Adoption News

Well, we received some paperwork in the mail finally! But it's not what we were quite expecting...it's an "Application for Adoption". It's basically the SAME stuff we had to do to become foster parents of the girls in the first place. Literally, the SAME stuff, only some of the wording has been changed.

So now we have to fill this out. Stuff about health, work history, background checks, that kinda thing. Also have to get physicals done again at the doctor's office. After that someone will come out to our house to do a "home assessment" AGAIN.

I'm not worried about any of it...I know we passed everything once, we will again. It just seems kinda silly when they could just pull up the records from when we did all this in the first place. Unnecessary paperwork, I suppose is how I feel about it. BUT, it's a start...this will get the ball rolling to where we want to be, and that's to be the legal, official, PARENTS of Destiny and Meghan!

I'll be glad when it's all over!

Ch-ch-ch Changes

Hmmmm...so whaddya think?? I'm not completely sure yet if I'll keep this template or not...I have another that I tried right before this one that I'm considering using too. I do like this one though, and I AM a Sagittarius. Also was pretty cool that it's got my favorite color as the base color.

I don't particularly like the black font. I wish I knew how to change it to maybe a deep purple color that would blend in more with the rest of the template. Anybody know how to help with that?

When I decide for sure which of the two templates I like better, I will get my blogroll and stuff put back in the sidebar. Yes, I backed up my old template...so all I'll have to do is copy the links from there.

Anyway...I'm pretty much over my cold...Yay! MrKB thinks he may have it now though, and Meghan has had a bit of a runny nose....fun stuff. My mood has also been a bit better. Guess not feeling good made me cranky!

I'm a Bit Better...

I still have this nasty cold. Spent most of yesterday sleeping off and on, and ended up in bed for the night at midnight. MIDNIGHT, people! This is early for me...I'm usually up with Meghan until around 2am, then I spend some quiet time at the puter or whatever until I'm tired enough to go to sleep.

What makes this cold more of a pain is the fact that we are broke until payday, and I have no Nyquil or Dayquil or anything for my sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, (slight) fever. Bleh. I went through so many kleenex yesterday I should buy stock! And of course, now my nose is sore.

But, at least it's not strep throat like hubby had a few weeks ago. I hate being sick, but I hate being sick with a sore throat even more! I haven't been sick in maybe two years, so I guess it was overdue. Could be worse! I do kinda wish the kids weren't here...I've only been up for a couple of hours and already I just want to go back to sleep! I'm not so sick though that I can't take care of them. It's just more exhausting than usual. Maybe tomorrow my MIL will keep them overnight so I can really get some rest.

Sorry about the bummer post yesterday...I was feeling down and had to vent. I usually really enjoy the 4th of July! It is one of my top 3 holidays for sure. This year's was just bleh for me. Maybe next year we'll actually get to be at the lake and do the things we used to do before going on the road. I SO need a week at the lake! Seriously...NEED it! Nothing to do but relax with nature and fish all day long. Though if we take the kids with us, it probably wouldn't all be relaxing. Hubby has vacation scheduled for the first week of September. Maybe we'll go then. Need to start getting stuff together now though. We have NO camping equipment anymore since it all got stolen and have to replace everything. If anyone has anything they don't use anymore, donations will be accepted! Hehehe...

Nothing much else going on...still no paperwork...it is endlessly aggravating. I should clean my house since it's been neglected the last couple of days, but....ehhhhh.....it ain't going anywhere!

I Don't Know What to Call This Post and I Don't Really Care

I am in a blah mood. July 4th is usually one of my very favorite holidays out of the year. But this year it was just another day.

We used to go camping every year for the weekend out at Lake Texoma. Obviously didn't do that this year...so that depressed me 'cuz I felt all weekend I should be out at the lake camping and fishing.

Then, all week I'd been looking forward to at LEAST taking the girls out to the park where they have a big festival all day and a fireworks show at night. We didn't take them last year because they were still pretty small. But, wouldn't you know...the day finally arrives, and I AM SICK!! I have a summertime cold apparently...my nose is either stuffed up or running and my head is just all...I dunno..."foggy"...and I just plain don't feel good. I ended up sleeping most of the day. Thankfully hubby was off of work for the day, so he let me rest and he took care of the kids.

Man....

Have I mentioned to y'all that my 13 yr old stepdaughter is visiting?? She was here over the weekend, and will be here tomorrow for the day. We were going to go swimming in the pool, and we got all ready to go, put sunscreen on Des and Meghan, only to get to the pool and find out that it was closed! Bummer. I'm gonna have to take pics when I do get them to the pool. Last year Meghan was only 3 months old and wasn't all that impressed. This year I think she will be a lot more interested in it...she loves to splash the water in the bathtub, so who knows?

We are STILL waiting on the adoption paperwork to arrive in the mail. I'm getting sooo tired of all the delays and excuses the caseworker comes up with. Just get it freakin' done already you stupid bitch! Get these kids OUT of the goddamn system so they can live a normal life!!

Sigh....I think I need to go back to bed.

Have a Safe Holiday!

Back by (Semi) Popular Demand!!!

Yeah, okay...so, HI! You know you missed me, admit it! Sorry for the extended absence, but I really needed a break. I've got a few things to tell y'all about, though nothing really exciting. My life is still boring, but I'm still living it! LOL

Anyway, let's see...Meghan is WALKING now! Oh yes, she's alllll over the house and rarely crawls anymore. Of course, now that she's walking, she's also into anything and everything. Thank goodness for baby gates! She's also FINALLY getting more teeth in...just one so far...her top front left tooth is coming in nicely. The other front tooth I think is still trying to break through the gum. I told MrKB that if they don't both come in together she's gonna look like a miniature hillbilly with just two bottom teeth and one top tooth!

She's also taken to throwing little fits when she's not getting what she wants RIGHT THIS SECOND. She will literally throw herself down on the floor and start screeching and crying...sometimes rolls around a bit for show...she stops just short of actually kicking her feet and pounding her little fists on the floor. I usually ignore her and she stops within a few minutes. When my niece and nephew are here (ages 8 and 10) and she does that, they will hover over her..."Oh Meghan it's okay" or "Here Meghan" (trying to distract her with some toy or whatever)...and she just goes on throwing the fit 'cuz it's Mama she wants not them, and I have to tell them to just leave her alone probably a gazillion times.

Speaking of my niece...a couple weeks ago they were over and all playing in Destiny's room. Niece has a habit of picking Meghan up and trying to carry her around all over the place, even though she's been told not to. Well, they were in there playing and I was sitting at the computer in the living room listening to them. When I sent them in there to play I gave her specific instructions: "Don't be picking Meghan up! Period." Not 20 minutes later the baby starts screaming one of those "I'm hurt" cries...you Mamas out there know the one I'm talking about! I ran around the corner and Meghan is on the floor on the WRONG side of the baby gate, and my niece is hanging across the top of the now fallen gate on her stomach trying to get herself back on her feet. OH, I was PISSED OFF!! Then my nephew pipes up saying "Meghan wanted in there with you." *blink blink* I looked at them and said "The whole point of having the gate up is for her to be in an area where she can run around and play and I don't worry too much about her getting hurt. If I wanted her in here I would come get her myself." Obviously my niece took it upon herself to pick her up and then put her on my side of the gate...in the process she DROPPED MY BABY GIRL and then fell semi-on-top of her!!! Thankfully, Meghan was alright...I think she was more shocked than anything. It took me GREAT restraint to keep from beating my niece senseless though, lemme tell ya, I was NOT happy and I let her know it. So now, neither she or my nephew are allowed to pick her up anymore.

Moving on...

Destiny is still testing her limits, though she's not aggravating me or irritating me quite as much now...I think she's learned most of the limits. Took her in for another appointment at the Child Study Center for a progress check up. She's gotten taller and gained some weight. And they confirmed what I've been telling people all along..she is definitely speech delayed. She will be starting preschool in the fall, and I have to find one to get her in that also has a speech therapist. There's also maybe something wrong with her ears and I need to go have them checked out. The study center checked them with a little machine that puts a digital graph reading on it showing whether or not the eardrum is working properly, and apparently neither of hers are. She SEEMS to hear just fine, but who knows. I hope to god she doesn't have to end up with a life with a hearing aid like I have for the past 24 years. It's such a pain in the ass and makes lots of thing difficult.

Otherwise, both girls are healthy, happy and doing fine.

We are STILL waiting on adoption paperwork to be sent to us so we can get moving in that area. Of course the caseworker has one excuse after the other. Oh, and she came by for a visit yesterday and asked me "Are y'all gonna be at court on Thursday?" *blink blink* Ummm...Hello? Nobody has said anything about it, so how would we know to be there??? Yeah...and I have a WIC appointment on Thursday morning that's been set for months. She said she's not sure if the foster parents HAVE to be there, she'll find out. May just be a continuation of the last court date, where the separation of siblings paperwork was supposed to be filed. (and which the caseworker didn't even show up to, from what I heard). I'm getting SO tired of this kind of bullshit. I'm going to be thrilled when it's all over and I never have to see or talk to this girl AGAIN.

I found out some bad news yesterday. My Granddad has been battling emphysema for awhile now. Been on oxygen more and more every time I see him. Well, I saw my Mom yesterday, and she said something about him having lung cancer. I was like "WHAT??" And she's like "Oh yeah, Granddad has lung cancer and is on the oxygen 100% of the time now." HOW does she forget to tell me stuff like this?!?! Also, his lungs are too far gone for radiation treatments, and he doesn't want to do chemotherapy...so it looks like I will be losing my Granddad sometime this year, if not sometime this summer.

Sigh...I'm getting tears in my eyes just thinking about him being gone. And my poor Grandmother! I don't know how she'll take it when he's gone. They've been married over 50 years.

That's all I can think of to post about right now. I need to go fix lunch for the girls. Thanks for your patience during my break, and a big THANK YOU to those of you who continued to keep me on your blogrolls....to those who kicked me off (you know who you are!) PBLLLTTTTTTT!!!!

Taking a Break from Blogging...

Hi y'all...So sorry I've been such a bad blogger lately. I am fine, the kids are fine...had to take Meghan for shots yesterday, she got 4, poor thing...but she's doing okay, no adverse reactions. I really hate shot time!

Meghan is still not walking yet, and as of now still only has two bottom teeth (at 13 months old). She does walk a little...she'll take a few steps for short distances, and MrKB says she walked all the way down our hall last week before she realized she wasn't holding onto anything and plopped right down on her butt. LOL Definitely won't be much longer, and she'll be running in the house just like Destiny!

Destiny drives me nuts here lately. She argues now..."Why?" is a big part of her vocabulary. She can ask me that all day long, but if I ask her "Why" about something, she can't, or won't answer me. It's maddening, I tell you. It's like comedian Gallagher once said..."God made babies cute so you don't kill them"...that applies to toddlers and preschoolers too. LOL I love her to death, but she's difficult these days. I've seen worse kids, so I count my blessings, believe me.

I hope all the Moms out there had a wonderful Mother's Day, and a happy belated one to all of you!! Thank you so much to those of you who stopped by that day to wish me a happy Mother's day! I had a good day. MrKB surprised me with a dozen roses (red, yellow, white, and pink) on my bedside table, along with two cards. I hadn't expected anything at all since we are broke from having just paid rent and the car payment, so it was really nice to wake up to something that made me smile. Then, all day long HE took care of the kids...I didn't have to do anything regarding them for the whole day. That was really nice too.

On Saturday, I left the kids with MrKB for a few hours while I went out to eat at Carraba's restaurant with my Mom, Grandmother, sister, and cousin. It was very nice...excellent food, and just us girls. We don't go out like that often, and I really enjoyed it.

Hope everyone is doing wonderfully! This is going to be my last post probably for a little while, but don't worry! I'll be back!! Just apparently, since I haven't been posting much lately, I need a break from blogging. I don't know how long, and if something big happens I will be here to tell you guys about it for sure. Please don't kick me off your blogrolls! I promise I will be back!! And please feel free to email me anytime!!

Just a Quick Post

Hey y'all...sorry I haven't posted in awhile...not a lot going on in my so-called life! LOL Just haven't had anything worth blogging about...kinda been in a funk and haven't felt like posting. I've been spending a lot of time at Pogo playing bowling (personal high of 223, woot!).

Took the baby to the doctor on Tuesday...she has officially been diagnosed as having eczema. Poor thing. Now I have a prescription cream I have to put on her twice a day, along with some vaseline-like stuff called Aquaphor (which is expensive!). She is already doing much better, and is not scratching at herself all the time now. Also finally getting her face cleared up...you can see it in the Easter pics a bit...fortunately she wasn't flaring too terribly bad that day.

Yeah...so now I have a baby with Eczema who is now even MORE likely to develop asthma, since apparently the two diseases go hand in hand. Not always, but they are connected to the same gene. My nephew has both eczema and asthma, and if you've read my blog for awhile, you'll remember that Andy, the girls' brother, has a severe case of both diseases. We also are pretty sure that Destiny has asthma, since she wheezes from time to time, but she's not been officially diagnosed.

Yep...fun stuff.

Easter Portraits

Okay, I haven't sorted through the seemingly half-million reunion photos yet so I can show you the best ones. But I finally got my online copies of the Easter portraits we had made of the girls on Meghan's birthday! I should've had them sooner, and I was supposed to be able to pick up the actual portraits from Target 3 days ago...but apparently FedEx messed up and sent them to the wrong store and now it's gonna be the 4th before I can get them. Bummer.

Anyway, here ya go...



















































































Ta-Da!! So tell me, which ones do YOU like???

Hey! Did You Miss Me??

So, yeah, I am back! We got home Sunday evening from the family reunion. This is where we went. We stayed in the Group Camp which has a main building, and then various sized cabins all around the camp. There's a volleyball court and a playground for the kids. Destiny spent pretty much all weekend playing outside on the playground. She doesn't get to go play outside that much when we're at home, since we live in an apartment and don't have a yard. It was nice to just let her go, and not have to worry too much about her. There was LOTS of little kids out there this year! At least 3 one year olds, including Meghan. Meghan didn't know what to think about people her size!

All in all, we had a great time and the weather was absolutely beautiful!! A little bit on the hot side, actually. This is the first time in several years that it wasn't either raining, cold, or both. Just windy like it always is, but not too bad. I wish my family did stuff like this, but they don't anymore. This was MrKB's side of the family, and I look forward to it every year.

Wasn't too much harder on us having two kids with us this year. It'll be different next year when Meghan is 2 and running around more. She's still not walking yet...we thought she might start over the weekend after seeing the others her age all walking around. She walked a little bit with one of those toys they can hold onto and walk with, but she took a nasty little fall and hit her mouth on the concrete floor, making herself bleed all over the place. She didn't want anything to do with walking after that! She's okay, btw, no stitches or split lips, just a little bruise and some swelling.

I took lots of pictures, but I need to sort through them and decide which ones to post. I'll try to do that in the next day or so.

Anyway....

We went back to court on Monday about the kids. Told the judge what Andy's foster parents and we had decided regarding where he stays. She seemed pleased, and said how much she liked it when the parents can come to an agreement without mediation for the good of the child. So at least we weren't on the chopping block in front of the judge this time.

Our caseworker, on the other hand...

She is ALWAYS late for court, even with her office being just two floors up in the SAME building. She usually at least gets there before the judge (who is always late, too, but she's the judge!), but not this time. Believe it or not, we were actually the first case called to the bench, and that NEVER happens. We all get up there, and since the caseworker wasn't there, we had to go sit back down until she got there.

She arrives a few minutes later, and we all go up in front of the judge again. They discussed the oldest sibling, who lives with her grandparents currently, but apparently is going to be staying with an aunt and uncle after school lets out. They discussed the meth baby, they verified the status of Destiny and Meghan...meaning they're still with us and we still want to adopt. Then Andy. Now...his fosters want to get this case moved forward so we can get through the adoption proceedings, and we want to also...We can't do anything until the caseworker gets the paperwork done for "separation of siblings"...The judge asked her about it, and she said "Well, I've gotten started on it this past Friday, blah, blah, blah." The judge was nodding her head, and saying "Okay"...then the CASA worker (the same one that I don't particularly like, that got into it with my MIL over the whole smoking issue) spoke up and told the judge "The caseworker has known about the decision regarding Andy since FEBRUARY, and should have had the paperwork done a long time ago. Nothing has been done, and this case has not moved forward at all since our last court date in January." That's when the judge said "Oh really? Well, then she has until the next court date to have the necessary paperwork completed. Does May 30th work for everybody??" Normally the next court date would be 90 days away.

The caseworker was mortified!! She's in all kinds of hot water with the judge.

She came for a visit to see the kids the next day, and she was telling me how she went right from court to her office to get the paperwork started and worked on it until 7:30 that night. Yeah...about time someone lit a fire under her ass to get shit done!!

We were all (us and Andy's fosters) talking to the aunt of the oldest sibling...she is at court to get legal guardianship. We were telling her how long we'd been waiting for something to get done, and that is should have been done long ago, etc. The aunt just kept saying "We're not in her shoes. We're not in her shoes." and we're all like "Lady, you have NO idea. Just wait until you've been in this awhile." Yeah, things moved quickly for us in the beginning, when we were getting the girls placed with us, but after that, heh.

So anyway, for once we were happy about what went on in court. That's about all I've got for y'all right now. Pictures later! :)

Easter Pictures

Tomorrow we are going out to Quartz Mountain for our annual Family Reunion. We'll be leaving when MrKB gets home from work, and we'll be back Sunday evening. I've been looking forward to this for a couple of months now! I love going out there, it's a beautiful area, and I enjoy the company of family. It's always like a mini-vacation for us. This year will be different in the fact that we'll have our two little girls with us. I can't wait to see the looks on people's faces when we show up with two kids, when for so long it's just been me and MrKB! I'll be taking my camera with me, so I'll be taking lots of pictures to share when I get back.

For now, I want to show y'all some of my pics from Easter of the girls. I feel like my blog is a photoblog this week since I've had so much to share!! LOL There'll only be more when I return from our trip...can y'all handle it??

First is a few pics of the kids coloring Easter eggs. That's Destiny with her "cousins" Angelica and Patrick. They are my BIL's two oldest kids from a previous relationship. They're the ones my MIL adopted. We tell the kids they are cousins for now...it's a little too much for all of them to understand.

Notice how Destiny just kinda stares at the camera??? She is next to impossible to get a smile out of...Meghan usually will just start grinning when she sees a camera, but not Des, oh no!

Daddy and Meghan in her Easter dress. She was squirming around while trying to get this shot and this is the best I could get.

Destiny had a good time hunting for eggs once we finally got her to understand what it was she was supposed to do! Even then we practically had to touch the eggs themselves before she'd see them!! She's pretty slow to catch on to things, I'm tellin' ya...but doesn't just looks so cute in her Easter dress??



















Okay, I want to leave y'all with one more thing...this is a video of Destiny with bubbles for the first time ever...notice how she doesn't even pull the wand all the way out of the bottle and she blows them straight to the ground! LOL Then MrKB brings her a pinwheel, and she's got this look on her face like "Okay, just what am I supposed to do with this?!?!" Enjoy! :) Oh yeah, the little blond guy that tries to blow the pinwheel at the same time as Des is my nephew, Orion. He's something else...

Birthday Cake! HNT

Okay, thanks to Lecram, I've figured out how to post videos here. Yay! Consider it my HNT for this week. :) Enjoy! (it's only about 30 seconds long)

I'll Never Forget....Will You???

April 19, 1995...a date forever etched into the minds of Oklahomans and many Americans forever.

I remember this day well. I live in Oklahoma City, and I did back then too. MrKB and I had just been married barely two months before. We lived in a small one-bedroom apartment, and we both worked nights at Buy For Less grocery store.

The bomb went off at 9:02am...we were in bed asleep...we both woke up at the same exact moment, looked at each other, then looked at the clock...it read 9:03am. Neither one of us was sure at that point what had woke us up, but we think now that we felt the blast that had just occured less than 10 miles away. At the time, though, we thought nothing of it and went back to sleep.

About an hour and a half later, my Mom called us and told us to turn on the TV. I remember just being frozen in place and staring in disbelief at what I was seeing. This couldn't be Oklahoma City!! Stuff like this doesn't happen here!

I had to go to work that day, but I wanted desperately to be down there helping...I felt like I should be doing SOMETHING to help, even if I didn't know what I could do...It didn't matter though, they were turning people away because so many had showed up.

168 people died that day. Including this little girl, who was just one year old:

Her name was Baylee...

Thankfully, I didn't know anybody personally that died that terrible day, but I knew people who did lose relatives or friends...One girl we worked with lost an uncle and a cousin.

The day brought out the best in Oklahomans, and Americans everywhere. People came from all over to help us recover, just as they did later in New York and most recently in New Orleans.

And recover we did.

This is the Survivor Tree. It is an American Elm and survived the blast. It was already over 100 years old at the time of the bombing. It still stands and thrives today at the Oklahoma City National Memorial. I visited the memorial, only once, because it is painful...I hugged this very tree while there.

Oklahoma and I will never forget.....will you???

I Know Y'all Been Waiting for These!

I am still messing with the missing pictures, but thought I'd take a break and get pics from Meghan's birthday party posted for those of you who've been anxiously waiting! (Alicia!) Oh, and also wanted to show off my new haircut!

So, whaddya think? I like it, and it's the first time in a long time I was actually happy with a haircut. Seems like I can never find somebody who'll do it right! It's still long enough that I can pull it back so the baby doesn't yank on it all the time.











The birthday cake! :)














Birthday Princess!











Opening presents!
















Destiny with her cousins, Angelina (4) and Orion (2).









Mommy and Meghan :)















Let the cake eating begin!!!!













She wasn't too sure about the cake when we first put it in front of her...she just kinda poked at it for a few minutes. As you can see, though, she definitely got into the whole cake eating thing! :)


Check out the final aftermath...



I shot a short video of her eating cake with the new camera. When I figure out how, I'll post it so y'all can see. :)

Fuckin' Kodak...

Okay, so my old camera was a Kodak EasyShare, and I had the software on my computer and had no problems with it. Well on that software I had something like 1300 pictures.

New camera is also a Kodak EasyShare, but I had to update the software. I tried several times to get the shit installed, and the first attempt it got an error that it couldn't complete installation...AND IT SHUT DOWN ALL SOFTWARE. After several tries, I've got it installed now, and you will see new pictures soon...what I'm pissed off about is I LOST A BUNCH OF PICTURES THAT I ORIGINALLY HAD!!!!! Now, a lot of them I do have on disks, thank gosh, but there were still a bunch that I didn't have on disk yet because I don't have a CD burner on my computer. :( Pictures from Destiny's birthday? Gone. Pics from last Halloween? Gone.

Dammit!

*EDIT* Okay, I've been spending all damn day going through things on my harddrive to see if I can find the missing pictures. Good news is I have found a bunch of them! Bad news...I have to go through them ONE BY ONE and re-add them to my software files so I can access them easily when I need to. I have SO got to get a cd burner for my computer!!! Then I won't have this headache again!

Happy Easter Y'all!!!

It's been a busy weekend already, and it's not over yet! Just stopping in real quick to wish everybody a very HAPPY EASTER!!! Hope the day is beautiful and warm wherever you are!

Also, Thank You for all the birthday wishes for Meghan! :) The birthday party was great, and I've got pictures, but I'll have to post them later, along with Easter pics...mmmmkay? Have a great day!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY MEGHAN!!! :)

Dear Meghan,

Today you are 1 year old!! You've brought your Daddy and me so much joy and happiness this past year! You've grown and changed so much. We brought you home from the hospital when you were not quite 3 weeks old. Even though you were a "big" baby, at 9 lbs, 5 oz., you were so tiny! Mommy had waited a long, long time for a baby to hold and love, and you were a dream come true! You were beautiful and perfect, with a full head of hair, ten little fingers, and ten little toes.

I can't tell you how many times those first few weeks that I would wake up in the night and check to make sure you were still breathing, and to just watch you sleep. I waited so long for you, and I was scared to death something would happen and I'd lose you!

But here you are! You're very 1st birthday! You are now 28 inches tall and weigh 23.9 pounds! You've only been sick ONCE this past year, and oh, how Mommy's heart hurt for her baby girl! You were just absolutely miserable...but even while sick, you were still such a good baby! You didn't cry that much, even though you obviously didn't feel well at all. You just kind of hung around in your Exersaucer or slept a lot. I was SO glad when you were back to your normal happy self!

Your beautiful smile just lights up the whole room! I love to see it, and I love to make you laugh. It's the most precious sound in the world to me.

Oh, baby girl! It doesn't seem possible that a year has gone by! It's been a difficult year for your Daddy and me, but you and your big sister Destiny make it all worthwhile!

You've reached a lot of milestones...your first smile...first giggle...sitting up for the first time, standing, pulling yourself up....and now your first teeth are finally coming in! I thought they'd never get here! Of course, now you're at the stage where you drool all over everything, and you're constantly putting your fingers in your mouth now, as if to say "Hey! What are these sharp things in here?!"

You aren't walking yet, but you zip around the house in your walker! You love that you're able to go into Destiny's room now and play with her. It won't be much longer, though, and you'll be walking all on your own! You already stand without holding on to things for quite a length of time, until you realize you're standing and you'll just plop down on your butt! LOL Crawling is still your preferred method of getting around, and you can crawl like nobody's business!

We'll be having your official birthday party on Saturday, which just happens to be the day before Easter this year. I'll be sure to take tons of pictures!

I just can't wait to see what happens next in your life!

Your Daddy and I love you so very much, baby girl! I know you won't remember this birthday, but I hope the day is wonderful and lots of fun.

Happy 1st Birthday Meghan!!!

Love you always,
Mama

I'm Alive

So....Hi! I know I haven't been the best blogger lately. There's just not much to blog about, really.

Went out to the casino Friday night while Grandma kept the kids. Didn't win anything...I take that back, I did get $300 off of a quarter machine, but we played it all back since we didn't have to worry about leaving at a certain time. It was fun, though, and that night it seemed to be a family affair...we ran into two sets of Aunts and Uncles out there, which was kinda funny, since we never see anyone we know.

Saturday we had my niece and nephew over for the night. They were pretty good, but still get on my nerves since they just complain about being bored. I'm sorry, you ain't gonna come to my house and just veg in front of the TV or play freakin' video games all day long. Kids today don't know how to entertain themselves if they're not doing one of those two things. GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY for God's sake!! Maybe then you wouldn't keep gaining so much weight your Mom has to buy clothes every month. Sheesh... Not that these kids are obese or anything like that, but if they keep eating like they do and not doing anything active, they will be.

Sunday they were here all day long. I was ready for them to go home, lemme tell ya. But MrKB told Mom we'd take them for both Friday AND Saturday night next weekend. This is because she's watched our girls so much lately (which really hasn't been THAT much!)...yeah...I'm looking forward to that. NOT.

Monday I had to get up early and take Meghan in for a 9am appointment with the Child Study Center. This place is for infants and small children who were exposed to alcohol or substance abuse prenatally. They evaluate their development and growth. Meghan is doing fine. She was exposed to marijuana in the first trimester, but after that the bio Mom stayed clean...at least for this pregnancy. All of the other kids, including Destiny, have developmental problems now. Destiny is small for her age, and is having speech problems...she also does not comprehend things well. I can't get her to understand the difference between "quieter" and "louder", for example, no matter how many times I've tried. Can't get her to understand "same" and "different" yet either. She doesn't quite get "Yes" and "No" even. You ask her a question, and most times she'll just answer "Yes"...even to stuff you KNOW she should say "No" about.

Yeah, Destiny is quite the challenge. I worry how she's going to do in school. I don't want it to be difficult for her...especially the youngest grades. They were really easy for me...it wasn't until around 6th grade that it really got hard. I don't want her to be struggling from the beginning and then just not want to give the effort in the later grades. I guess we'll see how she does when the time comes. I am going to see about getting her into an Early Head Start program. For the normal Head Start, a child has to be 4 years old. She won't be 4 until December 31st!

Anyway...not a lot going on with me, really. I got my hair cut last night...first time in a long time since it's been cut. Looks a lot better now, and it's shoulder length...meaning I got about 6 inches cut off. You might get to see pictures later, if I ever get my new camera hooked up to the computer!

Geez, I'm boring...sorry about that...in kind of a blah mood today too.

Oh, couple more things...Meghan will be one year old the day after tomorrow! Since it's on a weekday, we'll probably have a birthday party this coming weekend...but then my MIL reminded me that it's Easter weekend, so we might wait until next weekend so people will be in town. We will be in Enid on Easter Sunday at my grandparents'.

Speaking of Easter, I bought a couple of egg-coloring kits last night when I went to WalMart...and some Easter cookies. Just a couple of things I can do with Destiny. I loved coloring Easter eggs when I was a kid. I hope I can have a good time attempting to color eggs with Des. When we did Christmas cookies, I ended up getting upset with her. I don't want that to happen this time.

Meghan's bottom two teeth are FINALLY coming in!! They have broken through and aren't in very far, but they're definitely there. It's about time!

That's it for now...on to the exciting world of cleaning house!

You Know You're an Okie When...

You are 100% Okie (Oklahoman to the rest of y'all) if:
1. You can properly pronounce Eufaula, Gotebo, Okemah, and Chickasha.
2. You think that people who complain about the wind in their states are sissies.
3. A tornado warning siren is your signal to go out in the yard and look for a funnel.
4. You know everything goes better with Ranch.
5. You've ever had to switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day.
6. You know that the true value of a parking space is not determined by the distance to the door, but by the availability of shade.
7. Stores don't have bags, they have sacks.
8. You've seen people wear bib overalls at funerals.
9. You know people who think a Ford F350 4x4 Dually is a status symbol.
10. You measure distance in minutes. ("I'm about 5 minutes away."
11. You refer to the capital of Oklahoma as "The City".
12. It doesn't bother you to use an airport named for a man that died in an airplane crash.
13. You learned how to shoot a gun before you learned how to multiply.
14. You go to the lake because you think it's like going to the ocean.
15. You listen to the weather forecast before picking out an outfit.
16. You know cowpies are not made of beef.
17. Someone you know has used a football schedule to plan their wedding date.
18. You don't even look twice when you see someone wearing a belt buckle bigger than your fist.
19. Your "place at the lake" has wheels under it.
20. You know in which state "Miam-uh" is and in which state "Miam-ee" is.
21. You aren't surprised to find movie rental, ammunition, and bait all in the same store.
22. You actually get these jokes and are "fixin' " to send them to your friends!

Got a New Car! :)

Well, a new to us car!

Remember I told you we were going to see about either a Isuzu Rodeo or a Dodge Durango? Well, we couldn't get financing for the Rodeo, so we got the Durango.

Ain't it pretty?? (the pic is from the web, but just like ours) Yeah, I think so too....loved it! Unfortunately, we ended up taking it back the very next day after we got it. The "check gauges" light kept coming on, and oil pressure was dropping waaay down. It didn't do this when we test drove it. So MrKB took it back to see if they could get it fixed (it had a warranty, fortunately) and after they replaced some parts, it was still doing the same thing. Seems like it may possibly be the oil pump....but the owner said he'd hate to find out that didn't fix it either, so offered us our choice of other vehicles on the lot. Some that weren't even quite ready to be sold yet.

This is what we ended up with:

A 2001 Ford Taurus. Right around 73,000 miles on it, which is A LOT less than the Durango had. It's not what I was wanting, and I never thought I'd actually own a Ford, but it's pretty nice. Just the right size, power everything, and a 6-disc cd player. It's one of the cars that wasn't quite ready to be sold, so it needs to be detailed inside, but it's not totally trashed or anything. Just needs a bit of cleaning up. I can already tell it's going to get a hell of a lot better gas mileage than our van! That's a definite plus.

Any of y'all ever had one? What did you think of it? Did you have any probs with it at all? Let me know...I'm still not completely sure what I think of this car, but I'll probably end up loving it, just will take some getting used to! One things for sure, it's the "newest" car I've ever had! :)