Boo hiss!

I heard back from our social worker last night. Apparently he is out of town until late Friday night. Which means that the earliest he could get it notarized and back in the mail to the agency would probably be Monday. Meaning we won't receive it until the end of next week. Suck.
I know it's not a huge deal, because in reality, we're just waiting to be home study complete, so that we can wait to be matched. Hurry up and wait, as they say! But I was really anticipating being done a couple of weeks ago. *shrugs* Oh well. What can you do, right?

How long did your home study process take? We'll be just shy of 5 months, it looks like.

It's my day off. I have a ton of photos to edit. And we're having a BBQ this weekend, so I also need to clean some. But before I go, let me leave you with my newest work of art! I'm going to print each letter individually and hang them in our front hallway. Tell me what you think! I think I'm a fan!

Thinking of You...

It seem that over the course of the last month or so, not only has their been a baby boom in the adoption blogger world, but there's also been a trend of failed adoptions. There have been several of my blogger friends that have recently gone through one. And it just breaks my heart. But somehow, they have all remained strong, kept their head high, and kept right along. And when it happens, there's nothing that you can say to make it better. I think anyone in the IF community knows that there usually aren't any words. All you can do is tell them that you're thinking and praying for them. And that you're there to cry to, if needed. It sucks to see someone hurting.

And it also scares me. Of course, with adoption, there's always the chance of these things happening. But seeing it happen, first hand to people you "know", it's terrifying. I know that without risks, there are no rewards. And I will continue down this path that we are going. I will try to remain cautious once chosen, but I'm also not naive. I know that when it happens, I will fall head over heels in love. And just have to hope to God that he has chosent that baby to be mine!

Anyway, this has been something that's been on my mind for awhile now. And after hearing about another failed adoption today, I felt the need to get it off of my chest. On our adoption front, still no papers. I'm about to email my social worker and check to see when he mailed them back to the agency. Still holding out hope that we can celebrate our paper pregnancy this weekend. Guess we'll see!

To the ladies who are dealing with this right now, you all have so many people who care about you, and who are thinking about you. And I won't try to say anything to fix it, because that's impossible. So I'm sending lots of hugs your way!

::HUGS::

This and that. And a lot of photos!

Hello friends! How's everyone doing??

I'm doing pretty good! I have my days though. Lately, I've been feeling very overwhelmed with everything. Not just adoption related stuff. But what can you do about it, other than suck it up and go with it?
Here are some things going on lately:
   * I have been taking a ton of pictures with my new camera! I'll post some at the end of this post. I even had my first paying customer, since moving to New York! It's a start to re-building my clientele out here.
   * Our home study papers should be here any day now! I've been saying this for over a week. But I was confused by what our agency told me. She said she put it in the mail last Friday. I assumed it was coming straight to us. But then I found out that it goes to our social worker, back to the agency, then back to us. Assuming he was prompt about getting it signed, then it should be here to us sometime this week! We are this close!
   * Kyle and I have been spending a lot of time together! I LOVE shore duty!!!
   *  I have been extremely self-conscious lately. I always am, but it's just intensified recently. Especially last night when I went out with a few of my much thinner girlfriends. Nobody wants to be the fat friend in the group. And even though I almost always am, last night I was so incredibly uncomfortable. I hate that feeling. But luckily, I have a husband who loves me no matter what I look like, and still finds me sexy even! When he woke up this morning, and I told him about my night, he made me feel much better and loved up on me!
   * Both of my sisters passed their state boards for their nursing licenses! Good job Erika and Whitney! I'm so proud of you both!
   * My nephew made his entrance into the world last week! Mom, Dad (my brother), and baby are all doing well! This is him.

And for some of my newer pictures! Sorry if I go overboard! I love taking pictures! Oh and if you're on Facebook, you should become a fan of my photo page!

These first few are of our good friend Billy and his son, Bly. Billy lives in Virginia and his son lives up here in New York. He comes up to visit every chance he gets, but of course its never often enough. I volunteered to do a photo shoot for him!

Kyle and I went to the fair to test out my new camera! And to eat funnel cake. Mmmm.

This cute family was my first official paying shoot in NY! They are my neighbors, though not for much longer. :( They are so sweet, and we had a great time doing the pictures!

Their girls, Randi and Hannah. Sisterly love!

This is where we did the photos at. Beautiful right?!

And just for funsies, a new self portrait of Kyle and I. Neither one of us have been terribly photogenic lately! LoL

  

Tarnished.

I hate that my feelings have to tarnish everything. But I can't help it. After everything we've been through, those feelings and emotions are there. And they effect my life. I can't hear a pregnancy or birth announcement without having that bit of resentment. I can't buy baby gifts for others without desperately wishing that it was for my baby. And I can't see a happy little family without biting back the tears.
Wednesday, my brother and his wife will be welcoming their first child into the world. My big brother is going to be a daddy to a baby boy. And while I am so happy for them (they were IFers too), I still can't help but feel that sharp pain of sadness/jealousy/resentment. It seems like they just found out they were pregnant last week. Time flies.
In the last four years, I have seen so many people get pregnant and have their babies. And a lot of them I've seen do it more than once. Everyone around me is building their families. While we have been working at trying to build a family for nearly four years. Life is not fair. So cliche', but so true. I know that we are getting so close to finally achieving the dream. Closer than we've ever been before! But until we have our baby in our arms, it's just not close enough.

On a brighter note, I am so thrilled for all of my adoptive mommy friends out there who have recently been matched and/or brought home your babies! How exciting! It seems like it's been a baby boom in the adoption blogger world in the last few weeks! Congratulations to you all!!! I cannot wait for our turn! But in the meantime, I will bask in your glow. And you are all helping to keep me optimistic! Eyes on the prize, as they say! And for those of those that are still waiting (IFers and waiting to adopt), we'll get our babies, one way or another, they will come to us. Keep your chins up, and your cocktail glass full! ;)

Working for the weekend!

And it looks like my hard work has paid off! Weehaww! I'm kind of bummed though. We were supposed to go out on their boat with our neighbors, but apparently a lot of family popped in, so we had to reschedule. Boo whore! I had to go play on the lake. Oh well. Maybe next time.

Pete the social worker says that he will have our home study written up by the end of next week at the latest! Then it goes to our agency to be proofed, then to us to be signed, and voila! Home study complete!

As soon as we are complete, Kyle and I are going to start on the nursery! Yippee! AND we will go register. I will finally get to register! Do you know how long I've been waiting for this?! To some, lame. But to me, BA!

My blog needs a face lift. But I'm too lazy/don't have the time to re-do it. And I really am not into paying to get it done. Even though I have seem so CUTE ones!

As always, still reading, just sucking at commenting. My bad.

I'm off to go snuggle with my Boo! Hope y'all have a great weekend!

Our home study visit is over!

Wednesday was the big day. The day we met our social worker, Pete, and the day that of our complete home study visit. He was awesome enough to roll them all into one meeting. We covered it all that day; couple interview, individual interviews, and our in home visit. He was here for over 4 hours. But it all went really well! Pete is extremely laid back, friendly, and put our minds at ease. He laughed a lot (but I mean, come on! We're really funny and charming people!). Prior to the visit, I posted on Twitter, asking for things I should not say to him. We got some really funny responses, including telling him about the matching kennels that we have for the dog and the baby! I have great friends! Ha!

But now, that visit is done and over with! He said it will take him a week or two to write up a draft. Then we'll get together again to review it, he submits it, it gets approved, and BAM! We'll be home study complete! Hooray! And then? More waiting! Oh well, it's not any worse than any of the other waiting we've done. I'll take it!

Everything else is going really good! Still really liking the new town. Work is good, the girls are growing like whoa! Wanna see a new picture? I took this earlier in the week with my bad ass new camera! OMFG its awesome and I totally want to make out with it!

How stinkin' cute are those girls?! Katie is on the left, Maddie is on the right.

Oh and I'm finally making some new friends! Thank goodness, I felt like such a loser for awhile. But I'm getting out there, and meeting new people. Including a couple who doesn't have any kids (which is such a rare find in our age group!), the new adoptive parents, and some other really great women. I'm such a social person, and I love having a large, diverse circle of friends. Moving around a lot, you have to rebuild that circle every few years. And I'm working on it again.

Alright, I gots ta go! Brina is bringing over her youngest and her dog. We're watching them while they take their two big kids to an amusement/water park. Plus I've got a ton of pictures to edit. Oh don't you worry! I'm going to have a large picture spam post soon! I have to show off my skills/the awesomeness that is my new camera! Enjoy the rest of your weekend, Sweets!

My first Blogger award!

The Rules

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you this award.

Thanks to Brina! She's one of my bests, an amazing mother, and a crafty lady! And funny too! Plus, she gives away shit all of the time! What's not to love?!



2. Share seven things about yourself.


* I HATE cotton balls! I cannot stand the feel of them or the sound. And yes, they make a sound. Just pull one apart. ::shivers:: Ugh. I think I just threw up in my mouth!

* I have OCD tendencies when it comes to certain things. Example, my closet. I like everything hung in a certain order in there. I don't like it when it gets messed up. But most other things, I'm pretty haphazard about.

* I LOVE coffee and diet soda! They are two of my biggest addictions. And  Coffee Mate Coconut creamer in my coffee is the absolute best! Well, as far as home brewed coffee goes. Hands down though, a venti, non-fat, no-whip white mocha from Starbucks is my favorite though! (iced or hot, depends on the weather!)

* Even after more than 8 years together, most days Kyle and I are still ridiculously head over heels in love. We even play the "'I love you!' 'I love you more!' 'I love you more than that!' 'Not possible!'" game on a regular basis. He makes me so insanely happy!

* I'm not really a hugger anymore. I used to be, but grew out of it. I will hug you if I haven't seen you in a long time, if I'm not going to see you for a long time, if something great or awful is going on, or if you just need a hug. But other than that, not so much. Kids and Kyle are excluded from this. I will hug and kiss on them all day long!

* I love to sleep!

* I have an extremely hard time keeping secrets! Haha! I don't do it intentionally, but I'm a talker, and sometimes I forget to stop!



3. Pass this award along to fifteen bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic for whatever reason!


My 15 Fab Finds are as follows:
 
1.) Kim's Clever Notions She makes some of the neatest things! She is super talented and incredibly sweet!
 
2.) Barefoot Foodie Brittany is hands down, one of the funniest blogs that I have read! She cracks me up!
 
3.) Christa She is one of the many infertility blogs that I follow. She is a sweet girl, and I found out that we lived 2 hours apart in WA state, but never knew it until we had both moved!
 
4.) Her Womb, Our Hearts One of my first adoptive blogger friends that I made. J is an awesome person, who is currently learning the ropes of becoming a military wife!
 
5.) Journey to the Center of the Uterus Another IF blog. She puts a funny spin on the not always so funny world of infertility.
 
6.) Life's Crazy Joke Another very funny lady! Her posts always have me cracking up!
 
7.) Lucky 13 and Counting Sandi is a mother to 15 beautiful children. Most of them are adopted, and over half are special needs. She is an incredible woman!
 
8.) Lynch Laughter Another IF blogger. I never get tired of reading other stories of people who have been through so much of the same stuff as I have.
 
9.) Nuture Your Hopes Faith is a woman waiting on the miracle of adoption. Even after all they've been through, she still manages to be such an incredibly sweet and positive person.
 
10.) Southern Comfort is a blog on the musings of a southern girl, stuck in the northwest, but getting ready to head back home.
 
11.) The Montes Kim is a new mom to three! She has three handsome boys that keep her on her toes!
 
12.) Waiting for Something Beautiful Trisha is another one of my many adoptive blogger friends. They are playing the waiting game, ready to bring home their baby!
 
13.) Words from a Free Spirit Jen's blog about her hobbies, her kids, and whatever else happens to pop into her head while at the computer!
 
14.) A Day in Alex's Life Emily's 365 day photo project of her baby boy's 2nd year of life!
 
15.) Simply Shelby Shelby is an amazing photographer! Hopefully once the weather starts cooling down, her photo shoots will increase! I love to see her photos!
 

Helloooooo Weekend!

I made a new friend in town! And her and her husband are not only Navy, but they also adopted their first son two months ago. We went and had ice cream with them last night and had a really nice time. It's so nice to be able to sit down and talk to someone who knows what we've been through, and what we're going through. I don't have that IRL. Just on here. Don't get me wrong, I love you all! And have been an invaluable source for info, knowledge, comfort, ect. But to have that in person is also pretty great! She said she knows a few other people in the area who have adopted as well. And once we're home study complete, our agency has a Yahoo group that I can join. I'm really hoping that I will find some more local families. I've still only met a small handful of new people here. I've been so busy lately, I just haven't had time! I've barely seen the friends I already have, much less trying to go out and make new friends! And at this age, it's so hard to meet new people! Especially if you don't have kids. I'm sure I would creep out more than a few Moms if I should up at a Mommy Meet-up! LoL Oh well, these things take time I suppose! It's not like the waiting game is one that I've never played before!

Hooray for the weekend! With this damn cold, I haven't been sleeping good at night all week. I'm so looking forward to not waking up at 6 a.m. tomorrow! Holler!

Finally!

Finally, for a couple of things!

Finally, I was able to get back into Blogger! For whatever reason, I haven't been able to log in or look at any blogs for nearly two days now. I have no idea what was up with that.

And, we finally got a call from our social worker! He's a really nice guy, who seems laid back.  His name is Pete (and yes, I'm using his first name. I'm not really into the whole initial thing. Seems pointless), and we have our first (of two) meetings with him on Wednesday! Ahh! It's so soon! And he's fairly optimistic that he can have us home study complete by the beginning of August! Hooray!

I have a head cold. Ick. And I have successfully passed it on to Kyle. Oops. Sorry Boo. Hopefully I avoid giving it to the twins. I've been wearing face masks during feeding and changing. And I've been avoiding being all up in their face and giving them kisses. Hopefully we start feeling better soon.

I'm off to bed. Tomorrow morning will be here entirely too soon! And we have a dessert date with a local adoptive couple tomorrow night. That should be fun! They have a two month old son! I'm sure I'll update in a few days, freaking out about the upcoming meeting! Words of advice to not freak out would be great! Thanks ladies! I'm so lucky to have made so many great friends through the blogosphere! Thank-you for always being there to listen, give advice, and lead the way!

Still playing catch-up!

I know I'm still not being the greatest blogger and/or commenter! But I am reading! I promise! Things are finally calming down. Some. Here's a quick rundown of what's been happening at The Cope House!

* Kyle's mom is staying with us. She's been here for a couple of weeks, and she isn't sure how long she will be here. She was going through some stuff at home and needed to get away. It's going surprisingly well! I love his Mom and get along with her well. But for the last six years, we've been living on our own, only seeing family a couple of times a year! But for now, it's been nice. Plus she helps out around the house, which is great, because I hate to clean! Ha!

* We bought a new car yesterday. It's for Kyle. It's a Mazda Speed 3, and he is so excited about it! I'm happy for him!

* The agency called yesterday. She is choosing our social worker, and we should hear from them this week or next! YAY! And she also said that she is optimistic that we should be home study complete by the beginning of August! AND she also told me that I could send in my five copies of our profile and if any situations come up, she will start showing us!!!! AHHH! That made me so happy!!!

Those are the main things for now. There's others, but nothing huge. But as always, I need to go. Kyle is on mids this week, so I'm hanging out with him before he goes into work tonight. Peace out players!

Chopped!

My hair, that is! I've been growing out my hair for forever. Kyle loves it long, so I did it for him. But it finally just got to the point where it was looking more stringy than cute. Time to chop it off! I'm not sure how many inches went, had to have been 5 or 6 though! I think I'm a fan of it! Still getting used to it; I haven't had short hair in quite some time. But boy does it feel great!

Cute, no?

Happy 100th Post! And other exciting news!

First of all, I feel the need to state that this is my 100th post! Hooray!
Now that that's out of the way, I got some great news today! Our background checks are done! We got our clearances! Yesssssssssss! We are now moving onto the final phase of the the home study! Tomorrow, I'll mail out yet another check (LAME!), and once they receive it, they will assign us our social worker! I can't wait! We are so close! I'm hoping by August 1st we'll be done! But we'll see. We have to have three meetings with our social worker. And our family advocate at the agency said that depending on where the social worker is located, she may even cut it down to two! That would be awesome! But either way, we are sooooooo close! I'm in such a great mood today! I'm so happy and excited! And I'm feeling so super optimistic! I can't wait to be matched and find out who our birth parents are, what they look like, what gender our baby will be, and what our baby will look like and be like! I cannot wait to be a Momma!

Anyway, that is the big update for now! I have added a new button! Grab it and add it to your page! If you do, let me know if you have one, and I would be happy to add your button to my blog!

I hope everyone is having a great week! I know mine is off to a great start!

Just like the circus!

Sorry I've been MIA lately, my house is pretty much a 5 ring circus these days! As I've mentioned before, Brina's family is here. And then, as of Sunday night, we have another house guest! It was unexpected, but we're happy to have them here. Probably going to stay for awhile. But I'll get into that another day. Can't really go into details just yet.

In our 1.500 sq. feet townhome, we have 5 adults, 3 kids, 2 dogs, and a cat! Chaos, I tell you! But it's not been nearly as bad as I anticipated. I figured it would be unbearable. But it's not. Her kids are so well behaved, and it's fun having them all here! The Macreadys should be closing on their house on the 28th, then they'll be into their own home. And we'll be down to one guest. And life will attempt to regain some normalcy! Ha!

Other than that, I don't really have anything to report. On the adoption front, our family advocate said that she thought our profile looked great! And she really liked it! That was nice to hear. Still no word on our background checks, but it's been about a month, so I figure any time now. I'm so ready to get assigned and meet with a social worker! I'm ready to get that part done, and be home study complete! Shouldn't be too much longer, I'm hoping!

Well dearies, it's my day off. But this girl has a lot to get done. I need a haircut like whoa! I've kept putting it off because I hate finding someone new, and the trial and error process that comes with it!Wish me luck! Luckily I'm only going in for a trim, for now. My hair is getting long, I want to cut it short. But not ready to commit to that just yet. I need to find someone who does a good job on my hair first! Hehe! Alright, I'm out! I'll try not to be such a slack ass with my blogging!

We have a winner!

The give-away is officially over, and we have a winner! I jused http://www.random.org/ to select a winner, and it chose number 7! Which was Krystal! You're the big winner, Lady! Email me your address, and I will get your box filled with goodies mailed out ASAP! tiff (underscore) nichole 0 3 at hotmail dot com

Congratulations Krystal! And for everyone else, thanks for participating, maybe we'll do another give away soon!!! In the process of this one, I gained a ton of new followers! And I hope you all continue to follow our journey to parenthood!

P.s. The give away ends tonight at 9 east coast time!!! This is your last chance to enter! And if you have posted it to your blog, Twitter, or Facebook, be sure to leave a comment letting me know so that you get your extra entries!!! Winner will be announced tonight!

Some days, I am filled with such an incredible, overwhelming, indescribable love for our future baby (as opposed to a sadness for not being here yet)! Today is one of those days. I can't wait for the day that I finally get to meet my baby! And I can't wait to finally be a Mom! I have so much confidence in the fact that Kyle and I are going to be amazing parents! We have so much love built up for our child. And we have waited and wanted this for such a long time. I can't wait to finish up the home study so that we can move on to being matched! I know we still have a bit before we become parents, but we are closer than we have ever been! And that alone puts a giant smile on my face!

I love you Babycakes Cope, and we can't wait to meet you!!
All our love, Mom and Dad

Hooray! Its Friday!

Now that I have a real job again, I can go back to appreciating the weekend! When you don't work, all of the days kind of run into each other! Today the girls were fussy! I think it was because it was warmer today than it has been for the past few days. But they were giving me a run for my money! It's a good thing they're cute! Haha! This was us at the end of the day! I had them both in the chair with me to try and avoid some fussiness! It only worked for a few minutes. Haha!

Sidenote, my boobs look good in that picture! Hehe!

I have gotten so great answers on what everyone would put in their Give Away Box! If you haven't answered yet, go there now! Clickety click click a roo! Y'all have even listed quite a few of the things that I have put in my box! You have until Monday night at 9 p.m. eastern time to enter the give-away! I can't quit picking up stuff to add to the box. There's no telling what else will be added by then!

Sabrina and her family will probably be here tomorrow night. Yay! I'm so excited to see them all! Mostly the kids, but Chad and Brina too. They have been making a fairly similar trip to the one we did a few months ago. And it is a looooooong trip! They will be staying with us until they close on their house. We'll have Kyle and I, our cat and dog, Brina and Chad, their 3 kids, and their yellow lab! All in our 2 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom townhouse. It will be interesting! But never a dull moment, that's for sure!

Alright, I'm out of here! I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend! And if you haven't already, go enter to win the box!!!

Its finally time for the give away!!!!

I should have done this last night/today, but I was slacking. BUT, I'm finally here! And We hit and passed the mark of 50 followers! You know what that means! It's time for the awesome box give away! If you missed those posts, go here!  It's a box filled with some of my favorite things! The picture doesn't show everything. There are some more things that I have picked up since, and I'm sure I will continue to pick up in the next week!

So here's the deal! (One of my favorite phrases, ever!) If you want a chance to win, here are the rules and some ways that you can get more than one entry!

*You must be a follower of this blog! If you are not, now would be an excellent time to do so!

*You have to leave a comment and tell me 5 things that you would put into a give away box of your favorite things.

Now, by doing those you get one entry to win. But, if you want more, here's what you've gotta do!

*Blog/Tweet/Facebook about my give away! Linking back to here! (You'll get one entry for each one, as long as you can show where you did it.)

*If you were brought here by someone who did one of the above, tell me who sent you, and you will both get an extra entry!

*Be sure to leave a seperate comment for each thing that you do, that way I know how many entries to give each person!

The give away is going to go until Monday, June 14th 9 p.m. EST ! And then, I will announce the winner! Your box will be mailed on that Wednesday and to you, shortly thereafter!

GOOD LUCK! And I'm excited to see how will win this box!!!

I just need two more!

I'm only two people away from doing the Awesome Box give-away! Want to see preview of what is in the box?

And that's not everything! There will be a few more extra surprises in there! Including a Crochet Candy from Kim's awesome blog! She said she is a sucker for a give away, and she wanted to contribute! She is so creative and makes the cutest stuff, and takes some amazing photos! Go check her out!

The box is nothing super fantastic, but it has some fun stuff in it. And besides, who doesn't love free?!

I'm going on Wednesday to print out one copy of our profile for our agency to review. She saw the link online, but asked if she could see a hard copy. But from what she saw, she said she loved our photos!

Ooh! I also got the mobile for our crib set today! I got the bedding quite awhile ago, but the mobile was back ordered. But it showed up today! How stinkin' cute is this?! Crappy cell phone pic quality, but you get the idea!

I am in love with our crib set, and I'm so happy that I went with it! I can't wait to paint the nursery! As soon as we are home study approved, it's on!

And while I'm spamming you with pictures, here is one more! Kyle finally re-stained our kitchen table! We have had it since we got married. But it was made years ago by Kyle's Grandpa. We also have a china hutch and our bedroom set that was made by him. Anyway, I never loved the color of the table. I'm a dark wood kind of girl. He's been meaning to do it foreve, but he never had the time in Washington. But here, he finally did! Now all we need is to buy a new set of unfinished wood chairs and stain them to match! He did such a good job on the table! It's not my style of furniture, but it means a lot to him to have it.

Nice, eh? Once again, crappy cell phone picture. But it was easier than busting out the big guy, and then uploading to the computer blah blah blah!

Well my dears, I need to go tuck Kyle into bed! He has to go into work at 3 a.m. Ick! Hope everyone has a fantastic week!

P.s. If you aren't a follower, become one! Right NOW! Please and thank-you!

Hand Picked

Whenever I go to Target (or anywhere for that matter!), no how much I try to fight it, I ALWAYS end up in the baby section! I just can't help it. There is a gravitational pull there, I swear! Anyway, I have been eyeing this set since it first came out at the beginning of spring. When I first saw it, I always thought it would be perfect if we adopt a little girl! But I never bought it, because who knows if we'll get a boy or girl. But today, I just couldn't resist any longer, and I bought it! I figure if we end up with a boy, then I'll just pass it on to one of my bloggy friends who has a girl! Tell me that this isn't so precious, and so perfect for adoption? I just love it! The first one says "Hand Picked", the middle one is just daises, and the one of the back says "Watch Me Grow".

Quick post!

Majority rules! For the give-away, I'm going to do a box full of fun! It will be filled with all sorts of goodies! It will mostly be things that I love, and depending on who wins and how much I know about them, I will try to personalize it a bit as well! We are only 8 followers away from beginning! And then I will post details on what's up!

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

XOXO

P.s. I saw this street sign today, and I just had to laugh! Because it's usually true! *wink* Brilliant I tell you!

Ideas?

I figured that I would have come up with someone ultra awesome to give away. But no. LoL I suck at this game. I don't really have any awesome creative skills of my own, other than photography. And it's fair at best, and kind of a lame prize. So I am asking you, what would you like the chance to win? Some good reads? A gift certificate? Something homemade and crafty from one of my many awesome crafty friends? A box filled with random fun? Help! I really thought I would have had a stroke of genius by now, but no! I've put all of my creative energy into other outlets. I need some opinions! Or this will be a non-existent/lamest give-away ever! Aaaaand go!

P.s. Stop judging me!

Back to the grind.

That's right! This week, I re-joined the adult world and started my new job! With moving and everything, I haven't worked since the end of February! And my last few months there were part time, so I am used to not working much at all! Haha! Tuesday was tough! I had a hard time sleeping the night before because I had accidentally gotten on Kyle's current schedule. We were staying up until 2 a.m. and sleeping in until 11 or 12! Oops! He had to for his shift, I just did it, well just because I had nothing better to do! Anyway, long story short, I only slept a couple of hours and then had to wake up at 5:45! No bueno! But the girls were pretty good, so that helped a lot. I was just soooo sleepy! Hello coffees and Monsters! LoL And it's also been a short week, which has been awesome! Worked Tuesday, I'm off on Wednesdays, today I got off at noon because they had  a doctor's appointment, and Fridays are shorter days! Weehaw! I'm really enjoying the time with the girls! They are so sweet! Wanna see a picture of them?

Precious, right? Maddie is on the left, and Katie is on the right. I think this job will work out nicely! And did I tell you that their Mom is going to hold onto all of their clothes, in case we get a girl?! Awesome right? I have great bosses! They are super nice, and we get along well. That is very important!

I just got done emailing a copy of our profile to our family advocate, at the agency. Fingers crossed that she likes it! I'm so nervous waiting to hear back from her! guess only time will tell! We don't have a social worker. Our agency doesn't appoint one until after all of your clearances have gone through. Hopefully that will be soon! But for now, we have our family advocate. And she seems really nice. I also asked her what's next? We have sent in all of our paperwork, all of our documents that they needed, and we've even completed the profile! Besides our 3 meetings(minimum) with a social worker, I think that's it! Exciting!

Anyway, I'm going to try to go get a few things accomplished before Kyle wakes up and wants some dinner. Oh! And don't forget! Once I get to 50 followers I'll be doing a give-away! Still no details yet...I should really figure that out. But at the rate it's taking to get followers, seems like I have awhile! Am I just not that interesting?! LoL

Hands, touching hands!

I was editing photos and came across this one. I had forgotten I had taken it. This mural was painted on the side of a building in downtown Lynchburg, VA. I wish I would have gotten a better picture of it, but it was taken as we were driving by. I like it though. I think I will hang it in the nursery. I had already planned on using my own photography as wall in there (as I already have in the rest of my house as well!), but this picture is more than just art. it has an important meaning behind. I will teach our children tolerance and open-mindedness to everyone. You don't judge anyone based on their skin color, their sexuality, their religion, or their life choices. I think respect, tolerance, and manners are three of the most important things a kid needs to know! Alright, I'll step off of my soap box now, but I just wanted to share this photo.

Frustrating.

Last night I went over to a friend's house to hang out. Her Mom was in town and had a few drinks. I was showing my friend our profile, and her Mom started asking questions. "Profile for what? Adopting? A baby? How old are you? May I ask why you need to adopt? Have you given it plenty of time?" And then proceeded to tell me that I was definitely going to get pregnant. Several times. And then when she saw the picture of the nursery, she told me that we would definitely be using it soon. And I was like, "yeah I know!" And she said "no, for your own baby". And I was like, "yeah I know. It will be our baby." And she was like, "no, your own real baby." My friend was really embarrassed for her Mom. She felt really bad. I hate that I have to encounter conversations like this one, or that anyone has to, for that matter. Why are people so incessant that once you adopt, you'll get pregnant? I read once that it was something like only 10% of couples that do get pregnant. Yet everyone knows someone who knows someone that it happened to. And yes, I get that it does happen. But adoption is not a cure for infertility. And I don't think people understand how much it sucks to hear. To me, it is up there with telling someone to relax and just quit thinking about it, and you'll get pregnant. It's just not cool. When will people learn? Why is it so hard to have some tact?

Does it ever end? Actually, I don't think it ever does. Once we adopt, I'm sure we will always hear about it. And if we adopt trans-racially, I can only imagine the endless comments that we'll hear, above the other comments about adoption. And Heaven forbid we do end up getting pregnant! I can only imagine what we'll hear! *rolls eyes*

Alright, that is the end of my rambling rant for today! I'm off to go get the supplies to build cookies! Apparently Kyle volunteered me to make 6 dozen cookies (at least!) for the guys! They have to work tomorrow, so they're having their own potluck BBQ at work! Lots of  baking to be done! I hope you are all enjoying your long weekend!