She wore a raspberry beret.....

the kind you buy in 2nd hand store. That's all I could think of yesterday when my daughter had this outfit and beret on! She looked so cute, I just had to post this picture. I even got a smile out of her. She smiles often-just not for the camera!!! Really-she is a happy child!

Happy Leap year everyone!!! You can only say this once every four years!

I've decided to sell.....Lia Sophia

After analyzing both direct sales jewelry companies to death, I finally decided last night to go with Lia Sophia! I feel really good about my decision and the woman I signed up under is terrific. My starter show is March 30th at my house. I have lots of other friends I want to invite, so I may have a 2nd show on my own in late April.

What led me to choose Lia Sophia is the name of the company is known, the quality of the jewelry is better than other direct sales jewelry companies and the cost to start is much more "doable". Lia Sophia costs $149 and I can sell my kit back if after a few shows, it's not working out for me. Premier Designs was going to run me about $1200 to start. I want to recruit and getting ladies to cough up over $1000 makes recruiting very difficult.

I have some terrific ideas on how to book shows and get new customers, and I can't wait to hit the ground running!!!! I'm very psyched!!! Here's to being another Lia Sophia success story!!!

Just a plug for my friends hoping to adopt...

Just a friendly plug for my adoption buddies, hoping to adopt independently very soon! If you look to the right side of my blog, you will see links to their adoption websites. These couples are homestudy ready and waiting to adopt. I hope you keep them in mind if you know of a woman thinking of placing her baby for adoption in the near future. They are all wonderful couples who will make (or already are) terrific parents.

I am always hoping to help friends adopt. I was successful in directly helping one couple, who are friends of ours in the fall of 2007. I wish I could help them all.
I do what I can. If I could personally match each and every one of them I could. I love nothing more than to help people and make them happy! Even words of advice or encouragement to my adoption buddies are appreciated when things seem rough. Folks who adopt independently face lots of challenges on their road to becoming parents. Phone calls in the middle of the night, checking ads in newspapers only to find it ran with a mistake, placing ads and hoping for the best, dealing with scammers, etc. It's a lot and it can get stressful. It's all worth it in the end. When your son or daughter is placed in your arms, everything bad that happened to you along the way disappears and all that remains is happiness. Some potential adoptive parents get discouraged and give up on their dream-don't! You will be parents AS LONG AS YOU DON'T GIVE UP!!!!

Help these couples become FAMILIES!

Angie's sporting a bump

Seems undeniable. Pictures of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt at Saturday's 2008 Film Independent Spirit awards conceal nothing. It seems pretty obvious one (or two) babies are on the way! She looks great, why not just go public??? End the speculation and tell us?? I know there may be health reasons or concerns with the pregnancy, but when you are one of the most public figures in the world-there is nothing you can hide. My gut feeling is that they wanted to adopt more kids, but being an unmarried couple is hindering that, so they are growing their family the good old fashioned way!

Here's a picture from February 23rd-you be the judge!

My little fireball turns 9 months old!

Today we celebrated a mini birthday of sorts-my little fireball, as we call her turned 9 months old today!! I can't believe 9 months have passed so quickly! Tomorrow she goes for her checkup-so we will find out her height, weight and she will get a few dreaded shots!

My sweetie had a great day today-she visted her aunt and uncle and played with her cousins. She also saw grandma and grandpa, Uncle Lou and great grandma and great grandpa. The funniest part of the visit was when she was in her walker. My sister's dog, who is a shi tsu was sniffing her in her walker. She loved him. Finally, she just reached out and pet him. It was so cute and she was in no way afraid. I wish I had my camera! She was fascinated by the dog! I played with my neices Wii for the first time too! It was interesting-but I like real sports better!

Here's my sweetie on the couch and taking control of the remote! It's hard to get a picture of her-she never sits still anymore!

Deciding between direct sale jewelry companies

I have been considering doing direct jewelry sales for a while. I am deciding between Lia Sophia and Premier Designs and I really need to talk to each of my contact at both companies before I make a final decision. Both companies have positive and negatives. I guess it just comes down to my decision based on all the information I have gathered!

I have no problem with public speaking and feel I can do a good job of putting on a show. I know lots of women who like to wear good costume jewelry and don''t mind investing the money in a few good pieces. I enjoy wearing some nice costume jewelry and I can be my own model when I am out and about! Having shows at night or on the weekends works for me-I don't have to pay for babysitting. These jewelry companies do carry the potential to make a lot of money, some women are making 6 figures. I will be happy if I can make a few thousand a month!

I am excited, but undecided about which company to join! I hope to make a decision soon!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Not a very insightful post today-just wanted to mark Valentine's Day and share a few pictures I took of the girls this morning. That's the great thing about girls-you can buy pink and red outfits with hearts and it's OK!

We are so happy this year to be celebrating this Valentine's day with our two forever Valentine's-our daughters!!!!

Sad story-Mom leaves baby in trash at hospital restroom!

Here's a sad but true story that happened in Texas. A woman leaves her two kids home alone. She comes to the hospital with a scissor, delivers a baby in the restroom of the ER and dumps it. You are in a hospital-at least carry the baby to the ER for treatment. The baby was 6 weeks early, but he would have had a chance with immediate treatment. Thank goodness a custodian found him! He's now fighting for his life and is on life support as the mother appeared in court today. What's wrong with people. She is now lying and telling people she didn't know she was pregnant-she already had two kids-I think she knows what pregnancy feels like! This baby is a life, a person. I know 20 couples that would have adopted him in a heartbeat. You were feet away from the ER ward, carry him there and get him treatment. What kid of a person would throw a baby in the trash like garbage. We have safehaven laws for infants in all 50 states. A hospital is a safehaven! What kind of a world do we live in??? This makes adoptive parents like us cringe, knowing how much you treasure a baby's life, while others discard it like yesterday's news. Here's the newspaper article:


Mom leaves baby in restroom trash!

A sad week for me...

I know I should be happy and overall I am. This week is a tough week. Two years ago today, I found out the baby I was carrying had no heartbeat. It was the first of two back to back miscarriages. I was 9 1/2 weeks pregnant and everything had been going so well. My doctor even got approval for the C section I was going to be having at the end of August, 2006. I had been having very sharp abdominal pains on February 7th and 8th and decided to see the OBGYN. I never in a million years suspected I had a miscarriage. I didn't even bring my husband with me. I cried for days, my eyes were swollen for a week.

I scheduled a D&C on February 10th. I wanted to get it over with and move on. I didn't want to wait for the inevitable to happen. I was too scared. I couldn't believe it was happening and actually went to the office the day before the D&C and asked them to check again to see if there was a heartbeat. I was grasping at straws, but wanted to make sure they were right before I had the procedure.

Weeks later I would find out that the baby was a girl and had a chromosonal abnormality which caused the miscarriage. It was Turner's Syndrome (also known as 45X), a common cause for miscarriage and it occurs in female fetuses that are missing an X chromosome. The news brought me little comfort.

My gut said the baby was a girl right from the beginning and I was right. I immediately pictured this little girl with big black eyes and jet black hair-but she was not meant to be.

My future held other plans for me. A little more than a year after this tragedy struck, fate had intervened and had a very beautiful blonde haired, blued eyed angel was waiting for me-my daughter. Her adoption is a story of fate, destiny and love. I believe my lost angels helped her find me so quickly so that I can start to heal. We believe she was conceived on the day our lost angel would have been born. Jenna's birthday is exactly 9 months after my angel was due.

Last year was very hard-it was the first year after it happened and I was no closer to a 2nd child. This year, I am thrilled to say I am a mother of two girls, but I can't say the loss still doesn't hurt. It does, just a tiny tiny bit less then the year before. As long as I live I will never forget my lost angels. A little part of me will always hurt. I believe I will see my lost angels one day in heaven. I can't wait to see if they look like what I pictured them to.

This song reminds me of my angels-I still cry every time I listen to it-LeeAnn Rimes-Probably Wouldn't be this way:

Angelina Jolie pregnant????

Well according to every major tabloid magazine this week-she is-with TWINS none the less. No confirmation of this from her or her spokesperson. So I guess we will just want and see. You can't always believe internet rumors and rag magazine headlines-can you?

I do have to say....I just watched in interview of Angelina Jolie on CNN talk about a trip she is taking to Iraq to help with the Iraqi refugee problem. She does have that certain glow! Most of the shots were head and shoulders and in some parts of the interview, over the shoulder. Her clothes were rather loose fitting. If I had to take a guess, I would agree-she LOOKS pregnant-her face does anyway! Wearing that one very loose, flowing dress to an awards ceremony last week really started up the rumor mill.

I'm sure the media will be relentless on her every move and every outing with Brad Pitt and family, as usually. Whatever the case, she gets involved with what she believes in and acts as a goodwill ambassador. If she wants to add one, two or three new kids to her family in 2008-great for her! She is one of the coolest adoptive Moms out there.

Shocking revelation about high school students

A local high school girl died last week at 17 years old. My brother knew her, it was a good friend's sister in law. Prescription narcotic drugs are a factor in her death. It seems that the last "thing to do" among our local high school students is to have "cocktail parties". I have heard this from more than one local police officer I know personally. These cocktail parties involve high school kids raiding their parents medicine cabinets for leftover narcotics and painkillers and taking them to these "cocktail parties". There they mix them all together in bowls and dishes and just start taking pills-unaware of what they are really taking or the dosages.

I am in shock. I know it was 20 years ago that I was in high school, but never did my friends and I ever think raiding the medicine cabinet for a cheap high. We thought about raiding the liquor cabinet-I won't lie, but never prescription drugs. That's just awful. So dangerous. Parents now have to flush or lock up any unused vicodin and perocet. The consequences here can be fatal.

This is the world we live in, a different generation, a different world. When I was in high school, the big thing was cutting school or doing to a party where there was booze. This is a whole new dangerous level of partying. Our form of partying was not fatal, just wrong. I would hate to think that in 10 years I will have a safe in my house to store my medications-but it may be the case. Some kids invite friend over and when they say they have to use the restroom, they steel drugs from the medicine cabinet of their friends parents. It may not be your kids, it could be there friends. Your kids may not even know their friends are stealing from their bathroom.

Let this be a warning to all parents-Prescription drugs are dangerous and the latest craze in cheap highs for teens. Keep tabs on the medications in your house! Spread the word to your friends and neighbors that this is not something to be taken lightly.