Spring Pics of the kids

I am really trying to stay on top of things, but between school, the kids, and remodeling out house, by the end of the day I am just too tired to do anything, let alone try and come up with stuff to write.  Hopefully this summer will be better.  I am taking the summer off of classes.  But we are leaving for two weeks and going to the Tetons and Yellowstone.  Should be a blast.  Here are the kids' spring pics from school.  Can't believe Camden is going to Kindergarten next year!

 

 

Tonsils

I forgot to write about this.  A week after we got back from our cruise in February Camden had his tonsils and adenoids removed.  Knowing that Camden was going to be very clingy for a few days, my mom volunteered to take Dasha for a long 4 day weekend.  So on Thursday I met my mom half way and delivered one very excited girl to my mom and one sad boy that wanted to go to grandmas also got to come home with me. 

Camden never had a serious issue with strep, had it once or twice, but he had a bad issue with snoring and in the winter he would get a cough that would never go away.  He would cough so hard in his sleep that he would gag and throw up in his bed.  Finally after three nights in a row, I put the question out on Facebook, love that place, to see if my friends thought an ENT would even see him without a history of strep.  They all told me to try so I called and made the appt. and we went in and I explained my concern.  She really emphasised the history of strep, and I was preparing myself for a let down, but then she started talking about snoring.  Little kids are not supposed to snore, and mostly likely lead to sleep apnea issues later on.  Then she looked in his mouth.  She gasped and asked how he eats as his tonsils touch each other!  Needless to say we got our surgery.

So Friday Camden had his procedure, he got to pick out what flavor of anesthesia he got to smell and got to drive a jeep back to surgery.  The ENT came out after about 15 minutes and she was done.  He did good and they were waking him up and we would get to go back as soon as he was awake.  When we went back he was so sad and upset, it made me cry he was so upset.  They made us hang out for about 2 hours and then we got to leave.  There is one thing very unusual that Camden hates and it is band-aids.  Well when they took out the I.V. they had it taped on, oh he was MAD when they finally got the I.V. out.  We carried him out to the car and took him home to snuggle for the rest of the day.  He really did very well. 

Now one thing that they tell you is that they will have some bad breathe as their throats heal.  Well bad breathe does not even come close to describing what this smell was.  It was the smell of death, coming out of my 4 year olds mouth!  And he wanted to sit right against us ALL THE TIME.  It was enough to make me gag the smell was so bad.  I did everything I could possibly do, I gave him tic tacs, I brushed his teeth 3 times a day, I let him chew gum.  Nothing, Nada, Nyet.  It was rancid.  I resorted to most of the time to siting with my hand over my nose most of the time to try and block some of the smell. 

After 4 days we went to get Dasha and she was ready to come home.  I think she is well attached!  She was ready to come home and I was ready for her to come home.  :-)  Camden finally started acting normal about 7 days post surgery.  Hoping Dasha's hernia surgery goes just as well or better than Camdens'!

Snowmagadden 2013

I have mentioned before that we have been in a terrible drought the past few years.  Last year we got 3.9 inches of snow.  This year we had been doing better than last year, we were up to 5.9 inches! ;-)  Impressive right?!?  So the weathermen started talking about this HUGE storm that was coming our way and we were in for a lot of snow.  Now we were nearing the end of February and it just isn't normal to get a lot of snow that late, so I was expecting a few inches of snow.  Well we got hammered.  At our house we got 12+ inches on Wednesday night into Thursday on the 20th of February.  That is pretty good right.  Well then they said we were going to get another round on Monday night into Tuesday.  I was done after the 12 inches.  Well we got hit again with another 12 inches of snow.  The second snow was a wet heavy snow, the kind that breaks trees, and power lines.  When we got up that morning I even told Randy, "hey we still have power so we are good!"  There was so much snow it was crazy, the dog didn't know what to do as she couldn't even squat to potty as the snow came up past her stomach!

I had bought donuts the day before because I knew we would be snowed in and we were sitting on the couch getting snuggled in to watch a movie and Poof, the power went.  Randy and I looked at each other and we knew we were in for a LONG day!  We reported the outage and cuddled up to stay warm.  About 15 minutes later I hear a zinging in the back yard so I got up to go see what was going on and this is what I saw!!!

Our backyard was on fire.  I called 911 and the firetruck came out.  They checked everything, and put in another request to BPU, and since the trees weren't on fire they couldn't do anything as you can't put water on live electric lines.   The line quits arcing and we hunkered down again.  About an hour later the line started again and our neighbor called 911.  Not us, we were watching but knew they couldn't do anything.  So the fire truck came again! They went next door and told them to not call again unless something was actually on fire. Put in another request to BPU from the fire dept.  We lost power at 8:30 that morning.  By 4:30 the house was down to 59 degrees and the kids were COLD!  We were also. :-)  So we booked a hotel room.  We left hoping the house would still be standing when we got back the next morning and we would have power!

We had a fun time at the hotel, had dinner, went swimming etc.  The next morning we still didn't have power but Randy had to go to work so the kids and I were at the house and it was down to 53 degrees!  We lasted two hours and then I called a friend and asked if we could hang with them until the power was back on.  Power was finally restored at 6:30 that night!  34 hours later. 

The next day we finally got to go out and play in snow and Randy built the kids a fort and they made their first snowman!  I tell you what, I never want to go that long without power again.  Yes I know we are spoiled, and I am okay with that!

 Round 1, it was still snowing when we measured!

 The fort under construction

 All done

 Our neighbor gave us a snowman kit!

18 month plan

Yes, we are planners!  We have been contemplating this for a LONG time, but we have always put it off saying next year, next year.  Well now we have a plan.  I don't know if I have ever mentioned this but, Randy bought our house when he was single, and he also bought in the height of the market.  While I have never been a fan of the house, it is a good house, I am just not a fan of DIY.  The other major negative of our house is the local school district.  It is HORRIBLE!!!  Not only are their scores in the tank, the environment is not one I want my children to be in.  As Camden will be entering Kindergarten next year, we knew that he would not be going to public school.  We found a great private school and he has been accepted for Kindy.  Last night we were going over the numbers.  With just Camden it is feasible.  When we add Dasha 2 years later, it becomes a lot harder to manage. 

The hard part of this plan is like when I mentioned above, Randy bought in the height of the market.  There were some bad loan terms and we refinanced when we got married.  We rolled the closing costs into the loan, which raised the mortgage on the house, etc.  As we all know it takes FOREVER to make a dent in a mortgage.  Then the market crash happened.  Houses started foreclosing all around us and we lost about $50,000 in our home value.  Plus we were saving for a $50,000 adoption.  So for the next 5 years we trudged along.  Then we were finally able to refinance through HARP 2.0 last year.  We lowered our interest rate by almost 2% and for the last year we have been able to pay extra on our house, we are making a dent now.  But it takes a long time for home values to rise and to pay down a mortgage to close that $50,000 gap.  So the plan, in 18 months, we are putting the house on the market with a hopeful timeline that it will take 6 months for it to sell.  We hope that by that time, the home remodel will be done, we will have paid down enough of the principle that we will only need to write a small check for closing costs and Realtor fees, and we plan on renting out in our desired school district.  We are limited by our school districts as Randy has to live in the county for his job.  There are only 4 districts in the county and only 1 is actually a school district worth sending your kids to.  So that is the plan.  We will hopefully have the house sold by the time Camden is done with 1st grade, and both he and Dasha can enter public school when he is in 2nd grade and she is in Kindergarten.

So that is the plan, here's to making it all work out!

Wow, where do I begin?!?

Okay I will start with the good.  We went on a Disney cruise Feb. 5-9th out of Galveston, TX.  We drove down to Galveston from KC and we had a BLAST!!!  The drive up and down was long but was not horrible.  The day we were supposed to board the boat there was a TON of fog and the boat was stuck out in the harbor.  It was supposed to be in port at 7 a.m. but did not arrive until 10:30.  We were supposed to board at 11.  Definitely didn't happen.  Though I did record Mickey calling the kids to tell them we were going on a Disney cruise.  You can view it here.  Well we finally boarded about 2:30 and we had some hungry kids and adults!  We quickly went to eat and then went up for the sail away party and off we went.  The kids had a blast in the kids club and even got to dance on stage of the Walt Disney Theatre with Mickey and Minnie.  I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

On Galveston Island

 Pre-Boarding

 Finally on the boat!

 The Mickey Pool

 At Dinner

 Mickey!

 On Cozumel Island

Dancing with Mickey and Minnie

 

 

Next Snowmagadden 2013!

3 Years of Blogging

I totally missed it!  Yesterday was the 3 year anniversary of our blog starting.  3 years ago we started on this crazy life altering journey.  In the last 3 years we have scrimped and saved, fund raised, traveled to the other side of the world twice, and brought home a beautiful little girl.  Just to top it off we added a 50 lb dog also! 

Some of our stats are:
Total page views 49,665

Top Countries
U.S. -of course
Canada
Argentina
Russia
Germany
Ireland
Australia
Sweden
New Zealand
Costa Rica

Top Posts
http://thedensonsadoption.blogspot.com/2011/12/long-awaited-day-20-post.html
http://thedensonsadoption.blogspot.com/2011/10/we-got-call.html
http://thedensonsadoption.blogspot.com/2011/10/we-got-call.html

We have been through a lot, even survived a troll, but we are improving every day. 

Yesterday I also interviewed for a Radiology Tech. Program and I think it went very well.  Next week we leave for our Disney Cruise.  When we get back, I will get back to blogging.  I promise.

Dear Troll

Yes, I am talking to you Ms./Mr. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.  I know a little bit about computers and you may not of noticed that I installed a live traffic feeder on the side of my blog that shows the location of every visitor.  I have heard about you for quite some time and now that I have been trolled guess what, I am still pro-Russian adoption.  I am still pro-Putin is an idiot.  Just because you leave mean nasty comments is not going to change my heart or my opinions.  It just makes me sad for you that you feel that you need to "troll" people's blogs and try to hurt them.  I don't know what ever happened to you to cause you to feel you need to be mean and nasty but it seriously needs to stop. 

There are lots of stories out there about you, that you adopted a Russian child, that your child is severely ill, I honestly don't know.  BUT just know I will pray for you, because as a Christ-follower that is my job.  I pray for lots of people I don't care for or like.  You are one of them.  Just know that every nasty comment immediately goes to my email and I can delete the comment in about 60 seconds.  So no one is going to read your nastiness.  Have a great day.