How was everyone's Thanksgiving? Mine was alright. We went up north to Chuck's aunt and uncles home for the __ family Thanksgiving dinner... they have two of them every year between the three kids, one at Thanksgiving and the other at Christmas. The Thanksgiving one is where everyone draws names and gives them a gift at the Christmas one, this year I drew my sister-in-law, Kelly's, name so I think that will be fun shopping for her because I know what she likes. The meal it self was good but since I was in my manual wheelchair and couldn't roll myself, Chuck was helping with the Turkey so he would leave me in the middle of the conversation. People have a tendency to walk as they talk (I have observed this for many years now) and they would end up talking behind me and since I couldn't turn myself around I could just sit there... very boring! We left early (Chuck started to get bored too) mainly because we had to leave Gracie shut up in the bathroom while we were gone and we were afraid that she would get in to the cupboards and tear everything apart. She did really well though, she only peed once... don't worry guys, it was on the linoleum and not on the carpet!

Most everybody seemed to have forgotten that yesterday was our 10th anniversary. I have actually survived Chuck for 10 long years! We didn't do much except to go out to eat. He was going to rent a room but I told him no lets wait and do something when we can afford it. So yesterday afternoon, Chuck and I looked at the Dell website and for my anniversary gift Chuck got me a new computer! I am so excited to get it, it has a bigger 19 inch flat screen monitor and we even got a new printer too and we even chose to have the best video card so it can play my Sims 2 games without any problems! Now the big thing that is going to suck is that now (well once I get the new computer) I will have to delete all of my saved games and start all over again! I am not looking forward to that :(

To all...

glitter-graphics.com

Here are the two pictures that we have of Gracie in her new hoodie:

I will share a cute story about how much she likes her hoodie. Monday night she took off her hoodie in our bed and Tuesday morning we forgot to put it back on her... you know "out of sight out of mind". So all day Tuesday she ended up going without it. She must have gotten cold because that Wednesday morning she searched our bed until she found her hoodie, drug it from the bedroom in to the living room and laid it at her dad's feet and sat down looking up at him with those big puppy dog eyes!

You are all probably wondering what has been going on with my adoption. Well, here is the update...At the end of the second meeting, we had received the paperwork for the doctor's approval (and physical) to move on to step two. Then that following Monday Chuck got a call from the adoption agency saying we shouldn't waste our time or money and proceed with the adoption. Chances are we will either be turned down because of my condition, or we will be put on a waiting list for several years. These kids are from pretty tough backgrounds and I may not be able to control them. I still wanted to try because I have always wanted to be a mother, but Chuck just gives up and doesn't want to bother with it anymore. It has been several months now and I still haven't been able to convince him to keep trying, so I have now just given up also. I guess I will never be a mother!

*Just a Note*
After receiving my friends comment and question made me re read my post and realized I forgot something... I meant to answer the question beforehand, but for some reason I didn't. The agency told us that they wouldn't be the ones that would turn me down, it would either be the child's lawyer that is actually the one that places the child with a certain person or the person that does the home study. The agency was really impressed by me and the fact that I have degrees in Child Development helped a lot. So as you see it would not matter what agency I went through, all children that are adopted have a lawyer from the time that they leave the home until they are adopted and it is them that will discriminate and give us trouble.

The continuation...

I finally got Gracie potty trained! Well actually, I shouldn't take all the credit because I know God helped me with it. She still has accidents every now and then but nothing major and nothing on the carpet. But what can you expect? She is only four months old and it is getting really cold outside! It would make me so mad whenever Chuck would tell me that I could not do it, whenever she would pee on the carpet or somewhere in the house he would pitch a fit and say we are always going to live like this! But now I love to tease him and say "and you told me I couldn't do it!"

Speaking of getting colder, I have been waking up to snow on the
ground for a couple days now. It doesn't stick or anything... usually it has been gone by the afternoon, but I still do not like the snow it makes it harder for me to get outside and get around. I did order Gracie a hoodie to help me get her to go outside during the day. It is purple -- well actually violate -- in color with pink rolls on the bottom and the arms and the hood is purple and white striped. She loves it! It looks so adorable on her, I took some pictures but I need Chuck to put the memory card in my computer and then I will post them.

I forgot to tell you all about what was going on with my brother-in-law during this time. He started dating someone at this time, I hadn't met her yet but the kids seemed to like her. I learned the weird story about what was going on from Chuck, Ken's ex-wife was dating a guy whom was divorced also (I think they started seeing each other before he was divorced, but I am not sure). Those two met while dropping off both of their kids (she also has 2). Then that Thanksgiving, a couple of weeks after Sharon's suicidal attempt, my father-in-law and his girlfriend were having Thanksgiving dinner at their house so we all went over there. Ken and his girlfriend were going to be there and she had an engagement ring on that was given to her by Ken a few days earlier. They were getting married in about a week. I really liked her, she seemed really nice but was way too quiet! During the next week before they got married they went over and met Sharon at the house. After their meeting Sharon came over to talk to me. Boy, Sharon did not have one good thing to say about Kelly! I think it was due to her not having been the one to pick out Ken's new girlfriend because she was always trying to set Ken up soon after his divorce. What she kept pointing out was that Kelly would not shut up, she kept talking and asking personal questions and wondering about the cost of things. Things that were really none of her business. I asked "Are we talking about the same Kelly?"

What really surprised me was the fact that Kelly is such a divine Christian woman and has set and lives by high morals. Well so is Sharon... well so everybody thought. Sharon, herself, was always reading the Bible and listening to Christian music and watching the Christian channel on TV. She also set pretty high morals, but I do not think she lived by them. For instance she had taught both boys not to have sex before marriage but I do know that she was pregnant when she was only 16 and lost it a couple of months later and married the guy several years later!

Then in December they got married and moved in to Ken's house, so it became the six of them instead of the three. Chuck refers to them as the Brady Bunch! I enjoy having her around, she is much more accepting of me in my situation than any of the other females in this family (Ken's ex-wife and my mother-in-law). Ken seems happier and the kids seem to really love having her there also. Sometime earlier this year she and Ken started bringing me to church with them since my husband will not go. I am so grateful for that, since I am in a wheelchair and do not drive I do not get out of the house much so I do not know anybody in this town... except for those I have been introduced to by my husband or my mother-in-law/father-in-law. I love being able to get out of the house to be with other Christian's every week.

A big disappointment...

Wow, I have not been on here in a while. I think it's time I wrote something!

You know, Halloween has turned into a big disappointment. This is our third Halloween in this house and we do not get any trick-or-treaters, not even my nieces and nephews! Our first Halloween we decorated and made sure to turn on the outside lights and even bought a bunch of candy. We didn't get any visitors that first year, which surprised us because our niece and nephew who are of age did not come. Chuck mentioned something about it to his brother the next day and his brother said he forgot and well remember the next year. All of the candy that we had became mine, so I didn't need to buy myself any sweets for a while (it would have been longer but my mother-in-law kept eating it too). The next year we didn't decorate but we still had lots of candy, and still no one showed up. By that Halloween my brother in law had remarried and had 2 step kids plus the two of his own that were all of age and still no one came! This year we didn't do much at all, got some candy but not a whole lot... I told Chuck it is better to be safe than sorry. No surprise though, we didn't get anyone. When I was growing up, I remember how fun Halloween was. Dressing up in creative costumes hoping no one would recognize me, going around with my friends house to house trick-or-treating, getting boatloads of candy. When I was in high school and too old to go out trick-or-treating I took my brother out and we had fun! I remember going to a house and I did not know these people from Adam but my brother did and they saw me standing in the driveway and even gave me some candy. The next year, I was unable to take my brother out because I was then diabetic and all that candy was too tempting. But he came along and gave me some sugar free candy that was given to him by those people from the year before to give to me, I thought that was so nice of them! I remember being so jealous of my parents, I figured they had an awesome role answering the door to trick-or-treaters and I could not wait until I grew up and had a house of my own so I could play that role. Where did the trick-or-treaters go? What happened to this holiday? I have often wondered if it's because of the town I live in... most of all the state! Maybe it's just too cold up here or maybe the town is just too small and the people are known to be too untrustworthy. My parents don't get as many trick-or-treaters as they used to, but at least they get some. They now live in Colorado and it is cold there. Maybe the holiday is just plain better in Kansas. Halloween Sucks!!