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????

Parent Profiles

Yeah!! We are finally online at Parentprofiles.com!!! I can't even begin to say what a relief it is that our profile is finally on another website that hopefully will give us more exposure to birthparents. The hurdles that we have gone through with this adoption have been so different than Peyton and Connor's. We have been so frustrated with lost paperwork, lost mail, individuals unwilling to help us out, I could go on. However in talking with a friend of ours who has two adopted children from Ethiopia, I know that there is a reason for the delays, the frustrations, and the "doors" that seems to be closed to us. I am not sure the reason for the stumbling blocks we have faced thus far, and there will probably be more, but at least there was a door opened today. A big thank-you for everyone that has been encouraging us and keeping us in your prayers! Keep the prayers coming that a birthmom will find our family and that we can be guided to her as well. Thanks!!!

embarassing photos

so ya know when someone (er-your cute sister) does a really nice post on her blog to say happy birthday, and the intent was so sweet, and thoughtful, but she posted a picture of you and her with your mom and other sister trying to be nice and cute, but you look HIDEOUS and FAT in that picture. Yeah-that just happened to me. So in defence of bad angles in a picture I decided to post a more flattering picture of myself in the hopes that a few people that read her blog actually will read mine too and be like "Oh-Rochie's not as fat as that other picture made her look". Ok, I feel better now.


(this is Shaner and I at the Richard Marx concert, and it rocked!!! We had a blast!)

In other news here are some things I am loving and not loving so much

Loving:

1-Mama Mia soundtrack-love it!!! Shane is diggin' it too.
2-my new calling in Primary. Surprisingly- I love it!!!
3-The Pioneer Woman-blog, love the story "From Black Heels to Tractor Wheels" a fun read!
4-Facebook-ok seriously this is fun and addicting!
5-Jason Mraz-Loving with Colby Calliat (see new additions to my play list below)

Not Loving:

1-Summer heat-alright, already, can we be back into the 80's please?
2-Watering flowers-it is the end of the summer and I have had it with watering flower pots. Whose bright idea was it to plant 16 flower pots this year?
3-Migraines-I got one yesterday and had to leave church right after the sacrament (not the meeting, but the actual sacrament) the whole flashing lights, followed by a pounding headache. It's been about 6 months since my last one and honestly I could wait at least that long again before my body decides to pull that again. Ouch.
4-changing clothes-Connor feels it is his duty to test my patience by putting on long pants and long sleeves when it's 100 degrees and then he proceeds to change about 3-4 times throughout the day. Stop changing clothes and will you please wear shorts and a t-shirt?

Happy 7th Peyton

Peyton turned 7 on Aug. 9th. We had a great time this year for his birthday. The night before his b-day was Friday and he had some friends over for a "late-night" party. They watched a movie in our backyard (Ben10: Race Against Time). We borrowed our neighbor's popcorn cart and had popcorn, movie candy and snowcones for the kids. You would have thought they were in heaven!!! For a small thank-you I got the boys Spiderman watches at the dollar store and they were a huge hit! This is probably the most low-key party we have ever done with the best results! We heard from a few parents that their boys came home saying "that party was awesome!". Score one for Mom!

This is the boys at the party....

I wanted to share 7 things about Peyton:

1-He is very sweet and caring. He still will give us the biggest and best hugs and isn't afraid to kiss us on the lips. He and I "touch noses" each night before bed. It's something that started when he was just little and he still loves it!

2-He is a rough and tumble boy. He loves to wrestle and fight. He loves to play with light sabers, guns, and swords.

3-He is a great reader! Honestly he really had no problems learning to read. It came very naturally to him and he is just really good at it.

4-He is a great artist! Peyton loves to draw on clean, white, never-been-written-on paper. He draws very intricately and is quite a perfectionist when it comes to art work.

5-He is developing a testimony of Jesus Christ. He is really understanding what is going on at church and knows right from wrong. He is a great friend and doesn't want to hurt others' feelings.

6-He loves Connor! Peyton is a great big brother and would probably rather play with Connor than anyone else. He is quick to include Connor in anything that we have going on, and is very sensitive towards his "big brother" role.

7-He is our Peytino, the great bambino, the monsterino, the one that we know, the cappachino and all those thingo's. We love him so much!!!

Happy Birthday Peyton!!!

tagged

My sister Jenni tagged me...

Ten years ago....
1. Living in West Des Moines, IA. working for Principal Financial Group
2. Trying to get pregnant!!!!
3. Missing my family and being very lonely
4. Driving the missionaries to Winterset, IA so they could save gas money
5. ending a hot, humid summer in Des Moines.


Tomorrow's to do list...
1. Finish sharing time for Sunday (my 1st...eek!)
2. clean the bathrooms
3. go to a couple of the Parade of Homes houses with Hollie
4. water my flower pots
5. probably another load of laundry


Places I have lived...
1. Sandy, UT
2. Ephraim, UT
3. SLC, UT
4. West Des Moines, IA
5. Midvale, UT
6. Riverton, UT


If I were a millionarie.....
1. I would pay off our house and student loans
2. Pay off all of our siblings mortgages
3. Put money in the bank
4. Take our whole family to Hawaii
5. Hopefully do a bunch of philanthropic stuff to help out other people
6. Travel... I would visit all my friends that live outside of Utah and I would go to all the fun places in the world that seem impossible to see because it's too expensive to get there.

Snacks I love
1. String Cheese
2. Jello Pudding Sugar Free Chocolate pudding...only 60 calories!!!
3. Pringles
4. almonds
5. Yoplait yougurt
6. frozen grapes


I tag: Shana, Kim G, Jacy, Holly, Kara, Sandee, and Elisa.....anyone that wants to.