ACK! Why does life tend to get in the way ...

... of blogging?! Sorry for disappearing off the face of the earth. Life.must.slow.down!

Last week, on the 4th of September, G & I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary. (you know you're getting old and aren't a newlywed anymore, when you don't even exchange cards on your anniversary! I told G that it was a waste of $10 - LOL!) Can someone please tell me where the past nine years have gone? It feels like it has gone by in the blink of an eye. Yet, when we look back and think about how much our lives have changed ... then we realize that yes, it really has been 9 years. We've built 3 homes, struggled with infertility for five years, had two miracle pregnancies which blessed us with two of the world's best little boys, and adopted our little angel from Korea. Looking back, the first five years of our marriage were s-l-o-w ... it was a dark time filled with many days of crying and wondering if our dream of having a family would ever come true. We were asked relentlessly by G's family if we actually knew how babies were made ... the comments, the constant questions got old and were quite hurtful. In their defense, they didn't know what was going on, but at the same time, they knew that we wanted kids -- I had often told them that I wanted 10 kids. LOL! (that has since changed - HA!) Anyway ...

We spent our anniversary as a family and took a little mini-vacation. It was the kids' first time in a hotel, and they were in awe. It was a small room, so it was a little hairy at first. They were a little too excited, and were bouncing off the walls, but once the newness wore off, they were excellent, and we had a fabulous time. We took them swimming - which they loved! L is a little fish, and told his Daddy that he was swimming just like Mich@el Phel_ps. :-)

To backtrack a bit, we were at a park last Thursday having a picnic lunch. An older guy on a scooter drove up and said "wow, you have your hands full" and I just smiled. He asked me what the ages of the kids were, and said "I bet they keep you busy" -- yep, they sure do! I asked him how many children he had, and he told me that he had 11. Yes, 11! He said that they had a child every other year. All I thought was "your poor, poor wife" - I honestly cannot even imagine. He said he has over 20 grandchildren, and over 20 great-grandchildren. He didn't know the exact number ... that's when you know you have a lot. LOL! He kept looking at M, and I could tell that he wanted to ask us a question. He then said "I have to ask -- is she yours?" ... to which I replied "yes" and he looked so confused. He looked at me, and then looked at my husband and said "really?" ... he then said "are those two over there yours?" and I said "yes" ... the poor man was confused. He asked again about M, and I explained to him that we had adopted her from Korea, and that's when he said "but those two over there are yours" ... um, they are all mine, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt and just said "yes" -- there is no need to get worked up. He then told us that M was beautiful, and said that we are such good people for giving her a good life etc... I don't feel like a wonderful person -- I feel like the one who has been incredibly blessed by HER. She completes our family so perfectly, and *we* are so lucky! I did have a nice conversation with this man. It was just my first experience with the "is she yours" comment.

On Friday we took the kids to the Om@ha Zoo. All I can say is WOW! That place is incredible. We spent over 7 hours there, and didn't get to see everything. We cannot wait to go back. Unfortunately, the gorillas had a little fun with my boys, and now they are terrified of them. LOL! The gorillas are SO smart, and would watch L out of the corner of their eye -- when they had him looking right at them, they would charge at him. Scared the crap out of the poor kid. N didn't think it was so scary ... UNTIL one came over to him and they were nose-to-nose looking at each other. The gorilla ducked down, and N asked where it went. That's when the thing jumped up at N and N went running and screaming. It was hilarious!!!

Now we're counting down the days until our Florid@ vacation!!!