Labor Day

For Labor Day this year we met Shane's parents up at Solider Hollow to see the annual sheep herding competition. Yes-I said sheep herding. Shane's parents have a friend who herds sheep for a living and gave them some free tickets. I must admit it was a really fun, cold day! It was quite interesting to see the dogs go up the mountain and bring down 2 different groups of sheep. The other cool thing they had up there was: splash dogs. Seriously it was so funny. They had this huge pool with a long ramp going into it. The dog owners would get their dogs all excited and then get them to jump off the ramp into a pool. The competition was to see which dog could jump the farthest. One dog jumped something like 21 feet! It was amazing and so funny. As I said, it was pretty cold and rainy, but the kids had a blast and even got their faces painted. Thanks Gay and Merwin for a fun day!!!

First Day of preschool

Connor is finally old enough to go to preschool! He has been so excited to go to school like his big brother, Peyton. After quite a search, I got him enrolled in a preschool that is in a home near our neighborhood. Miss Heidi-his teacher is so sweet. Connor just loves her and can't wait for his next day of preschool!!!! Here is Connor with his best buddy Dillon on their 1st day of preschool-Sept. 2nd 2008. What a big boy!

just some thoughts

My sister Jenni put this amazing quote on her blog and dedicated the post to me. Thanks Jen. It was exactly what I needed to hear. For the past few weeks Shane and I have been trying to explore ways to get our family out there and have birth mothers look at our file. About a month ago we had to opportunity to speak to a ward on their 5th Sunday combined RS/Priesthood. It was such a great experience. Of course I bawled my way through my whole talk. I was suppose to talk about how adoption has changed my life. Hello? It's turned it upside down and inside out in the best way possible. I will confess that at times I still struggle with why I can't get pregnant. I'm sure we could try in-vitro again and maybe even achieve a pregnancy, but the odds are so slim and it's so expensive. I will be glad when I have a clearer picture in the next life why I was chosen to be an adoptive mother. Not that I am complaining, Peyton and Connor are the greatest blessings I could ask for! Still, when I hear of couples who are able to plan out their families (you know, I want to have summer baby so I need to go of b/c in this month so I can get prego and they seriously get pregnant the 1st month) I hope they are grateful for the ease of their conception. Ok-sorry for that tanget. All these crazy thoughts have been going through my head lately. I called a local hospital and spoke to the medical director over labor and delivery with no success, however she was super nice and referred me to a OB office that handles adoptions only to find out they only use three agencies and LDS is not one of them. In talking to our social worker, adoption has changed so much in the past year. They are just not getting the volume of birth mothers coming in and those that do come in only about 1/3 of them place, and out of that amount most have a birth plan already in place. That means they have already been online and chosen a family or been referred by friends and family to look at a specific family. It's been frustrating since there are about 500 families on LDS' website! Do you see my frustrations??? I try to be positive and remember we've only been approved for about 6 months, but it's hard.

Anywho, back to the quote that my sister left on her blog...... it came at the right time. I love it!!!

"Something still grows inside a woman who doesn't conceive a baby. In her grows character that is consumed with confidence, humility and desire. A symbolic embryo that is hers to nurture and others to behold. And it's birth is phenomenal." -courtney (last name unknown)

At these times when I am feeling so down, and weak, it's nice to remember that Heavenly Father is in charge. He wants me to learn and grow from this. I hope that I am doing my best, and that I am making Him proud. I can say that from adoption I have learned that there is a special kind of love that develops between an adoptive family and a birth family. I am so grateful that I have had the opportunity to experience that. It is truly amazing. I am in awe of the strength displayed by both of our birth moms. They are truly amazing women.

I love this quote too-it may be a little cliche , but it's true:

My cup runneth over

The dreaded smoke detector

why do smoke detectors always run out of batteries in the middle of night and decide to chirp? This happened this morning at 5:15 am in Connor's room. Both boys were sleeping in there. I HAD to get up and change the battery. I cannot sleep with the chirping. I just can't. So I asked Shane to get up b/c the smoke detector is located on the small vaulted part of his ceiling. Why do home builders put it where it's hard to get to? The stool from the kitchen wasn't' quite tall enough, so I had to get the ladder from the garage and haul it into the house. Shane was having trouble getting the battery in, meanwhile Connor and Peyton are sleeping with lights blazing. I got up on the top on the ladder to put the battery in. I looked outside only to realize that I am standing in my g's in front on the arched window in Connor's room that has no blinds. Nice. I'm sure it was quite a nice show. I finally got the battery in only then to lay awake for another hour and then finally fall asleep for an hour and then have to get up to get Peyton ready for school. I am tired. I'm thankful for smoke detectors, but why oh why can't they start the chirping in the middle of the day????