It's Been a While!!!

So I've been gone a while. Sorry for not keeping up on this. So much has happened since my last post. Eveie and Jayden have returned to their mother. They went back just before Christmas. My brother has once again decided to be a dead beat dad and we have his daughter, my niece Harley, living with us again. This time I think it will be more of a permanent thing. We will be seeking custody in the near future. And he and Harley's mother have already agreed to sign custody papers without argument.
Harley is such a funny child. She is silly when she wants to be and shy at times. But all in all she is a sweet darlin' baby girl and we love her being with us and filling up our home with more girlie-ness.
Savanna and Kayla are both doing well. Savanna is in Pre-K. It's funny how much she is learning. She comes home with new little bits of knowledge, things I remember learning when I was a little girl and it reminds me of when I was young and innocent. And Kayla is in Head Start and doing great! She comes home singing little nursery rhymes and talking about her little friends. She always comes home reporting what she ate for breakfast and lunch like that is the most important thing that happens at school. She hates to leave home in the morning but once she's there, she's good.
Josh is still looking for work. In the mean time he remains a stay-at-home daddy and does computer work for individuals when needed. He takes care of all the home stuff. I often wish that I could be the one staying home and he could find a good job that he liked. But that is not how it is at this time. And so we make the best of what we have and we find happiness in what we've been blessed with. I thank God that we have a home of our own and food in our fridge and that our kids are happy and healthy and that we are happy in our marriage.
We are blessed.
All the best to you. C.

My Baby Girl Sits Up All On Her Own!!!

I'm getting E ready for bed tonight and I realized that I have forgotten the wipes. So I raise the rail on the baby bed and leave E lying on her back playing with her toys. When I return a minute later she's sitting straight up on her behind holding her baby doll! I was like, "Oh my gosh! She sat up on her own! JOSH!!! COME HERE!!!"
In runs Josh saying, "What's wrong?!"
I say, "Look! She's sitting up straight! She did it all by herself!"
Josh says, "Really?" Like he's not convinced.
So I lay E on her back again and she rolls over on her belly, puts the palms of her hands on the bed, raises her butt up in the air and slowly but deliberately puts one foot at a time in front of her and sits down on her booty. Then she straightens her back, sitting up, and laughs at us.
She's so cute! Here are a few pictures of her sitting up on the floor in our living room.
Isn't she cute! I'm so proud!
Check out those eyelashes! I'm so jealous! Too cute!And here's our Angel, Kayla. She's being silly and trying to NOT smile. Gotta love her!Our Princess, Nana. I can't believe she's 5!

And our Prince, J. What else can I say but Prince? He's our boy.
And on the work front...
One of my residents, Jim, passed away yesterday. His wife, Betsy, still lives with us at the nursing home. Their relationship was definitely a love/ hate relationship. He would holler for her to come to his side, she would oblige. She wanted to kiss..he'd pull her hair while she did so. When she left his side he would call for her again. And this was the cycle. He had dementia, she has a touch of it plus mental retardation. None of the office workers thought that his death would bother her much. We nurses knew better. She is mourning. And because of her mental state this makes understanding what has happened even more difficult for her. She regularly goes into his room (they didn't share the same room) looking for him. And cries when she again realizes why he 's not there. It makes me sad to know that she's alone now. All she has left is us, she has no children or other family out there. But this is what I do. I care when there's no one else to care. And I love it. Goodnight folks. Sleep tight. God Bless

A night with Harley

A night with my niece, Harley...
Playin' in the living room with her backpack full of toys...
Ahhh...the clutter of a well lived in home. And look at my girl! She's walking so good, even running now!
Uh oh... She's being still and there are those sleepy eyes...

And she's down for the count!That didn't last long. I think I counted to like, 23.
And just look at those pearly whites! Four of them!
She's so cute with those big blue eyes
This little piggy went to market...
A close up...And a good giggle with Aunt Candice.
But all fun nights have to end and little Harley has to get some real sleep. Her daddy picked her up for bedtime. Night night my Har-Har

Hello There...

Eight o'clock. The kids are in the bed for the night (hopefully) and so I find myself with a little time to play.
So my washing machine is on the fritz. Yeah! With four kids and two adults you can imagine how awesome that is. My brother has just split with his baby's mama and has offered his washer for us to use. He and his daughter, Harley, have moved back home with our mom so he doesn't need it for now. We will be buying a new set when we remodel our bathroom in a couple of months. So with no washer yet we adults have run low on clothes. I took some to my mom's today to wash, I do have to have scrubs to go to work. Needless to say, the kids clothes are piling up (high!). It's supposed to be here tomorrow, I hope!
Anyway, with little clothes, I opted to wear a dress to Monroe for the kids' visit. A DRESS! I NEVER wear dresses. Can't stand them. I'm more of a capri-pants-and-nice-shirt kinda gal. Ugh!
In case you didn't know, Josh and I are foster parents. Because of this we will be using first initials of our two youngest kids. We finally have permanent legal custody of our princess, Savanna, after raising her since birth. And we are in the beginning processes of adopting our angel, Kayla.
So J, who is our 20 month old foster son, and his sister E, who is eight months old, had a visit with their parents today. Poor babies! Their mom is not so bad. Their dad is an idiot! He tried to feed the baby a pickle, french fry, mandarin orange, and a hamburger. Of course she choked on all of it. And he continued to do this even after being told not to. I literally fear for their safety when their alone with him. He's an idiot!
But on a brighter note...
Kayla's birthday is in a few days and we celebrated a little today with one of her brother's because he won't be able to make it to the big birthday party later this month. Here are a few pics I'd like to share.

Isn't Kayla beautiful! It's hard to believe that she will be three in just a matter of days...

She looks so much like her mother. This is a good thing because Magan is beautiful too.

Mmmmm! That cup cake was gooood!

This is Kayla and her brother John. Can you tell they enjoyed the cupcakes a lot?
This is the first time Kayla has ever met her paternal grandmother. And that's her cousin, Seth.
Kayla and her paternal grandmother...
And Kayla with her maternal grandmother.
She had a good time getting all sugared up. She loves the pj's and house shoes she got for her little birthday party today. And of course, barbie's are always a hit.

This is us...

I've decided to start a blog in order to keep the people i love and care for updated on the events that take place in our family. And i am one of those people who don't really like the computer and networking thing. I don't 'chat' or play online games like a lot of my friends do. I am firmly grounded on this earth. I don't get too much into politics and i don't stick my nose in places it doesn't need to be. We live in a small town in Northeast Louisiana. I've spent nearly every summer of my childhood here and went to school mostly in Houston, Texas. I have had a taste of both the city and the country. I like both. I'd love to have both but find it to be a difficult place to get to. Sure there are places like what i describe out there but they all eventually get annexed by the city next door. Not to mention we have our house almost paid for. YEAH! And the schools are pretty darn good here. And both of our families live very nearby.
So to tell you all about us:
Josh and I married July 5, 2003. A whole six years under our belt! And it's been a good six years. None have been bad years but some have been great ones. The past couple have been AWESOME! Hard but awesome. Josh put me through nursing school, a decision i made on a whim which turned out to be a blessing and a gift in my opinion. I love it. Never ever did i think of becoming a nurse when i was a kid and here i am, doing just that and loving it greatly. I have decided to go back to school to get my RN but that will have to wait until circumstances are more favorable. And then i put josh through school. Computers of course. He's wanting to go back to school to get the last few credit hours he needs to get his associates degree. Like they say...The more letters you can put behind your name the better. Unfortunately we got screwed on a job he had lined up and he's been unemployed since then. I think that was in His plan though.
I think the best thing that we have done as a couple has been becoming certified foster parents. We have been unable to get pregnant and i got tired of worrying with it so we quit. But i still wanted children. It was like a maternal yearning or need to hear the pitter-patter of little feet on my hard wood floors. We looked at adoption but after a while decided that we wanted to be there for kids that needed us too. And so we decided on fostering. All together we've had seven children (not at the same time!). We will soon be entering the process of adopting our angel, Kayla. (This blog will be a place for her mother to get pictures too).
Another really huge thing that happened was that we gained full, permanent, legal custody of my cousin, Savanna. (We call her Nana because that's what Kayla calls her) Her sister Belle lives with her father but we have her for a weekend here and there. Nana has been as healthy as she's ever been. She stayed sick when she lived with her mother. She lived with us off and on her whole life so there wasn't really an adjustment period. And those are our girls. We have our princess, Nana and our angel, Kayla.
We recently got two new placements to add to our home. Jay is 20 months and Eveie is 7 months. They are adorable! Jay has changed so much since coming to us! he walks better and has started to run pretty good to. He's talking more and we can understand him! He's more affectionate and has gotten into our routine. He's even starting to say their bed time prayer with the girls! That is too cute! Eveie is learning to crawl so there always seem to be new bruises on her pretty little forehead. She's also trying to cut teeth which means loads of slobber. Josh has suggested that we walk around the yard with her so she can water the lawn with her slobber. We call her the slobber worm! They are all great kiddos! They keep us on our toes. It took a little while for them to realize that they had to share everything, even mommy and daddy, but they've got it.
To keep everything going smoothly we have to run a tight schedule and stay on routine. Josh and I both have schedule/appointment books to keep everything in order. I work a 2/3 split schedule, the kids have visits, doctor appointments, school functions, birthday parties, etc. Not to mention that we have to squish in some mommy/daddy time. 'Us time' is rare so we have to plan well in order to have it and enjoy it.
So I hope this blog helps me to share the happiness and joy in our lives with you.
C.