Some days you just wanna go "pfftttttt"

Our adoption coordinator resigned. Yes, the one that I didn't feel had a handle on things. But at least she was sort of familiar with our case.

We've had a busy week. I had a board meeting Monday and came home to an 85 degree house. We've been saying for months it isn't cooling. Sure enough...out of freon. Air conditioning guy came over and it immediately started to cool off. I hate to say it but it's almost cold in here now. Rob golfed in Aberdeen all day on Tuesday. Rob golfed for league all day on Wednesday. Thursday we went to Aberdeen for the All Star football game. We had friends come from Elk Point so it was really nice to spend some time with them. We left the game early to attend the memorial service for the wife of a high school friend of Rob's. I know that even though it really isn't fair that I can't get pregnant, we're still very blessed. We've had our struggles but we're still together. We love each other and we're able to comfort each other. I can't imagine Brent's loss. I don't know that I'm an overly strong person. But I'll gladly give some of that strength to Brent, their four boys, their families, and their friends during this awful time in their lives. After the prayer service we all came home and Billy was SO excited! NOT!



Kalla just loves him. He just tolerates her. I went to take their picture and I said something about Billy not looking. So she held his face. It does make for a cute picture, doesn't it? She hugged him and kissed him and layed by him and layed him on her and carried him around and wrapped him in a blanket. He had so many chances to run but he either isn't quick enough or secretly loves the attention. This morning when she woke up she said "I want the kitty". So I took her to Rob and she laid with the two favorites of our house.



I know where I stand. I take the cute pictures. I don't know if she'll like the baby though. I held another baby once and she didn't like it. And she isn't even my kid!

So then after they left, I had to work. I didn't shower because I wanted to be able to spend time with them and not have to get ready. I washed my face, brushed my teeth, and left. Looking really good. Oh, I did rat my hair quite a bit. You know, I am an 80's girl so big hair has never left my system. Work normally wouldn't be too exciting but we had a little celebration at the gas station in town. They just installed blender pumps (ethanol blended at 10%, 20%, and 30% along with E85). So from 11-1 we pumped gas, gave out prizes, grilled hotdogs, washed windows, and gave $.20 back for every gallon of ethanol pumped. Plus the gas station owner gave another $.10 back. So the E10 that normally cost $2.97 was $2.67. We had people lined up down the street. By the time we were done, I was exhausted. I went back to work for a while then came home and watched some Big Brother. Some of these people just really have to go. Billy must have thought Kalla was coming back because he didn't come out from underneath the bed until about 7:30 tonight.

Rob's great aunt died today. She only found out a week ago that she had cancer which is just unbelievable to me. So we will attend another funeral this week.

I know that you're all waiting for some good news when you read this. I truly think it will be at least six months. I packed up most of the baby things and took them downstairs. It was a little difficult but needed to be done. We really don't have room so until we find a house we just can't keep all this stuff in the living room and dining room. So until then you will just have to read about our totally boring life. Rob does start school on Monday. I don't think he's ready. It just went by way too quick. I'm going to a bridal shower for my niece tomorrow. That's about all the excitement we'll have in the next week or so.

Since I haven't posted this week, I didn't get a chance to say "Happy Anniversary" to my brother and sister-in-law or my aunt and uncle. And happy birthday to the tons of people in our family whose birthday's were this week.

Have a great weekend!!

Back to normal life.

Well the anniversary went well. We didn't golf. We pretty much did nothing all day. It was nice! We met my parents, Rob's parents, and two of my brothers and their families at The Flame at 6:00. We've had many wonderful wishes and we thank you all for being a part of our lives. Your support as we have gone through life in general, marriage, infertility, and now adoption means so much to us. These are the pictures of our day. Spent most of the day in my bathrobe. Then with my family. Then with our only child. You can tell he wasn't very happy. The last picture of Billy is him with his catnip lid. He loves his catnip. It must be like real pot. He stopped eating anything but the catnip. Until I refuse to give him any more then he'll decide he better eat or he'll be hungry. So he doesn't get too far away from the kitchen. He either sits with the lid right in front of him or he lays his head on it. Rough life, eh?

Nicole, your profile is set to "private" so I don't know how to get in touch with you. Thanks for the encouragement. It's nice to hear of other people's good news!

Happy Anniversary, Babe!

Ten years ago today, I married my best friend. We've had our ups and downs but we are stronger than ever. And we're ready to start our family!

I spent HOURS making this video. My computer kept freezing up so I redid it like five times. I think I have one picture in there twice. Oops. You can see how we've changed over there years.

I know there are tons of pictures of Jen, Ang, and me, but most of our pictures are packed so I had to dig in boxes for quite a while to find what I did find. This way you can see my various hair colors and styles and how much weight I've gained! :)

I was supposed to have a board meeting today but it was postponed until tomorrow. So I have the day free to spend with my husband! We're going golfing here shortly and then will go to Aberdeen for supper tonight.

Love ya, Babe.

I found my wallet!

Five months later! :) I'll get to how in a minute.

We are a grilling family. During the summer we grill out almost every night. Until two years ago when we moved here. We left behind our grill because it was falling apart and had moved across the state and from house to house to house. We thought we'd find permanent housing quickly. So we didn't want to buy a nice grill until we had a house. Two years later, we are still in the same rental. We've had enough. Thursday, July 19 is our ten year anniversary. So we decided to buy a grill. Obviously I didn't know what I was getting into or I wouldn't have agreed. Saturday we went to Aberdeen and picked up a few things. While we were in Target we walked past the grills and decided maybe it was time. We had my car so we knew anything we bought wouldn't fit anyway. Sunday I played for church and we got home about 10:20. I didn't even make it in the house and Rob was waiting in the pickup (we drove two cars to church because I went early to practice). So we stopped at Casey's for a doughnut and drink and off we went. We went BACK to Aberdeen and figured we better shop around. We went to Shopko first. Nothing. We stopped to eat at Pizza Ranch. Then we went to KMart, Walmart, Menards, Target, Walmart, and Menards. Oh and then back to Walmart to exchange the grill cover we got. By this time, I didn't care what he got. I didn't care how much he spent. I just wanted to go home. My foot was killing me because I'd been walking too much, I was still in my church clothes, and I was ready for a nap. We got home at 5:00. We carried in the stuff we got and I let him take a nap for a while. We started cleaning out the garage about 6:00 and when he moved the garden hose roller-up thing, I found my wallet. I screamed a little and he thought a mouse was under there. I checked for money, but no such luck! We threw out stuff that we've been lugging around for ten years. My saving stuff habit totally went out the window. His dad came over and they started putting the grill together while I continued in the garage. We took the empty box and packing material plus two of the garbage cans over to his parents' house at 10:00 to the dumpster. We got home at 10:30. 10:30!! 12 hours after we left town to begin with! All for a grill. So tonight we were all excited to grill. Rob was a little too excited and things got a *little* done. If you know what I mean. He thought the 350 degrees he was reading was Fahrenheit. Nope. It was Celsius. :)

News that isn't so good.

We received an email yesterday from LSS. It seems there are 220 Colombian families ahead of us. Yes, that was two hundred twenty. Once those 220 have received their referrals we will be back on the list. Until then, LSS is not accepting any new applications for Colombia and they are recommending people who are already working on their documents consider switching to a different international program. So we wait. I think I can unpack the suitcase in the dining room. I also don't have to worry about missing my niece's wedding in August. Or anything else that will happen this year. They don't expect these 220 families to receive their referrals for several months. So it looks like it will be 2008 for us. I hope so at least. It's really a letdown but I know there isn't one thing I can do about it.

We've had some visitors this week. My nephew is hauling grain for a farmer near town so he's been here all week. Our friend Jason was here with his son for a funeral so we watched Jacob while Jason was at the prayer service. Billy just really isn't thrilled with the whole baby idea. Plus, we moved the ironing board out of the extra bedroom since Collin is staying here and now Billy doesn't have anywhere to lay. I'm not sure why he likes to be under the ironing board but he does. So he hid under the bed the whole time Jacob was here.

Totally changing subjects here...I'm going to be a little political. I've always been for the death penalty. On Wednesday night South Dakota executed it's first prisoner since 1947. It even made CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/12/sd.execution.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch Wednesday when I came home from work, I read the Argus and started feeling really funny. I think I'm a little sensative about death this week because today would have been my cousin's 38th birthday. So as I read the coverage, I started crying and praying for this man. I prayed that he is remorseful and had asked God to forgive him. I prayed for his family and the family of the man he killed. And I began to question whether I really agreed with the death penalty. It was a little weird for me. Thinking I'd always believed one way and then wondering if I actually knew what I thought. There hasn't been a death penalty case that I've been familiar with or knew of since the murder happened (one of Rob's friends from high school worked on his defense during his initial trial). I've had people tell me "you can't be against abortion and be for the death penalty". Yes I can. I can't get pregnant. The only way that I can be a mother is for a woman who decides not to parent her child to carry that child full term and place that child for adoption. If I could take the child out of her womb and carry him or her myself, I would. But I can't. For those of you out-of-staters, SD also made CNN this year in regard to abortion. http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/03/06/sd.abortion/index.html?iref=newssearch So this week, I'm sad for Elijah Page. I'm sad for his family. For Chester Poage and his family. For the people directly involved in his execution. I can't imagine what they felt. But I still don't quite know where I stand in regard to the death penalty. How do you all feel? Blogger has this new "polls" tool. So my first ever poll is whether you're for or against the death penalty. I don't mean for this to get into a heated debate. But I would like to hear your opinions. You can also leave comments. Not just about the death penalty either! :) Hint, hint!

Never run in church!

How many times were we told that growing up? Then how is it that today, I ran in church and broke my toe? Did I not listen to my mother growing up? I had to play at the Methodist church and I was there early to practice. I was trying to figure out how loud to play so I put my books on the keys (which made an awful sound) and then ran through the pews to the middle of the church to see what it sounded like. This went on for about five minutes until I kicked a pew. And that's the volume we sang at today because I wasn't doing it again. I've stubbed my toe before but this is nothing like just a simple stub. My poor pinky toe is black and blue and swollen. And it HURTS! I came home and told Rob "I broke my toe" and I know he thought I was just exaggerating. Until he looked at it. He should believe me when I say these things! I haven't done much else today...slept for about 2 1/2 hours this afternoon, watched some TV. I guess that's it.

Yesterday we went to Highmore and golfed in the Kusser Open. It was 106 degrees and I put sunscreen (SPF 30) on about every hour. Our team was the NSU Wolves (I was the only Coyote there but since I took one class at Northern one summer I qualified) and we golfed with the Mount Marty Lancers. Neither of our teams won but of course we had a good time.

We spent the 4th at the lake with my parents, brother and sister-in-law, and some of the nieces and nephews. Rob ran into some trouble that day. He likes to take the jet ski out. Whether it's by himself or with the kids. (They're in their 20's so they really aren't kids.) So Wednesday he went out by himself and didn't come back and didn't come back. We sent Corey out on another jetski to look for him and Corey said he saw the jetski at someone's house so he came back. Which was really odd because I should have known Rob wouldn't have gone to that house...he doesn't know them well enough to stop by for a visit. Pretty soon we saw someone swimming and pulling a jetski behind him. Sure enough. It was Rob. Corey went over there and pulled him in. He'd been swimming for an hour and half. He hadn't done anything fun yet and the jetski quit. So he swam all the way across the lake pulling the jetski. I would have left it and swam to someone's house but he was afraid someone would take it. He tried to flag people down as they boated by but no one stopped. So of course I felt horrible that he'd been out so long and we hadn't gone to find him. He got his exercise for the day and has a nice sunburn on his face.

I keep thinking "this will be our last holiday without kids". And then the next holiday rolls around. So the next official holiday is Labor Day. That means we need to hear something by the end of July to leave in August. Will we make it?

I did get my fingerprints back. And I have the employment verifications done, the doctor has our health certificate, and I have an email ready to go to the psychologist. Those should all be on their way to MN late this week. I have to send them to the state to be apostilled first but I usually get those back right away. And then if we have to redo them again in six months, I'm not going to be a happy camper. We thought we'd have our referral and be home by now. Another six months will drive me crazy!

I added some pictures. There isn't a whole lot on there but I want to have something ready when we get the call. I don't think I'll be thinking about pictures until it's too late.

ALMOST a hole in one!

Yes, it's true. I came within FEET of having a hole in one yesterday. Rob would have had a heart attack had I actually gotten it. He's been golfing for YEARS and he's never had one. So here I am, not a very good golfer, and it rolled right over the hole. I know that "almost" really doesn't count but this will probably be my one shining moment in golf so I'm going to hold onto it for a very long time! :)