A few things you might not know about me, and a few you probably do.

Let me open by say that I am feeling quite hormonal and easily irritated today ~ however I plan on making ZERO apologies for my feelings ;-)

I often wonder what people think of me when they have seen me in the super market using the WIC coupons that the girls get, or when I have a child of a different race calling me mom. I am currently too swollen to wear to my wedding ring, so I am sure that doesn't help much. But between the cashiers who comment "what a nice wallet/handbag you have" when I am getting my free milk and cheese, to the moms who I meet and assume things about myself and my family, I invite you to get to me just a little better before you jump to conclusions.

Here goes nothing.....

1. I have been married twice, once for 6 months, and currently for almost 7 years.

2. I moved out of my house when I was 15.

3. I dropped out of high school when I was 17.

4. Although I am currenlty pregnant with my 3rd child, my first two are adopted.

5. As of August, my husband and I will have been active foster parents for 5 years.

6. Both my husband and I have been laid off in the past 12 months.

7. I have never been the recipient of any public assistance.

8. I have always been able to obtain decent, well paying jobs considering my lack of education.

9. I own a home.

10. I was a member of the Young Republicans.

11. While I have never even held a gun, if you were to come into my house in the middle of the
night, I would shoot you.

12. Even though I am pro-life, if any of my girls were to get pregnant, I would have no problem
making them an appointment at the abortion clinic.

13. My sister left her 3 daughters and her husband to serve in Iraq.

14. My brother is currently serving in Iraq.

15. My eldest daughter was addicted to methamphetimines when she was born.

16. If I came across a child that was in need, I would most definitely help.

17. I give change to homeless people (much to my husband's dismay).

I guess my whole point is this; while I have pretty conservative beliefs, I am a compassionate woman, a mother who understands how difficult it is to juggle a career and child rearing. Several times I have left my child in the arms of a daycare provider, screaming for me, in order to go to work. And tortured myself all day over it. But I do it. Not because I want to, but because I have to. I am by no means well off, but I have enough, not because it came easily, but because I have fought and worked my butt off for it. I pay my taxes, I help my community, and overall I feel like I do my part. I would help someone if they needed it. But I will be damned if I will sit back and quietly allow our current administration to overspend my tax dollars in order to push thru a public health care agenda that in my opinion is not necessary. Does everyone deserve basic rights? Of course. Should all children have access to health care? Of course. Does everyone fall on hard times and need assistance then? Of course, and that should be available. But for the most part, all of the above circumstances are available to those in need. I have had to be agressive when asking for my foster kids to receive the same level of care that I receive when I pay with my cash and insurance. But I get it done. If my kids needed to eat, I would work. I don't care where. My husband took a job that he doesn't like because that is what you do. In this economy, you take whatever job you can because your family needs it, not because it is the job you always dreamed of. You figure it out.

So while I am currently sitting back and watching all of the people who thought that this new president and administration were going to come in and "save" all of us, I am secretly hoping you were right. I don't believe it for a second, but I would love for it to happen. It won't. Not until the population of Americans who believe that the people who have more then enough should share with those who don't decide to get off their asses and help themselves will anything change. I am a perfect example of the average "under priviledged" american. I am a female, I dropped out of high school, I will soon have 3 kids under the age of 5, and I am currently working only 2 days a week. But somehow my kids are fed, clean and happy. While it's not the best time of my life, it certainly isn't that bad. I figured it out, why can't they? And no, I am not living off of my credit cards.

~Christine

Sometimes I could kill my husband....

Sometimes Greg really makes me crazy. Like this Saturday night, while we were camping, and at 7 months pregnant I was really trying to be a good sport and not whine too much, and he thought it would be a good idea to "warm me up" in our 8X10 cabin by pushing his sweaty, hairy butt up to me and letting one rip. I could have gotten over it rather quickly, if I didn't have to feel his body giggling next to me for the next three minutes while he chuckled himself to sleep. ugh.

The other thing that he does that makes me a little nutso is teaching the girls things that he finds funny, but are not appropriate for the little ladies that I am trying so hard to raise. I find absolutely ZERO humor in my four yr old coming out of the bathroom to tell me "mommy, I just dropped a deuce." But for some reason he thinks it's hilarious. I don't get boys and their endless bathroom humor.

But most days, I really, really love my husband. And really appreciate him. I am sure that I don't tell him enough. In fact, I have been complaining lately that I am feeling so very pregnant and I have never received a foot rub or a massage. But on the other hand, most nights after he has helped put the girls to bed, and done his own laundry, he is the one in the kitchen trying to figure out what we will have for dinner, and he is the one who usually ends up making me a sandwich. And he almost always brings something for me to drink when he comes upstairs. And he takes care of my dog, Petunia, even though he hates caring for pets. Everyday he feeds her, takes her out to go the bathroom, and every night he puts her to bed. He even does the pooper scooper duty in the backyard.

But yesterday, my honey won the darling husband of the year award. We left our weekend camping trip/family reunion right on time, after Greg had loaded everything, and even mopped the cabin floor because the bucket was too heavy for me to carry. We were about 15 minutes down the road when Tessa decided to gag herself and hurl all over the backseat of Greg's beloved truck. Granted, Greg used to laugh and think it was cute when Tessa gagged herself for no reason, but I think he is past that now. But like a champ, he cleaned up the entire truck while I changed the baby. He even cleaned out her car seat and filtered the smell as much as possible.

Three hours later, when we finally made it home, he unloaded all of the items and put most of them away so that Bella and I could take a much needed bath to remove all of the camping residue that we brought home with us. When it was time to pick up Petunia from the kennel, he went and got her. And even though it was 5:30pm, and he was tired and sweaty and just ready to sit on the couch and enjoy his trusty Discovery channel, he went and picked up the nursery furniture that I had ordered from the store. And even though he was frustrated at the store personnel for taking so long, he came home and assembled all of it, while Bella and I oohed and aahed about how cute it was, and while Tessa sat on top of each and every box "assisting." All in a tiny 10x10 room, while he was dripping sweat.

The nursery is just about done, I have a chandelier that still needs to be installed, and need to hang some wall art, but I have custom bedding in process (thank you Lou, you are awesome, and btw are you looking to adopt another daughter?) and overall I am really pleased about how it is coming together.

The new changing table, still working on finding baskets.

The new glider is so far my favorite item, well besides the wallpaper, of course.

So honey, even though sometimes you really, really make me crazy, you are my champ, and I do realize how very good I have it. And while I will not be encouraging any of the girls to "go drop a deuce" anytime soon, I will make sure that they appreciate how much their daddy does for them ;-)

Christine

Tessa is turning 1!

I can hardly believe it! All this time I have been so wrapped up about becoming the mother of three, and my "baby" has been plugging right along, quickly approaching that 1 yr mark. I am stunned. In all fairness, at 11 months, she is much more "baby" like then Bella was, Tess isn't quite ready to walk, has just recently learned to navigate the stairs, and would surely prefer a bottle over a sippy cup. And that has been just fine with me. It seems like with your first, you are so anxious to get them to crawl, walk and talk that by the time your 2nd comes along, you are perfectly content to go with the flow, enjoy it and not rush anything.

However, with Tess being so infant like, part of me (the cheap, lazy part) is wondering if she truly needs that big, over the top 1st birthday party, or would she really be content with a cupcake and a large cup of milk (served in a bottle, of course)? Of course she would, she is turning one. But on the other hand; and in all honestly, the other side of my brain, which works non-stop, driving me mad with all of these non pressing issues; this is soon to be my middle child. The one who will most definitely be sure to compare how many pictures there are of her versus my eldest and youngest, and hold it against me. Truth be told, there aren't that many. Bella is a photo hound, and with all the ultrasounds I have had, at 26 weeks gestation, Mia likely has more prints then Tessa has accumulated over the last 11 months. I feel horrible, it's not that I don't try to take pics, I do, I really do! It's just that as soon as the camera comes out, there is the 4 yr old, jumping in front of it. And even though I know I should, for some reason I don't have the pressing urge to make sure we have her photo professionally taken every three months like I did with Annabelle. Maybe it's because she is such an easy going baby that I have become easy going about it? I am praying that her easy going attitude will follow her until adulthood and she won't sweat all of the large gaps of her childhood that her mommy has failed to document?

So with that being said, the party planning for the "Tessa is turning 1" is in full steam ahead mode! Saturday, July 25th is the big day, the facility is booked, we are having the celebration at Bedrock Farms, complete with pony rides, a small petting zoo, and according to Bella, the most important part, a Pinata.

There will be crafts for the kids.

Pony rides, and a chicken and a bunny to pet.

The cake has been ordered, I hope it comes out as cute as it looks in the picture! I went with super yummy flavors, coconut lime, dreamsicle and chocolate fudge.

The food has been ordered, as well as beer and non alcoholic drinks. Weather wise we will be fine either way, since the seating area is in a pole barn. So all I need to do now is get people to come, figure out favors, and so on and so forth. Oh, and remember that damn camera!

Wish me luck ~ Christine