I'M BACK!!! Sort of.....

Goodness! I didn't realize that it had been soooo long since I've blogged until my bloggy friend Marie emailed me!! Thank you my dear, you were an encouragement to me!
So, anyway, I decided to post some pictures of what has been going on around here lately! This is actually Christmas! Son Danny, wife Erin, and precious baby boy Liam with a present we bought him. Liam looks so much like his daddy except that he has blond hair and not red!!

Grandchildren Seraphina and Dylan with their "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake Roger and I made. We tried to focus more on Jesus this year! That's what Christmas is about, after all!

This is MY BUDDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Little Brody just turned 1 year old this January. He always has a huge huge smile on his face...unless you take away his food..... I love to take care of him a few days a week...I was blessed to take care of Dylan sometimes when he was little (usually on my day off of work) and I have kept Seraphina since she was born for a few days a week and I enjoy little Brody when he is with me two days a week! Now...if I can just get ERIN and DANNY to move closer so that I can steal little Liam from THEM more often!!

TODAY IS DYLAN'S SEVENTH BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy birthday buddy!! Grammy Beth took him sledding on a local hill a few weeks ago and we had a great time!!

Yeah, I know....I forgot to turn the picture before uploading it to blogger......however, this is the biggest news we've had for a while!!! Little Gabriel was born yesterday (Jan. 24th) to Sam and Abi!! He is the 5th of our grand babies! I look a little dazed, don't I???? This is probably the only picture that I have had in years that I am not wearing a dress! I'm actually wearing a culotte but it looks like pants in this picture. (99.9% of the time I wear dresses or skirts.)

Believe it or not....we STILL haven't heard if we are getting the little blue house in the country. That is one reason I haven't blogged for a while. I have no news about the house and I was hoping that I could suddenly say "WE GOT IT!!!" Who knows....maybe that will happen anyway???????? Our offer runs out his week, I think, so something needs to happen and I don't really want to redo the offer without any idea of when the bank will decide on it.

Therefore, our adoption plans are also on hold. I know that I shouldn't get weary of waiting but I think I am. I really hate the fact that a child's future (and ours as well) depends on money. Selling our larger house may be a necessity to us being able to afford to do this.

You are going to think we are crazy for buying this little blue ranch house...if indeed we are able to do so...and selling our big "city" house!! The little house is usually what people try to move from into a big house like we currently have! However, this has never really felt like home to me and since we will be much much much better off financially if we can make this work, moving seems to be the logical thing to do, not to mention that we both feel this is "God led".

Another BIG piece of news is.......drum roll, please.......................................................................

I have quit my job.

Yep, I did it. Probably not a good financial decision but it is the best thing to do for my emotional health and for our "family" and "marriage" health. I had cut down my hours from 30 hours in two days to just working one 12 hour day a week. However, it has just been nearly impossible to do that since I am babysitting and homeschooling. I was also being asked to "sign" documents saying that I had been "trained" for certain medical situations for individuals I had been left alone with over night when I hadn't been! I did not sign them and just left at the end of my shift. I can't imagine one of my loved ones being in the care of someone who hadn't really been trained for things such as feeding tubes, catheters, and things that I don't care to mention.

If something had happened and I had signed those papers, oh my!!!!

So this Friday is my last day and I am going to shout "Hallelujah" all the way home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are now on a pretty tight budget but it's not something we can't handle. We have started with preparing our budget by writing down everyone and every gift giving occasion. It seems kind of sad and meager but we may just need to be more creative. For instance, I bought Christmas clearance M&M's, both plain and pretzel, and mixed them with regular "on sale" bags. I am putting them in small jars and adding a cute little topper for them. Then we can give them to the kids for Valentine's Day. Kinda cheap, but cute!!

It is my intention to put enough money in a savings account each month or week so that every time an holiday or birthday comes around, we will be prepared.

I am looking forward to having a HUGE HUGE garage sale as soon as weather permits here in central Indiana. I hope to be able to use that money to help with adopting. It will be a drop in the bucket but I think we need to learn to trust God. Perhaps that is why we have been waiting...to teach BETH some patience. Good Grief, I just wish I could hurry up and learn it....feeble laugh....

Daughter Marci has been busy making wedding plans for April of 2012. She's pretty excited and has picked out her wedding dress and bridesmaids dresses. She has booked a clubhouse to have the reception in and has also booked the very same gazebo where Roger asked me to marry him to have the ceremony. Turns out that Roger's daughter Abi was getting married at that same gazebo almost 5 years ago and Marci and Ben first met since they were both in the wedding! Later that fall, Roger led me to the gazebo and asked me to marry him! This past fall, Ben asked Marci to marry him at that same gazebo!! Kinda magical, dontcha think????? (We found out that it was going to be a small fortune to use the church she and her fiance' attends to have the ceremony AND we have to pay for a "wedding planner. We have a built in "Wedding Planner" in our family already! That is part of what Daughter in Love, Erin, went to school for, "Events Planning" among other things!) It was going to be over $1000 just to have the wedding at the church. Crazy, huh????

Well, I suppose I should get some house work done since that is now MY ONLY JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAYYAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blessings to you all!

Beth