Snomageddon!

Yes, I know I am slow getting updated, but I wanted pictures and I can't upload pictures on my computer because it is 7 years old and everything on it is broken, so I can basically get on the Internet and that is it!  None of my usb ports work.  I need a new computer, but it will just have to wait.  I load all our pictures on Randy's computer and then email them to myself.  It gets rather annoying.  Why two computers, because when he is at the firestation, Randy like to have his computer for studying, or just for fun during the long 24 hour shift.  So last Tuesday we had what the weathermen called a blizzard.  From reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, I expected something a little more, but it was still impressive.  There were definitely white-out conditions and they shut down the airport and I-70 from Kansas City to St. Louis.  Here we got around 10 inches of snow, but the impressive thing happened on Thursday morning.  It got down to -14 degrees here.  In my 32 years I have never experienced conditions that cold!

Here are some pictures that I thought were pretty cool.

A view out our laundry room door!  I like the door imprints on the snow!

That pile is about 10 feet high there.

Father and son snow shoveling!

Our buried swing set. The entire side wall of our retaining wall is buried.

This is what it normally looks like!

Here we go again

Weathermen cannot predict the weather!  Last winter was AWFUL!  We had almost 50 inches of snow and very cold temps.  This winter they said very mild winter and we would be lucky to get 10-18 inches of snow.  They were right in the beginning, November and December were wonderful, very mild.  Then January hit!  Two storms totaling 20 inches of snow between the two of them within two weeks. 

So I am thinking, okay we are done, nope.  We are suppose to get about a half of inch of ice overnight tonight, which may not sound like a lot, but when mixed with cars with people who don't drive with caution it is a huge mess and headache.  Then following the ice, 8-12 inches of snow to follow on Tuesday with very cold temps, around -10 on Thursday morning.  They might have to cancel school just because of the cold, let alone the snow! So, we are heading for another above average snow fall for our area again, and they say that we have global warming!  Though, I would gladly live here rather than the Northeast where they are measuring their snows by the feet every time, not inches.  Those poor people, the snow might melt by May up there!

1 Year

Well we have made it to our 1 year anniversary.  Exactly one year ago today we filled out our application for our international agency and applied for our Russian Program.  While I knew that adoption would be hard, I NEVER in my wildest dreams thought it would be this hard.  We are heading forward and are looking on.  We have had our ups and our downs.  One major up is that we are about 2/3 funded.  We are getting there.  While there have more downs than I can list the worst is that we still have a long road ahead.  We are sticking it out.  Keep praying and hoping that no more "incidents" happen.  That the agreement is signed, and that things start flying in Russia. 

Paka,
Denise

Russian Blacklist

For those of you who don't know what the Russian Blacklist is, it is a list, a LONG list of home study agencies that they put together for every country that adopts from their country.  It is a list of agencies that have not "followed" all the rules.  Whether it is the agencies fault or not.  After every adoption you have to have 4 post-placements reports.  At the 6 month timeline, 1 year, 2 years, and 3 years post adoption.  If that report is not filed or lost, or some other paper is not filed, or worse the parent does not follow up with their due diligence, due to agency error or not the agency is put on the blacklist.

While reading another fellow bloggers blog about waiting on a court date and their home study agency was put on the blacklist, I decided to look it up, not that I was worried, but just curious, and what do you know, our home study agency is on the blacklist!  We are due for our update in less than 2 months so I started to worry a little, what if it isn't a mistake, where are we going to get another $2400 for ANOTHER home study agency.  So I sent them an email.  They had not heard this news yet, so they are working with our international agency to see if they can get this problem dealt with quick and easy.  If not they said that they would transfer us to another home study agency.  I am assuming by them saying this we would not have to pay again, just the updating fee, which we have budgeted for.  I am praying that it is something simple that they can get taken care of very easily, but either way, it seems that it will work out.  We don't need any more bumps in the road, we have had enough.

Praying for the Victim's

This is a horrible thing, what are these people thinking, those people did nothing to them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/25/world/europe/25moscow.html?_r=1&hp

Praying for the victims and their families.

Yes, we are alive...

But barely.  We have been so sick it isn't funny.  Between the snow and the sickness it has just been a horrible week.  Last Wednesday Camden started getting sick which I thought was just a cold.  But he got to coughing so bad that he would throw up, so on Monday I took him in to the peds office.  Pneumonia.  Yeah!  Monday also Randy came down with a nasty cold.  Hoping I would avoid their illnesses like I have for the last year and a half, I thought I would be fine.  Nope, Tuesday I was down and out!  All three of us sicker than dogs, plus in the past two weeks we have gotten about 18 inches of snow, it has not been a great week.  Today is the first day that I can actually breathe on my own without the aid of medication.  Camden is back to his normal self, and Randy is almost back to normal also.  Which is good since I picked up a 5 day subbing job for this week.  I haven't worked since the first week of Dec. so the last thing I wanted to do was to go back to work sick. 

In the adoption world, we did brave the roads on my birthday and got new marriage licenses and got them apostilled and sent off.  The rest of our paperwork is not due until April, so we are in no hurry.  It seems that most people that we started our journey with have already completed their adoptions or are almost done, very disheartening, but we will get there.  Keep praying as we do every night!
Denise

Peanut Brittle Fundraiser is Done

What an amazing fundraiser this was!  We were so busy up until Christmas that Randy made Peanut Brittle every day that he was home.  Our house constantly smelled of Peanut Brittle it was almost to the point of annoying, but by far the best fundraiser we did.

We still have two order to fill, but other than that we are done.

So the totals are:

Actual Peanut Brittle Sales: $1603.33 
We invested in the initial start up of the products that we needed for Peanut Brittle, after that we paid for ingredients out of the profits of our fundraiser.

Actual Peanut Brittle Sales Plus Donations: $4195.12!!!! 
People are so amazing and generous it is unbelievable!  When we started this venture we thought that we would sell maybe a 100 bags of Peanut Brittle.  In the end we sold close to 700 bags of Peanut Brittle, and were so blessed by such amazing people!

We have used around 130 lbs. of Spanish Raw Peanuts, close to 200 lbs. of sugar, and around 10 gallons of Karo Syrup.  We are getting close to our goals, we are getting there.  If you were a part of this, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!