On Sunday, my sons met their sister for the first time. It was just amazing to be able to see her and see her with my sons. Adoption affects so many people and it's weird how some people would have zero desires in meeting a brother or sister out there and others do desire to meet them.
Every time, I see my daughter, I can't over how darn cute she is. I hope my sons are able to build a relationship with her. It may never be the same as it would have been if I raised my daughter but hey it's something.
If your friends with me on facebook then you can see the pictures from Sunday.

Does my dog look innocent? Well, she isn't. She is a bad dog! haha. Every night, I bring out two blankets to crash on the couch. One of my blankets is thin and the other is thick. When I wake up to go to the bedroom, my dog is on the floor next to me and guess what? She is laying on my thick blanket? I think she waits until I am sleeping and then steals it from me! That is a naughty dog that steals from her Mommy! I wonder what her punishment should be?

I have some more exciting news soon to come!!! I am really excited! I hope good things come from this adventure in life.

Pictures of my doll bed after I painted it. I started it the weekend of Izzy's birthday. I wanted something to distract me from the darkness. It's when it's dark on her birthday that I had have a really hard time. This year, was much different though. I didn't feel depressed. But she was on my mind a lot. Well, I thought that I would have painted this bed in the day or two but it took me quite a while to actually finish it.

Back in the summer, I seen a doll bed for sale and I just had to have it. The paint was chipping but past the paint chipping away, I could see a beautiful doll bed for my doll. I bought some paint and I imagined I would spend a day or two and then I could show off my work. Well, who was I kidding. It took me forever. Here, are some before shots of the bed. I am going to work on it some more this weekend and call it done. I can't expect perfection.

I love how my husband accepts the silly things about me and laughs about it.

We always crash on the living room furniture before going to bed. So, every night, I drag my blanket and pillow out and I mean really drag it. Sometimes, I break things. I don't mean too, but I do. My husband just kind of laughs at it. Also, sometimes to spare things getting broken he will get it for me. Also, I have a bad habit of forgetting to get his pillow while I am in there. He teases me but doesn't give me crap about it.

He makes fun of my lab but he knows how special she is to me and treats her very well.

He never gives me a hard time about having a life outside the home and work. I am able to go with friends. I am encouraged to go to the YMCA.

He supports my collection of dolls. I have six now. They range from 75 to 200 each. Mostly, I know to check out the clearance section now though. I have a drawer full of baby clothes and some of them he bought. Not every guy will tolerate six dolls hanging out in the living room. He is a sweet guy.

Today, was a pretty good day. I went to the church where I babysit and there wasn't any young children. So, I ended up sitting in church. I would rather have watched a child or two but it was still cool. Plus, I get paid. I felt a little weird getting paid to go to church but I did my end of the deal.

Then, we had a little lunch and we went to the mall. I normally don't care for the mall. It's not as if we can afford to really shop there. I used to love to go to this craft store where we would sit for hours and paint wall hanging and little nick nacks and stuff. Jennifer had bought the kids a gift card.

Tyler was given a card for Barns and noble and bought a couple books. He likes the diary of a wimpy kid books but they were kind of expensive so I had him look around. He found some books from a series that he read at school. So, he was able to buy two books and is excited about reading them. Tyler has finally went from forced reading to reading for pleasure. I thought this day would never come. It's awesome. He is also really created. He likes to draw, color and play with clay. I like that he isn't so into video games.

William bought him some ear buds for his IPOD and some cabbage patch kids and we donated a dollar to keep musicians in school. I got some chap stick for the donation so it was a win win for everyone.

I splurged and let Tyler do the jumpy thing at the mall. The guy running it was kind of hard to understand and I thought he was telling me to get on the scale. I thought he was asking to be slapped. William thought he was telling us to go buy some kind of food but he was telling us to pay the money at the lady with the jewelry counter. Tyler had fun jumping and we had fun watching him do it.

We got home and we hung out with Amiah and had a good time. Tad cooked us a yummy dinner. Then, we made some homemade sugar cookies. I am really getting into doing the homemade treats. Next, I want to make some homemade dog treats. I could just see them spitting them out and shaking their heads. Tad always feeds the dog and today Ann was begging Tad for feed her and she kept putting her paw on his leg giving him the power to get food. She is such a great dog. I love her so much. Tad always calls her ugly and stuff but I know secretly he loves her. She is starting to thin out some. So, I say she has her girly figure coming back. I love how she sleeps right by me when I crash on the couch at night.

The response from the Y. Notice they didn't answer all my questions. One, they never said if the passes were a gift or part of what I pay. They did say that they change the rule about the passes being given to each person and now go to the family.

Notice everything for the member... well how does if I bring in the same person 9 times or 9 different people really change anything for the member?

Notice that I could gift dollars for the Y but what would buying someone a gift membership for the any dollar amount if they still have to pay to get in. I know people should not be greedy but it's like giving 1/2 of a gift. Wouldn't that be liking buying someone a car without an engine?

Hi Cristy,

Thank you for your inquiry regarding guest passes. We are in the process of revising our longstanding guest pass policy.

· Your guest passes are electronic and are entered in January of every year. Around the 2^nd week of January we clear out all existing guest passes and add new ones to your membership.

· This year we are adding guest passes per family unit. So anyone in your family may utilize your guest passes (I think this will clear up one of your concerns).

· The 3 visits a year per guest still will be in place. Understand these are basic guidelines. We do offer scholarship opportunities and will also offer special times throughout the year for you to bring in guests without having to use your own guest passes. The Y is a membership organization and we believe in ‘Everything for the Members’. This enables us to insure our facilities and programs are available to our members first, and that is a privilege of being a member at your Y.

· Regarding purchasing a gift of membership: We do have ‘gift cards’ are both our branches that are available for any dollar amount. The recipient may choose to apply the card to any program or towards their membership.

· Please feel free to check at the desk or call anyone in the membership department, if you feel you have someone who may want to join, but wants to try the Y out. We will be happy to supply you with a ‘guest pass’ to give to them. They may use this pass at anytime and they can come in on their own.

I hope this helps clarify some of your questions and concerns. I am happy to help in any way or answer any further questions you may have.

email to the YMCA about thier plolicies that tick me off.

For those who are not know the YMCA gives each member three passes per year and they go away if you don't use them. You get three new ones but still seems like a waste to me so that is what this email is about.
Dear Jan,
I have been a member of the Rockford YMCA for a couple years. It's just myself and my two sons on it. My question to you is this.. Are the guest passes a gift from the Y or are they something that is included in the price of my membership. Either way, they are mine and shouldn't I as the member have more control over them.
The reason why I ask that is for two rules that the Y has about the passes that I wasn't aware of before recently. First rule that the passes are only to be used by the person who the pass is given to. I wasn't aware of this and I don't agree with it. I think since I am the Mom and pay for the membership that I should be able to use the passes when I choose to. They even went as far as saying that the children could be in daycare and still should be present to allow a guest in from their passes. I don't have little kids anymore but I think that is a little silly. Honestly, with the busy school hours and home work my children are lucky if they make it to the Y twice a month. So, it just doesn't work to make my children come so I can let a friend in to use the Y.
The second rule is that I am only allowed to bring in the same person three times in one year. Between my sons and myself we were given nine passes and I believe about 3 of them were not used. It wasn't because I didn't have people willing to go but it was more about the fact that I couldn't bring that person back into the Y. I admit that I really just don't have too many people that are interested in going to the YMCA. However, I do have a couple that would love to come with me but then they got restricted by the amount of times they had already came with me. I can imagine you want the person who uses the pass to get their own membership and then the Y makes more money but one of my friend's/family just can't afford to do that so that's not going to help her. My other friend enjoys the YMCA but just make the time for the membership to make paying for it worth her money. Again, I know that the YMCA wants people to join but why can't I use the passes on who I choose and enjoy my friend's or family's company?
On to the gift membership, I had inquired about the price of the gift membership to give a family member a free month to the YMCA at my cost. I was told that I would have to buy the month and the joining fee for them. I couldn't afford to do that and basically I wasn't willing to pay a joining fee for a membership when I wouldn't know if that person would keep the membership. It would seem like a waste of money if they choose to just use the free month. I would think a lot more people would buy the free month if it was more reasonable. Also, maybe the YMCA could get more members if you offered them a trial membership of a month or two before they commit to paying a joining fee. I am sorry that this was long but I feel very strongly about wasting money and to me to not use a guest pass is wasting something that I consider valuable.

P.S. My husband said why can't the guest passes be given out to friends and family that can show up and use them when I am not there. Sometimes, peoples jobs and stuff just doesn't match up. He says they could be a gift. Just a thought.

HAPPY NEW YEAR PEOPLE!!!!!