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. :-)

Belly Dancing

I have always been fascinated by belly dancing. I once made it my New Year's resolution to take lessons, and I followed thru with it! Finally, a resolution I kept! I took it further and learned to sew circle skirts and harem pants. And somewhere in my basement is a box with my coin scarf, silk veil and finger cymbals. I dragged more than one friend to a belly dancing show.

I hope I shouldn't be embarrassed about this.

I hadn't thought about that stuff in years, but Shakira was on American Idol last night and once again I'm left thinking, "how do they do that? I searched for clips to stick on my blog. And here's what my quick search yielded.

Shakin' off the Funk

Lately I have been in a serious funk. Every China adopter has been, I'm sure. To know that your wait is going to be either long or really, really long, is rough. At first I thought we would be in China in September. I was so disappointed when that slid back to December. And now February 2007 is looking more likely. Truthfully, there's just no telling, and that's the hardest part of all.

The other day when referral dates where known, I cried so hard I gave myself a headache. And it's really hard to deliver mail while crying. Of course as soon as I get back to the post office my friend says, "Hey, how's your adoption going?" I lost it again.

Thank Goodness for my Jeff. He's been so kind when I snap at him and say stupid things. Conversations in our house have gone something like this:

Me: You know if we switch to Vietnam, we'd have a baby sooner.
Jeff: We have a plan. Stick to the plan.

or

Me: You wanna try and get pregnant this month? (Like this would be the magic month after 2 years of trying...ha ha)
Jeff: We have a plan. Stick to the plan.
Me: (whiney voice) But the plan has changed!
Jeff: The plan hasn't changed. It's just delayed. Stick to the plan.


He's so good for me, but I think my depression is starting to wear on him. So, as the title says, it's time to shake off the funk. I can't spend the next 7, 10, or 12 months like this. There willl continue to be dips in my mood everytime referrals come out ( if they stay at this pace) But I've got to get back to normal. I'm no fun to be around like this.

So now, to shake that nasty funk, we're planning hiking excursions, more get togethers with friends, mini trips to quaint towns in the area, local touristy things. And then there's still the never ending home improvement projects. We need to get out and do these things and not live from match day to match day. (I say "we", but really mean "me".) Poor Honey. I'll let you know how the plan works. Now I'm going to soak in the hot tub. That always helps.

3 months Logged In

3 months down. ???? more to go. How are we doing so far?

Diet and Exercise? Horrible. I signed up for a 1/2 marathon in the fall, but I think if I don't get crackin' soon, it will kill me. I'm eating nothing but comfort food lately....and lots of it.

Parenting skills? Pretty good. Jeff and I have been spending more time with my niece and nephew and getting lots of practice. It's so fun to see Jeff getting more and more comfortable with kids. This morning Jeff woke up and said, "I can still feel her climbing on me!" It seems my niece thinks he's a tree.

The Nursery? Excellent. See previous post.

Learning about China? Fair. I liked reading Wild Swans, and I'm waiting on my new book. My local college offers Mandarin in their evening classes, but it is PRICEY! We may have to settle for flash cards. Ni Hao!

Overall, we're right on track. We have an indeterminate about of time to finish getting ready, but we know there'll be plenty of it.

Good News

We have a crib. I can't believe I didn't put up a picture sooner.