Wow, how is it Thursday already?

This week has been a bear. I worked on my feet from 9:00 a.m. until roughly 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday night. Not JUST on my feet, but on cement...with Phil singing '80's "hits" the ENTIRE TIME!!! Fortunately, the only TV show I watch was having the season opener that night and I managed to rush to Laz's house to catch the show with her. How aweful is it that I only watch one show, and it's this one? But I can't help it!!! I love it...and I love watching it with my girlfriend(s) and talking about it!!! Ok, I'm done embarassing myself...at least for now!

This weekend I am staying close to home and relaxing. I know, I know. It's hard to beleive, but it's true. And it'll be needed after the week I've had. I hope to catch up on quilting, house cleaning, and phone calls to girlfriends. Oh, and catching up on emails. sigh. Is it Friday yet?

Forgive the list...

So, in the interest of beginning a registry, I'm slowly starting one. It says I can post it to my blog, and I'm hesitant, but am going to TRY it this way. If I hate it being up, I'll take it down...you've been warned. BTW - Thanks to Nikki for putting like half the cool stuff on here!! Feel free to help me add more at any point!! Plus, I'll take suggestions. Being a first time mom (to be), I'm clueless to most of this stuff!!

Just a quickie

So, I just want to say how much I appreciate my friends. I have been "dumped" (for lack of a better term) by three close friends in the last year, and one of those people was my dearest bestest friend for almost 10 years...and I don't keep a lot of friends close b/c I tend to have one or two REALLY good friends, rather than a bunch of so-so friends. HOWEVER, recently, with the death of one good friendship and the fact that another one of my dear friends left the perfectly wonderful South for the icky and cold Mid-west (hee hee, I'm teasing, JT!!), I started trying to branch out. I've posted once before about how cool my friends are, and I'm doing it again. I am so blessed to haver truly wonderful people who are willing to be "there" for me. Not only Tod and Uncle Phil of course, but mainly my girlfriends (b/c I really do have the greatest gals in town on my social list!!). Yesterday I had a crappy work day, and a very wonderful one of my girlfriends agreed to chill out and have a cuppa' with me. As usual, my phone rang non-stop, and I was a total mess, but she hung in there with all my craziness. And I think she may even agree to get coffee again sometime!! (or possibly shopping??!!). I'm just really really lucky.

On a totally unrelated note, the weather here is absolutly FANTASTIC, and even though I spent 2 hours sitting in the grass at work today (clipping grass with scissors), it was still just beautiful. I didn't even MIND sitting in the grass, looking stupid, cutting 40 envelopes worth of grass... ok, I didn't mind MUCH... Ah, the things we do in the name of science....

Back from Yankee Town

So, we've been out of town for a family gathering for the last few days. Just about my whole family (on my Mom's side) was there. It was lots of fun, and everyone seemed to get along fine, which is a little surprising!! We had lots of photos taken, and here's one that was supposed to be a silly photo, but I think I end up looking silly, and Drea ends up looking hot... Look out, we might just have the next Charlie's Angel here! All in all, good times were had by all.

As a brief aside, we have passed the 3 months (from LID) down mark. At one time, I thought that would be exciting. Now, 3 months seems like so little time considering what we MAY have to wait. I am in terrible denial that wait times are getting longer and longer. When we started, as I have said before, wait times for a referral were down around 9 months. Now, if I read our agency's site correctly, people who sent their DTC in September of last year won't get their referral until FEBRUARY. The math? Well, that's roughly 17 months TO REFERRAL. We sent ours in 3 %$@&ing months ago...I shudder to think what our wait time will end up being. I think I'm back to wondering if it was worth it...maybe we should have gone with a different country (Vietnam, for example has a 4 month wait time. And that's firm.). Tod said no. We chose China 4 years ago for all the reasons we did, and it is for those reasons we stuck with it. Ug. I guess this at least gives us time to find a new house, right?? Looks like we'll have PLENTY of down time in the next year.

I do have a few things I keep forgetting to post on. Note to self: Put up adoption time line. One day I'm going to remember!!

Anyway, I'm back in NC, and it's good to be back in the South, Y'ALL!

Rock on Secret Pal and Best Pal

So I've had a crappy day. Work stunk, it's raining, and it's only Wednesday. But low-and-behold when I got home I had TWO packages to open!!! One from my uber awesome June DTC Group Secret Pal, and one from my uber awesome best pal (in Iowa), Jen. I haven't yet opened Jen's gift, but I tore open the one from my SP. Observe the lovely photos below. The card was so sweet. It said:
"Someday this frame can hold your beautiful daughter's photo, in the meantime I filled it with a wish. That wish can remind you that she may already be sharing the same sky with you."

I love it. You're so crafty!! I bet your life book will be beautiful. I'm eventually going to add the wish to my life book, but so far I haven't even started one...sigh. It is such a nice thought and when I get sad (about the stupid Wait) I'll hold this close and try to look up, both to the sky and to be more optomisitc. Thanks, Secret Girlfriend. You are the BEST!!

Jen, you rock too, but I have to wait to open yours until Tod gets home. (since it WAS addressed to both of us!!!). Pictures tomorrow on this if I can remember to post them!!

Joys of owning an older home, part deux

Ok, so not so much fun. Our hot water heater went out this week. It's been going for sometime, but we just noticed that it had rusted out this morning...which lead Tod to turn off our water...all day. My guess is it's not coming back on tonight. Not fun. To make matters even more complicated (ok, WORSE, to make them WORSE), his mother is in town. How much fun is that??? (ok, so this last sentence doesn't exactly translate well as sarcasm is lost in print, but are you feeling my pain??!!).

We are also the proud parents of (wait for it...) a baby squirrel. I actually have a photo of it "nesting" in an interesting place, but I'm too lazy to dig out the memory card. I'll get around to it tomorrow. It' s really cute, but man it wants a lot of attention and food. I went to work today with milk splatters on my shirt. I suppose I should get used to it, huh??

(Disclaimer I am being forced to type this next part...) Though it all I can count on my good friend Phil.... (ok, he's gone, I can go back to making faces at him... very mature, I know).

Anyway, I'm grumpy and can't shower....I'd make faces at ANYONE right now....

Folks in town

My folks are in town. We're relaxin' here in style and with a mini-zoo (there are 5 dogs in my house!!). The rain has FINALLY come and gone and the weather is lovely. Who knew it could actually be 75 degrees in Raleigh??!!! Perfect Carolina blue skies... life is good.

I'm back...

I've been on a mini-hiatus due to the crash of my computer..check that, crash of BOTH my computers. Fortunately I am skilled in computer resurrection, so I'm back now.

Just a quickie catch up:
Tod's cardiologist appointment - went great. He got a "clean bill of health" and was told to cut back on his meds (not the expensive ones unfortunately) and come back in one year. Whoo-hoo!

Around the house - We've torn our little house apart and are currently building a shed out back. Much of the "stuff" from our third bedroom (which has been the "junk room" for the last 4 years) is going into the shed. Much of it is actually Tod's tools and such, and a few odds and ends. Hence the tearing up of the house. I'm still un-burying the kitchen table from the mess that was made, but all in all, progress has been made. Or rather, was being made until we started getting a butt-ton of rain. (We did need the rain, but why does it always seem NC gets a hurricane just as we begin a huge home-improvement project?!)

Uncle Phil - complains if I don't post enough about him. He's still "finding himself" and even, GASP, working hard around the house! If you don't beleive me (and those of you who KNOW Phil probably don't beleive me), see above photo.

All else - Good. Good. Things are going smoothly around here. Last week I was ready to sell our little house and buy a historic 1927 home (It was a named house!!), but alas, it was out of our price range...by like 150 K more than we can afford. Not exactly the kind of range we could swing! However, we are currently looking for a house in THIS neighborhood. We figure it'll take us over a year to get enough money to find a house, sell this one, and get it together do it all. Plus, we can't move before the adoption is finalized or we have to go through the homestudy update process...and of course, pay more money. If only we had the extra cash for such extravagance!

So, that's it for the update. I'm up and running again so I should be posting more regular like again soon.