Jeff and I marvel that the finished product doesn't really look like we put all that much work into them. But we did.
Here's the pics.
Guest room.
More guest room.
Jeff's great flooring job.
Zoe's room. Pretty much an Ikea advertisemtent.
Sunday, February 26, 2006
More weekend work
Jeff worked hard again last weekend! We focused on Zoe's room and the guestroom. We finished the flooring, put the furniture back and switched closet doors between the rooms. (Don't ask why. Just trust me, it's better.) And we added a few touches to Zoe's room (curtains, rug, light fixture)
Jeff and I marvel that the finished product doesn't really look like we put all that much work into them. But we did.
Here's the pics.
Guest room.
More guest room.
Jeff's great flooring job.
Zoe's room. Pretty much an Ikea advertisemtent.
Jeff and I marvel that the finished product doesn't really look like we put all that much work into them. But we did.
Here's the pics.
Guest room.
More guest room.
Jeff's great flooring job.
Zoe's room. Pretty much an Ikea advertisemtent.
It's Official
Copied from the CCAA website:
"The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office in June 2005.
The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before May 25, 2005."
So the rumor was kind of right. There are referrals on the way. But it doesn't go anywhere near the middle of June. It's another 2 week (almost) set. The happy couples getting their referrals next week will have waited 9 months. I could handle 9 months. That means September for us. That's okay.
But if 2 week sets continue until we get a referral, it will be APRIL 2007!! So we could get our referral anywhere between September 2006 and April 2007???
I'm going to have an ulcer before I have a baby!
Dang, it.
"The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office in June 2005.
The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before May 25, 2005."
So the rumor was kind of right. There are referrals on the way. But it doesn't go anywhere near the middle of June. It's another 2 week (almost) set. The happy couples getting their referrals next week will have waited 9 months. I could handle 9 months. That means September for us. That's okay.
But if 2 week sets continue until we get a referral, it will be APRIL 2007!! So we could get our referral anywhere between September 2006 and April 2007???
I'm going to have an ulcer before I have a baby!
Dang, it.
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Wild Swans
What a great day! I laid around until Jeff came home from work. I mean, I did laundry too. But that's about it. I snacked and read and napped. Dang, I love days like today.
I'm reading Wild Swans.
I'm sure it must be on Chinese adoption reading lists, but I don't remember seeing it before. I stumbled across it at the book store. It's the true story of 3 generations of women in China. And so far, its very interesting. Right now I'm learning about the beginnings of Communism in China and the Kumintang (sp?) It's modern history I know nothing about.
I think about how the middle and youngest women are my grandmother's and mother's generation. What totally different worlds they lived in. Arranged marriages, concubines, foot binding, unimaginable poverty, and war.
A pretty deep read for such a lazy day.
I'm reading Wild Swans.
I'm sure it must be on Chinese adoption reading lists, but I don't remember seeing it before. I stumbled across it at the book store. It's the true story of 3 generations of women in China. And so far, its very interesting. Right now I'm learning about the beginnings of Communism in China and the Kumintang (sp?) It's modern history I know nothing about.I think about how the middle and youngest women are my grandmother's and mother's generation. What totally different worlds they lived in. Arranged marriages, concubines, foot binding, unimaginable poverty, and war.
A pretty deep read for such a lazy day.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
2 Months Logged In
As of yesterday, we have been logged in for 2 months. In the anticipated 10 month wait, we are 20% of the way there!! Here's a progress report on the goals we've set to accomplish before we get Zoe:
Get Healthy Okay, the exercise is more off than on. And even though we're not actually eating them, we do now have vegetables in the fridge. :-)
Nursery Decorations We are way ahead of where we need to be. Yippee!
Parenthood preparation I'm not sure how to proceed with this one. Parenting classes? Our social worker recommended them. She also recommended getting the book What to Expect the First Year and following along with where we suspect our daughter might be. We'll see..
Learn about China We watched the Chinese New Year marathon of the show Mega Structures. (I think it was Mega Structures) We learned about the Great Wall, the preparations in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics, and the Three Gorges Dam. Amazing. There was also a good episode of Globe Trekker.
Clearly, we have a long way to go. But we're getting there...
Get Healthy Okay, the exercise is more off than on. And even though we're not actually eating them, we do now have vegetables in the fridge. :-)
Nursery Decorations We are way ahead of where we need to be. Yippee!
Parenthood preparation I'm not sure how to proceed with this one. Parenting classes? Our social worker recommended them. She also recommended getting the book What to Expect the First Year and following along with where we suspect our daughter might be. We'll see..
Learn about China We watched the Chinese New Year marathon of the show Mega Structures. (I think it was Mega Structures) We learned about the Great Wall, the preparations in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics, and the Three Gorges Dam. Amazing. There was also a good episode of Globe Trekker.
Clearly, we have a long way to go. But we're getting there...
Monday, February 20, 2006
Long time, no post
Geez, anyone who might have checked my blog regularly has probably quit trying to find something new here. We've been very busy. Really, we have. Jeff's been working late...something about servers and broken drives. Blah, blah blah. I listen, but I have no idea what he's talking about. I only know it's serious because he's usually home by 4, but didn't get home till 7 or later some days last week.
Not the case with me. There's been no mail. Whooppeeee! I've been home by 2. Okay, so I was more lazy than busy.
But this weekend was a whirlwind of activity. Friday we started on the guest room. I painted trim and vented closet doors. I worked Saturday (again), while Jeff went to home depot on his own to pick a color for the guest room. I must admit, I was worried. Needlessly so, it turns out. He came home and put on the first coat of "distant mountain"
As you can see. He did a good job. I think it will match the bedding very well. Sorry about the crummy picture, but it does let you see how we had to shuffle furniture around and that on Sunday we also got halfway thru laying the flooring.
Saturday night we went to a party with a group of other bloggers in the area. This kind of thing is tough for a shy Jeff and I, but we really wanted to meet other people doing this adoption thing. It was nice to talk to other people going thru the same thing. Thanks for inviting us, Lisa. It was also great to meet Cindy and Brent. (same age, first baby, similar timeline, also suffering thru home improvement)
Sunday night we kind of hung out in the hot tub and recovered.
And today? But it's Monday, Georgia. What are you talking about?
It's President's day, Y'all. As a gov't employee, I must stay home and celebrate the Presidents. Jeff just left for work, poor thing. And I'm going back to bed. I truly need to enjoy today because it's the last in the busy federal holiday season. There's Labor day, Columbus day, Veteran's day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, MLK, and Presidents all lined up before a very dry season until Memorial day. I must make every moment count!!! Back to BED!
Not the case with me. There's been no mail. Whooppeeee! I've been home by 2. Okay, so I was more lazy than busy.
But this weekend was a whirlwind of activity. Friday we started on the guest room. I painted trim and vented closet doors. I worked Saturday (again), while Jeff went to home depot on his own to pick a color for the guest room. I must admit, I was worried. Needlessly so, it turns out. He came home and put on the first coat of "distant mountain"
As you can see. He did a good job. I think it will match the bedding very well. Sorry about the crummy picture, but it does let you see how we had to shuffle furniture around and that on Sunday we also got halfway thru laying the flooring.
Saturday night we went to a party with a group of other bloggers in the area. This kind of thing is tough for a shy Jeff and I, but we really wanted to meet other people doing this adoption thing. It was nice to talk to other people going thru the same thing. Thanks for inviting us, Lisa. It was also great to meet Cindy and Brent. (same age, first baby, similar timeline, also suffering thru home improvement)
Sunday night we kind of hung out in the hot tub and recovered.
And today? But it's Monday, Georgia. What are you talking about?
It's President's day, Y'all. As a gov't employee, I must stay home and celebrate the Presidents. Jeff just left for work, poor thing. And I'm going back to bed. I truly need to enjoy today because it's the last in the busy federal holiday season. There's Labor day, Columbus day, Veteran's day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, MLK, and Presidents all lined up before a very dry season until Memorial day. I must make every moment count!!! Back to BED!
Monday, February 13, 2006
Referral Rumors
I have now found 4 adoption blogs predicting another batch of referrals by the end of the month. Oh please be true. They also say the referrals cover a whole month of LID"s. Can it be??? How do they know?
They usually say the rumor starts on the Spanish boards. Since I've been following this (which hasn't been very long) everytime a batch of referrals came out, I heard someone predict it based on what the Spanish boards say. But how do they follow the Spanish boards? And how do we know it wasn't just one person jumping the gun and everyone else jumping on board.
Someone may be searching blogs right now with keywords, "LID, referral, rumor, Spanish" and end up looking at my blog. They may then go to another board saying there's 4 people predicting referrals soon. Multiply that by the gajillion adoption blogs, umteen boards and forums and you've got lots of rumors.
I hope I don't spend the next 8-10 months getting all jumpy like this. I was just congratulating myself for being so calm lately and occupying my mind with other things. Now I'm going to check e-mail lists first thing in the morning...at lunch...when I get home...before bed....
If this rumor is true....that's a big IF. And if the referrals continue at month intervals, that would give us an August referral. SOONER THAN WE THOUGHT!!
If someone made this up, it's just mean.
They usually say the rumor starts on the Spanish boards. Since I've been following this (which hasn't been very long) everytime a batch of referrals came out, I heard someone predict it based on what the Spanish boards say. But how do they follow the Spanish boards? And how do we know it wasn't just one person jumping the gun and everyone else jumping on board.
Someone may be searching blogs right now with keywords, "LID, referral, rumor, Spanish" and end up looking at my blog. They may then go to another board saying there's 4 people predicting referrals soon. Multiply that by the gajillion adoption blogs, umteen boards and forums and you've got lots of rumors.
I hope I don't spend the next 8-10 months getting all jumpy like this. I was just congratulating myself for being so calm lately and occupying my mind with other things. Now I'm going to check e-mail lists first thing in the morning...at lunch...when I get home...before bed....
If this rumor is true....that's a big IF. And if the referrals continue at month intervals, that would give us an August referral. SOONER THAN WE THOUGHT!!
If someone made this up, it's just mean.
Thursday, February 09, 2006
I'm so awesome
You know what? If you have a bad day (see previous post), just give it some time. It always gets better. Yesterday and today have been great. Sunny weather. Short work days. And lots of progress on the homefront. Over the past two days I have removed the carpet in our guestroom ALL BY MYSELF. I peeled up the carpet, yanked the carpet pad, and with knee pads, safety glasses and a pry bar, I worked up all the tack strips and staples. Then carried it all out and shop vac'd. Also, we have furniture in there and we've run out of places to take it, so I had to scoot those around as I worked. (Ok, Jeff helped with that part.)
I'm so awesome.
Monday, February 06, 2006
Bummer of a Day
What a bummer of a day. To start off with, it's Monday. Then after many many short-sleeve wearing days this winter, it's actually feeling like winter. My feet got cold. I hate cold feet. AND, it's been raining all day. Actually, not all day. For a little while this morning we had big fluffy snowflakes. It lasted all of 10 minutes.
I know I don't really have a right to complain about the weather. If you're going to be a mailman anywhere in the world, this is the place to do it. It's not Florida-hot and it's not Minnesota-cold. Most of the year, it's just fine. I wouldn't have even minded so much, but I had such a bad day on my mail route.
A customer left me a nasty note. This happens from time to time to even the best mail carriers. There are weird people out there who will complain about anything. But this lady's not like that. We talk from time to time and she's very reasonable and nice. That's what shook me. She used words like "dissatisfied" "paying customer" "happens regularly".
I won't bore you with her problem, but I assure you, it most certainly does not happen regularly. In fact, it never has on my watch. Maybe on my day off, but I can't control that. After 10 years at the post office, I know that the phrase "happens regularly" is something everyone throws in because it's so much more effective than "twice in the past 5 years."
I spent the rest of my route going back and forth between angry and sad and composing a response in my head that was properly apologetic, but also set the record straight. I gave her letter to my boss to straighten out and it turns out she even came to the post office looking for me while I was on the street. Geez.
Side note: I remember my first complaint ever. I had just started and the receptionist at a business complained that I "refused" to take her outgoing mail. In actuality, it was hidden under stuff on her desk and she wasn't there when I delivered. What I don't get is that she must have seen me at some point. The complaint mentioned me specifically as the young girl with short curly brown hair, in denim shorts, with a sleeveless blue gingham shirt, driving vehicle ####. I felt like she was gunning for me. I cried so hard at the time. It seems silly now. (And my hair is closer to blonde, thank you very much.)
Second side note: I know there's lots of bad carriers out there. Everyone has a crappy mail man story. But I work really hard at making my people like me. I have a disease that makes me need to be liked. I also possess an obnoxiously strong moral character that forces me to do good when I'd rather do bad. I can't handle guilt.
I know I don't really have a right to complain about the weather. If you're going to be a mailman anywhere in the world, this is the place to do it. It's not Florida-hot and it's not Minnesota-cold. Most of the year, it's just fine. I wouldn't have even minded so much, but I had such a bad day on my mail route.
A customer left me a nasty note. This happens from time to time to even the best mail carriers. There are weird people out there who will complain about anything. But this lady's not like that. We talk from time to time and she's very reasonable and nice. That's what shook me. She used words like "dissatisfied" "paying customer" "happens regularly".
I won't bore you with her problem, but I assure you, it most certainly does not happen regularly. In fact, it never has on my watch. Maybe on my day off, but I can't control that. After 10 years at the post office, I know that the phrase "happens regularly" is something everyone throws in because it's so much more effective than "twice in the past 5 years."
I spent the rest of my route going back and forth between angry and sad and composing a response in my head that was properly apologetic, but also set the record straight. I gave her letter to my boss to straighten out and it turns out she even came to the post office looking for me while I was on the street. Geez.
Side note: I remember my first complaint ever. I had just started and the receptionist at a business complained that I "refused" to take her outgoing mail. In actuality, it was hidden under stuff on her desk and she wasn't there when I delivered. What I don't get is that she must have seen me at some point. The complaint mentioned me specifically as the young girl with short curly brown hair, in denim shorts, with a sleeveless blue gingham shirt, driving vehicle ####. I felt like she was gunning for me. I cried so hard at the time. It seems silly now. (And my hair is closer to blonde, thank you very much.)
Second side note: I know there's lots of bad carriers out there. Everyone has a crappy mail man story. But I work really hard at making my people like me. I have a disease that makes me need to be liked. I also possess an obnoxiously strong moral character that forces me to do good when I'd rather do bad. I can't handle guilt.
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Hot Tubbin'
I know we're trying to save money. This adoption thing is pricey. But we decided to spoil ourselves and splurge on a hot tub. We figured with all our home improvements and my renewed interest in running, it's a great way to relax at the end of a day/run.
Since we are saving money, we certainly didn't get the mack-daddy with the neck-jets, waterfall, or the pop up TV. I joke with Jeff that we bought a deep, heated, kiddie-pool. (He doesn't like this) But it's perfect for us. It's in our sun room which is just off the master bath, so I can dash straight from the tub to the shower without going outside!! I'll get a picture of it soon.
The only problem we had is getting the chemicals right. We thought we did everything right and then this green stuff started showing up on the sides. We assumed it was algae and kept throwing in more algaecide. The problem kept getting worse, so we threw in more chemicals. It was only after we called the spa place that we learned it's not algae. It's copper. And guess what, algaecide (the stuff we kept poring in to kill the algae) is Copper!! Now we have to drain the thing, scrub the sides, and start again. Oh well. Well worth it.
Since we are saving money, we certainly didn't get the mack-daddy with the neck-jets, waterfall, or the pop up TV. I joke with Jeff that we bought a deep, heated, kiddie-pool. (He doesn't like this) But it's perfect for us. It's in our sun room which is just off the master bath, so I can dash straight from the tub to the shower without going outside!! I'll get a picture of it soon.
The only problem we had is getting the chemicals right. We thought we did everything right and then this green stuff started showing up on the sides. We assumed it was algae and kept throwing in more algaecide. The problem kept getting worse, so we threw in more chemicals. It was only after we called the spa place that we learned it's not algae. It's copper. And guess what, algaecide (the stuff we kept poring in to kill the algae) is Copper!! Now we have to drain the thing, scrub the sides, and start again. Oh well. Well worth it.
Another weekend update
My blog is turning into just a weekend update! I think of things I want to post all the time and then get home, get comfy, and spend my online time reading everyone else's blog! I swear I'll try to get better.
As it is, here's our weekend up date... We bought a new rug for the living room, polished up the old loveseat and it looks so good (I think so, anyway) we decided not to buy something new.
Most of our weekend was spent on the nursery. Jeff did another super job on the flooring in Zoe's room and then we moved the bed and changing table to the new room. Next up...CRIB!
As it is, here's our weekend up date... We bought a new rug for the living room, polished up the old loveseat and it looks so good (I think so, anyway) we decided not to buy something new.
Most of our weekend was spent on the nursery. Jeff did another super job on the flooring in Zoe's room and then we moved the bed and changing table to the new room. Next up...CRIB!
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