What we've been up to

"I love spending the day with mommy."

Here comes the train

The train is here

"Since I'm such a big boy I get to sit in a seat alone."
"
"Ok, enough is enough. I need a nap!"

Mommy with her little sweetheart

While we've been really busy this week, it's been a great week! Now that 'Mommy's got her groove back' I am proud to say that I have been to the gym 6 times in the last 7 day. I FEEL GREAT!! I have so much energy now and man I need it because Zachary is in to EVERYTHING!!!!! His newest thing is....every day when we get home, I lean in to get him out of his carseat and he starts giving me kisses. It is SO sweet...and just melts my heart. He's been telling me he "wuvs me" 4 or 5 times a day this week! Just that is enough to make it a great week. One of the wonderful things about having children is that even when you have a rough day, the minute you see that precious little face, all is good in your world.

So here's a recap of our day. We went to Sunday school and church this morning and then we droves a few blocks to park so we could ride the new train in Charlotte. Ok, I say new but it's been here a few months. It's new to us though because this was our first time riding. So I figured it would probably go kind of slow....but BOY was I wrong! Zachary was so excited! He was standing up in the seat and looking out. He was trying to say something in baby gibberish and even though I don't know what it was, I think it was something like "OH wow mommy!! This train goes fast!!! This is so much fun!!!!" We rode for about an hour. There were lots of people riding their kids on the train today. We met one couple with two children and Zachary really enjoyed flirting with the little girl. ;-)) So the train ride came to an end and we went back to the car and headed home. No surprise, Zachary feel asleep on the way home. I put him in his bed when we got home and he slept for 3 1/2 hours. I guess the train ride really wore him out. So I managed to clean the house while he was sleeping. I also added up all of my coupon savings from the spreadsheet and I saved $94 this month!! YAY me!!! ;-)

It's SO hard to believe that my baby is 21 months old now! It won't be long before I start planning his 2nd birthday party! I'm not sure where we're going to have his party but I'm thinking maybe somewhere like Monkey Joe's. Gotcha day is also coming up on April 19 so I am going to do something special on that day too. I'm not sure what but we'll figure it out. Last year at this time I was already out of PGN but didn't know when I would be travelling. I left on April 2 to go to Guatemala because I just couldn't wait until the Embassy appt. I had been away from my baby boy for long enough. We have so many wonderful memories from our pickup trip. I can't wait until I can share them with Zachary one day.

Work is going great! We are getting really busy again which I'm thrilled about. It makes the day fly by. Zachary is doing great in school. He is talking up a storm and is "Mr. Independent", without a doubt. If I try to do something for him and he wants to do it...he will say "ME, ME, ME." It's so cute!

Enjoy the pictures! Hugs....

YES we're still alive and Happy Friday

As you can imagine, things have been really crazy for us the last month and a half. Everything is starting to settle down now. We have been home with the family 5 out of the last 6 weekends. While Zachary and I really love visiting with them, it's also nice to stay home some on the weekends. You know how it is, you go away and then you get behind on everything else, like laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, mail and so on. So we are staying home this weekend and I've already set some goals. I really need to finish painting my bathroom so I'm going to do that this weekend and then I'll be able to take the tape off of the trim. I'm excited!!! This has been a work in progress that I just haven't been able to finish. So once I'm done, I'll post a picture of the final product.

I'm also on a mission to clean the house and catch up on all of my laundry this weekend. That will take several hours but I figure I can knock most of it out while Zachary is napping. That is, if I can keep myself from napping with him. Stay tuned on how that works for me.

I guess the other big thing that I've been focused on the last few weeks is setting up my cash flow spreadsheet (I prefer this to "budget"). I set up this awesome excel spreadsheet and I am tracking every dollar I spend. I love excel because all I have to do is insert the information one time, plug in the formulas and it does everything else. It's amazing how much money you can go through and have NO idea where it all went. Now, for the first time in maybe forever, I know where all of my money is going. The credit cards have been shredded (except for one emergency card) and I'm on a mission to get out of debt. I have been trying to ignore this for the past year. The adoption expenses, as a lot of you know, can put a real hurting on the finances. So I have been plowing along trying to ignore the fact that I'm in all of this debt while continuing to charge. I'm happy to report that this is NO longer happening. I have more control over my money than I ever have. I have found all kinds of unique ways to save money, aside from my coupon obsession. It's amazing how little cuts here and there can really add up. Oh and there is a light at the end of the long tunnel for those of us who have adopted. I'm holding out for the tax refund that I'm getting this year. Every penny of it is going to pay debt down. My accountant is working on them now so I should have them out the door by early next week. I'm excited to say the least. ;-))

Zachary is doing great! He's getting so tall! He's also doing very well in school. His language skills are really starting to develop. He can tell you what the cow says, the duck, the cat and the dog. We are working on numbers too and still working on the alphabet. This weekend I'm planning to spend a lot of time working with him (and playing of course). I also want to get outside and let him run around. He is SUCH an outdoors baby!

Zachary's asthma is under control. He still has a slight cough but it's getting better. We went back to the doctor this past Monday and they cut his breathing treatments down to one per day. Can I get a "GLORY HALLELUJIAH"!!! So now we do one breathing treatment at night that takes 5-7 minutes to complete. Life is much easier now!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Hugs...