The State of Our Union-February Edition

Hi Everyone!  Long time, no see.  It seems like the days fly by, but this month has been creeping along ever so slowly.  It must be the weather and the snow.  Oh, the snow!  That and the frozen drain in Nash and Stella's bathtub.  Did I tell you about that phenomenon?  Poor location and poor insulation and it needs to be above freezing to drain and well, it's not...again and I forgot, again.  Spring?  Where are you?

Even though the cold air persists, things have gotten into a familiar rhythm again and I've come out of the haze of the holidays to a happier, more peaceful place. No new tragedies, just the hum drum of a relatively quite life. Well, if you can call Stella shrieking and stomping, peaceful or a toddler who's stuck in the I'll say everything 500 million times until you acknowledge me phase, calm.  Some things are relative.

We got word today that we are officially licensed to foster/adopt in our county with one day to spare!!  Seriously.  Our paperwork would have expired March 1st if we didn't get approved by then.  Mark pointed out that in the near future he could come home from a trip to another kid in the house.  It sounds like a dad's worst nightmare, but we are exited to get this show on the road. :) We have no idea how long or short it will be until we get a placement.  Could be a week like a friend of mine or it could be 3 months. 

It will be sweet to have a baby in the house again and after the joy Nash has brought to all of us, a new little person to love and adore is such a blessing!  It will be very weird to add a person to our family and not be able to post pictures of that tiny someone who will have such a big impact on us.  I'll guess I'll get used to that after some time.

 I think this has been the least amount of photos I've take in one month in years.  Well, it makes sense since we are stuck inside basically doing the same thing day after day while we wait for spring to arrive. Here are the few pictures from this past month. 

 Believe it or not, that sombrero was a gift from my mom. That's a gift that keeps on giving!!  Brooke of course, claimed it as her own as it crossed the threshold of our home.  The hoarder living inside her cannot be tamed.  She retrieved it from her lair for taco night.  Oh, yes! we even scrounged up some mariachi music from Pandora to serenade us during dinner. We are CRAZY like that. 

We have been eating tacos on corn tortillas since last month's Troops of St. George camp out when Luke ate 3.  Luke eating anything in multiples is a miracle so when we are talking tacos with actual meat in them that he eats willingly, it's something notable.  We've had tacos at least 3 times this month.

 Speaking of Luke, I don't know how I managed to have not one picture of Luke and his mega Lego stash, but I don't.  He's pretty much been working on one Lego set or another this entire month thanks to the generosity of my in-laws.  Personally, I'm not a huge fan only because when it's clean up time, they are EVERYWHERE.  And can they just be thrown into a bin?  Most certainly not!  No, see they belong to a SET which cannot be mixed with the other 8 sets.  I'm not kidding. 6,042 pieces that have to be SORTED.  I might go loco over these Legos.  He does seem to be gifted not only in math, but in Lego building as well.  Luke pulled off a 14 and older Town Hall. with hardly any help from Mark at all.   I did manage to tiptoe through the rubble to snap a photo of this Geotrax creation. Luke had 5 or 6 trains circling the track on the different levels all going at the same time.  This reminds me of a wedding cake, only not as edible.

 Nash's latest obsession, beside Thomas, is taking showers.  It started off as a distraction/babysitter in the morning when he woke up at 6 AM and I was still getting ready for the day.  I'd pop him in the shower and then I didn't have to talk to him while I was getting ready. He sings which is one of the most adorable things ever. I'm really not a nice person in the morning until I've showered and my hair is dried and fluffed and I've done my morning prayers/meditation.  Sorry, mama can't talk to you, I'm busy talking with Jesus.  Please be quite and go away.  Of course I don't say that, but that's what I want to say which isn't lovely at all.  I know my limitations which is why I get up with an alarm everyday.  You need coffee, I need a shower and a little Jesus.

 I'm over the snow.  No comment.

 This bird was in the backyard, hanging out on that branch eating something meaty.  The funny thing is is that I really don't like birds.  I do, however, find myself drawn to wild birds.  This one is a Cooper's Hawk.  I know this is correct because this nerd I know did some internet research.

 Sweetness.  This was totally spontaneous.  Brooke was reading one of my favorite books The Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman.  It's a cute book about a family of picky eaters which was fine when there were one or two kids, but not so much when there were seven.  Mark said they must be Catholic.

 We had one or two days in the last two weeks when the temperatures rose into the fifties and then even in the sixties.  It thunder-stormed of course, but we were able to play outside without snow pants!  With all his indoor practice, Nashy Boy was a Skuut bike riding champ.  He can balance all the way down our driveway with his feet up.  Pedal bike without training wheels, here we come!

 I'll sell him to you.  But no, you can't return him when he breaks things, because he does...a lot.  He's almost 3, what can you do?

 Brooke is so proud because she is tall enough to ride my bike with gears. She keeps reminding me how much money she's saving us by riding my bike.  She's funny.

Cute thing Nash said... "You a goofy kid, mom!" because that's what Mark tells him regularly.  If the shoe fits...

 This has to be the story of the month, our van.  So we had to get a new engine in our van because before we bought this certified used Honda Odyssey from the dealer some mechanic in Brooklyn, NY did some shoddy work on the engine which caused our engine to bust about two weeks ago.  It's a long story, but $4000 later, we had an engine with 100, 000 miles on it just like the original one that blew up.  Ironically enough, that "new" engine crapped out on us when we were on our way to go skiing this past Monday.  We were 15 miles from the slopes and the car died.  This was our 4th attempt to go skiing in the last 6 weeks so we threw in the towel reasoning that God was saving us from a trip to the ER. It was laugh out loud ridiculous. Better luck next year!  Mark took the kids to see the Lego movie instead which was described as "clever and funny".  You'll have to take Mark's word because I "had" to stay home because there wasn't enough room for all of us in the "little car".

Now we are on our 12th day without a minivan in the last 2.5 weeks.  Trying to jockey 6 people in Mark's 4 door sedan has been as fun as waiting on death row.  Seriously, too much family togetherness and touching in the Little Car.  If the Legos could make me go crazy, 4 kids in a midsize car could make a parent suicidal.  If we could leave Stella and Nash at home at all times, then it wouldn't be a big deal.  I'm surprised I haven't hyperventilated yet taking all those deep breaths trying to desperately to regain my sanity in traffic.

We are now waiting for engine #3 to arrive from Iowa and then we wait 4 more days for the van to be finished.  I think this suffering is getting me geared up for the upcoming sacrificial Lenten season.  Giving up corn and fiction will seem like no big deal after driving around town with kids touching and fighting in the backseat.  Brooke's been happy as a clam because she get's to ride shot gun...as long as she's as far away from the dashboard/potentially deadly airbag.  If only my OCD daughter couldn't read the warnings on the visor!

 And that leads me to Brooke...I'm so relieved we have a money tree because Brooke got braces yesterday.  It is weird to have a child old enough for orthodontic work.  These braces will be worn for a year and then she'll have retainers for a couple of years and then braces revisited.  Her permanent front teeth were so out of whack her other teeth had no room to come in.  Supposedly, this early intervention will prevent having to pull teeth in the future.  It's no picnic, I tell you.  Just ask poor Brooke.  She is in a lot of pain and realizing braces aren't as "cool" as they look.

Brooke has been studying hard this week for her 2nd trimester exams.  I'm over school, but the beat goes on and so must the studying.  She aced her Spanish exam with a 101%!  Spanish has been a thorn in our side so the fact that she did so well was incredible.  She has two more left tomorrow, but so far she's gotten all A's and one B.  She's a good little student!

Brooke's had her medicine increased again.  She's in a mostly good place, but having great difficulty making decisions.  She agonizes over even little decisions which ends in tears.  It's hard to watch. Should I go to the car wash with dad the the other kids even though I don't want to because I'm tired but I might miss out on fun?  could be worked into a prime time drama.

 At night I "have" to give her two hugs and two kisses so "nothing bad happens" and then she "has" to hit the power window button when the car is turned on to make sure the window lock isn't on so that "nothing bad happens" then as well.  Things overall are better and it also helps to be familiar with her limitations.  She is invited to two birthday parties this Saturday, but we have to pass up on one because she can't handle two in one day without melting into a tired, angry, teary mess.  It's all good and we are making progress.  Thank you for asking.  :)

Two Brooke quotes this month...

While discussing our mutual love of reading..."Did you like books because you didn't have TV back then?" because I am that old.  She then asked if I had a black and white TV which I said no way, but then talking out to dinner with some friends, I realized we did have a small "extra" black and white TV!   Yikes! Do you remember that little one, Mom?

Brooke opening up a new bottle of children's Advil..."They have pretty good child safety on this.  I could hardly get it open!" as she opened the bottle.  :)

 The Troops of St. George went on another camp out this month.  They went orienteering and slept in this cabin.  It was in the 60's last Saturday when they went which was awesome, but very, very muddy.

As you can guess the boys all carefully avoided the mud and went home with clean clothes. :)    They have such a good time that it is worth all the mud.

There you have it, folks.  In March we will pine for spring and a babe.  I'll let you know how that all goes. If we should get a placement before the next monthly update, I'll let you know.  See you then!