It's The Weekend....Again

So another week has gone by and it's finally Saturday. We had a low-key day. It's so nice to finally be finished with my master's classes. I didn't have to spend a few hours writing a paper today. It's amazing how writing papers became part of my weekend. Without it I felt like I had so much extra time.
We started our morning at McDonalds for breakfast. There's a play area that Abby loves and I had new coupons. I'm always happy with a carmel latte in my hand. Then it was off to do several loads of laundry.
Later in the morning my dad and Abraham came over to begin the building of storage shelves in my basement. I'm SO excited for these shelves. I have the perfect spot in my storage room so dad's building shelves around the three walls. When they're done all of my Christmas boxes and Abby's old clothes will finally be off the dusty ground. My brother and 2 nephews also stopped by to "give advice" about the shelves so our home was happily busy.
After lunch we headed out to buy a birthday present for a friend (I got the perfect one, so I'm excited!), then onto the grocery store and then the photo shop. It felt good to actually have time to run some errands.
After walking tacos for dinner, a hot shower and a quick game of Hi-Ho- Cherrio Abby headed off to bed. It's quiet now. Weekends are nice!
Here's the before picture. They didn't get the shelves done, but you can expect to see a finished picture later.

Abraham got to handle all the fun tools. There was lots of measuring twice and cutting once....

My amazing dad and Abraham bonding over the project.

Ouch! What a knockout!!

Abby and I played with some friends last night who have a Wii and a Wii Fit. We had so much fun! Abby was hilarious at the boxing and I loved the hula-hooping. Here are some pictures of the night. Here's Abby while we were testing her BMI index. She registered at the fitness level of a 23 year old. She's in great shape!!

Here's our friend Krista who laughed with us all night. She was great at the duck shooting and hula hooping.

Christina and Misha were a barrel of laughs. Misha was by far the best at all the games. I think that may be due to the fact that she owns the Wii and practices every night. Here's a video of Abby playing the boxing game. She was hilarious!! Make sure to watch to the very end, that's when it gets funny. Sorry that it's sideways, I can't figure out how to turn it around. Do you have any ideas?

What a Weekend!

We had a full weekend! We left Friday afternoon to head to Detroit to visit some friends, meet up with my sister and her family and go to IKEA. We had a great time! Here's our weekend in pictures. Enjoy! Here's Abby just hanging around in the hotel lobby. She loved staying in the hotel. The first night she slept in the bed with me, but that was a DISASTER! She sure moves around a lot when she's sleeping. Needless to say, the second night was in the pac-n-play. Ahhh...much better.

We spent around four hours in IKEA. Here's Abby trying out the furniture. She's only pretending to sleep, she really was a trooper through the whole store. I found quite a bit to put into my cart. The cutest thing was the mini plastic glasses I got for Abby to play with. Since we've been home, Abby's served me quite a few glasses of milk. :) The most disappointing aspect happened when I got home. I was putting away my purchases and found that my new glass salad bowl was cracked. I guess I'll have to be more careful next time.

Here's our favorite Grandma Barb!! We love her!! She came to shop with us and then later brought the whole family over to the hotel to swim with us and have a pizza birthday party. In this picture Abby is really sleeping. She asked for her coat to lay her head against and fell right asleep. It was too cute!

Papa and Nana in the hotel lobby waiting for our friends and the pizza. We stayed at the best hotel! It had a holidome and was perfect for our gathering.

The pool and hot tub were huge hits with the girls! Abby LOVES being with her cousins!! Here are Lauren, Sophie, Julia and Abby hanging out in the hot tub.

I asked Abby to stand still so I could take her picture. This is what I got....hmmm...she wasn't too happy with me. She would rather be in the hot tub.

Here's our favorite Hannah!! She came over later with her family for our pizza party. Abby loves her! She coaxed Hannah into the pool and they were in there for about an hour. Thanks Hannah for watching Abby! :)

Sophie turns three this coming week but since she lives so far away, Nana brought a cake and we celebrated early. She's such a cutie! Happy Birthday Sophie!!!

Do I look smarter???

Because I sure feel it!! I woke up today and went to my teacher inservice feeling quite normal. BUT...I came home much smarter!! It wasn't the inservice that bestowed this amazing feeling, it was the email I received from my university. I PASSED MY MASTERS CUMULATIVE EXAM!!! I've been waiting for this email for the last 12 days. I'm in my last grad class and will be done next week. Then I'll be done with my masters degree. Needless to say, I'm pretty happy today! :)

M & M World

Yesterday our friend Misha brought over a present for Abby. She has been in Las Vegas for the weekend and went to the M & M store. She came home with lots of presents for Abby. She's so sweet!! We had to use the M & M cup for dinner and she slept with the green M & M doll. I even went to bed with M & M stickers on my clothes. Thanks Misha!! Here's Abby's reaction when she opened the cup. She was so excited to use it right away. It even has one of those twisty straws inside. What fun!
Here she is showing off the rest of her treasures.

Let Go of the Dream

I read a quote the other day that's really gotten me thinking. Here's the quote:

Let go of the dream and start living the adventure!

For some reason, this quote has really hit home. There are many things that I dreamed about for my life and I never ever would have dreamed that I would be where I am today.

BUT...THERE IS NO OTHER PLACE I WOULD RATHER BE!

I had the usual dream for my life, I would meet the guy of my dreams, he would be an amazing Christian (perhaps even a minister), marry right out of college, have 3-4 children and be an amazing stay-at-home mom. Well...the adventure that God has led me on doesn't include one aspect of my dream. I'm a full time teacher, a single mom to an adopted daughter from Guatemala with another daughter on the way home from Ethiopia. But tonight as I sat on the floor watching my daughter dance with her whole body to some Christian music, my heart overflowed with joy.

I am content.

No, I don't have the dream I planned...but I'm living the adventure of life with my Jesus Christ! There is no other place I would rather be. Here's Abby busy on a Sunday morning. I'm getting dressed and she's playing on the computer. She's only three, but can maneuver herself all over the nick jr website.
We spent our Sunday afternoon playing with our neighbor Jake. Abby and Jake are only 6 months apart and they played together so well.
Last week Thursday night Jessica brought over some friends to cook some rice krispie treats and peanut butter bars. These girls were so much fun to have in the house and as you can see Abby joined right in with the cooking!

Singing is her passion

Abby loves to sing. She's always making up songs or singing some she knows. Music is on constantly in our home. Tonight she was in a silly mood and decided to sing a song to us. Maybe I should enter her in the next American Idol! :)

Abby's Forever Home Day!!

Today we celebrated Abby's forever home day!! Today's the day I brought her home from Guatemala and she officially became part of our family and home. It's the day we became a family. It's the day we celebrate the amazing blessing God placed in our lives.
I can't believe it's already been three years since she's been home. They've gone by so quickly. It was fun to look again at her old pictures to see how she's grown. To celebrate her special day I asked her where she wanted to go out for dinner. She immediately chose Dairy Queen. So we asked papa, nana and our friend Abraham to join us. She got to have whatever she wanted, she chose chicken nuggets, french fries and chocolate milk. For dessert she wanted vanilla ice cream with sprinkles! She loved it! Life doesn't get any better than ice cream with sprinkles.
In other news, I completed my master's cumulative exam today. I'll find out in two weeks whether I passed, but I'm feeling pretty confident. I was quite worried about this test and lost several night's sleep over it. It feels fantastic to have it over with. I'm also beginning to feel a little better, but I am moving slower than usual. I tire easily.
Below are some pictures of Abby through her three years with us. She's such a cutie! She's stolen my heart and I am forever hers. I love you dearly Abby!! Thank you for allowing me to be your mommy.

Camera is finally working again

I finally got my camera to work. Yeah!! Here's a photo update. Enjoy!Misha and Abby reading books last week Saturday night. We love Misha!!

Here's the fort Abby built (with a little help from mom). She loved it and played in it all afternoon. Maggie, our dog, was even allowed inside to play too.

Abby and her constant companion, Susie. They're two peas in a pod. You'll never find one without the other.

Abby loves dancing. Lately she's been into twirling and making herself so dizzy she falls down.

Conversations with Abby

Abby: Don't kiss me on the lips mommy. You have germs and I don't want to get sick like you.

Mommy: How did I get sick?

Abby: It's because you ate too much breakfast food.

Mommy: Breakfast food is bad for you?

Abby: Yes, it gives you TOO (big emphasis here) much energy.

Mommy: Is energy a bad thing?

Abby: Yes, it sometimes makes your foot hurt.

Yeah. Conversations with Abby are always entertaining. I can't always figure out her brain. Any thoughts?

Down for the Count---Part II

So apparently my immune system didn't completely heal from our last bout with sickness. I thought we were better, I was going on with the busyness of life, I was still tackling work, motherhood etc. But...sometimes your body can stop you in your tracks. Sometimes it says, "no, stop". Mine said it during the night and I woke up with a fever of 102.5 and a very sore throat. I called in sick again and headed straight to the doctor.

I have strep. A very bad case of strep. I'm very contagious.

My parents (true heroes) took Abby to their house early yesterday morning and have kept her overnight. I just didn't want to take the chance that she might get this too. I slept a lot yesterday, popped my penicillin and my aspirin and stared at the tv. I felt awful that I had to miss work because there were parent teacher conferences scheduled for the evening. Now I'll have to reschedule all those conferences. Oh, well sometimes your body just stays "stop!" I did go into work last night around 8 to get things ready for the sub today. Then it was home again to sleep and sleep and sleep. I'm feeling better this morning. I finally got my fever to go down, but my throat is still hurting. Abby's coming home after her afternoon nap. I can't wait to see her!! I'm just going to let my body relax this afternoon. I can't afford to not get well. I need to heal. There are just too many things going on right now....

I'm trying not to laugh out loud

I just checked on Abby. I put her to bed about forty minutes ago and it's been quiet so I went to see if she was sleeping. Haha! She was sitting up with a new pair of underwear on her head!! I tried not to laugh out loud, I tried to be the mom that focuses on the situation, but then I walked away and literally laughed out loud! She just cracks me up. She insisted that she doesn't know how the underwear got on her head, she WASN'T playing with it. Haha! :)

Sorry there isn't a picture with today's post. I'm having trouble getting my camera to download the pictures from our weekend. I'm hoping that it will cooperate soon.