Ok.. so I've been really really bad about posting on any sort of regular basis. I will blame just being busy, and/or sick... Winter and spring came. It was very cold and we had a lot of snow. And then I had lots of cleaning to do in order to get ready for the arrival of my 2 youngest step daughters for the summer. We also managed to get some work done on the master bath remodel, which is all very exciting. I so want to be back in our own room by next summer (am hoping for the end of the year, but.. always plan for delays.) and Had to get the garden started, though there is still work to be done with that. Also, we started fostering dogs last November and we've had a handful of great little dogs (6 in total) come through our doors. One of them stayed, but the other 5 have also found great homes. The last little guy that came through got adopted very fast. We only had him for 2 days. He got a great home and we're all very happy. If he'd stayed any longer he might not have left. Hubby and our oldest step daughter were both falling for him. If her husband had been home to test for allergic reactions, she might have taken him. Meanwhile, we had a bit of a snag with our recommendation letters. 2 of them got mailed in properly, a 3rd was dropped off by hand and seems to have gotten lost in the office, and the other 2 had them but forgot to mail them. But that has been taken care of and the last 2 were mailed in. We only need 3 turned in, so that will be good and we should be able to schedule the initial home study/inspection here in the next few weeks. We are taking our CORE classes this week, so those will be out of the way as well. Yay! And the older of the 2 girls has arrived. She's old enough that we have to go in this week and get her background check done, but she's also young enough and stayed out of trouble that there shouldn't be any problem :) This means we could have a placement anytime now! I am so excited and so anxious.

Approval!!

Yay!! we got the final clearance of the background check letter in the mail this weekend! yay!! Another step closer! woohoo!!!

February

Ok, well, big news.. last week we went to our first orientation meeting for working with the foster system. We have several weeks/months of paperwork, background checks and waiting, but, we are going to be working with the foster system and hopefully we will be able to adopt via them.
Today we turned in our first round of paperwork and got our fingerprinting done. I am really excited. We are finally moving forward on something! Woohoo!

Changes

I have been giving things a lot of thought this past month, and I think I've come to a decision that will be a bit of a change in how we go about things. I think that I am finally ready to work with the foster system. There will be risks, as always, but I've learned that there are risks doing the more traditional adoptions as well. I have been afraid of dealing with the foster system because I didn't think I could handle it if we had a placement fail, but I've learned that I am stronger now, and a lot of things have changed, including my health and all of the things that were dragging me down and causing problems for me. Many of those things are already vastly improved and the rest are getting there, and I'm not longer as afraid of things. So, next month we will be going to our first foster to adopt class. I really want 2012 to be our year for this.

New additions..

Well, I've been very lax about writing. things happen, we get busy, and there isn't much new to report or just never get around to it. Birthdays have come and gone, threats of seasonal lay-offs have come and (hopefully) gone. Thanksgiving was spent quietly as none of the kids were here and hubby was away for work. And now we are preparing for Christmas, when pretty much everyone will be here. Let the Christmas invasion begin!

And there have been some new additions to the family. My younger brother and his wife welcomed their 4th child, and first son into their home last month. yay, they finally got their boy. They named him after our father who passed away in 2003 and only ever got to meet my brother's oldest daughter and my step son.
And closer to home, we decided to do some fostering. We are fostering dogs. We got our first one in November. His name is Baxter, he's a mix of maybe 300 different terriers. He's a very sweet little boy, some minor separation anxiety but that has eased up a great deal already. He is a very people oriented boy though. And very much a terrier. Oh and only about a year old, so add "puppy" into that. lol
And today I brought home an approximately 4 yr old pom or pom mix. no one is quite sure. he looks full pom to me, but he's bigger then most, so he could be mixed with something that looks similar but is a bit bigger.. but my mom had one about this size that was full pom, so who really knows.. he's been here just over an hour now, and so far they are all getting along fairly well. Baxter is the main one following him around and likely the main one that might get into trouble with him since they both want attention and play time all the time, but, tomorrow I will theoretically have others in the house, and Monday for sure, for a few weeks so that will help. And even more hopefully, Baxter has started going to adoption clinics and he is sure to find a home fairly quickly, which is exactly what he needs.
Otherwise, things continue as normal. But right now, I need to go give a bath to a dog...

Gobo Update

My poor little boy didn't have as much time as any of us hoped he would. Sunday, July 31, 2011, Gobo passed away. He'd basically stopped eating Friday and wasn't drinking much on Saturday. He sat and stared at the wall for a bit and was very lethargic. I honestly didn't expect him to make it through the night, so was very happy when I got up Sunday morning and he was awake and alert. He followed me around most of the morning and early afternoon. I thought maybe he'd gotten a bit of energy from somewhere, but he still refused to eat or drink anything.
Then, shortly after 3 PM (I'd just texted with my husband to let him know Gobo was still hanging on...) his legs gave out on him. Based on how things had gone with Rocky 4 years ago, I thought we had a few more hours. I wrapped him up in a towel and his blanket so I could hold him for a while and he went limp on me but was still breathing; then he started coughing. I thought maybe he needed to stretch out more so I moved him onto the couch and he just kept coughing up blood for a minute or two; still had no control over his muscles, he was completely limp. He finally quieted down and then he just stopped breathing. He was gone. From the time his legs gave out to when he was gone, was about 15 minutes. 3:20 and he was gone.
He'd been my baby for 4 years and I've been completely devastated by his sudden loss. The girls were out camping with their sister and brother in law that weekend, and Hubby was still away at work far off up on the slope. I miss him and want him back. I had to put this post off until now because I just couldn't handle writing it. Honestly, I can barely handle it now. I still cry sometimes and keep calling the other dogs by his name. We've lost other dogs before, but his hit me hard.

July

July has been a crazy month, Ups and Downs. Things started off so well. My mom got the pretty much all clear after her surgery to remove the lump in her breast. She is in the middle of her radiation treatment and that is taking it's toll, but she is going well. B2's boyfriend came and went. We have decided we like him, he fits in with our brand of insanity.
But right now, things aren't so great. I've mentioned our dogs before and this deals with one of them. Gobo, my silly little momma's boy, my defacto baby. He had lost some weight (nearly 3 pounds, which is a lot for a 7 pound dog) and this past weekend he started acting sick. Yesterday I took him to the vet after it became clear this was more then just severe constipation and we spent 3 hours there while they ran some tests. Unfortunately, his test came back with an answer no one wanted. His kidneys have begun to shut down. He's 4 years old and was born with several visible birth defects and now it appears that there were some internal malfunctions as well as kidney failure this severe and sudden isn't normal for a dog his age.
He is currently home with us and we are doing what we can, but, given his test results, there is really nothing we can do except wait. We do what we can to help keep him hydrated and get him to eat what we can, but his body is slowly shutting down and he can't always keep food down. Right now he's not in any pain, just nauseous, so we are hoping he can hold on for at least another week and a half until my husband gets back from the slope, then we will decide where to go from there. He could have a few weeks, maybe even a few months. We've been through kidney failure with one of the dogs before, but this time.. he's my baby and this is killing me.