Spinning Plates...

WOW! I've been walking in quicksand this week! Brandon had a special training he had to attend this week, so he changed shifts. This changed his days off and had him going into the office more than 3 days a week. I was reminded why I love his three day a week schedule. It is ROUGH. (And I've only done 3 of the days, two more to go!)

Tuesday I spent time trying to find a family doctor. We would like to see a family practice that can treat ALL of us. Several offices only see patients over 2. That means we can all be seen except Solomon. Since we've not had any luck finding a pediatrician that we can tolerate, that wasn't going to fly.

I got desperate and called a pediatrician an hour away that came highly recommended. She isn't taking new patients.

And then I remembered that my homeschool email group had recently discussed docs. I found the message about a dad of 6, family practitioner, and his kids are homeschooled. So I called.. and he treats patients from newborn on up. I made two new patient appointments for the girls. We ALL need physicals for the homestudy. I hope his office works out!

The rest of the day was spent filling out homestudy paperwork.. I have an exploding file folder of documents that I've collected so that the social worker can verify the things we've put on the forms. I still have lots of blanks to fill out but I've done a ton. The TO DO LIST is still growing on my white board though.

Tuesday, we will go to the DMV to get a 5 year driving record. Not sure what exactly I need but when I tried the website it was $8 to look at it... and I wasn't sure if I could print it from there or not, so we'll just go pull a number and camp out.

I need to buy some money orders for some of our fees (CPS registry check for VA.) I have some papers that need notarized. Brandon has to write his autobiography. I cheated and found my old one and just added the last 2 years to it. (Ahhh the joys of being organized!)

Wednesday is our homestudy appt and then fingerprinting at the Virginia State Police Office.

For DeLainey's adoption, I have to have a paper notarized with both of our signatures which means bringing The Bunch to the bank. Maybe I can bribe them with lollipops!

Homeschooling: We've been done with the 2nd grade curriculum for a few weeks. We started 3rd grade and kindergarten since we intend to school year round. The only thing Lainey has left for this year is her standardized testing which I'll order when I get a moment to breathe.

Side Job: An amazing side job fell into my lap a few weeks ago. I do my work at night after the children are sleeping/naptime/etc. It's amazing and it is where our adoption fund is coming from. I had a HUGE assignment and it's taken me about a week to finish it. But as of tonight it is DONE!

House: I've ALSO been bitten by the nesting bug. I've done the nursery, the linen closet, the kids' closet, and the basket in the foyer. The nesting will get more furious as the date of our home visit portion of the homestudy comes closer.

The Name Discussion: It's always hard here. Brandon always has some story about the little boy in 3rd grade that picked his nose that had that name, or whatever. It's tough. We were one of thousands of Brandons and Stephanies in the 80's so we like things a bit different. We went back and forth and FINALLY found names. Stay tuned!

Shopping: I've been looking at carseats. Julianne's is about to expire and Solomon needs to move up... especially if we are going to use the carseat for our new wee one. We also will max out the seats in our van with a new addition.

Diet: We've cleaned up our eating ALOT in the last few weeks. It all started when I stopped drinking Pepsi/Sweet Tea. It's getting a little redundant so I really should sit down and write out all the meals that we eat now and so I have a cheat sheet.

Maybe when some of the plates slow down.

~Stephanie