Foster2Forever

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Halloween Costume Contest – Wordless Wednesday

Welcome to Wordless Wednesday!  In celebration of National Adoption Month, we are having a Halloween Costume Contest!  You can win 10 photo Christmas cards from Shutterfly!

Just add your Halloween photos to the linky below. Contest winners will be announced on Monday!

Don’t forget to enter to win a 8×8 hard-cover photo book from Shutterfly (worth $29.99)!

Come back Friday for 2FunnyFriday – a meme to link your funny, cute, amusing stories and pictures that make us smile!

Here’s our family at Halloween –

Foster Dad proved his eternal love for me by wearing that get-up!
Good Luck!

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ADOPTION CELEBRATION!!! {Giveaways and Blog Hop}

NOVEMBER IS NATIONAL ADOPTION MONTH!!!
Here at Foster2Forever, we are celebrating theadoptionof our Stinkpot and future adoption of our Lil Bit through our state’s foster care system.  You can join in the celebration in a number of ways.

ADOPTION BLOG HOP
For the entire month of November, you can join our Adoption Blog Hop with your adoption story. Whether it’s through foster care, a private agency or internationally – and join us even if your adoption journey isn’t complete.
Go to our ADOPTION BLOG HOP page to join in the fun!

Foster2Forever will also have our regular 2FUNNYFRIDAY meme for you to link up your cute stories, photos, or other things that make us smile.

This month we will also have a WORDLESS WEDNESDAY linky, too! For this Wordless Wednesday, November 3rd, we will have a Halloween Costume Contest with prizes! So be sure and add your Halloween photos to our linky on Wednesday!

SPECIAL GUEST WRITERS
Foster2Forever is excited to have other adoptive families share in our celebration this month by sharing their stories. Join us on Tuesdays and Thursdays during November to hear their views on a number of adoption topics.

BASIC BITS FOR BEGINNING BLOGGERS
A few weeks ago, I attended Bloggy Boot Camp in Austin, Texas.  I was completely overwhelmed by the plethora of information to absorb and implement.  The most emphasized topic was to move to WordPress and have self-hosted dot com.  In other words, to be really successful and efficient, I need to implement a www.foster2forever.com using WordPress! No more dot blogspot.com or dot wordpress.com!

I have a full-time career, manage a home, and have 3-year-old and 1-year-old boys – I can’t do all this at once! SO, next month, I will begin this project SLOWLY week-by-week with a goal to move Foster2Forever.blogspot.com to WordPress and become Foster2Forever.com in January.
Please join me through this journey on Tuesdays beginning December 7th???

GIVEAWAYS
For National Adoption Month, Foster2Forever will have great giveaways throughout the month.

Our first giveaway is a hard cover 8×8 photobook from Shutterfly! A $29.99 value!

In order to enter, complete any of the following below and leave a separate comment below for each entry. Current subscribers and friends, don’t forget to enter!!!

  • Blog about National Adoption Month and this giveaway (3 entries) – leave the perma-link to your post!
  • Subscribe to the Foster2Forever newsletter (2 entries)
  • Like Foster2Forever on Facebook (2 entries)
  • Add the Foster2Forever button to your website (2 entries) – leave your web address
  • Add Foster2Forever to your blogroll (2 entries) – leave your web address
  • Join in our Blog Hops and Memes – Adoption, Wordless Wednesday, 2FunnyFriday (1 entry per hop)
  • Follow Foster2Forever through Google Friend Connect (1 entry)
  • Follow @Foster2Forever on Twitter (1 entry) – leave your Twitter handle
  • Tweet this:  Celebrate Adoption by entering to win a FREE photobook from @Shutterfly and @Foster2Forever #giveaway http://ow.ly/326sz (1 entry per tweet – once daily)
  • Follow @Shutterfly on Twitter (1 entry) – leave your Twitter handle 

Enter by midnight on Saturday, November 13th. Winner will be announced on Monday, November 15th!
Wishing y’all good luck!

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GUEST BLOGGERS NEEDED! {TOP 10 TOPICS}

Top Ten {Tuesday}In celebration of National Adoption Month in November, Foster2Forever is searching for guest bloggers on a variety of topics regarding adoption through foster care.  Today we are linked up with Oh, Amanda‘s Top 10 and listing our Top 10 adoption topics for National Adoption Month.

  1. Becoming a Licensed Foster Home
  2. Cost of Foster Care Adoption
  3. When We Knew This Was Our Child
  4. Becoming One Family
  5. Overcoming the Past
  6. Coping with Infertility Through Adoption
  7. Adopting Siblings
  8. Trans-Racial Adoption
  9. Adopting Older Children
  10. Adopting as a Single Parent

If you would like to write a post about one of the above topics (or another topic on adoption) this month, you may contact us at:
foster2forever (at) gmail (dot) com

This site is focused on adopting through foster care, so preference will be given to adoptive foster parents.

We will also be hosting an adoption story blog hop during the month of November. Any adoption story can link up (foster, private, international) beginning November 1st.

Son adopted through foster care and foster girl

Thanks for visiting and take a look around!  
(Be sure to check out the Bloggy Boot Camp linky)

5 MINUTES FOR MOM
Simply Being Mommy 125x125
Have a blessed day!

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BLOGGY AND MOMMY BOOT CAMPS!

BLOGGY BOOT CAMP
Yes, I was fortunate enough to attend the SITS Girls Bloggy Boot Camp this weekend.  What incredible speakers!

Laurie Turk aka the Tip Junkie overwhelmed us all with all the incredible tools she uses to make the most of her time blogging.  Yesterday, I began writing a list of all the to-do’s and stopped at 20 – realizing that I had to compile a PLAN OF ACTION for this blog.  I will share the beginning of that list later this week!

Jessica Gottlieb who goes by her real name spoke on privacy — very scary!!!

Angela England the “Renaissance Woman” gave us a rundown of SEO – Search Engine Optimization – that had our heads spinning. How can someone find your blog on the ever-expanding internet?

The discussion after lunch led by SITS Girl, Tiffany, and the hilarious Jessica Bern – was a real eye-opener for me about branding. I really didn’t think this applied to this website, but, yes, it can…more on that on a later post.

Kerri Jackson Case of Damn You, Little Rock did an amusing presentation on writing and telling the truth.  Truth has consequences!

The oh-so-cute Amy Locurto, yes, of I Heart Faces fame, spoke openly about taking great pictures.  We LOVED the background and dialog of those beautiful photos we admire.

The most inspiring presentation was given by LaQuishe Wright on “How SEO Helped Channing Tatum Find Me!”  (Channing Tatum is that really hot actor from “Dear John“) Her blog is his official website – yikes!

I HEART BLOGGERS WITH FACES
I met so many bloggers on one day that I’m trying to remember everyone.  I didn’t take many pictures, but here’s a photo I took of Christina of Ramblings of a Closet Writer to remind us to perform our monthly breast exams and have a mammogram completed as recommended. (I actually had mine yesterday!)

MOMMY BOOT CAMP
I have taken off work a few days to put our 3-year-old, Stinkpot, through Mommy Boot Camp.  He has been totally out of control at the day care.

In Mommy Boot Camp, if he didn’t say “Yes, Ma’am” when asked to do something (or pottied in his pants), he was put in the corner. Of course, he tried to move just 2 inches out of the corner, but I would move him back 2 inches each time.  Each time out was 2 minutes on the timer. He would get to “hold me” after the timer went off. After a few times, he finally got it and went to the corner himself.

So I took him back to day care yesterday during my mammogram.  He did really well until about 11a.m. (he had 3 good hours) when he had a major meltdown.  I went into the day care and put him in the corner for 3 minutes, having to move him back 2 inches a few times.  He ate lunch, and we came home and took a 3 hour nap.


The day care was utter chaos with 24 3-year-olds and only 2 teachers. We MUST find a day care or nanny with a smaller teacher-student ratio! The worst problem is that Stinkpot is not potty-trained. I ordered Potty Power DVD from Amazon, and I’m anxiously awaiting it’s arrival!

GIVEAWAY WINNER
With Bloggy and Mommy Boot Camps going on, I messed up and didn’t post a link-up for 2FunnyFriday for the Beauty Case giveaway. However, we did receive 10 comments and #5 was our winner! Congratulations to Annette from Kingwood!!!
You can visit her blog Up in the Air to send your best wishes.

Miscellany Monday @ lowercase letters

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I WON! I WON!

Can you believe it? I won the I Heart Faces giveaway to their DREAM BIG photography workshop in Dallas!!! A $249 ticket! Woo! Hoo! So excited! I haven’t won anything this big since I won $75 at bingo when I was 14 years old! Except…

This week I also won a photo book party for me and 14 of my friends from Shutterfly and House Party! Everyone at the party gets a free hard cover 8×8 photo book (worth $29.99 each) PLUS 10 free photo Christmas cards. How cool is that?  “I’m so excited, and I just can’t hide it…”

Then, last night, Stinkpot and I went to the grocery store and, can you believe it??? – He was an instant winner with his HEB Buddy Bucks!!!

So here I am now entering a photo of beef for this week’s photography challenge at I Heart Faces….

Here’s the recipe I found recently on allrecipes that is both my husband’s and my favorite. The combination of the balsamic vinegar marinade and caramelized onion with blue cheese is incredible!!!

SMOTHERED FILET MIGON

4 (6 oz) filet mignon steaks
seasoned salt to taste
cracked black pepper to taste
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons dried rosemary
1 tablespoon butter
1 onion, sliced
1 teaspoon white sugar or Splenda
4 oz blue cheese, crumbled

  1. Season steaks with seasoned salt and black pepper, and arrange in a single layer in a large baking dish. In a bowl, whisk together olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard, and rosemary. Pour mixture over filets, and turn to coat. Marinate for up to 8 hours.
  2. While you are marinating the meat, melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Cook onion slices in butter until soft, then stir in sugar. Continue cooking until onions are caramelized. Set aside.
  3. Preheat grill for high heat on one side, and medium heat on the other side.
  4. Lightly oil the grill grate. Place steaks on the hot side of the grill, and cook for 10 minutes, turning once. When the steaks are almost done, move to the cooler side of the grill. Top each filet with a quarter of the caramelized onions and blue cheese. Close the lid, and continue cooking until the cheese is melted.

Maybe my lucky streak will continue??? Next – LOTTERY TICKETS!!!

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I’m In Love!

Yes! I totally love this feeling of elation! Eventually, reality will set in and we will begin to take each other for granted, but until then…

I heart you iPhone!

Do you have an iPhone? What are your favorite apps?


– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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MISCELLANY MONDAY –

Miscellany Monday @ lowercase lettersADOPTION NEWS!
We are going to court tomorrow! Yeah! We are moving, albeit, slowly, toward adoption of our 1-year-old foster boy, Lil Bit.

The birthmother has signed the paperwork for relinquishment of her parental rights. Everyone except her and the district attorney has signed the agreement for birthmother contact. [With advice from our attorney, we will send pictures and an update every May, and she is allowed a 3 hour visit in August with 30 days written notice. If she defaults the first year, there will be no subsequent visits.]

Hoping that the judge will order the termination of parental rights so Lil Bit’s case will be transferred to the adoption unit.

REUNITED (and it feels so good)
This weekend, I crashed attended the Class of 1980 reunion from my high school. The organizers had opened the reunion to classes of 1978-1982, but I did get a personal invitation from a couple of the organizers. Thanks Brenda and David!

Here’s a picture of us that attended the same school all 12 years – can you find me?

STINKPOT SMIRKS!

Stinkpot’s typical smirk – entered in this week’s IHeart Faces challenge

If you’ve been following a while, you know that my hubby, Steve, and I are extremely frustrated with potty training our 3-year-old Stinkpot!  {he believes potties are for sissies} Just this week, I asked him if he needed to use the potty. He looks at me with his typical smirk and says, {get this} –

“No, I poop in my pants. Ha! Ha!”

This is going to be some journey….

YOU have a great week!

Come back later this week for a great giveaway!

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TOP 2 Computer Programs I LOVE!

This weekend, my hubby and I had Date Night – to a football game!  How romantic is that?  Needless to say, I became bored. I began messing with my camera, looking through old pictures, messing with the settings, and then, OH NO!!!!

I somehow reformatted the memory card and lost EVERY picture!!!  I tried not to panic at the game. Although I hadn’t backed up in a while, I still had a number of photos on my computers. And perhaps, the photos were on the memory card and the camera just wasn’t reading them.

The next morning I checked out the memory card and ALL. THE. PICTURES. ARE. GONE.

So my #1 top pick for Must-Have computer programs is –

FINAL DATA!
This program actually has recovered deleted photos for me!
(And saved my marriage!)
When my husband and I first married, he somehow “accidentally” deleted my pictures folder off my hard drive.
Thankfully, by using this program, we recovered those photos, and our marriage was saved.
We are currently searching for the disk for this program (we’ve moved twice since using it last). I went to the Final Data website and performed the free trial scan. The scan shows 298 objects to recover. Whew! Now if we can just find that disk, or maybe I’ll just order it!My #2 pick for computer programs I love is, of course, Photoshop Elements. 

Straight out of camera

I love how I can improve my snapshots and make them better.  Check out how I improved this snapshot of Stinkpot learning to ride his tricycle.

I entered this photo in this week’s
I Heart Faces “Vroom!” challenge.

Cropped w/ cars removed

Have a great week!

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Help Stop the Choking (Pass Out) Game!

On December 27, 2008, 17-year-old Jenny Morgan’s mother went into her daughter’s bedroom. She found a fabric belt tied around Jenny’s neck and the other attached to her bedpost.  Jenny was gone!

Jenny had been playing the “choking game”.

Jenny’s sister, Cheri, is a friend of mine and for the last year and a half, her family has suffered tremendous grieve due to this senseless teen game.

Today, August 28th, would have been Jenny’s 19th birthday!

Jenny’s family has a cause on Facebook to Help Stop the Choking Game. It is nearly 18,000 members strong!

Please consider joining this cause and spreading the word of its devastation!
For the love of Jenny. On what would have been her birthday.

I’m Clever

Sway