Fake Fort Fun

So I have to confess. I hate forts. I have a strong dislike for things that purposely make a mess. I tolerate art projects. I'm just not a fun mom in that way. If you want to go outside and drag every toy we own, by all means, go ahead. If you want to pull out my freshly folded and organized blankets to put them over some chairs, well, I hope you enjoyed mommy, she's entering the asylum. I just don't like to be unorganized. A fort to me is an 'on purpose' mess. I'm all for my kids having fun with their toys. I'm okay with putting a blanket over the table, maybe. But dragging chairs into the living room, blankets galore, and of course you must add the toys. By the time the fort is all set up for enjoyment, they find their selves bored of it.

All that to say. Today the two older boys were out doing a service project. This left poor pitiful Sam to play all alone. That is until the baby woke up. The next thing I know, my little princess has pulled off the "comfy" blankets out of their hidey hole cubby. Sam wants to make a fort. So I sucked it up and made the kid a fort to play in. All was well until clean up time...minute 45! Oh well, I tried.

The start of the 'fun' when little Miss pulled everything out. With Sam cheering her on. (yes, I know her face is showing, but it's blurry)

All that work and he wants to watch TV, you don't want to know what's under there!!!

No it's not a fort, but another version of random mess making that kills me! I love for them to have fun, it's the clean up I hate!

Rocking 29!!!!

So I turn 29 today. The last year of my twenties! It's insane how fast time goes. My twenties have been amazing! Starting just 6 weeks after I turned 20, I got married to my amazing husband!

20--(2001-2002) involved getting married and having a baby! Shane Russell was born in April of my 20th year. I gained an enormous amount of weight with him. My husband still made me feel like a princess :) Also my crazy friend Brandy was also having a baby, just 4 months earlier.

21--(2002-2003), we celebrated by taking Shane to see Lilo and Stitch, which is still my favorite Disney movie, and touring the Living Museum before it was cool, and eating at Fudruckers. :) We moved out of our little apartment and into our own home that year. As 21 drew to a close, I was pregnant with Jackson! 

22--(2003-2004) brought another pregnancy! Jackson entered at 10 pounds in March of my 22nd year!. 

23--(2004-2005) had two chubby adorable babies and one amazingly hardworking husband! That was a long year. Towards the end of year 23, I joined the playgroup which changed my life. 23 ended with a very surprising pregnancy.

24--(2005-2006) and enter Sammy. Sam was born in December of my 24th year. He was a mess from the beginning. Jaundice and under lights for 10 days, RSV and in the hospital. Loud and and demanding with the biggest brown eyes and eyelashes for days! It was a rough few months. Playgroup was my lifeline! I was meeting some amazing women who would in time become some of my best friends.

25--(2006-2007) whew what a wild ride for my early twenties. I had three little boys, some amazing friends, and my wonderful husband of nearly 5 years. I also became an aunt in my 25th year. We also started our homeschooling journey this year! I became an aunt this year to my beautiful Breanna Danielle!

26--(2007-2008) started normally enough, closed out with Johnny getting the much anticipated promotion. This led to the stressful fun of selling, buying, and moving. With three young kids.

27--(2008-2009) life in our new house was amazing! Kids are growing. Life is grand. 27 started our new life with a church. We decided to take foster care classes. As 27 was ending we were becoming approved to be foster parents.

28.--(2009-2010) 6 short weeks after turning 28 we received our first placement in the form of Jay. Our home was alive with love, noise, and fun! Two months before the year ended we received our second placement of our beautiful A, a sweet little girl. 28 had been the favorite so far. I became an aunt for the second time to Elaina Brooke! We were sharing love with other children. Our own children were flourishing! I had my circle of amazing friends, fantastic family, wonderful kids, and my loving husband.

29.--(2010-2011) Starts today! I can't imagine what this year will bring...I have plans of course, trips to go on, places to see. Things to do before I turn 30! :) But only time and God will tell what's to come. I can only hope and pray it's filled with as much love and happiness as the past 9 years. Thanks to those who got me where I am today. My parents, my husband, my kids, and my friends. I would be no where without you all. (Especially my parents, cause you know, without them I wouldn't even exist) :)!!!

Random Randomness.

Our Eclipse evening was quite a night. A few of us seem to be missing the pure joy of the Twilight premiere. We're probably going to to something a little different next year for the Breaking Dawn premiere. We still had a great time. 6 hours in the theater!

My next night however! We went to the IMAX for a Twilight themed dinner party. We were having a great time and my friend started to not feel well and she fell. We ended up in the E.R. and we were scared to death! She's going to be okay, just needs lots of rest from a skull fracture!!!! It's insane.

After getting home from all that I had to take Little Miss to her visitation with her 'mother' only to find out that she will get a visit with her 'father' as well. Thankfully my kids were with me, I was about to lose it! As it was I cried most of the way home. Her father is incredibly abusive towards her mother. He's a complete drunk and has a court record three pages long. (as does her mother). He did say he knows he has no chance of getting her and that he just wanted to see A. He brought his 19 year old daughter who had never seen her little sister before. But still the social worker had to physically take the baby out of my arms. I just froze, it all triggered within me at that moment. She is mine! So needless to say, we're going to fight for this one! Every close family member to them has a court record. The only decent relative is in West Virginia and by the time that would go through it would be over a year. It would be detrimental to A to leave after that time. She is a very clingy baby! Little Jay was a happy go lucky kid. His family really wanted him and they were all good people. (even his mother, she just needs a lot of parenting classes, he is in his grandparents custody right now). This family is totally different. The county where A is seems to want to place A with us. I think they will make that recommendation. I even hope to get to talk to the one family that wants her and explain how terrible it would be on her, and they are a foster family, so she has to know! It's going to be a long road, but I'm going to fight for this baby! She deserves a home where she's loved.

So all that to say, it's been a rather emotional week. I'm thankful for the three day weekend. Not really sure of our plans yet. There's a parade tomorrow that the Cub Scouts will march in, maybe staying for fireworks! I do still want to get to the theater to see a second showing of Eclipse. Praying for my friends speedy recovery! She needs so much help and rest!