I'm BAAACCCKKK!

Yep, I know I appear to be crazy, but I just like this layout and look so much better. I plan to get Regan at Blogger Boutique to change some things and thought this would be so much easier for her. And I really like this title so much better. I am truly trying to live each and every day of my life IN THE NOW moment. So, I hope you found me and are still willing to jump blogs with me. I will post pics and updates about what has been going on (A LOT!!!) soon. So...


Welcome Back!!

some changes

Let me start off by saying that I have not been a very faithful blogger! I have been in a very strange place since Isabella came home. It hasn't been a bad place- just different. I am going to share something that some readers may have a problem with, but it is my blog and I am going "there".

I LOVE that we grew our family through adoption and am so grateful to Bella's birthmom for the sacrifice she made for her and our family. I pray that she will someday know how loved her daughter is by our family and friends. We do (and will continue to) talk freely about adoption; however, we are ready to move past "our adoption" and begin living as a family of 4. (Be patient with me... all of these thoughts are jumbled and chaotic and I am struggling with getting my point across in a coherent manner.) It's not that we haven't been living.. its just that I feel we have been healing. Those of you that followed our adoption, know that it was QUITE STRESSFUL, to say the least. Although, she came home in Oct. 0f 2007, I only now have begun to feel like the healing of our hearts and emotions (and bodies!) has happened.

Adoption will ALWAYS be a part of who we are as a family, but I feel like it is time to move on from all the hurts and losses and begin to just BE. Does that make sense? It is the only way I know how to say it. With that being said, I have decided to open a new blog. It will be a blog: where I blog about life as a mom that feels like a success some days and a mom that has had her share of failures, where I am a wife struggling to be all that I can to the man God has given me. A place to just be 'me'- living the life that God blessed me with.

I feel like the season of healing is over and I have emerged ready for the next phase He has for our family. So it is with great pleasure, that I invite you to join us at http://thisandthat-jajbs.blogspot.com/. I will be a much more faithful blogger... at least, those are my intentions! ;)

Update

Operation Potty Training is NOT going well. I have been fighting this sinus stuff for a few days. It has been "toying" with me and wondering if it wanted to stay for a while. Well, IT CHECKED IN DURING THE NIGHT!!!!! I am determined there is NO room and going to seek medical help in evicting it this afternoon. So... Operation Potty Training is put on hold.....

Here I go...!

Well, despite my last post, I have NOT begun potty training! We have the next 2 days off of school because of Mardi Gras and I plan to start. Tonight, before she went to sleep, she sat up in the bed and pointed to her diaper and said, "I tee-teeing, Mommy." Sure enough, she was! I am going to stay home tomorrow and begin. I will keep you all updated.....

You know its time to commence potty training when...

you find your almost 2 1/2 year old daughter laying on your bed, poo poo diaper smashed into hubby's pillow, new diaper under her bottom and she is wiping herself. Don't mean to be too graphic, but this is the scene we found this afternoon when we realized Bella was TOO quite!

Let's backtrack to the past few months: she has been taking her diaper off and throwing it away once it is wet. Okay... I knew we were getting close. She got out of her bed one night last week at 3:30 a.m. to climb into mine. But... she made a pit stop by the kitchen garbage can to discard her wet diaper! (I realized this in the morning!) Yesterday, as we were on our way home from school, she tells me that she has to "poo poo, Mommy". To which I respond: "Bella, I will change you when we get home." As I get her out of her car seat, I check and see she hasn't. We get in the house and she goes straight to the potty. I go to check on her and discover she HAS POO POOED in the potty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course, we began dancing and singing and her daddy brought her home an Icee. Then... we have the incident on my bed this afternoon.

So, what do you think... IS IT TIME???????

WOW!!

Jake, on his way to hunt with his daddy. He was acting like he was too cool for me to take his picture.

It's TWINS!!!!!

My Sweetheart!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My other SWEETHEART!!!!!!!!!

WOW! I can't believe it has been so long since my last post. December was CRAZY... I did survive that last day I posted about. :) I have gotten so caught up with Facebook that I have neglected my blog. I need to do a better job this year. And I will. Now... not sure that I even have readers, but at least I will have a record for my children. lol

Christmas was great. Jake and Isabella enjoyed themselves. We had a very low-key Christmas day and even more low-key New Year's Day. Bella could not be more into Dora than she is these days. She is on the verge of potty training, getting a sassy little attitude (like her Mommy), and is beginning to turn the tables of sibling aggravating on Jake!! Jake is about to start his first season of kid's pitch. He is doing great in school... straight A's last 9 weeks. We were so proud of him. He worked SO hard and it paid off!

I joined a gym and am SORE! I did not realize how out of shape I was until my feet hit the floor this morning. Last night was my first workout. I am scared to wake up tomorrow morning!lol

I hope you are still with me. I have some exciting news coming Monday, so stay tuned... be sure to check back...

You have GOT to be kidding me....!!!!

Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving. Would you believe I went off and forgot my camera. So, I have NO pictures of our day! Well here is my day today:

Two days before we got out for the Thanksgiving holidays, Bella got strep throat and I missed those 2 days of school. Today was our first day back and she started running fever last night. Jeff is sick, so he stayed home with her. I made an appointment with the ENT for both of them at 3:30. I get a text message from Jeff at 2:30 telling me "call me... 911". Needless to say, my heart stopped as I dialed his number. He told me he wouldn't be able to get to the doctor's appointment. I asked why, to which he responded: "I am lying on the floor unable to move." I immediately knew his back had to have gone out. (This happened 3 years ago and 2 months later he had back surgery... 4 weeks after I had a hysterectomy!) I was right! He was getting out of the shower, went to turn off the water and, obviously, moved the wrong way. I had to QUICKLY find someone to take over my class so that I could hurry home to another city (I live in a different one than I work) to get to my 2 year old that could wreak some SERIOUS damage with a daddy incapacitated!!!

Did I mention that I am keeping 2 other boys? My friend and her husband had to go out of town on business for the next 2 weeks. So they are staying with us during the week. I am now responsible for getting 4 children ready for school, fed breakfast and supper, homework for 3 of them, 4 baths and 4 to bed. WOW!!! Luckily, they are VERY well-behaved boys and will be no problem at all!

Okay, now back to me rushing home.... as I am hurrying home, one of the boys begins to feel sick. As I hear him cry from the third row, I look in the back and get him a bag just in the nick of time! At the SAME time the bars go down on the train tracks and I am stuck waiting for a train to go by us! At this point, I have one throwing up, a train detaining me and I realize that my car is running on fumes!! Add to that the thoughts I am having of Bella running loose in the house with my husband laying on the floor watching things come down around him! NOT a GOOD feeling!!!!!!!!!! Did I mention I am turning 36 on Wednesday????

I called Jeff, kept him on the phone with me, pumped my gas and got home! All children have done homework, Jeff has muscle relaxers that have kicked in, Bella got her Motrin, supper is cooking and I am ready for a VACATION!!!!! Anybody want to join me????????