In A Week's Time...

Well, now let's see where have we been and what have we been doing since the chimney fire. I'd say it's all things normal, we've been busy and sick.

Sunday we had a choir concert and caroling for our singing child. It was a nice if not insanely long concert considering it was children's choirs. Oh well. Now that I think about it the whole thing was a bit odd. The church smelled strongly of sewage, always a nice setting for a concert. Then the start was delayed because the director didn't feel the kids were quite ready yet, never mind that most of us had been waiting in the lobby for over an hour. It's also a bit strange I think, that we have to pay to go to these concerts. I mean, it's our own kids and we've already paid for a whole semester of rehearsals and I might add this is no bargain basement choir here. Oh well. Then minutes before the director is ready to open the doors and let people come in and find a seat, we're all asked to move our cars out of the church parking lots and park in the lots of the surrounding businesses because the church is doing a special senior dinner and they don't want the seniors to have to park and walk.

Planning ahead and being organized is such a gift.

Monday we had a busy day sort of cleaning up from our fire, answering calls from friends who were worried about us and getting ready for a little dinner party. Oh yeah, and The Mr. was at court for a hearing about Little Miss and I was at Children's for an appointment for Little One.

The highlights of that are as follows:
*The fire was tiny and minor and we're all good and need nothing. Really. But thank you for all the kind words and prayers and concerns.
*The dinner party was wonderful. We spent time with great friends from Snappin' Ministries and from Blackhawk. The soup was too spicy but the cake was yummy and the company was the best!
*The judge ruled no grounds for appeal, the TPR stands and our adoption date for Little Miss is 2/23/2010. Mark your calendar, there's gonna be a celebration!! Also know that shortly after I'll be taking Little Miss to get her ears pierced and mine done again. I have a few others that want to come along a get a piercing too. We survived a long journey and we're going to mark it. Any one know a really good place around here? I haven't had a piercing in about 10-15 years. Also feel free to give an opinion, this will be my 4th on the ears, so way at the top or just continuing on up the sides?
*Little One has been dismissed from genetics. He has made so much progress they are no longer concerned that his delays were due to an underlying medical or genetic condition. Praise God.

Tuesday began our current rounds of icky sicky around here. Sadly I had to miss the end of the semester holiday fun over at Mom Time while I was home with 3 of my 4 sick. Nothing major, just coughing and sneezing and lots and lots of snot.

Wednesday I was down to 2 at home, but it was the littlest two and that is almost harder having them sick. It's a little too much whine and tears all at once. A little too much nose wiping too. There just isn't enough hand sanitizer for days like those. I also finished up all those stupid foamy frames that you put together with glue dots and that the kids are supposed to love doing. Notice I said, I finished them up. We started doing them before Thanksgiving, a little at a time, but it still ended up not fun enough for them to get it finished.

Thursday I spent printing out photos. I'm almost done. I'm almost done with the photo books for Little One's birth parents. Easy enough once you get the right printer ink. I always buy the wrong one when I head to the store. Oh well. It was also double duty as his mom and dad are not together, but again, easy enough to print two instead of one. Next round was getting holiday shots of the kids. I only got the big kids done as the littles are just too snotty still to take good pictures. But I got great shots of the boys and did the edits and printed away. As I was making dinner I thought I'll just cut these photos up and put them in the frames and low and behold, you know where this is going don't you? Even though the frames are for 4X6 photos, they don't actually slide into the frames. It seems I'm going to have to take the backs off all the frames, put the photos in, reassemble and then you won't be able to see on the photos where I wrote Christmas 2009.

I guess it just wouldn't be the holidays without some projects gone awry and time wasted. In the end it'll be fine, it's just something that's going to take longer and more effort than I had hoped. I should have known better.

Today I think I'll be doing a little transport for one of my nieces as her brother's in the hospital again. Just pray for the little guy. It's a hard road for a 3 year old.

I'll also be working my way down the remainder of my holiday to do list. I'm mostly done wrapping, a major feat for me. I'm usually wrapping into the wee hours of Christmas morning, hoping for a short nap before it all begins.

We're doing it a little out of order this year, with a smaller Christmas with my brother and his family this weekend. ACK!! Christmas early!! Okay, deep breath, it's all good. In fact I think it's going to be fun and I might actually have it all pulled together. We're going to do a Mexican fiesta theme, think taco bar and nachos and mmmm, I'm hungry already. I'm just trying to get the photo thing finished up and make some more cookies because we already ate them all and whip out a few batches of these yummy sounding candies to round out the not so flashy gifts. I can't wait to give them a try, the recipes sound great and I'm thrilled that my friend was willing to share his recipe.

I have great friends. Really, really great friends. Some go way back and some are brand spankin new. Some have lived a whole lot of life with me and some have no clue. All in all, I'm blessed by them.

There is some cleaning to get done, but that list is there every day and some cleaning happens every day. It has too. There is a grocery list to finish and shop too, but that will wait until Saturday. It's too early to buy things like avocados.

Well, I think now you're all up to date on the life and times in our corner. And with the holiday right around the corner I'll say it again, the phone always rings and the door is always open.