Stuff and Happenings.

Is anyone else having problems viewing the blog? Someone emailed and said it won't download and another person cannot see the videos and yesterday I couldn't even get on it? I am thinking of removing the password for a couple of days to see if it helps. (Ok well I have just tried to remove the password and can't...how do I get rid of it?)

I have a new camera and it won't download any videos. Not the one I got for Christmas cos if you remember I dropped that one. I got this on Sunday and I cannot figure it out. Jacob has been really busy working so until he is home for more than five minutes I shall only post photos.

Enough of the techy stuff. Onwards with cuteness.

Rosie started school this week. It isn't really school but Lily had her so hyped up that when we drove to school to drop Lily off Rosie tried to get out of the car too. She really thought she was going as well. She has started Mummy and Me at the JCC. Lily did this programme years ago and we loved it so much and thought we would never be lucky enough to get another teacher like Frankie. The woman is outstanding and has won so many awards. Now Rosie gets to follow in her sisters footsteps. I think it is important for her to have her own "events". She shouldn't just shadow Lily and go to Lily's activities. She needs to learn she is her own person and have some time of her own.

We have had some freakishly cold weather, for here anyway. I have loved every single second of it. We even had a frost warning on Wednesday...good stuff. It appears that Lily and I are the only ones that feel this way about cold weather. Rosie liked it but she gets cold very quickly and her lips turn blue. She is our new thermostat. LOL

Here are some piccies of the week.

I love this photo it just personifies her impish behavior.

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Little Daredevil

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We have spent lots of time outdoors enjoying the cool weather. It is wreaking havoc with Rosies hair.

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Rosie's first school project. It is an igloo. No honestly it is, I swear!

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A little ice fishing. She is starting to smile and loosen up at this point.

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I had so much to say earlier but now I can't remember a darned thing. Oh well no doubt I shall return.

The End Of An Era.

Judging by the title and today's date you are probably expecting a post regarding the new president but alas it isn't so.

Yesterday we had our final visit with our social worker. Barbara has been a part of this family for 8 yrs, yes you read correctly, 8 long years. We started our chase for Lily in 2000 and then put it on hold for 12 months due to a "situation" and resumed again at warped speed. She has been involved in EVERY aspect of our lives for the past 8 years. We got lucky when we found her because I have heard some social worker stories that make my hair curl. She is one of the kindest, friendliest, professional woman you could ever care to meet. We are fortunate enough to now call her a friend.

The first time we met I had spent days preparing our house, nothing was left unturned, dust bunnies had not only been cleaned but exorcised also. The house was so clean and we were trying very hard to be calm as we awaited to have every ounce of our lives probed by a stranger. After she left we realised we didn't feel at all violated and didn't even feel the need to shower! By the time we had met with her for the 4th visit it was like meeting an old friend and once she sent us the report we had no idea where she got all the information about us from because we certainly never felt as if we had been interrogated but she had all the facts.

We waited a long time for Lily, by the standards back then, and one day she called to let us know she had a birth mother due to give birth and wanted to know if we were interested as we had been waiting for so long. We told her, no thank you, we would continue to wait, and were amazed that she would even think of us. Once we did finally bring Lily home she didn't want to wait 6 months to meet her and came by a few weeks later to just visit. After her final post placement visit we knew we would be seeing her again and once we were ready we rang her and she started the proceedings again. She followed the old blog and kept in touch through that and even followed our trip to China for Rosie.

Now, we have to say goodbye. It isn't really goodbye as we will still see her and as she pointed out as she left if we ever need her for anything EVER she is there. I am not sad to be social worker free after so long but I feel sort of strange closing this chapter of my life. It feels a little bit to final for me. I have no intention of adding to my family but knowing we are done is a little rough. Once we receive her final report we will send it to WACAP and then we are done with them too. Of course we will never be done with WACAP, they do such amazing work and we will always support them and I will continue to be on their phone list so that if anyone has questions about them they can call me for references but we won't have an adoption agency waiting for us to mail back papers for the first time in 8 years either.

Here is a photo of Barbara with the girlies yesterday. See, it just isn't normal to have such a wondeful SW.....sigh.

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I have to eat a little chocolate now and ponder the big change that has happened. If I can handle going half way around the world to bring my girlies home I can manage this too....right?

2 kids plus 1 dog = Nutty Mother

What was I thinking?

Lily has been begging for a dog for a very long time. I grew up with dogs my whole childhood and loved having them. One in particular and I were very close. Then after the whole dog bite episode I never wanted anything to do with any dogs at all. Over the past few years I have really started to get a grip on my phobia and worked through alot of it and have been contemplating getting a dog for us. So long as I get to choose it I know I will be fine. Strangely enough it can't be a small dog it has to be a biggish one. Yeah I know that is a bit odd.

A few weeks ago a friend of mine was in a quandary as they were going away and her usual dog sitters were all busy so I just opened my mouth and out flopped the words, "I'll take him". Well the days bebopped by and Friday arrived and that was D-day, AKA doggy day. Jeremy is a lovely dog and Lily was thrilled at the thought of having him and I wasn't too concerned.

I must have been mad, inebriated, stoned or something cos it is a nightmare! Rosie is terrified of him and shrieks every time she sees him, he is homesick and Lily is disappointed that he won't "play" with her. Because Jeremy is used to me he is sticking to me like glue and wants no part of anyone else even though Rosie is quite convinced he is about to attack her, chew her up and spit out her eyeballs!

Lily loves taking him for walks so we have done lots of that and even took him to a dog park yesterday which would have been great fun but Jeremy is a tad lazy and couldn't quite muster the enthusiasm that most dogs would have at a park. He will be leaving bright and early tomorrow as we have our final social worker visit and I really don't want Rosie cowering in the corner all freaked out when she is being evaluated. Actually she doesn't cower in the corner she prefers to hang out on the island in the kitchen.

Oh, and let me not forget to mention this little aspect of dogs. They are messy! I have washed my floor twice a day since Friday cos it gets fuchy from him. When we sit down to eat he begs for food and I it makes me gag, don't ask me why but I think that is revolting. Jacob laughed and said, apparently he wasn't David trained, David is my father. Our dogs never even dreamt of coming in the room when we ate. EWWW, yuck, me and animals in the house is NEVER going to work. As my father told me recently when I said Lily wanted a dog, "It is always good to have something to look forward to and in her case it will be her own house one day and then a dog!" Sorry Lily but that is how it looks.

Anyway, as I count down the hours until the little doglet goes home I will post some photos and then wash the floor.


Lily, in heaven, walking a dog.

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Hmmm, this is where he chose to nap this morning. He looks rather comfy

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Last night we finally got him to expend a little energy and even Rosie laughed...but the laughter was short lived as she instantly went back to being scared to death of him.


He is a sweet little dog but the bottom line is...I just don't want one.

A Huge Honour, Well Deserved.

Each and every day we are being protected from the horrors of this war by the men and women of our armed services. Jeanne's son Chris is one of the thousands who keep us safe and able to live our lives with our head in the sand, oblivious to the bloodshed.

We spent time with Chris and his wife and new baby back in Novemeber when we went to England. He is a riot, all of Jeannes boys are, he is so very down to earth and just an all aound "nice guy".



Chris has been chosen by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to receive Englands highest honour, an MBE.



This is the article that was published in the London Times and Telegraph on New Years Day.



New Years Honours List 2009



SSgt Christopher Price was awarded the MBE in the new years honours list 2009.

Christopher grew up in Newton Blossomville and Olney and joined the Royal Artillery in 1991 completing his basic training at 17 Training Regiment Royal Artillery then based in Woolwich, London. He then joined 94 Locating Regiment based in Larkhill, Wiltshire. As a young Gunner he deployed to Northern Ireland prior to the peace agreement and spent the majority of his tour patrolling South Armagh by foot, helicopter and landrover. He was promoted twice in the next few years and completed successful operational tours on behalf of the United Nations in Cyprus, Under a NATO flag to Macedonia and then Kosovo in 1999 and again in 2000.

In between operational tours and training Chris continued his career as a communications specialist, or signaller. He attended many courses and was soon running his own Command post whilst overseas on deployments. At the end of 2000 he became an instructor and was then able to pass his experience and knowledge to younger soldiers. Subsequent exercises and courses in Canada, Germany, France, America, Oman, Egypt, Cyprus, Greece and Wales developed his communications knowledge and experience.

Chris first deployed to Iraq on Operation Telic and has since completed 5 tours serving in Tallil, Al Amarah, Shaibah, Basra Palace and the main coalition base at Basra Airport. During his last deployment he used his extensive experience and knowledge to overcome technical communication issues with a brand new unmanned air vehicle system, maintaining complex voice and data communication networks over large distances utilising VHF, HF, UHF and other available frequency bands. Without his expertise the British forces serving in Iraq would not have had the degree of surveillance that they required, the surveillance system used was instrumental in providing intelligence for the withdrawal from Basra palace and force support for many other operations.

The technical solution that he devised was subsequently taken on by industry and has had a major impact in several multi national companies. He has completed over 17 years with the Royal Artillery and is currently serving with 32 Regiment Royal Artillery, the Army’s only Unmanned Air Vehicle Regiment. Christopher is married to Christine and has a two month old daughter, Erin.





Not only did his actions save millions of lives but also saved seventy million pounds of tax payers money.



Chris will be returning to the war zone shortly and will leaving behind his wife, yet again and leaving his daughter for the first time.

Congratulations Chris, we ALL thank you for everything that you do to keep us free and safe. This is something that you truly deserve so don't even think about down playing it!



The Man Himself!


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Nothing Doing...

...until now.

We have been really busy but just the normal every day stuff.
I could have blogged about how I managed to totally wreck my new camera, the camera that I love so very much, by dropping it.
I could have blogged about how how my ipod was possessed by the devil to the point that it had to go to ipod hospital.
I could have blogged about how when any of us get hiccups Rosie puts up with it for about 3 seconds and then says, "dop dat" (stop that) but none of that was really blog worthy so I had to wait until tonight.

Tonight we met up with some of our travel mates from our first trip to China to bring home Lily. They live in Wisconsin but Jeff's Grandma lives in Delray and they were visiting so we drove up and met up with them. We had so much fun. We have remained close with all of our travel mates from Lily's trip but we just get on really, really well with this family and have only seen them 3 times since the trip. Jill was my packing lifeline when we went to bring Lily home. Lets face it I had never been a mother and really didn't know what I needed to take for Lily but Jill was about to receive her third child so she knew what to do....thank goodness.

I know that the girls are getting bigger. My gosh, I see Lily ever single day so I am aware of how big she is but somewhere in my mind Abby was still a little girl, still only 3. Well she isn't (of course) and even though she is 9 days younger than Lily she towers above her and has already lost 3 teeth. Lily was green with envy.
Abbey and Lily wasted no time catching up. They played and played. They are both very outgoing and both love to be outside and consequently loved being in the park. Later we all went to dinner together and had a truly lovely time.

Lily and Abbey

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All the kidlets

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Lets eat

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Orphanage Sisters

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Once we left the restaurant the temps had dropped drastically so I asked Lily is she was cold and she said yes. To this Jeff roared with laughter and decided to tell us just how much snow and freezing weather they have been experiencing in Wisconsin. Lily thought it sounded wonderful and told him so through teeth that were chattering. It's all relative.

Oh That Lily.

On Monday evenings Jacob cooks dinner for everyone as I am at work. Sometimes I am able to join them for dinner and last night was one of those evenings.

I have to add a little history here. When I first met Jacob he was an amazing cook, he kept a perfect house and was generally very tidy. At some point during the last 23 years he has forgotten completely how to cook, clean and tidy up. Don't get me wrong he is an amazing father and hubby and will help out with any thing I ask him to do but if left to his own devices it is never pretty anymore.

I arrived home last night just in time to see the kitchen fill with black smoke. He was looking harried and the kids looked hungry. He was rushing about opening doors and windows. He had forgotten that the garlic bread was under the broiler and by the time he remembered it was charcoal.

After a couple of minutes he got everything under control and we sat down to eat.
Just a few bites into her food Lily looked up and delivered this classic line:

"Is this dinner special needs?"

We lost it. We laughed so very hard and later once I was back at work I kept thinking about what she had said and each time I would laugh out loud.

Life At The Zoo.

We have a fabulous zoo here and we go to it all the time. We took the kidlets today because they have opened a new area and it is fabulous. I honestly think we have one of the best zoo's in the country. We spent the whole afternoon in the new area and the girls loved it, actually we all did.

Here are some of my favourite piccies:
We rented a double stroller since there is so much area to cover and the only way to get to it all is if you walk at a fast clip and that doesn't happen with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. The girlies enjoying frozen lemonade.

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The ferocious Rose

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Flying Froglets

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They look so proud you would think they captured this beast themselves, single handedly

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I just have to wonder what Rosie is thinking. I am not sure what this bird is but it has a beautiful baby blue face.

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I know there aren't any animal photos in this post but I don't take pictures of anything other than people. That is what Cousin Andie is for. She only takes scenes and things! There was a nip in the air today so we wouldn't let the kids play in the water features at the zoo but somehow they managed to get soaked anyway. One of them got soaked the other was the button pusher!

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Lily on an ant hill. I see some irony here!

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See, if you had listened to Mama in the first place you wouldn't be cold!
Little Rosie Posie all cold and wet.

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Walking Backwards.

• It appears I have been a little bit tardy in the blog department lately. So here is my catch up list but it starts from today and goes backwards.


• First and foremost: Happy Birthday to my hubby. The girls were so excited to give him his gifts and his cake that the poor guy ended up eating cake for brekky. Rosie decided she needed to sing a solo version of Happy Birthday to him. He had so many candles on his cake that by the time they were all lit and he got to blow them out some of them had been burning for a while so he blew candle wax clear across the room!
  
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  Yes, she ate a candle.
  
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• Happy New Year. 2008 was a good year and I am anticipating the same service from 2009.


• We spent New Years Eve at home. Jacob was working but we knew he would be home by midnight so Lily and I made a little midnight feast and then when hubby arrived home we ate, drank and were merry. We even had some fireworks. Ours paled in comparison to some of the others in the neighbourhood but we had fun. Just before 1.30 we all went to bed but the loud fireworks woke Rosie up so we entertained her for a while and then all went to bed in our bed. Isn't there a bed bigger than a king size? I spent the night holding on to the side of the mattress for dear life and hubby was doing the same thing on the other side whilst the kidlets were sprawled out nice and comfy and snoring to beat the band! Before the girls fell asleep they were snuggled up all close together and wishing each other happy new year.


• The girls and I went with some friends to the Junior Orange Bowl parade on the 30th. It was fun but nowhere near as good as last years. Lily fell asleep on the way home but Rosie kept me company as she is not one to sleep in the car.

Haven't figured out he night setting on my camera yet.

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• Lily has a new game. It is called baby sister in a bucket! Rose loves it to. I don't, I am scared that Lily will drop the bucket.


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• The desktop computer has been so slow of late and both Jacob and I have been going batty so I decided to take the time and clean out all the junk. I was very proud, very proud. He was impressed. I am not the most computer savvy person so when he saw what I had done he was gleeful. Gleeful that is until this morning when he went to check something in our bank account and it was gone. Ooooops. Not a digit to be seen, not a check register to be had. I fled the scene with the girls.
• Every single closet, shelf, cupboard, and catch-all in this house has been purged and cleaned. Nothing has been left untouched. I clean if I get bothered by something and I had a fight with my father, the first of my life, and I stayed up most of the night cleaning. The next day we resolved our conflict but the urge to purge continued. We had hoarded too much crap but now it is gone.
• This person is the reason I got into blogging and as if that wasn't enough now she thinks I need to join Facebook. Lawdy be! Jakey and I joined up the other night and spent hours finding friends we went to school with. We are hooked but I still have a lot to learn.
• Referrals arrived the other day and had we not found Rosie Posie all dressed up and ready to go on a special needs list we would have received our original referral. It would have taken 2 years, 10 months and 2 days. Jacob spent the whole day telling Lily that she was about to see a picture of her baby brother Benjamin. She didn't quite know whether to laugh or cry. He is still talking about Benjamin....should I be worried?
• That is life in a nutshell. We are looking forward to the next year and planning for some fun. I do not make resolutions but Jakey made one this year and I really like his. He wants to spend more of our money on us this year and not the gas tank or the mortgage company and the other boring stuff. So the way I see it, we will be thumbing our way down the street, having our house foreclosed on but living it up! Yee Haw.