Halloween 2011

Our festivities began on Friday at the read or treat party for the pre-k students.....she had a great time and I volunteered that morning. It is a rowdy bunch! LOL!

carving their pumpkin that went along with the book they read

ready for the parade

this was their pumpkin





her class...


On Sunday we headed to one of my co-workers home for a Halloween party. We had a great time and she even bobbed for apples! Now that was an experience! LOL!

Then tonight we headed over to our good friends new neighborhood to trick or treat. We have trick or treated together every year since our princess came home. We swear that they act like a little married couple...tonight she was telling him he needed to apologize for stepping on her dress and telling him what to do..I guess she is the bossy one! LOL!

her loot....all 4.6lbs of it!

ps....if you have not had a chance, stop by http://www.makingadifference1dollaratatime.blogspot.com/ and consider skipping your special latte 1 day a week to make a difference in the life of an orphan and the adoptive family. The will be blessed and so will you! New family added every Friday!

Pumpkins

Today we visited a small little pumpkin patch and got our pumpkin. They had some pretty flowers there too but they were expensive! Enjoy the pics!

 Then the princess said she wanted to take some pictures of the pretty things...here is the pumpkin patch through her eyes....

Here she is with the final pumpkin we chose...she was determined to carry it!

And we made a quick run to walmart where she needed a picture with what she wants to ask santa for this year...

Our weekend....

To say it was busy, would be an understatement! There was no school on Friday so we took the princess to Sea World and we all had a great time together! She actually climbed up the giant net/tunnel thing and I almost had heart failure when I could not see her...thankfully Daddy said he could see her in the tunnels! She loved it!!!

Then we returned to the reality of a gymnastics meet weekend where our gym was the host! That meant plenty of work for the families! So I spent all day Saturday at the meet volunteering then collapsed into bed to return there on Sunday for our own competition! We had a lot of fun and she improved her vault score from a 8.3 to an 8.8! She had a great time with her friends and loved that they got medals in all the events which meant a total of 5! We went to dinner afterwards and she was jingling away and so proud!

Hope you all had a good weekend too!

Your Beautiful....and an adoption update....

This song is on a CD that we listen to a lot in the car...today while driving, the princess said....Mom you are beautiful. What do you say to that? I love that we listen to music and she hears the positive message. What we put into our children's minds through music will come out. So awesome to have a positive message for girls in a beautiful song....and baby you are beautiful to me too!

enjoying the evening with the sun roof open....

And on the 2nd adoption home front, tomorrow I will mail off the last piece of paperwork needed to have our dossier completed. This is the form that the department of homeland security approves. The current time frame for approval is 60-90 days so hopefully by the middle of January we will receive approval and can get our paperwork all filed! With our agency matching waiting children pretty quickly we need to work hard on making sure we have all of our funds so we are not scrambling at the end to get them. We continue to have our empanada sales every month and those have been going amazing! People love them....I do too! We are working on gathering items so we can hold a HUGE giveaway as a fundraiser. We already have some amazing items like Disney tickets, autographed CD by Casting Crowns, a 1 month boot camp membership, and photo sessions...just to name a few! If you have anything that you would like to donate towards the giveaway or know of someone we should contact please leave a comment below.

I am going to post a fundraising thermometer on the right side of the page so you will know where we are with our fundraising. As something comes up that needs to be paid and is paid, I will adjust the numbers accordingly. Please pray with us regarding the funding and working overtime etc without compromising time needed as a family. Right now we have approximately $19,224 dollars that will be needed for the adoption that has not been paid at this point. I was able to get a ballpark figure by using some numbers from a friend who leaves in 8 days for her little girl! That number may sound huge but we serve a HUGE AND MIGHTY God and all things are possible with Him! And when you break it down it is really not so bad.....see below..LOL!

It is only:
19,224 people with $1
3,845 people with $5
1,923 people with $10
769 people with $25
385 people with $50
193 people with $100

Hard to believe that with a few people helping....families all over this world could make a difference in a childs life! As always if you would like to make a donation you can via the chip in on the right hand side of the page....journey to a mei mei or little sister chip in. Thanks!
 

The Resolution for Women....

As some of you may already know....I am currently doing an on-line book club and even have an on-line pen pal! This book the Resolution for Women goes along with the book written for men and the movie Courageous.

Can I tell you that this book is not your every day simple, easy reading? It is sometimes funny but often soul- searching!
This week we are on the chapter called My Best and the reading that I recently completed was actually called the boxes. This has probably been one of the most difficult sections for me so far. Let me share an excerpt from this section with you that explains the boxes to you....

These boxes are symbolic of the activities of one's life, the various undertakings into which we must invest our time, talent, and energy. Our tendency is to try keeping them just this way-equally filled with identical amounts our ourselves and our effort. This, we think, is what balance looks like.

But in reality,this is the picture of a women overworked, frustrated, and exhausted. A life out of balance.
Now lets just stop here for a minute....if we are being honest with ourselves.....is that you? I know deep down in my heart that this is me. On the outside to those who maybe do not know me that well, you may not see me that way at all...but the truth is I am exhausted and out of balance!

The way we achieve balance, my dear,is to consider prayerfully God's priorities for us in this current season of life and then rearrange the boxes accordingly- pushing some of them into the background, bringing others to the front. Into these primary boxes we place the best of ourselves and our effort, while perhaps totally emptying some of the others- at least temporarily- not because they're of any less overall significance but because they're not where we need to be allocating  the best of our abilities and attention for the time being.

Balance is not when the boxes are equally filled but when we are free to fill only those that are important for now, without feeling guilt over the ones that we've left for another time and place. This is balance. Remember it!

Then in the book there were boxes to label and then mark to where they are filled at this point in your life. I was honest when doing it and you know what? When it is in black and white right in front of your eyes....you cannot ignore the truth! I am not making the most important things in my life a priority. I can honestly say that my reasons are good but that still does not change the picture I have drawn out for myself to see and I DO NOT LIKE IT! 

So, as some may say...my eyes have been opened to this area that I need to work on and let me tell you that is what I am doing! I am so thankful for this book club and community. One of my best friends and I had the pleasure of meeting the author, Priscilla Shirer, and now doing the book club together! Check out the blog that she runs  with her husband and 2 assistants at http://www.goingbeyond.com/blog ....you will be glad that you did!

Nicky, Priscilla and Angie

Smile!

Some may wonder why after only a couple of hours sleep I would wake up to share breakfast with my family before they leave for work and school??? Need I say more?

Rainy Day...

What to do on a rainy day that has lasted ALL weekend? Well go out and play in it of course!!! The princess even invited her daddy out to play and he went!