Bloggers Choice Award: YOUR UGLY VOTES NEEDED!

This past Friday night was our annual Ugly Sweater party.  So much fun!  I can't speak for everyone else who attended, but I can say for myself that I HAD A BLAST!

I have decided to do something a little different this year: I'm going to let YOU vote too. We did hand out awards at the party (I'll do a post about that in a couple days with more party pics as well) but I'm adding a BLOGGERS CHOICE award based on your votes!  So, check 'em out...and vote in the comment section, please.  Pass this on to your friends...the more votes the better the prize ;0)



JULIE put a lot of time into her "bow sweater" and spent the evening not being able to sit down or lean back on anything for fear of losing or smashing all the bows in the back.  A+ for effort!



CARL is sporting the lovely, three sizes too small, sweater vest that LIGHTS UP and is complete with personal touches.  (See below)  LORIN is wearing the American Dream, which includes apple pie, baseball, flags, and corn on the cob.



The back of CARL's vest.  It lights up and someone (who knows who) took the time to cut out what we can only assume were their family members faces and added them to the tree as ornaments.  See the little white circles?  Those are pictures.  We assume the cows were not family members....or were in-laws




JEREMY and MARIA in their great get-ups.  Jeremy's was even complete with Christmas stockings for shoes.  Check out both of their Christmas pants!  Maria's has multicolored starbursts embroidered all over.  They go with the Christmas colored jeweled belt.  These two have such a great sense of humor!




MANDY came dressed as a Christmas tree.  She certainly wins the award for enthusiasm, as she entered the house singing "OH CHRISTMAS TREE, OH CHRISTMAS TREE..."





PAUL and CAREY
Carey's sweater also lights up.  She spent hours shoving little lights thru the front to light up the tree on the front.  She also sported a matching Christmas tree watch!




CHRIS and SHEA were looking grand in their Christmas pretties.  I love the "matching" ties!




JERRY and RACHEL
Jerry's shirt matched his thoughts on the contest.  Rachel was all decked out...from her sparkly earrings, to her belt, to her bracelet!  LOVE THE ENTHUSIASM!



KERMIT and RENAI
I love that Kermit's sweater is borrowed from his neighbor lady!  What a trooper to make that effort!  Renai accessorised with an adorable hat!



MICHAEL and CRISTY
You can never go wrong with a sweater vest and a log cabin with lights all over!  Sure to be warn again  :)



TONY and LORETTA
Tony says the sweater may be ugly, but it is actually very comfortable.  I love the Loretta is sporting a coordinating scarf and earrings!



PHIL and LISA
Lisa is head-to-toe gingerbread.  Literally.  Even her socks, turtleneck, and earrings!  WOW!  Phil is sporting the snowman sweater with pride.  His homemade snowman belt buckle is classic and ingenious! 

The first and last time I wear leg warmers!  Note that said leg warmers are actually the sleeves from my sweater.  :0)  Dustin is looking HOT in the lovely, handmade, latch hook tree skirt circa 1972

It's too bad our Christmas cards are completed for the year.  You may be seeing this again next year....

This picture looks full of love.  If you could hear the photographer, you would be laughing as you hear her yelling at him "Kiss her!  Kiss your wife!  Oh come on...you can do better than that!"  So funny!

 

CAITLIN
This sweater and glitter fuzzy shirt combo are SNOW much fun!


So....let the voting begin!  I'm so excited to see who you choose!

I will post more pictures and also the winners from the party (and this contest) in my next post.

VOTE!  VOTE!  VOTE!




 















 



It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Life here has been a little (more) hectic than usual this past week.  We were placed with a new foster child on Thursday of last week and have spent time doing the typical "first week of fostering" things.  This includes: buying her clothes, shoes, school supplies, registerring her for school, discussing with her the expectations of her behavior while she is here, case meetings, Dr's appointments, etc..

This little girl has a very sad story (don't they all!?!) and, according to her therapist, really needs to be shown love.  So, I decided that our little Christmas tree that usually is naked (other than lights) would be decorated.  By us.  With homemade ornaments.  **SIGH** 

 

Cutting them out after measuring out all the ingredients herself.  She doubled that batch and I helped her figure out the measurments.

Watching them bake.  I wish I could show you her face so you could see how cute she is.

Painting her ornaments

The finished ornaments

Ta-dah! 

All in all, even though it was a huge project that took ALL DAY, I think she really enjoyed it!  A fun bonding experience for us.

 

Baby B photo bomb session

One of the hi-lights of the past few weeks has been trips to visit Ty, Janna, and baby B!  I love that little girl!  So, let me share some of my favorite pictures from my times with Baby B.

Still in the NICU here but I had to post a picture of her halloween costume I bought her.  Have you ever seen a cuter lady bug?

Baby B finally got to go home after 75 days in the NICU!  A happy day for all!

It is so cute watching mom with B.  She's a proud grandma!

 

Can't wait to see what the future brings for her!



The only thing CONSTANT is CHANGE

Well, life has been the usual whirlwind in the Donovan household the past month.  And, of course, I'm late on blogging about it!  So, let me quickly bring you up to speed.  This is a lengthy one so I highlighted some parts to speed it up for you, if you are in a rush.  :)

A couple weeks ago we said a sad and tearful goodbye to our two foster girls.  They had been with us for 6 months.  The physical act of saying goodbye was even harder than I thought it would be.  "R" was sobbing, hugging me and refusing to let go.  She cried from the time we left our house and all the way thru Fort Wayne to where we met their Dad.  It broke my heart.  "A" was a little more excited to be back with her dad and didn't have such a hard time.  Driving away while sobbing was a little challenging.  But, I'm tough, and by the time I returned to our house I had pulled it together.  All part of the job, right?!

We had such good times with A and R: the Marv Stieglitz retreat in Portage, swimming in Lake Michigan, trips to the ocean in Hilton Head, S.C with my family, summer swimming, bike rides, camping trips, VBS, first day of school, birthdays, a lemonade stand, and day dates (ice cream, movies, putt putt as rewards for good behavior...not all the same day).  Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of hard and trying times, too, but the good outweighs the bad.  We miss those girls a lot.  Our house seems so empty now.  I had to laugh at the fact that when they were here, we couldn't wait for them to go to bed at night so we could have a few hours to ourselves.  Now, we have all day to ourselves....and we are bored.  Life is funny!

We've gotten to talk to A and R once on the phone since then.  We've also played phone tag quite a bit so hopefully we will be able to connect again soon.  Please continue to pray for them, and their family. 

We spent a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving with my family in Ohio this year.  This is the first time in 5 years I have been able to spend a holiday with my family and it was so sweet!  (In years past, my job would not allow me time off for holidays)  We went to church that morning to thank our Lord for all he has provided, yet again.  Then, we of course had a wonderful meal full of all the fixins you could think of for a Thanksgiving meal.  Picture a Norman Rockwell type meal.  Ha!  After dinner several took naps and then the games ensued!  It was just so fun to spend the day with cousins and friends, laughing and enjoying each other.  I have missed that for so many years, and often feel like an outsider now when I go "home" to visit, but this was just the holiday I needed.

Now on to OUR BIG NEWS!  Today, we have a new child moving in with us.  She is 11 years old.  She has a history of having A LOT of psychological problems.  I'll admit I am VERY FEARFUL about this!  Honestly, I don't know that we are the right home for her.  I'm not known for my tact or patience.  I struggle with control issues and, apparently, so does she.  This should be......fun?  PLEASE BE IN PRAYER FOR US AND FOR HER!  We are trusting that God has brought her to us for a reason, even if we don't understand what that is right now.  And, the kicker of it is, we have been pinching pennies and cutting costs where ever we can because we are preparing to attempt an embryo adoption...and now this girl is a foster to adopt child.  This means that they are in the process of terminating her mothers rights and we will have the option to adopt her, if we choose.  Believe me, I am praying fervently about this.  I want a baby!  Do I give up my dream of a baby for this child?  I'm trusting God to work in my heart and to lead me in the right direction, even if it hurts.

Now here's my shameless plug for business: in an attempt to earn some extra money towards our adoption, I have started selling Gold Canyon candles/products.  Would you please consider hosting an in-home, catalog, or on-line show to support me?  There are many benefits to hosting:  earning free and discounted items, a night with friends, laughter, good food, yummy smells.....  FUN, right?!  If you are interested in hosting, please just contact me and we will work things out.  If you host an in-home show, you will probably get to meet our new daughter, M, as I would probably bring her with me.

WHEW!  Thanks for reading thru this lengthy post; kudos to you for making it to the end!  I'm windy.  Have a great day, y'all.  I'm off to prepare for M to come to us this afternoon. 

I'm an AUNT!

Baby Bex has arrived! 

I've been putting off blogging about this because I did not want to "steal T & J's thunder."  But, it's now been almost 6 weeks since she was born so I'm guessing anyone who is reading this, and knows my brother, already knows.  So now I can post and brag and preen and tell the world just how cute she is! 

I've only gotten to see her twice, and hold her once, but she is just awesome!  She came into the world 12 weeks early but has been doing really well.  She is still in the NICU but will hopefully be coming home in the next few weeks.  I can't wait to see her again! 

The very proud mom and dad doing kangaroo care with baby Bexleigh Piper

She's ready to hit the slopes!

Such a precious peanut!

Proud aunt and uncle the first time we met her

she is still being fed thru a feeding tube for now



She's up to 4 lbs, 15 oz's here.  Thats very good, considerring what she started at!



T and J changing diapers.  They do so well with her!

Such a great dad!  I've been so proud of him.  I've had several people tell me how impressed they were with how involved he has been, how gentle he is with her.  And I love that he has included me in this event!  He sends me pictures almost daily and little updates too!  I'm so glad he has been willing to "share" his baby with me!


Congrats, T & J, on a beautiful baby girl!  I can't wait to watch her grow up!

Fibber gibits

Seriously...I have nothing to say.  Updating my blog has been on my "TO DO" list for WEEKS...and I keep putting it off.  Because, I have nothing to say.  Writers block?  Or is my life really that boring?!?

I seem to be busy ALL THE TIME but never really doing anything that is blog-worthy.  I am a neat freak (which is TOTALLY different from a clean freak, I assure you) so I spend a great deal of every day organizing some part of my house.  The home office, the fridge, closets, the freezer, the garage, cupboards, dresser drawers...and when I'm done, I start all over again.  I abhore clutter and things out of place in the house, so I spend a large amount of time picking up after the three children.  Yes, I said three.  Count them: R, A, and Dustin! 

Other than my obsessive neat-picking (not nit picking, though I've been known to do that as well!) I spend a great deal of my time shutteling kids.  The girls have visits with their parents on Tuesday, Thursday, Fri, Sat, Sunday.  I get to drive them to all of that.  Yippie for me! 

Other excitement in our house lately:

* Both girls were failing 3-4 classes at mid-terms &
* Both girls have worked very hard to bring their grades up!

* One of the girls came down with a nasty case of scabies.  We don't know where or how she got them.  No one else in the house has the issue.  So, I got to spend a good three days de-lousing my house.  Several times.  And de-lousing a child.  Several times.  Fun times....I know you are jealous. 

*  D has been working extra so I've only seen him a tiny bit the past few weeks.  I'm not complaining: we are thankful for the extra income before Christmas! 

*  I had my wisdom teeth removed last week.....with NO sedation.  That was fun!  (sarcasm font)

* I'm looking forward to my next trip to Indy to see Tyler, Janna, and baby B!  Oh....that IS news worth a blog.  I'll do that one next!

I hope you are all doing well out there in blogville!  :)

New Beginnings

It's the season for new beginnings, apparently. 

The girls had their first day of 6th grade yesterday.  I cried a little when they got on the bus.  Then, I realized I had 8 hours of free time, and the tears were gone.  However, the tears were back again this morning as the got on the bus again.  I miss my buddies when they are gone!



Coming from the city, they could not grasp the idea that the bus picked them up at the end of our drive.  They kept asking where the bus stop was.

New hair cuts for school. 

**I wish I could post pictures of their first day and how cute they were dressed. I posted the above pic because I'm hoping their eyes are blocked enough to count as "unidentifiable" by DCS.**

Other new beginnings to note:
I kicked my inside-for-ten-years cat out to our barn.  She is not happy about it and comes to our windows and cries to be let in.  It makes me so sad....I keep imagining how things appear to her.  I wonder if she thinks I kicked her out because I don't love her anymore.  How do I convey to her that it was the last straw when I caught her peeing on my new carpet once again!?!  She joins a new kitten, Gumball, out there.  They will hopefully get along soon.

Dustin and I have been kicking around the idea of embryo adoption.  Its been over two years since we last tried to have a child, and I honestly thought maybe I was "over" wanting to have a child.  But, thru fostering, we have both realised we need to have our OWN child.  So, please be in prayer for us as we toss around the logistics of this possibility. 

Happy Wednesday, Y'all!