It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like....

Christmas in full swing at the Ramsell household! We spent the enitre weekend decorating inside and out! Can someone please expalin why something ALWAYS doesn't work right....a few lights, an extension cord, last year we had a problem with the tree stand...EVERY year there seems to be some small issue! Guess it's just part of of the holidays now! But geez, I'd like for just one year, to put everything up without a problem...is that too much to ask Santa? LOL!!


AND, we picked up the tree Saturday, so here is this year's On Top of the Car Tree Photo........plus a goofy one....You can see how much she's grown if you look at the tree photo at the top of the page, that was just two years ago! Plus, she climbed on top of the car all by herself! (ugh!)



Last week, Delaney's Spanish Immersion Class sang at our town's tree lighting. They sang a few Christmas songs in Spanish and while some of the kids got a little stage fright and cried, Little Missy got up there and sang every word to every song smiling the entire time! I was a proud SIP Mama!!! And as proud Mama was in the front taking pictures, Delaney was enjoying that a large crowd had formed behind me to watch the kids sing! "Everyone in Vacaville was watching ME sing, Mom!"
Well, yes, it did seem like everyone was there...he he!

Long Time No Post!!!

Okay ~ I am SOOO sorry my fellow bloggers and followers!! I admit, Facebook has recieved my attention these last several months!! FB is quicker and I can update it from my Android phone! (new this summer!!) (that's another post! LOL!)

This is my attempt to once again stay updated on the blog! So, for a quick review...
BUSY SUMMER! Delaney finished up spring soccer, had a big dance recital, cooking class, science camp, tennis lessons, vacation bible school...AND her very first trip to Disneyland! We spent a week down in LA, three days at the Happiest Place on Earth, where nothing went fast enough or high for my daredeveil of a five year old!

She disovered pin-trading and started out day one with one pin and ended day three with eight (???) We spent one day at California Adventure with my wonderful girlfriend from college, Lisa, and her family, husband Wayne, and son, Cory.


Cory is a month older than Delaney and they love each other so much! We also had dinner one night with them at the Rain Forest Cafe, it's too bad we live so far from them. It was a really great trip! Zippity Do Da! We spent a day at the beach jumping in the waves and collecting shells! Still not sure what LM loved more, Disneyland or staying at the hotel (it has a pool y'know!)

Well, the REAL news, as Little Missy will tell you, "I started school!" Kindergarten began on August 18th...on which said day, she was up and dressed and had tied her shoes on her own for the very first time at....6:30 AM!!! Her kindergarten starts at 11:30 AM!!! HA!

Most said, "Oh, that will last about a week."...well, as of Nov 19th...we are still getting up early and getting dressed and ready, occasionaly making lunch.......I am never going to get to sleep in EVER again! She finishes her homework in a day, (she has a week), and LOVES being a Spanish Immersion Program! So much so, that she feels the need to correct my Spanish, (never mind I've been speaking it all my life!)


As we start off the holiday season, here's wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving and hoping we can all be reminded of all the blessing in our lives, I know I am blessed with a lovely little Spanish speaking kindergartner! Hasta luego!

Sweet Random Moments Caught on Camera!

Some of my favorites memories are the times I catch Delaney enjoying the moment! Here are snapshots that just seem to capture the mood! I love these sweet random moments......



Precision is the key to polishing toenails. (and I appreciate her using the bubble wrap to protect my carpeting...)


Sharing a story with our visting Flat Stanley from Tennessee...


Enjoying playing school and reading....(I love how she set up her own little desk with her laptop!)


Nice technique with the tongue....(we painted pottery for Grandma for Mother's Day)



Happinees IS coloring Easter Eggs!


Perfectly placing the Giant Chess pieces at Nut Tree...


And my fav...Waiting alone on stage to perform...(she was looking at the rides she was promised she could ride after her Fiesta Days show.)

The Spy Who Stayed Up Until Midnight...

The other night we ended up taking my mom to the ER, she's is okay, thank goodness. Dehydrated from having stomach thing.....so Delaney stayed over at the neighbor's while I went back to the hospital. Our neighbors said she could spend the night, but just when we got back from the hospital, our neighbors called to say Delaney wanted to come home. It was 11:30 pm, and I know she was worried about her grandma, so I went across the street to get her. She got to see my mom and I let her sleep with me. Then she was hungry....so now it's almost midnight.....
(make sure you have read the previous post...)
I say, "Baby, as soon as you are done with your snack we are going to sleep, it's almost midnight." This look of excitement comes over my little spy's face as it lights up.....
"MAYBE I WILL SEE THE RED DUCK!!!!!!"

The Spy Who Knew A Lot

(Post preface: Delaney and I play "Spy" a lot. And as you know, all good spies have secret codes for different reasons. One need for a secret code is to be able to identify yourself to other spies and vice versa. We have created several spy codes for all the various reasons a spy might need a code....) (I also need to preface that I always tell her Mommy knows Everything...which she believes whole-heartedly, I think...)

We were driving in the car the other day and Little Missy says, "Mom, I know you know Everything, but I know a lot, too.)

Me: "Oh, you do? What do you know?"
LM: "I know cheese on salad tastes good. I know oranges have belly buttons. And, I know The Red Duck Flies at Midnight." (Spy Code)

Yes, my five year old Spy knows quite a bit.....I think...

Our Truth

Pretend It’s April 15th……I am late with the Call To Action by JCICS.


Our Truth
No one who knows us or knows of us doubts that Delaney and I (and my mom) are a family.
No one doubts we were meant to be together.
No know one doubts how much I LIVE to be her Mommy and how my mom and her have such a special relationship.

Many do not know how hard it was to become a Mom. Failed relationships, failed female reproductive parts, failed domestic adoption….mountains of paperwork, LOOONG flights to Siberia, the waiting, standing before a Russian judge to convince her I was worthy of parenting a child from Russia…

A day does not go by that I thank Russia for giving me the child I always dreamed of, or think of the woman who gave her life. My daughter is every single thing I thought my daughter would be. She is happy, she is healthy, she is smart, and she loves me, she sings as she picks up her toys, she is beauitful, she crawls into bed with me at 5am every morning. ALL children love their parents, even when they cannot express it. And while Delaney spent the first 18 months of her life in a tiny orphanage in Siberia, she is well adjusted and loves that she is Russian and when she sees a picture of St. Basil’s she screams, “That’s My Russia!”


We are lucky and blessed. Delaney was lucky to be well cared for and nurtured by her caretakers before it was my turn. I prepared for the child to be mine, however, to come to me with difficulties from a life she did not choose. I knew that it was entirely possible I would spend time helping her heal, teaching her what it meant to have a family and a Mommy. This is the reality for many who come home and for the parents who take on that responsibility. I actually was not prepared for how advanced she was and is…yesterday she explained to me what a washer is, and not what you clean your clothes in! The washer that is related to nuts and bolts and screws! She excels in gymnastics, takes dance and is playing soccer. She loves swimming and wants to learn the violin and how to speak Spanish.


And for as much as I gush about our life, about how much joy she brings me and about how much she makes me laugh, the truth is parenting is hard, period. Add in adoption, add in post-institutionalized issues, add in adjustment issues, and it’s even harder. I work full-time. I have a long commute. I am a single parent.

When I get home she wants to play, and she wants to go for a walk and she wants dinner…..when she is overly tired she melts down about the silliest of things, and when her feelings are hurt she is sad. When she gets a shot she looks at me as if I have the ability to make the pain stop…oh, that’s so hard! I feel guilty when I put her in a timeout even though she broke a rule, I feel guilty when I yell at her because I am overly tired and she doesn’t understand why I yelled, I don’t understand why I yelled……I make pancakes with chocolate chips and let her jump in rain puddles. We make a heart shaped cake on our Family Day and write “I love you” on it. I drive her to dance class on Wednesdays, soccer on Saturday mornings when I want to sleep in. She broke my computer’s disk drive by leaning on it. When she was 22 months she pulled a corral beaded anklet off my leg I had custom made in Hawaii. We sing the Sponge Bob song really loud in the car and race to the front door when we get out of the car. I let her *drive* the car down the street….we both love Sheryl Crowe, and Dora. She loves our Family Night movies….I taught her all the words to Horse With No Name when she was three…we both love cheese. We have watched Bolt 178 times (maybe). Once she woke up with 105 fever and thought she was seeing bugs eveywhere, I was terrified. Once she came downstairs to go out to play wearing her lifevest, I was rolling on the floor laughing. Last year at school the kids wrote why they loved their Mommies for Mother's Day..."becasue she is the best Mom who came to get me." I was in tears.

The truth is, this is our wonderful, beautiful, sometimes frustrating, never boring life and
I AM THE PROUD PARENT OF AN AMAZING CHILD BORN IN RUSSIA!

First Sleep Over!!!

My baby spent the night across the street last night!

My mom had to be at the dentist very early this morning (she watches Delaney during the day) and when I asked my neighbor if she could watch Delaney this morning, she suggested Delaney sleep over with her daughter. Delaney has been asking to have someone sleep over or sleep over at someone's house for well over a year! She was so excited! She and the little girl are good friends and A has stayed over at our house out of necessity twice, but I dont' think Delaney considered it a true sleep over since it was when my neighbor had her baby boy.

She had dance then we got home and gathered her things. "Mom.... backpack, check, sleeping bag, check, hair brush, check, pillow, check, fruit snacks, check...." I walked her across the street and she barely gave me a kiss g-bye! Geez, make your Mother feel good, why dont' you?

My neighbor said she put them to bed at 8 pm and they stayed awake talking until 10 pm! Soooo cute, guess they were heard talking about school, ice skating, SpongeBob and playing the Wii. This is all too fast, all this growing up!!!!!!!!!!!! MAKE IT STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (on the other hand, I had a quiet dinner, a glass of wine and watched American Idol in peace!)
A few words before departing....

Can you do this?????

Finally....she's been trying, REALLY trying, for well over a year....not one by any other went unnoticed, not only that someone could do it, but more specifically that SHE could NOT! "When will I be able to do it, Mommy? How do you do it? Why can't I make any noise?".....that is...until.....NOW!!!!!! (turn up the volume...) ( you will also have to turn down the playlist volume at the bottom of the page...)

INTRODUCING......Miss Delaney, who can now SNAP !!!!!


She snaps at the dinner table, in the car, walking from the car, she has shown her teacher, her friends, a woman carrying a baby in ther parking lot, the cleark at Costco...all who have willingly indulged her....most importantly, SHE is very impressed with herself !!!! Not sure what is better, the constant effort or the constant snapping....at least the snapping is pretty quiet..........

Someone is FIVE Now!!!

It's unbelievable....it just happened, she went and turned five on me!!
I freaked out a little bit, she is growing up so fast! She's gone right through a size 5, and size 11 shoe! Geez!

Delaney came home in Aug 06 at 18 months, I can't even imagine life before she came home, I never knew being a Mom was trully so wonderful.
I am blessed with a healthy, smart, witty, active, attached and beautiful little girl who randomly throws "I love yous" at me, is affectinate, kind and caring...oh, yes, and FIVE!!! She waffles between having good days and bad, but so do I! he he! Mostly she is a complete joy who never ceases to amaze me.
Here are some pics from her week-long celebration! We had a family/adult friends party at the house last weekend, which had a Hello Kitty theme, even though there were more boy cousins there! Mommy got her the two-wheeled scooter she'd been DYING to have, and she has thanked me every day since, saying, "It's perfect, Mommy! "I can't believe I have a two-wheeled scooter now!" Then on her actually b-day, she went to Chevys with my mom and a friend and loved that they sang Happy Birthday to her there and she got a hat! This past Saturday she got to have a party with her little friends at Build a Bear and it was great! First of all, 10 kids, and they were all SOOO good, it was like a Steppford movie! Second, it was totally fun! Delaney kept saying it was her best birthday ever! he he! I made little headbands for each kid with the Build a Bears on them and their names in glitter glue.

We went down to Red Robin afterwards and the kids got ice creams sundaes, cupcakes with Bears on them and juice and we opened gifts.


She is so excited to start "pindergarten" in the fall, Mommy is not! I want my baby back! But I am so proud of the person she becoming, and so thankful for getting to be her Mommy!

Happy New Year!

OMG ~ 2010 !!! Really, it's 2010 !!!!
Hope you are all looking forward to a good year for yourselves and the world! Let's pray things look up for us all !!

We spent New Year's Eve at Holiday in the Park at Discovery Kingdom! It was fun, we went with our neighbors, so I got to ride on some coasters this time! I often have to skip becasue there is either no one ot watch the kids or no one to ride with me, and we all know it's WAY more fun to scream bloody murder with friends!

Delaney played and won her first "amusement" park game...that's what she is holding, her little friend was not happy about that, had the roles been reserved, Little Missy would not have been happy! Lesson learned: 4 year olds do not know how to lose.

But a hug from Frosty made it all better!!! She hugged him when she was two here, also...she has always loves snowmen becasue they have hats!

Happy New Year, did I tell you it was 2010 ?!?!?!?