I meant to write this one awhile ago...

...but I wasn't ready and now it has been over two weeks.  So here is the post that should've been written awhile ago.

About five days after our phone call from DCFS that brought the sweetest little one to our house, our phone rang again.  This time it was to tell us that they had found a relative that was able to care for her so they would be picking her up Thursday morning.  We had had a really great day on Wednesday, she seemed to have fallen into the routine of our family really well and now she was going to leave.

I spent that night washing her things and getting them packed in her bag that she had come with.  Thursday morning, I got her up and got her ready dreading the arrival of 9am.  They actually showed up early and I helped get her and her things out to the car.  The part that broke my heart is that she kept looking up at me and then at the two women who had come to get her and then back to me with a worried look.  I was able to give her a kiss goodbye and then turned toward the house.  The tears started when I was almost to the house.  Thankfully I was able to pray for her safety, snuggle with Griff and then spend some great time with great friends at playgroup.

Both Dean and I wished we could've had her here longer but then we also realize that it would've been even harder to let her go.  Both of us also had the thought that we wanted her to come back but we didn't want her to come back at the same time because her coming back would mean that some else had happened to her.  The one thing we know for sure,  we are glad that we got to have her here even if it was a short time.  The other thing this has once again shown me is that we have three amazing boys and they are going to be the best big brothers to their little sister, whoever she may be and whenever she may come home.

A Big Day for My Little Man

Today was Griffen's first day of kindergarten. He has been looking forward to going to "the big" school like his brothers. He is in the afternoon class so he didn't get to leave for school with his brothers but that was OK because Griff and mom spent the morning cuddling on the couch watching our old favorite cartoons (Mickey Mouse, Handy Manny...gotta love Disney). This morning was eventful as well. He has been wiggling one of his teeth for the past week or so and it was getting REALLY lose. Well this morning he noticed a leftover cookie and asked to have it. I bargained with him, let me pull the tooth and he could have the whole cookie. It took a few times to convince him but the temptation of the yummy cookie (thanks for leaving them Andrea!) won and he opened wide and out came the tooth.

He was a little mad at me because it took more than one tug, but after a few minutes he turned to me and said, "I'm so glad you pulled my tooth out mom." He told anyone who called our house after that about his tooth, and that he was going to school today.

So the time finally arrived. I think he was sure that he was going to go up all on his own (just like Jake and Austin) but was OK with walking with mom.

Afternoon kinders start out by going to the cafeteria and eating lunch. There is about a ten minute overlap of his class and the 5th graders, so he got to see Jake there. He was pretty excited about that too. He had no fears going to the hand washing station by himself, waving to teachers he knew and taking his garbage to the trash all on his own. I on the other hand just watched in awe of my little man (that and thinking of ways to possibly embarrass my 5th grader...I didn't actually do it).

Finally we were off to the classroom to meet his teacher. Her name is Miss Hubner but I love how he says Miss Hub-in-er. He found a couple of friends from preschool in his class and his preschool teacher was even there helping Miss Hubner out too.

He was so proud to be there and still showed off his lost tooth to anyone who would listen. At the end of school, when we picked him up, his teacher said he did great and was such an easy kiddo. We got a similar statement from Aussie's teacher tonight at the Back to School Spaghetti Feed (I'm one proud mama). So the school year is off to a great start. Now I need to go find the Tooth Fairy, she owes a little man some money tonight.

The Phone Rang....

...late Friday morning as the boys and I finished getting the first half of the grocery shopping put away. (We were breaking our normal errand trip into two since we had the Teacher Meet and Greet at the school at noon.) Anyway, the phone rang with the caller id saying "unavailable" so I let the answering machine pick up. When it got to the time for the message to be left, a voice at the other end introduced himself and I instantly recognized the name of the respite coordinator for DCFS who is also filling in for the placement coordinator. I quickly grabbed the phone and caught him before he hung up. He was calling because he was looking for a house for a little two year old girl that was being "picked up" that day. I told him that I needed to talk to my husband and would get back to him.

So, I called Dean to let him know about the phone call and to get his thoughts which were summed up with, "that's why we are licensed right?" So I called the coordinator back and said we would take her. He told me that the workers would call us when they had her to let us know how/when to pick her up. Now I was in a bit of a dilemma, I still needed to get to the rest of my errands but didn't want to be far from our phone. Before you ask, yes, they had my cell number but I also knew that one of the stores I was going to be spending a lot of time in I don't have reception in. So we stayed home and waited.

Finally, at about 4:30 they called and said that they were going out to find her and then they would call when they were on their way to bring her to us. So once again we waited....and waited....and waited. Finally the phone rang again at 10:30 and they let us know that they still had a little more paperwork and should be to our house in an hour or so. It wasn't until about midnight that they were able to get here and brought us the sweetest little girl who is really only about one.

Our first full day and a half has gone pretty smoothly. She is pretty easy going and is a great sleeper so far. She loves being around the boys and Dean even said that she cried yesterday when the boys ran downstairs to play but then perked up when he took her down there too.

As of right now we only know that she is with us right now. We don't know anything else. We could have her for a few days, weeks, months...we don't know. Hopefully this next week we will get to know more but for right now we will enjoy her while we have her.

Yep...Summer's Over

Summer is definitely over! One look at the change of the calendar and it's obvious!

This was our August...just my work schedule, an appointment and a couple of weekend trips.

Below is September....so far...and school hasn't even started yet!

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

This time of year always brings with it the feeling that I need to organize and clean out things. It is my time of "spring" cleaning (a little late). I am always trying to figure out the best way to handle the rush of paper that comes with kiddos in school as well as the fact that both Jake and Austin have birthdays in November so I want to make room for new school clothes and birthday gifts that come around in the fall.


The GOOD part is that in the last few days I was able to clean out closets. I started with mine and was able to get rid of quite a few things and then I also got to the boys' closet and got their clothes organized. Now they only have clothes that actually fit them on their shelves. Ha! And I know what I should be looking for for them. Thankfully it isn't too much.

My part of the closet...not so jam packed
(Dean still needs to clean out his clothes :))

Jake's shelves
(I guess he still needs a couple of pairs of pants still)

Austin and Griff's side

The BAD part (ok this isn't so bad) is that I now have piles of clothes to take to the consignment stores. I love consigning things since I then get "new" clothes without really spending money! And consigning the boys' things will help get things for the new little one whoever she may be and whenever she joins our family. The really bad-ish part though is that at the kids' consignment shop today they are limiting everyone to one bag a week since there seems to be so many people doing the same thing as me. ARGG!

My pile of clothes for consignment

The boys' pile AFTER I dropped of my one bag

The UGLY part is below...

I guess I have more work to do. Thankfully I also have three GREAT cleaners that know where all of this mess goes! HA!