One Two Three, Not it!

My poor wife, Sweet Buttercup is tired. Alas, defiant - convinced she is above the trivial and meaningless blogism that makes blogs, well, blogs maybe. Tagged, ignored, tagged again, nothing. Hmmm, what's a Farmboy to do... "As you wish."

I tag me to share 7 random (although selectively chosen) things about ... Buttercup. Wouldn't be fun to talk about a poor farmboy.

1) Buttercup is not her real name... it's hmm, nah. Even though I'm convinced everyone knows it anyway, we're still holding fast to the illusion this IS an alias. I will share this tidbit though... Buttercup has no real middle name. Parents suggest even to this day that her first name is SO beautiful she didn't need a middle one. Well - maybe so.

2) Buttercup is smart. Like 4.0 smart. Salutatorian at a big suburban metro school. Legend even has it that she WOULD have been valedictorian if Dominic Stupido or whatever his name was didn't transfer in his senior year. Actually if I had a nickel for every time I heard that story I'd probably have well, maybe like thirty five cents or something like that. That Dominic Stupido!

3) She does NOT like Pop. Get this... the bubbles hurt her throat. Ouch. Ok, I'm laughing at her. On the other hand, she'll drink pickle juice straight from the jar. I walk in the house. fridge wide open, head back like a "got milk" add, only it's sweet pickle delight. UGH.

4) If you sell something that is free after rebate, she will buy it. Seriously. Now the adoption tax credit was totally NOT the reason we adopted, but I tell yah, her eyes did light up a bit when I told her how it worked. We have not paid for toothpaste, shampoo, deodorant, shavers, or extension cords in YEARS, in fact my father actually told us to STOP putting them in his stocking at Christmas. Our cup overflows... We have conversations like... "you know, I think I would actually pay for this one" while getting ready for bed. The best is when she actually makes money on purchases. "Oh my WORD, what is this?" "Ahh, nothing... I made a dollar to buy it." ...Stocking stuffer.

5) Apparently she stalked me for the greater part of a year before we actually met. I was a college senior while she a tender sophomore. I can honestly say I do remember getting strange phone calls that went like this. "Is Farmboy there?" "This is Farmboy" ...click. Girlsgonemild-Calvin College style. We did meet at a toga party, actually. Tan girl in white bedsheet at keg with beer. Yeah, I'm in love.

6) Neither of us grew up with a heart for adoption or any life long indication that we would adopt. Neighbors of ours adopted just 3 years ago, and my honest reaction at that point was - Huh. God has though, before and since that date put some people and events in our life that planted us at exactly this point. One notable event was housing Mohamed Farmboy Jr. Salem, a boy from Western Sahara, Africa, in our house for 2 summers through our church and later for a 3rd time indefinitely. OUR plan was to bring him to America and educate him in the states for the remainder of his schooling, 7th grade on. He grew homesick and, just like that, went home. Weird. I'm not sure we adopt if he stays. GOD knew where He was headed.

7) This woman is a passionate follower of Jesus Christ with an insatiable appetite for adventure. Believe me, I don't need to go looking for adventure with the catalyst for it sitting next to me. I am the fear to her GO. She has a gift of wisdom, passion for prayer, appetite for HIS word, and a little bit of dynamite thrown in. Since you asked, I will let her share more herself.

When I TAG her to death. Tag, Tag, Tag, Tag, Tag, Tag, Tag. All 7 baby... You're it.

Don't be mistaken... this one was scripted by the one called Farmboy.

Oops

Oops, we have been home as THIS family for 6 months, and I think I just sort of let it pass right on by. I'm pretty sure it was a good day, though. Seriously, we are blessed.

Okay, here is embarrassing....

We decided to use a different home study provider for our post placement reports (long story) and she is great. She came for the 3 month visit and all went smoothly. Well, to save time and money, she came to do our 6 month post placement and our new home study update all in one visit.

It was a VERY hectic day. That morning, I left early for a conference all day (a rare occurrence, but....I need to maintain my social work license), so sweet Farmboy got the kids off to school. Once I got home at 5:30pm, even though I wanted to just get some sort of fast food for the family for dinner, in order to be prudent with our finances as we are on our new adoption journey (plus we ate out a lot in Chicago), I had planned to make something at home, so quickly pulled a dinner together in the kitchen. This was done FAST, and cleaned up in a hurry, as our home study provider was expected at 6:30pm.

She arrives, she is SO nice. We have a nice time in our all-cleaned-up living room, kitchen and family room. Two story houses are nice that way. She shocks me. She wants to see the rest of the house, since she is actually doing a home study update, too, and she wasn't our initial provider, so needs to take a look around. Uh, yeah, I know you are tracking with this. Now I do like a made bed, but remember, I was the first out the door that morning. Nothing was done. Not even in our room. Nothing. I felt like such a slacker.

But really, what does a made bed and picked up room matter? Our home study provider appeared to care less, but this self-professed neat freak felt otherwise. I know, I know, you think I'm exaggerating. I just wish I had pictures to share of Zgirl's and Kume's room (yes, Mom, it looked just like that). Now they are slackers.

A weekend in Chicago

Oh, what 2 days away can do.


I got to go away with my best friend, Farmboy, for 2 days!!!


Thank you, thank you, thank you, mom and dad, for watching the kids for us so we could spend some time as, well, just a couple.


And all the kids did fabulously. The twins have adjusted very well, and we thought they were ready. But you can never tell, for sure. Yea, they were thrilled to have grandma and grandpa spoil them to dinners out, games, extra snacks....


In an effort to bore you to tears, and stop yapping about adoption for a minute, I am sharing some of our trip.

We took the commuter train into town. LOVE doing it this way, since there is no stress with parking and traffic downtown. Farmboy is waiting for the train and he has a satisfied smile on his face, since we stopped at our favorite restaurant -- Taco Bell (not really, but it ranks up there in junk food fare) before we got on the train.

Another FAVE spot. We LOVE Ghirardelli, even though the samples this week were chocolate/peanut butter squares. Let Reeses stick with that, and give me a pure piece of chocolate any day. The sundae made from their yummy chocolate is scrumptious, though.

Farmboy and I were made for each other, really. Here we were, staying on the Magnificent Mile, and neither of us wanted to shop. The extent of our shopping was the Hersheys store. So much for spurring on the economy. Instead, we hiked along the lake shore and strolled around Navy Pier. Our kind of day in Chicago.

I am NOT a sports fan, but it sure was fun visiting this stadium. Man, the Cubbies fans are loyal. You should have seen the neighborhood surrounding the stadium. Maybe one of these years, they will finally get theirs.

The Broadway musical, Wicked. Go see it! I almost didn't go because of the name, me being a good Christian girl and needing to shun anything "wicked". But this is all about the REAL wicked witch of the Wizard of Oz, and she IS NOT wicked. Misunderstood. Now, that rascal wizard, well.... If you do go, get the CD of the music first. I enjoyed it SO much, knowing the songs ahead of time. Farmboy can vouch for me, I was a super geek at the show, giddy over the whole thing. I guess I haven't gotten out much lately.

Of course, we take countless "out of towner" pic's while walking the busy streets. Maybe we should have worn an orange triangle on our backs or something.

And upon returning home, the only pressing thing we have to get to is getting Zgirl's glasses fixed. Apparently, they just broke on their own, with no one even touching them. Weird.

do ken, one moe time

Yes, it's true.

Crazy true.

After weeks of indecision we are jumping in with ALL our feet. 16 feet to be exact. We have received no additional information regarding the specifics of "L'il B" other than she is 2 this month. To say this was easy would be flat out a lie. I can't help but blame sweet Buttercup on this one. Couldn't you have named our blog weTALKofFaith.blogspot.com or ourwalk inthepark? Cutsie2'tsie.blogspot.com was taken?TwoKiddosNoIssuesThankYouVeryMuch or 8isTOOmuch.com not available?

Ahh, our walk of faith. If I'm ever going to be accused of being flat out CRAZY, can it be for something like this? Why not....

So, too many stories to share how we have clawed our way through this one, but here's a nice one. I'm reading the Bible one night, directed to a passage by the better half after we were praying for a clear sense of direction. 2 Cor 8: 10-12. "And here is my advice for you in this matter (gulp): Last year you were the first not only to adopt but also to have the desire to do so. Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have."

OK, you're all searching your concordances... it doesn't say "adopt" it says "give" but the rest is exact, word for word.

Same night, while still reading I start pulling alphabet pretzels out while eating. I grab a handful and start trying to spell something. I eat anything broken, just ~dinking~ around, and find myself with RUST. I dig through the remaining handful and find a Y. Cool... RUSTY. Oh wait, it's a T. TRUST. no kidding. same night. God would never speak to me with a handful of pretzels, would He?

Can you imagine:
Peter: "Paul, check it out... messing with that guy down there."
Paul: "Alphabet Pretzels?"
Peter: "yeah, it's so sweet how they make those little things... "



TK tries her best to make me a tagline for the post. "Do again, One more time" is hilarious, is it not? Yes, she's that cute all the time.

So off we go again. Unified, on ourwalkbyfaith. All the kids are pumped. I will NOT hesitate to remind them of THAT when Lil B is driving them nuts later in life.

Hey, it's CRAZY true.

Posted by Farmboy, father of... dare I say it... Six