approved.

We got a call from our trainer for foster care and friend Jessica last night saying we are approved!  So we are now just waiting for a placement.  In two words- exciting and scary.  

bele chere.

This weekend was a busy one with Bele Chere.  The city of Asheville becomes very busy with people from all over the country.  Here are some pictures from Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

A clown painter painted this tree on Quinn's leg.  It even had glitter on it.

This was at our church's' prayer gallery that was in the middle of  Bele Chere.  There was live music and dancing.  Quinn thought this was her little friend Sylvie from Indiana.  That made me so sad.  She was so excited to see this little girl who she didn't even know and the little girl could have cared less cause she didn't know who Quinn was.  Quinn was yelling, "Hi Sylvie, Hi!!!!" across the street.  :(

Before we went to Bele Chere on Saturday night we went by Dru's brother's house to get some toys for Asa.  The kids were swimming in the lake and so Quinn wanted to get in.  We did not bring anything for her to swim in so she wore Ingram's underwear and a life jacket.  

She was very apprehensive but once we she got the courage she got this far (below) in and then wanted out.

On Sunday I went to see Jaci Velasquez in concert.

Here is my prize winning image hanging at Bele Chere.  :)

This is Quinn dancing at the prayer gallery.  

This here may appear strange...well, it kind of is, but I love it.  Asheville has these drum circle things all the time downtown.  Anyone (usually modern day hippies)  can come and bring any sort of rythm instrument and join in.  This one was at Bele Chere.

stressed.

A couple of days ago I had what felt like an anxiety attach.  It was the first time I think I have ever had one.  I felt so out of control over my emotions that is was scary.  I felt panniced and it was really hard to breathe and I just wanted to cry!  To make it brief, what brought it on was a culmination of stresses in my life.  Some positive stress (yes, some stress can be positive) and a lot of negative stress.  Trying to catch up with all of my at home tasks from being gone for three weeks, Eden stuff that seemed to be bubbling over with much needed attention, and a lot of little details while still trying to run (and put back together) a home, a business, be a good mom and still have a life.  

The thought ran through my mind a couple of times- "You can't handle all of this!  How do you think you are going to be a foster parent??  You are not skilled enough, experienced enough, and you certainly don't have it all together!"  

It was weird, for the first time in a looong time I felt my heart being convicted that this was something Satan was putting in my head.  It was very clear-it had to be him.  So, I took those yucky thoughts captive to scripture and this song popped into my head by our amazingly talented friend, John David.  I think the title is "Wash Over Me".  The words I kept hearing were, "Wash over me, cause I need you now.  I need you more than the air I breathe.  Wash over me, cause I need you Lord.  I need you more than the air I breathe."  Then, I felt compelled to share this with my blogging world, something I would not normally do.  I thought, I want to share this song...but I'm not that blogger savvy and I don't know how.  So, silly me popped John David's DVD into our computer and recorded it on my little point-and-shoot camera.  :)  Here are just very small snippets of some of my favorite music from his live DVD.  You should go buy it if you don't already have it!!!  It is called "Live at Lakeview".  I wish the picture was better on here and I wish you could see more.  Oh well.  

So, why am I sharing this?  I don't know.  I just know that it feels good to fall into the perfect arms of Jesus when I feel all stressed out and crazy.  

PS- the one of the song I taped was too long to record so you will have to ask me for the DVD so you can see it, or buy the DVD or *YouTube* John David Webster.

This link is not the song I was talking about but is a song from the same concert.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6DxZ4A9vyw

first place.

Wow!  I am so honored.  I just got a call from John Sullivan who put together the Highland Art Exhibition for Bele Chere (a festival in downtown Asheville with a whopping 365,000 people) this year.  He called to tell me I won first place!!!  Oh my gosh!  There was so many beautiful art pieces when I went to drop off my photo today that I am surprised I won!  The theme was "God is Love".  This was the image I entered.  It is of Quinn and Dru and there was NO photo shopping done to this image!  I promise.  I just saw an amazing opportunity and I captured it. 

So, my framed 11x14 will be displayed at Bele Chere with my blue ribbon and I get some $ for my prize.  Cool beans.  :)

rewind to indiana.

So here are some pictures from my last day in Indiana.  :(  This was at Kirsten's 30th birthday party at Bravo.  Yummy food and good times with friends!

Quinn's friend Sylvie Lynne.  Isn't she cute?  She and Quinn had such a fun afternoon together.  

This is her mom Kim.  (Kim, you are so cute!)  :)  I wish we could have spent more than one afternoon together but she has a hoppin' schedule these days!

Quinn LOVED the german chocolate cake.  It made her very happy to have such a messy face and she asked me to take this picture.

I took this one above after almost everyone left...

Check out the costume earings Quinn has on.  Kirsten gave them to her to play with.

I think Jenni gave them to Kirsten so she could be a real live princess on her birthday!

This is what Asa thinks about sitting in a high chair (Mom, I'm big but not big enough for this)

Kirsten and I...

Allie and I... (my sis)

Christina and I... (she really has short hair.  That is my hair on her head) 

**Christina, I will take this off if you want but I think you are so cute!

Jenni, Cindy and I w/ Quinn on my arm

And, my beautiful Jenni!!  I love these ladies!!

conversations with quinn.

Here is a funny conversation with Quinn.  This is only the half of it. really get her going !

Sometimes you can really get her going and she is hilarious!

i found my little camera.

Yeah...I found my little point-and-shoot camera!  It was LOST!  Here are just a couple pictures from June 2008.

Asa asleep on CC's shoulder at mine and Ingram's birthday dinner.
Asa with his cousins Ingram and Isaac
Quinn painting her on a HUGE canvas in our yard.  
This is one of my FAVORITE things to eat!  Dru made this for dinner one evening and it was so good I had to take a picture of it.  The first time we had one of these sandwiches was in Belize on our honeymoon.  They are called "egg-stravaganza" in Belize.  It is made with a whole wheat bagel, rosemary, sprouts, tomato and eggs!!! YUMMMMM!
Quinn showing off her magic fingers.  She loves art!

we're home.

The kids and I got back from Indiana yesterday evening.  Dru got a gift certificate to Chilies while I was gone so he took us out to dinner to welcome us home.  Quinn was so excited to see daddy! When we pulled into the driveway she started squealing and got the biggest smile on her face I have ever seen.  She hung on him the rest of the night.  

The kids did pretty well in the car.  Asa had a couple of crying spurts when he was hungry or just ready to get out but overall it was not bad.  I got a back massager for the car and used that almost the entire time in addition to pain meds and I was fine!  Praise the Lord!  

I have a lot of cleaning and organizing to do now that I am home.  I also have a lot of dead and half dead plants to tend to as well as Eden work that has slipped through the cracks.  Today is a busy day so I better go...

Glad to be home!

there is no place like home.

 I love being in Indiana, but I am so ready to go home.  I am dreading the 8 hour drive (more like 10 when you are nursing) by myself with the kids!  I have back problems and I have never driven further than 6 hours by myself and I was writhing in pain when I got to my destination!  My back starts to hurt so bad it is comparable to labor.  I am not kidding!  Dru painted the kids rooms so I am excited to get back and see what a terrible job he did (those are his words, not mine).  He and I have some big plans on the line of which I am not ready to announce on this blog yet.  I need to get back so we can talk about them.  

Well, tonight I am just sitting at Allie and Adam's house with Asa and Quinn.  Allie and Adam went to a Gavin Degraw and Jason Meraz concert (is that how you spell their names?)  I was going to go but decided I have better things to spend my money on.  All of my friends are busy or tired so I'm just by myself...so lonely and makes me want to go home even worse.  

Tomorrow we have a big day, we go pick up my car which is getting some work done and I go to Kirsten's 30Th birthday party...WOW, seems like she was just 24 :).  And...we are going to try to fit in the Children's Museum.  Indianapolis has the BEST children's museum!  

Funny story, today Allie and I were at the mall with the kids and Quinn was tired.  She said, "Mom, (I hate when she calls me "mom" instead of "mommy") I feel nauseous!"  I asked, "Where do you feel nauseous?" and she patted her legs.  It was then I knew she didn't really know what nauseous was.  :)

  I was wondering where in the world did she hear that???  Then I realized I say that a lot.  When I am worried, stressed, sad, angry or anything of the like I get nauseous.  I guess I must say that a lot.  

OK, I am going to find something to do that will be fun.  Maybe some sit-ups or something.  :)  Just kidding~kind of.

indiana fun.

Our trip here in Indiana has been fun, stressful and a million other words.  I have been away from Dru for 15 days now and I can't wait to see him and Quinn can't either.  Thankfully we have iChat!  One of the problems since we have been on "vacation" has been the kids naps.  This one nap in particular was right after we got back from Iowa and Quinn was the first nap Quinn tried to take after a week of no naps. (Its funny naps are such a big deal-who knew I would be blogging so much about naps)  I decided that for starters I didn't care if she just took a "rest" in her bed (which is a claw foot tub in Allie's guest room) When I went in to check on her this is what I found...

She got into some makeup I was going to give a friend.  I guess I set it too low!  

Allie and Adam threw a little birthday shin-dig for me at their house on the 11Th.  It was so great to have some of my best friends all in the same place.

Laura scored big time by bringing Paradise Bakery cookies and Christina brought be beautiful flowers!

I just thought this was funny...I think they were looking at a blog actually.

This above happened in about 5 seconds in Allies bathroom!  That is mascara.  Two of Quinn's favorite things, make-up and dirt (oh, and rocks)!

Adam took Quinn fishing for the first time.  She was very excited till she saw the fish actually hanging on a string...she didn't really like that and wanted to put him back, we did.

Above is our little fishing picnic with Allie's in-laws...they are AMAZING!  

This was the Starbucks that Dru first started in as a Barista 6 years ago.  

As we got out of Allie's car to go onto Starbucks I saw this cool picture in the reflection of her window.  Above is the "Old Skool" look.  :)

Swimming with Aria...only she is not in the picture.  

mohawk.

For my birthday in Asheville we had a bunch of friends over and Dru decided to have our friend shave a mohawk on his head.  This is the only picture I have that does it justice but I will take an after picture later.  :)

rewind. iowa.

I have finally had some time (at 1AM yesterday) to look at the pictures I took on my camera.  We used Allie's camera for the most part in Iowa so I forgot that I took some pictures too.  Here are some cute ones I found.

I did not have to even prompt Quinn to do what she is doing in either one of these photos.  She loves her brother so much.  I can't wait till they can play together.  Notice how dirty her hands are in the above picture...she was perpetually dirty in Iowa!

I was laying on the blanket next to Asa making him laugh and dad happened to capture it on my camera.

Above: Asa and my dad

We went to take pictures on the train track that runs through Gowrie.  I remember putting pennies on this track for the trains to smash as they went by when we were up for my Grandpa's funeral so many years ago.

I just love this picture above.  On our last day in Gowrie after everyone else went home from the family reunion, my dad sister, the kids and I stayed just to hang out and relax.  My Grandma Telleen and Uncle Paul stayed also...we had fun at the local park.

Quinn was pretending like she was a turtle.

This slide was SO high, but Quinn finally got the courage to go down it all by herself.