happy monday.

Another wonderful weekend! I finally got to spend some time with mom Saturday morning. I miss our time together! But life happens and sadly it took our weekly Saturday shopping trips away. I'm thankful Dad is off weekends but I do miss the time with mom dearly. Afterwards, I met a friend for dinner. Jay had to work a Home and Garden show Saturday afternoon, so my day worked out well. I wanted to go camping this weekend, but that kind of didn't play out. [i really, really wanna go!] Sunday we celebrated my brother's 37th birthday in my home town and on our way back home, Jay and I stopped and fed some ducks at a marina between the rainstorms we had been having pretty much all day. We hung out there for a while; I really miss our lake house! I love being on the water.....

  sitting on the docks.

sweetness.

on the shore.

in love.

my nikon D-90 arrived yesterday. i am so, so happy.

photography is my passion. both taking and looking.  it just took so long to get my camera for two reasons, pricey being the first and never being able to justify spending that on myself, being the second. sweet Jay totally surprised me with an early anniversary gift to help get the camera. thank you, love. i have to admit i was a bit bummed last night when the few pics i took didn't turn out like perfection. this is silly, i know. there is so much to learn with this camera and i am excited to begin. i know what type of photographer i want to be. hopefully the weather will be perfect this weekend for a day trip to the mountains.

where did it go?

so as i sat and bragged last night about how happy i was with the arrival of spring, it's now apparant that i hadn't tuned into the forecast and discovered that today was going to be like a cold, winter day. blech! we went from sunny mid-60's to low-30's and overcast. dang you, east Tennessee weather!

the movie new moon arrived in stores friday night. i love the series, but not a diehard fan to know the DVD was coming out. well, friday night my dog had a boo-boo and so Jay had to make a last minute wal-mart run around 10:00p. he was amused when he returned home, telling of the line that was wrapped almost one and a half times around the store, waiting to get their hands on this movie. when he checked out, the cashier said some had been there since early, early that morning and had traveled from several cities over to score a copy. well, Saturday afternoon, we went to dinner and Target; and there at check out #5 was about 300 copies of new moon. no long line included.

although i find the wait silly, i have to admit i once did the same. and my story is kind of embarassing compared to waiting on a DVD. so i was fresh out of high school, maybe the summer after and my bf and i had somehow turned into wrestling fanatics. yes, major redneck. but at the time who could pass up watching beefy guys with long hair, wrestle? for a minute, it was love. well, we found out that [the then] WCW was coming to a college arena about an hour and a half away and we wanted ring side. tickets went on-sale on a Saturday. the bf had to work. so, i loaded my car and drove to the arena, set up my tent, had my cans of beenie-weenies and store brand coke [remember: college years] and hung out with the other crazed fans through the night, to be the first to score tickets. my efforts landed us 5th row ring-side seats.

haha. o, the memories.

hello, spring.

 

the first day of spring was yesterday.

hallelujah!

we had such a long, cold, blah winter. the worst winter in years, i think.

and never enough snow to play in only enough to make for horrible travel.

so, what a joy the sunshine has been for the soul!

things have been going wonderful and we have been so busy. 

we are anxiously still waiting to hear from the state to get new 

foster child placements. we took a class a week ago for our recertification. 

i think we have only one class left and other than updated paperwork, it 

should be a quick turnaround.

work, church, and family are all good on our end. i've finally found a balance

to it all. i'm looking forward to my second Pampered Chef show

this coming friday. my first one was yesterday and it

was perfect. 

now, the weekend is winding down and the the first storm of the season

has just arrived; o beautiful rain.

have a happy week.

catching up

we are on tract for 2nd fertility treatment in April. we are shooting to do four attempts back to back (April, May, June, July). hopefully the first will be a success, Lord willing. i begin my pretreatment regiment on Monday. my friend from Idaho is strongly recommending acupuncture, which is supposed to be good when undergoing fertility treatments. i think i am actually contemplating this.

speaking of children, i have a huge update on foster care. the Big Guy upstairs has really been blessing us. early, early december, same week i was "randomly" contacted for my job....i received a "returned call" from a high up with DCS regarding a message i had left her October '08. after talking to her and briefing her that we had gotten no where since the kids had left, she realized that information in the DCS computer had not been changed, thus preventing us from renewing our certification. within a few days, someone had called me back and was assigned to fix the issuse. i am now in weekly communication and we are only weeks away from becoming Foster Parents again. Praise the good Lord. and with this, we will be pursing adoption of one of our previous foster kids. please, please remember us in your prayers as we hopefully will begin this journey again.

we are looking forward to spring. i am chomping at the bit to get out and work in the yard and be in the sunshine. we defiantly have had a gloomy, cold and snowy winter, the worst in years and we are ready for some warm and sunny weather. we are looking forward to our vacations this year, especially our trip in October with a few friends from church. with Jay's job, he cannot take time off between March 20 and June 15. So, our first trip will be the first of July. we are still looking at the Outer Banks in NC and yes, we are still looking for a VW beetle. i found one local, a convertible, that i have fallen in love with but i can't ever catch the owners. hopefully i will soon as i am madly in love with it.

i became a Pampered Chef consultant recently. My first show is March 20. I am excited about this for several reasons. 1) We just redid our kitchen and so i am addicted buying all kinds of new gadgets. 2) i LOVE pampered chef  3) i love, love cooking 4) i love meeting new people and 5) all commissions will go toward the costs of our fertility treatments. plus, i will get lots of free and discounted products; this makes me happy!

i think this catches you up. we are doing so well, are so happy and have been so blessed. its amazing the abundance of blessings we have received over the past few months; to God we owe it all ♥