No Ordinary Family

Just in case you are a follower of my other blog Burundi Baby and you miss the message.  I am closing that blog for a while.  It has become a place where I just vent my negative feelings and while that is good for me at time it is not something that I feel comfortable sharing at this time.  I don't know where I am going with this blog either.  I started as a place where we could keep our family updated on our travels to meet our daughter.  That has changed, a lot, our path has changed, a lot and the destination is now an unknown.  I hope that one day this blog will be a place to share stories of parenthood, get and give advice but I am not sure what it is now.  I will continue to blog here and please continue to follow our random journey.  I might be as surprised as you to discover where we end up.  I will try to post some updates over here more often.  If you ever have any questions you can always email me and I will do my best to answer them. As for the reminder.  Make sure tha

Yes that is what I am.  But it has just been one of those weeks.  I had a tooth re-filled and I have had some bouts of intestinal and girly trouble, not really bloggable events, just stating that is a little TMI.  Yesterday we did get to visit the SIL and BIL and niece and nephews.  That was fun and Jim got some good pictures.  Today I got some sewing done!  I can not wait for this special someone to arrive so I had sew up a couple Cora dresses to welcome her!  We also have a niecefew on way.  I can't wait for October!  Seeing the bassinet and the crib ready made me even more anxious. I tried appliqué on my sewing machine today I think I might need a slightly better sewing machine.  I was kind of disappointed my basic Brother has been able to handle just about everything I throw at it except this.  So I will be researching machines and dreaming.  I never thought I would LOVE sewing as much as I do.  I am not fast or perfect but I enjoy being able to create something that is usefu

Yesterday, I got up, read my blogs with my morning coffee and saw that Diana had posted this recipe , that she got on  this site . She tried it with her family and they loved it. It only has 3 ingredients and they just happened to be 3 things I had on hand.  So I impulsively decided to try it out, What could go wrong? Well as it turns out not much.  I texted Diana with a couple of questions and then got it in the crock pot in less than 10 minutes and I was not even rushing.  (I must say texting a friend for recipe help is AWESOME) So here is the recipe. 3lbs chicken breasts (I used 3 large breasts because that was all I had in the freezer) 1 package cream cheese 2 cans Cream of Chicken or Cream of Mushroom and Chicken soup (I used 1 can of cream of chicken again all I had and Jim does not like mushrooms) Combine in crock pot and cook all day. I put the Chicken in the crock pot, frozen, and topped with soup and cheese.  Set the crockpot on low and that was it.  It was super ea

I know you all think it is Jim, right? No?  Is it Aiden? you might ask.  Well maybe but my first love was neither.  It was Ernie!  Yep as in the Ernie and Bert, Ernie.  I carried this doll around by one arm for much of my childhood.  Ernie required several reattachment surgeries of one of his arms as he was apparently not meant to be carried around by the arm for several years.  Thank goodness my mother is an excellent doll surgeon.  I was having kind of a bad adoption day yesterday.  You in the adoption world, probably know what I am talking about.  You know the ones where you are all weepy and just want to hold your baby.  It was a tough day.  I got a medical report which really did not say much but I just wanted to be there for him.  I know he has not always had the best of health (nothing serious) but who does not want to give their kids a cuddle when they are not feeling good.  And knowing that he had his blood drawn and I was not there to wipe his tears made me fall into a craz

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Don't know why but I just have a bunch of random things I feel I need to share, ok it was either this or go on and on about adoption crap so trust me this is better, there is only a little adoption stuff mixed in. We might be broke and eating mac & cheese for every meal but we will be parents someday to someone, damn it! When someone is upset, always say sorry. It is a way to sympathize even if it is not your fault it makes the person feel better.  Manners PEOPLE! I positively know that we will never use our agency for another adoption after we figure out what we are going to do with the mess we are in now. Do something nice for someone just because it will make them smile and don't expect credit other than thank you. Eat your vegetables in the summer when they are fresh, cause OH MY GAWD, yummy.  If you buy fresh fruit put a freaking note on your forehead so you don't forget it in the crisper for 2 weeks, not yummy. Don't pick at things in your cats fur, don&

Ok this is another “look what I can do” post.  I love the transformation of a simple photo but I really like this photo for different reasons. Straight from the camera, pretty good. cropped and enhanced, much better :) B&W since I have done that with the others, but honestly I like color better, in all the photos.  And one just for fun But do you know what I love about this picture more than anything?  Do you know what makes this picture worth a blog post all to itself?  It is not this picture at all.    It is the picture that comes before it, it is the blurry, out of focus picture was on the camera before this one. It is the unspoken, “Take a picture of me too, Uncle Jim”  It is the brothers in front of the tractor it is the waiting look on e’s face that you can see through the blur like come on brother I’ll stand with you. It was so much fun to have Jim’s sister bring the kids all the way up to support us.  I was happy that they came early too because even though the wide open

Original out of the camera Post processing (cool) Post processing (warm) almost black and white And just for fun

It has to be a sickness but I just can't stop marveling at how beautiful these kids are!  So, you might be seeing a few more pictures in the next couple posts.  Jim likes to take the pictures but I like to mess with them in the computer a bit so here is one of my favorites.  Let me know what you think. Straight from the camera. Post processing (I think this might be going up on the wall in our house). Black and white (or this one?).   And a couple just for fun. Tomorrow D or E or L, I have not decided yet?

We made it through the weekend in one peice. The Hop Festival was ok, there were a lot of things that were out of our control that didn't help us.  One was the weather, first it was super hot, then a gale force wind started blowing, then the next day it was super hot again then the wind started blowing although not as hard and we ended the night with rain.  The other thing that did not help us was the location.  They put us right next to the cheap (junky not inexpensive) toys.  So the parents that walked by us were the ones that wanted to buy the junkie toys and the others walked well away from us to avoid the tempation.  We were also next to the carnival stuff which I thought might be good at first but it is not.  However, when parents are taking thier kids to the bouncy house they don't want to stop and look at coloring books.  Also everything was really spread out so a lot of people never even saw us. But even with all of that we were able to make a little money to put in t

I am still not loving the exercise, however with the exception of last week I have been going 3 times a week.  Last week we were really busy getting ready for the Hop Festival but yesterday I went back determined to continue to go 3 times a week so I can prove to my doctor that I am trying at least, not that it is doing any good.  So I get in the pool and start my deep water walking and I over hear some other women talking about going to another pool for the next 3 weeks.  I finally got up the courage to ask what they were talking about (basically admitting my eavesdropping ways).  Apparently the pool is going to be closed for maintenance for a couple weeks.  I can't win!  I don't know what else to do.  Another pool is not really an option for me since I live on the other side of town.  On top of that after they re-open the schedule is going to change.  I don't know what the new schedule will be but if it is not open after work I do not see myself going.  I still hate exe

We are ready, almost :0) we have a few last minute things to finish up then we are off to sell coloring books , crayons and crayon rolls! Here is why I have not been posting.     If you would like a crayon roll Email me and I will hold one out for you.  These are all I have in these particular prints I can make more but I can not guarantee I will have the same fabrics.