The dimples are too cute!
Blowing kisses!!!
Cheeeeesssssssee!
I hope his teeth stay this straight!
Have I mentioned that I am crazy about this little man????
Have I mentioned that I am crazy about this little man????
11 years ago
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
The One In-Between
Here are some pictures of Miss Kensley. She is in "diva" mode for the Spring Dance. She loves to dress up, wear make-up and shake her little butt!
Kensley went to the dance with her boyfriend, Clay. Actually, Clay wanted his dad to pick Kensley up but I told them we would just meet them at the school. I did let Clay's mom bring Kensley and a friend to our house afterwards.
KENSLEY & CLAY
KENSLEY & CLAY TAKING IT ALL IN
COURTNEY & KENSLEY
KENSLEY & CLAY
KENSLEY W/ FRIEND, JACKSON
Kensley went to the dance with her boyfriend, Clay. Actually, Clay wanted his dad to pick Kensley up but I told them we would just meet them at the school. I did let Clay's mom bring Kensley and a friend to our house afterwards.
KENSLEY & CLAY
KENSLEY & CLAY TAKING IT ALL IN
COURTNEY & KENSLEY
KENSLEY & CLAYKENSLEY W/ FRIEND, JACKSON
Sunday, March 29, 2009
The Toddler & The Teen
I Love You, Emily! Can I have a bite - Peeeaaaaseee?
The Breakfast of Champions! Chocolate Frosting...
I know it's not all gone...
"I really do love you, Nemma"
"I love you too, Eddy"
The Breakfast of Champions! Chocolate Frosting...
I know it's not all gone...
"I really do love you, Nemma"
"I love you too, Eddy"
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Meet MARIA a/k/a Granny Bling!
Recently, our office moved from a very large suite with lots of room we no longer needed to a much smaller suite next door. When I say "much smaller" that is exactly what I mean. Before the move, we each had our own office and 5 empty offices not being used!
Now, I am sharing a much smaller space with my very good friend and confidante, Maria. I am truly blessed to have Maria as a friend. She is worldly, a Christian, honest, truthful and loads of fun! She hails from Puerto Rico and is tri-lingual - with Spanish as her first language, English as her second and Italian as her third. She has traveled the world as an Army wife with her husband and two children. Her husband is now retired and her two children are grown. She has a beautiful granddaughter and a grandson on the way.
I tell her all the time she is very eccentric and I love it! Please take note of the "hammer" in her hand above. She wears pointy toe very high-heeled shoes each day (I forget how many pairs of shoes she says she owns). Normally, she has a purse to match and quite often you will find her wearing some type of animal print. Her taste in clothing, shoes and handbags is impeccable. She has earned the nickname "Granny Bling" at our office because she is truly the most hip grandmother you will ever find!
Of course, when she showed up to work the day after we moved in with decorations for our office - I couldn't say "no". There is an inner part of me that would love to be more like Maria instead of the traditional, ultra-conservative person that I am. With that in mind, I allowed Maria to take the lead in decorating our office.
Enjoy the ambiance of our office...
Meet MIKE
This is Mike. He was a big help to Maria while she was decorating our office. He was even forced to use Granny Bling's hammer at one time!
When Mike is not busy interior decorating, he is our travel coordinator. He is responsible for getting all of our adoptive families to The People's Republic of China so that they can be united with their precious children!
Now, you've got it going the right way Mike!
Good job, Man!
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Love is...
Love is when you shed a tear and still want him,
it's when he ignores you and your still love him,
it's when he loves another girl, but still smile
and say I'm happy for you, when all you really do is cry.
~Author Unknown
it's when he ignores you and your still love him,
it's when he loves another girl, but still smile
and say I'm happy for you, when all you really do is cry.
~Author Unknown
Sunday, March 15, 2009
A typical weekend with a few extras thrown in...
This was my weekend with the kiddos. It began Friday evening when I met their dad at the barn to make the switcheroo. It should have been a clue when he told me the sitter said Edison had a really bad day. He went to the "corner" several times during the day for hitting and pushing. She said she finally just let the other kids start hitting and pushing him back because she didn't want him to stay in the corner all day. We drove straight to Danville to try to find Emily something to wear to a wedding on Saturday. There are not a lot of options in Danville, especially since Goody's has filed bankruptcy and is no longer there. I also have a very picky 15 years old who thinks she can only wear clothes from certain places and Wal-Mart or K-Mart is not on the list...
We started at Peebles - Emily found nothing but Kensley was begging me to try on 3 different dresses that she found. They were all really cute but I bought for Kensley a few weeks ago so it was not her "turn". We walked down the strip mall to Shoe Sensation. Emily had black dress pants and knew she wanted to find something to wear with them. She picked out some really cute black ballerina flats. Again, Kensley was showing me all kinds of shoes that she wanted, but I had to say "no". Edison also found a pair of light up Skechers. They were really cute. The tongue had a red, white and blue "light bar" that lit up when you walked and the front of the shoes had two "headlights" making it look like a police car. Again, as cute as they were, I had to say "no", besides, Paul had just bought him a new pair of tennis shoes last week. I do think I am going to keep my eye on them to go on clearance and buy a size or two larger. He can grow into them.
Edison threw an absolute tantrum while we were in Shoe Sensation! He screamed at the very top of his lungs, laid down in the floor, kicked his feet, rolled on his belly, kicked some more, had noodle legs when I tried to stand him up and then tried to bite me. The report from the sitter should have been a clue, but I was clueless!
Next, we decided to stop in at CiCi's to grab some pizza. None of us really like CiCi's but it is quick and fairly inexpensive and Edison eats for free! I was expecting Edison to have a melt down, but he did pretty good. He ate 2 whole slices of pepperoni pizza, including the crust! He also ate a few bites of cheesy bread and like Kensley and I, he loves the cinnamon rolls. Emily taught him to sprinkle parmesan cheese on his plate and eat it with his finger - that kept him busy but I'm afraid it is something new he will not forget!
We left CiCi's and continued walking around to JCPenney's. I thought for sure Emily could find something there - but she didn't. Her idea of looking is walking around the outside aisle and expecting it to jump out at her! I kept picking out things and saying, "what about this?" "how about this?". She would just look at me like I had green antennae coming out of my head and say, "no" in that way only a teen can say "no" to their parent. We walked back to the car and I asked Emily what she planned to wear to the wedding. She didn't know.
Next, we drove to Cato's. By this time, Edison was sitting in the car, screaming, so I told her just to walk in and see if she saw anything she liked and if she did, to come and get me and I would pay for it. Off she and Kensley went. I watched them walk around the outside aisle, never stopping to look at anything specific and walk right back out the door. "Nope" she didn't see a thing. I asked, "Emily, do you have something specific in mind?" "Yes," she replied. "I just want a solid color t-shirt." "A t-shirt? to a wedding?" Then I had to hear all about how she hated to dress up and she wasn't wearing any old lady clothes. I said, "Fine, we can probably find a t-shirt at K-Mart." No luck. We left Danville with nothing to wear to the wedding. And this was just a Friday evening after work...
Saturday - we ended up not going to the wedding. I decided that I wasn't really in the mood to get dressed up on a rainy day to watch two people make promises of love to one another. Yes, I'm being cynical but I'm not there yet. Saturday night we went to the High School for the end of year banquet for Upward Basketball. The speaker was awesome but Edison absolutely wore me OUT! I spent the entire night chasing him until I finally sent someone to find his dad and asked him to watch him for a little bit.
Sunday - we had tickets to the 1:00 show of Disney on Ice: 100 Years of Magic. I intended all along to take Edison but the girls were fed up with his screaming fits and decided they thought they would have more fun if he didn't go. I felt guilty about it; however, once I got there and saw the other little ones who were his age starting to scream and cry halfway through - I knew we made the right decision.
It's hard to find activities to please a 15 year old, an 11 year old and an almost 2 year old. When Edison gets to an age where we can take him to enjoy certain activities, Emily will be driving and will not want to go do ANYTHING with the rest of us. I'm trying to make the most of the little time we get to spend together.
The girls are now with their dad for the week and Edison is in bed for the night (he didn't have a nap today). I think I will be turning in early myself.
We started at Peebles - Emily found nothing but Kensley was begging me to try on 3 different dresses that she found. They were all really cute but I bought for Kensley a few weeks ago so it was not her "turn". We walked down the strip mall to Shoe Sensation. Emily had black dress pants and knew she wanted to find something to wear with them. She picked out some really cute black ballerina flats. Again, Kensley was showing me all kinds of shoes that she wanted, but I had to say "no". Edison also found a pair of light up Skechers. They were really cute. The tongue had a red, white and blue "light bar" that lit up when you walked and the front of the shoes had two "headlights" making it look like a police car. Again, as cute as they were, I had to say "no", besides, Paul had just bought him a new pair of tennis shoes last week. I do think I am going to keep my eye on them to go on clearance and buy a size or two larger. He can grow into them.
Edison threw an absolute tantrum while we were in Shoe Sensation! He screamed at the very top of his lungs, laid down in the floor, kicked his feet, rolled on his belly, kicked some more, had noodle legs when I tried to stand him up and then tried to bite me. The report from the sitter should have been a clue, but I was clueless!
Next, we decided to stop in at CiCi's to grab some pizza. None of us really like CiCi's but it is quick and fairly inexpensive and Edison eats for free! I was expecting Edison to have a melt down, but he did pretty good. He ate 2 whole slices of pepperoni pizza, including the crust! He also ate a few bites of cheesy bread and like Kensley and I, he loves the cinnamon rolls. Emily taught him to sprinkle parmesan cheese on his plate and eat it with his finger - that kept him busy but I'm afraid it is something new he will not forget!
We left CiCi's and continued walking around to JCPenney's. I thought for sure Emily could find something there - but she didn't. Her idea of looking is walking around the outside aisle and expecting it to jump out at her! I kept picking out things and saying, "what about this?" "how about this?". She would just look at me like I had green antennae coming out of my head and say, "no" in that way only a teen can say "no" to their parent. We walked back to the car and I asked Emily what she planned to wear to the wedding. She didn't know.
Next, we drove to Cato's. By this time, Edison was sitting in the car, screaming, so I told her just to walk in and see if she saw anything she liked and if she did, to come and get me and I would pay for it. Off she and Kensley went. I watched them walk around the outside aisle, never stopping to look at anything specific and walk right back out the door. "Nope" she didn't see a thing. I asked, "Emily, do you have something specific in mind?" "Yes," she replied. "I just want a solid color t-shirt." "A t-shirt? to a wedding?" Then I had to hear all about how she hated to dress up and she wasn't wearing any old lady clothes. I said, "Fine, we can probably find a t-shirt at K-Mart." No luck. We left Danville with nothing to wear to the wedding. And this was just a Friday evening after work...
Saturday - we ended up not going to the wedding. I decided that I wasn't really in the mood to get dressed up on a rainy day to watch two people make promises of love to one another. Yes, I'm being cynical but I'm not there yet. Saturday night we went to the High School for the end of year banquet for Upward Basketball. The speaker was awesome but Edison absolutely wore me OUT! I spent the entire night chasing him until I finally sent someone to find his dad and asked him to watch him for a little bit.
Sunday - we had tickets to the 1:00 show of Disney on Ice: 100 Years of Magic. I intended all along to take Edison but the girls were fed up with his screaming fits and decided they thought they would have more fun if he didn't go. I felt guilty about it; however, once I got there and saw the other little ones who were his age starting to scream and cry halfway through - I knew we made the right decision.
It's hard to find activities to please a 15 year old, an 11 year old and an almost 2 year old. When Edison gets to an age where we can take him to enjoy certain activities, Emily will be driving and will not want to go do ANYTHING with the rest of us. I'm trying to make the most of the little time we get to spend together.
The girls are now with their dad for the week and Edison is in bed for the night (he didn't have a nap today). I think I will be turning in early myself.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
My Story . . .
After almost 20 years of marriage, I received the shock of my life when my DH told me he wanted a divorce! I'm not going into details other than to say I was completely dis-illusioned by our dissolution!
As hard as it is, I am moving forward! I have a wonderful support system mainly consisting of the following:
As hard as it is, I am moving forward! I have a wonderful support system mainly consisting of the following:
- my faith in God and his Son, Jesus Christ
- my wonderful parents who have been as heartbroken as I (especially my mother who has held me, hugged me, cried with me and let me vent using unbecoming language)
- my sister who has "been there/done that" and understands all that I feel
- my niece who always listens to my drama and makes me get out of the house
- my grandmother who has been my biggest cheerleader
- my aunts (Joyce, Donna and Angela) who have given me words of wisdom
- my great friends (Vickie - I wish mine had the same outcome as yours) (Shannon - my soul sister-LOL) (Melissa - my friend for life) (Tawnya - my PI) (Stephanie, Julie & Jennifer - the girls who paved the road before me)
- my co-workers who honestly care about ME
- my FaceBook friends who have offered so much encouragement
- my church family at Forks of Dix River Baptist who have prayed, called, prayed, visited, prayed, sent cards, and prayed some more...(please keep praying!)
- my fellow adoptive families who have been so supportive
and most of all, the three most precious people to me in this world - the three for whom this blog is named ...
- my toddler, Edison
- my teen, Emily, and
- my one in-between, Kensley
They have experienced the best and worst of me over the past few months and it is for myself and for the three of them that I have made the choice to move forward!
I have received so many words of encouragement, wisdom and support from so many people. Devotionals, songs and bible verses have been such a part of my healing. I have had people across the United States, and in China and Guatemala praying for me and my family.
Through this blog, I want to accomplish so many things. First, I want to share some of what I have learned through this "storm" in my life (in a positive way), I want to share my life as an unmarried female and as a single mom, I want to show off my children and discuss parenting issues, I want to be funny and compassionate AND I want YOU to follow along - to give me support and encouragement, continued prayers, ideas, suggestions - anything - as long as it is positive!
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