Ah.......A Much Needed Distraction!

After a couple of very busy weeks of work and several weeks of feeling down about how things are moving in Guatemala, Mark let me know he had the week end off and was planning a special surprise for Maria. Knowing how much his baby girl loves to romp and play in the snow, he decided we needed to head down to Paoli Peaks to spend the day snow tubing. Maria didn't know where we were going, just that Daddy had a surprise for her. We loaded up the truck and hit the road. After asking for probably the twentieth time "Are we there yet?", she gave up and she and Monkey snoozed on the trip down.


It's about a two hour drive on some twisting turning roads ,which she would have enjoyed had she been awake. Probably the closest thing to a roller coaster she'll get for quite some time. I don't know if she'll ever be tall enough to meet the height requirement to ride a real one. Anyway, it was a perfect day. The warmest we've had for a while. It's a little expensive but we had such a good time. Listening to her squeal with delight on the way down the hills was absolutely priceless!


I don't know how many times she said afterwards "thank you so much for my surprise............it was so fun!"
It was what we all needed, to get away and just have some fun. Yes, even me, the one who sooo wants winter to be over, had a good time in the snow. I might even be fine with one more trip down there before they close for the winter ;)

What a great idea for a fun day daddy!

Uh Oh....

....I think someone forgot to tell my daffodils that Punxsutawney saw his shadow last week!

It looks like my Spring bulbs are just as anxious for Spring as I am. At least the sun is shining today. Even though the high temp is only 25 ((((((brrrrrr)))))), there is no wind so it isn't such a biting cold. Who knows, maybe the daffodils know something ole Phil doesn't;)

Lets hope so!

Adoption news: The PGN had no news other than they are working on the investigation. I was hoping for more but at least our lawyer sent someone to check. That's more than has happened in a long time.

Waiting for the Snow...

It's remarkably quiet in my house this morning. Mark and Kyle have gone to work, Kelsey has gone to school and Maria is still snoozing at 8am. I don't know what that poor girl is going to do next year when she has to get up for kindergarten every morning because unless I wake her up, she'll easily sleep until 9:00 or 10:00.

Our weather forecast is for 4 to 6 inches of snow which should be starting any time but right now we just have rain. I am so ready for winter to be over! I'm good with cold weather at Christmas time. A white Christmas is the best, but one good snow is all I care for and then I'm ready for Spring! Unfortunately, my personal likes and dislikes don't seem to affect the weather.

I've neglected my blogging lately and decided this morning would be a good time to get caught up. We all got together a few weeks ago to celebrate our December and January birthdays. We have several in those two months: my brother Jay, our little punkin boy Riley, my son-in-law Tim, my nephew Trey, my nephew Caleb, my daughter Anna and my Dad.

We had a surprise party for Daddy at Church on his actual birthday. Seventy-five years deserves special attention so we invited some friends and had finger foods and watched the Colts win their playoff game on the big screen TV that Jay brought in for us.

SURPRISE!!!!

Dad was certainly surprised and we all had a good time.

Joshua and Alison came over to take Maria sledding in the back yard after our last snow. You see, they had a great time so there is absolutely no need to have any more snow.

Woo Hoo!!! Look out belooooooow!!!!!

We headed down south to Evansville with Lisa and Ella to a get together with the SIFTGA group for a play day at Walthers indoor golf and fun. One dollar was all it cost for the girls to climb around and play all day..........money well spent! They had a blast! Thanks for organizing it Becky!


I've taken so many pictures of our sweet little Riley lately that haven't made it into blogdom. Here's one of my favorites. What a sweet boy!

Now for adoption news.........................uhhhh, there's really not any. Our lawyer has decided it would not be too much trouble to send someone to PGN to check on the status of our investigation. Wow, how kind of him! We were hoping to hear something last Friday but as usual, that didn't happen. Hopefully we'll get some kind of news this week.

Please continue to pray for all the children still stuck in process in Guatemala. The country is hoping to reopen adoptions in the summer for older and special needs children. The adoptions will be part of a pilot program and the countries involved have not been chosen yet by Guatemala. I pray if the US is chosen, our government will do something to advocate for the children already in process before they begin the new process.

And last but certainly not least.......................I'm still chocolate free! Amazing!! Unbelievable actually but so far so good!