Why we are doing what we are doing

I decided that since I had a little (small) heated conversation with my brother this morning about us changing Ricky's last name and him calling us mom and dad, I decided that I'd post on my blog why we are doing what we are doing.

So, first off, the name change thingy. This is still up in the air. We are going to let Ricky decide what he wants to do, since it is his name. Right now he said he likes Ricky Barton Johnson. But we'll ask him again when the adoption is offical just to be sure. I was thinking of changing his first name to Richard (still call him Ricky), so that when he is older and if he ever gets a professional type job, he can have a professional sounding name. That idea is still up in the air.

Now, onto calling us Mom and Dad. I know a few family members might not think it is right of us to have him call us Mom and Dad, and that's fine, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but the beautiful thing about life is that it's our own choice for our own family and pretty soon Ricky will be legally our family, our child. We feel it's important that while Ricky will never forget his real parents, he knows that he has us now. Because in reality his real mom and dad are never coming back. They won't get to be there for him, raise him, teach him values and moral, support him. They can't do that anymore. We have to now. We are the only parental figures he has now. He may be my cousin, but now I am raising him and he is becoming my child. I never knew him before all this, there was no relationship between us before all of this, so it's not weird. It's just the same if I took in a child off the streets and brought him into my home. Everyone would be 100% supportive if I treated this child like my own, had him call me mom and Mark dad, and have him take on our last name. But since he is my cousin I know that some people aren't getting the importance of Ricky feeling like a full fledge member of our family. Not just some kid we are taking care of. We are now all he has in this world as parents. It's important to us that we show him we love him like we love our own kids.

I hope this has brought some light to those who don't really agree with how we are handling this. There's no handbook on what's the right thing to do, right thing to say. I know that other's that have Ricky's brothers don't feel the same way as we do and that is fine. Everyone has the right to handle things the way they feel is right. But as for us, we feel we are doing what is the right thing for Ricky and that's all that really matters.

Thanks for reading!

Another great savings week!

I had another $82 (71%) savings trip to Kroger this week! My bathroom is stocked because Kroger is having awesome P&G sales and I have tons of P&G coupons! Here's what I got:

Kellogs frosted flakes cereal - $2.99 - $1/off - doubled -$0.99 total
Kellogs Special K cereal - $2.67 - $1/off - doubled - $0.67 total
Fuze Drinks $1 - $.25/off - doubled - $0.50 total
Cottonelle TP - $0.99 - $0.50/off - doubled - Free
Jello Pudding $2 - $0.55/off - doubled - $0.90 and got a $1.50 off my next shoping order!
Bounty Basics paper towel $1.03 - $1/off - $0.03 total
Herbal Essence Shampoo & Conditioner -$2.99 - $1/off doubled - $0.99 total
Oral B Toothbrushes $2.50 - $1/off - $0.50 total
Oil of Olay bar soap (2pk) - $2.99 - $1/off-doubled-and $1/off esaver = Free
Cologate Toothpaste - $2 - $1/off - doubled - Free
Campbells Chunk Soup - $1.25 - $0.50/off - $0.75 total
Campbells Select Harvest - $1.25 - $0.50/off - $0.75 total

So my total came out to $116.12 but I actually ended up paying $33.92! I wish my camera was working so I can give you guys a visual of how much I am actually getting for so little money. I will see if I can find enough time to post how I save so much by clippling coupons and watching the sales. It's really easier than you think!

Grocery Savings

I have been saving BIG time these last few weeks at Krogers. I strongly recommend couponing. Mark has always wanted me to stock up on everything, but his idea was to go to Sam's Club and stock up. I didn't like that idea because you buy a few things at Sams and your already up to $100. $100 is all I get all week long for food and diapers and household items. So if I was going to stock up, I needed to pay next to nothing for the things I was getting. So with couponing and watching the sales I have made that possible. Here's the deals I've been getting: I highlighted free stuff in Red.

At this trip I save a total of $87.09

Tide Laundry Detergent: $10.99 - $1 off (doubled to $2) and $0.50 esaver coupon loaded onto my Kroger card = $8.49 I bought this because I get $5 off if I spend $25 in P&G items, and I needed to spend $6 more. So I actually only paid $3.49 for this since I got $5 off!!
Pringles Single packs $2.99 - $1 off (doubled to $2) = $0.99
Cottonelle Toilet Paper 4pk - $0.99 - $0.50 off (doubled to $1) = Free
Ronz Elbow Macaroni - $1.94 - $1 off (doubled to $2) = Free
Minute Rice 1 cup packages (4 cups per pack) $2.29 - $1 off (doubled) = $0.29
Oil of Olay 2pk bar soap $2.99 - $1 off (doubled) = $0.99
Gillett Hydragel Shaving cream for men $3.85 - $1 off (doubled) = $1.85
Old spice body wash $2.50 - $1 off (doubled) = $0.50
2 Old spice Deordorant - $2.50 - $1 off 2 (doubled) $1 off 2 esaver = $1 each
Herbal Essance Shampoo and Conditioner $3 - $1 off (doubled) = $1 each
Pantene Shampoo and Conditioner - $3.49 - $1.50 off = $1.50
Pantene Styler - $3.49 - $1 off (doubled) and free with esaver = actually made $2 off of this!
Crest toothpaste - $2.56 each - $1 off (doubled) $1 off esaver = Free

The total for everything actually came out to $123.50, but I only paid $36.41!!! The coupons alone saved me $54.92!

In this trip I saved $83.17

Here's the deals I got:

Rice Krispies Cereal $ 2.49 - $1off (doubled) = $0.49
Cocoa Rice Krispies Cereal $2.49 - $1off (doubled) = $0.49
Pillsbury Frozen Biscuits $1.99 - $0.40 (doubled) = $1.19
Ronz Spaghetti $1.94 - $1off (doubled) = Free
Ronz Elbow Macaroni $1.94 - $1off (doubled) = Free
Kraft Bagelfuls $2 - $1off (doubled) = Free
Kraft Bagelfuls $2 - $0.55off (doubled) = $0.90
Cottonelle Toilet Paper 4pk - $0.99 - $0.50 off (doubled) = Free
Huggies baby body wash and shampoo $1.62 each - $1off (doubled) = Free
Minute Rice 1 cup packages (4 cups per pack) $2.29 - $1off (doubled) = $0.29
Herbal Essance Shampoo and Conditioner - $2.99 - $1off (doubled) $2 off 2 esaver = Free
Fusion Manual Razor $5.99 - $4 off = $1.99
Duracell batteries 4pk - $3.50 - $1 off (doubled) = $1.50

Kitty is in the Christmas mood!

Kitty, AKA Ninja Kitty (notice the mask-like face) got all decked out for Christmas:

Then she wasn't so sure if she looked good in the hat and decided to ask the human.

She decided she didn't like the hat at all and the human said it made her look fat.

So she worked to get it offAnd after she got it off, the human tried to put it back on, but she thought "Don't you bring that hat near me or I'll rip your face off!" and the hat and the human was never to be seen again. Considence? I think not!

The tree skirt!

I found a neat craft online and decided to try it out. The tree skirt we had was one that Pam made us the first year Mark and I spent Christmas together as husband and wife, so we were due for a new one and this one is so neat because it involves the kids.

Christmas is coming, Christmas is coming!

And I haven't gotten much done, lol! I still have all the stuff I bought from Black Friday in the back of the Aztek. I really need to get it out of there and start wrapping it, but it's so cold out there! Heck, it's cold in here! I did get the Christmas card done....but haven't sent them out yet. I am such a procrastinator! Anyway here's what it looks like. I designed it myself and did all the pictures myself. I'm pretty proud of it!

Isn't it pretty?! I promise I will get them in the mail sometime this week...honest!! Here are some of the pics that didn't make the cut:

I have no idea what Charlotte was doing here, but I thought the picture was kind of funny!


This one is cute, but I wanted a picture of her full face. And look at those cute wittle, tootsie toes!

This one is decent, but it cuts her head off and part of her hand. And I think she's missing the bottom half of her body, lol.

Ben decided to relax a bit in between shoots. Cause you know....looking cute is hard work!This one is cute, but I liked the full body shot one that I used for the card.Ricky looks like a deer caught in the head lights in this picture, lol.I was trying to get a picture of him looking at the ornament, but he couldn't resist looking at the camera, so that idea didn't work, lol.I liked Markie's look in the this picture, but it cut off the top of her head.Here's that toothless grin. It's inevitable for a youngester to loose their front teeth right around Christmas time, lol. It's only 1 right now though, so she might not have to sing that annoying song, lol.I don't know what was up with her hair in this one.

Adoption is underway!

Mark and I have completed the 2 state required classes called the PRIDE program. We were forced to do it and was a little annoyed at the short notice they gave us. They told us a week before that we were going to have to drive down to Pontiac 3 times in one week, then once the following weekend. They said it was required by law that we get Foster care licensing. We didn't want to do the Foster care, we wanted to adopt. But that was all tied into the PRIDE program, so when we finally realized that, we were OK. The classes were very helpful. We learn a lot, but some stuff didn't pretain to us, like the visitation. Since Ricky's mom has passed away we don't have to deal with the aftermaths of the visitation. The videos they showed us were some scenerios of how a child reacts after visiting with their family. I know that Ricky only got to see his mom twice when we got him before she passed away and after the first visit (which was very upsetting to some of the boys) Ricky woke up the next morning with hives. But the second visit, which was upsetting too, but ended on a good note and not quite the same type of upsetting as the first time, so he didn't show any reaction to the visit. It was nice closure for him. Anyway the class taught you how to deal with those type scenerios. We really like it. So now we have to fill out tons of paper work (we each have to complete a 20 page autobiography) and gather a lot of info like marriage license, birth certificates, physical records, even our cat's shot records, lol. It's a little tedious, but in the end it's worth it all.

We are going to let Ricky decide if he wants to keep his last name or take on ours. I think he will keep his. I think it would be a hard adjustment for him to have his name change. We asked him a while ago and he said he wanted to keep it, so we'll ask him again when the adoption is final just to make sure. Mark jokingly asked him what he wanted his new first name to be and Ricky said "Richardo" LOL. That is what Mark and a friend of ours (Anthony) calls him. He said he likes Ricky Richardo, lol.

He is adjusting well to us as his new family. He still talks about his mom and still misses her (of course, he always will), but he doesn't show any signs of being upset about anything. He's just a go with the flow kind of kid. He's still young though too, and with his "cognitive impairment" he acts a little younger than what he really is. I say he is almost like a 5 or 6 year old. Markie is more advanced then he is and she is 6. So hopefully with the help he is getting from us and his school, he'll catch up.

I just can't wait until the adoption is final. It has been hectic taking him to meetings and only 1 court hearing so far. They have another one if Feb, but I am not sure they have to be there for that one yet. But once he is adopted, I don't think we have to deal with all that anymore, so that will be a relief.

Anyway, that's where we're at with all of that. Hopefully in the next month or so we can officially call him our son!