We don't call him "Boogie" for nothing....

I really wish he would've shown you his "Strong Boy!" facing the camera. It is quite cute. You can see him clench his fist in front of him, but you don't get to see the face that goes with it, priceless. He seems to favor the second song and gets his hips really going. They just love music!

On a different note. Remember the pics of Kamp Kidstuff with Farmer Sissy, huge wig and all? Well tonight was my debut of being Farmer Sissy. James treated me to my own pair of overalls from Walmart and helped me run lines before we headed off to church, so sweet. I had a ball! I will have to get pics of me in costume. It is quite hilarious.

You came back! You came back!

Here he is folks! He has finally made it back home. I am beside myself. He got home on day 26. Life is back to normal now. It is such a nice feeling to be able to see him standing in our house. The kids were really excited to see him too. They started jumping once he walked in their bedroom. Thanks ya'll for listening to me whine these past few weeks. I am better now. :)

Let me explain the story from Victoria at the end. One day this past week I had mom on the speaker phone and Addison was saying over and over "Bye Bye" to Mom. We worked and worked to try to get Anthony to say the same thing, something, anything. Victoria, Mom, Addison and myself just saying "Bye Bye" over and over. He wouldn't udder a word. Addison still chattering away saying her famous "Bye Bye" Anthony finally turns around and looks at the phone and says "Duck".

Day 25

James is finally in Cincinnati about an hour and a half away. His trailer is empty and ready to head home. He just called to tell me that I 71, the interstate from Cincinnati to Louisville, is closed down. OF COURSE IT IS! James said he has to wait it out. There are other ways to get home but they are all illegal for a semi to take. I have cleaned the house with Victoria's help today in preparation and we are ready for him to walk through the door any day now. (sigh).

Day 24 "Oh WOW"

I wanted to show the view of the ice and snow from our front door. You can see that even the lattice work is coated in ice from last nights freezing rain. I will try to get outside and take some more pics later. Can't handle that much cold this early.


Here is a snippet of my morning. Mom and Dad call to check and see if we have electricity. Luckily we do, they do not. I try to make my way into the nursery bumping into walls on my way (not completely awake).The babies are up and ready to go as always. I open the big window by their beds to show them the snow outside. Addison turns around, looks out the window, and says "Oh WOW!" Oh wow was an understatement. We have about a foot of snow on top of a good inch of ice. We won't be going anywhere for quite a while. As I get the kids moved into their fence in the living room I start to make some breakfast. I have only been up for about 10 max right now and have NOT had any coffee yet, I barely caught the humor in the "Oh WOW" statement and then.......... the concert begins. I grabbed the camera so that she would have an audience. I wasn't yet in the mood. You will see that Addison isn't either when Victoria moves out of the camera shot. I am not ready for that much energy until noon. :). Ah, gotta love snow days its gonna be a long one.
What does come after the line "On a one mores hopen slay hey hey hey"? If you don't the words just sing higher and clap your hands, works for her.

Anticipation

Last night was the first night for the Beth Moore Esther study at church. Leslie and I decided to do it together on our Monday night girls night. I was really excited about it and didn't quite know what to expect. This will be my first time taking a Beth Moore study. I have heard great things about them but heard the there was alot of homework. The video lasted about an hour and it took me a few minutes to get focused. Once I was able to get completely tuned into what she was saying I found myself really liking her. By the end of the night I had a lump in my throat. I could just feel God tugging at me, preparing me for something, not yet knowing what that something was. I explained to Leslie that I felt like I was climbing the first hill of a roller coaster. You know that feeling of excitement, anticipation and knowing that what you are about to experience is going to be scary and you are going to be disoriented and confused about which way you are going for a while. That is exactly how I felt. I have learned that with each step of growing closer to God that the Devil chases after me harder. I have a strong feeling that God has something in store for me during and after this study. Something is going to be revealed to me and I am not sure what that is going to entale. I have a feeling that I am going to be out of my comfort zone for a while and I am going to learn alot. It is exciting and scary but I am going to ride the ride out. He has never let me down.

Day 22 and counting...

James is on his way home from Utah this morning. We have been occupying our time here with Victoria spending the weekend with Mamaw and Papaw so that she could attend a wedding with them, a game night for me with Leslie and her sisters (this left me with a stomach ache from laughing) and a visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house that got cut short due to the weather.

While at Mom and Dad's house I explained to Victoria about living there when I was a kid (is age 25 still classified as "kid"). I told her that I used to go on "adventures" in the woods at the end of the field that they live in. After dinner we bundled up and took off leaving Grandma and Grandpa to spoil the babies. We had a ball stomping on corn stalks, and catching huge fluffy snowflakes on our tongues. After about a 15 minute hike we reached the woods and the adventure began. I helped her cross a dried up creek on a log and I showed her where I used to take books and read. We found a really cool blue bottle that we decided to keep and take back to Grandma. On the way back the snow was falling hard in big cotton ball flakes we could barely see the house as we made our way back up the row of cut corn.




One snowball later we were in the basement in the warmth. I noticed that someone scooted around the corner in their car and decided to take a test drive and see how the road were doing. Seems like Mom and Dad's house attracts the worst driving conditions. They can have 6 inches of snow and in New Albany we have nothing on the ground. Dad and I decided that it was best to go ahead and go home now while I still could drive safely. Victoria was crushed, but lit up when Grandma let her borrow Momma Mia, so that we had something to look forward to when we got home.

We enjoyed the night home, with a movie and popcorn and decided that we enjoyed Momma Mia so much that we watched Chicago too as the snow fell outside. My night ended with Reality TV and some late night cookie making. Cookies don't snuggle as well as my husband in bed.

Tonight starts my first night of Beth Moore's Esther Bible study. I am really excited about it. This will be my firs Beth Moore study and I hear that she is just amazing. I can't wait to see what I am going to learn through this.

Day 21, A quiet morning.

Victoria is still at Mamaw and Papaw's house this morning. For the second morning in a row I have not been afraid to open my eye, because that is when the questions start. As nice as it has been, I do still miss her. Grandma Harb came by yesterday before church and we took the babies to Golden Corral and Bass Pro to look at the fish and stuffed animals. They seemed to really get a kick out of it. Leslie and her sisters met me at church for an awesome service, and then we went back home for a game night. I laughed till I cried. We had so much fun. I haven't laughed that much in quite a while, what a fun group of girls. Addison ended the night with a 101temperature and a shot of Motrin, looks like it will be another long week of sinus infection. Glad I have had these past few days.

Day 18.....

Well here we are folks, day 18 of James being gone from the house. I still have hair left, and the children are still alive. The sinus infection is still present in the house and hanging on for dear life. James is now in Texas heading to Utah to pick up a load for Cincinnati. Cincinnati was the closest place that he could find to get anywhere close to home, and from what I understand getting that load took 25 phone calls to Landstar today. James is at his wits end with Landstar already. Not having his own personal dispatch and having to book his own freight sounded great, but it takes an act of God to actually get the load that you want. James gets alerts on his phone when a load comes up on the board and then he competes with 8,000 other trucks for that load. Whoever calls first, gets it. James says if you wait 30 seconds the load is gone. I have been teasing him and telling him that he works for Landstar Wack-a-mole. Remember that game at the fair, where the little moles would pop up out of the hole and you had to hit them with a hammer before they crawled back in? James says that is a great description on how Landstar works, accept there are 8000 other people with a hammer standing beside you. So now James and my dad are going to go to a company called Rush. They have found a dedicated run hauling automotive parts that could possibly bring him home every night. So until we know more we will keep our fingers crossed and find things to do around here to keep us occupied until he makes it home. My fridge is spotless and so is my cabinets, and bedroom. James says he is hoping to make it home by next Thursday to start this new job. By then I may have completely cracked up.

"Put me to bed or the pizza is gonna to get it!"

This morning, bright and early at 8, I had the babies evaluation for First Steps. I have had some concerns about Anthnoy and Addison's speach. They haven't been using any "true words". Addison will give me a hi, bye, thaayuuuu, da da, and don't. Anthnoy just a Da and cop. Our pediatrician says that they should have 5-10 true words and to have them checked out. Addison doesn't seem to need any help but Anthony is in need of some therapy. We are concerned not only with his speach but also his fine motor, and eating issues. His attention span is soo short and he gets very frustrated when he can't figure something out. They told me that it wasn't anything to be too concerned about, it is only developmental, not anything else. I started to get nervous when they were talking about sensory issues with him still bringing everything immediately to his mouth. They concluded that he will probably need a speach, occupational, and developmental therapist. They gave me some recommendations on who to go with and who to stay clear of.

After the 3 1/2 hours of evaluation for both kids, Victoria coming back from her overnight stay at Grandma and Grandpa's, and starting my routine early this morning I was beat by 11 o'clock. My sister called, she and my niece were in town and wanted to stop by. It was a nice visit and took my focus off of my sleepiness for a while. The past few times they have been in town they have been sick and weren't able to come over and play so it was nice to sit and visit. The babies put on quite a show for them, and Addison fixed everyone's hair.

The babies woke up around 7 (usually they get out of bed around 9ish) and after the long time it took to get evaluated, company, and lunch, the babies hadn't had their full morning nap. Grandma came back by after working and offered to help us go to the grocery store. I had to take her up on it. Addison gave Grandma the evil look when she was again woken up after about 10 minutes of beauty rest, and Anthnoy still on the tail end of the sinus infection wasn't at all happy either.

So we are at about 5pm, about 15 minutes of broken nap, and we are heading to the grocery store. We hit Aldis first. In aisle 2 Anthony had reached his limit of patience. He was trying to stand up in the seat of the cart and scream at the top of his lungs, red faced, and giving a full 5-10 second scream before taking another breath. I couldn't get out of there fast enough. The next stop was Wal-mart. This wasn't much better. It started out well then took a turn for the worse when we hit the lunch meat. The screaming started and then Anthony started taking hostages, while standing up strapped into the cart. He started throwing a Totino's pizza out onto the floor like a frisbee. This happened several times. I was at a loss, I hadn't had to deal with this yet in a store. Not to this degree. I was asking for it. The poor guy was still sick, been poked and prodded, and had no nap for the day. I have had many trips to the grocery store where I was able to shop with ease and had no trouble with the babies, I guess I was due. I wonder if there are any toppings left on my poor party pizza.

Yesterday was a day of cleaning out the dust bunnies in the bedroom. I have been shuffling the babies around in the house because when Anthony doesn't feel well he bites, alot, and hard! Addison has had her fingers chomped so many times that I am surprised that she still has some left. I have our main activity area in the living room boxed in by the playard, we call it "their cage", and with our screen door on the nursery they are safe playing in their room too. That gives them plenty of room to roam around and stay out of trouble.

Addison spent some of her day in the bedroom with me "helping" me clean. Her favorite part was picking up the trail mix that had spilled out of my overnight bag I still hadn't unpacked from our Kamp Kidstuff. She would grab it and bring it over to me saying thank you, which sounds more like like "TaaaKuuuu". Shortly afterwards she moved onto placing pony tail holders she found on the floor in the bathtub. It was quite entertaining, because usually she gets caught finding treasures on the floor. When she finds something she will start singing to it. I have found that the octave of the song is in direct relation to how dangerous it is for her to have. So if you hear Addison singing like Mariah Carey you know she has found something really good! Another favorite part for Addison was the vacuum. She got mad at me when I would turn it on, not because of the noise, she just didn't like it moving around. She just wanted to squat by it and check it out. When I would start to vacuum she would stand behind me and push my legs with all of her might trying to get me to stop. I would turn off the vacuum and she would just squat beside it and talk to it. Too cute.

After I was finished with her "helping" me I took her into the nursery and let her loose on her toys while Anthony was in the living room "cage". I was listening to her on the monitor and didn't hear a beep. Victoria came into the bedroom and says to me "Come here and look at what your daughter did!". I make my way into the room to find this.....




Apparently I had forgotten that there was a box of Kleenex on the top shelf of her toys. She had decorated her room for me with a full box of Kleenex. She was so proud of herself! When I sat down and started shoving the Kleenex back in the box all I heard was "TaaaaKuuuu" coming from behind me.

The recipe for disaster...

1 cup of stomach flu in a one year old
2 cups of sinus infection in that same one year old
3 tsp of smart mouthed 5 year old
1 cup of one year old without her paci
one whole package of incredibly supportive husband that travels for his work


-In a 14X80 box mix the 1 cup of stomach flu and the 2 cups of sinus infection. (This part can be very messy and require alot of clean up, also causing you to lose many sitter options! So proceed with caution)

-Once this mixture has reached a smooth consistancy (this usually happens when you are exhausted from mixing the previous mixture) the 3 tsp of smart mouthed 5 year old should be added into the mix. This will cause the batter to get very loud and volital, this is when the 1 cup of one year old without her paci will be added. Blend until smooth.

-Allow this mixture to sit for about 13 days all while keeping the whole package of incredibly supportive husband in a completely different physical location than the mixture. Although this ingredient will be VERY important for giving you the desire to finish the process of making this dish, it's contents will have limited ability, due to location, to affect the mixture.

-You will be able to tell that your batter is almost ready when you see history of sneakiness rise to the top. That is when the surprise ingredient comes into play....Arguement with Mother-in-law. You only need a dash of this to finish off the recipe. Although this ingredient is hard to locate at the grocery store, it is given to you freely when you when you don't push the ignore button on your phone.

After all ingredients mixed together, ball up mixture and chuck it into the oven and bake at 350 until it looks like a big lump of crap. LOL! This dish goes really well with a side of sarcasm.

We better stay put

At lunchtime yesterday Anthony got sick....twice! So after calling Daddy and telling him the news he said that he would just drive the extra miles from E'town and come on home. We didn't want to get the babies out in this bitter cold weather anyway. James made it home late in the evening and left early this morning. I got him about 14 hours. We had a nice visit, long enough for us to watch American Idol and for me to steal all of the covers and leave him in the cold, lol. He has been gone about a half an hour and I already miss him again. This morning Anthony seems to still be feeling bad, Addison too. She didn't really eat breakfast, niether did Anthony. That is unlike them. Anthony fell asleep in my arms on the couch and I just put Addison down. We are doing well with the paci issue. She is down to about 10 minutes max on crying before she will go to sleep. I have to do some praising to God, this has gone easier than I thought.

E'town or BUST!

Addison did really well last night with the whole paci situation. She ended up crying for about a half hour initially and then fell asleep. She only woke up once to cry for another 20 minutes after a diaper change. I didn't know it would go that well. Maybe I was the one with the paci addiction. She even took her morning nap without her trusted friend and only cried for about ten minutes before giving up.

James has found a load in the general vicinity of our home. He has a load heading to E'town. He should be there late this evening. He has been gone now for 10 days. He wants us to come down and meet him for dinner, because after he goes to E'town he will be heading to Texas. I am not sure when he will be able to come back home. Getting his feet wet in this company, and building relationships with brokers is going to take a little while. I just wish that being a owner/operator meant that he could do that from his own living room. I miss him. I have to admit that I am excited about seeing some different scenery out of my windshield other than the 3 miles trip to Wal-mart. Hooray I get to see my husband!

Kicking the habit

I am trying to help Addison break her paci addiction. She is very loyal to her paci and I already see the evidence in her two front teeth. We tease her and call her hippo teeth (I know it is mean but she just has a very gappy grin). I decided after almost two weeks of procrastination (my resolution for Addison) to go for it tonight and try to put her to bed without her trusted friend. She isn't taking it too well. She screamed for about 20 minutes and then silence. She has now, 30 minutes later, woken up to find that she still doesn't have her paci, and again isn't happy at all. She seems to do well through the course of a day. When she is busy she doesn't seem to need it. Sometimes I see her just walking around with it hanging in her mouth while she isn't the least bit upset about anything. That tells me that she doesn't "need" it.

Since Daddy has left a week ago yesterday I haven't had a cigarette and I have survived, which means that I don't "need" it either. We are going to have to get through this together...oh wait she stopped crying, nope spoke too soon. If she continues to keep screaming I might have to take up the paci myself to keep me from smoking. LOL

Early morning infomercials.

Our morning routine here has Victoria crawling into bed with me watching cartoons till the babies wake up. Victoria continues to hang out and watch TV in my room while I change diapers then start breakfast. This morning my brain wasn't working too well and I needed some stimulation while my coffee was brewing. I decided to hop on here and check my mail. Victoria tapped me on my shoulder and decided to give me the following information...."Hey mom you closet is a mess! You know what you need to make it look better? 5 Wonder Hangers!! You just put the clothes on it and fold it up and you can make more room in the closet, but you need 5!" I guess she left out of my room to tell me this information before she found out that if we ordered now that they would double our order and give us not 5, but 10 Wonder Hangers! Probably along with a free set of knives!

Dinner conversation

While eating dinner today Victoria and I chatted a bit about what we learned about today at church. In large group we have been learning about Jesus growing up to be a man. I knew that the lesson today was about Jesus spending time in the temple learning about his father. Victoria started talking about how they made a temple in their classroom with a chair and a sheet and they would go and spend time in there. She seemed really excited about it. I asked her "Who spent time in the temple?" She quickly responded "Jesus!" I then asked her "What did Jesus learn about in the temple?" To which she looked me dead in the eyes and said..."I don't know, I wasn't there!" We have a wise guy on our hands here folks!

Sleepless in the Centrum.

Well we survived it! I spent the night at church. I had a great time. We had over 80 kids signed up and alot of them brought friends that had never been to our church before. It was great! I am exhausted but it was worth it. It was nice to have a date with Victoria. I really appreciate the time to focus just on her.


Victoria with Miss Frizzy. She is Farmer Sissy and Miss Sissy's teacher.



Victoria with Miss Sissy. She lives on Memory Lane and is Farmer Sissy's cousin. She also leads large group on the weekends. It just depends on what set we are working with that week.



Victoria with Farmer Sissy. She helps lead the Large group experience at Church. I have been roped into this role for the next coming weeks. I no longer get to hide behind the set and play with puppets. I have to admit I am excited about being able to see the kids faces during Large Group.



This was by far the kids favorite area at Kamp. They had an inflatable slide and trampoline in the lobby. I tried to sneak out and play on them myself while everyone was asleep but they had locked the door to get into them. Shucks!



"Serving your neighbors" We made a wind sock craft with a paper plate and ribbon. The kids then talked about who they could give their craft to.



Ah the green backpack. When the kids arrived they got their very own Ready to Serve backpack. After the kids completed an act of service they received a pin to place on their backpack. All of us adults teased that the kids were getting flair.



In "Serving God" we did a little worship and dancing. Miss Sissy helped out and handed the kids instruments. The rule was after the song was over you had to sit criss cross applesauce and drop the instrument in front of you and throw your hands up in the air.



In "Serving our Community" we worked in the food pantry. All of our kids that participated in Kamp Kidstuff donated can goods to our pantry that serves over 50 families a week. We marked the date on top of cans that had been donated and decorated them with Jesus loves you stickers. The little lady that was running this activity was cracking up because our group put so many stickers on the cans that nobody could tell what was inside of the can.




In this portion of our activities we talked about different things that God would like for us to do to help serve our friends. One little girl when asked what God would want us to do exclaimed "Don't bite them!"


This was Victoria's favorite part of the evening. She really got excited when she saw everyone setting up their tent. I guess she thought I was joking when I said that we were spending the night. It looked like a regular camp ground.




It didn't take long after setting up the 5X6 tent to see that a 5X6 tent wouldn't work for both of us. Luckily my friend Crissy had an extra inflatable mattress and I ended up sleeping right outside of "Victoria's tent". By morning I was sleeping on the floor anyway on a deflated air mattress. Guess it had a leak. LOL.

In an effort to procrastinate a little longer

Tonight is Kamp Kidstuff!! I am so jazzed. Kidstuff at church has been preparing for this for quite some time. This is our time of year that the Large group (where I puppeteer) gets a dose of steroids and goes big time. I have a cleverly hidden Hannah Montana overnight bag in my closet, with a Hannah Montana sleeping bag, that I got a week ago for his event. I found a very cheap pop tent at Meijer this past week and all I need to do now is get everything packed up and in the back of the car.

Jodi, Leslie's sister, graciously offered to watch the twins while we are gone. I am busy (OK I should be busy) making sure that everything is ready for her arrival. So many piddly things to do to get ready.

Tonight I am suppose to be a group counselor. We have 80 kids signed up and they are all bringing a parent too. Sounds like we are having a nice turn out. Our theme this year is Ready to Serve! We are having all of the kids bring a can fruit or soup to give to the food pantry and all of our activities are centered around serving God, family, community, church, and friends. We are going to have the whole lobby filled up with the inflatable jumping rooms (what do you call those things anyway). We will separate into groups and go to different areas to do different activities. We will do a craft, have a snack, work in the food pantry, worship, and have a game to play too. After we have "toothbrush and tinkle time" we will settle down for a movie on the big screen in hopes of makeing the children sleepy. We will be camping in our old sanctuary. From what I understand some people go all out bringing fake fire wood and all. I can't wait! I think I am more excited than Victoria. Victoria isn't going to know what hit her when we get there. She is going to lose her mind. I am bringing my camera to take pictures to post tomorrow!

The people that God make you cross paths with.

It was bound to happen, Victoria's run of being a model child has expired. LOL She had a good run considering. Nothing horrible she is just acting like a 5 year old. She has been in time out a few times and had many "talks" these past couple of days. While in Walmart after the gym today I was giving her the "DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING" speech and out of nowhere here comes this lady with her son, about a year younger than Victoria. He is hanging only by his hands on the side of the cart and dragging his legs behind him while screaming "PLEASE LET ME IN THE CART! OH MOM PLEASE LET ME IN THE CART!" The mother just kept pushing the cart with him dragging on the side. I had to look at Victoria and say "I guess your not being as bad as I thought, huh." She held herself up a little straighter in a "I am glad I am not that kid" kind of way.

Popcorn too

I have just been so impressed with Victoria's behavior lately that I decided to surprise her with a movie and popcorn. I have hung onto my hair money this week so that me and the kids could go out and have "date days". After getting everyone bathed and dressed we headed over to Great Escape 16 and saw Bedtime Stories. It was cute. Victoria was so excited to be sitting in a theatre especially with a bag of popcorn on her lap, and a stash of hidden snacks in our diaper bag :). We were the only ones in the theatre (I went to the first show on a Tuesday to make sure of that) We sat right in the front row. We really didn't have a choice the stroller wouldn't' go up stairs. The babies kicked back and watched the whole movie with big sissy and didn't make a peep till the last 10 minutes. Even at that I handed them their sippy cup and they were fine. I was so proud of my crew and it was great to get out of the house for a bit!


I had to share this. Our little Boogie is turning into a band director. I was watching some music videos on utube tonight and turned around to find Anthony leading the band atop his ice cream bucket. I thought I was doing the safe thing taking the handle off of it before I gave it to him but I guess I didn't take ALL safety issues into consideration.

Visitation #1

After alot of thought we decided tonight would work to let Victoria see her mother. She got out of jail the day before Christmas eve and with the holidays being so hectic and being piled up with work dealing with the truck we didn't get around to it till now. We were told that she would be getting out Christmas eve but that other counties might need her to do time also, so we held off telling Victoria till we knew something solid. We didn't want her to get excited only to be disappointed when it didn't happen. Victoria spoke with her on the phone a couple of times and that seemed to go well. We headed over to McDonalds to get a bite to eat and also to meet her. We wanted someplace neutral for all of us. We had explained to Victoria that she would be alone with Tina for a while and that we were all going to "hang out" together for a long time before she was able to be alone with her or spend the night at her Dad's, where she is living. I was a nervous wreck to be honest. I distraught wondering if I had done enough to prepare her for her mom being back in her life. I stood in the nursery tearing up telling James all of my concerns and I started to laugh a little bit. I have been trying for a two years to be her mom and worried to death that I didn't love her the same way that I do my biological children, now here I stand acting like I am getting ready to send her off to college when I am going to let her see her biological mother for an hour (while I am there sitting next to her none the less).

Tina arrived and Victoria looked straight at her sitting behind her and not recognizing her, turned back around and kept on eating. Tina has lost alot of weight it wasn't easy to recognize her myself. Victoria said a hello but didn't run up and hug her or go crazy in any way. It was just kind of a "Hey" moment when she saw her the first time. She was more interested in seeing her sister Megan who is 17. We have seen Megan a couple of time while Tina was locked up, and Victoria just loves her to death. Megan basically raised Victoria before we got her. Tina pulled Victoria into her lap sitting at the chair next to me. It was so sweet Victoria leaned over after hugging Tina to grab my face from her lap and gave me a kiss and a hug and called me "Mommy". I felt like it was a God given moment just for me. She just looked at me with her big brown eyes and in her own way gave me the "I am OK" look, she even made a point to call me Mom.

Victoria spent 90% of her time at McDonalds hanging out with Megan in the playplace. Tina didn't offer to go in there with them. She just sat at the table with us talking serving her time. James went into the playland to tell Victoria to come out and spend time with Tina. The visitation turned out to be more of a Victoria and Megan thing. Victoria gave Megan about 50 hugs out the door as we were leaving.

I am glad that the first visitation is over. I have been dreading it. One thing it did for me was help me realize that the bond between Victoria and I is solid. In our hearts I am her mother and she is my daughter.

Well how did I do??

After checking my blog for last years New Years resolutions I feel like I did well. the diet part I completely ignored but for the most part I feel like I have made an honest attempt to do better in the areas that I wanted to. So I look back on the year and give myself a pat on the back.
Yesterday I got to do something I don't do alot and I took off with mom alone to go to the gym. We were really excited that Grandpa offered to watch the kiddo so that we could go. We drove up to the YMCA and noticed that they were closed, we didn't seem to mind and headed out to go into some milk-free stores. We ended up strolling around Goodwill because they were the only place open, along with Hobby Lobby. We had a great time and I finshed off the experience with a Yule Flip Chip Blizzard at Dairy Queen.
The New Year Celebration didn't go as I had hoped. James and I started decorating the house during naptime. We did a nice job, I must say, with our 6 dollars in party supplies. Victoria reached her limit of warnings at about 10:30 and had to go to bed. I stayed up with James snoring at my feet while the countdown happened. Wasn't exactly what I had in mind but it doesn't change the end results. 2009 is here there is no stopping it. 08 was good to us. The babies turned a year old, we purchased a semi at the end of the year, I have gotten more involved at my church and I am really enjoying it, and Victoria and I have come a long way as mother and daughter.
09 makes me nervous. James and I taking our step as owner/operator is nerve wrecking. Lots and lots of paperwork and changes come with that. Victoria starts school this year, we are excited about that actually, so is she. Victoria's mother got out of jail on Christmas eve and I am not really sure how to handle that. It definately is putting an interesting twist on our lives. Victoria is excited about it but seems to be bothered by it at the same time. Victoria hasn't seen Tina yet and we are trying to figure out a way to do that supervised (by us) and make sure that it is healthy for Victoria. She has been really clingy since learning that Tina is out. She has been asking alot of quetions about it and talking alot about when she lived with her. She has talked to her on the phone a couple of times and hasn't really asked to see her. Not really sure where to dgo from here. One thing I know is God is good and he will be present in 09 too. It will be a good year full of opportunity for growth, improvement, and changes. Maybe a new home? We will see. Hope everyone had a safe New years eve and has a great new year.