Wordless Wednesday: A Nice Warm Day At The Park...

....IN THE MIDDLE OF NOVEMBER!!! It's just not right.

See Ya All In December

Rich, Shiloh and myself are traveling up to Michigan next week for Thanksgiving. We don't leave until Wednesday evening but I think I'm going to try to limit my internet usage until then. I feel like I've been spending too much time on here lately. Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving. Later.

The Adoption Bug is Biting My Butt

...and driving me crazy! I've recently become aware of websites that advertise available adoption situations. Most "advertisers" are adoption agencies or facilitators but some actually have expectant moms "advertising" their pregnancy....kind of weird to me. Anyway, after spending a couple of evenings browsing these websites I now have adoption on the brain and it's driving me crazy! I don't think...well, maybe I know....we're not ready to adopt again. I'm still enjoying my one-on-one time with Shiloh, now is not the time be expanding the family with the economy the way it is, and we would LIKE TO move before adopting again......BBBUUUTTT who wouldn't love a new baby?!

With Andrea's due date barely over a month away and 2 friends from high school expecting I'm going to blame this all on them and push these feelings aside. For financial reasons adoption #2 needs to be adoption #1 all over again, so I'm just going to have faith that when our time is here God will lead us to our second child, just as he led us to Shiloh and her birth mom.

I've decided that the hardest part of adoption isn't the adoption itself...not that this is a news flash to anyone...but the lack of control. It is so hard to have basically no control over one of the most (if not the most) important aspect(s) of my adult life.

Wordless Wednesday: She Did This All By Herself

When she brushes her teeth she usually sits on the side of the sink with her back up against the wall....she has to be able to see herself in the mirror. On this particular day I guess she wanted to get a little more comfortable!

Is It Christmas Already?!

No. Of course not. But as usual you wouldn't know it if you went into a mall! This weekend I went to Perimeter Mall with a friend (to watch the Ohio State game at the official Atlanta OSU alumni bar...sooo much fun!!) and as we were walking by one of the stores we could hear Christmas music being blasted from inside! I'm pretty sure we both felt the same as we rolled our eyes at one another in disgust!

Feeling the way I do about the Christmas season beginning way too early, I am sad to report that I purchased Shiloh's very first Christmas present of the year today. I got sucked in. I've seen SO many people online (forums, blogs, twitter, etc) who are already done, or at least almost done, with ALL of their Christmas shopping...plus, I love buying gifts....I just couldn't resist. I will not, though, do anymore shopping until Black Friday. Which is when I do most, if not all of my shopping every other year. Love, Love, Love Black Friday! Anyway, back to Shiloh's gift. For anyone who is curious, I bought her an Aquadoodle Mat! I'm so excited! Since Shiloh turned one I've been thinking about when/how to introduce coloring to her....I myself love coloring. Crayons and markers are kind of scary to me at this age thinking about how much crayon she would ingest and how much of a mess I'm sure she would figure out how to make with both items. Then today it hit me...Aquadoodle! All the fun (hopefully), without the mess! Another great aspect is that after about 20 secs whatever was drawn disappears, so we won't be going through piles of papers filled with scribbles as she learns drawing/coloring! They should put me on an ad :)

On a very different note, as I stated above, I went out to Atlanta on Saturday to watch the Ohio State game at Hudson Grille in Perimeter Mall with Katie. Katie is my mom's college roomate's (Ohio State) daughter and is in Athens attending Grad School at UGA. Anyway, it was so awesome being surrounded by fellow Buckeye Fans, all decked out in scarlet and gray, and hear songs such as ""The Buckeye Battle Cry", "Hang On Sloopy", "Round On the End And High In The Middle", and "I Wanna Go Back" just to name a few. What wasn't so awesome was returning hom to this....

While I was gone Rich and Shiloh were out in the garage together with the garage door open. Rich looked down for a moment and when he looked back up Shiloh was out of the garage attempting to run DOWN our driveway. You get the picture...literally..haha. The above pictures were taken this morning (2 days later) so it looks better. Two days ago when I returned home it was still pretty raw and, well, quite frankly, just not what I wanted to come home to! But, needless to say, Shiloh is fine and I didn't even get upset with Rich! How could I? It could have happened just as easily on my watch, and boy am I glad it didn't!!

Shiloh Meet Potty, Potty Meet Shiloh

Today I bought a potty for Shiloh! Some of you may be thinking it's way too soon, but I'm in no hurry. The plan is to just leave the potty in the bathroom and see where things go. You'll see from the pictures below it was a good first meeting, though!

Giveaway

Grosgrain is giving away a free custom watercolor portrait of your child! Apparently, she has teamed up with an artisit who has agreed to paint a 9.5" X 11.5" portrait of the winners child. I feel it would be silly for me to enter as my child has no hair and I believe this kind of portrait would best for those with children who do have hair so I'm just sharing this information. All you have to do is create a link on your blog back to her post....so get to linking!!

http://grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.com/2008/11/commissioned-watercolor-portrait.html

Wordless Wednesday: My Little Bookworm

"Ohhhh" -She loves her Corduroy Books!

Giving the book a kiss- She'll grow out of this. Right?

Thank You!

As (hopefully) most of you know, today is Veteran's Day. Most people reading this also probably know Richard served in the Marine Corps for eight years. He never saw combat, but he was on a list of Marines to head overseas back in 2003. He along with many others from his unit here in Georgia were sent to Camp Pendleton to take over for those already overseas as welll as to prepare to be shipped off themselves. In the end, the Marine from Camp Pendleton who was overseas from Rich's MOS decided to extend his tour thus relieving Rich of his responsibilities. So after 8 months in California he was able to return home.

I wanted to share a bit of Rich's story to honor him and say, thank you! I know that the above story doesn't seem like much but at the time Rich was so close to finishing college and had just been married (to me, of course!) the month before so that time was a little harder on him than it normally would have been. Sadly, I don't have any pictures stored in either of our computers from Rich's military days so I can't show you how cute he always looked in his camos. You'll just have to take my word for it!

Before I end this I also want to acknowledge my Grandpa M. who is a WWII Veteran. I remember the first time Rich met him they talked at great lengths about my grandfathers experience in WWII and Richard walked away pretty impressed. It made me wish I'd used my time with him a little more wisely. My grandfather is still alive today but spends most of his time thinking/talking about his younger days. He will be turning 89 this upcoming May so I just wanted to acknowledge him while he is still here. Thank you grandpa for all you've done for this great country!

ETA: My mom informed me that her father, my Grandpa W., is also a WWII Veteran. I'm sure when we visit them in a few weeks Rich will inquire about his experience as well! Thank you, too, Grandpa W!

Celebrating Adoption

Shiloh and I had SO much fun Wednesday. The photos were taken at the Botanical Gardens here in Athens. I'd never been and I'm so glad my first visit was during fall....beautiful!! It was amazing watching Shiloh walk around like she owned the place and being engulfed in all of the fall colors. It could not have been a better experience!

Oh yes, and Heather! What do I say about Heather?! She is the perfect photographer for toddlers! Shiloh is very independent and stubborn. She wants to do what she wants to do and she wants to do it her way. Heather was so patient with Shiloh! She follwed her around learning her movements and getting a feel for what caught her eye and what didn't and then took some awesome pictures. She did an amazing job!

Heather has posted a little preview of Shiloh's pictures on the blog so if you'd like to check them out they are here http://www.stylizedportraiture.com/blog/ Just look for the title "Bald Baby".

Tropical Tree Frog Costume GIVEAWAY!!!!

Tropical Tree Frog Costume GIVEAWAY!!!!

I have a feeling you all are going to be seeing a lot of posts like this in the future. The clothes, cotumes, etc this woman makes are just too adorable! I would love to see Shiloh in this...and in a few years my future nephew, Austin, could wear it. Sorry, Brayden, you're probably too big for it.

Some Good News Today!

Today is Shiloh's celebrating adoption photo session! There is a nationwide group of photographers who have come together to create an organization called celebrating adoptiong. They offer free sessions (and proofs) to any family that has adopted in the last year. Thankfully, they aren't too strict regarding the time limit seeing as how Shiloh is 13 months old. Anyway, I just wanted to acknowledge the women (Frankie and Heather) of Stylized Portraiture and thank them for this gift! I look forward to blogging about our experience later today!

Please check out Frankie and Heather's blog...especially if you are in the Athens area http://www.stylizedportraiture.com/blog/

My Rant For The Day

I'll take whatever nasty comments I may receive for this. I don't care. Lately on the adoption forum and various chat websites I frequent the topic of abortion has come up, mainly pertaining to the election. Anyway, I am so sick of hearing women say my body, my choice or no one can tell me what to do with my body or I would never have an abortion but don't tell me I can't. Has it ever occured to these women that they made their choice (not including the tiny percentage of rapes...and I stress tiny) when they had sex?!?! Give me a break!! I'm sorry, but as an adoptive mom who came very close to losing my daughter to abortion I have no sympathy. When I look at this beautiful, intelligent, loving, little girl...this amazing gift that has been given to me...it makes me sick to my stomach to think about what almost happened to her if the funds had been there.

Halloween...Scrooge??

One thing I always look forward to since becoming a parent is Halloween. I've always enjoyed Halloween; passing out candy, seeing trick or treaters, carving pumpkins, etc. It's just a fun day and I always knew that when I had a child it would be 10x more fun! Not this year. This was a Halloween I wouldn't mind forgetting. It all started with Rich's 24 hour stay at the hospital, he was discharged yesterday late afternoon, (he's fine we just had a little scare) and ended with Shiloh and I sitting in a dark house hoping no trick or treaters would knock on the door.
Hopefully next year will be better.

On what will hopefully be a better note, today is the Georgia/Florida game!! The one day a year I'm a Georgia fan! We will be heading out to Gwinnett in a couple hours to "Uncle" Zach's house to cheer on the Bulldogs! Let's hope for another celebration penalty!