Look Alikes ... Part One

Here is our Miss Sophie ...


... and, I know what you're thinkin'. "Oh, great! Another picture of your (completely and utterly adorable) kid in her PJ's ... you're point is ...?"


And, yes, I would have to agree with you, she IS completely and utterly adorable.

Thank you for noticing!


But, there is a point to my posting another seemingly random picture of said completely and utterly adorable child. And that point is this ...



*** Enter drumroll for dramatic effect ***


... THIS is her daddy in similar dress and pose in days long gone by.


And, oh. my. good. golly. Does she not look just like him?



It is amazing to me that God would bring us a child - through adoption, no less - that looks so very much like my man! Thank you Lord, there is no doubt in our minds that this little girl (ya know, the completely and utterly adorable one) was created just for us!


He just had to take the scenic route in getting her to us.


Which just makes the journey a little more interesting, no?



And, in case you need a little more proof, kindly observe the following :



Like Daughter ...


... like Daddy!


MAN, that God is sooooooo good!

And, coming soon (if I can find a decent baby pic of yours truly), another episode of Look Alikes: Like Mother Like Daughter, featuring Hattie Grace!

Who, by the way, is completely and utterly adorable her own sweet self!

Whoo 2 The Hoo

Hi! I just wanted to pop in real quick to let y'all know that ... ahem ...

ESTHER STARTS TODAY!!!!!!!

That is all.

(yeah, just a little excited)

I'm About To Whine ...

So, Sunday we went to church. All of us. And it has been a while since every person in this house was healthy enough to go to church at the same time. So long, in fact, there was actual rejoicing when we all walked through the door. No, literally! People at the door (OK, person, Derek!!) watched us walk in and said "YAY, you're all healthy!!". And we heard similar comments from a few others through the day. We also all made it to Home Group for Bible Study that night! Yeah, it was wonderful!

Then I woke up on Monday morning not feeling quite myself. I wrote it off thinking that I had maybe just not slept well... But by the middle of the day, I knew. I am sick. STINK! Thought I had escaped the big bad bug!

And THEN ... Yesterday I called the eye doctor to make an appointment. Now, ya know we have been trying to save money. Because, ya know, we have none! So when I opened the last pair of contacts IN NOVEMBER, I figured I had better make em last cause we could not afford to get more! So, I stretched em out knowing that my last appointment was in January and if I could last til this January, new ones would be covered by insurance - clever, no? So, I called to make my appointment (tomorrow is one year) and found out that, hello, we are on a 24 month plan! Meaning I cannot get another exam until NEXT January! And, they will not sell you more contacts when your prescription is more than a year old. Arrrggghhhh!

Oh yeah, one more thing ... my glasses, they BROKE!

So, I convinced the lovely lady at Costco to sell me one box of contacts today - and we happened to have a Costco gift certificate (Thank You Father God!!!) that covered them. But, they cannot fix my glasses ... SO, if anyone knows where a person can get a pair of glasses, contacts and an eye exam for, oh, I dunno, FREE, let me in on that little goodie! Thanks!

So, here I sit, feeling like a freight truck is sitting on my sinuses and wearing contacts even though I am pretty sure my eyeball is turned inside out and being scratched by a brillo pad. Yeah, it is fun!

OK, I just needed to get that whining over with before my man gets home!

On the other hand, my man is REALLY good at taking care of an ailing wife, the girls are contentedly playing together as I type, and the roast my Hubby made on Sunday seems to be multiplying in the fridge and lasting longer than it should ... kinda like a certain fish and loaf of bread you may have heard of!

Because, yesiree bobby, my God is just THAT good!

Oh, yes He is!

And I am soooo done whining now!

Your welcome!

So, how is your day going?

Face of Joy

Well, I don't know that I will ever win this thing, but I love photographing faces ... especially the faces of my children! This weeks theme is "joy" and I have chosen this shot of Sophie:

This was taken as she came down the slide for the very first time. I think the picture clearly shows that she LOVED the ride! And this pure, sweet, innocent joy was all over her face every single time she came around that bend. But nothing was quite as sweet as this first time!

Project 365 - Week 4

Well, here we are again. Another glimpse into the crazy happenings here at B Manor. I almost said "exciting happenings", which would have surely led all three of you reading this to get the wrong impression. But, though we may not be exciting to the rest of the world, to this mommy we are more than enough! And "crazy", we are fo sho!!!

Jan. 19 - her is Sweet Miss Sophie bustin' a move with her man Elmo (or, as she likes to call him "ma-mo"). And for all of you not in the know, homegirl can bust a SERIOUS move!!!

Jan. 20 - Oh. My. GOSH. Will this snow EVER melt away? Not with temps that don't even break freezing it won't! Welcome to the frozen North!

Jan. 21 - I am following along with my PBFF Beth Moore and memorizing some Scripture this year. We are doing two verses a month. However, I picked for my first verse the entire 150th chapter of Psalms. Yeah, still working on that one. But here is Verse 6 - the last verse! I ma gettin' er done!

Jan 22 - This is the book for my devo, "Jesus, 90 days with the One and Only" ... this day ROCKED my world! I love you Beth Moore! And if you happen to read my little blog (HAH!) and see this and wanted to comment, I am sure I would welcome that gladly!

Jan. 23 - A date with the man of my dreams AND a cherry limeaid! Pure Heaven my friends, PURE Heaven! Oh, sweet Sonic, welcome to MI!!! We sat in the street for over 20 minutes just waiting to get in the parking lot, the line was so long ... Oh, SO worth it!!

Jan. 24 - (two pics for this day) We took the girls outside to play in the snow. Sophie was not so much a fan. Now, judging from this pic you would thing the snow was not too deep, but you would be wrong. It has just been so cold that Sophie could not break through to even sink!

Hattie, however, was breaking it off in chunks and having a ball. This girl stayed out so long that her sleeves were literally frozen solid when she came in. Yes, a warm bath was soooo in order!

Jan. 25 - today I will be doing the mad dash to catch up with my Max Lucado study for Home Group tonite! So, whatever you do, do NOT tell SuperModel that I am still working on this!

So, how was YOUR week?

Laying It All Out There ...

I have been writing this post in my head for weeks now. I have been struggling with how much to put out there and how. I so do not want to create high drama and become a downer blog, but I feel that sharing is necessary in order to - as my sweet Frannie suggests - keep it real. I want to be REAL and I want to show how REAL my God is. How He cares and provides through it all.

So, I am just gonna start typing and not look back. I am telling ya now - there WILL be typos! So, ya know, try not to judge ...

Three years ago in April, Hubbs and I (and Hattie Grace) moved up here to the frozen tundra from AZ. It was a move that we felt completely called by God to make. He had placed every single piece in succession to show us the way. We obediently followed Him on this new adventure. Hubbs found a job quite quickly - a true miracle in this state's economy! And we found a beautiful home that we felt was our dream home! The only draw back was the fact that the job was a temp position adn due to be outsourced. So, 3 months after buying the house, when he was offered a position that was not only permanent, but also closer to home and offering benefits, we took it happily. He was promised opportunities to advance and pay increases on a regular basis. We eventually realized that those were not promises that were going to be kept. PROBLEM NO.1...

In the winter of that year, we entered into an online business opportunity. We liked the products and LOVE the people involved and figured it couldn't hurt. PROBLEM NO.2 ...

THe next spring we felt the call to add to our family - we wanted Hattie to have a sibling as she grew up and felt that the time had come to start the adoption process. We figured we would be on a waiting list for at least a year and then have a few months after that to prepare for baby. We though we would have plenty of time to save up for the adoption costs. PROBLEM NO.3 (the money, not AT ALL the baby!!!)

It seems, in a business you have to SPEND money to make money. We only got the first part of that equation going ... money was going out at a much higher rate than it was coming in. And that aint good! We continued to try to make it work and we kept sinking further into debt. We should have slowed down, but we didn't. We didn't want to fail and we didn't want to let anyone down. LESSON LEARNED ... the hard way.

And, it seems that God had a much faster timeline in mind with our Sophie Bug. We never even made it to a waiting list before we were chosen by our birthmom. Plus, Sophie is a twin, so the medical stuff was amplified, leaving Kim unable to work during the pregnancy so the "pass through" fees (pregnancy related costs, paid by adoptive parents) were much higher than anticipated. Add to all of this the fact that the agency is paid in CASH, so our day to day expenses found their ways to our credit cards. Not to mention the gas costs of driving over 120 miles twice a week for Dr visits and the babysitters to watch Hattie while I did! Now, I want to be sure that you realize that this is one part of the story that we would not trade for anything in the world! Sophie is worth everything that it took to get her into our home - she is the PERFECT child for our little family!

Last January - one year ago - we decided to purchase a new car for Hubby. Now, this was not a spur of the moment, willy-nilly, flying by the seat of our pants decision. We researched our choices, looking for something economical, fuel efficient and safe. His old car was literally falling apart. It had close to 200,000 miles on it and had been sporting the "Check Engine" signal for about 90,000 of them. The air did not work and the heat had only one setting - SAUNA! I watched him leave every mornign afraid of where and when he would break down. Now, we had been gifted some money that we had pigeon holed for the car. We could have bought a used car for the amount that we had, but chose to buy new instead. We wanted to be sure that we would not have to buy again for quite a while, so we financed a portion of the car. At the time, we were still good. Our credit scores were still high enough to get us a great rate, so we figured it would not be a problem.

Not long after that we began to sink. The debts began to snowball, the business REALLY began to cost us each month and, well, we ALL know what happened to gas prices! Steve has a pretty good drive to work, so that was not an easy adjustment to make.

By fall we were struggling - REALLY struggling. Going backward in fact. And in November we learned that Hubb's hours an dpay were going to be cut. Drastically! He went from working over 50 hours per week to no more than 32. At that point, we were done. We jsut could not keep going.

On top of everything else, this country - as a whole - is in financial distress, which leads to panic, rising costs of everyday items and lack of opportunity for new employment. Put these factors all together and you come to where we are today.

We have chosen - I say chosen, like it was a choice! - to walk away from our home. We tried negotiating with the mortgage companies to get a short sale or some kind of deal. However, every time we tried to talk to anyone there we would get a different story and no real answers. We simply cannot make our payments right now, so we are just going to walk away. We have to make decisions so that we can do what is best for our family. We have to keep food on the table and clothes on two growing girls little bodies and those needs are much more important than the house we do it in. So, we are looking for a new home. We have found that we can rent a home for the same cost of renting an apartment. We have even found a home that we love that is a lease with option to buy. They know our history and where we are and have accepted our application. The catch is that they do not want the house vacant until April and we cannot move until April. SO, they are going to keep the house listed and if they find someone who can take it sooner we will be out of luck. HOWEVER, if it is still empty come March, we will get the house. It is a sweet 1920's colonial with much of that old charm - built ins and wood floors. It does need some work, but we are not afraid of that. Structurally it seems sound. The good thing about being able to lease for a year or two is that we will have a pretty good idea of what all it needs and if we can do all of it. We are just waiting to see what God has in store in that area. We are trusting HIM and HIM alone!!!

ANd that leads me to this - our most fervent prayer in all of this is that we want God to be glorified. Not just at the end of this road, when we are back on our feet, but with every step in between. He is our constant source of strength and provision. He will get us through this and we want to live this journey out for all of the world to see. We have really struggled with justifying walking away from our home and filing bankruptcy against our faith, but God has been faithful in this area as well. He has shown us that we can still pay our debtors back, but in our time and on our schedule without all of the deadlines and interest rates weighing us down. He has shown us that we can take the forgiveness of these debts and pay it forward by getting back to some of the ministries we have had to stop supporting and by being able to give to our community and to our church body the way we have not been able to lately. He has shown us that we can move on from here and end up in a much better place for our family. He has provided grace and mercy and HOPE! We are truly humbled by the way that our fRamily has reached out to help us and support us in prayer. We are on our face in thankfulness on a daily basis.

And THIS is the part of the journey I want to live out loud. We want to show the ways He has blessed us, is Blessing us and will continue to Bless us on a daily basis to the world. Let this be our mission field and let us help to support others in this position in the future.

I hope that this all makes sense. I am not even gonna go back and proof read, because I don't want to be tempted to change or delete ANYTHING! Please pray for our family, especially the girls, as we make and adjust to all of the changes ahead. I know we will be fine - we have each other, our fRamily and our GOD, what else do we need?

Her Sweet Face

So, Hattie is not a fan of having her picture taken. And by "not a fan" I mean she will do anything in her power to avoid it at all costs. That being said, we have long since given up on taking her to a portrait studio - it is just not money well spent. Instead, we have become experts in the sneaky, ninja-like approach, method of photography.

Last spring, we took a day off of school to our advantage and headed to the beach. I needed some pics of the girls for Father's Day gifts I was working on, and I figured the warm day and sunshine would be an excellent canvas.

This particular picture was taken from afar with a telephoto lens. Hattie loves three things - wind on her face, movement and mud. This is a picture of her enjoying all three - she was swinging (movement and wind) while splashing in a ginormous mud puddle beneath the swing. I could not recreate the pure joy and contentment on her face if I tried.

Can I just say that I love being this girl's mommy - it is a challenge at times and not at all what I expected, but she seriously ROCKS MY WORLD and I would not trade her for the world!

Be sure to stop by the I <3 Faces sight for more fun face pics!

Project 365 - Week 3

Welcome back to Project 365! Have I mentioned that I am LOVING this?!?! Well, I am - sooo much! And I think it is gonna be great to look back at our year this way. In fact, I have been thinking that it would be fun to make a book of the pics in order, with the stories of each, for the girls to have when they get older - one for each of them. And I may even keep doing it for years to come ... Yeah, ask me again in July, right?

Well, here is our week:

Jan. 12 - We are looking for a new place to live (long story and one that I have been trying to write for a few weeks now ... it is coming, I promise!). This is the house we fell in love with on Monday ... at least I did! It is a 1920's farm house with quite a few updates, but still all of the old charm. THIS is a shot of the front entry hall - toille fabric on the wall ... this is the room that sealed the deal for me! We are just waiting to see if we get it!

Jan. 13 - this is what my house looked like at the end of this day ... and truthfully, I was so happy for the day to be done, that I just left it this way ... Shhhh, don't tell my mom!

Jan. 14 - Double Blessings: I needed a pick me up, it had been an emotional day. Within 15 minutes time, I found a bag of popcorn in the pantry and a post, by my PBFF Beth Moore, on her blog that was soooooo encouraging and uplifting! I LOVE that girl!

Jan. 15 - It was COLD y'all ... I had hoped for a snow day, but no such luck. I tried to get ya a picture of my little eskimo getting on the bus. However, it was SO COLD that my camera would not work outside. I had to run in and get the shot from the window as the bus was driving away. Didn't even have time to open the shades!!!

Jan. 16 - NO SCHOOL!!! And, of course, that means, PAJAMA DAY!!!! And, this is what happens when you put a certain fave movie of mine in the DVD player (Mamma Mia!!!) - little girls, and a big girl too, all start to DANCE!!!

Honey! Honey!!!

Jan. 17 - Hubbs surprised me with some Chinese food! He certainly knows the way to this girl's heart!!!

Jan. 18 - One of the moments that I live for - snuggle time on the couch with my man! Soph was napping and Hattie was playing happily by herself, so Hubby and I got a few moments in. Sadly, he caught Sophie's bug, so kissing was out, just snuggling!

Ah well, gotta take what I can get, ya know?!?!?!

So, how was YOUR week?!

I Heart Faces!

This fun little Blog has a weekly contest - you enter a pic of a face. It can be a child's face or an adult's face (there are two seperate catagories), whichever you chose. And since I love taking pictures of faces, especially those of my children, I thought it would be fun to enter.

Here is my entry for this week... This is a random pic of Sophie Bug. Her contagious smile is evident - how could you NOT smile back?

Good golly, I love this girl!!!

Project 365 - Week 2

Well, it is that time again - Sara over at Make Music From Your Heart To The Lord is hosting Project 365. A fun little diddy in which ya take a picture a day for an entire year and then post them up each week for the world to see ... or ya know, for my mom and the 2 of you who read this, to see!

So, here is the week in B Manor...

Jan. 4 - I had a date with my Teri ... she just got this hat. And she is ROCKIN' it! Kinda gangsta don't ya think?!

Jan. 5 - Miss Belle spent the day with us. As we were taking her back to her daddy, I looked in the back seat and witnessed this sweet moment between these two little buddies! Awwww!

Jan. 6 - I forgot to take a pic on Tues., but when I realized the oversight I took this pic. Because the reason I don't have a pic is because THIS is what I was doing all day - driving, texting and phone calling ... and not the fun kind either!

But, ya know, it is all OK, because I had my girlies with me for the fun!!!! (And, I DID NOT text while driving ... I promise!)

Jan. 7 - This is my brother Jimmy's birthday. If I had had the pleasure of seeing him on this fine day, I am sure I would have a lovely pic of him making some weird, goody or flat out rude face at the camera ...

Instead, you get me ... cause I am FINALLY figuring out how to get my hair to do it's THANG!!!

Jan. 8 - Forgot to take a pic again - did I mention that Tues. and Thurs. are my crazy days?! I did, however, remember before the day was completely over ... FIVE MINUTES before it was over!!! (Please excuse the blurriness ... I didn't want to flash and wake up the man!!)

Jan. 9 - Sophie (or "Baby" as she calls herself!!!) woke up sick. So, seeing as how she did not want to be more than 2.5 feet away form my side ALL DAY LONG, this was my view ... ALL DAY LONG!!! We even took a nap in this position in the afternoon.

Umm, did I say "We" ... oh yeah, it was HEAVEN!!! Except for the sick baby part ...

Jan. 10 - I actually mad a fully self prepared home cooked meal ... Shepherds Pie.

And my Hubby, he LOVED it!

And I Love making that man happy!

So, we will just ignore the fact that Hattie sat and looked at it staring up at her from her little plate refusing to even try it.

Because that, my friends, is my life ... and I LOVE IT!!!


So, how was YOUR week?!

A New Name

I am a nickname junkie - Just about everyone I know has one. My parents are "Homer and Marge" (oh yeah, they love it!!!), Hubbs is "Farmboy", "Honey Bear" or "Do", Hattie is "Boo", "Belly", "Puddin' Pop" or "Girlie", depending on the mood! And Sophie has a few too - "Bug", "Soapy" or, at times, "Bubba Gump" - gotta love Forest Gump!!!

But today, it seems, Miss Sophie gave herself a nick name.

Now, to set the scene, Sophie's vocabulary is growing daily. Her first word, however, was Dada. She LOVES her daddy. And, once she said that one, Hubbs and I both began a quest to get her to say Mama. She did ... and then she stopped. And proceeded to start calling ME Dada too. And then giggle. She thinks she is oh so funny!

So we regularly go through every one in the house and their names. Point at Hubbs - "Dada", point at Hattie - "Hada" (that is what Soph calls her), Point at Sophie - "Sophie", Point at me - "Mama"! She goes through it all and ends with me and says "DADA!" and laughs her little head off.

Today was a little different though. We never even made it to Mama, because every time we got to Sophie she would shake her little head and point at herself and say "Baby".

Every. Single. Time!!!

Which got me thinking about this:

Every. Single. Time.

And then I read about our little friend Belle's day HERE. And seeing that little pic of her in the corner makes me wanna watch the movie just so I can see the last scene and hear Patrick Swayze say ...

"Nobody puts Baby in the corner!"

Yeah, I am a sad, strange girl.

Project 365 - A Little ShakeUp

For the last several months I have done a little thing called "Picture Perfect Monday". It was a weekly glance - through pictures - into our lives. And I have loved it ... almost as much as my mommy has. (HI MOMMY!!!)

However, I am now gonna shake it up a bit. Ya see Sara, over at Make Music From Your Heart To The Lord, has started a project. And, y'all, it is such a cool idea, I could not resist getting involved. She has even started a whole new blog - A Year In My Life - to celebrate!!!

So, without further adieu ...

Welcome To Project 365!!!

Here is the plan: You take one picture for each day of the year (now, you can take more than one, but you have to choose just one as your official shot of the day!), and then each Sunday, you post your week in pics. I am soooooooo excited for this I cannot even tell ya!

And, here is our first week!!!

January 1: Now, truth be told, I did not learn of this little diddy until Jan. 2ND, so ... well, I cheated a little. This is actually from the last week of Dec. However, since Hattie has had this costume on every single day since, I guess it'll work!

Now, to some of you, this may seem like a little girl celebrating Halloween a little late. BUT, to me this is a miracle. I have tried for 3 years to get this child into a costume. THIS costume in particular. But, she has been afraid of it. And when I say "afraid", I mean running in fear, screaming at the top of her lungs and hiding and crying for a very long time.

So, yeah, the fact that she wore it - miracle. The fact that she wears it every day - annoying, but a miracle none the less!

January 2: Hattie got this little number from her big brother Kissy for Christmas. And she loves it! It has letter and number challenges - as well as a few others that we have not tried yet. On Friday (the 2ND), we discovered these games. Homegirl sat there for 45 minutes playing these games ... with no help from anyone.


For those of you who may be new here - Hattie has some "issues" and sitting for any length of time on a structured activity is sooooo not her thing. But she loved it, and has continuously gone back to the game several times a day!


This would be ANOTHER miracle for our girl! Have I mentioned that I LOVE THIS KID!!!



January 3: This was the final day of taking down the Christmas decor. This pic shows my trusty new vaccuum (which I WON - nothing better than FREE!!!), as well as a stack of toys needing to find a home and, way up on that shelf behind the vac, the centerpiece that Sweet Jane won at the ladies banquet and promptly gifted to me. It is very Christmasy, but I'm thinking of leaving that one out!

Here is a closer shot of it ... what do ya think?
(try to ignore the "junk" behind it ... this was taken during the set up process!!!)

And there ya have it - the first week of 2009 here in B manor. And, amazingly, there are no pics of Miss Sophie in here. That is because she is cutting some teeth - molars - and is not her happy-go-lucky self.

And, trust me, you do not want to see her like that!

She is making a comeback though, so come back next week for more!