another resale consignment sale .. november 2009 (updated with 2 sales now)

http://recycledkidstreasures.com/

I found this today on craigs*list.

I faintly remember there being a sale last year in november, I wonder if it was this one.

I did go to baby mania today at mehlville high school and got some great deals. I was almost crying inside with the thought of having to buy 3t fleece zip up pajamas for her, also thought they would be too big, but I cleaned one and put it on her tonight after her bath and OHMYGOSH, it fit her head to toe. Not much room to grow in either. It is a Gerber brand so I think I am ok on the other brands (the childrens place and carters) because those two seem to run a little bit bigger per size.

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http://www.recycledkidssale.com/
November 2009 Toy Sale Calender, St. Charles County:

The Toy Sale will be held at 915 Jungermann Road (old Walgreens)

Tuesday November 10th 3:00pm-7:00pm Drop Off

Wednesday November 11th 9:00am-5:00pm Drop Off

Wednesday November 11th 6:00pm-8:00pm Workers Sale (Ticket Required)

Thursday November 12th 6:00pm-8:00pm Consignor Sale (Ticket Required)

Friday November 13th 9:00am-6:00pm Sale to the Public

Saturday November 14th 9:00am-5:00pm Sale to the Public

Sunday November 15th 9:00am-1:00pm ½ Price Sale to the Public

*Pick up of unsold merchandise Sunday November 15th from 6:30pm-8:30pm
http://stlouis.craigslist.org/bab/1426710036.html

Oct. 15 has become the Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day

With so many of our own babies that were lost tubally or in-uteral, this day is our day to remember the loss of an ecotopic pregnancy on July 16, 1999 (#1), Baby Boy Gudermuth miscarried at 8 weeks pg on Feb 8 2000. ectopic # 2 October 2000, Twins lost at 8w3d in October 10 2002, twins lost at 10 weeks in October 8, 2003, chemical pregnancy June 10 2005, and our last in-uteral miscarriage at 6 weeks in November 2005.

I was so grateful to carry them in my womb (or tube) and thank you all for the lit candles tonight and prayed with us to remember our babies.

Perfect Moment Monday

I Capture
Perfect Moments.

having had up and down experiences with a few local / national photo studios, I went to Portrait Innovations yesterday (on recommendation from several friends) with my now 2 year old for her 2 year old pictures. This was my perfect day. When I look at this picture, I see a fun, energetic, beautiful child that I love with my deepest core. Perfect Moments are to live for each and every day, not just Mondays. The photographer was so much fun. She kept Julia laughing so much that this was such a wonderful experience and honestly, I got more pictures in this package for less money than those other chain studios. I can't thank her photographer enough.
Enjoy.

Take a few mintues to read her adoption blogs, they are amazing

The leader of the local IAS adoption support group, an adoptive mother of three, blogs often and is now an Adoptive Families Circle blogger too! Check out her Three Yellow Roses. She has a link to her Adoptive Families blog too "My Paperwork Pregnancies"

wordless wednesday

open adoption .... wow

Open adoption ROCKS for us. Several months ago I might not have said that since it seemed we were in a time of our lives (including her birth family) that seemed more like a semi-open adoption, but the roller coaster ride is high up on the mountain with joyful news of more snail mail contact from Julia's tummy mommy and birth siblings.

ADOPTION ROCKS!

Happy Friday.

here are some 2 year old pictures and some with her birthfamily.

Approaching the incredible 2 years old

Our beautiful daughter turns 2 on Sunday. 24 months old. I still can remember the moment she was born (I was in the delivery room with her birthmother) and seeing her take her first breath was such a blessing and joy in our lives. I can tell her this story when she is older and understands it. I tell her when we look at her birth pictures that I was there and Daddy was in the hallway hearing her first cry. I will cherish this and share this with her every moment I can, especially on her Birthday each year. Thank you to her tummy mommy for making her adoption plan for Julia with us and helping her name her with us. We picked Julia's first name and her tummy mommy / birthmother picked her middle name. In adoption, sometimes the birthmother and or birthfamily will name the baby and then the adoptive couple will give the child a name they will call him or her. We were blessed to have her tummy mommy tell us she wanted us to pick her first name and she would pick the middle name so Julia Marie..... we love you.

Approaching the age of two bring so many fun and interesting times in our lives with our daughter. She has recently started this high pitched scream during both fun play time and times when she wants to defy our wishes and instructions. For example, tonight, we were playing in the back yard, it was getting dark and time to come in, I nicely asked Julia to please come inside now and she started immediately with the high pitched scream and running away from me away from the house. Oh the ears. I am sure the neighbors thought I was probably hurting her, but alas, I was not and was only trying to chase her around the back yard to catch her and bring her inside. Against her will, of course! The scream was not a screech, it was a long ear piercing scream. No, I am not the bad mommy and won't give into her screams. I finally caught up with her and she stopped screaming only 1 second before we reached the door and then politely waved goodbye to my neighbor sitting on her back porch. Oh great, the neighbors were really out there. Oh well. She raised two boys years ago so I am sure she knows this routine we have fallen into when Julia does not want to go inside.

We go for her 2 year check up next week. I last measured her at 37" tall, 26.6 lbs about 3 weeks ago. I bet she has grown since. Maybe my measurements were off though. Ha. I am going to have to buy 3T for winter for sure with this girl. Heck, some of her pajamas are already 4T, but they are fit tight style two piece pajamas.

the other night while daddy gave her a bath, she counted up to 15 with daddy. She will partially sign (asl sign language)and sing her ABC's with me. We sing in the car on the way to the sitters each morning and last week she sang all of You Are My Sunshine with me! sweet! She is learning her colors and can tell me what a triangle is. She loves to draw and color in her coloring books too. When she takes a bath, she always asks for her ABC bucket. She got this last year for her birthday and we always put them up on the tile around the tub when she bathes.


oh.. gotta go for now, stay tuned for more on her 24 month birthday update and her tummy mommy update. So here is a picture to enjoy for now....

I have updated the 2009 baby mania consignment resale events..

click here for my updated post.

Perfect Moment Monday

I Capture
Perfect Moments.

A few weeks back, I sent a box to Julia's birthmother filled with 2 update letters and pictures about Julia over the last year. In that box I included a few things for her birthsiblings, toys and such, and then I included a pack of stamped envelopes and blank cards (greeting cards) and wrote a little note to ask them to write back to us and Julia. THEY DID... Julia's birthsister "B", wrote us back in a days time. Literally. She included several pictures of herself and wrote us a nice little note that she loves us all.

Last week, we got more letters from both B and Julia's birthmother H. I LOVE IT. I got them out again and read through them today. That is my PERFECT MOMENT MONDAY!


I Capture Perfect Moments.

For more perfect moments, visit Lori

New Adoption TV .. online....

http://www.wetv.com/adoption-diaries

I have not had time to look into this, but my friend sent us the link... I'll post more about it later when I can view the topics and dates to air.

WOW.. a list of state by state adoption laws

this is a brief but well put together list of state-by-state adoption laws.

http://www.adoptivefamilies.com/adoptionlaws

Ok folks, here come the listings of the 2009 Fall baby mania resale events in our area

I am on the lookout for fall/winter clothes for Julia so it is time to list the local St. Louis area baby mania sales and events. If you know of one, please email me at twogoots @ yahoo . com (remove spaces).
I will try and list them in date order, but for now I will just list the few that I know of. I'll do a more thorough search and update it as soon as possible.


MEHLVILLE BABY MANIA SALE
Baby Mania Sale
Saturday, October 17th, 2009
8:00am to 12:00pm
Mehlville High School Parking Lot
3200 Lemay Ferry Rd
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sales that have already happened:
Just between Friends West county
Just Between Friends Fall/Winter Sales Event September 18th, 19th & 20th!
New Larger Location for Shopping!
Chesterfield Sports Fusion
140 Long Road
Chesterfield, MO. 63005

Public Sale Dates:

September 18th, 10am - 8pm

September 19th, 9am - 8pm

September 20th, 10am - 3pm
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Kids Closet Connection Fall Sale
VFW Post 5077
(Across from Ethyl's)
8500 Veterans Memorial Parkway
O' Fallon, MO 63366

When Sept 18 thru Sept 20th!

Kids Closet Connection Fall Sale Dates - September 17 - 20th, 2009 at VFW in O'Fallon!

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Stork Lady resale consignment event.. (THIS IS A HUGE SALE at the old MACY's in Crestwood mall)

LOCATION:
Former MACY's Dept. Store in Crestwood Court (former Crestwood Plaza Mall)
at the corner of Watson & Sappington Rds., Crestwood, MO 63126

DATES OPEN TO THE PUBLIC:
Friday, Sept. 25th - 9am - 7pm
Saturday, Sept. 26th - 9am - 4pm
Sunday, Sept. 27th - 11:00am - 3:00pm

(SUPER BARGAIN ALERT: Most items 50% off on Sunday!!)

FOR MORE INFO: www.StorkLady.net
or visit the craigslist listing http://stlouis.craigslist.org/bab/1323467948.html
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!LADIES... I have updated this sale below... IT IS HAPPENING.
http://3rkidssale.com/default.aspx
(here is the craigslist ad)
FALL-WINTER SALE 2009!!!!!
3 R Kids Consignment fall/winter sale
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Friday, October 2 9:00 am-8:00 pm
Saturday, October 3 8:00 am-5:00 pm
Sunday, October 4 12:00 pm-4:00 pm--50% off most items

VOLUNTEER PRE-SALE:
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
12 hr Volunteer: 4:00-8:00 pm
8 hr Volunteer: 5:30-8:00 pm
4 hr Volunteer: 6:30-8:00 pm

CONSIGNOR PRE-SALE:
Thursday, October 1, 2009 4:00-8:00 pm

"FIRST-TIME MOM" SALE
Thursday, October 1, 2009 6:00-8:00 pm

VOLUNTEER AND CONSIGNOR 50% OFF PRE-SALE
Saturday, October 3 3:00-5:00 pm
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New 2 U Kids Sale
Our Fall/Winter Sale is August 27th- 30th ... see details below (link)
8500 Veteran's Memorial Parkway O'Fallon, MO 63366

http://www.new2ukidssale.com/
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First up: (DONE, dropping this to the bottom of the list)
Greater St. Louis Mothers of Twins Club
RE-SELL-IT SALE
Fall/Winter Children’s Clothing (single and twin)
Books and Lots of Toys
Baby Equipment (swings, highchairs, etc.)

August 29, 2009
Lindbergh High School gym
When: Saturday, August 29
Open to the Public 1-3 p.m.
($1 admission per person)

Where: Lindbergh High School
4900 South Lindbergh Blvd.
St. Louis MO 63126
PLEASE REMEMBER no strollers, diaper bags, etc allowed in the sale so if you have your baby with you, you will need to carry them in with no diaper bag (That is why I had Julia stay home with daddy that day).
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http://www.recycledkidssale.com/gpage3.html
Belleville IL
Our Belleville Illinois Sale will be September 12th & 13th.

(200 South Belt East, Belleville, IL 62220, Belle-Clair Fairgrounds and Exposition Center)
We will be having our 2nd Annual Toy Sale in November. Check back later for more details!

The joys of toddlerhood.... toddler antics

I have finally given in to the fact that Julia is a toddler and really is all about testing our will. LOL

Today, I came home from some yard sale mommy time and found Julia taking a nap on our bed. I walked into the bedroom and found her diaper on the floor.. NOT ON HER. LOL She has learned how to take her own diaper off. We are in trouble.

Last week she got so mad at me for wanting to get her dressed when it was time for us to leave the house that I left her pajamas on her and took her outfit with us to meemaw's house to let her dress her.

Vocabulary has expanded rapidly for her too. Vacuum was the latest new word I heard her say. She will repeat nearly verbatim of what we say so it is my own fault that she picked up a curse word this past week. No, I won't repeat it, I promise.

Please and Thank You are working well now .. we do have to provoke her saying them most times, but it is with "What do you say?" and she will say Please or Thank You after that.

I am trying to teach her ABC's to her in sign language and she has picked up several of the letters. She still won't sing with me though. LOL I sing the letters to her as we sign them and she tries to sign them back. Daddy saw her do this for the first time last night and was pretty impressed. She uses her sign for apple, grapes, milk, and Please. I am trying to teach her Thank You and mommy, daddy, dog, baby and many other words, but she just does not seem interested in learning them. I still want to find a sign language speaking person to give her her sign name. I know we can't assign a sign for our own names until someone else picks one for us that is of the deaf community. I will find someone, one day.

22 months has flown by. I think back to the day we were leaving the hospital with her and I was so nervous about being at home with a newborn, but now I am so anxious to learn about the next stage of her life and age. She is around older cousins each day so I feel she is ahead of her skills verbally and physically. I am going to try and find a tumbling class for her to take this fall.

Ok, off to put her new toy shelf up and clear out some of this clutter in the living room. Ha. Never ending battle of disorganized toys.

What a wonderful night... adoption support group meeting and letter from birthsibling

Tonight was the monthly first Thursday of the month adoption support group meeting for the IAS group and was shocked to see 24 other people (including the two leaders) sitting in the meeting room. WOOOHOOOOO! this is one of the biggest groups I have ever seen and I have been attending these meetings since early 2006. SWEET. I love it. The majority of the couples in the meeting were looking into or have or are going to adopt (again for some) through domestic adoption. Some were looking into International adoption. What a great time we had. I swear the meeting could have lasted another 2 hours on top of the 2 we spent there. Way to go IAS!

We stand in the same place with the homestudy as we were last time I posted. I hope to get a few more letters of recommendation written by family and friends to complete that task on our list soon. Then I will be able to send in our paper work to the social worker and get the ball rolling to become homestudy home study ready.

This past week I sent off a box with two letters of updates on Julia and pictures to her tummy mommy (birthmother) and some items for Julia's birthsiblings (birth siblings) too. I included some self addressed stamped envelopes just in case Julia's tummy mommy or birthsiblings wanted to write her back. Well, tonight when I got home, hubby said there was a card from Julia's birthsibling sister. SWEET.. It worked. She wrote us a short sweet note and included a few pictures of herself in the envelope! I LOVE IT. I am so excited to hear back from her. I hope this contact continues for many many years to come. Do any of you have an open relationship with our child's birthfamily? birth family

Have a great weekend. sadly we will be attending a memorial service for my cousin that passed from cancer last weekend. She fought a brave battle and is now in heaven with her sister and many friends and family. May her soul rest in peace. We love you and miss you Brenda.

home study update .. progress made

Hubby rocks! He got our birth certificates, marriage license certified copies. Thanks!

Things on our list completed and to do.......
-Finger prints done and turned in to the state trooper office with our payment for processing.
- Both of our physicals are done. TB tests are negative and cleared by the doc.
- 2 of the 5 letters we need are done. Two more asked to write letters, need to find a 5th person to write one.
-Work verifications are done
- Need to get Julia's info filled in from her physical in March (yes, we can use the info from then)
-Need to turn in the packet to the social worker with our first part of the home study fee!

We have already updated our picture profile and the social worker has a few copies. We have decided to not sign with an agency at this time due to money constraints. Hubby is still a contract worker and we need to have some extra funds in the bank if his contract is not renewed. Hopefully in the next few weeks we will know more on that. Meantime, we are telling all that we know that we are almost home study ready. You never know if anyone you know might know of a potential situation of a potential birthmother and baby. Heck, that is how we found out about Julia's birthmother's situation, but we had just signed with an agency so her birthmother did go through the agency upon our request. I am very thankful for the agency's help too because we were so blind to the process of adoption having not been through it before that.

I'll be honest and say we are hoping to adopt another newborn. I just have that baby lust again and it is strong. I think we could accept if the baby is a few weeks old, but if I were to be asked, I think a baby more than 3 months old would be out of the range of age I am wanting to be comfortable with for bonding. I know, some (even Hubby) might not feel that way, but that is my motherly instinct and internal want I feel.

I have had several people ask me if we want to adopt a boy or girl. I don't have a specific desire. I did with our first. I so wanted a girl and we were so blessed to have that dream come true, but now, I am not picking sides of gender because I feel what will happen in that way of gender will happen. We will be blessed with either gender. I wonder how you all felt with that upon starting the process for adopting # 2. I think hubby might have a different feeling on this (hint, blue). LOL

22 month update and home study process update

Oh wait, did I post here that we were starting our home study again? Yup, we have to start from scratch on the home study since we let our previous study lapse by court dates. I'll keep an update in the next few weeks on this process of becoming home study ready for domestic adoption again. Let the paper chase begin.

mean time...

Julia, you turn 22 months tomorrow, Monday July 27, 2009. I can't believe how much you have grown in the last few weeks. I swear your hair has gained about 1 full inch. YOu were so kind to let me put it up in piggy tails today and everyone loved them at the two birthday parties we went to. YEAH...

You are talking and talking and repeating everything anyone says. We really try and watch the negative talk and the bad curse words. LOL Reminds me of the 7 cardinal sin words George Carlin was forbid to say. No, we are not THAT dirty with our curse words, but you get the drift if you have and or had a young child that loves to mimic your words word for word. LOL

You love to venture outside as much as you can and really enjoy the wading pool at Tower Grove Park playground and wading pool. What a great free event to attend and to get a special treat from the farmers market each time we go is such a fun bonding time. We get to meet new kids to play with and sometimes meet up with mommy's gradeschool friends and their kids (Thanks Jenny).

You enjoyed going to the zoo two times last weekend. Heck, I'd go more often if I could with you. Grants Farm is on my list and Suson Park too again. I want to take you to the Butterfly house soon, but oh the humidity .. Not good for me.

We love the play dates you can have with your friends from my mommy friends that went through IF too. Nice to be able to still talk about what we all went through to become parents to you all. Strong hearts and minds bring us all closer together knowing we waited and tried so hard for you to be in our lives.

You are really getting into coloring (or taking daddy's ink pen ) and drawing around your hands and feet. You love it when mommy does this for you and you can admire the pictures each time.

tonight you fell asleep in my arms in the living room rocker. Man, that does not happen often these days, I loved that. I could look down at your sweet face and watch you sleep. Dream on baby, dream on.

Mommy and daddy love you so much.

10 years ago today started our journey through infertility and miscarriages

July 16th 1999, I was wheeled out of work on a stretcher with horrible abdominal pains. I got to the ER and found out that I was pregnant (after 6 months of no pills) only to find out it was the beginning of a crazy road of a malformed uterus and an ectopic pregnancy. This started our journey on a long 8.5 year road of infertility and miscarriages.

They had found a heart beat in the tube so we knew it would not survive. We had to do a shot(actually two, one in each hip) of methotrexate to "dissolve" the tubal ectopic pregnancy in my left tube. With in hours of the shot and going home, I was in total hives, allergic to the medication to "help" my body rid itself of this toxic pregnancy. Ugh. We were so blessed to have been pregnant, didn't even know I was since I had a "cycle" "Aunt Flow" just 4 weeks prior to that date of the ER trip. I was then wisked into surgery a few days later to remove the ectopic pregnancy before it burst in my tube. The tube was rendered useless due to blockage so we were told in a few months time to try again since my right tube was most likely open.

That day of the 16th of July 1999, I was so sad to know my body was not going to be able to keep a pregnancy. I was falling apart when driving home that next day from the docs office after the shots and just knew I wanted to try again ASAp to get pg. Little did I know it was just the beginning of a long heart-gut wrenching journey that would bring us a total of 9 heavenly angels and no biological earth angels. Multiple miscarriages, total of two tubal ectopic pregnancies and no live earth angels.

Thankfully after those 8.5 years, we took our journey to become parents into the world of adoption and are so blessed with our daughter, Julia. She is 21 months old and is the light of our lives. Never did I guess my road to motherhood or Jeff's road to fatherhood would take us that long bumpy road.

wow, crazy week past

quick ... someone please stop the yearly calendar from dumping us off in to August. I am not ready for August. Ok, back to July. Well, Hubby and daughter went camping Tuesday night. I went shopping. Wednesday night, I went to play bingo with my mom, aunt, uncle and a friend of my mom's. My mom won the horse derby and her friend won split game and got 20.00. LOL Paid for part of her night, but my mom is now being called money bags. She was happy! I might just have to go back and try my luck at the horse derby (pull tab games they play at the bingo hall). FUN FUN FUN.

Thursday night I went to visit my friend, who just had her bone biopsy, and then came home and chilled. Friday I got up and headed down to Onondaga State Park and had a great time. Met up with some other friends there and we all spent the day at the river (or at least Julia and I did for a few hours). They played up and down the bank of the river and doing a mini body float a few times. JUlia and I had to go back for nap time and we did crash. Ahhhh, nice weekend except for the horrible drive home from Leasberg MO to St. Louis. Rained the whole time and I Swear to you I saw a funnel cloud in Sullivan and even snapped a few pictures of it. I'll post those later. I never did hear sirens go off so I guess it was not a reported funnel. Yikes.

This coming week brings me a doctors visit to the dermatologist. I have skin tags from PCOS that need to be taken off. I have a few other moles and spots I need looked at and a blood mole that needs to be sealed off some way or another. It is a dangerous venture to shave my legs with this dang thing. One small knick and it will bleed for hours.

I hope this week brings you joy and peace. Love and warmth.

We are updating our adoption profile to give a copy to the social worker who will be doing our homestudy. We hope the profile is shown to a potential birthmother and brings us closer to our dreams of having a second child soon.

Happy Week everyone.

praying hard for my friend with cancer

I gained an everlasting friendship through our local infertility support group a few years back. That friend has just found out she has bone cancer. She is surviving 9 years of breast cancer and now this. ARRGGHHHHHH. I HATE CANCER. I FUCKING HATE IT.

I am holding her hand and being there for her as much as possible. Tonight, she asked me to just make a movie night for her and I. YOU BET I will. Next week will be rough for her and I hope to be there for her when she need to go laugh it up at a movie of her choice.

I told her tonight. Friends like you are precious and few. It is a saying I have seen throughout my life and it applies so much to our friendship over these few years and MANY MORE TO COME.

K, I love you girl, don't let your chin fall, if you feel it falling, let me pick it up and hold you through this.