It's amazing, it's been a year. . . .

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Don't judge me. . .
Okay, I'm nervous....we meet them in 58 minutes. Bobby is getting his hair cut right now.....I usually calm down after a beer........don't look down on me....I'm going to drink one before we go....just one though! The more I think about it...the funnier it sounds....my mom carried my sister and I a week past her due date....the night her water broke.....my dad took her to dinner....what did she have............steak and a beer.....

The Taylors Make Four
Thursday, July 3, 2008

Our First Meeting
We had our first meeting with the boys today and I don't think it could have gone any better! The boys were told before we had arrived. John was a little shocked that his own 3rd grade teacher was adopting him. Anthony was just happy that we had a pool!
We went to McDonald's for lunch and it seemed that John got a little tearie-eyed as we were sitting there as a family. Anthony was a little shy but soon that broke away to show a very polite loving brother.
We went to Wal-Mart afterwards because John wanted to buy some kind of gaming cards and he bought his brother a set that he wanted.
Then we headed to the Ft. Worth Zoo. We couldn't even make it all the way through the zoo, the boys were so interested in gaining more information about all the animals that they saw. The boys are so smart. . . and that's not just because I'll be their "mom". I just can't tell you how much fun we had trying to get to know each other.
We get to pick up the boys tomorrow (Anthony wanted us to pick him up 5 minutes after he would be dropped off at his babysitters house). We were supposed to just pick up Anthony from his babysitters house, but after talking to his foster mom, we're going to save her some money and just pick him up at 6:45am....I bet Anthony is excited! They got to see pictures of their rooms and they think their names on the walls are "awesome." Since we know so much about John already, we are going to take Anthony out to breakfast so we can have some one-on-one time...I think he was a little hurt because we were telling John about all the things we did for him before we could tell him we were adopting him. After we take Anthony out for breakfast we will pick up John and then we are going shopping for fishing equipment then making our way to Granbury. We're going to buy a bunch of fireworks!
We read the psych evals on the boys yesterday. . .Anthony reads at a high school level. The boys are either above or right on task for school. We found out today that on all 3 TAKS tests that 5th graders take--he missed one question on each one. We're going to talk to his foster mom about their application for him to enter a magnet school for engineering....hopefully he was approved.
My mom saw pictures of the boys (my parents are in Milwaulkee until Tuesday) and she said that Anthony reminds her of her brother who passed a few years ago...I'm glad. I just can't get over how polite both of the boys are.
I love them more than I did during this whole mad process.

This was one year ago today.

And here they are at the Astros game last week

How they've changed so much!

Summertime. . .

AH. . . . .Summertime. . . .

The last month has been a little hectic, so now we've hit the ground running! Last Thursday we left to Houston to watch the Houston Astros play at Minute Maid Park. On Friday we left Houston to go to San Antonio. Along the way we were stopped by a fatality accident and stopped at a gas station called Buccee's. . . the "mascot" is a beaver, the cutest one you'll ever see! We got t-shirts and the boys got stuffed buccee's. But the bathrooms there are GORGEOUS!! And the place is HUGE! When we got to San Antonio we changed into swimsuits and headed to Fiesta Texas to ride the rides and play in their water park--it was crowded at the water park so we headed to the rides. I've become very nauseaus on rides, which worries me for Disney in less than 30 days! I take Ginger root when I'm in the car as shot gun rider and I read or play my video games, but it doesn't seem to work for rides. Saturday we did the whole Riverwalk thing and they had the Houston ST. Festival going on with a lot of vendors, we left the boys to do the mirror maze and lazer thing and we walked around the festival. We added a cross to our collection for the dining room! Sunday we headed home with a stop at the outlet malls in San Marcus.

This week I struggled through being very bored at summer school, not many kids there. And yesterday we went to Hurricane Harbor--water parks just aren't my thing! I got an email from my principal wanting me to call her because she's going to change my grade level position--I'm praying for 3rd grade (Bobby teaches that grade level and would be a HUGE help) if she really HAS to change me.

I hope to start on the murals for the boys' rooms on Monday, Anthony is getting a pitcher, catcher and batter and John is getting a life size astronaut on the moon with the flag.

I'll add pictures of our trip once I get the camera charged again. . . .

Summertime. . .

and the livin' is easy!

Well, the last two weeks haven't been "easy": Bobby's been working (part of the week before last and this past week) and we've been babysitting little Ben for an exact week now.

We've been running around trying to get things for our Disney trip (37 more days!) and planning other getaways. We were going to go to California to visit my family and do other tourist-y things but it's just too much traveling for us. This weekend we are getting away to Houston and San Antonio. When we get back, I'll start substituting for a co-worker for summer school, it's only 3 days from 7:30 to 12:30. . .pretty easy.

Since we're not going to CA, I was thinking about also painting a mural in the boys' rooms. I want to do an astronaut (life size) on the moon in one of them, probably Johns. . .we'll see though.

Well Kriss and Riley are on their way to pick up Ben--I gotta make sure they have all of the stuff they brought over.

I'll leave you with a pic of John's cake. . . .I know. . .it's really late. . . .

My newest title. . .

Today I got the word. . . .I'll be the newest Kindergarten teacher at Eastern Hills Elementary! I'm so excited to get out of the art position! My principal was giving me so many compliments today and she wants me to help interview the new art teacher!

Tonight we took John to go get his party invitations and other things. . .first he wanted Star Wars, now tonight he decides to change his mind to military. . . .so now I"m changing the cake again! Kriss is awesome and already found a picture of a tank (which is the invitation design too) and I'm going to bring the ingredients over on Thursday when I pick up Anthony (he gets the privilige of hanging out with her and the 2B's) and we're going to get it all decorated Friday after my last day at school!

JOhn's party is from 3-6 on Saturday (I only wanted to deal with cake--no other food) and it'll be a pool party. He also invited one boy to spend the night.

My sister left on Friday for Disney World and we received pictures of the girls getting pictures with the princesses and they look like the are having a blast! They get back on Saturday and next week Bobby starts a curriculum job for two weeks, so we'll be headed to NRH2O with my sister and the girls for two weeks!

Well, off to read some more then head off to bed!

John's Birthday

Alright, school is just about over (THANK GOD!) and John's birthday is June 8th. The weekend we get out of school (June 6th) we're going to have a birthday party/swim party for him. He wants to have a Star Wars theme. I would LOVE to make him an awesome cake. . .nothing like you see here well, okay, not the horrible stuff, but something really awesome! I wanted to make him a lightsaber cake, but how in the world would you make a cake round and cylinder shaped. DING-hello, we love the cake balls.....we have to form them. . . .I think I might have just created the lightsaber cake, I just don't know if I should do the chocolate bark on the outside of it--kinda hard crumbly....would be hard to cut into servings. Any ideas????? Kriss--talking mainly to you! ha ha!



This weekend we are having a swim party over at the house. . .I wish my sister could come over, but they get to get ready for their Disney World vacation! how fun! I wish we could have gone together! Yes, that's right, my sister is back in our lives. . .couldn't have asked for a better time too--Mother's day! Her and my mother are starting counseling and then I'll be asked to go soon. We're too old to be doing the craziness of not talking, especially being twins, and since I'm not even clear on what occurred to make this happen, I'm hoping I don't screw it up again. I'd really love for Kriss and Kristi to meet and share stories--having little ones and all. I hope this summer we can get together and hang out. I know that I definately fear losing my closest friend! ((((coffee--sooon!))))

I am horrible about posting pictures and video--I know! But I will hopefully sit down and get those put on the computer.
Oh, job update: looks like I'll be staying at Eastern Hills, but not as the art teacher (yea!). . .they are currently looking at placing me in either 1st, 2nd, or 3rd grade! we'll see!