NOTE TO SELF....

do not give Elizabeth brownies with frosting on them!

yesterday Elizabeth had a routine appointment with the ear specialist.

I mentioned to the doc that we were a little concerned (and I do mean a little-we haven't been too worried or panicking over this!) that her speech seemed a bit delayed. She is definitely talking ALOT more than she used to -and what' s more, we can actually understand her most of the time. Our concern is that when she tries to repeat words we say, they'll come out sounding sorta like the word we said -but not quite. Almost like she's repeating it back to us just like she heard it, not like it's supposed to sound. Does that make sense? hope so!

Anyway, the doc asked if we wanted to check out a loaner soft-band BAHA to see if it would help. The BAHA is a bone anchored hearing aid. When she is closer to age 6 or 7, a BAHA will most likely be permanently implanted into her skull, behind her ear and into her hair line. It sounds worse than it is. :) What will be implanted is just a teeny titanium post -and then the BAHA will be able to snap on and off. For children to young to the surgery, they put the BAHA on a headband. Unfortunately, the only headband the doctor had is "space aliens". :) The audiologist assured me that, if we decide to order one, they'll get a much more girly headband for Elizabeth.

She doesn't seem to mind having it on. In fact, she seems to enjoy it and will tell me if it's not on or even if it's not turned up enough for her.

We haven't noticed much of a difference in her hearing or speech yet, but that may take some time. Because her hearing on the right side is just fine,she luckily really hasn't suffered true hearing loss. which is a very good thing. :) We're just hoping to fine-tune her hearing with this BAHA.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! :)

oh my! I'm so tired...but in a good way. :)

John and I arrived in La*s Ve*gas around 8am Sunday morning and proceeded to walk up and down the entire strip! well, not really the whole strip, but it sure felt like it! We left our baggage at the Excalibur (cuz we couldn't check in 'till 3pm), and eventually walked all the way to the Wynn -and then back. Of course we didn't just walk straight from one hotel to the next, we wandered around the various hotels. By the time we got back to our hotel to check in at 3:30..we were beyond exhausted! We even took a little nap! we're such old fuddy-duddies!!! :)

John figured out tonight we walked over 5 miles yesterday! No wonder our feet were killing us!!!

For dinner, John had planned for us to eat at Bobby F*lay's Mesa Gr*ill (cuz I LOVE watching the Food Ne*twork) but we ended up walking by it during the day and decided the food looked too fancy schmancy for us -so we ended up going to the buffet at the Mir*age...YUM-O!

After dinner John took me to see Wa*yne Bra*dy at the Vene*tian.

Oh my heck! John and I haven't laughed that much in as long as I can remember. Wayne is AMAZING. truly amazing. The show was 75% improv and then the rest was a bit of a "variety show" with him singing and dancing. That was the best 2 hours of entertainment I've had in forever. If you go to Ve*gas, you MUST go see Wayne and his show. You will NOT be disappointed!

After dinner we walked back to our hotel, passing by Bel*agio. If you haven't ever seen the water fountain display, you're missing out. We happened to be walking by at midnight (I can't believe we stayed up that late!! hehehe!) when they did their nightly show to the National Anthem. I was able to capture a bit of it on video.

This morning we woke up, ate b'fast, and headed to the airport. The trip was short -but very sweet. :)

We celebrated my birthday with the kids tonight. Before dinner I got to open my presents. My mom had gone out and bought things for me and each kid got to pick which to give me. :)

here's Andrew with my new Spide*rman kickboard. :)

E and me and my new duck floating ring thing.

Becca and me and my new diving rings.
hmmmmm...what could this be?!

ah yes- my new "noodles" for the pool!

I love all MY new pool toys! :)

I made a wish...but I can't tell you what I wished for. :) I'll let you know if it ever comes true. :)

CLARIFICATION

oh goodness people! :)

For those of you curious as to the plural "boys" in referring to the "boys room":

No, there is nothing in the works to be adding a little boy to the family just yet. :)
We have a "girls" room so it sounds funny to say "the boy (single) room"..so we just say "boyS".

I will say that John and I are in the process of updating our State Certification to adopt to keep us current for another year. We both feel that the Lord may have at least one more child to add to our family via adoption, so we want to stay current by our State's standards if He calls us to adopt within the next year.

I will divulge this much information: within days of returning home with Elizabeth, Andrew began asking where his "China brother" was. Becca started chiming in. They both talk about "their brother" as if he is very real and very much going to be a part of their lives.

I would very much like to add at least one more boy to our family. I LOVE having a son and would love to have another. Where he would come from isn't as big of a deal..China, Africa, the US...if we are to add another, I'm certain God will reveal to us the WHEN and the WHERE at the perfect time.

I will also say that although we are updating our State Certification, we have no plans to start a dossier. Elizabeth (and us) still needs some more adjustment time. We are dealing with issues that stem from her first 21 months in an orphanage -mainly the insecurity that comes from not having consistent love and discipline -and so to bring a sibling into the family right now just wouldn't be a good idea.

With that being said, I'm off to do a little packing. John has surprised me with a night in Las Vegas for my 35th birthday! I have no idea what we're doing or where we're staying or even where we're eating. He has planned it all for me. Great guy huh?!

We leave in the morning and come back home Monday early afternoon.

I'll let y'all know what my sweet hubby planned once I get back home! :)

IT'S OFFICIAL!!!

We are FINALLY home owners again. :)

After a sticky situation with getting our loan (our lender had a VERY ridiculous qualification for me to meet) and then our seller missing a FedEx dealine for mailing their closing documents, we FINALLY got the call today at 1pm that the loan had been funded, the documents reviewed, and our names recorded as the proud new owners of this home!

yipppppeeeeee!

We're aiming for moving in on Labor Day weekend...hoping that gives us ample time to have the tile ripped up, replaced, and pretty much the whole house painted. oh -and a pool fence installed. :)

I'm going to ask our painter if he can paint the kids' rooms while he's there. I wasn't going to do that before we moved in, but figure while I have a professional there I might as well. So now I have to obsess over more paint. :) The boys room should be fairly easy...the girls room is going to be pink again...but I didn't do a good job of picking out pink at the last house (it's a REALLY tough color to get right!) so I'm gonna be obsessing over pink for awhile. :)

LOTS OF PICTURES

Lots and lots of pictures for you today. :) Cuz I have alot of catching up to do!

The last few weeks have been more of a whirlwind than I imagined. Now that we've found "the house", I've been trying to get things set up to make it our own...namely, re-tiling and repainting. That means I've gone to about 8 tile stores picking up samples, several paint stores...visited the house twice to see samples in the light of the new house..hemmed and hawed over our decisions...and hemmed and hawed some more. :)

We are set to close on the house Thursday of this week. The tile guys will begin ripping up the old tile on Friday. There is so much tile work to be done they're estimating 7 working days. 7 working days -that's a long time, BUT it gives me more time to make sure I like the paint I've chosen AND for us to maybe re-do one of the carpeted rooms. :)

Since all that can be done for the house on our end is done..we decided to take a quick vacation to San Diego this past weekend to visit family. It's the only vacation we'll get now 'till the Holidays. It was so nice to be gone for a few days, but now there's so much to catch up on!

Here are some pics from the last week or so, mostly from our trip to San Diego.

Elizabeth showing off her foot. It's "ah betta!" in her own words!

packed and ready to hit the road to San Diego early Friday morning

our first stop was at my grandmother's house where the kids played outside for awhile

my grandmother offered them popsicles -a nice little treat on a warm summer afternoon. :)
after leaving my grandmother's house, we settled in over at my other gradma's house (where we stayed the weekend). She has a great backyard for kids to play in and explore.

how we slept for 3 nights. the kids like "sausages" on a twin bed and then in the foreground you can see another twin bed up against it. I slept there. John slept on the couch. :) He could have slept in another bedroom but the den he slept in is the only room that had air conditioning..so that's why he chose sleeping on the couch. :)

on Saturday we went to the San Diego Zoo. Above is a pic of one of 3 tiger cubs that just went on "display"..he's playing with his mommy.

did you know a rhino can apparently only see about 18 inches in front of his face?!

John and Andrew LOVED the reptile exhibit. Me, not so much. I especially don't like this picture -looks like the snake is going to eat my son!
we stayed with my mom's mom. This is her dad. He is in a care facility for Alzheimer's patients. He doesn't know who we are now..but we still go visit. The kids LOVE their Bup (what we've always called my grandpa). Becca was especially sweet with him.
Sunday evening we had dinner over at my aunt's house. I have 3 cousins on that side of the family, and 2 have little boys. Andrew was in heaven having boys to play with..and cars!

isn't that a great backyard?! my kids thought so!
Becca snuggling with my dad's mom-our grandmother. Sunday was the anniversary of my grandad's passing -6 years ago. I know she was especially sad on Sunday, so I'm really glad Becca was so sweet with her
a gorgeous sunset taken from my aunt's front yard.

A POST YOU MUST READ-updated

no-not any of my posts...I really don't consider any of mine "must reads"

The blog is Signs of Hope and it is written by my friend Carrie. She became my friend over 2 years ago when she was assigned to us as our adoption agency's Family Advocate. Last year, she and her husband quit their jobs here in the States to move to China to serve at an organization that primarily helps Special Needs orphans.

I'd consider all of her posts "must reads" as I think she is an excellent writer...but what you really MUST READ today is her post from August 4th titled All Isn't Rosy . It's part of a letter she sent out on Sunday...and it really struck a nerve within me. It is raw and honest...and it makes me want to just pick up our family and move to China to serve Him over there.

Please go read it...I think you'll be as touched as I was.

***If you want to read the story of the little guy's life from Carrie's post, you can see here***

MIGHTY MOUSE & SARA BETH BOW GIVEAWAY!

My mom is a retired Kindergarten teacher...and she was/is an amazing one. A teacher who spent alot of her own money to provide things for her classroom and kids. Over the 30+ years she taught, she accumulated quite a bit of "stuff" -most educational, but some just plain fun. She has a file cabinet full of videos. My kids have discovered this file cabinet! The first few days here, they wanted to watch a variety of videos..but for the past week, they've been addictied to MIGHTY MOUSE! Rebecca especially...it's the very first thing she asks for EVERY morning. :) I watch it and just giggle...it's so "old school" and I think it's great my kids love it so much. Even Elizabeth will ask for "mouse..mouse".

As any reader of my blog knows, my girls pretty much only wear Sara Beth Bows. Not just because they're absolutely amazing bows at phenomenal prices, but Jeanette (she's gotta be awesome if she shares my name right?!) is so wonderful to work with. She's been having great giveaways all summer long, but I've been so busy with house stuff I've forgotten to post about them.

For the month of August, she's giving away a $10 gift certificate towards any bow...and depending on what size of bow you want -you could probably even buy 2 with that $10. Here is the info you need in order to get yourself entered!

The winner of August's Great Bow Giveaway will win a $10 gift certificate to use on any bow styles, colors/patterns of ribbon that I have in stock!

You choose the bow/bows that you want!
As always, please refer to the giveaway rules below as some of them have been edited. No purchase necessary to win. The more entries you have, the greater your chances of winning!

1. Receive one entry for emailing your name and address to sarabethbows@carolina.rr.com

2. Receive one entry for EVERY NEW friend you refer to this giveaway (friend must mention your name for you to receive your entry, sorry friends referred from previous giveaways do not count for the new giveaway)

3. Receive one entry for EVERY $10 you spend at Sara Beth Bows from August 1-31, 2008

4. Receive one entry for linking this giveaway and Sara Beth Bows to your blog or website (please email me the link to your blog once you have posted about this giveaway. Link or entry must specifically mention August Giveaway)

Entries for the August Great Bow Giveaway will be accepted from July 30 - August 31 8:00 pm EST.

I have a MEME to catch up on from Emily, I'll try to make that my next post! Today is crazy busy with the inspection of the new house...1 estimate from a tile guy, 2 estimates from painters, and the inspection all at the same time...thankfully my sister is meeting me at the house too to help me pick out good paint colors and tile (she's a much better decorator than me!)