The Newest Member of Our Family

Introducing Sophie!

I've been checking the websites of the poodle rescue place where we got Lucy, the local Humane Society, and Petfinders.com for a long time now. It's not often you find any toy poodles available let alone puppies. A shelter less than an hour away listed 6 toy poodle puppies on Monday. Wednesday night we decided to go look at them. Yes, I knew if we looked, we'd be coming home with one which is why I brought a kennel with us. Anna asked twice if we could have all of them. Not in our small house although it was really hard to just pick one and leave the others behind. I told the others I was sorry, but we could only pick one and this little one was the first to come over to each of my girls.

I was going to name the puppy Daisy, but after getting her, I decided she looked more like a Sophie. The girls agreed. Sophie is going to be my dog since Lucy is Jessica's, and Jinny is Anna's.

She's been a good girl so far. She's a little scared and I would say she's "anxiously attached". She wants me to hold her just about all the time although tonight she was playing more with the girls. She also is under foot if I walk anywhere or take her outside. But we've only had her for a little over 24 hours now. I did let her sleep with me last night. I knew if I didn't she'd be crying most of the night and I wanted my sleep and that ended up working well although she likes to climb on my head and chew on my hair a little.

I debated many times throughout Wednesday and even on the way there as to whether I really wanted another dog and specifically a puppy. Now that I have her home, I'm glad I have her. She's been very easy to take care of so far. Maybe after having kids, it's easier. I did worry and come home during lunch. She was fine, but dumped over her food and water dish. I kept her in a kennel during the day for now anyway. I think she'll be a good dog. My first apricot one. Lucy is enjoying Sophie and Sophie likes wrestling with Lucy. Sophie isn't sure about Jinny though. What is that thing?

What' New in Our Household?

Or rather who's new? Tune in later tonight for pictures.

What Positive Quality Am I?

Which Positive Quality Are You? Your Result: Faith You are Faith. Faith is the belief in better things, in spite of the cynicism and doubt that swirls around us. Faith gives us strength; it inpsires us to move forward and follow our hearts. "Faith tells us what the senses do not."
Love
Courage
Charity
Friendship
Peace
Which Positive Quality Are You?

16 Months Down, and Happy Easter

Well, it is the transmission on my van. Hopefully it will be fixed within the next few days.

Saturday was 16 months since LID. Another month down. Yeah!

I hope everyone had a nice Easter Sunday. My girls definitely had fun and the Easter Bunny was good to them.

I Thought I'd Have a GOOD Evening!

Daily Horoscope Overview Tuesday, March 18, 2008
A significant improvement is on the way and should arrive today. It may involve compensation or emotional satisfaction, but you should know it when you see it. Enjoy the good feeling!
Daily Horoscope Extended Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Foreign cultures, food, music, dance and even politics will hold special interest for you right now. You are getting more eager to push beyond what you know of the world. You want unusual stimulation, and this is an important sign that you are about to go through a growth phase. Expose yourself to different cultures and immerse yourself in them as much as you can. The world is a big place and you know so little of it -- isn't it time for you to go out and start learning more?

So on my way home, my van started acting up. I barely made it home and had to have my daycare provider bring my kids home. I had the van towed to a service station to have it looked at today. It wasn't accelerating, so I took side streets home. To add insult to injury, when I went outside to walk the girls to the bus stop, I locked the door behind me with no keys in my pockets! A neighbor gave me a shovel (all I had outside was a Little Tykes hoe) and suggested running water to melt the snow and ice covering my fake rock with a spare key in it. I finally found the rock, ended up breaking it with the shovel as it was frozen in the ground. No word on the van yet. I'm so afraid it's the transmission or something reallly expensive. I can't afford to get a new van, but wonder how long I should continue to fix this one. It's a 1999 Pontiac Montana with about 120,000 miles on it. After reading that horoscope, I was actually really excited to get home. Maybe they meant that for someone else.

Time for Another Poem

A hundred years from now

it will not matter what my bank account was

the sort of house I lived in

or the kind of car I drove

but the world may be a little

different because I was important in the life of a child.

It's a dreary day - cloudy and snowing again and only 30 degrees.
I'm tired, feeling sorry for myself, and I want Spring to come!

My Friend, Leslie, Got Her Referral

They pick up Abby either March 27 or 28. Isn't she cute!

Okay, so she's not a human baby, but since she's coming from a golden retriever rescue, they had to do a homestudy and get references before being approved. And then they waited for their referral. Congratulations! Her girls are very excited to be getting a puppy. No word on how big brother, Buddy (a black lab mix), will like this, but it sounds like Abby is up for the challenge.

Poncho & Hat

This ended up smaller than I thought. I thought it would be larger as I made the one that was size 10-12. Maybe because I didn't put fringe on it. I'm still debating the fringe.

My Latest Knitting

I've been toying with the idea of reviving Kasper Kreations, the name I used when I did weekend craft shows trying to raise money to pay for Jessica's adoption. Back then I really just made money selling Beanie Babies and those Beanie NFL Bears. My crafts (Decorated T-Shirts, Sweatshirts, and Totebags) didn't sell as well as those Beanies! I wonder if I can make enough to pay for swimming lessons or maybe even dance camp this summer. On the other hand, who has the time! Anyway, I've been knitting hats and blankets/afghans. Right now, I've put the baby items aside to work on ponchos for my girls. Here are some photos. I'll put pictures of the ponchos once I finish them. The hat is being modeled by a doll I have that wears 9-12 month size clothes.

We Had So Much Fun!

Last night we joined another family and packed meals at their church for Feed My Starving Children. In a 2 hour shift, a group of about 120 people packed 67,000 meals!!!! The girls loved it so much that we're going to try to go back tomorrow morning for another 2 hour shift. Their goal was to pack 1,000,000 meals this week and I'm sure they'll make it. So much fun, so much energy in the group, and a nice way to show my kids that volunteering is a wonderful thing.

Spring Fever Swap

Here are the really cute gifts I got for a Spring Fever Swap in my WWFChina2006 group (Worth Waiting For China). It's families with 2006 login dates. I forgot to include the book with beautiful pictures of Arizona, but there's an adorable outfit, swimsuit & cover, beach ball, hat, 2 books, and baby stickers for my scrapbooking. Thank you, Alicia!!!!

Third Grade Concert

Jessica had her third grade concert last night. They sang various songs representing places/landmarks in America. It was very cute! Their final song was "We are the Future". Jessica warned me enough that it would make me cry, that I managed to force myself not to cry.

Baby Dream & Stork Landing

Today, the stork landed at our agency. It landed for 2006 LID's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woohoo!!!!! CCAA is finally working on 2006 - my year. It's been a long time coming.

I don't clearly remember the details, but I know I dreamed we went to China and were getting Amanda. It was soon, like this summer. And she was a baby baby, like only 7 months old. Wish I could remember more.