happy birthday, Grandma

Happy birthday, Grandma!

I hope you have a good day - make Dad take you out to dinner. He loves when the wait staff sings too :) HA HA

Here's a little video Wesley made for you. I thought he knew the happy birthday song, apparently not. It's still pretty cute if I say so myself.

Ohio Renaisance Festival (oh yeah - we went)

Sit back - this is a long one! Before I get to the Renaissance Festival, let me finish my Bengals post...

Marines were honored before the game and some took an oath of some sort at halftime (I'm not being disrespectful, I just couldn't understand what was said over the noise of the stadium)

I would not have wanted to be the guy getting taken down by three guys at least his size!

Now the fans...

 His gloves were quite helpful in not dropping the water and soda. (You can't see his doo-rag well, but he actually had a buccanneer with a line through it. sweet)

I loved this guy with a child sized helmet on his head. I don't believe he ever took it off, but maybe he couldn't get it off his head...

Who wouldn't want a "Who Dey Hotel"? Probably everyone now that I think about it.

This is just a shot of the stands - talk about a lot of people there to see the Bengals lose.

So now onto the Ohio Renaissance Festival...a coworker gave us free tickets, otherwise we would not have paid $40 just to get into the "festival." Personally I thought Wesley would like to see the costumes, and he did even though he thought they were dressed up for Halloween. (side note: Wes asked me at least three times what I was going to be for Halloween. My answer: Cat in the Hat's mom) Damon was less than excited to go, but I thought it would be fun to people watch more than anything. I went to the festival YEARS ago so I generally knew what to expect, but Damon had NO idea. he he he (that's my evil laugh)

Many people visiting the festival dress up in period costume, so it isn't just the workers who are dressed to the nines. We did not dress up, but I'm sure that comes as no surprise to you. Not only do people go all out to dress the part for the festival, they talk like it is the 1500s as well! To me though most of it sounded like they were trying to talk like pirates, but maybe that's just my untrained ears :) Our family stuck with the good ol' southern Ohio twang.

Here's a sample of what we ran across today...you couldn't make this stuff up!

belly dancers - not sure what the fox tails are all about

I have always wanted to carry a parasol, but I've never had one that went with my outfit. Come to think of it, I've never actually had one at all. bummer

the parade of workers (some ladies were a bit racey in my opinion)

How would you like to have people throw rotting veggies at you? No thanks.

love the ears and the wings

it's a family affair

I am unsure whether this is a costume or just her everyday outfit.

more fairy wings

Here are pictures of us hamming it up:

Wesley hanging with a viking

on the much anticipated horse ride

these cute little pumpkins were at a farm on our way home

I almost didn't see this van in the parking lot! *smirk*

Next update will be about the first professional pictures of our family that we had taken this week...stay tuned!

Bengals game, adoption update

So I'm a bit late in posting the pictures from the Cincinnati Bengals game last Sunday. (here's a spoiler...they lost) I'm going with "better late than never." I have to say first though that it's been a productive week as far as I'm concerned. One thing that I've been trying to concentrate on is not wearing myself out at work. I work hard (thank you for the work ethic, Mom and Dad), but most days I work so hard trying to get everything done that I come home exhausted, mentally and physically. Doesn't exactly make me a model wife or mother...so this week I tried to remember to save something for home. Of course I still worked hard all day, but I didn't try to get everything done every day. I made myself leave work to take care of the next day, and miraculously it all got done. Well maybe not everything, but everything that HAD to be done got done. So I had much more patience and energy for Damon and Wes, which I'm sure they appreciate. And one more crazy thing - I even had the energy to clean the house like I like to do (never got around to hiring that person to clean...YET). Having such a clean house helps my mental state as well, I'm weird like that.

I am happy to report that our homestudy is nearly complete!! I thought I would be typing this months ago, but again, better late than never. I have to email a very detailed list of monthly expenses to insert into our study, but then it's ready to go. I am hoping to get it into USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration) before their fees increase in a few weeks, but if we don't, the difference in cost is only about $100. Not a lot, but it's still something that I would prefer not to have to pay, considering the fact that adoption isn't exactly cheap. And I just realized that I should be typing up that detailed list instead of blogging, but oh well, I'll finish this first. What will happen though is that I'll finish this and it'll be time for bed, then I'll have to find time tomorrow. Such is life. I guess it will be worth it for our daughter :)

Now for the game...

the coin toss

 a lil action shot

the huddle (check out the zoom on my camera)

T.O. (Terrell Owens) had a good game, and it had to be because I was wearing a shirt with his name and number on it. There couldn't be another reason.  

Ok, so now my computer won't upload any more pictures, so I'm going to post this and finish it tomorrow. Guess that's my cue to work on the list for the home study...

10.10.10

We hit the big festival Saturday morning. Talk about crowded!! We left around 11:30am because you could hardly walk due to the masses of people. I would have taken a few pictures of the food, but we ate as we walked, which wasn't easy but we managed because we were much more interested in eating than taking pictures.

 Damon and me at the Waynesville Sauerkraut Festival

 the family at the festival

and another (I like the previous picture more than this one, but I cut off Wesley's chin because I couldn't see the screen because the sun was so bright. oops)  

a shot of the crowd around 11:00am on Saturday  

check out the crowd!

another crowd picture (these pictures really don't show the sheer number of people crowded onto a small street)

we had to stop and see the fire trucks as we headed to the car

my big purchase from the festival - for the baby sister :)

Wes headed to Doda and Pawpaw's house, and Damon and I went down to the Bengals-Buccaneers game today. Sadly the Bengals lost, but I enjoyed spending time with Damon. See...always looking for the bright side. The other bright side was that we only sat in the sun for about 15 minutes of the game, which matters a lot when you're wearing a black shirt and it is 88 degrees outside!!

Our seats are right next to the sweetest Grandma you've ever seen. Everyone around actually calls her Grandma (she's had season tickets for YEARS). She brings her grandsons to the games with her, and she asked me to pray for her grandson who is serving in Afghanistan. So please say a prayer with me that he returns to the United State safely and also soon. Just listening to her you could tell how much his family cares about him and misses him. It is times like that I remember how difficult it must be for families when one member is in harm's way overseas and how much I appreciate those who willingly give their lives and their time to keep us safe.

Here's a prayer card she gave me.

I'll post more about the game soon. I have to go through the pictures, but not tonight - I'm headed to bed!

YAY, it's Friday

Oh, Friday, I am quite glad you came so quickly this week. Do you ever just have one of those weeks where your brain just isn't engaged?  Seriously. I feel like I am physically present, but mentally out to lunch or dinner or in bed. I could hardly tell you what has happened the last few days, but it wasn't like I was home in bed.

The Sauerkraut Festival is this weekend in Waynesville, Ohio! Damon loves the sauerkraut pizza, German sauerkraut sundae, sauerkraut doughnuts, all of it. Well, he actually doesn't like the sauerkraut balls, but frankly I don't understand how he can eat any of it! I cannot fathom.Why in the world would you ruin a perfectly good doughnut by mixing in old, rotten cabbage?? And the "sundae" is actually mashed potatoes with sauerkraut and other miscellaneous fixin's. It's not even ice cream, so don't call it a sundae!! Sundaes are wonderful things with ice cream and caramel and nuts and a cherry on top. I weould even go so far as to call the sauerkraut sundae a fraud to sundaes everywhere. But it's a fun festival and there are a lot of crafty booths with some unique items. We actually bought this fun Ohio State sign for the basement last year.

Who knows what I'll be able to pick up this year. I'm excited just thinking about it! I am not excited about the smell from the sauerkraut, but since I still have a bit of congestion from the cold I had, maybe I'll be lucky enough not to smell it. And if I can smell it, then I'll just have to inhale enough powdered sugar from my funnel cake that I cannot smell anything but the sugary goodness I am eating.

So if you're in the area, I suggest you stop on out to the Sauerkraut Festival. You'll be there with a couple hundred thousand of your closest friends!! (Yes, it can be that crowded)

I love Boston Terriers

I discovered the website etsy.com this summer and have been madly in love ever since. (Due to my love of unique, crafty things, I find it hard to believe that I never checked it out before) I just found this seller who has absolutely adorable stuff for dogs. I mean, a girl's gotta look good, especially my Katie Katherine. How cute are these?

Now I am going to resist and not purchase any of these, but let me tell you - I want them all for my little Katie!!

Speaking of Katie, here's a little video of her, doing...well, I'm not sure what she's doing, she's a strange dog. But we love her to death and she fits in around this house!

movin' on up

Look at me blogging like a professional! I don't know if you noticed, but the background of my blog has changed, and I "made" it myself using Photoshop Elements and digital scrapbooking supplies. I took a class from www.jessicasprague.com and I have learned so much about creating your own background, blog header (that's next), signature, etc. So you'll be seeing changes coming soon to the blog and I'm CrAzY excited!! Now I have to head to bed because I don't have the option of sleeping all day tomorrow...unfortunately.