Lame, Loser, Slacker…

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 1 Comment

Who is Dawn?  Yes. 

Okay, so I’ve been a little absent lately.  I miss you all.  There are so few of you left still checking in, but that’s okay.  I love those of you who are left. 

Can I just say one thing–it is frickin’ cold here.  It was 2 this morning when I went to the gym.  Too cold to be outside and too cold for there to be no snow in sight.  The cold sucks, but it really sucks without snow. 

I am looking forward to Christmas this year.  It should be pretty exciting considering that Noah actually knows who Santa is this year.  We have a busy few days going from family event to family event on Christmas Eve and then on Christmas day we do breakfast for my dad and dinner with my mom–so that keeps me in the kitchen much of the day. 

We are all doing well.  Zoë is weaned from the bottle.  She now uses a pacifier for sleeping but it’s going pretty smooth.  We hope to get her off the pacifier by spring.  We are hoping to get Noah to leave his for Santa–we’ll see how that goes.  The kids are keeping us busy and I have been pretty busy with my photography.  I have done quite a few shoots since the end of October and it’s nice to reach a little bit of a lull. 

Well, I’m off to do some Christmas cleaning and make a few cookies for Santa.  I’ll be back more regularly.  Hope everyone has a safe holiday.

Our First Mall Santa Experience

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 5 Comments

 and I have to say it went well.  It wasn’t my idea.  We were at the mall blowing off some steam as Bill was working from home and had two hours of meetings.  So how else was I going to keep the kid quiet and away from dad for two hours other than to leave the house.  We went to the mall and played and wandered around.  Noah spotted Santa from the second level and asked to go see Santa.  I couldn’t deny my little 2 1/2 year old boy the joy of being scared by Santa now could I? 

Well, Noah runs right up to Santa–as there isn’t a line.  Gives him a big hug and asks to sit on his lap.  It was quite cute.  Zoë was a bit more skeptical but she didn’t flinch when I put her on his lap and walked away.  Noah smiled and Zoë studied.  It was cute.  Santa gave Noah a sign that tells “Santa Stop here” and Noah couldn’t wait to put it up on our window at home so Santa knows to bring him trains. 

Good thing, Santa knows he wanted trains. 

So, Where Have You All Been?

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 4 Comments

Oh, wait it’s me who has been absent.  Well, things have been really spinning fast here and the days just haven’t been long enough for me to do anything that isn’t life or death.  My plate has been full for the past few weeks, but finally it is now a little on the less full side.  I can’t say it’s anywhere near empty, but I have a little time back to blog.  I have missed you all.  Sorry for the short hiatus–let’s be honest…I have written a post of any substance in a few weeks. 

Well school is done and I am happy to say that I managed to get an A in my stats class which is really nice and I am all but certain that I rocked an A in my curriculum course.  It’s nice to get straight A’s.  I know I am a super geek–but those three little letters behind my name are so worth being a geek for. 

Christmas is in full swing here at Chez Finley.  The tree is up and decorated.  The lights are up outside as are the atrocious inflatables that St. Nick delivered to us via my crazy mother–I love you mom.  I’m sorry if you love your inflatables–I love them too in someone else’s yard.  But now we have two huge ones in our yard.  I do have to say that the kids love them and we only have to put them up as long as we live in the same city as my mom–as she lives close enough to drive by and check it out.    St. Nick visited our house and brought the kids books–our new tradition.  Noah thought it was cool to wake up and find presents in his shoes.  It took him 20 minutes to open his presents–he ripped the paper off one little piece at a time.  Christmas morning might take a while–thank goodness Santa doesn’t wrap his presents this year. 

We finally went on a tour of what will hopefully be Noah’s school through 8th grade.  It blew my mind and I will work 2 jobs if I have to in order to pay for this for our kids.  I am in love with this school and everything that it stands behind and does.  There is nothing I don’t like about this school and I hope that Noah gets in.  There are only 16 kids in the 3/4 class.  There is one class at each grade and each class has only 24-26 except for the 3/4 and 4/5’s they have only 16 kids.  Each class has two teachers and there are no textbooks to be found.  It is really an absolutely amazing school.  They really want Noah–they strive for diversity, so as long as he has a good interview (observation) he should be in.  Now we just have to hope for financial aid–or maybe I could sell a kidney.  Just a thought.

I have eaten myself sick on Christmas cookies.  I made cookies this year and Noah did a great job helping me with the cookie press, sprinkles and rolling the snickerdoodles in the cin/sugar mixture.  I now remember why I haven’t made Christmas cookies in a long time.  I figure if I keep drinking wine, I won’t eat the cookies–so far not working.  Snickerdoodles and Syrah not a bad combo. 

I have been busy with photography clients.  I have done nearly one shoot a week every week for the past 6 weeks and that keeps me very busy with touch ups, etc.  One of my lenses broke–it is my go to lens.  I had to buy a new one and I wanted to get a good one.  So that should be here tomorrow and I am so excited as it is an awesome lens.  I bought it used–because new it is over $1500 and that is just insane to spend on a lens.  I got a decent deal one a used/like new one and can’t wait to check it out to make sure it is in good shape. 

I will go ahead and cut this off here.  I want thank those of you still reading.  I know this is a lot.  But, I did throw in a few pictures for you all.  I’ll be back tomorrow with regular posts and am officially off hiatus. 

It’s nice to be back.

Never Say Never

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 9 Comments

I have been talking for weeks and weeks about being done with babies.  I was certain for a time that we were.  Can you see where this is going?  Chances are good that hubby and I will embark on one last infant adoption from Ethiopia.  I hope to have our dossier done and ready to send to Ethiopia in April/May–with the way things are going at our agency that should give us a new baby home in the spring/summer of 2010. 

While I want more than three kids–it’s a good compromise for us between hubby’s two and my four.  It will also allow us to really pursue an older child adoption (preteen or teen) when our first children are a little older.  We considered waiting and adopting a toddler/preschooler sibling group when Noah reached 4 but we don’t want to switch agencies (not even a consideration) and our agency doesn’t get many toddler/preschool age kids or young sibling groups (under age 5).  We haven’t committed or filled out the application yet, but we are going to soon. 

Back to my regularly scheduled end of semester melt-down and back to posting some real things–like kids newsletters for last month on Tuesday….