Forever

Ever really think about what that term means?

I think of forever and I think of 'til death do us part, and how my love for my children will never end. But, other than that, I really don't think about it.

Today, our family had the honor of attending an open house for a precious little boy and parents, who were celebrating his long awaited adoption. L. is a little boy, almost 5 years old, who was a ward of the state and child of the foster system. He was born, premature, addicted to multiple drugs, and his life has been no picnic. His first foster family was, to say the least, not a good match. His second foster family welcomed him with open arms and with tons of love. They have struggled to adopt him since he came into their home. His birth mother, a woman ordered to have no contact with him, refused to relinquish rights. His biological father decided he wanted him, but little L. ended up suspiciously hurt under his care.

The adoption process was started and stopped so many times, because of the system. In the end, the father volunteered to relinquish custody/rights, the mother was ordered to give up her rights by the court, and L.'s foster parents were allowed to adopt him.

I was chatting with his grandmother today, and she told me something touching.

After the court proceedings were over and the adoption finalized, the family asked for a picture with the judge. L. gave the judge a high five and then, the following conversation took place:

L- This is my Daddy. This is my Mommy. This is my Sissy. Forever?

Judge- Forever.

L- I am L. [insert adoptive last name]?

Judge- Yes.

L-Forever?

Judge-Forever

L- No more [insert birth name]?

Judge- You are [insert full adoptive name] forever and ever.

L.- K. Good. I like forever.

I'm so happy that L. and his family have found a happily ever after, and that their never ending love for him has given him a forever.

Can I start over?

Let's try this week again. I'd like to skip Xavian's trip to the ER for splitting open the back of his head. I'd like to skip Xavian cutting Korra's hair this morning. I'd like to skip Saxton's bad case of thrush that I discovered this afternoon. I'd like 4 more hours of sleep than I got last night.

Please?

Boy + Iron Post = Day In ER

Me-fine. Saxton-fine. Korra-fine. Hubby-fine. Xavian-not so much.

Xavian went outside to play a little after 12:30 today, and w/in about 20 minutes, I heard this horrible scream. I flew out the front door (the direction I thought the scream came from), Korra met me and said Xavian fell down and is bleeding. K. Fine. Skinned knee, right? No.

I go in the back door, notice a trail of bloody door knobs and a splattered trail on the floor. Xavian is standing in the middle of the kitchen, sobbing and clutching at the back of his head, which is literally gushing blood. The back of his shirt is soaked, ect. I grabbed a handful of paper towels, stuck them to the back of his head, ran upstairs, and woke up Hubby.

While DH attended to Xavian, I put Saxton's carseat back together (I had it tore apart to wash), pulled the car up to the front door, loaded Saxton, and then Hubby loaded a shaking Xavian.

Long story short, we spent almost 4 hours in the waiting room because of a never ending trail of ambulances, a nurse ended up comming to the waiting room and bandaging Xavian's head so that we could quit holding a hand towel on it, then she gave him a hospital gown to put on. We finally saw the doctor who decided staples would be best, and the nurse measured and cleaned the still bleeding gash. To quote the dr, he "busted a fat one". Since it was still bleeding excessively (so many hours after the fact), he changed his mind to stitches.

5 hours after we arrived at the ER, we left w/ 3 stitches on the 2.5 cm gash, and strict instructions to wake him every 2 hours and how to keep the area clean.

It doesn't look like he fractured his skull or has any brain swelling, but the dr said it can take up to 72 hours before we're in the clear. We have to see the pedi on Wednesday, and he'll determine when to remove stitches.

Now, he's catching some sleep. Poor guy.

Whew!

Found the tooth. It was under the edge of the couch. Tooth Fairy came, but Xavian didn't seem to notice! Dang it.

About Scout Camp

Xavian had a blast! The theme was prehisroric, and they had the cutest wooden dinosaurs posted around camp. Here's one:




And here's the happy camper!




Notice the front tooth barely hanging in there? It disappeared sometime between Friday night and 11 am on Saturday. Still haven't found it! Guess we'll have to write the tooth fairy a note. Hmmmmmmmm...

A "Powerful" road trip

Yesterday morning, Hubby indicated that maybe we could take a road trip. Xavian had Cub Scout day camp all week, and because of the cost of gas, I stayed in the area all day (except Thursday), so the idea of a road trip (and being gone all day, again) wasn't super appealing to me. But, I sat down and searched the web for any festivals or events within a reasonable drive. I found an expo and flea market at the Coolsprings Power Museum. The what museum? Well, appearently it's the largest collection of stationary steam engines in the world. And, that in itself is cool. Even cooler? It's just an hour and a half down the highway from us. I bought into the roadtrip, packed us up, and we escaped!

Hubby started the trip off with milkshakes (yes, my children LOVE their daddy). We knew we were going the right direction, when we started meeting antique steam engines and tractors (obviously leaving the expo!) We arrived just in time for a thunderstorm. Most of the expo participants were gone, as well as many of the flea market vendors, but the museum was open until 8pm, so we stayed to check things out.

It's a REALLY neat museum. Lots to see! It's really neat to see these big, old engines, still opperating. Here's a few we saw:







Here's the kids & I checking things out, while enjoying ourselves:





Pretty cool, huh?

But Mom, the laundry might eat me

It just might!

Seriously, I have 5 loads of laundry, washed & dried, ready to be folded; 1 load of laundry to hang on the clothesline first thing in the morning; 2 loads waiting to be washed; and I'm certain there is at least one more load hiding under my children's beds. Ugh.

I also will have the bedding to wash on Saturday, plus all the clothing worn before then, towels from the bathroom & kitchen, and the ironing.

Wait! What's that sound?

Oh. Just my washing machine begging for mercy.

Sigh, why are stay-at-home moms not paid?! (I'm refering to cash)

In case you didn't know

I do custom painted jeans for children and big hairbows.

I saw some custom jeans on eBay selling for INSANE amounts of money, and thought, I can do that! So I went out and bought some professional fabric paints, sat down, and painted my first pair. They turned out gloriously! I received oodles of complements everywhere Korra wore them. I've since sold several pairs on eBay. And every pair has been my own unique design.

Well, last summer, I was working full time, and stopped painting jeans and making hairbows. Then, I decided to redecorate most of the house during the cooler months. But as of this week, I'm back!

I'm going to paint some Dr Seuss themed jeans for Xavian and Korra to wear to school for Dr Seuss' birthday week. The kids and I are so excited! We've been looking at their Seuss books, picking out exactly what they want on their jeans. No exact replicas of any particular picture (that would be infringing on copyrighted material), but, definately the Seuss characters, using the Seuss style!

Here's the first pair of jeans I ever painted, Korra modeling:

Look what we did, today

The kids were in the mood, so, we had an impromptu photo session!

Another beautiful smile:

My 3 angels:

Brothers:

Directions are not a back-up plan

My FIL installed the new garbage disposal yesterday-just as promised. BUT, he didn't read the directions, and missed removing a plastic plug before attatching the dishwasher's drain hose. And, so my dishwasher got backed up and flooded my kitchen this afternoon.

Now, I love my FIL. He's a great guy. But he's a man. Haven't met one yet who thinks they need directions.

So, for all you guys out there: Read the directions! Please?