Hunter's "Finger Painting"

I haven't had a chance to blog about this until now! We have been crazy busy with last minute Christmas shopping, and other stuff going on.

Friday morning started like any other morning at our house meaning it was pretty uneventful. We have a routine of getting up and eating breakfast, changing the boys into their day clothes, having some tummy time for the baby while I clean the kitchen, and then me putting the baby down for his mid morning nap while I take a shower and Hunter watches cartoons or plays with toys. Hunter gets in some good play time and movie time with "Mommy" as he calls me, and then the baby usually wakes up and we eat lunch. Then we have some more awake time, and then we ALL go down for naps in the afternoon (by this time I am in serious need of one!)

Well Friday Hunter decided that a nap was too boring. Instead he stayed awake while I came upstairs and slept on our couch. Little did I know that Hunter had an inner artist side to him. He decided to do some "unconventional" fingerpainting in his crib. He took off his pants and decided that he was going to fingerpaint with his own poo all over the wall, his crib, the sheets, his stuffed animals, blankets, and himself! When I walked in, the smell nearly made me throw up. It was like I had run in to a brick wall of it! So needless to say I ended up spending a good hour calling my mom crying and complaining about what a mess it was, and cleaning it up at the same time. I had to throw Hunter in the tub, then clean the tub, and then disinfect the crib, the wall, and throw away his favorite stuffed animal because it was too far gone to wash. I had the strip the bed of everything and wash it twice on the hottest water I could muster with the washing machine. I think I was in shock of the entire thing. I was so mad at Hunter, I was ready to mount his bum to the wall! I mean it's one thing when they poop in the tub, but this was everywhere and it was a massive undertaking to clean everything off even washing Hunter and the tub!

I had to spray half a can of aerosol spray in his room to get rid of the smell. I was just so mortified at the whole situation. Of course my family just laughed at this after the fact, but geez, it certainly wasn't funny at the time! Luckily Friday night we left the kids with some friends of ours in order to get away for an evening to ourselves and to get some Christmast shopping accomplished! I SOOOO needed a night away after that nightmare!

Has anyone else ever had something awful like this happen? If so, please share! And I hope I didn't gross anyone out!

The "Honeymoon" period is SO over!

In foster care classes, they warned us about what they call the "Honeymoon'" period. This is the time when children are first placed in your home, and they obey everything you say, behave themselves, etc. Well as of last Friday night for our 2 year old, we found that that was totally over! Brandon had text me earlier in the day asking if I wanted to go out to dinner with him and the kids. I text him back and was wondering if he was smoking something. But we went ahead with the plans anyway. That afternoon Hunter was incredibly moody and defiant. His favorite word is definitely the ever popular "NO!" you get from 2 year olds. I put him down (stupidly) for a very late nap. When he woke up he was even worse. We tried to explain to him that we were going to go bye bye and get something to eat. He absolutely didn't understand and this lead to the worst fit I have ever seen from any 2 year old in my life! He got on the kitchen floor and started wailing, kicking, and then came the first wave of blood-curdling screams! I couldn't believe what I was hearing. He had been so good up to that point. All Brandon had to do was look at me and say that he refused to take Hunter anywhere in that condition. I decided to go ahead and feed Hunter dinner, and then coerced him into going out for ice cream at the restaurant we went to. Let's just say that between keeping him happy, as well as the baby, there wasn't much adult conversation happening between Brandon and I. But nonetheless it was good to get out and not have to stay at home and cook.

Saturday morning, the baby woke up with a cold. And he has still been pretty happy, but yesterday and today were a little rough for the little guy. I felt so bad for him. When he breathes through his nose, he sounds like a little kitty cat purring. I am learning through what sometimes feels like mistake after mistake when it comes to parenting. I often realize that I really have no idea what I am doing sometimes. I am just grateful that some things are starting to become routine for us.

Another little accomplishment that Brandon and I are pretty proud of is that with Hunter's speech delays, we have taught him a bunch of signs! This has helped tremendously with the frustrations of communication! He is so dang cute when he signs! We are excited for this!

New Foster Boys!

It has been 5 days since I went and picked up our new foster boys. It has been a little crazy at our house since then. I went last Wednesday and picked up 2 year old Hunter, and his 6 month old baby brother Riddick. They look nothing alike, except for their eyes! They are absolutely adorable and very good kids. They have been through some tough times that I can not really go in to detail about, but they are sweethearts. Hunter is pretty polite for a 2 year old and has a little bit of a speech delay, but that is no indicator of his intelligence for sure! He always asks me what things are, and tries so hard to repeat my answers. He says thank you in his own little way saying "day day" for everything you do for him, and everything you give him.

Baby Riddick, or affectionately called bubba, or buddy by us, is a smiley and happy-go-lucky little baby. He has huge blue eyes and a smile the size of Texas! He is just delightful to have around. We couldn't have asked for more precious boys to take care of for the next while! We aren't for sure how long we will have them, but we of course will love and adore them all the same!

It has been nuts at our house mainly because we aren't used to having little ones around! It has and is continuing to be quite the adjustment having two little boys in diapers and bathing two boys that aren't the biggest fans of the tub. We call it the chamber of torture, not only for them, but for us as the ones bathing them while they scream and cry!

Church today was definitely interesting, but went a little better than I thought it would. We have a reversed schedule at the hearing ward I attend. It is Relief Society then Sunday School, then Sacrament meeting! It was kind of nice to drop Hunter off in nursery giving me a little break, though I did worry about the nursery leaders and how he would do. It ended up with him being an angel for them, and the baby giving me heck during my meetings! I had predicted the exact opposite! I spent 2/3 of the day in the foyer on the couch with an ornery baby! Sacrament meeting came, and Hunter was so good just sitting on the pew and coloring with another little boy his age, but the baby didn't want anything to do with me sitting down and holding him. I had to take him out but stay close enough for Hunter to see me. So it ended up that I had two tired and hungry boys that I brought home to a surprised Brandon after sacrament, because I was too exhausted to handle on my own any longer!

That's about it for now, other than the fact that Lexi our dog is exhausted by the end of the day because it has been just as big of an adjustment for her as it has been for us or maybe even more so because she is used to the quiet and being the spoiled center of attention!

Catching Up

It has been 2 days since I took the Level 2 Certification test. Let's just say it nearly knocked the wind out of my confidence as an interpreter for the Deaf. I walked out of the Deaf center with a wounded ego. Some parts of the test went fairly well, but I always hate to say that I feel good about something when in fact I might have done much worse. The absolute worst part was the voice interpreting from ASL to spoken English. The ironic thing was that I noticed that my voicing skills had improved in the last few weeks. Boy was I wrong! My abilities were more than just sub par. There were times when my mind went completely blank thus resulting in complete silence. In my own mind, I was totally laughing it off. I didn't really take it as hard as I could have, but geez! Oh well, I guess there's always next time! I am looking into joining some different programs that are available to help me hone my skills. Let's just say it will take a miracle! So now it comes to the waiting part for the next 3 months before my results come in.

Not that this part is important, but I finally cleaned my house yesterday! It was a great feeling, seeing as how I am not home as often as I used to be since work and other commitments have been keeping me busy. I don't like coming home to a dirty house with mountains of laundry everywhere.

On a side note, I stole myself away for the afternoon and went and watched Twilight. I have read the series 3 times in the last 2 or 3 months because I loved it and I love to read. I have to say that while the movie and the special effects were pretty well done, I thought they took too much out of the characters' personalities when they added in things that never happened from the book anyway. I thought they should have spent more time developing the story and the characters from the information derived from the book, and shouldn't have spent so much energy on adding unnecessary parts.

Any Suggestions?

So the long since talked about date has finally come. I am taking my Level 2/Intermediate Certification test for the State of Utah this coming Thursday. It is my first time taking it, and as of right now I am not nervous... yet...

I am wondering for those of you that are interpreters if y'all have any suggestions or things I should keep in mind for the test?

I have been told by some people that the test isn't that bad, while others have told me just go into it not expecting too much of myself. I like to have some kind of idea of what I am getting into. But then again they sometimes say that ignorance is bliss! I guess we'll just see!

We Got a New Car!

With the weather getting cooler the last couple of weeks, it has become too cold for Brandon to ride his motorcycle to work. There were a few times that we had conflicting schedules when we both needed the car. The thought of getting a 2nd vehicle occurred to us about the time we had to put 2 baby car seats in the back of our Neon, and moving the front seats up so far that Brandon's and my knees were practically up to our armpits. This was NOT comfortable at all. Then came to scheduling conflicts and that was it... we knew we wanted to start looking.

We knew that we wanted a car that would easily fit car seats. We also wanted something reliable and fun. We started comparing all of the compact SUV's that we knew were popular. Having grown up in a die-hard Honda family, I always wanted a CR-V. We did look at the Ford Escape, Mazda Tribute, Toyota RAV-4 and the Subaru Outback. We looked online at several different websites and found some cars for sale in our area. We settled on looking for CR-V's in our price range. We visited a couple of dealerships in the area and test drove some really nice used cars. But we didn't really feel right about either of them. We were supposed to go to Salt Lake City on Saturday night for a play, so thought that with some extra time we would stop by the Ken Garff Nissan in downtown and take a look at their CR-V they had. It was beautiful and we fell in love with it immediately! It is the one pictured above, with the picture being the one from the website where we found it! It is four wheel drive, has a 6 CD changer, and the interior and exterior are immaculate! We were able to get a really good deal on it and couldn't be more thrilled!

Can Anyone Sympathize?

So today is November 2, and in two days the fate of the entire nation and our government will be voted upon and decided. This election is said to be one of the biggest and most controversial ever. Amidst all the public slander, mud-slinging, and other political garbage going on right now, I can't help but feel a little disenchanted with the entire idea of politics. I am not here to use my blog as showing my support for this or that issue, a certain political party, or even a candidate.

My big question is this "What happened to real politics?" It used to be that politicians took pride in their country and stood for real issues that the American public could understand and sympathize with. Candidates at any level, whether it be at the community, state, or national level had character and deeply rooted beliefs.

Today political figures exploit ways of appealing only to our emotions, or striking a chord with this issue or that issue. You only ever hear about the big time issues like the war, abortion, gay marriage, etc. But in fact I believe there are so many other underlying issues as well. Candidates look at each other and only talk about what the other person supports, or what they don't support. They make empty promises saying anything they can to get your vote. They dig up the skeletons out of each other's closets and do anything in their power to embarass or shame their opponent. Politicians used to be gentleman. They used to have class.

Please believe me when I say that I think it is so important to get out to the polls and vote. It is our God given right to do so. I just have to admit that I have become a little disenchanted with how things are run and done in elections. I don't like to know that if I vote for one candidate or the other, that I am possibly voting for the "lesser of two evils".