Sick kids and husband

Well, there hasn't been much to say here lately because the only thing I've been doing is making chicken soup, and going to the store for Kleenex and cough syrup. Megan, Chris, and Grace are pretty much over it. Lawson is on the mend. Billy has been sick for at least a week. Chloe's started Friday. They have had sore throats, coughs, runny noses, headaches, body aches, nausea, you name it! So far I haven't gotten it and I don't plan to. I hate being sick. So, we are lying low this week. I've used this time to do my spring cleaning and decluttering. Billy is coming home today from being out of town since Thursday. I miss him. I have a big pot of homemade Beef Stew simming on the stovetop waiting for him to get here. I've never made beef stew before but it looks and smells delicious! I am almost finished decluttering the office/classroom. I only have the kids arts and crafts drawers to go through and I really don't want to. I have them clean them out regularly but they still get so messy. And if I throw away so much as a broken crayon they will find out about it. For some reason the arts and crafts stash is their absolute favorite possessions. It is my least favorite. Well, that's all folks. Hopefully the excitement and activity will pick up here soon. We have a couple of good field trips coming up and the kids start archery lessons in a couple of weeks so I'll have some pictures of something interesting soon. Have a great week!

Happy New Year!

A year in review... January: Billy and I began six weeks of training required to be licensed for foster care. February: Billy and I celebrated our 19th anniversary. March: I celebrated my 37th birthday and my brother, Sam, and his fiance (now wife) came for a visit. Exactly one week later I saw a picture of an 11-year-old boy that I knew would be mine forever. April: Finished up all the requirements for our foster care licence and went to additional training to be upgraded to therapuetic foster care. We met with Chris' adoption committee. This committee was comprised of about ten people and they interrogated us for a couple of hours before telling us that they approved of the plan for us to adopt Chris. May: We celebrated Billy's 40th birthday. We FINALLY got to meet Chris for the first time and spend the day with him. Megan got a new car, a 2004 Toyota Camry. June: The kids got to meet Chris for the first time. We got to visit him a couple of times. Megan graduated from high school and we had a party for her at church. July: We got to have two visits with Chris in our house for a few days each. Megan quit working at Bojangles. August: Megan started her new job at Northside Christian Academy. Chris moved in with us permanently and started public school here. We bought a 2011 Ford Econoline 350 12-passenger van. My parents came for a visit. September: October: We celebrated Lawson's 12th birthday, Megan's 19th birthday, and Grace's 11th birthday. We also went camping with a great group of friends, 7 families in all. November: We celebrated Chris' 12th birthday. December: Christmas! Today I continued with my spring cleaning. I went through all of our photo albums and threw out the ones of people we don't know, pictures of friends houses and animals that they don't have anymore, etc. I scrubed every square inch of the foyer. Billy, Lawson, and Chris still have the cold. Billy and Megan will return to their regular work schedule tomorrow and Chris will return to school. I've enjoyed having them around the last couple of weeks and I will miss them when they go back. That's all for now. Thank you for reading. I would love to have comments but please leave your name. Otherwise, it just says "anonymous." I have no idea who left the comment that said they love us, but I would like to know! LOL