I have the GPS, never need a map again!

Remember that line from Cars? I remember laughing at it, then we got a GPS. I was thinking, WHY in the heck would you need a map? How in the HECK can you get lost when you have a GPS.

Um, driving on mountain roads it's quite easy to get lost. Only, I DID know where I was, and I would turn around when it started looking a little too weird. But that GPS was certainly all messed up. It sent me down a dead end road. Yes, I went, just on the off chance that there was a bridge connecting me to the bigger road across the creek. As my brother was rolling around the back of the laughing his head off at me, I turned around in someone's driveway/parking lot. Drove BACK over the extremely tiny narrow road (it was hardly wide enough for the mini-van).

I even tried following this one road that went up and over the mountain until it got too scary (which happened soon after we saw the dead snake in the middle of the 1.5 lane road). Or it might have been the absence of guardrails on the extremely curvy road. My brother's girlfriend was trying her best to contain her laughter at this point.

See, it started because I was following the GPS. It said we'd there by 4:28pm (back to the campground that is) if we followed it's route. It's route took us WAY north, then back down. Little brother had a map. He told me turn on 416 and it would put us out right there at the campground, no need to travel UP and back down. No need to drive through Cosby again. Knowing that the GPS tries to stick to main roads, and this 416 road was a 35mph "main" road through the mountains. I thought it might be faster to take that route (yes, sometimes the GPS doesn't take you the fastest route).

I made the turn for 416, then the GPS freaked out a little trying to get us to turn around. I had to ignore it's directions for awhile, then it seemed to accept the fact we were not taking the other route. I had me follow 416 for a little bit, then turn left. I turned left. Little brother yelled at me that I turned off of 416. But see, I was trusting the GPS.

The GPS was wrong. It was confused. Those twisty curvy mountain roads did a number on it.

I finally turned around, took the road Little Brother told me to take, and we eventually got there at 4:48ish. 20 minutes later than the original time GPS had for us. Either trust the GPS or don't, that's what I learned. I also learned that the minivans in Cars who were trusting their GPS weren't so far off afterall. Okay, I think I would notice if I were driving through desert not on roads...but still, it's not so hard to get lost if you have a GPS. The good thing is if you use common sense and stick with main roads, that GPS will get you there. :)

Unfortunately, the entire point of trying to get to the campground faster is because I had to go potty REALLY REALLY REALLY badly. I made it, but dang it was iffy there at the end. :)

Works for Me - Cleaning tip #1

I tried Flylady, I really did. When we had our house on the market, it worked well. It worked well as long as I stayed on top of things, but I found out I'm a little lazy. If I do not have a reason to do something, I tend to not do that. Which explains the state of the laundry. Er..."Mount Wash-Me" and "Mount St. Fold-Me" that is.

One thing that I did take away from FlyLady, was the 15 minute rule. Even my lazy self can follow this one (well actually easily distracted by the blogs and internet self). Only, I figured if it was good enough for ME, then it was definitely good enough for the rest of the family. It is our goal (notice the OUR) to do this nightly, but sometimes life has a way of interfering. But, we do it as often as we can.

I will set the kitchen timer (aka Microwave Timer) for 15 minutes, and all 4 of us clean designated area. Dh gets one room, I take another, JM gets his room, and Samuel gets his room. Since they share now, one gets the bedroom, the other gets all the toys in the rest of the house. 15 minutes and we stop, no matter HOW little we've gotten done. It's not a replacement for true cleaning, but it's there for catching that clutter that seems to pile up.

I realize that if I set that timer for 15 minutes a day for laundry, then I would not have the mountains I seem to acquire weekly.

I survived.

Tent camping that is.

Yes, my boys asked (no read pleaded) with me to go tent camping. I caved in to their cajoling, and we went over Memorial Day Weekend. Where? To the Great Smokey Mountains (and Gatlinburg). We ended up meeting my sister, brother-in-law, 2 nephews, my parents, my brother, and his girlfriend. Yes, we had 12 people, 8 adults and 4 little boys.

Lessons I learned:
1. It gets REALLY dark at night, and a campfire is really not enough illumination to see the picnic table by.
2. It gets REALLY cold at night, and snuggling with dh is not always warm enough. He can only take care of one side at a time, unless I want to be flattened in which case the air bed beneath me was still cold...thus really only one side at a time truly.
3. Juice boxes in tents are not a good thing.
4. You really should listen to Mom when she mentions checking the area you are putting a tent down for rocks that poke up. Even if you are sleeping on air beds. You still have to WALK on the tent floor.
5. Crocs are good for community showers.
6. Hotdogs cooked over open flame do taste better than those grilled over charcoal. Yes they do!
7. Myth busters was right, ice water does cool things down faster than just ice.
8. Myth busters did not mention that ice water and "plastic" cheese do not mix well. Even if plastic cheese is still wrapped in original wrappers.
9. Pay close attention to where rocks, lines to tie down the tent, and steps are during the day so trips to the bathroom at night are not so eventful.
10. Crawdads are gross looking.

Yes, I will go back camping with the boys. I will go better armed though. Lights for my screened house for the picnic table, mag lite for walking with, more bug spray, citronella candles, cooking supplies, and dry ice for that plastic cheese.

More stories from this weekend to come. Aren't you looking forward to that?!

Yo Ho Ho, A Pirate's Life for Me!

Being the Mom to 2 of the biggest pirate fans, we chose to go to the Pirates 3 movie this past weekend (along with going out of town to go tent camping, which is an entirely different post). I was probably not really the smartest Mommy on the block taking my 4 and 8 year old to the 7pm showing (digital no less), after a full weekend camping, which probably explains why said 4 year old fell asleep in my arms halfway through the movie! But, we enjoyed the movie, and I would go again.

Spoiler alert below this...








are you sure you want to spoil the fun? or have you already seen it?








1. I'm not sure I'll recover from seeing Mr. Depp's nose THAT big. LOL
2. I'm disappointed in the ending, I wanted him to get the girl AND live happily ever after. This "visiting her one day out of every 10 years" thing is crap.
3. I hope, really really really hope you stayed for the "epilogue" after the credits. It's 10 years later (and yes it feels that way after all the credits). It helped the ending, but not enough.
4. Jack is crazy. I feared he'd lost it for good. LOL The whole symbolism, Davy Jone's locker thing, was just plain weird.
5. There are a lot of GREAT lines in this movie, but I agree with someone else. The best was said by the British sailor, "Do you think [Jack] plans this all out, or do you think he makes it up as he goes along?"
6. Do we know if there will be a Pirates 4?
7. Could Calypso bring Will back if she wanted to? He was just dead...right? Or did he sell his soul to do Davy Jones' job?
8. Did anyone else get teary eyed at the Will/Elizabeth scenes?
9. OMG, the wedding ceremony. LOVED IT! The kiss, the way the "world" melted away around them. (*sniff*)
10. I think this is one movie I'll definitely be able to listen to in the van. Over. and Over. and Over. and Over....

Harry Potter - Book 1

Why yes, I really do read to my kids. :) We are currently about half-way through this book, and they are BEGGING for me to read every night. I'm not sure if it is a ploy to stay up later, or if it is that they are actually enjoying it. But I know I'm enjoying it. We are scheduled to finish this book by May 31st. There are 18 chapters in book 2, which means we should finish that by June 18th. I don't think at that pace we are going to finish all the way through Book 6 by July 27th when book 7 comes out (or sometime around then, I'd have to go to the fire box to see what the pre-pay slip says).

Oh, you mean you didn't put that precious piece of paper in with the other "important documents" in your house?! LOL While I know we could easily replace it (just buy a book), I figured that the fire box was the best place to put a piece of paper so it would not get lost or thrown away.

I'm now trying to decide if I want to read more than one chapter a day to them, or if I want to try and encourage JM to read a book on his own. He's capable, but he sees the big thick books and has a bit of doubt that he can.

Works for Me Wednesday!

Baseball is on my brain these days. We're either at the ballfield watching a game. Driving the ballfield for a game. At the ballfield for concession duty, or a practice, or warm-up. Or we're getting ready to go to a ballgame. We only have one child involved in baseball this year, and I can only imagine how very busy we will be next year with two boys involved. Then, to think if Katie plays softball. OH MY, I'll practically be LIVING there every night!

As someone who like to be organized, the chaos in the dugout with 11 little boys was driving me crazy. Thinking the shoe basket had worked quite well, I translated this to the dugout chaos. I went to the Dollar Tree and bought 12 $1 "dishpans." These "bins" are big enough to hold a glove, a hat, a batting helmet, and a drink. The big bat bags go on the OUTSIDE of the dugout (to the back). The bins go under the bench, and lo and behold the boys keep the dugout semi-clean.

There was one unintended consequence I feel I must warn you about. There is now more room for being active, acting like a monkey, and horseplaying now. But the "dugout coach" deals with that. At least the extra bats are no longer being swung about. ;)

Be sure to check out Rocks in my Dryer for more Works For Me Wednesday tips!

OH it's been too long!

I know it's been too long because I actually had to enter my username and password to get onto my blog. After a few moment of panic trying to remember which of the gazillion passwords I had used, it came to me (well after 2 tries it did).

Baseball season is just about over, which means that I'm about to have a family life again. Honestly, it means that I'm about to have early evenings again so the kids are in bed at normal times, which means I get to work on my business stuff at earlier than Midnight times, which means I get to bed earlier so I can get up earlier and do more housework.

Speaking of housework, does anyone know of a good cleaning fairy? who's free? I think I need to just move and start over the house is just that cluttered! A good 6 weeks of clutter have built up on those "hot spots." We've managed to dig through it all to make sure all bills have been paid (and luckily THIS year we didn't pay late fees). Which has meant that we've had more money to eat out on, you know at grand and glorious places like Burger King or Dominos.

Which reminds me, I need to take stock of what all exactly we do have to eat in the house. I know we're out of Dr. Pepper, and I'm sure by days end I'll be in caffeine withdrawals. But food? I'm not sure what I have left and what I do not have left. I have bread. I have cheese. Lunch is covered. One meal at a time! Except that I need to plan for our camping trip, somehow, someway I volunteered to organize our extended family's food. During WHICH set of hours I have free I wonder?

I'm beginning to believe I need to post a to-do list online, as I'm sure that is about the only place I can put one these days that does not get lost. It might even hold me accountable. Maybe? Well, we can dream.

I'm sure all my 2 or 3 blog readers have now deserted my barren, boring blog. I am making a promise that I will try and blog more. Hopefully it will be stimulating and insightful, but I wouldn't count on it. My life just seem to be stimulating and insightful.

8 months

Today marks 8 months since our Log In Date. In some ways it has crawled by, and in others it has gone really fast. If I think too long about it, the whole adoption gets me down. We started this journey 18 months ago, well not counting all those months BEFORE we applied to the agency.

It took us 27 months to get Samuel here, and I survived that wait. It was well worth it and he could not be more perfect for our family. :)

So, 8 months down in our long wait. I wonder how many more God has planned for us? I wish I knew.

I've been thinking

STOP laughing at me! Honestly I have. Following Heather's story, and finding out the type of tumor she had and the life expectancy of 3-5 years. Wow. I've been thinking all day, if I were told I had 3-5 years to live, what would I do? What would I do differently? What is truly important to me?

I'd spend more time with the kids, with Dh, and spend more time creating memories AND preserving them.

Then I have been thinking, what is keeping me from doing that? This is where I am now. Figuring out all the places I could do better at making memories with the kids.

Hello? Hello? Is anybody out there?

Ever feel like that? Ever feel like you are totally and completely alone (well except with the kids clamoring for attention around you)?

Today a lady on another blog that I just started reading is having brain surgery to remove a tumor they found in early April. The next 48-72 hours in the lives of her family (and her) are going to be stressful. There is a prayer vigil going on throughout all their online blog friends. Each hour is covered, but any hour you can pray for them would be appreciated.

But one thing that I have heard others doing in honor of Heather and I know she would love it, is to set aside tomorrow for your family. Spend the day making memories, having fun, and enjoying each other as we never know how long we will have with them.

I know that many days I let the minutiae of my life keep me from doing all the things my boys would love. From building those memories of daily life. From enjoying them at the stage they are today. Today, I'm going to do what I keep saying I will do later. My boys are worth it. They are so very worth it.

Birthday Idea that worked for me!

Birthdays are not my favorite thing in the world. Nor do I like how expensive they seem to have become! Not to mention that both of my boys' birthdays fall in the last half of the year and during very busy times of our lives. Organizing them, paying for them, throwing them...just not something I particularly enjoy. I do it for the kids.

So, last year, I was talking with a friend and she mentioned that she gave her son the money she would have spent on the party as a gift instead of the party. She lets him choose each year. I liked it, but at the same time I wanted to make the idea mine. :)

I chose that every EVEN birthday party year after the age 5 each child gets to choose something in place of the birthday party. A special camp, a special trip, or something that will be non-material in nature. JM's 8th birthday was our "test" year. He chose to go to a week long camp (not going to say, but it's 9-4pm each day for 5 days). :)

This year JM gets a party with friends for his 9th birthday. My original thought was to alternate years, so that this year Samuel would not get a party. But I just can NOT skip his 5th birthday party. So, I made it through the age of 5 they get a party every year (after all those toddler/preschool parties are fairly low-key). This puts me having 2 parties every other year. I would rather make it where Samuel and JM alternate years for their parties. Maybe I should change it through the age of 6? Or JM has odd years, Samuel has even, but they get "big" birthdays as well (like 5, 10, 13, 16, 18...)

Some ideas I have to pitch to the kids for future "replacement parties" - week at same camp JM is attending but different version, a trip to Six Flags, trip to Cedar Point, annual passes to zoo/science museum/children's museum, donate to a charity organization, sponsor a child, etc.

For more Birthday Tips head to Rocks In My Drayer - Works for Me Wednesdays

Spring Reading Thing Update

I caved. I think I've read at least 12 Fluffy Romance Novels now. I started Little Red Book of Selling and Kitchen God's Wife but I'm having trouble reading them. I want pure fluff. I want "brain candy." I don't want to think. I don't want to be challenged. I need mind-numbing after the busy spring I've had with the business.

There's my confession.

Now, for my motivation. July is coming up quick and I really do want to have the Harry Potter books read with my kids, so I'm going to start on that very soon! YIPPEE!!!

Creative Kids!

This past weekend while working on my computer, Dh comes in laughing and tells me that the boys have successfully merged Monopoly and Battleship into one game! LOL I gathered that the idea was to play Battleship for each piece of property in Monopoly. I do not know if it was a full battleship game or not for each property, but I was quite impressed at how they merged the games.

And now it is May 1st

The big day. The day of changes to the rules for China adoption. Dh and I are grandfathered in for NSN, but will it matter for the SN process? I'm fairly certain that we qualify under the new rules, but until we know for certain I will not rest easy. My heart goes out to all those who did not make the deadline.

Now, the question is will we see a speed up in the referrals or not? I'm just not sure. I'm thinking we will not for a little while longer, perhaps September/October? When we get through 2005 LIDs?