5 MORE GET UPS!!

Only 5 more days to get up and get out of bed to go to work until I am on SUMMER VACATION!!!  I know that there are many out there who are saying, "Oh! It must be nice to be a teacher and have the summer off!"  Well, to be honest, "YES!! Yes, it is!!"  But that was my choice.  We all make choices in life and those of you who really want to say that to me....you should have chosen to be a teacher!  :)

I love teaching!  I love my job!  I am SUPER lucky to have my job!  I love working with my students.  BUT I am SO READY for summer vacation!!  As teachers we NEED this break to rejuvenate for the fall.  And who are we kidding...the kids NEED it, too!

Summer vacation means so many things for the Stape Fam.

1)  It's birthday month!! Both Gus and I will celebrate our birthdays in June.  I CANNOT believe that my baby will be THREE!!  Just seems so surreal!  I have been so incredibly blessed the past 3 years! I am such a lucky girl!  A few days after Gus turns 3, I turn....ummm....a year older.  But as my sister and I will tell you, that means CAKE!!  Who doesn't love birthday cake?!?

2) We get to be home together as a family all summer long!  How cool is that??  We get to be together and play.  It really does not get better than that!  I love that Joel and I both work in education.  My parents did, too, and it was awesome that we got to spend so much time together.  We always knew that there would be family trips or activities in the summer.  I just love that we get to spend so much time together.

3) I have more opportunities to do things that get put on the back burner during the school year.  This blog for example!  Unless there is earth shattering news...which isn't very often in our family, I often forget about posting new info.  As I look back on the past 3 1/2 years (I KNOW!!) that I have been blogging, I did a lot more blogging in the summer.  Clearly due to having extra time.  So watch out world....it is almost super blogging time!

4) CRAFTS!!  How many of you are on Pinterest?  You can find all of my pins HERE.  This is one of my new obsessions!  I have been pinning away and getting TONS of ideas but having no time to follow thru with them.  So....here we go!  I am ready to get my craft on!!

5) Home projects.  Now that we have been in the house for over a year, I am ready to really organize and get this place in order!  I feel like life has just been speeding by and instead of taking time for these projects, I choose to play with Gus.  I mean...who wouldn't??

6) Travel....a little bit less.  This year our goal is to cut back a little bit on our traveling.  Every summer we live out of a suitcase.  The goal this year is to cut way back on it.  Beyond visiting grandparents, and my trip to Atlanta for the Thirty-One National Conference, we will be staying close to home.  I am SO looking forward to that!

7)  Wedding bells!  My sister is getting married!!  And I can't wait!  We are beyond excited for her and Nate and can't wait until the big day arrives this summer.  (I am sure you will hear more about this as the day approaches.)

Lots on the Stape Family agenda but we are very excited to get through the next 5 days so that we can begin our summer of fun!!

Standing Still

As busy as our life is, as crazy as we are, as much as we are on the move and on the go all the time, part of life is standing still....and it is breaking my heart into tiny pieces.  We are in the application process for adoption #2!  We are very excited about this and can't wait for the day that Gus FINALLY gets to become a big brother.  And he will be a darn good big brother, I am sure of it! Every night I go to bed praying for that little one who will someday join our family.  Every night, I hope and pray that this process would move forward.  Every night, my heart breaks a little bit more.

We are currently at a stand still with our adoption process.  I'm not going to get into the details right now because it is still very raw.  I get very sad and angry which means that there is a lot of crying and snot.  It just isn't a good look for me and why inflict that upon myself right now.  Someday I will fill you in....just not today.  As for now, we simply ask for your prayers as we stand still in this process and wait....and wait....and wait....

....and wait....we haven't even gotten to the part yet where we are "on the list".   It is going to be a long wait.

But one thing that is NOT standing still right now is Gus.  Holy moly....that kid is ON THE MOVE!!  It is not very often that you see that kid walk or stay in one place.  He is often running or hopping or dancing.  But one thing he will sit for is a good book.  Yup!  Just like his Momma and his DaDoh.  We all love a good book and can be completely immersed in it.

I fall in love with this little boy more and more every day!  I am constantly amazed by what he does, what he knows and how much I could just squeeze him and kiss him and snuggle him all day long.  Of course that would be after I catch up with him!!

Where, O Where....

....has this blogger been?!?

Well, the simple answer....everywhere!!  I just finished coaching competitive cheer.  My girls had a pretty good season.  Unfortunately, we missed going to regionals by .65 of a point.  Seriously?!?!  Oh well.  My calendar is a lot less full now.  I no longer have practice 6 days a week.  Makes a huge difference!  I am almost not sure what to do with the free time.  Really today was the first day that I had free so what did I do??  I played dinosaurs with Gus, of course!

Gus has suddenly taken an interest in dinosaurs.  I love that he seems to have many interests.  Lately it has been Muppets, Lion King, Robin Hood, puzzles, books, trains and dinosaurs.  Seriously?  Who wouldn't love all of those things??  The problem with dinosaurs is that I was one of the "Otto Girls".  My sister, Annie, and I didn't play with dinosaurs.  We didn't learn all of their names.  Who knew I would ever need that information?  Now my son turns to me and asks each dinosaurs name!  And did you know that they have changed the names?  So the few I did have memorized....gone!  Can you believe it?  No more brontosaurus!!  So I have started doing my dino research.  We will see how quickly I can memorize this!!

If you ask Gus these days if he wants a baby brother or sister, he will tell you that he wants a baby sister!!  (If you recall, he also asked Santa for a baby sister, so this desire has not gone away.)  We are doing the best we can to help him out with his request!  All of our paperwork is turned in with the agency.  Next up is our home study.  I'm excited for our home study this time.  Mainly because it means that we are one step closer to welcoming baby #2.  I know what to expect this time with our home study.  The only difference is that we will have a different social worker for the home study than we normally have.  Our beloved social worker, Louise, will be working with us again, but right now she is taking care of more important business....being a new mommy!  We were a little bummed that she wouldn't be doing our home study....but I think she has a darn good reason as to why!!

Stay tuned for more adoption news!  You know that we will fill you in here!!

Super Sunday