MERRY CHRISTMAS to One and All!!

Another busy month of activities have taken me away from our blog. What kind of mom am I . . .I am not even keeping up with the journal that I am writing for the kids?

We began the holiday season by enjoying The Glory of Christmas at the Crystal Cathedral, the kids were in a program at church, went to look at lights, went to go see Santa, we had a little dinner with our friends formerly known as Shirley and Cary and have now moved up the rung to "Auntie Shirley" and "Uncle Cary", went Christmas caroling, baked 50 sugar cut out cookies for Andrea's class party, etc., etc.

I have barely been able to fit in the Christmas shopping- in fact I have been frequenting the stores that are open all night. . .then spend hours out in the freezing garage wrapping!

Today the boys have gone out Christmas shopping, Andrea and I will do the very last minute preparations for Christmas eve and then tonight we will go to my mom's for our traditional Christmas eve dinner and the opening of ONE gift before we go home and try to fall asleep so Santa can squeeze down our small fireplace!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

(Pics to follows!)

On Our Way!

It has been just a month since the kids have come home and we have all adjusted well ( I think!).
We had our first Teacher-Parent Conferences and they went very well, Justin just finished a set of 4 golf lessons, we took that mini trip for our anniversary, which included the Legoland adventure, met lots of friends and family, got a hamster, experienced the birth and development of five more hamsters, suffered the pain and agony of giving away baby hamsters (BTW we still need homes for 2 more), had one doctor visits and five dental visits between the two of them and . . .
tommorrow we plan to go to Ventura, stay at the Sheraton, hit some of Mom and Dad's favorite restaurants and sights there and then on to Santa Maria the next morning for Thanksgiving. James and I worked this deal our early in our marriage - Thanksgiving with his family and Christmas with mine! Works for me!
So we plan to hit Marie Callendars on the way up to Santa Maria for the traditional pumpkin pie and the not so traditional, (but James' sister and my favorite) Double Cream Lemon and then on to SM. The kids will get to meet Aunt Diana, Uncle Jack, all of the cousins and Grandma David. We will dine on the delicious feast that Jack and Diana always prepare and come home just about 5 pounds heavier!
It should be quite a few days!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU ALL!

Bows . . .Bows . . .Bows . . .

Last Saturday Andrea and I went to a Christmas Boutique where my friend Nicole was selling her adorable hairbows! Andrea came home with over 30 hairbows, decorated hairclips, headband, etc. We are now choosing outfits according to which hair doodads she wants to wear! Seems kind of opposite of how it should be, huh?

Anyway, my friend Nicole sells these hair bows on Etsy - Olive Blue. You can check out her blog on our family and friends link "The Milkies". She is also having a bow giveaway - so check it out!

Here's Andrea last Sunday singing at church with the pink bow and white headband in her beautiful dark hair!

More Sunshine At Our House!!!!!

Like it wasn't enough "sunshine" having two children join our household, but as you learned we had additional "sunshine" added with an adorable, little brown hamster just last week. You can only imagine our delight when we arrived home from our anniversary trip to find that Sunshine, the hamster, had delivered 5 more bundles of "sunshine"!

So . . .is their anyone out there that has been so inspired by our adoption story that you would like to adopt an adorable little hamster????? They will be ready for adoption next week around Monday, November 17th. No paperwork, blood tests, fingerprints, physicals or social workers required in this adoption. We will make it quite simple for you . . .

No excuses, please!
Do something for humanity and mom's sanity!!!!
Love to hear from you!!!!!

Anniversary Trip!

Most of you know that each year for our anniversary we take turns planning a little get-a-way. Knowing that we would have just gotten the children - we decided to make reservations at a beautiful resort that we had gone to last year - but was only about 45 minutes south of our home in Dana Point. This was only to be a 3 day adventure (and I do mean adventure) with 2 kids in tow.

Here's a recap . . .

Saturday "Little Miss Muffett" as we refer to Andrea and I went to the beauty shop for a little pampering - which included hair, nails, and toes! Feeling quite glamourous we headed home to join the boys for lunch and on to the St. Regis. After checking in we immediately headed for the pool (oh, well hairdo - thankfully the nails and toes were dry!) for a little swimming and splashing around. Then we went back to the room to get ready for dinner at the Five Crowns (or as Andrea now refers to it - The Five Queens). Andrea ordered the children's Prime Rib and was highly disappointed when she found out it was more like roast beef or steak rather than the bbqed ribs she was expecting. We did try to explain beforehand - honest we did! Justin kindly shared his Chicken tenders and Dad forced down the extra prime rib (haha)! The night was truly saved when the server showed up with two hefty portions of English trifle - declared yummy by all four of us!

Here's pics of the gorgeous young lady, handsome young man and hot Daddy! Remember I'm the one taking the pictures!

Sunday we spent most of the day swimming, relaxing, watching Milo and Otis and eating!

Then on Monday we went to LEGOLAND! It was the first time they had ever been there and their first roller coaster experience. They both LOVED it! I, myself do not do roller coasters - so James found this perfect - since he still loves them! I tried to take some pics while they were on them, but they went just to doggone fast!

Here are pics though of us at the hotel

Two Weeks Ago???????

I am kind of blog junkie - mostly because I love to know what my relatives and friends are up to. Prior to two years ago I'd never even looked at a blog and am not sure I even knew what one was.

Then my cousin in Indianapolis adopted their adorable little Grant and mentioned we could follow their adoption journey on their blog. One read and I was hooked. Where else can you practically get to read someone's diary without invading their privacy. Now I follow several - it is all I can keep up with!

We started this blog when we decided to adopt, just so the children would have a running journal of their adoption story. And now I notice upon reading my cousin's blog this morning that I have not posted anything for two weeks! Yikes . . . I tell you I am one busy mom! The following is evidence!

So here's the update :

We went to El Toritos for dinner the first night they moved in. The servers were so excited about the adoption that they gave the kids their own sombrero - so out came the camera!!!

The kids started school and are doing very well. Andrea is student of the month for November and Justin has a teacher whose children I taught beginning my first year of teaching! What a blessing!

We went to the pumpkin patch and had a fun Sunday afternoon. When I was a kid you either bought a pumpkin at the grocery store or you went to one of those patches that actually grew pumpkins and picked one right off the vine. Well now in So Cal you go to a lot (that will soon be a Christmas tree lot) and spend a fortune on carnival rides, bounce houses, etc. and then choose a pumpkin that you can barely lift into the trunk of the car. It was great fun!!!!!!!

!

HALLOWEEN'S cutest Barbie Princess and most handsome Star Wars Clone Trooper!

Halloween was a blast! Our good friends "Uncle" Cary and "Auntie"Shirley came over for dinner (bearing gifts and cupcakes - no less), then James took two very excited "trick or treaters" out for the candy run! (Thanks, Ashley for the cupcakes! They were declared yummy by all!) They had so much fun! As new parents we had that dilemma that many parents go through - just how much candy do you let the kids eat, keep, etc?????? I was so proud when Justin decided to give his candy to the poor children (they had a drive at the school) so that they could develop the cavities! Andrea couldn't bring herself to give it all up . . . but she did give up part of it and shared the rest with Justin. Fortunately the dentist told me that the cavities they had filled this week were not from this Halloween - but instead "sugar germs" that they had experienced some time ago! Whew . . . what a relief!

Last, but certainly not least . . .Justin got a hamster this past weekend. He named her Sunshine - like we don't already have enough sunshine in the house with these two sweeties?????? Anyway he is a proud owner and very responsible taking care of her! Andrea has Brodie, the parakeet, in her room and she loves taking care of him! She plans to be a vet when she grows up , although she calls it a vegetarian. The later I suspect she will never be because she is quite the carnivore!

I'll try not to wait so long to write my next post - this took forever!!

AT LAST!

Into our hearts and home
We welcome with love
Justin and Andrea

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

AT LAST WE HAVE OUR FOREVER FAMILY!

Thank you for all of your love and support!
James and Katherine

Halloween Costumes

Last night for our two hour visit we went to Andrea's pick for dinner - McDonalds (my favorite restaurant HaHa) and then on to buy Halloween costumes - before the stores ran out. James and I had already made a pact that Andrea would not get a "street walker" costume.

GOOD LUCK - is all I got to say about that.

Unless your child is 2yrs old the traditional princess costumes won't fit, so we began the long process of finding an outfit that fit, that she liked, that we approved of, etc., etc. After about an hour and a half of going through racks and racks of outfits we finally found 2 that were decent. (How is it that they think a seven year old should either be dressed like bartender, card dealer, or a sleezy walk down Harbor Blvd.?) Anyway . . . we ended up with a Barbie Princess dress, crown, earrings and a wand for Andrea and a Star Wars clone Trooper with lightsaber for Justin all for just under the national debt!

Next year we will make outfits!

Coming Home!

Blog posts have not been a high priority lately with all of the activity around getting the kids! We have just been incredibly busy. About every other day we pick them up after school and spend most of the evening with them, then back to the foster home. It's hard! Especially when they ask when they are coming to stay!

Then last weekend they stayed overnight - it was a blast. I checked on them five times in the night - they never moved an inch. Can't imagine how you mom's with newborns do it! This past Tuesday, they spent the night and we took them to school the next day - the school is about 35 minutes from our home - so we had to get up at "0 dark thirty" (as our friend Cary calls it when you have to get up super early) - but they did great - as two yawning, coffee toting parents loaded them in the car for the jaunt to their school. We met their current teachers and got great reports about them.
Tonight they come and spend the whole weekend - yeah!

And next Wednesday . . . they move in for good or at least until they go away to college - whichever comes first!

Two Precious Words . . .

There are some words you just don't realize have the impact that they do.

Yesterday Justin and Andrea got in the car all giddy - they had something exciting to tell me they said! So, naturally I waited for the exciting news . . . they informed me that they had decided to call us Mom and Dad.

We immediately called James on the bluetooth in the car and they told him - I'm glad I wasn't in the same room - it's hard to watch a grown man lose it!

Anyway when we did arrive at the office the two of them hurriedly went into our conference where the big whiteboard is and started writing us the sweetest love notes. About that time the social worker stopped by for a visit and was blown away by- in her words- they are claiming us!
James and I were next to tears!

Mom and Dad . . . two precious words from the two most precious kids!

Unbelievable - WE ARE IN LOVE!

Aren't they absolutely adorable???????????




She's a little beauty. . . joyful, and playful!

He's a little man. . . helpful and introspective.

Notice the kitchen towel on his arm -

he was helping me clean the kitchen!

Can you believe it - they couldn't be more perfect! Adorable, helpful, and sweet! There is so much to tell about them but . . . I think their pics sum them up perfectly! As James says . . . we might be a little bit prejudice - but we don't see how they could be any better!

Today is the day . . .

First of all, yesterday was the day when all of the social workers (all 5 of them) and James and I met together for what we referred to as the "BIG POWWOW"! It's when they tell you everything they can possibly think of ( I think they call it disclosure . . .) about the children. Well, nothing they could say could make us change our minds and there wasn't anything we hadn't known about already! At that point they are supposed to give us 24 hours to change our mind - the proverbial "cooling off period"? No 24 hour cooling off period for us!
I guess they had us figured out - so they suggested we meet the kids ASAP!

And that my friends is . . .TODAY! And that is why TODAY IS THE DAY!

We get to meet the kids at 1:00pm at Coldstone Creamery by our house, then across the street to the beach and playground on the sand . . .maybe a walk down the pier and then back to their foster home to meet their foster family.

WE CAN"T WAIT! Oh, no. . . there I go again with that waiting thing!

Like Mother - Like Daughter

This weekend James went up north to his annual "golfer guys" reunion. This is a trek that James started organizing and includes about 6-7 of the closest golf buddies from Santa Maria Country Club. They played on the high school and some of them on the college golf team together - so it is a fun weekend of golf, bbq's and old memories! I am so glad he gets to have this special time!

I, on the other hand, spent a lot of extra mother-daughter time with my mom. Since I have been helping James in the office (and didn't get the usual "teacher summer vacation") we haven't had as much time together as we usually do each summer!

We were talking about getting the kids and mom remarked that I was born so close to her birthday that she always thought of me as her birthday present. Well, I had just been thinking that myself . . . my birthday is next month and I all I want is my two children. Like mother - like daughter!

I told James that and he said that is all he wants for my birthday,too!

ADOPTION UPDATE!

Yes . . . everything is still moving forward. It just takes so much time! Of course we would have gone to get the kids the day we were matched - but social workers have their own time table - and it is none to speedy.
It seems that the children's social worker has had a family emergency and so the scheduled meetings have been delayed until next week. After those meetings we will begin frequent visits with the kids over a two to four week period. Depending on how comfortable they are determines when they come home!
They have been told that we are planning to adopt them -
Justin asked if we knew they had a young adult sister to which the social worker said yes and that we looked forward to meeting her and having her be a part of our extended family. He responded with "Good, I've been worried about that - now I am ready to be adopted!". Andrea just wanted to know how many pets we had- as she is an animal lover! Both of them are excited about being adopted!
I am so happy and already love them! James has been carrying their picture around in his briefcase and keeps talking about all of the places we can take them.
We'll keep you posted!

Waiting No More

For those of you who got a quick look at our blog from yesterday I did remove it temporarily.
Nothing has changed - but I may have blabbed more information than I was supposed to!
(So what's new . . .)
I will put that blog entry back up as soon as I get the go ahead from our social worker.
Until then keep us and our two little ones in your prayers, and know that your wait to see their pictures won't be that long - I promise!

WAITING!

Us at Legoland!

It seems like in life there a lot of waiting! Right now we are in a wait mode . . . and it is a hard place to be. It seems like waiting is the last thing we ever want to do from birth on.


Babies hate to wait for their bottles or to have their diaper changed...

Moms and Dads can't wait until their baby takes their first step or says their first word . . .

Later they can't wait for them to sit down and be quiet . . .

Toddlers can't wait for their toys . . .

Preschoolers can't wait for their turn on the swing . . .

Kindergarteners can't wait until they can read . . .

Kids can't wait for birthdays, Christmas and to spend the night at Grandma's . . .

Teenagers can't wait to drive, go to college, or get to vote . . .

Young adults can't wait to get their first big job and get married . . .

Then we can't wait to buy our first home and decorate it . . .

We can't wait to go to Europe and all the other vacations places we long for . . .

We can't wait for that nice luxury car . . .

We can't wait til the Angels are the World Series again . . .

Now here we are when others can't wait to have grandchildren and . . .

We can't wait to bring our kids home!

One of my good friends said that we should just enjoy right now because once we have children not only will our life never be the same but - it also will always be about them.

So . . . we are trying hard to take her good advice. Last weekend we got away to San Diego for a night to a very nice resort where we could behave like adults and what did we do? We decided it would be fun to check out Legoland. This weekend we went to Redondo Beach and Manhatten Beach and checked out the Redondo Beach Aquarium. I even checked on birthday parties there.

Tonight is our Monthiversary - that is the 8th of each month when we celebrate our marriage by going out to a very grown up restaurant, having wine and a nice dinner and maybe doing a grown up activity afterwards. It's my turn to pick the restaurant . . .hmmmm . . . should I pick Chuck E. Cheese or the McDonald's with a playland?

Lynn . . we are trying hard to take your advise - but I am sorry to say we are not doing such a hot job at it. We'll try harder tonight.

Bittersweet!

We had our adoption support get-together last night! What a great evening as our closest friends and family gathered for dinner and to meet our social worker. We had lots of laughs while we reminisced about our friendships and relived some of our fondest memories.

Our dear social worker explained to everyone the process which we have gone through, and what else we have to look forward to . . . it was such a wonderful evening where we felt the love and support of all of those there.
We know there were others that wanted to be there and we truly appreciate you as well!

On the sad note for the evening . . .
we learned that the two children we were interested in will be going to a different family -
and although we were very disappointed we are happy that they will have a forever family and we know that there are two children out there waiting for us . . .
Know this . . . between us and our great social worker we will find them!
We'll keep you posted!

Getting the Kids!

Adopting the kids is kind of like having a baby or in this case a couple of babies!

When you are pregnant, friends and relatives call every few minutes to find out if labor has started or if you have headed to the hospital, however . . . in our case we get the calls to find out if the kids have "come home" yet.

Here's the update . . .

We have . . .
Turned in absolutely all of our information . . .
Finished all of our classes . . .
Had our last interviews and home inspections . . .
Sent our photos in . . .
Our worker has finished the all important "HOME STUDY" . . .
We are having our adoption support meeting tomorrow night . . .
Have found 2 adorable kiddos . . .
and now . . .
we are waiting for the matching coordinator to tell us - it is a match!

We'll keep you posted!

VACATIONS!

Vacations are a funny animal and I love them . . .
however I haven't decided what part of the vacation I love so much!


I spend an enormous amount of time planning each detail of our trips - even driving trips like the one we just returned from to Colorado.


I pack food, clothes for every imaginable kind of weather, print out driving instructions for places we plan to go to (and some we only might go to), call friends and family we might see, write up detailed itineraries and give a copy to everyone we know, and of course I make reservations for hotels, etc. months ahead with a print out of all the amentities and things to do in the area . . .

I just love doing all of that and makes me so look forward to the trip!


Then we head out . . . when I was a kid my dad would start out on a driving trip about 4:00am ( he always said it was to beat the heat, but I think it was because in our excitement to begin the vacation we couldn't sleep later than 3:00am), however James is not quite the morning person I am so we usually get out by 8:00am or so. The drive is soooooo beautiful! I even enjoy the desert (for about 10 miles or so) then we break out our favorite music - full blast, open a couple of Cokes and sing at the top of our lungs! The energy expended with all that singing usually requires a snack, of which I pack many. So . . . we break open the chips, cookies,or trail mix and start munching. Of course by now it is about 10:00am and we are begnning to think where we might stop for lunch and so it goes that most of our drive time is spent planning the next eating event.


When we finally arrive at our destination we carefully review all of my plans for the area and determine that what we really want to do are things other than I had planned for - so . . . we always have to ask for directions, ask for recommendations, and revamp my carefully designed plans!

This time we stayed in Avon, Colorado, just three hours from our good friends in Colorado Springs. We made the trek to their house for a couple of days and then one of them visited us in Avon. We had a great time except for the altitude adjustment that I did not plan for! No one told us that at 12,000 ft above sea level that you cannot breathe and get tremendous headaches. So, the hikes we had planned were out of the question and the good sturdy hiking shoes stayed in the closet the whole week. We did hit the pool and spa a few times . . .but then the thunder and lightening storms began. I personally have an aversion to getting electricuted - especially this close to becoming a mom. Maybe next year I will feel differently . . .

All in all it was a very nice trip with the highlight being the time we spent with our good friends and the beauty of the mountains! We miss them so much since they moved to Colorado.

So is it the planning, actually getting there, or getting home that is the best part of the vacation?? I don't know . . .I think I love it all!

The Office is OPEN!

The plaque outside our office door.

Well, we have spent this past week setting up the new office. We thought we could do it in about 1-2 days . . . it has been over one week since we got the keys and we are still working on it!

After all . . . we went from a 110 sq ft office to about 8oo sq ft - a lot more space to fill up.

About three days after we had the walk-through, some very good friends helped us move all of the former office furniture and "stuff" to the new office. It took the better part of a Saturday and some very strong "guys"! Shirley and I did the important shopping for that day! We couldn't have done it without good friends . . . Thanks "guys"!

The "very nice cherry" office furniture!

This week we have had 6 file cabinets delivered - 2 of which were damaged, and we are awaiting the "pick up" man . . .they have no problem delivering them one at a time, but each guy tells he's not authorized to take back the damaged ones. It is a mystery to me how in these days of $4.65 per gallon gas, companies can afford to work that way - oh yeah- I know they will raise their prices!!!!!

Three rooms of very nice cherry office furniture was delivered and assembled without problem - except they forgot the keys to my desk file . . .

The phone and internet system was set up only to find out from our computer guy that we needed three more "lines pulled" (whatever that means) and after pretty much a whole day of his work and waiting, we had to have a guy come to "pull the lines" and then wait for another day for the computer guy to finish . . . and so it goes . . .on and on . . .

You get the picture - speaking of pictures - it is my job to find the accessories which includes the plants, pictures, decorations, etc. Normally I love this kind of thing , but I have been to a half dozen stores looking, and generally just not finding the exact thing, so . . . one more thing to keep doing.

We are waiting for the "glass guy" to cut and install the glass countertops for the "very nice cherry" office furniture so that we don't get scratches, etc. on them. That should be another few days.

Notice how there no official names for these worker guys. There was the "computer guy", the "telephone guy", the delivery guy", the "pick-up guy", "the wire pulling guy" and then there were the "strong guys"- seems like they should have a more official names, huh?

Well, I gotta run now to read the manual on our new phone system, so that when you call you might get an answer!

Miss Work?

Well, no I can't say I miss work - at least not yet.
Why it has only been about 16 days since we had our "last day of working" staff luncheon, but . . .

I do miss seeing my cute little kiddies, good friends at work, and having our girl chit-chat over lunch!

Summer's have never seemed this way before, however since I know that we will not be returning in the fall - it just doesn't seem right!

Everything changes!
Miss you guys!

WOW . . . We're Getting There!

Thursday was our last of the ADOPTION interviews. As I told our adorable social worker - "It all seems so surreal!"!

We had our individual interviews and it seems that we are getting closer to the kids all the time. Tommorow we go to our last mandatory training class and as I have said a dozen times to others - if they made everyone go through what we have had to, there would be no unwanted children and lots of well trained parents in the world!

The classes really are great and we do have some wonderful people in them and fantastic trainers! We really are grateful for the opportunity.

Next we have to prepare a "Life Book" of James and myself. This is to include a wedding picture (which I dare anyone to think that is really me), current pics of us, family members, our home, their bedrooms, Tigger, our cat, Brodie, our bird, their school, the beach - you get the picture! For those of you "scrapbooking types" feel free to offer your advice.

Last, we have to have a meeting (read: party) of all those who are part of our friends and family who support us in this decision and also wish to support us when we need a sitter or just to listen when we start doubting our parenting skills!

After that, which should be in a couple of weeks, we are free to bring home the kiddos - whoever they might be!

So tonight we went to one of those neat kid's bedroom stores and bought our little boy a cool loft bed with drawers in the stairs, under the bed crawl space for playing in, shelves, and a desk - all in one piece. Every little boy's fun bed!

We have the bed for our little girl's room coming this weekend - white iron and brass princess bed! Every little girl's dream!

Oh . . . to be a kid again!

We're Back Again!

School ended and we left for San Diego the same day. We had one of those great timeshare "villas" for a week . . . but the real purpose of the trip was to go to the US Open with our good friends, Cary and Shirl.

We had been planning this trip for many months, so with great anticipation on Sunday morning of the US Open we headed to QualCom Stadium to catch a shuttle to Torrey Pines. (There were no other options - I dislike shuttle events!)

Now, James and I had been to a few tournaments before, and in fact, James had been to the US Open in Olympic Golf Course several years ago, so we thought we knew just how to strategize getting around the course and see all of the players that we wanted to see.

What we didn't factor into that equation was the thousands of other people with the same strategy! The first few hours we were there the gallery seemed like that at any tournament - LA Open, Buick Open, etc. but . . . when Tiger and the other leaders teed off in the early afternoon, people came out of nowhere. That "run ahead" idea we had became a "crawl" your way the next hole event!

We finally settled on the 17th hole where we stayed for about 2 hours. James and Cary were right out there in the sun - as close to the green as possible, while Shirley and I were content to stand under the shade of a tree and try to peek through the crowd.

We got a few glimpses of the limping Tiger, an "up close and personal" Phil Michelson sighting (where I yelled "Hi Phil!"), and got to watch the swings and putts of a dozen other outstanding golfers.

Although it was fun and we love being with Cary and Shirl . . .
I believe next year we will be watching from the comfort of our family room on our LCD TV getting all of the golf analysis at the same time!

We're back again!!

We're Back!

Thanks to my sister-in-law, Diana for the great pics and my good friend , Nicole for helping me gain the courage to get these pics on this blog for you. Now that the "computer dinosaur of the year" (me) has started her own blog and posted pics on it, I am feeling pretty confident that you will have something to look at as you read my less than entertaining blog entries!

How is that you look forward to a vacation for weeks or even months and then you are home for a few days and it seems like a year since you were gone????? Well . . . that's how it seems after being home only 5 days from our trip to Chicago and Indianapolis.


We had fun! We landed in Chicago to find that it was in the high 50's and did I pack a jacket? NO! It wasn't down right freezing - but the evenings got pretty cold - way colder than I am used to - so I ended up borrowing my brother-in-laws jacket one evening. Thanks, Jack!

Highlights of our trip were:


Dinner at the Chicago Chop House - I enjoyed some nice broiled Orange Roughy while the more carniverous travelers in our group had steaks and prime rib. James kind of paid for his big steak with a little gastrointestinal disorder into the night. I'll stay with the fish - thank you very much!


We had after dinner drinks at the top of the John Hancock building. I am a real chicken when it comes to heights - so going up after dark worked well for me. I think it was the 96th floor - I get dizzy just thinking about being up so high - but the city was beautiful all lit up!


The next day we toured the city on one of those famous "Hop On - Hop Off" City tours. It really did give us a good feel for the city and allowed us to "Hop Off" to see Tyrannasaurus Sue at the Field Museum, see the Sears Tower up close and personal and have one of those famous Chicago Hot Dogs. Since I am not a real big hot dog fan I didn't really get what was so appealing about them - but I think James and Jack found them to be pretty delicious!


Diana and Jack arranged for us to have a tour of old Wrigley Field - for those of you who are not baseball fans - it is where the Chicago Cubs play. It was fantastic. I think they said it is the second oldest ballpark in the US - Yankee Stadium being the oldest. Anyway - it was really a great tour. We even got to tour the clubhouse and see the current players locker room.


On to Indianapolis - where we stayed at the Quality Inn - a rather old tired Quality Inn. We laughingly said it was where they put the Q in Quality. It worked out well for proximity to the Speedway and we had an enjoyable day at the race. This year the weather was quite nice and all 200 laps were completed.


We went back to the Indy Speedway the next day and took a 12 minute spin around the track in a small tour bus. We got to see the track from the drivers vantage point at about one tenth the speed. We also visited the Speedway Museum which is very interesting - especially if you like looking at old race cars!


As always the highlight of the Indy trip for me is spending time with my relatives. We all went over to Deb and Dave's for a dinner and generally just spent three hours "catching up" with family news. We missed Erin, Bret, and Grant this year -but really enjoyed meeting Bret's parents. Now I see where Bret gets his humerous side.


See you next year, Indy - hopefully with 2 or 3 kids in tow!

And There They Go

Many of you know that James and I have been making a yearly trek to the Indianapolis 500 for the past few years. I never really gave a hoot about that kind of sport at any time in my life, but my husband enjoys it and I have learned to like the event at a certain level.

First of all, I usually get to see my Indiana relatives - who used to be close-by California relatives. They moved to Indiana and then my cousin married a died in the wool hoosier! No chance of getting them back in California now - so I now I look forward to my once a year visit with them. This year we will miss Erin and Bret and most of all baby Grant - they'll be out of town - but we will see my mom's sister Deb and her husband Dave. It is always fun to see them and catch up!

Then we started adding a little more to the trip. Each year we start at another destination for a few days before going to Indianpolis. We've been to Kansas City, St. Louis, Cincinatti and this year we are flying into Chicago for a few days. We are looking forward to seeing Wrigley Field and Tyrannasauris Sue.

Last year for the first time we invited James' sister and her husband along. I'm not sure if we got them hooked on the race or not , but they agreed to come along again this year with us! Last year we suffered through a few hours of pretty steady rain to watch the race. James and I learned in one of the early years not to leave if it starts to rain or even if there is a tornado - so we stuck it out. The race is kind of like the US Postal service - they deliver no matter what the weather!

I constantly get the question - "You LIKE going to car races?" Well, the answer is this - if you've ever been to a big sporting event - World Series, Super Bowl, US Open, etc. - you know what I mean when I say there's just something about the atmosphere at that type of event. It's the guys that have been up all night in the same clothes, drinking beer sitting next to you, the really worn out, cushiony seats that you rent for $7 to keep your bottom from going to sleep on the hard bleachers, the smell of burning asphalt and tire rubber, the black residue on your clothes and skin, the deafening noise of the cars as they race at over 200 MPH -I use ear plugs, which I have to take out each time someone says something to me so that I can hear them, and then when the excitement of the race is over after a few hours we walk what seems like four miles to get back to your car in the rain or scorching heat - that great Indianapolis weather!
Yup, that's race day!

Ask me if I like and I'll tell you the truth - I LOVE IT! We really do have a blast. As the PA announcer, Tom Carnagie says as the drivers head out after the green flag is waved - AND THERE THEY GOOOOOOOOO! So here we come Indianapolis!

A New Appreciation . . .

It's funny how you develop a new appreciation for things as your life goes on!
Here's just a few of things I have noticed.

When you are a kid your mom tries to get you to eat certain foods that you are determined are yucky or gross and then as you mature you develop an appreciation for those foods. One that happened to me was AVOCADOS - did I have to learn to like a food that cost $2.99 for one little tiny organic avocado at Whole Foods????

Then when you get to be about 19 you begin to appreciate adults in your life that you thought were really stupid and really didn't understand or know a thing prior to that. I guess this a good thing since we will soon have children and maybe they'll learn to appreciate us before the memory loss sets in and we don't know they appreciate us!

Lately I realize how much I appreciate our good friends. There's a time in your life when you are so busy that you keep putting off time for friends. Well over a year ago we started a monthly game night with friends. This date each month has not been missed once and we truly have a great night each month!

I also realize how much work a blog is to keep up with. I used to get a little put out with my Indiana relatives if there wasn't a new entry everytime I checked their site - now I realize just how hard it is and what a great job they do keeping us up to date on their lives and their adorable, Grant. I wish I could do half as well - I really appreciate their blog!

Lastly, I appreciate my husband. He keeps me laughing and keeps us focused. We have fun just looking for office furniture, he is such an encourager to his new executive assistant (me) and what my job will be, and he is really "getting it" when it comes to what it will mean to have 2 kids in the house. He's gonna be a fun dad. It's his birthday this week and in fact we have his family birthday party at my mom's today!
Happy Birthday, James - I appreciate you most of all!

Open House!

If you are not a teacher I am convinced that you cannot come close to understanding what it means to be the day before Open House!

Here's an overview:

You wake up wondering what you did with those stories the students wrote that you so carefully saved last September for Open House in April!

You begin stressing over whether you have enough stuff hanging from the ceiling for the parents to bump their heads on!

You start questioning whether two jumbo Costco-sized anti-bacterial wipes could possibly clean a room that 17 Kindergartners have been in for 7 months!

You re-analyze you lesson plans for the day - maybe this is the day to break out a new DVD!

You are concerned that there is not enough tape and sticky tabs in the world to affix all the projects your class has done to the already tape marked walls and doors!


Lastly, how in the world will you ever be ready for parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and other interested visitors to come through your immaculately clean, beautifully decorated classroom displaying the wonderful accomplishments of 17 great Kindergartners by 6:30 tomorrow night?

Well, I'm not sure how it happens, but for the past twenty years I've been doing this and each year on Open House Night the room is ready, the parents ooh and ahh, and I actually run home between the end of school and the beginning of Open House to shower, shampoo, and shine!

So it is that this may well be the last Open House I ever do, but I look forward to going to my own children's Open House Night next year, where I will truly appreciate all the teacher did to make that classroom perfect!

The Office

Now, for those you avid TV watchers that watch something other than news, politics, history or science documentaries, with a little sports and HGTV thrown in, you may have seen a program called "The Office".

We primarily watch the aforementioned!


Kayleigh got me to watch my first time ever episode of "The Office" during my spring break. It was hilarious - in a dry humor sort of way! Anyway, it is her favorite show!

Now, I always get a little nervous when someone tells me that I remind them of a character on a TV show, so when my house guest mentioned that, my first reaction was - Ohhhh Noooo!
Fortunately the character that she thought reminded her of me turned out to be ok! Whew!

Anyway . . . our adoption social worker told us we needed to have the kid's rooms ready by June - so it is that we have spent part of this last week looking for The Office! (We need to turn our home office back into a bedroom!)

It may not be quite like the TV version, but it will be "Our Office"! We are pretty excited about it. We finally settled on a very nice, professional office, which will be modified to suit us.

We may never make it to the big screen or even the small screen, but maybe after we have moved in and are settled I can post a picture of "Our Office".
Then for those of you like us who primarily watch news and documentaries you can peer at a little reality as well!

Maybe by then I will have a tranformation and look like the girl in "The Office" that I remind Kayleigh of!

Our House Guest

This week I have "Spring Break"! Now, I know most of you would think that working at a Christian school I might have had the week before or after Easter off - but no, this year we stayed with the public school schedule - so this is it!

We invited a former student of mine over for a few days. She is a doll! Kayleigh is 14 and finishing her freshman year of high school with a 4.5 gradepoint average. Unbelievable! Back in the "olden days" when I was in high school there was nothing higher than a 4.0 - and I don't think anyone in my circle of friends had anything close to that!

Kayleigh was in my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade classes when I taught the Multi-Age class. She was quite a student then as well. It is so much fun to see the great young lady she is growing up to be.

Best of all, James and I see a potential babysitter in Kayleigh. We have even talked to her about going on trips with us, if we should need her.

What a joy she is as a house guest - plus she was a great playmate for me as James is over his head in work! We were able to fit in a long walk through Seal Beach, on the beach, down the pier, a shake at Ruby's at the end of the pier, pedicures, watching two funny movies, playing a game of Sorry, making a great Salmon dinner and the "Perfect Apple Pie", taking a trip out to Beaumont to check on our house out there, going out to two lunches and one nice dinner at the Olive Garden (we stole James away for that one), two dips in the jacuzzi, and lots of girl chit-chat time!

Did I mention she was only here about 48 hours?
Whew, but FUN!

All About Blogs!

Well, my sister, Linda has discovered the blogging world now, too! Since she has two of the world's cutest kids, hers will be lots of fun when she really gets going with it!

My cousin, Erin and her husband Bret have had me hooked for a couple of years now - especially since their baby Grant was born over a year ago. Erin's blogs are sweet and usually involve something to do with their precious Grant. Bret, however deserves the "Writer of the Year" award. His writing is clever along with a comedic quality that will make you laugh until your sides split! I can hardly stand it if there are too many days between his entries!

Then, as a result of their link I started reading a blog of a cousin who barely (if at all) knew I existed. I have so enjoyed getting to know him and his family through their blog, getting connected with his sister's blog now, and seeing relatives I haven't seen for many years. I got so involved in their blog that I even startled them with a comment - especially since they didn't know who I was!

My dear friend at work has a wonderful blog, about her love story with her hubby and her dog, her teaching, friends, and her side business selling adorable little girl's bows and vintage "stuff"! She is the one who most encouraged me to start a blog - especially since we are in the process of adopting our children.

And so it is now that my sister has a blog! Can't wait to see pics, sis!
Happy Birthday,too!

The Meeting

Yesterday was a meeting with our social worker.



She's a cute, sweet "girl" who looks like she graduated from high school last week. Actually we guess she's about 25, and I'm sure that is in the ballpark.



Now, we already feel old enough becoming first time parents and then we have a social worker (whom we have put our future in the hands of) who is young enough to be our daughter. You would think when they received our application and noted our advanced ages that they would have assigned us the "old" social worker. You know . . . the one that is in her thirties.



I think it is a test of our character. Maybe they are trying to see if we have those nuturing parental skills which will be noted by how we treat our social worker.



Oh well, she was nice. She seemed to want to move us along quickly in the process. Maybe she wanted to be sure she placed children in plenty of time before they will have to start the inevitable search for a nursing home for their parents.

More Changes

There are good changes and not so good changes. Changes you get . . . and those that take a while to figure out!

That has been my week - thus no blog until I could think it through.

This week my school announced that we will be merging with another Christian School in the same area. Now, practically speaking it makes perfect sense. Take two rather small Christian schools and put them together and what have you got - a great big school! Lots more opportunity for the school to provide auxillary classes and other activities. A chance to build a "state of the art" campus in just 2 years!

It also means packing up 20 years worth of teaching materials, storing or moving it, interviewing for a job there, etc., etc. Some of you might think that because we changed campuses just four years ago that I wouldn't have that much "stuff"!
Well, I do!

But . . .after thinking, praying, talking, considering,and just generally working it through my pea brain I've decided . . .not to worry about it!

My wonderful husband put that thought into my mind, which greatly reduced my stress! He's a smart man, too. He knows that when I'm stressed too much I head to the expensive spa for a massage and or facial! Believe me I am sure that my stress reduction is high on his priority list! Just kidding. Honestly you couldn't pay someone to be as supportive as he is! What a guy!

Just when you think you have your direction all figured out - you gotta make another turn!

The Call

James got a call from our social worker today! Was I excited! Just one more meeting to check off in the adoption process. Classes to take, forms to fill out, medical exams, meetings, references - we are checking them off. Someday . . . it will be THE CALL!

Game Night!

The first Saturday of each month we get together with our good friends, Cary and Shirley for dinner and games! Now these games have been anything from Yahtzee, Pictionary, Crazy Eights and many more! Most of the games are familiar and make sense. Well . . . last night we played a new game from one of those new imagination toy stores - as it turned out we really had to use our imagination to figure out how to make this game work, much less be uproariously fun as the cover advertised! We did end up laughing hysterically because four highly educated people couldn't even think of an answer most of the time. (Box cover advertised it for 8 years and up)!
All in all it was a great night - just because the dinner came out ok and our friends are always fun to be with.

Busy, Busy!

James has been putting in 12-16 hr days 7 days a week but each day he asks me about he status of our children. Now if this were a typical way of having children I might be able to give him a better answer (ie the baby moved, it kicked, the doctor said . . .), but . . . as it stands each day I reply the same way - you know about as much as I do!
I did talk to a social worker this week who said given that we want a sibling group ( 2 or more) and children over 4 years and don't care what race or nationality they are that we will go to the top of the list! Oh, goody - I think - we finally go to the top of some list!
Well all I can say is next time James asks me how our children are or what their status is I'll just reply the same way he did once to me - How are our children? I don't even know who our children are!

Our Adoption Journey! A BIG YEAR OF CHANGE!

As hard as this is to believe, and after all of these years James and I have decided that it is the right time for us to start the adoption process. Actually it wasn't quite like that . . . way back in December we were approached about the possibility of adopting a set of twins - a boy and a girl - well... we got ourselves so excited, told all of our friends and family . . .only to find out that it wasn't going to be quite that quick or easy. By then were hooked on the idea and haven't looked back. We have begun enormous amount of paperwork, classes, etc. and have been told that we could have our children around July or August. Yes, you read it correctly I said children. We decided that if one was good why not two . . . or even three. Three is a long shot - but two . . . well I think that is a for sure. We just feel that we are so old and the kids really should have someone left to call family after we are gone - so two it is!
In order for us to get two, James has to move his office out of the house so that we can have the third bedroom. So right after tax season we will seriously be looking for office space where James can work in a quiet environment, and come home at regular times.
We have already begun thinking about how to decorate the rooms - well at least I have and what clothes, games and toys I will need to buy. Oh goody! More shopping!
Almost daily I go on line to look for our children and each day I see hundreds of children - two of which we will call our own someday and who will call us Mom and Dad - imagine that! Up til now only our cat - Tigger has had that priviledge!
Those of you who know us may notice that our blog is called The Davidson's - well that's another piece of our big news! We are also changing our last name from David to Davidson. David as a last name was always a problem for James growing up and it still is in business - so we decided to make this small change to the David name - so our whole family will get a new last name when the children come into our family! Cool, huh?
Many of our friends and family know about our big adventure and have been so wonderfully supportive! We are stunned!