Helping others . . .

Please go here, read the story, and do what you can to help out.

Thank you.

Catching Up

Here is what you might have missed in these past weeks where I haven't been posting . . .

My oldest went to church camp and loved it!

My youngest turned FIVE. :-(

My oldest turned EIGHT!

First day of school! (1st and 3rd grade)

Doing the happy dance because school started. (Daddy and daughter get to spend one more year at home, because she missed the kindergarten cut-off by FIVE DAYS.)

And finally - this weekend, we grabbed our tripod and camera and took our own family pictures. It was quite fun!!!

There . . . you're caught up . . .

Happy Monday!

7 Years of Blessings

My darling Hunkahubby . . . .


Can you believe it has been 7 years? At this time 7 years ago, I was probably just finished getting my hair done in preparation for walking down the aisle into your arms. I can remember waiting until 11:00 for pictures and being so anxious to see you in your tux. And that first moment . . . when you saw me in my dress and I saw you - we both cried. Although we had only known each other for a few months - we KNEW. We knew that God meant for us to be together. Isn't it amazing?


One of my favorite memories of our wedding is while Katie sang "If you could see what I see" - you prayed for us.

It all went so fast. And the next thing I knew - I was your wife. YOUR WIFE. And you kissed me for the first time as a Mrs.


The wedding reception didn't go by fast enough . . . although I was happy to see all the friends and family who came to share in our joy - once I was your wife, I just wanted to be with YOU!



And I still do!!


I love you more than I ever thought it was possible to love another person. You are my friend, my lover, the coolest Daddy to our 3 beautiful children, and the person I want by my side until I take my final breath.

Thank you.

Thank you for choosing me. For being you. For everything.

Here's to another 7 years, my darling love.

Happy Anniversary!!!

Belated Birthday Post

So - Hunkahubby had a birthday this week.

And I've been too busy to post about it -- so I'll let you see the highlights . . .

Here he is on "party" day. Isn't he handsome??

Opening an ornery gift from my Dad.

the cake

the cheese bread (which accompanied the pizzas)

the brownies (are you hungry now? I am!)

the opening of presents (just for Sandy!)

Grandpa and Grandson (just cause they are so cute with their matching hair)

And a glimpse into what I gave Hunkahubby for his birthday on Monday.

I hope you had a great day honey! I love you so much!!!

Lions, Tigers, Bears, and The Chosen Ones

I took today off to take the family to the zoo. And of course, as it has been doing more often than not lately, it rained. A LOT. But we had fun anyway.

We went first thing in hopes to see the lions, as they usually sleep during the middle part of the day. We got to see two female lions, AND a tiger today. It was very exciting. (but it was raining so much, we didn't get a picture).

We also saw this beautiful polar bear . . .

And we couldn't help but snap a picture of this emu and the well placed sign.

But the coolest part of the day (in my opinion) was our visit to the White River Gardens. They have a butterfly conservatory. We spent a lot of time just sitting and watching all the different colors of butterflies flit from flower to flower . . .

. . . and other things!

A large gorgeous butterfly landed on Hunkahubby's back, but of course, he had the camera and I didn't get a picture.

Then this happened . . .



My poor son sat really still for about 10 minutes with his finger stuck out in hopes that a butterfly would land on him - but alas, we were not the chosen ones.

It was a great day, even if it was really wet!

Happy Thursday everyone!

Adoption Day/Mother's Day Fun

I think it is pretty cool that the anniversary of the children's adoption always comes close to Mother's Day. It makes it twice as special.

This weekend, we decided to celebrate our "family birthday" in an extra special way. When the kids got off the school bus, we piled in the van and took off for the weekend.

On the northside of Indianapolis, there is a Holiday Inn with a waterpark inside it. We had heard some great reviews about it and thought it would be a great place to go for a night and have fun together as a family. From the pictures below - you can see that a fun time was had by all . . .

Here they are squirting each other with water.

Here is HunkaHubby after going down the water slide in a tube.
(I even did it! It was great fun! But no one had a camera when I did it . . . heh)

Here are the three bathing beauties.

My youngest looking in fear at HunkaHubby who decided to keep the pizza to himself.
(Not really).

The next day, we took the children to the Indianapolis Children's Museum. We have a membership and we fully intend to use it!

Having fun outside with the children's statues.

The coolest part of the Children's Museum was they just opened a new exhibit dedicated entirely to comic books. HunkaHubby's inner geek came out and cried tears of joy. It was really cool - and is very close to turning me into a comic book geek as well.

I'm not sure what they're looking at . . . but it must be interesting . . .

It was a great weekend and we were all happily exhausted when we returned home Saturday night. I haven't uploaded my Mother's Day pictures yet - so my goal is to post those pictures tomorrow.

Happy Monday everyone and I hope you have a great week!!

My UN-wicked Stepmother

A lot of people today are posting blogs about their relationships with their mothers - and I decided it was time to post about the unsung hero of a stepmother.

Granted, I was in college when my parents got divorced. I was in my twenties when Dad married my SuperStepMom. Getting a StepMom wasn't as traumatic as it might have been if I were younger. But I don't think I could have been anymore blessed than what I am.

Let me tell you a little bit about SuperStepMom. Her first husband died when her three boys were quite young. She fearlessly raised those boys on her own - never thinking about herself the entire time. Those boys were her world - and they knew it then and they especially know it now. You can tell from the respect they show her, what a great job she did with each of them. Only when her youngest son was close to graduating from high school, did she even consider taking time for herself and falling in love again.

My Dad was so lucky that she chose to love him. :-) And I am lucky as well. My Daddy deserved to be loved - and my SuperStepMom deserved someone to love her. It was (and is) a perfect fit!

One of my favorite stories was after she and Dad started dating: we went to the store and she wanted to buy me an outfit. She had never had a "girl" to buy clothes for . . . but me, in my "tomboy" stage, went right for the men's flannel shirts. ::sighs:: Sorry SuperStepMom - I'll take some girly clothes now!!

My SuperStepMom has always been there to talk to and give me advice - or kick me in the butt when I was feeling sorry for myself for no reason. They allowed me to crash on their couch during the college years, brought me groceries during the 'financially unstable' years, and loved me even when I was a major pain in the butt. I would not have made it where I am today without the support of Dad and SuperStepMom.

When I got married, my husband also felt very accepted into the family - much in part to SuperStepMom and her support of us.

When we decided to adopt - SuperGRANDMA emerged and my children think she is the GREATEST. She is becoming the Grandma to them that my Grandma was to me. This Christmas, she even made homemade chicken and dumplings WITH the kids. That was so touching to me, and brought back so many great memories. I am so thankful that my kids will have someone like SuperGRANDMA to do these things with.So today - on Mother's Day, I am saying thank you to one of the Greatest Women in the World. You raised three boys, you then married one of the orneriest men on the planet (and do a great job of keeping up with his humor) and you willingly took on his family as well. And although many StepMoms don't get portrayed in the best of manners - I have nothing but accolades for my SuperStepMom.

So thanks. Thanks for taking a chance on love. On Dad. On all of us.

We Love You!!

Daddy Humor #1

My Dad has a great sense of humor . . . a little twisted sometimes, but he taught me how to use my sense of humor to get through the rough times. I often say that if I wasn't able to laugh - I wouldn't be able to live. I've spoken before about how I am Daddy's little girl, and how much my Dad means to me.

I often share funny stories of my Dad with people I work with, and they love hearing about my Dad and the pranks he's pulled and the stories he tells. And today, I thought . . . hmmmm . . . that would be a great thing to share on my blog!



So here is Daddy Humor Story #1:

My Dad loves to pull pranks. He loves to laugh. When I was little, he was really good at "getting me" by preying on my gullibility and asking me questions such as "Who is buried in Grant's tomb?" I was probably 16 before I finally was able to answer correctly with "Grant". Duh.

He also liked to scare me. His favorite thing when I was an adolescent was to say we were going to the store and then run outside. I would panic because I knew that somewhere between where I was standing and the car in the garage, Dad was waiting to jump out of the dark and say "Boo" so I would scream. It was a favorite game of his. One time, he got frustrated waiting for me in the car, and then cracked up when he realized I was peeking around every corner looking to see where he was hiding.

I never knew what he was going to come up with next . . .

Well - he had 2 great chances to prey on my gullible nature and also scare the pee out of me when my husband proposed to me and then when we got married several months later. I will share the engagement story first and the wedding story later . . .

As I've said before, Hunkahubby and I had a whirlwind romance. We met in March, were engaged in June, and got married in August. My family didn't really get a chance to know Hunkahubby a whole lot before we were married - and he didn't get a chance to know my family either (probably a good thing - he might have changed his mind!!) So needless to say, he was a little nervous when we went to Dad's house so he could ask Dad's permission to marry me.

Dad was pretty calm about the whole thing, and kind of surprised I think, that Hunkahubby was asking his permission. He said it was fine if he really wanted to marry me (I think he may have also asked if Hunkahubby was 'right in the head', thanks for the support DAD!). And then he turned to me and said, "Now that you're going to be getting married, there is something I need to tell you."

My heart started pounding, I had absolutely no idea what he was going to say. Was he dying? Was there some huge family fortune he was waiting until I was married to share with me . . . (HAHAHAHA, no I never thought that . . . I knew we didn't have any money!)

His next words actually made my heart stop for a few seconds. "I'm not really your father." Mind you - he said this with a completely dead serious expression on his face.

What? This isn't funny Dad. What?!

"Well, you see . . ." he goes on . . . his cheek starting to twitch just a little bit (I know to look for this sign, now that I'm older . . . I never caught on to it when I was younger), "9 months before you were born . . . your mother . . . [wait for it]. . . was abducted by aliens."

I didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or punch him. I think I may have done all 3, now that I think about it.

My soon-to-be husband got a HUGE kick out of it and deemed my father his HERO from then on.

I knew then that I was doomed.

Stay tuned, for Part 2 of this Daddy Humor, Daughter Mortification Story . . .

Child Labor . . .

Something really exciting happened this weekend. And it involved 'child labor.'


Here we see my best friend and cousin's daughter sweeping.


And here is my oldest daughter . . . sweeping (very quickly, as you can see by the blur!)


And my son - mopping up a storm . . .

What is going on, you might ask?

See if you can tell from these pictures . . .




Did ya figure it out? Well, if not, I'm going to tell you anyway . . .

My bestest buddy in the whole world (almost literally since were born) who also happens to be my cousin - MOVED IN DOWN THE STREET FROM ME! I AM SO EXCITED!!!


That's us in the front (and her older sister). I was almost in tears over the fact that my lifetime best friend would be nearby to laugh with, cry with, scream with, and all manner of other things with . . . I don't know if she has any idea how much I've missed having her close by. (not that we didn't talk on the phone and e-mail ALL THE TIME since I moved away from her.)

Anyway - It is a good week and I'm so thankful that things worked out the way they did. The only downside --- muscles I didn't know I had are still hurting from all the cleaning and moving this weekend . . . but it was worth it.

I can't wait for all of my new friends to meet my oldest friend - because I know everyone is going to love her as much as I always have!!

Welcome to the neighborhood, my dearest friend! :-)

Easter Pictures

I had to upload the rest of our Easter Pictures and thought I would share some more here . . .

THE DYEING OF THE EASTER EGGS

DID THE EASTER BUNNY COME???

THE HUNT

And what did the Easter Bunny bring me???

He let me spend another day with my beautiful HunkaHubby, a true Renaissance man.