I Feel Great, NOT!

I have an ear infection, I got into some Poison Ivy, I pulled my neck a bit yesterday and it's THAT time, EERRR!!! Oh yeah my left eye was bothering me for a while so I went to the Dr. He then had me go see an Ophthalmologist who informed me that I have 20/20 vision. But I am now suffering from seasonal allergies that are messing with my eye's. I am now taking an eye drop and an antibiotic for my ear infection. See why I feel great :) I have never had seasonal allergies before so this is something new for me. The Dr said he had already seen about 7 people that week who's eyes were bothering them and it turned out that it was allergies that they never experienced before.

On a lighter note Logan is loving being in the pool and I am so glad that we have fenced just the pool in separately. He is now totally fearless and is jumping in all the time. Just a few short weeks ago he couldn't even stay upright in his jacket by himself, now he is swimming from one end of the pool to the other with no help and just feeling very comfortable in the water. He would go in ALL day EVERY day if we would let him. He has a life-jacket on at all times also, pretty soon we are going to start taking him with-out the life jacket so we can teach him to swim without it.

The pool area was our MAJOR summer project. First we (Jeff) had to cut a piece of cement out around the pool, it had cracked and lifted so it was a real hazard. Our whole yard is fenced in but we needed to do just the pool area so L can eventually go out back without me. After the cement was done we had someone come and put the Aluminum fence in and then we did the deck. It turned out great and Jeff is constantly checking out how straight his work it :0) He really did do a great job and I think it turned out FANTASTIC!!!!! We have such a huge backyard that doing this did not take anything away from it's beauty :)

SCARY!

A few weeks ago I read a research study of 13,000 people. The study showed that while pregnant using your cell phone even only a few times a week was just as harmful to the unborn fetus as drinking and smoking. The study showed that the children born had a higher rate of learning disabilities, ADHD and a list of other learning problems or hyper activity. I will search for the article and post a link to it if I can find it. It was very interesting but I am sure pretty scary if your prego.

Any ways, this video was sent to me from one of my prego friends that I sent the article. For years they have been saying that cell phones cause brain tumors/cancer and then the next study shows they are safe.

What do you think of this video? I find it VERY alarming!

The Video Speaks for Itself

Watch Local 4 news tonight at 11:00

We did a story with Karen Drew a local reporter here in SE MI about our failed adoption. She tells our story and the story of Orson and a few other victims in MI. The interview was done last Weds and was supposed to air sometime in the middle/end of July and they thought it was to good to let go that long. So watch Local 4 tonight at 11:00 and Weds morning at 6:15 am for a follow up. If your not in the viewing area you can see the story here www.clickondetroit.com

I will get it posted on you-tube and here on my blog as soon as I can. Let's get this slime ball off the streets so he can't scam anyone else.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE!!!!!!!

Flying My First Kite : )

America's Most Wanted Wants to Know

Where is Orson Mozes?

America's Most Wanted has picked up on the case of Orson and he is now listed as one of their most wanted. Check out the full story here and pray that we get a story featured on T.V. to bring this man to justice.

www.amw.com/fugitives/case.cfm?id=56499

Enjoying the Weather :)

We LOVE summer around here, the Winter's seems so dang long anymore. Logan has been running around with all of the neighbor kids for the past week. They are all a few years older than him so I only let him hang with them for a few so they don't get frustrated with him tagging along :) We went for a walk with some neighbors the other day and the 2 other kids are 6 they were all on their bike's it was the cutest thing to watch my 3 yr old trying to keep up with them, his legs were going so fast he was having a hard time keeping his feet on the pedals, LOL!

The little boy next door is only 4 so they play really well together. Jake got a new blow up/bounce water slide with a pool at the bottom and the 2 of them have been having a ball on it. Jake was WAY bigger than Logan when he came home but now there is not much of a difference in size maybe 2 inches and that's pushing it. It was like 8 inches just a year and a half ago.

This past weekend we had a sub-garage sale, usually we have about 17 houses out of 57 this year we only had about 7. Oh well we still did good all together we made about $370 bucks. Our best day was Thursday, Friday was good but today (sat) really stunk. I made a whopping 20 bucks for 3 hours of my time. I left for an hour and went to the store came back opened back up for about 1/2 hour and shut down, it was sooooo boring and I had enough.

We have been working our asses off around here and I just wanted to breath for a while today. I'm getting my blogging in while L is in the tub. It's always fun to keep the lap-top from getting splashed on :) Jeff is outside still working on getting the rest of the pool fenced in. I CANNOT wait until that project is done :) Then Jeff can fix the 2 sprinkler lines that got damaged while putting in the fence and maybe we will paint the swing set if we get a wild hair up our butts. I really don't want to paint another thing this year. I did the garden and all of the post, spindles and hand rails for the deck around the pool.

Logan is becoming this giant dare devil, he is scaring me to death. He is riding his bike trying to see how hard he can turn and wiggle on it before it tips over. He is trying his hardest to get the training wheels off the ground in back, it is so funny but very nerve racking. I have a feeling he is going to jumping things at a young age. We were out for a walk the other day and I was walking he was on his big wheel and he comes up behind me and says "dude get out of the way" It was so funny and it took everything I had not to bust out laughing. I then had to explain to him that I am his mommy and we don't talk to me that way. I told him that he needed to say excuse me mommy like he always does then I told him that when he is playing with his friends he can call them all dudes.

He started out very nervous

But, it didn't take long for him to go face first :)


Being silly as I am trying to take a picture of them.

Huckleberry Railroad

Jeff was on vacation this past week and we pretty much worked around the house all week. We did make time for some fun also. We took a day trip and spent the day riding trains and showing Logan what it was like to live back in the days before all of the hustle and bustle of the world today. We got there and found out there were 1500 kids from school field trips there. SO we opted to walk the village and take a little later train. We ended up with just one other person riding in our section. We all really enjoyed the day there.

We spent about 4 hours there and then headed over to my Dad's for dinner. My Dad has moved almost 2 hours away so we weren't that far away from him up there so we decided since we were so close to head that way. Logan loves walking in the woods, he could do it all day if he could. While we were out walking we seen a dog and it freaked me out, my heart was racing all I was thinking about was getting Logan up off the ground. It turned out to be a really friendly (most likely lost) 6/7 month old. She tried to get my Dad to pet her but he wouldn't. Then another dog came out of the woods and she seen it and they took off together. The other dog didn't even come close to us or even try to approach us but OMG my heart was ready to come out of my chest. I think the guy's were laughing at me :) But, all and all we had a great day!


When were done I will post some pictures of our latest project that we have been working on for a week now. We have an in-ground pool and while our yard is of course fenced in, the pool is TOTALLY exposed. We decided it was best to fence just the pool in so that way Logan when he is old enough can go and play in the yard by himself. I can't do anything in the yard when he is out there with me besides worry about where he is. L is very good around the pool but we are taking no chances. So there you go Mr Government thank you for our stimulus check we put it right back into the community just as you wanted us to do with it.

We had someone do the Aluminum Fende but we are doing the deck. It needs to have some handrails, post and spindles done and just the painting is taking for ever. We are almost done. and we can start doing the cutting and attaching. I just want it to be done. Oh ya, and of course they hit 2 sprinkler lines so we have more work to get done. We have had some major storms the past few days so at least our landscape and garden is getting some water. If your heading to Lowes Home Improvement and your a Visa card holder go here http://www.lifetakesvisa.com/?id=lawn_editorial2& and get your $10 off $25 or more coupon. I was so glad I found this link!


My niece turned 16 yesterday so HAPPY SWEET SIXTEEN AMBER! Logan just loves her, she is about the only one beside Jeff or I that he freely hugs and kisses on.

Tons of Trucks!

That is what they call it and it is true. I wasn't sure how Logan would do just because of the loud noises but he did great and LOVED it. It took a few minutes for him to warm up, at first he said he wasn't going to do anything he just wanted to look but once I got him on the school bus he wanted to try it all. I never even new about this truck thing and it has been going on for 10+plus years. We will go again next year for sure. I cannot believe how they just opened everything up and let the kids do what they wanted in the vehicles. It was really cool!

We met up with mine and L's friend's Debra and Alec but they didn't last very long, the horns were a bit much for A LOT of the little kids. Most of the kids there were between 1 and 5 so a lot of the little ones were crying because of the VERY LOUD horns. Alec got a little hurt and scared and that was it, it's very hard to calm your little one down in such a loud environment. Logan and I stuck around after they took of and we had a blast, we were just heading up front to get going when it started to rain, just as we were getting to our truck the rain started to come down and hard, we got lucky we only got sprinkled on :)

Having Fun in the Rain!

Logan Update!

Logan is such a funny kid, he has such a great sense of humor. He says the funniest things to me and I really need to start keeping track of them on here. We had to cut some cement out around the pool and Jeff took some and made a stepping stone for Logan's hand and when I wrote his name in it he said "can't you put little stinker" he-he he is so funny. I guess we need to stop calling him that. Hard to do, we have been calling him that since Moscow. He is doing so good with his ABC's, he knows all but 3 letter's and can usually count to about 12 by himself and of course all of his colors. We work on these things a couple times a week so not all the time but enough I think. He knows his full name and Vladimir is not an easy one :) He can say hi in Mandarin, Spanish and Russian (that's all I know) we are working on good-bye and thank you in Russian also. He knows our names and the street we live on. He knows all of his shapes so we are starting to work on the harder ones now. My mom walked in last week and she got new glasses, Logan noticed right away and even said nanny there rectangles.

He is still growing like a weed, I think the last couple of weeks he has sprouted up a bit but I haven't checked his height since we went for his 3 yr well visit. His pronunciation and vocabulary amazes me. He has just really started to like movies I think his favorite is Toy Story either one it doesn't make a difference. He is incredible on the computer. I have been thinking about getting him in preschool in the fall but I am so up in the air about it. I have until Monday morning at 9:00 am to make up my mind or his spot is gone, eerrrr, what to do. I think socially he will benefit and taking direction from another adult besides close family is a positive but I am just not sure. I don't want him to get into kindergarten and be bored, plus we do a lot of Mommy and Me things together and I don't want to give that stuff up, what to do, what to do?

We had a play date a couple of weeks ago and the little boy was pretty mean to Logan and scared him pretty bad and my little guy has been a meanie since. I am just not sure what that is all about maybe he is mad at me because he doesn't feel like I protected him I am not sure but man he is being a little stinker to me. He has really started to bond with Jeff lately so I am not sure if that has anything to do with it. He always wants me to help him no one else and he actually told me the other day that he wanted Jeff to help him, I almost fell over. Why it broke my heart, I also JUMPED for joy :)

Memorial Day Mud Pie's!

Would anyone like some? Logan spent the morning playing with the hose in his sand box, he told me he was making lots and lots of Mud Pies :)

Thank you to all the soldiers who have fought for our freedom, past and present, you are PRICELESS.

Pictures from Picnic

 

 

 

Adoption Ark Picnic

This past weekend we drove to Chicago for a picnic that our adoption agency put on for all the families that have completed an adoption with them. I LOVE Adoption Ark. I am so glad that we decided to go, it was Jeff's idea. I didn't think he would want to go but when I told about it he said he said "let's go". I am always up for a good surprise : )

We got to meet Elina, she was our coordinator at first until she went to Russia to keep up their good standing with the Russian Officials. They make that trip once a year, AA really is great, if you are thinking of adopting check them out. Elina got to meet Logan when he was in the baby-house, she held him and played with him, she sent us our referral of Logan from Russia. I got a little teary eyed when I gave her a hug, of course L thought she was pretty and flirted a bit like he always does with pretty women.

Logan HATED the clown, he said it scared him. I felt bad for him he just wanted to stay outside away from the clown. They had the picnic at a horse farm that also has a petting zoo and a building for parties. They had food, drinks, music, a moonwalk and a hay ride. Every kid got a bucket filled with goodies. We really had a great time and will definitely be going again next year. We hope Kim, Lance and Jackson can make it nest year (hint, hint Kim :) )

I made sure the hotel we stayed at had an indoor pool, Logan and Jeff swam every day including before we left Sunday, check out was not until 12:00. We stayed at Spring Hill Suites by Marriott. That was the longest L has been in a car at one time, he did great. On the way there we stopped at a park for lunch and had a picnic and let him play a while. He never took his nap he stayed awake the whole ride, he was so excited. He did fall a sleep on the way home for about and hour and half so it may the ride a lot faster, we only stopped 3 time's briefly and were on our way :)

Pictures soon, I wanted to update but no time to upload my pics.

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope all of you Mom's and Mom's-to-be have a wonderful day!

Please Stop the Whining

Man he sure is cute but his whining lately is driving me bonkers :-[



Everyone I know with kids that are 5-6 say that 3 was the most difficult age. I totally understand what they are talking about now. I think he is feeling like he still wants to be a baby but he also wants to be a big boy. I'm not sure but his whine is making me nutty. I have done it all, "Logan stop whining and talk to mommy I can't understand you" If you don't stop whining your going to time out" " I know you don't feel good when you whine/cry like that and neither do I" "Logan, tell mommy what you're upset about" I have even did a few holding times but nothing is working. EEEEERRRRRRRRR!!!!He is also testing me, this I know is him just growing up, my gosh my baby is 3!

You should see my kiddo on his bike, it is so funny that he wouldn't pedal last year and now he is tying to ride no handed, he stands up and pedals and he also bounces on it as if he is trying to do a wheelie. Wouldn't that be something a wheelie with training wheels, LOL! Jeff and I have talked about taking his training wheels off and seeing how he does. Is he to young? I have read on some blogs that their kiddo's did around 3-3 1/2. I always thought around 5 and that's what seems to be the "norm" in my neighborhood. OK all you lurkers out there leave me a comment on this one, I want your feedback.

Logan had his 3 year well visit and he definitely did all the catching up that was needed. 97% for weight and she said 78 for height but he was sunk down and twisted trying to see what the heck was on his head so I do not think she got his correct height. I measured him twice at home and he was about 1/2 inch taller here 39 3/4. He answered all Dr. Burton's questions, first and last name, age, boy/girl, etc. and she could understand him clearly. One thing that is so unbelievable to me is how well he pronounces his words. He has problems with S's (very common) but other than that for only talking not even a year yet he talks really well. It was the end of July last year that his speech just exploded.

He is a lot of fun right now also, just watching him explore and study things is so much fun. He is not a sports kid, I think he is more of a cub scout kinda kid. He need to know how everything works, take it apart put it back together, It is something watching him turn into this amazing little person.

Here is something funny. Jeff, I think I forgot to tell you this. The other day we had to call my mom so I let Logan dial the number. He puts the phone up to his ear and I hear him say something which I think is Sheryl B----- please so I asked him what he said and he says "Sheryl B------, please" I laughed so hard and then he says to me what that's her name. I just laughed and said your right. I call my mom at work most of the time because that seems to be where she is always at. How great is that that he picked up on that just from listening, I am still chuckling about that one.

In Total Shock

I got a call the other day to tell me that Laura Cleves was killed by a drunk driver the other night. Laura Cleves was the chief investigator on our criminal case against Orson Mozes/AIP in Santa Barbara, CA. Just from our emails and phone conversations over the past 2 1/2 years I could tell she was an amazing person. Laura was the only one with any authority that listen to me and had compassion about what happened to us. I am afraid if it weren't for her hard work and dedication that Orson would still be in business.

I am in total shock. It looks as if the police responded to a call of a suspicious drunk driver stopped on the road. When they walked to the car the driver took off crossed the double yellow lines into on coming traffic striking Laura's car head on. This girl was only 22, now instead of facing a DUI this girl will spend many years in jail for killing someone. She took someone else's life because of a stupid decision and now she will pay with hers. I am just floored and cannot for the life of me understand how someone could be soooooo stupid. Laura will be missed dearly by all our families in this case, she touched many of our lives with her dedication to helping victims. My heart goes out to her family and friends and may you rest in peace Laura.

Having Fun w/Mr. Cranky Pant's

Some of Logan's art, He writes his name remarkably well for just turning 3. He always forgets the A so I have to remind him but man he's got some skill. I'm proud :)



Logan took this pic. He loves to take pictures and this one turned out pretty good.

Logan and I have been on the go-go. It has been so nice out the past 2 weeks we have been at the park, riding bikes or just going for walks. We love to be out-side and can't get enough of it. Our temps have dropped out of the 70's back into the 50's the past couple of days so we aren't staying out that long but still getting some fresh air. I have noticed with all of the extra things/stimulation we have been doing Logan is being a little stinker :) He was really testing me over the weekend but yesterday and today he seems good. We have been to the Zoo twice already, I think we will be spending a lot of time there. Sunday morning is a great time to go everyone is at church or sleeping in we got there at 10:00 and left about 12:45. There was hardly anyone there at first but by the time we were leaving it was getting pretty packed.

This week is another busy week, today we went to our cousin Jennifer's house to see her new baby. She has Maddie who is just over 2 and Abby who is 3 months. It was a nice visit and Logan played good for the first hour then he wanted to play by himself and Maddie just followed him EVERYWHERE. It was so cute but Logan did not like being followed at all. I told him it was because she liked him and he was the BIG kid, just like he follows the big kids around at the park. He didn't care and wanted her to leave him alone, LOL! We have play-group tomorrow and then on Thursday we have his 3 year check-up. I know we are a month behind. I had to re-schedule it 3 times now for various reasons. I am really looking forward to it. My friend told me it is pretty cool. I wonder how she will judge Logan? I believe he is right where he should be, he caught up really fast.

Another thing that started again the next morning after I posted it a while back is that Logan started sucking his thumb again. I swear I jinx us every time I talk about a mile stone or a step forward on this blog, what the heck. L didn't put his thumb in his mouth for about a month and now it's attached to his face when he has his blanket, UGH! I'm sticking with not saying anything to him about it so we will see how it goes.

What Goes Around Comes Around :)

In short the ass that scammed us on our first attempt to adopt finally has it coming. There is a warrant out for his arrest for 62 counts of felony fraud and that is what he will be charged with if/when he is apprehended. The numbers where staggering, out of the 62 families named in this case 43 of us DID NOT adopt a child with Orson Mozes/Adoption International Program. Only 19 did and out of that 19 only 4 adopted their referral, some families even lost 2-3 referrals or adopted an older child when they had their hearts set on a baby.

Please watch this video it is a news clip done with one of the other families named in the case. Orson's face is in here. He is a wanted man in California so if you see him please contact the Santa Barbara District attorney or the police. Orson has been on the run since last summer so he could be anywhere. The screen is black but it will start once you hit the play button.



Here is a short version of what happened to us. I summed it up because believe me it is very long and sad. I never really got into it here because this blog was set up after the heartache we endured with AIP and started the process to adopt Logan.

I sent this to a reporter in California today, she wrote a story on this and she has been looking to talk to more families.

Hi Kathleen, My name is Dawn J.

I Know that you have done a piece on this whole mess with AIP/Orson mess. I am an ex-client of his from back in 2004/2005. We also have a heartbreaking story as with many others and are one of the 62 plaintiffs in the case. We were strung along, lied to, belittled and delayed for months with Orson. He eventually let us travel to Kazakhstan only to tell us the day after we landed that our son (referral)was no longer available. Orson had assured us the day before we left the US that our son was waiting for us. We were trying to prepare ourselves for this because we were hearing all over the internet that NO ONE was adopting their referrals with AIP and having difficult times in Kazakhstan once there.

Well they did not even know what to do with us once we finally did get there. They kept us in one region for 3 days then made us pay hundreds of dollars more to fly to another region of Kazakhstan only to find out that there were no children for us to adopt there either or so the Orphanage director said. We set out on adopting two children under the age of 2 and came home with out our babies to an empty nursery.

I set out on a crusade myself back in June of 2005 to get this man shut down. I contacted all people in authority in the US Government and the Kaz Gov. I reached out online in different chat group's, I spoke to many people, I was trying to get the word out. I emailed the media and then finally I was contacted back by Ms.Laura Cleves, we talked for about an hour and she decided to open the case against Orson. Unfortunately not enough people came forward back then but she kept this case open, thank God.

When I found Dawn D's. blog and I was reading her horrible story and I realized that she was with AIP/Orson. I reached out to her and gave her all of my contact info I had. I forwarded a link to her blog to Ms. Cleves, and told her that Orson was up to it again and she started taking another look at things. Dawn D. contacted Laura and then did something very smart, she started a yahoo group to stop Orson Mozes. Well the word got out and now after all of these years my family is going to get justice :) I am so proud of all the families that have finally come together as a group and made things happen. We are no longer victims and there will be no more victims because of Orson.

"Mommy Come Here I Have A Secret"

And then he whispered "I love you your the best Mommy"

That is what Logan said to me today :) :) :) :) :)