Well we are officially licenced for treatment foster care. And still i am very excited but extremely nervous! For the past three years it has been my husband, i and our animals. we haven't had to work around anyone else's schedule. now we will be just thrown into a schedule that is no longer our own. no only will we have to worry about their bedtime and everything that goes with school, which we will be totally new at, but we are going to have to worry about medications, all of the different appointments they might have and not to mention the children's biological parents and their schedule. Even though I'm sure all of this will be over whelming i would have to say we are up for the challenge. I always thought i would really rather have the younger kids for foster care, which i still would but i am really getting use to having the 13 and 14 year olds. Although some of them can be lazy and disrespectful(I'm sure some of that comes with the age) we have been pretty lucky! The boys we have had in respite have been very easily motivated and seem to always be willing to help. Some of the like to help clean house, clean the yard and a few like to help cook. But the most fun i had was this past Halloween. I believe we had 3 boys maybe 4 and i decided to save pumpkin carving for that day so they could help. I thought boys and carving how could they not want to do it. I didn't care what they carved as long as it wasn't something really bad because their are little kids that come to our house. I also wasn't going to push them to help. I figure if i pushed them it would take the fun out of it and would feel like something they HAD to do. So i just said as i was walking out "I'm going to carve and paint pumpkins anyone that wants to help is more then welcome to come out." Well i thought they would all jump at the chance to cut into a pumpkin but i was very wrong! The only one that came out is the one that normally helps even when i don't ask. He stayed out with me until the last pumpkin was carved. As much as i wish the others would have gotten into the pumpkin carving it was kinda nice to have just one that i could talk to and get to know better. He is still my best helper and i hope that he keeps in contact even when he doesn't have to.

Softball has started! That means my summer is off to a start. Right now I play 3 nights a week and two of the three are co ed. Co-ed is a lot of fun especially if you play with the right people. In the one league we play with some of my husbands teammates and some of our friends. We have played with them for a few years now and its been really fun. For the most part they are pretty laid back for the most part. It might be partly because we often win but also because we just like the people we play with. We started playing with that team this past Monday and although fun it was so cold! We did get lucky though it didn't rain during our game which was large positive. I actually surprised myself, last year i didn't hit very well but that night I hit 3 for 4.

The next night I played in my women's league and my sister also plays on that team. I really enjoy a lot of the people on this team but this year i am a little annoyed. I'm hope it was just because it was the 1st game of the year but we apparently needed to add people to our team so the people that have been there for the past few years had to either rotate or sit out part of the game. I'm hoping these people are just going to be subs because I didn't really play $25 a league to not play. Granted I only sat one inning but I noticed another girl sat much more then one. It was pretty fun though because I do like some of the girls and we are a pretty good team. I didn't do quite as good hitting that night though I think i went either 2 for 4 or 3 for 5 not really sure.

We haven't started our wed. night games yet but in that league I play with my sister so that is pretty fun. I am pretty excited for that league its normally pretty laid back and we normally do pretty well.

For those of you that don't know sports have always been a big part in my life. I have for as long as i can remember played softball and basketball. In middle school I started playing volleyball too. I was pretty good in volleyball and softball but basketball was always my favorite sport even though I didn't play much in high school.
I am so glad for summer to be starting but also a little nervous. We should have a foster placement sometime this summer and also I am hopefully going to continue classes. Lumped with softball i will be a pretty busy person! But its a nice thing to be because then we aren't always sitting around. Also with summer here Brett my black lab puppy can get out and RUN which he really needs to do more of!! He does run all year long but he is kind of a baby because he doesn't like the cold much.

!!!!!!!!!!Wahooooooooooooooooo For SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
John Lennon (1940 - 1980), "Beautiful Boy"
Well I wasn't sure what to write about this week like most other weeks so I decided to look up some quote and write something about it. As I came upon this quote it really made me think. I think this is very true because it seems like all I have been doing lately is planning for the future and not really getting to enjoy what is going on right now. It seems like I'm always say we better do this in case this happens and planning for the future is very important but so much less enjoyable if you don't just relax a little. Also I find myself planning everything around certain things in my life. One of those things would be starting a family which we have as you know had some trouble doing. But it is the one thing that no matter what i do i find myself saying is this something i really should be doing if we want to start a family. And at this point starting a family is out of our hands it seems. So i think i really need to step back and enjoy the things that ARE happening now and not really focus on the things that might happen down the road. This also leads me into starting softball this summer. I am pretty excited to play because it is the one time i can just play and not have to think about anything else that is going on. I can truly live in the moment. I don't have to worry about not being able to start a family, what bills need to be paid or any of the other grown up stuff i think about everyday. I can just be a kid again for at least an hour.
This quote its just good for myself i think everyone should step back and look at all of the good things they have and not look to the things they want to have down the road. Not that its not good to plan and hope but sometimes you just need to step back and see what you already have in your life. I think if people would start doing this they might lead much happier lives. Which might also make the people around them a little happier too.
So well that is my opinion on this quote....i may have to print it off and hang it someplace i will see it everyday so that i remember to step back and look at the good things i have in my life.

HGTV and DIY

HGTV and DIY has some of my newly favorite shows! I haven't really ever watched them before but while the kids are napping I have been watching them! Some of the shows have some pretty crazy ideas for redoing rooms in your home but some have some pretty cool ideas! I absolutely love when they redo living rooms, bedrooms and kids rooms(bed or play). They have so many fun ideas but they are so hard for reg. people to actually do themselves. I am somewhat ok with coming up with fun things to do but they never work out just the way I thought they would. Plus they are so creative and well I'm just not quite that creative. I couldn't walk into a room and say oh my it would look great like this. I'm sure there are a lot of people out their like me that wishes they could design that perfectly unique room. Or wouldn't it be awesome to have one of those shows come to your (or my) house and have them redo a room (or every room if they wanted:)) Two of my newly favorite shows are Color Splash and Deserving Design which are both on HGTV. They come up with some really cool ideas! They also make the rooms so colorful. Not to mention they know just how to place things to give you the most space and make the rooms look their biggest. On show that was really cool was when they had a young girl that loved to draw and also wanted a space to hang out with her friends. But the room they were doing was really small. So they had a desk drop down when she wanted to draw and had a couch pull out of a little closet when she wanted more seating. And the room was painted so beautifully with a sun set painting on one wall. I really like extreme make over home edition too but the shows on the other two channels have shows that even though you might not be able to do everything they do or come up with the ideas they are a little bit more practical and there are some things that you could do yourself. I also think it kind of helps me think a little more creatively when i try to think of what to do at my house. Now i just need to find a show that shows how to redo the perfect back yard and i will be set.:) So if you don't watch these shows they are definitely ones to check out......oh and by the way girls the host of color splash is known for looking good with out a shirt and it seems like he is shirtless every show! HAHAHAHA. Oh and that isn't why i watch it i like his ideas!:)

Time to Relax

Even though we just had spring break it seems like I have been going none stop for at least the past month! You would think that it would be school that is the biggest time consumer but it really hasn't been. There has been bridal showers, baby showers, upcoming weddings, softball starting again and the biggest thing is trying to get licenced for foster care. That is all on top of working at my sisters daycare, school and doing respite on weekends. Don't get me wrong I have taken this all on and I'm not complaining but I am very excited to not have to do anything Friday through Sunday!
With softball starting and playing on three different teams I have practices and have to figure out how to pay for all the different teams. I wouldn't be a big thing but my husband also plays on three teams and we have to pay for him too! The $25 isn't a big deal to play for one team but we will be paying out $150 just to play softball. How crazy is that!!! Last year if you played on more then one team it was $25 for the first team and then less for every team after that but for some reason they raised it. Oh well I guess I can't imagine not playing!!!!!!!!!
And getting licenced for foster care takes up a lot of time! Their are so many meetings you have to do and a lot of piddly paper work that has to be done. I know it all needs to be done and I really want to do it but I can't wait till we are done with it all! Although we wont ever really be done because you have to do 2 meetings a month that is nothing to 2-4 a week. A lot of the later meetings thought will be with other foster parents and I always think it is so interesting and informative to hear what they have to say and what they have been though! I am still a little nervous about having a foster child or any child for that matter in out house full time but i am also very excited too!
Back to this weekend.....my down time! To night I am going back to my parents so that i can go with my dad tomorrow to Madison for a doctor appointment which i cant wait to do because we haven't had a lot of just me and him time in a while! Not that i really want it to come from going to a doctor appointment but it will still be nice and that way he doesn't have to go alone! Then on Saturday, I am SLEEPING IN! HAHAHa! I hope i get to but who knows! Hopefully we will get to go golfing in the after noon though. I haven't golfed a whole lot and well i suck at it but it is fun! Especially when we go as a family! And maybe we will get to play games. Between that and watching movies those are things my family and I like to do! I just go a new phase ten game and everyone really likes it and then we also have Wii! Then on Sunday for Easter my aunt and her family are coming over so that means a yummy big meal! And an Easter egg hunt for the kids. My sister and I hide the eggs for the kids every year and put some different things in them each year. Not sure what we are doing this year. It will be a fun yet relaxing day before I come back to more meetings!:)

Like I said before I'm not complaining it keeps me doing something instead of just sitting at home doing nothing but I think my dog is getting the butt end of the deal because we don't get to get him to the park as much as we would like right now. But the best thing about right now is THE WEATHER IS FINALLY GETTING WARMER!!!!!!:-) (better stay too!:) HAHA

Hometown Play

Well the play was a huge success! I guess I had't really realized how big it has gotten over the years. They had a full house all 3 nights and even had some buses bring groups from other towns. One bus even come from Sun Prairie. I always help sell raffle tickets so I get to see and hear some of the people comments. And this year our play happend to be on the same night as a play in a town about 30 min. away and everyone that went to that play and then came to ours said ours was so much more funny! I didn't get to see the other play but I can say for sure that ours was funny. As I said before one of the people in the play got seriously burt and had to be in the hospital for the play but he is now doing better and improving faster then the doctors thought he would be! Anyway the guy that took his place last min. did a really great job for only looking at the script for a week. He made it even funnier. He kept a copy of the script in his back pocket and pulled it out every now and then if he would forget a line. But he played it off like it was part of the play and it helped that a lot of the people watching the play knew him. I also think that on thing that makes their play a little better is the fact that they are not afraid to add their on touches to their parts! They all add something little here and their to make it a little better and they like to involve the crowd. Even the pastor adds things that you may not think a pastor would! This year they had an outhouse on the stage as a prop and each night they had someone different come out. I'm not sure who came out the first night because I wasn't able to get back in time to go but the second night it was my dad and not only did the crowd get a suprise but so did he!:) We was supposed to come out with a newspaper and pulling up his pants but he was also supposed to have shorts on. Well when he came out his shorts went down as he was tring to pull his pants up! The next night they had a pastor from Sun Prairie come out. All in all it was a really great weekend with lots of laughs and not only laughs but we made a lot of money for the school. Which is the main point of the weekend! After saturday nights show I also got to hang out with a friend from when I was little and catch up. It was a great weekend!

Hometown Happenings

Most of my weekends have been spent lately with our respite boys but we actually have a weekend off and are going back to our hometown. I can't remember if I said it before but my husband and I are both from the same area we actually graduated high school together. We were high school sweet hearts if you want to call it that; we have been together since we were junior. I grew up in a town of about 780 people and he grew up in a town of 300-400 people so everyone knows everyone pretty much. Anyway back to what we are actually going back for this weekend. Every year their is a group called the Parish Players that do a different play every year. Sometimes its scary , sometimes its a love story but you can bank on it being extremely funny every year. Also just because they are called the Parish Players don't assume the play is only about God or really anything related to church. They are only called that because well most of the people go to church there and they have the play in the gym of the Catholic school. I think they have been doing the plays for at least 15-20 years I'm not exactly sure but it is a memory I have from every year I was in school. They do a practice play for the school kids from the public and Catholic schools on the Thursday before they actually do the play for the public; kind of like a dress rehearsal. Then they have the play on Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday morning after church. For the past 5-10 years my parents have been helping so I get a little behind the scenes look and its pretty fun! My dad was actually in the play for about 3-4 years I think it was. And if you would know my dad he love to have fun and joke around and everyone in our little town and then ones around us know my dad. So the first year he was in the play he was a mystery person and by person i mean OLD LADY! He was a verity of other characters in the plays after that. I think he was a lady a couple other years and i know he was a sheriff one year but since he started tour guiding he decided to take a more off stage job. Now he talks everyone into buying raffle tickets and man is he good at that! He talks to everyone that comes though the gym door and their isn't many that don't at least buy one ticket. Then there are those generous people that buy $10-$20 worth of tickets and that's when a couple of other ladies and I come into play. We get to fill out all of the tickets for the people that buy a large amount of tickets. And I thought taking notes in my classes are a lot of writing!:) The gym is packed every night and not many of the people only buy one ticket! It does go for a good cause though! Everything they raffle is donated so the money goes back to the school which is greatly needed! And no I didn't go to this school I went to the public school but I had a lot of friends that went to this school. We never even went to church their either my parents just like to help and have a lot of friends in the community so they get pulled into doing a little bit of everything. Now you might be wondering what my mom does with the play. Well she is a big part of the play but no one will really ever see her! She does the makeup for most of the performers. With out the makeup you wouldn't be able to see the expressions as easily and for some you wouldn't be able to tell they are old or pending on the play you may not be able to tell what their character is supposed to be. So even though no one will really see my mom she is a very vital part of the play. They have had a lot of people in and out of the play but their are a few of the original people left and most of them are the ones that really make the plays exciting! This year however one of the people that have been in the play for a few years and does a great job at making everyone laugh wont be able to be in the play. Just this past Monday he was changing a fuse and it exploded. They had to take him to Madison and he will have to stay in the burn unit while the play goes on. But as I said it is a very small community so I am sure everyone at the play will be thinking about him and hoping he gets well soon. He had burns to his hands and face. Anyway back to the play, I am very excited to be going back for it again this year not only do I just love seeing the plays but I also get to see a lot of old friends that I don't get to see a whole lot anymore. If nothing more the play for one weekend a year really brings our community together for some good somewhat clean:) fun! And also bring people back to the community if only for the weekend! I hope you liked hearing a little about our community and maybe next week in my blog I will tell you a little about the play I am going to see this weekend. Normally I know a little about it but this year it is a surprise to me where as I don't even know the name.

WASH AFTER YOU FLUSH

Well the past few weeks I have been noticing something a lot lately that just really grosses me out!!! The fact that there are some people out there that don't wash their hands after going to the bathroom! Especially when that person is supposed to be cooking food for others! I think I would just feel dirty if I didn't wash my hands. I mean really it doesn't take that long to put some soap on your hands and scrub them then rinse them off. I was at a bar/restaurant the other night and walked into the bathroom as this other lady walked out off her stall so I moved to the side a little so she could get to the sink but she didn't she just walked out the door. I kind of looked and was like really! I really thought that at least most girls washed their hands. But then when i got done WASHING MY HANDS and went back out I noticed the same lady sitting at the end of the bar and I commented to my husband that she didn't wash her hand and how gross it would be if she was cooking peoples food and little did I know she got up a couple minutes later and went behind the bar to take some french fries out. I was so glad I wasn't eating there and I will not eat there if she is cooking! I guess it's just such a simple thing that I can't believe it is really that hard to do especially if you are cooking other peoples food. Even the kids at the daycare I help out at know how to wash their hands. Even the ones that don't know how to use the pottie yet know how to wash their hands. Sometimes they need to be reminded but they are kids not adults. They know you flush, wash, dry and turn off the light. Another thing that bugs me about bathroom habits is when guys leave the toilet seat up. Really please just put it down. I do respite care and one boy just doesn't get it. We even have one of those seats that if you just start putting it down it will go by itself. And with our respite boy you would think he would realize its so much easier to put it down before you leave the bathroom instead of having to go back in to do it. I don't mean to sound mean about it but both things are really not that had to do and not washing your hands is just gross and can make you or others sick. So please WASH AFTER YOU FLUSH. :)

Warmer weather! I CAN'T WAIT!

I am so excited that the weather is changing! I am very ready for it to be nice out again and today I say my first robin of the year so that is giving me hope! I help my sister with daycare sometimes and it will be so nice to get the kids out side and actually do more exercising other then playing little games in the house and dancing. Sometimes we do an aerobic exercise tape for kids but with the ages we have its a little hard to do! I also think that they will all be in much better moods once we can get out almost everyday again and I know I will feel better and be much more awake. There is so much more to do out there for them and we can walk to the park. Not to mention they sleep better with the fresh air in them! Not only will it be nice for the daycare kids but it will be nice for our very hyper black lab! I feel bad for him in the winter because he really wants to run and play outside but he is a big baby when it gets cold and doesn't like to stay out in it for very long. So now that it is getting warmer we can start taking him to the park again to play with other dogs and to just run around and get that energy out! He will also be able to go swimming again which he loves to do and it is so much fun to watch him do! I am also looking forward to playing softball again this summer! Last year I played four nights a week and two games on Mondays so i was pretty busy. As of right now it looks like I will be pretty much just as busy which is totally ok with me but it kind of depends on if we get foster kids and how many we will have. My husband plays a lot too. Last year he played 5 nights a week twice on Mondays and Fridays sometimes and on some weekends. This year he might not play quit at much during the weekend but I think they are getting into more tournaments on weekends which is ok with me because I was raised at the ball park and love being at the park. It also works out because some of the parks we can take our dog which he loves the attention! It will also be nice for when we have respite kids we can walk to a park from our house or just go play in the back yard! We are also looking forward to maybe taking some of those kids camping which i haven't done in a long time! Oh and then there is swimming one of my favorite things to do! I can't wait to take my niece and nephew swimming a lot again this year. So if you can't tell I am really looking forward to the warm weather but I have a feeling it is going to go WAY to fast!

Update to last post

Well we found out we won't be getting the three brothers because they dont want to move them as far away as they would have to if they moved with us. But we are still planning on going though with the foster care process and continue with respite care!

Foster Parents

Well these past few weeks have been pretty crazy at my house. We maybe taking in 3 foster brothers and this will be the first time we will have foster kids. We do respite but it is a bit different. Respite we only take care of for a weekend or maybe a week but with foster kids we will be responsible for everything and everyday! We are as ready as we can be but i am still a little nervous! I know these boys will be scared and i will do my best to help ease their minds but they have had such a hard life already it might be a little hard to ease their minds! They have been let down in every way possible. Also foster care doesn't mean permanent so if they get to go back to their mother i am hoping that she betters herself and doesn't let them down again. Because if she lets them down again i will fell like i have let them down also! But don't get me wrong i am so great full that we will hopefully get to be a part in these boys lives and hopefully be someone that they can rely one and trust! This kind of leads me to thoughts of all the kids out there that get tossed around from one place to another or the kids that are stuck in neglectful homes and never get help. I fell so bad for these kids! Some of them have their spirits broken before they even find out who they are. There are kids that have fetal alcohol syndrome and some that are hooked on drugs when they are born because their mom did drugs when she was pregnant. I just can't imagine how people can do this to such innocent little kids. These are things i know happen but really do they need to!? I was never around any of this at least that i knew of when i was little so moving up here and taking in respite kids has really opened my eyes! As much as I want to have children of my own and i plan on having them someday hopefully soon, i think right now helping any kids i can is a job that i need to do. Seeing where these kids come from helps me not stress about stuff that really isn't that important! I couldn't imagine not know where my parents are or not being able to call them on the phone just to say hi. I can't comprehend not liking my parents or not even wanting to see them again. Don't get me wrong though some of these kids really do want to see their parents and love them so much they don't really care what they did to them. Also their are the kids that have done something wrong and that's why they are in foster care but my thought it is why weren't the parents their to somewhat guild them!
On the happier side of all of that you have the foster parents that really care about these kids and are helping them become better people or at least pulling that better person out of them. We have had an opportunity to work and get to know some of these people and they are wonderful. There are bad foster parents out there but we haven't met any yet! The ones we work with really take the time to get to know the children and the little things about them because you really can't treat any of them the same because they have all come from different places.
So in all i hope that we get the chance to be foster parents to these boys and hope that someday i can look back and say that i am glad i did this and i really did make a positive difference in so many kids lives.

Ches. Gymnastics

This week my niece has been showing me a lot of her gymnastic moves! She is seven yrs old and has been doing gymnastics since she was about 2 or 3. But these last couple of weeks she has been vastly improving and with the improvement has come being more daring. In the past week she has almost perfected a back hand spring (which I had always known to be a back flip flop :)) She has also become daring enough to do a back walkover. I really don't know a lot about the little things in gymnastics but I do know a little and it just amazes me how much she has improved in such a short time. I suppose I shouldn't be to surprised though she does work out in a gym for 3 nights 3 hours each. She has even gotten to do her first competition this year. She traveled to Chicago, Twin Cities and Des Moines. It is also fun that no matter where she is it becomes her gym! She does flips on the trampoline (when its warm enough), flips around her swing set, flips on her bed and at her brothers wrestling when they are all done wresting the mats are hers. She even scares her gym teachers when they get to put down mats to tumble on. Not only has gymnastics helped her coordination but it has also helped her socially. She has become more willing to talk and just go play with other kids. She has even gotten to have her first sleep over with a friend that wasn't part of her mom's daycare (which are kids that she has pretty much grown up with). The friend was a part of her gymnastics group that she traveled with and stayed at the same hotels as when she went to competitions. Gymnastics has been such a great thing for my niece! Which confirms my thinking that it is really good for kids to get involved in activities no matter what it is either sports, girl scouts or anything else. In my experiences either myself or my nieces and nephew it has always been sports. I think sports is a great thing. It teaches kids things like team work and good sportsmanship. These qualities can care over into adulthood not only in sports but in careers. It also helps with there social skills, quick thinking and coordination. Back to Chesny, it makes me so proud to watch her develop and grow not only as a gymnast but as a young person too! I am looking forward to watching her compete more as she grows. Also I'm looking forward to seeing her perfect more and more difficult skills that I wish I could do but will never be able to do!:)

Past and Present

This past weekend my husband had his high school basketball alumni tournament and it was kind of exciting for me to go back also. My husband and I both when to the same school and graduated the same year so I know a lot of the people also. Not only did I go to school there but my sister who is eight years older also went there so I know a lot of the people in the generations ahead of me. Anyway while sitting and watching some of the games my friend and I got to talking about the difference in the people that graduated ahead of us and those that graduated behind us. The ones that were ahead of us don’t really seem to change much and we figure that is because they look older when we are younger. And those who are younger than us seem to change a lot because they looked so young to us and now they are all grown up. To me it’s more than just a basketball tournament it’s a way to reconnect with friends that you haven’t seen since the previous year and some that you haven’t seen in many years. Our school was two different schools that consolidated into one and this year they decided to invite people from all three schools instead of two. The two original schools were rivals back when I was younger and my sister was going to one of the schools. So this year we did get to see some people that we haven’t see in such a long time. A couple of the guys were guys that when I was about 10 yrs old would play basketball with me just about every day. They taught me all the little things about basketball. It was really nice to get to see people that had helped me in different parts of my life. It was also nice to catch up with these people and see where they are and how they are doing now. It’s also funny how when some of the guys get around old friends they seem to act a little more like high school guys again and how old nick names come back. For example my husband was always known as Coleman (Coleman was his last name) but now that we are married he has changed his last name to my last name and so I just find it funny that no matter how long you are out of high school that part of your life need ends! I can’t wait till next year’s tournament to see how everyone changes and hopefully see more people that I haven’t seen in a while.

Adoption and our family!

The picture above is a picure that our 1st respite child made us and it is one of the best pictures I have ever gotten. It still and always will always be on our fridge and in our hearts!
Adoption! This has been a big topic of discussion around our house lately. We have actually had to two chance to adopt some great kids. About a month ago we had the chance to adopt a two year old boy but they found a family that was already foster parents which we would have had to become in order to take him before we could adopt. And now just this week we had the chance to adopt a sibling group of three, two girls and their little brother. Although we really would have like to have taken them in we just don't have enough rooms in our house. We only have two bedrooms and would need at least three. It do make me a little sad that we couldn't add these children to our family and give them a SAFE and LOVING home. My hope is that they find a safe, loving home that is large enough for them to have some space they can call their own. We are not discarding the idea of adoption though. We are going to be starting foster care as soon as we finish all the requirements. Our first objective as foster parents will be to help return the children home to their biological parents when the parents can provide a safe and somewhat calming home but for those children that can not return home we are not closing out the option to adopt these children. Although we would love to adopt a pink baby ( these means a baby that as soon as its born it is your child the mother has not option to change her mind--this is what some of the people I know in the social work field call that type of adoption) we don't now if we are able to have children of our own yet so we think our time is better spent with children that really need a safe place to call home while things are getting settled at there birth parents home. So I can't wait until we are able to become foster parents and get to know all the great kids we will have a chance to leave lasting memories with. We are already doing respite care and love all of the children we have had though there but they are all very different children. Some you have to step back and say we may need to change our way of doing things with this child but it all needs up good. We love having these boys in our house they keep us busy and allow us to do a lot of fun stuff that we may not normally do just the two of us. We play games all the time, we get to go the the park (when its not freezing) and we have gotten to go sledding a few times which is something I haven't done in a long time! Something I have also found a little surprising is that some of our teenage boys love to help us clean and cook! One of the boys it doesn't matter what I'm doing from cooking, to cleaning, to carving pumpkins, he just loves to help. Even though you can clearly tell he is ADHD when he is helping me you wouldn't be able to tell. I am very much enjoying getting to know all of the boys different personalities and I'm excited to get to know so many more children. This is such an amazing experience that I would never give up for anything. Someday I hope we can add our own biological children and any of our adopted children to our family. Children are so amazing I think they can teach adults a lot about life and help them not forget the little treasures in life.

A little about me!

This is my first blog so I thought I would start out by telling you a little about myself. I was born and raised in a small town in southwest Wisconsin by my loving parents, John and Carol. I also had a sister, Brooke, who was eight years older then I. I spent a lot of time when I was younger going to her sporting events and after she graduated, I went to visit her in Madison. When I was in 5th grade she had my nephew Tyler. That was one of the biggest highlights of my life! My nephew and I have always been really close and sometimes it seems he is more like my little brother then my nephew. Other then spending a lot of time with my family, I also spent a lot of time with friends. In a small town we didn’t have a lot to do so we spent most of our time at the local parks either being involved in different activities or watching adult softball games. Even when it was extremely cold we still spent some time outside but when we needed to go in my friends and I would normally end up at my house. I have always been very active even when it came to school I was at least a three sport athlete. In middle school I played volleyball, basketball, track and field, and played for two different softball teams. Playing sports carried into my high school years where I continued with three of the four sports. I played varsity volleyball for four years, junior varsity and varsity basketball and one year junior varsity, one year both junior varsity and varsity and two years varsity softball. Having support at every game from my parents and grandmother helped my love for sports grow even deeper. I was involved with many other activities in those for years but sports were the biggest motivator for me. During my second year in high school my sister also had my niece Chesny, who even though she is still pretty young is one of my very best friends. She and I love doing just about anything or even absolutely nothing together. In my third year of high school I started dating John, the man that would become my husband. John and I graduated from high school in 2002 and started working in a factory after the summer was over. As much as I didn’t like working in the factory it is an experience I wouldn’t change for anything. Working there I made friends that I will have for a lifetime.
In 2006, John and I made a choice to share our lives together and so a few of our friends and family took the eight hour plane ride to Hawaii were we would exchange our vows. Our special day was even more beautiful then I could have ever imagined! We also had a reception back in our home town for all the friends and family who couldn’t attend our wedding.
A few months after we got married we decided to move to the La Crosse area because my sister and her family lived there. Also there are more opportunities for the both of us to play sports. We have both taken advantage of greater amount of sports by getting involved in softball, basketball, I play volleyball and John sometimes plays football. We also made the choice because we both new we wanted to have a family someday and wanted to raise our family in a larger area. Since moving to the area we have rented a duplex and then a year later bought a house. Buying the house gave us the freedom to have pets which we both really wanted. So now we have two cats Kona and Buttercup who are brother and sister. We also have a black lab named Brett. We would like to add children to the mix some day but have had some difficulty doing that since I have had two miscarriages in the past few years. I do have many children in my life though. I help my sister with daycare during the week and a lot of those kids and there parents have become really great friends and some even like family. On the some weekends and weeks, we have kids that stay with us though the FCC respite program. We really love having these kids that are from so many different backgrounds. They really teach us a lot and make us appreciate every little thing we have in our lives. We are also thinking about becoming foster parents either though FCC or though the county.
In all this is pretty much who I am, I love my family, friends, children, animals, sports and pretty much every experience in my life. Even though I sometimes wish things would work more to my plan I remember that if it did I wouldn’t have some of the great experiences I have had. For example if I would have had a baby I may not have done respite care and wouldn’t know some of the amazing kids we have met though the respite care. I hope you enjoy learning a little about me, Jackie!