What Do You Do All Day?"

A man came home from work and found his three children outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn all around the front yard. The door of his wife's car was open, as was the front door to the house and there was no sign of the dog. Proceeding into the entry, he found an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, and the throw rug was wadded against one wall. In the front room the TV was loudly blaring a cartoon channel, and the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing. In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, the fridge door was open wide, dog food was spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door.

He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and more piles of clothes, looking for his wife. He was worried she might be ill, or that something serious had happened. He was met with a small trickle of water as it made its way out the bathroom door. As he peered inside he found wet towels, scummy soap and more toys strewn over the floor. Miles of toilet paper lay in a heap and toothpaste had been smeared over the mirror and walls.

As he rushed to the bedroom, he found his wife still curled up in the bed in her pajamas, reading a novel. She looked up at him, smiled, and asked how his day went. He looked at her bewildered and asked, "What happened here today?" She again smiled and answered, "You know everyday when you come home from work and you ask me what in the world I do all day?" "Yes," was his incredulous reply. She answered, "Well, todayI didn't do it."

Hehehehee! Thanks to the Smith Family blog for the laugh.

Social Worker visit is easier 2nd time around

Just did the update for our homestudy. The social worker was very nice, the questions were super quick, and then we just chatted. This ensures we are still living where we say, doing what we say, and at least half-way able to carry on coherent conversation. Thus meaning, we are still fit to be parents. Hmmm....good thing she didn't check the freezer....AHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!

To see how empty it is you goof-balls. Geeesh! You've been watching too many horror flicks!

If you love me, you will NOT buy it

10 Months

To commemorate this month's LID Anniversary, I'm going to buy this children's book. Looks cute enough and it fits the "ten" theme.

Has anyone else read any of Eric Carle's books? If so, please tell me if I'm wasting my moola or making a wise investment in future storytimes.

Any other favorite children's books that are a *must have* for Kayla's bookshelf?

Clay Balls

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

A man was exploring caves by the seashore. In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay balls. It was like someone had rolled clay balls and left them out in the sun to bake.They didn't look like much, but they intrigued the man, so he took the bag out of the cave with him.

As he strolled along the beach, he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could.He thought little about it, until he dropped one of the clay balls and it cracked open on a rock. Inside was a beautiful, precious stone!Excited, the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls. Each contained a similar treasure. He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had left.

Then it struck him.He had been on the beach a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Instead ofthousands of dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of thousands, but he had just thrown it away!

It's like that with people. We look at someone, maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel. It doesn't look like much from the outside. It isn't always beautiful or sparkling, so we discount it.We see that person as less important than someone more beautiful or stylish or well known or wealthy But we have not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside that person.

There is a treasure in each one of us. If we take the time to get to know that person, and if we ask God to show us that person the way He sees them, then the clay begins to peel away and the brilliant gem begins to shine forth.May we not come to the end of our lives and find out that we have thrown away a fortune in friendships because the gems were hidden in bits of clay. May we see the people in our world as God sees them.

I am so blessed by the gems of friendship I have with each of you. Thank you for looking beyond my clay vessel.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Thought it was something dirty....didn't you?!!Sure it's a chain e-mail...but I liked it, so I posted it. Thanks to my friend, Candie, for sharing it with me.

Running out of ways to say

Still waiting....

Did you even know there's such a thing as a visual thesaurus ? Gotta love the net and its ability to amuse during the seemingly endless wait. My favorite is wait= work. If I was really bored (or a teacher), I guess I would now use each synonym in a complete sentence. Actually, I have kind of done this in my head already, I'm just to lazy to type them out.

Is this really what my evenings have come to? These referrals just have to speed up!!!

Some progress has been made...

As of September 1st, 2006 we officially made it out of the "Review" Room. The day I read the news on the CCAA website, I heard angels singing and imagined myself running across a field toward Kayla...very Sound of Music. Bobby bought champagne (perk of paper pregnancy) and we ate steak.

The next day...

Reality set in that we are still quite far off from our little dossier gaining access to the "Matching" Room. Best guess right now is somewhere between the January and July.

Is it odd that I actually picture my file as a flat mini-me just hanging out in the hall with a number on a ticket, like at the DMV? In my head, my mini-me file is bored, moping around, yawning, popping gum and waiting to be called. Sometimes my mini-me file plots little mission impossible schemes to break into the matching room and shuffle to the front of the line.