Blogging A-Z challenge

 So I am going to try this A-Z Challenge.  Everyday (except Sundays) you post a new post following the alphabet as you go. You know 1st day is A, 2nd is B and so on and so forth. So I'll get to try and come up with topics that in some way relate to the letter of the day. It sounds like fun to me and maybe it'll help me remember to post daily and develop good posting habits.
 Try some of these other great blogs

Woohoo!

 Well Princess' mom voluntarily signed over her rights. So technically now she should be completely legally free and we should be able to smoothly go to adoption right? NOPE. Even though her dad signed over his rights a couple months ago while answering some of the social worker's questions on family history he mentioned that his grandma may have been Native American. Fart! Now the social worker is sending off letters to all the tribe to see if any of them have information on Princess' great grandma. She said it take a week but last time she did it it took about a month and she had to call the stragglers. So now we get to wait and hope. I really don't want to deal with ICWA laws, I know why they're in place and I understand wanting to keep children where they can learn about their heritage. It just annoys me in this case because she has never been exposed to any Native American culture, seriously she's probably learned more about it at our house. Gotta love the foster system.

Homework sucks

 So much for updating everyday, huh? I've also been trying to clean up every night so my poor hubby can walk into a clean house when he gets home after midnight. Oh and I have been trying to do a load of laundry a day, not just throw it in the washer and dryer oh no no but actually fold it and put it away. That's the part I hate and lately my laundry pile of stuff to fold and put away has been trying to take over my life so the best way to handle that is to only do 1 load but do everything. It works but it is a pain in the rear.

 Know what else is a pain? Kindergarten homework. Seriously I hate it with a passion. With Legoman it was so easy. I only had 3 kids and Moose was tiny and slept a lot. Now I have 3 under 3 running around while I'm trying to help Cap. I know Cap isn't stupid but he will try to convince you that he is while doing homework. Sometimes I feel like stabbing myself in the head with the pencil while trying to help him. Wow that sounds horrible out loud- er typed. You mom's know what I mean though right? Dad's too if they have time to help (although Hubby has exceptional patience with Cap during homework time). I try hard to stay positive but its harder than it should be and I find myself snapping at the littles as Cap and I try to plow through.

 On a positive note we get to see the girl's social worker tomorrow. I know a lot of foster parents that don't like to see the kids' workers but I love it. Basically we sit down she lets me know anything new in the case or anything I need to know about while I get to tell her how great the kids are doing. Unless they're not but both girls are awesome and growing so fast. Giggles is talking SOOOOO much now, not sure when it happened that she started talking more than anyone in the house but she is certainly there now. Princess is talking a lot now too and starting to get pushy with the other kids. I'm glad to see her standing up for herself and it makes me laugh when she stamps her foot in frustration when the older two don't listen to her.

 This last week we went on a trip and got to see a lot of family I haven't seen in a long time. While that sounds great the reason for the trip was sad, my aunt passed away. She was only 62 which really isn't old especially for my mom's side of the family where people seem to live into their 100's regularly. We got to hear some nice stories about her but it was weird for me. We weren't close and I didn't know her that well but it really seemed like there were two of her. One was my cool fun aunt that was always so pretty and I wanted to be just like and then there was this mean lady that was mad at everyone. It made me feel bad for her daughters who are some of my favorite family members. They also made the comment that there were two different mom's they remember. I guess now I can see that my aunt was bi polar. Apparently it runs in my family but no one really wants to get that official diagnosis because then they're labeled. My mom said she was officially diagnosed awhile back but she kept it hidden. Makes me wonder though if she had let the family know, the support and someone making sure she took her meds would that have made us have had better memories. Ones that weren't as tarnished as the ones I have.

Wow this is getting depressing apparently I need to go to bed.

Updates

 New rule to myself: update at least once a week. Not that anyone is really reading this but I want to develop the habit of writing should I ever get followers. So, lets see in the last few months we've had a birthday for Legoman. Pictures later of all the goodies I put together. We also did a joint family birthday party for Legoman and Moose since grandparents were out. Not that any of you care about that, I just realized that my last post was announcing that we were getting another foster placement!

 First I'll introduce our new little girl as Princess. I'm also going to go ahead and say that yes it is looking like we'll be adopting her. Apparently her mom is wanting to sign her over to us since she knows DCFS is going to move towards termination and she doesn't want her lost in the system. This next month they're going to set it up for her to sign the paperwork. I am super excited and nervous beyond belief that she's going to change her mind. Princess is super sweet and quiet, she is so the opposite of Giggles. (Not that Giggles isn't sweet she's just loud and boisterous.) She loves ballet at her tender age of 22 months, everytime she sees Bunheads start she freezes to watch the intro and any dance scene that follows. Princess adores shoes, she likes clothes too but shoes are her absolute favorite. I think we have bought over 30 pairs for her in the past 5 months.

 Also a little bit of an update on Giggles. Apparently she's not going to the other foster family. They are no longer an option. Soooo.... we might be adopting her too. The case workers involved are hoping that's how it goes but its all up to the judges. Her dad wants her (and seriously why wouldn't he, she is adorable) but he is in jail for a couple of years and there is a whole history about him that makes the department not want to place her with him. I have been warned though that Giggles case is going to take awhile, most likely years. Until then we get to enjoy having her.

 Oh and one more announcement, HART officially named us as the adoptive placement for both girls. I'm not sure what the HART is an acronym for but they basically set it up so that whenever a parent's rights are terminated and the appeal process is over you can move straight to adoption. That way you don't have to wait for an approval process afterwards.

Three kids 2 and under, insanity?

 So Giggles spent her first night last night so she is officially in our home as of yesterday. Mom and Grandma came over this morning and they'll come back with dad this afternoon to take her for a walk while I go get the big kiddlets. So far Giggles is doing pretty well, she cried last night and tried to go to the door so she could go home but nothing too drastic. Took a little more than half an hour for her to go to sleep. Pretty normal. Today when mom and grandma came over she had a couple of meltdown temper tantrums but again, that's expected.
  Yesterday Giggle's social worker called, would I be interested in another baby? She is about 17 months old and cute as can be. Then she realized I had two 2 year olds but I still said yes. Especially once she told me that this maybe possibly could be an adoptive placement. I won't meet her until tomorrow but I'm so excited.
 The fact that I'm excited leads me to wonder if I'm insane.

Captain's Birthday

 So the Captain is now 5, he had a great birthday and got his Nintendo DS. He opted for the big present no party deal so we went to round table as a family and just kind of relaxed. The next day I made chocolate dipped oreos for him to take to school. 

Step 1. Gather supplies 

Step 2. Music :)

Step 3. Dip the sticks in chocolate BEFORE sticking the stick into the oreo. This is a very important step

Step 4. Stick the dipped stick into the oreo. Double stuffed works best. After you stick them in refrigerate and they'll stay on the sticks better 

Step 5. Pull thoroughly chilled oreos out of the fridge and dip them in melted chocolate. I used a knife to smooth the chocolate and Hubby got me a cake pop stand. Non skid underneath made it work much better. 

Helpful hint. Have a piece of aluminum foil to toss mistakes or broken cookies onto. Dispose of those by eating so you leave no trace for the children or husband to find. They'll think you're amazing and made no mistakes ;)

Step 6. After they harden I stick them in the fridge for a big just so they're completely hard. Then you decorate. In this case they were supposed to look like Captain America's shield. Stars didn't come out very well but really are kindergartners going to care?

Step 7. Put them in cute baggies so littles can take them home instead of driving the teacher crazy.

Blowing off the dust

 So I haven't posted for awhile but that's probably ok since I don't think anyone actually reads this or follows me. I have good news today! Yesterday our local the manager of our DCFS office called and asked if I could do her a favor. Wow that worried me, I was thinking oh no a big sibling set that we're not licensed for or extreme disabilities or something like that. Nope nothing like that, would I mind a 2 year old girl for a couple of months while her parents wait for an ICPC? (Yes I realize they're not her biological parents but they've had her since she was tiny and really they are her parents) I asked if she had any issues or special need still trying to find out where this favor came in. Nope no real issues some very minor things same as with Moose. Of course I said yes and the whole family came over today.
 I spent all last night worrying about making a good impression and what if they didn't like me and all sorts of crazy stuff. Well they got here and the family was great. The little girl is so CUTE and her and Moose got along really well. They actually look pretty similar and could pass as twins. So all the minions played while the adults got a chance to talk and get to know each other. Now we'll get to do a transition for Giggles where she'll get to come over and play while her house is being packed up and some overnights where her parents come after she's been awake for a bit until they have to leave. So hard for them but hopefully paperwork will go fast, either way I think Giggles will be so much fun.
  So what have we been doing while we've been empty? Experimenting with edible play doughs! This one is oatmeal, flour, peanut butter, sugar, cornstarch and cinnamon. Each boy got a pinch of sugar, pinch of cinnamon and raisins to mix in and 'make cookies'. I still think it was too goopy.

Oh and we weren't chosen for the two girls, I'm ok with it now. For awhile though I was sad.