Weekend Recap (in bullet points)

• Friday after work Happy Hour: spent getting fingerprinted for our adoption homestudy update, followed up with homemade pizza at home

• Saturday morning: brunch at the Kroc for M & I while D is hunting, then M & I went *hunting* for bargains at the mall in Spokane

• Saturday night date night: packaging the venison from D's successful hunting trip.  Never in my life did I think I would ever spend time doing this, but I have to say, it is delicious!  Not to mention, D runs a pretty clean operation from start to finish, so the quality control is top notch.

• Lazy Sunday: we relaxed due to our exciting late night (see above) and went to the "late show" at Church, the 6 pm service.  Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday of the liturgical year!  Last year, our priest made a comment about closing out the year celebrating Christ as our King and with thankfulness (because of the upcoming Thanksgiving).  What a great way to end the Church year!

How was your weekend?  Tell me about it!

Thanksgiving is Right Around the Corner!

Hi there!

It's been a busy, but great week.  We got our fingerprints taken again today to update our adoption home study. We have sent out revised adoption portfolios to our attorney in Washington and to the local agency.  So, we continue to wait, and pray!

In the meantime, we'll be hosting a "southern style" Thanksgiving.  We are having two families come over and both of my girlfriends are transplanted Southerners like me, so it should be fun and full of butter!  There will be 7 kids age 6 and under so we are hoping for chaos.

I'm making the turkey, gravy, potatoes, mac & cheese and an apple pie.  My hardworking husband loves apple pie, so you know I aim to please.  Is mac & cheese a standard Thanksgiving dish?  We never had it when I was growing up, but I made a Pioneer Woman recipe last year and really liked it, so I am planning to make it again, even though my friend's young daughter declared that it was merely "interesting."  I've asked my friends what they want to bring.  If no one volunteers to make green bean casserole or corn casserole, I might make those too.  I loved making these dishes with my mom and sisters growing up, so they are "must-haves" for me!

We frequently hosted Thanksgiving when I was growing up, so I have fond memories of cooking all day with my mom and sisters, and then eating outside at one big table with the extended family.  That's one of the benefits of Thanksgiving in Florida - you can eat outside with a gorgeous view of the river! 

We go around the table with the usual "what are you thankful for" but also other questions like "what do you want to be when you grow up" (best answer was from my nephew who was 4 and said he wanted to drive ships like his Dad), advice for the cousin graduating from college or advice for the cousin getting married (my Uncle advised D that year that "we all come with her!") 

We also went to NYC and watched the parade for several years.  That was a ton of fun too - I got up early with my mom and her two sisters to stake out our spot on the parade route, we played football in Central Park and shopped, of course!  We've also had our share of sadness at Thanksgiving - my Uncle died on Thanksgiving Day 2003, actually en route to the family gathering that year.  It was tragic and we all continue to miss him, but I am so thankful for the great memories of him that I have.  I'll definitely be thinking of all of our family spread across America this Thanksgiving, and thankful for our many blessings.

How will you be celebrating your Thanksgiving?  I hope you have a great weekend!

Overheard in Our House

"It doesn't have to be fun to be fun."  - This is how D describes hiking for miles and miles in the snow on a hunt, and not seeing any wildlife.

"elp, puh!"...."mon-mowah" - M saying "help, please!" while asking me to help him put on his Dad's running shoes, and then saying "lawnmower."  I helped him put the shoes on and then asked him if he was going to mow the lawn.  He said "yeah!" in reply.

Tips on Tuesday: The Telephone Toy Basket

Hi there!

A friend shared this tip with me this afternoon - so I thought I'd pass it along and capture it here so I remember in the future!

Here's the background:  My friend called me and we were trying to talk, but since M is fascinated with the phone these days, he kept begging to hold it and basically hollering in the background of our conversation.  I apologized to my friend for the racket, but she passed on the concept of the "Telephone Toy Basket."  This is a special basket of toys for the kiddo to play with while mom is on the phone.  I don't get a ton of phone calls, so I think this would be a great tool to use when I do!  You know how those first children/only children love to be the center of attention, so I think a basket of special toys will keep him occupied while I'm on the phone!

Hope this is helpful!  Have a great day!

Veterans Day

Good Monday Morning!  Today I'm thankful for all of our veterans, especially my veteran-husband!

It is funny how things work out: I come from a Navy family, but it is mostly because the women in my family married Navy men.  My Great-Grandfather was a Navy doctor.  Both of his daughters (one of whom was my Grandmother) married Navy doctors.  My Grandmother had 7 kids and all 4 of her sons served in the military.  My brother is in the Navy, and both my sister and I married Navy men!

My man was in the Navy for 6 1/2 years.  He was gone a lot when we were first married, so it was really a tough adjustment for me!  My thoughts now are always with our friends who are still sticking it out.  We were really lucky - he only missed our first wedding anniversary.  But we know lots of families who have had to celebrate many holidays, anniversaries, and birthdays while Dad is overseas.  And he has friends who made the ultimate sacrifice, and not a day goes by that we don't think of them, and pray for them and their families.

The happiest day for any military family is the day the service member comes home from deployment.  When D came home from his second deployment, his plane landed literally in the middle of the night, so there was no fanfare like you see in the newspapers sometimes.  I stayed up all night at the base airport waiting for it to land and jumped into his arms as soon as I saw him.  Reunions are always the best part of Navy life!

I'm thankful for his service and sacrifice, and for the service and sacrifice of all of our other veterans. 

Who are the veterans in your life?  Go buy them a beer to show your thanks!

Magazines

I love reading, and I love to read magazines when I want to read but I'm not yet ready to pick up another book.  I am curious about what magazines other folks read.  We use airline miles to subscribe to magazines for the most part, but I do pay for my Runner's World, which is probably my favorite magazine of all time!

Here is what we get:

Runner's World - my fav, I think it has great feature articles and I love to read about the regular people runners and the destination races!
The Economist - good new source, I never read everything in it but it has global coverage which I like.  It generally has well-written Letters to the Editor, interesting Book Reviews and Memorial profiles about people and books that I probably wouldn't hear about otherwise.  Not to mention the actual news articles, of course.
Redbook - I think of this as my mom magazine - I usually read it and then toss it, I like some of the fashion, but I'm not in love with it.
Inc. - my husband picked this one out.  I read it sometimes, but if we stopped getting it I wouldn't miss it.
Coastal Living - this magazine always makes me miss the beach.  If we ever buy a house with a guest room, you'd better believe I will have an ocean/beach-themed room based on ideas from this magazine!
Sunset - I don't think I'd get this if we didn't live in the NW, but I love it!  Makes me want to travel all over the NW, even though it typically seems very California-focused. 
Princeton Alumni Weekly - the magazine from our alma mater.  First I always check the "Memorials" section, then the Class Notes, and then the Letters to the Editor.  The LttE can be pretty confrontational at time, so I get a kick out of reading them!  This mag is not actually weekly anymore, but it has interesting articles and I like hearing about what's happening on campus.  I read it and then give a book report to my husband, who could care less!

I used to get Shape, but then it started to read too much like Cosmo and so I canceled that subscription.  I love me some Southern Living but I don't have a subscription right now.  Whenever we would fly somewhere, I used to always buy SL in the airport, but the idea of reading while flying with a toddler is a joke now.  I am thinking about subscribing to Magnificat and Verily magazine - I've heard good things about both but never read them.  And I can't walk through a Barnes and Noble without skimming the latest People - that would be my guilty reading pleasure!

Which magazines do you like to read?  Got any recommendations for me? 

The Latest on Our Adoption Journey

Good morning!

Here's a little update as to where we are in our pursuit of Adoption #2:  It has been almost a year that we've been formally back on the list with our attorney.  He has had a couple of situations arise but nothing has panned out for us.  I am getting our paperwork together to work with an agency as well, and also planning to give our portfolio to another local attorney that a friend has used.  She has said that she hasn't had many prospective mothers lately though.  We have to get our home study updated, fingerprints done again, etc.!  Lots of paperwork!

We trust that God will build our family as he sees fit.  I remember talking with Dan the night we became engaged and we had such dreams for a big, rocking family.  But it may be just the three of us, or more, or not.  The first time we were not chosen by a birth mom, it was really hard for me.  But I think I needed to go through that, and I have learned more about myself as a result.  It made me sad and made me feel inadequate, but I ultimately realized that it was out of my control and that situation was just not the perfect fit that God has in mind for our family.  M was a perfect fit for our family, and God willing, there will be more children who will fit perfectly with us.

In any case, we are all sleeping too well in this house so we need a newborn around to shake things up.  =)  No matter what happens, I am truly grateful to entrust the building of my family to our Lord, and hopeful, and patient.

Happy Halloween!

How was your Halloween?

Our little snow leopard, with me trying to run out of the photo!

The last few years, I just haven't been big on Halloween.  It was fun to dress up in college and law school, but before this year, we always lived in condos or a busy street that no one really trick-or-treated on.  Plus I don't like all the skull and crossbones/ gory types of decorations that seems to be all over the place now!

We grew up in a very rural area so we never had very many trick or treaters come to our house, but I always loved putting up the silly little cartoonish decorations - we didn't do the scary stuff.  W did always have cute costumes and there is this great old home video that my parents have with my sisters jumping up and down dressed as a unicorn and a bumblebee and all of us acting like crazies.  Makes me laugh just to think about it!

But this year, we actually had more than 2 groups come by our house!  Pretty funny that we had to move to a small town in Idaho to have the traditional trick or treating experience!

Posing with our hedgehog friend that my mom sent!  M likes to pet him.

We took M over to our neighbor's house so he could say "boo" and they could see him in his cute little costume.  On our walks around the neighborhood, I taught him that if he sees a ghost, he has to yell "boo" so he has been getting a lot of practice.  Then we went back home and he loved watching people come to the door and waving bye to them.  It was fun.  I was kind of surprised that there were some big kids who came by the house - my friend says she just flat out tells them that "this should be your last year trick or treating."  Hah!  Harsh, huh?  

It was also fun to watch Dan keep telling the kids, hey take more, take one of each.  We were really committed to getting all of the candy out of the house!  He said his parents used to keep track of how many trick or treaters they had.  One year when I was growing up, we had a big Halloween party and my uncle turned one room into a haunted house and really went all out.  So I guess I do like Halloween after all!

I loved this explanation about Halloween on this website:  http://catholicicing.com/explaining-halloween-to-catholic-kids-how-it-goes-with-all-saints-day-or-all-hallows-eve/

I'm going to bookmark this to use when M is older!

I would love to hear about other fun Halloween traditions, please share!