Yay for Adoption!

Hey Faithful Blog Followers!

Can I ask you a favor? You know, besides reading this blog regularly :)

I want to introduce you to dear friends and just ask that you keep them in mind as you go about living your day to day life...

Meet Tyler and Hillary!

Don't they look sweet? Just in case you were wondering, they are as cool as they look!

They are hoping (& praying) to adopt. And I know their baby is out there somewhere.

 Hillary and I have been friends for over 10 years. Yes, thank you for asking! It is very scary that we are that old!

I have flashbulb memories of her talking about being a mom all the way back in our high school days. I know how much this means to her. She has such a sweet spirit and will cherish and honor her commitment as a mother. This baby will  be loved and taken care of in a way that I could never possibly describe here.

Words could never truly capture it .

So where do all of you fit in?

1. Just keep them in mind. You never know when you may run into a friend or family member who needs your love and support while considering adoption.

2. Peruse http://www.tylerandhillaryadoption.blogspot.com/ You can learn more about Tyler and Hillary and how extremely fun they are!

3. Open Facebook and search for Tyler and Hillary are hoping to adopt.

And then this is the important part. 

Hit "Like"

Even if you don't know them. Even if you know that as much as you would like to, you would never be able to help.

Because you never really know where life is going to take you :) 

Lisa's Place

Call me crazy! But I went to Lisa's Place with:

Isabelle

Braxton

Natasha

AND

Jhanna

completely unassisted. Let me tell you, it an endeavor. When I got the idea to take the girls, Braxton wasn't actually home. So I was going to take three mobile children and my baby. Of course when B-Ray did show up, I couldn't exactly tell him that everyone was going to Lisa's but he wasn't invited. So I cut Cody a SWEET deal and passed off my lovely, sleepy 5 month old in exchange for his very active, hungry 7 year old. It seriously would have been a safety issue for me to take all five kids. A mental health safety issue for myself and a physical safety issue for the kids. It took me 17 minutes to get everyone from the entry way of the house to the vehicle. I'm not exaggerating, I timed it. By the time I got the three girls in car seats and Braxton buckled in, I was exhausted. But I pushed on because I thought it would be a good energy release for the kids. Through numerous nose wipes, potty breaks and emotional meltdowns, I persevered and we had a good time. There was only one empty threat of tying a child to the table on my part so I have to consider the evening a success. Paula’s final got done faster than expected so she ended up meeting us there. Which I have to be honest, I was dreading the load up thing again. There is only so many times a body can bend in the necessary fashion that bucking two children in the backseat of an SUV takes. Trust me when I say I’m getting old!

P.S. In case these photos look familiar, they were taken at Leo’s Place. My ever observant daughter insists on calling it Lisa’s Place because calling it Leo’s makes it sound like “only boys can play there” and she’s a girl. Fun times are heading my way, I can already feel it.

The Meaning Behind A Bad Day

So I had another bad day yesterday. I think these days come up every once in a while to keep me focused on how blessed I am 99% of the time. But yesterday was really a fun one, let me tell you. First of all, Cambri had her 4 month check up at 1:30. She has been acting kind of fussy, so I was hoping the doctor could tell me if her throat was sore or if she had an ear infection. I pull out of Grand Teton Mall for what should be a routine trip to Iona and back. My low gas light comes on. Yes, I know what a low gas light is supposed to indicate. I do understand the concept. But in my Lancer, the low gas light means nothing. You can drive for 100 more miles and  be fine. I assume that all vehicles are this way. I was wrong. I got to Iona and picked up Cam Cam and then I started to feel it die. I puttered down 1st street and then it just shut off. Naturally it was already 1:30 when this happened. So I call the doctors office and ask if they can move my appointment back 1/2 hour. Of course not as they "don't do wellness checks after 1:45". Give me a break people! This is a side story but this was the last straw between the Pediatric Center and myself. I'm finding a new doctor for my kids on Monday. Anyway, after I established that they could see her at 3:30 but "only for her illness" (as they reminded me at least three seperate times) and I was going to have to go back another day for the checkup, my happy demeanor started to slide. But now I needed to work on the gas situation. I called my mom but she was busy and they said she couldn't come to the phone. I was too chicken to call my dad or brother-in-law #1 so I went to brother-in-law #2. I called him four times right in a row and the writing on the wall would be that he would yell at me for waking him up, so I knew that was a lost cause. At this point, I start to panic because it was really cold and the baby was starting to be fussy. I was thinking about walking but it was freezing and I only had one baby blanket with me. So I start to cry. Not a proud moment but I think that the self pity started to seep in as I just wished that Chase worked in town. I know that if my husband had been in town, he would have come rescued me immediately. Obviously he doesn't, so I went through my cell phone contacts a second time. I kept thinking with all these numbers, there would have to be someone willing to take pity on me. And then it came to me.

PAULA!

I thought to myself, Paula would never turn me down. And I was right. I called and asked for a favor and the first words out of her mouth were "What do you need?" She is such a thoughtful, caring person and I'm so LUCKY to have her as my very best friend. She not only came to my aide but she brought gas with her so we didn't have to move Cambri in and out of the cars on the busy street. What a sweet, kind person. I love her so much! Now that I'm typing this, it has occurred to me that maybe that's why I ran out of gas after 10 miles. I needed to be reminded of what a great person I have the good fortune of knowing. Not that I forgot but maybe this is what we all need from time to time. Anyway, Paula graciously helped me out but that didn't solve my doctor problem. Month end is a crazy time at work and I need to go back to the office sometime to wrap some things up. But if I drove Cambri back to Iona, then went back to the mall, and then back to Iona for her 3:30 appointment, well I'm sure you are catching my drift. So I came up with a solution.

I BROUGHT CAMBRI TO WORK WITH ME!

She is such a good little baby. She just quietly sat under my desk and no one even noticed. Heck, I just might bring her with me everyday. Everyone at work thinks she is so cute and nobody seemed to mind. At one point, I was feeding the baby and my boss called me into her office to ask a question. As I was standing there with the baby in one hand and pointing with the other hand, I thought to myself, well this isn't the way I thought things would ever be but how blessed am I have to have such a great kid (!) and a fantastic working environment. So my bad day turned out ok after all. Yay for me!

Oh Poor Izzybelle

Unfortunately, my childs reputation is beginning to proceed her. Follow the link...

http://golicovafamily.blogspot.com/2009/10/izzybelle-did-it.html

Holly Anne

Introducing my new feel good moment!

This is the reason that I’m loving Facebook today. I love talking to old friends and seeing how accomplished they are in their new lives. I stole this picture off Holly’s Facebook page, though I have an original copy so maybe the word stealing is a little harsh, but I wanted to post it so she would know that I was thinking about her. I always loved this picture of her. When I saw her name come across my inbox with a friend request, I had another one of those moments where I just felt normal again. I can’t describe it but I just felt a little more complete. We had so much fun and though the words “Charlie’s Angels Tolietpapering Experience” probably won’t mean anything to anyone else, I know Holly will understand. And then there will be two people laughing at the story I’m reliving in my head…

Super Bowl=Super Fun!

Chase and I held our 3rd Annual Super Bowl Bash this weekend and both of us had a really great time. I hope everyone else did. These pictures are truly horrible and don't really capture any of the fun that we had, but unfortunately, I still have not charged my camera and had to use my phone again. And needless to say, these photos reflect the extremely low quality images that I get with this method. But I didn't really have time to take pictures while trying to host 38 people (kids included in this count). Things got really crazy because it was hard to breathe! In fact, Isabelle got bit and you could still see the marks this morning. You might be wondering why Izzy is wearing different clothes in each picture. This is because she changed her clothes no less than 4 times. One time, I looked into the hallway just as I saw a streak of flesh running from the bathroom. It was my butt-naked child. I heard Natasha tell Paula, "I think I just saw Izzy's butt!" Yes, she was completely nude and I still have no idea why. I think I need to spend more time working with Izzy to not become a stripper. The bigger kids played on the wii while the grown up kids screamed at the TV. Unfortunately, the rest of the females and myself were subjected to the "Enhancement" commercial multiple times. Remind me never to use Go Daddy! for any of my website needs. Paula turns 26 (!!) today, so I got her a cake and we all sang at halftime. It was the loudest, most horrible thing to listen to ever. But I hope she has a great day. Chase and I love our Superbowl party so much, mainly because it is worth every penny we spend to see our old (& new) friends.

Twilight

After a long wait, it's finally here. Actually the wait hasn't been so long for me as I just read all four books for the first time within the last couple of months. But I'm very excited. My mom is keeping Izzy tonight and I'm going out with Paula and Melissa sans kids! I don't know what I'm more excited for; a night off or the movie. Either way it will be nice. Izzy is the light of my life but being a "single" parent for weeks on end starts to get old (really quickly). In fact, last night I spent the night at my moms just to get some help. It was a horrible nights sleep (I have a cold & therefore am unable to sleep) but it was worth it. We don't have tickets until the 9 o'clock show tonight, so Izzy will have to spend the night at my moms house again. I could get used to this! My mom might have to drag me over to pick my kid on Saturday. This morning, Izzy told my mom that she wants to go to the mall tomorrow. It was cute but in the back of my head I was thinking that Izzy could keep my mom busy all day and she wouldn't notice if I didn't show up until Monday morning. Just kidding.

Megan!

I heard from my friend Megan today! That was super exciting. It sounds like she's having a wonderful time in Alaska being a teacher and molding the minds of the youth. Here is a small exert from her email.

"It is absolutely beautiful here but kind of lonely. There are only about 200 people who live in the village and around 67 students. I teach mostly the high school students and there are only 22 of them. They are mostly good but sometimes they talk too much. Just kidding. I am teaching a math class. It is kind of fun. I teach a journalism class, a middle school reading class, a middle school language arts class, two different high school language arts classes, an algebra class, and creative writing. You can only fly or boat into the village so I don't leave very often but that is okay. School keeps me pretty busy. There are not a lot of people my age and the ones that are my age have at least three or four kids."

Is it just me or is this insane? She teaches every subject! I had no idea people still lived like this! But I do know that if there was one person on this planet who could do it, it would be her. She may be small but she is powerful! I was so glad to hear from her today. I also heard from another old friend today, but that will have to wait for another blog. All I can say about this is that I'm glad that I have old friends!

I had to add some additional pictures after protest from Megan! In her words, I have to remember that she's a professional now not a college freshman...

Rylee Jewell Turns 8!

I have to enter two posts today because I missed all weekend. On Saturday morning (before I left for Eureka) I went to Rylee Jewell’s 8th birthday party. Our friend Ben put together a fun day for his kids and I was lucky enough to be invited. We met at the Aquatic Center but shortly after arriving someone defecated in the pool and it was shut down. Try explaining that to 4 disappointed girls, especially mine who really had no idea what was going on. All she wanted to do was get in the water and she made that fact known very loudly. But it worked out because we took the girls to the Museum of Idaho which has this great Egyptian display right now, complete with a real mummy! Unfortunately, when we discovered this mummy was actually a small kitten, it kind of killed it for the girls. They wouldn’t let me take pictures inside the display but I was able to sneak some inside of the Children’s Interactive Zone. They got to dress up like pioneers and they played together very nicely. I have to take this opportunity to say that I really admire what Ben’s doing. At this point, he is a single dad trying to be everything for two very adorable little girls and he plays a very important role in his step-daughter’s life as well. While this is not easy, he is doing an incredible job and I’m very thankful that he lets Chase and I play a small role in his life. I’m so excited to meet his wife when she returns and see how all of their lives play out.

My Old Friend Sue

So a few crazy things happened to me today. First and foremost, Suzi contacted me via Facebook. I almost fell out of my chair because it was one of those moments that you never expect and for a fleeting second I almost felt alive again. So many memories can back and all of a sudden I was having a very hard time breathing. I knew that I missed her but to see her name right in front of me was crazy. She sounded exactly the same and I just had to laugh, even though it doesn’t sound like she wants to be my friend again. This morning was also sucky because Izzy was a huge brat. I was running very late (as per) and she would not cooperate. She actually tried to crawl under my bed to avoid getting dressed. The whole time she was screaming, “No kids! Elmo, Elmo ELMO.” I was seriously getting upset with her because I HATE it when she acts this way. That gave the day a bad start. Then at lunch, my Cup of Noodle boiled over and as I was cleaning up the yellow film that formed everywhere, I began to wonder what it does to your stomach if it is that gross in the microwave. I can only pray that my day starts to get better or I just might stay in bed tomorrow!