Should have put this on the last one

New Gla!!

Igor got new glasses - or as he says "New Gla"

Sonny Boy looks like he knows what to expect from a Ukrainian driver!

Prayers and Thoughts Needed Please

If your just stumbling around here and are not in the know of the adoption world this will be news, if your on message boards and such it's dated news, however bad news looms on the horizon of Ukrainian Adoption.

On June 2, the Ukrainian RADA (parliment) is going to vote on a bill to outlaw all international adoption. There is speculation that they are trying to move to foster care system, however many children - older and special needs - will still end up in instutions and orphanages for life as it is not Ukrainian culture to adopt within these two groups - where many of the foreigners do.
While I totally understand the need and want to keep their children in Ukraine there are many factors that will adversely effect children that are in the system now and will halt adoptions that are in progress right now depriving many children of the only chance they will ever have at being adopted.

Needless to say your prayers are needed and if there's the off chance you have political connections in Ukraine call in your favors.

It's in the details

Is that a bug on the petal of the flower in the header picture? I can't tell and it drives me nuts every time I pull up the blog. Also if your a wildflower enthusiast can you tell me what it is? It was in bloom in the upper peninsula of Michigan in August or so.

The fund raiser went well this weekend but our the weather could have been a little warmer, much easier to sell beer when the temp is at least a little warm, however it wasn't completely crummy. I'm wiped out from the weekend and it was bittersweet working what will most likely be my last event with the friends we've made here.

Igor got new glasses, I'll post a pic as soon I can remember to take one of him. He is quite proud of the new glasses and is being gentle on them so far. We decided against the expensive lenses and went with the ones our insurance covered. They are THICK however the new frames make the glasses look way better.

We were trying to plan a camping trip this week before hubby heads off for his new job, but I don't know if the weather is going to cooperate and tent camping in the rain is not on my to do list.

Activity on the house has picked up and we see people scoping it quite a bit. The very first guy who looked at the house has sent several contractors to get estimates on siding, roof, paint etc he's still wishy washy on it. He's like having a fish that keeps nibbling on your hook but never actually takes the bait. Strangely few people have said that the house just doesn't work for them or that they hate it. I guess it's just a matter of getting the right person through the door now.

I guess that's all the details

Updates and pictures

Sonny Boy and his 2000 Rainmaker built with his plans with a little help from Dad.

Sharing a Sponge Bob ice cream bought from the ice cream truck!


Dad bought these cool Packer Hats at a silent auction at church. Igor wears his ALL the time.

Smiling Igor - it's hard to get a picture of him smiling for some reason!

Well things are settling some here. The stunned feeling of unemployment has passed and we are just waiting for his new job to start. Still it's stressful not really knowing what's going on in the next few months but we are settling into a new normal.

Igor is doing very well. It's hard to believe he is the same quiet scared kid we brought home a little over a year ago. He's starting to talk a bit - some we can understand and a lot of it we can't but he's happy babbling to himself in the carseat when we are driving around so between his "chatter" and Sonny Boy's we can never actually hear the weather or news on the radio. Currently I'm working with the school district to get his IEP lined up for fall. Lots of meetings and evaluations but the school district is moving it along. They have no issues that he might not actually be in this school district come fall and tell me I'll have a much smoother time going into a new school district with an IEP in hand. Doing all this special ed stuff is flashbacks to college. I minored in special ed, not really thinking it would be something I would put into use. I now wished I would have gotten that double major (not only for economic reasons) but to be a little more informed on what to adovocate for with Igor. It has made me a little less intimidated with the process however. On other fronts he's just a typical two year old, fights with his brother, LOVES outside, thinks Elmo is the bomb and is all over the place all the time. We really need to start pottie training but quite frankly we are lazy and don't want to start knowing that big upheavals are just around the corner. I'm hoping the pottie training fairy will come down and suddenly give him that knowledge. Honestly he's ready, we aren't. Igor's weight gain has hit a standstill but he is still growing height wise. The eating issues are somewhat better but I would still be happier if he ate more. Igor at 2 1/2 is still wearing an 18 month pair of pants that barely stay up.

Currently we are in process to get Igor new glasses. The white ones in the picture above are the picture on indestructable and also the picture of dorky. Hubby calls them Elton John's. We went to the eyeglass place to get new ones the other day and after a couple days of phone calls and monkeying around with his eye doctor we get the determination that we can get him more normal glasses with 1/4 inch thick lenses for $10 using our insurance, or buy super slim lenses which is what he really needs, however insurance will not pay for those lenses and I'll be out $267! Ugh, more than my own glasses cost. We haven't decided what to do, I know Igor doesn't really care but he's starting to understand more and having glasses this young usually causes enough remarks without adding the fact that they are dorky or coke bottle thick. I really hope that by the time he's old enough there will be Lasik that can either correct his vision or get him into a pair of glasses that don't resemble Mr. Magoo.

Sonny Boy will "graduate" from pre-K tomorrow night. He's ready to be done with school and quite frankly has been pretty bored with it for a few months now. Doing ABC's and counting must get pretty old when you can read on what I'm guessing is a late 1st grade early 2nd grade level. Over all I'm glad we held him out of kindergarten this fall, but I wish we could have sent him about Christmas. Even with his advanced reading skills I don't see him skipping ahead, his writing is typical for his age and social skills are lagging a bit. I think some of that stems from the ADHD. Sonny Boy has really enjoyed having his dad around and they stay up late playing the Wii most nights. Hubby plays and Sonny Boy tells him what to do because he read the book and knows his way around the game. Quite funny actually, I've never seen tag team video games.

This weekend we will be involved with our civic group's big fundraiser. I'm somewhat looking forward to it, but I have burn out of being at the park for three solid days, smelling like a charcoal grill and listening to very loud motor boats run in circles. The little boats rip and are loud - I would still hear them even if I wasn't down there, you can hear them ALL over town. This weekend is also a big fest in town that draws tons of people from around the area and quite frankly moving through this little town becomes near impossible. They even put drift fence between the sidewalks and busy streets to keep kids and drunks from darting into traffic. Normally I look forward to it, but this year I'd just like to leave town.

I guess that's about it! Love getting your comments, though I have to admit I don't leave them much on the blogs I frequent, what comes around goes around.

Totally embarrassing, but funny

OK, the following is totally embarrassing but quite frankly a hoot and I figure you'll get a pretty good giggle at my expense but hey it will make you smile today.

The other day Hubby dragged my bicycle out of his Grandma's basement, it had been there a couple of years as it had broken down on a trail ride with my mother-in-law a while back, we stuffed it in her basement and never retrieved it. Sonny Boy was getting too big for the baby seat on the back and my cranky knee wasn't liking life too well anyway so we didn't think much about it. However thinking about the upcoming summer with two boys to entertain I talked him into dragging it out and fixing it for me since Igor can fit on the seat and Sonny Boy can now ride his own bike.

Now here's the disclaimer, I grew up on a gravel road that was pretty rough - no mountain bikes back then- so once I grew out of the 16 inch banana seat pink job I had as a kid I never had another bike, didn't really want one, it's hard to ride a bike on a gravel road and there wasn't really anywhere to go anyhow so I'm not the most experienced bicycle rider. I'm not certain how to shift gears and the like. I would also like to make note I have short legs and a bike that is a bit too tall for me.

Now for the funny part: Hubby dragged the bike out and fixed it for me the other day. I jumped on and went around the block quickly to get used to it, then we strapped Igor on the back and Sonny Boy hopped on his bike for a quick ride around the neighborhood. Just around the corner I stopped at stop sign and hopped off the seat so I could be stable with Igor the wiggle worm on the back and turn around to make sure Sonny Boy wasn't about to dart through the sign. Well I hopped down a little too far forward and managed to hit my nether regions on the cross bar. It hurt so bad I was instantly nauseated and even Sonny Boy was concerned I was going to puke right there in the middle of the street, though he didn't quite know why as Mom felt quite fine 20 seconds before. Somehow I managed to not pass out and get back home, luckily we were still really close to home. I told Hubby what happened and he jokingly said " You want me to look at it for you" I turned down his offer but soon took him up on it as I realized I was bleeding. It appears that somehow I managed to remove some skin in a very sensitive area! I took some Advil and iced the area (you can imagine how fun that was) and then donned some sweatpants which I have now been wearing for four days now - no not the same pair. I tried jeans this am but that just wasn't going to work. I tell you four days in sweats makes you really feel like a slob, not that I dress to the nines daily, but I generally at least put on jeans. No real damage was done, however the number of nerve endings in the area makes things somewhat sensitive to say the least. The moral of the story is - when riding a bicycle make sure you don't hop forward and down when coming off the seat.

Bad News and Good News

Today Hubby's new place of employment called to delay his start date by two weeks. It appears that they have run out of work at the moment which is worrisome as two weeks ago they had plenty, several planes had cancelled scheduled work but things are supposed to pick up at the first of the month so he will start then. Bad News and worrisome.

Good News, a better job that he had applied to but really never expected to hear from called today to schedule a phone interview for Monday. He's excited because he didn't think he would even make the first cut due to high competion in the field right now. Keep your finger crossed as this would be a much better job - funny part is it's in the St. Louis area too.

Yesterday a friend with connections at Warbird Heritage Foundation took Sonny Boy up in a "Bird dog". He had a good time, however it was a little bumpy ride as it was fairly windy. One of the downsides of moving from the area as the staff there loved Sonny Boy's airplane enthusiasim and would have loved to teach him to fly. If you roam on their site Sonny Boy can name all their planes and thinks the guys there are the coolest ever! Hubby also liked it there as he moonlighted there on occasion and got to work on different planes than his standard fare.

I suppose that's all the news for now.

Busy Mother's Day Weekend

The last few days have been pretty memorable.

Wed was a super busy day that actually got slower when we got in the van and drove for 9 hours. The day started with Hubby getting up bright and early and driving into the city for his drug test for the new job, he had to be there at 8:00 am factor a 45 min drive and rush hour into that so he left as I was crawling out of bed. I stumbled out of bed, dressed myself and the kids, took Sonny Boy to preschool which was a zoo, due to a field trip ( to a petting zoo no less) and Igor to speech and group therapy. After Igor was through with therapy I stopped by Wally-World and picked up a couple of items and got home. Hubby was home by now and was busy cleaning as we had a showing on the house scheduled for that evening. I did a couple of quick chores, picked up Sonny Boy from school and came home and started packing and cleaning upstairs while Hubby fed the kids and cleaned and packed downstairs. While all this chaos was going on our realtor called and scheduled another showing for Friday which was good news as the house would be empty and clean anyway. Two hours later we managed to load up all the stuff we were taking north, a boat to put in storage at my Father-in-law's house, some ice fishing gear (won't be needing that in St. Louis) a cooler of snacks, a bag of snacks, the laptop to watch movies on in the van, coloring books, magazines and two suitcases of clothes. What we didn't pack was Hubby some underwear, or jackets for the boys or Hubby! Anyhow 9 hours later we arrived at Great-Grandma's house and fell into bed. The next am I went to K-mart and purchased Hubby some undies and to the Salvation Army to find a couple of jackets for the kids to make-do in for the week end. You would know my Sister-in-law was out of town and we couldn't just borrow from her, however I only spent $5 on both jackets anyway.

Thursday Igor spent the afternoon with his Grandma while Hubby, SonnyBoy and I went riding four wheelers with Grandpa. Hubby and I were on one machine while Sonny Boy and Grandpa were on the other. Grandpa's claim to fame with four wheeler riding is to run over sapling trees so all the grandkids think Grandpa is the greatest to four wheeler ride with even though his nickname is "Crash". Unfortunately Grandpa lived up to his moniker on this trip. Grandpa was easing through the top of a fallen down tree - really just barely moving when a branch snagged the throttle cable on the four wheeler and revved up the machine to full blast. The next thing we knew the four wheeler was up straight up and down, Sonny Boy and Grandpa are on the ground and the four wheeler is racing through the woods un-manned until it tilted on it's side and came to rest against a tree with the wheels spinning. Hubby and I could only gasp and run to pick the two of them up off the ground. Sonny Boy gained a pretty good case of road rash on his back, we think from the spinning tire and Grandpa had a small cut on his hand. The four wheeler had no damage and was easily righted with the winch on the machine that Hubby and I were riding. Sonny Boy was badly shaken and wouldn't ride back with Grandpa but faced his fears the next day and went riding with him, though he refused to ride on the wild four wheeler. Luckily no one was truly hurt but it was a scary moment. Funny how relieving it is to see your child stand up and cry after something like that.

After the wild adventure on the four wheeler the rest of weekend was pretty tame. Hubby went fishing with his cousin and caught some of the elusive walleye - honestly I was beginning to think he had made up those fish, he never brings them home. Sister-in-law returned from her Disney trip and the boys played with their cousins but only for one evening much to their chagrin. Sunday we packed up and drove home.

Traffic through the house has picked up on the house the last few days and we are hopeful of an offer soon. We had three showings on the house over the weekend, one person came and looked twice, one was his fourth trip and he brought a contractor for the roof (we think he's trying to find something wrong to give us a low-ball offer) and another was a one time walk through. We also had a showing this evening from an entirely new set of people. Hopefully one these will be the ones. We have being doing yard work non-stop the last week as suddenly everything has greened up and bloomed, I think that is helping the house have some more curb appeal than empty flowerbeds and brown grass.

Hubby has made arrangements with a blog buddy to stay at their place for a while till he gets his feet under him in St. Louis. Thank you M - you are wonderfully generous. Knowing he has a place to land when he gets there and gets adjusted takes a big load off of our shoulders. Hopefully it won't be long before I'll be joining him. Plans are taking shape though a lot of it is still wait and see.

As for adjustments - I'm doing better and only get sad when I think about the projects and plans I had for my flower beds and yard and regret that I can't be more reliable when asked for help from my civic group. Igor is bouncing around like Tigger and surprises us everyday with new words and actions, he really has a great personality. SonnyBoy is adjusting well and remarked today that he wasn't big enough to help mow and wanted to know where his scissors were so he could help me cut the grass when Hubby goes to St. Louis. Fortunately the Igor is young enough to not understand and Sonny Boy is old enough to understand that it's not forever. Hubby is all nerves and fighting a cold but I think is enjoying some downtime around the house and hanging out with the kids. I know he's dreading his new job, hot hangars, on his feet constantly, and the stress of learning the system at a new job is weighing heavily on his mind. I have confidence in him though he'll do great at his new job, he's the kind of guy who never meets a stranger and is very meticulous is his work.

Well I've rambled constantly here forever now, it's late and the monkeys will pounding on their cages early in the am wanting their bananas!

Transistions

Needless to say if you've been reading my latest few post I'm not very good with transistions in life. I need to know what's going to happen, when and how for everything. I don't think I'm terribly anal about this, nor am a highly organized person that needs this to function I just like to have things planned a little. I'm not the most spontaneous person.

This glitch in my personality is wrecking havock with the recent changes in our lives. Not knowing if and when the house will sell, how far back it will set us financially, when the kids and I will move to St. Louis, how long we'll be living apart etc etc sets my nerves on serious edge.
After a massive breakdown last night Hubby sat and crunched numbers as to how we will fare financially in different scenarios so we could get a time line of how long we should fish or cut bait. I'm feeling somewhat better because it looks like we can settle on a plan somewhat for just what we are doing concerning the move.

We have decided that it is not really financially viable for me to work full time when we do finally get to where-ever-it-is-we-are-going. It will cost more in daycare than I am likely to bring home. However Hubby will work a more predictable schedule than his former job so working evenings and weekends is a possiblity to help make the difference in salary up. This is a relief as I worry about Igor's adjustment to a full time daycare process and after seeing several young children being left on school buses lately I really don't want him being shuttled from school to daycare center by anyone.

Tomorrow we are loading up and heading north to visit Hubby's family as it will likely be a year before he has any significant vacation time in order to travel. We will be moving several more hours away from his family but quite a big closer to mine, however nobody will be in "dropping by" distance with the exception of Hubby's cousin who is in med school nearby who we would see more of even if we only see her once a year.

Well that's about it for now!