an update of sorts

Before I start...I know I said I'd post last night, but my computer froze up after I'd uploaded all the pictures but not put them in the post. I was mad, so I waited until tonight.

How does a month go by so fast? How did the summer go by already? We spent the end of the summer hanging out at the pool and playing in the yard.

Wes was so excited to jump in the pool!

Oh, how do I love this scowl :)

a squirt gun fight in the backyard

and since Wes couldn't get Daddy, he went for Duke's rear end

(our poor dogs take some abuse)

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We took a trip to Chicago to see my brother Scott. The weather was great and it was wonderful to get away, if only for three days! There aren't any pictures of my brother because he wouldn't cooperate and smile, or even look pleasant for that matter.

Damon and I in the park

Wesley walking with his Doda and Pawpaw

The Bentley and Lamborghini dealership was right around the corner from our hotel. (Side note: I have never looked at those expensive cars up close and WOW - they are gorgeous! I can see what makes a guy salivate over nice cars, I was!!)

Wouldn't I look great tooling around in this little number? Pretty sure the $120k+ price tag makes it just a little out of my reach.  

the Hershey's store. Now I don't like the taste of chocolate, but I love the smell! I wanted to stay in the store all day.

yeah - that's a five pound bar of chocolate

Damon and I went on an architectural boat tour. (My parents, brother and his girlfriend were so kind to take Wes to the aquarium) If you get a chance to do the tour, it was awesome. Now I enjoy a nice looking building as much as the next gal, but it was interesting to see the buildings and how once you know one person's architectural style, you can pick out other buildings that person designed.

This was a church right across from our hotel and the Bentley dealership

it was a warm day, so the boats were out on the river

The Sears Tower (now called something else...) now has glass observation decks. Imagine being 100+ stories above Chicago in a glass box...has to be a thrill 

Wesley dancing on the street for money (it almost looks like my dad was dancing too, but he wasn't. He also wasn't dancing for money, but he wouldn't have turned it down)

just a cute smile

my parents (or Wesley's Doda and Pawpaw)

An after dinner carriage ride - why not? Wesley was out of his mind excited to "ride the horse" even though that's not quite what we did. I enjoyed seeing a little of the city from the carriage.

Now a little randomness...

So I've done a bit of shopping recently at Aldi grocery store. I purchased the boxed scalloped potatoes shown above, which were quite good by the way. Now if you've ever purchased box potatoes, you know that on the side of the box there are various ways to "spice up" the potatoes. What do you know...this box of potatoes has a recipe for scones on the side. Ironically, the scone recipe has NOTHING to do with the potatoes.

We've really been struggling with Wesley's eating lately. He is fighting it more than he has in the recent past. It's a battle each and every meal. Please pray for me and Damon because it is just really wearing on us right now. I have faith that one day he might like to eat, but we aren't there yet. I'm sure that when he sees his "baby sisser" eat that he will do it as well, but again, we aren't there yet. It's tough. (in my opinion, that's a serious understatement)

Speaking of our adoption, our homestudy draft is finished and our agency is reviewing it right now. Hopefully that's finished soon so we can send it into US Citizenship and Immigration to get our fingerprint appointment. We have to apply for an I-800 visa since Moldova is a Hague country, so the process is different than Ukraine (I-600 visa, not Hague). You cannot apply for a visa and then send in your home study when it is finished like you can with a non-Hague country. Then the paper chase begins.

more to come

Don't give up on me yet - I promise to post soon!! How does time get away from me so easily? It's been a month since my last post. Keep watching, I'll post tonight

Mom guilt

Wesley got me with "mom guilt" on Tuesday morning. Let me back up...school mornings are rough, to say the least. Wesley is not what I would call a morning person by any stretch of the imagination. I wake him up and he is pleasant AT FIRST. I sit on his bed and he gives me a hug and tells me good morning. So far, so good. We get up so he can go to the bathroom and then head downstairs. This is where it all starts to unravel...On school mornings, he has to go downstairs and eat breakfast almost immediately. On non-school mornings, he has time to play for a little bit, but the meltdown comes when I say its time for breakfast, usually because he doesn't want to eat (no surprise there).

So Tuesday morning, he climbs into his chair and starts sobbing and telling me how he just doesn't want to go to school. The usual crying is related to how he doesn't want to eat, he's not hungry, etc. Back to Tuesday - in my early morning mind, I start thinking that he is being bullied, how he must hate school, how mean I am for making him go to school, how hungry he must be all day at school. You get the picture. We made it through breakfast, and I honestly cannot remember how the eating went because the whole time I am thinking of all the things of which I might be guilty.

I drive him to school (still thinking of all the ways I am mean by making him go to school at all) and as soon as we put his lunch in his cubby, he tells me how excited he is to be at school. He starts dancing around and giggling. SERIOUSLY?? I spent the last 45 minutes feeling like a horrible human being and mother and all it was all part of the master plan of a three year-old. Oh, how easily I am now manipulated.

The good news though is he told me the names of his friends at school..."Zach Brown, Marilee and Kevin." Awfully specific names, but I couldn't find those names on any of the cubbies in his room at school after a cursory glance. Maybe he has made them up? More work of the mind of a three year-old? Kinda like his "dogs" that he drags around the yard. The "dogs" are actually two bungee cords, both named "Odio," according to Wesley. More on that later with pictures to attempt to explain.

hand, foot & mouth disease has hit our home

Oh yes, you read that right. The good news (at least for Wesley) is that it's Damon that has caught this wonderful viral infection. Now for me, it wouldn't matter who in this house caught it, I'm still the one paying for it. If I was sick, then I still have to take care of Damon and Wesley. If Wesley caught it, I would be the one taking care of him. I'm sure Damon would help, but let's be honest I would be the one taking care of Wes. And since it is Damon that caught it, I have to take care of him while trying to ensure that I don't catch it, and more importantly, that Wesley doesn't catch it.

Now...I don't know that I heard of this "disease" before about two months ago. I strictly attribute that to the fact that I am not an elementary school teacher. Our friend's son came down with HFMD a couple months ago, and she had to make the call warning me that her son had it and we had all hung out just the night before. And tonight, I had to be the one to make the dreaded call to a few friends. I won't lie to you, it was a bit embarassing, but we did make fun of Damon saying that it's because he drank too much pool water. If that were the truth, Wesley would be the one who is so ill!! (Side note: I think that kid drank at least a gallon of water at the pool this morning. For the life of me, I don't get it.)

Don't be confused - Damon doesn't have "foot and mouth" or the more appropriate titled "hoof and mouth," which is the swine disease. According to the Center for Disease Control, animals don't get the human disease and humans don't get the animal disease. Sure hope the CDC is right...Damon has been to several county fairs recently. And if I end up with a pig disease, he will NEVER live it down!!

So YAY - I am working tomorrow, Wesley is going to school, and we are getting out of this germ-infested house!!

One more thing...I sure hope Tommy Johnagin wins "Last Comic Standing." He is hilarious!!

Before I start this post, I would just like to say...GO BENGALS!! As a serious football fan (especially the Cincinnati Bengals and the Ohio State Buckeyes), today officially marks my favorite season of the year!  I love to spend Sunday afternoons napping and watching football. I'm excited just thinking about it.

Why is that I write these whitty blog posts in my head, then when I actually sit down to write, I have nothing to say? Since I can't come up with much to say, I'll just post a few pictures for your enjoyment.

"washing" his foot in the hose adding water to the pool

swimming by himself (with a vest, of course)

I'm a little confused why his body is curved like that...

Wes LOVES jumping in and going under!

This was before Wes would swim by himself. If Damon had tried to pry Wesley's arms off, Wes would have screamed and cried. He's come a long way in the last two weeks.

This picture was before Wes figured out that he didn't have to jump into our arms

BIG splash for such a small guy!!

Does he love swimming or what?

As you can see, we've been spending a lot of time at our local pool. I hate to think that it's going to be closed for winter in just a few weeks!

I did it...acupuncture

So I did something recently that I never thought I would ever do...I voluntarily let someone stick me like a pin cushion and I paid them to do it. Last Tuesday I visited an acupuncturist for headaches. Now I have dealt with headaches every day of my life for as long as I can remember, and NOTHING has been able to fully cure me of the pain. Most days its just a dull ache, but at least two days a week its so severe that I have trouble concentrating and paying attention to anything. I've taken medicines, had scans done of my head to see if doctors could tell what was wrong, lived with the headaches, and I wasn't expecting to experience any relief whatsoever from acupuncture (I did hope though).

Before I go further, I would like to say that I don't believe any of the zen, yin, yang whodoo-voodoo mess! I was concerned whether acupuncture would be against my Christian beliefs because I believe that all healing comes through Christ, not needles putting some energy in line or whatever it is the acupuncturists say. After much research on my part, I've found that there is no definitive "proof" that acupuncture works, but many doctors believe that the needles stimulate the nerves causing a rush of endorphins, your body's natural painkillers. Here is an article from Focus on the Family that I found.

So when I went for my appointment, I politely let the acupuncturist know that I wasn't really interested in his "theory" on what was wrong with me, I was just looking for relief from my headaches. We got started and the acupuncturist placed needles in my neck, and immediately I got chills down my back and the muscles in my neck loosened up. Then I laid down on the table and needles were placed in my forehead (3 needles), one in each forearm, and one in the top of each of my feet. I had the needles in me for about 20 minutes or so, and I enjoyed the peaceful time just lying there, praying and thinking about things. The needles didn't hurt at all, and I was prepared for some pain, even though my research said that I wouldn't experience any.

I had an awful headache the day of my appointment, and the headache had significantly subsided by the evening, but I'm not sure it was due to the acupuncture because I took Excedrin Migraine twice that day...Since that day though, I have been using acupressure dots (see below) when I go to bed, and I go back for my second acupuncture appointment later this week.

At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, I feel so much better! I still have a dull ache, but I haven't had an excruciating headache since the appointment day. I don't really know how long the effects of acupuncture are supposed to last, but I'm enjoying it for now!! And for the record, I am thanking God every day for my headache pain relief.

Here are pictures of my hands showing the spots where I place the acupressure dots at night. You can see that I have several dots on my hands when I took the pictures. It's been five days since my appointment and the permanent marker has finally come off my hands.

Heading to bed to prepare for a busy week! I'll update on the adoption later this week, not that much is going on right now.

update on our lives

Is everyone else ready for the weekend? Its hard to believe that its Friday already, but since I haven't worked since Wednesday afternoon, it might not be that hard to believe. I've actually been in Cleveland since Wednesday evening because my mom had surgery at Cleveland Clinic. She's recovering well and will hopefully go home early next week. I'm sure she would appreciate your prayers for a speedy, full recovery and that she never has to have this again. I know that's what she's praying for.

Cleveland Clinic is a great hospital and they are quite serious about healthy eating. You cannot buy regular soda in the cafeteria, even though they have a McDonalds right outside the cafeteria doors where you can buy all the unhealthy food you want (and regular soda too). So I headed down to the cafeteria this morning to get a Diet Pepsi (not my Diet Coke, but it'll do in a pinch) and I took a quick look around for something to eat. They had the usual breakfast items like eggs, bagels, low-fat muffins, and doughnuts. Now the doughnuts were surprising enough to me in and of themselves, but what made my laugh is that they were only sold in packages of two full-size doughnuts!! I think the healthy eating would go right out the door on that one...or two. They also had cookies that were sold in individual packages, but the cookies were larger than the span from the tip of my pinkie to the tip of my thumb; so much for healthy. I opted for a Nutrigrain bar and a Diet Pepsi. Aren't I just the picture of health?

I drove up to Cleveland by myself, another shocking turn of events. I can usually only drive for two hours without becoming crazy sleepy, but I made it the whole four hours without even thinking about sleep! I opened the sun roof and cranked up my iPod with the 90's music and just drove. (Side note: if you have an iPod, you can get a car converter kit that plugs into your cigarette lighter and streams the music through your radio. Awesome! I use my iPod so much more now) I actually enjoyed the drive, which pretty much never happens.

me, Katie and Damon in the new hammock

(I tried to find a picture where my thigh looked smaller than Damon's)

now Damon and Wes spend a little time relaxing

Damon and I are now officially parents of a preschooler. Yup - Wesley started preschool this week and *LOVES* it! I was pretty sure he would because he's such a social interactive person, but I was concerned about the eating while at school. The first day he ate about two bites of macaroni and cheese, one bit of yogurt and a small amount of milk. He ate more the second day, so I'm praying he keeps improving. I hope that the other kids eating will inspire him, but if not, then we'll just make sure he gets enough to eat when he's at home. (I only got this one decent picture because Wesley was making weird smiles or putting his hands over his face and telling me how he didn't want his picture taken)

Speaking of Wesley's eating, something amazing happened recently...Damon and Wesley got home for the day before I did, and Wes asked for goldfish crackers. Damon just gave him the bag of them and Wes took them to the sofa, sat down and just started eating. Wesley was watching Sesame Street and chowing down on goldfish crackers - Damon and I just stood there watching in amazement! Who would have guessed that I'd ever be so glad to see my child snacking in front of the television having no idea how much he is eating?

everyone on the playset (Duke, the larger dog, actually climbed up the stairs by himself)

We had a great Independence Day with our friends. We went to a local man-made lake and beach for the afternoon, then went to someone's house for a cook-out and more water fun for the kids. Wesley got on a slip-n-slide for the first time, and guess what...he loved it! Sometimes I stand in wonder at how much this kid loves new experiences, and I hope he never loses that.

How could you not love swimming in that murky brown water? Instead of sand the ground was mostly small pebbles, not so much fun to walk on.

look at his form - I think that's form befitting a Ukrainian gymnast!

and right over the pool at the end

Have a great weekend! I'm heading home this afternoon, and I think it might be a nice weekend to spend at the neighborhood pool. Hope you're doing something exciting as well.

giving the cats at the mall a high five

already behind

I have been remiss in updating the blog, but I will post the other vacation days this week (probably not until Wednesday at least). It's been a great weekend with family and friends, so blogging has been far from my mind, but I did take some awesome pictures and videos. I'll share soon!

But until then I'll leave you with a few cute picture of Wesley...oh how I wish I could claim this kid's genetics as my own :)