Home Sweet Home?

Cypress is beautiful.  The area is wonderful.  It's a little bit country; it's a little bit city.  We love it here.  But the drive has finally gotten to us.  We always knew it would, it was only a matter of time.  Well, that time was the other morning on the way to work when Amy suddenly said "I can't take it anymore!"  Once we cleared up exactly what it was she was done with, I admitted my agreement.  But what to do?  With the recent adjustment of our appraisal, the fact that our neighborhood is not closed out yet, and the fact that the market has not yet fully rebounded means that we are in no position to sell.  However, thanks to Dave Ramsey and his words of wisdom, we soon will be.  18 months and our snowball will have completely melted!  Currently we are thinking, possibly, about listing the house next summer?  Because by then my M.Ed. will be over, Amy's will be almost done, Amy's 30th will be rapidly approaching, we will be finishing up our Home Study for the adoption, and we will be extremely close to officially beginning the adoption process.  So obviously we need something else to add to our plate and keep us busy right?  :)  But really, it seems as though that is just our life: busy.

So the next question to be asked is clearly - where?  We love I10 so we began looking further in along the freeway since it is a straight shot into school/work/church.  However, the homes in the area we would like, that are zoned to the schools we like are out of our price range for what we need.  We don't have lavish needs or wants in a house.  It's quite simple really, we just need a house at least the size we have now, preferably a little larger.  Yes, there are little things we have on our list that we would like, but that's a topic for a different post.  We are pretty flexible and easily pleased when it comes down to it.  Another thing Dave Ramsey has taught us, overlook the current owners and their garish possessions and style to see the house underneath.

So where then?  Well, the other area we like is Jersey Village.  The houses in this area meet many of the items on our wish list.  They are the right size, have the right floor plans, have the right amenities, and most importantly they are the right price.  Sounds too good to be true?  Well, there is a downside to this area and that is just that - the area.  It is off of 290.  However, due to Amy's superb map skills, we have found the perfect area within this area that is nearest to the best ways out of the area.  Does that even make sense?  Sorry, it's getting late.  Basically Amy found the best ways for us to travel to I10 from this area so the commute would not involve 290.  With this little setback taken care of we have begun to look for houses on the Internet.  Yes, the houses we have found that we love will be long gone by the time we are ready to move, but they do serve as a good indication of what the area has to offer to us.

So, we love our house, but sadly it is not our "forever house."  So, we begin the process of mentally/physically/emotionally/financially preparing to move again.  No worries, we have a long time to do so.  For now, we are at the happy & noncommittal stage of looking and dreaming!  There is one thing though that we both agree on and will not back down from - MOVERS!  We will pack and unpack, but we are not going to lift, carry, haul, or pivot anything out or into a house anymore.  Been there, done that!  Never again!
 
All is well, and moving forward with future plans, in Drosche Land.
 
 

Wordless Wednesday

This week's pictures detail our second blessing as I move through our family history.  It came as a complete surprise to us when we found out we were pregnant again and he continues to surprise us each and every day!

Jackson Riley Drosche

September 25, 2007

6 lbs, 3 oz.,  18 inches

 Jackson's very first picture

 Our standard scale picture

 Jack did have to be intubated, but only shortly

 Jackson meets his big brother

 Look closely and you'll see our favorite outfit again

 Look at those cheeks!

 Jack's baptism

Jack's baptism was also our first family of 4 photo!

 

Victory Is Ours?

Well, tonight the bedtime routine seems to be going far more smoothly than it has been lately.  I will begin by saying that Amy was right.  A while back we decided that maybe their bedtime should be pushed back slightly.  We have always felt bad about them being in bed by 7:00 p.m. but they have always seemed to need it.  Well, bath time was pushed to 7:15; meaning bedtime was 7:30 p.m.  I have not been as diligent with this as I should, but tonight I got back on the train and with some successful results!  Granted, it's hard to hear the calling and noise without the monitor, but there has been not much at all.  I went out of our bedroom once, soon after putting them to sleep, to get my textbook and they were standing at the door.  I again got firm, hey stop laughing I can be when I want to, and told them to lie down and go to sleep.  That was it.  At least I think it was, I will check one last time before officially turning in myself.  Are we out of the woods?  Who knows, but at least tonight went well.  And let me tell you, after the rough day at school I had, I needed a small victory!

On a sadder note, Amy may be getting the butt-whipping bug that visited me on Saturday!  Ugh!  She woke up not feeling so well and that persisted throughout the day.  Tonight she was off and on nauseous again so we will see.  I hope not, it was no fun for me no matter how shortly it lasted.  We will see how she does tonight after some sleep.
 
I'm getting excited because tonight I finished my last journal for this current course!  I just have the assignment to do and then I am finished with one more course!  That'll be 4 down, 6 to go!  I will admit that it is getting harder to maintain motivation to continue to work.  You don't truly realize how busy you are until you add something hefty to your schedule.  Then you are able to see just how little down/free time you actually have.  Flash-forward a year to April 2011 when my graduation date is, it will be so odd to not have homework.  Don't get me wrong, I don't anticipate missing it at all, but it will be weird having so much sudden "free" time back.  But then the more I think about it, that newfound "free" time will quickly be eaten up by the rapidly approaching adoption and all of the work and paperwork that is included in that.  Once again, fun, but more work.  Add to that the fact that Braeden will be entering Kindergarten in the fall, as we officially enter into the adoption process, and it is enough to make me cringe!  So, it looks like this is just what it is like to be an adult.  Constantly busy with the reasons constantly changing.  Didn't I just post about this?  Déjà vu all over again!  Being an adult sure can suck!  But it will all have its payoff when that wonderful little girl comes into our lives!  Until then it's just deep breaths and plowing forward.  No rest for the weary!
 
All is well, busy but hopefully sleeping easy, in Drosche Land.

Post Backlog

Well, once again I fall short of my daily post goal.  Yet again I have a valid excuse.  You see, sometime this past week I opened my big mouth about how I never get sick.  So of course what happens yesterday?  You guessed it, I got my butt whipped by a nasty bug.  Luckily he only had about 12 hours of butt-whipping in him so I am all better now.  But that is why there is no post for yesterday.  Of course, now I have all kinds of things my fingers are itching to talk about just burning a hole in my brain.  So, here goes:

So, yesterday was Trinity's Step by Step 5K.  We woke up at the crack of dawn, as usual, to make it to school by 6:30 (yes a.m.) to help get everything ready.  Truth be told though, it was a smooth-running machine.  This is always such a fun event for Trinity and raises a lot of money for our athletic department.  Lisa Schneider, our P.E. teacher, organizes it all and does an amazing job.  This year I had the perfect volunteer spot.  I was at the end of the race writing down the numbers, times, and names of the first 6 men and first 6 women in the 40-49 group.  This was great because it allowed me to help out and volunteer, but I was done in enough time to do the Kids 1K with Amy and the boys!  Last year did not go so well, with much crying, wailing, and child-dragging, so we didn't know what to expect this year.  In a nutshell, it was somewhat better.  Braeden started off running with one of his friends, Jack running next to him.  That lasted all of about 30 seconds.  Then Braeden decided to walk and Jack decided he wanted to be carried.  1K is a long way, especially when you're  2 with short legs.  So we gave in to Jack.  Braeden then decided he did want to run, so Amy and I switched off on boys and I began to jog with Braeden.  He was doing great for about half of the race until he stopped dead in his tracks and began crying.  Why?  I still don't know.  But I managed to get him to walk holding my hand with minimal whining and he finished the race and got his medal.  Amy carried Jack most of the way, convincing him to walk the last part to get his medal.  The magic of the medals healed the wounds of having to walk/run the 1K and all was well.  We stayed for a bit before heading home.  We had lunch and then laid down to take a nap.  Sometime during the nap is when the butt-whipping bug decided to take up residence in me.  I woke up feeling awful.  I will pause here for a minute to state how wonderful Amy is.  I am not the easiest sick person to deal with.  In short, I get pretty whiney and a little emotional.  When Amy reads this part she will get a good laugh!  So, she is a saint/angel for dealing with me when I am sick and taking care of me!  The rest of the afternoon/evening was a blur of nausea, groaning, and sleeping.  Then this morning I woke up and all is well!  I'm very glad that it was short-lived.

This next section of the post deals with one of Amy's new discoveries.  E-mealz.  She heard about it from Tori, Braeden's teacher, a few weeks ago and was intrigued.  It's basically an online service that plans out meals for you, gives you shopping lists for the meals, and instructions on how to make them.  The perfect solution for busy people who like to cook and eat at home - us!  Well, after much debating we decided to try it out, tonight was our first dinner.  It was delicious!  Plus, Amy did the shopping this morning and said that it was very well-organized and cost-effective, both pluses!  Amy also discovered a way to post it to a blog.  So if you look at the right-hand column and scroll down you will see a link to the site if you're interested.  We are very excited about it!  Money-saving + eating healthy + easy = Woo hoo!
 
The last section of the post deals with the crazy boys.  Just the other night Amy decided that we were done with the monitor.  3 1/2 years of sleeping with one, and we were done.  It is partially due to the bedtime troubles we have been experiencing as of late; actually right now we are going through a particularly bad time.  For some reason the easy bedtime routine of bath, devotions, bed had been replaced with bath, devotions, screaming and crying.  I think I'm experiencing déjà vu and I have posted about this before.  Well, it is still going on so I guess it is still relevant.  But I digress, again; anyway we are done with the monitor.  It is something we have debated often throughout the past year or so, but have not been willing to do so.  So far it hasn't changed their troubles, but has brought Amy and I a sense of freedom.  It is slightly liberating to know that we can sleep through the night without having to be awakened by every sneeze, cough, or whine that occurs in their bedroom.  Last night actually went well, again I was quite incoherent at bedtime, but I don't recall any problems.  They slept all night and when they woke up, they opened their bedroom door and came into our room to wake us up.  So, we enter a new stage here in Drosche Land.  A stage where there are no babies, but children.  Liberating and exciting, but at the same time sad.  Truth be told I am a little nervous about giving up the monitor for good.  I mean, what if they need me?  I would have thought that Amy would have had more trouble with quitting the monitor cold turkey.  But it seems as though I will be experiencing some withdrawal myself.  I wonder if there's a patch for that?  Regardless, we'll see how things work out. 

Well, I think the backlog is emptied.  Gee, you miss one day of posting and suddenly you're babbling endlessly about a random string of topics.  Well, that's probably what many of my posts seem like, backlog or not!  The kids seemed to have finally settled down and gone to sleep!  Joy!  Time to sit back, relax, and enjoy the cut cord of the monitor!

All is well, and topically current, in Drosche Land.

  Getting ready for the race

Braeden & his medal

Jack & his medal

Bzzzzzzzzzz

Well the title of this post is in reference to our week which has been nothing but busy!  Get it?  Bzzzzzzz, like in busy as a bee?  Ok, so not that funny, but somewhat clever.  Every year I forget how busy this time of the year is for us teachers.  The days seem to fly by.  This week was even more busy than normal and every night was late for us.  I am writing this as I work the front desk at the Center while Amy helps out in a classroom.  Partially to give myself something to do, and partially because I don't know if I will have the energy to write tonight once we finally get home, fed, and put the kids to sleep.  These past few days were the busiest though.  Wednesday was my usual late day with Faculty meeting, but yesterday was a doozie!  I had a field trip in the morning to see a play, which was great, and then we rushed back to school to slam down lunch before heading to a special FBI presentation.  That was the day, no teaching.  Then last night was the annual kick-off to tomorrow's Step by Step 5K at The Downtown Aquarium.  We rode the train 3 times, Ferris wheel twice, carousel twice, saw the tiger, and jumped in a moonwalk in the shape of an octopus (which Jack hysterically calls an oppopus!)  Lots of fun and the boys had a blast, but we did not get home until 8:00!  Then today I had an all day field trip that was loads of fun but has totally wiped me out!  We will get home late again tonight only to have to get up tomorrow morning at our usual time to make it back to Trinity for the 5K at 7:00.  But that is also always lots of fun.  I just hope this year the boys walk the entire kid's 1K on their own.  We will see, you never know what those kids are going to do!  After that?  Who knows?  Maybe home for a nap or possibly just grocery shopping and errands.  We will see if there is rest in store for the Drosches.  I used to think, "Wow, we're busy lately!" every now and then, but I'm beginning to wonder if that is just how life is as an adult?  If so, then whoa!  Nobody prepares you for this.  I don't feel like and adult, and I definitely don't feel like that "t" word that is threatening me.  Oh well, busy busy busy but for the most part always fun.  There is something to be said for that exhausted, yet contented, feeling at night! 

The boys on their second carousel ride, not on the animals - those were too scary!

 Braeden on the first train ride

 Jack hamming it up on the first train ride

Wordless Wednesday

I'm really liking this Wordless Wednesday (even though mine have words, although way less than normal so for me essentially "wordless" or as close as it's going to get!), especially since I am beginning with the beginning of our family and working toward the present.  I love looking through the pictures and reminiscing!

Next stop on Memory Lane: the birth of the first-born.

Braeden Oliver Drosche

May 5, 2006

6 lbs, 2 oz., 19 inches

 Almost time!

The very first picture

Getting weighed

Our first family photo

T

Tough guy

Time to head home!

Our favorite outfit!

Braeden's official announcement

A Helping Hand

Well, today was a late day for Amy.  We did not head home until about 5:45.  We knew this going in and planned ahead on eating McDonald's for dinner.  Yes, not the best choice financially or nutritionally, but this week is already busy, hectic, and full of late nights so we gave in.  Hey, we're only human!  Anyway, despite the fact that we were not going to get home at a remotely decent time, we still took the time to help out a complete stranger.  See it all happened like this.  We were driving home on I10 and out of nowhere two cars slam into one another.  One was an older Mercedes and the other a Chevy truck.  The Mercedes swerved back and forth several times across 4 lanes of traffic, the driver obviously attempting to regain control over the vehicle.  The truck on the other hand began to pull to the side of the freeway.  Amy and I, along with every other rush-hour driver I'm sure, cautiously slowed and watched in amazement.  As we passed the Mercedes, now under control, we noticed that it was just a kid, he couldn't have been more than 18 or 19 years old.  We felt bad for him since what had happened was obviously traumatic.  Then we noticed the truck that had pulled over.  The driver looked out and behind him and then continued to drive off!  We were astonished.  Was he pulling over so they could exchange info?  We watched as we drove by.  Nope, he was leaving the scene.  Instantly we felt more empathetic for the young driver of the other car.  I got my iPhone, never too far away, and copied down the plate numbers of the truck and a description, just in case.  This all happened in a matter of a few minutes, obviously we had to continue driving on the freeway.  Amy began to feel for the young man left behind.  We saw most of what had happened and had vital information on the other, now gone, car.  What do we do?  We were late, the kids were hungry, we were all tired.  What to do?  The choice was simple really, we turned around and began our search for the other driver.  As it turned out we didn't go far enough and had to circle back around, but we found him, now pulled onto the side of the freeway, accompanied by a wrecker and police.  Amy stopped in between the entrance ramp and the feeder and I ran across to give my information in hopes that it might come in handy.  The poor guy looked dazed.  As I tried to tell him and those surrounding I had info on the other car, I was informed that he didn't fully realize what had happened.  I felt so bad.  Luckily I was able to give my story and all of the information (via my iPhone!) to an officer.  We then went on our way home, well to McDonald's first and then home.  What will come of this?  Maybe nothing.  But Amy and I just kept thinking about the young man, he was someone's little boy.  I saw his license and it was the vertical one rather than the horizontal one, clearly he was under 21.  Poor guy.  Amy has been in hit and run accidents before and we just wanted to help.  I just hope that the information we were able to give can be some sort of help in some way.  We'll see, or maybe we won't?  Who knows?  We tried at least.  Being a parent changes you.  Do you have to be a parent, or have an iPhone, to help someone?  No, but it does change the way you look at someone.  The parenting aspect that is, not the iPhone.  Well, not necessarily, I mean it does change your life an awful lot!  Man I love my iPhone.  But I digress again.  I just hope that all with that boy is ok and, hopefully it will never be needed, but if either of the boys were ever in a similar situation someone would be there and willing to help.
 
On a side note, somewhat funny.  I had to give the officer my birthdate and so I did.  Then he asked for a description of the driver who fled the scene.  I said he looked around my age, because he kind of did.  I'm a bad judge of things like that though so who knows.  Anyway, when I said that the officer wrote down 30's!  30's!  Seriously?  I'm 29!  So a slightly comical, slightly depressing side note to tonight's excitement.  All of that and the one thing that sticks out is the fact that I am now, 7 months too early, being referred to as being in my 30's!  Not now!  Not yet!  30, as if!  I'm going to live up the last bit of 20's I have while I can!  30's!  Hmpf! :)

All is well, in a Good Samaritan way, in Drosche Land.

Blogger's Block

Well, tonight is one of those times when I struggle to think of something to write about.  Today was pretty uneventful despite being crazy and long.  So I wonder, is posting an entry every day too ambitious?  Do I actually have something worthwhile to write about every day?  You may be asking yourself why you are reading this if there is no topic or reason for me to write.  Good question, then why are you still reading?  Why and I still writing?  But I digress again.  I start these random, topic-less posts in the hopes that a topic or idea will suddenly pop into my head and I will be inspired to write.  Thus is the case now.

I haven't talked much about the adoption in a while.  Not because it is not important, or because we don't talk about it ever.  It is, and we do.  I guess it is just that we are now in that awkward period of waiting to actually officially begin.  We have made the emotional commitment to the adoption and we are very excited.  But now we are bound by our age and limited in what we can do next.  What we can do, and what Amy is working so hard to do, is financially prepare.  As you previously read, we have kicked our debt snowball into high gear and are getting gazelle intense about it again (Dave Ramsey term).  This is exciting because we had gotten into a rut lately where we were just moving along at a steady pace rather than quickly.  But with the escrow overage check, we are finally back into the quick and excited pace.  We also continue to read other blogs and learn about the adoption process through the families who have gone through and/or are currently going through it.  This is fun because we get to imagine ourselves at that place where we are blogging about getting our good news, traveling, and bringing home our daughter.  Lastly we continue to study the shared lists through links from Great Wall.  We enjoy looking at the children and dreaming about our daughter and what she will look like, be like, act like, etc.  So I guess you could say that we are still, and will be for a while, in the dreaming stage.  Am I disappointed at times that we still have so long to wait?  Yes, but then again it is somewhat of a blessing in disguise since we will be able to so greatly prepare for the journey that lies ahead: emotionally, physically, mentally, and financially.  Not that we can ever be totally prepared for something like this, but hey, the time couldn't hurt could it?  Waiting, praying, preparing.  That's where we are, for now.

See, I guess I did have something to post about after all.  Sometimes I guess it just takes a bit of rambling to get started.  If you know me, that shouldn't come as much of a surprise though I bet!  Well, it may not have been huge, super important, funny, or accompanied by pictures.  But I enjoyed it.  We'll see what tomorrow brings!

All is well, and unblocked, in Drosche Land.

Finding Nemo

1 Crowntail Beta - $5.99.  
Fish bowl, rocks, fake plant, & Beta food - $11.46.
Seeing the boys' excitement over their first pet - priceless! 

Yes, we got the boys their own pet - a fish, and as you can guess from the title of this post, they decided to name him Nemo.  Now we join the countless number of families with small children who own a fish named Nemo that looks nothing like its Disney namesake.  We have been mulling the idea over for a few weeks now.  Wal-Mart has become one of the boys' favorite places to go (sad I know) because they love to go and see the fish in the pet section.  So today we finally broke down and got them one.  However, we did not go to Wal-Mart.  Nothing against them, but the only type of fish I would feel comfortable buying there are of the frozen variety.  Instead we went to PetSmart and as it turns out Nemo has a two-week guarantee!  Hopefully we will not need to redeem it, or partake in the awkward conversation about a dead Nemo that would come with it.  So we are now the proud owners of a Beta.  At least the kids have a preference for low-maintenance pets, for now at least.  He is currently living on our dining room table as we tried to find a place that was high up so he wouldn't end up knocked over, but somewhere where the boys could easily see him.  Truth be told, I am a little excited, I have always liked fish but not the work that comes with them.  A Beta is the perfect match.  Plus it reminds me of college when Amy and I had fish as pets.  

This post is a 2-part post and you are about to enter the second part.  So, here is a brief intermission in case you want to get a snack or run to the bathroom.  Go!

Ok, so you're back.  Thanks.  Well, this second part of the post revolves around our debt snowball - which just got a kick to the butt!  So, the other day we got an unexpected check in the mail and I thought it was one of those gimmick checks that credit card companies send you to trick you into signing up.  Luckily, Amy has a bit more patience in reading through the fine print than I do because it was real!  It was the escrow overage from our mortgage!  All was legit!  Well, we could have celebrated this joy by blowing it on TVs or a new couch, or even a down payment for a new car.  But NO, we didn't!  Instead we did the responsible thing and used it to kick our debt snowball into high gear and paid off our Sears credit card!  This card was set to be paid off by the end of this month, but with this newfound blessing we have bumped up our snowball by about a month!  Amy made the payment online this afternoon and boy did it feel good!  Ahhhh, this is one time when being an adult didn't totally blow!  Take that Sears - we're done with you!  Boo-yah!  

All is well, a bit fishy and less of a slave to the lender, in Drosche Land. 

The boys putting rocks into Nemo's bowl

Nemo gets a decorative plant

Observing their new pet

 Meet Nemo

 Braeden feeding Nemo

Jackson feeding Nemo

Movie + In Your Car = FUN!

Yeah, yeah, I know there is no post from yesterday, but boy is it for a good reason.  A while ago Amy discovered a drive-in theater called Showboat Drive-In that is located out near our house in Hockley.  What great old school, vintage fun would that be!  Well, we had the best intentions to go but with our schedule we had never had the chance.  Enter our wonderful sons.  They have been begging to go see "the dragon movie" (How to Train Your Dragon) for a while now and, since they did so well seeing The Princess and the Frog over Christmas break, we have been meaning to take them to the theater again.  We had planned on possibly seeing it this weekend, since it looked as though it would be an easy one.  On the way home last night Amy, ever thinking and planning, had the sudden thought that we should try this new drive-in theater because, lo and behold, they were showing How to Train Your Dragon!  Coincidence?  I think not!  The boys were both in good moods so we thought - why not?  The deal is incredible.  You get 2 movies for a great price, adults are $5, kids are $4, and kids under 3 (Jack!) are free!  So, we all got to see the movie for $14!  That is less than if just Amy and I went to a theater to see a movie.  Upon checking out their website, see link above, we saw that they sold food there, but we decided to grab something on the way - Jack in the Box!  So you know I had to get some tacos!  At the theater though we did get some food - movie snacks: popcorn, candy, and drinks and we only spent $11!  That brings the grand total for the night to $25 for the movie and snacks (I know not counting dinner but you don't always eat dinner out just because you're seeing a movie so I didn't count it)!  That is at least $10-$15 less than had we gone to a regular theater.  Plus you get the fun of a drive-in.  Neither of us had ever been so it was a full-on family adventure for us.  We parked the van backward, folded down the rear seats, and had a wonderful time.  The boys loved the movie and the whole drive-in aspect of the event!  All in all, it was a great night.  Once again, Amy's research and planning pulls through!  The movie was awesome too!  The boys loved it and I have to admit that Amy and I were pretty impressed also.  I think they will have a new favorite when it comes out on DVD.  The movie starts at dusk, understandable since it is outside, so last night that meant about 8:30ish.  It finished about 10:30 so we opted to not stay for the 2nd movie, A Family Wedding.  Good because by the time we got home it was 11:00 and we were all exhausted.  The boys fell asleep about 5 minutes after leaving the theater!  But, even with only the one movie it is an awesome deal.  We definitely had a great time and made some great memories!

All is well, kickin' it old school, in Drosche Land. 

Showboat Drive-In!

How awesome is that?!

We had a blast!

Cohabitation

Well, bedtime has become quite a problem as of late here in Drosche Land. For the past few days our usually easy routine of bath and bedtime has been nowhere to be found. In its place has been crying, whining, coming out of their room repeatedly, and just general chaos. Why? Who knows? The odd thing is that it has been ending quickly and in the same way - with the boys sharing a bed. Again why? Who knows? This all began a few days ago when Amy, finally at a loss of what to do, put Braeden into Jack's bed to sleep with him. Immediately they were quiet and went to sleep. The same thing happened last night: bath, devotions & prayers, bedtime, struggle, sleeping in the same bed. Odd. Not that we have a problem with it. Right now we are at the point that whatever works is great! So, tonight during bathtime, Braeden asks Jack if he can sleep in his bed, the answer of course was yes. But Amy had the better idea of pushing their beds together so that they were still close, but each actually had room to be comfortable. They, especially Braeden, were wary about this at first, but eventually gave in. The result: basically no problems. There was a bit of calling for us at the beginning, but nothing compared to what we have been going through: a knockdown, drag out WWE-style fight to get them to sleep. So, while we still don't know, and may never know, the cause of the drama; we seem to have, thankfully, found a solution. Hopefully this will put an end to our bedtime insanity. We'll see. For now the boys cohabitate with their sleeping arrangements, and Amy and I proceed with caution!

All is well, with bedtime buddies, in Drosche Land.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Wordless Wednesday

Here is the first of my weekly picture posts.  Ok, so I caved and just used the common title of "Wordless Wednesday".  I couldn't think of anything else and it has such a nice ring to it.

Up first - more life in New Orleans.  Wait, does all the previous count as "wordless"?  Oh well, very little I every do can be considered as "wordless" anyway. :)  Here goes!  Enjoy!

Our first New Years as a married couple!

 One of our many Mardi Gras pictures - this one was also our 2005 Christmas card!

 Our 1st Anniversary!

WOO HOO!

WOO HOO!  My wife is the most awesome, wonderful, sweet, giving, loving wife in the world!  She is the bombdizzle!

In case you have not heard, or have not figured out the source of my joy - Amy scored us tickets to see Lady Gaga in Dallas!  WOO HOO!  Utterly amazing.  It all started last night when a friend of ours offered to help get us tickets via the pre-sale that they had access to that started this morning.  We did not have access to it so we told them what we were looking for.  Well, come to find out, although pre-sale tickets do not sell out as fast as when the tickets go on sale to the masses - they do in fact sell out!  She could not get a hold of any in our price range and could only get individual tickets at $175.  Well, that was alright, she was very gracious to try and I was greatly appreciative (THANK YOU ANNASA!) but if it wasn't mean to be, then it wasn't meant to be.  But my darling wife had other thoughts.  As soon as she got home from her accreditation meeting and began trying right away (isn't she amazing)!  But get this, she is so awesome she just didn't try to get the tickets - she busted out her resourcefulness!  She got onto the forums on Lady Gaga's website to see if she could get the passwords required to access the pre-sales (Virgin Wireless pre-sale & Citibank pre-sale).  She couldn't find the information for the Virgin Wireless pre-sale so that quick-thinking wonder realized that the password for the Citibank pre-sale was the first 6 digits on a Citibank credit card.  So, she went to the Citibank website and got the digits off of an add to sign up for a credit card, entered them, and voila!  She was able to miraculously access tickets in Houston.  These were the $175 tickets we had not intended on buying, but by now it was clear that the less expensive tickets were not going to happen.  She began to multi-task and entered the password for the pre-sale to the Dallas show and got 2 tickets there as well.  So she called me to ask my advice on what to do.  We only had one dilemma - we don't have a credit card and we didn't want to use our check card.  So I rapidly called my wonderful Mom and got her credit card number so we could charge the tickets to her card and then pay her.  In the time it took to call her and get the number (which in panic-mode I incorrectly wrote down the first time, requiring a 2nd call) we lost the Houston tickets!  Gasp!  So she began refreshing the Houston page and then the Dallas page timed out.  Now, this was not very long, the time limit to secure your Dallas tickets was only about 7 minutes and the Houston time was only 3 minutes!  Talk about being forced to act fast!  So, now she had no tickets and she frantically began to refresh both pages.  For those of you who know Amy, failure is not an option; this quite possibly is one of her best traits as it drives her to succeed in everything.  Here, it was a very valuable trait as she did indeed get 2 more Dallas tickets - which she promptly bought!

Wow, I'm stressed and tired just recounting the events of the afternoon!  So you can only imagine how Amy felt.  But, all's well that ends well.  She got us some tickets, a little bit more than we wanted to spend, but we will also get a fun date night out in Dallas while Mom babysits the boys (thanks Mom)!  I am uber-excited and cannot wait until July 23!  It is going to be AWESOME, but not as AWESOME as my wonderful wife!  Thanks Amy!
 
All is well, WITH LADY GAGA TICKETS, in Drosche Land.

Ketchup, Granch, and Miscellaneous Dips

What?  Huh?  I know what you're thinking.  What on earth is "granch" and what does it have to do with ketchup and dip?  HA!  These three things are among the boys' current favorite foods.  We have to keep all of the above in the house at all times.

First up - ketchup.  This is by far Braeden's condiment of choice.  In fact, he probably thinks of it as its own individual food group!  He asks for it pretty much 8/10 meals.  Most of the time it is for something that, to us, does not go with ketchup at all.  For example, he has asked for ketchup with tacos, waffles, quesadillas, and pizza, among many other strange combinations.  Usually we respond with no, ketchup doesn't go on that.  He usually takes this in stride.  One of his favorite things to dip in ketchup though are potato chips!  He usually gets away with this because they are served with other items we have deemed appropriate to dip into ketchup - namely hot dogs, hamburgers, and chicken nuggets.  However, Braeden's love f dip stops here with the ketchup.  He refuses to try anything else remotely similar to dip, but we don't push.
 
Jack on the other hand is a dip lover!  His favorite by far is his beloved granch.  Which, in case you have not already guessed, is his way of saying ranch.  Now I will pass this off to an inherited trait from Amy, as ranch is probably nearly dead last on my list of dips and condiments.  I really do not like it.  Jack however adores it.  His favorite thing to dip?  Chicken nuggets.  But he has been known to dip french fries, chips, and pizza.  Possibly tying granch for his affections is queso.  But really, he comes by this naturally on both sides (although truth be told - more so from Amy!) so it was inevitable that at least one of the boys would also be a queso addict!  Amy and I are far from complaining about this though.  Pair this with Braeden's love of tacos and we are set for Mexican whenever we choose to eat out!  Granch and queso aside, Jack will eat pretty much any kind of dip - he's not shy.

So, what's always in our fridge?  Ketchup, granch, leftover queso, random dips.  You name it, we stock it.  Whatever gets the boys to eat and enjoy food we totally support.  So, come on over to Drosche Land, grab your favorite finger food, and dip away!
 
All is well, and dippable, in Drosche Land.

Looking Back

Well, the rare event of having a little free time actually occurred today and I was finally able to back up all of our pictures from our ginormous, useless, Dell.  It had been quite a while since I did so and it took about an hour to transfer about a year's worth of photos onto our external hard drive.  Then I backed up the photos I have on my Macbook from work.  Needless to say, working with the Macbook was much easier.  iPhoto is awesome and I was just reminded that I am done with PCs forever!  But I digress, again.  The reason I did this was to have access to all of our photos for use in my Wednesday posts.  Who knew we had so many pictures?  I mean, I love taking pictures and it has tapered off a bit since our lives have grown so busy, but there has got to be over 10,000 from mid 2003 to now.  So, rather than get any homework done tonight while Amy was out at her Accreditation meeting for Christ Memorial, I just sat around looking at pictures.  Pre wedding photos, wedding photos, NOLA photos, Katrina photos, Braeden photos, Jackson photos, and everything in between.  It was fun reminiscing but I have to admit I do feel a bit older now having done so, as if the impending big 3-0 wasn't already making me feel that way!  Especially after creating a photo album on Facebook of our time in NOLA.  Man did we look young!  But then again I guess we were, after all we were only 22 and 23 years old.  We look like little kids playing house!  Great memories.  I am attaching to this post some of the pictures I was going to save until next Wednesday, but I couldn't wait!  So, I will post some here and then will choose new ones for Wednesday.  I'm looking forward to going over them all as I choose the lucky ones that will be included in future posts.  I love looking at old pictures, old cards, old memorabilia, etc.  Sometimes I think it drives Amy bonkers, but it makes me happy to look back and see the amazing events that have happened on our journey to where we are now.  It also makes me excited about taking more pictures, making more memories, and then looking back on them in the future.  Especially with the adoption!

All is well, backward, present, and forward, in Drosche Land.

     Moving into our 1st apartment in New Orleans!

A Taxing Process

It should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me, that I don't do our taxes.  I haven't done my taxes since I was in college and used the 1040EZ and you could file on the phone!  But you get married, go through a once-in-a-lifetime natural disaster, have kids, buy cars, buy a house, etc. and the difficulty level of doing your taxes soar.  This is when I get out of the driver's seat and let Amy behind the wheel.  She is a number-crunching mastermind!  Aside from our taxes, she handles all of our family's finances.  I could never repay her for all of the hard work she does in this area for us.  But, truth be told, she loves it.  She is gifted at it.  This year, her ability to scour tax forms, deductions, receipts, and numbers truly paid off.  We have never received a refund from our taxes.  With my status as self-employed we most likely never will, since I have to pay in self-employment taxes.  Now, that's how I understand it.  As you can tell from the information given above, this may or may not be an accurate understanding.  But I'm willing to state that I am a good 90% sure.  Sadly, we always owe Uncle Sam lots of our hard-earned money come April 15th.  The worst was when we went through Katrina and everything was all wonky.  I don't remember the exact amount we owed (although I'm sure Amy does) but it was ridiculously huge.  Since then it has gone down slightly as we have grown and matured, learning to better manage our finances (thank you Dave Ramsey).

This year though marks a momentous occasion!  No, we did not get a refund, but it is about as close to one as we will every get.  On her second pass through our taxes before submitting, yes Amy does several trial runs before mailing off the official paperwork and you're about to see why that is a wonderful trait, she found some more deductions we could make.  This year, thanks to Amy's spectacular accounting skills, we will only owe (insert drum roll here) $3.90!  Yes folks, there is a decimal in there along with a severe lack of 0's!  Woo hoo!  Needless to say when we found this out, it was like Christmas!  So, we are happily entering 2010 with hopes of a similar victory in about 12 months!  Amy's mom came over this afternoon so Amy could work her magic on her taxes also.  While she didn't get it down to the rock-bottom price we owe, she was able to shave off a good amount from what she does owe.  So, take that H&R Block - we don't need you or your services!  HA!  Ahhh, what a great feeling to know that Uncle Sam can't even order a value meal at McDonald's with what we owe him!  Better to stick to the dollar menu!

All is well, without emptying our wallets, in Drosche Land.

Try Again - No Gaga for Us

Well, today was the day that tickets to the Lady Gaga concert at the Toyota Center on July 25 went on sale.  My wonderful wife took the time out of her day to try and score us some tickets (they went on sale at 10 a.m. so I was in class).  However, it was not meant to be.  They seemed to be sold out before they even went on sale.  Oh well.  Amy was so upset, bless her.  But it is what it is.  Would have been AWESOME, but I'm not going to pay like 5 times the ticket prices via other options.  Good news though, as I figured, they added a 2nd show on Monday, July 26!  These tickets go on sale next Friday.  So, we'll see if we were meant to go to this show.  If not, total bummer but I can handle it.  I think this whole Dave Ramsey viewpoint accompanied with the adoption have helped me to realize what is truly important.  Now, don't get me wrong, I still have my moments when things get skewed, but I'm slowly coming around.  So, the new countdown to the next sale date begins!  T-minus 6 1/2 days and counting.  Stay tuned.

Tonight though should be fun.  We are going to a party at a church/school friend's house that should be pretty cool.  It's a crawfish boil and I love some crawfish - but not in the whole peel and suck the head sort of way.  But there's gumbo which I also love!  So, that accompanied by the fact that our 931 band Antidote 7 will be playing (yes they do mainstream too) make it a shoe-in for an AWESOME time!  Mom is watching the boys overnight, which they both are excited about.  So, party, good food, good drinks, friends, and a kid-less night!  That's a way to start the weekend after a crazy busy week!  Hence the reason I'm posting now - later will not be an option and remember the post-a-day goal!  Friday, April 9 - check!
 
All is well, with fingers crossed for concert tickets, in Drosche Land.

Technical Difficulties

Well, as you can tell by the lack of a post yesterday, my goal of blogging daily fell through last night.  But in my defense, it was not my fault.  I blame Word.  As I was working on finishing my coursework for the week, Word abruptly crashed on me.  It is not the first time it has happened, but this time it did not fully recover my work despite my frequent saving (every time I finish typing a sentence).  Grrr.  Argh.  So, I did not finish until about 11:15 and by then I was exhausted and frustrated - not the best combination for blogging.  So I threw in the towel and went to sleep.  If only the world would realize, as I already have, the superiority of Pages and in fact all Apple products.  Alas, they have not, specifically in this instance GCU.  Oh well.  Until then, I needed to figure out an alternative to blogging on Wednesdays since they are always busy as I am chased and pinned down by the procrastination monster who proceeds to beat me about the head with rubrics and discussion forums.  But I digress, again.  In order to keep my goal and supply the blog with wonderful pictures of the Drosche clan, I have decided to post only photos on Wednesdays.  A lot of the blogs I follow, specifically the adoption ones, do this.  I just need to think of a catchy name for the weekly posts.  But I have until next Wednesday to do so, hopefully inspiration will come by then.  Also, since this blog is all about the adventures of our family, I decided to start at the very beginning (a very good place to start) of our family.  So, without further adieu - the first of our photo blogs.  Yes I know it is Thursday, but this is counting for yesterday!  Plus, my blog, my rules! :)  Enjoy!

Our very first picture as a married couple!  Wow, we look young!

The whole wedding party

Us leaving the reception amid bubbles.  This is one of my all-time favorites of us!

 

The Fruits of Our Labors

Well, so we have bought and planted a nectarine tree and a lemon tree.  I am desperately hoping and praying for fruits later this summer/fall.  I'm not expecting a huge bounty, I'd be happy with one or two of each.  However, birds, the weather, and my crazy sons seem to have other plans.  We will begin with my beloved nectarine tree.  When we purchased it, it was full of sweet-smelling pink blossoms.  Those fell off and in their places came teensy fruits.  They actually seem to grow quite quickly, turning a deep purple as they do.  Attached is a picture of these.  Soon the little tree was full of these marble-sized fruits.  I have to admit that I am ecstatic about the idea of fruit; I have always wanted a fruit tree.  I check it everyday to see how it is doing.  Recently I noticed some were missing.  Birds!  It really could be the only explanation as there was no hard winds or rain, plus the fruit was not on the ground.  So now I am busy trying to think of a way to protect my nectarines from these senseless winged thieves.  I am open to suggestions.

This brings me to our poor dwarf lemon tree.  Yes it was small when we bought it and it could have been successfully planted in a pot (according to the tag) but we put it in the ground instead, thinking we would not want to transfer it again later.  Well, almost immediately it was covered with white blossoms that quickly gave way to tiny green lemons.  Get close and you can clearly smell them!  This was about a month ago.  All was well with our little tree.  Then came a severe windstorm.  Several branches, and all of the lemons, we blown to kingdom come!  The little tree was ravaged and leaves began to turn yellow.  We feared the worst.  However, soon more blossoms came and brought many more tiny green lemons.  As I type this I remember that I am supposed to thin them out before they get too big so that the eventual fruits are larger and of better quality.  Something to look into over the coming weeks as the fruits mature.  If the fruits mature that is.  Today as Amy and I were cooking dinner I walk into the backyard to take out the trash.  What to I find?  Jack beating my lemon tree senseless with an oversized badminton racket!  I was not a happy camper.  Needless to say, said badminton racket is currently residing in time-out on top of the refrigerator.

So, fate seems to have it in for any crops of the 2010 nectarine/lemon season!  But not if I have a say first!  I'll even settle for one nectarine OR lemon.  I'm not picky; I just want to say I have fruit trees that produce!  Only time will tell I guess.

All is well, and fruitful thus far, in Drosche Land.

O

Our baby nectarines!

Easter 2010

Well, the last holiday of the school year has officially come and gone.  As busy as we were, I have to say we did well today - doing absolutely nothing.  We needed it too, all of us.  Easter yesterday was great.  The Easter Bunny did an awesome job and the boys loved it!  I'm only going to post a few pictures below.  For the rest I'm going to use Snapfish to place a link on the side like I did for the Campout pictures.  I hope this works and everyone can view them.  Anyway, moving on.  Easter at 931 was wonderful, we truly enjoyed it.  Especially Braeden.  Easter must be his favorite time of the year because he has been talking about it for the past two weeks.  He can tell you the whole story too!  This makes Amy and I so proud and just is another great example of the wonderful education he is getting at Trinity - and I promise I have no biases! :)  After church we surprised my grandmother for her birthday, Amy's idea, and that went very well.  Then we spent the remainder of the day hanging out at Amy's Mom's house eating delicious food!

Like I said earlier, today we truly just stayed at home and relaxed.  Sure there was cleaning and laundry to be done, but we only left the house late in the afternoon to do a little quick grocery shopping.  Amy, riding high on the thought that the money we could have put toward a new car can do wonders for the adoption and our debt snowball, spent a lot of time doing financial planning today.  First of all she did her usual 2nd pass for our taxes and found a few more breaks we can take.  We will only owe the government $3.90!  HA!  Take that Uncle Sam!  We haven't owed that litter EVER!  Needless to say this is fantastic news.  Next, she did a lot of work looking at our debt snowball, and our lives once everything is paid off.  We truly will be following the Dave Ramsey plan.  It will be awesome and will truly allow us to go through the adoption much more easily.  She is wonderful!  Not only does she do a great job at our family finances, but she loves it!  I couldn't be luckier.  So, all in all, it was a great break.  I can't believe that the school year is almost over though.  I'm both excited and nervous about staying home with the boys over the summer.  I haven't had a summer, ever, so I'm not sure what to do with one.  Luckily the boys will still be enrolled on Tuesday/Thursday so that'll give me a good schedule of home/away.  But that's a post for another time.  Time now to relax with Amy, watch Dancing with the Stars, and vote for Kate Gosselin.

All is well, after an egg-cellent break, in Drosche Land.

 

Jack and his eggs after the hunt

 

 Braeden with his egg hunt treasures!

Seriously, Not Right Now!

Well, if you have been following our many adventures, you can correctly assume that this post is about our current car adventure.  Well, this time, Amy and I didn't wait for the answer to be given to us.  Instead we came to the realization ourselves.  After sharing our good news with everyone we got to thinking.  Was this the best choice for us?  Clearly it is what we wanted, and things seemed to be working out, but was it really best?  So, we got home yesterday (Easter post to come later) and decided to crunch the numbers.  Not just to see if we could afford the new car, but what about if we didn't get the new car?  Well, once doing so, the answer was clear before us.  After adding in the cost that our car payment would go up, in addition to the rise in insurance we found that it would be about an extra $300 a month we would need, at the least.  Well, not that we couldn't and didn't have that money, it's just that the money would have to come from our debt snowball funds.  This would mean that instead of September 2011 being the payoff for our credit card debts, it would be much later.  That in turn would affect the way we save up and fund the adoption.  Plus, we finally looked at how much longer we actually have left on the van, and we realized that we could pay it off by December 2011.  That means that just 3 months after Amy's 30th birthday (and our official submittal of all adoption paperwork) we would have over $1500 extra month to put toward the adoption.  If you add these numbers up over the estimated 15 or so months it might take us to find our child and finalize everything we suddenly realized that we would be very close to paying the entire adoption off with cash!  This sealed our decision.  Could we seriously put a new car higher in priority than our daughter?  NO!  So, we made the adult decision to keep the van, pay it off, and continue to attack our debt.  We are sure, though, that we will be going through this Costco program once we are ready to buy a car.  No fuss, no haggling, big savings - that has us written all over it!  Being an adult blows!  But, we knew that it was the right decision.  Are we bummed about not getting a new car?  Yeah, of course.  But the excitement about not only being so close to getting our daughter, but being able to pay cash for nearly all of it totally eclipses any disappointment over a silly new car that we will have to wait a bit longer on.

All is well, and content with decisions made, in Drosche Land.

Right Now?

Well, today marked another busy day of our Easter vacation.  We began by waking up and having a quick morning getting everything ready to head to Amy's Mom's house for egg dyeing with the cousins.  That was a lot of fun as usual.  5 kids, 4-dozen eggs, and 9 colors.  Good messy fun!  The kids had a blast as usual as all of the adults hovered over frantically keeping everyone's eggs from breaking and colors from spilling!  I have to say though, the eggs turned out great - see the pic below.

After we finished dyeing the eggs, hanging out, and having lunch it was time to head home to relax a bit before heading out again to visit with Sarah, Nathan, Niki, and David.  That was fun.  It was good to see them, especially since we have not all been together in about 5 years!  The boys were themselves - cute, charming, silly, and crazy!  Niki and David brought them Woody and Buzz Lightyear toys and Sarah and Nathan got them sidewalk chalk and bubbles!  Needless to say, they were instantly won over!  It was nice to sit back and reminisce and catch up.  Plus, Sarah grilled some great brats for dinner.  It was also great to discuss the adoption with them and get their thoughts and support about it.
 
Onto the title of this post.  This morning before we headed out Amy was reading through our monthly Costco magazine and there was an article about their auto program.  Well, you know we are in the market to replace our ginormous van for something a bit smaller and a lot more reliable.  What could it hurt to try?  So, we got online and entered in the information for the Nissan Rogue we have been looking into and the nearest Nissan dealership that participates in this program is in College Station, not actually all that far at about an hour and a half.  So we gave them all the information and waited for them to call us back.  Flash forward to Amy's Mom's house.  The guy from the dealership calls and basically the deal they give for the Costco membership is $100 off the invoice price plus whatever incentives are being offered at that time.  Plus, it seems as though the car will be delivered to us and we can do everything via phone and email!  We were definitely intrigued by this point.  Once we got home we looked into what we wanted and I called our contact and then emailed him all the information.  On the way home from Sarah & Nathan's I had time to check my email and we are being offered a great deal.  The Costco membership will basically save us about $3,000 off the MSRP!  So, I emailed him back and asked what we do next.  We are excited, things are looking up.  It seems as though we are very close to closing the deal!  We are still keeping in mind that we do have the walk-away power Dave Ramsey taught us, but we are still optimistic.  If it all works out, we will be getting a brand new car for about the price of a used one from CarMax, minus the mileage and plus the full dealer warranty!  So, maybe this time the answer is "Yes Right Now"?  We'll see.  Until then we continue to research and read up about the Rogue.  All good things.  Overall a great day with family and friends and some potential good news!  I think I will go to sleep a happy man!
 
All is well, and maybe going Rogue, in Drosche Land.

Our Easter eggs - I love this picture, they're beautiful!