The Weekend (part 2)

On Saturday I studied for a little while in the morning (not successfully, though), while Dave vegged out on the couch in front of my parents' television. They get cable, and we decided we didn't want to pay for cable, so Dave LOVES watching his HGTV, History Channel and Discovery down there. We headed into the theater to watch a matinee showing of Wall-e. It was sooooo cute! I really liked the storyline. We both give it two thumbs up to any kid or adult that wants to see it.


After the movie, we headed over to meet an old high school friend of mine for supper. That way our husbands would both know someone else at the reunion, and we wouldn't have to show up at the reunion alone. It was nice sitting and chatting with them, and catching up on life since high school. We headed over to the park where the reunion was being held, and I felt super awkward. I suddenly felt like I didn't recognize anyone, and couldn't conjure up names when I would see someone I should have known. Then 2 people asked me, "And who are you?" And I felt much better :) I guess I've changed a lot more than I thought since high school. I'll let y'all compare: Here is my 7th grade picture and my 11th grade picture (and you can scroll down to see my current day pictures).

Yep, I had a shaved head and a comb on my head for my 11th grade pictures. Boy I made my parents proud...

(photos courtesy of Lifetouch)

At the reunion I talked with a few people, and there were probably about 40-50 of our classmates there. I was most looking forward to the people I hadn't seen since high school, and there were a few of those people there. It was fun catching up with people, and every single person we told about the adoption was excited for us and had lots of questions. That was lots of fun :)

After the reunion there was a street dance downtown, so we headed down there and saw even more people from different graduating years from both my high school AND Dave's high school. We laid low and sat to the side with Jonny, and various people would walk by and sit to chat with us. It was fun to people watch and try to remember the names of people with Jonny. I ended up talking for a long time with a guy I hadn't seen since high school, but had known since 1st grade. It was so nice to sit and talk with him, and he was so encouraging about the adoption and how much fun parenting is. It was a good night, and although there were more people I would have loved to see at the reunion, I enjoyed catching up with those who were there.

Today we drove home mid-morning and napped almost all day. We were so tired out from the weekend. Tonight my parents drove up and we went to a bbq for a friend of my sister, Elyssia. We walked in and saw some other good friends from our old church with their new baby whom we hadn't met yet. It was a fun evening filled with good food, more catching up with people, and lots of laughter.

I should head off to study now. As the days get closer and closer to the end of this class, I find less and less motivation to actually DO the homework. I'll just keep repeating to myself - "Cs get degrees. Cs get degrees..."

The Weekend (part 1)

Wow, I'm pooped out, and I'm only halfway through our weekend o' fun. Here is how the weekend has gone so far:

Thursday night we played card games with my grandparents and aunt and uncle until Carissa called to see if Dave and I wanted to go to a dance in town. This weekend is an all-school reunion weekend in town (along with my 10-year reunion). Dave and I got there and it was a bit surreal to see all of these people I remember from high school - some older, some younger, and quite a few from my class. I laid low and talked with just a few people. I was told by one girl that if her mom hadn't pointed me out, she never would have recoginized me because I look so different. That's the second time I've been told that in 6 months, so I asked her what it was that was different. She told me I finally don't look like a baby anymore. I had laugh, because she's right, even when I was shopping for my wedding 6 years ago, there was a woman asking me if I was shopping for prom. hee hee. I don't get asked that anymore :)

Friday morning we woke up bright and early for the 5k walk/run. We got to the park to register and pick up our super cool teeshirts. We all lined up at the starting line with the 8Kers in front of the 5Kers. They explained a couple of things, then shot the gun to signal the race had begun. I ran for a good portion of the beginning of the race, then walked for a while until my mom caught up to me. Then we alternated walking and running for the rest of the race. As we passed our friend Rick's house, Jon, Suze and Rick all came out to cheer us on :) That was so much fun. Then as we finished the race, the people who had already finished the 8k (crazy fast runners) were lined up along the road cheering the rest of us on. It gave me a huge boost to run really fast to the end. I came in at 41.10 minutes. My mom came in right after me, and we were the 4th and 5th persons to finish the 5k (because most of the people walked it). My dad and Dave walked the course, and came in at 48 minutes.

Dave and I being dorks with our matching outfitsAt 10 am we headed into the parade. Now I've been keeping a secret for almost a month about what was going to happen at this parade, and here is some video about that secret:

(sorry for the turning of the camera in the middle of the filming - oops)

Congratulations, Rich and Carissa!!!! We're so excited for you guys, and thrilled that you have found such a great match in one another.

After the parade, we had a bbq lunch with my family, decorated cupcakes with the girlies, and then I finally crashed and took a 2-hour nap. I was exhausted from the day, and didn't even wake up with people coming in and out of my room. Then we headed out to the lake to meet up with our friends, Jon and Suze, and Rick. Rick taught Gus to swim (thank you, Rick!!!), and it was so fun/ny watching Gus play in the water with Rick. He would bounce through the water at times like a deer, and we would all laugh at him. It was such a nice, mellow, relaxing evening. These are the days and evenings I dream about all winter long.

At 10 pm, we headed in to Carissa's house and watched the fireworks with my grandparents, my parents, Carissa, Rich and Madelyn. Madelyn kept her ears plugged the whole time, and Bampa (my dad) would follow her wherever she wanted to go to get a better view of the fireworks. When we got home we played more cards with my dad and my aunt and uncle, then headed off to bed.

The rest of the weekend promises to be fun. Today we are going to Wall-e with Madelyn, Carissa and Rich, and then my 10-year reunion is tonight. We're meeting up with a friend who I haven't seen since high school and her husband beforehand so our husbands will know at least one other person at the reunion. I'm excited to see people and catch up with them! Then tomorrow night we are going to a bbq back up in Waconia to see my sister Elyssia's good good friend Heather. Fun stuff!!

Owie

So I'm set to do a walk/run 5k on Friday morning. I'm looking forward to checking out what a 5k is all about so I'll be ready for the real run in September. But then I went and did something stupid tonight - I went on a walk in flip flops. My shins are killing me now, and I'm kind of nervous that they are going to really hurt on Friday. If that's the case, I'll need a wheelchair to get to the parade. Dave the Kind Husband is getting me some frozen veggies to ice my legs now :) He's so nice. At least we had a grand old time on the walk, though. We went with our neighbor BFFs to get coffee, and the store was closed. So we went to the ice cream shop, and the store was closed. So we called our awesome friends from church - Jane and Larry - and stopped by their house to chat with them and get our fill of hugs. I love our town and our neighbors and our friends. So I guess it's a good thing I locked in to a refinance today...

Insightful Dave

The other day I was talking with Dave about how hard the wait has been in the past couple of weeks. He had some great insight. At nine months, a normal pregnant woman is either giving birth, or has her bags packed and ready to go to the hospital. Dave told me that my heart has been "pregnant" for 9 months, ever since we got our approval. Now it's trying to figure out why in the heck I don't have a baby yet. I thought that was pretty interesting, and thinking about it more, I think he's probably right. Karin calling us with the news of our approval was like getting a positive pregnancy test for us, and now 9 months later my heart is wondering where my child(ren) are at. I thought that was pretty insightful of Dave.

On a funny note, this weekend Gus followed his big cousin-dog, Roger all weekend long. He only laid down if Roger was laying down, sat if Roger was sitting, etc. We decided to go to breakfast with everyone in my parents' van on Sunday morning, and Gus needed to come along so he wouldn't get into all kinds of trouble at my brother's house. Dave put Gus on his lap since the van was full, and I looked over and saw this at one point:

He opened his eyes when I took the picture, but he was laying his head on Dave's shoulder and sleeping. Totally cracked me up. What a crazy dog :)

I wish I had taken before and after pictures at my brother and sister-in-law's house this weekend. We got soooo much done. I kept leaving my camera in the hotel room, so I didn't get any pictures. You can take my word for it... We cleaned, packed, primed, painted and put studs/walls/doors up like it was going out of style. It was a lot more fun doing all of the work together, and hopefully we gave them some motivation to finish up.

9 months down...

So it is the 30th once again, and we celebrate another month behind us in this crazy little waiting game. Maybe it's just because I am tired from a long weekend of hard work, but the number 9 just looks so tiny, and it makes me feel sad today. When I see numbers like 17 and still no referral, it's hard to imagine that our referral is out there somewhere. Sorry, this is supposed to be a celebratory post, but this week has been a tough week for waiting.

It all started last Saturday (not this past one but the one before). I babysat my nieces, and when I was driving home afterward, I just started feeling down. I got home and was trying to study, but started reading blogs. I clicked on my friend Renee's blog, and heard the most beautiful song. If you click on the link over Renee's name you can hear the song. I had heard it before, but never listened to the words. The song is "Lullaby" by the Dixie Chicks. There is one line that says, "You can close your eyes when you're miles away And hear my voice like a serenade", then the chorus is, "How long do you want to be loved? Is forever enough, is forever enough? How long do you want to be loved? Is forever enough? Cause I'm never, never giving you up". I just sat there and cried and cried. I know our time will come, and it will be even better than I could have imagined, and this wait will be a distant memory. But I just felt sad. All week was kind of up and down. I'd be happy and content, and then something would trigger the sadness I feel about waiting for my children. Today the trigger was seeing how small that number 9 looks. One happy thing is that from here on out we'll have only double digits for our monthiversary of waiting.

The Accidental Adoption

Wife: Honey, sit down. I have some news for you.

Husband: What is it?

Wife: Well, I don’t know how to say this, so I’ll just come out with it. I went out to the mailbox today and . . . well, we got an I-171H.

Husband: A what?!?! An U.S. Immigration I-171H adoption approval form?! As in, we’re going to have another baby?!?

Wife: It looks that way.

Husband: But how? We’ve been so careful! I put away all the blank I-600A forms. Didn’t you hide our home-study?

Wife: Of course I did. But don’t forget, there was that one night . . .

Husband: What night? (pauses) Ohhh, that night. But it was only once. We were just messing around. I didn’t print clearly. I didn’t even use black ink! (pauses again) But it was kind of fun. (giggles)

Wife: It was, wasn’t it? I’ll never forget how cute you looked getting your fingerprints taken.

Husband: So now we’ve got our I-171H, eh? But that doesn’t always mean you’ll adopt, does it? I mean, shouldn’t you see the agency or something, make sure everything’s okay?

Wife: I already did. I’m five documents along.

Husband: Five documents!

Wife: And they’re all notarized, certified, state sealed and authenticated! There was just one small scare when the agency couldn’t see the notary’s middle initial, but it showed up just fine under the magnifying glass.

Husband: Thank goodness! And you, honey? Are you feeling okay?

Wife: I’m feeling fine. As long as I know you’re happy about this.

Husband: Happy? I’m thrilled! It’s always a shock at first when something like this happens, but of course I’m happy.

Better night

Last night in class was better yet. I got my journal article review back, and got top marks for it Woot. Then at break the prof pulled me aside and told me how much she enjoyed reading my review. She said she could tell I liked reading the article and felt passionate about it. The article was about the stay-at-home-parent vs. working parent dilemma. I used to have strong views that it's important for the parent to work outside of the home, and was very against home schooling. My views have changed as we get closer and closer to becoming parents, and I see people/families who do well on both ends of the spectrum. It's not that I feel like I will ever home school my children (maybe Dave has the patience for that?), but I'm not so against to whole stay-at-home parent thing. My last sentence was something like, "As long as the time parents spend with their children is quality time, and they appreciate, love and grow with their children, either decision can be the right one". She really liked that part :)

Anyway, I also had another test in class last night, and got a much better score on this one. Yay! I think it helped that the test was at 8 pm, and not 10 pm like last week. Last week I was closing one eye to try and read the words in the test I was so tired! The other fun part about last night was when a couple of the ladies in class started asking about the adoption, and one of them started jumping up and down and clapping her hands in excitement for us. I feel like doing that all the time, so I appreciated her reaction! I love answering questions about the adoption, and could talk about it all day and all night. I hate overwhelming the people around me with too much adoption talk, so when I meet a new person who is excited I tend to talk about it quite a bit.

This weekend we are heading up to help my brother and sister-in-law get their house ready to put on the market, and pack up their house. They are moving to God's country - Northern Minnesota - in order to be closer to work. Gus will be coming with us, as he idolizes my brother's dog, Roger. It is always fun to watch Gus try to entice Roger in a game of chase or tug-of-war.