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.

The vacation is over....

...but the FUN goes on!!!

We got a new car!!! and I'm still on my new car high. We swore we'd never get another new car. And although we didn't like the truck we had, it didn't make sense to trade it in. (that whole "upside down" ugliness) But while we were on vacation, we visited car lots for fun. (we're dorks like that) While on the honda lot, I saw and fell in love with an Element. You know....the Box. I used to call it a poor-man's hummer. Jeff's family called it a Humdinger. And then we found out we could trade in the truck and motorcycle, too?? Super!!

We weren't home for 3 days before we had one parked in our garage. And might I add, it takes up a lot less room in the garage than that beast of a truck.

Here, enjoy the commercial.....



And if you have a little more time (6 minutes or so) , here's a more thorough tour of our new baby.

Referral Time!!

I love it when referrals come out! I can't get enough of looking at the newest babies matched wtih families! I'm sure the other adoptors know how to see them all, but for my family and friends who want to see some babies.....click here.

VACATION: day 3

Today is day 3 of my 11 day vacation. Before I get started, let me do a bit of what my sister calls (cutely, I think) back-blogging.

Vacation day 1: I slept til 10! Need I say more? But it does get even better! We went to North Georgia to visit with Bonnie and Clyde and the rest of the Georgia blogging/waiting family gang. (Lisa has pictures on her website.) We got to area a little early because this is not too far from where I went to college a million years ago, and I always remember the fudge shop. If we're in the area, I gotta go. I have an obsession with their butter brickle fudge. Mmmmmm.

Vacation day 2: Woke up early. Grrrr. To meet my running partner at the park. The goal was 6 miles, which we did. I suggested 7, but she had to get home because her boy wanted to go to Sunday School. You can't really say no, when they ask to go to church, can you? The rest of the day wasn't very exciting. A little shopping, a little napping....a nice day.

So here we are at today....Vacation: day 3. Jeff is at work. I woke up knowing I would run at some point, so to get it over with, I headed to the park. I'll write about the run another time, because it was great. 10 miles. Hot dang!

And now here I am....home. I need a shower in a big way, but after that...what? It's vacation. Lunch with a friend? Nap? Good book? ..... uhhhhh nope.


Here's how I'll be spending my vacation afternoon.

Scary, isn't it? And we don't even have kids yet! Let me tell you I'm a little worried about our laundry future. I thought having these big fancy machines would make me want to do laundry. And they did....for about a month. After the newness wears off, it's still just laundry.

Eddie...my big boy

I've shown this picture before, but I thought it was necessary to post it again in order to show my kitty's.....um....girth.

My Eddie has always been a big boy, but I've been noticing he seemed especially spherical lately, so I weighed him and he has indeed gained almost a pound. (16.5lbs if you were wondering) That's a lot of kitty. The problem is that he's having trouble getting thru the kitty doors. We have one in the door to the basement, an another in the wall to our utilty room which is where we keep the cat boxes. (with 5 cats, you're gonna have multiple boxes)

We never had the flap on the kittty doors because one our less intelligent cats was afraid of it, but to keep it from being just a hole in the wall/door, we kept the trim pieces over the opening. Well, we noticed a few weeks ago one of the trim pieces kept falling off. We figured it was the big boy, but didn't think much of it, because you could just pop it back on. Then the other day, the trim piece over the opening in the basement made it all the way upstairs.

I'm pretty sure none of the cats picked it up in their little kitty mouths and carried upstairs, so I suspect Eddie actually wore up the stairs.

Poor fella. We obviously need to put him on a diet, but it's sooooo hard. We have 4 other cats who are skinny-mini's and need all the food they can get. We may have to lock him up during the day. It seems so mean, but what other choice do we have?

Good Day

What a good day. Jeff woke me up with the news that the CCAA had updated their website. Referrals are on the way and they go thru the 28th of June. (my birthday!) Now this is both good and bad. Good...because referrals on the way is always a good thing. Families are about to be made. Bad...because it is only for 2 weeks worth of LID's. Anything less than a full month of LID's means the process is still slowing. And again, good...because within the context of the last 6 months or so, the process is not slowing as rapidly as it has been. (slowing as rapidly????) Anyway, if you choose to be a real glass-half-full kind of person, you could say the pace was picking up. Today, I am a glass-half-full kinda gal.

With a December LID, I still have no idea when we will get our referral, but here are my guesses.

If the CCAA returns to full month referrals.......Dec '06
If the CCAA keeps the current 2 week pace......June '07
If the CCAA slows again to one month of LID's every three months.......Dec '07.

My gut feeling says we will have her picture in February and travel to China in April. That's just a feeling.


So after my happy morning, I got to work to discover there was practically NO MAIL. Bad for the post office....good for Georgia. Also we had a cook out today at work. You see, we have these "voice of the employee" surveys quarterly and our office usually scores badly on the employees feeling appreciated. In response, mgt has started feeding us. I feel like a little kid being won over with a cookie. I guess it worked though because it keeps happening. We have cookouts, doughnuts, Chick-fil-A. They take lots of pictures of us eating (always nice) and plaster them up around the post office to remind us how happy we are.

Then on my way home from work, I call my Mom and she asks me if I want a pot roast for dinner. She had just made one and wanted to give it to me. Heck, yeah, I want a free, already cooked dinner!

Then I get home and Jeff has a bunch of packages. Even though I work at the post office, getting packages is still fun!! He has this project car that I can't wait for him to get working on so I can drive it!! It's a '78 Super Beetle. Not luxurious, but cool! Today he got a muffler, steering wheel, and a bunch of other stuff I don't know what they are. I can't believe I never put up a picture of the project car.

AND, I only have one more day of work before my vacation begins. I'll be off until after the 4th holiday!!! I don't remember taking this much time off from work before. We'll be going to Florida to visit Jeff's family in Melbourne (anyone from there?) for a few days, but for about a week I'll be home...alone. This is great because I have been feeling monstrously (is that a word?) overwhelmed lately. Too much to do. Home projects that never end and a million more to start. This will let me put a dent in some of them.

Oh gosh, and it looks like it might rain any minute. What a blessing for our brown yard, dying plants and the crazy hot temperatures.

Yep, good day.

Baby Birdies

I've had a few requests to get the ugly flooring picture off the top of my blog. So here ya go. Sorry about the quality of this pic, but it was taken thru my dining room window. Although it might be hard to tell the scale of the birdhouse, it is tiny. Like the opening is about the same size circle you would make when putting your index finger and thumb together in an "A-OK" sign. We meant to throw it away along time ago. Jeff thought that (and a lot of other things left behind by the previous owner) were tacky. But now we're so glad we didn't because we have baby birds in there!

We found them because they're so dang noisy! We can sit in our dining room, listen to the chirping, and watch Mama bird fly back and forth feeding the babies. A few days ago we could see three little birdie mouths poking out. Now they half way climb out to take food from Mama. I tried to get a picture of the babies, but if you walk close to the house they pipe down real fast.

So is that a better picture? I did the meatloaf first so you wouldn't be left with that one.

Ta-Da!!

My first meatloaf!! I'm so proud. This cooking thing is coming along slowly. I know meatloaf isn't impressive. No one really loves meatloaf, but its nice to have in your repertoire (gonna have to spell check that one) And I love love love cold meatloaf sandwiches with Miracle Whip on white bread. Mmmmm...




Oh, I also had turnip greens with mine. Funny, the plate doesn't look very appetizing, but it was good. I loves me some greens. And you know I got to eat them all because Jeff wouldn't touch them. I also found out there's only 200 calories in the whole can. They come in big cans, you know. I'm on a calorie counting kick right now. My whole dinner? Under 600. And the dark blob? That's HP steak sauce. Another Mmmmm. Also good mixed in with the greens. Tangy!

Scary stuff

AAAAAGGGHHHH!!! When we took up the carpet in our family room, this is what we found. Linoleum!! Does anything scream '70's more than this? And who puts linoleum in the family room?!!












Our family room and kitchen are just one big room, really. (although we suspect it wasn't always that way) Here's the two linoleums together. Family room=70's. Kitchen=80's.







Here's a picture of our mid-day progress. That floor sure is green! The scary thing is the walls used to be super dark panelling. Can you imagine?







And here is how we ended the day. Not nearly as much progess as we hoped for, but there was some tricky stuff to do. I think we can work on it little by little all this week.

I know it still looks a little iffy, but just wait. I think it's gonna be great!

a few recent pictures

Last weekend Jeff and I had Memorial day at my parent's house and we brought the camera for blogging fun!

Here's the fruit spread. If there''s one thing Mom knows how to do, it's throw a holiday feast. We also had salad, beef tenderloin and a yummy fruit shortcake thingie for desert. That's Jeff hand making a grab for the grapes.


Me and Mom


Mom's weird Moose collection


My sister's and my baby picture on the wall in our matching Raggedy Ann dresses. I'm on the left.


And then the next day, we took a drive in the North Georgia mountains. This was taken on the hightway that runs thru the Chattahoochee National Forest. A beautiful drive.

Miss me?

Boy, it's been awhile, hasn't it? What a delinquent blogger I am! Let's play catch-up.....

The Adoption
Maybe I should have started with a different topic. This one is still a bit gloomy. The last set of referrals came out a little over a week ago and once again, they only covered about a week's worth of LID's. My agency got about 40 referrals (with a set of twins!! Yeah!!) But I've heard they send about 100 dossiers to China each month. So if they send 100 monthly and only got 40 last month, 30 the month before, and ZERO the month before that, you can see they're building up quite a back-log.

Looking over my blog, I see I totally forgot to mention our 5 month LID anniversary. Heck, now we're halfway to the 6 month mark. 6 months logged in....wow. When we started this process we expected our referral about now. eh, well.

Work
My route is finally going to be cut in about a month. I'll finally be shed of the C.O.W. She was by her mailbox the other day and snatched her mail from me. Bye bye, C.O.W. I'm losing money along with her, but that's fine. I've also gotten myself off the list of volunteers to work their off day. Yippy!! I'll get to spend weekends with my Honey. Or go out of town for a weekend. We're already planning a long weekend trip over the 4th of July holiday.

Cooking
We had every intention of continuing the cooking, but life got busy and we slipped a little. Don't worry, we're jumping back on the wagon after this weekend. I have my shopping list and menu all ready. (Thanks, Brian)

Exercise
We have been doing amazingly well!! We meet my running partner at the park for a long run every Sunday. Jeff walks and gives us "girl" time. And then I hoof it on the treadmill a couple times a week. It's finally getting easier. I even made it to the gym this week. My aerobics teacher came to the post office to say Hi and guilted me into going again.

side note: My aerobics teacher and I started trying to get pregnant about the same time. Since then, she has had ovarian drilling (sounds horrible) and has gone thru 3 failed IVF's. She's about to start her 4th. I can't imagine taking that road, and am so glad we chose adoption. Even with the wait, at least I know one day, eventually, there WILL be a baby. And no injections or egg harvesting required!

and finally Home Improvements
Our one month break from home improvements turned into a 3 month break. It's really easy to get used to your house in a half done state. I was perfectly okay with not doing any more for awhile, but today while I was at work, Jeff started pulling up more carpet. I'll post pictures at the end of the weekend of our progress, but let me tell you, what we found under the carpet is pretty scary!

That's about it for the Jeff and Georgia story. Please stay tuned for more regular installments. (with pictures!!) I promise.

AMERICAN IDOL

I can't believe they got PRINCE!! Meatloaf..yeah, Dionne Warwick....okay, Burt Bacca...whatever...sure, Mary J. Blige, Live, and Toni Braxton...I'll believe that. But Prince? I was still trying to recover from the cheesy cowboy bit when he showed up with the girlies. Are they still called Diamond and Pearl?

I can't wait to see this show next year. Talk about power.

If you can't tell, I love Prince.

oh yeah, and the twitchy one won, big surprise.

Final Rachel Ray

To finish up the Rachel Ray thingie, here are the final pictures of our dinners the last few nights.

First up we have garlic mushroom pizza. It doesn't look like much, but we forgot to get a photo before cutting it. It's loaded with shitake mushroom, the normal mushrooms, swiss and mozzarella cheese. Also plenty of garlic and evoo. :-)
Next are turkey burgers and warm potato salad. We were surprised by the turkey burgers. Very good. I thought they tasted like sausage (think it was the sage) The potatos were a little blegh. I normally love potatos, especially these little red ones. Maybe I used too much white wine vinegar, but it reminded me too much of coloring Easter eggs.

So the experiment is over. It turns out I can cook afterall. We did skip one of the meals. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't get Jeff fired up about the cheese sandwiches (brie, spinach, tomato) Nothing in there he's fond of. So now we have to try and come up with our own menu plans. Probably something cheaper and hopefully using up some of the stuff I already have in my house.

Any dinner recommedations would be appreciated.

Long Weekend

Ahhhhh...... time off is nice. The long weekend started rough with a mini-cry over the adoption wait and my inability to get pregnant. You know...pretty typical stuff. But in the end, it turned out to be a really nice weekend.

Saturday we went to another adoption get-together at Sonia and Hugh's, where we got to see their wonderful nursery which will soon be filled with the beautiful Miss Kailee.

Sunday was activity day. We started at the park for a 5 mile run. And when I say run, please understand I really mean gentle jog with occasional walk breaks. But still....5 miles. Later in the day we took the new bikes to the Silver Comet trail. The rest of the afternoon was spent laying around, begging the other to get off the sofa and bring back snacks.

We finished the day with another Rachel Ray. Garlic mushroom pizza. I have a picture, but I'm too lazy to go find the camera right now.

That about sums up the weekend. Better get ready for another week....

Chicken and gravy casserole

We found the winning recipe. Talk about comfort food. The only dumb thing I did was buy a raw chicken instead of the rotisserie. It worked just fine, just took a lot more time.

Here is a picture of my Chef Jeff and the finished product. Yummy!!


Tonight we were even lucky enough to have dinner guests....My Parents!!




I hope your not getting bored of my culinary adventure. We still have a few more days. Tomorrow Jeff and I are going to an adoption group get-together. A bonfire!! Fortunately tomorrow's selection is a sandwich, which is perfect for lunch!

Tonight's dinner

And here we have Spaghetti with Mozzarella-Stuffed Meatballs. Who knew people made their own sauce?
You see, you stuff the meatball with a mozzarella cube. Cool, huh? I think Jeff is getting tired of me taking pictures of our food.

Oh well. This cooking thing is a nice way to top off a day. And tonight is the start of a 3-day weekend for us. We decided to take some time off together and hang out.

We have plans to go hiking/biking, clean the garage/office/sunroom, wash cars, and just hang out. Should be pretty great.

Steak Salad

Today's entry into our Rachel Ray marathon is steak salad. We made some minor adjustments. First, I eliminated the yellow bell pepper, because I hate bell peppers. And since I have no idea what kirby cucumbers are, we used normal ones. (Are they the skinny plastic wrapped ones?) The rest of it came together okay.

Final review? eh...it was alright. The meat was tasty. The cucumber seemed weird in there. Maybe we should have used the kirby's? Either way, I'll have another lunch ready for me tomorrow. Plenty of leaftovers. I hope I can stop picking the steak bits out of there tonight, so it''s not just garlicy corn salad tomorrow.

I would like to sincerely thank Rachel Ray for giving me something to blog about. The adoption has been boring lately. Jeff and I have returned to normal life and the adoption has been put on the back burner of my brain. I don't even go to Zoe's room and have my little Mommy-fantasies anymore. Jeff has started working on his project car finally and I'm running again. (yesterday I did 4.5 miles...woo hoo) The latest referral rumors are too horrible to believe. I'm remaining in denial until the next batch comes out. Then I'll decide if requesting anti-depressants is appropriate.

At least by the time Zoe get's here, I should be a brilliant chef!!

It's Cookin' time!!

I was at work the other day flipping thru someone's magazine....er....I mean.... someone's magazine fell open to this page that intrigued me. It was in "Everyday with Rachel Ray" and it was a meal planner for a week. It came with a complete shopping list (separated into sections of the grocery store...how handy!!) and recipes for the week. The recipes looked yummy and like something I could do so I decided to give it a try.

First of all, I'm not a Rachel Ray fan. The constantly repeated phrases like, "de-lish", "evoo", and the Betty Rubble giggle get on my nerves. But I do freely admit I watch her show because I always think, "I can do that." I just never do, do that.

Jeff's kind of on board with the dinner plan for the week, because we both want to learn to cook more as well as eat healthier. Dinners for us lately have come from a drive thru or from one of our regular dinners (which, like songs on a pop radio station are always on heavy rotation) Regular dinner's include the Gorton fisherman, rice packets, frozen pizza or anything from a box. We have gotten a little better about throwing vegetables into our diet like zucchini on spaghetti night or veggie quesedilla's instead of just cheese.

So back to Rachel Ray....the store didn't have the issue I saw so I got another one. The recipes weren't as delicious sounding, but I still wanted to give it a go, and this afternoon I took my list to the store. It was all soo exciting. I was on a mission. I don't know what flank steak is, but surely I can figure it out. Rotisserie Chicken? My store doesn't sell that. What the heck am I going to do with all these herbs? Tuna steaks cost WHAT??? Oh, and don't forget the evoo.

I push my buggy to the check out chic with everything on the list with minor adjustments for things my store doesn't have. I know I'm in for trouble and was shocked when the total came up to more than it would cost Jeff and I to eat out for a week!!

Here's a pic of the booty. Does it look like $140 worth to you?


Tonight's entree was tuna steaks in rice cracker crumbs and dijon mustard along with apple slaw. It was a giant mess during the process and Jeff started off being a crank-pot about the cost and the food choice. He's got a delicate belly and a picky palate, but in the end, he came around and was a big help. The picture doesn't look as good as it was, and certainly not like the magazine picture.

The final review of tonight's dinner??? De-lish!! It was tasty, healthy, extremely filling, and I'll have more then adequate leftovers for lunch tomorrow. We can't have left overs for dinner because there's another menu selection on the schedule. I think it's steak salad. I'll let you know how it goes....

Doggie drugs

I drugged my dog last night.....poor thing.

For as long as I've had her, (11 years) she's ocassionally had these weird night fits. I never knew what the problem was, but she would sit by my bed and whimper louder and louder until it became an all out howl. I tried feeding or walking her and sometimes that helped, but normally, it didn't She would stop if you sat by her and pet her, or picked her up and rocked her like a baby, but as soon as you put her down she started again. Jeff suggested, and I agree, it's probably tummy problems. I don't know why it only happens at night, but she looks like she doesn't feel good.

Jeff has been really good taking care of her at night. I have been known to lock her in the laundry room with a comfy bed, food, and water. I figure if I've tried everything I can for her, I might as well get some sleep.

Last fall, I mentioned this to my vet and asked if I could give my dog baby gas drops or something like that. Instead, this wonderful man gave me doggie tranquilizers! She hasn't had a fit for months, but last night she did. Boy, did she ever! We had just fallen asleep when she got fired up. I remembered the pills and gave her half of one. She was out like a light and so were we!! Woo Hoo!! Doggie drugs!!

Benedryl on the flight home? Oh yeah! (But don't worry, I won't ever lock Zoe in the laundry room)

*that picture isn't from last night....I just love it.

Desperate Housewives made me cry

I admit it....I watch this show. And since I'm drawn to any story about adoption, I'm really into the story about Eva Longoria's character (Gabrielle?) She just adopted a baby girl domestically, and in last night's show the birthmother changed her mind. She came back for the baby. I'm sure things don't happen in real life like they did in this show, but it affected me. The police came to the house with no notice and took the baby from the Dad's arms. Mom's screaming things like, "BUT SHE'S MY BABY! I STAY UP WITH HER! HE SINGS TO HER! SHE'S OURS!" It was heartwrenching.

I was tearing up and trying to hide it from Jeff, because...I mean....c'mon...it's a tv show. But still....

That is exactly why we didn't even really consider domestic adoption. The idea of taking in a baby, loving her, caring for her, thinking she's yours forever, and then losing her. It's just too much. We needed a situation with finality.

There are plenty of other reasons. But this one's a biggie.

Tagged again!

Johnnystarted a game of tag and he picked me!! He asked....

"For instance, I want to know from Georgia: If I have something that needs to get somewhere absolutely in the fastest manner, does it matter if I: a) send it via my home mailbox b) drop it off at a big mail box that they usually have parked around office buildings c) go to the post office and drop it in the "mail for out of town" slot?"

Short Answer: C

Long Answer: I don't know if all offices are the same, but my office has 2 trucks that take our mail to the distribution facility. The first is at 2pm. The second (and last) is at 6pm. If you can get it to the post office before the 2pm truck, it will get to the distribution facility 4 hours faster. Will that help you? Not sure, but it certainly can't hurt.

An extra tidbit....Here my case where I organize my mail. Each little slot represents someone's mailbox. Pretty exciting, huh?

Free Fun

In our attempt to find more free fun and get some exercise, Jeff and I went to a local state park today. Here's the pics...
As you can see, my husband had energy to spare, but my dog did not.















She was certainly ready to go home.

Happy Birthday, Sis

Today is my sister's birthday. Although this picture was taken about 35 years ago (WOW!!) it's one of my favorites. My sister and her family are missionaries in Germany (the former East) and are greatly missed here in Georgia.

She has a great blog about living overseas, being a Mom, working with college kids, and life as a Christian.

I'm it!

I've been tagged again. I love getting tagged because I absolutely love talking about myself. pssst.....I'm fascinating.

So here are the 6 weird things about me:

1. I floss my teeth in bed. Jeff finds this very unromantic, but I think flossing is really boring and it's the last step in my nighttime ritual, so I started doing it sitting on the bed, then lying on the bed. Now I just crawl in and floss away. I even floss while reading. Every now and then I clean out my night stand drawer of used floss. I would like to recommend the Reach brand flossers.

2. I can't sit thru the commercial for toe fungus medication. If Jeff has the remote and won't change the channel, I will cover my eyes and scream so I can't hear it. It really really really creeps me out.

3. My two favorite musical artists are John Denver and Will Smith. Go figure.

4. I'm very very afraid of my house catching fire. I make Jeff check that the oven and stove are off every night before bed. I think it's lazy-man's OCD, since I make my husband do my obsessive checking.

5. I taught English in Korea. That's not weird, just interesting.

6. I've already mentioned my fascination with Belly Dancing.

funny video

I saw this on another blog and had to put it here. Soooooo cute. Kind of makes me wish we'd requested twins....kind of.

Baby Ogling

Jeff and I went to a gathering of the Georgia Bloggers last weekend. I'm not sure if "Georgia Bloggers" is officially the group's name or even if there is one, but we enjoyed going again to meet with other parents who are waiting, learn from those that have already been to China, and of course, to see the Beautiful Babies!! Here are the little one's we got to see this weekend.

Referrals on the Way.

So referrals are on their way. For those that don't know, they are for a disappointing number of LID's.... again.

The past 2 month's mini-batches of referrals left me seriously depressed and wondering when on Earth we were ever going to be parents. But this time....I'm ok.

I refuse to figure out how far away my referral will be at this pace. When people ask, I will say, "I expect my referral around December, but things can change." That's how it is.

I can't believe how calm and mature I am. :-)

If I can rip myself out of my self centered world for a minute, let me turn your attention to Sonia's blog. She is in the batch of referrals currently on it's way and will see a picture of her baby any day now.

4 month LID anniversary

The excitement of every milestone is gone, but still....4 months down is 4 months down. And in retrospect, it really hasn't been that bad.

King of Cars

Okay, Jeff and I watch too much TV. I know this. We have a weekly routine that includes, American Idol (I admit it.), Survivor, The Office, My Name is Earl, Amazing Race, and the CSI's. We also love Real Estate shows like Buy this House, Flip that House, etc. And Jeff loves every car show. Fortunately most of them air on Saturday and I usually work Sat's.

Well, we have now found this new show. It's called King of Cars, and its a reality show focusing on a car dealership in Las Vegas. A Dodge dealership, more specifically. You see how they do business from their perspective. How they convince people on the fence to take the plunge. How they keep you from leaving.

Jeff loves this. I hate it.

Although it's a pretty good show, I have flash backs of buying the Dodge Gas-Hog currently sitting in our driveway. It makes me feel like we were schmoozed. And we were. Not to mention, a few weeks after buying it, Jeff's identity was stolen. I spent months clearing it up, and I just know it happened at the car dealer. My point is, this show always leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but the show's intro makes me smile. Click below to see the intro.

C.O.W. update

Remember C.O.W.? If not, scroll down. Today she ran out to my truck. (As fast as any 80 yr old woman, I've ever seen). She was waving at me. The kind of wave to get your attention, not to be nice. So I got out, walked over and she yelled...YELLED at me. She said she went to the post office to talk about me (already knew that) and was told I never delivered her mail as late as 4:30, but it was 4:30 now and she was going right back to the post office to tell them about it and get me fired.

If it wasn't so sad, it would be funny. As the last house on the route, she will see the biggest swing in delivery times. Can't help it. What exactly does she think i've been doing all day?

Now the twist in the story: My route evaluation came back. Turns out my route is overburdened and must be cut. The easiest cut would be to pull C.O.W's and my street off the route. Although I would miss being my own mailman, it would be nice to be rid of C.O.W.

I just don't want her to think she won. Then I know she would become a Smug Old Woman. (S.O.W.)

Barbies, Barbies, Everywhere

Jeff's mother collects things. Lots of things. This weekend she gave us her Barbie collection for Zoe. She had bought them for her other granddaughter's who are now too old for them. I thought, "Great." Then I saw them.....all of them. There are about 25 still in the box. Another 6 are collector's editions. Then there's another big bag of already played with Barbies and their clothes and accessories. Zoe won't be ready for them for years, but when she is....she'll be the envy of every little girl in the neighborhood.

Please note the collection includes, Dentist Barbie, Dr. Ken, the Full House collection, and my favorite...Baywatch Barbie.

yikes.

Wedding Day

Here's a photo from the weekend's wedding. Jeff's parents are on the left. When I look at his Dad I can see exactly who I will be married to in 30 years.

You can see it was a lovely beach wedding with a beautiful bride and an equally handsome groom. We love these kids.

Road Trip!!

We're off in a couple hours to sunny Florida for our nephew Brian's wedding to our soon-to-be niece Audrey. The car is getting an oil change, the dog is going to Nana's and the cat's have enough food down to last a very, very, long time. Jeff is currently packing. (I'm done. :-) ) We've got road snacks, satellite radio (first time using it an a road trip) IPods, digital camera, the latest US magazine, and a neck pillow.

There's something so exciting about a road trip!

4 days from work, quality time with Honey, a picnic on the beach, and a wedding. I'm even getting a mani-pedi as soon as we get settled tomorrow. That's a special treat for a workin' girl like me. :-)

I'm sure I'll have pictures galore when we return.

Why my Husband is the Bomb

1. For our first date, he made a John Denver CD to play in the car. (I love John Denver)
2. He lets me nap every Sunday.
3. He loves his family.
4. He loves my family.
5. He sits up at night with the dog when her tummy hurts and she can't sleep.
6. He makes me laugh.
7. He knows how to fix stuff.
8. He gets me chocolate when I need it.
9. He loves me.
10. and he already loves Zoe.

Yup, he's a winner.

10.5 He's also kind of shy, and might make me pull this when he sees it. Fortunately, he's gotten a little bored with the blog and doesn't check so much anymore.

C.O.W.

I really don't want this blog to degenerate into a huge complaint about my job. I love my job. But every know and then, there's a story that must be shared. Here is such a story....

There's a Crabby Old Woman on my route. We'll call her C.O.W. for short. She's left a couple nasty notes in her mail box. And today she visited the post office to discuss me. She HATES me.

Complaint #1. I don't deliver her granddaughter's mail. (Granddaughter filed a change of address)
Complaint #2. She got mail twice in one day. (The first was probably the previous days mail)
Complaint #3. Her mail comes late. (She's the last house on the route.)
Complaint #4. I go to my own house for lunch. (I'm allowed to.)
Complaint #5. I don't deliver her mail after my lunch break. (I'm not suppose to...there's a delivery sequence)

C.O.W. also happens to be my neighbor. The other night Jeff and I were walking the dog by her house and she was out. We smiled and waved. She smiled and waived.....until we got closer. Then she frowned and said, "Oh, I didn't recognize you." And last night we were again walking the dog and she was out and she kept her back to us the whole time.

She told the clerk at the window she was getting a petition of my neighbors to get me off the route. What?? I haven't done anything wrong! Oh, I make plenty of mistakes. I've misdelivered mail. Forgotten packages. Bent people's "do not bend" mail and don't forget the death of the froglet. All innocent mistakes, and very rare. (With over 500 deliveries of thousands of letters/magazines/packages per day, I'm still floatin' a pretty good average) But I have never made a mistake with this lady's mail.

She's even been timing my lunch breaks!!

I asked Jeff if I should go knock on her door and discuss this. He says no, and I agree I will not change her mind. But we're going to be together for a long time, she and I. I love my route and I don't plan on leaving. We're certainly not moving.

None of my neighbors know about this blog yet, but I plan on sharing it before we leave for China. Someone, please remind me to delete this post before then.

Bye, Deanna

Well, my sister and her family left today. They've been staying with us for the past month, but are now on a plane back to Germany. We don't expect to see them for another year and a half, unless I can convince Jeff to make 2 global treks in the next year. (I think I'm better saving all our travel strength for China)

They live in the orange building, by the way. 4th floor.

So the rest of the day was pretty melancholy. We had some friends visit, which was very nice and then Jeff took me on a mini-date to perk me up. It worked. :-)