Four!

That's our number!  We're fourth and I couldn't be more excited about that.  Since the agency has been referring around four a month, we could see our baby girl as one amazing Christmas present this year.  Yeah, I'm crying, but also not getting too excited to realize it may still be a January miracle.  Either way, this number is a present in itself for me.

Before you read this and think we'll have a baby in our arms this year, stop, reality check. . . a referral means that a baby has been picked in Ethiopia to be placed in our family.  Plucked out of an orphanage and awaiting our visit to the agency's home in Ethiopia.  We'll get a photo and information about her, that is all.

I have to explain this a lot, so sorry if you already understood that and are tired of hearing me say it, but it's my new thing, being a broken record.  ;)

Four.  It's a good number.  Ask Miley.  ;)  Her four does comes with a lot of attitude though.

Thankful and busy

We had a delightful (as Miley would say) Thanksgiving with some family this year.  Miley's 'thankful for' list included all her family and she listed them quite extensively for us.  If you're wondering if you made that list, then you can be assured you did.  This kid loves her family, and naming them all.

Today we were playing house.  She was mama, and I was the big sister.  Those are always the roles assigned, along with a daddy if more participants are available.  I always ask to be the daddy so I can go to work and play on my phone or read my book.  It's a sweet gig.  ;) This time however, it was just the two of us so I was the big sister.  No there is no little sister, unless you count the dogs, cause they are always part of the family play too.  Listening to Miley be the mama is the best.  On this occasion she told me I needed to clean up my dolls (aka her room).  I protested since this was the chore she was assigned to do that day. . . and then my phone buzzed and she looked at me and said, 'Child, you have my phone in your pocket, and I need it.'

Earlier this month Dave didn't get ready before he had to take Miley to school, so he drove her there in pajama pants.  Now, he doesn't have to get out of the car to drop her off at school or anything, so no one saw, but Miley was soooooo embarrassed.  When I picked her up, she immediately talked about how Dad wore pjs and that he should never do that again.  I thought it was funny.  She's reminded Dave a few more times to never do that again as well.  Well, one day last week Dave couldn't take her to school and I had to.  I didn't put any makeup on before we left.  She looked at me and said, 'Mom you're not wearing makeup.'  I know kid.  'That's ok, you don't have to wear makeup.'  ;) And then I flashed back on Dave's pj pants and I had to call him at work to let him know that he is way more embarrassing than I am.

So I've got a project list that could kill an average person right now.  I consider myself capable of it because I am completely nutso. . . My office has been trashed since September and it's spilling out into my kitchen as well now.  I figure I'll have time in January to purge it all.

Thus being the case, I don't really have time to type on the blog right now.  Christmas presents to make, cards to finish, blar blar blar, you know the usual.  I hope your Thanksgivings were delovely!

I think I'm partial to a good headless picture. . . life-size in my house.  ;)  Probably should have cropped this one so it wasn't so gruesome like that.  . . . Nah, I'm good.

gratitude and food

A couple anecdotes that seem to fit this time of year. . .

Miley was saying her prayer the other night and said, 'Thank thee for me'.  She may have a healthy confidence level, and/or she may hear that in our family prayers too much.  ;)

Miley always wants to know what the plan for the next day is and must check the calendar, especially for school activities.  I told her that it said they were going to make turkeys.  She gave me a thoughtful look for a second and then asked, 'sandwiches?'  It turns out they weren't edible and she was disappointed.  ;)

While eating her PB&J sandwich for lunch, she decided to experiment with what was on her plate.  She then told me, 'Mom, you should add craisins to the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  It tastes better.'  Hmmm.  Her father's daughter I suspect.  She's one comment away from making her own meals from now on. ;)

Dave thought Miley was being lazy about brushing her teeth so he told her about cavities and the drill.  He must have painted a pretty vivid picture cause this girl is now very concerned with getting all the food off her teeth. . . which is good, until you hear in her prayers at night, 'please help the dentist not to drill my teeth', and then the next night, 'please help the dentist to not drill in mommy's or daddy's teeth', and then one night after that, 'please help the dentist not to drill in Kali's teeth (her friend)'.  I told Dave he was in charge of taking her to the dentist for her cleaning next month.

I tried to get Miley to be a pilgrim for her school Thanksgiving feast.  We had to send them to school dressed as one or the other.  I showed her the bonnet I could make, but as soon as she saw the rainbow of feathers on an Indian headband she completely had to be that.  Who wants to be a Puritan anyway.  I'm sure the feast will be pretty one-sided today.

Thanks for checking in on us and making sure we're still around.  Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

last but not least

. . . the final birthday card of 2012 for you. . . Mr. Anderson

yep

So it's November and October totally wore me out so enjoy this post while you can cause I may be sleeping for the rest of the month.

Updates:  We are now number 8 on the waiting list for Africa.  If you are thinking we didn't move up much in the last month and wondering what our agency has been doing. . . well they have more than one list.  We are on the healthy infant list and so they did more referrals than just three, but only three helped us move up.  We won't be travelling this year to Africa.  Right now it looks like February depending on how the next couple of months go.  We'll know more by December.  Still positive and excited.  Looking forward to bringing her home during the warmer months!

Miley hurt something or other and required a bandage to feel better.  Her Daddy was on call for that one.  She wasn't sure he was up to the task and asked him, 'Are you good at putting on bandaids, Dad?' He asserted that he was well practiced (he does give shots everyday lately).  She relented and let him help her and then said, 'Wow dad you did great.  You're like a dentist.'

I was about to type that we made it so far through preschool without missing any school or getting sick hooray, until kid showed signs of a head cold today.  She hasn't missed school yet, but I'm a little disappointed that she's sick at all.  Fingers crossed this season goes better than last year.

I was explaining the elections to Miley the other day.  She proudly got an 'I voted' sticker as well.  I told her we were picking who we wanted to be president.  She asked me if I voted for her.  I told her I did not, unfortunately, think of that.  She then had to tell me that she would be a totally great president and that she really wants to be it.  Man, I totally wasted my vote.

I'm preparing a lesson on nutrition and the Word of Wisdom right now.  Meanwhile I have a huge bag of Halloween candy staring me in the face.  I'm thinking I need to use it as a handout to get it out of my house.  It will better the nutrition in my house anyway.

I learned from my Halloween party that teenagers will not eat food that resembles body parts.  No takers on the brain jello, or much interest in the cookie fingers.  Even lots of my eyeball cake balls were left behind.  They tasted good by the way, don't worry they weren't wasted.  However, they happily ate the guacamole that came spewing out of a pumpkin's mouth like vomit.  What gives?

I felt compelled to write an email to Disney about some inappropriate jokes about internet porn on one of their kid shows.  Seriously?!!  I couldn't have ben more disappointed.  And in reply I was given instructions to call their non-toll free line to leave a message regarding their programming.  Disappointed once again.

Miley wants everything for Christmas.  So I told her she can pick one thing and only ask me for that one thing every single day until Christmas.  It may be killing her.  ;)  Each new commercial is pure torture.

I am so glad the election stuff is over so I can actually be friends with people again.  It's better not to know all that they believe or interpret about politics.  Why does it always come out so fiery anyway?  Election time always brings out the worst in people.  I most appreciated the company of people who were unaware it was an election year at all.  ;)  And I may never go on Facebook again.

I was so happy to see that my Halloween decor still fit in the garage with only one additional tub added this year, until I realized that I also had to store a lot of stuff up on top shelves in my house.  Yeah, kinda forgot about those.  Some in plain sight.  It's Halloween year round at our place.  Oh well.  I may have to cancel Christmas or Dave's mission memorabilia for storage space next year.

At the Trunk-or-Treat, Miley met up with some of her friends from church and from school.  She introduced them all to each other and it was the cutest thing.  Then at Costco waiting in line to get a berry smoothie she made a friend and introduced her to me.  I didn't realize until now that she does this a lot, since she learned to talk it's been a regular occurrence.  I wonder where it comes from?  She's like a mini adult some times, that freaks me out.  ;)

I bought a book, an actual hold in your hand turn the page book, this week.  I banned all physical book buying on account of all my shelves being really full, this of course does not apply to kids books because I can't stop myself from buying those.  The book I bought was the sequel to the Candy Shop Wars, which is in the kids book realm only older and thicker.  It felt good.  It may be a slippery slope however.  At some point in my life I'd like a house with a library room.  Insert wavy lines and dreamy thoughts here.

Kiddo made me so proud today when she saw some stuff at the store and told me that she could use it and make it into something else.  She told me her plan on how she'd need to paint it and xyz, I may have stopped listening cause I was shopping, but it was cute nonetheless ;) . . . . .  At home she was going through my office drawers and found some flowers which she decided she needed to use as a project as well.  She's got the itch to create stuff.  I love that.

I have a movie to edit, a slideshow to make, and a handful of posters to start.  I best be getting to it.

Scrubbie!

It's time to celebrate!

This is our Halloween

Miley wore a different costume to her school party that morning. . . she was a Rockstar Zombie. . . and this photo shoot was her own idea. . .

After her party we went and did early voting.  The nice old ladies who ran the check in table were happy to see Miley in her costume until she told them what she was, and then they looked at me like I was a bad parent.  ;)  I tried not to smile too much about that.

My YW party was the night before Halloween and Miley dressed up for it (since it was at our house and I needed Dave's help she got an invite, she was thrilled). . . anyway, she wore her ballerina costume then and by the time it came to trick-or-treating the next day, she thought she needed another costume. . . you know three parties three costumes.  I totally agree, but alas only had the two, so here is our Ballerina Zombie, take two. . .

Can you see how fun family pictures are with this girl. . . who can't hold still, or make a normal face?  I've totally ruined her for pictures.  She's very good at the zombie eyes though.

This is our resident Werewolf.  He was a little distressed that I didn't find any wolf prosthetics for his ears, so he went around telling people he was mid-change. . . whatever. ;)  Oh and he had to get his haircut for our family pictures the week before, another disappointment for wolfie.

 Dave's costume garnered the most attention from the kids.  It kinda really freaked them out and they couldn't stop staring.  I told them that it wasn't a costume and he was just really that hairy, but I think it was the feet that really blew their little minds.

When I was a pre-teener I wanted to be a Mummy one year and I shredded fabric to make it happen, until I realized that morning that tying myself up in all that fabric would pose quite a problem when I had to, you know, use the bathroom.  So, um, scrapped it sadly and went as my backup. . . punk rocker, which was coincidentally what we used for Miley's school party as her secondary costume.  Anyway, so it's always been there, this regret, this longing to groan in tattered strips of fabric.  This year, it worked.  Dream fulfilled.  Never have to sew another strip of fabric again!

So the only problem with our costumes this year is that there wasn't a theme that connected them, except classic Halloween, so I didn't make any costume related props for my trunk (trunk or treat decoration) or for my house.  The trunk was pretty lame, but on the bright side I heard a lot more 'thank-yous' from the candy beggars.  Maybe a less scary trunk makes for chattier children?

Miley and I were one of a kind at the party, but Dave had a couple little doppelgängers running around.  It was funny, cause those were the only kids who weren't afraid of him and happily came up to him to introduce themselves as part of his pack.  Mostly though we saw Disney princesses, super heroes, football players, and cheerleaders.  I know, sad times.  I did get a few pirates who said, 'Arrrrgh' to me, so that made up for it.  Oh and I really wish they'd stop selling those Scream masks, enough already.  I hope those kids haven't actually seen those movies.