Now A Family of *gulp* Six.

Today we went to our local FIA office in a run-down & almost seedy (but not yet "scary") section of west Detroit. We were there to submit our "Request for Registry Clearance" from the Department of Human Services. After Russia, we knew it was not going to be as bad - but it was easier than pie. We filled out a form with our name, address, and SS# - I had to add "other names known by" - made copies of our driver's licenses... and that's it. We'll have our background check done and the "certificate of clearance" ready after 2pm tomorrow. Honestly, this is ALL we have to do if we are willing to take in a 16 or 17 year old. Under 16 requires foster care licensing, which we are doing anyway. Huh.

Well. After quite a few weeks... nay, months of talking, and backing off, and talking, and definitely doing it!, and talking again... we announced officially this week we're going to take a teenager into our home. Be his guardians. Anyway, Doug talked to his parents last night, I talked to mine tonight, and then I just sent a letter out to concerned citizens (aka family & friends). Don't have much else to say at this point since the letter said it all, but we are going tomorrow afternoon to our local FIA (Family Independence Agency) office for our "security clearance" which is really a background check. You'd think if the Russians let us into their country, it'd be good enough, but NOOO.... American bureaucracies. Harumph. Did I mention we are taking our house off the market? We told our realtor officially today. First we needed a bigger house for the three of us, now we are staying in the smaller house and adding a body. Smart, huh? But the way housing p...

Roman, Roman, Roman. The boy is really adorable. He is almost 4, as he has taken to telling people recently. In fact, he even told the duck adhesives on our tub tonight, "my birthday is in a few weeks!" Yes, you read that right. The duck adhesives . The kind that stop you from slipping in the shower. Everything talks now, didn't you know that? Blanky, his stuffed animals, his shoes, the door... anything. And Roman talks to them. And talks. And talks. Sometimes he disciplines them, which is funny. Sometimes he attempts to discipline us, which is funny too. The constant line I hear now is "I'm going to tell on you!" That means he apparently thinks that Daddy will come to his rescue, which is rather backwards - it's more likely me to come to his rescue. Sometimes when Roman gets really mad at one of us, he'll say "you can't come to my birthday!" Once he told Daddy, "you can only come for cake on my birthday, but not cake and ice crea...

Oh man, what a weekend. We had an Open House on Saturday from 12-3, and today from 1-4. As much as I like going shopping, there's only so much you can do with a husband and child in tow! Results of the Open Houses: 1 person on Saturday who is divorcing and wants to move to this neighborhood (a kid goes to the school near us). Today's was better with 4 groups coming through; 1 said he loved it "except it doesn't have a garage".... 1 lady who is trying to sell her condo and is looking to buy a house instead; and a couple who are renting in our neighborhood and want to buy. The fourth was apparently just looking. We don't think any of these will pan out, although we were pleased with the turnout. Even the lady who ran it said she was surprised. I think we'll give it a week and if we don't get any "returnees" we're going to probably take it off the market. A part of me keeps thinking that summer (and catching the school crowd) is the time to...

After a lot of ups and downs, but obviously mostly downs, Doug and I have decided to take our house off the market. We only have a verbal agreement to extend our contract, so we can cut it off with no hard feelings. What finally precipitated this event was me losing both my driver's license and a black sweater within 24 hours. I have no doubt both are tucked away somewhere in the house... put away on many of my "put it in a safe place temporarily" kind of cleanups. Why those two places aren't my wallet & closet, is another blog. Anyway, we're both feeling all right about the decision. We're tired of living in limbo, with items packed away that we miss, or putting things off "until we move." Of course, since we made that decision on Saturday night, a realtor called to show our house today. And our realtor is trying to get an Open House going for next weekend... but then we're really done. We made a list of things that HAVE to be done, and rea...

I get so frustrated with this city. There is no way to learn anything that's going on. I check the city website and it's a bunch of links, none of which help me. I search for the topic I want, and it doesn't give me anything accurate. Here's the current example: Roman's friends at preschool are starting to talk about playing soccer, so Roman has been asking if he can play soccer with them. I explained that we couldn't play in that city (nonresidents pay a LOT) but I would check into our own city. I Googled. I checked the city's website. I checked the Rec Center's magazine. I checked their website. I finally found 2 leagues listed - one sponsored by a group, the other by the YMCA. I checked the YMCA - he's too young by a year (and besides, registration was in January for April-June season). I checked the other group, and its website was so confusing, I couldn't figure out what was going on. So no luck there, I guess. So then Roman tells me tonigh...

A sad rite of passage for my boy. Roman wanted to bring a pillow to preschool to help with his naps on the cot. "It will make me sleep better" he said. Well, we grabbed a pillow not even thinking - it was the one with the Dora pillowcase. You can imagine what's coming. When I picked Roman up, he said we're taking the pillow home - I don't want "girl Keegan" to see it. I asked why not, dreading the answer - "Because she laughed at me." Oh, it just broke my heart. Doug felt bad too - we should have thought about it. My poor, sweet boy.

Well, we put the house up for sale 6 months ago. And we sold the popup camper this evening. Since we replaced the camper last Fall with the hybrid, it's just been sitting in our yard, as we figured Spring was the best time to try to sell it. We put it on our local craigslist.com, a free "classifieds" website. Within 6 hours Doug had received 5 emails and 4 phone calls. We had a solid agreement within 10 hours. They picked it up and paid cash this evening. Wow. If only selling a house could be that easy.... hmmm... on that front, we're meeting with our realtor tomorrow late afternoon to see 3 more houses in the neighborhoods we've targeted, then tell him that we're going to take a couple weeks to "regroup." We may search out another agent, we may let things sit. We'll see.

Follow the link, and you will find pictures from our first 3 days of break, visiting the Chattanooga aquarium, S&S in Atlanta, and our visit to Stone Mountain! Go to photos.yahoo.com/acstang/albums OR you can just click on it!