TGIF

Well we spent today running errands, lots of fun when gas is $4.19 a gallon around here. Went and took my drug test today for the water company job and I start there on Wednesday. Downside to this job is that UN's girlfriend's Mom works in the customer service center in the same office as I will. Thank goodness I will be in customer protection so I won't be working with her just in the same room, which is bad enough. I have issues with UN's girlfriend's Mom because she has said some really, really stupid things and even stupid things about UN which of course pisses me off because you don't pick on my baby brother. So I will grin and bear it because at least it means a paycheck while Mom and I gather our thoughts on our next moves. We are getting hit by a really, really bad storm right now with lots of tornado sitings but hey instead I'm sitting her blogging, how messed up is that. Thank goodness I loaded the pictures before hand because the tornado siren just went off, gotta go and take cover!

Wednesday?

Ok, so I am so screwed up since Monday was a holiday. So to answer Farrah's question about Fostering. Well the Social worker was suppose to call us the week of Mother's Day to come out for our last home visit. Not sure why she needs to do this since we are already licensed and just waiting for placement. Well of course she hasn't called. I have left 3 messages but to no avail, she hasn't returned them. I do have her supervisors phone number but I haven't pushed the issue since it's been so crazy around here with losing my job and all.

As for the job front, I am 99% for sure that I have a new job working for the Water Company, the hours and days suck and it's 45 minutes away but hey it's work and should be stable work, I mean everyone needs water right but heck I said that about the bank! Basically I walked into the interview today and they offered it to me within the first 30 seconds but I have a few tests to take before I can officially accept it, which that shouldn't be any problem at all, at least I hope. Plus it's at least work and I can always quit if I get offered something better, closer to home.

I did make K, bento for lunch today. I made a man out of noodles, then placed a slice of cheese on top with bacon eyes and a bbq sauce smile and some pineapple on the side. K loved it and devoured every bit of it. Also I don't think my octopus was that scary, Auntie Corey. I mean he did look a little pissed off but hey that's how Mommy was feeling at the time :) Maybe I need to make one and send it to Crappy Adoption Agency for you, maybe they would be scared of him! So here are today's pictures and some from Memorial Day, K is wearing the dress Auntie Corey gave her way before she even came home from Vietnam, it's a size 6 months but fits her perfectly.

Memorial Day with Kitty

It rained almost all day on Memorial Day but we were able to be outside for a short time.

K's Bento Lunch Today

K eating pineapple

I got a package from my friend Anik who is Logged In the same month us me for China, she sent us some awesome bibs for my little C. They have some of the cutest things in Canada.

K wanted to try one on, she loves to tell everyone that these were for her sista, C

K playing with her Amazing Animal farm. It was so cold today that I had to put a sweatsuit on K. I have packed away almost all our warmer clothes because I really can't believe it's in the 40's in May here and tomorrow it's suppose to be in the 80's. What Crazy weather!

Bento for Lunch

Well I decided to try my hand at some Bento. So this is what a made K for lunch today, a hot dog octopus with cheese eyes and smile. I have some directions for some other hot dog creatures but I decided to try something easy first. I got the Bento box from the Dollar Store before Christmas and just thought it was a cute snack box, had no idea it was for Bento.

Yuck

Well that's all I can say about today, it has rained off and on all day and that just sucks. Things here are well, they are here, that's the best I can say. Money is beyond tight and it just seems things keep getting worse like we are falling in one of those caves that has no bottom or better yet one of those lakes that just keeps going and going and going. We have one of them near my house and people who have dived in it come out telling some amazing stories, I guess that's what we will do once we finally come out of this nightmare we are going through. Otherwise I have had a migrane for 3 days now and at least with meds it's dulling the pain for about an hour, that's why I can write this but I feel like my brain is going to explode. We are all stressed around here and trying to pretend we are not so K doesn't pick up on it but it's hard. Otherwise she seems to be doing ok other than having an off and on fever for the last 2 weeks. It will come out of no where last a few hours and then she's fine, it's really weird. Otherwise, I have learned how to make a few other bow types and so I have been having fun making them. All the bows you see in K's pictures below, I made. Well gotta get back to work, nothing like working your butt off on a Sunday night for hardly nothing.

Busy Weekend, Busy Week

Well lets see, last thursday, the brakes went out on the van (couldn't stop at all, it was scary). So we took it to the shop and the repair guy (who is a total trustworthy guy) called us late on Thursday and gave us the dreadful bad news. Basically there was over $7000 worth of repairs needed to be done on the van. Which basically we had already knew about most of the repairs and we were just hoping the van would hold out just long enough for us to get back on our feet before having to get a new one. Well that didn't happen. So Friday we took UN to work and my Mom, K and I looked at cars. We ended up getting a really great deal (it cost us only $400 more than the repairs were going to be on the other van) on an awesome van and a great monthly payment. So we are the proud new owners of a used Ford Windstar. I have to say I've totally fell in love with this minivan. I mean I loved our old minivan but I really, really love this one. Then Saturday, we ended up participating in a huge yard sale that was being hosted by a local church. We did pretty good but there wasn't alot of people buying. On Sunday we finished planting the rest of our garden, so that way we will at least have something to eat this summer if it gets that bad. We have over 70 tomato plants and untold amounts of green beans, spinach, peas, zucchini, eggplant, butternut squash, peppers, sweet corn and pumpkins. And whatever we don't eat and use, we plan on setting up a little roadside veggie stand and selling it.

Otherwise I have a job interview tomorrow. I called and spoke with the HR women this morning and she hasn't even seen my resume and wants me to come in for an interview. I mean things like that don't happen, they always require looking at your resume first, so I'm shocked and excited because maybe this is a change in our luck plus for the first time in a really long time this feels like I'm in the right place at the right time....or at least I hope that's what I'm feeling and I'm not in some delusional state :) Otherwise K has been having fun playing outside, we get a few good hours before nap time and then by the time she wakes up, I'm usually heading out the door for work. She is talking up a storm and amazes me everyday by the new words and new songs that she can sing. Her favorite song to sing is that Dog commercial for some kind of flea/tick stuff and the Dog sings "Their ain't no bugs on me, their ain't no bugs on me, there may be bugs on some of you mugs but their ain't no bugs on me." It's hilarious listening to her sing it.

Feeling lost

Sometimes on the way to a dream

you get lost and find a better one.

I found a magnet with this quote on it and bought it years ago. It just seemed to speak volumes about my life. There were so many dreams that I gave up right out of high school for what I thought was everlasting love and that just turned out to be a horrible nightmare, but if I had pursued those original dreams, I wouldn't be where I am now. Ok so right now isn't the greatest but leading up to this moment has been amazing. I can't tell you how many times I was heading towards one dream, when something better came along, sometimes I didn't realize it and other times I was humbled by it. One of those other dreams was if it hadn't been for me finally being able to start C's adoption from China, I would have never revisited the thought of adopting from Vietnam. Lucky for me, that dream came true and I adopted K and became her Mommy and that's is one amazing dream that wouldn't have came true if I hadn't gotten lost along the way. Maybe the feelings of being lost I've been having means I'm right where I need to be.

Job Stability, Now that's Funny

Job -a post of employment; full-time or part-time position
Stability - continuance without change; permanence

Now that's a funny combination because in my world all it means lately is......

Layoffs - a period of enforced unemployment or inactivity

Do companies have no loyalty and why do they suck, hire someone for over a month and then lay them off (ok, they laid off 50+ people) because they decided that the work was going to be done strictly by automated machines, which is something they have known about for months, maybe years and rumors that I heard but really thought they were just rumors because why would they hire new employees if they were going to be closing soon. Wow I can't tell you how much this sucks!

I'll leave you with some pictures of K's first haircut that was done today and how short Grandma cut it and also a picture of Kitty Cat taken by K.

A Day Off

Well yesterday after working 7 days a week, 16 hr days plus, for over a month, I took a day off. Yes I'm one of those employees that called in sick when I really wasn't all that sick. I do feel under the weather but not enough that I would miss work normally but I really needed a break to decompress. It was amazing to actually get a full nights sleep, to eat dinner with my daughter and watch the 10 o'clock news. I do have to say I'm feeling 100% better today than I have been and I know when I go back to work today that I'll be a better employee for it. Otherwise we are spending our day waiting for the Washer repair guy to show up and also trying to get our garden inbetween the rain showers. Can't wait for fresh summer veggies. Also spent the morning putting in job applications, since my Mom is losing her job that means she can be home with K during the day, plus daytime jobs just pay better. So I guess it's a good thing all around.

Happy Mother's Day

We had quite a crazy and low key Mother's day. We were suppose to have lunch with my Grandma but she canceled so my brother was sweet enough to pick up my Mom and Me something to eat from TGI Fridays so we didn't have to cook. When he picked up the order, it was totally screwed up (food under cooked, forgot complete parts of the order, etc, etc, it was a disaster) , so of course I had to call and complain to the manager, he didn't want to handle it, so I ended up talking to the General manager and wow, talk about service. He even had someone bring us out dinner tonight because of their screw-ups and because it was Mother's day and no Mother should have to cook on Mother's day. We just want to wish all our friends with children who are home and those how are waiting for your little ones a very, very Happy Mother's day!!

I love this picture because of the ladybug which represents my

little China Ladybug who I'm still waiting to come home forever

Just when you think it couldn't get any worse

Well I swear that this blog has turned into a pity party for us but it seems like no matter how hard we try we just can't seem to catch a break. I really believe that 2008 was going to be a much better year than the previous two and especially better than 2007 but so far, that ain't happening. On Monday right before I was leaving for work, I broke my tooth. So I'm sitting here in pain because of course I don't have dental insurance yet through work and won't for another 60 days. But then yesterday we got even a bigger blow. My Mom always calls when she gets off work to tell me she's headed home, well today she didn't which I thought was weird. So K and I was outside playing when she pulled up. She walked over to me with a paper in her hand and I go what's that and she's says just read it. It stated that they are shutting down her warehouse permanently and she will lose her job at the end of June. You have no idea at how bad of time this is happening at right now. We are at a loss and can only sit there in disbelief. I sat there last night at work totally distracted wondering what the hell what we are going to do and just praying over and over and over in mind. And then the weirdest thing happened. When the lady who passes at work goes "what is that?" and I look outside the window and there were millions of those maple seedlings or helicopters floating upwards towards my 4th floor window. I have never seen anything like that in my life and I suddenly felt a sense of peace, it was a sign that everything was going to be ok. But unfortunately that still doesn't stop me from worrying.

K on Cinco de Mayo wearing her festive ladybugs

K making Kitty Cat attack me

K helping Kitty Cat blow the seeded dandelion

Some cool pictures I took this weekend

I was messing around with our camera and discovered that it has a setting for super up close pictures so on Sunday, K and I crawled around the front yard taking pictures of flowers, bugs and anything else we found and they turned out amazing. These are some of my favorites, who would of know that a dandelion and violet could be so gorgeous.

The China Wait

Usually I don't talk about how long China is taking to match families but after the latest batch of referrals I went and checked adoption forcast and till this month it always said we would be matched with our little C sometime between August-November 2009. Which I have been perfectly fine with waiting that long but today it says this......

Our prediction for LID 2006-06-22
China has 161 days of dossiers to be processed before they get to your dossier. China currently processes about 5.7 days of dossiers each month.
Our best guess: 2010-08-29

I can't even imagine 2010!!! I am crushed even by that thought because I never really thought it would take that long, I expected late 2009, early 2010 for travel. K is going to be 4 1/2 before her sister is even home, heck I'll be 34 1/2. I have put my life on hold for so long waiting for this, I'm not going to quit now but I just can't fathom that I'm going to have to pay at least 1 more time (even with the 1 free extension that I have) the stupid fees for the I-171H, more fees to my homestudy agency and just the cost on our life because it feels like we are in a holding pattern. I just have a feeling that there's a reason for all this but I just don't know why and after I read that all of a sudden a baby boy's face flashed in my mind, which was always my thought after C came home and was home for a few years. Maybe that's it, maybe C is suppose to be the last one home and not the middle child.

Also Congrats to our friends who saw their sweet daughter's faces for the first time on Friday. Check them out they are the families with LID between 1-10-06 to 1-12-06 on my sidebar.

Our Morning brought to you by Kitty Cat

While K was running around pushing laundry carts all over the place,

Kitty Cat sat in fear of being ate by a rat larger than him

So since Kitty Cat was scared and K had abandoned him, I asked if he wanted to help me. He jumped at the chance. Here he is holding the detergent for me. Do you see the Out of Order sign on the washer? Yep 90% of the washers were broken.
Here Kitty Cat is helping me put money in the machine

Kitty Cat's favorite thing was pressing the setting for the washer. Who can blame him we all love to press buttons. While we waited for the clothes to wash, we enjoyed a little breakfast. As you can see K also lost her shoe and Kitty Cat found it for her.And I think this sign sums it all up. "USE WASHERS AND DRYERS AT OWN RISK"

Yep we broke down and had to go to the "Washie Washie" laundromat. Needless to say I have worked in some really seedy, questionable, drug inflicted, gang gun toting, very ghetto areas in my life (ok every job I have, have been in bad areas of the city, including the ones I have now) and have never felt unsafe. I have to say that today, it was a different story and this is in a nice town and a nice area even though we were the only ones there, I still feared letting K out of my eyesight.

Disclaimer: There were no rats, at least that we saw but I'm pretty sure that the many locked doors with Stay Out on them housed them. Also no one was hurt on the trip to, from and while we were at the laundromat but we did get a super bad thunderstorm that made things interesting. Also, Kitty Cat really wasn't all that scared but K did abandon him so she could push the carts around. Oh and that's a bow on Kitty Cat that was in K's hair and since we didn't want to lose it, Kitty wore it instead.