Back by popular demand...an update!

So once people start commenting that I haven't posted to my blog in a while, I realize...yes...it has been a while! But..but...we've been busy. Story of our lives right?

In the last month or month and a half, we gutted the two upstairs bedrooms completely. We had the roof done, and added a tube skylight to the upstairs landing. We had new framing, pocket doors, spray foam insulation, blue board and plaster done in the rooms. With the help of my mother and step father, we painted, and laid new bamboo floors. The following week, two new windows went in. During the process, several credit cards melted, Mike hurt his right wrist, and my left wrist swelled to twice the size it should be, also developing a large very hard lump that might be a cyst. Trim and touch up paint to go, and Tyler will be OUT OF OUR ROOM! I'm a little tiny bit sad, but mostly, very excited. I do still have to paint a tree on his wall, refinish his dresser, and do some work on his taller dresser. But he can live in there before I do everything but the tree...and I hope to do that this weekend. I can't wait to see all the beautiful things Ty has all set up and in his room. It will be great for him to have his own space, and for us to have another space where we can put some of his toys.

The second room we have other plans for. We have a spare crib that I bought when Bridget was born, and a spare twin bed (there will also be a twin bed in Ty's room). We plan to set the room up, and then submit an application to begin the process to become foster parents. Tyler is 1 now, and it could take us quite a while to get approved. Once you get into classes, it takes 8 weeks just to complete them. A local woman I met is a foster mom and it took her 2 years to get through everything. We might be starting another long road but hopefully it will be worth it in the end. The road to Ty certainly was :)

Tyler's "road" is wrapping up. We got his birth certificate, and it was so wonderful to see that legal document say in black and white our names as his parents. I went to social security today to apply for his SS#. We should get that in 8-10 days, which should be just in time for us to squeak our taxes in before April 15th! Can't wait for that tax return to start paying off all the $$ we paid out to work on the house. Wish there was a flat screen in there somewhere, but there isn't!

Ty isn't walking yet. He walks behind his toys, and cruises everywhere...he's into everything. He is ALL B-O-Y! Over the weekend he gave me a bloody nose when he headbutted me. He likes to scream, and have tantrum. Already. He loves to climb and climb and climb...get everything he shouldn't. He just cut his 5th tooth. 3 new teeth in the last 2 weeks! 6 is right around the corner and 7 and 8 are just starting to swell. He might have been slow to start, but he's fast to catch up!!!

Other than that, I am waiting for summer. We visited the farm yesterday and it was wonderful to be out and see all the new animals, and visit the greenhouses to see all the food that has been started. I can almost taste the tomatoes now :)

Dogs are all good...Daisy keeps jumping the fence though, and that's a real bummer...limits their free time outside.

A Year Ago...

So the last week or two Mike and I have been having a lot of important 1 year "anniversaries"...On January 26th, Tyler was a year old (Happy Birthday Big BOY!) January 27th was the 1 year anniversary of when we were notified we had been chosen. One year ago on that day, we cried and called family to tell them we were going to be parents. January 28th was the first day we met Tyler, all squished up and wrapped in a blanket, which such a huge head of hair his hats barely stayed on. The 31st was the day we knew for sure he was "ours". We had gone to court and the TPR was no longer revocable. We went and picked him up at Cradle Care, which had been our "home" for 4 days while we spent time with Tyler. We brought him back to our hotel, and were alone with him finally. We spent several days alone with Ty, curled on the couch, watching TV.

One year ago today, February 7th, we were finally able to fly back to Massachusetts. Tyler would finally meet our families. At the airport, hustling toward Tyler and I while Mike waited for our luggage were Erina, and a VERY excited Bridget. I think Erina would have stripped him naked just to see all of him right then and there if she could have. It was wonderful to finally see my sister hold my son.

We have several not so fun anniversaries coming up over the next few days though. Mike's hospitalization and emergency transport to Brigham and Women's....

We'll get through that...we have so much to be thankful for :)

Why am I so Awful at THIS?

I am a terrible blogger. Just accept it, be grateful when I do blog, and don't be angry when i don't...

So we're several days into the new year, and hoping for a calmer year than 2008 would be a useless prayer so why bother? I feel like we live most of our lives in fast forward these days. Something to do, somewhere to be, a task to complete, go to sleep. I made several "resolutions" for our new year as a family, and most of them are looking pathetic so far. I started a journal for Tyler, and I do enjoy writing in it at night. I need to get a little night stand to go on my side of the bed so I can put it there and remember to jot a few notes down each night...maybe a little reading light too, so I don't have the whole room lit up. I'd like to say that blogging more even made the 2009 list, but in reality...it just didn't!

Some of my resolutions for the new year include:

Our family finances. I'd like to have all our debt paid off with the exception of the home equity line, the cars and the house. Those are our "good" debt :) Like that exists right? Those are tangible debts that I don't mind I guess. The home equity line was from Ty's adoption...so it's a large sum indeed, though I'm actually pleased with how little we borrowed compared to how much the adoption total was. You don't want to know. Highway robbery. Someone's getting rich off adoptions...not sure who yet!

Starting a new "addition" to the family. We have several choices for this, and honestly I won't know what road to take till I know. Right now I feel a strong pull towards adopting a sibling group from foster care. We'll see how THAT party goes down when we get started. I wouldn't rule out adoption domestically again, or even Ethiopia.

HOME. We need to get stuff done on our home. By the end of 2009, I would like every room in our house, with the exception of the kitchen and bathroom to be at least 95% done. I don't honestly care that most rooms don't have baseboard. We can tack that stuff up when we go to sell!

FAMILY! We made a huge change moving into 2009 where I am a SAHM. Most days! I work 1.5 days outside the home, but Tyler comes with me. I want to get it all balanced and working a little smoother! So far I enjoy it, but I'm having a hard time not obsessing about the house, and Tyler and everything being perfect. I mean let's face it, this house isn't going to be perfect...Neither is my nose picking, back talking one year old...so I should just relax. I'd like to read to Tyler more too. We sing to him a lot, but he enjoys books, so we should work reading in more too.

FOOD: Eat more locally, continue the CSA from March-December. I also have pledged to try and make my own bread, yogurt and cheese while I'm home. It's really important to me that Tyler not eat junk. Okay...mostly not junk with the occasional fish stick. What can I do? The kid loves fish, and I can't whip up a fish dinner a couple nights a week! I also want to work on his palete a lot this year. Studies show that between 1-2 children develop a preference for 90% of the foods they will enjoy the rest of their lives. So the more foods you can cram in and have your kid try between 1-2, the better. We do pretty well with Ty. Haven't found a veggie he won't eat (he eats raw peppers, eggplant....you name it) Fruits also always get the green light. Protiens are hit or miss...usually depending on texture, so I think tha will get easier as he gets more than 2 teeth. He eats whole wheat bread and I'll be hoping to move him over to whole grain, home made bread in the next couple weeks. I think we have a good base. Just have to start on the exotic fruits and sushi before he's two and we'll be good :)

ME: We're going to join the YMCA, and I'm going to GO. And not feel guilty that I'm a stay at home Mom who let's the Y babysit her kid so she can swim a couple mornings a week.

I think that's it? When you read that do I sound nuerotic? I am. I can accept that.

In other updates, Tyler, at less than one year old, has learned to say NO. It comes out sort of like DOE!, or DOH!...very clear what he is saying though. I gave him his first tap on the hand a few days ago when I asked him to stop throwing food off his tray to the dogs, and he said, DOE!. I tapped (and I do mean TAPPED) him on the hand and he desolved into a puddle of crying mush. I'm a monster. He stopped throwing food off his tray though, and ate his lunch. I think I have to ignore bad behavior, it just feels like this baby was born knowing how to push my buttons. He will snuggle up to me, give me a hug, look at me and smile...then whap...slap me upside the head and knock my glasses off my face. Sneak attack.

Miek washed all three dogs yesterday. That might not seem like something worth mentioning to YOU, but in this house, that's a major event. The tub was full of hair, I brushed them all, and got enough hair to full a stop and shop bag, and they are SO shiny and smell nice and are clean. They just fell better too...you can tell that they might not love the bath (well Dudley did) but they love how great they fell after. Dewey, our overgrown guinea pig, is a total brat about getting brushed. He's really sensitive about his butt. No idea why, but our trainer tells us that we didn't pull his butt fur enough when he was a puppy. What ever THAT means. They all seem to love that I'm home now, and they are in and out of the house constantly through the dog door. They do still enjoy dragging things they shouldn't have through it outside so they can enjoy them though. Mike makes a regular trip through the back yard to find the remains of their naughtness. Last trip he found one of my pairs of shoes that I got for Christmas. I got a black pair and a brown pair. I was impressed that although the shoes are stored right next to each other, they got both black shoes, instead of one shoe from each pair. There was also one of Ty's bottles, which I can't for the life of me figure out how they got. It had no top on it, so either that's how they got it, or one of them ate the nipple and ring. We're on poop watch again...YIPPEE! I'm sure the snow is hiding other treasures, not to be found till spring.

As far as work on the house, we are at somewhat of a stand still. When we gutted the first upstairs bedroom we found out...SURPRISE! We need a new roof. Which can't be done till spring. So we'll be tarping the roof on that part of the house, and then we just have to dry out the boards on the underside of the roof before we continue to replace the drywall and flooring. It was no small task. There were 3 layers of wallpaper, 2 layers of drywall, then the horsehair plaster and lath. That is all out, but we're leaving the carpet (pink of course) in there till the last second to help absorb some dust. We took out one wall, which we'll be putting back, but in a different spot. It enlarges the room some, which will help...when we have 12 kids :) Erina is pretty sure we can fit 2 sets of bunk beds in there...in the very least 1 set of bunk beds and 2 single beds! For now when the room is complete we will put our spare queen size bed in there, a twin bed, and the spare crib. I want to have the flexibility in case we do foster care, and for guests. If there is room, I might put the twin bed in Ty's room, so I have a place to sleep in his room in case he has a bad night. Course if the spare crib is in the other room, I could always move him in there, and sleep on the queen bed, which is SO comfy. Love that bed.

Okay well there you go. Not posts for over a month, but that one was a long one. Hope you all enjoyed it, and I'll get here to post more...yada yada.

Happy 2009!

It's been a long time Baby :)

Our lives have been so busy! Tyler is getting bigger everyday, and I'm happy to report we finalized Tyler's adoption on National Adoption Day, November 15th in St. Louis. We can breathe a sigh of relief now. His adoption is all set, and we can claim our tax credit when we file our 2008 taxes, which is HUGE.

We've also made the huge decision that I would only work through the end of the year. Tyler is so important to us...we love his daycare provider, but we want him at home with me. We felt like we were missing so much. I did find a job working about 15 hours a week that he will come with me to, so he'll always be with me, but I'll still make some money. I'm looking forward to it a lot. It will take some work on our budget, but it's important to us, so we'll make it happen!

We are working on stocking our freezer for winter. We are doing really well. We just bought 20 pounds of chicken breast on sale, and vacuum sealed it. We paid my brother in laws father for a deer (well for the butchering) so we have ~60 pounds of venison and it only cost us $40. We have a whole bunch of pork that has been on sale the last few weeks. We are going to buy hamburg that is on sale tomorrow after work. I think we'll do 20 pounds of that as well. All the protein combined with all the veggies we put up this summer, and some frozen veggies we bought also on sale and our second freezer is packed! We still have jarred tomato sauce, and jarred apple sauce...and we bought two 20 (or more?) pound bags of rice a month or so ago, so we're working through those. We could go for months only buying Milk and eggs :) We're still getting fresh fruit and veggies weekly from the CSA, so we have leeks, lettuce, turnips, bok choy, squashes, apples, califlower and broccoli hearts, collards, kale and scallions! Thats this week only :) The fall CSA should continue till close to Christmas, and then we will be waiting it out till Spring when the new share starts. We LOVE the CSA! So does Tyler :) He ate a whole bunch of bok choy tonight as part of his dinner...

Other than adoption and food...there isn't much going on! The dogs are all doing well, and are completely in love with Tyler. He feeds them parts of his dinner every night. He waves and says, "Hi" when they come in a room. He also waves and says, "Hi" to himself in the mirror now too :) Tyler has 2 teeth now, and even puts two words together. He will say, Hi Dadda, and Hi Doggies (no Hi Momma yet...I'm lucky though, he does SAY Momma sometimes!)

Hopefully I'll have more to post soon!

Amy?

Did I do this to Tyler?

I sit at the Hospital waiting at the Lab for a blood draw. It's close to 5:00 and decently busy. There might be about 10 other people in the waiting room. I sit for about 15 minutes and the Lab tech comes to the door, and says, "Amy?"

So I stand, and head toward her, I can tell by her face something is wrong. I look behind me and TWO other people are standing also. She looks at the chart, points to a young girl and her Mom and says, "That Amy, you are 14?" The girl nods Yes. Me, and other Amy sit back down.

Later, again. Amy? (Like she didn't get it the first time) and she looks at the chart again, and point to the other lady, who is clearly older than me. Great...not me again.

Finally, Amy? I stand and walk up to her, and she smiles..."The last Amy!" Great, I'm now the last Amy...

Is Tyler as common as Amy? Mike and I have as common of cames as they come. With a VERY common last name to boot (Thanks a lot hubby!)...I guess we'll have to see if there are 10 other Tyler's in his class :)

Runny Noses and Veggies

Ty and I are both sick. I'm not sure if it's the same thing, but I highly suspect he brought me home a gift from the daycare kids. He is happy as a clam, runny nose, coughing and all. Is immune suppressed Mommy, is absolutely miserable. I even slept upstairs last night. Partly so I wouldn't wake the two of them up, and partly cause I knew I needed some sleep. I slept like a rock, but woke up feeling worse than ever. My head may explode and I'm more than half way through a large box of tissues I only opened last night right before bed. Me neck is all swelled up and my throat is really sore, and I took Sudafed, so now I'm tired again.

Ty is napping. When he wakes up I am going to drag myself over to the farm to help with harvesting the winter squash. Mike and Ty are going to pick more green/yellow and Roman beans for freezing. We're also going to stock up on swiss chard, spicy greens, and Mike's getting hot pepper to make a sodium free pepper sauce. I don't know how long I'll hold up...I guess we'll see.

Tonight we need to finish the apples, blanch and freeze the beans, blanch and freeze some corn on the cob (we've only frozen corn cut off the cob so far) and cook up some batches of the card to freeze. I am not sure what to do with spicy greens, but I found a recipe online for a mustard green soup, and it sounds pretty yummy, so we might try making that with the spicy greens, and then freezing it. I'm trying to fill up our freezer because it takes less energy to keep the freezer cold when everything inside it is frozen. Need to put more meat away too though...wish we could afford that 1/2 cow or 1/2 pig now...maybe in the spring...

Thirty-five pounds of Apples, three dogs, and a rainy day

Today was a really busy day. I made a trip up to Biddeford, ME (about an hour away) with Tyler. While I did that Mike went to Home Depot, and bought grout sealer for the laundry room, then to our local orchard and picked up the two bushels of apples we reserved, and came home. He sealed the floor and finished up just about as I got back home. We started working on one bushel of apples. 35+ pounds of apple per bushel. We currently have a turkey fryer sized pot on the stove full of apples cooking down into applesauce. We also have another 35+ pounds worth of apples sitting in our living room and I have no idea what to do next. I'm thinking spiced apple rings, or wedges, or maybe some cranberry apple relish.

Chopping, and coring 35 pounds of apples is not easy, or fast...especially when you are trying to do it while dodging three dogs that have glued themselves to your feet trying to catch every crumb that hits the floor. After almost tripping over them twice, I put a chair, and the trash can, blocking them out of the part of the kitchen I was in. Dewey...the little brat that he is, realized he could fit under the chair. So after he did that a couple times, I blocked off that\ bottom part of the chair with a laundry basket turned on it it's side. Mike and I were able to work in relative peace for about 20 minutes. Then all the sudden there was a huge commotion and the laundry basket was hopping across the kitchen floor with a panicked Dewey trapped under it. Mike and I were laugh so hard, we never even managed to make it over there to help him get out...he just kept jumping trying to run away from the laundry basket and it kept following him of course, but eventually it fell off. So funny. At that point he was so embarrassed that he didn't come back over near us for a while.

I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with us. We even broke out the juicer and juiced the cores and it was enough apple juice for us each to have a glass (so yummy) and to put some juice in with the apples so they wouldn't burn. then I took all the juice gunk and put that in a pot with some water and I'm cooking it down. I think I'm going to strain it with cheese cloth, and see if I can use one of my pectin packets and add some sugar to make apple jelly out of it. If I can reduce the amount of waste on 35 pounds of apples to the size of grapefruit, I'll be happy :)

I'm going to re-can the peaches from two years ago too. I'm thinking about making a peach chutney with it and canning that. We just haven't eaten up those peach halves like I thought we would. They are still yummy, but I want to put them in something we'll use more.