Blogging

Do you know that I spend many moments of my day reading all of friend's blogs and immersing myself in the beauty of your words and pictures that I neglect my own blog?! I am definitely not a writer, but started this blog as sort of a "scrapbook" to keep of my family and what we have going on. It has turned into more pictures than anything else and I desperately want to blog about more important things but find myself at a loss for words most of the time.

Being a mom is the most important thing in the world to me, as I know many of you feel the same. My kids are my world and I have very little social life outside my FFF posts - LOL! This has been an insanely strange year... dealing with my son's illness for the greater part of the year, which I am happy to report is finally under control and he is finally thriving and we are not feeling the weight of the world on our shoulders anymore. My first baby turning 16 and becoming more independent, strong and beautiful every time I turn around. And my little Bug, who has definitely come out of her shell since turning 3! Wowza... I cannot even describe what my mild little baby has turned into... Additionally, I turned 40 and have lost 25 pounds over the past 6 months and feel better health wise than I have since I was in college. So many changes in such a short period of time.

Now the summer is here and we are enjoying more of a laid back time but the days just seem to slip by! I decided to tackle a renovation project at home that has become much more monumental than I expected but I know will pay off when it is complete. I envision us spending more time at home just at the time when teenagers start spending more time away... sigh...

I am looking forward to another mission trip to Guatemala this fall and have been spending some time researching paths for our group to take this year and cannot wait to go back!

I definitely see 2008 as being a very monumental year for our family and hope to become more of a blogger to chronicle our family and also to make positive changes in the world around us. I have been so inspired by so many friends and their own struggles and victories. I hope to share more of our own as well.

Hope you enjoy the ride!


*This pic was from March, we need a new family pic!

Favorite Foto Friday #44 - BLOOPERS

OK... I did not realize how hard this would be to actually "find" a blooper picture to post as I delete my bloopers as soon as I load them on the computer. So, I really had to dig back to find some from the days when I did not want to delete any! I guess the most common blooper is the whole "looking away right when the camera comes out" picture... I have a ton of those.


Then, you have the "Oops, I blinked" pictures... have a ton of those too.


Then the... "I'm outta here" picture...


Then, you have the teenager's "get on with it, mother" faces whilst the "toddler slowly slides out of the lap Annual Christmas Card picture taking adventure" picture...


Yes, bloopers are easier to discard these days with digital technology... but some can truly make the story! Looking forward to seeing your FFF Bloopers!

Now... for the MR LINKY FFF LINKING DIRECTIONS!! Go to your blog and click on the title of your FFF post - your post URL will appear in the address bar in your browser and it will contain the exact link to your post! Simply highlight the address, right click, choose copy and then paste it in the "URL" spot in the Mister Linky - just under where you put your name (you can put your name and the name of your child/ren in the picture). Don't forget to click the "Enter" button and voila... you are linked!

It is important that you are linking just your post and not just your blog web address so everybody can link directly to your FFF post!!



Next week's FFF theme... "DADDY (or other significant male role model) & ME"! With Father's Day coming up this weekend, pull out those cameras and take pictures of some of those special men in our lives that we would like to honor and celebrate on this day.

Weekend In Chicago

We had such an awesome weekend in Chicago! We went up to meet with a group of Guatemala Adoptive Families that we met during our process and have become wonderful friends with. About nine families got together with their beautiful children. I will not post pictures of those families that do not have a public blog but wanted to share some pictures of our fun weekend!

We arrived very early Friday morning and did our own little Chicago tour, including shopping on Michigan Avenue, taking a trolley tour and visiting Navy Pier... boy, does Chicago live up to it's nickname "Windy City"... it was extremely "knock you over" windy!






It wasn't long before we met up with our friends. Bug was in heaven playing with Patrick & Emma (our not so frequent blogging friends)


Emma & Sophie


Sophie & Caleb


Ring around the Rosie with Patrick, Emma & Maya


Riding the choo choo on Navy Pier




Grant and Hannah enjoyed multiple rides on the swings and ferris wheel.


The ever gorgeous Sofia


Beautiful Sela


Maya took a turn pushing Sophie on the swing in Lincoln Park.


Funny Patrick




These two had a blast together... Sophie just LOVES Patrick!


The beautiful Hannah with her little brother, Caleb


We even made it to the beach!!

It was so fun to watch adorable baby Charlie toddle on the sand.


And enjoy a frosty treat from the Ice Cream Man.



And just enjoy digging in the sand...


What a beautiful city! We can't wait to go back to Chicago and we look even more forward to visiting with our friends more often!

Christmas in June Giveaway

My friend, Tricia & her Sisterly Shenanigans, is doing an amazing giveaway to help raise funds for a group of children in San Andres, Guatemala. She can use the support of all of us to help make Christmas a reality for these children. We can all make a difference one child at a time and Tricia is amazing and relentless in her pursuit of finding ways for us to be that "Change"!

So, please pop on over to Tricia's Blog and find out how you can help and also register for her amazing giveaways!

'Tude Tuesday

Three Year Old Attitude at its best!!!



Anybody else recognize this? The 3's are here with a vengeance!

We had the greatest weekend in Chicago! Will post pictures and a recap soon! Sorry that I have not been able to visit everybody's FFF post from Friday! So glad my friend, Mr. Linky, was on the job!!

Favorite Foto Friday #43 - MESSY SPACES/DISORDERLY CONDUCT

OK, I thought this week's FFF was going to be a HUGE challenge for me. I have to admit that I am a very Type A person and like things to be clean most of the time... but I have let things go a little over the past few years, especially with my teenagers' rooms. I still hyperventilate a bit when I walk into their rooms and am known to have an occasional mommy meltdown when it is obscenely disastrous. But, overall, I like to have things at least picked up and I would never PHOTOGRAPH a messy room to be able to look back on. That would be like a Chinese Water Torture picture for me and I know I would run across it much more than I would want to.

So anyways... we are undertaking a renovation project at our house. We are adding a front porch to make our ranch style house more "cottage" looking. Well, that involves destruction first... complete with jackhammer, shattered glass (yes, in my living room) and things falling off the walls from the vibrations. I am so happy that much of the mess is made while I am at work. Driving up to our house now is hard for me... my heart starts palpitating as soon as I see how awful it looks, but I keep reminding myself that it will all be worth it when it is done.

So... since this theme was suggested in the comments, I actually have a great FFF picture to post of my very MESSY SPACE - MY HOUSE!!! I added a little cuteness to the picture with my little Bug posing on the rubble of my old front porch...



Hee hee, Mommy... this Queen of the Mountain is kinda fun!


Grant is in boy heaven with all the destruction and dirt and power tools...


Now... for the NEW MR LINKY FFF LINKING DIRECTIONS!! Go to your blog and click on the title of your FFF post - your post URL will appear in the address bar in your browser and it will contain the exact link to your post! Simply highlight the address, right click, choose copy and then paste it in the "URL" spot in the Mister Linky - just under where you put your name (you can put your name and the name of your child/ren in the picture). Don't forget to click the "Enter" button and voila... you are linked!

It is important that you are linking just your post and not just your blog web address so everybody can link directly to your FFF post!!




And don't forget to still show the love and leave a comment here! I would miss you if I did not "talk" to you each week!! I will not be able to comment on your blogs today as I am heading out of town for an extra special fun weekend but will try to catch up when I get back! I will post pictures and tell you all about it next week! We cannot wait!

Next week's FFF theme is BLOOPERS! We all have them... and I would venture to bet that half my pictures involve people with their eyes closed... that Elvis sneer look of a half blink or onset of a sneeze! Dig up a good blooper (or two or three) and share your outtakes!! This could be fun!

Wordless Wednesday & Test

Nana, Grant, Sophie, Mommy and Morgan



OK... so I am not going to be Wordless this Wednesday. I am hoping that some of you can help me test out a new feature I would like to use for our Favorite Foto Friday posts. It is called "Mr Linky" and it will allow everybody to create their own link each Friday and attach it to the FFF post on my blog. I am going to attach the Mr. Linky Feature to this post in hopes that I can get a couple friends to test it out and see if it works. If we are a "go"... then we will use this on Friday to give it a test ride. This would be good timing for me, as I will be out of town this weekend and may not get to post everybody's links until I return Sunday night... so let's cross our fingers and hope this works!

Sooo... if you have a Wordless Wednesday post today and wouldn't mind sharing it, please do this... go to your blog and click on the title of your Wordless Wednesday post - your post URL will appear in the address bar in your browser and it will contain the exact link to your post! Simply highlight the address, right click, choose copy and then paste it in the "URL" spot in the Mister Linky - just under where you put your name. Don't forget to click the "Enter" button! And there you have it - hopefully this will work!

Thanks for helping me!!!



OK... testing this again with a new Mr. Linky... as I want this to show as a list of your posts without having to click on the Mr. Linky to actually see who has done the meme. Try this:



Yeah! It works! Thanks for helping me test it! We are going to give the second Mr. Linky option a whirl on Friday and see how it goes! The only thing is... I will miss all the nice comments if everybody just links themselves! I guess I am going to have to resort to begging for comments...