Ho Ho Ho!!

I finally found the Christmas spirit!! It may have been because.....

1. The Weather. We finally have a bit of nip in the air. All week I've been delivering packages while wearing shorts and a t-shirt. The chill today made it seem so much more Christmassy

2. Gifts on my route. I love getting presents on my route. All year it's complaints, but at Christmas the people who actually like me show up...with presents!! (And if any postal folks are reading, I did not accept a cash gift....wink wink)

3. Annoying co-worker is going away. It's a Christmas miracle!! My cubicle neighbor who would complain if he won the lottery is taking another route in the other zip code. Oh yeah!!

4. Finished Shopping. We went to Bath and Body works tonight which is where you go when you have totally run out of ideas. We got lovely candles and hand soap for a few co-workers who have put up with me talking about the adoption all year.

5. Staying Home for the Holidays. We have finally commited to not leaving town this weekend. We were talking about meeting Jeff's parents in South Georgia again this year, but since that would mean 7 hours in the car (yuck) We are staying home. Jeff is on call, so he really shouldn't leave town anyway. This means I get 2 days to lounge around by the fire in my jammies.

6. An Amazing Sugar High. The Christmas goodies are a-rollin' in. A co-worker made his yearly batch of New Orleans Pralines and gave me a mondo-bag. And today one of my customers gave me this mini-cake thing with whipped cream and these little chocolate shavings on top. Just so you know, I have always had awesome mail carrying skills, but today I added eating cake with a fork off a doilie while delivering, to my repetoire.


Whatever the reason, I've got the spirit. So if I don't post between now and then ... Merry Christmas!!!

One Year

A year ago today our dossier was logged in with the China Center of Adoption Affairs. Our official wait began. I flipped thru the blog's archives to find the post about my LID. It's like a trip down memory lane..

So Excited...
So Hopeful...
So Silly!!

At the time I thought I'd never make it the 6 months to referral. 6 MONTHS, OMG!!! That's pretty funny now. Here we are a year later and we're once again thinking it will 6 months to referral.

Baby Dreams

I know lots of waiting mommies start having crazy dreams. I've heard of several who dreamed their referral ended up not being a Chinese child, but rather an African man/Russian boy/old man,etc.

Mine wasn't crazy or anything. I don't even remember the dream. I just woke up knowing Zoe would come from Guizhou province. At the time, I wasn't even sure Guizhou was a province, but I looked it up and it is. In my head I was saying (gwee-zhoo)

Now...the likelihood of Zoe coming from here is pretty small. Not many referrals come from here. And I'm not into the red thread/ladybug stuff, so I don't really think my dream means anything. If I had to put money on a province it would be Hunan, or Jiangxi, or Guangdong...one of the biggies.

But if Zoe does happen to come from this province and is born on the 7th or 8th December (night of the dream) I wanted to go ahead and document it.

This makes me laugh...

I can't help it! I especially love the Donny Osmond-looking guy who dances behind Weird Al. It's just funny.

Oh yeah...Happy Anniversary

Well, I can't fault Jeff for forgetting our anniversary.

I did, too.

Silly us.

We're back at it!!

Home Improvement. It just won't end! We spent the day working on our hallway. I tried to take before and after pictures, but they're not really impressive. I mean....it's a hallway. But it's a huge difference to us.

A previous owner decided not to take down the wall paper (cream with small brown diamonds. Blugh.), and instead did some type of plaster/stucco textured thing over it. On top of that, they painted a sponged techniqued, two-toned color scheme in a glossy type paint. We've ignored it since moving in because we don't know how to get the plaster stuff off.

Today we painted the walls in "contemporary white", which is really a taupe/beige. A nice eggshell. The trim is now a fresh bright white.

Oh it's so lovely.

Soon we'll do the flooring and it will be the nicest hallway ever!!

Diaper Bag Madness!!

I love my family. I mention a need for a diaper bag and they get to work. My Mom who is always online found the very cute ju-ju-be diaper bags. Cute prints and antibacterial linings.

My Jeff, who will research anything until he has found THE BEST (I've seen some searches go on for hours) came up with the sherpani. A top rated bag.

I'm snookered in by the floral inner lining. (I'm so easy)

But I still like the backpack idea.

This really shouldn't be so hard. It's just a bag. It holds stuff. That's it. I know I'm only focusing on the tiny stuff because it's all I have right now.

When she does come, Zoe will be one styling baby.

In a Hurry...

Okay...I only have an hour to get my blogging done. It's Thursday night and there's TV watchin' to do! An hour may sound like lots of time, but it's been awhile since I've been here and I'm incredibly slow, especailly when there's pictures involved.

First of all...the accomplishments! Jeff installed our new gas logs. It's an early Christams present from my parents and we got the Mac-Daddy logs!! Remote control! You can set it to manual or automatic where they cut on or off based on your desired temp. We don't even have to light the pilot light. The remote does that, too. You know it makes this fire-phobic person happy knowing I can shut off the pilot light when not in use.

Next up, take a look at the new flooring in the foyer. We finally did a little more work.











And here's a refresher of what the foyer used to look like.






Also, I need to ask a question about diaper bags. I know I've got a lot of time left on this one, but I seem to be obsessed with it right now anyway. And since I'm finally thinking baby stuff again, I figured I'd ride the wave.

My main question is... what kind do I need? Zoe will be in some type of daycare (I'll get advice on that later), so I imagine a bag for that is necessary. Then do you get a different one for running around town or do you just keep one really organized one for all your outings. Knowing me, I'll probably end up with diaper supplies stuffed in all the cubby-holes of my my car, but I'd at least like to start nice and organized.

It has to be one Jeff is willing to carry. I like the backpack concept, but since I don't see other women with this type of diaper bag, I figure there has to be a down-side I haven't thought of yet. I like the Baby Sherpa and the One Step Ahead back packs. But are those the best choice for a day care? They're not travelling anywhere so the pack concept isn't necessary, and if it's just for me running errands, I certainly don't need one that big.

My other recent fav' is the Land's End Do-It-All Diaper Bag If you follow the link, click on "larger view" to see all the pictures. I love how it has a frog-mouth style. Easy to get into. This seems like the day-care winner, but I don't really like the luggage look for toting around town.

Thank goodness we have 6-9 more months to get this straightened out! And when I sort this one out, we'll start talking car seats!!

Better go get my spot on the sofa warmed up now....

Referrals!!

You know I love referral time! And today was especially great because it involved the referral for someone I know.

Today Lisa and Eammon received the referral for their beautiful daughter.

Chinese name: Wan Chun Miao
Soon to be: Maisie Miao

Isn't she the sweetest?

There's something about this batch of referrals that has me feeling really optimistic. Oh, I still expect to wait a long time. I still expect a referral in the summer. Another 8 months or so. (In addition to the 10 I already waitied) But it doesn't bother me. I have this overwhelming feeling of optimism. Things will be fine.

October Secret Pal

Look at my secret pal presents for October!! The secret pal theme this month was children's books, and I got these two precious books and a very sweet card. Is there anything more perfect for our family than a kitty book? (Since we have so many)

Truthfully, I was nervous my secret pal forgot me. We just switched pals and my previous one was lovely. (clearly, my new one is, too) Also, because I work at the post office I checked for a package for me every morning. I'm sure my mail carrier was very tired of me digging thru his parcel buggy every morning, but my secret pal tricked me and used UPS. Sneaky! At least now I won't spend this month like an idiot rummaging around the post office for anything with my name on it!

Half the Distance, Twice the fun!!

The half marathon was a success. Our goals were to finish and not be last. So....success!!!

I think we placed about 980 out of 1000. We'll know for sure when they post the results. We had a good time, although I can't explain why I like doing this type of thing. Calf cramp, blister, sore muscles....mmmm...fun. I can't explain.

Here we are before hand. See the anticipation? Nerves? The fact that we're not quite awake yet?

And here's happy Pam afterwards. See how happy? See the relief? See the empty parking lot? We had to take our own pictures because all the other runners had left. HA.

We're looking for the next race now. I would like to do one once with better training (or any training, really) and see what I can do.

We're Cooking Again

Rachel Rays Turkey Shepard's Pie ..... Don't bother



Shrimp Newburg, Duchess Potatoes, and Sauteed Spinach .... Pretty good

Cats found the Crib

The Roof

This is a little story about how Jeff and I can blow some money...

A while ago we noticed a roof leak. We called the roof guy to take a look and then learned about our excessive hail damage... nuts. Although we should have known last fall when Every Other House on the street had their roofs replaced. Oh well.

So we call the insurance company who says, "Umm....Mrs. E there hasn't been a hail storm during your coverage with us. I suggest you call your previous insurance company." You gotta be kidding me. There's no way they'll pay. We're no longer giving them money, so I doubt they're gonna wanna pony up for us.

But as is turns out, they have to. And they did. So nice.

They agree to pay X dollars. Okay. We could get the roof done for that, but how much fun would that be? A bargain basement roof on our house? No way.

So when the roofer says, "While I'm up there, you want gutter screens?"
We say, "Great idea!"

Architectural shingles? .... Sure!
Ridge vent? ..... Absolutely!
Fix skylights? .... Oh, Yes!
Sun tubes? ... Two, please!

And there you have it. What could have been free, now costs a fortune.

But it does look oh-so-nice!!

Just this side of Hell

This morning I was suppose to meet my race partner at the park..7am. The plan was was to do 13 miles in preparation for the half marathon next weekend. HOWEVER ..... I woke up to the patter of rain on the skylight. YES!!

We were giddy on the phone at 6:30am.

"It's raining"
"hee, hee. I know!!"

We don't do rain. So we went back to bed and agreed to do the required mileage on our own treadmills later in the day. I had my Ipod, tv, radio, and ceiling fan. There are no hills on a treadmill. I should have been set, but treadmill trotting is BORING!! Tedious!! Painfully monotonous!! And it doesn't matter what kind of entertainment you have. Also, it's harder....don't know why. Maybe it has something to do with the forced regular pace.

In the end I made it 10 miles. A considerable amount of walking was part of the equation, but I'm happy nonetheless. That's the last long run before the race. Wish me luck.

Playing Catch up

Yes, I know. It's been awhile. Here's the hightlights:

The Adoption
The last set of referrals came out while we were on vacation. Although it was for a hope-inspiring number of LID days, rumor 'round the 'net says it wasn't for an impressive number of actual referrals. But since I have no way of knowing the number of actual referrals, I choose to focus on the good news. They made it thru 18 days of referrals!

Also, the next set of referrals should be here any day. Very nice. Especially nice since I personally know someone who will FOR SURE be getting her referral. Yeah!

The newest prediction for our referral based on the recent pace would be a July referral. That is assuming it will take the CCAA 2 months to get thru every month of LID's. Since I'm on a kick where I'm focusing on the positive.... A July referral means September travel. September travel means my "maternity leave" will stretch thru the Christmas season. I'll get to miss a Christmas at the post office. Hoo-rah! See?....there IS an advantage to waiting 9 more months.

Oh, and as of yesterday we have been logged in for 10 months. Over half way there. Right? See how positive I am? I'm so impressed with myslef. Truthfully, it doesn't seem that long. Weird, huh?


Work
I can't tell you what Jeff has been up to at work, since I don't really understand what he does. It doesn't stop him from telling me about it, but I can't repeat it with any accuracy. (Virtual servers, VM ware, etc.)

My work is totally getting cranked up for the Christmas season. Long days and more and more packages. I have one woman on my route who gets 20+ catalogues DAILY. I have no idea how she even reads that many. I hope she recycles.

Home Improvement
We're back on the war path. Jeff is laying flooring as I type. I really need to help. It's not like I really do anything, but I think he likes me standing over him offering help and praise from time to time. When he's done we're going to pull up carpet down the hallway, then some painting. We're contemplating a bathroom remodel, but can't decide how crazy we're gonna get in there. (have the tile painted vs. laying new tile)

Also, we're having a new roof put on. That's a whole post on it's own. Maybe during my next brake.

Oh Crap

Remember a long time ago I said I signed up for a half marathon this fall. Well....it's fall.

When I came back from vacation my friend asked if I had run on vacation. Ummm, no. And now the race is in about 3 weeks.

"Do you still plan on doing it?"
"Ummmm"
"Georgia, if you're going to back out, tell me now."
"Oh no, no, no. I'm still doing it. sure."

Crap.

Now Jeff keeps saying things like, "You should go run. You're in training" And then he laughs. "Is that hamburger part of your training plan?" More laughing.

Not funny. I'm in trouble. 24 days to go.

Vacation is over...

...back to work tomorrow. You do get sooo spoiled on vacation. I'm ready to get back to my routine, but this particular vacation sure has been nice. We rented a house on St. George Island last week. St. George is an island off the Florida pan handle. If you're looking for the anti-Panama City, it's the place to go. 6.5 hour drive from Atlanta. Empty, gorgeous beaches.

We spent the days sitting around the house, the beach, the pool. We rode bikes, walked on the beach, hunted for shells, watched nature, and RELAXED. Here are some pictures to help you get the flavor...

Let's Here it for Number 9!!!

We have now made to the 9th anniversary of our LID. To celebrate, I bring you my Mom's favorite Sesame Street diddy.

Yippy!

I knew something was up when I woke up and checked my e-mail. My December yahoo group was way too active that early in the day. Then I realized what was going on...December made it thru review. (big sigh of relief)

I already knew we had been reviewed because we had been flagged for more info, but now I know they got that info and it was acceptable.

Now our dossier moves from the review room to the matching room to wait (along with August, September, October, and November) for our baby's file to come along. Nice.

Survivor

Survivor started tonight!! Teams are divided by race. White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian. I knew I was rooting for the Asians. And now I know why.

THIS GUY!
His name is Yul.
He's Korean.
And he's HOT as HELL!!!


I'm a little upset that The Office is up against Survivor this year. The DVR will definatelty come into play, but which to watch first?
BTW, if that Pam and Jim thing turns out to be a dream sequence I will be really, really upset.

Methinks I watch TV too much.

The Office

Season starts September 21, and I can't wait!!

Here's the summary of the Jim/Pam romance. Soooo Good!!

Remember the C.O.W. ??

The C.O.W. is back!! OMG.

When I got back to the PO this afternoon, my supervisor tells me I got a complaint call.

Sup: "Do you know a Mrs. C.O.W?"

Me: "Why yes. Yes, I do."

Sup: "She sure does hate you."

Me: "Yes, I know. But you realize she's not even on my route anymore?"


Then as I drive down my street after a 10 hour day, she's in her driveway. Do I stop? Hell yeah, I do!! I put the biggest smile on my face and said (slight southern accent) "Well, hey Mrs. C.O.W. How are you? My supervisor told me you called. Did you know I'm not your mailman anymore?"

She told me she's getting a lawyer to sue the post office because she's not getting her rent checks. Ummmm....did you ever think your tenants might not have mailed them? Dur!!

Adoption Math

There are some givens:
1. The CCAA issues a batch of referrals monthly.
2. The CCAA has matched thru LID 7/22/05
3. The CCAA has averaged 12 LID's per batch over the past year.
4. I have already waited 8 months.

So....let's see...the CCAA has to match 151 LID's before I receive my match. Assuming things continue with the same 12 LID's per month average, I will receive my referral in September 2007. That is 13 months from now bringing my total wait to 21 months.

That also means I'm not even half way thru my wait. hmph.

If I'm feeling optimistic, I can hope the average LID"s per month will double over the next year (Hardy-har-har!!) But that would give me a referral in March 2006. That's 7 months from now making my total wait only 15 months. (Only 15 months! Haa haa, I'm killing myself here!!)

This is how a bored mailman kills time in that truck. Doing math in my head. It took me three subdivisions to figure all that out.

I've always hated math.

CCAA Review

Our dossier has been reviewed! Yeah! I know this because our agency called us today to inform us we had been flagged. We had problems in our dossier. Nothing big. It's already been handled.

This makes me nervous, of course because we didn't sail right thru review. I had fantasies similar to Ralphie's in A Christmas Story when the teacher took one look at his essay and went into a fit of joyous praise. A++++++. I just knew a worker would take one look at my dossier and rush it to the director. "Look at this beaut !! The best dossier EVER. These folks were meant to be parents and they can jump right to the front of the line. Get them the best baby in all China Now!" Oh well.

It also makes me very happy because the problem has been solved and now I know for certain that someone in China has had my dossier in his hands. Has looked it over. Has seen my picture. And very soon I'll be on to the next step......more waiting.

For your entertainment, here are the photos he saw. And presumably the one's he will use to match us with our baby. I look scared. Jeff looks surly. And we both look like we just robbed a bank dressed in black.

Special Delivery???

Most days at the post office are pretty boring. A co-worker has a shirt that says, "Sort. Deliver. Repeat." And that's really what it is. Some days you want to tear your hair out with the intense boredom. The same 500 houses day after day after ever-lovin' day.

Every now and then something shakes up the routine. Like when the single mom who looks like a stripper started her subscription to Penth@use. Or when a customer yelled at me so bad it made me cry. Or my favorite, when a customer writes me a note about how great I am. (Yes, it really happens!)

But today was a real winner. I get called to the accountable room to pick up my accountables. (things that have to be signed for) and I get a box of someone's cremated remains. It said it right on the box. "Handle Carefully. Cremated Remains." I knew the genteman had died because his wife started getting all these cards. You can just tell. He was a nice old guy that always walked the neighborhood and always waved at me. They also donate a lot to animal charities. (Your mailman knows a lot about you, btw)

At first I was creeped out. Do you put it with the rest of your packages or let him ride up front? And is the wife going to start a long conversation about her husbands death? Do I offer my condolances or pretend I don't know what's (who's?) in the box?

In the end, the wife was very nice. The whole thing was painless, if a bit awkward.

It did liven up the day. (oh look, I punned)

8 month LID anniversary

Not much more to say about that. Just happened to look at a calendar and remembered.

How much longer?

4 months? Not likely
6 months? Ummm, possible.
8 months? Could be.
10 months? Most likely.
12 more months? Oh God, please no.

Why 12 sounds so much more than 10, I'm not sure.

Referrals should be out soon and with every referral batch we have a better idea. Let's all hope for a great big batch.

Poor Bonnie

During our internet-free week, we got a lot done. New Garage doors. New windows. I took a few days off, but the biggest event was the care of sick Bonnie. Poor little baby. She had these tumors. The vet said they should be looked at, so we agreed to surgery knowing ahead of time we wouldn't do crazy things to prolong her life (Shes' 11). (Gosh that makes me sad just to write)

So we took her to the vet in the morning and picked her up that afternoon. She seemed fine. Then as the pain stuff wore off, our girl was clearly miserable. She wouldn't sit or lie down. You could tell she was exhausted. She would try to go down and then snap back up again. So off we go to the emergency vet where we wait 2 hours and pay crazy prices to get pain killers. It took a lot of work to put her to sleep. Finally we were able to flip her over and hold her down, petting and loving her until she fell asleep on her back. We make a pillow bed where she slept for hours.


If I had to do it again, I'm not sure I'd have had the tumors out. It was miserable. If they turn out to be cancerous and they got it all... fine. If they need to get more.....ummm, not sure if we'll do it again. If they turn out not to have been cancerous, of course I'll be thrilled, but pissed we put her thru this.

Now she's on a codeine type medicine and just fine. She's stuck in the Elizabethan collar until the stitches come out , but is adjusting fine. Cuddle time with Daddy makes everything better. Jeff doesn't look happy about it, but he likes cuddle time, too.

Ahhhh....

After almost a full week of "internet-less-ness" , we are back online!!!

Some things I learned while we had no internet:

1. The internet is no longer a luxury. It is a necessity.
2. I spent way too much time surfing blogs and other adoption stuff. I'll try to cut back on this, but it will be hard.

PRESENTS!!!

It's Secret Pal time again!! The theme this month was "Travel to China" And my pal did a great job with disposable bibs, a great travel book that's full of extra tidbits, and a map of China. We'd been wanting a map, so this was a super gift.


My other present was from Mom! She got me a subsription to Rachel Ray's magazine. You know what this means? More food posts! Lucky you! Thanks, Mom.

Adoption Reading

I finally got this book. It's recommended reading when thinking about adoption from China, so I'm a little late.

I have a tendency to get emotional when I think about my daughter being abandoned. Most of the time, I have an ability to ignore the fact that that has to happen before she can come to me. But it's going to be an important part of her life and something I need to educate myself about. So here goes....

GA's new toy

First, here's the commercial for my new toy:

Nike + ipod


It's the coolest thing e-ver!


You buy the sport kit which has the sensor you put in your specially made Nike running shoe which is marketing genius. Or like me, you velcro it to your current pair of Adidas. (I hate Nike. They're made for people with narrow feet, unlike my paddles) The sport kit also has the receiver which plugs into your ipod nano. It must be a nano. I had to upgrad my shuffle. Once again, marketing genius.


Then as you run, it gives you updates on time, distance, and pace. You can preset workouts based on goals of time, distance, or calories. You plug in your weight. Calibrate it for your stride, and off you go. There's a power song option for when you need an extra boost. It will play your power song for you. (Mine is currently Numb-Encore by Linkin Park w/ Jay-Z)

When you get home you download the data thru the nano and can see your pace over the course of the run. You can establish long term goals for yourself. When you meet them it gives you "trophies" for your "trophy case". The interface is just awesome!

The other day I did a 4 miler and at the end it said to me, "Congratulations, that was your longest work out so far." Such a motivator. I wanna go run farther so I can hear it again.

Jeff and I are going to the park as soon as it cools off.

Nike + ipod = waycool!!

One Ocean View

So this show is on. It's kind of an older "Real World" A bunch of gorgeous people sitting around being gorgeous on the beach, in the house, discussing their gorgeousness. I can't believe Jeff is watching this. (Because you know Iiiiii'm not)

I'm sitting here looking up all the new babies online until I hear the word "adopted" from the TV. My head pops up like a prairie dog.

Cute tiny girl says, "I'm adopted."
Sexy sensitive guy says,"Oh, I want to adopt at least three kids."
Hot blonde girl pipes up, "I want to adopt, too!!"

BARF!!!

No crying over spilled milk.

Especially when it happens in the Element!

Years ago I left a shopping bag in my car. It was milk. I kept thinking I smelled something. I thought it was gym clothes, or old fast food. ( I am a serious car-slob.) But it kept getting worse. Finally, I did a search and found nasty curdled milk. It had leaked into the carpet in the trunk of my car. It took FOREVER for the smell to go away.

Today, I notice a smell in my new Element. A quick search once again yeilded leaking week-old milk. The differnce this time it that the floor of my new car is RUBBER. A quick wet rag wipe-down and VOILA! No more mess. No more smell. I love my car.

:-)

Presents for Zoe!

Yesterday I mentioned the onesie from Lisa. Here it is. I wish I could have gotten a better picture, but a professional photographer, I am not.








Here's a detail shot. See the Zoe? Melt my heart! This one will be going to China with us.










And here is my first present from my secret pal. Look! She even addressed it to Zoe. I had it in my mail truck with me all day. I'd take little glances at the envelope and get shivers every time I saw it. (I may be going nuts)





And here is what my pal sent. The theme was "Baby Bathtime" and Zoe got this cutie hooded towel and matching wash cloth. I LOVE the frog. I'm having a frog obsession right now. They're just so darn cute. (If we'd had all the money in the world Zoe's room would be decorated in the "Sir-leaps-a-lot" pattern at BabiesRUs.)

I Love that the little guy on the washcloth has the towel covering his little froggie private-parts.

Running Update

I ran. It hurt. (Although I suspect it will hurt more tomorrow.) And it RAINED!!

The problem with a down-and-back course is that once you get down, you have to come back. I was within sight of my turnaround place when the sky opened up. Oh dang, I was about 2 miles from my car. But all was not lost!

1. The beast is gone, and both Ben and Jerry were spared!
2. I need new running shoes...trail shoes this time!!
3. And I am reminded that Brass Monkey is still a good song to run to.

Emotional Rollercoaster

Don't worry. This isn't a "pity-me" post, but more of an explanation of how crazy this adoption thing can be.

It started with the arrival of a present from Lisa. A darling onsie with my daughter's name on it. I opened it at work and got all mushie because someone was thinking of me and look, there's my daughter's name in writing like she really exists and will one day be with me. This was a happy morning.

At lunch I stopped off home to check e-mail and cool off (it's almost 100 degrees out there!). I checked the Rumor Queen site. (Don't laugh. You know you do it too.) And her site had some bad news out of Australia. The wait may climb to 18 months or more. It wasn't all that shocking. That has us getting our referral in June '07 with travel to China in August '07. To beat that the CCAA would have to issue more than 2 weeks of LID's every month between then and now. At their current pace, that sounds ambitious.

Over the course of our adoption I've had to readjust my brain to the floating timeline. We'll have our daughter in September .... December .... Feb .... June and now August. I can readjust. August sounds fine. I wasnt upset or sad, but instead filled with this kind of resolve. Determination. I thought of all the things I wanted to do before Zoe, but hadn't yet. We'll no more excuses. I've got plenty of time. Life book, quilt, nursery, baby proofing, running, organizing, home imp., etc. No problem. August? OK.

Next day, our stroller arrives and I go shopping for my secret pal. I'm floating on a baby-cloud and the world is good.

Today, as I mail my package I ask the window clerk if our supervisor (who a couple years ago lost his first born at birth) would be trying again. She says, "Don't you know? His wife is due in November." Now, why this would be the trigger for a downward spiral, I'm not sure. I'll just add it to the other babies coming this fall.

August - a boy to my friend who wasn't sure if she wanted a third child, but went off birth control "just to see what happens".
September - a girl to Jeff's coworker
October - a girl to a coworker
November - a boy to a my supervisor and another boy to an old friend
December - a grandson to another co-worker

I'm going to spend the next 5 months being happy for other people's babies. And then when it's over, I'll still have another 8 or so months to wait for Zoe. It's so hard when I think about it that way and made worse when my co-worker says, "So many babies coming and only D's is a girl."

WHAT?? Mine's a girl!! I'm having a girl, too!! What about me?

And Jeff's so cool about the whole thing, which just cooks my goose even more. "Why get upset over things you can't control?" Hogwash.

So now i have an incredible amount of pent up emotion. Something inside me has to get out or I will explode. The beast can be soothed with either enormous amounts of ice cream or beaten into the ground by running until I hurt.

All day I planned on running. I'll go to the park. There are hills. It's hot. It will hurt in a way that feels kind of good. And hopefully the beast will have been beaten into submission and I won't have to yell at my husband for no good reason, or avoid people at work who want to talk about babies.

Oh crap, this is a "pity-me" post, afterall, isn't it?

I gotta go run....and then maybe pick up some icecream.

More flooring!

This weekend was another LAZY weekend. Lots of napping and snacking. We did, however, get one important thing done.

We finished the flooing in the family room. Yeah for us!! We also found a super rug. I think another decoration or two and we'll be able to check this room off, too.


Another angle.



Bonnie's not thrilled with the new floors. Her old doggie bones prefer softer places with better traction. Here she is showing us her preference for the foam underlayment.

Britney....Blugh!!

So, I'm at work today...I'm working thru my magazines. Better Homes. Us. People. And then this scary thing pops out at me. Yikes!!

I work Route 7, and my best friend works Route 8, so we chat it up all morning as we sort the mail.

I scream, "PAM!!, did you see Britney?!" The rest of the office (who works faster than I do) says, "Georgia, we've been talking about it all morning!" Only this picture isn't the one on the actual magazine. The real one has her totally forward facing and you can see her feet. Did you know her feet are tattooed? And she has the ugliest toes ever!

Pam's reaction was, "doesn't anyone love that girl enough to stop her?" It's just so very unnecessary.

Zoe's stroller

Here we have the Quinny Freestyle 4. And we're so excited about it. I like it because it can face forward or backwards. It has a huge basket and folds easily. Jeff likes it because he found a GREAT deal. They've been discontinued in the US and they're liquidating the stock. Also, my ever-stylish man likes that it matches the Element.

Allow me to Clarify...

I have no intention of practicing elimation communication. By the time we get Zoe we will have apparently already missed the prime window for introducing it. I just thought it was fascinating. Besides, Zoe's little world will be totally turned upside down when she comes home. I'm not going to totally freak her out or have any expectations whatsoever.

So no worries, Mom and Deanna, about Zoe letting loose all over your house. We'll have her little bottom wrapped up nice and safe.

Elimination Communication

We will be cloth diapering Zoe.

I'll give you a minute or two to get over the shock.

...........
...........
...........

Better now?

I'm really not that crazy. I've used them before. Maybe I'm fooling myself, but I think it will be entirely managable and better for us (financially), for Zoe (health-wise), and for the evironment, (duh!) But I know many a mother who thinks I'll try and revert to disposables in no time. Maybe, but those women never tried it themselves. And for day-care and babysitters and outtings, they have such cool diapers as Fuzzi Bunz, Happy Heinys, and Bumkins AIO's....as easy as disposables...sort of.

But as I was searching cloth diaper sites, I came across the idea of "elimination communication." Whoa! Have you heard of this? Parents learn their babies elimination patterns and begin potty training almost from birth. There are babies out there who go diaperless and make it to the toilet, potty chair, sink, or bowl over 80% of the time. Preverbal babies are learning to make sounds like "ssssss" or use hand signals to mean they gotta go.


This explains the Chinese split pants concept.

Our Vacation in Pictures

Before leaving I had a few days home. My major accomplishment was the cleaning of the laundry room. I found it important to mark the moment, because for a short period time every article of clothing was washed, ironed, and put away.
I hope to re-do my laundry room one day. Imagine the cupboards removed (I can't reach them anyway over the machines). The machines stacked on the left side, and the right side filled with floor to ceiling shelves for things like laundry products, linens, or the recycling. I think it's a brilliant use of space!



I'm still not good at taking vacation pictures. Here's the only one I took at Epcot. It's from the car on the way to the parking lot.





Here's a picture of Cape Canaveral. If you look in the distance,( you may have to enlarge) you can see the jut of land where the space center is. We went out the first day the shuttle was suppose to launch. I was excited to see a launch up close. It's old hat to Jeff and Audrey (our niece who came with us) They've seen a bunch of 'em. They used to get out of school for them. Apparently you can see them all up and down the coast. But we made the drive up to Cape Canaveral to get an up-close view. Like I said, I'm all excited. I knew we'd be able to see it from where we were, but someone asked if we'd be able to hear it. A guy turned around and said you'd be able to feel it. Now I'm really excited! I call my Mom! 35 Million Horsepower!! The clock is ticking!! And Then! ....then ...then people start leaving the beach.

Lots of people start leaving the beach quickly. Jeff jumps up, mumbles, "let's go" and starts heading back to the car without looking back. I trot to keep up, still hopeful it might go off. But no... After my huge disappointment we got stuck in a huge traffic jam. bummer.

We later heard about the actual launch on our drive back to Georgia.


Upon arrival back in Georgia, we enjoyed a lovely July 4th feast at Mom's. Lots of yummy stuff. Pigs in a blanket, deviled eggs, delicious cake. And all of it oh-so-patriotic. Mom does know how to do holidays.




Here's another picture of the vehicles we traded in. You can see Jeff seems a bit sad to let the motorcycle go. He never rides it anymore, but I think he liked having it, just in case he wanted to.





I think that pretty much catches everyone up to date on the comings and goings of Jeff and Georgia. I'm not even going to promise to be a better blogger this time. Clearly I can't keep that one. If anything note-worthy happens, I'll be sure to slap it up here, but amazingly, I go days and days without anything exciting happening! Go figure.