Encouragement

I found this video on a blog I read, and found it extremely encouraging. Pray everyone has a great weekend!!

Stuck and Overwhelmed

Stuck and Overwhelmed. thats what I feel like. I feel like we are stuck. I know we didn't mention it to very many people, but that was because we didn't know if it would go through or not, but we knew a friend of a friend that is pregnant, and she was considering adoption, and our friend told her about us, and we just got word a few days ago, that she decided to keep the baby. Yesterday, was when I was due with this last pregnancy. There is a lot more with other things, but this is what I am comfortable with sharing on this public blog lol...

Here is some more that I haven't ever mentioned on here before, that I can remember at least....but we had decided that we would start the foster care/adoption process in April, and would work on getting things in our house remodeled before that process....and April is almost here, and we won't be done, but either way, here's the delima. We have been through so much already, and with foster care, there is always the possibility that a child can come into your home, and go back and forth w/their birth parents, and I have to imagine that is even harder than dealing with losing a child, I have never held. I mean, you have a child that is in your home, that you care for, that you love, that you cuddle, to have that child possibly taken from you forever, I don't know if I can deal with that right now, so I think we should adopt straight from an agency so that once we have a child we don't have to deal with the back and forth, and then down the road for child 2,3,4, etc we could do foster care. But the problem with that is the price! agency adoption can cost anywhere from $10,000-$20,000 sometimes more, sometimes less. We don't have that kind of money. Don't get me wrong, I am more than willing to raise money from garage sales, selling my cards, etc. but I don't think that amount is possible from selling my junk and cards lol...I just feel like this is never going to happen. 

I don't feel any closer to having a family today than I did almost 4 years ago, the day after the first miscarriage. I wish so bad God would really help me understand. I don't understand why this has to be so hard for us. Don't get me wrong, I know life has its ups and downs, we all go through hard times, but was losing ONE child not enough, let alone losing TWO children?! How about all the possible adoption situations where the birth mothers all chose to keep their babies, and they were all more closed doors in our life? Now, we have to either endure a lot more hardship and unknown with foster care, or sell all our limbs to adopt a baby, and I think it would be pretty hard to care for, and provide for a child with no limbs lol Sorry, but I feel so overwhelmed we have to laugh, or we would end up in an institution. lol 

By no means am I trying to complain, yes, I have a lot to be thankful for, and trust me I AM!! I just need to write it all out, and am of course open to any ideas, comments, I mean duh, I just posted this publicly. Above all, please keep us in your prayers that we can trust God's plan, and that we will have patience, discernment, faith and the ability to follow wherever God leads us.

Update and Prayer

Wow, I didn't realize it has been so long since I posted...but I was just posting to say we are still alive. It has been a crazy,busy, emotional, loud, eye opening, fun past week or so...and yes, it is possible for all of those things to go together....lol I will post more later about some things I have been dealing with, plus I have some new giveaway ideas, so if all goes as planned I will be posting those in the near future. Oh I also joined Twitter, still don't know what I'm doing really, but I'll get the hang of it. Let me know if you have twitter as well, we'll see how long it takes for me to catch on...lolFor now I am off to enjoy the rest of this rainy, gloomy day w/my husband. Hope the rest of you are doing well out there in bloggy world as well...

Also, PLEASE be praying for Stellan. I know a lot of you read Mckmama's blog, if not, click here, but please keep them in your prayers because Stellan is in the hospital and his heart is very sick. Jump over to her blog for the details, but most of all, PRAY! 

WINNER!!

ok, well since I was up so early this morning, I figured I would go ahead and do this early...Random.org has picked a winner for the card giveaway...and the winner is...

Sarah at Our Family!!! Congratulations Sarah, I will be in contact with you to get the cards to you.  You should check out her blog if you don't already read it, which I know a lot of you do...but Sarah is not only a bloggy friend, she is a real life friend I grew up with! She has an adorable family, so check out her blog as well!

As far as the giveaway goes....we might skip a few weeks, as well as, the next giveaway, might not be handmade cards....I've got some other crafts up my sleeve....so just be sure to stay tuned. Thanks everyone for entering....if you have any advice on how to do these giveaways better or what you would like to win, or something, or have questions on how a card is made or something please feel free to ask, and I am more than glad to share! 

Have a great week!!!

A Man and His Dog...

So this seems to be a reoccuring theme in my house...and it all started when we took out the wall in the dining room...and when this happens, its best to just stay out of the way...this time, I decided to take a video...sorry for the blurriness, and so much back and forth, but thats why its just a short clip...lol

so now you see what I live with, a couple crazies...lol na, I'm glad they are having fun, I just try to keep anything breakable out of their way...lol...and I'm second guessing the choice to tear out that wall...haha, just kidding :-) The funny part about this video and when they do these "races" is its the only time Gunner will bark, its not on video but Tom would just sit there w/Gunner and he would say ready, set, GO! and he would bark on Go every time...now don't get me wrong, the dog barks...lol trust me he barks, at the door bell, cats, dogs, cars, trucks, squirrels, grass, rabbits, trees, you get the picture lol, but he hasn't learned the bark on command trick, but he did pretty well last night..anyways....

and this is the after shot: 

all tuckered out and ready for bed...lol I'm sure its obvious to you all, but the man loves his dog!

Hope you have a great weekend!! 

Under Construction

Ok, so I apologize for the construction on my blog, I'm having "issues." I am trying to get a 3 column layout, but keep getting it messed up, and its driving me crazy, but I have way too much to do, so hopefully I can make some time later today, to get this all figured out...maybe I will save my money  for a customized blog(ha lol) :) thanks!!

Daylight Saving Time is not my friend

The title says it all...this time around at least. In the past, DST has never affected me really, but that is not the case this "Spring Forward" season...ever since we went across our house and changed the clocks, my life has been in chaos.

Mondays I run all my errands and get groceries, etc. So I try to wake up early, or at least by 9am at the LATEST which that is the longest I have slept in, in a long time..otherwise I wake up mad because I've wasted most of my day...until this past Monday, with the time change, 9am, became 10am...so I was upset, and running behind the entire day.

Every night I go to bed at 10pm, like usual, and I can fall asleep quickly and get a good nights rest...until Monday, ever since then, I seem to toss and turn all night and wake up at odd hours and can't get back to sleep. 

After Tom gets off work, we will go out and about some days, as we did Monday night and Tuesday night. Both nights we will be shopping or something and look outside and say oh we have PLENTY of time to get home and cook dinner, and eat at a reasonable hour. Then we look at the clock. It's 6:30 and we are at least 20 min. away from home. 

So I wonder if we could just set our clocks back and be late everywhere? that would be too confusing. maybe we could set our clocks another hour ahead and just be early. Never bad to be early right? but we would spend a lot of time waiting. I think its best to just stick it out with this monster we call Daylight Saving Time, and hope we become better friends over the months. The thing is, just about the time we get this relationship back on track, it will be time to "Fall Back." It appears to be a never ending cycle. I just don't know why its causing such a rift in my life this time, but hasn't for previous years.  Doesn't matter the reason, I want it to stop. I am ready to go back to waking up at a decent hour, being more on schedule, and being able to tell what time it is. And most importantly, getting good sleep! :-)

Blog Giveaway!!!

Ok, so I apologize for just now getting this posted, its been a crazy day...but because of this...I am going to let the giveaway go till Monday night and will anounce a winner on Tuesday. I will be keeping this schedule from now on, because Mondays are very busy for me. Anyways, so now to the fun stuff..

This week we have THREE ways for you to get entries into this giveaway:

1. leave a comment on this post.

2. post a blog about this giveaway, and come back and leave ANOTHER comment letting me know you blogged about it, with a link to your blog.

3. become a follower of my blog, and come back and leave ANOTHER comment letting me know. If you are already a follower, just simply leave a comment saying " I follow your blog" 

This giveaway will end Monday night March 16th at midnight or so, and I will post the winner on Tuesday. GOOD LUCK!!

First is a birthday card which says "just think, with every birthday you're even closer to being more like your parents" 
Inside of the card...
Another birthday card that says " You're only young once. You can be immature for a lifetime"
Inside of the card...
This is a Thank you card, which is blank on the inside, and on the front has a special paper called black magic, I ran it through my cuttlebug with a paisley embossing folder, and then sanded the high spots. 
This is a Thinking of You card, which is also blank on the inside, and the background on this one is also embossed on my cuttlebug with a different, elegant embossing folder. 
This is a simple, congratulations wedding card. pink and white ribbon tied on the side, and the heart on the top of the cake is raised, also blank inside.
Lastly, another Thank you card, also blank inside...

Happy Friday!

Well its Friday...woo hoo! I love weekends! and its beautiful outside today, like yesterday...I had my windows open, I made the rest of the cards for the Monday giveaway coming up, and deep cleaned my living room. A productive day...and I hope today is just as productive or more!! Nothing like the feeling of having at least a room in my house that I know is deep cleaned and dust free, and the rug doesn't look like its 30 years old with the muted colors...ok, well it wasn't that bad, but it was driving me crazy...

In other news, I offically can get to the basement without having to go outside! Yep, we have new stairs, drywall and all! Hopefully we will be painting this weekend or soon, and then Tom will be doing the trim work next week! Its so great to see progress...the stairs are narrower than we wanted, but who cares, it looks finished, no more nasty foundation wall, or better yet, no more holes in stairs! hahaha :) 

One last thing before I go and try to be productive today....I have to brag about my best friend...You HAVE to go check out her blog, not only is she an amazing person but she can write a blog like no other :) and today's post was great, especially if you are a mother...anyways go check it out here!!

Hope you all have a great weekend and to see you back on Monday for another card giveaway! 

SwagBucks

This is pretty cool! Thanks to Katy for introducing it to me! :) All it is, is you use swagbucks.com to search, just like you do with Google, or Ask, the only difference is that you can win swagbucks when you search, sometimes you win 1 swagbuck, sometimes 2 or 5, etc. Then you redeem your swagbucks for prizes...so you can earn prizes for doing what you do already...searching! so if you want to check it out and sign up, click here ! also if you sign up, and then tell your friends about it like this...then you will earn swagbucks when then do..so check it out! :) 

And the Winner is....

so, I used random.org to pick a random number between 1 and 38, and it chose comment number 26 which was left by "The Dreamer". Congratulations!!! I will be emailing you to get your address. Please come back next Monday when I will be doing this again...and will be adding at least another way to get an extra entry. Thanks for all the comments, it has been fun!

Today is the day!!

Ok, so I have closed the comments on the giveaway, have familiarized myself with random.org number generator....and will be picking the offical winner later today when I get home from running my usual Monday errands....so I will be back later today for the REAL fun!! :) lol