I am 32? When did that happen?

Well Happy Birthday to me! I am 32 years old today. I am not really sure how that happened. Celebration started earlier last week with my friends Jill and David surprising me with a birthday cake, so sweet of them. Apparently they got it at Kroger and happened to see me in the store shopping. They tried to dodge me so that they weren't caught in the act. I find that so funny. I would love to see some video of them tip toeing around the store making sure I didn't see them.

This morning Mom came to start off the Birthday festivities. She took me to lunch at Golden Corral because we thought that the babies would do well there. It is so kid friendly.



James met us there and surprised me with one of my favorites...I love willow tree figurines! They are just my favorite! He found a keepsake box of the two together figurines. It has two babies on the top and he explained to me that when I give the babies their first haircut I could keep the hair in there. How sweet is that? He also bought me a cross necklace. I was so impressed that he remembered! I told him that I wanted a new one when I got back home from my Faces of Christ retreat. It is beautiful. He did good, I need to give the guy more credit for his thoughtfulness. I love you honey!



After dinner we went to Pro Liquitech in Louisville. My mom's friend owns it and cleans the factory on a weekly basis. They do flavorings for drinks. They make everything from Jones Soda to Flavored milk for cats. You wouldn't think that there was a call for that kind of a thing but I guess there is. It is really cool in there to see all of the beakers full of bright colored flavorings. We took Victoria in there one day to see it and she started calling David Dafoe (moms friend and business owner) David Wonka. She agreed with us that it looked like Willy Wonka's factory. David grabbed Anthony and took him on a tour of the place. Anthony wouldn't go to anyone else. He loved Dave, and Dave was loving the fact that he only wanted to hang out with him.



After Pro liquitech we headed off to 21C to see the new exhibits, then off to the mall to find an outfit for my night out on the town coming up. A friend of mine is playing in Louisville next weekend. I am really excited about it and was on the hunt for some new clothes. I seem to be outgrowing all of mine that I have now. I had success! I found a pair of jeans and a cute purple top. I also found one of my favorite movies Singing in the Rain. I have been on the hunt for it for quite a while. Of all of the places that I have looked I found it at the music store at the mall. I was really excited that I found it on sale too!


Well the birthday celebrating is over and I am wiped out. I am off to bed with another year under my belt, a few more aches and pains in my body and a new age to embrace. Here is to another year farther into this place they call "IN" my thirties.

"Missed it by that much"

Victoria this morning was "helping" me entertain the babies while I finished making breakfast for them. She started singing a song that she learned in class at church to the melody of Mary had a Little Lamb reciting John 3:16 and saying John 3:16 at the end. She proceeded to sing the song "God loved the world so much, world so much, world so much, God loved the world so much he gave his only son. 'JAWS' 3:16"

Clean house means a day of being the coolest mom

In our house we have a bit of an obsession with Reality TV. I know it isn't the most wholesome thing to watch but I get a kick out of it anyway. Victoria has become especially fond of America's next top model. She models in the house quite often. She does her little turn on the catwalk as the song says. Last night I let her stay up a little late after her program at church to watch ANTM and the photo shoot was about smiling with your eyes. They put the models in the pool with only their eyes peeking out of the water. It must have impressed her because today when I told her I had all of my work done and I had time to play she said let's play "Nes TopModel" (one word)I agreed and surprised her by bringing her our digital camera to take "real" pictures. She posed me "in the water" using a blanket. She directed me and took my shots. Later in the day she asked if I would do another "shoot". I told her I was at another shoot as I was fixing lunch for us. She walked away and said in a defeated tone "I guess I'll see you at the finale." I guess I should take it down a notch on the Reality TV. I have gotta go Survivor is coming on!

Addison's first step!

Here it is Addison's second and third step. She seemed like she was on the verge of doing it so I ran and grabbed the camera. I guess I am going to have to start using this toddler word now. I have a walker on my hands now. I guess it was the chicken nuggets for the first time tonight for dinner that did it.

Starting to feel human

Well the chipmunk cheeks have gone down quite a bit and I am off of the meds. Getting a tooth cut out is not a fun thing to do. I am glad I am just past it now. My wonderful mom came and stayed and helped me with the babies so that I could take my pain pills and not worry about slipping into a coma and not hearing them cry. Don't know what I would do without mom! I am now up and working on the house. The house looked much cleaner when I was doped up on pain killers. Victoria is going to be dropped off by Mamaw and Papaw any minute now so I better get back to it.

Happy Anniversary

Two years ago today Southern Indiana had some horrible flooding. Roads were closed, basements were flooded and we were getting married, why not? It was all worth it to have this beautiful sunset in the background of our pictures. Photoshop isn't needed when it comes to the hand of God working.

James, I am forever your partner in life. I have found in you love, support, friendship, devotion, and someone that thank God for daily. I don't know where I would be without you. I love you!

Been wanting to post these for days now!

For some reason I have had trouble posting pics for a while. Never had touble with it at all actually it was one of the easiest things that I figured out how to do. But just as so many things in life when I figure it out everything changes. Here are some of the pics that Rich and Anne sent of Richard (Johnathan). I was glad that they send some pictures of of him with them and also his brother Samuel. I have to admit I am just as excited at the opportunity to meet Samuel. He looks like he is hilarious.

Hooray 5!

.



Victoria was excited to find her balloon filled room and presents waiting outside the streamer lined door.



Victoria got a letter from her Mommy Tina too. She opened it first

Grandma Harb came to give Victoria her gift and to take us to the zoo. When My mom is gone and Victoria has children or grandchildren of her own I hope that she remembers all of her trips to the zoo with Grandma Harb.



The babies are still small enough to get a two for one on the swings at the zoo.



Mom caught a cute picture of us on the train after we went through the bridge that she was standing on.



We ended the day with Krispy Kreme! Victoria loved watching the doughnuts being made.

The babies had a first today. Mom and I crammed the high chairs in the kitchen and they ate with a plate by themselves. Victoria wanted fish sticks for her birthday dinner so I thought it would be a good time to try this out, plus mom was here to help with any scrubbing of the ceiling.



Anthony did great! He actually cleaned his plate and didn't try to pick it up until he was done. I was very surprised and impressed!



Addison on the other hand doesn't like getting "squishy" things on her hand. She had a "Oh my gosh this is so disgusting!" look on her face through most of the experience.

Well it is done

I am sitting here after breaking a sweat decorating Victoria's room for her birthday. She went to bed around 9 tonight and I waited and waited for her to fall asleep. I kept a movie on for background noise in her room so that I could sneak in later and decorate while she was sleeping.

Once she was asleep I went to work. I grabbed the bag of balloons, presents that need to be wrapped, and headed to my room to get started. I "attempted" to blow up one of the balloons myself unsuccessfully. My jaw is still very very sensitive. I remembered that my mom bought me a manual air pump on a clearance rack for blowing up the babies rafts this past summer. I hunted and hunted while the babies started to cry, then cry a little harder, then scream! I believe that Addison is trying to get another tooth now. (That is another fun part of twins, when one is finally finished breaking a tooth it ususally means that the other is just starting the fussiness of cutting a tooth)

I finally find the pump and place a balloon on the end of the tube and begin to pump. The nozzle at the end of the tube is much smaller than the mouth of the balloon so I am having to hold on extra tight. I pump once and when I pull the lever out again to pump the second time ALL of the air gets sucked right back out of the balloon and back into the pump itself. Addison and Anthony are now in their exersaucers at the foot of my bed watching me with expressions of complete and total comfusion.

After many tries different ways I come the conclusion that I am going to have to pump this air pump REALLY FAST, and pinch the tip of the balloon while pulling the handle out so that it doesn't suck the air back out. I am now wishing that I got the pack of 6 not 20 balloons.

I am now standing in front of a fan blowing up balloons because I am covered in sweat, 8 balloons blown up,and the babies are getting mad at me with every balloon that I blew up and placed on the bed and not in their tiny little hands. My life is so chaotic lol!
Her room looks great! I even covered her doorway in streamers that she can walk through as a 5 year old little lady! I am not sure what we are going to do to celebrate tomorrow but I am going to let her call the shots. I might even let her wear one of her princess outfits if we go out. All I know is it will be an adventure, it always is!

It just keeps getting better

Last night I check my mail again before I went to bed to find this!

Kelly –



So glad to hear back from you. I am really tired…up late doing work…I started working full-time for the first time this past year and it get’s crazy but Rich and I juggle it pretty well. Yes….that is brother Sam in the picture w/ Richard. He is only seven but is almost as tall as Rich. That picture was taken in Central Park in New York City this summer. We spent a few nights in a fancy hotel and they just loved the city. They keep asking when we can go back. The hat Rich is wearing was bought from a guy on the street. Rich bargained with him and knocked a few bucks off the price…he was very proud of himself and wore that hat the rest of the weekend.



I will talk to Richard about e-mailing you. He mentioned it a few times early on and hasn’t lately but I know that he will want to once I mention that I have made contact w/ you. He is a pretty secure kid and thinks it is pretty neat to tell everyone he was born in Kentucky! That is what his birth certificate says but I think he was really born on the border of Indiana…right???? He has done a few school projects on US states and likes to pick KY….Anyway….he would probably love to hear about his biological family….heritage, etc….I want you to know that we have always spoken about adoption in our home as such a wonderful, positive thing and have said that you were young when you gave birth to him and just were not ready to take care of a baby at that time.



Let’s see how it goes….one thing he might ask you is if he can meet you sometime. We would really like to take a trip out there someday and Richard would like to see the place he was born, and maybe meet you and your family. Think on that one and let us know if you feel comfortable with that some time in the future…..



OK…I need to get to bed now!....Have a great day and hope you are feeling Ok after your root canal…YUCK!!!



Love from us all……Anne


I can't believe it! He wants to meet me! I might get a chance to hug him again, a chance to explain, a chance to tell him in person how much I truly love him. I told a friend earlier today it just proves the verse in the bible to be true. Matthew 6:34 therefore do nowt worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of it's own. For 12 years I have worried about if he would understand, if he would be mad about the choice that I have made. God has had all of that under control the whole time. Why did I waste so much time worrying about that? My son wants to meet me!

The huricane wasn't what blew me over

Many of you that read my blog know my story about mistakes I have made in my past and things that I am not the most proud of. About 12 years ago now I gave birth to a healthy little boy. I named him Johnathan. I made the heartbreaking decision to give him a shot at a better life than I was able to provide him with at the time in my life and found him amazing parents.

Through the years I have received letter and photos from his adoptive parents. They were always through the agency for privacy reasons. About 5 years after the adoption took place the agency that he was placed through closed with no notice to the birth parents at all. I found this out as I walked up to the door with presents to mail off to my son one Christmas only to find that the doors were locked and the place was bare.

While working at Dillard's I ran into a woman that worked at the agency and gathered information about the closing and a list of the agencies that the files were relocated to. For a few months we remained in contact (Rich, Anne his adoptive parents) and then just kinda lost contact again. About 3-4 months ago I called the agency and asked if Rich and Anne would be OK with me reconnecting with them. They immediately said yes and I got together a letter and pictures of my family. I waited and waited and had no response. I just kind of gave up and thought that maybe Johnathan (they named him Richard) wasn't interested in hearing from me for whatever reason. I honestly had kinda forgotten about it to a certain extent after checking and checking the mail daily for a letter from him.

Today I woke up finally feeling better. I had been running a 102 temperature for the past few days and had the achy body where you hair even hurts. It has been horrible! I checked my email and found this email...........

Hi Kelly –



We are so embarrassed that it has taken so long to get back in touch with you. We have had a challenging year here with my Dad ill (now doing very well) and other personal family stuff that has now calmed down. All of that aside…you are such an important part of Richard’s and all of our lives and I am so sorry we took so long to get back in touch. We were first trying to get some pictures together to send, etc… and then thought let’s start with e-mail first. We have attached a few pictures of Richard that we hope you will enjoy. If you would like we can mail a bunch to you or can put some up on Shutterfly and you can order some from there.



Congratulations on your marriage and the birth of your twins! How wonderful …we know motherhood is challenging but it is the best job around too!



Richard is doing great. He started Middle School a few weeks ago! We can’t believe it! He is very bright, athletic, dramatic, impulsive at times, very funny (he can make Sam laugh harder than anyone else) and very handsome as you can see from the pictures. The girls are already calling! He loves soccer and plays on a competitive travel team and is really into magic right now. He is always coming up to us and doing card tricks, etc…Always the showboat! He played Aladdin in his school play this past spring and did an amazing job. I should try to send you a tape of it. The local station had it on TV and I think I can copy it for you..I will try. He also loves skateboarding and learned to snowboard last winter and always wants his hair to be as long as he can get away with. He really looks like a surfer dud right now with his tan from the summer. He spent the summer at a local camp for a few weeks and did one week of overnight camp through a camp affiliated w/ our church. He loved it! He likes to be very independent at times and other times is just our little boy.



We are on our way to church now. Please write back and let me know you received this. Richard has mentioned that he would like to e-mail you directly. Are you OK w/ that? Let us know…



Enjoy your family and hope to hear from you very soon!!



Much love…Anne and Rich

I am completely floored. Not only did I hear back from them. My son wants to email me and talk with me. I have been a flood of tears today. This is one of the most amazing days of my life. I am walking on clouds. That says alot considering that I spent 6 hours in the dentist office to have a root canal, an unsuccessful attempt to pull a tooth ( I am now drilled down to the gum line and need to go to an oral surgeon to finish the job) , and two crowns today.

Quoting this, has gotten me through this past week!

I guess they would have little brains too.

This morning I was sitting out on my swing and just taking in the wonderful weather that we have been having her in good ol' Southern Indiana. While sitting there I watched two dogs walk by and noticed now that everyone is opening their windows to let in the fresh air that we have quite a few animals here around our house. Lots of dogs barking at the dogs outside being walked, and a few cats. Someone has a very loud obnoxious bird close too. Every 4 seconds I heard this loud squawk, not as relaxing as a little robin chirping in a nest but in a trailer park you have to take what you can get, ya know?

I then took notice of the wildlife around our house. I have a pet rabbit that sits with me in the yard while I smoke my last cigarette of the night. (I know nasty habit, and I am trying to get in the mind set to quit, unsuccessfully) I also have a hummingbird that has taken up residence near my home. My neighbor has a feeder so from time to time I see him buzzing by my house on the way to eat. This particular morning while I was taking in the wonder of this creation of God, I was reminded how small everything is on this bird. He was flying by (don't ask me how I know it was a "he") and he stopped dead in his tracks once he noticed our two flood lights right outside our door. You could see he got really excited about it and tried to feed off of them. He thought he had hit the mother load! He tried a couple of times and then realized that he was just banging his beak on plastic. He stopped and turned to me in a "You didn't just see that did you?" kind of way and then got out of my yard as fast as he could. I wish he would of stuck around a little longer for me to explain the stupid things I do on a daily basis he would of felt a little better about himself.

No apologies necessary!

Today was the big Twins sale! I have been waiting for it for 6 months now. I woke up this morning and grabbed the kiddos and headed out the door. Needless to say the side by side was a little tricky to get around in there (it is set up in a gym) but it helped me stay within my budget of what I wanted to spend. I could only take so much of knocking stuff over before I was ready to leave. Plus, I still needed to pick some stuff up with the babies birthday money at Babies R Us. The kids were great! I decided to take Victoria to Krispy Kreme to reward her for her help. I really wanted to go inside to show her how they make the doughnuts but the stroller wouldn't fit so to the drive through we went.

Mom and Dad called me on the way home to invite me and the kids to dinner at King Fish on the river. We love it there and the day was perfect for it. They knew I wasn't enjoying the fact that James was needing to work this weekend and that I would be lonely. We ended up staying for 2 hours watching Victoria give us fashion shows on the patio.

After dinner we took off to church. Great service tonight. We celebrated and a party. The sermon was about things that God wants to party for and do a little jig about. They had little kids up on the stage dancing and had a balloon drop too. Too much fun!

After the service I headed up to the "Large Group" room for the kids to watch the puppeteers in preparation for volunteering for Kidstuff. They are in need of set designers and actors. I watched with such a smile on my face watching the kids singing the songs and saying bible verses word by word. I couldn't help but think about what a blessing it is to see the light bulb above the kids faces to hear about God. I teach Victoria about him, but to be able to help other children learn about how much God loves them would be such a blessing too. It isn't going to be long before Anthony and Addison will be there watching Farmer Sissy (the "real" person that leads the show) and learning about how God made the world and everything in it.

When I finally headed back home from the long day, Victoria told me about what she said when she walked into her classroom at church. She has only been there a few weeks and is just getting to know that teacher in her new classroom. Apparently first thing after I turned and walked away from dropping her off (mind you 15 minutes early) was "Sorry I am late. I had to go to a yard sale!" I could only imagine what the teacher thought, how funny! I sincerely believe that Victoria thinks they built the whole building for her, and that the rest of us just "get" to participate too.

A "whole" big mess

I called the pediatrician this morning to see if they were wanting me to switch over to whole milk. I used the last of my last can of formula last night and was hoping that I wouldn't have to spend 26 bucks for a can to last me till their one year check up on Friday. I just couldn't' see spending that much for a couple of days. They gave me the OK to go to whole milk. I didn't have any time to get to the store before I had to do some nails for a friend so we had apple juice with our breakfast. I knew that I could make due with juice till this evening.

Tonight I took Victoria to the church that she had bible school at. They are starting a WOW kids program every week on Wednesdays. Victoria was very excited to go and so was I. They even fed them, you gotta love that! I dropped her off and headed out to get myself some lunch. I decided to be a good wife and bring James some food too. We sat in the parking lot and had a quick date over some White Castles and then I took off to Target to kill some time.

My plan: Take Victoria to WOW then I could go and get myself something to eat, do some shopping, then pick Victoria up and grab a gallon of milk on the way home, feed the babies their night bottle and then crash into bed.

How it went: Get breakfast for everyone, give everyone a bath, Do a set of nails, fix lunch, Put babies in car, take babies out of car and take Victoria to WOW put babies back in car and stroller in back then I got some food(drive thru), saw James,went to Target (stroller out and stroller in) and realized that it was time for the babies to eat again. I ran home and left the car running while I ran into the house to grab a bottle for them, still no whole milk. I thought what is the difference between whole and 2%? One feeding isn't going to make a difference right? I knew juice wouldn't hold them till I got to the store. I grabbed the bottles and took them out to the car to the babies. They both freaked out! It tasted different, it was cold and they were not having it. I had to stop twice on the way back to get Victoria because they chucked the bottles across the back of the car and got milk all over the car seats that I just cleaned. I get the babies out of the car, stroller out, find Victoria and after putting the stroller back into the car, head to the grocery store for some milk, hoping that they will like it better and will have less fussing. I get the stroller out of the car and set it up behind my car and walk to one side of the car to get Addison and walk back to the back of my car....."where is my stroller?" It is half way down the parking lot! I forgot to set my brake and I am now holding a baby with no stroller to put her into. I walk about 10 parking spaces down and grab my stroller. Victoria is yelling at me from the car "Did you 'porget' to push the brake?!" Anthony is screaming his head off. He is hungry and wanting something other than that crap in the bottle that mommy is trying to sell me on. I get Victoria one of the little cart and give the speech of "If you want to be a big girl and push the little cart while mommy has the stroller you need to pay attention to what you are doing", I grab my gallon of milk and dozen eggs, and head to the baby department for some baby food, pick up the display of disposable bibs that Victoria knocked over and grab some jars of food, pick up the coffee creamer that Victoria knocked off the shelf and head to the register. Put the babies back in the car, stroller in car and head home, unload babies, unload groceries, warm food, Victoria in jammies, feed babies, try the whole milk warmed, same reaction from before and put them and Victoria to bed.

It all seemed so simple, I thought I had the whole thing figured out. I was going to have a relaxing time while Victoria was off making new friends and learning more about God. 8 loads and unloads of the stroller, one chasing of the stroller and two remodels of the grocery store displays and I am beat! This is what "Oh I am just going to take Victoria to this little thing that they are doing at church and pick up a gallon of milk" looks like in my world. I hear all of the time "I don't know how you do it." I tell ya some days I don't either. ZZZZZZZZZZZZ