Say Cheese!

So Nathan and I were playing with the web cam that we have. I just realized that it could take pictures. We were snapping pictures left and right, then Nathan says okay mom now lean back. He didn't want me messing up his beautiful picture I suppose. This kid cracks me up. I decided to post them because I think they are funny, plus now you guys can see the new hair. Now if I can find my regular camera I'll post some pics of the kitchen.

Adoption junk:
Sorry, but that is an appropriate name for the process right now. I had a friend willing to share some information with our attorney, regarding getting that special letter from the states attorney's office. Our attorney told me thanks, but no thanks. She was gracious about it, but she basically said I am doing everything possible right now to get your case approved. So there you have it! I am just praying that God would pour out his mercy on us, and give us strength for this journey. We are emotionally tired. God is good!

Hooray for snow day!

Williamson county, you can always count on them for a free day at home! The sun is bright, it is bitter cold, but the grounds are clear and we are happily hibernating. Although we are approaching the boredom stage in this day and it's only 1:30pm. I caved and decided to let Nathan spend some time playing the wii. Hot chocolate and video games, it really doesn't get much better than that! We've read all the new library books, practiced writing his name, exercised together (yeah, that's fun) reviewed some sight words, played monsters inc., and practiced his tennis lessons. Speaking of tennis, when we say prayers every night he always says "and God thank you for my tennis lessons." How cute! Anyway, he'll be entertaining himself for the rest of this snow day! If there was actually snow outside, we could go and play in it. No such luck, stupid sun.

I'm off, I can't let my hot chocolate get cold!

Oh, by the way Tim sold his first t-shirt!!! A big thank you to MIMI, we love ya!!

Notice anything?

I decided to change up the colors on the blog. A friend told me she was having a hard time reading the post because the background was so dark. I thought maybe she wasn't the only one and I like change anyway. As evidence in the constant changing hairstyles. I hope you guys like the new look!

Happenings in Tracy world today....
Birthday planning, the big 5 is coming! I think a gymnastics party will do the trick.

Cooking, and planning and more planning. You girls know what I'm talking about! I have stumbled upon 'Homemade Gourmet'. After much deliberation I have decided to place an order and go for it. It's basically spices that come with several recipes. It does all the meal planning for you. I'll let you know how it goes!

I started a new book today, Sue Grafton's T is for Trespass. I've only read the first few pages and whew, that girl can write!

Blessings to all,
Tracy

A Parenting First!

2 words, EAR INFECTION. Not fun. Nathan is only 4, soon to be 5, and has never had an ear infection. Until Saturday that is. It was close to midnight when his ear was hurting so badly that it woke him up. Unfortunately, Tim and I were still up watching movies. So, I didn't go to bed until close to 4:00am on Sunday. Brutal. It's pretty sad when your child is begging you to take him to the doctor. Then, starts begging you to "do something". We did survive the night though. The hero, Dad, thought of putting cotton in Nathan's ear. It helped mentally for Nathan and I'm sure it gave a little pain relief too. We were able to finally go to sleep, although 7:00am he wakes up full of energy like he'd had a full night's sleep. How do kids do that?? We were at the minute clinic when they opened, and yep it was official it was an ear infection. By that afternoon we were all a little cranky. Anyway, we did survive it and all is well this morning. We all had a beautiful night's sleep last night.

Alright, so on to other things....
I got my hair cut this weekend. It's much shorter than before, if you can imagine. It's back to my natural color, dark brown. I like it. Just to give you a visual, it's just below my ears.
So, that's pretty much it in 'Goo' town.

P.S. LOVE LOVE LOVE Tim's t-shirts! Go check them out! I'm going to be getting a few for myself. I'm going to get some of the kid ones for Nathan too. (Maybe Granna and Mimi can get the grandmom ones for him :)

Tim the t-shirt man

MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE. I have created an online t-shirt biz. A nice little outlet for some creative urges. OK, it is not really from scratch, but I do have a gallery over at www.zazzle.com of my creations. You can click on the link in the previous sentence (or this one) or type www.zazzle.com/tgoodwin21 into the browser of your choice.

Right now, they are all sayings, but I might try to venture into the graphics arena soon. I have some adoption related ones, coffee related shirts, and some that are just fun. I plan to create more soon so check back often.

TELL YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY, AND STRANGERS!

Tim

Phone call

I did call our attorney this morning. This time I was able to speak with her. What I found out is that our adoption is still on hold. The investigation is over and done with, praise God. Now, PGN is requesting a letter from the States Attorney's office to release our file and allow us to continue. The attorney says getting this letter will be very difficult, as right now the states attorney's office doesn't care anything about adoptions. They do not care to help in any way. She told me that this is a matter of bureaucracy. However, she does have a friend working to try and get the letter for us. In the meantime, she has made an appointment with a PGN judge, in order to get a ruling for continuing our adoption without the letter.

While this might not be the news we were waiting to hear, it's still pretty good news. Things are moving and people are working around the clock to get this boy home. Our attorney is confident it will all work out, it's just another delay. Before I made this phone call, I spent some time in prayer and in the Bible. I found myself in Isaiah 2:4 "He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples." "...come let us walk in the light of the Lord."

God is in control of all the red tape and I am so thankful for that. I am walking in the light of what I know is true.

Ready for Spring!

I have enjoyed the winter, I have really enjoyed our fireplace. I'm done now and ready to move on to warm weather. We had a tease of what's to come and it was so nice. Nathan is now on his "big" bike. He too is ready to play outside every day, he has been so desperate that he started riding his bike in circles around the garage. That's the good thing about being 4 years old, he's perfectly content doing that. He's just happy to be on the bike. Sometimes I wish I could be that easy to please.

Speaking of spring activities, I wanted to start running for exercise. The elliptical machine is great but does get boring sometimes. So I started the training to run, but then remembered I have really bad knees. I thought, maybe I should look up the ole' knee problem on the internet to see what I can find out. Alright so it looks like I can run, as long as I don't mind not being able to walk. Oh well, that sounded like a lot of work anyway.

I guess as it turns out I'm not so hard to please, uh?

On our adoption:
Thanks for everyone's questions and concerns. I did make the call this morning to our attorney. I was not able to speak with her because she was in a meeting. I will plan to call her later this evening. I also called PGN, I did find out that our file is still listed in the minor's section. Minor's section is where the investigations take place. For as long as I've been able to call PGN, this has been the report I've been given. Finally, today the lady says "you know once your file goes to the minor's section, my system will not reflect any activity until the file as been given final approval." Big light bulb! This is good news, because it does not mean that our file is still in investigation. We could be sitting on the director's desk waiting for final approval. This is the hope anyway. As I said, I'll be calling the attorney again later. I hope to find out more information then.

Just my luck, or rather just his

Overall I've had a wonderful Valentine's Day. However, I'm spending the night on the couch alone. Channel surfing. Luckily I do have the d.v.r. so I'm sure I have stuff on "the list". Poor Tim. He's in bed with a migraine/sinus headache we aren't sure which, we just know it's bad. He did manage to eat dinner with us and give me my gifts. I got chocolate and the new Jack Johnson cd, I love my husband. Do any of you watch BIG BROTHER? We haven't watched the last several seasons, but we did watch the first couple. We just happened to catch it last night and now we're hooked. Those people are nuts. Entertaining but nuts. Anyway, I didn't have much to say today. Just know that I am thinking of you guys, and hoping you are all snuggled up with your honey tonight.

Hug the one you love!

So, Valentine's Day is tomorrow. I wish a happy one to all of you. I'll be celebrating at Nathan's school tomorrow with the class party. Around this time I am always taken back to 1992, when I first met Tim. Our first date was the weekend before Valentine's. Actually, we haven't been apart since that very first date. This was the season it all started for us...

In the spirit of valentine's, I think Jack Johnson says it best for us in Better Together:

Verse 1:]
There's no combination of words
I could put on the back of a postcard,
No song that I could sing
But I can try for your heart,
Our dreams, and they are made out of real things,
Like a shoebox of photographs,
With sepiatone loving,
Love is the answer
At least for most of the questions in my heart ,
Like why are we here? And where do we go?
And how come it's so hard?
It's not always easy,
And sometimes life can be deceiving,
I'll tell you one thing, its always better when we're together

[Chorus:]
MMM, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, we'll look at the stars when we're together
Well, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, it's always better when we're together

[Verse 2:]
And all of these moments
Just might find their way into my dreams tonight
But I know that they'll be gone,
When the morning light sings
And brings new things,
But tomorrow night you see
That they'll be gone too,
Too many things I have to do,
But if all of these dreams might find their way
Into my day to day scene
I'll be under the impression,
I was somewhere in-between
With only two,
Just me and you
Not so many things we got to do,
Or places we got to be
We'll sit beneath the mango tree now

Yeah, it's always better when we're together
MMM, We're somewhere in-between together
Well, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, it's always better when we're together

Mmmmm Mmmmm Mmmmm
I believe in memories
They look so, so pretty when I sleep
Hey now, and when, and when I wake up,
You look so pretty sleeping next to me
But there is not enough time,
And there is no, no song I could sing
And there is no combination of words I could say
But I will still tell you one thing,
We're better together

YOU GOTTA LOVE JACK JOHNSON!

I am so overwhelmed at times with the blessings God has given me. I love my children, my family, my friends, and of course my Tim.

I've been tagged!

My friend from the online yahoo Guatemalan adoption group, Julie, tagged my blog! Thanks Julie! Check out her blog too, just click her name.

So, here's the rules of the game:

• Link the person who sent this and leave a comment on their blog so their readers can visit yours.
• Post the rules on your blog.
• Share 7 strange/weird facts about yourself.
• Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and link their blog. Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So, here are my seven weird facts...
1. I'm a freak about germs; borderline psychotic
2. I can't stand the sound, or even the knowledge of someone clipping their nails. (toenails to be exact, but I really didn't want to even type it) My husband, being the lovely man that he is, closes the bathroom door and turns on the vent so I don't have to "know" or hear his grooming.
3. I love the smell of gasoline
4. When I was a kid, I hid my bacon under the bathroom scale (my brother and sister love re-living this moment; I got in SO MUCH trouble)
5. If I think about shrimp too much, I can't eat them
6. I can wake up easier at 6:00am than I can at 7:00am
7. I would do just about anything for a sliver of chocolate

So, there you have it. It's now in writing I am a freak. Oh well, it was bound to come out at some point anyway.

Tim adds: These are not even close to her 7 weirdest things! Wanna know? Well, all cash bribes will be considered. One thing that does add to the weirdness of number 2 is if I tell her I am only clipping my fingernails, it doesn't seem to bother her. Now, think about it, how does she really know if I am clipping fingernails or lying to her? Back to Tracy.

Alright, so now I get to tag 7 people.....hmmmmm.....

I'll be tagging Jennifer, my sweet sister in law, please check out her adorable blog. Lindsey, another one enduring the journey of adoption, who has a great blog. Emily, my knitting hero. One more adoption friend, Deb, a lady who has climbed the Guatemalan adoption mountain and made it! Well, that's not 7 but it will have to do. I'm out of time and names! Have fun visiting these blogs as well.

I promise to post pictures of my newly painted kitchen soon! Check back to see.