It Really IS Amazing...

How much Meghan has grown and changed since the day we brought her home from the hospital! I got to thinking that the pic from last year I threw in with this year's really doesn't show you...so I decided to make a post of pictures from the very first day we ever saw her so you can really see for yourselves! LOL This should keep me busy for awhile!

This is MrKB holding Meghan at the hospital on the day we got to see her for the first time. She's not quite 3 weeks old here.

This one was taken the evening of the day we brought her home from the hospital...3 weeks old and still so tiny!

Meghan at 2 months old.

Meghan at 3 months old.

Meghan at 4 months...this is one of my all time favorite pictures of her.

Meghan at 5 months....gettin' big! :)
Meghan at 7 months...don't she look pretty?
Meghan at 8.5 months...this one was taken on Destiny's 3rd birthday.
Meghan at 10 months old, and the first time she really got sick...poor thing was miserable!
I think she's 10 months old in this one too...if I remember correctly, we took it after she got better.
Easter portrait...taken on her 1st birthday. :)
With Mommy at her 1st Birthday party. Hmmm...looking at these pics now, it seems her hair turned blonde somewhere between 10 months and a year old.

This one was taken just a couple days ago. This is her feeding herself with a spoon for the very first time. 15 months old!
Last one, I promise! Took this one just a few minutes ago...not the greatest picture since I couldn't get her to be still! Had to snap it while she was on the run. Man, she's grown!

Picture Post :) (FINALLY!!)

Some friends of ours came over Friday evening to visit (*gasp* ADULT company!!) and it was miserably hot and humid so we decided to go to the pool here in our complex. It was the first time since the pool opened that we actually went, and boy did it feel great! I took the camera with me since the girls hadn't been since last summer. Meghan was only a couple of months old then, and Destiny was scared.

This year, Meghan is 15 months old (as of the 13th!) and she loves playing in the tub, but she wasn't too sure about swimming. She was kinda tired, though, maybe if we take her when she's at her most alert she'd have more fun. Destiny is 3 1/2 now, and she was scared at first...I suppose all that water is kinda intimidating to a kid her age. She had on a life jacket, of course, and if we let go of her she just would tip over backwards or even sideways! Kinda funny, but only scared her even more. The problem was she wasn't moving her arms and legs at all. Once we got her to really get her legs kicking and use her arms too, she actually swam and started having fun! I was so proud of her! :)

So, without further ado, here are the few pictures I did manage to get, with minimal editing. (I had to lighten a couple and remove red eye in at least one.)

Daddy and Destiny...of course she WOULD close her eyes just as I snapped the picture! This was taken when she was still tipping over if we let go of her. LOL

Destiny with our friends in the background. She was practicing swimming on her back in this one. Once she finally caught on to what we were telling her, she did really well going forwards on her belly. I would walk backwards in front of her, staying just out of her reach....she went back and forth across the pool all on her own steam. (and a little encouragement from Mommy!












Couldn't get these last three arranged quite how I wanted them...The one with Meghan in a car seat is a pic from last summer when she went to the pool for the first time ever. It's actually the same swimsuit too! She's 3 months old in that pic...wanted to post it so you could see how much she's grown in a year.

Pics above are of Meghan and my friend, and of Meghan and Daddy...you can see she's not too sure about the swimming thing!

Hope you enjoyed them...sorry it's not that many, but it took FOREVER just to get these up!

Ughhhh...Stupid Blogger!

We took the girls swimming last night for the first time this summer, and I took a few pictures I wanted to share with y'all, but Blogger ain't lettin' me!

I will try again later!

Update

First, I had to turn of the anonymous comment option....I rarely ever had spam, and between yesterday and today I got 8 spam comments! Annoyed the hell out of me, so I did what I had to do.

This morning my MIL brought her kids over for me to watch while she went to work today. Before she left we were talking about the paperwork that we got to fill out...she adopted the two oldest kids that belong to my BIL, if you remember. Well, apparently she didn't have to do this stuff. The lawyer took care of ALL the paperwork, and all she had to do was go down to his office to sign things when it was all together.

Like I said before...it is the EXACT same paperwork we did when all this started. Makes no sense to me...why put us through it again when they have all the information they need already?? We're going to contact our lawyer that we've been talking to on and off about this case and see what he has to say. I'm betting he's gonna have a cow when he hears how our caseworker has been handling things!

Wish us luck....and by the way, I can't believe not one single person commented on the last post! That was BIG news! *sniff* and nobody cared?!?

*edit* Thank you Mamamel for your comment! It came while I was typing this post! Y'all...meet Mamamel...she is another foster parent I came across through MrsCoach's blog. :) (sorry I will link later!)

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. :)