My Ebenezer

Oops. This is just a backup from a once virus infected site. So now you can find me here: www.myebenezer.net !

Well, I decided Princess’ room had to be repainted. I picked a softer, almost minty green and I LOVE IT! Aunt Kelly came over to help paint (thanks, again) and it’s all done. She even convinced me that the blue in Isaac’s room looks good. Now I just have to fix all the edges I screwed up the first time and I’ll be all set.

we also purchased a big girl bed and dresser for the Princess and I can’t wait until Daddyo builds it.

He is not so thrilled with that idea.

Painted Princess’ new room. HATE it.

Painted Isaac’s room. HATE it.

Too worn out to repaint anything.

Disappointed.

A little ticked off.

Hoping to wake up loving it in the morning.

Not too optimistic.

We stopped in some podunk town for a late lunch at a little hole in the wall steak place. Just before we were leaving, daddyo walked up to the front but wouldn’t tell me what he did. When the waiter brought us the check, I figured it out.

There was a table of three not far from us and one was a US Soldier. Daddyo paid for their lunch.

How sweet is my husband?

He might not appreciate me sharing this story…..ESPECIALLY since he actually reads the blog from time to time……

I keep telling him he needs to post but he refuses. what do you think?

We are on our way to court. Fun times.

You are so adorable and so much fun to care for. You are even cute at 1:00am when you decide it’s a good time to play. While I am grateful you aren’t crying, 1:00am is sleep time, not play time.

So yesterday we had our practice run.

Today is D-Day.

Birthmom is confirmed in hospital in the birthing unit.

CPS will be notified when baby is born.

The region of CPS she is in has told our caseworker that they will absolutely place the baby with us if it comes into custody.

Prayers.

Check back later for more information.

We could be bringing a baby home as soon as tomorrow.

Okay, so I know that things like this are pretty cheesey, but Daddyo is going to LOVE it and he will save it forever.

Speedy’s school had a Mother’s Day program today.

We had pictures made this morning and I have some REALLY cute ones to share.

Later.

Regularly scheduled blogging will resume eventually.

I bet you’ve never heard it sung like this before:

Hey, anyone who knows me IRL have a Costco membership? There’s something I need to buy there and if I buy a membership it will kind of defeat the purpose of buying it there because it’s cheaper.

Then again, I guess that IS kind of the point.

So I was reading some of the information about this marathon I signed up for, and I realize that there is actually a time LIMIT. Oops. I was thinking that we could walk it at a fast pace, but not too fast, now I realize I’m going to have to really truck it if I want to finish the race. And I do. I’m thinking now that I may actually have to run a little bit in order to finish before everything closes down. Holy Crap. What have I gotten myself into?

Oh well, I’m going to do it. I have never in my life run in any type of sporting event. Except in seventh grade I tried out for the track team, but I only did it so I could skip PE. ????? I almost made the team, too. And I really didn’t want to.

Anyway, so I figure if I can get myself into shape enough to run a marathon by January, surely we can raise the money to meet our goal.

Donated: $270
Left to go: $5000 – $270
(hey, it’s a marathon, not a math-a-thon)

By the way, the fundraising campaign is not aimed solely at the blogging community – I do have friends IRL who are participating as well! I’m thinking we should do something fun, like everytime we hit a certain goal I have to post a ridiculous picture of myself or something. What do you think? We’re at $270 now, once we hit $1000, I’ll do something embarassing. Self portrait. Video of me doing the chicken dance. Why anyone would want to see that…..I’ll never know. I’m open for ideas here. Whatever it takes. Let’s do this for Stella.

So we decided to bring the laptop afterall, with strict rules about not checking emails. It’s come in handy already to look up places to eat, etc…

The trip over went very smoothly – we had a nice visit with family in Louisiana and we spent the night in Slidell, La. All four of us in one room and it worked out okay. We thought the kids would crash in the car when we left our relatives’ house, but they BOTH stayed awake until 9pm! Woke up when we got to the hotel but went right back to sleep, for the most part.

The funniest thing so far is Speedy’s enthusiasm. I think he likes being on vacation. When we crossed the state line into Florida, Daddyo said, “woooppeeee! We’re in Florida now” and Speedy went nuts in the back seat. “It’s so fun! It’s so fun! It’s so fun! It’s so fun!” I caught part of it on video with my cell phone, I’ll have to post it later.

This morning, we woke up at 6:30am and headed out on the balcony for breakfast. We got to watch dolphins frolicking in the water while we had breakfast.

We’re off to a great start.

Last night.

7pm. Speedy is tucked in for the night, or so we thought.

8:30pm Speedy is crying and fussing quite a bit so we go in there and comfort him, talk about his “scawy dweam” and leave him to go back to sleep.

8:45pm Speedy is screaming and crying again so I lay down with him and he just can’t get comfortable. Finally seems to settle so I leave again.

9pm Speedy is using his blood-curtling scream voice and it finally dawns on me to ask if anything hurts. He says his ear hurts so we give him a double dose of Benadryl and some ibuprofen and ear drops. He dozes off again.

10pm Speedy is screaming again. Daddyo sets up the trundle bed and goes to sleep in there with him, he finally settles back down.

10:30, I hear Speedy crying again but he settles back down pretty quick.

11:30pm and now daddyo is getting frustrated with the crying and screaming and is fussing at Speedy to lay down and be quiet. I’m laying in bed fuming because Speedy is hurting and obviously fussing at him isn’t going to make him feel any better.

12am, Speedy is fussing again and screaming and daddyo is fussing and I can’t take it anymore. I go get Speedy and take him into the den and we snuggle into the big rocking chair and he still can’t settle down so I turn a movie on and he starts watching and forgets about his ear.

12:30am, Speedy starts to doze off again but turns his head on the achy ear and screams. I take him back to daddyo and dig around to find matching pajamas. (why it was important to me for him to have cute and matching pjs in the middle of the night I have no idea.)

1am, I load Speedy in the van and take him to the ER. I figure if we’re going to be up all night anyway, we may as well be in the ER so we can go ahead and start on an antibiotic.

1:45am, wonderful ER doctor looks at Speedy’s ears and confirms infection but says it really doesn’t look that terrible. Gives pain meds and antibiotics. Nurse comes in and gives Speedy the meds and tells him beforehand that it doesn’t taste very good and asks if he can be tough and drink it anyway. Speedy downs the medicine like it is liquid sugar and thoroughly impresses the nurse. She gives him a lolly pop and tells him he’s as tough as Spiderman and he grins from ear to ear.

2:15am we drop the prescriptions off at pharmacy and run back to the house because I forgot my wallet.

2:45am meds are ready and I give Speedy the first dose and we drive for about 20 minutes, hoping that he’ll fall asleep as the pain meds start to kick in.

3:00am I call the pharmacist and ask her to double check the dosage because it seems way too much. She confirms it isn’t right and calls back with the right amount a few minutes later.

3:15am I carry an awake Speedy to bed and tuck him in.

3:30am I crash.

7am Speedy starts to wake up and daddyo goes in there as Speedy is shouting, “IT’S WAKE UP TIME! LOOK AT THE CLOCK! LOOK! IT’S AT THE RED SPOT ITS TIME TO WAKE UP!” (i made a clock for his room so he can tell when it is okay to get out of bed in the morning)

9am I get out of bed and send daddyo and Princess off to church.

I count the minutes until nap time.

Thank you God for wonderful ER doctors and nurses and for wonderful medicine.

When I read stories like this it makes me want to fight to make hanging legal again.

March 29, 2997

Speedy turns three! We have a fun day of birthday cookies at “school” and then a day with Granny J!

He is going to FLIP when he sees his birthday present from us. We got him a Home Depot toolbench and it comes with like 60 pieces (yikes!)! It has 4 power tools that really work with the screws and nuts and bolts that came with the bench. Speedy LOVES tools and he is going to have lots of fun with this new toy. I can not wait to see his face. Daddy and I had a blast putting it all together tonight.

I’ll have more to share later on the birthday. And a birthday letter, of course.

Alright, for the fourth post in a freakin’ row – to all of you lurkers who have yet to register….. I now have the site working properly and will be assigning a level to each post. Most will still be public, but all photos and other good and juicy stuff will be private and only available to registered readers. Why? I don’t know. Probably just because it makes me feel cool. Really, I guess it makes me feel safer about sharing information – but that’s really dumb because I still don’t know who you are based on just an email address. Oh well. Humor me, will ya? REGISTER for cryin’ out loud!

still trying to figure this whole thing out

Emma Grace now has both of her two front bottom teeth coming in, and she isn’t even very fussy! Woo Hoo!

Well, we started our first tradition, at least what I hope will become a tradition, by putting up our Christmas Tree the day after Thanksgiving. Speedy hung some of the decorations and was SO EXCITED when we plugged the tree in and he saw all the lights.

You’ll see pictures below of the kids playing on Thanksgiving Day and Speedy helping daddy put the decorations outside. I’ve got a lot more to say about our weekend, but I’m afraid you’ll have to wait. I’m out of time this morning but may try to post again when the kids are napping. Until then…

On the adoption front, I still have not heard from our placement worker. I’m guessing we won’t finalize until after the first of the year, but I really don’t mind. I’m just so happy that we get to finalize, if it takes a bit longer it is okay with me!

On the adoption front, I still have not heard from our placement worker. I’m guessing we won’t finalize until after the first of the year, but I really don’t mind. I’m just so happy that we get to finalize, if it takes a bit longer it is okay with me!

Can you hear the relaxation in my voice? I got to the lake about noon on Saturday and didn’t leave until 5:30pm today. It was WONDERFUL. I watched bits and pieces of several movies, worked on Speedy’s photo album and sat on the porch with my laptop. It was perfect.

I was gone just the right amount of time. If I had spent even one more night, I think my heart would have been aching just a little. It was really nice to get away and just recharge a bit. I wrote an interesting post on the porch in my pajamas but I haven’t edited it yet so it will have to wait. Just wanted to pop in and let you know I did get away, because I’m sure you all lost sleep worrying about it over the weekend. Right? Right?

I went back to court today for the final order for TPR and the case wasn’t even on the docket. I was a little confused at first, then I talked to the caseworker who had just found out that the Judge was going to sign the order today but there would be no hearing since there was no appeal.

So that’s it. Termination is final. Now we move on to adoption placement. Please pray for the adoption placement worker who gets our file – pray that she will work very quickly!

I’m such a good mom. Really, I am. I’m so good, that I decided I should intentionally do some things to automatically void my nomination for the Mother of the Year award.

I’m at my wits end with naptime. Really, it’s just not worth it anymore. I get so frustrated and sometimes even angry that it defeats it’s purpose because I’m not enjoying any part of my “break”. I have tried EVERYTHING I can think of and many of the suggestions made by others. Rocking him to sleep works occasionally, laying with him does not work, positive reinforcement worked for a few days but no longer works, removing all toys from his room does not work, putting him back in bed without saying anything to him does not work, scolding him does not work….. today, I got so desperate I ate his cupcake.

Yup, there goes my award. He was sooooo excited about a cupcake that Brigitte brought over for him and I told him he could have it when he got up from his nap – only if he stayed in bed until I came to get him. He stayed for about 10 minutes. Then he got into the butt paste and it looked like he was getting ready to shave, it was all over his face and very thick – all over his arms and legs too. It was funny. Clean up and back to bed and brought the cupcake in his room and asked him if he wanted it. Told him I really wanted him to have it but he HAD to stay in bed in order to get it. I told him I was going to eat it if he got out of bed again and this was very upsetting to him.

20 minutes later he was in the hallway with his blanket wrapped around his waste. So I took two bites of his cupcake, much to his dismay. He didn’t cry, but was not happy with me. I told him I’d save the rest of it and he could have it when he got up. But when I checked on him ten minutes later he was out of bed again so I’m throwing the cupcake away. I don’t have the heart to eat it and I can’t give it to him, no matter how much I want him to have it.

I wonder how many times I miss out on good gifts  God wants to give me because I am disobedient to Him? How many of my “cupcakes” grew mold before I could receive them?

I know, I know. I feel terrible for eating half of his cupcake but I had already told him it was the consequence. I had to follow through. Guess I better watch what I threaten next time.

By the way, if anyone comments and suggests that maybe he isn’t tired I’m going to scream. He IS tired and still needs a nap to have a good afternoon. And i just noticed it is quite again so I better go see what he’s doing. I wonder if he found his cupcake.

EDITED TO ADD: 2 1/2 year olds really enjoy “playing” with chapstick – I’m laughing, really I am. At least I’m trying to remember to laugh….

So we are all sick again… at least Speedy and Princess are. Another ear infection and more nasty colds. Really, I think we’ll always be sick as long as Speedy is going to school or Mother’s Day Out.

Oh well, seeing as I have lots of days to stick around the house, I may as well share with you my new favorite way of  entertaining myself. Talk about learning some crazy new trivia facts that you would never think of. You’ve heard me post of my addictions before – I’m afraid this is becoming one of them. I recommend all you blog readers go and check it out – if you are in the market for a new job, you should really check out the next to last post. Lots of fun ideas there. I highly recommend this site!

Unfortunately, I did not find anything there that told me how to keep my kids from getting sick or how to keep Speedy in bed. He’s doing better, but we still have room for improvement. Don’t we always?

So not much else is going on around here. I do have some new ideas for posts that I’ll be doing, but I don’t know how interesting they will be. Boy, if that doesn’t get you excited about coming back here and checking for updates, I don’t know what will!

So we are all sick again… at least Speedy and Princess are. Another ear infection and more nasty colds. Really, I think we’ll always be sick as long as Speedy is going to school or Mother’s Day Out.

Oh well, seeing as I have lots of days to stick around the house, I may as well share with you my new favorite way of  entertaining myself. Talk about learning some crazy new trivia facts that you would never think of. You’ve heard me post of my addictions before – I’m afraid this is becoming one of them. I recommend all you blog readers go and check it out – if you are in the market for a new job, you should really check out the next to last post. Lots of fun ideas there. I highly recommend this site!

Unfortunately, I did not find anything there that told me how to keep my kids from getting sick or how to keep Speedy in bed. He’s doing better, but we still have room for improvement. Don’t we always?

So not much else is going on around here. I do have some new ideas for posts that I’ll be doing, but I don’t know how interesting they will be. Boy, if that doesn’t get you excited about coming back here and checking for updates, I don’t know what will!