Adoption advocacy

Anyone who has read my blog for any length of time knows that I am both
a. A Christian
b. A HUGE adoption advocate

So that being said, here is a video that was sent to one of my adoption groups.



Read, watch and cry....at least that is what I did.

Sniffing....

Okay, I know...odd title right?

Well here is the thing, I am hoping some of you fellow adoptive mamas can help me out. Pul-eeze tell me why my son is constantly sniffing me! Tell me he is normal and this is just something everyone goes through? Honestly, he is always grabbing my arm and sniffing me. Saying "you smell good mama" It is so ODD! I dont know if he just likes my perfume, bodywash or what. I could understand it once a day maybe, but it is All. Day. Long.

I love him dearly, but am beginning to think he has a olfactory issue. What do ya'll think? Any advice?

Sincerly,
The Over-Sniffed Mama

Spring break...its over

So here I am most of the way through the week and I have yet to lament on how sad I am that spring break is over. I absolutely love having my kiddos all at home with me. Maybe I am a odd duck, but the relaxed feel of no schedules just makes everything all better! Not to mention that I totally love sleeping in late. We had a great week, busy...as usual.

Between the sprinkler, playing outside, having multiple slumber parties (see why I needed to sleep in??) the movies, shopping and the science museum, we kept plenty busy last week schedules or not. It is always nice for this mama to have some one on one time with her munchkins and this was the perfect week for it!











My Other Blog is going extremely well and growing rapidly! I am close to a hundred followers and double that when you count in facebook and twitter (yeah..I tweet!) So I am excited to be able to help so many people save some serious cash.

School is winding down and the kids are counting down the days till it is finally over :-)Zach is starting football again (flag this time) and Tay will start back at guard practices next month. Em is planning on trying to convince her Cardiologist to let her play volleyball this year, and Sam is trying to convince me to let him skip his nap everyday....not happenin! All in all, our lives are still running on overdrive and Tim and I are still greatly outnumbered...and we wouldnt have it any other way :-)

Bad Mom Strikes again!!

Yes, I am well aware it is only the first full week of April.



Yes, I understand that the activity isnt appropriate even if it IS spring break



But when they asked BEGGED, this mama just couldnt say no to her boys....




Because when it is 80 degrees and SUNNY in Indiana...IN APRIL....it is worth the reputation of Bad Mom just to appreciate the day!





PS. Sam had a ball experiencing the sprinkler for the very first time....YAY! Another first for us as a family!!

Easter Recap

Wow! Did we have a wonderful Easter weekend...it was so nice for a change to have Tim home all weekend and for a long one at that. He has been putting in SO many hours this was a nice break. We had 2 Easter celebrations this year. We had one at our house for Tim's side of the family and one at my moms. Luckily for me, they were on different days. We also had some time with friends squeezed in there with lots of great conversation and a couple of glasses of wine while the kiddos played and the dads watched the basketball games.



The big girls participated too....

kind of!


We could not have asked for a more beautiful day on Good Friday (when we had Easter at our house) and we celebrated untraditionally with a cook out instead of a big sit down meal. No one wanted to be inside with the weather so pretty out. The cousins had fun with the egg hunt and Sam was simply amazed to find out that those plastic "balls" had candy. He is a HUGE candy hound. He doesn't differentiate between candy either...they all are candy canes to him !









Easter Sunday was much more low key. Church services and some time for playing with the new games the Easter bunny brought. Off to my moms in the afternoon for a supper yummy dinner of Prime Rib. I swear, all I did was eat all weekend. The days were still gorgeous and we spent plenty of time outside again.









The cutest part was Emily teaching Sam about the Easter story. You see in Sams world everything is "I dont wan to". So of course when we told him it was time to go get ready for church and stop playing he announced "I dont wan too" Well, Emily just gasped and started scolding him (Yup, mama #2) and telling him "Sammy, you CANT say that, do you know what today is??? Do you know that today is the day that Jesus conquered the grave after he was dead? Do you even understand what that means??" Ummm, no of course he doesn't, but Em was positively indignant that Sammy didn't "get it" Poor Guy, no slack from Mama Em when it comes to do with Jesus. And thats a good thing!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter!!!
Blessings

Monday....Really??

Dear eldest canine,

I do understand you have reached a very advanced age for your years. I also understand that your bladder and bowel control isnt what it used to be, unfortunately for us ladies, that happens....especially when you are 115.5 years old. BUT really? Could you not have just waited 10 more minutes? Certainly I can understand your urgency, but the need to go in multiple places astounds me. As well as with all the hard wood around, you also find the rug one of the most comforting place to relieve yourself? I also get that your eyesight has diminished dramatically, but one would think that you would realize that you had stepped in your own mess before you tracked it around everywhere?

It was such a unfortunate way to start my week dear, After spending my entire married life with me, you should know that I am not at my best on Monday morning and certainly the aroma of your accident would make anyone gag. Spending the first 40 minutes of my waking time would be much better spent sipping coffee I can assure you.

The only saving grace to all of this is that at least it will be nice to open the windows today....and that now my floor is spotless.

Please dont let this become a habit my dear. I love you dearly, but cannot tolerate this morning ritual very long.

Love,

Mama

PS. Can you tell your siblings that trying to awaken me with their pitiful meows will not ever work. They are in absolutely no danger of wasting away from starvation, much to their contrary belief.

Busy Busy Busy..

As usual, days are flying past here. We are anxiously waiting for Spring Break (STARTS FRIDAY!!) and some relaxation time. Honestly it doenst seem like we are doing much...but we are always on the go. Maybe it has something to do with having 4 munchkins hmmmm?

Taylor has finished Winter Guard and they did an awsome job this year, taking 4th in State. She has a month or 2 off now before she starts Color Guard for the summer. She is definately enjoying her time off, and is getting even more of a social life. She is babysitting more frequently now with the hopes of saving some money for a car. EEEK! I honestly cannot believe she will be 16 soon! YIKES.

Emily is doing well and is loving doing various things with church and her friends. She is in a very active small group of girls who have bible study each month (on Purity!) and she is beginning to get involved in the youth worship team at church. She has such a true and open heart, it is amazing to see her become such a leader to her friends.

Zach is doing so much better with his reading. I think it finally just clicked and now he is reading more difficult books and actually passing the blasted AR tests. He needs a bit more help than the girls and we are still working on finding the key to helping him understand math btter. He is starting flag football right after spring break and is totally pumped about it. He hasnt done any sports since Football since he doesnt care for basketball, so this will be great for him! He is such a fun little guy!!

Sammy is who I spend my days with and I am loving it. I sometimes wish we hadnt taught him to speak english so well cause he chatters on, and on, and on..... but he is such a joy and he learns so quickly. We are having tons of fun at Storytime each week and doing crafts and playtime with other great friends. He is attached at the hip with Em as soon as she comes home too. He fits in so perfectly, it is hard for me to remember life without him.

Tim is doing well and he is loving his job. He is putting in some serious hours lately so it is a double blessing that I am not working right now. He is also going to be starting our church softball team soon as well as teaching a bible study class on Wed nights.

Me? well I am doing alot of new and differnt things right now. I have a few endeavors that are going very well and it will be interesting to see how things play out. I am beginning to get a lot of readers at my other blog so that is exciting as well. I spend my days working on that, balancing my kiddos social and sports schedules, keep Sam from destroying the house and otherwise just trying to balance all the different balls that are my life in the air. Needless to say I am loving life and the blessing to stay home with Sam. I am involved in our Orphan Ministry at church and we are holding a HUGE garage sale the last weekend in April to raise funds to help other kiddos come home. It is a huge undertaking, but it will be totally worth it.

Hope you all are doing well too...I promise more pix in the next post :-)