the other plants and it is now in isolation in an attempt to save it. I've gotten 2 peppers off of it so far this year, and it has several more in development, and, darn it, I want those peppers! This is the first year I've gotten one to actually produce viable fruit and I want em!
Probably the hardest storm was today at Church though. I was running late and arrived just in time to hear someone talking about how important it is to have kids while you're young enough to keep up with them, not when you're older and tired. That kinda stung, but I could deal with it. I know that these people have no clue of the heartache I deal with because of infertility and I know I wasn't their intended audience even if I was in the audience. But then, class was all about the importance of teaching in the home and our roles as mothers. Ok, twist that knife a little more.. I was able to participate without too much problem, but by the end, I was really feeling that, although I know the role and have been granted a small, part time part, I still feel as if someone out there is saying that I'm not worthy enough for a full time gig. And it hurts, it hurts so badly. Tom always jokes and tells me that I didn't need the practice and that I'm one of nature's grandmothers, and I adore the grand daughter, but, darn it, I want to be Mommy! I'm tired of waiting, of finally getting started on adoption paperwork only to have something new pop up to put things on hold again. Why can't my body just work for once!?!
On the way home from Church today, there were tiny little snow flurries. They left no trace and were soon gone.
Yup, winter will be here soon.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Holding patterns...
First, an update. Turns out Gaia often breaks into random tears over potty training (I chatted with her mom about it.) So it wasn't just me, yay! And she's always a picky eater. Hubby and her mom said that if she wouldn't eat anything, then I should just let her go until the next meal.. I have such a hard time with that, though, but she was pretty good about eating the rest of her time with us.
Now on to the new stuff. We're in a holding pattern again.. Just when we were posed to finish up or first round of paperwork and application, we are waiting. Hopefully we can still get the things done soon, but for now, we wait. Tom has heard rumors of possible lay offs coming at work, so we are waiting to see where that is going. He's already actually been offered another job, though it would be a cut in pay and is temporary (though we don't yet know how long that would last..) but it would be something to get us through if we needed it. We just don't know if he needs it yet. They are hoping to know one way or the other sometime next month, and either way should have work through til the end of the year. We just would hate to jump ship if lay offs aren't coming for him and they are going to extend their contract or something. For now though, at least until next month, we wait and see and save our pennies, just in case. We've been very lucky in this economy to not have been hit too badly. Really hoping our luck holds. :)
Emotionally, it's been rather draining on me.. Just had my birthday earlier this month. Is it really sad that the only thing I wanted this year was to have our fingerprints taken? I've been keeping myself busy though. We're moving the older girls downstairs for the next year or so while we do some renovations upstairs. We've got to move out of the master bed and bath while we do some work in there. (After the mold in the hall bathroom this past February, we suspect the little old man who built this house maybe didn't use the right stuff in any of the other bathrooms, either, so we are going to be taking them apart one at a time and fixing that, hopefully before there's anywhere near the problem there was in the hall bath.) And we'll be moving into their room while we do the work, because, well, there's no way I could live/sleep in a construction zone :) and we need to replace flooring in our room anyway. Once we ever get done there (which will be a while due to costs and the fact that we're doing it ourselves on the weeks hubby's home, so it will be an on again/off again project.. I'm figuring 1.5-2 years before everything is done upstairs..) we'll replace the flooring in the girls' room before moving them back up.
So I've been moving their stuff down and getting that all set up. Am actually mostly done with that, just a few more bits and pieces and one dresser to move this week. Then just have the finishing of set up downstairs. Then cleaning up and seriously cleaning the carpet before starting the moving of our stuff into their room.
The nursery is also more or less set up at the moment. Mostly it's set up as toddler zone for the grand baby, but would be easy to convert back to infant mode when needed.
And just got buzzed. B1 is coming over to pick up some things, so I'd better sign off for now and get a few things ready to go.
Now on to the new stuff. We're in a holding pattern again.. Just when we were posed to finish up or first round of paperwork and application, we are waiting. Hopefully we can still get the things done soon, but for now, we wait. Tom has heard rumors of possible lay offs coming at work, so we are waiting to see where that is going. He's already actually been offered another job, though it would be a cut in pay and is temporary (though we don't yet know how long that would last..) but it would be something to get us through if we needed it. We just don't know if he needs it yet. They are hoping to know one way or the other sometime next month, and either way should have work through til the end of the year. We just would hate to jump ship if lay offs aren't coming for him and they are going to extend their contract or something. For now though, at least until next month, we wait and see and save our pennies, just in case. We've been very lucky in this economy to not have been hit too badly. Really hoping our luck holds. :)
Emotionally, it's been rather draining on me.. Just had my birthday earlier this month. Is it really sad that the only thing I wanted this year was to have our fingerprints taken? I've been keeping myself busy though. We're moving the older girls downstairs for the next year or so while we do some renovations upstairs. We've got to move out of the master bed and bath while we do some work in there. (After the mold in the hall bathroom this past February, we suspect the little old man who built this house maybe didn't use the right stuff in any of the other bathrooms, either, so we are going to be taking them apart one at a time and fixing that, hopefully before there's anywhere near the problem there was in the hall bath.) And we'll be moving into their room while we do the work, because, well, there's no way I could live/sleep in a construction zone :) and we need to replace flooring in our room anyway. Once we ever get done there (which will be a while due to costs and the fact that we're doing it ourselves on the weeks hubby's home, so it will be an on again/off again project.. I'm figuring 1.5-2 years before everything is done upstairs..) we'll replace the flooring in the girls' room before moving them back up.
So I've been moving their stuff down and getting that all set up. Am actually mostly done with that, just a few more bits and pieces and one dresser to move this week. Then just have the finishing of set up downstairs. Then cleaning up and seriously cleaning the carpet before starting the moving of our stuff into their room.
The nursery is also more or less set up at the moment. Mostly it's set up as toddler zone for the grand baby, but would be easy to convert back to infant mode when needed.
And just got buzzed. B1 is coming over to pick up some things, so I'd better sign off for now and get a few things ready to go.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Frustration...
Sorry for the gap in posting. It has been a busy 2 months. Sisters in law and several other relatives came to visit for a bit, kept us busy. Then we had the big end of summer sending home of the girls and then starting the big end of summer clean up. Have been busy, busy. Then B1 and C had to go back down to Washington for C's brother's wedding, so I'm watching the grand baby all this past week and for a few more days.
For the most part, it's been loads of fun. She's working on potty training and is doing really well. She hasn't managed to poop in the potty yet, but she'd doing great with peeing in the potty. And is doing great at flushing and washing her hands and such.
The frustrating part has been her eating patterns. She is at that stage where she randomly decides that she doesn't like certain foods. It doesn't matter if she loved it yesterday, or has never tried it before, she will just randomly decide she isn't going to eat something and then will just sit and sulk and refuse to even speak. *sigh* It's very frustrating and I'm at a loss for dealing with it. I've gone and bought the organic stuff her mom buys just for this occasion, and she won't touch it. Hoping we don't have too much more of this during the next few days as I'm running out of ideas. Luckily though, hubby will be home tonight so maybe he'll have a few extra ideas.
For the most part, it's been loads of fun. She's working on potty training and is doing really well. She hasn't managed to poop in the potty yet, but she'd doing great with peeing in the potty. And is doing great at flushing and washing her hands and such.
The frustrating part has been her eating patterns. She is at that stage where she randomly decides that she doesn't like certain foods. It doesn't matter if she loved it yesterday, or has never tried it before, she will just randomly decide she isn't going to eat something and then will just sit and sulk and refuse to even speak. *sigh* It's very frustrating and I'm at a loss for dealing with it. I've gone and bought the organic stuff her mom buys just for this occasion, and she won't touch it. Hoping we don't have too much more of this during the next few days as I'm running out of ideas. Luckily though, hubby will be home tonight so maybe he'll have a few extra ideas.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Grandbaby gone...
Well, they got back from their road trip to retrieve car and belongings on Saturday afternoon. So grand baby is back in the care of mommy and I am left without a little one to take care of.. It was only a week, but, darn it, I miss having her around. We just got her on a great schedule (her mom hadn't been able to manage that yet, but then, things have been hectic and crazy...) so mom is going to try to keep her on it, she was surprised I managed it so quickly and with so little fussing..
We seriously need a little one around here on a permanent basis. The tax information I had sent off for 3 weeks ago finally showed up, so we should be able to finish up the paperwork for the adoption here soon, though not sure how much time I will have for that this week. Hubby's sisters and niece and nephew will be arriving Tuesday night and be here for a week, so we might be busy, but I'm going to do my best.
I've already been busy this weekend. Made cheese Thursday, blueberry jam yesterday, blueberry syrup today. Thinking of doing another batch of jam tomorrow (have more then enough berries..) and also thinking of doing a batch of watermelon jelly. Plus I need to make more butter, and probably another batch or two of cheese for everyone while they're here. Oh yeah, and it would be nice if I could get the house cleaned up a bit, do some laundry, etc...
busy, busy, busy...
We seriously need a little one around here on a permanent basis. The tax information I had sent off for 3 weeks ago finally showed up, so we should be able to finish up the paperwork for the adoption here soon, though not sure how much time I will have for that this week. Hubby's sisters and niece and nephew will be arriving Tuesday night and be here for a week, so we might be busy, but I'm going to do my best.
I've already been busy this weekend. Made cheese Thursday, blueberry jam yesterday, blueberry syrup today. Thinking of doing another batch of jam tomorrow (have more then enough berries..) and also thinking of doing a batch of watermelon jelly. Plus I need to make more butter, and probably another batch or two of cheese for everyone while they're here. Oh yeah, and it would be nice if I could get the house cleaned up a bit, do some laundry, etc...
busy, busy, busy...
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Day 5
Well, it has been 5 days since the grand daughter was left in my care. It has been a fun and crazy week so far. We have played games, played with the dogs, sung songs, watched cartoons, had a few minor tantrums (mostly revolving around nap and bedtime..)
I've really enjoyed this week.
It has given me the chance to practice some of the ideas I've always had about how I wanted to raise my children. Most of the things I've tried have worked. A few things haven't worked as well, but this is how we learn, and I am regulating her schedule more then she's use to and we have a few "rules" that she's never had before. But she's actually doing really well on our schedule for her. She is getting plenty of sleep, she's eating really well, even occasionally trying things she's never had before (though she gets very stubborn about not trying some things...) She has been having lots of fun playing with her aunts and the dogs, and she has been enjoying our afternoon singing time and our evening bedtime story time.
We only have a few more days til her parents get back, and I will be kind of sad to let her go. My husband gets back tomorrow, so I won't be a "single parent" much longer. :) That will be nice too.
Anyway, time to go start lunch for our little gang today, and get things ready for naptime. While she's down this afternoon I'm planning on showing the older girls how to make a simple cheese. That should be fun, too. Then this weekend I will likely be making blueberry jam and syrup as I have about 10 pounds of blueberries in the fridge.
I've really enjoyed this week.
It has given me the chance to practice some of the ideas I've always had about how I wanted to raise my children. Most of the things I've tried have worked. A few things haven't worked as well, but this is how we learn, and I am regulating her schedule more then she's use to and we have a few "rules" that she's never had before. But she's actually doing really well on our schedule for her. She is getting plenty of sleep, she's eating really well, even occasionally trying things she's never had before (though she gets very stubborn about not trying some things...) She has been having lots of fun playing with her aunts and the dogs, and she has been enjoying our afternoon singing time and our evening bedtime story time.
We only have a few more days til her parents get back, and I will be kind of sad to let her go. My husband gets back tomorrow, so I won't be a "single parent" much longer. :) That will be nice too.
Anyway, time to go start lunch for our little gang today, and get things ready for naptime. While she's down this afternoon I'm planning on showing the older girls how to make a simple cheese. That should be fun, too. Then this weekend I will likely be making blueberry jam and syrup as I have about 10 pounds of blueberries in the fridge.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Toddler invasion week!
This week we have the grand daughter here all week. Her dad is up at work on the slope (so is my hubby...) and her mom has gone back down to Washington to get some more of their stuff and their car. So G has been left with us (myself and the 2 younger steps daughters, B2 and M) for about a week. Mommy left yesterday, but so far, things are going pretty well. This is the longest she's been away from mommy ever so far, and we're only just past 24 hours.
She went to Church with us this morning and surprised us all by behaving even better then her older aunts did. :) She had lots of fun in Nursery Class, singing songs and playing with other kids her age. She really liked the sit and spin, too, so we might have to see about getting her one :)
We are looking forward to this, though a bit anxious as well. We're hoping there won't be too many melt downs this week, but so far things seem to be going well. We should have lots of fun and I see it as practice. With any luck we will have a little one in the next year or two and will get to go through all of this with him or her, so this is good practice for me as the steps were all older when I came into the picture (M was already 4), and lived too far away to be involved with my nieces at this stage.
Shall see how well we all survive the week! :)
(Just have to keep the "aunties" from cross parenting... heh... they kept trying to get her riled up at Church, the stinkers...)
Now if only the rain would let up so we could do some outdoor play.
She went to Church with us this morning and surprised us all by behaving even better then her older aunts did. :) She had lots of fun in Nursery Class, singing songs and playing with other kids her age. She really liked the sit and spin, too, so we might have to see about getting her one :)
We are looking forward to this, though a bit anxious as well. We're hoping there won't be too many melt downs this week, but so far things seem to be going well. We should have lots of fun and I see it as practice. With any luck we will have a little one in the next year or two and will get to go through all of this with him or her, so this is good practice for me as the steps were all older when I came into the picture (M was already 4), and lived too far away to be involved with my nieces at this stage.
Shall see how well we all survive the week! :)
(Just have to keep the "aunties" from cross parenting... heh... they kept trying to get her riled up at Church, the stinkers...)
Now if only the rain would let up so we could do some outdoor play.
Friday, July 9, 2010
updates
Well, not much progress at the moment. We've gotten the paperwork and I've gotten most of that filled out. We are waiting on one or two copies of things and tax forms. Should have everything by the time hubby gets back from work in 2 weeks and we can start getting things turned in. Just waiting now, which is annoying, I hate waiting :)
Meanwhile, the kids are here for the summer and we're keeping busy. We're learning to do Japanese cooking and so far this week we've also made butter and fireweed jelly. This weekend I'll be making bread to go with all of that yumminess.
Meanwhile, the kids are here for the summer and we're keeping busy. We're learning to do Japanese cooking and so far this week we've also made butter and fireweed jelly. This weekend I'll be making bread to go with all of that yumminess.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Loss and hope
A week ago my brother announced that they were expecting their 4th child, and about 3 months along, but Sunday they found out that she'd miscarried. We're all trying to help them deal with that. It's hard though. I know enough from my battles with infertility how easy it is for well meaning people to say something that is completely the wrong thing to say because while it may seem "helpful," to the person hearing it it's like twisting the dagger. I've been sending them some links to some miscarriage support pages and articles about how it's ok for them to have all the emotions and pain they are going to have. While most of us in the family have only known about this baby for a week, for them it was years of waiting and hoping and expectation and 3 months of "hey, we're having a baby.." There has been a death in the family even if most of the family doesn't realize it.
Personally, today I decided to stay indoors and finally go through my pots and pans. I got a new set about a month or two ago but have never had the time to sit and weed out the ones that need to go. Finally got that done today and now there is room, the door actually closes all the way and everything... Even got one of the other cupboards sorted a little and made room on one of the book cases in the living room for a bunch of parenting books I had ordered that came in the mail today. (And I got them for FREE!! Being in the military reserve does have some benefits!)
Speaking of parenting, today, in the mail, we got the paperwork from the agency we're going to try adopting through, so now we've got to sit and go though all of that, dig out all the info they want, do the background checks, etc... and figure out where we'll come up with all the money :) I was starting to print out the requests for copies of our tax records from the IRS, but my printer is out of ink, so will have to wait and do that later. I was just so anxious to get started!
Personally, today I decided to stay indoors and finally go through my pots and pans. I got a new set about a month or two ago but have never had the time to sit and weed out the ones that need to go. Finally got that done today and now there is room, the door actually closes all the way and everything... Even got one of the other cupboards sorted a little and made room on one of the book cases in the living room for a bunch of parenting books I had ordered that came in the mail today. (And I got them for FREE!! Being in the military reserve does have some benefits!)
Speaking of parenting, today, in the mail, we got the paperwork from the agency we're going to try adopting through, so now we've got to sit and go though all of that, dig out all the info they want, do the background checks, etc... and figure out where we'll come up with all the money :) I was starting to print out the requests for copies of our tax records from the IRS, but my printer is out of ink, so will have to wait and do that later. I was just so anxious to get started!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Waiting...
Well, it has been an exciting week. My oldest step daughter and her family might have found a house, they are doing all the paper work and the waiting involved with that... My brother announced that he and his wife are expecting their fourth child. They don't know yet if it will be a boy or a girl. They have 3 girls so are hoping for a boy this time.
Tomorrow, my two younger step daughters arrive for the summer and we have a friend's wedding that evening as well. And we've been running around to appointments all week. Hubby is having a crown put on after a root canal. The temporary crown was put in Monday and the final one will be put on in 2 weeks, but the temp one came off this morning so we've got to go in this afternoon and get it reattached. And he had a bit of a minor motorcycle accident over the weekend as well so we've had to tow the bike around to get it looked at to find out how much it was going to cost to fix it. Fortunately he is safe and sound, hardly even any bruising. Nothing broken, just a few scraped knees. Thankfully he was wearing all his gear and wasn't hurt more. And turns out the bike isn't too badly damaged, either..
And.. this afternoon I called the case worker with Catholic Social Services here in Alaska and am waiting for her to call me back so we can set up an appointment to start all the paperwork and everything to get things moving on our adoption. So now I am waiting.. Hoping she calls back soon, before we have to run off to the dentist office today.. But if not, I will be calling her back tomorrow, sometime in between all our running around.. and/or Monday.
Tomorrow, my two younger step daughters arrive for the summer and we have a friend's wedding that evening as well. And we've been running around to appointments all week. Hubby is having a crown put on after a root canal. The temporary crown was put in Monday and the final one will be put on in 2 weeks, but the temp one came off this morning so we've got to go in this afternoon and get it reattached. And he had a bit of a minor motorcycle accident over the weekend as well so we've had to tow the bike around to get it looked at to find out how much it was going to cost to fix it. Fortunately he is safe and sound, hardly even any bruising. Nothing broken, just a few scraped knees. Thankfully he was wearing all his gear and wasn't hurt more. And turns out the bike isn't too badly damaged, either..
And.. this afternoon I called the case worker with Catholic Social Services here in Alaska and am waiting for her to call me back so we can set up an appointment to start all the paperwork and everything to get things moving on our adoption. So now I am waiting.. Hoping she calls back soon, before we have to run off to the dentist office today.. But if not, I will be calling her back tomorrow, sometime in between all our running around.. and/or Monday.
Friday, June 11, 2010
thoughts...
Today has been a sad day. I was reading some other blogs this morning and it got me to thinking about how much I'm missing because I don't have children. It has gotten me very sad today and really I just want to sit down and have a good cry. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those women who can have a good cry.. instead, I blubber and get all snotty and congested and can't breath, and often as not, wind up throwing up. Sorry for telling you that, but, well, there it is. So it's hard to even have a good cry and "get over it," as they say...
My husband gets back from work today and will be home for the next 3 weeks. Am happy for him to be coming home. Next week my step daughters will be arriving for the summer as well. They will keep us busy for the summer and we're planning and hoping on having lots of fun with them this summer. My oldest step daughter is off today meeting with mortgage lenders. They think they've found a house they like and are hoping to get the ball rolling on purchasing as soon as possible. While we will miss having them in the house, if they get the one they are looking at, they will only be about 9 miles away, so we can live with that. :)
I long to be able to have a child or two running around this home on a daily basis. I find all sorts of educational things that I want to get for my kids, so they can learn about this great big wonderful universe and all the tiny little things in it, all the while knowing that who knows if I will ever have those children. It makes me sad and I want to cry.
But hubby will be home, and hopefully while he is home this time we can meet with the adoption agency and get all that paperwork started, and maybe, one day, hopefully soon, I will be able to bring home one of my missing children...
My husband gets back from work today and will be home for the next 3 weeks. Am happy for him to be coming home. Next week my step daughters will be arriving for the summer as well. They will keep us busy for the summer and we're planning and hoping on having lots of fun with them this summer. My oldest step daughter is off today meeting with mortgage lenders. They think they've found a house they like and are hoping to get the ball rolling on purchasing as soon as possible. While we will miss having them in the house, if they get the one they are looking at, they will only be about 9 miles away, so we can live with that. :)
I long to be able to have a child or two running around this home on a daily basis. I find all sorts of educational things that I want to get for my kids, so they can learn about this great big wonderful universe and all the tiny little things in it, all the while knowing that who knows if I will ever have those children. It makes me sad and I want to cry.
But hubby will be home, and hopefully while he is home this time we can meet with the adoption agency and get all that paperwork started, and maybe, one day, hopefully soon, I will be able to bring home one of my missing children...
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Nieces
Today I thought I'd talk a little about my nieces. My younger brother and his wife (she is from Venezuela) have three beautiful little girls, Shayla, Mikaela, and Sasha. Ages 8, 6 and 4, this is a picture of them taken in April, around the time of Sasha's 4th birthday. I don't get to see them often, in fact, I've never gotten to meet the younger two and haven't seen Shayla in ages. But my brother does his best to keep us informed as to all their crazy antics.
See, the problem is, I live in Alaska now, and he lives in Nebraska. Not an easy trip to make most of the time. I miss getting to be part of their lives, but I love hearing about their crazy antics. This year, so far anyway, It's been a Sasha year. Silly girl had pneumonia earlier this year and had fever spikes so high she started having seizures and had to spend some time in the hospital. She recovered from that just fine, thankfully, but apparently decided that she really liked the hospital and just a few weeks ago managed to break her arm while jumping off the couch when her parents weren't looking. I think she did it just to go back to the hospital. She was apparently very brave though and didn't cry. The doctors didn't think she could have broken the bone until they got the x-rays back, they'd never seen a 4 year old that calm.
I don't have too many stories about Mika, apparently she's the quiet sort, though she started school not too long ago, and most of Shayla's stuff these days is related to school. Shayla had been born with a cleft palate, and had lots of surgery right off the bat, but she has healed up very well and you barely notice the scar on her lip, so yay for modern medicine...
Anyway, I can't say too much about them, as I know my brother doesn't want too much info about them put up on public forums, but I wanted to share a glimpse of my extended family. He is hoping to move soon, I doubt it will be all the way up here, but we're hoping they can come up and visit some time in the future.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Our Dogs
I mentioned that I'd likely be posting about our dogs, and this seems a good day for it as I've spent a good portion of the weekend caring for one of them. (will get to that later..)
People are always saying that small dogs and small children don't mix. I think that depends a lot on the dogs and the children. We currently have 3 small dogs. They love small children. Our grand daughter (baby G) is currently living with us (her parents too..) and she just loves the dogs. She's two and a half right now, but she spent time up here a few times over the last 2 years so we have had the chance to see them react to her at different ages.
They adore her. We never had any qualms about leaving her alone with the pommies.
The youngest one, Gobo, is 3 and will occasionally want to play "rough" which pretty much means she'll wind up getting licked to death. He was born with several birth defects, the most noticeable one being that he doesn't have the traditional pommie tail. Oddly, this seems to allow him better balance on 2 legs and he will often stand up and walk around to beg for attention. He also has some problems with is "boy bits" which we have to keep an eye on. They tried repairing some of it in surgery, but it didn't work because there were even more things wrong then we'd realized. But he is doing well now. Just have to keep an eye on things. This weekend he's apparently been bitten by something and managed to chew a large raw spot on his back, so he's been a bit needy this weekend while I'm trying to keep him from making things worse. That all seems to be settling down now though, and as long as I can keep him away from the sore, he should be ok and start healing soon.
Gir is a little older and a little more stand off-ish.. she's also the smallest of the dogs and has never really liked the hubbub. But she will sit and be petted and if the others start to get too excited, she just leaves. We got her from the same breeder we got Gobo from, though she is not from the same lines. She'd been brought up here to add to the breeding stock then, once she got here, it was discovered that she had bad knees (which you want to breed out, not in..) and was underweight, so she couldn't be used for breeding. So we got called to see if we would take her or knew of anyone who would and she joined our little gang. Turned out she also had 4 extra teeth in her mouth and a bunch of other dental problems. She wound up having to have 16 teeth pulled.. Sadly, her teeth are still bad and we might have to have more pulled. She is a total joy, though. She gets so excited to see us, she spins and dances around the floor.
Willow was the only one we were ever really concerned with. She's a 9 year old Jack Russell. Very dominant personality, very protective. She was a little snappy when we first got her a few years ago. (All of our dogs have basically been rescues of one sort or another.) And she still has her moments. (For instance, she really hates the oven. We have no idea why, but she will attack the couch or a toy or something or run around barking at it when we open the oven. We really don't understand this, but are trying to work with her on this.) We got her from a friend of a friend. They were headed off to college and her parents had told her to find a new home for the dog or they were going to shoot her, because they wanted a rottweiler. I really hope they didn't get such a big, powerful dog.. We've been told that Willow is actually pretty mellow for her breed, but there is no number of pommies that can prepare you for a JRT, even a "mellow" one..
So we were a little worried at first about how she would react to baby G.
Willow has been wonderful with her. We were rather surprised at how quickly she took to her. Willow has always been very protective of "her" girls (B2 and M) and it seems baby G is now in that fold. If Gobo gets "rowdy", Willow will come stand between and push Gobo away. If she thinks anyone is going to hurt G, she does the same thing. There's only been one incident where G was tugging on Willow's ear while she was trying to eat. Willow didn't like that and let G know. No skin was broken, Willow knows she gets in BIG trouble over that, but she will bare her teeth and can be very scary looking. They never get left alone, either way, but it is also good for G to learn there are limits and that you should be nice to animals.
I'm really sad that I can't include one other dog on this list. The first dog we got as a family, Pepe, passed away very suddenly in March, so she is no longer with us to be a part of this. However, she was such a big part of our family, and my healing process in coming to terms with infertility, that I might just have to make another post about her later.
People are always saying that small dogs and small children don't mix. I think that depends a lot on the dogs and the children. We currently have 3 small dogs. They love small children. Our grand daughter (baby G) is currently living with us (her parents too..) and she just loves the dogs. She's two and a half right now, but she spent time up here a few times over the last 2 years so we have had the chance to see them react to her at different ages.
They adore her. We never had any qualms about leaving her alone with the pommies.
The youngest one, Gobo, is 3 and will occasionally want to play "rough" which pretty much means she'll wind up getting licked to death. He was born with several birth defects, the most noticeable one being that he doesn't have the traditional pommie tail. Oddly, this seems to allow him better balance on 2 legs and he will often stand up and walk around to beg for attention. He also has some problems with is "boy bits" which we have to keep an eye on. They tried repairing some of it in surgery, but it didn't work because there were even more things wrong then we'd realized. But he is doing well now. Just have to keep an eye on things. This weekend he's apparently been bitten by something and managed to chew a large raw spot on his back, so he's been a bit needy this weekend while I'm trying to keep him from making things worse. That all seems to be settling down now though, and as long as I can keep him away from the sore, he should be ok and start healing soon.
Gir is a little older and a little more stand off-ish.. she's also the smallest of the dogs and has never really liked the hubbub. But she will sit and be petted and if the others start to get too excited, she just leaves. We got her from the same breeder we got Gobo from, though she is not from the same lines. She'd been brought up here to add to the breeding stock then, once she got here, it was discovered that she had bad knees (which you want to breed out, not in..) and was underweight, so she couldn't be used for breeding. So we got called to see if we would take her or knew of anyone who would and she joined our little gang. Turned out she also had 4 extra teeth in her mouth and a bunch of other dental problems. She wound up having to have 16 teeth pulled.. Sadly, her teeth are still bad and we might have to have more pulled. She is a total joy, though. She gets so excited to see us, she spins and dances around the floor.
Willow was the only one we were ever really concerned with. She's a 9 year old Jack Russell. Very dominant personality, very protective. She was a little snappy when we first got her a few years ago. (All of our dogs have basically been rescues of one sort or another.) And she still has her moments. (For instance, she really hates the oven. We have no idea why, but she will attack the couch or a toy or something or run around barking at it when we open the oven. We really don't understand this, but are trying to work with her on this.) We got her from a friend of a friend. They were headed off to college and her parents had told her to find a new home for the dog or they were going to shoot her, because they wanted a rottweiler. I really hope they didn't get such a big, powerful dog.. We've been told that Willow is actually pretty mellow for her breed, but there is no number of pommies that can prepare you for a JRT, even a "mellow" one..
So we were a little worried at first about how she would react to baby G.
Willow has been wonderful with her. We were rather surprised at how quickly she took to her. Willow has always been very protective of "her" girls (B2 and M) and it seems baby G is now in that fold. If Gobo gets "rowdy", Willow will come stand between and push Gobo away. If she thinks anyone is going to hurt G, she does the same thing. There's only been one incident where G was tugging on Willow's ear while she was trying to eat. Willow didn't like that and let G know. No skin was broken, Willow knows she gets in BIG trouble over that, but she will bare her teeth and can be very scary looking. They never get left alone, either way, but it is also good for G to learn there are limits and that you should be nice to animals.
I'm really sad that I can't include one other dog on this list. The first dog we got as a family, Pepe, passed away very suddenly in March, so she is no longer with us to be a part of this. However, she was such a big part of our family, and my healing process in coming to terms with infertility, that I might just have to make another post about her later.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Adoption workshop
This past weekend hubby and I went to a 3 day adoption workshop run by pretty much the only non state agency in Alaska (ok, there is one little one up in Fairbanks as well, but for our purposes... ya know..) Catholic Social Services has been doing adoptions in Alaska for over 40 years, so they have a pretty good track record, and even though we're not Catholic, they don't seem to mind. We had previously considered LDS Family Services, but turns out that they tend to farm out most of the paperwork and home studies and such to CSS, so we've decided we might as well just work with them.
It looks like a very good program, they offer lots of counseling for birth families and provide lots of follow up for all sides afterwards. They strongly promote open adoptions, though the level of openness varies and is something that everyone decides and agrees to up front.
It was a great way for Tom to get all caught up and up to speed on things. I've been doing the research on this for years, but he's had other things (like last year's deployment) to keep his mind otherwise occupied, and there were a lot of things he hadn't thought of or didn't know about.
It was a great experience and the next step for us is to set up an appointment to go in and talk to them and get all the paperwork started. That will be waiting a few weeks though as Tom heads back to work on the North Slope tomorrow. Sadly this weekend also saw us both completely mobbed by a nasty virus that had been going around so we took the last few days to recover this week. But we are once again fit and sane and not all doped up on cold meds :) *lol*
It looks like a very good program, they offer lots of counseling for birth families and provide lots of follow up for all sides afterwards. They strongly promote open adoptions, though the level of openness varies and is something that everyone decides and agrees to up front.
It was a great way for Tom to get all caught up and up to speed on things. I've been doing the research on this for years, but he's had other things (like last year's deployment) to keep his mind otherwise occupied, and there were a lot of things he hadn't thought of or didn't know about.
It was a great experience and the next step for us is to set up an appointment to go in and talk to them and get all the paperwork started. That will be waiting a few weeks though as Tom heads back to work on the North Slope tomorrow. Sadly this weekend also saw us both completely mobbed by a nasty virus that had been going around so we took the last few days to recover this week. But we are once again fit and sane and not all doped up on cold meds :) *lol*
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Family Info
I should probably start by giving you some information about our little family.
Tom and I were married in January of 2003. I had been living in Salt Lake City and he came down, we got married and then he and his friends moved me on up to Alaska. We had lots of adventures, some good, some not so good. And I got to know Tom's kids from his first marriage. They are pretty much a good bunch of kids, though some of them aren't really "kids" anymore...
B1 is the oldest gal, she's 23 and has a little family of her own. They've recently moved in with us temporarily while they save up money and look for a house. Has been loads of fun having her, C and "baby" G.. big changing having a 2.5 year old in the house, but great practice :)
D is the only boy of the lot (there was another, but he passed away at about a year old, so I never knew him..) He will be 22 later this year. D is a good kid, but is currently having a hard time figuring out who he is and what he really wants to do with his life. We're hoping he will get that all figured out soon, but until then we wait and love him.
B2 is 16 and working on getting her driver's license. She was just elected class president for next year and vp of her speech and debate club. She is also really into swimming and track. She's a great kid and really seems to know who she is in herself.
M is the youngest. She was 4 when we married, and will be 12 later this year. She has really grown up. We're still not sure where she's going yet, but it does look like she and B2 are geek girls.. and we couldn't be prouder :)
We also have several dogs. The current round is composed of Willow, a 9 year old Jack Russell Terrier, (B2's dog, really.. she's perfect for the girls, she is very very protective of them) Gobo, a 3 year old Pomeranian, and Gir, a 4 year old Pomeranian. Pepe and Rocky were our other dogs, both pommies, who might get mentioned from time to time. Rocky passed away about 3 years ago and Pepe just earlier this spring. We loved them dearly and miss them. They are definitely part of the family.
More later on each of us individually. :)
Tom and I were married in January of 2003. I had been living in Salt Lake City and he came down, we got married and then he and his friends moved me on up to Alaska. We had lots of adventures, some good, some not so good. And I got to know Tom's kids from his first marriage. They are pretty much a good bunch of kids, though some of them aren't really "kids" anymore...
B1 is the oldest gal, she's 23 and has a little family of her own. They've recently moved in with us temporarily while they save up money and look for a house. Has been loads of fun having her, C and "baby" G.. big changing having a 2.5 year old in the house, but great practice :)
D is the only boy of the lot (there was another, but he passed away at about a year old, so I never knew him..) He will be 22 later this year. D is a good kid, but is currently having a hard time figuring out who he is and what he really wants to do with his life. We're hoping he will get that all figured out soon, but until then we wait and love him.
B2 is 16 and working on getting her driver's license. She was just elected class president for next year and vp of her speech and debate club. She is also really into swimming and track. She's a great kid and really seems to know who she is in herself.
M is the youngest. She was 4 when we married, and will be 12 later this year. She has really grown up. We're still not sure where she's going yet, but it does look like she and B2 are geek girls.. and we couldn't be prouder :)
We also have several dogs. The current round is composed of Willow, a 9 year old Jack Russell Terrier, (B2's dog, really.. she's perfect for the girls, she is very very protective of them) Gobo, a 3 year old Pomeranian, and Gir, a 4 year old Pomeranian. Pepe and Rocky were our other dogs, both pommies, who might get mentioned from time to time. Rocky passed away about 3 years ago and Pepe just earlier this spring. We loved them dearly and miss them. They are definitely part of the family.
More later on each of us individually. :)
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Beginnings
We are about to embark on the official beginning of our adoption journey and I decided that it would be a good idea to keep a record of this process for myself and others who are out there on the same journey.
I will soon be chronicling our family story and how we have come to this point, who we are, what we believe, how we live, etc. But for today I just wanted to sit down and say hello. We, like most families, are a complex mix of things. For the sake of their privacy, I will likely be using initials instead of names for some members of the family unless or until I get their permission to do otherwise. Same may apply to other friends who might get brought up from time to time.
More later....
I will soon be chronicling our family story and how we have come to this point, who we are, what we believe, how we live, etc. But for today I just wanted to sit down and say hello. We, like most families, are a complex mix of things. For the sake of their privacy, I will likely be using initials instead of names for some members of the family unless or until I get their permission to do otherwise. Same may apply to other friends who might get brought up from time to time.
More later....
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