I Need Help!!!

I have TiVo - I LOVE TiVo - TiVo is my friend.

Until today

I TiVoed the Grey's Anatomy episode last night (season premiere!!). I've been waiting for this show all summer.

It was good......but TiVo stopped JUST as Izzy was opening the door. Can someone tell me what happened????? Did George say anything?

UGHUGHGUGHGUGHGUGHGUGHGHHGHG!!!!!!!

Guatemala Adoptions

Many of you who read this blog know what is going on - you can skip this post!

For those of you who are friends or family that read this, there are some major problems going on in Guatemala right now.

We've all known that the Guatemalan adoption program could shut down in the future. No one knew for sure, but it was going to be a possibility.

The current (and outgoing) President of Guatemala is trying to get his hands on a major amount of UNICEF money and in exchange he is to shut down intercountry adoption out of Guatemala. (that's a whole other post but if any of you give ANY money to UNICEF at Halloween I'll come hunt you down!!!!)

President Berger has said that starting January 1st, 2008 there will be no more adoptions. The scariest part is that he is also saying that there will be no grandfathering. So, if someone's adoption is in process, but not completed by January 1st, the adoption will not be able to go forward.

No one knows for sure that this will actually happen. The President doesn't have the power to do this on his own, but no one really knows what will happen.

As you can imagine, for those who are still in process, this is a very scary time. According to the JCICS there are 5,000 children that are currently in process. This would be 5,000 children who would not be able to come to their forever family, 5,000 children who would then be sent to orphanages (that really don't exist) in who knows what kinds of conditions.

You can read more here including what you can do to help. I've have been thanking God so many times in the past couple of days that Alex is home. Just one year - if this happened one year ago - I'd be in a different place.

A Day in the Life

I have so much to do today - I hope I can get it all done.

Pull the piano bench out

Time to practice. Mommy says if I get good enough I can accompany her. Or maybe get a scholarship!

Now it's time to clean - because everyone knows my mommy won't do it.

Have you seen this floor??

Seriously??
Daddy - can you please move out of the way?
So much work to do.

Now that's done - I can check out the blogs.

What do you mean Bella isn't home yet? Isa's birthmom interview it tomorrow, right? What is Savannah and Liv up to? Everyone knows that Guatoberfest is in about a week, right??

And - time for some dancing!

Weekend Update

(although not as funny as SNL!!)

We had a great weekend. It started Saturday morning when we went to the Kentucky Folklife Festival. The Kentucky Folklife Festival is a 3 day event celebrating the food, music, dance, crafts and lifestyles of all of the different cultures that make up Kentucky. It's a free event and I really wanted to check it out.

There was a tent for Guatemala where they had a miniature alfombra created. There wasn't anyone in the tent when we were there - and can you believe it - I didn't get any pictures of it!!! There were big poster type things at each tent so even if there wasn't anyone there you could still learn about that culture. The poster at the Guatemalan tent talked about the Catholic Church in our county. They do an alfombra every year around Semana Santa.

(for those of you who don't know, an alfombra is a colorful sawdust carpet that people in Guatemala make during Lent that the processions walk on during Holy Week - Semana Santa)

They even had a kid's tent where they could make different craft type things from around the world. One of the things they could make were mini alfombras. I was wishing Alex was a little older so we could go do it!! :)

We then watched a dance troupe from Louisville who does traditional Mexican dancing. Alex liked it for a little bit. There was a bunch of stomping which got his attention. Before the dancing starting, Alex got his try at the dance floor.

Saturday afternoon my Ohio State Buckeyes put a beating on Northwestern. YEAH! We also stopped at Kroger and let Alex ride in the little car on the front of the cart - he LOVED it!!!

Do you see him here - reading and riding. :)

Sunday we had our new Music Director start. He will be our organist, pianist and choir director. This makes me very happy as this means I won't have to play piano in church except to fill in for Shain.

Sunday afternoon I beat my opponent in my Fantasy Football league. In fact - I still have my quarterback to go tonight and I already beat him!!

Sunday night I went to the Latin Family Connection Mom's Night Out. It was a wonderful evening of good food and good fellowship. Lori and Robbie brought Cohen over for a little bit. Cohen is now signing more and it's SOOO cute!!! Lori also did a presentation on the orphanages that they had a chance to visit when they were down in Guatemala. It was very informative, but also made me even more sad for the children down there.

All in all - it was a pretty wonderful weekend.

Introducing

Edited to fix the website!

Lucinda Maribel

Isn't she beautiful!! And before some of you start freaking out - no - we are not adopting her. In fact, she's not eligible for adoption. We are going to be sponsoring her for the 2008 school year through Mayan Families. School is free in Guatemala, but there are many things that have to be purchased for them to attend. For $120.00 we can make sure she has all of the supplies she needs for the school year. Her family lives in a very remote area of Guatemala, they have very little money, no Onil stove, no water filter, no pila, no closets, and they don't own their own land. For about $500 we can take care of all of these things (except for the land - that's a much bigger project!!) for this family. I'm hoping that we can get this all taken care of for them by the first of the year.

If any of you are interested in sponsoring any children, please go to

http://mayanfamiliesstudentsponsorship.blogspot.com/

There will be more children posted. Many of the children look like they have sponsors, but most of these families sponsored for 2007. They are in the process of determining if the same families will be sponsoring for 2008. I also think that they are working on getting the rest of the pictures/stories up on the site.

I'm very impressed with this organization. The only downfall right now is that they do not have non-profit status in the United States, so if you give them money, it's not tax deductable. They are working on that and hope to have that fixed soon.

Let me know if you have any questions.

One More Try on the Video

Let's try this again. (you will see at the end why I don't have good pictures of Alex. Once he fully realizes that I have the camera going, he just wants to go to the other side and look at the pictures.)

The World is Coming to an End!

For those of you who know me - you know that I don't cook. I'm just not good at it - and Jay is excellent at it!!

But, guilt has taken over. Since I don't work on Thursdays and Fridays I've decided that I have to step up and try this cooking thing. I have HUGE reservations about my abilities. I usually overcook things, I NEVER get everything done at the same time, I have to have recipes (Jay hardly ever cooks from a recipe), and I don't know what half of the cooking terms mean.

So, today I went to http://www.menus4moms.com/. I looked around and found a couple of items that I thought I could handle. I came up with something to make for tonight and something to make next week.

Tonight we had Baked Ranch Chicken and Bacon Ranch Zucchini. It was pretty good. The zucchini was better than I expected - I sort of like zucchini (and mostly in bread) and I actually ate my whole helping!

Then for dessert we had Jell-O Parfait. And - the dork that I am - I took a picture!

I also bought Alex his first potty today!! He's not ready to potty train yet - but I wanted to get it in the house so I had it when he showed signs. He had a lot of fun playing with it.

I have a video of Alex playing that won't load tonight - I'll try tomorrow!!

I'm Back!

Well - I survived. (I was actually back last night - just didn't have time to post)

It wasn't too bad. I ended up working most of the night so it kept my mind off of things. I don't think Alex even noticed. :) He was more excited when his daddy got home last night then when I picked him up from daycare.

I did go shopping at the outlet mall on my way home yesterday. I got some really good deals on clothes for next summer. I LOVE good deals (like polo shirts from Children's Place for $2.00!!)

And, it might be time for Alex to go to Sexual Harassment classes. We went out to eat tonight and as our waitress (who Alex was flirting with the whole night) leaned over our table to refill my water, Alex reached up and patted her breasts!!! I about died!!!! She wasn't bothered by it at all. But, I made Jay leave a good tip. (Oh wait - is that even more offensive????)

Here are some pictures.

Alex is really into wearing Jay's hats right now. He's so funny! They fall down over his face and he will still try to walk around. (and yes, I know that hat is disgusting! This is one of Jay's barn hats and who knows what is on it)

For those of you coming to Guatoberfest - be warned. This next picture is what you will probably see at least once during the weekend. :)

I love this expression - I'm not even sure what he's looking at.

I bought Alex his first pair of tennis shoes at the outlet malls. Of course they light up (which is not why I bought them) After we got home from tumbling today (which by the way he did AWESOME at!!) he wanted his shorts off, but he wouldn't let me take his shoes off. In fact, I tried to take them off a couple of times, and he always brought them back to me to put them back on his feet. I guess he likes them. So, here is my redneck boy - wife beater shirt, diaper and shoes and socks. If that isn't classy, I don't know what is!!!!!

And, I think all boys do this at some point in time. He found my hair clips and insisted that I put it in his hair. His hair is so short, I couldn't get it to stay in, but he still thought it was pretty cool.

A Hard Night

Well - I knew it was going to happen eventually.

Right now I'm sitting in a hotel room away from home. This is the first night that I've been away from Alex.

I never thought this would be so hard!!! I cried this morning as I said good bye to him, but I've been doing pretty good tonight.

I miss his little smile through his paci - I miss his dancing - I miss his signing - I miss those sweet kisses and hugs he gives me - I don't miss getting hit across the face. ;)

The good news is that I'm back home tomorrow afternoon, so it's only for one night. And, since he likes his daddy better than me, he probably had more fun tonight than if I would have been there.

(I did throw one of the pictures I had on my desk in my bag - so I'm looking at him right now)

My Gaelic Dancer

Jay was cruising the remote tonight and stumbled on a concert of some Gaelic band. They were pretty good.

Alex LOVED them. He was dancing and jumping on the couch. (I know...I know...I shouldn't let him jump on the couch!)

This time, when I got the camera out he actually kept going - until he realized I had the camera out.

Here's my Gaelic dancer.

What a Day and a Question

We had a big day today.

It was the Fall Festival for our little town. We went up in the morning just to see what was going on (not much!)

We then went to the Louisville Zoo to meet up with other families in the Latin Family Connection (a group of families that have adopted from Latin America - but most are from Guatemala). It was so nice to see everyone again. I got to see Lori, Robby and Cohen. Let me tell you - this little guy is as adorable as he seems in pictures. He has a smile that is just amazing, and this giggle that just makes you laugh. We also got to see Robyn and Princesa Gabriella Robyn's grandma needs our prayers as she has had a stroke and is still in ICU. We also got to see our friends Riggs and Alica and their two precious kids. It was a beautiful day to be out and about.

We then left there, ran a couple errands on the way home and then got ready to go to Tyler's 9th birthday party. We had a great time - Alex played hard - and it sleeping now!

Here's my question.

Alex is started throwing things: books, toys, sippys, anything he can get his hands on. So, we've been working on not throwing. BUT - we've also been encouraging him to throw the balls he has. This has to be confusing to him. How do we teach him that it's ok to throw balls but not other items? Does anyone have any suggestions?

(and I have pictures, but I'm too lazy and tired to download them tonight!)

My Amazing Kid

I'm sure every parent feels this way, but I'm just amazed with Alex.

I just watch him play and just can't believe that this amazing kid is mine. He is so funny, smart, kind (when he's not hitting me across the face), sweet, independent...(and I could go on and on)

Here are a couple of the amazing things he's done this week. (and no, I don't have pictures as I just can't seem to remember to get the camera out!!)

Alex was playing with a DVD cover. Inside was an advertisement for other Disney DVDs. There was Cars, Little Mermaid, Pirates, etc.) He kept pointing to the Cars picture and signing cars. Then, all of the sudden, he gasped, threw the advertisement on the floor and took off down the hallway. I didn't think anything of it. He came running back down the hallway holding his Cars Book. He then pointed to the Cars on his book and the cars in the advertisement!! How smart is he????

Yesterday he was drinking water out of straw (a McDonald's straw to be exact). He then looked down at the straw (which was white with a yellow and red stripe). He looked up at me, pointed to the red stripe and signed red!!! My 16 month old knows a color!!! :)

Tonight he and I were playing on the floor. I asked him to give me a kiss. He shook his head no and started laughing. I kept asking for kisses - he kept shaking his head and laughing. I then started to pretend like I was crying. He stopped laughing, cocked his head, looked at me and then came in with a kiss. Is he starting to show some empathy? (he then later threw his head back while he was in my lap, busted my lip and then proceeded to hit me across the face twice - so maybe not!!)

20 more days until Guatoberfest. I'm getting so excited!!!!!

Busy Day and My Politician

What a day we had today. We had tumbling (which he did GREAT at!!), had lunch at McDonalds (where he ate an ENTIRE cheeseburger - yeah - protein!!), and then went into my work.

Alex did all of his tricks and looked especially cute. :) We got to see most of the people I work with, my former boss Joyce (who now lives in St. Louis so I never get to see her anymore) and Cheryl (hi Cheryl) who was supposed to be on jury duty but it got canceled (have you ever heard of such a thing?). Cheryl reads my blog, but never comments. :)

Unfortunately he didn't nap much today so was pretty cranky this afternoon. He did go to bed at about 7:45 and went right to sleep.

We are in the middle of a governor's race here in Kentucky. As you can imagine, most of the commercials on local tv have something to do with the election. So, I had the local news on and Alex and I were playing in the family room. An ad came on for the Democrat candidate. Alex stood up on the couch, leaned forward and starting booing!!!! I started cracking up!!! I have no idea where he got that. Although Jay and I are pretty political, we have NEVER booed a candidate on tv!!! It was pretty funny.

New Shirt - Haircut - and the Cat Bed

Alex's shirt says "My Mom is blogging this." Jay got it for him.....and he says he doesn't like the blog!!

These pictures let you see his haircut. I'm starting to get used to it...but it's still pretty short.

Alex found the cat bed and thinks it's the coolest thing since bananas. (not sliced bread - he likes bananas better) He was carrying it around the house on Sunday and playing in it. He was getting all crazy like! I tried to get it on video, but of course he calmed down a little bit when I got the camera out.

Happy Birthday Mom - and Happy Grandparent's Day

Today is my mom's birthday. (I won't say how many, but she is older than me!!) ;)

And, today is Grandparent's Day. And the first official Grandparent's day for my Mom and Dad and Jay's Dad. It's days like this that I wish we lived closer to our parents. (but don't get your hopes up, Dad. We are perfectly happy where we are)

Here's a picture of Alex probably eating dirt or grass or leaves or something like that.

Another Great Saturday

It just keeps getting better!!

The Ohio State University won again. (not pretty - and they better get their act together, or it may be a long Big 10 season)

Michigan lost AGAIN!!! Now, Oregon is definitely a better football team, but really. Lloyd Carr better start packing now!!!

Notre Dame lost - (sorry Jeff and Amada) And to a Big 10 school. (Penn State)

Alex got his haircut yesterday. This time we took him to Jay's barber. His hair is SOOOOO short!!! I like it, but he doesn't look like a baby at all. I need to get a good photo of his new do.

Jay and I still aren't 100% health-wise. Luckily Alex is doing well and doesn't seem to have gotten anything we have been dealing with. Mom thinks we need to take Clorox to the entire house. She might be right!! :)

Are We Ready for some Football?!?!?

I didn't post anything over the weekend about the College Football season starting.

But let me just say that Saturday was the third best day in my life. (marrying Jay, getting Alex and MICHIGAN LOSING!!!!) The fact that the entire country has been talking about how overrated Michigan is and what an embarrassing loss they had has just made my week.

Tonight starts Professional Football, so that means my Fantasy Football league is back up and running. I have a half decent team this year, although I may not have started the right players this week. My TE is already hurt, and one of my Running Backs isn't going to start.

I can't even tell you how much I LOVE football!!!!!!!! (I know - I'm pathetic)

Alex did pretty good at tumbling today. He's starting to get into it. We went out to dinner tonight at our local country club (we aren't members, but the restaurant is open to the public). There is never anyone there. (I'm not sure how they stay open - they must have a lot of members who play golf) Both of the waitresses and the cook came out and commented on how cute Alex is. The cook even brought out some dried cranberries for Alex. :) What can I say - my little boy is beautiful!! :)

What's a Girl to Do?

I didn't get home from work until 7:00, Alex went down at 7:50 (and I mean down - didn't make a peep), Jay is sick and went to bed at 8:00.

So, what's a girl to do with an evening all to herself? Does she do laundry? Does she do dishes? Clean the family room?

Nope - she sits on the couch, reading blogs and watching her Tivoed episodes of What Not to Wear.

:)

Pictures

Here are some pictures from the past couple of weeks.

Alex loves to help us "clean" the family room. If we get the dust buster out, he has to help us and usually wants it on.

Here starts the pictures from my hot air balloon ride. Jay took close to 100 pictures, but I won't bore you with all of them!!

My balloon is in the foreground. There was another balloon taking off from our same location.

Here are the balloons getting blown up. (and yes, I do know that pictures sizes changed - I'm too lazy to go back and change it!!)

And yes, I have magically made it into the balloon. Jay was nice enough to not get any pictures of me oh so gracefully getting into the balloon!! :)

The quality of this video isn't the greatest - but you can see me taking off!

Here I come in for the landing. We skimmed right over that pond and landed on the other side. It was really cool.

Alex was a trooper following in the chase vehicle.

As part of the Louisville Slugger museum tour, you get this little bat. Alex was having fun (egged on by his daddy) hitting things with the bat. This is the best I could get on video. (and yes, my child is walking around in a diaper and shoes - it's a look)

Alex then proceeded to create his first clubhouse. Inside this round toy he put: his blankies, a ball, a book, his little piano and his horse.

He then got in his clubhouse and just sat with his favorite stuff. It was so funny. He didn't want Jay or I coming close to his clubhouse and he just sat in there for the longest time. It made us very happy that two of his favorite things were his horse and his piano!!

Here he is showing off his tumbling skills. (which, by the way, he is actually starting to enjoy. He didn't cry last week and did some of the moves)