What a week...

This week has been quite an interesting week or something like that. We received our 2nd placement call..YEAH! It was for a 9 month old boy and after hearing the referral info, we decided that this sounded like a placement that would work for us. Andy called into work and I did all the FMLA paperwork, and we were so excited. Then, we learned some more info that we were not initially told. Info that was very important and was much different from the info we were initially given. After hearing the new info, I called the agency back and told them that due to the new info we received, we had to change our mind on the placement. I felt horrible doing that but this was a case that would have been a SHORT term placement!! We are wanting long term that could turn into foster to adopt. So....we're now anxiously awaiting our next call. Fire drill #2 was another good learning experience for us. We were very frustrated but decided to look at the positive side as the negative part just puts us in a bad mood and doesn't help us at all.
We're really hoping that this isn't an indication of what is to come!

There were also two huge losses in the entertainment industry this week! Both of these people were people that I looked up to as a child. In fact, my mom sent my Charlie's Angels lunchbox back with me in March!! I always wanted to have Farrah Fawcett hair. When I think of Michael Jackson, I think of the entertainer that I grew up listening to and watching his videos not the man he later turned into. Anyone who knew me growing up, knows that I loved to dance and put on "shows". I would have to say that his songs were the ones that I loved to dance to the most. I can remember one of the first videos that I ever saw was of "Thriller" and then "Billie Jean". Music and performing wouldn't be the same if there was never a Michael Jackson. Some of his songs had a great meaning to them as well. I think one of my favorites was "Man in the Mirror" so I made it my "blog song" for the next few days.

"I'm Starting With The Man In The Mirror,

I'm Asking Him To Change His Ways

And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer,

If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place

Take A Look At Yourself,

And Then Make A Change"

Happy Father's Day!

I called my Dad today and wished him a Happy Father's Day...Andy and I really wish we would have been able to be there to celebrate with him. I feel really lucky to have such an amazing Dad. He has taught me so much and always been there to guide me when I started down the wrong path.

Growing up, my Dad always taught me if you're going to do something, do it right, and do it right the first time, or don't do it at all. Basically, give it your all. I have to admit, that sometimes when I was growing up that I didn't always follow that simple rule. For example, when cleaning his truck if I didn't do it right the first time, I had the pleasure of doing it again. Let me tell you, it only took me having to repeat doing this one or two times, before I realized that doing it "right" was the best way to do things. =) This also carried over into other parts of my life as well.

My dad always was good about letting me make my own mistakes and helping me learn from them. I think it was because he liked to say, "well Sara, I don't want to say I told you so but..." and he would always say it with a smile. Dad has an amazing since of humour and can always make me and Laura laugh. Today was no different...when I was talking to him, we were talking about one of my little quirks.(will explain more about it later) He said "Oh, I can think of another new one that you have that is quite expensive." I had no clue as to what he was talking about. He finally said "Getting pulled over by the police" as he was just laughing away. Of course, I couldn't help but laugh. I hadn't blogged about his yet but I was on my way home from shopping on Tues and got pulled over and ended up getting a speeding ticket. Darn it!!! Me and my lead foot. This is my first speeding ticket. When we went back to Indiana earlier this year, I got pulled over for speeding and got a written warning.

One of the things that I admire most about my dad is his work ethic. It goes back to that "if you're going to do something, do it right" philosophy of his. He started working at G.E. when he was 18 as a fork lift driver. As the years passed, he moved up within the plant he was working in. The last few years of his career with G.E., he would be the acting plant manager when they were in between plant managers. Even when the new one would come in, he would have to be the one to teach them about the Tell City plant. Not only would he be the acting plant manager, he would still have to do his own job as well. To me it proves that you can start at the bottom and with hard work, move up.

Let's see what are some other great qualities about my dad...he makes the best biscuits and gravy, he always listens to me ramble, he has an amazing talent for building things(desks, shelves, basically anything), when I call him freaking out about something that broke he is always able to calm me down and talk me through fixing it or telling what to do in order to get it fixed. When I lived closer to them, he would just come and fix it for me. =) All in all, he is a great Dad!!

I feel really blessed to have such good parents. Things could have turned out so differently for me if I didn't have my mom and dad to guide me, teach me good morals and work ethic, and were just loving and caring parents no matter how many mistakes I made. Thanks Mom and Dad!!!

Switching topics now...I was off work all week and I really enjoyed having time to spend with Andy and catch up on things that have been put off due to work being so busy. We went to see the movie "Up"..it was such a great movie! It was just a great week and I feel way less stressed now! Woohoo!

I mentioned earlier something about one of my quirks. At least I call it a quirk and not just me being strange. =) My dad has a huge garden on the land he owns and I looooooove all the fruits and veggies that he grows. Living out here, I don't get to partake in those anymore. Anywho...my dad has always been a hunter. I don't know how many times I'd wake up in the mornings during hunting season and he'd have his latest "catch" out in the garage. I never would eat any of the meat that came from those hunting expeditions. To me it was just too close to home...meaning that maybe I had seen that deer or squirrel or turkey or whatever it was when I was out at our land. So since I had "possibly" seen it, I couldn't eat it. Yep, that's my quirk. Do I eat meat in general..yes. Yes, I know all those animals have faces but I haven't seen their actual face. I know I probably never saw the face of anything my dad shot but it just bothered me.

I remember when I was really little and we were out at the first "farm" that my parents had bought, I was walking with my mom and dad and saw a mamma deer and it's fawn. At that time I called the fawn Bambi. So when deer season came around and Dad killed a deer and brought it home, I was convinced he had killed Bambi's mom. I think that is where my "quirk" comes from. Ok, so maybe I'm just strange.

Alright, that's enough of my ramblings for tonight. Happy Father's Day, Dad!

Excitement at the Rockies game and it was not all about baseball

Andy and I went to the Rockies/Mariners baseball game today! We were very excited to see Mike as well as enjoy a baseball game. Nothing like a relaxing Sunday afternoon baseball game! I figured this would be a great lead in to my relaxing week off of work. I was partially right. It was a beautiful warm sunny afternoon until about the 5th inning. The storm clouds started rolling in, temp dropped, and we started to hear the rumblings of thunder. Lovely! Before that, we were having a great time! The Rockies were doing great, had a nice cold beverage, and great conversation. So...back to the storm clouds rolling in. We were just watching the game and happend to look up and saw this...


Actually that was as it was fading away. Are you kidding me?!?!? Funnel cloud!!! We saw another one that was off more to the left of this picture. Both of them disappeared pretty quickly but still!!!! The sirens started going off and they sent everyone inside. We were on the club level so we actually got to go inside which was nice BUT the walls on both sides were glass. Yes, glass. Great! In case you haven't ever had the experience of being around me when there's tornado warnings and sirens going off, well, I freak a little bit. Just a little..ok, maybe more than a little but I acutally did ok today, until they sent us inside where I realized that we were not really in a safe area. We started to go down to the first level but it was packed and people weren't even able to move. After about 35 min, the storm passed and they were able to resume the game. The sun came back out and it was a beautiful day again. As the game was wrapping up, the second phase of storms started to move in. Luckily, we made it back to the car and was out of downtown before the rain started.

So, my relaxing start to my week vacation was a bit bumpy. Hopefully this is not a sign of what is to come. The Rockies did win the game(11th straight win) and we enjoyed spending some time with Mike.

We had our first possible placement call today!!

We received our first placement call today! Exactly two weeks after we were licensed! We were called about 2 different placements! Both placements would be for a newborn baby! Holy Cow!! Both were still in the hospital waiting to be discharged.

First situation, birthmom and baby tested positive for drugs We decided no on this situation due to testing positive for drugs and for a few other reasons.

Second situation, , baby was removed due to parents having a long history with DHS and a few other reasons. When we called back to say yes, they have found another home already. Darn it!

We both have been so excited to get our first call and when I got the message at on my cell...I think I screamed. Yes, I was at the office. When I called Andy, he said ok, I'm cleaning the carpets. It took a few minutes for it to hit him...he was very cute! When I called him back to tell him that they found another foster to adopt home, he was bummed. He said..I even made a list for what we need at Babies R Us! Have I mentioned lately how much I adore my hubby??

I'm just excited that we got our first call even though it didn't work out!!

Short and sweet

My big "project" at work is done today! What a relief!!! Finally, I can get back to doing my "normal" caseload. YEAH!

We went to the agency today and read our homestudy. We found a few errors. She had put down that we were married in August of 2002. Um, I didn't even know Andy at that point. She also had a few other things that were incorrect so we corrected the info. YEAH!

We ended the day with my favorite...chips and salsa with a side of ranch dressing. It was just what I needed.

Crazy, crazy day!

Andy and I had a very interesting/scary day. Our friend, Wendy, called this morning so we could figure out what time we were going to go see "Up". She didn't want to go to the movies at Southlands due to them having fountains out in front of the theater and she knew her son would want to play in them. We decided to go to the movies at Arapahoe Crossing..about 10 min from our house(Southlands is about a mile and half from our house).

We were about an hour into the movie when someone came in and said that they needed to move everyone into a different theater due to tornado warnings. Um, what?!?!? They get everyone into one theater and just leave us there...nothing more was said at that time. After about 5-10 minutes someone came in and said that a funnel cloud had been spotted at the intersection right out side of the the theater. ARGH!!!!!!! Anyone who knows me, knows that storms and tornadoes scary the heck out of me. Luckily our phone has Internet so we were able to get more info off of National weather website. About an hour later, they let us leave.

On the way home, we the only thing we really noticed was the wet streets until we got to our subdivision and noticed the HUGE hail on the ground. Uh oh! When we pulled into our driveway, we saw several neighbors standing outside. We went over and talked to them...then we found out the really scary news. A tornado had hit Southlands mall! They said there was also a funnel cloud that they thought was going to hit our subdivision. The people across the street had a window that was busted due to hail. Another house had a window a/c unit that was blown in another house. We didn't have any damage at the house other than lots of plants blown over and leaves and limbs. The dogs were whining when we came in.

We watched the news and saw that the tornado had done alot of damage to Southlands mall and the brand new Lowes across the street from it. There was also a gas leak as well. They interviewed someone who had been at the movies and they said that the building was shaking and the ceiling tiles were moving alot. Several stores had windows blown out and a car also was flipped over. So far they haven't reported any injuries! Thank God!

Wendy called me a little later to let me know that she has damage to her house. She lives in another part of our subdivision. She has softball size holes in her siding from the hail!!!

We are all very thankful that the storm didn't do more damage! Pics in the post below!

Pics from today

1st picture-hail on our deck

2nd picture-egg size hail

3rd picture-Pic taken by someone in our subdivision

4th picture-tornado behind the movie center. I found this picture on a news website. It was taken on the upper balcony of our favorite restaurant. We ate lunch there yesterday

5th picture-damage in front of the movie theater. This pic also came from the news wesbsite .

Ah...what a week

Any week that involved a new Dave Matthews Band(DMB) album being released, is a good week! Hello, my name is Sara and I love DMB!! Andy is hooked just like me!! No matter how bad of a mood I'm in, DMB songs always put a smile on my face! I just wish they were going to be here in concert this summer. *sigh* Hopefully I will get my Dave fix soon!

Ok, onto other things...We have a meeting on Monday to read our homestudy finally and meet with the supervisor. YEAH! Also, our info will be on the lists that go out to all the agencies in Colorado so they know which homes are available for foster-to-adopt. Hopefully, we'll get a call soon.

Andy made a trip back to Indiana earlier this week for a few days. Lucky Andy! He stayed with my parents and really had a great time. He played cards, rode the 4-wheeler, had great food, and did something he has never done before. Andy ate strawberries right off the plant in the strawberry patch. He said that he's never had strawberries that tasted so good. I think he has told me this at least 10 times!!! That night my mom made a strawberry pie with the fresh strawberries. Needless to say, Andy was in heaven! Andy is finally getting to experience what I considered to be a luxury growing up. Fresh veggies straight from the garden!!!

I got an early birthday present this week from my parents...a laptop!!! YEAH!!! I love it!!! Andy and I picked it up Thursday night and as soon as I walked in the door, I had to get it out of the box to set it up. We decided to buy a new wireless printer as well. We got a great deal on it since we bought the laptop. It is also a copier, scanner, and fax. Now I can scan in some old pics..hehe!

My big "project" at work is almost done. We are just waiting for a "decision". Hopefully we'll get the "decision" on Monday. I was hoping things would be less crazy at work but it looks like it will be a busy summer.

One other highlight for the week...my sister bought her airline ticket to go back to Indiana in Sept. Why am I happy about her going to Indiana when we live in Colorado? Well, Andy and I are going to drive to meet Laura, Mom, and Dad in Kansas City, MO while she is back. KC is the half way point between them and us. Hopefully this is something we can do more often! Not seeing my family for long periods of time is not fun!

Today, I went with one of my friends, Wendy, and her little boy to a carnival at the elementary school that is just two blocks from our house. It was really fun! They had all kinds of stuff for the kids to do! There were a ton of people there. Andy and I are going with Wendy and her son to see the movie "Up" tomorrow. Andy told me today that he is going to start posting some on our blog! Stay tuned! =)