Hammer Time

 It may look a little girly, and perhaps it is in it's flowers and lightness. But this little thing is the handiest little thing in my kitchen drawer. My mother in law gave it to me a couple of Christmas's ago and I swear I use it at least once a month.



Oh my, the knobby bit on the curtain rod that makes the end look pretty fell off, don't worry I'll get my girly hammer and use the tiny tool. Door knob came loose again on the linen closet? Easy peasy. If you ever see one, I strongly suggest you buy it and stash it in a convenient location so when you need a wee tool you don't have to go digging in 4 spots that your husband stashes tools, or out to the garage to find a that magic stick of metal in -30. You can thank me later.

It's the little things.

Easter, and then some

 The last week, or so, in pictures...

Bought a blender, made a smoothie (more like 8). Yum. Baked a 

chocolate doughnut cake for ma-in-laws early Birthday. Also Yum. 

 

A trip to Medicine Hat for Easter and Anthony got (among many things from his very spoiling 

Grandparents:) a football. Multiple games of Monkey in the Middle have been had. 

(I'm enjoying all his lifesavers, thanks Debbie and Marvin!)

While Grandpa took Anthony fishing, Gord took me to visit baby chicks and bunnies.
Apparently no grown ups are interestedin petting baby animals. Just me.
Reason #34 to obtain a small child of our own.  Cause it was a bit akward...

 In my last post, I talked about how I get excited when we are driving on the prairies and I get to see a train (or on this trip TWO!) but because you are on the prairies, you get to see the whole train at once. All 92 box cars (yes I even count them). I find it very satisfying and think that that it really fulfills the prairie experience. That, and seeing power lines end, 10 year boys shooting pellet guns with their Grandpa and cows in a field up against the local Walmart very much amuse me and make me smile. (Side story: In the fall we were driving to Drumheller and out of the corner of my eye at the side of the road, I caught a glimpse of a deer, however, because I'm so Albertan now, without thinking I shouted "Hey a buck!", because it had horns of course. A few years ago, I never would have known that. Or thought that 10 year olds should be shooting pellet guns. But here I am, I think I am officially a prairie girl.)

 Seriously, could she get any cuter? (the answer, in case you were wondering is no. No she cannot)

                                                 Hanging out, lazy Sunday-ing it.

And today, Anthony and I made Chocolate Chili Cookies. You can find the recipe here, and you won't be disappointed. We didn't put the currents in and they were still yummy. If you make it with the currents let me know how they turn out. (Also, if you scoop 2 tbsp of the dough - it's very wet, it's suppose to be, you will get very large cookies and only about a dozen)

What's Working?

There's a blog that I started following a little while ago and am quite enjoying. It's called My Fascinating Life.  The woman who writes it is linking blogs talking about what's going well for people, and since things seem to be pretty darn great around here these days, I thought I'd join in. Here's what's working well for me/us right now.

*Prepping Anthony for adoption. The conversations we are having are funny, interesting, enjoyable and are reminding me that as smart as he is, he is still 10 years old and thinks like a 10 year old. His openness though in talking about his fears (particularly over his 3ds, of course) are comforting and reassuring to us that we are approaching this whole crazy train in the right way. We know this because when we make reference to a brother, the kid doesn't even flinch or miss a beat. (We meet our adoption worker this week too. Yippee -  Another step towards chaos!)

*30 day challenges. Gord challenged himself in March to write everyday. Turns out when you write for 2-3 hours each day you end up with a book. A whole freakin' book! He may even try to get it published. So, it inspired me to make my own challenge and for the month of April I am exercising everyday. I haven't missed a day yet and I'm tired and energetic at the same time. It's definitely a challenge to make sure I plan ahead in the day of when I'm going to fit it in, and then there's the actual doing part that's a challenge too. But I"m determined to not fail and I figure in the end it's a double victory; one for my body and two for my stubbornness of refusing to loose to myself!

*The Sopranos. We don't have cable but download movies once in a while to watch at night. About once a year, we fall into a pattern of downloading a show and getting hooked. Right now it's The Sopranos, which I never watched when it was on. We are just starting season three and have been watching at least 1 episode a night. It's become such a routine and habit and I am loving curling up on the couch under a big fat blanket with Gord and turning my brain off for 40 minutes.

*Visiting in Medicine Hat. Two days of watching the Food Network, hanging with family and doing nothing but eating and sitting around (minus my exercise time of course)went very well for me:) Our drive out even included seeing two trains (when I can see the beginning and end of a train at the same time I feel like it's a prairie victory), tumble weed and finding the end of a power line. I know this may sound a little strange, but not being from the prairies these things are very satisfying to see when in the middle of nothing but field and sky. You feel like you got you money's worth and got the real prairie experience (what can I say, small things amuse me?)

*There's so much else that is well and making me happy right now: The kitties - cause they are always a barrel of entertainment and cuteness and I'm particularly enjoying their cuddliness right now. Prepping for Gord to return to school is going well. Getting ready for spring and enjoying some moments in the warm sunshine over the past week are definitely going well. Feeling somewhat on top of distant friends and connecting with them - yep that's going well. Having Anthony's assessment and diagnosis confirmed - well. Sewing - well. Feeling relatively calm and sane - check! That's also well!

I think I may have to stop there as I must go get my exercises in!

(just because all this is going well doesn't mean it's going to come to a crashing halt right? Sometimes too much well and optimism can make a girl feel that way! I guess that's for a different post...!)

Staycation

 Well I did it! I managed to spend 5 days off and check off many things on my giant to do list in amongst morning naps, long showers and couch slothing. The weather wasn't as nice as I thought it would be, but all the gardening and outdoor activities were replaced with closest cleanings and watching many episodes of The Soprano's (with no cable, we get hooked on a show once in a while and download the series...almost done season one!)

I also got to makin' me a second shirt: way easier than the first, although it took a few alterations and adjustments, and took me only 2 and half hours. Now, I just need some nice weather so I can wear my new shirts! (I also made two birthday presents but will wait to post them:)

And, the best part of having a staycation? Making peanutbutter cornflake balls at 11:30 pm on a whim. Yumm.

Good thing there's only 2 work days of work to get through before the weekend...I'm going to need to ease back in as I've become very accustomed to my new life style!

Holy Crap

The last couple of weeks have slowed down FINALLY!! And go figure, it was hard. I had the chance to exercise, read, waste time looking on the internet, scroll Pinterest page after page... And it was glorious for about an hour and then I got bored. It really is like they say; the grass is always greener...
Well fret no more because as soon as I start to fall into my boredom and embrace it and sloth around the couches, the to do list mounts. Good thing Gord and I have a 5 day weekend (you read right, 5 DAYS!)  starting in exactly 19 hours from right now.
                                                           
Things I plan to do:
1. Build a short bench for pots on the deck
2. Shovel out dirt from the veggie garden, divide the veggie garden box to make 2 boxes and re-shovel dirt into 2nd said box
3. Take photos of our clean house to make a photo book for our adoption (they show them to the kids to start the transition from foster care to our home)
4. Clean the house (prior to 3 obviously or otherwise why bother?!)
5. Drop off adoption forms, buy a lock box, CO2 detector and cupboard locks (cause I'm sure everyone with children has all their meds in a lock box and wasn't allowed to birth until they had one. The joys of adoption)
6. Exercise, drink tea, spend my Wellness money from work (woohoo, I love my job again!) look at Pinterest like it's my job, watch documentaries, peruse google for answers to all the questions I've been thinking about (like what and why is it when you're falling asleep do you twitch and jump?)
7. Sew something that isn't a blanket or pants (the first pant attempt didn't' go so hot and it's not easy letting go...sigh)
8. Spring clean room by room for our garage sale in May/June and pile all the crap, I mean treasures,  in one spot

I could keep going but I"m sure by now you're bored and don't really care.

I also intend to keep a close eye on my new herbs growing in my new herb pots sent from a great friend for my birthday last month! I've never tried to grow herbs inside but so far so good!

Basil, Lemon Balm and Mint

AND dream about my veggie garden with things like this in them so that in a few months I can re take this photo with veggies all from MY garden!

And so with all the adoption to do's I'm sure you are all wondering where things are at. And if you aren't, I'm going to tell you anyway.
We are in the midst of setting up our first home visit with our intake worker, then we move to our home study, then to matching, then to adoption (training was as predicted - with one day to go this coming Saturday, but at the same time it was better than expected and made me/us feel confident that we know what we are doing and can handle the issues and behaviours that are pretty much guaranteed to come our way).
However this past week has been a roller coaster as we hummed and hawed over letting our worker know we were interested in a particular child, who we happen to know about because of our work and who we happen to know is up for adoption and more than likely deemed a 'hard to place' child because of his needs (this also included a very interesting and enlightening conversation with Anthony, more on that later).
We did eventually let her know and it was very....emotional. Of course we are getting way ahead of ourselves at this point and there's still at least 3 months to go, AT LEAST. But, we feel we are in the thick of it now and fairly confident (at this point anyway) that we could be placed this summer. And that equals a lot, A LOT, of holy crap moments, (tears), and to do lists.

Happy Spring!

Adoption butterflies

A week from tomorrow we start our 'training', 4 days over 2 weekends to talk all adoption; process, challenges the kids may have, logistics, etc. I think Gord and I could probably teach some of the classes and I'm sure we will be irritated by some of the mis-information (I'm just assuming...I know that's wrong but I can't help it) or bored by the basics.

But whatever! This process feels sloooow. I'm a 'think it do it girl' and I do not like to wait for things. At least going to the workshops, no matter the content (and I know too that there will be some questions answered so it's not all terrible and pessimistic) is doing something. It's one more step in the right direction and one step close to having a freaking kid! A real human!

 And that's the other thing. I don't know if this is what pregnant women go through, but there are times when it feel like we are just going through the motions - checking the boxes, talking to each other about the what if's, talking to Anthony about it, planning a bit around time off, what days may look like etc., but it all seems to be very logical and linear and just what has to be done. And then, there's these moments where I freak out a bit, get butterflies, and yes there may be a tear or two, and realize that this is real. This is happening. And one day very soon there will be a small child sleeping/crying/playing/pooping/ and just being, simply existing in the room that is mere feet from where I'm sitting right now. We'll let them out of the room too:) But holy shit; a kid! My kid! And it all suddenly doesn't feel so logical and far away but absolutely crazy. And wonderful. And right.

A 10th Birthday

 Anthony turns 10 today and because of the busy craziness that has become our everyday (and birthday guys karate tournament this weekend) we went for dinner last weekend to the Calgary tower, cause when your 10 you get fancy pants. Anthony didn't want a party so we said he could invite a friend and this is him and Andrew on the glass floor at the top of the tower.

 

Dinner was delicious! Anthony ate so much he got sick after, I think he liked it too. For his actual birthday day, we made an ice cream cake (peanut butter chocolate with oreo crust and skor) at his request, as per birthday traditions rules in our house. It turned out great and we can't wait to eat it later tonight:)