Veteran's Day by Ty age 9...

Since today is Veteran’s Day, I wanted to share about my Grandpa, James Anthony Hogsed, when he was a soldier in Vietnam.

At age 19, he was drafted into the Army. His friends didn’t get drafted, so he was all alone. Grandpa had his training at Fort Dix in New Jersey.

At age 20, he spent one year in Vietnam from January to December of 1970. He was a combat engineer in the Army. He was in the mountains near Cambodia.

My Grandpa got a bronze star which is the 3rd highest medal you can get.

He flew in planes and helicopters in Vietnam.

He lived in a tent and a “hooch” which is a building that sleeps 6 people.

Grandpa says that being a soldier was hard in Vietnam.

After Vietnam, my Grandpa came back to Fort Watuka, Arizona.

He was in the Army for 2 years and in the National Guard for 1 year.

I am proud of my Grandpa for serving his country.
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Ty will be giving this presentation at school today. He called his Grandpa to "interview him" for this story.

Trick or Treat and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra...

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! I can't believe it's November already. Although the weather here in Ohio is showing it. It's frosty outside and the kids are wearing their jackets. We have the heat turned on and I'm about to start playing Christmas music.....well not yet on the Christmas music.

I did go see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra yesterday with a friend of mine. If that doesn't make you think it's Christmas, I don't know what will. I have never seen them before. It was a great concert. Super loud and bright lights the whole time. It was a 3 hour concert! Really good though and we were on the main floor in row 11. I'm attaching a couple photos for your viewing enjoyment....

It even snowed! -- can you see it in the picture below?

We had a fun Halloween....got lots of candy, some of which I am eating as I type this blog entry. Ty wanted to hand out candy this year, but he still wore a costume. In his own words, he was "a guy with swords", I like to say he was a Ninja. Lexi was an American Idol contestant. The costume was totally her! :)

Hope you all have a great day!

Cameron's Coffee House...

Please visit our first adoption fundraising store.

http://www.justlovecoffee.com/CameronsCoffeeHouse

We receive a portion of the sales from every item in the store.

All of the money we raise will go towards bringing Cameron home.

For more information about our journey to Cameron, visit our adoption blog: http://notshowingbutglowing.blogspot.com/

We appreciate you taking a look at Cameron's Coffee House.

Your morning cup could mean so much more....

Tom and Leah Hogsed

Thoughts from an Adopting Mom...

*If you want to join us on our Adoption Journey to Thailand, please follow our adoption blog.

When I was 10 years old, my parents told me we were moving to America. I was devastated. I was going to lose my home, my friends and family, my school, and even my country. I told them I would go, but I would not go to school there. (Like I even had a choice in the matter!)

We moved to Michigan in 1986. I was 10 years old and placed into the 4th grade. The school then switched me to the 5th grade after they did some testing on my educational levels. I remember making friends pretty easily.

One thing that stands out in my mind is that I didn't like the fact that I sounded different. I had an obvious British accent and used different words for things. Obviously I stuck out like a sore thumb. I remember how I didn't like the other kids teasing me about my accent and I think that is the main reason I worked so hard to lose it.

If you talk to me now, you will not detect any type of British accent. I do still use some British words that have stuck with me through the years, but I am Americanized. And I am fine with that. But I still know about my British culture and the holidays we celebrated. I know the food we eat is different sometimes. My family loves to have Yorkshire Pudding at the holidays. We also enjoy pulling Christmas Crackers on Christmas Day. If I ever go into a candy store in the mall that sells candy from overseas, it brings back lots of memories and I want to buy everything I can eat!

It was not until a couple days ago when I was talking to our social worker, that I realized, I am multi-cultural. I was taken away from my country, my home, food, sights and smells, and even though I had my family with me, I was still scared.

Think about Cameron. He is going to be taken away from his country, his home (orphanage), his friends, his culture, his language. Everything will be different for him when he comes to America. Even though we are going to Thailand to pick him up, he still won't know us. I don't know what his initial reaction is going to be. Will he cry, not want to go, or will he be happy? These are just some of the things I am learning about adoption. It is not all banners and celebrations at the airport. Sometimes it's a scared child who is leaving everything he or she knows and being placed in a whole new world with no one else that speaks his language. I didn't have to learn a new language, but now I know I can relate to some of the changes he will experience.

Right now and until Cameron comes home to us, I am going to do everything I can to make sure his adjustment is as smooth as possible for him. I will stay at home with him for 6 weeks. I will hold him if he wants held. I will try to learn some Thai. I know he will adjust in time, but I guess you don't always think about how much an adoption can initially traumatize a child. I know it is much better for him than living in an orphanage for the rest of his life, but it is important that I am aware that he may not want me to hold him or he may cry or be quiet.

Please pray for my family and for Cameron as we go through this process. I want nothing more than to be his Mom. But I want to make this transition as easy as it can be for him. (You can tell I've just spent all weekend at an adoption seminar).

Sometimes you don't realize why things happen in your life until you are a lot older. Who would have known that a 10 year old girl from England would move to America and then adopt an 8 year old boy from Thailand 23 years later.

God knew.

Great product: eos lip sphere

I wanted to share this great new product found by me my husband called eos. It is an organic lip balm in a super cool container that slides onto your lips. When you drop it in your purse, you can find it easily because of its sphere shape.

It comes in 3 flavors. I have the sweet mint. They are offering $1 off coupons if you buy it at their online store, or you can go to Rite Aid and Walgreens and look for the eos lip balm. I highly recommend it!

Here is the link if you want the online coupon. Let me know if you end up trying it. I think I'm going to buy another flavor and maybe buy some as gifts. They are so cute!

A Blog Post!

*I have not posted an update on my adoption blog yet. I will get around to it and let you know when it's done!

What a bad blogger I am! I just realized I didn't even do a back to school post for the kids.

Ummm......that was like a month ago. Oooops.

I am posting a picture of their first day back to school. Lexi is now in 2nd grade and Ty is in 4th grade. They are enjoying school so far this year.

Lexi did get her cast off the 2nd week of school, so that is good news.

What have I been doing with myself?

Well, for one I have changed jobs. I am still working from home, but I am now working for AT&T wireless. If you need to know anything about their cell phones, I'm your girl. :)

I like it very much, but I am working 30 hours a week now, so that is taking up a lot of my time.

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I also have some great adoption news which I will share on my Adoption blog along with an update on where we are in the process, but we got an updated picture of Cameron today.

I love this child. It made my day. I wish I could share the picture online. It made me want to speed the adoption process up.....that is when you wish you could make time go faster.

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I'd like to introduce you to my new best friend who has been taking up some of my time.....my bike..... who has not been named yet. But I love her. We have been taking family bike rides several times a week and I am hoping this will be my way to lose some weight.

The other day we were biking and got to a BIG hill. I had to get off my bike and walk it up the hill. I made the comment to Ty that "Mom is too fat and out of shape for this" and he said...."I know, Mom. Just keep going." Not exactly the words of encouragement I wanted, but funny enough to put on my blog!

Here is a picture of our beloved Rhino the hamster. No, he is not dead. Although he looks that way in the picture. When Lexi and I first took the picture, she said "He's not dead is he?" I said..."I hope not." But we checked his breathing and that must be the way he likes to sleep.

What's cuter than a chubby hamster sprawled out on his bedding to take a nap.

I hope you are all enjoying this fall weather. I will try my best to get back into a blogging routine. Because I love blogging and my blog friends!

Have a great weekend,

Two more awards...

Tanya at Miller Family Racing gave me this Friendship Award.




If you haven't stopped by Tanya's blog, please do. She is such a sweet person and has so many great things to share. One of my favorites is Crockpot Tuesday.

This award is bestowed on to blogs that are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement (Whatever that is!). Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers.

Deliver this award to six bloggers who must choose six more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

I will pass this award to some of my blog friends that I find exceedingly charming…

Debra, Kari, Elena, Rose, Rhonda, Molly
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Tanya also tagged me with the Honest Scrap Award.


Here's the deal:
In accepting this award, I need to do the following:
1) Say thanks and give a link to the presenter of the award.
2) Share "ten honest things" about myself.
3) Present this award to 7 others whose blogs I find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged me.
4) Tell those 7 people that they've been awarded HONEST SCRAP and inform them of these guidelines in receiving.

1. I am addicted to my DVR. It tapes my favorite shows for me and I watch them whenever I need to have time to myself or relax. It helps at the end of a long day!

2. I have high cholestrol. Oh my word, did I just share that? :)

3. I love reading, but I'm terrible about finishing a book. I have several books that I am in the middle of. It's awful.

4. I love to sleep. I take naps whenever I can.

5. I have started biting my nails again. That is a terrible, yucky habit and I usually don't do it. Must be stress!

6. I love chocolate - maybe a little too much. I am always craving "something sweet".

7. I love not having periods. Is that too much information? It's one good thing about having a hysterectomy.

8. I'm not great at cooking.

9. I forget stuff....a lot.

10. I have been bad about blogging lately.

So you have probably learned more about me today than you wanted to know but let's be honest we all love learning more and more about people.

The girls I choose to participate in being honest are:

Momma, Kari, Elena, Rose, Rhonda, Molly, and whoever else wants to participate!

*Sorry I didn't link to the individual blogs, I was having trouble with the computer.
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