Barbie and Ken's wedding take 2

One of my first pins from Pinterest this a.m. was a crack up funny Barbie and Ken Wedding photo album.  I pinned it thinking Carrot would LOVE IT!!!  Oh I was so right.  She spent all day recreating   this for fun.  This is a must see. 

The above photo was the pin on pinterest and the link below is to the original Barbie and Ken album.  It is worth looking at.
http://www.glamour.com/weddings/blogs/save-the-date/2011/08/real-wedding-album-barbie-ken.html



And now Carrot's version.....................

and they lived happily ever after............

Getting to know Carrot.....

Carrot facts.........

• Starting off with the nicknames Carrot and Banana.  I don't really recall what made her pick a fruit and vegetable as nicknames. When she was small I introduced her to someone and she said yes that is my name but I wish they would call me Carrot.
• Carrot is 6 years old....born the week before Christmas.
• Loves junk food and hates her salad....quite opposite her brother
• Loves to make crafts and put on shows for our family

What I love most about Carrot....she is my sidekick.  Is always with me and wants to be with me at this point. Curious about everything and eager to learn.

What is your happiest memory?
Sitting on yourt lap (sniff, sniff - she is getting so tall she almost doesn't fit)

What is your favorite room in the house?
                           her bedroom

What do you want to be when you grow up?
A teacher or an Artist

What advice would you give mom and dad?
give me everything I want (yeah right)

What is your favorite outside spot?
Front porch.  She loves to play chalk and babies there

Who is your favorite Disney princess?
All BUT Sleeping Beauty and Pocahontas (sorry girls)  
                       

What do you like most about your brother?

He plays with me

What do you think you will be doing 10 years from now?

Driving a car (watch out)

What is your favorite move?

Mulan

What are you most looking forward in having a new brother? 
Taking care of him (AKA - bossing him around)

What are you looking forward to most about visiting Korea?
Getting to see Ooney
(so sad Ooney may not be able to return to the US this year)

Who is your favorite person in the world other than mom and dad?
Cousin Sarah - who happens to also be one of my favorite people in the world.  Sarah spreads joy wherever she goes.  If only there were more people in this world like her.

  She is about to head off on an adventure working on the Disney cruise....follow her exciting journey here...http://inthegreatwidesomewhere.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/hello-world/

An interview with Banana

I thought it would be fun to interview the family and post on the blog for future giggles.  I decided to post here instead of our family blog because I wanted to incorporate some questions about their future new sibling.


Should be interesting.

  Let's start with Banana......

Banana facts....

• Blog name is Banana because his sister went through a stage where she gave them both nicknames.  He was Banana and she was Carrot.  She was pretty insistent about us calling them that.
• Banana is 10 years old....born on the 4th of July
• Always eats his salad without complaining. 
• Loves, Loves, Loves to read
• Loves his cats and they love him.  It is weird but I think he is going to be one of those weird cat people. Our cats will walk across all our laps on the couch to get to his.
• Interest:  Soccer, reading, playing with his friends.  He is a jack-of-all-trades master of none.

What I love most about him?  PERSONALITY.  He is fun loving and has been super easy to raise.  We are so thankful that God gave us such a great boy.

Now a little interview with Banana.........

What is your fondest memory?

Playing the wii while you were making peach pie and it was springtime (love it)

What do you want to be when you grow up?

 A Veterinarian. 

Funny side story - we were just at the vet and when I went to pay my bill the lady said $302 and Banana said, "Oh yeah I am definitely being a vet".

What do you love most about your sister?

 This one had him stumped for the longest time.  We actually had to go to other questions but he finally said, "I guess I like that she comes up with fun stuff you know she is creative.

What is your favorite TV show? 

Phineas and Ferb

What is your favorite book?

What is your favorite room in the house?

Family room.  Currently in that room doing his favorite thing...playing games LOL

What is your favorite spot outside?

Under the tree in the hammock

Banana and JonJon(JonJon is our Korean international student)

What would you do if you had a million dollars?

Invest to make more 

What are you most looking forward about having a new brother?

I will have a sibling that is a boy like me.

What are you most excited about if you get to go to Korea?

Bringing my baby brother home.

Up for some reading?????

New tab at the top of blog!!!!!

First off Blogger has made it so much easier to add pages to your blog.  Before if I wanted to switch from my family blog to the adoption blog you needed to create a button to link the two but now you just needed to create a new page and it gives you the option to go to the web address of the other blog SO EASY!

I have added a tab at the top of the blog to list the books we have read.  I wanted to keep track so we could remember what we have read for when our social worker ask us and for our future reference.

It also appears that the majority of my blog readers I do not know LOL.  My guess is they are also embarking upon this AWESOME journey of adoption so a list of good adoption reads could be a valuable resource to those reading.

If I get a chance I will try to add some comments on what I thought of the books.

I have also been compiling some info on Korea - travel tips, places to visit, recommended hotel, packing list,  etc.  If anyone would be interested in my posting that document let me know.

Reminders!!!

Our willingness to wait reveals the value we place on the object we're waiting for." - Charles Stanley

USCIS fingerprinting DONE!!!!

Fingerprinting done!!!!!  Things could not have gone better today with fingerprinting.  This was the one step that had me the most anxious because it was going to require me to leave the daycare for few hours due to the lengthy drive.

 I was so blessed to be given an appointment on a week that two of my daycare kids were on vacation (one of which was the toddler who would not have liked me being gone AT ALL).  I also a nother at the doctors today so that only left one kid other thank my own two.

We received the first appointment of the day and had to leave the house at 6:45 so we were already at the USCIS office by the time my first daycare charge arrived.  We were in and out in 20 minutes (thank you Nancy for suggesting the Dover office) and home by 9:30.

It is also such a blessing that my niece Sarah is here for the summer who is already and approved substitute for my daycare and was able to come today.  With it being summer most of my substitutes have their own children home so I am so thankful Sarah could come spend the night to be here first thing.

HSTK!!!!!!!!! So Happy

July 13th, 2012

 Homestudy has gone to Korea!!!!!!!  That means we are officially waiting for our baby.  It will be a long wait for referral we are being told approximately 20 months but I'm sure totally worth it in the end.

 I am just now posting becuase we were on vacation last week when we got the news.  

It has been 6 months since our application went to our agency.  The wait to this point could have even been longer maybe not until August or September but we have been blessed that the agency in Korea has allowed us to be put in their que before our USCIS application has been approved due to our unique situation with our international students.

The boys were fingerprinted already in Korea on their summer break and Jeff and I have our appointment at the end of July.  After we are fingerprinted it could be a few more weeks of waiting for all that to be approved so we are truly blessed.  We were told that our situation is looked upon favorably since we have allowed these two Korean International students into our home so they are allowing us to send HSTK at this point while we wait for the boys fingerprints to arrive.

We found Pepper

I am beyond excited today that our little dog Pepper was found!!!!

Last night was really tough and I was starting to give up hope.  I knew with the upcoming 110 degree day that there was little chance Pepper would survive if he was out wandering.  We all had heavy hearts and went to bed all saying a prayer that Pepper was ok and someone nice had found him.

Carrot and I spent hours outside calling for him.  Walked in the 97 degree heat through the corn field and putting up lost dog signs and handing out flyers.

This morning I needed to take Banana to the express care for an ear infection and while in the waiting room I received a call and a nice woman on the other end said, "I think I found your dog"!!!!!  I was so excited and probably expressed my joy a little too loud in the waiting room.

I called my husband straight away and he went and picked Pepper up.  The nice woman found Pepper a few days ago and wasn't sure how to find his owner and when she went into the vet's office today with her own dog she saw the flyer and gave us a call.

We feel so thankful and blessed to have our little guy back.  Pepper is the proud owner a nice new shiny I.D. tag.

The other day Carrot had made at least 10 signs and hung them around the house that said "Lost dog and we luv hem" and today when I came home from the doctor I was greeted with this below instead :)

A sad end to our 4th of July

My fourth of July started off at the crack of dawn.  Why is it that on work days I could just sleep forever and on my days off I am naturally awake at 4:45....so frustrating.  I take an exercise class at 5:30a.m. three days per week and I was really looking forward to sleeping late but I was up, so i put my early rising to good use and made a festive cherry pie for our 4th of July cookout/Banana's birthday dinner.

It was a fun night visiting with our family and celebrating Banana's birthday but very hot.  We ended the night with sparklers and some firecrackers which is what brings us to the sad ending.  Our little Pepper boy was scared by the firecrackers and ran off and we have still not found him.  I looked and looked before bed.  I put a cushion on the deck in hope that he would come home during the night and just sleep there.  I have put flyers in all the mailboxes in our neighborhood, called the SPCA, notice in the newspaper and flyers in the local pizza shop....nothing.  We are starting to loose hope. 

WE MISS YOU PEPPER BOY! 

My 4th of July baby

http://memoriesfromourlife.blogspot.com/

USCIS fingerprint appointments

USCIS fingerprint appointments came in the mail today!!!!!!!   They are really good times for the daycare schedule too.  We have the first appointment of the day so they said we will be in and out in 15-20 minutes.  I will not need to have a substitute here for that long.  Moving right along.

New Playroom

Playroom before

Playroom after

New shelf for all the toys and books

 Book nook with carrot not allowing a picture :(

Painted the built-in bookshelf white instead of cream...oh my too much work

Fell in love with these ABC cards