We are packing him up for Christmas!

Well, not much exciting has been happening here either. I, too, have a poop story. Last night Brevin had to poop so this is what he does. He goes just enough to get a little out (we like to call it a turtle head) and then we cuts it off. He did this twice and we made it to the potty to put our little deposit in the correct place. Then he goes one more time, but of course he decides to get it all out and Swartz and I weren't in the same room so we didn't hear him say "Need to poop again." Anyways, it left me with something nice to clean up (I am very thankful now that his poops are always well formed)! We have decorated for Christmas and Brevin likes to tell people that Santa Claus is coming to town- and also that Santa is going to bring him Ratatouille (he saw a preview on the Cars movie and is obsessed with the 'mouse'). Oh- I also found out that with this blood disorder I have I will have to take Lovenox for my entire pregnancy (hoping that I do get pregnant anyway)- which I figured wouldn't be a big deal. Well that was before I found out it is a shot I have to give to myself every single day of the pregnancy- looking forward to that! We should find out in about a week if the clomid worked- I'll keep you all posted. By the way- what happened to your website Fulty? And how is everyone else doing?

*Update* Just wanted to show you all a picture of that advent calendar I made- Brevin loves changing it every morning.

Monday

Well hello friends of mine who are not posting as often as they should. Maybe if i get the ball rolling with a general update it will encourage some certain slackers to catch up with the rest of us.

Currently, the copy man is here in the office and i am alone and it is sort of strange. As i type right now he is having a fairly extensive phone conversation. He talks through his nose and smells like a smoke stack. How's that for an update?

Also, today at MDO Ava told her teacher she wanted to go poop in the potty and sure enough she did. That would be the way she gets started--poop first. She is something else! You just never know...hold on the copy may is telling me all about his phone conversation...

...Aaanndd we're back. Okay well i know this isn't mountain moving news but hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving and will decide to update soon. It doesn't have to be super exciting as you can tell from this post.

One more thing-Kevin Ennis and his wife Emily are coming over for dinner tomorrow night. I plan on being very bad. I haven't met Emily yet so should be interesting. You know how good i am with new people. :)

Meow
Mandycat

Where two or more gather...

Meow Meow! Where two or more cats gather there the other cats shall be! Byrd-cat is visiting the Indy-cat and now we're both shiverin' in our fur--especially when Lizzy forgets that she has turned off the heat. We miss the rest of our dear Cats. Mandy and I have enjoyed watching our children play, fight and get to know each other better. Mandy wants you all to know that we're being bad and causing trouble--what else would you expect.

It's cold up here!

Hi Kitties
The Indy-Kitty is shiverin' in her fur! It's cold up here today. The kids and I are all bundled up and looking forward to the winter months. I'm excited about Christmas this year--Eli is off from December 15th to the 26th!!! This is the first time he has had Christmas off since he started with the department. I'm open to a road trip in the near future but would need to know more details before I could decide for sure. Duncan would certainly have to come with me--as for Kenna, well, that would take some arranging and talking with Eli.

I wish I had more exciting things to talk about...I got new glasses today, woo hoo! That's about as exciting as it gets on this blustery 15th of November the year of our Lord 2007.

Maybe you would enjoy some pics
Much love
Lizzy

Drugs!

I was able to get an appointment with a doctor yesterday to talk about Clomid. Even though I was there for 2 hours, I was glad to get started. I will start taking it today and then I will take some Prometrium later in the cycle (I also took that with Brevin). Hopefully this will jump start some things. I guess we will find out in about a month. Also, a road trip sounds great. Although, most of my weekends are booked up until Christmas. But I will be in Ohio over the break so I could meet you all up in Cleveland!

Long Overdue

Okay cats, not all of you read this faithfully however maybe this little post could get the ball rollin. I really think we need to put our heads and calendars together and try to plan a little roadtrip. I know several of you are deep in new baby world but maybe, just maybe we could make something work. We have never even been to Fulty's and i don't know about you but i could be up for a road trip-even if we had to meet in the middle. I think we could all use a weekend with one another. Sooo...whose up for it and what works with schedules? I know the teachers among us have a decent sized Christmas break. Nessa and Klepper you really need to chime in here!

Meow.
Mandy

Fall Leaves

So this was Brevin's Halloween costume this year. I made it so that is why it is a little big around the neck- but overall I thought it looked okay. He was a doctor if you couldn't tell. : ) I have been to see the hematologist (who apparently is also an oncologist) so when I get to his office I have pretty much convinced myself I have cancer because everyone is there for their chemo treatments. But luckily I just have a genetic thing that gives me clotting issues. He acted like it wasn't a big deal- I will just have to be on a blood thinner if I ever do get pregnant. They are running one more test that will tell them a little more and I find out about that in 3 weeks. After that, I called my OB about starting on clomid and I thought maybe I would have them just prescribe it over the phone. Well the nurse says they have to do an exam to check for cysts (mind you I just had one about a month and a half ago, but apparently that isn't sufficient). So I call to schedule an appointment and the doctor I am seeing isn't taking any new appointments because she is going on maternity leave soon. So I still haven't heard back from the nurse, but hoping for just the phone-in prescription still. Anyways, a little frustrating. Brevin is still doing well with the potty training. I can definitely tell the days he is at MDO because he seems to have at least 1 accident on those days, being he is in a pull-up there. But I am happy with his progress. To answer your question Liz- Brevin usually only calls us by our first names if we are calling for the other person (like if I am calling out Swartz, he will too). It still amazes me how much he can talk now- it is like he has been doing it his whole life, when really about 4 or 5 months ago he could only muster up single words. Now he can count, almost has his ABC's, can sing lots of sings (with some missing words), and talks in sentences pretty well. Anyways, Liz if you are coming in town, I would love to get together and see you some time. We should all try to do dinner one night or something. I would love to see Kenna and Duncan.

Hum Drum Indy-Cat

Well Dearest Cats
Not much going on up here in Indy-town. I'm still chasing after toddlers and cuddling babies. I'm trying to establish some sort of regiment so I don't feel so useless and wasteful of time--I hate that feeling. Eli's really excited because our new mayor-elect is planning to bring some much needed cleansing and direction to the department. He seems to really enjoy keeping up with the politics. The kids are great. Duncan seems so much easier than Kenna at this age--he's on the verge of the smiling stage. Kenna has her doctor jekyll and mr. hyde moments! We love her none the less. She can count to eleven pretty well. The other day in one of her prayers she got mixed up and instead of saying something like, "Jesus, thank you for this day" she said, "Jesus, thank you four, five". It was very dear and we love watch as she tries to sort through the English language...not an easy one! She also enjoys referring to us as "Ee-i and Whiz". Does anyone else's kids like to call them by their first names? Well, i need to go. Talk later. LIzzy

Oddities...

So i may be the only one reading/writing around here right now but i have to get it out somewhere & somehow. First let me just share that Ava will be two on Friday and she is currently referring to herself as the "Birthday Princess." It is a little ridiculous. Also a little ridiculous is Atley's newest tactic. When he is doing something he is not supposed to and he hears me say his name to call him down, here is his response, "Sorry, I'm not Altey, I'm Cheeseburger." Now, what the H am i supposed to do with that? So lately to save myself time i just refer to him as Cheeseburger when he is misbehaving. This did however earn some strange looks in Chic Fil A on Tuesday. Oh well.

Another oddity for you now, and i am still sort of processing this one. Last night we visited Ava's birth family. They threw a little birthday party for her. We had pizza and a cake and she was given a plethora of gifts. We really had a lot of fun and they are such a great family. They even gave Atley a few gifts. Now as an adoptive mom i don't really find this odd anymore. But last night as we were visiting in the midst of it all i zoned out and tried to take an outsider's view of the scene. I mean here is me, sharing my daughter with this family, this woman who took drugs and in turn gave my baby drugs, loving and playing with my daughter. Then there with us is her biological grandmother, aunt, uncle, cousin, half sister and the great aunt no less. All of them doting on both of my kids. Then there is Atley running and playing with the cousin and the half sibling (only to Ava mind you) like they are his own family-when really there is absolutely no biological relationship at all. He actually has his own set of bio family like this. Now don't tell me this doesn't sound like something off of one of Jerry Springer's milder shows! It really is crazy-ESPECIALLY if open adoption is a scary foreign concept to you. But you know what cats? I wouldn't change one thing about it. It was so good. It felt like God was there-like this is the way he intended it from the beginning. I sat there in that room in that moment and prayed that my "family" would continue to grow like this. I really don't want to birth children because at this point i feel like i would be missing out on something if i did. I know that is strange. I hope that as my life changes i will get to continue to receive these gifts that are glimpses into the way i think God intended for grace to look. I know that God has given each of us different perspectives into his grace and that they are all beautiful, but this morning, as i look back on last night, i am just really thankful for mine.

Love you all.
Meow
Mandy

Catty's in the News...

Oh cats. What a CRAZY few days. Your dearest Mandycat has been on the evening news twice in the last two days-only for good things mind you! We had 75 or so people and a news crew come out to the TRH Dedication & Open House and it all went really well. Then yesterday we moved our first family in, with the news crew present again. If you want to see the two news segments by the way you can but going to our website; www.therestorationhouse.net. Well, i am really tired and need to chill for awhile but just wanted to share with you. I will write more details later. Love you all.

Meow.
Mandy