Special People

Saturday we went to the funeral of a great man, Cliff Williams. He was the Pastor of The Rock church and 2 years ago was diagnosed with Lou Gerigh’s disease. He fought the disease all the way to the end and it eventually killed him. He kept praising God throughout his illness and keeping his and everyone else’s spirits up. His funeral really made me feel blessed that my mom died as quickly as she did. With the prognosis of her cancer, she was supposed to have a terrible battle for a year where it would eventually shut down her body like Cliff’s disease did. My mom was coherent a day before she died, but was in a lot of pain. We only had two days in the hospital of watching her die. Even though it sucked that they said she had a year, and she only had 2 weeks, I am so glad she did not live the entire year. IT would have been so much worse for her to suffer for a longer period of time, and to watch her go through that. The cancer was in her brain, stomach, lymph nodes and pretty much everywhere else in her body. The doctor’s said because it was in her brain; it could make her personality change, or put her in a semi vegetative state. After she died I had some nightmares about my mom with a different personality. In my dream she still had her cancer, and she was very mean because the cancer had damaged her brain so much. God was gracious and took her quickly because he wanted her in heaven and so she would not have to suffer anymore. It seems strange for me to feel blessed that my mom died quickly, but after realizing what she could have gone through, I am happy. I have always been at peace about her going to heaven because I didn’t think it was fair for me to be selfish and keep her on earth longer if she was just going to suffer and be miserable. I think God chooses special people to get terminal illnesses because he knows which ones can be witnesses and do so much more in their shorter lives, than most of us can do in our longer lives. Cliff left a great legacy, and I think my mom did too.

Baby Food.

Some people don't trust baby food because it's not "organic" or they don't know what is in there. I am the opposite. I use canned baby food because I wouldn't trust myself to make safe food for Thomas! I figure that the jar baby food has been approved by important people, so it must be okay. I am not an expert and would probably some how screw up the food. For example, formula is awesome. Some people in one of our recent adoption classes were talking about finding breast milk banks to get breast milk for their adopted baby. That grossed me out... How do you know someone elses milk is safe? Formula is fine, it makes your baby nice and fat. Who knows about some random person's breat milk! I had to hold my tongue to not give my oppinions of breast milk and formula.

Craig's list is the best

Lately, Gabe and I have been OBSESSED with craig's list! We sold our tall bar height table becasue we didn't want Thomas to fall off the seats and crack his head open when he is big enough. We sold the table for $100 more than we bought it, so that was exciting! Then we ended up buying an older table with two benches that we have been sanding and re-staining. My house smells very badly of fumes right now, and I have a headache, but I wanted it in the house! We also got two big leather comfy chairs. Gabe made a good deal and is still SO excited about his new chairs. THEN, we bought a jeep cherokee. My husband, again, made a great deal and we got a great car for the moneY! I decided I love change, in my house anyways. I love to re arrange the furniture and take things out and put different things in. We have my parent's old piano in our dining room right now, and are going to take it back to the storage unit to either wait for my brother, or wait until we have a bigger house. Then we will have nothing but our new beautiful table in the dining room!

We took Thomas and Gus Gus to the dog park for the first time this weekend. Gus is a pansy and was terrified of every dog in the park. They would come up and sniff him and he would run between us with his tail between his legs. Poor guy. He is just a little fly.

Thomas loves daddy lately. We went to lunch at Big Bird's burgers (which is excellent) with the road riders, and anytime gabe went to talk to someone, Thomas would start bawling his eyes out! I thought it was maybe just because he was scared and he wanted his daddy to protect him, but no. Tonight, Gabe was leaving to go to a RRJ meeting, and Thomas, again starts to cry! He hates me.... He only wants daddy. This makes gabe feel great, of course. The girl better like me!


Swagbucks is an obesession as well. It is a search engine just like google, except you earn points or "bucks" for searching. You get to turn these bucks into gift cards and other fun stuff! To date I have gotten $60 FREE to amazon and $20 to target just for searching the web. It is pretty sweet and everyone should join! Here is where to join!
http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/mdean1799

Two blogs in a week. I am on a roll!

It's hard to blog

Well, I have not written on this in a while, so I guess it is time for an update on the Dean's for the 2 people that use to read this! haha.

Gabe- Work is slow, and it is kind of stressfull. We are ready to be back in our normal routine of gabe working everyday, and me working 2 days a week. Gabe is still in roadriders but is thinking of switching from the nampa chapter to the snake river chapter. He loves his motorcycle, and I love that he has such a fun hobby.

Thomas- Cute as a button. He is crawling, standing and walking across the furniture. His personality is getting so cute. He hates the nursery at church, and I cannot figure out why. I think it is because it is during his naptime, but I feel bad that he hates it! He is becoming very chunky and is really starting to enjoy baby food! He makes life so happy and so fun. We are so blessed.

Michelle- new hobbies- furniture buying, selling and restoring, jewelry making and couponing! Coupons are SO much fun! I receive 6 sunday papers so I can get all the great coupons 6 times over. I have gotten lots of things for free and if I keep this blog up again, I will post some pics of my amazing deals. I hate buying anything without a coupon.

US- We bought a jeep cherokee last night! Gabe chewed them down from $8000 to $5000 so we really got a great deal! We are also in the furniture selling, buying and restoration kick right now. We sold our tall table because we did not want Thomas falling off of it when he gets bigger, and bought an old solid wood table with two benches. It was a blonde wood, and very ugly so Gabe is in the process of sanding it down so we can stain it and make it beautiful. Gabe also was very excited about a deal we found on Craige's list. There were two big comfy leather chairs for $100 each. Gabe again, chewed them down and got the pair for $150! He is very proud and LOVES his chairs.

BABY-We are almost done with our second homestudy for baby number two. We are assuming the adoption process will not be as smooth as Thomas's was, and are anticipating and hoping for a long wait. We would freak out if they called us in a month and said they had a baby! We specified we want a baby girl and are very excited. It is still unfortunate that we have to pay an arm and a leg to adopt a baby. This is the one thing that is really setting us back. We would love love love to have another baby, but the cost is really setting us back. Thomas is worth every penny, and I know the next baby will be too. We just have to have faith that we will have the funds and that the baby will be just as perfect for us as Thomas is.

I will ATTEMPT to be a good blogger.

I am a bad blogger

Wow, I have not done this in a while, and a lot has happened!!!

On October 22, Thomas officially became a Dean! It was a really fun day. Gabe's Parents and my Dad and Tracy came as well as my brother and Gabe's aunt Betty! The judge was very sweet and this was his very first adoption. He came down from his podium and shook Gabe, Thomas and my hands! On Nov. 7th, Gabe's parents threw Thomas an adoption party! I think pretty much most of nampa attended. :) Both of our families, Gabe's motorcycle buddies and a lot of friends came to celebrate with us. It was a great party.

I went to a coupon class with Gabe's cousin Anneke, and have not been the same since! I now receive 5 sunday papers, and have trouble buying anything that is not on sale or that I do not have a coupon for. Our pantry is very stocked as well as our freezer! I don't think I have saved money yet, because I have been "stock piling" but I think we will start saving soon. Pretty much all I have to buy now is produce, and occassionaly meat (when it is on sale) Anneke and I have had tons of fun shopping and clipping coupons! Gabe is sort of getting into it, he is enjoying the more variety of food, and will enjoy it even more if he gets a bigger allowance. :)

Gabe and I are starting to look into getting on the list to adopt another baby! We want Thomas to have a close sibling, so we have started looking at A new beginning adoption agencey in Boise. We want to start early in case it takes a year or two. I still can't believe how blessed we are with Thomas. He is getting more and more personality every day. He has almost tackled crawling. He likes most to scoot towards the remote, my cell phone, or the lap top. To keep him away from my comptuer I got him an old keyboard from work that he loves to bang on! Thomas also loves to coupon with me. On Sunday mornings I give him all the papers I don't want and he has a ball rolling in them, throwing them, and eating them. When we go to the store, he sits in the shopping cart, smiles, and then hits my coupon binder the whole time we are shopping. He loves it! God is good and we cannot wait to see what else he is going to do in our lives!

More like my mom everyday

The older I get, the more I become like my mom. I never appreciated my mom's love of thrift stores and garage sales until recently. I am addicted to them now. I use to hate going with her when I was little, I wish I didn't! Another thing I have inherited is her moles....

My mom use to say when God created her, he meant to say make her very holy, but he messed up and said very moley! I have had a total of 6 moles removed because of all the cancer in our family.... I recently just got one removed that they just called and said it was pre-cancerous, so I have to go get more of the same area removed. I am at least glad to have some attributes of my mom no matter what they are.

Our happenings

Thomas is more active than ever! He is rolling all around the room, getting up on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth! He is five months old tomorrow, and I think he might be crawling soon! We gave him rice cereal for the first time a few days ago. After a few disgusted faces, he decided it was food, so he would eat it. We are going to try out some bananas tomorrow! Even though we are still a ways out from another baby, I am already starting to stress out about how and where we are going to get Thomas a sibling. We really want one close to Thomas's age, so we will probably start looking or something by his first birthday. I know I shouldn't be stressing, and that whatever baby God decides to give us will be perfect! I am still amazed at how he blessed us with our little Thomas. He is so perfect, and could not fit into our family any better.

This coming Saturday Gabe is going to Men at the Cross and I am going on a required field trip. I am a little annoyed that we have a field trip all day on a Saturday that is 5% of my geology grade. I am sure it will be interesting, but since Gabe is busy we have to find a baby sitter. Luckily Gabe's mom is great with watching him, and offered to watch him on Saturday! Also, tomorrow night, our cousin Anneke has started a small group from church for young married couples. We are hosting at our house, and I am looking forward to meeting other young married couples from the church.