See & Do Details

A few of my faithful followers have asked about the "See & Do" that Josh and I are participating in. It is sponsored by our local newspaper. They have gone through the three counties and made a list of 101 Things to See & Do in our area. The rules are that you see & do as many things as possible on the list. To prove you did them you have to either have a receipt or a picture, both with dates. The contest goes from June 16th to September 30th. It includes a wide variety of things. Some our schedules events, like town celebrations. Others are more complicated like climb King's Peak. Then they have simple things, like enjoying a snow cone, sunset, and fireworks.

When we first got our booklet, I thought it would be a great thing to do because we would be able to get more pictures of us and use them in our adoption profile. The prizes sound awesome, but I really don't know if we will win. The book was supposed to come out around June 1st, but they have publication problems and had to push it back which meant push the start date back also. When we got the book a few of the celebrations were that weekend, and we couldn't fit them into our schedule. Then I got sick, and we missed out on a few more things.

After we missed yet another thing this weekend (we were exhausted from our yard sale) and due to the fact that some of the activities are about 2 hours from home, we have decided we won't do this to win, but we are going to continue on with the list and accomplish as much as we can. We have had so much fun so far. Pelican Lake has been our favorite so far.

To the nice person who complimented my shirts, THANK YOU! I love clothes shopping, and my favorite place is The Dress Barn. I would make the store my closet if I could.

Blogger Backgrounds

I need help from my fellow bloggers. I really want to transform my blog into a three column blog. I finally figured out how to do that, but now my background makes my sidebars hard to read.
I am looking for other places I can go to get a free background that will work with my 3 column blog that I want to switch too. I have tried a few, but they all have issues. The Cutest Blog on the Block - I love their backgrounds! But if I am on my work computer I can't see the background of blogs that use their designs. It's really a nuiscance because that makes some blogs unviewalbe at all because it's a black screen and they use black font. My mother in-law has the same problem on her computer. Drats, I really do love their designs! I also tried Delightful Dots, but they only have 4 templates, and I didn't like any of them.
I am more familiar with the backgrounds you use by adding a gadget, but I will try anything.
I am trying to find something, but the few others I am finding are boring (BLAH!). I want something fresh, something fun. If you know of any websites I can check out please leave a comment. The future of my blog depends on you!

Thoughts on Adopting An Older Child

Someone asked us if we had ever considered adopting a waiting child, a child that is no longer an infant. That is a tough question for me to answer.
Giving up my dream of being pregnant was not all that hard to give up. Morning sickness, mood swings, weight gain, labor, I could give that up. I don't mind messing that step in the process to motherhood.
But I am not ready to give up the dream of holding a tiny baby in my arms. I'm not ready to miss out on midnight feedings, first smiles, first steps, and yes even things like dirty diapers.
I know I could love an older child if that is what we were to be given. And someday I may change my mind and be more open to an older child. I have actually thought about Foster Care a few times and if I didn't work I would do that. But I believe that children who are placed in Foster care need a stable environment with constant love and discipline. Their world is falling apart and they are already in a strange place; I wouldn't want to turn around and send them to a babysitter all day.
Until Josh is finished with his schooling I will have to continue to work. I love my job so that isn't a problem for me. But I would LOVE to be a stay at home mom. I dream of the time when I will be able to kiss my husband off to work and then spend the day playing with my children. We'll build forts, read books, bake cookies, take naps, you know, all that normal motherly stuff.
I love people who do foster care. I had a good friend in high school that was raised by a foster family and I think it made a world of difference in her life. But for us, now just isn't the time. And neither is it yet the time for us to consider adopting an older child.

Sidebar Buttons

Someone asked me where I got my buttons in the sidebar. The first one "It's hard to wait around for something you know may never happen, bit it's even harder when you know it's everything you want," I stole from another blog, but now I can't remember from who. I loved it and was going through a hard time with our lack of children so I copied it and posted it as a jpeg. I feel guilty, but it rang so true and I haven't been able to force myself to delete it. So since I stole it, I give anyone permission to steal it from me.
The 2nd one is actually a tile plaque that I bought back in October. I bought two hoping to give one to our birth mother at placement. I took a picture of it and posted it to remind me that Miracles can happen everyday. Feel free to use it on your blog!
"Sometimes God calms the storm and sometimes He lets the storm rage and He calms the child." I saw that in a magazine. It was a picture of a lighthouse with a storm in the background. I loved the saying and had to have it. I want to have it made into a big sign for my house, but I can't decide how I want it to look. For the background I used a program called Scrapblog that you can use free on the Internet.
I love my Family Circus Cartoon! When we took our adoption classes last spring they gave us a disk that had several articles. It was part of it. I hope my kids will say cute things like that someday.
The quote by Dr. Seuss I found on a friends Parent Profiles. I loved it and decided since it was Dr. Seuss it wasn't really steeling when I posted it. I used Scrapblog to create it too. I don't like how it looks, but I keep forgetting to try something different.
The picture collages of Josh and I where made with Picasa. When we did our first LDSFS online profile there is only 4 places to put pictures. Some high tech people can do slide shows, but I liked this idea better. Since our new profiles have a 24 picture picture album I didn't need to use these again, but I left them here just to give a quick look at who we are.
The pictures of my kittens I made with Scrapblog. That program is really fun to work in. I also made a gift certificate when for a guy at work that wanted to buy Scentsy stuff for his wife, but didn't know what to choose. So I had him pay for the package he wanted and made up a certificate. I think it turned out nice.
My reading blinkie I got off of The Cutest Blog on the Block. That is also where I get my backgrounds. It seems to be a very popular thing to do; most blogs I follow use it too.
Then I have just inserted other quotes and poems that I love and want to see often.
On my counters you can click on them and I think they will take you to where you can make your own counter. I really like the three I have (2 on the side and one at the bottom) so I use them all. I especially love the design of the counter at the bottom.
I haven't figured out yet how to make an actual button that thinks to our profiles, but I want to. If I figure it out, I'll let everyone know!
Thanks for the questions, keep them coming.

Open book...I want to hear from you!

I just wanted to mention that I love hearing from everyone, so please feel free to post a comment whenever you want. Or better yet, ask me any questions you want. I've seen this on other blogs and it looks fun. They can be adoption related or anything else. For security purposes I won't go into a ton of details like where we live or anything to personal like that. If I understand my settings right, anyone can post a comment. If you aren't a registered Google user you should be able to type in your name or even click on anonymous.

So go ahead, treat this like an OPEN BOOK.

I should mention that I have the comment moderation turned on; simply because I realized I was missing some comments that were being posted. This way I have to review them before they are published and I won't miss out on any. It there is any rude or insensitive comments I will reject those. I haven't had a problem with that yet, but I have friends who get a lot of abuse about their decisions to adopt and that to me is just plain mean, so play nice.