So say you have a beautiful family. You have been married to your high school sweetheart for years and have two wonderful children, but something doesn't feel right. You feel that God is directing you to adopt. But through much searching, you come to realize that God wants you to adopt HIV+ children. Do you think you could do that? Do you think you could open your heart to children that aren't yours, much less children that have such a stigma attached to them?

I have friends that have been called by God to adopt two, very handsome, HIV+ boys from Ethiopia. They are currently waiting for the oldest boy to be cleared medically. If the paperwork goes through today, which is Monday their time, they will leave Wednesday (our time) to pick up their beautiful baby boys!! 

I urge you to read their blog here and pray for them today! Read their stories of their struggles and triumphs as they navigate the process of adopting internationally. 

Homecoming 2/2011

Just the thought of homecoming has me excited. So I went and found some pictures of the signs we made...

Redeployment

To wives of civilians, redeployment is probably something that is completely confusing. The though of deployment is sad, then you add "re" to the beginning and one would think you'd be talking about deploying again. When in all actuality it means that their coming home!!! :D

With that being said, not too long ago we received our first email which touched on redeployment!! ::happy dance:: And of course, with that comes the questions of when the guys are coming home. The window of time that the soldiers come home always changes. So one is to not get hung up on the first date that is told to you, no matter who it's by.

Now someone who is sitting there at their computer right now is thinking, "Stupid, naive girl. There is no date given out right now, so stop it." But the fact of the matter is, what I'm basing everything off of right now has to deal with the longest the deployment is supposed to be. 

No matter what, homecoming should be right around our son's birthday! He'll be turning three! My husband has already expressed to me that he would rather this homecoming just be the two of us. So I have a friend, J, that will watch the kids for us while I go to pick Alex up. This works out great for me because I wasn't sure how I was going to juggle both kids. Journey and I talked today about how, since homecoming will be around Colin's birthday and Colin doesn't know when his birthday is, my husband should hide in a 'present' and be his biggest birthday present.

I'm not sure how I'm going to hold up during that, but I'm more than excited about it! Journey has already said that she will tape it for us as well. How cute will that be?!

Anyway, that's my exciting news about homecoming. It doesn't matter if the guys come home a month before or a month after Colin's birthday. It will still be an amazing surprise for Colin's hero to come home and surprise him.

P.S. 9 month deployments really throw me off. But we're nearly to double digits! Yee! 

Color Run - Colorado Springs

August 11th we did the Color Run. It's advertised as "The Happiest 5k on the Planet" and we sure did have fun! 

Colin and I - Pre-Color Run

This was the first 5k I had ran in (not participated in) since 2008. Since 2008 I had had two kids, a knee injury and moved from exactly at sea level to roughly 8,000 feet above sea level. My friend, J, and I finished in about 35 minutes. I can't tell you how proud of us we are.

L-R: Colin, myself, Kirstin, Cassie, Journey and Loretta

Harper and I

Journey and the kids post Color bomb!

The event ended up having nearly 10,000 people, which is pretty big if you consider that Denver had one a few months before. And had a goal of raising $100,000 to go towards the Waldo Canyon Fire Relief. We had a blast and I wouldn't have traded getting up at 5am for anything! 

Am I a Lazy Mom?

With all of the talk recently about it being horrible to let your child watch TV or that "no parent ever wants to spend time away from their child", I've begun to wonder why people can't seem to realize that what everyone does is different, but it works for them...

First off, contrary to what people think about my children and I, we are out of our house a majority of the time. Call us in the middle of the day and we're either at the park, running errands, on a run or playing in the font/back yard. Do I let my child what TV? Absolutely. At the moment, it's just me and the kids. Sometimes I need to just turn on the TV in order to do dishes, put in a load of laundry or straighten up a room and not worry about what my toddler is getting into.

Does my child watch an insane amount of TV? No. Do we have it playing nearly all day (while home)? Yes. Colin is very much like me and needs some background noise. I've tried nursery rhymes or nursery songs but those just don't seem to be enough for him (and they kind of make me want to cry, if you listen to them over and over)

Next...

I read on a friend's status that she wasn't planning on getting a sitter for her one month old baby boy (cutest thing ever). She asked if she was wrong for not getting a sitter, as her husband and she have different views on the situation. I read a couple of replies that all supported her. Then I wrote one that didn't support her (had her child not been sick). Next I read a comment that said something along the lines of, "...No parent ever wants to be away from their child. It's not right if they do..."

I took that as, in this woman's eyes, I'm one HORRIBLE mother. I enjoy some time away from my kids. I like to put my kids down to sleep at 8pm so I can get some alone time to work on homework, read or watch TV by myself. Every once in a while I like getting a babysitter to go out with the girls or with my husband. It's relaxing. In my eyes, short periods of time away from your children does great things for you and your parenting.

Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love my children. I am definitely someone who struggles with asking people to watch my kids because I don't want to be seen as one of those people that are constantly pawning their children off on people so they can go out and act like they don't have children. However, I haven't ever had a babysitter for more than one time a month (except for doctor appointments).

All-in-all, everyone parents differently. My mother wouldn't have ever left the TV on while I played while I leave it on nearly all day. Some parents have the hardest time having someone else watch their kids, and some don't. However, if you're feeling stressed and are upset nearly every day some time alone will be great for you. It will completely clear your head and make it so you can focus on being a better parent. :)

Clean Grout

One day I was sitting on my kitchen floor doing something I only do about once a year, wipe down the cabinet doors. Obviously not high on my priority list, but that's another story. I noticed that even though the kitchen renovation ended a little over two years ago, the grout was dirty.

I asked a few friends of mine, who I know do natural cleaners, if they had any ideas what I could use. None of them quite knew. And neither did I. One day a friend pinned a grout cleaner that I soon fell in love with: http://pinterest.com/pin/130604457914508631/ (Thanks Tasha for pinning this).

I don't have any pictures from personal experience, so you'll simply have to go on my word. I had nearly everything around my house already. I have since done it three times (just because I like how clean it gets my floors) and love it each and every time!

I mixed up the mixture and put it in a .97 spray bottle from Walmart. I put a towel down on the floor for my knees and held a towel to wipe it up after I was finished. I sprayed the mixture on the floor in front of me. I took my scrub brush and scrubbed just a little. It didn't take much. I would wipe up the cleaner off the floor and scooted my towel for my knees back and did the process over on a new section of floor.

I swear by this cleaning mixture. It did great!!

Homemade Sidewalk Chalk Paint

So get this. You're at home with a toddler that's driving you insane!!! What do you do? You used all of your chalk at the last BBQ, you don't want to keep your child inside for fear of insanity... Then you remember, "I pinned something last week on Pinterest!" 

This is an excellent time to bring up your Pinterest and see which kid-friendly things you've pinned recently. For me, that was homemade sidewalk chalk. The pin can be found here:http://pinterest.com/pin/175288610466040386/

(Please excuse the toddler in underwear look. Figured it'd be better to get food coloring on his undies than his clothes)

Now, I didn't follow everything she said to a T. I'm more of a person who never follows directions in a recipe. I just took a little (didn't want to do a full 1/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup of cornstarch) water and an equal amount of cornstarch, mixed it up and added food coloring. I left the "paint" on the driveway until it rained (probably more than 5 days) and never saw any of the color stain my driveway, so maybe this Mama used extra, super duty food coloring and I'm just a cheap-o? ;)

Instead of putting every color in their own container, I used a muffin tin. This was much easier to use, especially when it came to helping a toddler down the stairs. My little man had a BLAST! We've done this a few times in the past couple of weeks now. Great post-nap time activity.