Easter and a Toilet

My Easter Bunnies....aren't they handsome?!

This is what we found in our yard on Easter afternoon. The youth in our church "decorated" this old toilet and set it on its way to making lots of money for their summer camp. What happens is if this appears in your yard, you make a donation to the youth summer camp and then you get to decide where it goes next. We thought long and hard about where to send it and decided on some good friends of ours. Thanks for being good sports Anne and Crandall! This toilet has been all over town, to people in our church and to people who have no affiliation with our church at all. In fact, it has been through the city police and the sheriffs office! What a great, inexpensive fundraiser and the kids think it is hilarious! By the way, the black things on the ground are solar lights so that the toilet is lit up and actually glows at night. Lovely! Thankfully I have nice understanding neighbors!

Yesterday marked......

....months of waiting for Ruthie.

Praise God!

After 5 months and 5 days, Milledge is no longer.......

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Algebra

Jon Milledge came home this week and said that he was starting Algebra in math. I broke out in a cold sweat and thought about hyperventilating. I'm not really a math person at all but even just the word Algebra brings out serious negative feelings in me. I don't know if it was a teacher I had or just the fact that for 7+ years I had been told that "x" says...well "x", like x-ray....no one told me that one day they were really going to mess with me and tell me that "x" actually equals 5 or 24 or 32. I mean really....why do that to people??! Thankfully Jon Milledge has a daddy that "gets" math...and algebra!

Notice who is helping with Algebra.....

.....and notice who isn't!

Anderson and I watched American Idol and took pictures of ourselves instead!

Could this mean what I hope it means???

This is what my fortune said tonight. Could it be a hint of great things to come in the next year? We'll have to wait and see! :)

I Won on MckMama's Blog!!!!

****Thanks Jessica and Gillian!!! I did the screen shot!!!****

I am so excited!! I have followed MckMama for well over a year now but only commented a few times. She did a post yesterday on marriage with a giveaway at the end. It was for an autographed copy of John Eldredge's book Love and War. The last I checked there were over 1300 comments on her post and I won!! Thanks so much MckMama! I can't wait to receive the book and get busy reading it!
I wish I knew how to take a picture of my name being on MckMama's blog so that I can have a freeze frame of my 15 minutes of fame!! :) If anyone knows how to do that let me know!

Birthday Party with Friends...

We have three friends who all have birthday's this month so they decided to have a joint party this weekend. It was complete with good food, a great DJ, dancing, good friends and good times.

Me and Milledge during his one dance...he's not a dancer!

Colin and Jamie

Jamie, me and Melissa

One of the birthday girls, Denise, and her husband, Andy

A teenager was trying to teaching us "The Stanky Leg" dance....amusing at best.

More Stanky Leg

Me and Andy

Me and Julie

Matt and Kristie dancing

Me and Jamie

We had a blast spending the evening with our friends. Now we can't wait until the next birthday so that we can all celebrate again. Happy Birthday Denise, Cathy and Maria!!

Breakfast of Champions....or at least of Anderson

Is it weird that my children eat peanut butter on their waffles instead of syrup? I mean, we live in the deep south where syrup is almost a staple in our homes. My boys would rather put peanut butter or honey on waffles, pancakes and biscuits. Weird.

The Big Four-O!

Who would've ever thought that we would have to wait over 40 months for our daughter to come home? Certainly not me! At this point, an elephant could be about to give birth for the second time since our wait began...considering their gestation period is 22 months. :)
I know that God is in control and that He has a plan...I guess I'm just so excited to see His plan unfold because I know it is going to be amazingly perfect! We will wait as long as we have to in order to meet our sweet Ruthie! In the meantime....we will do more paperwork. Ughhh!

Can you guess what we did today?

Milledge being booked...

Me being freaked out by the intake room at the jail...nasty, scary place!

Ok...do you give up? We had our 9th set of fingerprints EACH for our adoption that has yet to take place. We are having to update our home study for the third time so that our immigration approval will not expire. This will be the third approval that we have to bring an orphan into the United States....except we haven't even brought one into the country yet. Hopefully this will be the last time we have to do this but I also said that after updating everything the second time. Thankfully we feel very strongly that we have a daughter in China or this would be about the time to just throw in the towel and be done with it. However, we honestly feel that there is a little girl out there waiting for us to be her family...how can we give up on that? I have said this before and will say it again...International adoption is NOT for the faint of heart! We are coming baby girl...just hold on, apparently Mommy and Daddy haven't jumped through enough hoops and red tape yet!

Warm and Beautiful

I am trying to take pictures everyday but I'm having a hard time finding the time to sit down and upload them and then make a blog post about them. However, I just had to share what my sweet 10 year old said to me the other night.
See...I just had my mother in law sew me a huge fleece blanket for my many freezing baseball games. My requests for said blanket were that it be red and black(school colors), be big and very warm. My mother in law got the blanket ready for me over the weekend and I decided to try it out Sunday night while Milledge was hitting the boys some ground balls in the yard. I had the blanket all the up to my ears and down to my toes, wrapped around me a time and half, was sitting in my chair in the yard and had the nerve to ask...."Do I look ridiculous in my new blanket? Will I embarrass y'all at the ballgames like this?". A little worried what the answer might be but not really caring because they were freezing and I was warm and that blanket was going with me to the games no matter what...but still, I had to ask. But instead of laughs and giggles I heard my sweet, sweet Anderson say, "I think you look warm and beautiful!!!". Seriously, he is the sweetest, kindest child I know. I am not going to think about the fact that the blanket was covering pretty much everything but my eyes...just not going there. My child thinks I'm beautiful...all is well in my world!

Busy Week..

We've had a busy week complete with....

A going away party for my friend Tammy(on far right). We love you and will miss you bunches, Tammy!

A trip to the doctor with a sick Jon Milledge. Our Dachshund, Duke, can tell when someone isn't feeling well and he "keeps watch" over them. What a cutie!

The much anticipated first middle school baseball game!! Here is Jon Milledge thinking about stealing home.
He is crossing the plate after he was "walked" in. Our team won 20-1!!! Congrats to MCMS and Jon Milledge! #12....I love you the most!

Baseball season has officially started even though we are in the middle of the Winter Olympics. There is something strange about that to me. I used to think that the only cold weather outdoor sport was football in November and that was only sometimes depending on the GA weather and that baseball was all about the "boys of summer"....boy was I wrong! Some of the coldest days I've spent in the last 5 years have been at baseball practices and games. Today was no different. I froze even with my long johns, three layers of clothes, coat, scarf, gloves and two blankets. However, there is no where else I would've been!

Three very proud but VERY cold Mamas!

Haircuts and No Baseball :(

Well, both boys got a much needed haircut today and they were thrilled to have their picture taken....can't you tell?! The much awaited first baseball game of the season was canceled today due to the field being too wet. I have one disappointed 7th grader. They have rescheduled it for Thursday when it is supposed to be 20 degrees cooler here and rain tonight and tomorrow. So it's not looking good for Thursday either. I have my fingers, toes, arms and legs crossed that these boys get to play....SOON!

Catch up....

I can't believe it is already February 22nd. I mean I know that it is the shortest month of the year but seriously...where did it go? It has been a crazy month around my house full of excitement, disappointment, sick bugs and of course another month down in the wait for Ruthie. I missed our LID date because I was deathly ill in the bed but on February 8th I can't say that we celebrated.....more like, just recognized our 39th month of waiting. If it wasn't so discouraging, it might almost be comical.

Here's a little catch up of our February....

Our exciting news is that Jon Milledge made the middle school baseball team!! We are so proud of him! He has been looking forward to this day for about 3 years and it is finally here! They have their first game tomorrow and I don't know who is more pumped up...me or him! Congrats Jon Milledge and Go MCMS Bullpups!!

Here are some pics from my girl trip to the mountains that was lots of fun...well...that is until I got home and found that the devil himself and infiltrated my body, refusing to leave for about 5 days. I can't remember a time in my life when I have ever been that sick. Thankfully, I am much better and only one other person in my home caught the bug...Milledge...and he's pretty easy to take care of when he's sick, you just leave him alone!

Me, Melissa and Victoria after a late night at the casino.

Us with Michael, our "pizza maker". He tried to hit on me until I told him I could probably be his mother! ;)

Our posed shot before leaving the cabin on Sunday morning.

Entering the casiono....

Losing what little money I took.

We had snow in Georgia last week!! I know that those of you that live in the north don't understand our fascination for the white stuff in the deep south...but we LOVE it here! However, we only have it once maybe twice a year and it lasts for 24 hours...so what's not to love??! Here are a few pictures of our time in the snow.

Anderson, my snow angel!

Anderson snow surfing on a boogie board...

Jon Milledge doing the same...

Me and my boys with our cowboy Frosty!

Our home...

My boys actually being nice to one another.

My boys with their friends Brantley and Garrett

Brantley and Jon Milledge in the snowball fight!

Whew! What a month! I have a couple of friends(Nancy and Jamie) here in our little town who also have blogs and decided this year to take pictures and blog something about their families everyday. I thought it was a great idea. So even though I didn't start on January 1st....I'm going to start today. I might not get them loaded everyday but I'm going to do my best to document our life over the next 10 months here on my blog. Hopefully, I can keep up and not get too far behind! See you tomorrow!

Girls Weekend! WooHoo!

After the stressful week of baseball tryouts I am very excited to be leaving tomorrow with four girlfriends for a weekend away here. Snow is expected as well as, sleeping in, shopping, eating out and lots of talking and laughing I'm sure!

.....and lots of time spent here, hopefully!!! Can't wait!!! Pictures to follow.

Baseball Tryouts...I'm a Wreck!

Jon Milledge has middle school baseball tryouts this week and next. I am a nervous wreck. This is something that he has been waiting years for and I'm a wreck. He has lots of confidence and is doing great with his nerves but I'm a wreck. There are about 32-35 kids trying out for 18 spots...yep, I'm a wreck. The coaches will make the first round of cuts tomorrow and the final cuts next Wednesday...you got it...wreck. I'll keep you posted on how it turns out, if I'm able. :)

No Words....