New Year's Eve

Happy New Year everyone!  Hope everyone has a great day today- the last day of 2012.

My New Year's resolution for 2013 is to be better about posting pictures on this blog! 
Also, I resolve to be healthier in 2013- and not get any more illnesses that teenagers and 80-year olds get:  strep, shingles, mono and we can't forget my bad ankle sprain (twice) that had me in crutches and a boot walker thing and 4 months of physical therapy.

One fabulous thing that happened this year in 2012 that will forever make this year memorable:  My daugther arrived!!  YAY!

Pictures soon.....I promise!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas 2012!  I have everything I always wanted, and I got my Christmas present a little early...in September, to be exact!  Today was nice and relaxing and wonderful to spend with my husband and 4 kids.  It made my heart happy to see 4 stockings!

I don't have any pictures uploaded to post yet, I'll do it soon.

I hope all of you had a great Christmas day today, and have a fabulous 2013!

Take a Photo!

Ha ha ha!  Well, I do like to take pictures!  Lol!!
Someone posted this on Facebook, and I had to share! (Literally!)

Dave and I are working on my cookies for the cookie exchange party on Thursday.   2 dozen down, 2 more to go!  We're making peanut butter blossoms (peanut butter cookies with a Hershey's kiss in the middle).   Yummy!

Not a Bad Life

I had a few bad days last week with D's medical issues.  Today is a better day.  Instead of having breakfast this morning with my fellow December birthday girlfriends, I could have been making funeral arrangements for my husband or my young child like so many in Connecticut are doing today.

I'm still so lucky, despite the bumps in the road, to have the family and friends and life that I have.  I had a great time at breakfast this morning catching up with girlfriends, and now I must go and start making cookies for a cookie exchange later this week with some girlfriends.  :)

12 Weeks Old!

A certain little princess is 12 weeks old today!  I can't believe it!  11 lbs 8 oz!
It has been such a wonderful 12 weeks with her in our lives.
SO. TOTALLY. IN. LOVE!

Superstitious

The day I drove home from our failed adoption in San Francisco in April 2011, I was wearing this slate blue colored track suit with bling on the jacket and pants.  I hardly ever wore that track suit again after that fateful day.

Then we got the call on Sunday, September 23,  2012 that Cambria's birthmom was in labor at the hospital, and was 5 cm dilated!  In North Carolina!  I scrambled around to throw some stuff in a suitcase and get the hell out of town and on the red-eye flight to North Carolina that night!  Guess what I wore?  That slate blue track suit and some comfy tennis shoes.

That is kind of anti-superstitious, right?  If I was being superstitious, I would never have worn that track suit to another adoption meeting!  I was bound and determined to "make it right" this time....to make it work out.

I only slept one hour that night.  I was no nervous and giddy with excitement about the fact that I was going to meet my daughter soon!

Did I mention I went there by myself?  Dave had to re-arrange his work schedule and take care of some other things before he could fly out on Monday afternoon.

And don't worry....I didn't wear the track suit to meet my daughter and her birthmom!  I changed beforehand. 

Track suit or no track suit, the stars were aligned the right way and Cambria was supposed to be our daughter.  And for that, I am grateful.

 I keep thinking back to the first day, week, month with Cambria.  It was so wonderful (it still is).

And for some other news:   Dave had his procedure yesterday- he had an ERCP done.  He has gall stones in his gall bladder and also stuck in his common bile duct.  The ERCP is a scope that goes down his throat and reaches into the common bile duct and gets the gall stones out, so they can't obstruct things.  (In this family, just the word obstruction gives me the heebie jeebies due to Dave's issues with bowel obstructions in the past.)  Anyways, the procedure went well (WHEW!) and we got home from the hospital last night.   He was trying to get me to go thru McDonald's drive-thru on the way home (Hello!  More gallstones!  Just what his gall bladder needs!  HA!) then he was trying to eat ice cream (he snuck some sherbet).  Ahhhh.....doctors are the worst patients.   OK, so 1 out of 2 done.  He is scheduled to have his gall bladder surgery down in Phoenix next Friday.  Since he has complicated anatomy, the liver transplant surgeon has to do his surgery, since he is comfortable working in that small area.  I'm nervous, but then I think that he's having his gall bladder removed, NOT something as major as a liver transplant-- so things could always be worse.  And the best surgeon in Phoenix is doing the surgery.  I think I would be seriously freaking out if he needed a liver transplant surgery.  But this is still scary enough.  My kids need their father.  I need him too, but my kids really need the guidance and love of their father.

So while we were at the hospital yesterday (for 5 hours), all the horrific events that happened in Connecticut were all over the news.  I was a little late catching up on all that since I was in the hospital, and a little bit pre-occupied.  My youngest son is starting kindergarten in August, and I would be absolutely devastated if that happened to him or any of my other kids.  I feel so sad for everyone affected by this senseless tragedy.  What purpose did it serve for this nut job to kill all those innocent kids and school staff that he didn't even know?  Who was he trying to get back at by doing that?  These people who do these mass shootings need to re-direct their anger and get their mental illness under control and learn how to cope with life and the crap it deals them and all the unfair crap that happens in life without killing other people.  I've had to deal with my fair share of crap in life so I know first-hand that life can suck really bad at times, but you need to grow up and face the music and learn how to deal with your problems in a non-violent way.  He had no right to deal with his issues by killing innocent people.

OK, end rant. 

And we woke up to snow this morning!  I'm dreaming of a white Christmas!  :)

12/12/12

12/12/12 -- what a cool day!  I had to post something on this special day.

What I'm gonna post.....I'm not sure!  ha ha

Dave is having a procedure done on Friday called an ERCP.  It's done by the GI doctor, they put a scope down your throat and retrieve the gallstones that are in the duct.

Then he is having his gall bladder surgery next week.  Probably Tuesday. 

Could this be any more fun?  HA!  Not.

It's not as simple as I'm making it seem from the one sentence I allotted for each procedure.  He has to have his gall bladder surgery done open....no lap chole for him.  No, no, no, nope...that's not how we do things in our household.

SIGH....

He'll have to spend a few days in the hospital after the surgery recovering.

I don't want to talk about it anymore or I'll bust out in tears....again.

Things could always be worse....I know that.  But I feel like we took one for the team back in 2008 and 2009 and 2010.  Why can't we be left alone for a while?

Anyways, my mom has been up here helping out for the week and visiting with the kids.  We're headed out to dinner now....at our favorite little Italian restaurant.  Ciao!

A little Update on the Kiddos

Cambria slept through the night for the past 5 nights in a row!  Yee haw!  It's so wonderful!  She weighs 11 pounds 4 ounces.  Hooray!  She is getting the hang of this eating thing.  She is smiling so much and it melts my heart!

Zachary is in 5th grade, and tried out for basketball for the "A" team and made it!  YAY!  His first practice is tonight.  This is great news, because he isn't the tallest kid in the room.  But he's fast!  He has been practicing his guitar a whole lot more, and it shows.  He finally believes mom and dad that practice makes perfect!

Jacob is doing amazing in 2nd grade, and is acing all of his spelling tests!  He is taking this music class letsplaymusic.org and it's a 3 year program.  He is in the 3rd year, and they are playing the piano.  This is something we do together....do his music homework then we go and sit at the piano together side by side and play some songs from his songbook.  I am learning how to play the piano as well!  (I played the clarinet in middle and high school.)  I'm still a little rusty with my left hand, but this is about Jacob, not me!  haha!

Joshua can navigate my iPad better than I can!  He is doing well in Pre-K, and even knows some basic simple addition math facts!  He is being such a great big brother to Cami but likes to remind me that he will "always be my baby boy, even when  he is 100 years old!"   lol

Bailey (our 12 year old Golden Retriever) is spending the week at my parent's house or should I say she is at the doggy spa?!  She is spoiled there, and I'm sure is enjoying a vacay away from Sophie.  Poor thing needed a break from nutty Sophie who is always trying to get Bailey to play with her and trying to steal her bones!

And now for Sophie....she is going to be a year old on December 22nd.  That is crazy how fast time flies!  I originally got her because I wanted a baby girl and then Cami came along in September, so now I have 2 baby girls!  I keep telling Sophie and Cambria that in about 2 years, they will be the best of friends.  She is a spirited puppy!  She is so loving and sweet, but naughty too!  Among her favorite chew toys: bones, her ropes, cardboard boxes, binkies, diapers, socks and shoes.  She knows exacty what she is not supposed to chew on, then goes straight for it!  Oh, another thing she loves are these Incredible Hulk boxing gloves that make noise when you clank them together.  That girl....

When it Rains it Pours, Even in Arizona

Don't worry- this isn't a sad post about people being sick.  It's more of a post about irony.

Can I tell you how many emails I have received since October from adoption professionals looking for a family to match with an expectant mother they are working with?  Remember I had networked so hard this past year with so many adoption professionals, and now it is paying off.  Now!   After we have our beautiful precious baby!  Ha ha ha!  Life is so funny sometimes, so ironic.    And you know that I was trying to talk Dave into adopting another little girl.  He's not having any of it.  We had actually gotten picked again in October and contacted about a few more situations since then.  I hate to say no...

It's all about God's time, though.  His plan.   It looks like 2012 was our year for adoption!  If only I had known that back in 2009, and in 2010 and 2011....to just sit tight and wait and be patient!

I have learned that you just have to wait for the right situation to come along.

Anyways- one of Dave and my friend's from high school (me) and college (Dave)...yes, Dave happened to be friends with a bunch of guys from my high school in college! and his wife adopted a baby girl from China last month!  Adoption done right is so beautiful.

Sickness

I may have mentioned in my old blog that one of my friends from MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) has stage 4 breast cancer that has spread to her liver and bones.  She and I were on the leadership team together a few years ago, then she was the coordinator for the 2 years after that.  I'm not in MOPS this year because I didn't sign up over the summer because my kids are all in school/ preschool on Thursdays and you're supposed to take the kids there, too.  Funny how God and his timing work.  Because on Sept. 23rd, we got our baby girl!  Anyways, I plan to go back to MOPS this Thursday.   Well, my friend won't be at MOPS.   Her breast cancer has taken a turn for the worse, and she is having a lot of complications and was sent home from the hospital on Hospice.
I cried all day yesterday, off and on.  She has two children, the same age as my two younger boys.  The thought of those girls growing up without a mother at the ages of 4 and 7 kills me.  It is so heartbreaking.

She was diagnosed in 2009- about 11 months after Dave got sick.  Dave told me that stage 4 breast cancer is brutal in young women. (i.e. 30's and 40's)  Typically from what he sees (he reads the PET scans), they get diagnosed, have treatment, go into remission.  Until it comes back.  Then it's a nasty SOB.  Well, my friend is spunky, strong, funny, determined, etc. so I figured she'd beat the odds.  She was doing well for so long, I thought I was right.  Until I wasn't right.

I've been dealing with sickness getting passed around to all the family members, which sucks.  (But not cancer.)  Also, Dave's gall bladder is acting up (hasn't done this since 2009) and he is probably going to have to have surgery to remove it.  No big deal in most people, right?  Nothing ever goes smoothly for us.  Dave has complicated anatomy around his gall bladder and is going to see the transplant surgeon (yes the liver, kidney, etc. transplant surgeon) for a consult to remove his gall bladder.   They are specialized in working in that area.  He is seeing the best of the best down in Phoenix next week. 

I just can't shake this feeling....and the thought that part of the time Dave and my friend were sick overlapped with each other, and here they are both having issues again at the same time in 2012.

I can't wait for this stupid year 2012 to be over.  It started out so damn bad with getting hit with one bad thing after another, then we got our sweet baby girl, our ray of sunshine through the cloudy B.S. that this year brought us.  And now this.  Crap.

And now I'm crying again...... SIGH....

Well here's some good news:  We are planning on going to Maui in July.  I'm so excited.  And Cambria is eating like a champ...up to 11 lbs 4 oz!