30 Days of Our Tree

We have a beautiful Wipping Willow tree in our yard. Well, actually, it is the ONLY tree in our yard. The tree is just so pretty - - but only for a very short time. The tree blooms pink flowers, but they seems to come and go overnight.

Because of this, I wanted to take a picture every day of the tree. Just so I could see how much it blooms and then turns green from day to day. To be honest - I really thought the blooms lasted a much shorter time, but it really looks like the full bloom lasted only a few days, and then slowly turned to all green.

What I found really funny was when I started taking the pictures, the plan was to take a pic a day until there were no more flowers on the tree. Which, was EXACTLY one month - crazy.

I am a bad blogger

My internet was down for a while, and when I got it back - it was only on the desktop. Which means that I went through internet withdrawal for a while. LOL

It is funny - I will be taking a shower and I can basically write a blog post. Seriously, write it. Not just the idea, but what I actually want to say. Yeah, well it seems like it never makes it to the actual blog.

I am working on a blog spot, which will be a series of pictures, but it is not done just yet. that one will have to wait :)

I was nominated for an award from another blogger - THANKS!

You are supposed to list some random facts about yourself. I am too lazy to go back to the original blog to see how many I have to list, so I will just list as many as I can.

1 - I never ever eat the last pickle/cherry/etc from a glass jar. To me, it always looks like a lab specimen. In fact, I usually open a new jar and don't even transfer the old ones to a new jar. I am sure it annoys my husband, since there are usually 2 jars in the fridge.

2 - I wear contacts and obviously take them out every night. I open both sides of the lens case and put it on the counter. I always take out my left contact first. But, I always put it in the right hand side of the case. I put the left cap on it, but it is on the right side LOL

3 - Speaking of contacts/glasses. I sleep with my glasses on. I have really bad eyesight and can not see at all without glasses or contacts. So, if I get up in the middle of the night and not have them on, I get very disoriented. And, if someone tries to take them off while I am sleeping, I really think someone is trying to take my eyes out.

4 - I have 18 holes in my ears (10 in one and 8 in the other), but I never wear earings. The last time I wore earings was at my sister-in-laws wedding, which was in Oct 2008. And before that was probably my wedding in 2005. Back in day, I wore tiny silver hoop earings. Never took them out. But, when I started working a "real" job - I had to take them out every day. Eventually, I stopped putting them back in. I am pretty sure most of the holes have closed.

5 - I don't ever take a shower at night if I am home alone. If it is dark, and I am alone, no shower. I really can't explain it - and it has nothing to do with a horror movie (heard there was a scene like this), because I don't watch horror movies and really have no idea what the scene it.

6 - WEIRD BEWARE. OK, this one is a weird one. Don't judge. If I see a dead animal on the side of the road that is in a weird position, I always pose like the animal. I had no idea that I even did it until someone else pointed it out to me. I also get a kick out of road signs that look like animals. Like "curve ahead" with several attached side streets. hard to explain, will have to try to take a pic

7 - I like the smell of fresh asphalt. I know my sister like the smell of skunk.

I am sure there are tons more, if I think of any more in the next few days, I will add them :)

Request to terminate parental rights was submitted today

Now, while I would never wish that a mother (or father) would lose rights to their child - - - in this case it really is the right thing to do. I won't get into details for obvious reasons, but with her history over the last 9 years and 3 kids, and the "trouble" she has gotten into in the last 14 months - it really is the best for Lil J.

But, today is the day that they announced in court last month that the "Request to Terminate Parental Rights" would be submitted. It does not mean that they WILL be terminated, it is just the request. The caseworkers and lawyers submit detailed records of the reasons for removal and everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) that has happened, and has NOT happened the past 14 months. Basically, a report that details the reasons WHY rights should be terminated.

I even got confirmation last week from our adoption case worker that the request has been drafted and finalized and it was just a matter of sending it to the court.

It does not mean much, but it is a step in the direction of adoption by us.

The county where the case is has a long backlog of trials, court hearings, etc - so it could be MONTHS before we get a termination trial date. After the rights are terminated, Lil J would be available for adoption.

The caseworker had said something about the fact that once he is available for adoption, it is no longer under a certain county. And, I can request that the adoption take place in another county. Well, we do not live in the county where the case it, so we might do just that.

The case is in a very populated county, so it does not surprise me that they are backlogged. The county that we live in is farmland / rural. So, the caseload may not be too bad. I guess we will cross that bridge when we get to it.

So, just wanted to give an update

Family Pics in Central Park

I know a woman from one of the message boards that I am on, she is a pro photographer. If she can get enough interest in a certain city, she books several mini sessions on the same day and travels for the shoots.

She lives in IL but came to NYC this past weekend. I was so excited to get a spot, the slots fill up quickly.

She posted a preview on her blog, I can't believe how great they are! She was even able to get great pics of Colin with an actual smile. Because, trust me, he was not the most willing participant if you know what I mean.

I glad we went with the colors that we did, really made the pics POP.

Of course, she could not post any pics of Lil J - so I can not wait to see the ones with him in them. She did send me just one as a teaser, and I know the rest will look awesome.

So - for your viewing pleasure (lol)
http://brishamphotography.com/blog/?p=3525

New Chimney - finally

When we bought our house, we were surprised that the chimney was on such a major slant. There were braces holding it up. Because of this, we thought it was falling down. Not the case. Our house is a victorian, and as such the builders made sure that everything was symetrical on the outside. Even if that mean things were wonky on the inside. They wanted the chimney in a certain place on the roofline, and therefore built the chimney on a slant since the furnace is (basically) in the center of the basement.

We had some issues with with our heating, and was told that the chimney was crumbling, and the debris was falling IN the chimney and clogging our furnace.

We were afraid that it would eventually fall over and crash into our second floor.

We finally had the money to replace it. We wanted to have it go straight up, since we plan on re-doing the attic eventually. This way, we can build around it and it will (now) only take up a 2x2 space. Before, because of the slant, it would be more like 2x8 - big difference :) The attic is so tall that they went straight up, and then at around 10 feet, they angled it toward where it meets the roofline.

You can still see the braces in the after pics, which is cool since you can really see how much more straight it is now. The braces don't do anything and will be taken down if/when we refinish the space.

The did not need any tools to take the bricks down, that is how bad they were. Not only that, but they took the bricks from the 3rd floor BY HAND in buckets. They made 3 trips of about 18 buckets each time. Did I mention that you have to go up about 14 steps just to get to my front door? So, 15 steps from the attic to the 2nd floor. 15 steps to the first floor. 14 steps to the street. Um, yeah - that is 45 steps. Thankfully it was not me :)

So - here are the pics:














This is where you can see the bend to the roof. Again, the brackets are doing nothing. But totally held the old chimney up.

The chub that is my daugher's knees

Cora is chunky, we all know that. But, her knees crack me up. She has rolls on TOP of her knees. it is roll after roll. The onsie hide some of the chub in her thighs lol.

Happy Easter!

Here is a pic of my mom and the two youngest grandchildren. I actually think this is a great pic of my mom.

Cora looks so big next to my niece - and they are 9.5 months apart.

Had to crop out Lil J :(

Little Diva lol

A little girl and her daddy :)

One of my favorites!

NT Scan went well

Had my NT Scan today. The measurements were so small that the tech could hardly measure them. The smaller the measurement, the better. So, my measurement of 0.8 was GREAT!!!!

It is so cool to see the baby move on the scan, even though I can not feel it.

The size of the baby was perfect to my last period - so my due date is spot on (Oct 20). Cora was born at 37w3d, so I am trying to pick a guess date for this one. Last time, I was only a day off. I just need my whole family to plan a vacation, that seemed to work last time :)

My thyroid was "abnormal" and I have to have it repeated in a few weeks. Since they are not doing anything about it now, I guess it is not something to really worry about.

I go back in about a month, have to do an early glucose test, have another scan (checing cervical length), followup bloodwork, etc.

So, that is that :)