Tomorrow is the first day of school. You would think that I would be picking out my clothes, getting my lesson plans ready, and preparing my mind for the upcoming school year. BUT for this year, my head is just not in it! The fact that I will only be going back for 6-10 weeks is clouding my brain. I don't even have my seating charts done yet!
Last week we had teacher workshop week. The soul purpose of that week was to get teachers in touch with the reality that the summer is over and they have to go back to work. Trust me, we need this extra week! I know that students think that they don't want to go back to school, but teachers dread this time much much more than any student could! It is not that teachers do not like their job, or even that they don't like the students, we love our job for the most part! But if you had a choice from staying home or going to work, what would you choose?!? So, I came back to workshop week with pictures of our baby boy and I showed them to anyone who would look! Everyone asked what my plans were for the rest of the year and I said with a big smile, "I am taking the rest of the year off." Their next question was, "How can you focus on coming back?" And my reply was, "I am not... want to see the pictures of my baby again?"
So this year, I am sitting here on the eve of of the first day of school thinking about putting on the second coat of paint in the baby's room, ordering replacement parts for our new crib (it got damaged in the shipping process, so the parts are free), putting together the new little stool we bought from Ikea, and generally dreaming of the time I will (hopefully soon) get to stay home with our child! And I am OK with that!
Monday, September 1, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
10 years!!
I can hardly believe that I have been married for TEN years! I am truly no longer a newly wed (although I really think that newly weds are 5 years or less) I am now entering the double digits of marriage. WOW!
When Jason and I were still dating my mom told me "you either need to get married or slow down" well, slowing down was NOT an option for us (we were so in love) so a few months later we were married and I was telling everyone that it was my mom's idea! She used to deny it but now that we have been happily married for 10 years she is telling everyone how it was all her idea! :)
This 10th year of marriage will be the year that we become parents. I know that everyone is telling us to enjoy our last weeks of freedom, go out while we still can, watch whatever TV show you want, sleep in... And I know that our lives are going to change drastically! But, we are ready for this change. We are ready to stay home on weekends to play with our baby boy. We are ready to watch some silly kid shows, and we are ready to get up early with our son (or maybe I'll make Jason do that one!)
We have been on such a journey this year with our adoption. The adoption road is not the easy one, but the process has made us better people. I am not resentful for all the extra steps that I needed to take to get to be a parent, because I learned so much about myself, my husband, and my marriage. It really made me think about what kind of a parent I want to be. In the end I knew without a doubt that I wanted to be a mom. Becoming a parent was not something that just happened to us, it was something that was chosen!
I found this quote that I really liked:
Adoption means that you have the ultimate freedom of deciding to become parents. The question is not "will we", but "when will we?" And the answer is always "when we can no longer contain the love in our hearts."
It is a pity that not all parents have to go through this kind of process. I know that I have grown so much going through it.
So CHEERS to us for 10 wonderful years of marriage!
When Jason and I were still dating my mom told me "you either need to get married or slow down" well, slowing down was NOT an option for us (we were so in love) so a few months later we were married and I was telling everyone that it was my mom's idea! She used to deny it but now that we have been happily married for 10 years she is telling everyone how it was all her idea! :)
This 10th year of marriage will be the year that we become parents. I know that everyone is telling us to enjoy our last weeks of freedom, go out while we still can, watch whatever TV show you want, sleep in... And I know that our lives are going to change drastically! But, we are ready for this change. We are ready to stay home on weekends to play with our baby boy. We are ready to watch some silly kid shows, and we are ready to get up early with our son (or maybe I'll make Jason do that one!)
We have been on such a journey this year with our adoption. The adoption road is not the easy one, but the process has made us better people. I am not resentful for all the extra steps that I needed to take to get to be a parent, because I learned so much about myself, my husband, and my marriage. It really made me think about what kind of a parent I want to be. In the end I knew without a doubt that I wanted to be a mom. Becoming a parent was not something that just happened to us, it was something that was chosen!
I found this quote that I really liked:
Adoption means that you have the ultimate freedom of deciding to become parents. The question is not "will we", but "when will we?" And the answer is always "when we can no longer contain the love in our hearts."
It is a pity that not all parents have to go through this kind of process. I know that I have grown so much going through it.
So CHEERS to us for 10 wonderful years of marriage!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Some Changes
We have had some changes in our life recently. The biggest one is, of course, getting matched up with our baby boy. But we have had some other big changes too.
The first one is getting a new refrigerator. Our old one ran all the time and it was very loud. The new one is so quiet and has the energy star rating. We are hoping that it will earn its keep in less than a year. Here are some pictures of our new Fridge:
It has a bottom drawer for the freezer. I love it! I really like being eye level with the fridge, and having the fridge on top gives me more room to hang up pictures.
I also got my hair chopped off. I am donating it to Locks of Love in honor of our son.
Before:
After:
For those who are counting, this would be my 3rd time donating my hair to Locks of Love. It will take about a 1 1/2 - 2 years to grow out the 10 inches to donate again.
We are still working on the baby's room, and trying to set up the house in a way that will work for a little one. So, I am sure that these are not the last of our changes.
The first one is getting a new refrigerator. Our old one ran all the time and it was very loud. The new one is so quiet and has the energy star rating. We are hoping that it will earn its keep in less than a year. Here are some pictures of our new Fridge:
It has a bottom drawer for the freezer. I love it! I really like being eye level with the fridge, and having the fridge on top gives me more room to hang up pictures.
I also got my hair chopped off. I am donating it to Locks of Love in honor of our son.
Before:
After:
For those who are counting, this would be my 3rd time donating my hair to Locks of Love. It will take about a 1 1/2 - 2 years to grow out the 10 inches to donate again.
We are still working on the baby's room, and trying to set up the house in a way that will work for a little one. So, I am sure that these are not the last of our changes.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
It's a Boy!
We are excited to announce that we got our referral this week. Our Baby Boy was born on February 10th, 2008. At the last Dr Appointment on July 9th he weighed about 17 lbs and was 25 inches tall. We are still thinking of names and probably will not tell what we decide until after we get back from Korea (To help you experience our waiting!) We also have pictures but we will not post them on the blog as it is not private. We would LOVE to show you in person! One of the pictures is of him sitting on a throne like chair so we call him our Prince and you can too!
We are beyond excited about our baby boy and I am falling in love with him more and more everyday. We can not stop looking at his pictures!
We are beyond excited about our baby boy and I am falling in love with him more and more everyday. We can not stop looking at his pictures!
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Baby's Room
Both Fawnda and I have been feeling that we must be getting close to receiving our long-awaited referral. During our home study process, we were told that the wait time for a Korea referral was 5 months, and our home study was finalized on March 6th. This time frame might have been extended since then, but we are still optimistic that we are getting close!
This feeling of being close has renewed my sense of urgency in getting the baby's room finished. That's been put on hold for a couple of months as we have turned our focus to our yard (in my defense, it's hard not to want to be outside when you live in Minnesota and it's finally nice outside!). Anyway, my projects this weekend included priming trim and removing a much dreaded border. This year marked our house's 45th birthday, and I'm sure that border had been up for at least 44 of those years. At first, I thought that taking the border down would be easy, and I might even have some extra time to float in the pool this weekend, but just like every other project in our house, I totally underestimated the amount of energy required. For starters, I'm pretty sure that this border had been adhered to our wall using the same type of glue that NASA uses to bond the heat shield to the Space Shuttle. Armed with only a spray bottle of Dif and my handy scraper, I was much like a kid taking a sling shot to a gun fight. I found that my only saving grace in this project was a faulty layer of paint underneath the border. As a matter of fact, I was able to take my scraper, catch some of the paint with the corner of the tool, and peel sheets of paint off the wall, which took the border off too. Has anyone else seen or heard of anything like this? Our walls started out with a grey paint color, and they are now white. This activity was much like peeling skin after a bad sunburn, and it definitely took much longer than I had anticipated.
Fawnda had to work this weekend, so I spent much of that paint-peeling time all to myself, which provided a lot of opportunity to think about this child coming into our home, and about my burning desire to be an awesome dad. For us, going the adoption route has been incredibly rewarding, and I feel that many of the things that we have gone through should be required for all parents, but we've had our difficult times too. I was reminded of one time about a year ago when we were still going through the infertility treatments, and weren't telling very many people about our struggles. One of the ladies at my work had just had a grandson through her 17 year-old daughter who was a junior in high school. This lady brought her grandson to a work event that Fawnda and I were at, and she brought the baby right up to the two of us and chided us with "So how long will it be before you guys have one of these?" I know she was kidding, because I hadn't informed anyone about what our intentions for children had been, but the first thought that popped into my head (after trying to shield Fawnda from this lady and the poor, innocent child), was "what, a bastard child? hopefully never. . ." As I sit here today, I must say that I'm ashamed that this thought even popped into my head, but I can honestly say that I remained polite: I smiled and did the "Minnesota Nice" thing (changed the subject).
I've also been thinking about how our culture seems to be generally kid-friendly, and it seems like everyone has their usual responses to seeing a child. Here are some of the responses that I have caught myself saying, "He looks just like his dad", "She acts just like her mom", "He's got his dad's laugh", etc. etc. Sometimes I feel sad that many of the "usual" sayings won't be said of me and my child, but I find comfort in the fact that we will find our own. For example, we might be able to say, "he/she likes to draw just like his mom", "he/she is good at math just like his dad", "he/she likes to swim just like his mom", or "he/she is brilliant just like his dad" (okay, so maybe I went a little too far there using my creative license, but it makes me smile so I'm leaving it in).
I could go on and on about the things that I thought about while peeling paint this weekend - both the things that make me excited about being a future dad, and the things that still make me a little sad. Even so, there was definitely a recurring thought about my work at hand, and that was, "wish YOU were here!"
This feeling of being close has renewed my sense of urgency in getting the baby's room finished. That's been put on hold for a couple of months as we have turned our focus to our yard (in my defense, it's hard not to want to be outside when you live in Minnesota and it's finally nice outside!). Anyway, my projects this weekend included priming trim and removing a much dreaded border. This year marked our house's 45th birthday, and I'm sure that border had been up for at least 44 of those years. At first, I thought that taking the border down would be easy, and I might even have some extra time to float in the pool this weekend, but just like every other project in our house, I totally underestimated the amount of energy required. For starters, I'm pretty sure that this border had been adhered to our wall using the same type of glue that NASA uses to bond the heat shield to the Space Shuttle. Armed with only a spray bottle of Dif and my handy scraper, I was much like a kid taking a sling shot to a gun fight. I found that my only saving grace in this project was a faulty layer of paint underneath the border. As a matter of fact, I was able to take my scraper, catch some of the paint with the corner of the tool, and peel sheets of paint off the wall, which took the border off too. Has anyone else seen or heard of anything like this? Our walls started out with a grey paint color, and they are now white. This activity was much like peeling skin after a bad sunburn, and it definitely took much longer than I had anticipated.
Fawnda had to work this weekend, so I spent much of that paint-peeling time all to myself, which provided a lot of opportunity to think about this child coming into our home, and about my burning desire to be an awesome dad. For us, going the adoption route has been incredibly rewarding, and I feel that many of the things that we have gone through should be required for all parents, but we've had our difficult times too. I was reminded of one time about a year ago when we were still going through the infertility treatments, and weren't telling very many people about our struggles. One of the ladies at my work had just had a grandson through her 17 year-old daughter who was a junior in high school. This lady brought her grandson to a work event that Fawnda and I were at, and she brought the baby right up to the two of us and chided us with "So how long will it be before you guys have one of these?" I know she was kidding, because I hadn't informed anyone about what our intentions for children had been, but the first thought that popped into my head (after trying to shield Fawnda from this lady and the poor, innocent child), was "what, a bastard child? hopefully never. . ." As I sit here today, I must say that I'm ashamed that this thought even popped into my head, but I can honestly say that I remained polite: I smiled and did the "Minnesota Nice" thing (changed the subject).
I've also been thinking about how our culture seems to be generally kid-friendly, and it seems like everyone has their usual responses to seeing a child. Here are some of the responses that I have caught myself saying, "He looks just like his dad", "She acts just like her mom", "He's got his dad's laugh", etc. etc. Sometimes I feel sad that many of the "usual" sayings won't be said of me and my child, but I find comfort in the fact that we will find our own. For example, we might be able to say, "he/she likes to draw just like his mom", "he/she is good at math just like his dad", "he/she likes to swim just like his mom", or "he/she is brilliant just like his dad" (okay, so maybe I went a little too far there using my creative license, but it makes me smile so I'm leaving it in).
I could go on and on about the things that I thought about while peeling paint this weekend - both the things that make me excited about being a future dad, and the things that still make me a little sad. Even so, there was definitely a recurring thought about my work at hand, and that was, "wish YOU were here!"
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Things I can't wait to hear!
As I talk with my sister, sister-in-laws and friends (who all have kids) on the phone I often times hear their little darlings in the background. Here are some things that I can't wait to hear my my child say:
- Mama hold me!
- Mommy watch this!
- This was the most fun!
- Thank you mommy, I love you!
- Let me help- I can carry the yittle (little) one.
- Look what I made!
- do you wanna play with me?
We are working on the baby's room now. We are moving furniture around the house and getting more "easy" storage furniture pieces to help organize toys and such, getting the house ready for a little one. We hope that we will not have to wait too much longer. We do not have a new number yet... Jason will not let us call to check until Aug 6th, I want to call now but I am practicing my patience I suppose!
Friday, July 18, 2008
Pool Day!
Today I had my friends and their kiddos over for a pool day. The weather was PERFECT! we swam, splashed, and sat in the sun. At one point all the kids were on the deck and only the "moms" were in the pool. The kids thought that was pretty funny! It is so fun to have kids in my pool playing and jumping in. Jason and I enjoy it but not the same way a kid does! I can't wait for our kid to play in the pool!
After we had lunch and some frozen treats. Here are some pictures of the kids:
Top: Carly, Mandar, Thomas
Bottom: Kyle, Charlie, Annika, and Kelsey
Jordan and Ian were on a different set of steps!
This was just too cute ! I need to put it in Sepia or black and white and frame it!
These two also look like they were flirting so I got it on film!
After we had lunch and some frozen treats. Here are some pictures of the kids:
Top: Carly, Mandar, Thomas
Bottom: Kyle, Charlie, Annika, and Kelsey
Jordan and Ian were on a different set of steps!
This was just too cute ! I need to put it in Sepia or black and white and frame it!
These two also look like they were flirting so I got it on film!
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Raspberries
As some of you know, I grew up in the city of Hopkins, which is known as "The Raspberry Capitol". Since the city used to be a giant raspberry farm before it was developed, they had the raspberry festival every year during the 1st two weeks of July-which is prime raspberry picking time. (Every town in Minnesota has some sort of festival.) So, since I grew up every year going to the raspberry parade, having a sister who was the jr. raspberry queen, and all the other raspberry festivities (including free raspberry sundaes), raspberries have always been one of my favorite fruits. I was so excited that our house had a HUGE raspberry patch when we moved in. Jason has done a great job of managing the raspberry patch which can get a little unruly at times. He built the lattes fence to keep them all in their place and he prunes them back each year as well.
It is now time to pick the raspberries. we always have so many that we freeze them and use them through out the year.
So bring over a bucket to pick some raspberries yourself if you have some extra time, just call first so that I know that you are coming!
It is now time to pick the raspberries. we always have so many that we freeze them and use them through out the year.
So bring over a bucket to pick some raspberries yourself if you have some extra time, just call first so that I know that you are coming!
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Ode to Daisy
Today was the day that I brought Daisy to the Humane Society to be adopted. It was really tough! Jason made me do it because he did not think that he could go through with it. It was a really hard decision for our family but, as we thought about where we wanted to spend our time, energy, and money it was on our future child and not on the dog. We liked Daisy (I would not go as far to say that I loved her) but, we did not want to risk how she would react to our child taking "her spot". As I was talking to the Humane Society worker I was crying and she was very nice. The facilitywas very clean and nice and the workers seemed to be very caring. I just felt that as I left I was making my dog's biggest fear a reality- leaving her and never coming back. Our hope that is that she will get adopted by a couple or family that will love her and give her the attention that she needs.
Here are some things that we will miss about Daisy:
- Her waiting at the door wagging her tail when we came home
- the way she would "sleep bark" while she was taking a nap
- How she would drop a toy on command
- How she would shake with both paws
- How she would make a grunting noise after you said something like she agreed with you
- How we could trick her into thinking someone was at the door by saying "who's here?"
- Taking her for walks
- How she loved to tunnel under your legs
- The way she would obey me over Jason
Here are some things that we will NOT miss about her:
- Picking up her poop
- Cleaning up after she vomited (on purpose)
- Getting up early to let her out
- Paying the kennel fees when we went out of town
- Having her beg for food ALL THE TIME
- How she ALWAYS wanted to play or be petted
- Her ruining our furniture by chewing on it
- Her ruining our rug by scratching at it
- Having to leave early because we had to let the dog out
- Having her hair EVERYWHERE even after we vacuum
Saturday, July 5, 2008
4th of July
Happy Independence Day everyone!
Our 4th of July was pretty low key. I had to work until 2:30 (which was fine with me since it was time-and-a-half!) When I came home Jason and I floated around the pool. Around 7 o'clock we headed over to Stillwater. It has been our tradition for the past 7 years (Does that make us sound old?!?). We really like going to Stillwater because it is such a cute town and they put the fireworks to music. They also seem to have new fireworks every year. This year the fireworks show was SPECTACULAR!! But the people who were sitting behind us were NOT! They were smoking, drinking and swearing! At the the end of the fireworks display, one of them puked and it almost landed on our blanket. All that aside I love, love, love fireworks and it is worth braving a few drunks to see them.
One of the things that we talked about as we were sitting on our blanket waiting for the fireworks is this is (hopefully) our last year without a child. If you have ever been to Stillwater, you know that there is a GIANT hill that you have to climb down to get to the park and back up to get to your car. Since it was just the 2 of us we could walk at a good pace and pass all those who were pushing a stroller. Every other year we have snickered as we passed them, but this year we smiled and thought that could be us next year! Although we probably would not bring a stroller we would just get a backpack kid carrier.
I also want to reflect a little about how glad I am to be living in the USA. Every year during the fireworks they play the song "I am proud to be an American" and it always makes me get a little teary eyed when they do, because I think that as Americans we can complain about a lot, and forget that we live in a great country! We have freedoms and opportunities that most people do not.
We hope you all had a great time enjoying your Independence Day!
Our 4th of July was pretty low key. I had to work until 2:30 (which was fine with me since it was time-and-a-half!) When I came home Jason and I floated around the pool. Around 7 o'clock we headed over to Stillwater. It has been our tradition for the past 7 years (Does that make us sound old?!?). We really like going to Stillwater because it is such a cute town and they put the fireworks to music. They also seem to have new fireworks every year. This year the fireworks show was SPECTACULAR!! But the people who were sitting behind us were NOT! They were smoking, drinking and swearing! At the the end of the fireworks display, one of them puked and it almost landed on our blanket. All that aside I love, love, love fireworks and it is worth braving a few drunks to see them.
One of the things that we talked about as we were sitting on our blanket waiting for the fireworks is this is (hopefully) our last year without a child. If you have ever been to Stillwater, you know that there is a GIANT hill that you have to climb down to get to the park and back up to get to your car. Since it was just the 2 of us we could walk at a good pace and pass all those who were pushing a stroller. Every other year we have snickered as we passed them, but this year we smiled and thought that could be us next year! Although we probably would not bring a stroller we would just get a backpack kid carrier.
I also want to reflect a little about how glad I am to be living in the USA. Every year during the fireworks they play the song "I am proud to be an American" and it always makes me get a little teary eyed when they do, because I think that as Americans we can complain about a lot, and forget that we live in a great country! We have freedoms and opportunities that most people do not.
We hope you all had a great time enjoying your Independence Day!
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