Another Great Turnout!!

Parker next to his sign along the Walk America Route!

Our Awesome 2006 Parker's Peeps Team!!!

First I just want to thank all of my great friends who walked in celebration of Parker this past Saturday! We had a great walk and a great turnout for our team "Parker's Peeps"...the weather held out until the very end when we got rained on for about five minutes. The walk was about three miles longer this year and I appreciate everybody hanging in there as we kept passing the point where we thought we would be turning around to go back! Ha! I just wanted to say thank you so much to Bobby, Lisha, Drew, Mom, Kathy, Jenn, Lori, Kelly, Matt and of course Parker for walking to support not only Parker but the March of Dimes. Next, year will be even better because we will have the wonderful Lisha designing our family team shirts. Maybe we can recruit even more members...soon we might need our own tent. Thanks again everybody...you guys are the best team I could ever ask for! And honestly, monkeys fling poo so who cares??? :)

We got an email back today from Merrill our social worker. She is on the ball she thanked us for sending our autobiographies so quickly and she is going to contact us this week to schedule our meetings. We are moving right along!!

We had a great weekend and we are looking forward to a busy week filled with lots of friends. We hope everybody has a great week! And Erin, your scrapbooks will be as good as new soon. No worries!

We got our Social Worker Assignment!!

Yippee! Late Thursday we finally got our social worker assigned to us. Her name is Merrill Littleberry and I have heard some good things about her. I emailed her our autobiographies today so now I am just waiting to hear back from her. Hopefully, we can get at least one of our home studies scheduled within the next week. I don't expect her to come out next week but at least pencil in her date book so we can continue moving forward with this. We are so excited!

I also got my second new daughter gift today. Parker's wonderful OT brought me the I Love You Like Crazy Cakes book today. It was so very thoughtful and sweet of her. It turns out that her brother adopted a little girl from China just a few years back. It is amazing how many people have gotten their wonderful little daughters from China.

Tomorrow morning we are waking up at the crack of dawn to walk around White Rock Lake for the March of Dimes walk. This is our second year as a family team. It is so wonderful to see all the people who are walking to prevent prematurity. I have always supported this cause long before I had Parker but ever since Parker was born so early, it has been near and dear to my heart. I know that not all families are as fortunate as we are and I thank my stars everyday for my healthy, happy boy.

I hope everybody has a good and dry weekend! The picture that I am posting is our team picture from last year's March of Dimes walk.

Yum Yum Raisins!!

Parker ate raisins today at lunch. It doesn't sound like much to most people but when you have a 2 1/2 year old who has been a difficult eater his whole life, it makes a huge difference. He didn't just eat one or two either, he ate the whole small box of them!! I am so proud of him!

We found out today that GWCA is hiring some new social workers so we should have one assigned to us by the end of the week! I am getting too excited!

Other than that, we played at Aunty Kathy's house today and with her dog Charlie. Kathy gave Parker some other new foods to try and needless to say, he loved Little Debbie fudge rounds. I mean who doesn't.

I also got Parker signed up for preschool starting in the fall. He will be going twice a week and he will be in the same class as his good friend Miss C! I am so excited for the two of them! Signing off now to go enjoy sitting outside in this cool weather!

Christmas is coming....

So nothing too new today. I am still waiting to hear who our social worker is so we can move forward with our adoption process. Matt and I spent hours filling out our autobiographies this weekend for the social worker. We had no idea they would take that long. I also have both of our birth certificates in hand. Now I need to go grab a copy of our marriage license this week and order our passports and we will be good to go....for now. Not sure when our home study will begin but I am sure it is not that far off.

On a different note, can you believe it is almost May? I measure my years in how close it is until Christmas. Most of my friends make fun of me because I start my Christmas shopping in July and tend to be completely done by the beginning of October. I usually end up going a little crazy at the end because I have been done for so long. I admit that I am an huge Christmas fan and our holidays are usually obnoxiously big but I don't think it will be so this year. Even though I will most likely be working again, we will be saving our money for China. Then next year we can have a huge Christmas will our new daughter...that is something to really look forward to. Besides, this year will probably be the first that Parker will really understand Christmas and Santa so we will just put all our effort into that! So kids, just about eight months to go! Start shopping!

Met Some Great People Tonight!!!

We had our dinner tonight for all the local GWCA families. There were some wonderful people there tonight. It was so great to put the faces to blogs I have been reading for the past few weeks! I wish I got to talk to more people but there were just so many new people there! (Robyn...we could get into a lot of trouble together!) Erin did a phenomenal job of putting this together and I hope we do it again! It is great to see so many people at different stages in their journeys. I really hope to be friends with these people for a very long time. That is all for now, after my nice big margarita, I am beat!

By the way, I have to give my guy Parker snaps all around. He did awesome at dinner! Asking a 2 1/2 year old to sit still for over an hour and a half during dinner is a large order...he did awesome! Of course my wonderful husband helped out but I am really proud of Parker. As a reward, we gave him a bunch of Oreo's when we got home! Yum! I am posting one of my all time favorite pictures of Parker which was taken last summer!

I Met My New Friends Today!!!

I finally got to meet some of my new friends today. What a great group of ladies! It is so amazing to me that we all share an amazing thing in common...adopting a baby girl from China. I look forward to being involved with these families for a very very long time! Unfortunately for us, Betsy will be moving away soon! She will be getting her daughter (Ella Elizabeth) any day and I am so happy for her! Erin and Mollianne were wonderful as always, can't wait to see you tomorrow! Thanks again for organizing this lunch! Valerie...hang in there Aubriana will be here soon! I wish you were coming to dinner tomorrow night! Robyn, you are so sweet to have bought me my first baby gift for my daughter and so thoughtful to bring a cute puzzle for Parker. Lastly, Kelley, I wish I got a chance to talk with your more! Your daughters are adorable!

Of course, Parker was trying to do his best at lunch but it was a tough situation since we are still working on this feeding stuff. He fell asleep with about two minutes left in our ride home so of course when I went to put him down for a nap, he woke right up. Needless to say, it has been one of those days. He has been cranky and really pushing all of my buttons. I am totally frazzled and looking forward to giving him is bath tonight...after bath is his bedtime! Yippee! Maybe then I can finally watch movie I was suppose to watch yesterday!!

P.S. Brenda, if you are reading this, I hope you are feeling better!!!

I am Beat!!!

So the carpet looks wonderful! I cannot believe how hard that the two guys who installed it worked. They were at my house for 11 hours working and my house isn't huge. I gave them a nice tip and they were so grateful. It made me sad to think that most people don't tip them...breaking down furniture, moving it, pulling out old carpet, putting down new carpet, and putting furniture back together is one tough job. My house is nice and cozy now and I just love it. Isn't it great how when you do something big to your house you just feel so much more at home?

Anyway, I have been cleaning and moving things like a madwoman the past two days and I am beat. I even disassembled our treadmill and moved it into our closet today...and it is a huge treadmill. I am proud of myself that I get things done. I pride myself on being independant but unfortunately, it can also backfire because I don't always ask for help when I need to.

So I got some cute pictures of Parker today after we got back from the store. He climed up in the drivers seat of my car while I was unpacking. He looked like such a big boy and he was having so much fun. I am getting so excited about talking to him about his Mei Mei. That is what we decided to call her until we officially name her, which we plan to do after our LID. I think the older he gets though, the more he will comprehend it. Right now, anything that isn't a fire truck, Dora, Thomas the Tank, or cheese crackers he isn't too interested in.

So off to watch "The Forty Year Old Virgin" tonight as "The Office" isn't on. I am also looking forward to lunching with some new friends tomorrow.

I've been tagged...HMMM!

Well Erin http://moomiesandmelonwater.blogspot.com/ has tagged me and now I am suppose to reveal six weird things about myself. This shouldn't be too hard...

1. Most people know, well not everybody, that I have a phobia of mayonnaise. That includes Miracle Whip, Hellman's, everything you name it. I have lived my entire life without eating ranch, coleslaw, deviled eggs, potato salad etc. It is an inherited trait, my father has the phobia too. I won't touch it and leave when it is being smeared on stuff. I plan to pass it onto Parker and my daughter.

2. I have a small benign tumor in my head. Not on my brain but on the inside of my skull. Many people have them but never find out about them. I found out because I am paranoid of things such as this just like Erin is. It does cause any problems but now that I found out about it, I have to monitor it with MRI's. I might have to have it out eventually or might not.

3. I have a giant 4 inch vertical scar on my abdomen which I got from my emergency C-Section. I plan to have plastic surgery...aka tummy tuck...to correct this in the future.

4. I was known as 'Nikewoman' in high school because I owned an obsessive amount of Nike's. I had to have every new pair that came out. I grew out of the habit in college but not before amassing almost 100 pairs of them.

5. I can focus on something and become obsessive about it. Working out, cleaning, rearranging, you name it. I go in and out of phases.

6. My freshman year in college I partied so hard and had so much fun I was on academic probation. I did pick up my grades after that though. I had a great time though!

So I am suppose to send this to six people but I don't know six other bloggers well enough yet...BOO HOO! Erin, plug me into more of them! Maybe this weekend!

So Much To Do!!!

It has been over a week since my last post...sorry. Trying to keep up here but time seems to fly. We just got back from Michigan where Matt's parents live and we got to spend some quality time with them as well as one of Matt's sisters, our newest nephew and Parker's Great Grandparents. I think it is absolutely amazing that he has Great Grandparents! They both think it is so amazing that he is so healthy and happy considering his early enterance into the world!

Parker had a great visit with the Easter Bunny. He got a great Easter basket from both sets of Grandparents. However, he wasn't too keen on taking a picture with the Easter Bunny. He did say hi to him from a distance so I guess that was something!

Tomorrow we are having new carpet put in so it has been chaotic trying to clean out the closets in the upstairs bedrooms. Two of the closets have been catchall closets so I ended up getting rid of a ton of stuff...of course I also found some pictures, papers and notebooks from college which I ended up going through and that set me back. Don't you love it when you go into clean something and you take a trip down memory lane??

The adoption process seems to be moving forward...I have already received my birth certificates and Matt's are on the way. I will order the marriage license tomorrow and start filling out the autobiography and Matt will work on his. I think once we get these done we will get moving on the home visits. The more we get involved in this the more excited I get. We discussed everything this past weekend with Matt's family and they are so happy for us!

Once again, GWCA and Erin have been so helpful in the entire process. Parker and I are meeting Erin, Mollianne, and several other soon to be new friends on Friday for lunch and then Saturday again at dinner. This will be such a great network of lifelong friends for us! I am so excited!

Looking forward to my carpet tomorrow...it has been six years of white carpet that has slowly taken on the color of everything in the world. The picture is of Parker and Gommie (his Great Grandmother) taken yesterday!

Got the Adoption Agreement TODAY!!

I haven't posted in a few days because it has been a little crazy around here. I have been in a cleaning mode and have been cleaning out rooms. It has taken so much time but I love looking at the newly organized clean room when I am done. The upside of this is that I have found some great stuff to list on Ebay. For those of you who do not know me, I love Ebay!

Well, today, Mikey is at the vet. I am actually going to have to put him down today. My Mom is going to come and watch Parker so I can be with Mikey. Mikey is our tabby cat who I rescued from the street shortly before we got married almost seven years ago. He is a wonderful snuggle cat and has proved to be a great companion for Merlin our fat, lazy cat. Unfotunatley, Mikey has hypertension which caused him to go blind within about two months. I took him to the vet last September for a check up...everything looked great. By November he was blind and his kidney's shutting down. We have actually noticed that the past few days Mikey has been sitting in the corner in Parker's playroom and just not being himself. I took him to the vet and found out he has lost a pound and not doing to well. I just had that feeling that I know it is time. He has never adapted to being blind and there is nothing worse than watching a beloved animal walk into walls and live in a state of constant disorentation. Merlin chases him around and tries to play with him but ends up scaring him even further. So it is time. This is the second animal I have had to put down in less than a month. What is going on??????

More later...

APPROVED! Let the Paper Chase begin!!!

YIPPEEEE!!! I spoke with GWCA and they had just finished looking over our application and we have been approved. I honestly couldn't think of a reason we wouldn't be approved but I really didn't feel official until we got the approval. So now we will begin our paperchase journey. I am hoping to have all of it completed by September. Wow! This is just so exciting to think that I am going to a mommy again of a beautiful little girl. What is more amazing is to think that Parker is going to be a big brother. It means so much to us for Parker to have somebody to grow up with. I mean he really is going to need somebody to make fun of us with when he gets older.

Everybody has been so great and supportive of us in this journey so far and I thank you all. Erin, you especially because you have been my advocate and cheering group! Of course my mind is already ripping a border off Parker's playroom, which will be our daughter's room, and picking a paint color etc...I know I have a year and a half...but Parker's early arrival into the world just shows you that you can never be too prepared. Honestly though, I think we will wait a few months until we are a little further into the process to pick a name and such. I do have so ideas already.

As for an update on Parker's eating...he is making progress. We went to our good friends house yesterday and he took bites of a PB&J sandwich that Rebecca made him. Of course he was watching Celia and I think that had a lot to do with it. Not just because he is crazy about her but that peer pressure has a lot to do with it. It was such a wonderful thing for me to see him is normal food! Of course, I made it again yesterday and he didn't want it and he hasn't eaten anything new today but progress is progress. Now if I can just get Celia to come over for every meal!

Our Application Has Been Received!!!

We faxed our application this morning to GWCA since the USPS decided to hang onto it for awhile. Glad I didn't include my credit card information in there. Anyway, GWCA emailed us to let us know it was being processed and we should hear about approval either way sometime this week. I am excited but I have to tell you some of the momentum has died down only because of my anticipation last week. Once I hear from them, I will be giddy like a school girl!

We had our workshop this past Saturday with our regional representative from GWCA, Erin. She has truly become a friend through this process so far and I was so glad to finally meet her! Her workshop was awesome and answered some questions that we had about everything that is involved in the process. I am so glad to have her in my corner and so glad to have become her friend! Her daughter Mollianne is adorable and she and Parker could get into some serious trouble...hopefully, he will leave his pants on though :)!

So Matt and I have started looking at model houses on the weekends now in Frisco. Of course, everything we look at is more than what we are looking for and out of our price range. We seem to end up driving around and looking in areas that are $700k and up. It is so much fun though. Parker has had a blast running through model homes.

For those of you who don't, Parker still has his eating issues. The issues consist of only wanting to eat crackers, nutrigrain bars, and Gerber vegetables and fruits. Yes, baby food still. We went along with this for far too long because we thought it was part of his prematurity. Well, after consulting the developmental doctors and visits from his OT, we have confirmed he does not have any sensory issues (sometimes a preemie problem) he is just stuborn and wants to maintain control. So I have finally had enough of my 2 1/2 year old boy only eating baby food and I am taking the tough Mom approach. Of course this also on advice from our doctors and such. We all eat at the table for almost every meal and he gets what we make him or he doesn't eat. Don't worry we make sure he gets food during the day, just not his pound of Goldfish or Gerber Bananas or Nutrigrains. Tonight we gave him part of a grilled cheese, some apples and some yogurt. Of course he didn't eat it but he did put the apple in his mouth and he didn't throw the bowl. Everybody who knows Parker knows this has gone on too long...he has never eaten a hamburger, french fry, mashed potatoes, chicken nugget...I can go on. All of this because he just doesn't want to. So wish me luck I have been being tough since last Thursday and I think I am starting to wear him down. It might take weeks or months but I will perservere! Poor kid is hungrier than normal though and I leave food out for him but it is nothing he wants.

Okay, enough for today. Parker has Mother's Day Out tomorrow and I get to have breakfast with my friend Lori...I haven't been to breakfast in forever! Looking forward to it!

Oh...I am posting a picture of my cat Merlin. I love Merlin because he is the epitomy of a lazy sloth. But he is good for keeping you warm and snuggling!