Waiting, waiting, waiting...

I just hate this, waiting to be called for an interview, waiting on the social worker, waiting on K's speech evaluation to be done....UGH!! I'm sick of WAITING. I hate these new systems where you can track your progress on where your application is because I'm sorry I'm not really a patient person and per the computer, my application has been sitting on the hiring managers desk for 4 days and I would think by now they would have called me for an interview. Let alone all these other contacts that you get through Monster.com that come by email saying please contact me because I have a great job for you and when you do it's some bullcrap. Otherwise nothing new, just hanging out with K, cleaning the house, trying to get things organized and trying to make some money by selling custom clothes and other random stuff on ebay. My Mom makes these great custom clothes and has a ton of stuff listed right now on ebay for Valentine's day and Chinese & Vietnamese new year. In other news we have taken advantage of the nice weather the past 2 days and have spent alot of time outside playing. It's amazing to be breaking records because it's so warm in the dead of winter.

A New Year

Well I've decided that 2008 has to be better then 2007. We shed too many tears, had too many worries and not enough money, so this year has to be better. I know starting out the new year with no job, uncertainty about K's condition and worries about how to make the house payment are not a good way but unlike years past, I really truly can feel that this year is going to be different. That this year is going to be one of many blessings! So here's to a great 2008, trust me it can't be any worse than 2007 was!

Visiting my Grandma

On the 30th we headed up North to visit my Grandma or K's Great-Grandma. Since my Grandpa died we only see this women once a year. Not because we wanted no contact but this is what she requested...well actually demanded. My Grandma became a money hungry freak as soon as my Grandpa passed away. She stood at the front of his casket during the funeral and shed fake tears. While the rest of us were hurting and actually for once wanting to be a family, she told each and everyone of us lies about each other and that we were never allowed back on the family farm. Every year I have made a point of bringing her a Christmas gift. The first year I mailed it, while the last 3 years I made a point of stopping by the farm and even though she wasn't suppose to be there, she always was. The last 2 years she has treated us like foreign people yet this year it was a 180 turn around. Ever since my daughter came home, she has never once used her name. Even when she meet her last Christmas she treated her like some alien standing in her living room. The night before we planned on heading up there, I called my Great-Aunt to let her know we were coming to visit and also my Grandma's house. And like usual my Grandma hung up on me everytime I would call. Yet after visiting with our Great-Aunt, we headed to my Grandma's not knowing if she was even home but we were at least going to leave her presents. Well as soon as I got out and headed to the door she came flying out, grabbing me, hugging me and crying, not fake tears but the real thing. Once she realized it wasn't only me in the car, she told me to hurry up and get K out of the car because she can't wait to see her. My Mom was along and she swears that my Grandma was drunk but I hugged her and got close enough to her to know that she wasn't. She actually spent the evening like a real family, she played with K, used her name, hugged and kissed her and treated her like a Grandma should. I'm not sure if it was a holiday miracle of some sort or it was drugs but it was nice to finally have my daughter treated the way she should, like a great-granddaughter.

Our Christmas Celebration

Well the pictures were a little out of order on the last post, the first picture should have been the potato candy (the last picture). My Great-Great Grandma use to make it every year and it's been a family tradition. Well this is the first year that my Mom was like, "hey lets make potato candy". Well she doesn't have a recipe or anything just this is the ingredients. So I skin a whole bunch of baking potatoes, coo k them, mash them, and so on. Then we realize that we really only should have used about 4 potatoes and that would have been enough to make candy for everyone, family, neighbors, friends, etc and also some to send to friends far away. So now we have enough potato candy to feed everyone in the world. And I gotta say it's so freakin good.

The next picture is of K and her kitchen that Santa brought but the point of the pictures is her "Meow Ho Ho Ho" Hat that she has on. While trying to start and finish our Christmas shopping on the 22nd of December. We were walking down the aisle and she started point and saying "that cat" and then meowing. Well we were next to the pet stockings so I really thought she wanted to see one of them. So I started to hand her one and she shook her head "no". And so she continued her "that cat meow". So finally I really look at what she is looking at and thrown at the bottom under a billion other hats is a leopard looking ball, so I pull it out and she excitedly put it on her head and exclaims "Meow Ho Ho Ho". So of course I had to buy it and I was excited when it was only $1.74. So K got her "Meow Ho Ho Ho" hat that she wore all the way home, all day on Christmas and every day since then. I guess she's not going to let me pack it away with the other Christmas decorations.

Then there is our stove, which did catch on fire, if you blow up the picture you can see the salt we through on it and also how it's still burning at that point. I was trying to cook potato casserole when this happened. We are still not sure what caused it because nothing ran over. So it's a mystery. But we then used the picture of the bucket of water to clean up the whole stove and the insides of the stove. And the very last picture is not of the smoke alarms which failed to go off (yes I am going to buy new smoke detectors) it was of the burglar alarm that went off instead and the panel wouldn't reset it, so I had to climb up there and unhook the wires to make it stop.

So that was our Christmas in a nutshell. There were a few other things like it was only suppose to be the 4 of us and my Grandparents ended up staying with us because my Grandma was sick instead of heading to Tennessee like planned. My Grandpa complained about everything we fixed for dinner and how it didn't get enough to eat. Which just ticked me off for the fact that my Mom and I didn't eat certain stuff so he could have more which it certainly did take seconds and thirds.

Otherwise my Mom did escape the layoffs, so at least we have one income, but they cut her hours back, so not as much money coming in. We are still trying to get the social worker to come out for our last home visit. She is never around when I call and I"m just getting frustrated I'm trying to find out if I could change agencies but that would mean starting all over with home visits and paperwork and we have already put in so much time to get to this point. So I'm just not sure what to do. I have my license in hand and hanging up in my kitchen cabinet and I carry my state issued foster parent license (looks like a driver's license) in my wallet too.

What do these things have to do with our Christmas celebration?

I'm taking guesses :)

Wow...unexpected free time

Well I really had thought I would make it through the layoffs at work but it just wasn't meant to be. So at 930pm last night I am officially without a job. To say I'm pissed off about this is an understatement. I guess this week and next I'll be looking for a new job, we can't live off unemployment, it will help for a little while but it won't even come close to paying the bills.

So today being my first free day in over 2 months I baked Christmas cookies with K. We had so much fun together and I realized that I have missed so much working the hours I was working. After Grandma got home, we went out and started and almost finished our Christmas shopping. We then headed to Sam's club and bought Christmas eve and Christmas dinner. Otherwise last night I had the strangest dream, that on Christmas we got a call about a Foster to Adopt placement and it was for newborn twins, a girl and boy and both were of Chinese heritage. I was just blown away and woke up this morning with such a strange feeling, like the dream was of a forshadow of the future.

Otherwise onto some pictures taken over the last month of K

This was at the MOMs Club Christmas Party, the had 2 Giant inflatable bounce houses

This was at the beginning of our 1st snow storm, we eventually got 9 inches of snow and 2 inches of ice

K loves to wear Santa hats, she walks around the house and goes "ho ho ho"

watching our Christmas cookies bake

Back from Blogcation

After everything that happened at the last tests for K, I had to take a Blogcation. First off I'm happy to report that we got our Foster Parent License 2 days before Thanksgiving. The downside is the Placement worker is dragging her feet because we have to have one last home visit before we can take in Children. She has had between now and when we finished classes to get it done and so far nothing. I guess because we had such a good experience with K's Social Worker and being that this women works in the same office I thought she would be just as good.

Otherwise in our lives, we are trying to get ready for Christmas, today I dragged the tree down from storage, it's been hard getting things done because right now I'm working 12 hour days and 7 days a week at least through the 22nd. I'm getting about 2 1/2 hours a sleep a day since by the time I get home, it's time to turn around and take my Mom to work and then after that K is wide awake for the start of the day. After all this I'm still not sure I'll have a job or be layed off after the 22nd. It's so frustrating, I work my butt off for the last 3 1/2 months and how do they repay me. So I'm trying to look for a new job just in case but it's really hard to find work right now during the Holiday season that's just not temporary work. I'm sorry to my family and friends who have emailed me and haven't heard anything, I'm really trying to get caught up on stuff but it's just not happening.