Goa-oa-oa-oal! Goa-oa-oa-oal! Goa-oa-oa-oa-oal!

Okay, maybe only Jon and Suze will know how to sing the title of my post, as well as anyone else who has been to a Minnesota Wild hockey game. We had so much fun watching the Wild win their game last night against the New York Islanders!!! The Wild won the game in overtime which made it so exciting!! I had never been to an NHL game, so we had a blast. Dave was loud and proud, and kept starting the clapping or booing with the people around us. He's always the loud clapper in church, so I guess this didn't surprise me much!

It was an extremely cold walk (I thought my eyebrows fell off at one point), but Suze and I ordered Peppermint Patties before we had to walk over to the game, so that kept us warm on our walk :) And it wasn't as warm in the Xcel Center as I thought it would be, but it was still a great reprieve from being outside!! I don't watch hockey on tv, but I would definitely go to a game again. There was so much to see and the game was great.

So now I am excited to go watch a Saints baseball game with Jon and Suze this summer in the open air baseball field. Ah, sitting in the sun, having a beer, cheering loudly outside and getting a little sunburn. I can't wait for those days...

Thinking positive

I'm going to post a happy post today, even though I really just want to go back to bed for the next 4 days and make faces like Aaron and Sam because of the weather here. I think I would take the cloudy/raininess of Portland or Seattle over this brutal cold. But I said this was going to be a positive post, so we won't talk about that...

Today we get to go to an NHL Wild game with our friends Jon and Suze. Yay!!!!! I've never been to an NHL game, so I'm very excited about this. Even better, our friend Suze won 4 free tickets to sit in the box seats!! So we'll get to sit in some fancy seats while cheering on the Wild. Plus, it will be nice and warm in there :) I'll take some pics of our adventures to post later.

So I think we've decided on a beach to go to for our Philippines trip! My cousin sent pictures of 3 vacations they took while living in the Philippines, and our favorite pictures were of Coco Beach. If you check out the website, you may get a kick out of their explanation of services that are included in your stay. Especially watch for what happens if your electric fan quits working. So for now that is where we have decided to stay for the first few days that we are in the Philippines for our adoption trip. I hope you all enjoy the pictures as much as I have!

(photos courtesy of Calah Ronzheimer)

Best Husband Ever Award

Dave wins the Best Husband Ever Award - hands down. Today he called me to tell me he was making a surprise supper. I was in a bit of a crabby mood so instead of being thrilled, I asked, "Is it something I am going to like??" He told me that he thought I would like it.

I'm going to preface what I came home to with some feelings I've been having lately. A few of the ladies I have "met" online who are adopting are doing their nesting by finding Philippine recipes to make. I thought that was such a cool idea, and was honestly feeling a little jealous because I don't have that urge.

So I walked in the door from work tonight, and Dave was cooking away in the kitchen. I look over at the computer that he has pulled up a recipe on. Dave was making Chicken Adobo with Philippine Fried Rice!!!!! I was floored, and had no idea that this was what he had in mind. I was so psyched, because I've been hearing about this recipe from the Ya.hoo Philippine group I'm in. I was so impressed. We called our good good friends and neighbors, Aaron and Nikki, to come over and try it with us. We dug into the food Dave made, and I have NEVER tasted anything like it!!! I absolutely LOVE Chicken Adobo, and the Fried Rice was delicious too. I think Chicken Adobo is definitely going on a list of food we make frequently.

I took a picture of the food before I dug in:

If you want the recipe, along with other interesting Philippine recipes, head on over to this website.

Random thoughts

I always seem to forget to pull my camera out to take pictures of fun/special events in our life. I always keep it in my purse, but even that isn't good enough to help me remember!

Anyway, I got together last night with a couple friends from high school - Jonny and Luke (aka Luuky) . I only get to see Luke once every couple of years, since he lives out in Portland, OR. I had lots of fun catching up with them, even if we didn't get to spend tons of time together. Today I'm wishing I had taken a picture since we don't get together often. Luke and I got somewhat caught up on what is going on in each other's lives last night. I was able to tell him about the adoption and he was very excited for us. I think that is one of my favorite things - being able to tell someone who I haven't seen in a while that we are adopting. Even better is when they also get excited about the adoption!!

I don't even know who our kids are yet, how many we will have by the time we are done, or any of that stuff. But what I do know is that I already feel like a mama. There are things I am definitely nervous about in becoming a mom, but I know that everyone experiences some kind of anxiety about what kind of parent they will be. The excitement in all of this far outweighs the nervousness. I know God's got an awesome plan for our family, and I just have to wait on Him to see what it is.

Well, Dave and I are pretty sure that we are going to take some extra time during the adoption trip to take a vacation in the Philippines before we pick up our children. We got some ideas from our good friends, Andy and Tyler, and are going to get other ideas from Rachel's cousin, Calah, on where to go. These peeps have all lived in the Philippines at some point, so they are definitely the people to go to for these plans. I'm really hoping that our adoption trip to the Philippines falls during part of the cold months next winter - the weather there is so beautiful!! Now I will leave you with a picture of the beauty of the Philippines (I know I'm dreaming of warmer weather!!)...

(photo courtesy of jedschannel.blogspot.com)

ONCE

Our 14-year old nephew, Jakob, gave us the great advice get out and see movies as much as we can before our children come home. I loved his advice, so we've been attempting to do that more. Here is a story of us attempting to do just that...

Last night Dave and I were attempting go see the movie Juno at the movie theater in town. I've heard great things about this movie - even on the adoption boards. However, once we realized we forgot cash (no credit cards accepted at our tiny little theater), we realized we were going to miss the movie if we had to go back home to get some cash, so we just went to the movie store. Sometimes we get in the mood to find a good "indie" flick, so we rented two indie films last night.

We ended up watching Once, which is kind of a modern-day musical (very kind of, there is no dialogue that is sung, just more music than your average movie). I LOVED IT!!! As long as you can get past the "f" word in movies (it's set in Ireland, so I maybe it's to be expected?!), then it's a great story. It's a pretty simple story actually - it's about a guy who writes music and sings on a sidewalk in Dublin who meets a girl who gives him a kick in the pants to get his music recorded and sent out. I won't give away any more than that. The harmonies are gorgeous, and the lyrics are simple. Dave and I both give it 2 thumbs up.

The next movie we rented was Chalk. We haven't watched this one yet, but I'll give you my review after we watch it :) I guess we're really into one-word movie titles lately...

Where does the time go?

Today marks 4 months since we have been ICAB approved to adopt from the Philippines. My my, how the time has flown by so far! It definitely helps that we didn't know we were approved for the first two months of the wait. With Christmas and my brother's wedding we stayed so busy that I didn't really have time to dwell on the wait.

I'm still not freaking out about the wait. This is a good thing because I can tend to dwell and obsess about these kinds of things! Instead, I've been doing a little nesting. Currently I've been very focused on getting books for our kids. I ordered the following books on Amazo.n, and I'm very excited to get them in the mail this weekend!!!

My Filipino Word Book
By: Robin Lyn Fancy
Filipino Friends
By: Liana Romulo, Corazon Dandan-albano
Filipino Children's Favorite Stories
By: Liana Elena Romulo, Joanne de Leon
My First Book of Tagalog Words: Filipino Rhymes And Verses
By: Liana Romulo, Jaime M. Laurel
The Turtle and the Monkey (Philippine Tale)
By: Joanna C. Galdone, Paul Galdone

Adoption Is a Family Affair!: What Relatives and Friends Must Know
By: Patricia Irwin Johnston
Cross Cultural Adoption: How To Answer Questions from Family, Friends & Community
By: Amy Coughlin, Caryn Abramowitz

The last two books on this list we are going to be using to conduct a family training for both Dave's and my family regarding our adoption. We want them to know what to expect through the process, as well as what to expect after we get home with our child/ren. I'm so excited for this training, I've gotten so many good ideas already, and we just keep coming up with more. Karin (from Hand in Hand) has given us great ideas, as well, and we're pretty much using everything we learned from her to do this training :) I'm still trying to figure out when I want to do the training, before or after our referral comes... I may need to get some advice from my Ya.hoo adoption group.

So here is the next question we are pondering... Dave and I want to take a vacation, but can't afford it with saving for the adoption. So we are thinking that maybe we will take a little extra time during the adoption trip and visit a resort on the ocean in the Philippines (they are typically very inexpensive). But do we do this before we pick up our child/ren or after? I can think of pros and cons of both sides. I think we've made our decision, I'm just curious to hear what other people think.

I hate winter

I get a point every winter where I just want to hibernate until March, or better yet April. Today I got to that point. I'm so tired of winter. Tired of static-y hair. Tired of wearing jackets and socks every day. Tired of forgetting my scarf and/or mittens, then paying for it when I walk outside. Tired of not having a tunnel to get to my car from my office. However, I have to count my blessings as well. Blessed to have a hubby who starts the car and picks me up at the back door of the office building when we work together. Blessed to have neighbors who live 25 steps away from our house and cook delicious winter meals for us. Blessed to have a garage. Blessed to have heat in my house AND an indoor job with my own special heater. Blessed to be able to wear layers upon layers of clothes.

Just wanted you all to have a taste of how cold it is right now (in case you live somewhere warm). Please note the "feels like" temperature. I just checked weather.com again, and the temp just went down by 1 degree, which made the "feels like" temperature go down to -34 degrees. ugh.