A Much Needed Break!

This is my last week at work. Summer break is finally here! I love my job. It's my ideal job and it's what I worked for so hard in graduate school - BUT- this year has been a killer. I am not sure why this year and not the last three I have worked here but it has. And sadly, just like the foster care system that I also love and keep dear to my heart, it's not the kids, or the families that make it so difficult, but rather the "system". It's nothing to get into now, b.c. it's FINALLY summer and that's all I can think about!
In a few days we are headed to the Port St. Lucie area in Florida and we can't get there fast enough. We are all so excited and so READY for some sun and fun and relaxation. It's just us going, Seth and me and the kids. We've always traveled with other family and friends so we are looking forward to just enjoying each other this time.
I just thought I would jump on and update the ole' blog on recent happenings in our neck of the woods.

-School is almost out and the kids will only go to daycare on Tues, Thursday's this summer. That means Mommy's "Happy Hour" will start everyday about 10am. haha.

-Lydia's "Adoption Day" is tomorrow! She is soooo EXCITED! We'll have to do something small to celebrate. We really need to start an "Adoption Day Tradition" for the kids.

-I am going to start training for the next half marathon in Nashville when we get back from vacay. I am excited b.c. I need to lose some serious lbs.

-Zachary is soooooo ready to potty train. He asks to sit on the potty everyday and we are just awful b.c. WE are not ready. haha. I dread potty training, but it looks like that will be our summer time fun! Yee Haw!

-Zachy got an ALL CLEAR at the ENT last week and we told him GOODBYE! I still can't believe we went through ALL OF THIS and then he never ended up even needing tubes. I don't think I ever told you all that we ended up taking him to a pediatric pulmonologist at Vanderbilt after the big scare on the OR table and he told us he thought he had reflux. Sure enough...a bottle of Zantac later his ears and chest were all clear. CRAZY, but true! :)

-We have made contact with Christina (Lydia's birthmom) and she wrote and emailed us back! She just got married (she is 18 now), and she seems ok. She told me that she is finishing her GED. I hope we stay in contact.

-Nashville is still suffering from the FLOOD. So many people lost everything. We were so blessed and we have donated lots of things to take to church for the victims. I just can't imagine watching everything I own floating around in dirty flood water. Please keep all of those affected in your prayers.

I will leave you with some recent pics. HAPPY VACATION TO US!!!

Lydia torturing sharing her makeup with Zachy

CLASSIC: I think Zac would agree that torture is actually the correct word here.

That's a Beautiful Name...

Kelly is doing her weekly "Show Us Your Life" and this week's theme is your kids names.

As most of you all know...Lydia was our foster baby. She arrived on our door step the day she turned 5 months old. When they called us for our first placement they told us it was for a 14 year old girl and her baby named "Star". Yikes...Star? Really? Oh well. Well, when they arrived I said hello to Christina and said, "This must be Star." She looked at me and said, "No, her name is Lydia." Whew...Much Better! Of course it turned out that she was named Lydia Star Marie. Remember, she was named by a 13 year old child - we were just thankful she picked Lydia - b/c I LOVE that name and so does everyone else. It seems anywhere we go she is always told how beautiful her name is. When we FINALLY were able to adopt her - almost 2 years later we dropped the double middle names and gave her a new one. She is now Lydia Kathryn. Kathryn (Katherine, Catherine) is a huge family name. It's my real name, it was my grandmothers middle name and the list goes on and on. I really LOVE that name.

The way we came up with Zachary's name is a pretty funny story. He is also adopted and we got the call to adopt him two years ago on a Thursday afternoon. The next Tuesday he was born. The weekend in between we had driven down to Little Rock to meet his birth parents and Jenny (his birthmom) was contracting the entire time we were with her. She wasn't a rookie at child birth and thought she would pop him out at anytime. She told us we should stay in Little Rock if we wanted to be there for the birth. He was born in the midst of March Madness and we ate dinner at the bar at Chili's that night watching basketball and waiting for the phone to ring. I remember it hitting me and I looked at Seth and said, "Oh shit... we're about to have a baby boy and we don't have names picked out." It became a baby naming event at the bar that night. everyone sitting with and around us were involved, especially the bartender. "What about so and so or this one..." We were writing them and saying them and it was hilarious.

Seth and I could never agree on a boy's name. The only one we could compromise on was Cole, and we both loved it... well... That was all great but the summer before we had another foster baby named Cole and you know how that goes. That was OUR Cole and now we could never use it for another. We finally narrowed it down to Zachary and Max. I really loved Max but we couldn't come up with a good middle one for a one syllable name. We also threw around Colin for a while and then the someone said, "How about Zachary Colin?" and alas, we had a name! Of course, little did we know of the naming crisis was only the beginning of what that fiasco weekend turned into - BUT - at least we had a name.

We would like and hope to adopt one more baby. If and when that happens, we have a couple other names we would like to use.

GIRL:
Molly Claire
Or
Ruby Claire

BOY:
Gunnar - but I don't think that sounds good with our last name
Andrew
William
Tye

-We don't have any middle names picked for a boy.

Oh, and I almost forgot...When we started the whole adoption process we were originally going to adopt from China. My, how plans change...We named that supposed to be baby girl - Madeline Claire. THEN... we had another supposed to baby girl adoption from Chicago, but at the last minute the young mother chose to parent and not to place...and we named that baby Carly Nicole. Nicole was the mom's name.

Weird and twisted stories... I know. That's how we roll! ;)

6 Years and Counting!

Happy Anniversary to my best friend and love of my life. It sure hasn't been boring...that's for sure.

YOU'RE STILL THE ONE!

Absolute Disaster

I don't have much to say except that I never thought I would ever see the horrible things I have seen in and around my city the last few days by the flooding in Nashville, TN.

By the grace of God, our neighborhood was salvaged. Many of our friends and fellow Nashvillans were NOT! I have typed and re-typed all the right things to say here. And I just keep deleting. There are no words for what has happened.

Our city, our homes, our businesses, our churches, our parks, our streets, our schools, our people...have been devastated. We don't live in a flood zone. No one here has flood insurance. This wasn't suppose to happen.

Here is my face book status..."Non-Nashvillians: please spread the word in case everyone doesn't grasp the severity of what's going on in Nashville. Temporary shelters are at capacity, missing people are unaccounted for, many homes are under water, there is a water conservation emergency, much of Nashville's economic base is threatened by flood damage. Text 'REDCROSS' to 90999 to donate $10 to disaster relief."

Well, I just wanted to share this...I have kinda always considered myself a mid-western girl. I don't know why. I have lived here since I was 3. I guess b/c my parents and all my family are from MN. I grew up calling it "pop" and eating hotdish, NOT corndogs. My brothers and sister (who are much older, haha) went to college in St. Louis and Chicago, which became my second homes because I was always tagging along with my parents (except when I would fake staying with friends and throw wicked parties at home. hehe). Ahhh Hmmmm. Anyhow, I say all this to say...

I am so PROUD to be a Nashvillian!

If you get a second, check this out...

http://www.section303.com/we-are-nashville-4366

13.1

Yes, you read that right. I ran, jogged, walked, crawled the 13.1 miles to complete the Country Music Half and Full Marathon this weekend. I really didn't train the way I should have. I would start and stop and start and stop over the last 5 months. I wasn't sure I would be able to finish. Luckily, my girlfriend and 13.1 partner hadn't exactly trained well either. We pushed each other, and it WORKED! We finished! 13.1 miles - HILLY miles. This is Tennessee, NOT Kansas. We worked out a strategy after the first several killer hills. We would jog the flat's and downhills and walk UP. That worked for a while until I thought I was going to die.

Everything was fine until mile 8 - That's when I started to cramp. That's when my feet started killing me. I suffered through the next couple miles. The crowds were GREAT, UNBELIEVABLE! I can't imagine completing the race without the encouragement from the sidelines. We saw the most hilarious signs. Signs that said, "Run like you just stole something!" and "You are awesome insert your name here!" Others had signs with beer cans attached that said, "There's beer at the finish line!" Of course that one kept me moving. ;) We were suppose to have bad weather moving in and I saw a few signs with variations of "Run...There's a tornado coming!" There were also tons of bands around every corner. Those that were planned and also the impromptu singers on music row and downtown. This is the MUSIC CITY after all.

The weather was perfect until mile 10. They were calling for awful, severe storms, but it held off and stayed cool and overcast for most of the race. I hit a wall at mile 10. The rain started, my body was numb and tingling. My feet still hurt like hell and I could feel the blisters forming with every step. My partner was AWESOME! I got crabby, she stayed happy. Thank God!

At mile 12 I heard my name "Katie, Katie..." I looked over and there stood my most favorite people in the world. Seth brought the kids out, in the rain, with signs and loud cheers. I felt my body again and the emotions started pouring.

The kids made the signs at home while I was running! :)

The kids and Seth waiting at mile 12 to see me.
Cheering on the Runners!
Here I am! Here I am! It was not pretty, but it was 12, it was raining and it wasn't suppose to be pretty! In fact. I don't think I could even form a smile on my face. Hahaaa.
I didn't stop for long. The finish line was sooo close and I just needed to see it- and it HURT to stop! I needed to cross it. As I ran off, I got tears in my eyes. Susan looked at me with her constant encouragement and said, "We're so close now!" I knew we were. I knew at the moment we WOULD make it. But all I could think about was my family.

We DID finally cross the finish line. Holding hands and smiling. I cannot begin to describe the feeling. The HIGH when you cross and still feel days later, even if your body aches.

And you better believe we got out of the rain and went to the nearest bar to celebrate WEARING our medals. Wish would would have gotten pics of that. On second thought... haha. We were looking pretty rough.

I did order all the pics from the marathon website so, I will post more later.

IT'S ADDICTING! We've already signed up to do it again in September! I think I will train a little harder this time. :)

13.1 - Here we come again!

Get your RUNNING shoes on girls!

Bunnies, Butterflys, Birthdays and Busy

So very much to tell and share.

We had a wonderful Easter with friends and family. The kids did egg hunts in our neighborhood and also at the zoo. The Easter bunny came and the kids were so excited!
The kids hunting eggs at the Zoo...





We have raised little baby caterpillars into beautiful butterfly's...Time to let them go~~~~




HAPPY BIRTHDAY LYDIA!!! Lydia turned 4 this week. She and I spent the day together baking her cake, painting pottery, and visiting the cats at the humane center.
It was a GREAT day and we ended the day with dinner at Chilis with Grandma and Grandpa and then home for cake, ice cream and presents!


I LOVE this look on her face when she saw her Big Girl Bike in the morning!


I can't believe you are FOUR!

Such concentration while painting her horse!




We love you so much LydiBug! I can't believe you are 4 Years Old!!


Whew...I'm exhausted after that post O' pics.

Here are a few other things going on...
-STILL no phone call from the state about a 13 year old AA child we were interested in getting info about adopting. I can't tell you HOW ANGRY this makes me. The state and all of you will hear about it from me. They will get it in letter form, and probably phone calls to some higher ups and some emails. You will all see it in a future post. I am just sick about it.

-I have been on spring break, although I don't feel like I have had much of a break at all. We have had so much going on!

-Lydia's birthday party at the bowling ally is tomorrow. In lieu of gifts we have asked that parents give a small donation to a special charity, Soaring Kidz. I found their link on Kelly's blog a few weeks ago when she held the special charity blog. I gave Lydia a few choices of charities and this is the one she chose. I am so excited about this. I think this is such a wonderful organization.

-Zachary is getting his 2 year molars and well...misery loves company. He likes to yell about it A LOT! :)

- Oh, and Seth went up to the lake this weekend and got the boat! Wooo Hooo... It's getting de-winterized this week and then it's BOATING SEASON! That makes this mama VERY HAPPY!

Let me start off by saying that I got the call - only to be told to expect a call. *Ahemmm. Whatever.

Anyhow, we have had the most beautiful weather lately. It's actually HOT in my house and I had to turn the air on last night for a while. We are all home together today. We ran errands all morning and now the kids are napping. Ahhhh, silence. Seth has gone back to Lowes to get a few trees that we are going to plant in the backyard. I am so excited. We desperately need some shade. We had a really nice tree back there a few years ago that dies when we had a bad drought. I was so sad. Last year we planted a crate Myrtle and now we are afraid it has died too. Lord, I hope not!

When the kids get up we are going to dye Easter eggs. When I told Lydia that this morning she asked "why we had to die?" haha. The innocence. I love it. I also told her that this was the day that Jesus died for our sins so that we could go to heaven. She just looked at me and said, "Awww, poor Jesus. Why did he have to die mom?" She cracks me up.

We have some fun things planned for the weekend. Tomorrow my Aunt Pat is coming to town. I cannot wait! I think we are going to take the kids to the zoo in the morning for an Easter egg hunt, although I hear it is mayhem. I suppose I will suffer through it for them. Sunday morning we will do a brunch with family and a friend or two. We are going to go to noon mass. Oh, and of course the Easter Bunny will have paid a visit by then. :) Sunday afternoon "The Gays" are coming over. I am sure we will play cards and just catch up. We LOVE our time with them. "The Gays" is a group of 5 guys that we have known forever. One of them is Zachary's Godfather. They are dear friends. The kind that would walk to end of a cliff, swear to jump with you, count to three and then wave goodbye from the top as you were falling. Haaaaaaaaaaaa. Only kidding. Seriously, they are some of our very best friends in the world and Lydia and Zachy think they are the BEST! We generally spend every Easter and Thanksgiving together. It's a special time. Maybe someday I will tell you all about my gays. That would be a fun post!

I will leave you with a very hard, outside - playing baby boy...



Toodles...