A Pretty Cool Anniversary

It's not often that I get all sappy on this blog, but a mininal amount of sap is called for on this occasion.

One year ago, we stood before a judge and were officially deemed a family. A tall bald man draped in black looked at us, smiled and, despite the fact that my fingerprints were unreadable by the FBI, he told us that we didn't look like criminals and wished us a very happy life with our son. Mom V was there to share in the 4 minute life changing experience with us. Dude was too young to take in any of the details, but we won't ever forget it. Not that we needed a judge to tell us that we were a family, but it was sure nice to make it all legal.

I'm grateful for a lot in my charmed life...never did I think that I'd be thankful for my lack of fertility. But I am. So grateful. Our little man is the epitome of what we've always dreamed of in a kid. And I wasn't gifted with stretch marks as a result. Lots of hidden pluses in the adoption world! God has given us a sense of incredible peace with the way our family came to be. He opened our eyes to the miracle of adopting one of his children who so desperately needed us. The beauty is that we needed him just as much.

We love you little Duder. And we love that God has put a little bit of each of us in you. We can't wait to see what you teach us in the years to come! Happy Adoption Day. (Next year we'll work on all looking at the camera for our family picture).

Goats, Leaves, Pumpkins & More

I love Fall. The sound of leaves on the pavement, brisk air, pumpkins, bloody vampires & skeletons lurching on neighbors front porches....the whole halloween part freaks me out a bit, but Fall is where it's at. The weather last weekend was picture perfect, so we took advantage. Enjoy!

Catchin' Up on Video Blurbs

These videos of cuteness were starting to stack up and the requests from grandparents for more "live action" were mounting, so here's a slew of dude coverage wrapped into one.

Happy, Happy, Happy.

We're a happy bunch these days. Happy. It's the new favorite word around our house. Dude says it all day long and always follows it with a cheesy smile. This brings immense joy to us as his parents. Remind me of this joy when he learns the word "no."

Let me share some reasons why we're happy...

#1. Our friends Brett & Megan had a healthy, beautiful baby girl Madison this week.

#2. Our friends Bry & Rach just welcomed long awaited twin boys into the world! Charles & Lewis are both about 5 pounds, breathing on their own and are just perfect.

#3. Our dude's second favorite word is "peeese" followed with rubbing of the chest (sign language for please). The first time he did this, I about drove off the road out of pure glee.

#4. Our house is now complete with window treatments, a shower door, shelving and all the small details that make it feel like home.

#5. Our neighbors continue to give us free donuts from their donut shop.

#6. Soon, we'll have nephew number 3 born into our world (in Toronto).

I'll stop there. That's enough happy for now:)

My Romantic Night with Wessums

For those of you who know me and also know our friend Wessums, you know that the two of us are about as similar as McCain & Obama (I'm currently watching their rivoting debate). Although we play much nicer & do actually like each other 97.6% of the time.

My hubby had to work Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday nights last weekend (yes, it's a fact and I did my very best to smile with loving wifely support each and every night), so I needed some companionship. Wessum's much better half was coaching a varsity volleyball game on Friday night, so I spent a memorable night with Wes and all the children. We hopped in their green Pilot (we have one too), listened to the children laugh and chatter, dealt with a minor set back (see video), cheered on the volleyball team, who won in 3 matches, and called it a night. We did speak some words to each other, maybe even laughed a few times. I definitely see another date in our future.

...And just for the record, if Wessums and I were running mates for President of the US of A, Wessums would be the clear choice. He'd be the first Commander in Chief whose wardrobe consists soley of mesh shorts and not necessarily dirty, but not super clean t-shirts. But boy would he run a heck of a tight elephant ship!

Flashback to my Girls Weekend

Reunion of our "Chicago Met" clan in Chi-town

This post is slightly out of order, but who's counting. The weekend before the big fat move, I spent a long weekend in Chicago without child. My loving, generous and selfless husband encouraged me to take some "me" time and didn't throw any guilt at me in the process. He's a much bigger spouse than I:)

The tykes of the girls lovin' their posing session

During my heavenly weekend I got to spend time with some of very favorite women and their tykes & met up with my Amy from Texas and kicked it downtown Chicago overnight (we had a F-U-N night with our Chicago Met college buds, shopped till we dropped at H&M & were spoiled at our hotel with gifts from my wonderful mom-in-law). I got some QT in with my "prego with twins & on bed rest for the past few months" friend Rach, met my bud Caryn's new duo (more twins), & spent a night with my irresistibly cute nephew "D" and my parents.

Every mom (and dad) deserves weekends like this one. Just maybe not one week before you move:)

We're big posers and tend to giggle like schoolgirls when united.

Tim's childhood best friend's pride & joy Emmers says "Tim" & ends with an awesome nose pick

6th Times a Charm

Never again will this long a period of time lapse between my stimulating family updates. Well, at least not for the next 2 years until we decide to move again. Just joking. We're not moving for a very long time. Yet, when we tell our dear friends that, they laugh at us, roll their eyes practically out of their sockets and say "Bologna Sausage." I don't know why. It's really quite a mystery to us. Isn't it normal to move 6 times in a 7 year marriage? We're adaptable and that my friends is a very good thing. Unless you're near and dear to us and get roped into the heavy and frequent job of loading and unloading Penske trucks. Great trucks, by the way! We've become loyal patrons of the big yellow beasts.

So, we're in. Decor is hung on it's appropriate spots on the walls, closets are organized, dude has adapted to his new surroundings, and neighbors have already gifted us with cookies, home made doughnuts, courtesy of their family owned "The Donut" shop and home grown cucumbers the size of eels . Thus why no blogging has taken place. Priorities people. If you know me, you know that poor Tim has been one busy and very patient man. It's really not to his benefit during times like this that he's capable of just about any project known to man.

Photos of the new digs are below. You can view the post below this one to get an update on dude's perspective on the last couple of weeks in his mile high life.

What's Up With These Wackos?

So, I was 17 months and life was good. I would go visit Miss Vickie 3 times per week and hang out in her comfy house with a couple other kids, including my buddy Nolan. And the dog, Candy, let me grab her face and pull on it, which was just awesome. Mom would pick me up and we'd hang at home, walk to the park, eat some nuggets, run up and down the driveway waiting for dad to come home and call it a day. That was my routine. And I liked it. I was a happy dude.

Now I'm 18 months and let me tell ya, my routine disappeared and I am STILL trying to figure out where it went. Miss Vickie must have moved or got sick of me attacking Candy, because I haven't seen her in over two weeks. Instead, I get dropped off at this crazy place with tons of other kids with runny noses. Dad plops me in a table that has seats built in it with the other kids and then takes off. Does he realize that I don't know these people?

Miss Laura is my teacher and I guess she's pretty cool. She makes me put my fingers in paint and glue and I don't know why that's necessary, but whatever. As long as she hangs my pictures from the ceiling, I'm cool with it. Here's the best part....they lay these mats on the ground all over the room and want us to sleep! No crib, no pack n play, nothing. I'm super tired from the chaos that is my day, so I just decided right off the bat that I'd take advantage of the less than comfy accomodations and just sleep. Then we have crackers and juice and play outside and usually Mom comes to get me. Sometimes I act excited to see her, but I'm still a little peeved about the whole situation, so other times I act like I don't really care.

To top off the whole circus of this new place they call "day care," Mom takes me to this wierd house every day. It has all my stuff in it, so that's pretty good, but I think Mom and Dad are a bit confused about where our real house is. We haven't gone home now for over a week, so I'm getting used to this new place and I'll admit that I dig it. It has a lot of open spots that I can run around, flail my arms and say "wee." That's what I like to do. And they bought me what we call the "Mile High Swing" and it's pretty awesome. I've been able to play in these huge boxes and help put furniture together. Those screw things were pretty tough to get inside the holes, but I did a pretty good job for a little kid.

I'm saying "wee" here. Again, it's what I like to do.

My fantastic Nanna came to pay attention to me while Mom and Dad ditched me. She is the best! Mom was a bit uptight and ran around like there were fires all over the place. Then she got sick and laid on the floor with me for 2 days while I played. That was just what I needed!

Anyway, that's whats been happening around here. It's all cool now, but I tell ya, it was a whirlwind for a while there. So help me if they move my stuff to another new house again.

Vaca Follow-Up

In following up with the "Hurricane Gustav" post, we arrived home safely that Tuesday afternoon after a relaxing 5 days in Orange Beach. We rarely take "vacations" where we can just plop our booties down and not think about where we need to go and who we need to see, so this was just what the doctor ordered.

Dude was in heaven from the minute we set foot in Mom and Marc's house. He slept like a dream in the basement (much to Marc's dismay that we left him down there alone), romped around the beach collecting shells, kicked around in the ocean trying to drink the saltwater, jumped into the pool (hoping someone would be there catch him), danced to the live band at Jimmy Buffet's sister's cool outdoor restaurant and definitely grew attached to Grandma and Grandpa Marc (when Marc wasn't chasing him around causing nervous squealing).

It needs to be noted that the food was a sampling of seafood heaven. Much time was spent in the kitchen working up masterpieces. The screened in deck overlooking the channel was our favorite spot to soak it all in. Thanks Mom and Marc for a fantabulous time! We'll look forward to doing it again. Marc, make sure the wildlife know to stay the heck away from me next time or I might just be too spooked to ever come back! No more sting rays under my feet, crabs munchin on my toes or water snakes visiting the dock! Tall order, but I know you can work it out.

Ben & Gwen

The Democratic National Convention brought with it a whole bunch of random excitement here in the Mile High City. I'm gonna leave ya'll hangin' on the Ben Affleck piece for now. Our little fam drove downtown the Sunday before the DNC officially started with adventurous friends Josh and Jen to check out the scene. Everyone else thought we were crazy.

Between black SUV's stocked full of men in ear pieces or exteriorly loaded with police/FBI forces ready for a nuclear war, vehicles you might find in a monster truck show spray painted with language depicting Barac Obama as the anti-christ, photographers hiding around corners, masses of people walking around just to see if you might be someone with an ounce of celebrity status, Obama hooplah on every corner and in-between every corner and most importantly, the Rednecks for Obama group, lead by the one armed gentleman, we thoroughly enjoyed our sightseeing tour of our city. The dude had a gay ole' time as well. Especially when a young kid gifted him with a freaky lookin gingerbread doll. Dude hugged it and laughed and when he wasn't looking, we quickly disposed of it in a garbage can adorned with Obama signs.

Our mayor went so far as to offer "Venice-like" (I stress the "like" in that phrase) boat rides down the muddied river that runs through downtown, complete with a little Hispanic man offering details about the history of the brand new buildings they pass along the way. Spray painted buildings were cleverly painted over in colors not even close to the color of the buildings, so that looked natural. All sarcasm aside, it was a pretty cool time for our city. We (as if I had anything to do with it) did a great job of hosting a rather ginormous group of Democrats and only had to mace and attack a few people trying to mess it all up.

Now for the entrance of Mr. Ben Affleck. I work at a large Food Bank, which happened to be a volunteer spot for Mrs. Obama's day of service. We were graced with the presence of Ben, Justin Bartha (nerdy guy in National Treasure...very cool in person), Alicia Witt and a couple other celebs, as well as Senator Durbin and McGovern. They boxed a bunch of food in a game of sorts, interviewed with about 75 members of national media and called it a day. We got up close (not very personal) with all of them, so it was a day worth talkin' about at Food Bank. Ben looked my direction once (probably because I had my zoom lens in his face), so that was my brush with fame. The end.

Donna, Justin Bartha, Janie, Director Ben Younger, me, Alicia Witt & Kimmy