New blog design!!!!!!!!!

Well?  Are you LOVING it???????  I sure am!!!!  Erin from Designer Blogs beautified my blog, and it's PERFECT!!!  She patiently put up with my indecisiveness without complaint.  ;-)  Thank you Erin!!!

Oh Dr Oz.... why have you forsaken me?

Simply put, Dr Oz is THE MAN. He most certainly knows anything there is to know about anything in the whole wide word. He truly does. That is why when he suggested the Neti Pot for use to help clear sinus congestion (which has been driving me NUTS) then I thought this Neti Pot thing must certainly be like the Holy Grail.

I promptly ran to the drug store in a mad search for the magical Neti Pot.  I bought it for a mere $14.99 and was giddy with excitement to use it before bed.  I knew Dr Oz would not recommend something if it wasn't going to work on me.  After all, he does know everything!  Just take a look at how easy and pleasant this procedure is...



Perfect, eh?

The only problem is that Dr Oz has forsaken me!  It was NOT pleasant!  That icky salt water was going everywhere.  GROSS!!!!  It was going down my throat.  MY. THROAT.  It was HORRIBLE!

My love affair with Dr Oz has now officially ended.  Done.

Here comes the tooth fairy!

Sophie finally lost her top tooth today after weeks of wiggling, and it's too stinkin' cute! I LOVE LOVE LOVE little kids with no front teeth. ;-)

I kept telling her to smile bigger so I could get a good pic of the gap.  Finally, this is what she ended up doing.....

I guess I got a good picture of the gap.  :-)

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner---AGAIN!!!!

So I know I always say that I never win anything, but within the last month I have won more stuff than I have in my entire life!!!!!!!!!  And I'm excited!!!!!!!  A few weeks ago I won a super cute blog layout from Danielle at The Design Girl.

Here is the banner----   you can go to my school blog to get the full effect.  It has calculators, protractors, rulers, and all sorts of cutesy stuff--- PERFECT for a Math teacher!

I have to tell you that I have the BEST teacher blog around.  Even the coaches that I teach with were giving each other high fives because they were excited for me......  okay, so they were totally making fun of me but who cares, eh?  ;-)

Don't forget that I also won a digital scrap kit from The Design Girl as well ----so that was lucky day number two for me.

Today was lucky number three for me!  I won something else!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Today my winning came from My Giveaway Today.  Have I mentioned that I enter every contest known to man?  I won two, YES TWO, digital scrapping kits from Ginger Snaps.

Here's the proof:

My winning post would be that teeny weeny one with all of the type.  Far be it from me to just put my name and the kits I liked best.  I also had to add that I liked the Toothy Grin kit because Sophie's front tooth was about to fall out..... blah blah blah.  But whatever.... it worked!

You can all now give each other high fives in my honor.  ;-)

Let's Go to a Parade!

Is there anything better than a small town parade??? Yesterday was the Weir Homecoming parade, and we had a great time!

 

 Aunt Cyndee drove one of the queen candidates in Grammy's Bug car.  She's now famous.  ;-)

The bag is ready---- c'mon candy throwers!

And the girls even got their faces painted.  Sophie chose a heart, and Gracie chose a Hello Kitty.  Somehow, though, the Hello Kitty ended up looking like one of Satan's minions.  

See what I mean?  Creepy!

Sleeping battles!

Well??  Whadda you think?

I can no longer stand little Thai toes poking into my back each night, and I can't stand a little Navajo kid snoring so loudly in my room that I need ear plugs.  Yes, my girls MUST sleep in their own bedrooms!

I have pleaded, begged, cajoled, threatened, and bribed (yes bribed) the girls for MONTHS to no avail. I'm not sure that Fred even realizes that "Mama's room" is still partially his.  ;-)   But finally, FINALLY,  I think I have found the magic ticket.  Canopies.  Yes, my friends, this WILL work!!!!!!

The girls LOVE the canopies I bought for their rooms, so I'm hopeful that this sleeping arrangement will last a long LONG time.

A good cup o' Joe

Oh how I love me a good cup o' Joe. Well, maybe not so much, but I'm going to force myself to like it now that I've bought a handy dandy Bosch Tassimo one cup coffee machine.

I truly don't know what I was thinking, but I MUST use it and act like I'm thoroughly enjoying my coffee otherwise I think Fred just might kill me.  I should have known better than to tell him the truth when he asked how much it cost..... And I HAD to buy several different packages of those cute T Discs because I didn't know which kinds of coffee/cappuccino/latte I might like best.  It's a good thing Fred didn't ask me to include those in the price.  ;-)

Seriously, what was I thinking? 

Remember 9/11

Looking back

 I rarely write long posts because, well, because I'm just not that deep.

And even though we became a family through adoption, I rarely post about it on my blog because, well, because it's mostly irrelevant to me. 

That's not to say, however, that I don't often think about both of my girls' beginnings in the world and how they greatly differ.

You see, Grace became my daughter at birth.  I was in the delivery room with her, cut the umbilical cord, and spent every waking moment with her since the moment she was born.  Grace was surrounded by love---- by two parents, by grandparents, by aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, and even dogs.

Gracie as a newborn being hugged & kissed by Cyndee & Grammy.

Sophie became my daughter at birth too, but she took a little longer to find.  I knew that my baby was in Thailand--- we just had to get to her.  She was 13 months old when Fred & I were finally approved to travel to Thailand.  So did she spend every waking hour being hugged, kissed, and coddled?  No.  She had pneumonia, chicken pox, and "orphanage crud" without having her Mama there to wipe her tears.  The caretakers at Phayathai Babies Home did their best, but their best certainly doesn't compare to a Mama's love.  Oh how I wish I could have been with her every moment like I was with Grace!!

Sophie's bed

The little girl in this photo haunts me to this day. 

Even though I often get a little melancholy about Sophie's beginnings, I'm so very thankful that I have my babies who are well-adjusted, smart, beautiful, talented, kind young ladies.

I love my girls!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

 

Let me just say that I NEVER win anything.  Ever.  That is, until today.  Take a peek at the above picture?  Yes, that's MY name listed as the winner. Yes, my friends, I WON SOMETHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I faithfully enter all of the giveaways on the blogs I follow, and I get so excited about digital scrapbook giveaways.  But this time I'm especially excited because the giveaway is coming to MY computer!!  Yippie!!!  The Design Girl designs awesome blog layouts and also digital scrapbooking kits that she sells at ScrapMatters.  I won her new back to school collection!  I'm so excited!!!!!

My latest scrapbook pages...

Here are my latest scrapbook pages.  A few of the layout are quite similar since some of the pages are for Sophie and the others are for Grace.