new placement

We got the call last Wednesday for another foster baby. This time a 4 month old baby girl!!!! Here's all the information I can give you right now.

1) She will more than likely be only a foster. Yup, that means we'll find ourselves handing over this little angel back to her biological parents one day. (That day could be as early as May)

2) Due to issues we can't discuss we are actually the second foster home for this little angel since being originally removed from her biological parents.

3) We'll call her "Little M" online. (for those who don't know we can't give any personal information about our foster kiddos online....Oh and no pictures)

4) 4 month old babies don't sleep through the night! Huh? She was getting up 2 times a night when we first got her, but I have her only getting up once now. So I feel good about that. UPDATE: We're back to up at 2 am and 6am every night. Lord Help ME!

5) Connor, Bryce, and Alexis and adjusting great! They love to help feed her, make her smile and laugh, and don't care one bit that we have another McManus kiddo.

I'll keep everyone updated as we continue on yet another foster journey......

Empire State of Mind

So why do I keep singing this song....



Because my best friend surprised me with a 5 day trip with no kids to NEW YORK CITY. Adam has some Gowalla stuff to do and decided to throw me in a carry on bag. :D We haven't had a night away with just us since our honeymoon (over 8 years ago.) And I haven't been away from my babies (besides hospital overnights) EVER! So needless to say this trip is very LONG overdue.

I'm SO VERY excited! We've never been to NYC and it sounds like a perfect trip to just be us. Especially because I won't be thinking "oh I wish the kids were here for this". We will be doing all adult things all week(you should see the hotel we are staying; it's VERY CLASSY and very :gulp" New York) and having an ABSOLUTE BLAST.

Have you ever been? What are the "must sees"?

And what am I going to wear??? (HELP ME)

70 degrees in FEBRUARY

I'm really not sure why it took Adam and me almost 7 years to move to Austin, TX. Because I'm SERIOUSLY in love with this city. This weekend it was mid 70's!!!! In FEBRUARY!!!!

So we headed OUTSIDE.....

We had to grab some Torchy's first. (We eat at Torchy's Tacos at least once a week. It's one of Austin's BEST. If you ever visit us, it is a MUST EAT!) And you haven't lived until you eat at a trailer park.
Next we went for a hike around Town Lake and then played at the park.

*this post and the pictures are really for all our grandparents!!

Foster Update

Yes, we're still fostering.

We're back on the list and waiting once again. We almost got a newborn baby girl a couple weeks ago. (Umm yeah that made my heart skip a beat....a NEWBORN)

This is always a weird place to be. First, I feel like we're always 1 phone call away from another crazy journey. And second, because I can't "hope" to have a placement because that simply means a baby is being hurt somewhere.

So, it's good that we haven't had a call. And it's not good because we are back to waiting......

(I hate waiting)

When I grow up

When I grow up... I want to

be a musician (still working on learning guitar)

be an Ironman

be a teacher (in a classroom again)

be an artist (I used to draw a lot)

be a talk show host

be fashionable

be a nurse or doctor

be a camp director

be a farmer (it sounds kind of fun)

be a handy woman (I can use a hammer and a drill and that's it)

be a home decorator (ha I don't even know what it is called)

be a cruise director (right? I would be awesome at that)

be an author

But for now I'll just stay being ......

a cook (well I'm trying)

a nanny

a maid

a in-house laundry service

a teacher (in home)

a play thing

a friend

a wife (was going to put "hot wife" but wasn't feeling it today with my hair in a pony tail)

a chauffeur (wow I had to look up how to spell that one, which is why I won't ever be an author)

a cat trainer

a butt wiper

a referee

a counselor

a personal shopper

a photographer

a personal organizer

a nurse

a stylist

a rookie triathlete

a remember every play date, karate practice, dinner, birthday, bible study, special event, and get the family there on time-er

And today I'm going to love EVERY second of it.

Having a little girl is messing me up

I admit it, when I think about raising a little girl it SCARES me to death. It just seems so much harder to raise a little girl. There is so much pressure from an early age to be a certain way and I hate it. That isn't the case with boys. Boys can be jocks, video game studs, computer wizs, Lego dudes, superheros, whatever. But with girls it just seems different, I don't like it. There seems to be one way a girl should be....which is a Disney Princess (I think). I'm far from "girlie" and don't want to push being a tomboy or being a prissy little girl on Alexis. I want her to be exactly what God has created her to be. So she has access to every type of toy, wears lot's of pink but also orange, blue, and green, and will be able to play any sport she wants too(maybe not dance I mean really, imagine me trying to go over her "dance moves" yikes.) But still I worry....

Having a little girl has caused me to do things I never did with the boys. I never looked at what other little baby or toddler boys were wearing to check and see if Connor or Bryce looked "cool" or whatever. I didn't care, we had a McManus boy style and to heck with what everyone else was wearing. But with Alexis I'm paranoid. ALREADY I'm checking out other little girls. Constantly checking to make sure I'm not dressing her like a weirdo or something.

The really sad part is that having a little girl is unearthing insecurities I HAVE and feelings I don't like to feel. And yuck I hate that. I want to write about it more later. But I never expected that having a girl would be so very different than boys.

Moms with girls, do you feel the pressure or is it just me?


*For those wondering if I'm FINALLY done with the cirriculum I'm working on for HELP. I am and I am NOT. You see they have asked me to do even more. So I'm trying to blog and write at the same time. Ha this should be interesting!

Sssh don't tell...

Nope, I'm so not done with my curriculum yet. (I KNOW I KNOW!!!) I'm almost done. But Austin got an inch of snow and the whole town went CRAZY. Turns out it hasn't happened since 1906, so with that in mind I guess it was kind of, sort of a big deal.

So I am breaking my "no blogging until I am done writing" rule to post just a couple pictures. (Forgive me, Chris Marlow and the HELP team, I'm almost done and as you've seen already the lessons are totally rocking your socks off)

Alexis; my little snow bunny
Bryce, making a snow angel
Connor, trying to hit me with a snowball