17 Months DTE

Wow - 4 months since I've blogged!  Thanks to all of you sweet friends who have commented, emailed, left FB messages and wondered where I was - yes, I am happy to report that I am still alive!!  :)  I've come to find out that blogging is one of those things where if you take a break from it, it's really really hard to get back into the habit.  But now is as good a time as any - so here's the update!

It has now been 17 months since our paperwork was sent to Ethiopia.  If you happen to be keeping track, that's one month longer than our original time-frame.  Currently the wait time stands at around 26-30 months, but we heard this week that basically for each month we wait, the wait time increases about a half a month.

Infant Boy (0-18mo) = 40

Young (under 4 yr) siblings = 24

Siblings with older child =6

Toddler Boy (19-47) mo = 15

So there's our adoption update....here's some other things that have happened in the last 4 months...hopefully at some point each of these will have their own post :)  .....

*J turned 7 years old!!

*thanks to my in-laws, the whole extended family was able to go to DisneyWorld for a week!!

*C is taking a gymnastics class once a week and having so much fun

*J is playing baseball again this spring

*we hosted a Japanese exchange student in March

*we went through the process of updating all our adoption paperwork, home study, fingerprints, medicals, etc 

*I'm still having lots of fun with my Thirty-One business!  I promoted to Senior Consultant and it has truly been a blessing in our lives - most of our adoption fundraising happens through 31 now!  I have a team of 9 lovely ladies and I'm hoping to promote again soon!!

Is there anybody still out there?  I'd love to hear your updates too!!

13 Months DTE

Yesterday marked 13 months since our paperwork was sent to Ethiopia!

(source)

 And our numbers on the unofficial waiting list....

Infant Boy (0-18mo) = 47

Young (under 4 yr) siblings = 27

Siblings with older child =7

Toddler Boy (19-47) mo = 17

Thanks for your prayers!

Merry Christmas!

May you experience the magic & wonder of the season as we celebrate the Birth of our Savior.

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

Reindeer Root Beer & Christmas Popcorn

Just in case anyone is looking for a last minute fun Christmas activity with your kids....

 Reindeer Root Beer & Christmas Popcorn!

Christmas Popcorn = popcorn with red & green M&Ms :)  I saw a friend on facebook with similar root beer reindeers, so I made my own version based on the materials I already had laying around the house.  I bought plastic bottles since I thought they would be safer with the kids, a word of warning - the labels were a PAIN to remove.  My advice is to go with the no-label glass bottles and just pour the kid's root beer into another cup when it's time to actually drink it - that's what we ended up doing anyway.

We ate & drank our special treats while watching a Christmas movie and then had our annual weekend before Christmas sleepover under the tree.  I love making memories!!

 Linking to:  simply {kierste}, The Frugal Girls,

Candy Bar Christmas Gift

The kids & I put together some Christmas goodie bags for J's teachers.  Nothing fancy because I wanted J to be able to do most of the work, so it was really from him and not me.  I have seen different versions of these candy bar gifts, but we made up our own based on the candy we could find.  We appreciate J's teachers and his school so much and I hope these treats were a hit!

Each bag contained a copy of the note and each of the candies (and Shout wipe - random I know) pictured above.

If you can't read the note, it said...

KUDOS to you...I want to SHOUT it from the rooftops!

You are EXTRA special, a real ORIGINAL, and one of the RIESENS I love school!

I have MOUNDS of fun here and you are a such a life LIFESAVER, helping me become a SMARTIE!

I wish I could give you 100 GRAND for your PAYDAY ~ you are worth a MINT!

Enjoy your Christmas break, TAKE FIVE, relax, and have fun with your family!

The finished product was definitely not fancy & crafty, but it was filled with love from a student to his wonderful teachers!

 Linking to:  simply {kierste}, The Frugal Girls,

Easy Christmas Card Display

I absolutely love the anticipation of going to the mailbox every day this time of year.  In a time when 99% of our correspondence is done via email or facebook, it is so special to me to actually get Christmas cards from friends and family.  I love every card I get, but I especially love photo cards.  I like to display them throughout the Christmas season, but we do get a lot and sometimes it is hard to find a good spot for them.  For the past few years, I have been taping them to my freezer, but this year I wanted to move them to an area where we would see them more often.

I thought the kitchen or the dining room would be the perfect place since we spend a lot of time in those rooms.  We have a lot of wall space, but I didn't really want to use tape, so that took that idea away.  (Although since then, I have thought about using painter's tape, so that might be an option someday!)

In keeping with my "simple is better" theme, I hung twine from the curtain rod over the sliding doors that lead to our screened-in porch.  I used mini clothespins to attach the cards, and voila ~ instant Christmas card display!

(You can also see the Christmas Burlap Table Runner I made a few years ago, and the Red Chair that we use because our other matching black chair broke!)

Here's a closer view so you can see those cute mini clothespins!  (Find them at places like Hobby Lobby or Michaels).

How do you display your Christmas cards?

Linking to:  simply {kierste},

Crowdtap & Old Navy

I love free stuff.  You too?  I thought so.  Thanks to my friends at Crowdtap and Old Navy, I was able to get some free stuff today!

If you haven't heard of Crowdtap, their mission is to "shift marketing to a fully collaborative and participatory process between brands and consumers."  Crowdtap achieves this by an interactive website - survey questions, web tasks, moderated discussions, and sometimes even sample shares.  For each action you participate in, you earn points which can eventually be used to purchase gift cards or donate to charity.  Just like in Swagbucks, I typically use my points to purchase Amazon gift cards.

I was lucky enough to be chosen for an Old Navy ActiveWear sample share!  I received coupons for one friend and myself - we were each able to pick out an ActiveWear top & bottom, totally FREE.  Old Navy ranks right up there on my list of favorite stores... FREE is good, but at a great store = even better.  Super exciting and maybe, just maybe, this will even give me a little motivation to be active.... currently my treadmill is serving more as a storage area than an exercise machine.

I picked out a pair of ActiveWear capris and a fleece jacket.  I'm loving both - the fleece jacket is a little longer than usual and almost has a peacoat-look.  My daughter was a little disappointed - there was a pink sports bra hanging right at her eye level that she thought would be perfect.  (She's 3 and anything pink is perfect).

(That's my blur of a 3 year old in front of me)

I also bought my first ever pair of skinny jeans at Old Navy today.  I have always been intimidated by skinny jeans, mainly because I don't really feel skinny.  But my friend convinced me to try a pair on, and actually....I liked them!  We'll see if I'm brave enough to wear them out of the house.

Thanks for a fun day, Crowdtap and Old Navy!