Where is my husband???

Men are good for many things, among them, procreation and fixing stuff when things go wrong. One of my children opened the vent on the roof of the bus. They failed to tell me and/or to close it. So here is me, pulling into the carwash today, when I hear a crunch and a bang. Well, the crunch was the sound of the hinges being ripped off the bus, the bang was the vent cover landing on the ground about 20 feet behind us. Most every man I know is out of town. Now don't get me wrong, I can operate most tools, and know many women who can, i just don't personally have the ability to creativly attach the vent cover (to keep out the rain) nor do I know a woman who does. Tommorow I can work on getting replacement parts to fix it properly, but without those replacement parts, getting the vent cover on securely is out of my scope. The blessing is, I found a man I know who has ability and is not in Kentucky or Montana at the moment, he will stop over tonite and pop it in for me...although I am dying to know how he will secure it, LOL! I might have to photograph this, just for posterity, as well as to remind the children why we ALWAYS shut the vent, LOL!
Did one more page today, Scrap matters is releasing a super fun grab bag for only 5 dollars, and I got to play with it today as part of the design team, everthing but the flowers and the ribbon (scrappy shannon) are from the kit, tons more stuff I didn't use, I have actually already scrapped these pics, but the word art was just beggint for these photos of Gabbie, Brittany and Isaih last spring.....

Busy Weekend

Jeff and Alexandra left for Montana on Saturday morning, Tyler is leaving for Kentucky on Tuesday. Grandma is coming to visit on Tuesday (For Gabriela's surgery) Got some scrapping done this weekend, (played with Scrappy Shannon's new kit "Diamond Plate" Got baths done, cleaned out the linen closet, the pantry shelves and the Tupperware cupboard. I know, you all envy my exciting life, LOL!
Here are some of the pages I did, the ones of Addie's Birthday are the one's done with Scrappy Shannon's new kit.
Too tired to post more, Blessings to you all! -DeAnna

WOW!

Alexandra had her 16th Birthday party last night. Teenagers everywhere, the place was lousy with them! We had lots of fun, oh, and I think they did too! Set up teh firepit in the driveway and they roasted hot dogs, had cookie salad and chips.

Than they played big, better, best. Too funny! Split them into two groups of 4, sent them off with plastic spoons and straws. They go out to find someone who will trade them for something bigger and/or better. Alexandra's group was able to trade their spoons for some Miracle Grow, they traded their miracle grow for a light up halloween pumpkin, and traded their halloween light up pumpkin for a fax machine, new in the box, complete with spare ink cartridge.

Meagans' groups came back with a plethora of items, antlers, construction cone, applebees' discount card, all kinds of goodies. We then had cake and ice cream and let the kids watch movies. Um, till 3 AM when mom put the smack down. The driveway, camper and living room are a disaster. Oh, well, it was all fun!

Jeff and Alexandra leave for Montana on a mission trip in the morning, so we need to clean up this mess and get them packed. Isaih is suffering from a self-induced haircut, so I will need to get him to the barber today somehow (Jeff is at a firefighter event in Owatonna) and I need to drive three of the teens back to the cities shortly. Then I think I will take a nap as sleeping from 3 till 7 didn't really do the trick for me, especially after coming home wednesday already sleep deprived, LOL!

Back home again.....

We got home late yesterday afternoon, exhausted! We finally got to meet our new daughter, Nevaeh. She is beautiful and smiley, with an infectious giggle. The initial meeting was difficult, there were SO many people there, foster parents, birth mom, foster parents adult children, Nevaehs worker, Nevaeh's court appointed gaurdian, the foster parents adult children (no one could quite figure out why they were there, but they were.

The rep from our adoption agency, Mike, described the initial atmosphere in there home as hostile (to those of us there regarding Nevaeh's adoption) but it did improve with time.

We each got to hold her a bit, when Mike and the gaurdian convinced foster mom that she needed to let us hold her.

We were also able to go to her therapy appts with her the next day before we departed for home, very helpful in understanding the current goals. Also received copies of her current medical records which were very enlightening to read through as we found them to not be consistent with the information foster mom and birth mom were sharing. Nevaeh needs to get a lot of things in place that are not currently being done, it would also appear that some treatments she is currently getting may not be appropriate for her. We can begin sorting all that out when we get her home.

We spoke with Mike by phone on our way home, he expressed concern regarding foster family changing their minds about the adoption. This makes us all the more eager to get her home. Not only do we see her as our daughter, but as mentioned before, it does not appear that her current programming is meeting her needs, although i beleive foster mom is well intentioned.

Anyway, I need to sign off as i have a nursing agency coming to interview regardin Nevaeh's overnight cares and then need to drive out to pick up a bunch of Alexandra's freinds for an overnight party. Will leave you with some pics of our initial meeting, also posting pics of Addie on her Birthday.

Blessings! -DeAnna

Last post until Wednesday

Today is Addie's ninth birthday! We will have spaghetti, ceasar salad, and texas toast for dinner, with make your own sundae's for dessert!

After that, Jeff and I will head off to meet Nevaeh...will bring back more pics as well. The next time we see her should be to bring her home.

Got up at 3 AM, wonder why I am not sleeping?? Anyway, Made a scrap page, so I will post it here.....the web version has an extra flower (right on Annie's foot, LOL!) but I did correct that in the print version.

So heres a funny, dear freind Loren tells my husband that the old electrical thingies we found redoing the kitchen are worth money. (house was originally wired in the early 1900's) the house has been rewired since, but noone removed the old stuff. So Jeff decides to remove it and make a few bucks, ambitious right? Yeah, well but when he's done, Meg says "Mom, why won't the light turn on in my room?" I tell her how odd that is as all the fixtures in the house have the bulbs that will last until the second coming of Christ. Jeff asks her if the ceilinig fan works. Nope.

Whoops, guess he cut some wires added AFTER the early 1900's. Jeff spends a couple of days fixing this, as the parlor and dining room lights also don't work. Well imagine how happy he ws to get those fixed. So I go upstairs to put away the boys laundry and notice two things 1) the light in the landing doesn't work. b) the light in the boys' room doesn't work. I didn't laugh. That would have been wicked. Later, Jeff points out to me that if I plan on using the second floor bathroom, I better do so before the sun goes down, guess what, no light :0)

He told me this morning he was going to get the lights on the second floor working. I thought that was a nice idea, but we are leaving town today, and at this rate, the second floor would be fixed, but the bedrooms on the third floor would have no power. I told him (in no uncertain terms) this project would have to wait until we come home :0)

The waiting might kill me. Monday we will celebrate Addie's ninth Birthday, and then we leave to meet Nevaeh. We will get to meet her at 11 AM on Tuesday. I spent the day today doing TONS of paperwork, had to fill out about 15 different forms to transfer all of Nevaehs' medical records from her current specialist and GP to her new specialist and GP. I spend quite a while on the phone arrangeing appts for her with all the new specialists come August, and was able to scheduele them for hte same three days as Annie and Carlos' typcial Mayo Appts, which means less time away from home. On the other hand, it does mean a three day stay at Ronald McDonald House. It's a wonderful amazing place, we just prefer to be home. It's not really that far (about an hour and a half) but that's three hours a day in the car three days in a row. A lot for any child. Too much for three children with nuero issues.

Still trying to get a copy of her ECSE IEP (there should be a prize for the reader who knows what that means!) LOL! Other than that, we have most everything done. Have a nursing agency and will be interviewing nurses on Thursday. I just want to have everything in place when she comes home so that there are no gaps in care as well as being able to just focus on the whole family adjusting and bonding.

Jeff is out with reserves tonite, I think the kids and I are going to go to bed early tonite, mom is exhausted and the kids seem a bit overwhelmed from the excitement of the last day of school. I think I finally found a home for all the "treasures" they bring home on the last day. You know what I mean, popsicle stick figurines, dried up bottles of glue, name tags, you name it. Now multiply times four. (the older kids are homeschooled) Anyway, it felt like a mountain I needed to conquer. I always forget about all that until they walk int he door on the last day. It must be a defense mechanism. :0)

Blessings to you all~ I will try to stay busy this weekend to make the time go faster.

This week.....

What a crazy week! Jeff and his cohorts at the fire department burned a house down last weekend. Took some of the kids to watch. It was amazing! The heat was so intense you had to keep backing up, at one point I was accross the street and two houses down, the heat still stung my face. I have never seen anything like it. On Monday Jeff took Gabriela to see the ENT, she will be having her tonsils and adnoids out on June 16 (don't forget Jeff leaves for Montana with the older kids on the 13th for a mission trip, so mom is flying solo with nine kids and surgery) Praise God for Grandma!!! She is trying to arrange for the day off so I don't have to bring six children to the hospital for Gabriela's surgery.
Carlos and Annie are both having oral surgery, so I had to scheduele all three surgeries and pre-ops. Jeff had his official fire department pinning last night at city hall, and it was Brittany's 21st birthday! WOW! Do I feel old or what! We went to El Molino's for dinner with Rita and Lauren. Rita, Brittany and I each had a Rasberry Dacquiri (after Daddy ran her back home for her ID, LOL) Then came home for cake and ice cream, then off to the pinning ceremony. After the pinning ceremony, Brittany and I went out to take some pics for her 21st birthday, got some really good shots!
Monday is Adrianna's 9th birthday, then after celebrating, Jeff and I will leave to meet Nevaeh! We are both so excited! We will also get to meet her birthmom and her teachers as well as go to OT, PT and speech with her.
When we get home we will be getting Jeff and the kids ready for Montana, then surgery. Shortly after we should be bringing Nevaeh home. WOW! Don't expect a lot of postings in the next two weeks :0) Leaving you with pics of Britts birthday and the house fire. Blessings! DeAnna PS Whoops! Can't find pics from last night, will locate and post them later :0)