And then some...

After much prompting & nudging by the Holy Spirit, Corey and I have jumped in to life as foster parents and the thought struck me that I should dredge this blog back up, brush the dust off and use it to document our journey. Of course no actual names or identifying photos will be revealed of those that are in our care but we will share our ups, downs and random ramblings along the way.

Our journey started with a call a couple of weeks ago. We had put in our application, had one home visit with our ageny's licensing rep for inspection and been fingerprinted but hadn't heard much back about our licensure until all of the sudden, we got a call that they needed a home to place two (YES, 2!!) 1-year-olds. After the shock wore off, we accepted the challenge. :) We jumped in with both feet and accepted these four precious feet into our home.

Being brand new at this, we are just trusting in the Lord to guide us every step of the way. We really feel called right now just to "love them like they are ours while they are 'ours'", however long that may be. We do hope that the Lord will, at some point, bless us with the opportunity to adopt again but are waiting on Him and His timing.

One of the most interesting parts of this new adventure has been figuring out how to explain it to our now 5-year-old Ben. It's hard to put the whole idea of foster care into a 5-year-old perspective but when he told someone that we had babies staying with us "until their owners came to get them", we figured he at least kind of gets it...kind of...lol. It has been quite an adjustment for him but he is doing well for the most part. He's had a couple of meltdowns but we've been making sure to give him lots of cuddles and some extra space here and there and also to give him special ways to help with the babies so he feels a part of the process and not just a spectator.

So, I suppose that's it for now...Blessings to you and yours!

There She Blows!

Well, Mt. Redoubt has done it again. One of the interesting things about living in Alaska is that we are surrounded by several active volcanoes. Mt. Redoubt is one that is pretty close to us and it has been rumbling for a few months now but, this week it finally blew. These two pictures are from some of the eruptions this week. Until today, we had been free from ashfall thanks to the wind direction and such but this morning there was another big eruption and we are now under ashfall advisory until 4pm today. Hopefully we won't get that much...it's pretty much a pain to mess with. You can check out the Alaska Volcano Observatory and find all the details about current and past eruptions. It's pretty interesting.

Well, that's about it for today...more to come, more to come.

AllRecipes.com is my best friend :)

This post might be a little different that our previous ones but I wanted to share. :) At the insurance agency where I work, we have been cooking just about every day for the past several months because it tends to save everyone quite a bit of money as opposed to ordering in everyday like we had been doing previously. We all just take turns and it's been a great chance to try new recipes! My favorite source of recipes for any occasion is AllRecipes.com You can register at their site and you get new recipes emailed to you every day. Here are two that I've tried recently here at work. The first one is Rosemary Chicken in an Orange & Maple Syrup glaze. This chicken was amazing! You brown the chicken in a pan (after rubbing it with Rosemary, salt & pepper) with some olive oil and then add the sauce which is simply orange juice, white wine and maple syrup. I know the ingredients don't sound right together, but it is truly delicious and super easy!
And then, for those with a sweet tooth, we have Oreo and Nutter Butter Truffles. These take a little bit of time but are still pretty simple. You just grind up the cookies in a food processor and and dip them in melted almond bark. We dipped the oreos in vanilla almond bark and the nutter buters in chocolate almond bark and then drizzled the extra onto the other kind. These are sooo yummy but sooo sweet! You can't handle too many but they would be excellent for parties and such.

And yes, we made these at work. The only disadvantage we've found to how well we get to eat at work is that no one feels like cooking when they get home. lol. Anyway...it's a different post, but I hope you enjoyed it. We are all doing great...We've had some volcanic excitement here this week with Mt. Redoubt, but so far, no ashfall has come our way. We will post again soon..I got some cute video of Ben the other day. Till then, I hope you all are doing wonderful! :)

Time is Flyin'

Well, here we are, almost a quarter of the way through 2009 already, which is just crazy! Ben is almost 2 years old. I am admittedly in complete and total denial that our little guy is that big already. lol. A perfect example of that was this week when I finally gave in and let Corey change Ben's bed into a toddler bed. I was sure he was going to be out of it every five minutes but this is night #3 and he hasn't escaped once! (I'm sure the day is coming though...haha) Here are some pics of when he first went in his room and discovered his new "big boy bed". When we walked in the room and saw it the first time, he said, "Oh, man!!". It was like..."Whoa, where did the front of my bed go?!" From there it was only about one minute before he had climbed up and said, "2...3...JUMP!" (Jumping off of anything and everything is definitely his new hobby. :)

Ben has been talking so much lately too. We're definitely at the "watch everything you say stage"...because it will most definitely be repeated. My favorite thing is when he says "Wuv you much!" and holds his arms out real wide! If that doesn't melt you heart, nothing will! :) Well, I guess that's about it for now. More to come soon!

We're still here :)

Well, after more than seven months now, I decided it was time to re-join the land of the bloggers. I wish I had a better excuse for my lack of blogging, but it really has just been crazy! And rather than try and fill you in of the past seven months, we're just going to pick up where we're at. Suffice to say we had a great summer and are having a pretty good winter as well. (Except that it's freezing...I don't know what I expect, this is Alaska after all. But, it just seems so cold for so stinking long sometimes!)

And now it's Christmas!! Where did 2008 go?? I cannot believe how fast the last couple of years have just flown by! Ben is growing and getting so big. He's talking more and more every day. And Corey and I are understanding more and more of what he says every day also...which is a big part of it with a 19 month old! It's so funny to watch him get frustrated with us because we can't make out what he is saying when you can tell that he knows exactly what he is trying to convey and just doesn't know what our problem is! :) We had a good Christmas at home this year. We were supposed to be in Texas and Mississippi with the family but because of my work (the office being short-handed and me being in a new position) and money it just didn't pan out. So, we stayed here in Alaska and had kind of a quiet Christmas with my parents. Ben made out like a bandit as always! He got all sorts of Veggie Tales stuff and some books and other toys. He also got a little drumset which he has played almost non-stop since he opened it! (Thanks goes out to Aunt Leana for that one.) Here are some pictures from our Christmas day. Enjoy :)

A new family tradition - Jesus' Birthday Cake (Crazy lettering due to crazy frosting can...definitely not operator error...lol)

They had all the excitement they could handle for one day :)

And here comes the drum set...
He's totally gonna be a rockstar! :)
Well, that's about it for now. More to come soon though...I promise! :)

Birthday Boy Ben

Ben turned one on May 3rd! (Which makes this blog a little overdue...yes, I know. I have no excuse except that the digital camera was holding the pictures hostage and what good is a blog about a first birthday without pictures?!?) Ben wasn't feeling great that day, which was a bummer but, it was still a good time. Grandma Becky made an awesome train cake...she even made the train cars full of Jelly Bellies & Butterfinger "logs". It was quite impressive.

And one of Ben's many other "grandmas" from church made him his own individual cake which was pudding filled! He had quite a time digging in to that one!

Ben's doesn't quite grasp the concept of presents too much yet but he still had fun playing with the new toys...especially the drum complete with cymbals that Grandma & Grandpa gave him. (Thanks Grandma & Grandpa...Thanks...we'll be sure to leave that one at your house...lol) Here's a couple of cute pics of the birthday boy.

I guess that's about it. We also had revival this week with Bro. Bobby Boyles. It was really great...about 20-25 people were saved!! The Lord really did some amazing works in peoples' lives! God is good! Well, off to bed now for me...more to post later. :)

Some People's Kids

As a parent, I think everyone kind of has those certain things that you're just sure your kid would never do. Why we fool ourselves into thinking there is something they won't try is beyond me. Here's a perfect instance: We had a lovely couple and their 6-yr-old daughter over for dinner on Tuesday. Everything was going well. We had grilled burgers and hot dogs and were just sitting around talking when Ben looks up from playing and he's kind of smacking his lips like he was eating something. I questioned what on earth he could be eating and our friend, who was a little closer to where Ben was playing, commented that he also had something on his face. She leaned in a little closer to him only to turn back to me and utter the words that every parent wants to hear upon discovering something their child has eaten, "Umm...I think it's poop".

I swooped him up off the floor and sure enough, he had totally blown out his diaper and gotten his hands in it and put it in his mouth!! GROSS!!! Needless to say, we went straight to the bathtub and grabbed the toothbrush along the way. LOL. Fortunately, our dinner guests didn't seem offended that our son decided to taste-test his own poop...they laughed right along with us. What else are you gonna do, right?

All in all, it's been a pretty good week so far. The weather has been much sunnier...much more like Spring is actually going to appear sometime in the near future. lol. In honor of Administrative Professionals Day, our boss gave us half a day off yesterday which was amazing! I had glorious plans loaded with laundry and spring cleaning. Instead, Ben and I fell asleep on the couch for a couple of hours before going to church last night. Tonight I think we'll hang out with the grandparents for a bit before heading home. I guess that's about it for now. Here's a picture of Ben's first T-Bone to close. (His grandpa gave it to him)

Nice, Huh? :)