Happy Birthday L!

Today is the day of the birth of my soulmate-L. I love this man so much it makes my heart hurt. In honor of his birthday, I thought it would be appropriate to list some of the things that I love about him.

1. He could give McGyver a run for his money. Seriously. Give this man a bobby pin and a stick of chewing gum and he can fix anything.

2. He is the most down to earth man I have ever met. Material things do not matter to him, nor do they impress him.

3. He works out regularly and has huge arms. When he wraps me up in his arms there is no where else in the world I would rather be. (one exception might be when he wraps me up in those arms and he is wearing a tank top and has just worked out and my nose is stuck in his pit but you get the idea)

4. He loves unconditionally.

5. He has a quick wit.

6. He is honest and has been a terrific role model for our sons.

7. He is happiest when he is with his family.

8. He has a huge heart for people who are hurting.

9. He sings to me while we are riding in his truck.

10. He balances me out. He's calm and level headed and the best thing that ever happened to me.

Happy Birthday Babe-I love you!

Two Down

August 20th marked month two of our (hopefully) 6 month wait until referral. Some days I think the time is flying by and other days I feel as if I am just hanging on by my finger nails. We haven't begun to purchase anything for our trip yet and have not started on her room. I have been filling the time with purchasing clothing but I really don't want to overshadow this important time in W's life by focusing on Koli rather than on him.

I had a heart to heart with W the other day and he really wants us to keep his room in tact. It is important to him so I will leave his room as is and we will move the office-making that Koli's room instead. Once W leaves for boot camp we will begin the process of transforming the office back into a bedroom and I am sure that will help pass the time and make me feel as if we are moving forward. I read alot of blogs written by my fellow adoptive moms. Some have already made the trip, some are currently traveling and others are in the big wait stage just like us. Almost all of them comment on how much they are preparing for their travels months ahead of time. I feel like I should be doing something, I just don't know what that is.

Story Problem

S gets up in the morning, late due to the power going out because of a rain storm. She quickly showers and dresses in her way too cute for words pink pants, slips on her sassy pink sandals and runs out the door. As S is running to her car over her mud soaked driveway her sassy pink sandals slide causing S to fall down. What does S do?

She has to go back into the house to change, because she is late she throws on the first thing she can get her hands on which happens to be the colors of black and gray. Kind of like her mood today. Ugh.

Redneck Yachtclub Rules

The top 10 rules I think are important for any potential yachtclub member to agree to are as follows:

1. I will agree to have a doggy life jacket on board my floating play pen before my Rottweiler decides to jump off the boat in 30 feet of water just in case he figures out that he can't swim.
2. I will agree to always remember to bring the tongs home that were utilized to flip food on the on-board grill to wash-just in case visitors to the floating play pen think "a little dirt never hurt nothin'".
3. I will agree to hunt down any other boaters who happen to have "found" a neon blue bouy with the last name of H written on it.
4. I will agree to always make sure that there is extra gas on board just in case a "short ride' turns into an all day event.
5. I will agree to be very careful before stepping foot on the floating playpen when husband is pushing water off of the canopy after a rain to ensure my not getting drenched by said water when it comes flying off of the top of the canopy and down my shirt.
6. I will agree to never, ever, ever park at the dock that the H's have rented for the summer, even if said slip happens to be empty at that moment and is located at a store and you just need to "run up and get supplies but will only take a minute" when the H's return to dock their boat.
7. I will promise to always pick up the poo left by my dog when I let him run down by the water so that no one steps in it when returning to the dock after dark and suddenly feels a squish.
8. I will agree to always empty the on-board port a potty after every trip.
9. I will agree to always have a cooler full of my very own favorite beverages located on my own boat before I tie up with the floating play pen (this rule does not apply to Koli's favorite aunt).
10. I will agree to always try to assist S in her efforts to wrestle the Jumbo Size Air Horn Can away from L whenever possible.

No Stalker Mom

The dilemna has been solved-I will be attending my conference in Orlando where I will happily stalk the mouse. When L found out that I was considering attending the conference in San Diego he about had a heart attack. I think he had visions of me schleping a lawn chair and cooler half way across the country to set up W watch 2005. So there will be no stalker mom in San Diego, the Marine recruits can rest easy now I am sure.

We will be holding W's going away party the last weekend of August so if your in my 'hood, stop by-lots of food and fun to be found.

Thanks to another blogger who is waiting to adopt her daughter from China, I have become obsessed with baby shoes. Shoes were not on my radar of things to purchase yet but after reading her question about shoes on one of my previous posts I set out to see just what is available in the world of little girl shoes. Oh My Heavens! I am currently in the process of attempting to purchase shoes to match the outfits I had already purchased for Koli. Once I started buying shoes I realized that care had to be taken to find the perfect tights to match the shoes for those outfits that are appropriate for the cold weather months. Speaking of cold weather months-holy cute boots! I picked up a pair of faux Ug*gs that are pink and absolutely adorable. I am having a little problem figuring out what size of shoes to buy but I'm sure with a little practice this will get better.

I'm going through another cycle of "CAA". CAA stands for Cry At Anything. Sappy commercial? Turn on the water works! Hug my boys? Use a box of Kleenex! I'm not sure what is happening but ever since we made the decision to adopt I'm going through these emotional cycles that come out of nowhere and tend to freak my family out. Which is kind of fun in a sick sort of way. Might as well keep them on their toes, huh?

This and That

So have I gushed lately about how super cool my family is? I got home today and found a large box in my mailbox. My cool cat cousin and her husband had sent us a Chinese book and CD's to help us learn Koli's language! How very, very thoughtful. We are thrilled! I have already popped the first CD in and am going to put these in my car so that I can have a solid 2 hours per day of uninterrupted learning time as I travel back and forth to work.

It is official...I am beginning to look like An*dy Roo*ney. I have cancelled my hair appt three times now which also means that my eyebrows have not been waxed like they should be. I don't tweeze my own eyebrows, I'm very dangerous with a pair of tweezers-I tend to get one brow looking nice and the other will become non existent as I struggle to get it to match the first brow. So I have learned to leave my eyebrow grooming to the professionals, except when I get so busy at work that I can't seem to keep my appts. Then I start looking like An*dy. Not such a becoming look on a female.

I have a dilemna. I need to attend a conference this fall as I am pursuiting an additional certification for my job. I have the option of going to Orlando where the conference will be held at a Disney resort (can you say "Disney Freak"?) I love that place. I also have the option of attending the conference in San Diego. Yes that's right, San Diego. The same place where W will be since he will still be in boot camp at the time of this conference. Did I happen to mention that the conference is about 3-4 blocks away from the boot camp training thingy? I know that there will be 100's of bald headed Marines but there is a chain link fence that divides the street from a part of the base. Although the chance is slim, there is still the possibility that I could spot him. We have a very common last name but nobody runs like my W so I'm sure I could spot him if he was running in the vicinity of the chain link fence with his last name stenciled on the back of his shirt. I know I would not be able to speak to him or call attention to him but I just might see him. So what would you do-attend the conference in Florida that is being held at one of my favorite places in the world or attend the conference in San Diego with the hope that by walking by the base a couple of 100 times a day I could perhaps catch a glimpse of my son?

Somebody Stop Me!

My name is S and I am a shopaholic. I have this problem that consists of not being able to walk by a children's store without being drawn in by some unknown force. Before I know it, I have an armload of girl clothes at the check out register and am happily swiping my debit card and entering in my pin #. I only have one problem. Koli doesn't have a room yet. So I have bags and bags of adorable girl clothes that are threatening to take over L's office. So much for hiding my addiction from my husband. We plan on turning W's room into Koli's bedroom once he leaves for boot camp but until then the bags keep piling up. I keep telling myself to at least wait until I have space to hang them up but that magnetic force keeps drawing me back in. Anyone want to come with me and see if you can cure my addiction?

Whoo*zits and What*zits

I had decided that when we travel to pick up Koli, I wanted to purchase a wrap or pouch to carry her around in. I'm all about making sure that our precious girl bonds with us so thought that having some skin to skin contact would encourage that rather than simply placing her in a stroller. I purchased two different types of hip slings/wraps/pouches to try to see which one was the most comfortable. Heaven help me. After taking the first item out of the box, I decided that it would not be necessary for me to read the instructions. After all, how hard could it be to take a piece of material and two rings and form an opening that would fit my pretend child? I had purchased a 20 pound bag of rice as a stand in for Koli. In real life I am on the growth stunted side. I had purchased the "medium" size wrap since it states that most people fit into the medium category and there is a large difference in vertical between me and L. So my thinking was to buy the medium than we could both use it. After last night I see the error of my ways. The piece of fabric could have wrapped me up in it 3 times, come to think of it, I think it did wrap me up 3 times. I was in the comfort of my own home, by myself, and almost had to dial the emergency number for help. I began by wrapping the fabric around my body, thinking that I would then somehow pull it up to my waist and then attach the rings. All fine and good except that I wrapped on of my arms inside the fabric, twice. After doing a little twirly dance number to extract my body from the fabric I tried again, remembering this time to keep both hands free from the wrapping process at all times. I was a little more successful on this attempt and actually managed to pull the yards and yards of fabric up to my waist this time. Only then I realized that I did not have the little ring-y things in my hand. So I had to walk to the kitchen table, reach out to grab the ring-y things and then try to somehow connect them near my shoulder. While using both hands to try to connect the ring-y things I let go of the fabric in the wrong place and the sling once again looked like a dress. Now armed with the ring-y things, I pulled the fabric up once again, kept my hands positioned where they needed to be and somewhat successfully attached the ring-y things. I then proceeded to place ever so lovingly into this pouch my 20 pound bag of rice. That would be the 20 pound bag of rice that somehow popped a hole in its bag and began leeking all over the floor before I realized that my load was not simply getting lighter because I was getting used to it but because approximately 5 pounds of rice was now spread out on my floor. Tonight, I try the other one.