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My gosh. I thought a slight rise in temps was a good thing. Nope. Apparently they are advertising snow again on the radio. I spent my afternoon after Target going to the dollar store and Family Dollar store. Ok I’ve came up with a theory here. Yes, sometimes you can find good deals on things. Deals that would just blow your mind. They also seem to have an abundance of Disney Princess items for some reason. I’m not trying to sound cheap, but I was in search of cheap and preferably large bottles of shampoo, conditioner, soap, and other bath items.

The reason? I’m getting ready to send another package to Karina and it honestly is expensive to do. She also is going to summer camp and needs a new suit, beach towel, sunscreen, and assorted blow up toys or beach balls. As you can imagine all of that stuff is out of season and I’m going to have to ebay it. Although Target did have some suits out today, but nothing that would work for her.

All of this has to be mailed by the first week of March. The mailing to the ministry itself will cost me around $25.00 to $30.00 and then I put a $25.00 donation check inside to help cover freight costs. So I was trying to save myself money. I ended up getting a good deal on the ziploc bags that I needed, but that’s it. Plus the people that are in there were just freaking annoying me. I’ve decided if they don’t have it at WalMart it’s not a bargain. I’m not doing that anymore.

The very old lady who worked there was telling about about the snow and complaining. I also got very upset with them last night. I had Kevin drive me over to one last night and I found a bin in the middle with basically junk for kids, and when I say junk I mean it. However, when you live in an orphanage or apparently are a 4 year old this kinds of stuff is  considered gold. I jumped on buying a few jelly bracelets and play jewelry or hair accessories for .50, .25, .75 cents.

When I got the cash register they told me I couldn’t have one of them. Why? It won’t ring up. It’s old merchandise and it has to be thrown out we can’t sell it. Wow. So I wanted it and instead of keying in .50 and making money you are going to sit there like an idiot and tell me it’s going to be thrown out because it’s old? Humm. Then Kevin started to tell me how WalMart does this with clothing. They actually found out trash men were taking the clothes out of the dumpsters and keeping them. They now cut a line with a box cutter so they can’t be resold.

What bothers me is that they don’t donate the coats to kids in America, but they pimp out Coats For Kids. They want you to buy the coat and donate it, and then they will throw it away when the season is over. Or actually when kids could still be wearing them. It’s all made me want to do two things. Call up these stores and see if they will give me this crap for the orphans. Secondly I just want to go dive in the dumpster and see what I can find because apparently they throw out power tools as well.

It’s all a little idiotic to me.

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Wow, so moms who either who work at home contribute nothing to society. I really feel sorry for those of you who don’t do anything but MOM with your days, because you must be lower than I am. What am I talking about? The idiotic rantings of Crys.

Aren’t you missing your opportunity to be neutral and tell him that like yourself I’m a mother and I contribute to society in so many ways?

I’m sorry Ranee, but I have to say it. Call me a TGO ass kissing fence rider if you want… but blogging for money doesn’t contribute anything to society. Its just another waste of space on the internet. And being a mother doesn’t mean you are contributing to society. Remember Shelly from what ever the hell that site was? She was a mother and she didn’t contribute anything to society.

Am I neutral, maybe not as much as I should be. Because Yes, I do think TGO is a dickwad and should keep some of his opinions to himself. But he’s right, if you dont want someone picking on you for stuff you write or pictures you post, THEN DON’T DO IT!

So when I said that about being a mom I was trying to relate to her. I wasn’t attempting to say I’m a mom praise me. I don’t think that at all. I also barely really do blogging for money either so you can get off that kick Crys. It’s been said, it’s been hashed out with many of us, and it’s a mute point. Don’t jump on that bandwagon now, way after the fact.

I honestly could sit here and tell you the reasons that I don’t think being in the military is a wonderful contribution to society, but you happened to pick that one career that everyone is supposed to respect. Actually everyone contributes to society unless they sit in their basement and type all day long. Or lay in their bed and do nothing. It’s my personal opinion that everyone has a contribution because it takes all types of people to make this world work. From the president to the guy making your McMuffin in the morning. If one of them decided to quit then well, someone would have to take their place because they are needed.

I Crys, have chosen to devote my life to children. You know when my child who I want to stay home with goes back to school I’ll be doing the same. I’ll be going for Social Work to work in the system. Not in a school, or a hospital, or some easy little job somewhere. My goal is to actually go remove children from disgusting situations that would make grown men cry and work with their parents and them to make the best thing happen FOR THE CHILD.

I don’t to put myself into school right now and take the last year of Sydney being home with me and write papers all the time, research, study for tests, etc. So I guess I’m contributing nothing to society. Ok, fine with me. You kinda have to lump a bunch of us into that category don’t you? Jenn, Lindsey, etc. We contribute nothing to anyone. Except our kids need us to thrive and our spouses/significant others love to have us around.

Humm I guess if I’m not churning anything out at a factory, slapping pickles on a burger, or sitting at my desk job in the military then I’m worthless. Somehow in my spare time sitting here doing nothing but paid blogging which you’ve done too and stated that if you could make a living doing it you’d gladly sit home with your kids, I am pretty productive. Oh did I mention that the reason I do paid blogging is to be able to shop constantly? Yeah. My shopping habit is out of control and I like to buy clothes, toys, and educational things for my child. I also manage to send the same items, along with daily care needs like soap, tooth paste, and freaking always maxi pads to a 14 year old orphan who from the sounds of her letters thinks I contribute a ton to her world, and that’s enough for me.

My “sitting on my ass and posting for cash” has allowed me to be able to start doing the same thing for a little boy that lives at her orphanage as well. It will also let us sponsor a child to come to our home this summer, and next Christmas, and maybe adopt her. I’m sure if you ask that little girl she’ll tell you that I contribute NOTHING to society.

Can we not forget about the group I started and continue to run for families who are adopting and having a hard time raising the money? How about the cookbook that I wrote, published (with recipes from people in my group), put together, distributed, and sold successfully. Do you know how many people have emailed and sent me photos of the child they brought home with proceeds from that cookbook?

Whilst I’ve done all this I’ve fought like hell for the justice of my child which is a full time job in itself, actually was. That was over a year ago. So excuse me for not running out and finding the first really mundane desk job I could or burger flipping job that would have me. I didn’t really need the money to survive so I didn’t even think of leaving this child to do that. IHOP is hiring, I considered going there to flip pancakes, but why? Just because your version of contributing to society is different than mine?

I’ve uh had a pretty fulfilling life so I’m sorry you don’t feel the same way about me. Sure, I could have left this at a simple, Ok Crys whatever you say. Then, you’d have not had to read the whole damn thing would you? Pleas though, tell me this. What would you like me to do to contribute to society? Would you like me to find some random person who is talking about a girl named Ranee and say she’s stalking me? Would you like me to go back to finding everything I can about Jenn and picking her apart telling her how worthless she is? Or perhaps it’s as simple as me letting Michael have the run of my website again?

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I was gonna put up a Christmas layout. I made it, it was semi cute. Even the husband thought so and I thought why not? Then the backgrounds just didn’t look quite right. The truth is that I just chucked it and said forget it. Why? I’m just not into graphic heavy layouts right now. Sure, this one is fine with me, but it’s as graphical as I want to get. I’m in need of something very plain. Read More

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Went to the annual Christmas Village deal. Kevin’s mom has a booth there every year and she’s in this little room and happens to be right beside Santa Claus. They gave us free photos this year. I don’t think I’d ever attempted to pay for them before, but Santa’s daughter informed me that this was our yearly Christmas present from them.

From then on grandma took Sydney over to get reindeer candy canes from the booth in the corner. Kevin and I went walking behind her. We watched the lady stare at her, do a double take, and then say IS YOUR MOMMY’S NAME RANEE? We both started to laugh and she noticed us coming up behind them.

See, the candy cane reindeer lady is the lady who made it possible for Sydney to be our daughter. So for the past 3 or so seasons we’ve walked Sydney up there, talked to her, hashed out what was going on, almost cried, etc. etc. This time it was different, because everything is peaceful. It was almost like LOOK WHAT WE ALL DID!

So social worker lady works for a private company now and had been thinking of us lately. She wants to know when we’re ready. When are we ready for a foster care placement or an adoption? She was wondering how to get in touch with us, and boom there we appeared. The shocking part? Kevin says after we get a bigger house we’ll talk to her. What? Did pigs fly?

Anyway I have her card, checked out the agency on the net. They happen to be a mental health place that has gotten into foster care placements and adoptions. Hence why she’s there now. It’s probably all she ever wanted to do minus the bull crap of state funded foster placements. Translation…something might actually be getting done.

And I thought to myself. It doesn’t matter what people say to me or about me. It doesn’t matter how many allegations are made about me from mentally unstable people who troll the net or claim they are stopping me from adopting. Because the truth is that I’m highly qualified and I’m good at this. Professionals who do this think that my husband and I along with our little girl would make a great family if not permanent, but  transitional to help a child out.  To make a difference.

I guess the only goals I really ever had in life were to be a mom and make a difference and I accomplished them both without knowing it. Well, I knew it but damn I didn’t realize it!  O speaking of kids, I’ve dubbed Karina my other daughter. I’m about to write my first letter to her and it will be given to her this weekend. I’m nervous and I have no clue what to say!

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I’m probably going to be screamed at somewhere along the lines for mentioned the true name of my sponsor child, but I’m sick of calling her a sponsor child. I really don’t want to make some fake name up for her like Cinderella either, so whatever her name is Karina.

Now, about Karina. I showed her photo to Sydney today. I was telling her that we’re going to send her things. Of course her first question was for her birthday? Well, yes and for Christmas. She was asking what types of things like toys and candy and stuff? Well, yes. Although Karina is quite a bit older than Sydney so she’s not going to want the same toys. Candy, maybe.

I told her she would be able to draw her pictures and color things to send with the packages if she wanted. She was super excited. She also wants Karina to come color with her. I said we’ll see. Maybe someday we can see her in person. She also wants Karina to come sleep over with her as well, because she said I have so much room in my bed. Really? It’s a toddler bed and we’re getting ready to upgrade, but whatever you say girl.

The reality of that is that I have been told you can have a hosting program if you take 5 children from one orphanage that will come to America. I’m just not sure if that will ever happen. She does have two sisters, both older. One is already out of the orphanage. And that one is the one that Sydney proclaimed she liked the most when she looked at their photo!

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I got some shopping for Karina’s Christmas done today. She’s my sponsor child from the Ukraine if you are just visiting. I got her some of the necessities like shampoo, soap, toothbrush, and toothpaste. Then I picked up some other things for her like hair necessities and pens, etc. I felt like I had to get her something that had to do with Christmas. I just couldn’t stand the thoughts of this being a Christmas package and not having anything Christmas related in it.

I went to Hobby Lobby hoping I’d find some stuff. I did! I got her a felt snowflake covered stocking that I’m going to fill with candies. Then I picked her up a moose wearing a Santa hat. Lastly I got her a miniature snowglobe that has a gingerbread man in it. Very cute. Very small. I figured it would not only ship well and be easy to wrap up, but easy for her to keep in her small space.

I contacted my sponsor buddy and asked about wrapping. She doesn’t wrap and I wasn’t going to, but after looking through some of the photos from last Christmas I feel like I have to wrap or at least put those things in gift bags with Christmas things on them. So it looks like I’ll be hitting the store again Monday morning.

I saw some of the things the children got in their packages last year. I’d like to send a blanket, but I wanted to make it out of fleece. Not sure if I can pull that off this week. Also, a clothing item and pjs. I ended up getting her a nice fleece set with bears on it. Plus some socks, etc.

I took photos of it all and like usual I haven’t had time to put them online.

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