Vertical sleeping

My poor honey! Mark is "laying" in bed trying to sleep vertically right now. He had surgery to repair his deviated septum and sinusitis this morning. He's so sad looking. He has a chunk of gauze taped under his nose to catch the blood, nothing could look more pathetic than that. He could probably ask me for anything right about now, and I would deliver. (Except for that suppository in my fridge, not sure I'm ready for that) Last night we went to the grocery store and bought all of his favorite lay in bed all weekend foods...sour Skittles, beef jerky, slim jim and cashews. I rolled my eyes watching him load up the cart, while telling me that Doctors orders were to stay in bed for a week. AS IF! "How much did you pay that Dr.?" Now, as I look at him, laid up, all pathetic like, in his sweatpants and blood stained gauze all I want is for him to eat his goodies and be normal again.

Letters and Sponges

I'm just amazed at how much Alex has learned in such a short period of time. I wish that I could learn as quickly as this little sponge! He can now identify every letter of the alphabet and tell me what each letter says. I can ask him what letter something starts with and he will get it right 99% of the time. I hate to sound like a bragging parent, because let me tell you, his ability to learn doesn't have much to do with me. He's just so interested in letters and learning and I have no control over his interest. The other day he looked up at the sky and said "momma, it's a "D" " I had no idea what he was talking about until he said "the moon momma, it's the letter D." Well, it was a half moon that evening. Today he pulls a Z off the fridge brings it to me and says "look momma, it's a Z and a N!" as he turns the Z sideways. Then he brings me the W, and does the same thing, "look momma it's a W and a M!" My genius is all of 3 years old though, he can be a genius one minute, and the next minute I look over and see him licking the wall, or eating his boogers. That's my boy!

Adoption Update

Apparently serving someone with papers in a different state is more difficult than our Attorney realized. California has changed the way they do things and they no longer have constables serve civil process, so they had to file a Rule 103, which allows process servers in CA to serve him. This obviously takes a bit longer than we originally thought it would. We just received an email update from our Attorney, apparently they are having a hard time serving him. He's either not there often or is avoiding the process server. (More than like the later is true for this case). Email received:


" Christine: I just heard back from the CA process server. He's made
several attempts & has verified the address with a person nearby. I
directed him to prepare and mail to me an affidavit of attempted
service, so we can 106 this guy.

Sheri', CPS


Our attorney's explanation of a Rule 106:


Basically, the Rule 106 Affidavit sets out all the times the Cal. process servers have attempted to serve Rick to no avail and it allows the notice/Petition to be posted on his door instead of physically handing/serving our Petition on him.


I am so friggin nervous!!! Why is he avoiding them? Who knows. It makes my stomach turn not knowing what will happen next. In the meantime we have to get a Home Study done. This is done in any adoption to ensure that the home is safe and the child is in good hands. I hate that we have to prove ourselves, but I understand the reasoning behind it. It's really in the best interest of the child. Obviously we will have no problem with this, but it's nerve racking to think that a stranger will be spending the most part of a day observing our routines and family life. I have been dreaming about Rick a lot lately and I'm ready for this to be over and out of my mind.

Fall

Fall finally found us...I think those Canadians were hording all of our cool weather. We had our first cold day right at Nov. 1. That seems very late in the season to me. It's 8:30 AM and 45 degrees F. The leaves are still attached to the trees, some are beginning to change colors, but not many. I woke up this morning to frost on the GREEN grass. It's very strange! I'm usually not ready for the cold weather, since I'm chilled so easily, but this year I'm ready for hot cocoa, hot tea, and SOUP! I love making Ashley hotcocoa after she's walked home from school in the cold. I think that will be a lasting memory for her. Just yesterday as we were walking Ash up to the school Alex realized how cold it was getting and asked me "where is the cold coming from?" Boy, that is one hard question to answer! Obviously he doesn't quite get it just yet.

How can I NOT say something

The election is finally over. I don't have a lot to say. I just hope the next 4 years are better than the last. Yep, that's about it.


I feel like dirt. Throat hurts, body aches, mind aches and I'm ready to have some peace and quiet. I just want a small piece of the day where there is complete silence. No kids yelling my name, no questions to be answered, no dog barking, no whining, no crying. Just a teensy tinsy piece. Maybe when I'm 40. And when I'm 40 I'll post an entry begging for noise.

We had such a wonderful weekend, but I must say, I am SO glad it's over. We spent all day Saturday preparing for Alex's 3rd Birthday Party, which turned out to be a really good time. We had over 20 adults and at least 10 kids show up. Mark made fajitas and all the fixins and Nana brought the beans. The house was decorated Spongebob style, with balloons and streamers everywhere, Mark and I did a pretty good job if I must say so myself. For goody bags we let the kids loose in a huge area of hay in the front yard. We had buried toys and candy throughout the hay. The kids had a blast tearing through it (some the adults did too, lol). Alex opened enough gifts to last him through this Christmas and his 4th birthday as well. It was CRAZY to see how many gifts he got. I really thought about putting some of them away and giving them to him for Christmas, but I soon realized that Alex had already taken some sort of 3 year old inventory and would ask where a toy was. I had some bit of guilt about all the gifts, but when it comes down to it, this was a celebration of Life, 3 years of it. So be it. All of my family was there, Grams, Pops, Nana, Big Daddy, Uncle David, and Uncle Jason and even 90 year old Grandma Aura. It was nice to see everyone in the same place at once. We don't do that too often and when we do, we always have a good time. It was nice to look around and see all the people who love our son. He is a very lucky boy to have so many wonderful people in his life.