No Diapers?

So while I was gone to California, Marc put Dagny in big girl panties for the first time. She did okay, wore a pull-up to bed, but on Sunday, she wanted back in the diaper. When I got home, she wanted panties again, so she wore her panties to Bible School.

And she had an accident. In front of everyone. She was terribly upset, but the next day wanted to wear panties again. We have had no accidents since then and she has been in panties every day. Of course, she wears the diaper at night, but this morning, she was dry!

She went to the potty right away, peed, and then said "Wow, mommy, that was a big one."

Only problem is, she won't poop on the toilet. She says her butt is too big (shoot, girl, if yours is too big...what about mommy's?). And she won't put a diaper on because it's not a "big girl" thing to do. So she hasn't pooped in three days.

I know you all can't wait, so I'll keep you posted on that.

She's riding her bike around the driveway every night and getting much better at it. She likes to go fast (yeah, she's my kid) and loves to chat with me while she rides, and then stop for a kiss every few rounds. I love it. I can sit and watch her and read my book, and she does circles endlessly. Perfect for both of us.

On the adoption side, I think my heart is breaking. There haven't been any referrals yet this month and I so desperately want other families to be united with their children so that I can realize my time is coming closer. I want to bring him home. Now. Like on the plane in an hour. *sigh* I keep telling myself its all in his good time, but that's not making it easier at all.

Hurry up everybody!

Going to the Chapel...

One of my best friends was married this weekend and I had the good fortune to attend the wedding in Nevada City, California, which is close to Sacramento. And my, was it an exciting weekend. Let's start with Friday...

My friend (the groom) is Matt. Now, Matt said he would pick me up at the airport in Sacramento, but we neglected to exchange phone numbers before the arrival date. Dumb. So I arrive and no one is there. No one that I recognize is even in the terminal. I call my husband, who informs me there is another terminal, about a half a mile away, that he might be waiting at. So I schlep my stuff down to the other terminal and low an behold, he's there. So I hook up with Matt and Paul (the best man) and we walk BACK to the other terminal because someone else is coming in that morning, as well. Granted, we dropped off my stuff at the car, first.

So we pick up Teresa, who is also a groom's person and my room mate for the weekend, and we get in Matt's Prius to head back to Nevada City.

Did you know a Prius can run out of gas? Ha. It did, right on the side of the interstate. Matt calls roadside assistance and Paul and I decide to walk to find a gas station. So we cross a field of thistles and three lanes of traffic, jump a fence, and find a gas station about a mile away. We buy a gas tank, fill it, and walk back, jumping the fence once more, crossing traffic, and the field of thistles. We STILL beat roadside assistance, so Matt cancels the appointment and we're finally on our way.

We get back to Nevada City and go to the bride's father's house for a luncheon, but we're pretty late so most of the people head out shortly after we get there. Since the rehersal is at four, we don't have much time to get to the hotel, but we make it, get ready, and head up to the place where the wedding is going to be held.

The bride's mother's house is lovely, with an English Rose Garden in the back where the wedding will be. Matt asked me to do a reading, since his sister Karen (who was originally going to read) just got out of the hospital and was worried about doing it herself. Since Karen is a good friend of mine as well, I agreed. The rehersal went off without a hitch, but it's really hot.

The rehersal dinner was way cool (only Mama Floyd can plan a party like this). We took an open air train to the top of a mountain for dinner and we were 'robbed' along the way. Outlaws stopped the train and 'stole our hearts' (we were instructed to bring small heart shaped gifts for the couple) and later, they shot the engineers and hijacked us. It was loads of fun.

The rehersal dinner itself was served up on the mountain under the pine trees and was quite lovely. It wasn't quite so hot up there!

I decided to go to bed after that, though the rest of the groom's party was going to go drinking. They didn't make it, though, because the rings went missing and it took two hours to find them. It's way too long a story to type out here, but suffice it to say that housekeeping was quite questionable and it was no fault of the groom's party. I ended up in charge of the rings the following day and didn't let them out of my sight until the ceremony. Just call me Frodo, kids.

Saturday morning I had breakfast with Matt and Shannon and Roy, two of his friends, and then went shopping with Karen. It was very nice. We bought pasties for everyone, then went back to where the groom's party was getting ready and I helped with Karen's nails and her sister Anne's hair before getting ready myself. I didn't have to be there early, so I wasn't worried.

Roy was my 'date' since Shannon was in the wedding party, and we got to ride in a limo to the wedding. Never been in a limo before and it was quite fun. We debated skipping the wedding and just going to Las Vegas, but figured since I had the rings, I had to show up. Ha.

The ceremony was beautiful (I cried, as always) and then we were back in the limos to go to the reception, which was just down the hill. Dinner and dancing lasted until 11 PM that night, at which point I was TIRED so I tried to go to bed. I didn't quite manage it, and ended up getting up at 4:45 to go get on a plane not feeling any more rested than I had the night before. Oh well. I slept from Sacramento to Denver and felt a little better.

All in all, it was the best wedding ever. I saw people I hadn't seen in a long time, namely Matt, Brian, Karen, and Anne, met a bunch of new friends in Teresa, Paul, Roy, and Shannon, and had a hugely great time with all the dancing. Great weekend, even if I now feel as if I've been hit by a bus...

Three Day Weekends

Sing praises for three day weekends! Whoo hoo!

Friday was our outside day, where we took care of the things outside the house. We finished weeding (finally) the garden in the morning and Marc cleaned out the eaves, which were a bit clogged, and we picked up all the pine needles and got the composting going.

We also went for a family bike ride and a barbeque at a friends house. It was so great. Three three-year olds together are very funny. The parents even got to chill for awhile while the kids played. Bratwursts, potato salad, and home-made rhubarb pie. Yum. We were thinking about going to the fireworks, but they were so late, we decided against them. Instead, we drove home and on the way, someone was shooting fireworks off at their house (we live in the boonies) so we saw some anyway! And then, when we got home and had PJs on and everything, Marc said "Dagny, let's go outside" and we could see the pig farm on the other side of the highway shooting off fireworks, too! Not to mention the lightning bugs...it was a great night.

Saturday was the inside day. We had a furniture moving vacuum day! Dagny helped (well, kind of) and we moved all the couches and tables and vacuumed. Wow. Don't think I've done that in awhile. It was pretty nasty. Had to dump the vacuum like three times! But now the house smells better. What a sad comment. And I got 6 loads of laundry done, since I washed the quilts, the mattress pads, everything. And we STILL had enough time to go for a nice bikeride in the afternoon.

Dagny is getting pretty good at her bike now. I'll have to get her a helmet next time I'm in Sioux Falls.

Sunday, since we got most of our chores done Friday and Saturday, was a lazy day. I finished the laundry, did NOTHING while Dagny napped (what a treat) and then we decided to ride our bikes out to a friend's farm, since he bribed us with fresh lettuce. It was a longer trip than I thought it would be, but I made it and I'm quite proud of myself! Hauling an extra forty pounds of trailer and kid behind the bike, uphill, is not easy. But it was worth it. We got fresh lettuce and Dagny got to help dig up some potatoes (which were very yummy) AND she sat and ate peas off the vine. She must have eaten almost a pound of peas.

We had a great weekend. I love weekends that you get to spend with your family. Wonderful. I feel a bit refreshed now, like my head is more straight than it was before. maybe I can live through this summer yet!

Nobody Gets In to See the Wizard!

HAHAHAHA! Jori, you rock. For those of you who haven't read the comments on the previous post, Jori has reminded me that No is a perfectly acceptable answer to things. "Nobody gets in to see the wizard. Nobody!" I'm just not good at saying no, but I'll work on it.

The Wizard of Oz is now over, which is good and bad, honestly. We had a great time and out of eight shows, we got seven standing ovations. People loved it. It felt good to be involved in a production that was so well-attended. I mean, I've been on stage before, but never in front of an almost sold-out house, which we had the last weekend every night. The witch is glad not to have to paint herself green anymore (the make-up gave her hives) and the kids are glad not to have to sit downstairs and be quiet during the production, but I think we all miss each other.

So now the summer gets into high gear (except it was 45 degrees this morning. 45 degrees!?) and I need to get my head back into real life. The garden is out of control with weeds, so I have been up at 5:30 every day for the past three days weeding before the small one gets up. I've got the delicate weeding done (the stuff that has to be done by hand) and on Friday, I'm taking the garden claw back there and going for it. The squash are all doing great, the watermelon are growing, and most of the tomatoes are doing well. The beans and peas are growing, too, just not as fast as the rest.

And there's a stalk of corn out there. CORN? I didn't plant any corn. Of course, we live across the street from a corn field, so it could have just come for a visit in some small animals droppings, but it's funny. It's right in the middle of the peppers and we decided not to pull it, but to see what happens. It's very healthy and rather tall at the moment.

The adoption feels very slow, but there were ten referrals in June, so keep your fingers crossed. Those families at the top of the list must be going insane. I keep checking to see if we're in the top ten yet, but so far, no luck. We'll get there when it's time, right?

We're planning on going to a friends house for a barbeque on the 4th of July and then going out to the fireworks. Dags has never seen fireworks, so it should be fun. The other couples also have three year olds, so it should be quite the party with three 3s, and two 1.5s. Should be tons of fun.

And other than that, we're not doing too much, which is wonderful. It feels good to be able to go home every night, have a nice dinner (not rushed) and watch some TV before we all go to bed with the windows open. It might be summer, but we've only had the air on for 12 hours so far...weird weather. Maybe I should go buy a Prius...

Three Years Old?!

I can't believe it. Dagny turned three years old yesterday. Three! She can go to preschool next year if she gets toilet-trained! My baby in school? *shrieks and faints*

I remember being pregnant. I don't remember it being that long ago, but I guess it was. She holds up her three little fingers and beams. "Three, mommy. Three!" Amazing.

Her party went very well. We had about 20 kids and with their parents, I must admit I was very glad it didn't rain. All those people in my house would have been a bit awkward! But we had a beautiful sunny day, not a cloud in the sky, and I didn't plan any activities, I just put out lots of toys for free play and it went great. We had bubbles, the swing set, balls, a frisbee, balloons, the grass, silk flowers, that sort of thing. They had a good time. We had cake around four and presents after that so people could go home for dinner or stick around and play a bit more. We got the whole yard cleaned up before I had to go to rehersal and Marc took care of the inside.

She got more presents than she needs, of course, so I think one of these days i'm going to have a toy cleanup and remove a bunch of her old toys and box them away, to be unveiled later if she needs a boost. I think that'll work pretty well, since she doesn't need to have all those toys at once and a lot of them are just little junky toys she picked up here and there, like from her grandpa's happy meals. Yes, my father buys happy meals. Don't tell.

It was a great weekend, too. On Saturday, Mom, Dad, and I took Dagny to the zoo while Marc had a business meeting, then we all met up for lunch. Again, great weather, so the zoo was quite a treat. We even got to watch the bears take a bubble bath, which was endless entertainment for Dagny. She also saw a monkey breastfeeding, which puzzled her a bit, but she remembered doing that. We talked about it a bit, quietly, and the monkey seemed to have no problem with us being that close. It was very neat.

A note on the adoption, the wait times seemed to have increased. We probably won't go until early spring of 2009 to get our son. It really hurts and I'm not sure I can really talk about it a lot yet, but I keep telling myself that God has a plan and I'm just along for the ride.

Growing Things!

I have a garden now! Some of you might laugh, since you know I have black thumbs, but you gotta give me credit for trying! On Saturday, Marc got a neighbor to come over with a rototiller and really dig up a back corner of our yard, which he (my husband) then raked and prepared for planting. he even put up chicken wire around the back to stop the rabbits from getting in. Once I'd planted, he built a fence in the front with shorter chicken wire and stakes. In other words, I can step over it, but it's Dagny and doggie-proof.

Dagny and I planted together. We planted tomatoes, pumpkins, watermelons, cucumbers, squash, beans, peas, and peppers. I'm not completely sure where some of them will grow, since Dagny ran off with seeds and planted them herself, but who cares? She enjoyed it and that's all that matters. And she found some GREAT worms, which she played with for an hour, carrying them around and calling them names. It was very funny.

And the garden looks great. Now all I have to do is weed and water and cross my fingers that I don't kill all the nice produce that we'll have for salads later. And who knows, maybe our halloween pumpkin will be grown by us! If we get a lot of tomatoes, I'm going to learn how to can and make tomato sauce for the winter. That would be very nice.

Okay, so this post wasn't really about the adoption. I'm honestly trying not to think too much about it because my head scrambles when I think about how longit could be until my son comes home. I was hoping for Christmas, now I'm not so sure.

We're (roughly) 23rd in line for a baby boy and the referrals have been slow. Cross your fingers!

Too Much to Chew

I have officially bitten off more than I can chew. I really need to just take a few steps back and breathe before organzing myself and starting afresh. It's a good time for that, considering all the plants are coming up and in a week or so, my day lilies will start to bloom. Perhaps I can get my head around that.

Along with the waiting for our son (which is far harder than I thought it would be), I've taken on being the secretary for a Board of Directors, helping out my husband at his work, my own part-time job (which I've had for several years), trying to be perfect at weight watchers, holding a position on another board of directors, being in the play, and still being a mommy. When I started doing everything, it didn't seem so bad. Now, it seems like it's far too much for me to accomplish.

The secretary position is doable, I just have to schedule in a few bits of time each month to write the minutes. Helping my hubby is doable, since he is working on finding someone else to take on that position full time (I'm just not trained as a book-keeper). And the other board is something I love.

The play will be over soon (well, June) so there's a light at the end of that tunnel. And my job is handleable. I'm just struggling with the other two: Mom and Weight Watcher.

Weight watchers has become very difficult as I don't seem to be making any progress. That could certainly be because of the other stresses in my life. I tell myself that I will feel better if I eat the foods that are good for me and I *do* but that doesn't stop the cravings for the things that are bad. Donuts, pie, peanut butter and jelly, all those things. What I need to do is try to fit those things into the points, instead of cheating to eat them.

I think that's my problem. I think the entire time I've been trying (well, this time) I have been sabotaging myself by cheating on small things here and there, which makes it worse and becomes a vicious circle because all I want to do is eat and, once I fall off the wagon, it's very hard to get back on. I need to work on that. I keep telling myself that today is the last day of being bad and then the next day, I say the same thing. Now it's really time to stop.

When I get home from work, I am so tired I just want to watch TV for the rest of the night, when I know my daughter would much rather go for a walk and see the cows. I've got to get myself to the point where that walk is enjoyable and not a chore. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

This is a downer of a message, isn't it...maybe tomorrow I'll feel better. Must be a lowpoint in the month.