Let's make a difference!!

Well God is at it again..He is one busy Guy! Three years ago we became internet friends with family much like our own from Michigan. They had a son named Andrew, very close in age to our Andrew and a daughter,Emma, around Audrey's age also adopted from China. The Anderson's were also waiting to bring home a special needs child from Paul's orphanage as we were waiting to bring Paul home ourselves. Shortly after we adopted Paul, they adopted YuMei a sweet 9 yr. old girl born with a cleft lip and palate. YuMei has adjusted wonderfully, so much so that the Anderson's set out to adopt again. Over the last year they have been working on adopting a 12 yr old boy from China, Lin Lin. Here is the catch...their adoption agency just told them about another SN girl who needs a family ASAP. This girl will turn 14 in October. After the age of 14 kids are no longer allowed to be adopted. China, will allow the Anderson's to adopt her along with Lin.....but not for free. We could haggle back and forth why they can't adopt her at no extra expenses....but that is NOT the point. The point is that this girl has reached her last chance of finding a family to call her own. The Anderson's need approximately $7500 in the next month to do this (in additon to $20,000 or so for Lin's adoption).

Here is where the Homan's come in. I know about that tug at one's heart when God is calling you to do something that seems impossible or even crazy to most people. We all know that God works in mysterious ways. The Anderson's will be frantically fundraising over the next month. Paul and I are making a road trip to MI on Friday to help with their garage sale. I would love to fill our van with garage sale items, baked goods, surplus food garden vegtables. My goal is to have enough room for me and Paul and our sleeping bags and the rest filled with items to help the Anderson's out. If you have any items you would like to donated please bring them to our house by Thurs. Here is a simple list I hope to bring:

Garage Sale item: clean, packed at efficiently as possible, even price marked if you have time
Fresh Baked Goods
Veggies from your garden (fresh please)
*good old cash donations accepted too~if everyone on my email list and facebook friends donated $5.00, I could give the Anderson's $500, wouldn't that be awesome*

Paul and I plan to leave by 5:00am Friday. If you can't help in anyway please pray for the Anderson's and for a safe journey for me and Paul.

To read more about Tina and her family: http://www.youbelong.net/pages/htmlos/54164.2.286777399518310083/throughtherainbow

The Fastest Week Ever!!!

You know how they say "Time flies when you're having fun"....well, it flies twice as fast when you're on vacation!! We just got back from our first beach vacation with the kids. Andrew saw the ocean when he was 9 months old, but none of the other kids had. Earlier in the year I set out to raise enough money from 2 garage sales to pay for a beach vacation. My sister got us started with a unexpected check (thanks Renee) then we all worked hard at our 2 sales to rent a beach house. A few months back we decided on the Outerbanks. We looked on the internet for a house in our price range that would sleep 7 and allow pets (we couldn't leave Boots at home). After a 14 hour drive we arrived in Nags Head and could believe how nice our rental house was. It was within walking distance of the sound (beach area in between two bodies of land) and a short drive to the ocean. We were lucky enough to coordinate this trip with Rita's BFF Anna's trip to the US for her last surgery. It had been almost a year since Rita and Anna saw each other last summer when we met in Wheeling, WV. Just like last year, Roynda and Tutu (Anna's grandma) spoiled all 5 of our kids with all kinds of goodies!!!! We even got to met Anna's grandpa, Roy. Ted and Roy had plenty to talk about since Roy was a mechanic too. We spent the day at the beach and pool at their hotel. They treated us to lunch at Sonic and then Ted grilled out at our house for supper. It was a quick visit, but we were so glad to see them again. It is too funny how Rita and Anna just 'fall' right into their old friendship. Thankfully, Good-Bye to Anna, was not as traumatic to Rita as last year. Rita is learning that Good-Bye means "until next time" not "I may never see you again!!"

The rest of the week was spent just having fun!! We of course went to the beach everyday. The only arguing the kids did was what beach we would go to first. The little kids liked the sound side because they could walk out really far and the water would still only be 2 feet deep and fairly calm. Andrew and Natalie preferred the ocean so they could body surf on the boogie boards. I couldn't believe how uncrowded the beaches seemed. I didn't much care as long as I had the umbrella and a book. I read 2 books in one week...verses my normal of reading 1 book in 2 months!!
Ted and Andrew got a lot of fishing in. They spent their time between two different fishing piers and even went on a head boat (chartered boat with lots of people on it, so it's not as expensive as a private charter). One day they totally surprised me by leaving the house at 6:00 am to go fishing.....I didn't even think about getting out of bed until well after 8:00!!

The thing I was most surprised by the Outerbanks was how much we could do with spending very little or NO money!! We climbed Jockey Ridge (big sand dune) and toured a Bodie light house for free. We spent one morning at the Wright Brothers' Memorial and it only cost $8 for our whole family!! We ate all of our meals at home, except for the trip to Sonic with Anna's family. The boys' fishing stuff was most expensive but even with their head boat and pier fees they spent just over $100. Ted was thrilled about how little money we spent while on vacation!! My most expensive purchase was a camera.....my new camera died on the 2nd day. I got a $40 camera from RiteAid. I think the pictures turned out decent considering....

What did Boots think of the trip? Well, he didn't like the ocean and got too stressed out trying to protect his family from all of those "evil" people on the beach, so Boots spent most of his time at the house. There was a fenced in yard so he enjoyed running free in the back. The funniest Boots moment was when we were coming home. It was the middle of the night and we had been rerouted on some back West Virginia highway because of an accident on the turnpike. Ted was driving straight up some hill, while making sharp turns every few seconds. Boots had his front paws on the dash board looking out the window, then he would look at the GPS, then he would look at Ted, then back out the window. He kept looking at these 3 things in a circle as if to say "Ted are you sure you know what you're doing?"

Our BIGGEST surprise was when we came home. My mom was feeding the cat and watering the flowers while we were gone. We were shocked when we walked in and she had cleaned the WHOLE house!!!!! Thanks MOM!!! My house had never been this clean. She was so sweet, she said that I had been doing so much for other people this summer that I deserved to have something nice done for me. Awwwwww, Mom. I almost cried, but I was too tired from the long drive home. What a relief to come home to a clean house, I can't think of a better gift!!!! You can bet that the Homan's will be saving hard for vacation next year. All week long we all kept saying "when we come back next year.........."

**********to see more pictures, come visit me on Facebook*************************8

One year ago today.......Rita became a Homan

May 8th marked the 2 year anniversary of committing to adopt Rita, now today May 12th, 2009 we are celebrating one whole year with Rita as a Homan girl.We've had our ups and downs over the last year. I won't lie and say that adopting an older child is a 'piece of cake'......but I can gladly say that the good has far out weighed the bad.In a nutshell, the two greatest things that I can tell you about Rita is her loving spirit and how extremely smart she is. Rita is friends with EVERYBODY!!!!!! She is bubbly and happy 99% of the time. I am still in awe of how well she has mastered the English language and learning at school. You would have to really, really listen closely to detect in her spoken language that she is ESL (English as a 2nd language). Sadly she hasn't retained any Armenian. Some people would criticize us for not being able to help preserve her language but we did our best to help her flourish in the language that she would need in her new life. Rita is such an intelligent girl that if she chooses to learn her native language again she will do so with ease. Rita has thrived in school. She has amazed the staff at her elementary on how well she has done this year. I love this pictures of Rita and Ted. They had just met for the first time (remember me and my aunt had traveled to Armenia a month earlier). Rita was happy her but quickly became very stressed out once she realized she was leaving the orphanage that day. Rita remembers clearly "being shoved in the back" of our facilitator's car.....it was an ugly seen that no one could ever forget. When we talk about that moment Rita always protects Ted and my feelings by saying that she only acted that way because she was scared. I always tell her that I would have been really, really scared if that had happened to me when I was only 7!!!!! One of my favorite photos from Yerevan...."the Cascade"....I can't wait to take Rita back to her beautiful homeland someday. We always want Rita to be proud of her Armenian heritage.Just another night at home hanging out with the family.

So I told you the 2 greatest things about Rita. I'll share the 2 most difficult things, things that we know will continue to get better over time. First...we still really STRUGGLE with her immaturity. When Rita is crawling around on the floor acting like a cat, I try to remember that she was institutionalized for 7 very formative years. When she's throwing a temper tantrum about a $1.00 toy being broke, I try to remember that she didn't have anything to call her own until she was 7. When she's outside "hollering at the sky", I try to remember she wasn't able to express herself normally for 7 years. The second thing is the way she talks ALL of the TIME!!! I don't mean some of the time...I mean ALLLLLLLLLL of the TIME!!!!! Thankfully she obeys the rules of not talking at school when she's not supposed to but that doesn't seem to count at home. Rita can be absolutely exhausting with her non stop chatter. If I had a dollar for everytime I simply said "Rita stop talking" I could finance another adoption (haha!!) We are slowly accepting the fact that Rita is going to just be one of those people who talk too much.

Rita has a super busy summer ahead of her. Next Sunday, she and Paul have their first "Challanger" baseball game. This is a county baseball league for kids with varying disabilities. She is so excited that she gets to play baseball!!! She also will start taking tap dance lessons. She had been in awe watching a movie with a girl that tap danced. We are lucky that we only live a block away from a fitness center that offers tap. Rita also gets to go to summer school. Her IAT team at school felt that since she has done so well this year and that we all really want to push her next year that she would benefit from summer school. It will be just one morning a week for most of the summer. We are very lucky because her summer school teacher will also be doing private tutoring of Rita for 1-2 hours a week. Of course we'll be spending alot of time at the pool so I'll plan to have her take swimming lessons. Then the highlight of her summer will be a visit from Anna. Anna was her very best friend in the orphanage. Anna will be in DC during July to have another surgery. We are staying in Nags Head, NC the last week of July, so hopefully Anna and her family will visit us there. NC will be closer drive than coming all of the way to Ohio. Rita and Anna talked on the phone a few days ago......she was just as happy as could be. It was interesting because Anna's mom said that she had been asking about Rita alot recently and I told her that Rita had been speaking of Anna too. These two girls are kindred spirits no doubt.

As far as Rita's "little arm" goes, it really is still a non-issue. We did get a reminder postcard from the orthopedic specialist to come for her yearly visit. I'm assuming they'll do xrays to see how she continues to grow. His main concern last year was keeping an eye on her scoliosis. She'll also visit her pediatric ophthalmologist this summer. I think her eyes still look great, no noticeable drifting or anything. We do wish we could tie her classes to her head because they are always lost or bent or broke or something!!!!

I'm going to end this post with a special prayer request. Rita had been blessed with the greatest kindergarten teacher this year. Rita adores Mrs. Burke!!! Mrs. B has been diagnosed with a pretty serious form of cancer (yes...all cancer is serious...but it sounds like she has quite a fight ahead of her). Rita insist that we pray for Mrs. Burke every night.....I couldn't forget to pray for Mrs. B if I tried. So, if you could please send a few prayers up for this special lady who has meant so much to Rita during her first year of school.

Stealing pictures from my sister's facebook page

Since I have become so bad at uploading pictures from my own camera, I decided to steal some pics from my sister's facebook page. She was home at Easter. The kids always love having aunt Renee home. Rita is behind the camera, I'm in the middle with my sis to the left and her BFF, Melinda on the right. I'm sure you all know the other two beauties.

If I live to be 100, Paul will always be my baby. I'm sorry but I just can't get over his cuteness!!

Rita with her HUGE smile. She looked like a rock star Easter morning with her snazzy Hannah Montana dress from Great aunt Donna!!

Ohhhh...I want this baby

Look at this little guy. He is missing his right arm just like our Paul. Isn't he the cutest!!??!!
http://www.thestarfishfosterhome.org/babiesdetail.aspx?id=38 I'm going to start playing the lottery tomorrow.

Inspiring Story...Can you help??

So, we had a garage sale over the weekend. The funds were supposed to go to our summer vacation......but I may have to help out this very unusaul situation: http://wwwourchinagirl.blogspot.com/

The party of a lifetime!!!!!!!

8 TIMES THE FUN

The day that Rita had been waiting for , for almost a year finally came and went way too quickly. We had 8 cakes, brought in by friends and family, celebrating not only her 8th birthday....but the other 7 birthdays that she missed!!!!We debated the night before on how we would handle the 8 cakes and singing. Both Rita and I wanted everybody to sing happy birthday 8 times. Thankfully we took the advice of everyone else and just lit all of the cakes at once and sang one time......that was crazy enough!!
Rita was all in her glory while everyone was singing. She couldn't have possibly smiled any bigger. We didn't get an official head count but our best guess was that 105-110 people were at her party. Including kids from both her kindergarten and first grade class.There were kids lined up for a mile waiting their turn to pull the string on the pinata. When the candy finally fell it was a mad house!!!!!The cotton candy machine was the big hit of the party. Ted would never make a good bartender. You know how bartenders are supposed to cut off their extremely drunk customers. Well all of the kids looked the same to Ted so he didn't realize that some of the kids went through the cotton candy line 7...yes....7 times!!!!!! When the party was over and I had the classmates lined up waiting for their parents some of the little boys' eyes were glazed over.....totally drunk on sugar!!!We had requested no gifts but of course that didn't include grandmas and grandpas. After most of the party cleared out Rita got to open her presents. We had asked our guest to bring lose change to donate to a special cause instead of bringing any gifts. The kids were all so cute bringing their baggies of change and putting in a bucket with pictures of Rita's friends from the orphanage. By the end of the day the bucket was FULL.....there were even 10's and 20's in it...now that's what I call lose change!!!!! We originally wanted to do something special for Rita's orphanage but I just didn't know how well that would work out. Instead we have decided to donate the money to a family who is adopting a little girl from Rita's family unit. This little girl had been listed on Receese's Rainbow which is the website that we found Rita on almost 2 years ago. We know all too well how expensive adoption is and how hard fundraising for an adoption is, so we wanted to be a blessing to another adoptive family. Oh...I almost forgot...we raised $240!! Thank you so much to those that brought their lose change in for Rita's party. http://www.reecesrainbow.com/familysponsorshipinprogress.htm Here is the link for the page that list the families who are waiting to bring home their special kiddos. If you scroll down about half the way down you will see "the Sobie family" and little miss Jenna. Rita doesn't specifically remember Jenna but by her pictures we can most definitely tell she is Rita's old room, so if I had to guess I would imagine that she 'moved' into that family unit shortly after Rita came home.


Well, like the title said it was the party of a lifetime or I should say a once in a lifetime party. Rita knows that next year she'll have a regular birthday with just the grandparents. Natalie declared that she wanted a party like Rita's too. My very simple answer was..."after you spend 7 years in an orphanage we will gladly throw a party like this for you." Rita enjoyed every second of the party, but was brought back to reality the next morning. She threw a terrible fit about her balloon from school being popped....so sadly, the queen was dethroned and life is back to normal at the Homan house.

Happy birthday Paul

Paul's birthday was very low key this year since Rita's big party was just a week after his b-day. He still enjoyed his special day. You've gotta love the BIG birthday hats that they get from preschool. He didn't take that thing off until bedtime (then it mysteriously disappeared). Paul is sporting a shiner too....he caught a flying book with his eye!!

The sweet referral picture.......strange resemblance to Chairman Mao???

Lazy Weekend

Spring has sprung...finally!! It was such a beautiful and totally lazy weekend. I couldn't resist this picture of Ted and Audrey from Saturday night. Andrew surprised Grandpa by being able to give him a piggy-back ride. The kids enjoyed a visit from my dad. He lives about 2 hours away. He came and took us out for lunch (and quickly learned why we don't eat out with 5 kids very often!!). Then we spent some time at the park. Before he left everyone had showed off all of their latest tricks/talents....bike riding, hanging upside down, basket shooting, piano playing, reading, etc.

Rita may not be able to climb across the monkey bars but she sure can do alot of other things on those bars.Natalie and Audrey teaching Boots how to dance. He has recovered from surgery quite well. Now he only pees on half of the fire hydrants and telephone poles instead of every single one on our walks.

Tomorrow is Paul's 4th birthday. He can hardly wait. Also, in my last post I talked about our meeting at school in regards to Rita. Well, the principal call on Friday afternoon and told us that Rita's IAT team decided to get things rolling even faster. Tomorrow she'll go back to her original 1st grade classroom in the afternoons. She is so excited and we're so proud of her.

Oh...if you need a good movie rental recommendation...check out "Changeling". It's rated R, so it's not for kids. It is based on a true story and absolutely unbelievable.

"Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be"

" Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be".. (lyrics to Yesterday). Yes...it's true, Boots lost his manliness today. We learned (once again) that you have to be careful about how you word things around kids. Ted and I were discussing Boots 'getting his balls cut off' and sure enough first thing this morning Audrey said very loudly..."Boots is getting his balls cut off today." Good grief, I could just see her announcing that to her preschool class!!!! Anyways, there will now be no little Bootzies running around town. Hopefully he will stop trying to get so fresh with my mom's dog.

Boots has each and every one of us wrapped around his little paw. Even Ted!!! Ted wasn't really crazy about the idea of getting a dog but they are the best of friends now. Ted has even changed his name to "Big Bob." Ted claimed that Boots told him that his name was too girly and he wanted a cool name like Big Bob. I told him he could call him Big Bob but he will always be my Bootzie-Wootzie. We used to make fun of my mom for claiming that her dog talked to her...now we're doing the same thing. We are such Schnauzer-loving fools!!

Everything else around here is busy as normal. Paul's birthday is in less than a week and Rita's big birthday bash is just right around the corner. We are making Rita's 8th birthday extra-special since this will be her first birthday ever!! Natalie thought of a great name for the party "Rita's BIG birthday party~~~ 8 times the fun!!" So we'll have 8 games, 8 cakes and big 8's all over the family center.......all drenched in pink. Rita will be dressed in pink from head to toe.....she is sooooooo excited for her party!!!!!

I had our 2nd to last IAT meeting at school for Rita today. Her team has a great game plan for her next year. Most of you know that we started her in 1st grade but since our school doesn't have and ESL program, very early in the year the school highly recommended her moving to kindergarten. She is 2 years older than all of her classmates but that hasn't really bothered her. She has learned so much, I believe that this was the best thing that our school system could do for her. But, I made it clear early on that I wanted her to get back with her age group, because I didn't want a 16 yr. old 8th grader or a 20yr. old Senior!!!! So the plan is for her to be considered a 2nd grader next fall with her going to 1st grade language arts. As she progress through the year the goal is to have her in the 2nd grade language arts before the end of that school year. We all know that she will probably need extra help for a few years no matter what grade she is in. I really like this plan. The principal has already picked the 2 teachers and I know with these two gals she'll be in great hands!! Finishing out Kindergarten they plan to start pulling her from class and to start going with 1st graders who are getting pulled for help with math. Plus she is already ready at an early 1st grade level so they will continue to 'push' her reading skills. She will go to summer school 1 day a week plus be tutored (still working on those details) on 1st grade science/social studies/ math skills. We don't plan to let her brain turn to mush this summer.

One quick note about Andrew. While I was at school for Rita's meeting I ran into Andrew's homeroom teacher. He once again told me what a great year Andrew was having. His exact words were "Andrew has STELLAR classroom behavior"........stellar.......geeze, I've never had anybody say I was stellar about anything. I just thank God and the staff at F.R. for helping Andrew become the great kid we knew he could be.

If only.........

If only I was superwoman and the economy wasn't in the toilet we would adopt Max. Today he is on the top of "Other Angels" (the website we found Rita on). http://www.reecesrainbow.com/angelboys.htm He has been on this list WAY TOO LONG!!! He is gorgeous. With a loving family and quality medical care he could live a fairly normal life. But with 5 kids that drive absolutely insane most days, no money and a husband that is laid off, I believe that my job is to pray for Max's family to 'find' him very soon.

Sophia Jane Fundraiser

Please visit the blog linked on the right to help this family bring their daughter home. I donated some jewelry to their cause. There is some other great donations too!!

Introducing~~~~~~Boots~~~~~~~~

Well it seems that everyone else around us now has a house dog. We felt like we must be missing out on something and boy or boy were we ever. We brought home the most amazing dog on Sunday from Indy. We had been looking on Craig's List for a little bit older house dog. One that was already house broke and good with kids. I kind of had it in my mind to find a pug, puggle or a schnauzer. I looked on CL between Ft. Wayne, Muncie, Lima, Dayton, Indy and Columbus. I emailed quite a few people about different dogs and seemed to keep missing the 'perfect dog.' Well on Saturday night I checked again and saw that a 1 yr. old miniature schnauzer was in need of a home because his family had to move into an apartment that didn't allow pets. I called them right away not wanting to miss out on this little guy. We were the 2nd family to call but the other family didn't commit to him and I said "We'll take him!!" On our drive to Indy I told the kids that Boots' might be scared and his current family might be sad because they didn't want to give him away at all!! When we walked into Boots' home he barked at us (schnauzers are very protective of their family but makes friends quickly if their family accepts the 'outsider') but quickly warmed up to us. He is a salt and pepper colored mini-schnauzer. I think he looks like a little old man with his gray eyebrows and bushy beard. The family said their good-byes and we promised to take extra good care of him!! He did fantastic on the 2 hour drive home. He took turns sitting on everyone's lap. He is an absolute joy...he only barks at Mulan (oh yeah, Mulan might not consider him much of a joy;o) and if somebody is at the door. If he gets too wound up we just say in a firm voice "Boots NO"....he sits downs and stops barking. I wish any of my 5 kids listened as well as Boots....hmmmm, maybe Ted and I should had 5 mini-schnauzers instead of 5 kids. Boots goes to the door when he needs to potty and lays down when it's bedtime and goes right to sleep until morning. I just can't believe how easy and loving he is. The picture of Boots with the lei is for our Hawiian friends...Roy and Tutu.

Okay...maybe I'm a bit biased but I think these are the two cutest Chinese girls in the world. On Feb. 28th we celebrated Audrey's 4th 'forever family day' and Rachel celebrated her 4th birthday. Kind of cool to think that 2-28-05 was very special for by my family and my brother's family. To read more about Rachel: http://raisingourgirls.blogspot.com

We had to readopt Rita for her to become a US citizen. Yes...Rita looks very but Ted and I have fake smiles thinking that if our guide in Armenia would have done things different Rita would have came to the USA on a different visa and we wouldn't have had to do this. All we could think about was $900 that we had to complete the adoption the same week as Ted's first week being laid-off (with no end in sight). Rita totally enjoyed her time in court and the judge made it fun for the kids. She let each kid set in her seat and pound the gavel....then she gave each kid their own mini-gavel...yeah!!

We went to a Chinese New Year party at a families' home in Berne. It was lots of fun. As you can see Paul is cheating at "pin the tail on the ox" in honor of the year of the ox. This is my zodiac year....yes it's true I'm only 24 (the zodiac goes in 12 year cycles...so maybe I am almost 36 but 24 sure sounds alot better).

Here's the group photo minus Audrey. That little stinker refused to get in the picture!! My niece Rachel is in the middle with the jean jumper and Paul is on the end. Ai Wen is 2nd from the left....our families traveled together to adopt Paul and AiWen.

Well, thankfully Ted has stayed busy with auto repairs while being laid off. Lots of people have been laid off behind him with the good possibility of more. So it could be quite a long time before he would get called back. He is job hunting but there just isn't much out there. Our family is very blessed that he has another skill to bring decent money in right now. Of course the "dirty teeth" business is always busy so no worries about my job. I did spend 4 hours in the ER with Audrey yesterday. We had went to the family doctor on Friday and she tested positive for influenza B. I'm sure that Rita and Andrew had the same thing but Audrey just couldn't pull out of it. She became so dehydrated that she was miserable. She was on an IV (aka arm medicine) for 1.5 hours and she perked right up. We went home and she ate 3 helping of spaghetti. She had barely ate anything over the last week. On Friday she was down to 28 pounds!!! With spring coming I'm hoping that we are about at the end of all of this sickness.

Birthday Girl

Audrey turns 5 years old tomorrow. Isn't she a beauty??!!
Here she is on her 2nd birthday (her first birthday at home). Look at those chubby cheeks. She was so tiny, but had the hugest cheeks.
Where has our baby gone?Well, Audrey's birthday celebration was a nice break from the winter blues. For those not living in the midwest, we were thrilled that it was 22 degrees today versus -14 degrees on Friday. OMG......it was freezing for a few days!!!!

There is so much to report but I'm not sure that I'm in the blogging mood. The biggest thing going on around here is Ted's pending layoff. His last day of work is Jan. 30th, with no clue of a possible call back date. The factory that both he and my brother and Ted's brother work at is suffering the same decline in sales that most manufacturing companies are facing right now. If we were in the middle of an adoption or hadn't sold our house or had just bought a new van (like I would really, really like to do) I would be alot more worried. Our biggest concern is insurance coverage. Ted is thinking that a cobra plan will cost around $900/month. He called around getting quotes on private insurance but the few that he talked to told him that nobody would cover me (being an insulin dependent diabetic). We are trying to get every medical 'thing' done before the 30th. Paul is having tubes put in his ears and his adenoids removed, I'm going to the doctor tomorrow for that lovely yearly visit (that I'm 4 years over due) to the ob-gyn, Andrew will visit his doctor 2 weeks earlier than originally scheduled and everyone is getting their teeth cleaned whenever I can work them into the schedule. Ted joked with his brother that all of the kids were getting tubes in their ears and braces on their teeth before the 30th. Ted has made a few contacts with two places that are or maybe hiring soon BUT there just isn't much out there right now. I'm thankful for my job and Ted's mechanical skills (he works on cars on the side), so our bills will get paid....but there won't be much beyond that if he doesn't find another job. Great, now I'm depressed and don't feel like typing anymore. Don't worry I'll snap out of it soon and be back to my normal-cheerful self (yes, I can lie about my normal cheerful self to all of you, just don't tell my husband and kids because they know the truth :o)