Call me...Aunt Mom!

A Rose, by any other name, is still a Rose!

My sister and her husband have asked Chuck and I to take my niece Rose for the next school year. After praying about it we have decided to take them up on it. She is 13 years old but will be 14 in the Fall. She has been struggling with her choices lately. We hope that by giving her one on one attention she will thrive and excel. The hope is that by having her out of their house it will keep their much younger boys from following the same path. If all goes really well we may keep her through high school. We will be taking it in baby steps. The whole family is coming down from Washington in July for a much needed vacation and to visit all of us as well as Mickey Mouse. We will take Rose from that point on. This is Rose last summer when my mom visited them in WA.

Some of you may remember that we did this once before when she was 8 years old. We lived in Tennessee at the time. She did so well with us but we did not get to keep her beyond the summer. This is Rose at 8 yrs old.

We spent all summer at the pool. She is a natural fish.

Chuck worked at a theater in Sevierville and Rose loved it so much we went to the show countless times during her 2 month stay.

We know things will not always be perfect and that we will have meltdowns and other behavioral problems. We are committed to seeing this through and will not give up on her at the first sign of trouble.

We covet your prayers and even some advice if you are familiar with this kind of situation.

Not Me Monday

It is time to cleanse the soul and spirit by confessing all those things you may or may not have done this week. Go see Mckmama to play along or to blog stalk other confessors.

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If I were to plan a get together at my house I would expect everything to go my way with no mishaps.
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Therefore, when I went to Target to find something cute and spring-like to hold my drinks instead of using an old ice chest, I walked right up to the perfect thing to use. Okay, so I didn't but Easter Stuff is already out why isn't the rest of spring decorations out?
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I did not mention my failure to hubs and the very next day, while passing Dixieline, he saw for sale half wine barrels. They were $26 and there is no way he walked out of there with it for $20. It's not cute at all and not exactly what I had in mind. Woohoo!!!
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Our refrigerator is not stuffed to the gills with food to make a VERY large stock pot of chili, 2 large pans of enchilada's, a huge salad, and all the fixin's to go with it.

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We did not have to buy a new stock pot as our biggest one is not nearly big enough. I have no clue as to where I'll be storing this thing later. My house just is not that big.

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We did not get up today to start preparing any food we could only to find the huge bag of raw chicken thawing in my fridge was leaking it's nasty germy yucky stuff all over the place. Of course this would happen when the fridge was packed solid. Why not when it's half empty?...which is the rest of the time.

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We are not lucky that it was on a lower shelf and when it spilled over the edge it did not go into the vegetable drawers. Of course, we didn't have to empty out the whole lower half of the fridge to clean it up.

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On that note, I would never pull the bread (that is less then a week old) out to make us sandwiches only to find it moldy. What is going on here??? While I noshed on a bagel instead hubs did not prefer to have a bowl of cereal for lunch. Mmmm...nutritious.

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I would never employ ole St. Nick for a spring get together. Therefore, his face was not plastered all over my dessert platter. I did not use my cute paper napkins to cover up the fact that he was under there.

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The weather always works in my favor, so naturally it did not rain on the morning of my outdoor party. I would never have to stuff up to 20 people into my small living room. I don't miss my Knoxville house and it's ability to hold that and many more.

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I did not prewrite most of this post and schedule it to post automatically then come back and finish writing it after it had already posted. I am not super worried about MckMama's family right now as Stellan is in the hospital. I don't think she is hosting Not Me Monday today.

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Please pray for baby Stellan!

before and after...

Living Room

before

after

after

Bedroom/Office

before

afterbefore
after
after
Laundry Room (also in bedroom)
before

after

after (Chuck built me these shelves)

Sorry if it looks a little cluttered. It's because it is a small place and it is so much cuter in person. It's really not that cluttered. A bunch of our stuff we do not need right this minute are still in storage.

Murphy's been here!

This party we are having tomorrow is creating tons of blog fodder...

wait for it...

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it's coming...

Not Me, Monday

Let's be honest here peeps! Go on, get it off your chest...you will feel better. To read other stories and to get honest yourself go see MckMama.

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I did not find Super Mario brothers as a download for my wii system for only $5. I most certainly would never download the game cause if I did I would play it in all my spare time and my thumb would be really numb from pressing the controller. Good thing I am smarter then that.

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Therefore, I was smart enough not to go looking for Super Mario Brothers 3. Also just $5. Who needs a reminder like that of their teenage years? Not me!

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I did not wake up this morning, look at my ipod for the time, see it was 8 am, think 'it's still early', roll over to go back to sleep, wake up 45 minutes later, hop up and see the alarm clock which read 9:45 am. Like I would forget my ipod's time has not been changed yet! What do you take me for? Huh???

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I have not been desperately missing Christian radio cause we don't have anything that comes in around here. (Actually, Klove is supposed to but it never has and probably never will) I would never think to go to Love 89's website from Knoxville, TN and listen to their online stream. Actually, I did not think of it before now and don't know why. I'm not blaring it on my computer speakers right now.

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I did not make it to number 1 on Mckmama's Mister Linky. Yeah, like I ever come close! Therefore, I am not hoping beyond all hope that I win her random drawing for the photo book. Everyone else...get outta my way!!! It's mine. Lucky number 309!

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If you do not understand what this is all about...Not me Monday is all about things you did or things that happened in your life but you get to deny that you did them. So, it's like writing in reverse with a huge dose of sarcasm thrown in. The only time I will say on my blog that I don't like you or something really negative about you is if I am writing in reverse. Which means I do like you!!!!!!!!! Cause I love all of you!!!

What girls do for fun vs what boys do for fun...

Today I went to my cousin Nicole's baby shower. She's all a-glow waiting for her little boy to make his debut. I warned her all pictures I take are open to blog fodder.

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Her loot. The brown package is my handy work.

My favorite picture of the day!!!
What I got her plus some Carter onesies. This is a shopping cart pad thingy majiger.

Nicole and her mom, my aunt Cindy
Nicole and her prego buddies. All within 2 weeks of each other.

So, what did Chuck do while I was away???

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He put in a path from the upper area where I park my new used Xterra to our lower path that leads to our door. It was a steep dirt path till he leveled it slightly and paved it. Now the slope is more on the gentle side.

Not Me Monday (barely)

Time to fess up! Go visit Mckmama to read other funny stories. It's probably too late to play along this week so get your creative juices flowing for next Monday and play along then.

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I did not just link up on Mckmama's Mister Linky at 9:05 PM Pacific time even before writing this post cause I was afraid I would be too late and Mister Linky would disappear. I am most certainly not procrastinating today.

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I am not number 395 on Mister Linky. I am not surprised that this late in the day there are so few linked up. Usually by the end of Monday it is closer to 500.

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I did not have a fantastic evening with one of my oldest school friends at my new house. The food was horrible...cause I cooked it and I HATED the chocolate silk pie I bought. Yuck!!!

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My friend did not give me lots of Not Me Monday blog fodder that I will not use so I don't embarrass any of us. Let's just say we laughed our rear ends off all night long. You're very funny...I love you Jenn.

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I did not talk hubs into buying us a new rug for our living room because the other new rug was too light and showed every ounce of dirt the dog could track in. That's just wasteful. My living room is not just so cozy and I do not love it. Pics coming soon.

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I am not soooo excited that my girl scout cookies are here. I will not be picking them up tomorrow. So then, I also will not be eating them tomorrow either.

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I did not finally update my checkbook for the first time since late November. I would never check my account online and decide there was plenty of money to cover things without balancing the checkbook. Now that, my friends is irresponsible. It did not take me 2-3 hours to balance my checkbook.

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I am not so lucky that things were actually ok despite all our Christmas shopping and new house furniture shopping we did recently. Oh, and the new used Xterra we bought in December. I AM indeed lucky! Thank goodness for online banking...I know this is why we stayed ok all this time because I check weekly.

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I have not been encouraged by reading a friend's blog journey of her personal Love Dare. Her hubs does not know she is doing the Love Dare which is so cool. I did not convince my hubs to do the love dare with me and to start us off I did not buy the movie Fireproof. (we have not started yet but I hope to soon) I will probably not blog about my love dare. I commend you for doing it, S, but I cannot put it all out there. You have truly inspired me with your honesty and openness.

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So, for any of you late comers (my fault, it's almost 10 PM here) Happy Tuesday!!!

Goodbye Dani...

Remember this sweet face? Her name was Danielle. She has been adopted out. I am sad and I miss her here. She was always sitting by the fence ready to give me love. I hope she is happy with her new mommy and daddy. I called them Maltese mixes before but I think they are actually Bijon and maybe some poodle. Once cleaned up they could be really cute. The remaining dogs are all boys...yeah, I don't do boys. They pee on everything. My heart is safe from now on. I mean, I love them but don't want to own them.

Not Me, Monday

Time to get honest with ourselves. Check out mckmama's blog for more fun stories and to join the carnival.

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I did go to Yuma for a concert and a free night in a hotel. What I most certainly did not do is forget to pack our swimsuits. I did not make at least 3 stops on the way there trying to find something for both of us.

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Hubs did not call me while I was still within a half hour from the house to remind me. I did not refuse to turn around to go get the swimsuits. I did not regret that decision after my 3rd stop and having wasted much more than a half hour making all these stops.

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My ears did not have so much pressure built up due to the climb to 4000 ft and then drop back down to sea level. I was not in the middle of booneyville nowhere USA desertland when I made a bathroom break. I would never pay $2 for a small pack of gum to try and pop my ears. What a rip off. It was not the best tasting gum ever (only cause it helped my ears). I don't normally HATE chewing gum.

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I did not find out that my favorite puppers is being adopted out this week. I did not beg for them to let her stay in the big yard all day today so I could hang out with her one last time. They did not agree and I am not loving on her right now. Kassie is not jealous...nope, not my dog.

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I did not give hubs a neck massage (for his migraine headache) last night using rancid massage oil. Yuck! I did not throw away the rest of the oil...the whole 1/2 gallon of it. What a waste.

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I am not excited that hubs will be working in town this week. I better start thinking about dinner. I haven't had to think about dinner in a month. Yay for home cooked food!!!

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I am not number 296 on Mckmama's Mister Linky! Nope, Not Me!!!