A Camping We Will Go

I'm so glad the weather has finally cooled down so we are able to start camping. We had a cold snap, and that last morning was chilly! We had a great time and I'm looking forward to the next camping trip!

Enjoying the tree swing with her friend.

Eating grapes, and warming up by the fire!

Three Women and a Lady

So here I was sitting with two very obvious pregnant women. (Normally I wouldn't be in this type of setting, but I was trying to mingle) Another lady walks up and sits down as well. It goes something like this:
Lady says to 1st woman: It's nice to meet you! How far along are you?
1st woman answers
Lady: Is this your first child?
1st woman answers
Lady: Oh, that's wonderful, what a blessing. Is it a boy or girl?
1st woman anwers
Lady to ME: "Do you only have one child?"
Me: Yes
Lady to Me: Are you going to have more?
Me: Well, umm my husband and I are in the process of adopting.
Lady to Me: Oh, I hear that takes a long time."
Me: Yes it can.
Lady to Me: Why are you adopting?
Me: I would suppose the same reason these women are pregnant....
Lady to Me: Well, good luck to you."
Lady to 2nd woman: "Is this your first pregnancy?"
2nd woman answers, Lady continues asking Woman 1&2 questions regarding pregnancy and children and not another word to me.
Needless to say I was ready to burst into tears....

First off, I find it offensive when people ask me if I'm going to have more children. Really, do you need to tell me that adoption can take a long time? Do you really think that I don't know this!? And the 2nd question completely BLEW me away... a person would never ask a pregnant woman why she was pregnant... This is not the first time (nor will it be the last I'm sure) that I've heard hurtful comments. I've realized that the statement "Good luck" is a dismissing of the topic. There was/is clearly a different vibe I get from others when adoption is mentioned. Almost like I can't be included in their talk because I'm expanding my family differently. People (women mostly) tend to get all excited when a pregnant woman is around, but yet they can't show me the same amount of excitement. I know we are becoming a family in a different way, but it's just as exciting for us. I don't understand why others can't see that as well. And that's my gripe today! I promise I won't gripe anymore! (for awhile!)

Celebrate the Small Things

Well, it's been a LONG time that I've been able to say this: Life is good! We've had quite a few changes over the last month or so. It's getting easier coming home to dog-less house. It's amazing how much my life (especially in the end) revolved around Samps. I still miss him like crazy, but it's getting better. I started working at a preschool as an assistant teacher. I might add, that I absolutely LOVE it! Miss K is also going to preschool there and she seems to enjoy it. She thinks she is such a big girl for going to school! I'm not in her class, so I don't see her the few hours that we are there. Well, not unless I need to go peek at her :) In October Nick is going to start working nights, so we are getting ready to switch gears for that as well. My lastest great news is that I won a $100 gift card to Wal-Mart. I was doing a little happy dance saying "Yay, I won, I won!" Nick didn't find it near as cool as I did. We recently had some other pretty exciting news as well, but I'll not get into that just yet. I know, I know... I hate when people do that too! As of right now, I'm celebrating the small things in life. Regardless of how everything turns out, I'm happy and excited in this moment!

Our Beautiful Ballerina

I happened to snap (with my phone) this picture of K on her first day of ballet and I thought it turned out great!

Short and Sweet

I realized that I haven't written (err typed) on this blog in a month! So here's a quick little update!






























Yep that's about it! Okay, okay I'll elaborate a little! As far as the adoption, well it's still going. So far, no contacts. We are starting to work on all of our paperwork again, as it has to be updated every 12 months. September marks our  8 month waiting anniversary of being "on the books." And, I think that's about it! Short and sweet (like me!).

Sampson

Last Friday we had to say goodbye our sweet boy. He had declined rapidly in the last couple of weeks. I spent a lot of time with him on his last day. It broke my heart seeing him suffer. Everything I do reminds me of him. Just like the night after he passed when I was cooking dinner. He couldn't resist the smell of chicken, and that was the only "people' food that I would sneak to him. He would always get so excited when I was fixing it! And then in his last few weeks I boiled chicken just for him, cut it up, and fed it to him. Needless to say fixing dinner that night, knowing that he wasn't going to be at the edge of the kitchen looking up at me, brought me to tears. I know we made the right decision on letting him go, but it certainly doesn't make the pain go away. We miss him terribly, but glad that he is no longer suffering.

Canning Away!

 My garden, unlike last year, has taken on a mind of it's own. I'm embarrassed to even post pictures of the garden because it's gotten completely out of control! I planted based on our garden from last year. It's AMAZING what different soil can do! The things that I planted this year have grown at least 3x as big as they did last year. Which would be okay, but I planted more of each plant and we had less space. Needless to say, we had a crazy amount of fruit and vegetables. So far we've picked green beans, tomatoes, jalapenos, zucchini, watermelon, tomatoes, jalapenos, bell peppers, cucumbers, and you guessed it, tomatoes and jalapenos. The only things that haven't yielded anything (yet) is broccoli (which may not because it's a cool weather vegetable), cantaloupe (I was a little late getting those seeds out), and carrots (which, I think take a really long time to do anything). Over all I'm pleased with the outcome. Our good friends also had an abundant amount of tomatoes, so we decided to combine everything and make some salsa and pickled jalapenos. It's the first time that Nick and I have ever canned (although we grew up with our parents doing it). We are pretty happy with the results! I'm just glad we were able to use everything and it not go to waste!

We're ready to go to our friends house!

All the veggies from our garden (minus the store bought onions)

The men were chopping too! And sneaking bites :)

All the 'maters after we peeled them.

K and I acting silly while waiting for the finished product!

Mmmmm, yummy salsa!

All finished!