Future BFF's

A couple of weeks ago Camryn and I got to spend some time with Leslie, my good friend from HS and her daughter Josie.  Josie was born exactly 6 weeks BEFORE Camryn.  By looking at this picture you'd think Camryn is about to sit up and ask for a steak.  Josie is in 0-3 month clothes.  Camryn is wearing a brand new (so no shrinkage) 6-9 month outfit.


 

Josie had a rougher start to her life though.  She was born about a month early and only weighed a little over 3 pounds.  By the time Camryn was born 6 weeks later Josie still weighed under Camryn's birthweight.  I think Camryn has outweighed her by about 5-6 pounds ever since.  Someday a difference of 5-6 pounds between friends won't be a big deal, but for now there definitely won't be any clothes sharing going on between these two.  But they could share accessories.  Josie was extremely determined to go after Camryn's bow.  Josie is much more mobile than Camryn - she was all over the place.  What you see of Camryn above is all she's got (or at least had at that particular time).  Josie was like a reverse inchworm.  She was crawling on her back.  Definitely one of the most interesting ways I've ever seen a baby get around.

I'm so glad Leslie and I were able to get the girls together. I hope we can continue to do that throughout their lives.  I'm glad I've got someone else to go through this girl thing with together....especially when we hit the teen years!

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How to have a calm morning (not!!)

Do you ever want to kick the people who write those articles about how to have a more organized morning? I'd like to. I think I've read every one of them that I've came across over the years hoping to see a new idea that I haven't thought of. It's a lost cause in our house. I think the only way my mornings will ever be sane is if I hire a housekeeper and a personal car loader.

I think my crazy morning started back on Saturday. Or maybe even as far back as last Wednesday when Jay and I finally decided how we would celebrate Camryn's adoption finalization. We are going to have a party/open house sort of thing December 22. On Saturday I was thinking about finishing Camryn's Christmas sock, but I need to print her name off with a font that's on our computer for a pattern. But we are out of ink so I was going to put the font on Jay's computer and let him print it for me. I decided to look in our computer cabinet for the CD, but then decided the computer cabinet needed to be cleaned out, since we are having this party in about 3.5 weeks. Several hours later the computer cabinet was clean, but the computer program was not located. Then we decided since we were in the clean out mode I'd run into work and get some boxes so we could muck out Cade's room. Thanks to a good nap by Camryn and Jay's help, the three of us managed to get rid of 9 boxes of old toys. The top layer of his closet junk is no longer mere inches away from the bottom of his clothes. I can once again see carpet in his room. But some of that stuff got moved into Camryn's room. Now it's sitting in her floor waiting for someone to find the time to put it away. Then we decided to put up the tree, which meant we had to rearrange the furniture. Then we decided to put up a tree my dad gave us several years ago that he didn't want anymore. After taking extra time to kill all of the spiders hiding out in the new tree which hadn't been touched in 5+ years we got it up. But now we needed new lights because we didn't think we had enough. I ran into town and bought 5 boxes of lights. When I got home I realized they were white wires. We dug around and found enough lights to get the tree finished. But then I remembered our Disneyland ornaments were in the cedar chest in our closet. I had to move three milk crates full of scrapbooking odds and ends to get to the cedar chest. Then I had to take out all the other Christmas decorations that were on top of the ornaments. That's all piled in front of my dresser.

After church on Sunday we went to Wal Mart to pick up the invitations we had ordered on Saturday for Camryn's party. Their photo lab went down sometime Saturday so our stuff didn't get printed. Then we went to look at ink cartridges so I could print her name out – they were out of the size we needed. Then I went to get a new coffee pot because my quit working Saturday – totally out of the one I wanted. The trip was a bust, but I did get two new boxes of lights with green wires for our other tree. That evening I started a good cleaning/decorating on the family room. Most of it is decorated and three walls are clean. While that was going on Jay was texting different people about the live nativity at church. I found out we wouldn't be able to borrow the costumes from the same place we did last year. That has caused some major cloud of stress over me since then. Then we started clearing out the bookshelf. Since Jay was so big on Cade getting rid of stuff, I decided it was time to make him thin out some books. Now we have books piled all over the family room and kitchen floors along with Christmas and regular decorations. Since we can't find the table we will be eating picnic style this week.

This morning I was going to get up at 5 to finish the bookshelf, except Camryn also decided to get up at the same time. Jay fed her while I worked for awhile. That was almost worse. Then I remembered I had a stash of books by our bed in the nightstands. I needed to incorporate those in the clean bookshelf – which meant I rifled through our nightstands making an even bigger mess that's now piled on either side of the bed. Then Jay needed to get in the shower because he had to be at school at 7. I had to stop on the bookshelf project because Camryn was a fussybutt. I wasn't able to get in the shower until almost 6:45, which meant I was going to be seriously late. Then since I borrowed the extension cord from the iron in our closet to use with the Christmas tree I had to re-pile the junk in there that I'd taken off of the cedar chest to maneuver the ironing board close enough to an outlet so I could iron. All that was going on with a baby fussing her head off. At 5 til 8 ( I needed to leave at 7:40) I was still in the house and my teeth weren't brushed, Camryn was in her car seat fussing and Cade was in his own little world. We were almost ready to walk out the door, but then I remembered my work out clothes. I went back to get those. I took the pants out of the dirty clothes basket. I didn't care. I go to get in the car and the luggage from this weekend was never unloaded. I had to pile all of that in the kitchen. Finally we were all in the car I'm pulling out and I look over at Cade. He wasn't wearing a coat. All I said was "you better hope you don't have recess outside today". Cade said "I can't find my Razorback jacket". I think it is the pile that I moved from the car to the kitchen. Miller parents – if we get a note home about making sure you dress your kids appropriately for the weather the Shepherd's are the cause of it.

Oh, and for some reason our water is brown. Since yesterday I thought it was Jay or Cade forgetting to flush the toilet, but I realized it is the water. No idea what's going on there. So I had to buy water to take to work because I wasn't going to drink our water. But that was ok because I needed to buy some coffee since our coffee pot is broken. And then the gas light started dinging as I dropped off Camryn so I took care of gas, water and coffee all at once. Finally I pull up to work at 8:30. I get inside and I realize I don't have my cell phone. I flashed back to Camryn fussing in her seat and I remember she had my phone in her hands. Hoping it is still with her at Stacy's??? I'd call Stacy, but her number is in my cell phone….what kind of mother doesn't know her babysitters number by heart? So I sent her a message on Facebook. She just got back with me – yes my phone is in the carseat. That's what happens when you use a carseat as a place to pile the stuff you need to get out the door with in the mornings.

I think I'm going to take off Wednesday. I've got to finish this mucking out project. That should help my mornings for at least a day or two. What I'm finding to be very interesting is that since I've been back to work Jay has cleaned the house by himself twice. He's now taken quite an interest in this deep cleaning/organizing. It is nice to have some help. Maybe we'll have it done and the house decorated by December 22????

Happy Thanksgiving!

So thankful for these two "turkeys"




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What a difference a year or five will make....

I really haven’t thought about it a lot, but there are moments I’ve reflected on what we were doing a year ago. Honestly, I couldn’t even remember what date we had the transfer done(I had to consult the blog to find the day). The only thing I remember for sure was that we had the blood test the day before Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving has played some significant parts in our infertility/adoption story. I spent a lot of time in the days leading up to Thanksgiving with a ball of nerves sitting in my stomach. Ahh, I can clearly remember the feeling of all that stress. Was I pregnant? Would the test be positive? I also can remember the feeling of walking around the mall on Black Friday somewhat numb from an early miscarriage (2006) and a negative FET (2010) trying to do a little retail therapy.


While I don’t remember what I did the weekend before Thanksgiving last year. I’m sure it involved anything possible to take my mind off the test looming ahead on Wednesday. I also know it was vastly different from this year. This year I remember exactly what I did…and it was great and uneventful at the same time.

We finalize Camryn’s adoption 1 month from today. I still get overwhelmed when I think about everything has happened to us since May 17- the day we got an email about a little baby girl due any day….. All I can say is Thank You God!!!





We started out the weekend with some family pictures for Christmas cards.  Here is a sneak peek at one of Camryn's holiday outfits.  I love being able to dress a girl in Holiday themed clothes.  Sorry about the blur...she waves her arms like a hummingbird anymore and it's hard to get good pictures.  And she was looking right at Cade.  You can imagine how he gets her worked up.





Then we went to Toys R Us and Cade showed us some stuff Santa could bring him.  Of course he brought up the fact that he would've asked for some Lego's but since I told him no, he was going to have to make do with something else :)  Yes, he has it so rough.  But I put the brakes on Lego's this year because of Camryn becoming mobile.  Too much to worry about for this Mamma at Christmas.





I made Camryn a Turkey shirt to match some leggings and hair bow she already had.  Again I LOVE dressing her in holiday themed clothing.  A year ago I wasn't sure we'd have any more kids...I couldn't have even began to imagine I'd have a girl to dress up. 




And Camryn went to her first Thanksgiving Dinner at our chuch.  I think she looks ornery in this picture...and that's how she was all day yesterday.  I was exhausted by 9:30 am...and we hadn't even left the house yet.

It was an ordinary, but yet extraordinary weekend.

One Wedding and a Serious Question

I’ve not said a whole lot on the blog about my parents divorce. They were married in September 1974 and in May 2006 they separated. It was quite a shock to me and my sister. I never imagined that at 29 years old I’d have to deal with that. They actually went through the divorce about 2 years ago. I’ve just preferred not to say much about it, because what can you say? At times it’s been weird, at times hard, I’ve shed many tears over it, but it is what it is. I love both my parents very much and I never wanted to say anything on here that would hurt any feelings. It was easier to not talk about it. This past weekend my mom got re-married to a man she knew growing up. I do consider myself to be fortunate because I really do like Steve (mom's husband)and Lynn (dad’s girlfriend). Things could be worse. Much worse. I had planned to post some pictures from the wedding, but between having a baby there and everything else going on I never got out my camera. When we get the official pictures I may post some and tell more about the day. Oh who am I kidding….those pictures will end up with the million others I’ve wanted to post over the last several months.


I had to go through that backstory to make this story make any sense. Cade has been so funny lately with the things he asks and says. After the wedding Saturday we were headed to mom’s house for the reception. We were almost there and I hear Cade’s voice from the backseat….

Cade: I hate to ask this question, but I have to know because I’ve been so worried about it

Me: Don’t worry about it, you can ask me anything

Cade: Is Grandma going to have more kids?

Me: (trying not to laugh) NO, she’s not going to have more kids

Cade: (still worried) But how do you know she’s not going to have anymore?

Me: Once people get so old they can’t have any more kids (I figured that was better than explaining a tubal ligation)

Cade: Whew! That is a relief

That question took me back to my 19th birthday. My mom was having severe stomach pains and my dad wasn’t home (and it was before cell phones) so I took her to the emergency room. I was starting to get sweaty because every new person that came in the room would ask my mom 2 or 3 times if she was pregnant? Was she sure she wasn’t pregnant? Even though the chances were very slim that she was this 19 year old was starting to get a little worried. Turns out all the good bacteria in her intestines got killed by a strong antibiotic she was taking and she ended up spending almost a week in the hospital. But in my own 19 year old selfish way I thought “whew, that is a relief”.   Sometimes Cade and I think so much alike it's almost scary.

Solids

Camryn and solid foods are exasperating me right now.  She won't eat anything.  She won't even hardly let me get the spoon in her mouth.  The minute she sees a spoon she locks her gums together and pushes her lips out. 

Just go ahead and try it...

- As you can see it was clearly a no go on the regular peas I smashed up.  I knew they probably weren't going to work because they were frozen peas and they didn't smash up very well.  But it didn't matter...Lockjaw wasn't about to try them.

So I moved her to the high chair and opened up some sweet potatos. 

mom's getting serious now....hahaha!!

but I don't believe I'll have any

really, I'm not going to open up my mouth for this

why do you even bother-I tried to tell you but you wouldn't take my hints

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Walnuts and Football

Poor Cade has been quite slighted on the blog as of late. Not that he’s not doing funny things….I either can’t remember what he told me or if I do remember it’s not something I necessarily want other people to hear. He has this way of asking us questions that are so funny, but usually best to keep within the family.


This fall he decided to go into the walnut business. We have several walnut trees in our backyard and they dropped a ton of nuts this year. He went out several evenings and filled 7 feed sacks. A couple of weeks ago they sold them and Cade made $7. When he and Jay got home they worked together and got a truck load of them. Cade ended up with $25 total for his 2011 walnut business. After selling the 2nd batch Cade asked Jay how much he owed Jay for helping him. Jay told him he only wanted a drink. They stopped at Casey’s and Cade thought and thought about if he wanted to get himself a drink. He had a hard time parting with one of his dollars. Funny how it’s different when it’s mom and dad buying a drink vs his own money.

This past weekend Cade got to go to the Razorback/Tennessee game with Jay. I think he had a good time. I kept getting texts from Jay during the game….this boy will talk to anyone who breathes….he’s heckling a Tennessee fan, that’s my boy…Apparently Jay had to tell him to give the people in front of them a break every so often. Cade was talking their legs off. Closer to the end of the game, after the crowd started clearing out, they met up with one of Jay’s old HS/College friends and were able to get closer to the field. From what I saw on Facebook, Cade talked to almost everyone in section 113. After the game was over Jay turned around to tell Cade it was time to go and Cade was gone. He weaseled his way in front of some people and was shaking hands with the players as they walked by. Cade got to shake Tyler Wilson’s hand. I think there was talk about never getting rid of the glove he was wearing. Maybe he’s going to be a politician? Cade also got to see Tusk, the real Razorback they bring to the games.  He loves to look at that strange looking creature.

I love the baby stage with my kids, but I’m also loving this age. It’s nice to be able to do things with Cade that’s actually fun and doesn’t involve telling him No over and over or chasing him down while he’s at a dead run and I’m sweating to death. I’ve noticed for about the last year we’ve been able to have more adult like conversations with Cade. He’s also starting to develop a sense of humor that is a lot like mine. That’s also a lot of fun because we pick up on a lot of the same things and can laugh about them together. He also has so many quirks that are so much like me that it makes me laugh because I know exactly what he’s talking about. He told me that someone asked him a question a few weeks ago that made him nervous and he got a funny feeling in the back of his neck. I knew exactly what he was talking about – and I knew why the question bothered him…he didn’t know how to answer it. Even though we are a lot alike one thing he did not get from me is his talking ability. Jay and I still haven’t quite figured that one out. But we are so interested to see how this will all mix together and what kind of man he’ll turn out to be.