No Ordinary Family

Happy Birthday Babe! I love you and hope that you have a great Birthday! We have been celebrating Birthdays' with each other for 15 years now! It is hard to believe that so much time has gone by. I am so happy to have spend it with you. So in honor of of your Birthday I thought it appropriate to to post this Birthday photo which I have named, "Birthday Dog Pile", the replacement for birthday spankings :0) Exactly one year ago today we meet this special Family . I have loved getting to know them even more orver the last year. I just wished we lived a little closer so that we could see them more often. and even though I want to say I hope the next time we are together we have our little girls I hope we are able to get together again before then.

Look at the adorable outfit Kim sent me!! I got it on Friday but just got the pictures taken today. I absolutely love it thanks Kim! LM will look great in this! (sorry the pic is sideways, I don't know how to stop blogger from doing that) Also Last week Diana at Custom Blog Designs made me some new buttons for both of my blogs. They are great. I would love for you to grab them and post them on your blog if you would like the codes are in the side bars of both this blog and my Blankets and Stuff Blog . Speaking of the blankets and stuff blog I spent a lot of time this weekend working on orders! not as much as I would have like since someone has a Birthday tomorrow and we were busy celebrating with his family tonight. I did manage to get 5 dresses cut and ready to go and 2 of those are mostly put together. I will finish them up this week. I am also working on another project for a friend and am trying to get that together also. The only thing really keeping back is that the cold that...

I thought maybe I should offer a new service, mending! Ok before you sign up check out the pictures. (I have close ups if you want to see how terrible it can be) I figure I will market it to all those wives that want their husbands to toss out that torn up shirt or ripped up "favorite" pair of pants. I can guarantee that they will no longer wear these items in public. In hind site I should have used crazy girl fabric and purple thread but pink works don't you think? So do you think there is a market for my mending services? Also I thought I would document why I don't teach. A little Brat (Ok a harsher term has been used to describe this adolescent but I thought I would keep it clean for the blog) smacked Jim in the back of the leg with a softball bat last week. There was some confusion as to what actually happened but most of it came out this week. I hope he gets the book thrown at him, you just don't do that! But he is surviving although I think he should get i...

Ok I have not participated in the Family Foto Fun Friday for a while but I thought I would join back in. These are pictures from our Dossier to China and I was in my 20's so it qualifies. We were DTC 4 days before my 30th birthday and logged in 3 days after it. since it is coming up on 2 years i thought these were very fitting. Have a great weekend!

So I survived the evil cold virus, well it is not completely eradicated but I think it is surrendering like the French in a world war (sorry that was for Jim, I had to do it). And it is a good thing too because I have been getting dress orders like crazy, ok not crazy yet, but enough to keep me busy. Which is great I hope that I get more orders! There are a few fabrics that I have not made anything out of yet and I can't wait to see what they look like put together. I have already sold out of one fabric so I need to go and get more. I hope they have it and I hope others start ordering the other fabrics because they are all super cute I promise! Tomorrow is Friday!! I love Friday, well I love Friday afternoon. Weekends just simply rock when you work all week. I will be working on sewing all weekend but that is Ok I love sewing so it does not feel so much like work. Oh and the weather is finally looking like spring so that is great! I love having four seasons and as much as I love wi...

We have been logged into China for an amazing 23 months today. I say amazing since I never thought we would have waited this long and still be so far away. I have been busy and sick so I don't have a cute scrap page for this month. Maybe next month at our 2 year mark I will do something special, maybe not? You know 2 years just does not seem that long ago and yet it is a lifetime. Hope every one is having a good week, I have to say, is it Friday yet?

Ok it is just a cold but I felt like I was entering the seventh circle of some demonic cold virus last night. This cold has hit me hard and I am not liking it AT ALL. Why with all of the wonderful medical advances can they not come up with a cure for the cold? Seriously, virologists (like any read my blog, ha ha) a cure would be nice. And to all the meth heads that made it impossible to get a decent cold medicine after the pharmacy closes I want to hunt you down and cough in your face. But that would probably not matter because your stupid drug has the good stuff in it. Not only is your drug habit a serious drain on society, you have made it impossible to get a good sudafed with out your drivers license, social security number, mailing address, 3 phone numbers, an affidavit from your next of kin, the rights to one of your kidneys and your first born child. Sorry a little ranty but really is the restriction on cold medicine really reducing the use of meth or is it just making my life mi...

I am so HAPPY to get a completely cool and totally perfect makeover on my Blankets and Stuff Blog. I am a little terrified of actually listing my dresses for sale but I think if it does not scare you just a little then it is not worth doing so this is way worth it. Plus the end result will be way worth it. Everything we make from our little projects will be going straight to the adoption funds. I have not got as much done this weekend as I would have liked but I did get the blog going and that was way worth it. I already have a few orders that I need to be working on but of course I have caught the crud and have been feeling a little under the weather. But that won't stop me! So in the evenings that is where I will be sewing my heart out. I love it and until I have kids what else am I supposed to do in the evenings watch TV? This will be much more productive. I just hope people order. So check it out and tell your friends and bear with me as I figure it all out.

Kim sent me a box full of goodies that I got yesterday but I was too tired to post. She was sending me some fabric for a quilt that I am going to make for her and so she decided to include some others stuff!! So here is what she sent me some: Water globes for watering plants, you all know how much Jim likes his plants so those will come in very handy. A Momiji doll that is just the cutest, pictured above. A very cool T-shirt that will help bring 2 beautiful children home from Africa get yours here ! A beautiful glass Christmas ornament of a asian girl! A lovely heart shaped candle and holder. Also we went together to get our girls cute little dolls (stupid minimum order rule) and I can already see LM and Isabella dragging them around. And last but not least it would not be a package from Kim if it did not include some clippies! So I intended to get alot more pictures in this post especially of the me wearing the awesome shirt but either the camera was not cooperating or the photos just...

Wendy at Adoption and Fire posted a collage of yellow items that that she found. I thought it was a great idea. So I started to go through our photos to see if I could make a collage of my own. I found that we are not fans of yellow and most the pictures with yellow in them also contain our nephew Eli. I know that most of these pictures are older but I love them and that smile melts my heart every time I see it.

Thanks for all the support and encouragement. I have considered taking some time off but we will not be able to go any where since Jim can’t take any time off. This summer we have at least one weekend planned and we will find some time for another one or two somewhere. I emailed our agency about the ages of the children in the orphanages and did not really get an answer other than it was too soon to change my profile. Huh? Don’t know what that even means. But I am just fed up with it all. I was also spanked again for speaking in a derogatory tone toward the agency. I did not intend it that way I was trying to offer a suggestion but that is beside the point and I basically already told them that. Are they going to bring that up every time I talk to them now? I don’t think I can even respond because if I do I might, in a frustrated and irritated, moment tell them that I quit and they can just take my adoption and shove it, and I won’t really mean that. I know that is not the way to think...

Happy 7th Birthday Toby. I tried to find a puppy picture but apparently I need to scan one. He was such a cute puppy, and he still is cute even when he is being a Jack Russel Terror. I know you probably don’t care but it is my blog so sometimes the tough stuff is going to show up. I am really frustrated by the current time line of my life. You might have noticed but I am not a parent. I feel that every decision that we have made toward becoming parents has backfired on us. Getting pregnant did not work and we wasted years trying to do that. The wait in China has grown exponentially with no significant sign of changing. As soon as we sign up for the China waiting child program, China changes the system and files stop coming to our agency (there were some brief rumors about being able to change agencies so that you could adopt from that program but that does not seem to be the case. If we did we would have to start over with new agency fees and a new dossier.) I research Ethiopian a...

I had this post all ready about how we have been officially signed up for 8 months for the Burundi program. But I can't post it. I am feeling rotten tonight. I sorta asked my agency for updates through the online group for the Burundi program even if there is nothing big to announce apparently that was a mistake. I feel like I was publicly chastised for wanting a little more information. I just can't seem to get things right and I am really starting to wonder if this parent thing is ever going to happen. I am sure I will feel better tomorrow but I tonight I am just upset. Today it was blue sky and the sun was shining and it snowed. I was pummeled by icy balls of snow all the way home and I had to wear my sunglasses. Well that about sums up my moods, sunny with a 90% chance of ice balls dropping out of the blue sky. Next post will be the peasant dresses that I worked on all day yesterday! They are going to be awesome!

that is what makes a patchwork dress for a baby!! OMG, I am done Whew!! I can hardly believe I finished. It was gather after gather after gather and then the longest ruffle that I have ever seen. But it did not beat me and it is fantastic! I made in 18 months size and I actually wish I would have gone a bit bigger I think that bigger patches would have been easier to work with but it also would have meant a ton more fabric. Here is the finished dress, enjoy because this is not a pattern I plan to repeat often. Front Back and just to show you how full the skirt really is My next project is working on a few dresses for my first paying customer!!

So my goal was to get this dress mostly done tonight and post tomorrow the finished product but this is where I am and I quit for the night. Notice the glass of red wine, yes it is needed after trying to get the ruffle right 3 times! and no, I did not start the wine before sewing. All I need to do is attach the ruffle and then attach the bodice to the skirt but man this ruffle is KICKIN' my rear end! So I am going to give you a preview and sorry this one is not for sale it is for me after this much work I would have to have a mighty fine offer to even consider selling it. Oh and the fabric is absolutely gorgeous, don't ya think?

Is it me or is this week slow? Monday started off icky and Tuesday was a little better but not much. I did not sleep on Tuesday night so I was in pain all day Wednesday, just achy and joint pain from not sleeping. And today, is just, well, Thursday, nothing special except I did sleep better last night so less pain today. So we will make it to the weekend right? Tomorrow I get to come home early because the cable guy is coming to install our phone. We are switching to cable phone to try and save us some money, we'll see how it goes. But you all know the cable company (they are the same everywhere) he will be here sometime between 1 & 3. If I am not here at 1 you know he will leave and we will have to make another appointment but if I am here I'm predicting that he won’t get here until 5. So I guess that is it. I have been doing some more sewing and I can’t wait to show it off. I hope to be done by this weekend with this particular project. Then I will start on something new!...

I hate Mondays. I don’t particularly like the rest of the week either but Mondays are the worst. I just feel dull, I have another word but I decided to keep it off the blog. The weekend was good and I truly enjoyed the extra day although I did not do much. I did get a little sewing done and I will blog more about that later. Today is just one of those days where everything bugs me. Worked bugged me, emails bugged me, blogs bugged me, I was just bugged. Nothing is happening on the adoption front. Well I guess China is still crawling along they referred 4 days this month but there is still such a long wait I almost don’t mention it, but at least I know we will eventually get there. Who in the world knows what is happen in Burundi? No, really, tell me if you know, our agency doesn’t seem to. I assume things are happening behind the curtain but no way to really tell. Ok enough of that, I plan to totally zone out and watch The Bachelor finale tonight. I hope that tomorrow is Tuesd...